cipal, Egyptians, among whom was the king's son, The king himself was soon after obliged to end his life by drinking bull's blood. But the rage of Cambyses extended to the dead, as well as the living; for he caused the body of Amasis, the former king of Egypt, to be dug up out of its grave, and to be burnt, after treating it with the greatest indignity.

"

9 P

After the conquest of Egypt, he attempted, an expedition against the Ammonians and the Ethiopians: In his attack upon the former, fifty thousand men were lost; and in his march against the latter, his troops were reduced to such extremities, as actually to eat one another by lot; and thereby literally to fulfil the prediction of the Bear devouring much flesh. On his return to Memphis, from his disastrous expedition, he caused the magistrates to be put to death and a great number of the people, because they expressed a superstitious joy at the appearance of their God Apis. And such was his fury, that he caused several of his principal followers to be buried alive; and daily put some of them to death.P

1

i

The few months reign of Smerdis afforded little of moment. But during the reign of his successor Darius Hystaspes, the Persian Bear continued to devour much flesh. In the revolt, which the Babylonians made against him, they put to death their old men, women, and children, in hopes of being able so much the longer to support the siege. And when the city was taken, Darius impaled three thousand of those who had been most active in the revolt. His, ambition and thirst for conquest prompted him to undertake an expedition against the Scythians, in which he lost half

P See Un. Hist. v. 5. p. 192–200.

of the vast army of seven hundred thousand men which he had collected. After this he marched into India with more success, and subjected it to his empire. In the revolt of the Ionians against the Persian domination, Miletus was destroyed; and, when the country was reduced to subjection, the inhabitants experienced the powerful tusks of the Bear, for the most handsome of their youths were made eunuchs, their virgins were sent into Persia, and their cities and temples were burnt. In the expedition of Datis and Artaphernes against the Athenians, the Persians, though finally conquered, yet inflicted great misery; for they burnt the chief cities of Naxos, destroyed Eretria in the same manner, and made its citizens captives.4

After the death of Darius Hystaspes, his son and successor Xerxes continued to exert the devouring tusks of the Persian Bear. In the second year of his reign, he desolated Egypt, and reduced it to the utmost subjection. In his expedition against Greece, he exercised the greatest cruelty towards his own people, as well as his enemies: For, when a storm had broken the bridge of boats, which he formed over the Hellespont, he commanded the heads of those, who had the direction of the work, 'to be struck off; and, when he had forced the straits of Thermopylæ, and slain the brave Leonidas with the three hundred Spartans, at the loss of twenty thousand of his own men," he caused the head of the Spartan king to be cut off, and his body to be exposed on a cross. He then marched to Athens, destroyed the city by fire, and slew the Priests and old people who had been left therein. But though the Persians succeeded for a short time against the Greeks, yet were they finally conquered with

• Prid. reign of Darius.

prodigious slaughter, and are supposed to have lost about two millions of men, by various circumstances, in their cruel expedition.'

After Xerxes' expedition against Greece, the power of the Persians may be considered as stationary, if not diminished. And though they ceased not to devour each other by insurrections, poison, and assassination, yet these things do not peculiarly apply to the, Bear's devouring much flesh; as this belongs to the cruelty exercised towards other nations rather than upon themselves. Let us however in closing this detail of facts, give one example of their cruelty towards each other. "Ochus was the most cruel and wicked of all the Princes of that race in Persia; for he had not been long on the throne when he filled the palace and the whole empire with blood and slaughter." "He put them" (all the blood royal) "to death without any regard to sex, age, or proximity of blood. He caused Ocha his own Sister, and mother in law, for he had married her daughter, to be buried alive; and having shut up one of his uncles with an hundred of his Sons and Grandsons in a court of the palace, he ordered his archers to dispatch them with their arrows."

We may then safely conclude from this detail, that the Persian monarchs were in general a race of oppres sive, cruel, and bloody men; and that their empire was well represented by the savage and voracious Bear.

III. But the cruel empire of the Persians was to be conquered by the rapid victories of the Grecian : For, (v. 6)" after this I beheld, and lo!

another,

like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four

Un. Hist. v. 5. p. 289.

wings, of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and, dominion was given to it." Now the Grecian empire is powerfully illustrated by the Leopard, because of its smallness, courage, and swiftness: for, though only a small animal, yet its courage is great, and its velocity surprizing.

But though the natural swiftness of the Leopard is great, yet it is much increased by four wings of a fowl; to denote the amazing rapidity of the Grecian conquests. The Babylonian victories were indeed, quick; but the Grecian were still much more so; for, in the space of twelve years, Alexander overthrew the empire of the Persian Bear, and subjugated Asia, With about thirty thousand foot, and five thousand horse, and seventy talents of money, he advanced to the conquest of an empire, which could bring hundreds of thousands into the field of battle, and which possessed the riches of the east.

But the small Grecian Leopard feared not the huge Persian Bear; but at the river Granius darted upon him, and put one hundred thousand foot and ten thousand horse to flight, leaving twenty thousand dead upon the field of battle. In the next year Alexander, reduced Phrygia, Lycia, Pisidia, Pamphylia, Paphlagonia, and Cappadocia; and at Issus again defeated Darius, with an army of four hundred thousand men, inflicting on him the loss of one hundred and ten thousand. In the year following he reduced Tyre and Gaza; and received the submission of Egypt. In the following campaign, with fifty thousand men, Alexander, won the celebrated battle of Arbela, defeating Darius at the head of seven hundred thousand; and received the submission of Babylon, Susa and the adjacent countries. In the next year he subdued the Medes, Parthians, Hyrcanians, Arians, and several

other nations: And in the following reduced Bactria and Sogdiania. After he had conquered what may be called the body of the Persian empire, he then projected the conquest of India; and in a short time pushed his victorious troops to the banks of the Indus, But the Grecian Leopard would not be stopped here; but in the following year overthrew, after a desperate fight, the gallant Porus, and extended his empire to the river Hyphasis. Nor would his conquests have ceased here, had not the obstinate resistance of his soldiers to advance, further, obliged him to return. But, in his return to Babylon, he pursued the career of victory, by subduing the nations along the banks of the Indus, towards the ocean : From thence he marched towards the seat of his government, and in his progress attacked and subdued the Cossæans, "a warlike nation in the mountains of Media, which none of the Persian kings could ever bring into subjection to them."s

In 335 B. C. Alexander was appointed Generalissimo of the Grecian forces, and in 323 he died at Babylon: So that in twelve years the Greek empire rose to its utmost extent and Glory, and thereby corresponded to the rapidity denoted by the four wings of a fowl upon the Leopard's back. Nor can this rapidity be attributed merely to human causes; but more especially to that divine providence, by which "dominion was given" to the Greeks, and by which, with forces, so small, they were enabled to subdue and overwhelm so many great and powerful nations. The words of Prideaux will well close this detail respecting the rapidity of the Greek-conquests. "After that he, Alexander, subdued the Mardans, Arians, Dran