lestine of Syria, and, by presents and importunity united, prevailed on them to return. The Scythians, on their march homewards, came to Ascalon, a Syrian city: the greater part of their body passed through without molesting it; but some of them remaining behind, plundered the temple of the celestial Venus. Of all the sacred buildings erected to this goddess, this, according to my authorities, was far the most ancient 149. The Cyprians themselves acknowledge, that their temple was built after the model of this, and that of Cythera was constructed by certain Phoenicians, who came from this part of Syria. Upon the Scythians who plundered this temple, and indeed upon all their posterity, the deity entailed a fatal punishment: they were afflicted with the female disease 150. The Scythians themselves con fess, 149 Far the most ancient.]-Pausanias says, that the Assyrians were the first who worshipped Venus Urania. He adds, that the inhabitants of Paphos in Cyprus, and the Phonicians of Palestine, received this worship from them, and afterwards communicated it to the people of Cythera.Wesseling. 150 Female disease.]-No passage of Herodotus has been the occasion of more doubt and dispute than this. The President Bouhier (Dissertat. sur l'Histoire d'Herodote, c. 20.) enumerates these six different opinions, and decides in favour of the last. Some suppose the female disease to be languor, weakness, and impotence; others, a delicate and effeminate way of living; others, the hemorrhoids; others, the disease now known by the name of venereal; others, the catamenia, ** yaxıα; and others, the vice against nature. Larcher 3 refutes fess, that their countrymen suffer this malady in consequence of the above crime: their condition also refutes Bouhier, but without seeming to have established any opinion of his own. It is probable that he never saw a dissertation of Professor Chr. Gott. Heyne, in the Commentationes Societatis Reg. Gotting. anni M.DCC.L. xx. & T. II. p. 28-44. who proposes another explanation of our author, which has perhaps a fairer chance of success than any of the rest. He takes it for granted, after Mercurialis and Wesseling, that Herodotus and Hippocrates speak of the same thing. He then separates the facts which these authors state, from the superstition of the one, and the ill-founded science or systematic prejudices of the other. From these facts, illustrated by a comparison with the narrations of modern travellers, he draws this conclusion: That the disease, called by Herodotus the female disease, was of that kind which proceeds from a melancholic, hysteric, or other nervous affection; in consequence of which a perturbation of the intellect takes place. Among barbarous nations, ignorant of the powers and operations of nature, those disorders whose cause and cure were unknown, it was natural to attribute to divine influence; and the patients finding themselves suddenly and unaccountably bereft of strength, of vigour, and of spirits, might be easily persuaded, by these symptoms, that the displeasure of a deity had inflicted this punishment, and, for some crime or other, had changed them into women. A similar effect of a distempered mind has been common in all ages. Many persons believe themselves transformed into animals or other substances; and while they are subject to this illusion, talk, reason, and act conformably to such belief. If, therefore, this disease appeared chiefly amongst those Scythians who plundered the temple of Venus, it might be sufficient ground for the Scythians themselves to refer such a calamity to the displeasure of a deity; and the nature of the punishment, as well as the consciousness of their crime, would readily point out Venus for the offended power. If the disease appeared soon after the plunder M 4 . also may be seen by those who visit Scythia, where they are called Enarex. CVI. After plunder of the temple, it might be sufficient ground for an author not quite free from superstition and credulity, to set it down as a judgment from Heaven upon the offenders. Whether the expression in Hippocrates, of ra gurainia Epyaçorra, ought to be understood in a good or a bad sense, nay perhaps admit of a doubt; however, either sense will equally suit the foregoing explanation. It is perfectly natural, and indeed almost necessary, that males who fancy themselves women, should take the dress, adopt the language and manners, and perform the offices of the other sex: nor would it be at all inconsistent with their supposed transformation, that they should think it their duty to be the passive instruments of what would to them seem natural desire. It should however be remembered, that Heyne speaks of a personal and Herodotus of an entailed disease which was extant in his time. It was probably after all a kind of weakness, which in some places, and particularly in Italy, is