Ctesias of Cnidus
c. 398 BCE
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NOTE |
Ctesias (also transliterated Ktesias) was a Greek physician and historian who traveled to Persia in the fifth century BCE and wrote a well-received account of the country. In his Persica he devoted the first three books to the history of Assyria, producing a famous account that, in Antiquity, was generally held in higher esteem than the rival history of Berossus, written as a counter to Greek narratives a century later. His narrative of Ninus and Semiramis became the standard Greek history of Mesopotamia, despite its rather loose connection to fact (and pointed criticism from Berossus). Although the Persica does not survive, excerpts and summaries do. Below I have collected the fragments of the first three books, those on Assyria, selected from lists created by scholars from the past 150 years—though no two scholars precisely agree on which excerpts should count or where in Ctesias’ work they might appear. I have prefaced this collection with selections from John Gilmore’s 1888 introduction to Books I, II, and III from his Greek and Latin collection of the fragments, and I have appended Photius’ epitome of the entire twenty-three books, in which the learned cleric omitted discussion of the Assyrian material. I have given the name of the translator of each fragment at the end of the fragment; those which remain unnamed are my own work. However, full disclosure: Those fragments translated from the Greek rather than Latin were rendered into English with assistance from artificial intelligence. Some of the public domain translations I have slightly adapted for clarity.
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INTRODUCTION TO BOOKS I, II, III.
By JOHN GILMORE
The Fragments of the Persika of Ktesias (1888)
In these books, which are known to us chiefly from the epitome in Diodorus, ii. 1-29, Ktesias gave his version of Assyro-Babylonian history down to the capture of Nineveh by the Medes.
Both the chronological scheme and the details of this portion of his work are almost altogether fabulous; but the legends he relates are not, as a rule, in their outline, his own invention, but are derived from Oriental, or occasionally Hellenic sources, and in the selection of his “facts” he was apparently guided by a definite system. The sources alleged by himself for the statements contained in these books, as for those in the other parts of his history, were the διφθέραι βασιλικαὶ--the Royal Chronicles of Persia (§ 23, Diod. ii. 22, 5: “And these things the barbarians say are recorded of Memnon in the histories of their kings.”: this is an extract from Book ii. or iii.). We have abundant independent evidence of the existence of these chronicles, and he no doubt made use of them in the seventh and following books of the Persika, but they could scarcely have contained an account of events before the time of Kyrus. For an earlier period the only Persian works he could have had access to were collections of Iranian legends, either in prose or verse. Such, doubtless, was the nature of the ‘chronicles and histories’ of Persia from which Firdusi derived the materials of the Shahnameh, and of the work which Chorobutus translated into Greek in the fourth century A. D. (Moses Chor., Hist. ii. 67), and Ktesias may have intended to include them under the term by which he designates his authority. It is very probable, as we shall presently see, that he used Persian legends for his Median history; but even the high authority of such writers as Dr. Duncker, Prof. Sayce, and M. Lenormant is insufficient to convince me that Ktesias’ Assyrian history had the same origin. […]
We have no reason to believe that the Persians ever rationalized the mythology of foreign nations to any appreciable extent, and such a proceeding is utterly contrary to the customs of Oriental nations. As for the example cited by Sayce, Rawlinson’s explanation of the passage of Herodotus (i. 1) is much more probable, and disposes of all connexion between the Persian story told to the Halikarnassian historian and the Greek myth.
My own view of the materials from which Ktesias concocted the Assyrian portion of his history is this:—During the frequent residences of the Persian court at Babylon, Ktesias must have had abundant opportunities of conversing with prominent Babylonians (even if he did not know Babylonian, both he and they must have been acquainted with Persian) about the history of their country. Probably his researches would not be very deep; all he wanted was to compose a plausible and interesting narrative. One of the objects he aimed at in his work was to discredit the work of Herodotus, and as Semiramis had been specially named by the latter, he would probably make special inquiries in regard to her. He would hear, as Herodotus had done, of Sammuramat, the wife of Rimmon Nirari III., King of Assyria в. с. 812-783, who is reasonably supposed to have been a Babylonian princess. That she was more than a mere queen-consort is almost certain, from the occurrence of her name along with that of her husband in a dedicatory inscription on a statue of Nebo, erected in a temple at Kalah by Bel-khassi-ilum, the governor, and now in the British Museum. The monumental evidence for the history of this period is scanty, and it is quite possible she may have occupied the position of regent of Babylon, under her husband’s weak successors; and if she were a Babylonian princess, her countrymen would naturally exaggerate her importance. But from this to the extravagant romance of Ktesias is a long step. Having selected the Babylonian queen as his heroine, he proceeded to look out for materials to fill in his romance. Ishtar, the goddess of love, was, as we learn from the sixth book of the Epic of Gilgamesh, regarded by the Babylonians as having at one time reigned as an earthly queen, and many legends relating to her, both Babylonian and Syrian, were accordingly worked by Ktesias into his “history” of Semiramis.
Next we have a Persian legend (preserved to us by Hellanikos) relating to a Persian (not an Assyrian or Babylonian) queen named Atossa, and from this Ktesias derived some of the military achievements of his heroine. The limits of her conquests were evidently fixed with reference to those of the Persian empire in his own time.
The peculiar colouring given to the whole narrative seems, however, to be Greek, due either to Ktesias himself or to Greeks residing at Babylon, rather than Persian. The Persian legend of Atossa may have furnished some materials; but that the rationalization of the exploits of Ishtar, which forms much of Ktesias’ story of Semiramis, was due to a Persian epos, seems highly improbable. The nature of the Iranian legends of his time may best be judged by those still preserved by Firdusi and other mediæval Persian writers, of which traces may be found in the Zendavesta, and the writings of the early Sassanian period, quoted by Moses of Chorene. These celebrate the exploits of Iranian kings, not of foreign empires, or Semitic goddesses.
Ninus is perhaps to be identified with the god Nin, who is sometimes regarded as the husband of Beltis, a goddess often confused with Ishtar: his character as a god of war and of the chase agrees well with that assigned to the husband of Semiramis. If, with Lenormant and some others, we reject the reading Nin, or Ninip, for the name of this deity, which is by no means certain, we may regard him merely as the eponymous hero of Nineveh. The true derivation of the name of the city is uncertain: in Greek it is spelt in the same way as the name of the husband of Semiramis; in the Assyrian records it is Nina, or Ninua, which is variously explained, either as “fish-town” (from the ideogram with which it is written), or “town of the god Nin,” or “repose of the gods,” or “resting place of the god (goddess?) Nana.” It should be noticed that one of Nin’s attributes is that of god of the sea, and that he is sometimes confused with Hea, one of whose titles is “the intelligent fish”; while Semiramis is the daughter of a fish goddess, and her first husband is Onnes, or Oannes, the name by which Berosus (i. frag. 1) designates Hea.
The duration which Ktesias assigned to the Assyro-Babylonian empire, variously given as 1360 (Diod. ii. 21), 1306 (Synkellus, p. 359, and Agathias ii. 25, p. 120), 1305 (Augustinus, Civ. Dei, xviii. 4), 1240 (Eusebius, Chron. fo. 52) years, was perhaps based on data supplied to him by the Babylonian priests. His fall of Nineveh really corresponds to the event represented by the end of the sixth dynasty of Berosus, and the era of Nabonassar of Ptolemy, about в. с. 745; but his exaggeration of the duration of the Median empire causes him to antedate it about в. с. 850: the real date of the final fall of Nineveh was in the last decade of the seventh century в. с. The obscurity of the terminal date of Ktesias’ Assyrian history makes its initial date also incapable of ascertainment: his own figures lead us to some time about the twenty-second century в.с., about the date fixed by Berosus for the beginning of his third dynasty (compare Rawlinson’s Herodotus, i. pp. 420-423).
Ktesias had, however, no knowledge of the true history of the thirteen or fourteen centuries which he assigned as the duration of the Assyrian empire; hence the list of kings from Semiramis to Sardanapalus seems to be purely his own invention. Had he drawn from Persian sources, we should expect to find that each king, as in the Shahnameh of Firdusi, reigned, not tens, but hundreds of years: the length actually assigned to each reign in the list is beyond ordinary probability, but at the same time is not impossible, so as to suggest that, having to invent names to cover a certain period, he saved himself trouble by giving as few as possible. The names themselves are of the most heterogeneous character—a few, e.g. Baleus, Belochus, and Balatores, are those of Babylonian or Assyrian deities or kings of whom he chanced to hear; others are ordinary Persian names; others, e.g. Amyntes, are Greek.
Sardanapalus, as far as his name is concerned, represents Asshur-bani-pal, the last great king of Assyria. His existence and his character for luxury were well known to the Greeks, quite independently of the Persians, long before Ktesias’ time. At the same time what is related of the luxury and effeminacy of himself and his predecessors may come from a traditional recollection of the weak princes who reigned shortly before в. с. 745, as Lenormant suggests.
That Ktesias’ details of the destruction of Nineveh are probably founded on fact may be deduced from the authentic account of the siege in the seventh century в. с., preserved by Berosus, and perhaps from the prophecy of Nahum.
Both the chronological scheme and the details of this portion of his work are almost altogether fabulous; but the legends he relates are not, as a rule, in their outline, his own invention, but are derived from Oriental, or occasionally Hellenic sources, and in the selection of his “facts” he was apparently guided by a definite system. The sources alleged by himself for the statements contained in these books, as for those in the other parts of his history, were the διφθέραι βασιλικαὶ--the Royal Chronicles of Persia (§ 23, Diod. ii. 22, 5: “And these things the barbarians say are recorded of Memnon in the histories of their kings.”: this is an extract from Book ii. or iii.). We have abundant independent evidence of the existence of these chronicles, and he no doubt made use of them in the seventh and following books of the Persika, but they could scarcely have contained an account of events before the time of Kyrus. For an earlier period the only Persian works he could have had access to were collections of Iranian legends, either in prose or verse. Such, doubtless, was the nature of the ‘chronicles and histories’ of Persia from which Firdusi derived the materials of the Shahnameh, and of the work which Chorobutus translated into Greek in the fourth century A. D. (Moses Chor., Hist. ii. 67), and Ktesias may have intended to include them under the term by which he designates his authority. It is very probable, as we shall presently see, that he used Persian legends for his Median history; but even the high authority of such writers as Dr. Duncker, Prof. Sayce, and M. Lenormant is insufficient to convince me that Ktesias’ Assyrian history had the same origin. […]
We have no reason to believe that the Persians ever rationalized the mythology of foreign nations to any appreciable extent, and such a proceeding is utterly contrary to the customs of Oriental nations. As for the example cited by Sayce, Rawlinson’s explanation of the passage of Herodotus (i. 1) is much more probable, and disposes of all connexion between the Persian story told to the Halikarnassian historian and the Greek myth.
My own view of the materials from which Ktesias concocted the Assyrian portion of his history is this:—During the frequent residences of the Persian court at Babylon, Ktesias must have had abundant opportunities of conversing with prominent Babylonians (even if he did not know Babylonian, both he and they must have been acquainted with Persian) about the history of their country. Probably his researches would not be very deep; all he wanted was to compose a plausible and interesting narrative. One of the objects he aimed at in his work was to discredit the work of Herodotus, and as Semiramis had been specially named by the latter, he would probably make special inquiries in regard to her. He would hear, as Herodotus had done, of Sammuramat, the wife of Rimmon Nirari III., King of Assyria в. с. 812-783, who is reasonably supposed to have been a Babylonian princess. That she was more than a mere queen-consort is almost certain, from the occurrence of her name along with that of her husband in a dedicatory inscription on a statue of Nebo, erected in a temple at Kalah by Bel-khassi-ilum, the governor, and now in the British Museum. The monumental evidence for the history of this period is scanty, and it is quite possible she may have occupied the position of regent of Babylon, under her husband’s weak successors; and if she were a Babylonian princess, her countrymen would naturally exaggerate her importance. But from this to the extravagant romance of Ktesias is a long step. Having selected the Babylonian queen as his heroine, he proceeded to look out for materials to fill in his romance. Ishtar, the goddess of love, was, as we learn from the sixth book of the Epic of Gilgamesh, regarded by the Babylonians as having at one time reigned as an earthly queen, and many legends relating to her, both Babylonian and Syrian, were accordingly worked by Ktesias into his “history” of Semiramis.
Next we have a Persian legend (preserved to us by Hellanikos) relating to a Persian (not an Assyrian or Babylonian) queen named Atossa, and from this Ktesias derived some of the military achievements of his heroine. The limits of her conquests were evidently fixed with reference to those of the Persian empire in his own time.
The peculiar colouring given to the whole narrative seems, however, to be Greek, due either to Ktesias himself or to Greeks residing at Babylon, rather than Persian. The Persian legend of Atossa may have furnished some materials; but that the rationalization of the exploits of Ishtar, which forms much of Ktesias’ story of Semiramis, was due to a Persian epos, seems highly improbable. The nature of the Iranian legends of his time may best be judged by those still preserved by Firdusi and other mediæval Persian writers, of which traces may be found in the Zendavesta, and the writings of the early Sassanian period, quoted by Moses of Chorene. These celebrate the exploits of Iranian kings, not of foreign empires, or Semitic goddesses.
Ninus is perhaps to be identified with the god Nin, who is sometimes regarded as the husband of Beltis, a goddess often confused with Ishtar: his character as a god of war and of the chase agrees well with that assigned to the husband of Semiramis. If, with Lenormant and some others, we reject the reading Nin, or Ninip, for the name of this deity, which is by no means certain, we may regard him merely as the eponymous hero of Nineveh. The true derivation of the name of the city is uncertain: in Greek it is spelt in the same way as the name of the husband of Semiramis; in the Assyrian records it is Nina, or Ninua, which is variously explained, either as “fish-town” (from the ideogram with which it is written), or “town of the god Nin,” or “repose of the gods,” or “resting place of the god (goddess?) Nana.” It should be noticed that one of Nin’s attributes is that of god of the sea, and that he is sometimes confused with Hea, one of whose titles is “the intelligent fish”; while Semiramis is the daughter of a fish goddess, and her first husband is Onnes, or Oannes, the name by which Berosus (i. frag. 1) designates Hea.
The duration which Ktesias assigned to the Assyro-Babylonian empire, variously given as 1360 (Diod. ii. 21), 1306 (Synkellus, p. 359, and Agathias ii. 25, p. 120), 1305 (Augustinus, Civ. Dei, xviii. 4), 1240 (Eusebius, Chron. fo. 52) years, was perhaps based on data supplied to him by the Babylonian priests. His fall of Nineveh really corresponds to the event represented by the end of the sixth dynasty of Berosus, and the era of Nabonassar of Ptolemy, about в. с. 745; but his exaggeration of the duration of the Median empire causes him to antedate it about в. с. 850: the real date of the final fall of Nineveh was in the last decade of the seventh century в. с. The obscurity of the terminal date of Ktesias’ Assyrian history makes its initial date also incapable of ascertainment: his own figures lead us to some time about the twenty-second century в.с., about the date fixed by Berosus for the beginning of his third dynasty (compare Rawlinson’s Herodotus, i. pp. 420-423).
Ktesias had, however, no knowledge of the true history of the thirteen or fourteen centuries which he assigned as the duration of the Assyrian empire; hence the list of kings from Semiramis to Sardanapalus seems to be purely his own invention. Had he drawn from Persian sources, we should expect to find that each king, as in the Shahnameh of Firdusi, reigned, not tens, but hundreds of years: the length actually assigned to each reign in the list is beyond ordinary probability, but at the same time is not impossible, so as to suggest that, having to invent names to cover a certain period, he saved himself trouble by giving as few as possible. The names themselves are of the most heterogeneous character—a few, e.g. Baleus, Belochus, and Balatores, are those of Babylonian or Assyrian deities or kings of whom he chanced to hear; others are ordinary Persian names; others, e.g. Amyntes, are Greek.
Sardanapalus, as far as his name is concerned, represents Asshur-bani-pal, the last great king of Assyria. His existence and his character for luxury were well known to the Greeks, quite independently of the Persians, long before Ktesias’ time. At the same time what is related of the luxury and effeminacy of himself and his predecessors may come from a traditional recollection of the weak princes who reigned shortly before в. с. 745, as Lenormant suggests.
That Ktesias’ details of the destruction of Nineveh are probably founded on fact may be deduced from the authentic account of the siege in the seventh century в. с., preserved by Berosus, and perhaps from the prophecy of Nahum.
THE FRAGMENTS OF THE PERSICA
BOOKS I, II, AND III
ASSYRIAN HISTORY
DIODORUS’ EPITOME OF BOOKS I, II, and III
Diodorus Siculus, Library, Book II
1. … ASIA was antiently governed by its own native kings, of whom there is no history extant, either as to any memorable actions they performed, or so much as to their names. Ninus is the first king of Assyria that is recorded in history; he performed many great and noble actions; of whom we have designed to set forth something particularly. He was naturally of a warlike disposition, and very ambitious of honour and glory, and therefore caused the strongest of his young men to be trained up in martial discipline, and by long and continual exercise inured them readily to undergo all the toils and hazards of war. Having therefore raised a gallant army, he made a league with Arieus king of Arabia, that was at that time full of strong and valiant men. For that nation are constant lovers of liberty, never upon any terms admitting of any foreign prince: and therefore neither the Persian, nor the Macedonian kings after them, (though they were most powerful in arms), were ever able to conquer them. For Arabia being partly desert, and partly parched up for want of water, (unless it be in some secret wells and pits known only to the inhabitants), cannot be subdued by any foreign force. Ninus therefore, the Assyrian king, with the prince of Arabia, his assistant, with a numerous army, invaded the Babylonians then next bordering upon him: for the Babylon that is now, was not built at that time; but the province of Babylon had in it then many other considerable cities, whose inhabitants he easily subdued, (being rude and unexpert in matters of war), and imposed upon them a yearly tribute; but carried away the king with all his children prisoners, and soon after put them to death. Afterwards he entered Armenia with a great army, and having overthrown some cities, he struck terror into the rest, and thereupon their king Barzanes, seeing himself unable to deal with him, met him with many rich presents, and submitted himself; whom Ninus, out of his generous disposition, courteously received, and gave him the kingdom of Armenia, upon condition he should be his friend for the future, and supply him with men and provision for his wars, as he should have occasion. Being thus strengthened, he invaded Media, whose king Pharnus coming out against him with a mighty army, was utterly routed, and lost most of his men, and was taken prisoner with his wife and seven children, and afterwards crucified.
2. Ninus being thus successful and prosperous, his ambition rose the higher, and his desire most ardent to conquer all in Asia, which lay between Tanais and the Nile; (so far does prosperity and success in getting much, inflame the desire to gain and compass more). In order hereunto, he made one of his friends governor of the province of Media, and he himself in the mean time marched against the other provinces of Asia, and subdued them all in seventeen years time, except the Indians and Bactrians. But no writer has given any account of the several battles he fought, nor of the number of those nations he conquered; and therefore following Ctesias the Cnidian, we shall only briefly run over the most famous and considerable countries. He over-ran all the countries bordering upon the sea, together with the adjoining continent, as Egypt and Phoenicia, Cælosyria, Cilicia, Pamphylia, Lycia, Caria, Phrygia, Mysia and Lydia; the province of Troas and Phrygia upon the Hellespont; together with Propontis, Bithynia, Cappadocia, and the barbarous nations adjoining upon Pontus, as far as to Tanais; he gained likewise the country of the Cadusians, Tarpyrians, Hyrcanians, Dacians, Derbians, Carmanians, Coroneans, Borchanians, and Parthians. He pierced likewise into Persia, the provinces of Susiana, and that called Caspiana, through those narrow straits, which, from thence are called the Caspian gates. He subdued likewise many other less considerable nations, which would be too tedious here to recount. After much toil and labour in vain, because of the difficulty of the passes, and the multitude of those warlike inhabitants, he was forced to put off his war against the Bactrians to another opportunity.
3. Having marched back with his army into Syria, he marked out a place for the building of a stately city: for, inasmuch as he had surpassed all his ancestors in the glory and success of his arms, he was resolved to build one of that state and grandeur, as should not only be the greatest then in the world, but such as none that ever should come after him, should be able easily to exceed. The king of Arabia, he sent back with his army into his own country, with many rich spoils, and noble gifts. And he himself having got a great number of his forces together, and provided money and treasure, and other things necessary for the purpose, built a city near the river Euphrates, very famous for its walls and fortifications; of a long form; for on both sides it ran out in length above an hundred and fifty furlongs; but the two lesser angels were only ninety furlongs a-piece; so that the circumference of the whole was four hundred and fourscore furlongs. And the founder was not herein deceived, for none ever after built the like, either as to the largeness of its circumference, or the stateliness of its walls. For the wall was an hundred feet in height, and so broad as three chariots might be driven together upon it a-breast: there were fifteen hundred turrets upon the walls, each of them two hundred feet high. He appointed the city to be inhabited chiefly by the richest Assyrians, and gave liberty to people of any other nation, (to as many as would), to dwell there, and allowed to the citizens a large territory next adjoining to them, and called the city after his own name Ninus, or Nineveh.
4. When he had finished his work here, he marched with an army against the Bactrians, where he married Semiramis; who being so famous above any of her sex, (as in history it is related), we cannot but say something of her here in this place, being one advanced from so low a fortune, to such a state and degree of honour and worldly glory. There is a city in Syria, called Ascalon, near which is a deep lake abounding with fish, where not far off stands a temple dedicated to a famous goddess called by the Syrians Derceto. She represents a woman in her face, and a fish in all other parts of her body, upon the account following, as the most judicious among the inhabitants report; for they say, that Venus, being angry at this goddess, caused her to fall into a vehement pang of love with a beautiful young man, who was among others sacrificing to her, and was got with child by him, and brought to bed of a daughter; and being ashamed afterwards of what she had done, she killed the young man, and exposed the child among rocks in the desert, and, through sorrow and shame cast herself into the lake, and was afterwards transformed into a fish; whence it came to pass, that at this very day the Syrians eat no fish, but adore them as gods. They say that the infant that was exposed, was both preserved and nourished by a most wonderful providence, by the means of a great flock of pigeons that nestled near to the place where the child lay: for with their wings they cherished it, and kept it warm; and observing where the herdsmen and other shepherds left their milk in the neighbouring cottages, took it up in their bills, and as so many nurses thrust their beaks between the infant’s lips, and so instilled the milk: and when the child was a year old, and stood in need of stronger nourishment, the pigeons fed it with pieces of cheese which they picked out from the rest: when the shepherds returned, and found their cheeses picked round, they wondered, (at first), at the thing; but observing afterwards, how it came to pass, they not only found out the cause, but likewise a very beautiful child, which they forthwith carried away to their cottages, and made a present of it to the king’s superintendent of his flocks and herds, (whose name was Simma), who, (having no children of his own), carefully bred up the young lady as if she had been his own daughter, and called her Semiramis, a denomination in the Syrian language derived from pigeons, which the Syrians ever after adored for goddesses.
5. And these are the stories told of Semiramis. Being now grown up, and exceeding all others of her sex for the charms of her beauty, one of the king’s great officers called Onneus, was sent to take an account of the king’s herds and flocks: this man was lord president of the king’s council, and chief governor of Syria, and lodging upon this occasion at Simma’s house, at the sight of Semiramis, fell in love with her, and with much entreaty obtained her from Simma, and carried her away with him to Nineveh, where he married her, and had by her two sons, Hypates and Hydaspes: and being a woman of admirable parts as well as beauty, her husband was altogether at her devotion, and never would do any thing without her advice, which was ever successful.
About this time Ninus having finished his city, (called after his own name), prepared for his expedition against the Bactrians; and having had experience of the greatness of their forces, the valour of their soldiers, and the difficulties of passing into their country, he raised an army of the choicest men he could pick out from all parts of his dominions; for because he was baffled in his former expedition, he was resolved to invade Bactria with a far stronger army than he did before. Bringing therefore his whole army together at a general rendezvous, there were numbered, (as Ctesias writes), seventeen hundred thousand foot, above two hundred and ten thousand horse, and no fewer than ten thousand and six hundred hooked chariots. This number at the first view seems to be very incredible; but to such as seriously consider the largeness and populousness of Asia, it cannot be judged impossible. For if any, (not to say any thing of the eight hundred thousand men that Darius had with him in his expedition against the Scythians, and the innumerable army Xerxes brought over with him into Greece), will but take notice of things done lately, even as of yesterday, he will more easily credit what we now say. For in Sicily, Dionysius led only out of that one city of Syracuse, an hundred and twenty thousand foot, and twelve thousand horse; and launched out of one port, a navy of four hundred sail, of which some were of three tiers of oars, and others of five: and the Romans, a little before the times of Hannibal, raised in Italy, of their own citizens and confederates, an army little less than a million of fighting men; and yet all Italy is not to be compared with one province of Asia for number of men. But this may sufficiently convince them who compute the antient populousness of the countries by the present depopulations of the cities at this day.
6. Ninus therefore marching with these forces against the Bactrians, divided his army into two bodies, because of the straitness and difficulty of the passages. There are in Bactria many large and populous cities, but one is more especially famous, called Bactria, in which the king’s palace, for greatness and magnificence, and the citadel for strength, far excel all the rest. Oxyartes reigned there at this time, who caused all that were able, to bear arms, and mustered an army of four hundred thousand men. With these he met the enemy at the straits entering into his country, where he suffered Ninus to enter with part of his army. When he saw a competent number entered, he fell upon them in the open plain, and fought them with that resolution, that the Bactrians put the Assyrians to flight, and pursuing them to the next mountains, killed a hundred thousand of their enemies; but after the whole army entered, the Bactrians were overpowered by numbers, and were broken, and all fled to their several cities, in order to defend every one his own country.
Ninus easily subdued all the rest of the forts and castles; but Bactria itself was so strong and well provided, that he could not force it; which occasioned a long and tedious siege, so that the husband of Semiramis, (who was there in the king’s camp), being love-sick, impatient of being any longer without his wife, sent for her, who being both discreet and courageous, and endowed with other noble qualifications, readily embraced the opportunity of shewing to the world her own natural valour and resolution; and that she might with more safety perform so long a journey, she put on such a garment as whereby she could not be discerned whether she were a man or a woman; and so made, that by it she both preserved her beauty from being scorched by the heat in her journey, and likewise was thereby more nimble and ready for any business she pleased to undertake, being of herself a youthful and sprightly lady; and this sort of garment was in so high esteem, that the Medes afterwards, when they came to be lords of Asia, wore Semiramis’s gown, and the Persians likewise after them.
As soon as she came to Bactria, and observed the manner of the siege, how assaults were made only in open and plain places most likely to be entered, and that none dared to approach the citadel, because of its natural strength and fortification, and that they within took more care to defend the lower and weaker parts of the walls, than the castle, where they neglected their guards, she took some with her that were skilful in climbing up the rocks, and with them, with much toil, passed over a deep trench, and possessed herself of part of the castle; whereupon she gave a signal to them that were assaulting the wall upon the plain, Then they that were within the city, being suddenly struck with a panic fear at the taking of the castle, in desperation of making any further defence, forsook the walls.
