degeneracy of his successors. The Persian empire, as he left it to his posterity, extended from the Indus to the Grecian Archipelago, and from the Euxine and Caspian Seas to the Indian Ocean.

Cyrus was succeeded, A. A. C. 529, by his degenerate son Cambyses. The invasion and conquest of Egypt, by this prince, is related in the historical sketch of that country. After this transaction, he rashly undertook an expedition against Ethiopia. Having advanced with his whole army as far as Thebes, he sent a detachment of 50,000 men against the Ammonians, with orders to destroy the famous temple of Jupiter Ammon. Cambyses, with the main body of his army, continued his march into southern Africa. The stock of provisions being consumed, the soldiers were constrained to eat their beasts of burden. They afterwards fed on herbs and grass as long as any could be found; but when the sandy deserts no longer afforded that supply, they were reduced to the sad necessity of devouring one another, and the army being deci mated, every tenth man was sacrificed to the public necessity, and served as food for his famished companions. Between a retreat or total destruction, no alternative remained. The Persian monarch, therefore, was obliged to abandon his romantic enterprise, and returned into Egypt after having lost a great part of his army. On his arrival at Thebes, he caused all the temples of that ancient and magnificent city to be pillaged and destroyed. The wealth which so many ages of superstition had amassed in those temples would undoubtedly be great; but no credit can be given to the estimates of ancient historians; and the account which Diodorus gives of the enormous circle of gold encompassing the tomb of Osymandes, although it might merit a place in the Arabian tales, is inadmissible in history. While the main body of the Persian army was employed in this disastrous expedition against Ethiopia, the detachment sent to destroy the temple of Jupiter Ammon was still more unfortunate. Having arrived at the Oasis, and proceeded into the desert, its final destiny is unknown, as not a single man ever returned. Herodotus informs us, on the authority of the Ammonians, that the Persians being overtaken

*Herodot. lib. 3. cap. 25, &c.

in the desert by a storm of wind, their whole army was overwhelmed and buried alive in the sands. Mr. Brown, however, ridicules the idea of the sands accumulating with such rapidity as to bury an army of 50,000 men, which must have extended over a considerable surface, and cannot be supposed to have been penned up like sheep in a fold. As this intelligent traveller very judiciously observes, "The guides which the general of Cambyses must necessarily have employed, were either Ammonians or of a cognate race. With the greatest facility of deceiving, and the strongest motives for defeating the success of the expedition, it is highly probable that they might have led the Persians astray. To keep them two or three days on the route beyond the time for which their provisions and water were calculated, was in fact to annihilate their whole army, particularly as in that weak state, if some corps yet remained, they might be attacked and slaughtered with ease. Such was, in all probability, the manner in which the Persian army perished; but the Ammonians had the strongest of all possible motives to give a different relation of the fact.

The history of all the mad and sanguinary proceedings of this degenerate son of the Great Cyrus would be tedious and disgusting. On his return from Thebes to Memphis, he killed, with his own hand as it is said, the God Apis or deified Bull, caused the priests to be scourged, and prohibited, under pain of death, the celebration of the feast of that favourite divinity. By these impolitic violences he entirely alienated the Egyptians from his government, and laid the foundation of that inextinguishable hatred, which they afterwards entertained against the Persians. He put to death his brother Smer

The scite of the temple of Jupiter Ammon, so famous in history, cannot at this time be ascertained. Mr. Brown after the most diligent search and inquiry failed in the attempt. Trav. p. 30. Rennell, bowever, makes no doubt that the ruins seen by Brown in the Oasis of Siva were those of the temple. Geog. of Herodot. sect. 21.

† Brown's Trav. p. 281.

The death of the God Apis, was by the priests carefully concealed from Cambyses, who had not killed him outright, but only had given him a mortal wound. Herodot. lib. 3. cap. 28. See historical view of Egypt.

dis, in consequence of a foolish dream, which induced him to apprehend that the young prince aspired to the throne. In a violent fit of anger he killed with a kick of his foot his own sister Meroe, whom he had married, and who was then in a state of pregnancy. It is said that Cambyses, previous to his espousal of this young princess, being sensible of the novelty of procedure, inquired of the judges, whether it were per mitted by the laws of Persia. These oracles of the Persian legislature, unwilling either positively to authorize such an incestuous marriage, or to expose themselves to the king's resentment, craftily answered that they did not know of any law which allowed a man to marry his sister, but that the law gave to the king of Persia liberty to do whatever he pleased. This anecdote is important only as it serves to shew the despotism of the monarchs and the servility of their courtiers, which was ever afterwards a prominent feature of the Persian government. It also afforded the first example of those in. cestuous marriages, which the succeeding sovereigns of Persia so frequently contracted. Cambyses proceeded so far in his tyranny and cruelty, that he is said to have caused several of the chief lords of his court to be buried alive, and to have daily sacrificed some of them to his fury. His tyrannical reign, however, was not of long duration; and an important revolution took place in the Persian throne.

