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tion he had demanded troops from Greece. The Athenians and Laceda monians had excused themselves from furnishing him at that time; as it was impossible for them to do it, however desirous they might be, as they said, to maintain a good correspondence with the king. The Thebans sent him 1000 men under the command of Lachares; the Argives 3000 under Nicostratus. The rest came from the cities of Asia. All these troops joined him immediately after the taking of Sidon.

The Jews must have had some share in this war of the Phonicians against Persia.* For Sidon was no sooner taken, than Ochus entered Judæa, and besieged the city of Jericho, which he took. Besides which, it appears that he carried a great number of Jewish captives into Egypt, and sent many others into Hyrcania, where he settled them along the coast of the Caspian sea.

Ochus also put an end to the war with Cyprus at the same time.t That of Egypt so entirely engrossed his attention, that in order to have nothing to divert him from it, he was satisfied to come to an accommodation with the nine kings of Cyprus, who submitted to him upon certain conditions, and were all continued in their little states. Evagoras demanded to be reinstated in the kingdom of Salamis. It was evidently proved, that he had committed the most flagrant acts of injustice during his reign, and that he had not been unjustly dethroned. Protagoras was therefore confirmed in the kingdom of Salamis, and the king gave Evagoras a government in another quarter. He behaved no better in that, and was again expelled. He afterwards returned to Salamis, and was seized, and put to death. How surprising a difference between Nicocles and his son Evagoras!

After the reduction of the isle of Cyprus and the province of Phoenicia. Ochus advanced at length towards Egypt.

Upon his arrival, he encamped before Pelusium, from whence he detached three bodies of his troops, each of them commanded by a Greek and a Persian with equal authority. The first was under Lachares the Theban, and Rosaces governor of Lydia and Ionia. The second was given to Nicostratus the Argive, and Aristazanes one of the great officers of the crown. The third had Mentor the Rhodian, and Bagoas one of Ochus's eunuchs, at the head of it. Each detachment had its peculiar orders. The king remained with the main body of the army in the camp which he had made choice of at first, to wait the event, and to be ready to support those troops in case of ill success, or to improve the advantages they might gain. Nectanebus had long expected this invasion, the preparations for which had made so much noise. He had 100,000 men on foot, 20,000 of whom were Greeks, 20,000 Libyans, and the rest Egyptian troops. Part of them he disposed in the places upon the frontiers,

Solon. c xXIV Euseb. in Chron &o Ilbid p 444-- 450

Diod Lavi. p 443

and posted himself with the rest in the passes, to dispute the enemy's entrance into Egypt.

Ochus's first detachment was sent against Pelusium, where there was a garrison of 5000 Greeks. Lachares besieged the place. That under Nicostratus, going on board a squadron of fourscore ships of the Persian fleet, entered one of the mouths of the Nile at the same time, and sailed into the heart of Egypt, where they landed, and fortified themselves well in a camp which was very advantageously situated. All the Egyptian troops in these parts were immediatly drawn together under Clinias, a Greek of the isle of Cos, and prepared to repel the enemy. A very warm action ensued, in which Clinias with 5000 of nis troops were killed, and the rest entirely broken and dispersed.

This action decided the success of the war. Nectanebus, apprehending that Nicostratus after this victory would embark again Upon the Nile, and take Memphis the capital of the kingdom, made all the haste he could to defend it, and abandoned the passes, which it was of the last importance to secure, to prevent the entrance of the enemy. When the Greeks that defended Pelusium were apprised of this precipitate retreat, they believed all was lost, and capitulated with Lachares, upon condition of being sent back into Greece with all that belonged to them, and without suffering any injury in their persons or effects.

Mentor, who commanded the third detachment, finding the passes clear and unguarded, entered the country, and made himself master of it without any opposition. For, after having caused a report to be spread throughout his camp, that Ochus had given orders that all those who would submit should be treated with favour, and that such as made resistance should be destroyed, as the Sidonians had been; he let all his prisones escape, that they might carry the news into the country round about. Those poor people reported in their towns and villages what they had heard in the enemy's camp. The brutality of Ochus seemed to confirm it; and the terror was so great, that the garrisons, as well Greeks as Egyptians, strove which should be the foremost in making their submission.