The city being taken in this manner, the king greatly admired the valour of the woman, and bountifully rewarded her, and was presently so passionately affected at the sight of her beauty, that he used all the arguments imaginable to persuade her husband to bestow his wife upon him, promising him as a reward of his kindness, to give him his daughter Sosana in marriage: but he absolutely refused; upon which the king threatened him, that if he would not consent, he would pluck out his eyes. Onneus hereupon out of fear of the king’s threats, and overpowered with the love of his wife, fell into a distracted rage and madness, and forthwith hanged himself. And this was the occasion of the advancement of Semiramis to the regal state and dignity.
7. Ninus having now possessed himself of all the treasures of Bactria, (where was abundance of gold and silver), and settled his affairs throughout the whole province of Bactria, returned with his army to his own country. Afterwards he had a son by Semiramis, called Ninyas, and died, leaving his wife queen regent. She buried her husband Ninus in the royal palace, and raised over him a mount of earth of a wonderful bigness, being nine furlongs in height, and ten in breadth, as Ctesias says: so that the city standing in a plain near to the river Euphrates, the mount (many furlongs off) looks like a stately citadel. And it is said, that it continues to this day, though Nineveh was destroyed by the Medes when they ruined the Assyrian empire.
Semiramis was naturally of an high aspiring spirit, ambitious to excel all her predecessors in glorious actions, and therefore employed all her thoughts about the building of a city in the province of Babylon; and to this end having provided architects, artists, and all other necessaries for the work, she got together two millions of men out of all parts of the empire, to be employed in the building of the city. It was so built as that the river Euphrates ran through the middle of it; and she compassed it round with a wall of three hundred and sixty furlongs in circuit, and adorned with many stately turrets; and such was the state and grandeur of the work, that the walls were of that breadth, as that six chariots abreast might be driven together upon them. Their height was such as exceeded all men’s belief that heard of it, (as Ctesias the Cnidian relates). But Clitarchus, and those who afterwards went over with Alexander into Asia, have written, that the walls were in circuit three hundred and sixty-five furlongs; the queen making them of that compass, to the end that the furlongs should be as many in number as the days of the year: they were of brick cemented with brimstone; in height, as Ctesias says, fifty orgyas; but as some of the later writers report, but fifty cubits only, and that the breadth was but a little more than what would allow two chariots to be driven in front. There were two hundred and fifty turrets, in height and thickness proportionable to the largeness of the wall. It is not to be wondered at, that there were so few towers upon a wall of so great a circuit, being that in many places round the city, there were deep morasses; so that it was judged to no purpose to raise turrets there, where they were so naturally fortified: between the wall and the houses, there was a space left around the city of two hundred feet.
8. That the work might be the more speedily despatched, to each of her friends was allotted a furlong, with an allowance of all expenses necessary for their several parts, and commanded all should be finished in a year’s time; which being diligently perfected with the queen’s approbation, she then made a bridge over the narrowest part of the river, five furlongs in length, laying the supports and pillars of the arches with great art and skill at the bottom of the water, twelve feet distance from each other. That the stones might be the more firmly joined, they were bound together with hooks of iron, and the joints filled up with melted lead. And before the pillars she made and placed defences, with sharp pointed angles, to receive the water before it beat upon the flat sides of the pillars, which caused the course of the water to run round by degrees gently and moderately, as far as to the broad sides of the pillars, so that the sharp points of the angles cut the stream, and gave a check to its violence, and the roundness of them by little and little giving way, abated the force of the current. This bridge was floored with great joists and planks of cedar, cypress, and palm trees, and was thirty feet in breadth, and for art and curiosity, yielded to none of the works of Semiramis. On either side of the river she raised a bank, as broad as the wall, and with great cost drew it out in length an hundred furlongs.
She built likewise two palaces at each end of the bridge upon the bank of the river, whence she might have a prospect over the whole city, and make her passage as by keys to the most convenient places in it, as she had occasion. And whereas the Euphrates runs through the middle of Babylon, making its course to the south, the palaces lie the one on the east, and the other on the west side of the river; both built at exceeding costs and expense. For that on the west had an high and stately wall, made of well burnt bricks, sixty furlongs in compass; within this was drawn another of a round circumference, upon which were pourtrayed in the bricks before they were burnt, all sorts of living creatures, as if it were to the life, laid with great art in curious colours. This wall was in circuit forty furlongs, three hundred bricks thick, and in height (as Ctesias says) a hundred yards, upon which were turrets a hundred and forty yards high. The third and most inward wall, immediately surrounded the palace, thirty furlongs in compass, and far surmounted the middle wall, both in height and thickness; and on this wall and the towers were represented the shapes of all sorts of living creatures, artificially expressed in most lively colours. Especially was represented a general hunting of all sorts of wild beasts, each four cubits high and upwards; amongst these was to be seen Semiramis on horseback, striking a leopard through with a dart, and next to her, her husband Ninus in close fight with a lion, piercing him with his lance. To this palace she built likewise three gates, under which were apartments of brass for entertainments, into which passages were opened by a certain engine.
This palace far excelled that on the other side of the river, both in greatness and adornments. For the outermost wall of that (made of well burnt brick) was but thirty furlongs in compass. Instead of the curious portraiture of beasts, there were the brazen statues of Ninus and Semiramis, the great officers, and of Zeus, whom the Babylonians call Belus; and likewise armies drawn up in battalia, and divers sorts of hunting were there represented, to the great diversion and pleasure of the beholders.
9. After all these in a low ground in Babylon, she sunk a place for a pond, four-square, every square being three hundred furlongs in length, lined with brick, and cemented with brimstone, and the whole five-and-thirty feet in depth: into this having first turned the river, she then made a passage in form of a vault, from one palace to another, whose arches were built of firm and strong brick, and plaistered all over on both sides with bitumen, four cubits thick. The walls of this vault were twenty bricks in thickness, and twelve feet high, beside and above the arches; and the breadth was fifteen feet. This piece of work being finished in two hundred and sixty days, the river was turned into its antient channel again, so that the river’ flowing over the whole work, Semiramis could go from one palace to the other, without passing over the river. She made likewise two brazen gates at either end of the vault, which continued to the time of the Persian empire.
In the middle of the city, she built a temple to Zeus, whom the Babylonians call Belus, (as we have before said), of which since writers differ amongst themselves, and the work is now wholly decayed through length of time, there is nothing that can with certainty be related concerning it: yet it is apparent, it was of an exceeding great height, and that by the advantage of it, the Chaldean astrologers exactly observed the setting and rising of the stars. The whole was built of brick, cemented with brimstone, with great art and cost. Upon the top she placed three statues of beaten gold of Zeus, Hera, and Rhea. That of Zeus stood upright in the posture as if he were walking; he was forty feet in height, and weighed a thousand Babylonish talents. The statue of Rhea was of the same weight, sitting on a golden throne, having two lions standing on either side, one at her knees; and near to them two exceeding great serpents of silver, weighing thirty talents each. Here likewise the image of Hera stood upright, and weighed eight hundred talents, grasping a serpent by the head in her right hand, and holding a sceptre adorned with precious stones in her left. For all these deities there was placed a common table made of beaten gold, forty feet long, and fifteen broad, weighing five hundred talents; upon which stood two cups, weighing thirty talents, and near to them as many censers, weighing three hundred talents: there were there likewise placed three drinking bowls of gold, one of which, dedicated to Zeus, weighed twelve hundred Babylonish talents, but the other two six hundred each; but all those the Persian kings sacrilegiously carried away. And length of time has either altogether consumed, or much defaced the palaces and the other structures; so that at this day but a small part of this Babylon is inhabited, and the greatest part which lay within the walls, is turned into tillage and pasture.
10. There was likewise an hanging garden (as it is called) near the citadel, not built by Semiramis, but by a later prince, called Cyrus, for the sake of a courtesan, who being a Persian (as they say) by birth, and coveting meadows on mountain tops, desired the king by an artificial plantation to imitate the lands in Persia. This garden was four hundred feet square, and the ascent up to it was as to the top of a mountain, and had buildings and apartments out of one into another, like unto a theatre. Under the steps to the ascent, were built arches one above another, rising gently by degrees, which supported the whole plantation. The highest arch upon which the platform of the garden was laid, was fifty cubits high, and the garden itself was surrounded with battlements and bulwarks. The walls were made very strong, built at no small charge and expense, being two-and-twenty feet thick, and every sally-port ten feet wide: over the several stories of this fabric, were laid beams and summers of huge massy stones, each sixteen feet long, and four broad. The roof over all these was first covered with reeds, daubed with abundance of brimstone; then upon them was laid double tiles pargeted together with a hard and durable mortar, and over them after all, was a covering with sheets of lead, that the wet which drenched through the earth, might not rot the foundation. Upon all these was laid earth of a convenient depth, sufficient for the growth of the greatest trees. When the soil was laid even and smooth, it was planted with all sorts of trees, which both for greatness and beauty, might delight the spectators. The arches (which stood one above another, and by that means darted light sufficient one into another) had in them many stately rooms of all kinds, and for all purposes. But there was one that had in it certain engines, whereby it drew plenty of water out of the river through certain conduits and conveyances from the platform of the garden, and nobody without was the wiser, or knew what was done. This garden (as we said before) was built in later ages.
11. But Semiramis built likewise other cities upon the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris, where she established marts for the vending of merchandise brought from Media and Paretacenes, and other neighbouring countries. For next to the Nile and Ganges, the Euphrates and Tigris are the noblest rivers of all Asia, and have their springheads in the mountains of Arabia, and are distant one from another fifteen hundred furlongs. They run through Media and Paretacena into Mesopotamia, which from its lying in the middle between these two rivers, has gained from them that name; thence passing through the province of Babylon, they empty themselves into the Red sea. These being very large rivers, and passing through divers countries, greatly enrich the merchants that traffic in those parts; so that the neighbouring places are full of wealthy mart towns, and greatly advanced the glory and majesty of Babylon.
Semiramis likewise caused a great stone to be cut out of the mountains of Armenia, an hundred and twenty-five feet in length, and five in breadth and thickness; this she conveyed to the river by the help of many yokes of oxen and asses, and there put it on board a ship, and brought it safe by water to Babylon, and set it up in the most remarkable highway as a wonderful spectacle to all beholders. From its shape it is called an obelisk, and is accounted one of the seven wonders of the world.
12. There are indeed many remarkable and wonderful things to be seen in Babylon; but amongst these, the great quantity of brimstone that there flows out of the ground, is not to be the least admired, which is so much that it not only supplied all their occasions in building such great and mighty works, but the common people profusely gather it, and when it is dry, burn it instead of fuel; and though it be drawn out by an innumerable company of people, as from a great fountain, yet it is as plentiful as ever it was before. Near this fountain there is a spring not big, but very fierce and violent, for it casts forth a sulphurous and gross vapour, which suddenly kills every living creature that comes near to it; for the breath being stopped a long time, and all power of respiration taken away by the force of the exhalation, the body presently swells so, that the parts about the lungs are all in a flame.
Beyond the river there is a morass, about which is a crusty earth; if any unacquainted with the place get into it, at first he floats upon the top, when he comes into the middle he is violently hauled away, and striving to help himself, seems to be held so fast by something or other, that all his labour to get loose is in vain. And first his feet, then his legs and thighs to his loins are benumbed; at length his whole body is stupified, and then down he sinks to the bottom, and presently after is cast up dead to the surface. And thus much for the wonders of Babylon.
13. When Semiramis had finished all her works, she marched with a great army into Media, and encamped near to a mountain called Bagistan; there she made a garden twelve furlongs in compass: it was in a plain champaign country, and had a great fountain in it, which watered the whole garden. Mount Bagistan is dedicated to Zeus, and towards one side of the garden has steep rocks seventeen furlongs from the top to the bottom. She cut out a piece of the lower part of the rock, and caused her own image to be carved upon it, and a hundred of her guard that were lanceteers standing round about her. She wrote likewise in Syriac letters upon the rock: That Semiramis ascended from the plain to the top of the mountain by laying the packs and fardels of the beasts that followed her one upon another.
Marching away from hence, she came to Chaone, a city of Media, where she encamped upon a rising ground, from whence she took notice of an exceeding great and high rock, where she made another very great garden in the middle of the rock, and built upon it stately houses of pleasure, whence she might both have a delightful prospect into the garden, and view the army as they lay encamped below in the plain; being much delighted with this place she staid here a considerable time, giving up herself to all kinds of pleasures and delights, for she forbore marrying lest she should then be deposed from the government, and in the mean time she made choice of the handsomest commanders to be her gallants; but after they had lain with her she cut off their heads.
From hence she marched towards Ecbatana, and arrived at the mountain Zarcheum, which being many furlongs in extent, and full of steep precipices and craggy rocks, there was no passing but by long and tedious windings and turnings. To leave therefore behind her an eternal monument of her name, and to make a short cut for her passage, she caused the rocks to be hewn down, and the valleys to be filled up with earth, and so in a short time, at a vast expense, laid the way open and plain, which to this day is called Semiramis’s Way.
When she came to Ecbatana, which is situated in a low and even plain, she built there a stately palace, and bestowed more of her care and pains here than she had done at any other place. For the city wanting water (there being no spring near) she plentifully supplied it with good and wholesome water, brought hither with a great deal of toil and expense, after this manner: there is a mountain called Orontes, twelve furlongs distant from the city, exceeding high and steep for the space of five-and-twenty furlongs up to the top; on the other side of this mount there is a great mere which empties itself into the river. At the foot of this mountain she dug a canal fifteen feet in breadth and forty in depth, through which she conveyed water in great abundance into the city. And these are the things which she did in Media.
14. Afterwards she made a progress through Persia and all the rest of her dominions in Asia, and all along as she went she plained all the way before her, levelling both rocks and mountains. On the other hand, in champaign countries she would raise eminences, on which she would sometimes build sepulchres for her officers and commanders, and at other times towns and cities. Throughout her whole expeditions she always used to raise an ascent, upon which she pitched her own pavilion, that from thence she might have a view of her whole army. Many things which she performed in Asia remain to this day, and are called Semiramis’s Works.
Afterwards she passed through all Egypt, and having conquered the greatest part of Libya, she went to the temple of Zeus Ammon, and there inquired of the oracle how long she should live; which returned her this answer, That she should leave this world, and afterwards be for ever honoured by some nations in Asia, when Ninyas her son should be plotting against her.
When she had performed these things, she marched into Ethiopia, and having subdued many places in it, she had an opportunity to see what was there very remarkable and wonderful. For they say, there is a four-square lake, an hundred and sixty feet in circuit, the water of which is in colour like unto vermilion, and of an extraordinary sweet flavour, much like unto old wine; yet of such wonderful operation, that whosoever drinks of it goes presently mad, and confesses all the faults that ever he had been before guily of; but some will scarce believe this relation.
15. The Ethiopians have a peculiar way of burying their dead; for, after they have embalmed the body, they pour round about it melted glass, and then place it upon a pillar, so that the corpse may be plainly seen through the glass, as Herodotus has reported the thing. But Ctesias of Cnidus affirms that he tells a winter-tale, and says, that it is true, indeed, that the body is embalmed, but that glass is not poured upon the naked body, for the bodies thereby would be so scorched and defaced that they could not possibly retain any likeness to the dead: and that therefore they make an hollow statue of gold, and put the body within it, and then pour the melted glass round upon this statue, which they set upon some high place, and so the statue which resembles the dead is seen through the glass, and thus he says they used to bury those of the richer sort; but those of meaner fortunes they put into statues of silver; and for the poor they make statues of potter’s clay, every one having glass enough, for there is abundance to be got in Ethiopia, and ready at hand for all the inhabitants. But we shall speak more fully of the customs and laws of the Ethiopians, and the product of the land, and other things worthy of remark, presently, when we come to relate their antiquities and old fables and stories.
16. Semiramis having settled her affairs in Egypt and Ethiopia, returned with her army into Asia to Bactria; and now having a great army, and enjoying a long peace, she had a longing desire to perform some notable exploit by her arms. Hearing, therefore, that the Indians were the greatest nation in the whole world, and had the largest and richest tract of land of all others, she resolved to make war upon them. Stabrobates was at that time king, who had innumerable forces, and many elephants bravely accoutred and fitted to strike terror into the hearts of his enemies. For India, for the pleasantness of the country, excelled all others, being watered in every place with many rivers, so that the land yielded every year a double crop; and by that means was so rich and so abounded with plenty of all things necessary for the sustenance of man’s life, that it supplied the inhabitants continually with such things as made them excessively rich, insomuch as it was never known that there was ever any famine amongst them, the climate being so happy and favourable; and upon that account, likewise, there is an incredible number of elephants, which for courage and strength of body far excel those in Africa. Moreover this country abounds in gold, silver, brass, iron, and precious stones of all sorts, both for profit and pleasure.
All which being noised abroad, so stirred up the spirit of Semiramis, that (though she had no provocation given her) yet she was resolved upon the war against the Indians. But knowing that she had need of great forces, she sent despatches to all the provinces, with command to the governors to list the choicest young men they could find, ordering the proportion of soldiers every province and country should send forth, according to the largeness of it; and commanded that all should furnish themselves with new arms and armour, and all appear in three years time at a general rendezvous in Bactria, bravely armed and accoutred in all points. And having sent for shipwrights out of Phoœnicia, Syria, Cyprus, and other places bordering upon the sea-coasts, she prepared timber for them fit for the purpose, and ordered them to build vessels that might be taken asunder and conveyed from place to place wherever she pleased. For the river Indus bordering upon that kingdom, being the greatest in those parts, she stood in need of many river-boats to pass it, in order to repress the Indians. But being there was no timber near that river, she was necessitated to convey the boats thither by land from Bactria.
She further considered, that she was much inferior to the Indians in elephants, (which were absolutely necessary for her to make use of), she therefore contrived to have beasts that should resemble them, hoping by this means to strike a terror into the Indians, who believed there were no elephants in any place but in India. To this end she provided three hundred thousand black oxen, and distributed the flesh amongst a company of ordinary mechanics and such fellows as she had to play the coblers for her, and ordered them, by stitching the skins together, and stuffing them with straw, to imi tate the shape of an elephant, and in every one of them she put a man to govern them, and a camel to carry them, so that at a distance they appeared to all that saw them, as if they were really such beasts. They that were employed in this work wrought at it night and day in a place which was walled round for the purpose, and guards set at every gate, that none might be admitted either to go in or out, to the end that none might see what they were doing, lest it should be noised abroad, and come to the ears of the Indians.
17. Having therefore provided shipping and elephants in the space of two years, in the third she rendezvoused all her forces in Bactria. Her army consisted (as Ctesias says) of three millions of foot, two hundred thousand horse, a hundred thousand chariots, and a hundred thousand men mounted upon camels with swords four cubits long. The boats that might be taken asunder were two thousand; which the camels carried by land as they did the mock-elephants, as we have before declared. The soldiers made their horses familiar with these feigned beasts, by bringing them often to them, lest they should he terrified at the sight of them; which Perseus imitated many ages after when he was to fight with the Romans, who had elephants in their army out of Africa. However, this contrivance proved to be of no advantage either to him or her, as will appear in the issue herein a little after related.
When Stabrobates the Indian king heard of these great armies, and the mighty preparations made against him, he did all he could to excel Semiramis in every thing. And first he built of great canes four thousand river-boats: for abundance of these canes grow in India about the rivers and fens, so thick as a man can scarce fathom: ‘ and vessels made of these reeds (they say) are exceeding useful, because they will never rot or be worm-eaten. He was very diligent, likewise, in preparing of arms, and going from place to place throughout all India, and so raised a far greater army than that of Semiramis. To his former number of elephants he added more, which he took by hunting, and furnished them all with every thing that might make them look terrible in the face of their enemies; so that by their multitude, and the completeness of their armour in all points, it seemed above the strength and power of man to bear up against the violent shock of these creatures.
18. Having therefore made all these preparations, he sent ambassadors to Semiramis (as she was on her march towards him) to complain. and upbraid her for beginning a war without any provocation or injury offered her; and by his private letters taxed her with her whorish course of life, and vowed (calling the gods to witness) that if he conquered her he would nail her to the cross. When she read the letter, she smiled, and said, the Indian should presently have a trial of her valour by her actions. When she came up with her army to the river Indus, she found the enemy’s fleet drawn up in a line of battle; whereupon she forthwith drew up her own, and having manned it with the stoutest soldiers, joined battle, yet so ordering the matter as to have her land-forces ready upon the shore, to be assisting as there should be occasion. After a long and sharp fight, with marks of valour on both sides, Semiramis was at length victorious, and sunk a thousand of the enemy’s vessels, and took a great number of prisoners. Puffed up with this success, she took, in the cities and islands that lay in the river, and carried away, an hundred thousand captives. After this, the Indian king drew off his army, (as if he fled for fear), but in truth to decoy his enemies to pass the river.
Semiramis therefore (seeing things fall out according to her wish) laid a broad bridge of boats (at a vast charge) over the river, and thereby passed over all her forces, leaving only threescore thousand to guard the bridge, and with the rest of her army pursued the Indians. She placed the mock-elephants in the front, that the enemy’s scouts might presently inform the king what multitudes of elephants she had in her army: and she was not deceived in her hopes; for
when the spies gave an account to the Indians what a great multitude of these creatures were advancing towards them, they were all in amaze, inquiring among themselves, whence the Assyrians should be supplied with such a vast number of elephants: but the cheat could not be long concealed, for some of Semiramis’s soldiers being laid by the heels for their carelessness upon the guard, (through fear of further punishment), made their escape and fled to the enemy, and undeceived them as to the elephants; upon which the Indian king was mightily encouraged, and caused notice of the delusion to be spread through the whole army, and then forthwith marched with all his force against the Assyrians; Semiramis, on the other hand, doing the like.
19. When they approached near one to another, Stabrobates the Indian king placed his horse and chariots in the van-guard, at a good distance before the main body of his army. The queen having placed her mock-elephants at the like distance from her main body, valiantly received her enemy’s charge; but the Indian horse were most strangely terrified; for in regard the phantasms at a distance seemed to be real elephants, the horses of the Indians (being inured to those creatures) pressed boldly and undauntedly forward; but when they came near and saw another sort of beast than usual, and the smell and every thing else almost being strange and new to them, they broke in with great terror and confusion, one upon another, so that they cast some of their riders headlong to the ground, and ran away with others (as the lot happened) into the midst of their enemies: whereupon Semiramis, readily making use of her advantage, with a body of choice men fell in upon them, and routed them, forcing them back to their main body: and though Stabrobates was something astonished at this unexpected defeat, yet he brought up his foot against the enemy, with his elephants in the front: he himself was in the right wing, mounted upon a stately elephant, and made a fierce charge upon the queen herself, who happened then to be opposite to him in the left. And though the mock-elephants in Semiramis’s army did the like, yet they stood the violent shock of the other but a little while; for the Indian beasts being both exceeding strong and stout, easily bore down and destroyed all that opposed them, so that there was a great slaughter; for some they trampled under foot, others they rent in pieces with their teeth, and tossed up others with their trunks into the air. The ground therefore being covered with heaps of dead carcasses, and nothing but death and destruction to be seen on every hand, so that all were full of horror and amazement, none durst keep their order or ranks any longer. Upon which the whole Assyrian army fled outright, and the Indian king encountered with Semiramis, and first wounded her with an arrow in the arm, and afterwards with a dart (in wheeling about) in the shoulder; whereupon the queen (her wounds not being mortal) fled, and by the swiftness of her horse (which far exceeded the other that pursued her) she got off. But all making one way to the bridge of boats, and such a vast multitude of men thronging together in one strait and narrow passage, the queen’s soldiers miserably perished by treading down one another under foot, and (which was strange and unusual) horse and foot lay tumbling promiscuously one over another. When they came at length to the bridge, and the Indians at their heels, the consternation was so great, that many on both sides the bridge were tumbled over into the river. But when the greatest part of those that remained had got over, Semiramis caused the cords and tenons of the bridge to be cut, which done, the boats (which were before joined together, and upon which was a great number of Indians not in the pursuit) being now divided into many parts, and carried here and there by the force of the current, multitudes of the Indians were drowned, and Semiramis was now safe and secure, having such a barrier as the river betwixt her and her enemies. Whereupon the Indian king, being forewarned by prodigies from heaven, and the opinions of the soothsayers, forbore all further pursuit. And Semiramis, making exchange of prisoners in Bactria, returned with scarce a third part of her army.
20. A little time after, Semiramis being assaulted by an eunuch through the treacherous contrivance of her son, remembered the former answer given her by the oracle at the temple of Ammon, and therefore passed the business over without punishing of him who was chiefly concerned in the plot: but surrendering the crown to him, commanded all to obey him as their lawful king, and forthwith disappeared, as if she had been translated to the gods, according to the words of the oracle. There are some which fabulously say she was metamorphosed into a pigeon, and that she flew away with a flock of those birds that lighted upon her palace: and hence it is that the Assyrians adore a dove, believing that Semiramis was enthroned amongst the gods. And this was the end of Semiramis, queen of all Asia, except India, after she had lived sixty-two years, and reigned forty-two. And these are the things which Ctesias the Cnidian reports of her in his history.
Athenæus, and some other writers, affirm, that she was a most beautiful strumpet, and upon that account the king of Assyria fell in love with her, and at first was taken into his favour; and at length becoming his lawful wife, she prevailed with her husband to grant her the sole and absolute authority of the regal government for the space of five days. Taking therefore upon her the sceptre and royal mantle of the kingdom, the first day she made a sumptuous banquet, and magnificent entertainments, to which she invited the generals of the army, and all the nobility, in order to be observant to all her commands. The next day, having both great and small at her back, she committed her husband to the goal: and in regard she was of a bold and daring spirit, apt and ready to undertake any great matters, she easily gained the kingdom, which she held to the time of her old age, and became famous for her many great and wonderful acts: and these are the things which historians variously relate concerning her.
21. After her death, Ninyas, the son of Ninus and Semiramis, succeeded, and reigned peaceably, nothing at all like his mother for valour and martial affairs. For he spent all his time shut up in his palace, insomuch as he was never seen of any but of his concubines and eunuchs; for being given up wholly to his pleasures, he shook off all cares, and every thing that might be irksome and troublesome, placing all the happiness of a king in a sordid indulgence of all sorts of voluptuousness. But that he might reign the more securely, and be feared of all his subjects, every year he raised out of every province a certain number of soldiers, under their several generals; and having brought them into the city, over every country appointed such governors as he could most confide in, and were most at his devotion. At the end of the year he raised many as more out of the provinces, and sent the former home, taking first of them an oath of fidelity. And this he did, that his subjects, observing how he always had a great army ready in the field, those of them that were inclined to be refractory or rebel (out of fear of punishment) might continue firm in their due obedience. And a further reason likewise for this yearly change was, that the officers and soldiers might be from time to time disbanded before they could have time to be well acquainted one with another. For length of time in martial employments so improves the skill, and advances the courage and resolution of the commanders, that many times they conspire against their princes, and wholly fall off from their allegiance.
