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DARIUS

CHAP. V.

Of Darius the son of Hystaspes.

SECT. I.

Of Darius's lineage.

was descended of the ancient Persian kings, to wit, of the Achæmenidæ, of which Cyrus the Great was the lineal successor. For in this sort Herodotus deriveth him, as before:

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Cyrus the first, who had

Theispius, who begat

Ariaramnes, who was father of

Arsamnes, the father of

Hystaspes, the father of

Darius, surnamed Celes, the father of Xerxes.

Hystaspes accompanied Cyrus the Great in the wars against the Scythians; at which time Cyrus being made jealous of Darius by a dream of his own, caused him to be sent into Persia; others say to be imprisoned, from whence by the death of Cyrus he was delivered, and made governor of the Persian magi. He afterwards followed Cambyses into Egypt; he then joined with the rest of the princes against the magi, and either by the neighing of his horse, or, as others affirm, by strong hand, he obtained the empire, which he the more assured to himself by taking two of Cyrus's daughters, and as many of his nieces, for his wives.

Hystaspes, according to e Herodotus, had, besides Darius, these three sons, who were great commanders in the war which Darius made in Asia the Less, Thrace, Macedon, and Greece; Atarnes, Artaphernes, and Artabanus, who dissuaded Xerxes from the second Grecian war. Hystaspes had also a daughter married to Gobryas, the father of Mardonius, who commanded the army of Darius in Macedon, and married the daughter of Darius, Artosostre, his cousin-german.

< Cart. 1. 4.

d Her. l. 1, 3.

Herodot. p. 154, 130, 101, 202,

108, 109. Her. 1. 6. p. 180, 186, 190, 179, 200, 204, 213, 285, 286, 214, and 254. De Reg. Persar. fol. 32.

Reineccius gives to Hystaspes five sons; Darius who succeeded Cambyses, Artabanus, Artaphernes, Otanes, and Atarnes, with two daughters.

SECT. II.

Of Darius's government, and suppressing the rebellion of Babylon. DARIUS devised equal laws whereby all his subjects might be governed, the same being formerly promised by Cyrus. He gave access to all his subjects, and behaved himself so mildly to all men, that many nations desired and offered themselves to become his vassals; only he laid divers payments and taxes on the people, which had not been accustomed in Cyrus's time, to the value of fourteen thousand five hundred and threescore talents, saith Herodotus.

The war which Cambyses made afar off in Egypt, and the contention between the magi and the princes of Persia for the empire, gave heart to the Babylonians to recover their liberty, and to shake off the Persian yoke; whereof Darius being advertised, he prepared an army to recover that city and state revolted. But finding the same a difficult work, he used the service of Zopyrus, who for the love he bare Darius did cut off his own ears and nose, and with other wounds, yet fresh bleeding, he seemed to fly to the Babylonians for succour, to whom he accused the cruelty of Darius; who, for having given him advice to give over the siege of their city, had in this sort dismembered and deformed him; whereupon the Babylonians gave him that credit, as they trusted him with the disposition and commandment of their greatest forces; which when Zopyrus had obtained, after some small colourable overthrows given to the Persians upon sallies, he f delivered the city into Darius's hands, who had lain before it twenty months.

SECT. III.

Of Darius's favour to the Jews in building the temple. IN the second year of Darius, he gave order that the building of the temple at Jerusalem should go on, and comHer. 1. 3.

manded that the same should be finished at his own charge, and out of the revenues of the crown. And whereas the governors of those provinces, which are situate between Euphrates and the Phoenician and midland sea, (whom 8 Ezra calleth the captains beyond the river,) had hindered the work in Cambyses' time, Darius gave commandment, that they should not thenceforth come near unto Jerusalem, to give any impediment to the building, but that they should withdraw themselves, and get them far off, till all were finished and at an end. In the old Latin it is written, Procul recedite ab illis; " Withdraw yourselves far from "them;" in our English, " Be ye far from thence;" to wit, from the city and temple now in building.

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He also made a decree which concerned his own subjects, that whosoever should thenceforth hinder the setting up of the temple of God, that his house should be torn down, and the disturber hanged on the gallows made of the timber thereof. He also in the same decree maketh invocation to God, that hath caused his name to dwell there, [to] destroy all kings and people, that put to their hands to alter and to destroy this house of God which is in Jerusalem, &c. In four years after which decree (the Jews being really furnished with money and all things necessary from Darius) the temple was in all finished, to wit, in the beginning of the spring, in the sixth year of Darius Hystaspes, and in the two and fortieth after their first return.