known to be hereditary. The extract which follows on this subject, is taken from Jortin's Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, p. 293, vol. iii. The temple of Venus in Phoenice was a school of such sort of debauchery, and therefore destroyed by Constantine. Lucus hic erat ac delubrum, quod non in Media urbe, nec in foro aut plateis positum erat cujusmodi multa visuntur in civitatibus, ornamenti causa ambitiose constructa, sed devium procul a triviis et publico calle, fœdissimo Dæmoni quem venerem appellant, in parte verticis Libani montis consecratum. Erat illic schola quædam nequitiæ, omnibus obscænis hominibus, et qui corpus suum omni licentia corruperant, aperta. Quippe effeminati quidam, et feminæ. potius dicendi quam viri, sexus sui gravitate abdicata muliebra patientes, Dæmonem placabant. Adhæc illegitimi concubitus et adulteria, fœdaque et nefaria flagitia eo in templo, tanquam in loco ab omni lege ac rectore vacuo, peragebantur, Euseb. Laud. Const. viii. p. 736. Whep CVI. After possessing the dominion of Asia for a space of twenty-eight years, the Scythians lost all they had obtained, by their licentiousness and neglect. The extravagance of their public extortions could only be equalled by the rapacity with which they plundered individuals. At a feast, to which they were invited by Cyaxares and the Medes, the greater part of them were cut off when in a state of intoxication. The Medes thus recovered their possessions, and all their ancient importance; after which they took Nineveh; the particulars of which incident I shall hereafter relate''. They moreover subdued the Assyrians, those When Eusebius says θηλεια νοσῳ την δαίμονα ιλευντο, he horrows this expression from Herodotus, ενέσκηψε ο θεος θηλειαν vcov immisit ipsis Venus morbum femineum, I. 105, p. 44. But θηλεια νεσος in Herodotus means καταμηνία, and they who think that it means something else, or something worse, are inistaken. See the Commentators on Longinus, who greatly admires this modest and polite periphrasis of the historian; and an epistle of Musgrave de hæmorragiis menstruis virorum, in the Philosoph. Trans. 1701, p. 864. 151 Hereafter relate.]—This is one of the passages cited to prove that Herodotus wrote other works which are not come down to us. The investigation of this matter has greatly perplexed and divided the literary world. It is discussed at considerable length by Bouhier and by Larcher, to whose several works we beg leave to refer those who wish to know more of a question which can involve no great interest to an English reader. After all, why should it be supposed that Herodotus actually had written a history, merely because he says he intended to do so?-What follows is from Rennell: Herodotus promises to give the particulars of the capture of Neneveh those only excepted which inhabited the Babylonian district. Cyaxares reigned forty years, and then Neneveh by the Medes: perhaps a description and history of it, likewise; but it no where appears. See Clio, 106. He mentions Nineveh, however, in several places; particularly in Clio, 102, 103, 178; and Euterpe, 150; but without any description. He speaks of its first siege by Cyaxares; of the raising of that siege by the Scythians of the Macotis on their irruption in Asia, as before related, page 111. Moreover, he calls it an Assyrian city, the royal residence of Sardanapata, and speaks of its capture and destruction by the Medes after the retreat of the Scythians. Both Diodorus and Strabo attribute its foundation to Ninus, king of Assyria. The former, lib. ii. c. 1. describes its form and dimensions to be an oblong figure, 150 stadia by 90; the longest side being parallel to, and at the bank of the Euphrates (Tigris is meant.) He also speaks of its destruction by the Medes. Strabo (p. 737) says, that it was larger than Babylon, which the above dimensions shew, and that it was totally in ruins. From these notices, the first city of Nineveh should have been destroyed in the seventh century before Christ. Its situation is well known to be at the eastern side of the Tigris, opposite the city of Mosul. Strabo places it in the country of Aturia, and Dion Cassius says, lib. lxviii, that Attyria is the same with Assyria, the barbarians having changed the s into t. Certain it is, that both of the names Assur and Nineveh are now found in that country; and the latter is pointedly applied to the side opposite Mosul, where, according to travellers of the highest authority (Niebuhr amongst the rest) traces of the remains of a city are found; such as mounds of earth, and heaps which indicate the rubbish of buildings, as at Babylon. It appears remarkable that Xenophon, whose fifth encampment from the Zabates must have been near to, or on its side; and Alexander, who passed so near it, in his way to the field of Gaugamela (Arbela), should neither of them have |