His living thus close and unseen, was a covert to the voluptuous course of his life, and in the mean time (as if he had been a god) none durst in the least mutter any thing against him. And in this manner (creating commanders of his army, constituting of governors in the provinces, appointing the chamberlains and officers of his household, placing of judges in their several countries, and ordering and disposing of all other matters as he thought fit most for his own advantage) he spent his days in Nineveh.
After the same manner almost lived all the rest of the kings for the space of thirty generations, in a continued line of succession from father to son, to the very reign of Sardanapalus; in whose time the empire of the Assyrians devolved upon the Medes, after it had continued above thirteen hundred and sixty years, as Ctesias the Cnidian says in his second book.
22. But it is needless to recite their names, or how long each of them reigned, in regard none of them did any thing worth remembering, save only that it may deserve an account how the Assyrians assisted the Trojans, by sending them some forces under the command of Memnon the son of Tithon. For when Teutamus reigned in Asia, who was the twentieth from Ninyas the son of Semiramis, it is said the Grecians, under their general Agamemnon, made war upon the Trojans, at which time the Assyrians had been lords of Asia above a thousand years. For Priam the king of Troy, (being a prince under the Assyrian empire, when war was made upon him), sent ambassadors to crave aid of Teutamus, who sent him ten thousand Ethiopians, and as many out of the province of Susiana, with two hundred chariots, under the conduct of Memnon the son of Tithon. For this Tithon at that time was governor of Persia, and in special favour with the king above all the rest of the princes: and Memnon was in the flower of his age, strong and courageous, and had built a palace in the citadel of Susa, which retained the name of Memnonia to the time of the Persian empire. He paved also there a common highway, which is called Memnon’s way to this day. But the Ethiopians of Egypt question this, and say, that Memnon was their countryman, and shew several antient palaces which (they say) retain his name at this day, being called Memnon’s palaces.
Notwithstanding, however it be as to this matter, yet it has been generally and constantly held for a certain truth, that Memnon led to Troy twenty thousand foot, and two hundred chariots, and signalized his valour with great honour and reputation, with the death and destruction of many of the Greeks, till at length he was slain by an ambuscade laid for him by the Thessalians. But the Ethiopians recovered his body, and burnt it, and brought back his bones to Tithon. And these things the barbarians say are recorded of Memnon in the histories of their kings.
23. Sardanapalus, the thirtieth from Ninus, and the last king of the Assyrians, exceeded all his predecessors in sloth and luxury; for besides that he was seen of none out of his family, he led a most effeminate life: for, wallowing in pleasure and wanton dalliances, he clothed himself in women’s attire, and spun fine wool and purple amongst the throngs of his whores and concubines. He painted likewise his face, and decked his whole body with other allurements like a strumpet, and was more lascivious than the most wanton courtesan. He imitated, likewise, a woman’s voice, and not only daily inured himself to such meat and drink as might incite and stir up his lascivious lusts, but gratified them by filthy Catamites, as well as whores and strumpets, and without any sense of modesty, abusing both sexes, slighted shame, the concomitant of filthy and impure actions, and proceeded to such a degree of voluptuousness and sordid uncleanness, that he composed verses for his epitaph, with a command to his successors to have them inscribed upon his tomb after his death, which were thus translated by a Grecian, out of the barbarian language
Hæc habeo quæ edi, quæque exsaturata libido.
Hausit, at illa jacent multa ac præclara relicta.
What once I gorg’d I now enjoy,
And wanton lusts me still employ.
All other things by mortals priz’d,
Are left as dirt by me despis’d.
Being thus corrupt in his morals, he not only came to a miserable end himself, but utterly overturned the Assyrian monarchy, which had continued longer than any we read of.
24. For Arbaces a Mede, a valiant and prudent man, and general of the forces which were sent every year out of Media to Nineveh, was stirred up by the governor of Babylon (his fellow soldier, and with whom he had contracted an intimate familiarity) to overthrow the Assyrian empire. This captain’s name was Belesis, a most famous Babylonian priest, one of those called Chaldeans, expert in astrology and divination; of great reputation upon the account of foretelling future events, which happened accordingly. Amongst others, he told his friend, the Median general, that he should depose Sardanapalus, and be lord of all his dominions. Arbaces hereupon hearkening to what he said, promised him, that if he succeeded in his attempt, Belesis should be chief governor of the province of Babylon. Being therefore fully persuaded of the truth of what was foretold, as if he had received it from an oracle, he entered into an association with the governors of the rest of the provinces, and by feasting and caressing of them, gained all their hearts and affections. He made it likewise his great business to get a sight of the king, that he might observe the course and manner of his life; to this end he bestowed a cup of gold upon an eunuch, by whom being introduced into the king’s presence, he perfectly came to understand his lasciviousness and effeminate course of life. Upon sight of him, he contemned and despised him as a vile and worthless wretch, and thereupon was much more earnest to accomplish what the Chaldean had before declared to him. At length he conspired with Belesis so far, as that he himself persuaded the Medes and Persians to a defection, and the other brought the Babylonians into the confederacy. He imparted likewise his design to the king of Arabia, who was at this time his special friend.
And now the year’s attendance of the army being at an end, new troops succeeded, and came into their place, and the former were sent every one here and there, into their several countries. Hereupon Arbaces prevailed with the Medes to invade the Assyrian empire, and drew in the Persian in hopes of liberty, to join in the confederacy. Belesis in like manner persuaded the Babylonians to stand up for their liberties. He sent messengers also into Arabia, and gained that prince (who was both his friend, and had been his guest) for a confederate.
25. When, therefore, the yearly course was run out, all these (with a great number of forces) flocked together to Nineveh, in shew to serve their turn, according to custom, but in truth to overturn the Assyrian empire. The whole number of soldiers now got together out of those four provinces, amounted to four hundred thousand All these (being now in one camp) called a council of war, in order to consult what was to be done.
Sardanapalus being informed of the revolt, led forth the forces of the rest of the provinces against them; whereupon a battle being fought, the rebels were totally routed, and with a great slaughter were forced to the mountains seventy furlongs from Nineveh.
Being drawn up a second time in battalia, to try their fortune in the field, and now faced by the enemy, Sardanapalus caused a proclamation to be made by the heralds, that whosoever killed Arbaces the Mede, should receive as a reward, two hundred talents of gold, and double the sum to him (together with the government of Media) who should take him alive. The like sum he promised to such as should kill Belesis, or take him alive. But none being wrought upon by these promises, he fought them again, and destroyed many of the rebels, and forced the rest to fly to their camp upon the hills. Arbaces being disheartened with these misfortunes, called a council of war, to consider what was fit further to be done: the greater part were for returning into their own countries, and possess themselves of the strongest places, in order to fit and furnish themselves with all things further necessary for the war. But when Belesis the Babylonian assured them that the gods promised, that after many toils and labours they should have good success, and all should end well, and had used several other arguments, (such as he thought best), he prevailed with them to resolve to run through all the hazards of the war.
Another battle therefore was fought, wherein the king gained a third victory, and pursued the revolters as far as to the mountains of Babylon. In this fight Arbaces himself was wounded, though he fought stoutly, and slew many of the Assyrians with his own hand.
After so many defeats and misfortunes, one upon the neck of another, the conspirators altogether despaired of victory, and therefore the commanders resolved every one to return to their own country. But Belesis, who lay all that night star-gazing in the open field, prognosticated to them the next day, that if they would but continue together five days, unexpected help would come, and they would see a mighty change, and that affairs would have a contrary aspect to what they then had; for he affirmed, that through his knowledge in astrology, he understood that the gods portended so much by the stars; therefore he entreated them to stay so many days, and make trial of his art, and wait so long to have an experiment of the goodness of the gods.
26. All being thus brought back, and waiting till the time appointed, news on a sudden was brought that mighty forces were at hand, sent to the king out of Bactria. Hereupon Arbaces resolved with the stoutest and swiftest soldiers of the army, forthwith to make out against the captains that were advancing, and either by fair words to persuade them to a defection, or by blows to force them to join with them in their design. But liberty being sweet to every one of them, first the captains and commanders were easily wrought upon, and presently after the whole army joined, and made up one entire camp together. It happened at that time, that the king of Assyria not knowing any thing of the revolt of the Bactrians, and puffed up by his former successes, was indulging his sloth and idleness, and preparing beasts for sacrifice, plenty of wine, and other things necessary in order to feast and entertain his soldiers.
While his whole army was now feasting and revelling, Arbaces (receiving intelligence by some deserters of the security and intemperance of the enemy) fell in upon them suddenly in the night; and being in due order and discipline, and setting upon such as were in confusion, he being before prepared, and the other altogether unprovided, they easily broke into their camp, and made a great slaughter of some, forcing the rest into the city.
Hereupon Sardanapalus committed the charge of the whole army to Salemenus, his wife’s brother, and took upon himself the defence of the city. But the rebels twice defeated the king’s forces, once in the open field, and the second time before the walls of the city; in which last engagement Salemenus was killed, and almost all his army lost, some being cut off in the pursuit, and the rest (save a very few, being intercepted, and prevented from entering into the city, were driven headlong into the river Euphrates; and the number of the slain was so great, that the river was dyed with blood, and retained that colour for a great distance, and a long course together.
The king being afterwards besieged, many of the nations (through desire of liberty) revolted to the confederates; so that Sardanapalus, now perceiving that the kingdom was like to be lost, sent away his three sons and two daughters, with a great deal of treasure, into Paphlagonia, to Cotta, the governor there, his most entire friend; and sent posts into all the provinces of the kingdom, in order to raise soldiers, and make all other preparations necessary to endure a siege. And he was the more encouraged to this, for that he was acquainted with an antient prophecy, That Nineveh could never be taken by force, till the river became the city’s enemy; which the more encouraged him to hold out, because he conceived that was never likely to be; therefore he resolved to endure the siege till the aids which he expected out of the provinces came up to him.
27. The enemy on the other hand, grown more courageous by their successes, eagerly urged on the siege, but made little impression on the besieged, by reason of the strength of the walls; for ballistes to cast stones, testudos to cast up mounts, and battering rams, were not known in those ages. And besides (to say truth) the king had been very careful (as to what concerned the defence of the place) plentifully to furnish the inhabitants with every thing necessary. The siege continued two years, during which time nothing was done to any purpose, save that the walls were sometimes assaulted, and the besieged penned up in the city. The third year it happened that the Euphrates, overflowing with continual rains, came up into a part of the city, and tore down the wall twenty furlongs in length. The king hereupon conceiving that the oracle was accomplished, in that the river was an apparent enemy to the city, utterly despaired; and therefore, that he might not fall into the hands of his enemies, he caused a huge pile of wood to be made in his palace court, and heaped together upon it all his gold, silver, and royal apparel, and enclosing his eunuchs and concubines in an apartment within the pile, caused it to be set on fire, and burnt himself and them together; which when the revolters came to understand, they entered through the breach of the walls, and took the city, and clothed Arbaces with a royal robe, and committed to him the sole authority, proclaiming him king. When he had rewarded his followers, every one according to his merit, and appointed governors over the several provinces, Belesis the Babylonian, who had foretold his advancement to the throne, put him in mind of his services, and demanded the government of Babylon, which he had before promised him. He told him likewise of a vow that he himself had made to Belus, in the heat of the war, that when Sardanapalus was conquered, and the palace consumed, he would carry the ashes to Babylon, and there raise a mount near to his temple, which should be an eternal monument to all that sailed through the Euphrates, in memory of him that overturned the Assyrian empire. But that which in truth induced him to make this request was, that he had been informed of the gold and silver by an eunuch (that was a deserter) whom he had hid and concealed: Arbaces, therefore, being ignorant of the contrivance (because all the rest besides this eunuch were consumed by the king) granted to him liberty both to carry away the ashes, and likewise the absolute government of Babylon without paying any tribute. Whereupon Belesis forthwith prepared shipping, and together with the ashes carried away most of the gold and silver to Babylon, But when the king came plainly to understand the cheat, he committed the examination and decision of this theft to the other captains who were his assistants in the deposing of Sardanapalus. Belesis upon his trial confessed the fact, and thereupon they condemned him to lose his head.
28. But the king being a man of a noble and generous spirit, and willing to adorn the beginning of his reign with marks of his grace and mercy, not only pardoned him, but freely gave him all the gold and silver which had been carried away; neither did he deprive him of the government of Babylon, which at the first he conferred upon him, saying, That his former good services overbalanced the injuries afterwards. This gracious disposition of the king being noised abroad, he thereby not only gained the hearts of his people, but was highly honoured, and his name famous among all the provinces, and all judged him worthy of the kingdom who was so compassionate and gracious to offenders.
The like clemency he shewed to the inhabitants of Nineveh; for though he dispersed them into several country villages, yet he restored to every one of them their estates, but razed the city to the ground.
The rest of the silver and gold that could be found in the pile (of which there were many talents) he conveyed to Ecbatana, the seat royal of Media.
And thus was the Assyrian empire overturned by the Medes, after it had continued thirty generations; from Ninus, above fourteen hundred years.
(trans. G. Booth)
1. … ASIA was antiently governed by its own native kings, of whom there is no history extant, either as to any memorable actions they performed, or so much as to their names. Ninus is the first king of Assyria that is recorded in history; he performed many great and noble actions; of whom we have designed to set forth something particularly. He was naturally of a warlike disposition, and very ambitious of honour and glory, and therefore caused the strongest of his young men to be trained up in martial discipline, and by long and continual exercise inured them readily to undergo all the toils and hazards of war. Having therefore raised a gallant army, he made a league with Arieus king of Arabia, that was at that time full of strong and valiant men. For that nation are constant lovers of liberty, never upon any terms admitting of any foreign prince: and therefore neither the Persian, nor the Macedonian kings after them, (though they were most powerful in arms), were ever able to conquer them. For Arabia being partly desert, and partly parched up for want of water, (unless it be in some secret wells and pits known only to the inhabitants), cannot be subdued by any foreign force. Ninus therefore, the Assyrian king, with the prince of Arabia, his assistant, with a numerous army, invaded the Babylonians then next bordering upon him: for the Babylon that is now, was not built at that time; but the province of Babylon had in it then many other considerable cities, whose inhabitants he easily subdued, (being rude and unexpert in matters of war), and imposed upon them a yearly tribute; but carried away the king with all his children prisoners, and soon after put them to death. Afterwards he entered Armenia with a great army, and having overthrown some cities, he struck terror into the rest, and thereupon their king Barzanes, seeing himself unable to deal with him, met him with many rich presents, and submitted himself; whom Ninus, out of his generous disposition, courteously received, and gave him the kingdom of Armenia, upon condition he should be his friend for the future, and supply him with men and provision for his wars, as he should have occasion. Being thus strengthened, he invaded Media, whose king Pharnus coming out against him with a mighty army, was utterly routed, and lost most of his men, and was taken prisoner with his wife and seven children, and afterwards crucified.
2. Ninus being thus successful and prosperous, his ambition rose the higher, and his desire most ardent to conquer all in Asia, which lay between Tanais and the Nile; (so far does prosperity and success in getting much, inflame the desire to gain and compass more). In order hereunto, he made one of his friends governor of the province of Media, and he himself in the mean time marched against the other provinces of Asia, and subdued them all in seventeen years time, except the Indians and Bactrians. But no writer has given any account of the several battles he fought, nor of the number of those nations he conquered; and therefore following Ctesias the Cnidian, we shall only briefly run over the most famous and considerable countries. He over-ran all the countries bordering upon the sea, together with the adjoining continent, as Egypt and Phoenicia, Cælosyria, Cilicia, Pamphylia, Lycia, Caria, Phrygia, Mysia and Lydia; the province of Troas and Phrygia upon the Hellespont; together with Propontis, Bithynia, Cappadocia, and the barbarous nations adjoining upon Pontus, as far as to Tanais; he gained likewise the country of the Cadusians, Tarpyrians, Hyrcanians, Dacians, Derbians, Carmanians, Coroneans, Borchanians, and Parthians. He pierced likewise into Persia, the provinces of Susiana, and that called Caspiana, through those narrow straits, which, from thence are called the Caspian gates. He subdued likewise many other less considerable nations, which would be too tedious here to recount. After much toil and labour in vain, because of the difficulty of the passes, and the multitude of those warlike inhabitants, he was forced to put off his war against the Bactrians to another opportunity.
3. Having marched back with his army into Syria, he marked out a place for the building of a stately city: for, inasmuch as he had surpassed all his ancestors in the glory and success of his arms, he was resolved to build one of that state and grandeur, as should not only be the greatest then in the world, but such as none that ever should come after him, should be able easily to exceed. The king of Arabia, he sent back with his army into his own country, with many rich spoils, and noble gifts. And he himself having got a great number of his forces together, and provided money and treasure, and other things necessary for the purpose, built a city near the river Euphrates, very famous for its walls and fortifications; of a long form; for on both sides it ran out in length above an hundred and fifty furlongs; but the two lesser angels were only ninety furlongs a-piece; so that the circumference of the whole was four hundred and fourscore furlongs. And the founder was not herein deceived, for none ever after built the like, either as to the largeness of its circumference, or the stateliness of its walls. For the wall was an hundred feet in height, and so broad as three chariots might be driven together upon it a-breast: there were fifteen hundred turrets upon the walls, each of them two hundred feet high. He appointed the city to be inhabited chiefly by the richest Assyrians, and gave liberty to people of any other nation, (to as many as would), to dwell there, and allowed to the citizens a large territory next adjoining to them, and called the city after his own name Ninus, or Nineveh.
4. When he had finished his work here, he marched with an army against the Bactrians, where he married Semiramis; who being so famous above any of her sex, (as in history it is related), we cannot but say something of her here in this place, being one advanced from so low a fortune, to such a state and degree of honour and worldly glory. There is a city in Syria, called Ascalon, near which is a deep lake abounding with fish, where not far off stands a temple dedicated to a famous goddess called by the Syrians Derceto. She represents a woman in her face, and a fish in all other parts of her body, upon the account following, as the most judicious among the inhabitants report; for they say, that Venus, being angry at this goddess, caused her to fall into a vehement pang of love with a beautiful young man, who was among others sacrificing to her, and was got with child by him, and brought to bed of a daughter; and being ashamed afterwards of what she had done, she killed the young man, and exposed the child among rocks in the desert, and, through sorrow and shame cast herself into the lake, and was afterwards transformed into a fish; whence it came to pass, that at this very day the Syrians eat no fish, but adore them as gods. They say that the infant that was exposed, was both preserved and nourished by a most wonderful providence, by the means of a great flock of pigeons that nestled near to the place where the child lay: for with their wings they cherished it, and kept it warm; and observing where the herdsmen and other shepherds left their milk in the neighbouring cottages, took it up in their bills, and as so many nurses thrust their beaks between the infant’s lips, and so instilled the milk: and when the child was a year old, and stood in need of stronger nourishment, the pigeons fed it with pieces of cheese which they picked out from the rest: when the shepherds returned, and found their cheeses picked round, they wondered, (at first), at the thing; but observing afterwards, how it came to pass, they not only found out the cause, but likewise a very beautiful child, which they forthwith carried away to their cottages, and made a present of it to the king’s superintendent of his flocks and herds, (whose name was Simma), who, (having no children of his own), carefully bred up the young lady as if she had been his own daughter, and called her Semiramis, a denomination in the Syrian language derived from pigeons, which the Syrians ever after adored for goddesses.
5. And these are the stories told of Semiramis. Being now grown up, and exceeding all others of her sex for the charms of her beauty, one of the king’s great officers called Onneus, was sent to take an account of the king’s herds and flocks: this man was lord president of the king’s council, and chief governor of Syria, and lodging upon this occasion at Simma’s house, at the sight of Semiramis, fell in love with her, and with much entreaty obtained her from Simma, and carried her away with him to Nineveh, where he married her, and had by her two sons, Hypates and Hydaspes: and being a woman of admirable parts as well as beauty, her husband was altogether at her devotion, and never would do any thing without her advice, which was ever successful.
About this time Ninus having finished his city, (called after his own name), prepared for his expedition against the Bactrians; and having had experience of the greatness of their forces, the valour of their soldiers, and the difficulties of passing into their country, he raised an army of the choicest men he could pick out from all parts of his dominions; for because he was baffled in his former expedition, he was resolved to invade Bactria with a far stronger army than he did before. Bringing therefore his whole army together at a general rendezvous, there were numbered, (as Ctesias writes), seventeen hundred thousand foot, above two hundred and ten thousand horse, and no fewer than ten thousand and six hundred hooked chariots. This number at the first view seems to be very incredible; but to such as seriously consider the largeness and populousness of Asia, it cannot be judged impossible. For if any, (not to say any thing of the eight hundred thousand men that Darius had with him in his expedition against the Scythians, and the innumerable army Xerxes brought over with him into Greece), will but take notice of things done lately, even as of yesterday, he will more easily credit what we now say. For in Sicily, Dionysius led only out of that one city of Syracuse, an hundred and twenty thousand foot, and twelve thousand horse; and launched out of one port, a navy of four hundred sail, of which some were of three tiers of oars, and others of five: and the Romans, a little before the times of Hannibal, raised in Italy, of their own citizens and confederates, an army little less than a million of fighting men; and yet all Italy is not to be compared with one province of Asia for number of men. But this may sufficiently convince them who compute the antient populousness of the countries by the present depopulations of the cities at this day.
6. Ninus therefore marching with these forces against the Bactrians, divided his army into two bodies, because of the straitness and difficulty of the passages. There are in Bactria many large and populous cities, but one is more especially famous, called Bactria, in which the king’s palace, for greatness and magnificence, and the citadel for strength, far excel all the rest. Oxyartes reigned there at this time, who caused all that were able, to bear arms, and mustered an army of four hundred thousand men. With these he met the enemy at the straits entering into his country, where he suffered Ninus to enter with part of his army. When he saw a competent number entered, he fell upon them in the open plain, and fought them with that resolution, that the Bactrians put the Assyrians to flight, and pursuing them to the next mountains, killed a hundred thousand of their enemies; but after the whole army entered, the Bactrians were overpowered by numbers, and were broken, and all fled to their several cities, in order to defend every one his own country.
Ninus easily subdued all the rest of the forts and castles; but Bactria itself was so strong and well provided, that he could not force it; which occasioned a long and tedious siege, so that the husband of Semiramis, (who was there in the king’s camp), being love-sick, impatient of being any longer without his wife, sent for her, who being both discreet and courageous, and endowed with other noble qualifications, readily embraced the opportunity of shewing to the world her own natural valour and resolution; and that she might with more safety perform so long a journey, she put on such a garment as whereby she could not be discerned whether she were a man or a woman; and so made, that by it she both preserved her beauty from being scorched by the heat in her journey, and likewise was thereby more nimble and ready for any business she pleased to undertake, being of herself a youthful and sprightly lady; and this sort of garment was in so high esteem, that the Medes afterwards, when they came to be lords of Asia, wore Semiramis’s gown, and the Persians likewise after them.
As soon as she came to Bactria, and observed the manner of the siege, how assaults were made only in open and plain places most likely to be entered, and that none dared to approach the citadel, because of its natural strength and fortification, and that they within took more care to defend the lower and weaker parts of the walls, than the castle, where they neglected their guards, she took some with her that were skilful in climbing up the rocks, and with them, with much toil, passed over a deep trench, and possessed herself of part of the castle; whereupon she gave a signal to them that were assaulting the wall upon the plain, Then they that were within the city, being suddenly struck with a panic fear at the taking of the castle, in desperation of making any further defence, forsook the walls.
The city being taken in this manner, the king greatly admired the valour of the woman, and bountifully rewarded her, and was presently so passionately affected at the sight of her beauty, that he used all the arguments imaginable to persuade her husband to bestow his wife upon him, promising him as a reward of his kindness, to give him his daughter Sosana in marriage: but he absolutely refused; upon which the king threatened him, that if he would not consent, he would pluck out his eyes. Onneus hereupon out of fear of the king’s threats, and overpowered with the love of his wife, fell into a distracted rage and madness, and forthwith hanged himself. And this was the occasion of the advancement of Semiramis to the regal state and dignity.
7. Ninus having now possessed himself of all the treasures of Bactria, (where was abundance of gold and silver), and settled his affairs throughout the whole province of Bactria, returned with his army to his own country. Afterwards he had a son by Semiramis, called Ninyas, and died, leaving his wife queen regent. She buried her husband Ninus in the royal palace, and raised over him a mount of earth of a wonderful bigness, being nine furlongs in height, and ten in breadth, as Ctesias says: so that the city standing in a plain near to the river Euphrates, the mount (many furlongs off) looks like a stately citadel. And it is said, that it continues to this day, though Nineveh was destroyed by the Medes when they ruined the Assyrian empire.
Semiramis was naturally of an high aspiring spirit, ambitious to excel all her predecessors in glorious actions, and therefore employed all her thoughts about the building of a city in the province of Babylon; and to this end having provided architects, artists, and all other necessaries for the work, she got together two millions of men out of all parts of the empire, to be employed in the building of the city. It was so built as that the river Euphrates ran through the middle of it; and she compassed it round with a wall of three hundred and sixty furlongs in circuit, and adorned with many stately turrets; and such was the state and grandeur of the work, that the walls were of that breadth, as that six chariots abreast might be driven together upon them. Their height was such as exceeded all men’s belief that heard of it, (as Ctesias the Cnidian relates). But Clitarchus, and those who afterwards went over with Alexander into Asia, have written, that the walls were in circuit three hundred and sixty-five furlongs; the queen making them of that compass, to the end that the furlongs should be as many in number as the days of the year: they were of brick cemented with brimstone; in height, as Ctesias says, fifty orgyas; but as some of the later writers report, but fifty cubits only, and that the breadth was but a little more than what would allow two chariots to be driven in front. There were two hundred and fifty turrets, in height and thickness proportionable to the largeness of the wall. It is not to be wondered at, that there were so few towers upon a wall of so great a circuit, being that in many places round the city, there were deep morasses; so that it was judged to no purpose to raise turrets there, where they were so naturally fortified: between the wall and the houses, there was a space left around the city of two hundred feet.