Cambyses on undertaking his Egyptian expedition, had committed the administration of affairs to one of the chief of the Magi. The execution of Smerdis, the king's brother, had been a private transaction, and his death was carefully concealed from the public. The regent, however, being apprized of the fact, and knowing that Cambyses had by his cruelty rendered himself odious, placed on the throne his own brother, who in person greatly resembled the murdered prince. Cambyges, in marching from Egypt against the usurper, accidently wounded himself with his own sword, in mounting his horse, and a mortification ensuing occasioned his death, in consequence of which, the counterfeit Smerdis was left in quiet possession of the throne of Persia. Cambyses died A. A. C. 522, after a reign of seven years and five months. This

Herodot, lib. 3. cap. 31, 32.

prince, who is called in scripture Ahasuerus, although he did not annul the decree of his father in favour of the Jews, was, by the insinuations of the Samaritans, induced to lay them under such restrictions as greatly impeded the rebuilding their city and temple.*

Smerdis was, however, at length discovered to be an impostor. It is said that he had formerly been punished for some crime by the loss of his ears, and that this circumstance occasioned the developement of the whole affair. The discovery of this defect, which his tiara concealed from the public eye, having been made by one of his wives, who related the matter to her father, he with six other noblemen formed a conspiracy against the usurper, and having forced his way into the palace, slew both him and his brother. Smerdis, who is the Artaxerxes of the scriptures, put a stop to the building of Jerusalem during his reign, which was only eight months. His death was followed by an almost general massacre of the Magi,

After some disputes concerning the form, of government, some proposing to establish an oligarchy, while others gave their opinion in favour of monarchy, Darius, one of the principal conspirators, ascended the throne. This prince was the son of Hystaspes, a Persian nobleman of the royal family of Achæmenes, from which Cyrus the Great had descended. In the design of establishing himself more firmly on the throne, he married Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus, the widow of her brother Cambyses, and also of the impostor Smerdis. In the reign of Darius the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple was resumed, and under his patronage the work was completed. After the reduction of the Babylonians, whose revolt and its consequences are related under the article of Asiatic Turkey, Darius Hystaspes undertook a romantic expedition against the Scythians, inhabiting the countries which lie between the Danube and the Don or Tanais, comprising Wallachia, Moldavia, and the southern provinces of Russia. The calamities, which the Scythians had brought upon Asia in their

Ezra, chap. 4.

Univ. Hist. vol. 5. chap. 11. Ezra ubi supra.
Ezra, chap. 5 and 6.

§ See historical chapter of Asiatic Turkey.

famous irruption about 120 years before, was his ostensible pretext, but a wild ambition could alone be his real motive for this extravagant and unpromising enterprise. Having made immense preparations, and, according to some authors, levied an army of 700,000 men, he passed from Asia over the Bosphorus by a bridge of boats into Europe, and having reduced all Thrace, advanced to the Danube which he crossed in the same manner. The Scythians declining an engagement constantly retired before the invaders; who were worn out with fatiguing and useless marches. Darius, at length perceiving himself in danger of perishing with his whole army, in those unknown countries, made a precipitate retreat. The Scythians immediately despatched expresses to persuade the Ionians to break down the bridges, which the king had left them to guard, and by this decisive measure to throw off the Persian yoke and restore the independence of their cities. Had the Ionians agreed to this proposal, it is highly probable that neither Darius nor a man of his army would ever have returned to Persia. The advice of Hystæus, prince of Miletus, preserved the Persian monarch from this fatal disaster.

The enterprising genius and restless ambition of Darius prompted him to retrieve the honour which he had lost in the Scythian war, by extending his dominions to the eastward, and he accordingly projected the conquest of India. In order to facilitate his design, his expedition was preceded by a voyage of discovery. For this purpose he caused a fleet to be built. and equipped at Caspatyrus, a city on the Indus. The command was given to Scylax, a Grecian, who according to his orders sailed down the river, explored the countries adjacent to its banks, entered the ocean, and having coasted along the shores of Persia and Arabia, entered the Red Sea, and, about thirty months after his departure, finished his voyage. He then repaired to Susa and gave an account of his observations to Darius, who immediately entered India with a numerous army. Herodotus gives no particulars of this important expedition; but only says that the Persian monarch received

M. Rennell traces this route of Darius, and says that he advanced as far as the great bend of the Volga, below Saratow, in Russia. Geograph. of Herodotus, p. 103.