These Persians, we are told, are not to be confounded with the Parthians, so renowned in story. The Parthians were originally Scythians. They were exiles; for, in the Scythiac language, exiles were called Parthi. "Parthi, penes quos, velut divisione orbis cum Romanis facta, nunc orientis imperium est, Scytharum exules fuere. Hoc etiam ipsorum vocabulo manifestaratur. Nam Scythico sermone Parthi exules dicuntur. Hi domesticis seditionibus Scythia pulsi, solitudines inter Hyrcanium, et Dahas, et Arios, et Spartanos, et Margianos furtim occupavere. Sermo his inter Scythicum mediumque medius, et exutrisque mixtus.”* There is, in fact, much disagreement among authors, as to the particular nation or tribe to which the Parthians belonged. Curtius says, "the Scythians, known by the name of Parthians, came out of Europe; and Jornandes will have them to be Goths or Getæ. Their religion, however, it is certain, was the same with that of the Persians.+

In regard to the local position of Parthia also, very inaccurate ideas seem to have prevailed. Those whose knowledge of it is collected chiefly from its wars with the Romans, conceive Parthia

to

* Justin.

+ Universal History,

to be only the countries bordering upon the Euphrates and Tigris; as their boundaries, on the extension of their empires, met those of the Romans. Hence Strabo has either been mistaken in this point, or has not fully expressed himself, when he describes the Parthians who defeated Crassus, as tlie descendants of those Carduchians, who gave so much trouble to Xenophon, during the celebrated retreat of the Greeks. It is probable, or at least possible, that the Parthians might have had in their army, at that time, some detachments from among those hardy mountaineers, as the Carduchi were then numbered among their subjects; but the bulk of the Parthian army came from Persia, their proper country. The history of the Parthian geography is briefly this: Parthia proper was a small province, very near to the south east extremity of the Caspian sea; which territory, after the division of Alexander's empire, fell to the share of the Seleucidæ, kings of Syria and of the east, about three hundred years before our æra. About fifty years afterwards, Parthia rebelled; and together with Hyrcania, and other adjoining provinces, became an independent state, under Arsaces. As the empire of the Seleucida grew weaker, the Parthians extended their country westward; and the fine province of Media, now

Irak

Irak Ajami, fell to them; and within a century after the foundation of their state, it had swallowed up all the countries from the Indus to the Euphrates, Bactria included. The Parthian conquests in Armenia, about seventy years before Christ, brought them acquainted with the Romans; whose conquests met theirs, both in that country and in Syria. The Parthians, together with their conquests, had advanced their capital westward, and had established it on the Tigris at Seleucia, or rather Ctesiphon, near the present Bagdad, before their wars with the Romans commenced. The particulars of their first wars with the Roman people, which continued about sixty-five years, are well known. During the time of the Roman emperors, they were continually compelled to retire, and daily lost ground in Armenia and Mesopotamia. Trajan penetrated to their capital; and satisfied his curiosity by embarking on the Indian sea. moderation of Adrian restored the ancient boun dary of the Euphrates. In the year of Christ two hundred and forty-five, Persis, or Persia proper, which had hitherto ranked as a province of Parthia, gained the ascendancy; and under Artaxerxes, put an end to the dynasty of the Arsacidæ, and restored the ancient name of Persia to the empire, after that of Parthia had ex

The

existed

existed about four hundred and eighty years. So that in fact, the Parthian empire, consider ed generally, was the Persian, under another

Included in this dominion, was a very large province in the greater' Armenia, which was anciently called Ararat. This province was divided into various districts or lesser provinces, Mount Ararat was in this province, as well as the royal city of Valarsapeta, which at present goes under the name of Erivan. The prophet Jeremiah represents the kingdom of Ararat, as part of the power which was to reduce Babylon, The Armenians, in fact, according to common. opinion, must have been the inhabitants of the kingdom of Ararat, mentioned in Scripture. cluded in the same dominion was also Arabia, a country which, in the earliest times, possessed persons learned in natural philosophy, astronomy, and other sciences, as is manifest from the conversations between Job and his friends. Now the Jews called Arabia the east country. Pythagoras, among the countries through which he travelled for instruction and knowledge, (for men, in these days, gained their knowledge like Ulysses, by visiting many cities, and conversing witla

+ Moses Chorenensis.

* Reynell.

Universal History,

In

with many men) visited Arabia, and lived there with the king. +

It has been maintained as highly probable, that all the different a'phabets now used in our continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa, have had their original from the Hebrew alphabet, It is plain, say the advocates for this opinion, that the Chaldean and Syriac are formed from the Hebrew; and that the Egyptians, Arabians, and Greeks, had theirs from the Hebrews or Phoenicians, which were virtually the same: the Roman is plainly taken from the Greek; and the Gothic, Celtic, and all the western alphabets from the Greek and Roman. In short, we are desired not to doubt, but that the Runic, Punic, Chinese, Hindoo, Tartarian, as well as the Coptic alphabets, have been from the same original. So that all the nations who have had alphabets, have had them from the Hebrews; and none can be traced farther back than the time of receiving the law, when Moses compiled his history. This hypothesis, however, is not so free from error as is imagined. It would be shutting our eyes to truth, to acquiesce in the belief, that no nations were learned but those who

* Porphyrius.