8. That the work might be the more speedily despatched, to each of her friends was allotted a furlong, with an allowance of all expenses necessary for their several parts, and commanded all should be finished in a year’s time; which being diligently perfected with the queen’s approbation, she then made a bridge over the narrowest part of the river, five furlongs in length, laying the supports and pillars of the arches with great art and skill at the bottom of the water, twelve feet distance from each other. That the stones might be the more firmly joined, they were bound together with hooks of iron, and the joints filled up with melted lead. And before the pillars she made and placed defences, with sharp pointed angles, to receive the water before it beat upon the flat sides of the pillars, which caused the course of the water to run round by degrees gently and moderately, as far as to the broad sides of the pillars, so that the sharp points of the angles cut the stream, and gave a check to its violence, and the roundness of them by little and little giving way, abated the force of the current. This bridge was floored with great joists and planks of cedar, cypress, and palm trees, and was thirty feet in breadth, and for art and curiosity, yielded to none of the works of Semiramis. On either side of the river she raised a bank, as broad as the wall, and with great cost drew it out in length an hundred furlongs.
She built likewise two palaces at each end of the bridge upon the bank of the river, whence she might have a prospect over the whole city, and make her passage as by keys to the most convenient places in it, as she had occasion. And whereas the Euphrates runs through the middle of Babylon, making its course to the south, the palaces lie the one on the east, and the other on the west side of the river; both built at exceeding costs and expense. For that on the west had an high and stately wall, made of well burnt bricks, sixty furlongs in compass; within this was drawn another of a round circumference, upon which were pourtrayed in the bricks before they were burnt, all sorts of living creatures, as if it were to the life, laid with great art in curious colours. This wall was in circuit forty furlongs, three hundred bricks thick, and in height (as Ctesias says) a hundred yards, upon which were turrets a hundred and forty yards high. The third and most inward wall, immediately surrounded the palace, thirty furlongs in compass, and far surmounted the middle wall, both in height and thickness; and on this wall and the towers were represented the shapes of all sorts of living creatures, artificially expressed in most lively colours. Especially was represented a general hunting of all sorts of wild beasts, each four cubits high and upwards; amongst these was to be seen Semiramis on horseback, striking a leopard through with a dart, and next to her, her husband Ninus in close fight with a lion, piercing him with his lance. To this palace she built likewise three gates, under which were apartments of brass for entertainments, into which passages were opened by a certain engine.
This palace far excelled that on the other side of the river, both in greatness and adornments. For the outermost wall of that (made of well burnt brick) was but thirty furlongs in compass. Instead of the curious portraiture of beasts, there were the brazen statues of Ninus and Semiramis, the great officers, and of Zeus, whom the Babylonians call Belus; and likewise armies drawn up in battalia, and divers sorts of hunting were there represented, to the great diversion and pleasure of the beholders.
9. After all these in a low ground in Babylon, she sunk a place for a pond, four-square, every square being three hundred furlongs in length, lined with brick, and cemented with brimstone, and the whole five-and-thirty feet in depth: into this having first turned the river, she then made a passage in form of a vault, from one palace to another, whose arches were built of firm and strong brick, and plaistered all over on both sides with bitumen, four cubits thick. The walls of this vault were twenty bricks in thickness, and twelve feet high, beside and above the arches; and the breadth was fifteen feet. This piece of work being finished in two hundred and sixty days, the river was turned into its antient channel again, so that the river’ flowing over the whole work, Semiramis could go from one palace to the other, without passing over the river. She made likewise two brazen gates at either end of the vault, which continued to the time of the Persian empire.
In the middle of the city, she built a temple to Zeus, whom the Babylonians call Belus, (as we have before said), of which since writers differ amongst themselves, and the work is now wholly decayed through length of time, there is nothing that can with certainty be related concerning it: yet it is apparent, it was of an exceeding great height, and that by the advantage of it, the Chaldean astrologers exactly observed the setting and rising of the stars. The whole was built of brick, cemented with brimstone, with great art and cost. Upon the top she placed three statues of beaten gold of Zeus, Hera, and Rhea. That of Zeus stood upright in the posture as if he were walking; he was forty feet in height, and weighed a thousand Babylonish talents. The statue of Rhea was of the same weight, sitting on a golden throne, having two lions standing on either side, one at her knees; and near to them two exceeding great serpents of silver, weighing thirty talents each. Here likewise the image of Hera stood upright, and weighed eight hundred talents, grasping a serpent by the head in her right hand, and holding a sceptre adorned with precious stones in her left. For all these deities there was placed a common table made of beaten gold, forty feet long, and fifteen broad, weighing five hundred talents; upon which stood two cups, weighing thirty talents, and near to them as many censers, weighing three hundred talents: there were there likewise placed three drinking bowls of gold, one of which, dedicated to Zeus, weighed twelve hundred Babylonish talents, but the other two six hundred each; but all those the Persian kings sacrilegiously carried away. And length of time has either altogether consumed, or much defaced the palaces and the other structures; so that at this day but a small part of this Babylon is inhabited, and the greatest part which lay within the walls, is turned into tillage and pasture.
10. There was likewise an hanging garden (as it is called) near the citadel, not built by Semiramis, but by a later prince, called Cyrus, for the sake of a courtesan, who being a Persian (as they say) by birth, and coveting meadows on mountain tops, desired the king by an artificial plantation to imitate the lands in Persia. This garden was four hundred feet square, and the ascent up to it was as to the top of a mountain, and had buildings and apartments out of one into another, like unto a theatre. Under the steps to the ascent, were built arches one above another, rising gently by degrees, which supported the whole plantation. The highest arch upon which the platform of the garden was laid, was fifty cubits high, and the garden itself was surrounded with battlements and bulwarks. The walls were made very strong, built at no small charge and expense, being two-and-twenty feet thick, and every sally-port ten feet wide: over the several stories of this fabric, were laid beams and summers of huge massy stones, each sixteen feet long, and four broad. The roof over all these was first covered with reeds, daubed with abundance of brimstone; then upon them was laid double tiles pargeted together with a hard and durable mortar, and over them after all, was a covering with sheets of lead, that the wet which drenched through the earth, might not rot the foundation. Upon all these was laid earth of a convenient depth, sufficient for the growth of the greatest trees. When the soil was laid even and smooth, it was planted with all sorts of trees, which both for greatness and beauty, might delight the spectators. The arches (which stood one above another, and by that means darted light sufficient one into another) had in them many stately rooms of all kinds, and for all purposes. But there was one that had in it certain engines, whereby it drew plenty of water out of the river through certain conduits and conveyances from the platform of the garden, and nobody without was the wiser, or knew what was done. This garden (as we said before) was built in later ages.
11. But Semiramis built likewise other cities upon the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris, where she established marts for the vending of merchandise brought from Media and Paretacenes, and other neighbouring countries. For next to the Nile and Ganges, the Euphrates and Tigris are the noblest rivers of all Asia, and have their springheads in the mountains of Arabia, and are distant one from another fifteen hundred furlongs. They run through Media and Paretacena into Mesopotamia, which from its lying in the middle between these two rivers, has gained from them that name; thence passing through the province of Babylon, they empty themselves into the Red sea. These being very large rivers, and passing through divers countries, greatly enrich the merchants that traffic in those parts; so that the neighbouring places are full of wealthy mart towns, and greatly advanced the glory and majesty of Babylon.
Semiramis likewise caused a great stone to be cut out of the mountains of Armenia, an hundred and twenty-five feet in length, and five in breadth and thickness; this she conveyed to the river by the help of many yokes of oxen and asses, and there put it on board a ship, and brought it safe by water to Babylon, and set it up in the most remarkable highway as a wonderful spectacle to all beholders. From its shape it is called an obelisk, and is accounted one of the seven wonders of the world.
12. There are indeed many remarkable and wonderful things to be seen in Babylon; but amongst these, the great quantity of brimstone that there flows out of the ground, is not to be the least admired, which is so much that it not only supplied all their occasions in building such great and mighty works, but the common people profusely gather it, and when it is dry, burn it instead of fuel; and though it be drawn out by an innumerable company of people, as from a great fountain, yet it is as plentiful as ever it was before. Near this fountain there is a spring not big, but very fierce and violent, for it casts forth a sulphurous and gross vapour, which suddenly kills every living creature that comes near to it; for the breath being stopped a long time, and all power of respiration taken away by the force of the exhalation, the body presently swells so, that the parts about the lungs are all in a flame.
Beyond the river there is a morass, about which is a crusty earth; if any unacquainted with the place get into it, at first he floats upon the top, when he comes into the middle he is violently hauled away, and striving to help himself, seems to be held so fast by something or other, that all his labour to get loose is in vain. And first his feet, then his legs and thighs to his loins are benumbed; at length his whole body is stupified, and then down he sinks to the bottom, and presently after is cast up dead to the surface. And thus much for the wonders of Babylon.
13. When Semiramis had finished all her works, she marched with a great army into Media, and encamped near to a mountain called Bagistan; there she made a garden twelve furlongs in compass: it was in a plain champaign country, and had a great fountain in it, which watered the whole garden. Mount Bagistan is dedicated to Zeus, and towards one side of the garden has steep rocks seventeen furlongs from the top to the bottom. She cut out a piece of the lower part of the rock, and caused her own image to be carved upon it, and a hundred of her guard that were lanceteers standing round about her. She wrote likewise in Syriac letters upon the rock: That Semiramis ascended from the plain to the top of the mountain by laying the packs and fardels of the beasts that followed her one upon another.
Marching away from hence, she came to Chaone, a city of Media, where she encamped upon a rising ground, from whence she took notice of an exceeding great and high rock, where she made another very great garden in the middle of the rock, and built upon it stately houses of pleasure, whence she might both have a delightful prospect into the garden, and view the army as they lay encamped below in the plain; being much delighted with this place she staid here a considerable time, giving up herself to all kinds of pleasures and delights, for she forbore marrying lest she should then be deposed from the government, and in the mean time she made choice of the handsomest commanders to be her gallants; but after they had lain with her she cut off their heads.
From hence she marched towards Ecbatana, and arrived at the mountain Zarcheum, which being many furlongs in extent, and full of steep precipices and craggy rocks, there was no passing but by long and tedious windings and turnings. To leave therefore behind her an eternal monument of her name, and to make a short cut for her passage, she caused the rocks to be hewn down, and the valleys to be filled up with earth, and so in a short time, at a vast expense, laid the way open and plain, which to this day is called Semiramis’s Way.
When she came to Ecbatana, which is situated in a low and even plain, she built there a stately palace, and bestowed more of her care and pains here than she had done at any other place. For the city wanting water (there being no spring near) she plentifully supplied it with good and wholesome water, brought hither with a great deal of toil and expense, after this manner: there is a mountain called Orontes, twelve furlongs distant from the city, exceeding high and steep for the space of five-and-twenty furlongs up to the top; on the other side of this mount there is a great mere which empties itself into the river. At the foot of this mountain she dug a canal fifteen feet in breadth and forty in depth, through which she conveyed water in great abundance into the city. And these are the things which she did in Media.
14. Afterwards she made a progress through Persia and all the rest of her dominions in Asia, and all along as she went she plained all the way before her, levelling both rocks and mountains. On the other hand, in champaign countries she would raise eminences, on which she would sometimes build sepulchres for her officers and commanders, and at other times towns and cities. Throughout her whole expeditions she always used to raise an ascent, upon which she pitched her own pavilion, that from thence she might have a view of her whole army. Many things which she performed in Asia remain to this day, and are called Semiramis’s Works.
Afterwards she passed through all Egypt, and having conquered the greatest part of Libya, she went to the temple of Zeus Ammon, and there inquired of the oracle how long she should live; which returned her this answer, That she should leave this world, and afterwards be for ever honoured by some nations in Asia, when Ninyas her son should be plotting against her.
When she had performed these things, she marched into Ethiopia, and having subdued many places in it, she had an opportunity to see what was there very remarkable and wonderful. For they say, there is a four-square lake, an hundred and sixty feet in circuit, the water of which is in colour like unto vermilion, and of an extraordinary sweet flavour, much like unto old wine; yet of such wonderful operation, that whosoever drinks of it goes presently mad, and confesses all the faults that ever he had been before guily of; but some will scarce believe this relation.
15. The Ethiopians have a peculiar way of burying their dead; for, after they have embalmed the body, they pour round about it melted glass, and then place it upon a pillar, so that the corpse may be plainly seen through the glass, as Herodotus has reported the thing. But Ctesias of Cnidus affirms that he tells a winter-tale, and says, that it is true, indeed, that the body is embalmed, but that glass is not poured upon the naked body, for the bodies thereby would be so scorched and defaced that they could not possibly retain any likeness to the dead: and that therefore they make an hollow statue of gold, and put the body within it, and then pour the melted glass round upon this statue, which they set upon some high place, and so the statue which resembles the dead is seen through the glass, and thus he says they used to bury those of the richer sort; but those of meaner fortunes they put into statues of silver; and for the poor they make statues of potter’s clay, every one having glass enough, for there is abundance to be got in Ethiopia, and ready at hand for all the inhabitants. But we shall speak more fully of the customs and laws of the Ethiopians, and the product of the land, and other things worthy of remark, presently, when we come to relate their antiquities and old fables and stories.
16. Semiramis having settled her affairs in Egypt and Ethiopia, returned with her army into Asia to Bactria; and now having a great army, and enjoying a long peace, she had a longing desire to perform some notable exploit by her arms. Hearing, therefore, that the Indians were the greatest nation in the whole world, and had the largest and richest tract of land of all others, she resolved to make war upon them. Stabrobates was at that time king, who had innumerable forces, and many elephants bravely accoutred and fitted to strike terror into the hearts of his enemies. For India, for the pleasantness of the country, excelled all others, being watered in every place with many rivers, so that the land yielded every year a double crop; and by that means was so rich and so abounded with plenty of all things necessary for the sustenance of man’s life, that it supplied the inhabitants continually with such things as made them excessively rich, insomuch as it was never known that there was ever any famine amongst them, the climate being so happy and favourable; and upon that account, likewise, there is an incredible number of elephants, which for courage and strength of body far excel those in Africa. Moreover this country abounds in gold, silver, brass, iron, and precious stones of all sorts, both for profit and pleasure.
All which being noised abroad, so stirred up the spirit of Semiramis, that (though she had no provocation given her) yet she was resolved upon the war against the Indians. But knowing that she had need of great forces, she sent despatches to all the provinces, with command to the governors to list the choicest young men they could find, ordering the proportion of soldiers every province and country should send forth, according to the largeness of it; and commanded that all should furnish themselves with new arms and armour, and all appear in three years time at a general rendezvous in Bactria, bravely armed and accoutred in all points. And having sent for shipwrights out of Phoœnicia, Syria, Cyprus, and other places bordering upon the sea-coasts, she prepared timber for them fit for the purpose, and ordered them to build vessels that might be taken asunder and conveyed from place to place wherever she pleased. For the river Indus bordering upon that kingdom, being the greatest in those parts, she stood in need of many river-boats to pass it, in order to repress the Indians. But being there was no timber near that river, she was necessitated to convey the boats thither by land from Bactria.
She further considered, that she was much inferior to the Indians in elephants, (which were absolutely necessary for her to make use of), she therefore contrived to have beasts that should resemble them, hoping by this means to strike a terror into the Indians, who believed there were no elephants in any place but in India. To this end she provided three hundred thousand black oxen, and distributed the flesh amongst a company of ordinary mechanics and such fellows as she had to play the coblers for her, and ordered them, by stitching the skins together, and stuffing them with straw, to imi tate the shape of an elephant, and in every one of them she put a man to govern them, and a camel to carry them, so that at a distance they appeared to all that saw them, as if they were really such beasts. They that were employed in this work wrought at it night and day in a place which was walled round for the purpose, and guards set at every gate, that none might be admitted either to go in or out, to the end that none might see what they were doing, lest it should be noised abroad, and come to the ears of the Indians.
17. Having therefore provided shipping and elephants in the space of two years, in the third she rendezvoused all her forces in Bactria. Her army consisted (as Ctesias says) of three millions of foot, two hundred thousand horse, a hundred thousand chariots, and a hundred thousand men mounted upon camels with swords four cubits long. The boats that might be taken asunder were two thousand; which the camels carried by land as they did the mock-elephants, as we have before declared. The soldiers made their horses familiar with these feigned beasts, by bringing them often to them, lest they should he terrified at the sight of them; which Perseus imitated many ages after when he was to fight with the Romans, who had elephants in their army out of Africa. However, this contrivance proved to be of no advantage either to him or her, as will appear in the issue herein a little after related.
When Stabrobates the Indian king heard of these great armies, and the mighty preparations made against him, he did all he could to excel Semiramis in every thing. And first he built of great canes four thousand river-boats: for abundance of these canes grow in India about the rivers and fens, so thick as a man can scarce fathom: ‘ and vessels made of these reeds (they say) are exceeding useful, because they will never rot or be worm-eaten. He was very diligent, likewise, in preparing of arms, and going from place to place throughout all India, and so raised a far greater army than that of Semiramis. To his former number of elephants he added more, which he took by hunting, and furnished them all with every thing that might make them look terrible in the face of their enemies; so that by their multitude, and the completeness of their armour in all points, it seemed above the strength and power of man to bear up against the violent shock of these creatures.
18. Having therefore made all these preparations, he sent ambassadors to Semiramis (as she was on her march towards him) to complain. and upbraid her for beginning a war without any provocation or injury offered her; and by his private letters taxed her with her whorish course of life, and vowed (calling the gods to witness) that if he conquered her he would nail her to the cross. When she read the letter, she smiled, and said, the Indian should presently have a trial of her valour by her actions. When she came up with her army to the river Indus, she found the enemy’s fleet drawn up in a line of battle; whereupon she forthwith drew up her own, and having manned it with the stoutest soldiers, joined battle, yet so ordering the matter as to have her land-forces ready upon the shore, to be assisting as there should be occasion. After a long and sharp fight, with marks of valour on both sides, Semiramis was at length victorious, and sunk a thousand of the enemy’s vessels, and took a great number of prisoners. Puffed up with this success, she took, in the cities and islands that lay in the river, and carried away, an hundred thousand captives. After this, the Indian king drew off his army, (as if he fled for fear), but in truth to decoy his enemies to pass the river.
Semiramis therefore (seeing things fall out according to her wish) laid a broad bridge of boats (at a vast charge) over the river, and thereby passed over all her forces, leaving only threescore thousand to guard the bridge, and with the rest of her army pursued the Indians. She placed the mock-elephants in the front, that the enemy’s scouts might presently inform the king what multitudes of elephants she had in her army: and she was not deceived in her hopes; for
when the spies gave an account to the Indians what a great multitude of these creatures were advancing towards them, they were all in amaze, inquiring among themselves, whence the Assyrians should be supplied with such a vast number of elephants: but the cheat could not be long concealed, for some of Semiramis’s soldiers being laid by the heels for their carelessness upon the guard, (through fear of further punishment), made their escape and fled to the enemy, and undeceived them as to the elephants; upon which the Indian king was mightily encouraged, and caused notice of the delusion to be spread through the whole army, and then forthwith marched with all his force against the Assyrians; Semiramis, on the other hand, doing the like.
19. When they approached near one to another, Stabrobates the Indian king placed his horse and chariots in the van-guard, at a good distance before the main body of his army. The queen having placed her mock-elephants at the like distance from her main body, valiantly received her enemy’s charge; but the Indian horse were most strangely terrified; for in regard the phantasms at a distance seemed to be real elephants, the horses of the Indians (being inured to those creatures) pressed boldly and undauntedly forward; but when they came near and saw another sort of beast than usual, and the smell and every thing else almost being strange and new to them, they broke in with great terror and confusion, one upon another, so that they cast some of their riders headlong to the ground, and ran away with others (as the lot happened) into the midst of their enemies: whereupon Semiramis, readily making use of her advantage, with a body of choice men fell in upon them, and routed them, forcing them back to their main body: and though Stabrobates was something astonished at this unexpected defeat, yet he brought up his foot against the enemy, with his elephants in the front: he himself was in the right wing, mounted upon a stately elephant, and made a fierce charge upon the queen herself, who happened then to be opposite to him in the left. And though the mock-elephants in Semiramis’s army did the like, yet they stood the violent shock of the other but a little while; for the Indian beasts being both exceeding strong and stout, easily bore down and destroyed all that opposed them, so that there was a great slaughter; for some they trampled under foot, others they rent in pieces with their teeth, and tossed up others with their trunks into the air. The ground therefore being covered with heaps of dead carcasses, and nothing but death and destruction to be seen on every hand, so that all were full of horror and amazement, none durst keep their order or ranks any longer. Upon which the whole Assyrian army fled outright, and the Indian king encountered with Semiramis, and first wounded her with an arrow in the arm, and afterwards with a dart (in wheeling about) in the shoulder; whereupon the queen (her wounds not being mortal) fled, and by the swiftness of her horse (which far exceeded the other that pursued her) she got off. But all making one way to the bridge of boats, and such a vast multitude of men thronging together in one strait and narrow passage, the queen’s soldiers miserably perished by treading down one another under foot, and (which was strange and unusual) horse and foot lay tumbling promiscuously one over another. When they came at length to the bridge, and the Indians at their heels, the consternation was so great, that many on both sides the bridge were tumbled over into the river. But when the greatest part of those that remained had got over, Semiramis caused the cords and tenons of the bridge to be cut, which done, the boats (which were before joined together, and upon which was a great number of Indians not in the pursuit) being now divided into many parts, and carried here and there by the force of the current, multitudes of the Indians were drowned, and Semiramis was now safe and secure, having such a barrier as the river betwixt her and her enemies. Whereupon the Indian king, being forewarned by prodigies from heaven, and the opinions of the soothsayers, forbore all further pursuit. And Semiramis, making exchange of prisoners in Bactria, returned with scarce a third part of her army.
20. A little time after, Semiramis being assaulted by an eunuch through the treacherous contrivance of her son, remembered the former answer given her by the oracle at the temple of Ammon, and therefore passed the business over without punishing of him who was chiefly concerned in the plot: but surrendering the crown to him, commanded all to obey him as their lawful king, and forthwith disappeared, as if she had been translated to the gods, according to the words of the oracle. There are some which fabulously say she was metamorphosed into a pigeon, and that she flew away with a flock of those birds that lighted upon her palace: and hence it is that the Assyrians adore a dove, believing that Semiramis was enthroned amongst the gods. And this was the end of Semiramis, queen of all Asia, except India, after she had lived sixty-two years, and reigned forty-two. And these are the things which Ctesias the Cnidian reports of her in his history.
Athenæus, and some other writers, affirm, that she was a most beautiful strumpet, and upon that account the king of Assyria fell in love with her, and at first was taken into his favour; and at length becoming his lawful wife, she prevailed with her husband to grant her the sole and absolute authority of the regal government for the space of five days. Taking therefore upon her the sceptre and royal mantle of the kingdom, the first day she made a sumptuous banquet, and magnificent entertainments, to which she invited the generals of the army, and all the nobility, in order to be observant to all her commands. The next day, having both great and small at her back, she committed her husband to the goal: and in regard she was of a bold and daring spirit, apt and ready to undertake any great matters, she easily gained the kingdom, which she held to the time of her old age, and became famous for her many great and wonderful acts: and these are the things which historians variously relate concerning her.
21. After her death, Ninyas, the son of Ninus and Semiramis, succeeded, and reigned peaceably, nothing at all like his mother for valour and martial affairs. For he spent all his time shut up in his palace, insomuch as he was never seen of any but of his concubines and eunuchs; for being given up wholly to his pleasures, he shook off all cares, and every thing that might be irksome and troublesome, placing all the happiness of a king in a sordid indulgence of all sorts of voluptuousness. But that he might reign the more securely, and be feared of all his subjects, every year he raised out of every province a certain number of soldiers, under their several generals; and having brought them into the city, over every country appointed such governors as he could most confide in, and were most at his devotion. At the end of the year he raised many as more out of the provinces, and sent the former home, taking first of them an oath of fidelity. And this he did, that his subjects, observing how he always had a great army ready in the field, those of them that were inclined to be refractory or rebel (out of fear of punishment) might continue firm in their due obedience. And a further reason likewise for this yearly change was, that the officers and soldiers might be from time to time disbanded before they could have time to be well acquainted one with another. For length of time in martial employments so improves the skill, and advances the courage and resolution of the commanders, that many times they conspire against their princes, and wholly fall off from their allegiance.
His living thus close and unseen, was a covert to the voluptuous course of his life, and in the mean time (as if he had been a god) none durst in the least mutter any thing against him. And in this manner (creating commanders of his army, constituting of governors in the provinces, appointing the chamberlains and officers of his household, placing of judges in their several countries, and ordering and disposing of all other matters as he thought fit most for his own advantage) he spent his days in Nineveh.
After the same manner almost lived all the rest of the kings for the space of thirty generations, in a continued line of succession from father to son, to the very reign of Sardanapalus; in whose time the empire of the Assyrians devolved upon the Medes, after it had continued above thirteen hundred and sixty years, as Ctesias the Cnidian says in his second book.
22. But it is needless to recite their names, or how long each of them reigned, in regard none of them did any thing worth remembering, save only that it may deserve an account how the Assyrians assisted the Trojans, by sending them some forces under the command of Memnon the son of Tithon. For when Teutamus reigned in Asia, who was the twentieth from Ninyas the son of Semiramis, it is said the Grecians, under their general Agamemnon, made war upon the Trojans, at which time the Assyrians had been lords of Asia above a thousand years. For Priam the king of Troy, (being a prince under the Assyrian empire, when war was made upon him), sent ambassadors to crave aid of Teutamus, who sent him ten thousand Ethiopians, and as many out of the province of Susiana, with two hundred chariots, under the conduct of Memnon the son of Tithon. For this Tithon at that time was governor of Persia, and in special favour with the king above all the rest of the princes: and Memnon was in the flower of his age, strong and courageous, and had built a palace in the citadel of Susa, which retained the name of Memnonia to the time of the Persian empire. He paved also there a common highway, which is called Memnon’s way to this day. But the Ethiopians of Egypt question this, and say, that Memnon was their countryman, and shew several antient palaces which (they say) retain his name at this day, being called Memnon’s palaces.
Notwithstanding, however it be as to this matter, yet it has been generally and constantly held for a certain truth, that Memnon led to Troy twenty thousand foot, and two hundred chariots, and signalized his valour with great honour and reputation, with the death and destruction of many of the Greeks, till at length he was slain by an ambuscade laid for him by the Thessalians. But the Ethiopians recovered his body, and burnt it, and brought back his bones to Tithon. And these things the barbarians say are recorded of Memnon in the histories of their kings.