SECT. IV.

Of Darius's Scythian war.

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AFTER the recovery of Babylon he invaded the Scythians, whose king Justin calleth Lauthinus, and saith, that Darius undertook this war against him, because he refused him his daughter in marriage. The better to convoy his army into Scythia, he built a bridge of small vessels over the river Ister, or Danubius, and gave the custody of the same in charge (among others of Asia the Less) to the Ionians and Æolians, among whom was Miltiades, who perh Ibid. vi. 11. i Ibid. vi. 12. Her. 1. 4. Just. 1. 2.

Ezra vi.

suaded the Asian Grecians to break down the bridge, to the end Darius might not return thereby, and if by any other way, then not without great difficulty; but the same was resisted by Histiæus prince of Milet, a city of Ionia, which nation, being a colony of the Greeks, Diodorus calleth traitors to their country, because they joined themselves to Darius. But the Scythians more elegantly termed them good slaves, forasmuch as they would not run away from their master, but were more mindful of doing their duties, than of shaking off their bondage, when they were presented with as fair an occasion of liberty as could have been desired. For the great army of Darius, entering the desert country called Bessarabia, found in it neither people to resist them, nor any sustenance to relieve them. For the Scythians were then, as are the Chrim Tartars, their posterity, at this day, all horsemen, using the bow and sword; they were not ploughmen, but graziers, driving their herds from one place to another, as opportunity of pasture led them. Standing towns they had none, but used for houses the waggons wherein they carried their wives and children. These waggons they place at every station in very good order, making streets and lanes in the manner of a great town, removable at their pleasure. Neither hath the emperor himself, called now the great Chrim, any other city than such an agora, (as they name it,) or town of carts. When as therefore Darius had wearied himself, and wasted his provision in those desolate regions, wherein he found neither ways to direct him, victuals to refresh him, nor any houses, fruitful trees, or living creatures, nor any thing at all, which either he himself might make use of, or by destroying it might grieve his enemies, he began to perceive his own folly, and the danger into which it had brought him. Yet, setting a good face upon a bad game, he sent brave messages to the Scythian, bidding him to cease his flight, and either to make trial of his valour and fortune in plain battle; or, if he acknowledged himself the weaker, then to yield by fair means, and become his subject, giving

1 Diod. 1. 11.

him earth and water, which the Persians used to demand as a sign that all was yielded unto them. To this challenge the Scythian returned an hieroglyphical answer, sending a bird, a frog, a mouse, and five arrows; which dumb show Darius interpreting by his own wish, thought that he did yield all the elements wherein those creatures live, and his weapons withal into his hands. But Gobryas, one of the seven princes who had slain the magi, construed their meaning aright, which was thus; "O ye Persians, get ye "wings like birds, or dive under the water, or creep into "holes in the earth, for else ye shall not escape our arrows." And this interpretation was soon verified by the Scythians themselves, who assailed the Persian camp, drave the horsemen into the trenches, and vexing the army with continual alarums day and night, were so fearless of this great monarch, and so little regarded him, that within his hearing, and even in his sight, they did not forbear the pastime of coursing a hare which they had started by chance. By this boldness of theirs Darius was so discouraged, that he forsook his camp by night, making many fires, and leaving all that were sick and weak behind him, and so with all speed marched away towards the river Ister. He was pursued hardly by the Scythians, who missed him; yet arriving at the bridge before him, persuaded the Ionians to depart, assuring them that the Persian king should never more be able to do them either good or harm. Which words had certainly been proved true, had not Histiæus the Milesian prevailed with his people to attend the coming of Darius, whom the Scythians did likewise fail to meet, when they returned from Ister to seek him out.

SECT. V.

Some actions of the Persians in Europe after the Scythian war. DARIUS having thus escaped out of Scythia, determined the invasion of Thrace and Macedon, in which war he employed Megabasus, who mastered the Pæonians and transplanted them, and possessed Perinthus, Chalcedon, Byzantium, and other places, being also soon after subjected

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