A. M. 3654.

Nectanebus, having lost all hope of being able to Ant. J. C. 350. defend himself, escaped with his treasures and most valuable effects into Ethiopia, from whence he never returned. He was the last king of Egypt of the Egyptian race, since whom it has always continued under a foreign yoke, according to the prediction of Ezekiel.*

Ochus, having entirely conquered Egypt in this manner, dis mantled the cities, pillaged the temples, and returned in triumph to Babylon, laden with spoils, and especially with gold and silver, of which he carried away immense sums. He left the government of it to Pherendates, a Persian of the first quality.

Ezek. xxix. 14 15

Here Manetho finishes his commentaries,* or history of Egypt He was a priest of Heliopolis in that country, and had written the history of its different dynasties from the commencement of the nation to the times we now treat of. His work is often cited by Jo sephus, Eusebius, Plutarch, Porphyry, and several others. This historian lived in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, to whom he dedicates his work, of which Syncellust has preserved us the abridgment.

Nectanebus lost the crown by his too good opinion of himself. He had been placed upon the throne by Agesilaus, and afterwards supported in it by the valour and prudence of Diophantes the Athenian and Lamius the Lacedæmonian, who, whilst they hau the command of his troops and the direction of the war, had rendered his armies victorious over the Persians in all the enterprises they had formed against him. It is a pity we have no detailed account of them, and that Diodorus is silent upon this head. That prince, vain from so many successes, imagined, in consequence, that he was become sufficiently capable of conducting his own affairs by himself, and dismissed those persons to whom he was indebted for all those advantages. He had time enough to repent his error, and to discover that the rank does not confer the qualifications of a king.

A. M. 3655. Ochus rewarded very liberally the service which Ant. J. C. 319. Mentor the Rhodian had rendered him in the reduction of Phoenicia and the conquest of Egypt. Before he left that kingdom, he dismissed the other Greeks laden with presents. As for Mentor, to whom the whole success of the expedition was principally owing, he not only made him a present of 100 talents in money,‡ besides many jewels of great value, but gave him the government of all the coast of Asia, with the direction of the war against some provinces which had revolted in the begining of his reign, and declared him generalissimo of all his armies on that side.

Mentor made use of his interest to reconcile the king with his brother Memnon, and Artabazus, who had married their sister. Both of them had been in arms against Ochus. We have already related the revolt of Artabazus, and the victories he had obtained over the king's troops. He was, however, overpowered at last, and reduced to take refuge with Philip king of Macedon; and Meninon, who had borne a part in his wars, had also a share in his banishment. After this reconciliation, they rendered Ochus and his successors signal services; especially Memnon, who was one of the most valiant men of his time, and of the greatest skill in the art of war. Neither did Mentor belie the high opinion entertained of him, nor deceive the king in the confidence he had reposed in him. For he had scarce taken possession of his government, when he re-esta

Syncel. p. 256. Voss. de Hist. Græc. i. c. 14.

George, a monk of Constantinople, so called from his being Syncellus, or vicar to th patriarch Tarasus, towards the end of the ninth century, One hundred thousand crowns.

blished every where the king's authority, and reduced those who had revolted in his neighbourhood to return to their obedience; some he brought over by his address and stratagems, and others by force of arms. In a word, he knew so well how to improve his advantages, that at length he subjected them all to the yoke, and reinstated the king's affairs in all those provinces.

A. M. 3656.

In the first year of the 108th Olympiad, died Plato, Aut. J. C. 348. the famous Athenian philosopher.

SECTION V.

Death of Ochus. Arses succeeds him, and is succeeded by Darius Codomanus.