23. Sardanapalus, the thirtieth from Ninus, and the last king of the Assyrians, exceeded all his predecessors in sloth and luxury; for besides that he was seen of none out of his family, he led a most effeminate life: for, wallowing in pleasure and wanton dalliances, he clothed himself in women’s attire, and spun fine wool and purple amongst the throngs of his whores and concubines. He painted likewise his face, and decked his whole body with other allurements like a strumpet, and was more lascivious than the most wanton courtesan. He imitated, likewise, a woman’s voice, and not only daily inured himself to such meat and drink as might incite and stir up his lascivious lusts, but gratified them by filthy Catamites, as well as whores and strumpets, and without any sense of modesty, abusing both sexes, slighted shame, the concomitant of filthy and impure actions, and proceeded to such a degree of voluptuousness and sordid uncleanness, that he composed verses for his epitaph, with a command to his successors to have them inscribed upon his tomb after his death, which were thus translated by a Grecian, out of the barbarian language
Hæc habeo quæ edi, quæque exsaturata libido.
Hausit, at illa jacent multa ac præclara relicta.
What once I gorg’d I now enjoy,
And wanton lusts me still employ.
All other things by mortals priz’d,
Are left as dirt by me despis’d.
Being thus corrupt in his morals, he not only came to a miserable end himself, but utterly overturned the Assyrian monarchy, which had continued longer than any we read of.
24. For Arbaces a Mede, a valiant and prudent man, and general of the forces which were sent every year out of Media to Nineveh, was stirred up by the governor of Babylon (his fellow soldier, and with whom he had contracted an intimate familiarity) to overthrow the Assyrian empire. This captain’s name was Belesis, a most famous Babylonian priest, one of those called Chaldeans, expert in astrology and divination; of great reputation upon the account of foretelling future events, which happened accordingly. Amongst others, he told his friend, the Median general, that he should depose Sardanapalus, and be lord of all his dominions. Arbaces hereupon hearkening to what he said, promised him, that if he succeeded in his attempt, Belesis should be chief governor of the province of Babylon. Being therefore fully persuaded of the truth of what was foretold, as if he had received it from an oracle, he entered into an association with the governors of the rest of the provinces, and by feasting and caressing of them, gained all their hearts and affections. He made it likewise his great business to get a sight of the king, that he might observe the course and manner of his life; to this end he bestowed a cup of gold upon an eunuch, by whom being introduced into the king’s presence, he perfectly came to understand his lasciviousness and effeminate course of life. Upon sight of him, he contemned and despised him as a vile and worthless wretch, and thereupon was much more earnest to accomplish what the Chaldean had before declared to him. At length he conspired with Belesis so far, as that he himself persuaded the Medes and Persians to a defection, and the other brought the Babylonians into the confederacy. He imparted likewise his design to the king of Arabia, who was at this time his special friend.
And now the year’s attendance of the army being at an end, new troops succeeded, and came into their place, and the former were sent every one here and there, into their several countries. Hereupon Arbaces prevailed with the Medes to invade the Assyrian empire, and drew in the Persian in hopes of liberty, to join in the confederacy. Belesis in like manner persuaded the Babylonians to stand up for their liberties. He sent messengers also into Arabia, and gained that prince (who was both his friend, and had been his guest) for a confederate.
25. When, therefore, the yearly course was run out, all these (with a great number of forces) flocked together to Nineveh, in shew to serve their turn, according to custom, but in truth to overturn the Assyrian empire. The whole number of soldiers now got together out of those four provinces, amounted to four hundred thousand All these (being now in one camp) called a council of war, in order to consult what was to be done.
Sardanapalus being informed of the revolt, led forth the forces of the rest of the provinces against them; whereupon a battle being fought, the rebels were totally routed, and with a great slaughter were forced to the mountains seventy furlongs from Nineveh.
Being drawn up a second time in battalia, to try their fortune in the field, and now faced by the enemy, Sardanapalus caused a proclamation to be made by the heralds, that whosoever killed Arbaces the Mede, should receive as a reward, two hundred talents of gold, and double the sum to him (together with the government of Media) who should take him alive. The like sum he promised to such as should kill Belesis, or take him alive. But none being wrought upon by these promises, he fought them again, and destroyed many of the rebels, and forced the rest to fly to their camp upon the hills. Arbaces being disheartened with these misfortunes, called a council of war, to consider what was fit further to be done: the greater part were for returning into their own countries, and possess themselves of the strongest places, in order to fit and furnish themselves with all things further necessary for the war. But when Belesis the Babylonian assured them that the gods promised, that after many toils and labours they should have good success, and all should end well, and had used several other arguments, (such as he thought best), he prevailed with them to resolve to run through all the hazards of the war.
Another battle therefore was fought, wherein the king gained a third victory, and pursued the revolters as far as to the mountains of Babylon. In this fight Arbaces himself was wounded, though he fought stoutly, and slew many of the Assyrians with his own hand.
After so many defeats and misfortunes, one upon the neck of another, the conspirators altogether despaired of victory, and therefore the commanders resolved every one to return to their own country. But Belesis, who lay all that night star-gazing in the open field, prognosticated to them the next day, that if they would but continue together five days, unexpected help would come, and they would see a mighty change, and that affairs would have a contrary aspect to what they then had; for he affirmed, that through his knowledge in astrology, he understood that the gods portended so much by the stars; therefore he entreated them to stay so many days, and make trial of his art, and wait so long to have an experiment of the goodness of the gods.
26. All being thus brought back, and waiting till the time appointed, news on a sudden was brought that mighty forces were at hand, sent to the king out of Bactria. Hereupon Arbaces resolved with the stoutest and swiftest soldiers of the army, forthwith to make out against the captains that were advancing, and either by fair words to persuade them to a defection, or by blows to force them to join with them in their design. But liberty being sweet to every one of them, first the captains and commanders were easily wrought upon, and presently after the whole army joined, and made up one entire camp together. It happened at that time, that the king of Assyria not knowing any thing of the revolt of the Bactrians, and puffed up by his former successes, was indulging his sloth and idleness, and preparing beasts for sacrifice, plenty of wine, and other things necessary in order to feast and entertain his soldiers.
While his whole army was now feasting and revelling, Arbaces (receiving intelligence by some deserters of the security and intemperance of the enemy) fell in upon them suddenly in the night; and being in due order and discipline, and setting upon such as were in confusion, he being before prepared, and the other altogether unprovided, they easily broke into their camp, and made a great slaughter of some, forcing the rest into the city.
Hereupon Sardanapalus committed the charge of the whole army to Salemenus, his wife’s brother, and took upon himself the defence of the city. But the rebels twice defeated the king’s forces, once in the open field, and the second time before the walls of the city; in which last engagement Salemenus was killed, and almost all his army lost, some being cut off in the pursuit, and the rest (save a very few, being intercepted, and prevented from entering into the city, were driven headlong into the river Euphrates; and the number of the slain was so great, that the river was dyed with blood, and retained that colour for a great distance, and a long course together.
The king being afterwards besieged, many of the nations (through desire of liberty) revolted to the confederates; so that Sardanapalus, now perceiving that the kingdom was like to be lost, sent away his three sons and two daughters, with a great deal of treasure, into Paphlagonia, to Cotta, the governor there, his most entire friend; and sent posts into all the provinces of the kingdom, in order to raise soldiers, and make all other preparations necessary to endure a siege. And he was the more encouraged to this, for that he was acquainted with an antient prophecy, That Nineveh could never be taken by force, till the river became the city’s enemy; which the more encouraged him to hold out, because he conceived that was never likely to be; therefore he resolved to endure the siege till the aids which he expected out of the provinces came up to him.
27. The enemy on the other hand, grown more courageous by their successes, eagerly urged on the siege, but made little impression on the besieged, by reason of the strength of the walls; for ballistes to cast stones, testudos to cast up mounts, and battering rams, were not known in those ages. And besides (to say truth) the king had been very careful (as to what concerned the defence of the place) plentifully to furnish the inhabitants with every thing necessary. The siege continued two years, during which time nothing was done to any purpose, save that the walls were sometimes assaulted, and the besieged penned up in the city. The third year it happened that the Euphrates, overflowing with continual rains, came up into a part of the city, and tore down the wall twenty furlongs in length. The king hereupon conceiving that the oracle was accomplished, in that the river was an apparent enemy to the city, utterly despaired; and therefore, that he might not fall into the hands of his enemies, he caused a huge pile of wood to be made in his palace court, and heaped together upon it all his gold, silver, and royal apparel, and enclosing his eunuchs and concubines in an apartment within the pile, caused it to be set on fire, and burnt himself and them together; which when the revolters came to understand, they entered through the breach of the walls, and took the city, and clothed Arbaces with a royal robe, and committed to him the sole authority, proclaiming him king. When he had rewarded his followers, every one according to his merit, and appointed governors over the several provinces, Belesis the Babylonian, who had foretold his advancement to the throne, put him in mind of his services, and demanded the government of Babylon, which he had before promised him. He told him likewise of a vow that he himself had made to Belus, in the heat of the war, that when Sardanapalus was conquered, and the palace consumed, he would carry the ashes to Babylon, and there raise a mount near to his temple, which should be an eternal monument to all that sailed through the Euphrates, in memory of him that overturned the Assyrian empire. But that which in truth induced him to make this request was, that he had been informed of the gold and silver by an eunuch (that was a deserter) whom he had hid and concealed: Arbaces, therefore, being ignorant of the contrivance (because all the rest besides this eunuch were consumed by the king) granted to him liberty both to carry away the ashes, and likewise the absolute government of Babylon without paying any tribute. Whereupon Belesis forthwith prepared shipping, and together with the ashes carried away most of the gold and silver to Babylon, But when the king came plainly to understand the cheat, he committed the examination and decision of this theft to the other captains who were his assistants in the deposing of Sardanapalus. Belesis upon his trial confessed the fact, and thereupon they condemned him to lose his head.
28. But the king being a man of a noble and generous spirit, and willing to adorn the beginning of his reign with marks of his grace and mercy, not only pardoned him, but freely gave him all the gold and silver which had been carried away; neither did he deprive him of the government of Babylon, which at the first he conferred upon him, saying, That his former good services overbalanced the injuries afterwards. This gracious disposition of the king being noised abroad, he thereby not only gained the hearts of his people, but was highly honoured, and his name famous among all the provinces, and all judged him worthy of the kingdom who was so compassionate and gracious to offenders.
The like clemency he shewed to the inhabitants of Nineveh; for though he dispersed them into several country villages, yet he restored to every one of them their estates, but razed the city to the ground.
The rest of the silver and gold that could be found in the pile (of which there were many talents) he conveyed to Ecbatana, the seat royal of Media.
And thus was the Assyrian empire overturned by the Medes, after it had continued thirty generations; from Ninus, above fourteen hundred years.
(trans. G. Booth)
VARIOUS ASSYRIAN FRAGMENTS
ON THE ANTIQUITY OF ASSYRIA
Clement, Stromata 1.21
... Ctesias says that the Assyrian power is many years older than the Greek ... (trans. William Wilson)
... Ctesias says that the Assyrian power is many years older than the Greek ... (trans. William Wilson)
ON THE BACTRIAN MAGUS
Arnobius, Against the Heathens 1.52
Come, then, let some Magian Zoroaster arrive from a remote part of the globe, crossing over the fiery zone, if we believe Hermippus as an authority. Let these join him too — that Bactrian, whose deeds Ctesias sets forth in the first book of his History; the Armenian, grandson of Hosthanes; and Pamphilus, the intimate friend of Cyrus; Apollonius, Damigero, and Dardanus; Velus, Julianus, and Baebulus; and if there be any other one who is supposed to have special powers and reputation in such magic arts. (translated by Hamilton Bryce and Hugh Campbell)
Come, then, let some Magian Zoroaster arrive from a remote part of the globe, crossing over the fiery zone, if we believe Hermippus as an authority. Let these join him too — that Bactrian, whose deeds Ctesias sets forth in the first book of his History; the Armenian, grandson of Hosthanes; and Pamphilus, the intimate friend of Cyrus; Apollonius, Damigero, and Dardanus; Velus, Julianus, and Baebulus; and if there be any other one who is supposed to have special powers and reputation in such magic arts. (translated by Hamilton Bryce and Hugh Campbell)
ON THE GODDESS DERCETO
Strabo, Geography 16.4.27
But the alterations of names, especially of barbarous nations, are frequent, Thus Darius was called Darieces; Parysatis, Pharziris; Athara, Atargata, whom Ctesias again calls Derceto. (trans. W. Falconer)
Eratosthenes, Catasterismi 38
This is the great Pisces, whom they say drinks the water that pours from the urn of Aquarius. It is said of this Pisces, as Ctesias tells us, that he was first seen in a lake not far from Bambyce, and that he saved Derceto from falling into the sea at night. This Derceto the Syrians call a goddess. They affirm that the grandchildren of this fish are two other fishes, whom all the Syrians venerated and placed among the stars.
Hyginus, Astronomica 41
FISH: This is the Fish that is called Southern. He seems to take water in his mouth from the sign of Aquarius. Once, when Isis was in labor, he is thought to have saved her, and as a reward for this kindness she placed the fish and its young, about whom we have spoken before, among the stars. As a result the Syrians generally do not eat fish, and worship their gilded likenesses as household gods. Ctesias, too, writes about this. (translated by Mary Grant [1985])
But the alterations of names, especially of barbarous nations, are frequent, Thus Darius was called Darieces; Parysatis, Pharziris; Athara, Atargata, whom Ctesias again calls Derceto. (trans. W. Falconer)
Eratosthenes, Catasterismi 38
This is the great Pisces, whom they say drinks the water that pours from the urn of Aquarius. It is said of this Pisces, as Ctesias tells us, that he was first seen in a lake not far from Bambyce, and that he saved Derceto from falling into the sea at night. This Derceto the Syrians call a goddess. They affirm that the grandchildren of this fish are two other fishes, whom all the Syrians venerated and placed among the stars.
Hyginus, Astronomica 41
FISH: This is the Fish that is called Southern. He seems to take water in his mouth from the sign of Aquarius. Once, when Isis was in labor, he is thought to have saved her, and as a reward for this kindness she placed the fish and its young, about whom we have spoken before, among the stars. As a result the Syrians generally do not eat fish, and worship their gilded likenesses as household gods. Ctesias, too, writes about this. (translated by Mary Grant [1985])
ON SEMIRAMIS
Tractatus de mulieribus 1
Semiramis. According to Ctesias, she was the daughter of Derceto, the Syrian goddess, and a certain Syrian man. She was raised by Simmas, a servant of King Ninus. Having married Onneus, a certain royal official, she had children. When she took Bactra with her husband, Ninus—who was already an old man—recognized her and married her. She bore him a son, Ninyas. After the death of Ninus, she fortified Babylon with baked bricks and bitumen and built the temple of Belus. Having been conspired against by her son Ninyas, she died, having lived 62 years and reigned 42 years.
Eusebius, Chronicle 17
The first of the Assyrians to rule over the Asians was Belus’ son, Ninus. During his reign many valorous deeds were done. Then he continues to discuss the birth of Semiramis, Zoroaster the Mage, war with the king of the Bactrians and the military defeat by Semiramis. Ninus’ reign lasted for 52 years, and then he died. After him Semiramis ruled. It was she who built the walls around Babylon in the manner described by many [writers such as] Ctesias, Zenon, Herodotus and others after him.
Then he describes how Semiramis mustered troops [and went] against India, her defeat and flight; how she killed her own sons and then was killed by her son Ninyas, after a reign of 42 years. Then Ninyas assumed power. Cephalion says that he did nothing worthy of recall. Then he and others describe how for a thousand years power passed from father to son with none of them ruling for less than 20 years. Disliking warfare and strife they were effeminate, carefully keeping themselves fortified indoors, doing nothing, and seeing no one except their concubines or effeminate men. It seems to me that Ctesias records the names of some 23 of these kings, should someone want to know about them in more detail. But what pleasure or satisfaction would it bring to record the barbaric names of despicable, weak savages who displayed neither valor nor brave deeds? (trans. Robert Bedrosian)
Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica, s.v. Χαύων
Chaon, a region of Media. Ctesias, in the first book of his Persica, says that from there Semiramis set out, both she and her army, and arrived in Chaon in Media.
Pliny, Natural History 7.57
We learn from Philostephanus, that Jason was the first person who sailed in a long vessel; Hegesias says it was Paralus, Ctesias, Semiramis, and Archemachus, Ægeon. (trans. John Bostock and H. T. Riley)
John of Antioch, fragment in Excerpta Salmasiana
The famous Semiramis raised mounds of earth in many parts of the land, allegedly because of floods; but these were, in fact, the graves of her lovers, buried alive — as Ctesias recounts.
George Syncellus, Chronography, p. 71
A few events are recounted in Assyrian accounts as being even more ancient. Ninus was the first to rule over all of Asia, except for the Indians, three hundred long years before Ogyges. He was succeeded by the famous Semiramis, who in many places raised mounds of earth, supposedly as protection against floods; but in reality, according to Ctesias, these were the tombs of her lovers, who were buried alive.
Diodorus Siculus, Library 1.56
But I am not ignorant how Ctesias the Cretan gives a far different account of these cities, when he says, that some of those who came in former times with Semiramis into Egypt, called the cities which they built after the names of those in their own country. But it is no easy matter to know the certain truth of these things: yet it is necessary to observe the different opinions concerning them, that the judicious reader may have an occasion to inquire, in order to pick out the real truth. (trans. G. Booth)
Nicolas of Damascus
Excerpta de insidiis, p. 68—69, ed. Feder.
After the Indian campaign, Semiramis, when she was in Media and became suspicious, ascended a certain high mountain. From all directions it was vast and in one part precipitous and inaccessible due to cliffs and sheer rock.
From this vantage point, she observed the army from a distance, fearing an ambush—which she immediately began to construct defenses against. While the army was encamped there, Satibaras the eunuch conspired with the sons of Onneus. He stirred them up, saying that there was danger for them from Nineveh should she continue to rule. He declared they should attack and kill both her and the child, and then take the kingship.
He further told them it was shameful to allow an unrestrained woman, especially at such an age, to be committing adultery openly day after day with whomever she happened to desire—especially while they, young men, stood by and watched.
When they asked how this could be done, he said there was no need for delay, but that they should ascend the mountain to her when he gave the signal—he would oversee everything—and then throw her from the summit to the depths below.
They agreed to this and gave pledges to each other at a sacred place. But by chance, a certain Mede was nearby at the altar where they made their pact, and he overheard everything, though unnoticed. When the opportunity arose, he wrote down the entire plot on a tablet and sent it to Semiramis through a messenger.
Reading it, she ascended the mountain the next day and summoned the sons of Onneus, ordering them to come armed, whatever their intentions might be. Satibaras, rejoicing and believing that the gods were aiding the plan, brought the youths, since the mother herself had called for them while they were armed.
When they arrived, Semiramis had the eunuch step aside and said to the young men:
‘What a fine thing: good and noble parents, but wicked sons! You have been persuaded by an evil slave to plot your mother’s death, thinking that you would then receive power from the gods. So here I am—throw me from this cliff! Then you’ll have fame among men for having killed your mother Semiramis and your brother Ninyas, and you’ll rule!’
(This was a speech delivered to the Assyrians.)
Athenagoras, A Plea for the Christians 30
For if detestable and god-hated men had the reputation of being gods, and the daughter of Derceto, Semiramis, a lascivious and blood-stained woman, was esteemed a Syrian goddess; and if, on account of Derceto, the Syrians worship doves and Semiramis (for, a thing impossible, a woman was changed into a dove: the story is in Ctesias), what wonder if some should be called gods by their people on the ground of their rule and sovereignty. (trans. B. P. Pratten)
Semiramis. According to Ctesias, she was the daughter of Derceto, the Syrian goddess, and a certain Syrian man. She was raised by Simmas, a servant of King Ninus. Having married Onneus, a certain royal official, she had children. When she took Bactra with her husband, Ninus—who was already an old man—recognized her and married her. She bore him a son, Ninyas. After the death of Ninus, she fortified Babylon with baked bricks and bitumen and built the temple of Belus. Having been conspired against by her son Ninyas, she died, having lived 62 years and reigned 42 years.
Eusebius, Chronicle 17
The first of the Assyrians to rule over the Asians was Belus’ son, Ninus. During his reign many valorous deeds were done. Then he continues to discuss the birth of Semiramis, Zoroaster the Mage, war with the king of the Bactrians and the military defeat by Semiramis. Ninus’ reign lasted for 52 years, and then he died. After him Semiramis ruled. It was she who built the walls around Babylon in the manner described by many [writers such as] Ctesias, Zenon, Herodotus and others after him.
Then he describes how Semiramis mustered troops [and went] against India, her defeat and flight; how she killed her own sons and then was killed by her son Ninyas, after a reign of 42 years. Then Ninyas assumed power. Cephalion says that he did nothing worthy of recall. Then he and others describe how for a thousand years power passed from father to son with none of them ruling for less than 20 years. Disliking warfare and strife they were effeminate, carefully keeping themselves fortified indoors, doing nothing, and seeing no one except their concubines or effeminate men. It seems to me that Ctesias records the names of some 23 of these kings, should someone want to know about them in more detail. But what pleasure or satisfaction would it bring to record the barbaric names of despicable, weak savages who displayed neither valor nor brave deeds? (trans. Robert Bedrosian)
Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica, s.v. Χαύων
Chaon, a region of Media. Ctesias, in the first book of his Persica, says that from there Semiramis set out, both she and her army, and arrived in Chaon in Media.
Pliny, Natural History 7.57
We learn from Philostephanus, that Jason was the first person who sailed in a long vessel; Hegesias says it was Paralus, Ctesias, Semiramis, and Archemachus, Ægeon. (trans. John Bostock and H. T. Riley)
John of Antioch, fragment in Excerpta Salmasiana
The famous Semiramis raised mounds of earth in many parts of the land, allegedly because of floods; but these were, in fact, the graves of her lovers, buried alive — as Ctesias recounts.
George Syncellus, Chronography, p. 71
A few events are recounted in Assyrian accounts as being even more ancient. Ninus was the first to rule over all of Asia, except for the Indians, three hundred long years before Ogyges. He was succeeded by the famous Semiramis, who in many places raised mounds of earth, supposedly as protection against floods; but in reality, according to Ctesias, these were the tombs of her lovers, who were buried alive.
Diodorus Siculus, Library 1.56
But I am not ignorant how Ctesias the Cretan gives a far different account of these cities, when he says, that some of those who came in former times with Semiramis into Egypt, called the cities which they built after the names of those in their own country. But it is no easy matter to know the certain truth of these things: yet it is necessary to observe the different opinions concerning them, that the judicious reader may have an occasion to inquire, in order to pick out the real truth. (trans. G. Booth)
Nicolas of Damascus
Excerpta de insidiis, p. 68—69, ed. Feder.
After the Indian campaign, Semiramis, when she was in Media and became suspicious, ascended a certain high mountain. From all directions it was vast and in one part precipitous and inaccessible due to cliffs and sheer rock.
From this vantage point, she observed the army from a distance, fearing an ambush—which she immediately began to construct defenses against. While the army was encamped there, Satibaras the eunuch conspired with the sons of Onneus. He stirred them up, saying that there was danger for them from Nineveh should she continue to rule. He declared they should attack and kill both her and the child, and then take the kingship.
He further told them it was shameful to allow an unrestrained woman, especially at such an age, to be committing adultery openly day after day with whomever she happened to desire—especially while they, young men, stood by and watched.
When they asked how this could be done, he said there was no need for delay, but that they should ascend the mountain to her when he gave the signal—he would oversee everything—and then throw her from the summit to the depths below.
They agreed to this and gave pledges to each other at a sacred place. But by chance, a certain Mede was nearby at the altar where they made their pact, and he overheard everything, though unnoticed. When the opportunity arose, he wrote down the entire plot on a tablet and sent it to Semiramis through a messenger.
Reading it, she ascended the mountain the next day and summoned the sons of Onneus, ordering them to come armed, whatever their intentions might be. Satibaras, rejoicing and believing that the gods were aiding the plan, brought the youths, since the mother herself had called for them while they were armed.
When they arrived, Semiramis had the eunuch step aside and said to the young men:
‘What a fine thing: good and noble parents, but wicked sons! You have been persuaded by an evil slave to plot your mother’s death, thinking that you would then receive power from the gods. So here I am—throw me from this cliff! Then you’ll have fame among men for having killed your mother Semiramis and your brother Ninyas, and you’ll rule!’
(This was a speech delivered to the Assyrians.)
Athenagoras, A Plea for the Christians 30
For if detestable and god-hated men had the reputation of being gods, and the daughter of Derceto, Semiramis, a lascivious and blood-stained woman, was esteemed a Syrian goddess; and if, on account of Derceto, the Syrians worship doves and Semiramis (for, a thing impossible, a woman was changed into a dove: the story is in Ctesias), what wonder if some should be called gods by their people on the ground of their rule and sovereignty. (trans. B. P. Pratten)
ON THE SUCCESSORS OF SEMIRAMIS
Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists 12.38, pp. 528-529
But of individual instances I have heard the following stories: Ctesias, in the third book of his History of Persia, says that all those who were ever kings in Asia devoted themselves mainly to luxury; and above all of them, Ninyas did so, the son of Ninus and Semiramis. He, therefore, remaining indoors and living luxuriously, was never seen by anyone, except by his eunuchs and by his own women.
And another king of this sort was Sardanapalus, whom some call the son of Anacyndaraxes, and others the son of Anabaraxarus. And so, when Arbaces, who was one of the generals under him, a Mede by birth, endeavoured to manage, by the assistance of one of the eunuchs, whose name was Sparameizes, to see Sardanapalus; and when he with difficulty prevailed upon him, with the consent of the king himself, when the Mede entered and saw him, painted with vermilion and adorned like a woman, sitting among his concubines carding purple wool, [529] and sitting among them with his feet up, wearing a woman’s robe, and with his beard carefully scraped, and his face smoothed with pumice-stone (for he was whiter than milk, and pencilled under his eyes and eyebrows ; and when he saw Arbaces, he rolled the whites of his eyes), most historians, among whom Duris is one, relate that Arbaces, being indignant at his countrymen being ruled over by such a monarch as that, stabbed him and slew him. But Ctesias says that he went to war with him, and collected a great army, and then that Sardanapalus, being dethroned by Arbaces, died, burning himself alive in his palace, having heaped up a funeral pile four plethra in extent, on which he placed a hundred and fifty golden couches, and a corresponding number of tables, these, too, being all made of gold. And he also erected on the funeral pile a chamber a hundred feet long, made of wood; and in it he had couches spread, and there he himself lay down with his wife, and his concubines lay on other couches around. For he had sent off his three sons and his daughters, when he saw that his affairs were getting in a dangerous state, to Nineveh, to the king of that city, giving them three thousand talents of gold. And he made the roof of this apartment of large stout beams, and then all the walls of it he made of numerous thick planks, so that it was impossible to escape out of it. And in it he placed ten millions of talents of gold, and a hundred millions of talents of silver, and robes, and purple garments, and every kind of apparel imaginable. And after that he bade the slaves set fire to the pile ; and it was fifteen days burning. And those who saw the smoke wondered, and thought that he was celebrating a great sacrifice; but the eunuchs alone knew what was really being done. And in this way Sardanapalus, who had spent his life in extraordinary luxury, died with as much magnanimity as possible. (trans. C. D. Yonge)
Agathias, The Histories 2.25.4-5.
25. (4) The Assyrians are the first people mentioned in our tradition as having conquered the whole of Asia as far as the river Ganges. Ninus appears to have been the founder of the dynasty and was followed by Semiramis and the whole line of their descendants stretching as far as Beleus the son of Dercetades. (5) When with Beleus, the last scion of the house of Semiramis, the family became extinct a man called Beletaran, who was head gardener in the palace, gained possession of the throne in extraordinary circumstances and grafted the royal title on to his own family. The story is told by Bion and by Alexander Polyhistor and takes us down to the reign of Sardanapalus when, as they tell us, the kingdom entered upon a phase of decline and Ar baces the Mede and Belesys the Babylonian wrested it from the Assyrians, killing their king and bringing it under the control of the Medes, some one thousand three hundred and six years or more after Ninus’ rise to power. This figure is based on the chronology of Ctesias the Cnidian and accords with that given by Diodorus Siculus. (trans. Joseph D. Frendo [1975])
Aristotle, Politics 5.10.22
Another motive is contempt, as in the case of Sardanapalus, whom some one saw carding wool with his women, if the storytellers say truly; and the tale may be true, if not of him, of some one else. Dion attacked the younger Dionysius because he despised him, and saw that he was equally despised by his own subjects, and that he was always drunk. (trans. Benjamin Jowett)
Pollux, Onomasticon 2.60
Ctesias says that Sardanapalus rolled his eyes to show only the whites.
Nicolas of Damascus
Excerpta de virtuibus et vitiis, p. 425—426, ed. Vales.
Sardanapalus the Assyrian ruled, having received the kingdom from Ninus and Semiramis. He lived in Nineveh, spending his time indoors in the royal palace, not touching weapons nor going out to hunt, as the kings of old did. Instead, he painted his face and outlined his eyes, competed with concubines in beauty and dress, and conducted his entire life in an effeminate manner. Now, in accordance with the previously arranged plans, the satraps from the various nations came to him at the gates, each bringing the forces mentioned earlier. Among them was Arbaces, the governor of the Medes — a man prudent in life and, if anyone was, experienced in affairs, seasoned in both hunting and warfare, and one who had long since performed many noble deeds. Now, however, he had greater and more ambitious thoughts. Having learned of the king’s lifestyle and habits, he conceived the idea and resolved in his mind whether it was fitting for such a man, so lacking in manliness, to hold the rule over Asia. And so he formed a plan concerning the seizure of the entire empire.
Nicolas of Damascus
Excerpta de inisidiis, p. 69—72, ed. Feder.
When Sardanapalus, the Assyrian king, was reigning, Arbaces the Mede, having heard about the king’s lifestyle and habits, began to consider whether it was fitting that such a man, lacking in all virtue, should hold power over the Assyrian realm. It seemed to him that the Median race was then the most courageous of all after the Assyrians.
So Arbaces, while in conversation with Belesys, the ruler of Babylon—who was a member of the royal council before the palace gates, a man of the Chaldean race, and a priest, for these men held the highest honor—confided in him. They jointly began to plot how to transfer the rule of all Assyria to the Medes.
The Babylonians were the most skilled of all in astronomy and were leaders in wisdom and divination, through dreams and omens, and excelled generally in all knowledge pertaining to the divine. On this occasion, while Belesys was speaking with Arbaces near the palace gates, beside a stable where two horses were being kept, he happened to fall asleep at midday.
In his dream, he saw one of the horses approach the sleeping Arbaces and place hay at his mouth, while the other horse rebuked him, saying: ‘What are you doing, you fool? Why are you offering hay to the man?’ The first horse replied: ‘I envy him, for he is going to rule all that Sardanapalus now commands.’
Having seen and heard these things, Belesys woke the sleeping Arbaces and, interpreting the dream as a divine sign with his special knowledge, urged him to go down toward the Tigris River, which flowed near Nineveh and washed against its walls. While they walked and spoke together as if they were friends, Belesys said:
‘Tell me, Arbaces: If Sardanapalus, the ruler, made you satrap of Cilicia, what would you give me as the bearer of such news?’ Arbaces replied: ‘Why are you mocking me, you madman? Why would he appoint me satrap of Cilicia, passing over men better than I?’ Belesys said, ‘But what if he did? I speak as one who knows more. What thanks would you owe me?’
Arbaces replied, ‘I would not blame you; you would have earned no small share of my power.’ Belesys asked, ‘And if he made you satrap of all Babylon, what then?’ Arbaces said: ‘Stop invoking Zeus! You mock me cruelly. I don’t think a Mede is fit to be mocked by a Babylonian.’ Belesys replied: ‘By the great Bel, I swear I am not mocking you. I speak from deeper insight.’
Arbaces said: ‘If I do become satrap of Babylon, I will make you the governor of the whole satrapy.’ Belesys answered: ‘I don’t doubt you, but let me ask: if you were king of everything Sardanapalus now rules, what would you do with me?’ Arbaces replied, ‘If Sardanapalus were to hear these things, both you and I would die terribly. Why are you speaking such nonsense?’
But Belesys grasped his hand earnestly and swore: ‘By this right hand, which is sacred to me, and by the great Bel, I do not jest. I know the divine signs better than most.’ Arbaces then said: ‘I pray that you may possess Babylon, and that all this may be fulfilled under a favorable destiny.’ At this, when Belesys asked for his right hand as a pledge, Arbaces gave it gladly. Belesys said, ‘Then you will reign, as surely as this right hand exists.’
When they had agreed on these things, they returned to the palace gates, acting as if nothing had happened.
Afterward, Arbaces confided in one of the most trusted eunuchs of the king and begged him to show him the master (Sardanapalus), as he very much desired to see who ruled. When the eunuch said it was impossible to look upon the king—no one had ever been allowed to—Arbaces despaired. But a little later, after a short pause, he pleaded again more earnestly, offering silver and gold in exchange for the favor.
The eunuch, being quite susceptible and unwilling to disappoint Arbaces—whom he found especially persuasive—promised that, when the time was right, he would remember to fulfill his request. Not long after, he arranged it—and it was then that everything came to an end.”
But of individual instances I have heard the following stories: Ctesias, in the third book of his History of Persia, says that all those who were ever kings in Asia devoted themselves mainly to luxury; and above all of them, Ninyas did so, the son of Ninus and Semiramis. He, therefore, remaining indoors and living luxuriously, was never seen by anyone, except by his eunuchs and by his own women.
And another king of this sort was Sardanapalus, whom some call the son of Anacyndaraxes, and others the son of Anabaraxarus. And so, when Arbaces, who was one of the generals under him, a Mede by birth, endeavoured to manage, by the assistance of one of the eunuchs, whose name was Sparameizes, to see Sardanapalus; and when he with difficulty prevailed upon him, with the consent of the king himself, when the Mede entered and saw him, painted with vermilion and adorned like a woman, sitting among his concubines carding purple wool, [529] and sitting among them with his feet up, wearing a woman’s robe, and with his beard carefully scraped, and his face smoothed with pumice-stone (for he was whiter than milk, and pencilled under his eyes and eyebrows ; and when he saw Arbaces, he rolled the whites of his eyes), most historians, among whom Duris is one, relate that Arbaces, being indignant at his countrymen being ruled over by such a monarch as that, stabbed him and slew him. But Ctesias says that he went to war with him, and collected a great army, and then that Sardanapalus, being dethroned by Arbaces, died, burning himself alive in his palace, having heaped up a funeral pile four plethra in extent, on which he placed a hundred and fifty golden couches, and a corresponding number of tables, these, too, being all made of gold. And he also erected on the funeral pile a chamber a hundred feet long, made of wood; and in it he had couches spread, and there he himself lay down with his wife, and his concubines lay on other couches around. For he had sent off his three sons and his daughters, when he saw that his affairs were getting in a dangerous state, to Nineveh, to the king of that city, giving them three thousand talents of gold. And he made the roof of this apartment of large stout beams, and then all the walls of it he made of numerous thick planks, so that it was impossible to escape out of it. And in it he placed ten millions of talents of gold, and a hundred millions of talents of silver, and robes, and purple garments, and every kind of apparel imaginable. And after that he bade the slaves set fire to the pile ; and it was fifteen days burning. And those who saw the smoke wondered, and thought that he was celebrating a great sacrifice; but the eunuchs alone knew what was really being done. And in this way Sardanapalus, who had spent his life in extraordinary luxury, died with as much magnanimity as possible. (trans. C. D. Yonge)
Agathias, The Histories 2.25.4-5.
25. (4) The Assyrians are the first people mentioned in our tradition as having conquered the whole of Asia as far as the river Ganges. Ninus appears to have been the founder of the dynasty and was followed by Semiramis and the whole line of their descendants stretching as far as Beleus the son of Dercetades. (5) When with Beleus, the last scion of the house of Semiramis, the family became extinct a man called Beletaran, who was head gardener in the palace, gained possession of the throne in extraordinary circumstances and grafted the royal title on to his own family. The story is told by Bion and by Alexander Polyhistor and takes us down to the reign of Sardanapalus when, as they tell us, the kingdom entered upon a phase of decline and Ar baces the Mede and Belesys the Babylonian wrested it from the Assyrians, killing their king and bringing it under the control of the Medes, some one thousand three hundred and six years or more after Ninus’ rise to power. This figure is based on the chronology of Ctesias the Cnidian and accords with that given by Diodorus Siculus. (trans. Joseph D. Frendo [1975])
Aristotle, Politics 5.10.22
Another motive is contempt, as in the case of Sardanapalus, whom some one saw carding wool with his women, if the storytellers say truly; and the tale may be true, if not of him, of some one else. Dion attacked the younger Dionysius because he despised him, and saw that he was equally despised by his own subjects, and that he was always drunk. (trans. Benjamin Jowett)
Pollux, Onomasticon 2.60
Ctesias says that Sardanapalus rolled his eyes to show only the whites.
Nicolas of Damascus
Excerpta de virtuibus et vitiis, p. 425—426, ed. Vales.
Sardanapalus the Assyrian ruled, having received the kingdom from Ninus and Semiramis. He lived in Nineveh, spending his time indoors in the royal palace, not touching weapons nor going out to hunt, as the kings of old did. Instead, he painted his face and outlined his eyes, competed with concubines in beauty and dress, and conducted his entire life in an effeminate manner. Now, in accordance with the previously arranged plans, the satraps from the various nations came to him at the gates, each bringing the forces mentioned earlier. Among them was Arbaces, the governor of the Medes — a man prudent in life and, if anyone was, experienced in affairs, seasoned in both hunting and warfare, and one who had long since performed many noble deeds. Now, however, he had greater and more ambitious thoughts. Having learned of the king’s lifestyle and habits, he conceived the idea and resolved in his mind whether it was fitting for such a man, so lacking in manliness, to hold the rule over Asia. And so he formed a plan concerning the seizure of the entire empire.
Nicolas of Damascus
Excerpta de inisidiis, p. 69—72, ed. Feder.
When Sardanapalus, the Assyrian king, was reigning, Arbaces the Mede, having heard about the king’s lifestyle and habits, began to consider whether it was fitting that such a man, lacking in all virtue, should hold power over the Assyrian realm. It seemed to him that the Median race was then the most courageous of all after the Assyrians.
So Arbaces, while in conversation with Belesys, the ruler of Babylon—who was a member of the royal council before the palace gates, a man of the Chaldean race, and a priest, for these men held the highest honor—confided in him. They jointly began to plot how to transfer the rule of all Assyria to the Medes.
The Babylonians were the most skilled of all in astronomy and were leaders in wisdom and divination, through dreams and omens, and excelled generally in all knowledge pertaining to the divine. On this occasion, while Belesys was speaking with Arbaces near the palace gates, beside a stable where two horses were being kept, he happened to fall asleep at midday.
In his dream, he saw one of the horses approach the sleeping Arbaces and place hay at his mouth, while the other horse rebuked him, saying: ‘What are you doing, you fool? Why are you offering hay to the man?’ The first horse replied: ‘I envy him, for he is going to rule all that Sardanapalus now commands.’
Having seen and heard these things, Belesys woke the sleeping Arbaces and, interpreting the dream as a divine sign with his special knowledge, urged him to go down toward the Tigris River, which flowed near Nineveh and washed against its walls. While they walked and spoke together as if they were friends, Belesys said:
‘Tell me, Arbaces: If Sardanapalus, the ruler, made you satrap of Cilicia, what would you give me as the bearer of such news?’ Arbaces replied: ‘Why are you mocking me, you madman? Why would he appoint me satrap of Cilicia, passing over men better than I?’ Belesys said, ‘But what if he did? I speak as one who knows more. What thanks would you owe me?’
Arbaces replied, ‘I would not blame you; you would have earned no small share of my power.’ Belesys asked, ‘And if he made you satrap of all Babylon, what then?’ Arbaces said: ‘Stop invoking Zeus! You mock me cruelly. I don’t think a Mede is fit to be mocked by a Babylonian.’ Belesys replied: ‘By the great Bel, I swear I am not mocking you. I speak from deeper insight.’
Arbaces said: ‘If I do become satrap of Babylon, I will make you the governor of the whole satrapy.’ Belesys answered: ‘I don’t doubt you, but let me ask: if you were king of everything Sardanapalus now rules, what would you do with me?’ Arbaces replied, ‘If Sardanapalus were to hear these things, both you and I would die terribly. Why are you speaking such nonsense?’
But Belesys grasped his hand earnestly and swore: ‘By this right hand, which is sacred to me, and by the great Bel, I do not jest. I know the divine signs better than most.’ Arbaces then said: ‘I pray that you may possess Babylon, and that all this may be fulfilled under a favorable destiny.’ At this, when Belesys asked for his right hand as a pledge, Arbaces gave it gladly. Belesys said, ‘Then you will reign, as surely as this right hand exists.’
When they had agreed on these things, they returned to the palace gates, acting as if nothing had happened.
Afterward, Arbaces confided in one of the most trusted eunuchs of the king and begged him to show him the master (Sardanapalus), as he very much desired to see who ruled. When the eunuch said it was impossible to look upon the king—no one had ever been allowed to—Arbaces despaired. But a little later, after a short pause, he pleaded again more earnestly, offering silver and gold in exchange for the favor.
The eunuch, being quite susceptible and unwilling to disappoint Arbaces—whom he found especially persuasive—promised that, when the time was right, he would remember to fulfill his request. Not long after, he arranged it—and it was then that everything came to an end.”
ON FESTIVALS
Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists 14.44, p. 639
And Berosus, in the first book of his History of Babylon, says that on the sixteenth day of the month Loüs, there is a great festival celebrated in Babylon, which is called Sacea; and it lasts five days: and during those days it is the custom for the masters to be under the orders of their slaves; and one of the slaves puts on a robe like the king’s, which is called a zoganes, and is master of the house. And Ctesias also mentions this festival in the second book of his History of Persia. (trans. C. D. Yonge)
And Berosus, in the first book of his History of Babylon, says that on the sixteenth day of the month Loüs, there is a great festival celebrated in Babylon, which is called Sacea; and it lasts five days: and during those days it is the custom for the masters to be under the orders of their slaves; and one of the slaves puts on a robe like the king’s, which is called a zoganes, and is master of the house. And Ctesias also mentions this festival in the second book of his History of Persia. (trans. C. D. Yonge)
ON SPRINGS AND WETLANDS
Harpocration, Lexicon of the Ten Orators, s.v. Hypokydeis
A wet place is called a “marsh,” as is evident from the third book of Ctesias.
Antigonus, Collection of Miraculous Stories 145
Ctesias says that in Ethiopia there is a place where the water is red, like cinnabar, and that those who drink from it become mad. This is also reported by Philo, who wrote about Ethiopian matters.
Paradoxographus Florentinus 17
Ctesias reports that in Ethiopia there is a spring whose color resembles cinnabar, and that those who drink from it lose their reason, to the point that they even confess things they have done in secret.
Pliny, Natural History 31.5
In taking the waters [of the River Gallus], however, of this last, the greatest moderation is necessary, as they are apt to cause delirium; an effect equally produced, Ctesias tells us, by the waters of the Red Fountain in Æthiopia. (trans. John Bostock and H. T. Riley)
A wet place is called a “marsh,” as is evident from the third book of Ctesias.
Antigonus, Collection of Miraculous Stories 145
Ctesias says that in Ethiopia there is a place where the water is red, like cinnabar, and that those who drink from it become mad. This is also reported by Philo, who wrote about Ethiopian matters.
Paradoxographus Florentinus 17
Ctesias reports that in Ethiopia there is a spring whose color resembles cinnabar, and that those who drink from it lose their reason, to the point that they even confess things they have done in secret.
Pliny, Natural History 31.5
In taking the waters [of the River Gallus], however, of this last, the greatest moderation is necessary, as they are apt to cause delirium; an effect equally produced, Ctesias tells us, by the waters of the Red Fountain in Æthiopia. (trans. John Bostock and H. T. Riley)
EPITOME OF THE PERSICA OF CTESIAS
PHOTIUS
Photius, Bibliotheca 72
Read the Persica of Ctesias of Cnidus in twenty-three books. In the first six he treats of Assyrian affairs and of events before the foundation of the Persian empire, and only begins to treat of Persian affairs in the seventh book. In books 7-13 he gives an account of Cyrus, Cambyses, the Magian, Darius, and Xerxes, in which he differs almost entirely from Herodotus, whom he accuses of falsehood in many passages and calls an inventor of fables. Ctesias is later than Herodotus, and says that he was an eyewitness of most of what he describes, and that, where this was not the case, he obtained his information directly from Persians, and in this manner he composed his history. He not only disagrees with Herodotus, but also in some respects with Xenophon the son of Gryllus. Ctesias flourished in the time of Cyrus, son of Darius and Parysatis, brother of Artoxerxes who succeeded to the throne.
He begins by stating that Astyages (whom he also calls Astyigas) was not related to Cyrus; that he fled from him to Agbatana, and hid himself in the. Vaults of the royal palace with the aid of his daughter Amytis and her husband Spitamas; that Cyrus, when he came to the throne, gave orders that not only Spitamas and Amytis, but also their sons Spitaces and Megabernes should be put to the torture for assisting Astyigas; that the latter, to save his grandchildren from being tortured on his account, gave himself up and was taken and loaded with chains by Oebaras; that shortly afterwards he was set free by Cyrus and honoured as his father; that his daughter Amytis was treated by him as a mother and afterwards became his wife. Her husband Spitamas, however, was put to death, because, when asked, he had falsely declared that he did not know where Astyigas was. In his account of these events Ctesias differs from Herodotus. He adds that Cyrus made war upon the Bactrians, without obtaining a decisive victory; but that when they learnt that Astyigas had been adopted by Cyrus as his father, and Amytis as his mother and wife, they voluntarily submitted to Amytis and Cyrus.
He also relates how Cyrus made war on the Sacae, and took prisoner their king Amorges, the husband of Sparethra, who after her husband was captured collected an army of 300,000 men and 200,000 women, made war upon Cyrus and defeated him. Amongst the large number of prisoners taken by the Sacae were Parmises, the brother of Amytis, and his three sons, who were subsequently released in exchange for Amorges.
Cyrus, assisted by Amorges, marched against Croesus and the city of Sardes. By the advice of Oebaras he set up wooden figures representing Persians round the walls, the sight of which so terrified the inhabitants that the city was easily taken. Before this, the son of Croesus was handed over as a hostage, the king himself having been deceived by a divine vision. Since Croesus was evidently meditating treachery, his son was put to death before his eyes; his mother, who was a witness of his execution, committed suicide by throwing herself from the walls. After the city was taken Croesus fled for refuge to the temple of Apollo; he was three times put in chains, and three times loosed invisibly from his bonds, although the temple was shut and sealed, and Oebaras was on guard. Those who had been prisoners with Croesus had their heads cut off, on suspicion of having conspired to release him. He was subsequently taken to the palace and bound more securely, but was again loosed by thunder and lightning sent from heaven. Finally Cyrus, against his will, set him free, treated him kindly from that time, and bestowed upon him a large city near Agbatana, named Barene, in which there were 5000 horsemen and 10,000 peltasts, javelin-throwers, and archers.
Cyrus then sent Petisacas the eunuch, who had great influence with him, to Persia to fetch Astyigas from the Barcanians, he and his daughter Amytis being anxious to see him. Oebaras then advised Petisacas to leave Astyigas in some lonely spot, to perish of hunger and thirst; which he did. But the crime was revealed in a dream, and Petisacas, at the urgent request of Amytis, was handed over to her by Cyrus for punishment. She ordered his eyes to be dug out, had him flayed alive, and then crucified. Oebaras, afraid of suffering the same punishment, although Cyrus assured him that he would not allow it, starved himself to death by fasting for ten days. Astyigas was accorded a splendid funeral; his body had remained untouched by wild beasts in the wilder-ness, some lions having guarded it until it was removed by Petisacas.
Cyrus marched against the Derbices (Derbikes), whose king was Amoraeus. The Derbices suddenly brought up some elephants which had been kept in ambush, and put Cyrus’s cavalry to flight. Cyrus himself fell from his horse, and an Indian wounded him mortally with a javelin under the thigh. The Indians fought on the side of the Derbices and supplied them with elephants. Cyrus’s friends took him up while he was still alive and returned to camp. Many Persians and Derbices were slain, to the number of 10,000 on each side.
Amorges, when he heard of what had happened to Cyrus, in great haste went to the assistance of the Persians with 20,000 Sacan cavalry. In a subsequent engagement, the Persians and Sacae gained a brilliant victory, Amoraeus, the king of the Derbices, and his two sons being slain. Thirty thousand Derbicans and 9000 Persians fell in the battle. The country then submitted to Cyrus.
Cyrus, when near his death, declared his elder son Cambyses king, his younger son Tanyoxarces (Tanyoxarkes) governor of Bactria, Choramnia, Parthia, and Carmania, free from tribute. Of the children of Spitamas, he appointed Spitaces satrap of the Derbices, Megabernes of the Barcanians, bidding them obey their mother in everything. He also endeavoured to make them friends with Amorges, bestowing his blessing on those who should remain on friendly terms with one another, and a curse upon those who first did wrong. With these words he died, three days after he had been wounded, after a reign of thirty years. This is the end of the eleventh book.
The twelfth book begins with the reign of Cambyses. Immediately after his accession he sent his father’s body by the eunuch Bagapates to Persia for burial, and in all other respects carried out his father’s wishes. The men who had the greatest influence with him were Artasyras the Hyrcanian, and the eunuchs Izabates, Aspadates, and Bagapates, who had been his father’s favourite after the death of Petisacas. Bagapates was in command of the expedition against Egypt and its king Amyrtaeus, whom he defeated, through the treachery of his chief counsellor Combaphis the eunuch, who betrayed the bridges and other important secrets, on condition that Cambyses made him governor of Egypt. Cambyses first made this arrangement with him through Izabates, the cousin of Combaphis, and afterwards confirmed it by his personal promise. Having taken Amyrtaeus alive he did him no harm, but merely removed him to Susa with 6000 Egyptians chosen by himself. The whole of Egypt then became subject to Cambyses. The Egyptians lost 50,000 men in the battle, the Persians 7000.
In the meantime a certain Magian called Sphendadates, who had been flogged by Tanyoxarces for some offence, went to Cambyses and informed him that his brother was plotting against him. In proof of this he declared that Tanyoxarces would refuse to come if summoned. Cambyses thereupon summoned his brother, who, being engaged on another matter, put off coming. The Magian thereupon accused him more freely. His mother Amytis, who suspected the Magian, advised Cambyses not to listen to him. Cambyses pretended not to believe him, while in reality he did. Being summoned by Cambyses a third time, Tanyoxarces obeyed the summons. His brother embraced him, but nevertheless determined to put him to death, and, unknown to his mother Amytis, took measures to carry out his plan. The Magian made the following suggestion. Being himself very like Tanyoxarces, he advised the king publicly to order that his head should be cut off as having falsely accused the king’s brother; that in the meantime Tanyoxarces should secretly be put to death, and he (the Magian) should be dressed in his clothes, so that Tanyoxarces should be thought alive. Cambyses agreed to this. Tanyoxarces was put to death by being forced to drink bull’s blood; the Magian put on his clothes and was mistaken for him by the people. The fraud was not known for a long time except to Artasyras, Bagapates, and Izabates, to whom alone Cambyses had entrusted the secret.
Then Cambyses, having summoned Labyzus, the chief of Tanyoxarces’s eunuchs, and the other eunuchs, showed them. the Magian seated and dressed in the guise of his brother, and asked them whether they thought he was Tanyoxarces. Labyzus, in astonishment, replied, “Whom else should we think him to be?” the likeness being so great that he was deceived. The Magian was accordingly sent to Bactria, where he played the part of Tanyoxarces. Five years later Amytis, having learnt the truth from the eunuch Tibethis, whom the Magian had flogged, demanded that Cambyses should hand over Sphendadates to her, but he refused. Whereupon Amytis, after heaping curses upon him, drank poison and died.
On a certain occasion, while Cambyses was offering sacrifice, no blood flowed from the slaughtered victims. This greatly alarmed him, and the birth of a son without a head by Roxana increased this alarm. This portent was interpreted by the wise men to mean that he would leave no successor. His mother also appeared to him in a dream, threatening retribution for the murder he had committed, which alarmed him still more. At Babylon, while carving a piece of wood with a knife for his amusement, he accidentally wounded himself in the thigh, and died eleven days afterwards, in the eighteenth year of his reign.
Bagapates and Artasyras, before the death of Cambyses, conspired to raise the Magian to the throne, as they afterwards did. Izabates, who had gone to convey the body of Cambyses to Persia, finding on his return that the Magian was reigning under the name of Tanyoxarces, disclosed the truth to the army and exposed the Magian. After this he took refuge in a temple, where he was seized and put to death.
Then seven distinguished Persians conspired against the Magian. Their names were Onophas, Idernes, Norondabates, Mardonius, Barisses, Ataphernes, and Darius Hystaspis. After they had given and taken the most solemn pledges, they admitted to their counsels Artasyras and Bagapates, who kept all the keys of the palace. The seven, having been admitted into the palace by Bagapates, found the Magian asleep. At the sight of them he jumped up, but finding no weapon ready to hand (for Bagapates had secretly removed them all) he smashed a chair made of gold and defended himself with one of the legs, but was finally stabbed to death by the seven. He had reigned seven months.
Darius was chosen king from the seven conspirators in accordance with a test agreed upon, his horse being the first to neigh after the sun had risen, the result of a cunning stratagem. The Persians celebrate the day on which the Magian was put to death by a festival called Magophonia. Darius ordered a tomb to be built for himself in a two-peaked mountain, but when he desired to go and see it he was dissuaded by the soothsayers and his parents. The latter, however, were anxious to make the ascent to it, but the priests who were dragging them up, being frightened at the sight of some snakes, let go the ropes and they fell and were dashed to pieces. Darius was greatly grieved and ordered the heads of the forty men who were responsible to be cut off.