Ochus,* after the conquest of Egypt, and the reduction of the revolted provinces of his empire, abandoned himself to pleasure and luxurious ease during the rest of his life, and left the care of affairs entirely to his ministers. The two principal of them were the eunuch Bagoas, and Mentor the Rhodian, who divided all power between them; so that the first had all the provinces of the upper, and the latter all those of the lower Asia under him.

A. M. 3666. After having reigned twenty-three years, Ochus died A.... J. C. 338. of poison given him by Bagoas. That eunuch, who was by birth an Egyptian, had always retained a love for his country, and a zeal for its religion. When his master conquered it, he flattered himself that it would be in his power to soften the destiny of the one, and protect the other from insult. But he could not restrain the brutality of his prince, who acted a thousand things in regard to both, which the eunuch saw with extreme sorrow, and always violently resented in his heart.

Ochus, not contented with having dismantled the cities and pillaged the houses and temples, as has been said, had besides taken away all the archives of the kingdom, which were deposited and kept with religious care in the temples of the Egyptians; and in derision of their worship,† he had caused the god Apis to be killed, that is, the sacred bull which they adored under that name. What gave occasion for this last action was, that Ochus being as lazy and heavy as he was cruel, the Egyptians, from the first of those qualities, had given him the insulting surname of the stupid animal whom they found he resembled. Violently enraged at this affront, Ochus said that he would make them sensible that he was not an ass but a lion, and that the ass, which they despised so much, should eat their ox. Accordingly, he ordered Apis to be dragged out of his temple, and sacrificed to an ass. After which he made his cooks dress, and serve him up to the officers of his household. This piece of wit incensed Bagoas. As for the archives, he redeemed them afterwards, and sent them back to the places where it was the custom to keep them; but the affront which had been done to his religion Plut. de Isid. et Osir. p. 363.

*Diod. l. xvi. p. 490.

† Elian. 1. iv. c. 8.

was irreparable; and that, it is believed, was the real occasion of his master's death.

His revenge did not stop there:* he caused another body to be interred instead of the king's; and to revenge his having made the officers of his household eat the god Apis, he made cats cat his dead body, which he gave them cut in small pieces: and as for his bones, those he turned into handles for knives and swords, the natural symbols of his cruelty. It is very probable that some new cause had awakened in the heart of this monster his ancient resentment; without which it is not to be conceived that he could carry his barbarity so far towards his master and benefactor.

After the death of Ochus, Bagoas, in whose hands all power was at that time, placed Arses upon the throne, the youngest of all the late king's sons, and put the rest to death, in order to possess with better security, and without a rival, the authority he had usurped. He gave Arses only the name of king, whilst he reserved to himseif the whole power of the sovereignty. But perceiving that the young prince began to discover his wickedness, and was taking measures to punish it, he prevented him by having him assassinated, and destroyed his whole family with him. Arses had reigned about two years.

A. M. 3668.

Bagoas, after having rendered the throne vacant by Am. J. C. 336. the murder of Arses, placed Darius upon it, the third of that name who reigned in Persia. His true name was Codoma

nus: of him much will be said hereafter.

We see here clearly the sad effect of the pernicious policy of the kings of Persia, who, to ease themselves of the weight of public business, abandoned their whole authority to an eunuch. Bagoas might have more address and understanding than the rest, and thereby merit some distinction. It is the duty of a wise prince to distinguish merit; but it is equally his duty to continue always the entire master, judge, and arbiter of his affairs. A prince like Ochus, that had made the greatest crimes serve as steps for ascending the throne, and who had supported himself in it by the same measures, deserved to have such a minister as Bagoas, who vied with his master in perfidy and cruelty. Ochus experienced their first effects. Had he desired to have nothing to fear from him, he should not have been so imprudent as to render him formidable, by giving him an unlimited power.

SECTION VI.

Abridgment of the life of Demosthenes, till the time of his appearance with honour ana applause in the public assemblies against Phup of Macedon.

As Demosthenes will perform a conspicuous part in the history of Philip and Alexander, which will be the subject of the ensuing

• Elian 1 vic 8