Darius ordered Ariaramnes, satrap of Cappadocia, to cross over into Scythia, and carry off a number of prisoners, male and female. He went over in thirty penteconters, and among others took captive Marsagetes, the Scythian king’s brother, who had been imprisoned by his own brother for certain offences. The ruler of the Scythians (Scytharkes), being enraged, wrote an abusive letter to Darius, who replied in the same tone. Darius then collected an army of 800,000 men and crossed the Bosporus and the Ister by a bridge of boats into Scythian territory in fifteen days. The two kings sent each other a bow in turn. Darius, seeing that the bow of the Scythians was stronger, turned back and fled across the bridges, destroying some of them in his haste before the entire army had crossed. Eighty thousand of his men, who had been left behind in Europe, were put to death by the ruler of the Scythians. Darius, after he had crossed the bridge, set fire to the houses and temples of the Chalcedonians, because they had attempted to break down the bridges which he had made near their city and had also destroyed the altar erected by him, when crossing, in honour of Zeus Diabaterios.
Datis, the commander of the Persian fleet, on his return from Pontus, ravaged Greece and the islands. At Marathon he was met by Miltiades; the barbarians were defeated and Datis himself slain, the Athenians afterwards refusing to give up his body at the request of the Persians.
Darius then returned to Persia, where, after having offered sacrifice, he died after an illness of thirty days, in the seventy-second year of his age and the thirty-first of his reign. Artasyras and Bagapates also died, the latter having been for seven years the keeper of the tomb of Darius.
Darius was succeeded by his son Xerxes, over whom. Artapanus the son of Artasyras had as great influence as his father had had over Darius. His other confidential advisers were the aged Mardonius and Matacas the eunuch. Xerxes married Amestris, the daughter of Onophas, who bore him a son, Dariaeus, two years afterwards Hystaspes and Artoxerxes, and two daughters, one named Rhodogune and another called Amytis after her grandmother.
Xerxes decided to make war upon Greece, because the Chalcedonians had attempted to break down the bridge as already stated and had destroyed the altar which Darius had set up, and because the Athenians had slain Datis and refused to give up his body. But first he visited Babylon, being desirous of seeing the tomb of Belitanes, which Mardonius showed him. But he was unable to fill the vessel of oil, as’ had been written.
Thence he proceeded to Agbatana, where he heard of the revolt of the Babylonians and the murder of Zopyrus their satrap. Ctesias’s account is different from that of Herodotus. What the latter relates of Zopyrus is attributed by Ctesias, with the exception of his mule giving birth to a foal, to Megabyzus, the son-in-law of Xerxes and the husband of his daughter Amytis. Babylon was taken by Megabyzus, upon whom Xerxes bestowed, amongst other rewards, a golden hand-mill, weighing six talents, the most honourable of the royal gifts. Then Xerxes, having collected a Persian army, 800,000 men and 1000 triremes without reckoning the chariots, set out against Greece, having first thrown a bridge across at Abydos. Demaratus the Spartan, who arrived there first and accompanied Xerxes across, dissuaded him from invading Sparta. His general Artapanus, with 10,000 men, fought an engagement with Leonidas, the Spartan general, at Thermopylae; the Persian host was cut to pieces, while only two or three of the Spartans were slain. The king then ordered an attack with 20,000, but these were defeated, and although flogged to the battle, were routed again. The next day he ordered an attack with 50,000, but without success, and accordingly ceased operations. Thorax the Thessalian and Calliades and Timaphernes, the leaders of the Trachinians, who were present with their forces, were summoned by Xerxes together with Demaratus and Hegias the Ephesian, who told him that the Spartans could never be defeated unless they were surrounded. A Persian army of 40,000 men was conducted by the two leaders of the Trachinians over an almost inaccessible mountain-path to the rear of the Lacedaemonians, who were surrounded and died bravely to a man.
Xerxes sent another army of 120,000 men against Plataea under the command of Mardonius, at the instigation of the Thebans. He was opposed by Pausanias the Spartan, with only 300 Spartiates, 1000 perioeki, and 6000 from the other cities. The Persians suffered a severe defeat, Mardonius being wounded and obliged to take to flight. He was afterwards sent by Xerxes to plunder the temple of Apollo, where he is said to have died from injuries received during a terrible hailstorm, to the great grief of Xerxes.
Xerxes then advanced against Athens itself, the inhabitants of which manned 110 triremes and took refuge in Salamis; Xerxes took possession of the empty city and set fire to it, with the exception of the Acropolis, which was defended by a small band of men who had remained; at last, they also made their escape by night, and the Acropolis was fired. After this, Xerxes proceeded to a narrow strip of land in Attica called Heracleum, and began to construct an embankment in the direction of Salamis, intending to cross over on foot. By the advice of the Athenians Themistocles and Aristides archers were summoned from Crete. Then a naval engagement took place between the Greeks with 700 ships and the Persians with more than 1000 under Onophas. The Athenians were victorious, thanks to the advice and clever strategy of Aristides and Themistocles; the Persians lost 500 ships, and Xerxes took to flight. In the remaining battles 12,000 Persians were killed.
Xerxes, having crossed over into Asia and advanced towards Sardes, despatched Megabyzus to plunder the temple at Delphi. On his refusing to go, the eunuch Matacas was sent in his place, to insult Apollo and plunder the temple. Having carried out his orders he returned to Xerxes, who in the meantime had arrived in Persia from Babylon. Here Megabyzus accused his wife Amytis (the daughter of Xerxes) of having committed adultery. Xerxes severely reprimanded her, but she declared that she was not guilty. Artapanus and Aspamitres the eunuch, the confidential advisers of Xerxes, resolved to kill their master. Having done so, they persuaded Artoxerxes that his brother Dariaeus had murdered him. Dariaeus was taken to the palace of Artoxerxes, and, although he vehemently denied the accusation, he was put to death.
Thus Artoxerxes became king, thanks to Artapanus, who entered into a conspiracy against him with Megabyzus (who was bitterly aggrieved at the suspicion of adultery against his wife), each taking an oath to remain loyal to the other. Nevertheless, Megabyzus revealed the plot, the guilty conduct of Artapanus came to light, and he met the death which he had intended for Artoxerxes. Aspamitres, who had taken part in the murders of Xerxes and Dariaeus was cruelly put to death, being exposed in the trough. After the death of Artapanus there was a battle between his fellow-conspirators and the other Persians, in which the three sons of Artapanus were killed and Megabyzus severely wounded. Artoxerxes, Amytis, and Rhodogune, and their mother Amestris were deeply grieved, and his life was only saved by the skill and attention of Apollonides, a physician of Cos.
Bactra and its satrap, another Artapanus, revolted from Artoxerxes. The first battle was indecisive, but in a second, the Bactrians were defeated because the wind blew in their faces, and the whole of Bactria submitted.
Egypt, under the leadership of Inarus a Libyan, assisted by a native of the country, also revolted, and preparations were made for war. At the request of Inarus the Athenians sent forty ships to his aid. Artoxerxes himself was desirous of taking part in the expedition, but his friends dissuaded him. He therefore sent Achaemenides his brother with 400,000 infantry and eighty ships. Inarus joined battle with Achaemenides, the Egyptians were victorious, Achaemenides being slain by Inarus and his body sent to Artoxerxes. Inarus was also successful at sea. Charitimides, the commander of the forty Athenian ships, covered himself with glory in a naval engagement, in which twenty out of fifty Persian ships were captured with their crews, and the remaining thirty sunk.
The king then sent Megabyzus against Inarus, with an additional army of 200,000 men and 300 ships commanded by Oriscus; so that, not counting the ships’ crews, his army consisted of 500,000. For, when Achaemenides fell, 100,000 of his 400,000 men perished. A desperate battle ensued, in which the losses were heavy on both sides, although those of the Egyptians were heavier. Megabyzus wounded Inarus in the thigh, and put him to flight, and the Persians obtained a complete victory. Inarus fled to Byblus, an Egyptian stronghold, accompanied by those of the Greeks who had not been killed in battle. Then all Egypt, except Byblus, submitted to Megabyzus. But since this stronghold appeared impregnable, he came to terms with Inarus and the Greeks (6000 and more in number), on condition that they should suffer no harm from the king, and that the Greeks should be allowed to return home whenever they pleased.
Having appointed Sarsamas satrap of Egypt, Megabyzus took Inarus and the Greeks to Artoxerxes, who was greatly enraged with Inarus because he had slain his brother Achaemenides. Megabyzus told him what had happened, how he had given his word to Inarus and the Greeks when he occupied Byblus, and earnestly entreated the king to spare their lives. The king consented, and the news that no harm would come to Inarus and the Greeks was immediately reported to the army.
But Amestris, aggrieved at the idea that Inarus and the Greeks should escape punishment for the death of her son Achaemenides, asked the king [to give them up to her], but he refused; she then appealed to Megabyzus, who also dismissed her. At last, however, through her constant importunity she obtained her wish from her son, and after five years the king gave up Inarus and the Greeks to her. Inarus was impaled on three stakes; fifty of the Greeks, all that she could lay hands on, were decapitated. Megabyzus was deeply grieved at this, and asked permission to retire to his satrapy, Syria. Having secretly sent the rest of the Greeks thither in advance, on his arrival he collected a large army (150,000 not including cavalry) and raised the standard of revolt. Usiris with 200,000 men was sent against him; a battle took place, in which Megabyzus and Usiris wounded each other. Usiris inflicted a wound with a spear in Megabyzus’s thigh two fingers deep; Megabyzus in turn first wounded Usiris in the thigh and then in the shoulder, so that he fell from his horse. Megabyzus, as he fell, protected him, and ordered that he should be spared. Many Persians were slain in the battle, in which Zopyrus and Artyphius, the sons of Megabyzus, distinguished themselves, and Megabyzus gained a decisive victory. Usiris received the greatest attention and was sent to Artoxerxes at his request.
Another army was sent against him under Menostanes the son of Artarius, satrap of Babylon and brother of Artoxerxes. Another battle took place, in which the Persians were routed; Menostanes was shot by Megabyzus, first in the shoulder and then in the head, but the wound was not mortal. However, he fled with his army and Megabyzus gained a brilliant victory. Artarius then sent to Megabyzus, advising him to come to terms with the king. Megabyzus replied that he was ready to do so, but on condition that he should not be obliged to appear at court again, and should be allowed to remain in his satrapy. When his answer was reported to the king, the Paphlagonian eunuch Artoxares and Amestris urged him to make peace without delay. Accordingly, Artarius, his wife Amytis, Artoxares (then twenty years of age), and Petisas, the son of Usiris and father of Spitamas, were sent for that purpose to Megabyzus. After many entreaties and solemn promises, with great difficulty they succeeded in persuading Megabyzus to visit the king, who finally pardoned him for all his offences.
Some time afterwards, while the king was out hunting he was attacked by a lion, which Megabyzus slew as it reared and was preparing to rush upon him. The king, enraged because Megabyzus had slain the animal first, ordered his head to be cut off, but owing to the entreaties of Amestris, Amytis, and others his life was spared and he was banished to Curtae, a town on the Red Sea. Artoxares the eunuch was also banished to Armenia for having often spoken freely to the king in favour of Megabyzus. After having passed five years in exile, Megabyzus escaped by pretending to be a leper, whom no one might approach, and returned home to Amytis, who hardly recognized him. On the intercession of Amestris and Amytis, the king became reconciled to him and admitted him to his table as before. Megabyzus died at the age of seventy-six, deeply mourned by the king.
After his death, his wife Amytis, like her mother Amestris before her, showed great fondness for the society of men. The physician Apollonides of Cos, when Amytis was suffering from a slight illness, being called in to attend her, fell in love with her. For some time they carried on an intrigue, but finally she told her mother. She in turn informed the king, who left her to do as she would with the offender. Apollonides was kept in chains for two months as a punishment, and then buried alive on the same day that Amytis died.
Zopyrus, the son of Megabyzus and Amytis, after the death of his father and mother revolted against the king. He visited Athens, where he was well received owing to the services his mother had rendered to the Athenians. From Athens he sailed with some Athenian troops to Caunus and summoned it to surrender. The inhabitants expressed themselves ready to do so, provided the Athenians who accompanied him were not admitted. While Zopyrus was mounting the wall, a Caunian named Alcides hit him on the head with a stone and killed him. The Caunian was crucified by order of his grandmother Amestris. Some time afterwards, Amestris died at a great age, and Artoxerxes also died after having reigned forty-two years. Here the seventeenth book ends.
Artoxerxes was succeeded by his son Xerxes, his only legitimate son by Damaspia, who died on the same day as her husband. The bodies of the king and queen were conveyed by Bagorazus to Persia. Artoxerxes had seventeen illegitimate sons, amongst them Secydianus by Alogune the Babylonian, Ochus (afterwards king) and Arsites by Cosmartidene, also a Babylonian. Besides these three, he also had a son Bagapaeus and a daughter Parysatis by Andria, also a Babylonian, who became the mother of Artoxerxes and Cyrus. During his father’s lifetime, Ochus was made satrap of Hyrcania, and given in marriage to Parysatis, the daughter of Artoxerxes and his own sister.
Secydianus, having won over the eunuch Pharnacyas, who had the greatest influence over Xerxes next to Bagorazus, Menostanes, and some others, entered the palace after a festival, while Xerxes was lying in a drunken sleep and put him to death, forty-five days after the death of his father. The bodies of both father and son were conveyed together to Persia, for the mules which drew the chariot in which was the father’s body, refused to move, as if waiting for that of the son; and when it arrived, they at once went on rapidly.
Secydianus thus became king and appointed Menostanes his azabarites. After Bagorazus returned to court, Secydianus, who cherished a long-standing enmity against him, on the pretext that he had left his father’s body in Persia without his permission, ordered him to be stoned to death. The army was greatly grieved, and, although Secydianus distributed large sums amongst the soldiers, they hated him for the murder of his brother Xerxes and now for that of Bagorazus.
Secydianus, then summoned Ochus to court, who promised to present himself but failed to do so. After he had been summoned several times, he collected a large force with the obvious intention of seizing the throne. He. was joined by Arbarius, commander of the cavalry, and Arxanes, satrap of Egypt. The eunuch Artoxares also came from Armenia and placed the crown on the head of Ochus against his will.
Thus Ochus became king and changed his name to Dariaeus. At the suggestion of Parysatis, he endeavoured by trickery and solemn promises to win over Secydianus. Menostanes did all he could to prevent Secydianus from putting faith in these promises or coming to terms with those who were trying to deceive him. In spite of this Secydianus allowed himself to be persuaded, was arrested, thrown into the ashes, and died, after a reign of six months and fifteen days.
Ochus (also called Dariaeus) thus became sole ruler. Three eunuchs, Artoxares, Artibarzanes, and Athous had the greatest influence with him, but his chief adviser was his wife. By her he had had two children before he. became king, a daughter Amestris and a son Arsaces, afterwards called Artoxerxes. After his accession she bore him another son, called Cyrus from the sun. A third son was named Artostes, who was followed by several others, to the number of thirteen. The writer says that he obtained these particulars from Parysatis herself. Most of the children soon died, the only survivors being those just mentioned and a fourth named Oxendras. Arsites, his own brother by the same father and mother, revolted against the king together with Artyphius the son of Megabyzus. Artasyras was sent against them, and, having been defeated in two battles, gained the victory in a third, after he had bribed the Greeks, who were with Artyphius, so that only three Milesians remained faithful to him. At length Artyphius, finding that Arsites did not appear, surrendered to the king, after Artasyras had solemnly promised him that his life should be spared. The king was anxious to put Artyphius to death, but Parysatis advised him not to do so at once, in order to deceive Arsites and induce him also to submit; when both had surrendered, she said they could both be put to death. The plan succeeded, Artyphius and Arsites surrendered, and were thrown into the ashes. The king wished to pardon Arsites, but Parysatis by her importunity persuaded him to put him to death. Phar-nacyas, who had assisted Secydianus to kill Xerxes, was stoned to death. Menostanes was also arrested and condemned, but anticipated his fate by suicide.
Pissuthnes also revolted, and Tissaphernes, Spithradates, and Parmises were sent against him. Pissuthnes set out to meet them with Lycon the Athenian and a body of Greeks, who were bribed by the king’s generals to desert him. Pissuthnes then surrendered, and, after having received assurances that his life should be spared, accompanied Tissaphernes to the court. But the king ordered him to be thrown into the ashes and gave his satrapy to Tissaphernes. Lycon also received several towns and districts as the reward of his treachery.
Artoxares the eunuch, who had great influence with the king, desiring to obtain possession of the throne himself, plotted against his master. He ordered his wife to make him a false beard and moustache, that he might look like a man. His wife, however, betrayed him; he was seized, handed over to Parysatis, and put to death. Arsaces the king’s son, who afterwards changed his name to Artoxerxes, married Statira, daughter of Idernes, whose son Teritukhmes, who had been appointed to his father’s satrapy after his death, married the king’s daughter Amestris. Teritukhmes had a half-sister Roxana, of great beauty and very skilful in bending the bow and hurling the spear. Teritukhmes having fallen in love with her and conceived a hatred of his wife Amestris, in order to get rid of the latter, resolved to put her into a sack, where she was to be stabbed to death by 300 accomplices, with whom he had entered into a conspiracy to raise a revolt. But a certain Udiastes, who had great influence with Teritukhmes, having received letters from the king promising to reward him generously if he could save his daughter, attacked and murdered Teritukhmes, who courageously defended himself and slew (it is said) thirty-seven of his assailants.
Mitradates, the son of Udiastes, the armour-bearer of Teritukhmes, took no part in this affair, and when he learnt what had happened, he cursed his father and seized the city of Zaris to hand over to the son of Teritukhmes. Parysatis ordered the mother of Teritukhmes, his brothers Mitrostes and Helicus, and his sisters except Statira to be put to death. Roxana was hewn in pieces alive. The king told his wife Parysatis to inflict the same punishment upon the wife of his son Arsaces. But Arsaces by his tears and lamentations appeased the wrath of his father and mother. Parysatis having relented, Ochus spared Statira’s life, but at the same time told Parysatis that she would one day greatly regret it.
In the nineteenth book the author relates how Ochus Dariaeus fell sick and died at Babylon, having reigned thirty-five years. Arsaces, who succeeded him, changed his name to Artoxerxes. Udiastes had his tongue cut out and torn out by the roots behind; and so he died. His son Mitradates was appointed to his satrapy. This was due to the instigation of Statira, whereat Parysatis was greatly aggrieved. Cyrus, being accused by Tissaphernes of designs on the life of his brother Artoxerxes, took refuge with his mother, by whose intervention he was cleared of the charge. Disgraced by his brother, he retired to his satrapy and laid his plans for revolt. Satibarzanes accused Orontes of an intrigue with Parysatis, although her conduct was irreproachable; Orontes was put to death, and his mother was greatly enraged against the king, because Parysatis had poisoned the son of Teritukhmes. The author also mentions him who cremated his father contrary to the law, Hellanicus and Herodotus being thus convicted of falsehood.
Cyrus having revolted against his brother collected an army composed of both Greeks and barbarians. Clearchus was in command of the Greeks; Syennesis, king of Cilicia, assisted both Cyrus and Artoxerxes. The author then reports the speeches of the two princes to their troops. Clearchus the Spartan, who was in command of the Greeks, and Menon the Thessalian, who accompanied Cyrus, were always at variance, because Cyrus took the advice of Clearchus in everything, while Menon was disregarded. Large numbers deserted from Artoxerxes to Cyrus, none from Cyrus to Artoxerxes. For this reason Artabarius, who meditated desertion, was accused and thrown into the ashes. Cyrus attacked the king’s army and gained the victory, but lost his life by neglecting the advice of Clearchus. His body was mutilated by Artoxerxes, who ordered his head and the hand with which he had struck him to be cut off, and carried them about in triumph. Clearchus the Spartan withdrew during the night with his Greeks, and after he had seized one of the cities belonging to Parysatis, the king made peace with him.
Parysatis set out for Babylon, mourning for the death of Cyrus, and having with difficulty recovered his head and hand sent them to Susa for burial. It was Bagapates who had cut off his head by order of Artoxerxes. Parysatis, when playing at dice with the king, won the game and Bagapates as the prize, and afterwards had him flayed alive and crucified. At length she was persuaded by the entreaties of Artoxerxes to give up mourning for her son. The king rewarded the soldier who brought him Cyrus’s cap, and the Carian who was supposed to have wounded him, whom Parysatis afterwards tortured and put to death. Mitradates having boasted at table of having killed Cyrus, Parysatis demanded that he should be given up to her, and having got him into her hands, put him to death with great cruelty. Such is the contents of the nineteenth and twentieth books.
The twenty-first, twenty-second, and twenty-third books conclude the history. Tissaphernes began to plot against the Greeks, with the assistance of Menon the Thessalian, whom he had won over. In this manner, by cunning and solemn promises, he got Clearchus and the other generals in his power, although Clearchus suspected and was on his guard against treachery and endeavoured to avert it; but the soldiers, being deceived by the words of Menon, compelled the unwilling Clearchus to visit Tissaphernes. Proxenus the Boeotian, who had been already deceived, also advised him to go. Clearchus and the other generals were sent in chains to Artoxerxes at Babylon, where all the people flocked to see Clearchus. Ctesias himself, Parysatis’s physician, bestowed every attention upon Clearchus while he was in prison and did all he could to mitigate his lot. Parysatis would have given him his freedom and let him go, had not Statira persuaded the king to put him to death. After his execution, a marvellous thing happened. A strong wind sprang up and heaped a quantity of earth upon his body, which formed a natural tomb. The other Greeks who had been sent with him were also put to death, with the exception of Menon.
The author next tells us of the insults heaped by Parysatis on Statira, and the poisoning of Statira, which was brought about in the following manner, although she had long been on her guard against this kind of death. A table knife was smeared with poison on one side. One of the little birds, about the size of an egg, called rhyndace, was cut in half by Parysatis, who herself took and ate the portion which had not been touched by the poison, at the same time offering Statira the poisoned half. Statira, seeing that Parysatis was eating her own portion, had no suspicions, and took the fatal poison. The king, enraged with his mother, ordered her eunuchs to be seized and tortured, including her chief confidant Ginge. The latter, being accused and brought to trial, was acquitted by the judges, but the king condemned her and ordered her to be tortured and put to death, which caused a lasting quarrel between mother and son.
The tomb of Clearchus, eight years afterwards, was found covered with palm-trees, which Parysatis had had secretly planted by her eunuchs.
The author next states the cause of the quarrel of Artoxerxes with Evagoras, king of Salamis. The messengers sent by Evagoras to Ctesias about the receiving of letters from Abuletes. The letter of Ctesias to Evagoras concerning reconciliation with Anaxagoras prince of the Cyprians. The return of the messengers of Evagoras to Cyprus and the delivery of the letters from Ctesias to Evagoras. The speech of Conon to Evagoras about visiting the king; and the letter of Evagoras on the honours he had received from him. The letter of Conon to Ctesias, the agreement of Evagoras to pay tribute to the king, and the giving of the letters to Ctesias. Speech of Ctesias to the king about Conon and the letter to him. The presents sent by Evagoras delivered to Satibarzanes; the arrival of the messengers in Cyprus. The letters of Conon to the king and Ctesias. The detention of the Spartan ambassadors to the king. Letter from the king to Conon and the Spartans, delivered to them by Ctesias himself. Conon appointed commander of the fleet by Pharnabazus.
The visit of Ctesias to Cnidus, his native city, and to Sparta. Proceedings against the Spartan ambassadors at Rhodes, and their acquittal. The number of stations, days, and parasangs from Ephesus to Bactria and India. The work concludes with a list of the Assyrian kings from Ninus and Semiramis to Artoxerxes. This writer’s style is clear and very simple, which makes the work agreeable to read. He uses the Ionic dialect, not throughout, as Herodotus does, but only in certain expressions, nor does he, like Herodotus, interrupt the thread of his narrative by ill-timed digressions. Although he reproaches Herodotus for his old wives’ tales, he is not free from the same defect, especially in his account of India. The charm of his history chiefly consists in his manner of relating events, which is strong in the emotional and unexpected, and in his varied use of mythical embellishment. The style is more careless than it should be, and the phraseology often descends to the commonplace, whereas that of Herodotus, both in this and other respects as far as vigour and art are concerned, is the model representative of the Ionic dialect. (trans. J. H. Freese)
Read the Persica of Ctesias of Cnidus in twenty-three books. In the first six he treats of Assyrian affairs and of events before the foundation of the Persian empire, and only begins to treat of Persian affairs in the seventh book. In books 7-13 he gives an account of Cyrus, Cambyses, the Magian, Darius, and Xerxes, in which he differs almost entirely from Herodotus, whom he accuses of falsehood in many passages and calls an inventor of fables. Ctesias is later than Herodotus, and says that he was an eyewitness of most of what he describes, and that, where this was not the case, he obtained his information directly from Persians, and in this manner he composed his history. He not only disagrees with Herodotus, but also in some respects with Xenophon the son of Gryllus. Ctesias flourished in the time of Cyrus, son of Darius and Parysatis, brother of Artoxerxes who succeeded to the throne.
He begins by stating that Astyages (whom he also calls Astyigas) was not related to Cyrus; that he fled from him to Agbatana, and hid himself in the. Vaults of the royal palace with the aid of his daughter Amytis and her husband Spitamas; that Cyrus, when he came to the throne, gave orders that not only Spitamas and Amytis, but also their sons Spitaces and Megabernes should be put to the torture for assisting Astyigas; that the latter, to save his grandchildren from being tortured on his account, gave himself up and was taken and loaded with chains by Oebaras; that shortly afterwards he was set free by Cyrus and honoured as his father; that his daughter Amytis was treated by him as a mother and afterwards became his wife. Her husband Spitamas, however, was put to death, because, when asked, he had falsely declared that he did not know where Astyigas was. In his account of these events Ctesias differs from Herodotus. He adds that Cyrus made war upon the Bactrians, without obtaining a decisive victory; but that when they learnt that Astyigas had been adopted by Cyrus as his father, and Amytis as his mother and wife, they voluntarily submitted to Amytis and Cyrus.
He also relates how Cyrus made war on the Sacae, and took prisoner their king Amorges, the husband of Sparethra, who after her husband was captured collected an army of 300,000 men and 200,000 women, made war upon Cyrus and defeated him. Amongst the large number of prisoners taken by the Sacae were Parmises, the brother of Amytis, and his three sons, who were subsequently released in exchange for Amorges.
Cyrus, assisted by Amorges, marched against Croesus and the city of Sardes. By the advice of Oebaras he set up wooden figures representing Persians round the walls, the sight of which so terrified the inhabitants that the city was easily taken. Before this, the son of Croesus was handed over as a hostage, the king himself having been deceived by a divine vision. Since Croesus was evidently meditating treachery, his son was put to death before his eyes; his mother, who was a witness of his execution, committed suicide by throwing herself from the walls. After the city was taken Croesus fled for refuge to the temple of Apollo; he was three times put in chains, and three times loosed invisibly from his bonds, although the temple was shut and sealed, and Oebaras was on guard. Those who had been prisoners with Croesus had their heads cut off, on suspicion of having conspired to release him. He was subsequently taken to the palace and bound more securely, but was again loosed by thunder and lightning sent from heaven. Finally Cyrus, against his will, set him free, treated him kindly from that time, and bestowed upon him a large city near Agbatana, named Barene, in which there were 5000 horsemen and 10,000 peltasts, javelin-throwers, and archers.
Cyrus then sent Petisacas the eunuch, who had great influence with him, to Persia to fetch Astyigas from the Barcanians, he and his daughter Amytis being anxious to see him. Oebaras then advised Petisacas to leave Astyigas in some lonely spot, to perish of hunger and thirst; which he did. But the crime was revealed in a dream, and Petisacas, at the urgent request of Amytis, was handed over to her by Cyrus for punishment. She ordered his eyes to be dug out, had him flayed alive, and then crucified. Oebaras, afraid of suffering the same punishment, although Cyrus assured him that he would not allow it, starved himself to death by fasting for ten days. Astyigas was accorded a splendid funeral; his body had remained untouched by wild beasts in the wilder-ness, some lions having guarded it until it was removed by Petisacas.
Cyrus marched against the Derbices (Derbikes), whose king was Amoraeus. The Derbices suddenly brought up some elephants which had been kept in ambush, and put Cyrus’s cavalry to flight. Cyrus himself fell from his horse, and an Indian wounded him mortally with a javelin under the thigh. The Indians fought on the side of the Derbices and supplied them with elephants. Cyrus’s friends took him up while he was still alive and returned to camp. Many Persians and Derbices were slain, to the number of 10,000 on each side.
Amorges, when he heard of what had happened to Cyrus, in great haste went to the assistance of the Persians with 20,000 Sacan cavalry. In a subsequent engagement, the Persians and Sacae gained a brilliant victory, Amoraeus, the king of the Derbices, and his two sons being slain. Thirty thousand Derbicans and 9000 Persians fell in the battle. The country then submitted to Cyrus.
Cyrus, when near his death, declared his elder son Cambyses king, his younger son Tanyoxarces (Tanyoxarkes) governor of Bactria, Choramnia, Parthia, and Carmania, free from tribute. Of the children of Spitamas, he appointed Spitaces satrap of the Derbices, Megabernes of the Barcanians, bidding them obey their mother in everything. He also endeavoured to make them friends with Amorges, bestowing his blessing on those who should remain on friendly terms with one another, and a curse upon those who first did wrong. With these words he died, three days after he had been wounded, after a reign of thirty years. This is the end of the eleventh book.
The twelfth book begins with the reign of Cambyses. Immediately after his accession he sent his father’s body by the eunuch Bagapates to Persia for burial, and in all other respects carried out his father’s wishes. The men who had the greatest influence with him were Artasyras the Hyrcanian, and the eunuchs Izabates, Aspadates, and Bagapates, who had been his father’s favourite after the death of Petisacas. Bagapates was in command of the expedition against Egypt and its king Amyrtaeus, whom he defeated, through the treachery of his chief counsellor Combaphis the eunuch, who betrayed the bridges and other important secrets, on condition that Cambyses made him governor of Egypt. Cambyses first made this arrangement with him through Izabates, the cousin of Combaphis, and afterwards confirmed it by his personal promise. Having taken Amyrtaeus alive he did him no harm, but merely removed him to Susa with 6000 Egyptians chosen by himself. The whole of Egypt then became subject to Cambyses. The Egyptians lost 50,000 men in the battle, the Persians 7000.
In the meantime a certain Magian called Sphendadates, who had been flogged by Tanyoxarces for some offence, went to Cambyses and informed him that his brother was plotting against him. In proof of this he declared that Tanyoxarces would refuse to come if summoned. Cambyses thereupon summoned his brother, who, being engaged on another matter, put off coming. The Magian thereupon accused him more freely. His mother Amytis, who suspected the Magian, advised Cambyses not to listen to him. Cambyses pretended not to believe him, while in reality he did. Being summoned by Cambyses a third time, Tanyoxarces obeyed the summons. His brother embraced him, but nevertheless determined to put him to death, and, unknown to his mother Amytis, took measures to carry out his plan. The Magian made the following suggestion. Being himself very like Tanyoxarces, he advised the king publicly to order that his head should be cut off as having falsely accused the king’s brother; that in the meantime Tanyoxarces should secretly be put to death, and he (the Magian) should be dressed in his clothes, so that Tanyoxarces should be thought alive. Cambyses agreed to this. Tanyoxarces was put to death by being forced to drink bull’s blood; the Magian put on his clothes and was mistaken for him by the people. The fraud was not known for a long time except to Artasyras, Bagapates, and Izabates, to whom alone Cambyses had entrusted the secret.
Then Cambyses, having summoned Labyzus, the chief of Tanyoxarces’s eunuchs, and the other eunuchs, showed them. the Magian seated and dressed in the guise of his brother, and asked them whether they thought he was Tanyoxarces. Labyzus, in astonishment, replied, “Whom else should we think him to be?” the likeness being so great that he was deceived. The Magian was accordingly sent to Bactria, where he played the part of Tanyoxarces. Five years later Amytis, having learnt the truth from the eunuch Tibethis, whom the Magian had flogged, demanded that Cambyses should hand over Sphendadates to her, but he refused. Whereupon Amytis, after heaping curses upon him, drank poison and died.
On a certain occasion, while Cambyses was offering sacrifice, no blood flowed from the slaughtered victims. This greatly alarmed him, and the birth of a son without a head by Roxana increased this alarm. This portent was interpreted by the wise men to mean that he would leave no successor. His mother also appeared to him in a dream, threatening retribution for the murder he had committed, which alarmed him still more. At Babylon, while carving a piece of wood with a knife for his amusement, he accidentally wounded himself in the thigh, and died eleven days afterwards, in the eighteenth year of his reign.
Bagapates and Artasyras, before the death of Cambyses, conspired to raise the Magian to the throne, as they afterwards did. Izabates, who had gone to convey the body of Cambyses to Persia, finding on his return that the Magian was reigning under the name of Tanyoxarces, disclosed the truth to the army and exposed the Magian. After this he took refuge in a temple, where he was seized and put to death.
Then seven distinguished Persians conspired against the Magian. Their names were Onophas, Idernes, Norondabates, Mardonius, Barisses, Ataphernes, and Darius Hystaspis. After they had given and taken the most solemn pledges, they admitted to their counsels Artasyras and Bagapates, who kept all the keys of the palace. The seven, having been admitted into the palace by Bagapates, found the Magian asleep. At the sight of them he jumped up, but finding no weapon ready to hand (for Bagapates had secretly removed them all) he smashed a chair made of gold and defended himself with one of the legs, but was finally stabbed to death by the seven. He had reigned seven months.
Darius was chosen king from the seven conspirators in accordance with a test agreed upon, his horse being the first to neigh after the sun had risen, the result of a cunning stratagem. The Persians celebrate the day on which the Magian was put to death by a festival called Magophonia. Darius ordered a tomb to be built for himself in a two-peaked mountain, but when he desired to go and see it he was dissuaded by the soothsayers and his parents. The latter, however, were anxious to make the ascent to it, but the priests who were dragging them up, being frightened at the sight of some snakes, let go the ropes and they fell and were dashed to pieces. Darius was greatly grieved and ordered the heads of the forty men who were responsible to be cut off.
Darius ordered Ariaramnes, satrap of Cappadocia, to cross over into Scythia, and carry off a number of prisoners, male and female. He went over in thirty penteconters, and among others took captive Marsagetes, the Scythian king’s brother, who had been imprisoned by his own brother for certain offences. The ruler of the Scythians (Scytharkes), being enraged, wrote an abusive letter to Darius, who replied in the same tone. Darius then collected an army of 800,000 men and crossed the Bosporus and the Ister by a bridge of boats into Scythian territory in fifteen days. The two kings sent each other a bow in turn. Darius, seeing that the bow of the Scythians was stronger, turned back and fled across the bridges, destroying some of them in his haste before the entire army had crossed. Eighty thousand of his men, who had been left behind in Europe, were put to death by the ruler of the Scythians. Darius, after he had crossed the bridge, set fire to the houses and temples of the Chalcedonians, because they had attempted to break down the bridges which he had made near their city and had also destroyed the altar erected by him, when crossing, in honour of Zeus Diabaterios.
Datis, the commander of the Persian fleet, on his return from Pontus, ravaged Greece and the islands. At Marathon he was met by Miltiades; the barbarians were defeated and Datis himself slain, the Athenians afterwards refusing to give up his body at the request of the Persians.
Darius then returned to Persia, where, after having offered sacrifice, he died after an illness of thirty days, in the seventy-second year of his age and the thirty-first of his reign. Artasyras and Bagapates also died, the latter having been for seven years the keeper of the tomb of Darius.
Darius was succeeded by his son Xerxes, over whom. Artapanus the son of Artasyras had as great influence as his father had had over Darius. His other confidential advisers were the aged Mardonius and Matacas the eunuch. Xerxes married Amestris, the daughter of Onophas, who bore him a son, Dariaeus, two years afterwards Hystaspes and Artoxerxes, and two daughters, one named Rhodogune and another called Amytis after her grandmother.
Xerxes decided to make war upon Greece, because the Chalcedonians had attempted to break down the bridge as already stated and had destroyed the altar which Darius had set up, and because the Athenians had slain Datis and refused to give up his body. But first he visited Babylon, being desirous of seeing the tomb of Belitanes, which Mardonius showed him. But he was unable to fill the vessel of oil, as’ had been written.
Thence he proceeded to Agbatana, where he heard of the revolt of the Babylonians and the murder of Zopyrus their satrap. Ctesias’s account is different from that of Herodotus. What the latter relates of Zopyrus is attributed by Ctesias, with the exception of his mule giving birth to a foal, to Megabyzus, the son-in-law of Xerxes and the husband of his daughter Amytis. Babylon was taken by Megabyzus, upon whom Xerxes bestowed, amongst other rewards, a golden hand-mill, weighing six talents, the most honourable of the royal gifts. Then Xerxes, having collected a Persian army, 800,000 men and 1000 triremes without reckoning the chariots, set out against Greece, having first thrown a bridge across at Abydos. Demaratus the Spartan, who arrived there first and accompanied Xerxes across, dissuaded him from invading Sparta. His general Artapanus, with 10,000 men, fought an engagement with Leonidas, the Spartan general, at Thermopylae; the Persian host was cut to pieces, while only two or three of the Spartans were slain. The king then ordered an attack with 20,000, but these were defeated, and although flogged to the battle, were routed again. The next day he ordered an attack with 50,000, but without success, and accordingly ceased operations. Thorax the Thessalian and Calliades and Timaphernes, the leaders of the Trachinians, who were present with their forces, were summoned by Xerxes together with Demaratus and Hegias the Ephesian, who told him that the Spartans could never be defeated unless they were surrounded. A Persian army of 40,000 men was conducted by the two leaders of the Trachinians over an almost inaccessible mountain-path to the rear of the Lacedaemonians, who were surrounded and died bravely to a man.
Xerxes sent another army of 120,000 men against Plataea under the command of Mardonius, at the instigation of the Thebans. He was opposed by Pausanias the Spartan, with only 300 Spartiates, 1000 perioeki, and 6000 from the other cities. The Persians suffered a severe defeat, Mardonius being wounded and obliged to take to flight. He was afterwards sent by Xerxes to plunder the temple of Apollo, where he is said to have died from injuries received during a terrible hailstorm, to the great grief of Xerxes.
Xerxes then advanced against Athens itself, the inhabitants of which manned 110 triremes and took refuge in Salamis; Xerxes took possession of the empty city and set fire to it, with the exception of the Acropolis, which was defended by a small band of men who had remained; at last, they also made their escape by night, and the Acropolis was fired. After this, Xerxes proceeded to a narrow strip of land in Attica called Heracleum, and began to construct an embankment in the direction of Salamis, intending to cross over on foot. By the advice of the Athenians Themistocles and Aristides archers were summoned from Crete. Then a naval engagement took place between the Greeks with 700 ships and the Persians with more than 1000 under Onophas. The Athenians were victorious, thanks to the advice and clever strategy of Aristides and Themistocles; the Persians lost 500 ships, and Xerxes took to flight. In the remaining battles 12,000 Persians were killed.
Xerxes, having crossed over into Asia and advanced towards Sardes, despatched Megabyzus to plunder the temple at Delphi. On his refusing to go, the eunuch Matacas was sent in his place, to insult Apollo and plunder the temple. Having carried out his orders he returned to Xerxes, who in the meantime had arrived in Persia from Babylon. Here Megabyzus accused his wife Amytis (the daughter of Xerxes) of having committed adultery. Xerxes severely reprimanded her, but she declared that she was not guilty. Artapanus and Aspamitres the eunuch, the confidential advisers of Xerxes, resolved to kill their master. Having done so, they persuaded Artoxerxes that his brother Dariaeus had murdered him. Dariaeus was taken to the palace of Artoxerxes, and, although he vehemently denied the accusation, he was put to death.
Thus Artoxerxes became king, thanks to Artapanus, who entered into a conspiracy against him with Megabyzus (who was bitterly aggrieved at the suspicion of adultery against his wife), each taking an oath to remain loyal to the other. Nevertheless, Megabyzus revealed the plot, the guilty conduct of Artapanus came to light, and he met the death which he had intended for Artoxerxes. Aspamitres, who had taken part in the murders of Xerxes and Dariaeus was cruelly put to death, being exposed in the trough. After the death of Artapanus there was a battle between his fellow-conspirators and the other Persians, in which the three sons of Artapanus were killed and Megabyzus severely wounded. Artoxerxes, Amytis, and Rhodogune, and their mother Amestris were deeply grieved, and his life was only saved by the skill and attention of Apollonides, a physician of Cos.
Bactra and its satrap, another Artapanus, revolted from Artoxerxes. The first battle was indecisive, but in a second, the Bactrians were defeated because the wind blew in their faces, and the whole of Bactria submitted.
Egypt, under the leadership of Inarus a Libyan, assisted by a native of the country, also revolted, and preparations were made for war. At the request of Inarus the Athenians sent forty ships to his aid. Artoxerxes himself was desirous of taking part in the expedition, but his friends dissuaded him. He therefore sent Achaemenides his brother with 400,000 infantry and eighty ships. Inarus joined battle with Achaemenides, the Egyptians were victorious, Achaemenides being slain by Inarus and his body sent to Artoxerxes. Inarus was also successful at sea. Charitimides, the commander of the forty Athenian ships, covered himself with glory in a naval engagement, in which twenty out of fifty Persian ships were captured with their crews, and the remaining thirty sunk.
The king then sent Megabyzus against Inarus, with an additional army of 200,000 men and 300 ships commanded by Oriscus; so that, not counting the ships’ crews, his army consisted of 500,000. For, when Achaemenides fell, 100,000 of his 400,000 men perished. A desperate battle ensued, in which the losses were heavy on both sides, although those of the Egyptians were heavier. Megabyzus wounded Inarus in the thigh, and put him to flight, and the Persians obtained a complete victory. Inarus fled to Byblus, an Egyptian stronghold, accompanied by those of the Greeks who had not been killed in battle. Then all Egypt, except Byblus, submitted to Megabyzus. But since this stronghold appeared impregnable, he came to terms with Inarus and the Greeks (6000 and more in number), on condition that they should suffer no harm from the king, and that the Greeks should be allowed to return home whenever they pleased.
Having appointed Sarsamas satrap of Egypt, Megabyzus took Inarus and the Greeks to Artoxerxes, who was greatly enraged with Inarus because he had slain his brother Achaemenides. Megabyzus told him what had happened, how he had given his word to Inarus and the Greeks when he occupied Byblus, and earnestly entreated the king to spare their lives. The king consented, and the news that no harm would come to Inarus and the Greeks was immediately reported to the army.
But Amestris, aggrieved at the idea that Inarus and the Greeks should escape punishment for the death of her son Achaemenides, asked the king [to give them up to her], but he refused; she then appealed to Megabyzus, who also dismissed her. At last, however, through her constant importunity she obtained her wish from her son, and after five years the king gave up Inarus and the Greeks to her. Inarus was impaled on three stakes; fifty of the Greeks, all that she could lay hands on, were decapitated. Megabyzus was deeply grieved at this, and asked permission to retire to his satrapy, Syria. Having secretly sent the rest of the Greeks thither in advance, on his arrival he collected a large army (150,000 not including cavalry) and raised the standard of revolt. Usiris with 200,000 men was sent against him; a battle took place, in which Megabyzus and Usiris wounded each other. Usiris inflicted a wound with a spear in Megabyzus’s thigh two fingers deep; Megabyzus in turn first wounded Usiris in the thigh and then in the shoulder, so that he fell from his horse. Megabyzus, as he fell, protected him, and ordered that he should be spared. Many Persians were slain in the battle, in which Zopyrus and Artyphius, the sons of Megabyzus, distinguished themselves, and Megabyzus gained a decisive victory. Usiris received the greatest attention and was sent to Artoxerxes at his request.
Another army was sent against him under Menostanes the son of Artarius, satrap of Babylon and brother of Artoxerxes. Another battle took place, in which the Persians were routed; Menostanes was shot by Megabyzus, first in the shoulder and then in the head, but the wound was not mortal. However, he fled with his army and Megabyzus gained a brilliant victory. Artarius then sent to Megabyzus, advising him to come to terms with the king. Megabyzus replied that he was ready to do so, but on condition that he should not be obliged to appear at court again, and should be allowed to remain in his satrapy. When his answer was reported to the king, the Paphlagonian eunuch Artoxares and Amestris urged him to make peace without delay. Accordingly, Artarius, his wife Amytis, Artoxares (then twenty years of age), and Petisas, the son of Usiris and father of Spitamas, were sent for that purpose to Megabyzus. After many entreaties and solemn promises, with great difficulty they succeeded in persuading Megabyzus to visit the king, who finally pardoned him for all his offences.
Some time afterwards, while the king was out hunting he was attacked by a lion, which Megabyzus slew as it reared and was preparing to rush upon him. The king, enraged because Megabyzus had slain the animal first, ordered his head to be cut off, but owing to the entreaties of Amestris, Amytis, and others his life was spared and he was banished to Curtae, a town on the Red Sea. Artoxares the eunuch was also banished to Armenia for having often spoken freely to the king in favour of Megabyzus. After having passed five years in exile, Megabyzus escaped by pretending to be a leper, whom no one might approach, and returned home to Amytis, who hardly recognized him. On the intercession of Amestris and Amytis, the king became reconciled to him and admitted him to his table as before. Megabyzus died at the age of seventy-six, deeply mourned by the king.
After his death, his wife Amytis, like her mother Amestris before her, showed great fondness for the society of men. The physician Apollonides of Cos, when Amytis was suffering from a slight illness, being called in to attend her, fell in love with her. For some time they carried on an intrigue, but finally she told her mother. She in turn informed the king, who left her to do as she would with the offender. Apollonides was kept in chains for two months as a punishment, and then buried alive on the same day that Amytis died.
Zopyrus, the son of Megabyzus and Amytis, after the death of his father and mother revolted against the king. He visited Athens, where he was well received owing to the services his mother had rendered to the Athenians. From Athens he sailed with some Athenian troops to Caunus and summoned it to surrender. The inhabitants expressed themselves ready to do so, provided the Athenians who accompanied him were not admitted. While Zopyrus was mounting the wall, a Caunian named Alcides hit him on the head with a stone and killed him. The Caunian was crucified by order of his grandmother Amestris. Some time afterwards, Amestris died at a great age, and Artoxerxes also died after having reigned forty-two years. Here the seventeenth book ends.
Artoxerxes was succeeded by his son Xerxes, his only legitimate son by Damaspia, who died on the same day as her husband. The bodies of the king and queen were conveyed by Bagorazus to Persia. Artoxerxes had seventeen illegitimate sons, amongst them Secydianus by Alogune the Babylonian, Ochus (afterwards king) and Arsites by Cosmartidene, also a Babylonian. Besides these three, he also had a son Bagapaeus and a daughter Parysatis by Andria, also a Babylonian, who became the mother of Artoxerxes and Cyrus. During his father’s lifetime, Ochus was made satrap of Hyrcania, and given in marriage to Parysatis, the daughter of Artoxerxes and his own sister.
Secydianus, having won over the eunuch Pharnacyas, who had the greatest influence over Xerxes next to Bagorazus, Menostanes, and some others, entered the palace after a festival, while Xerxes was lying in a drunken sleep and put him to death, forty-five days after the death of his father. The bodies of both father and son were conveyed together to Persia, for the mules which drew the chariot in which was the father’s body, refused to move, as if waiting for that of the son; and when it arrived, they at once went on rapidly.
Secydianus thus became king and appointed Menostanes his azabarites. After Bagorazus returned to court, Secydianus, who cherished a long-standing enmity against him, on the pretext that he had left his father’s body in Persia without his permission, ordered him to be stoned to death. The army was greatly grieved, and, although Secydianus distributed large sums amongst the soldiers, they hated him for the murder of his brother Xerxes and now for that of Bagorazus.
Secydianus, then summoned Ochus to court, who promised to present himself but failed to do so. After he had been summoned several times, he collected a large force with the obvious intention of seizing the throne. He. was joined by Arbarius, commander of the cavalry, and Arxanes, satrap of Egypt. The eunuch Artoxares also came from Armenia and placed the crown on the head of Ochus against his will.
Thus Ochus became king and changed his name to Dariaeus. At the suggestion of Parysatis, he endeavoured by trickery and solemn promises to win over Secydianus. Menostanes did all he could to prevent Secydianus from putting faith in these promises or coming to terms with those who were trying to deceive him. In spite of this Secydianus allowed himself to be persuaded, was arrested, thrown into the ashes, and died, after a reign of six months and fifteen days.
Ochus (also called Dariaeus) thus became sole ruler. Three eunuchs, Artoxares, Artibarzanes, and Athous had the greatest influence with him, but his chief adviser was his wife. By her he had had two children before he. became king, a daughter Amestris and a son Arsaces, afterwards called Artoxerxes. After his accession she bore him another son, called Cyrus from the sun. A third son was named Artostes, who was followed by several others, to the number of thirteen. The writer says that he obtained these particulars from Parysatis herself. Most of the children soon died, the only survivors being those just mentioned and a fourth named Oxendras. Arsites, his own brother by the same father and mother, revolted against the king together with Artyphius the son of Megabyzus. Artasyras was sent against them, and, having been defeated in two battles, gained the victory in a third, after he had bribed the Greeks, who were with Artyphius, so that only three Milesians remained faithful to him. At length Artyphius, finding that Arsites did not appear, surrendered to the king, after Artasyras had solemnly promised him that his life should be spared. The king was anxious to put Artyphius to death, but Parysatis advised him not to do so at once, in order to deceive Arsites and induce him also to submit; when both had surrendered, she said they could both be put to death. The plan succeeded, Artyphius and Arsites surrendered, and were thrown into the ashes. The king wished to pardon Arsites, but Parysatis by her importunity persuaded him to put him to death. Phar-nacyas, who had assisted Secydianus to kill Xerxes, was stoned to death. Menostanes was also arrested and condemned, but anticipated his fate by suicide.
Pissuthnes also revolted, and Tissaphernes, Spithradates, and Parmises were sent against him. Pissuthnes set out to meet them with Lycon the Athenian and a body of Greeks, who were bribed by the king’s generals to desert him. Pissuthnes then surrendered, and, after having received assurances that his life should be spared, accompanied Tissaphernes to the court. But the king ordered him to be thrown into the ashes and gave his satrapy to Tissaphernes. Lycon also received several towns and districts as the reward of his treachery.
Artoxares the eunuch, who had great influence with the king, desiring to obtain possession of the throne himself, plotted against his master. He ordered his wife to make him a false beard and moustache, that he might look like a man. His wife, however, betrayed him; he was seized, handed over to Parysatis, and put to death. Arsaces the king’s son, who afterwards changed his name to Artoxerxes, married Statira, daughter of Idernes, whose son Teritukhmes, who had been appointed to his father’s satrapy after his death, married the king’s daughter Amestris. Teritukhmes had a half-sister Roxana, of great beauty and very skilful in bending the bow and hurling the spear. Teritukhmes having fallen in love with her and conceived a hatred of his wife Amestris, in order to get rid of the latter, resolved to put her into a sack, where she was to be stabbed to death by 300 accomplices, with whom he had entered into a conspiracy to raise a revolt. But a certain Udiastes, who had great influence with Teritukhmes, having received letters from the king promising to reward him generously if he could save his daughter, attacked and murdered Teritukhmes, who courageously defended himself and slew (it is said) thirty-seven of his assailants.
Mitradates, the son of Udiastes, the armour-bearer of Teritukhmes, took no part in this affair, and when he learnt what had happened, he cursed his father and seized the city of Zaris to hand over to the son of Teritukhmes. Parysatis ordered the mother of Teritukhmes, his brothers Mitrostes and Helicus, and his sisters except Statira to be put to death. Roxana was hewn in pieces alive. The king told his wife Parysatis to inflict the same punishment upon the wife of his son Arsaces. But Arsaces by his tears and lamentations appeased the wrath of his father and mother. Parysatis having relented, Ochus spared Statira’s life, but at the same time told Parysatis that she would one day greatly regret it.
In the nineteenth book the author relates how Ochus Dariaeus fell sick and died at Babylon, having reigned thirty-five years. Arsaces, who succeeded him, changed his name to Artoxerxes. Udiastes had his tongue cut out and torn out by the roots behind; and so he died. His son Mitradates was appointed to his satrapy. This was due to the instigation of Statira, whereat Parysatis was greatly aggrieved. Cyrus, being accused by Tissaphernes of designs on the life of his brother Artoxerxes, took refuge with his mother, by whose intervention he was cleared of the charge. Disgraced by his brother, he retired to his satrapy and laid his plans for revolt. Satibarzanes accused Orontes of an intrigue with Parysatis, although her conduct was irreproachable; Orontes was put to death, and his mother was greatly enraged against the king, because Parysatis had poisoned the son of Teritukhmes. The author also mentions him who cremated his father contrary to the law, Hellanicus and Herodotus being thus convicted of falsehood.
Cyrus having revolted against his brother collected an army composed of both Greeks and barbarians. Clearchus was in command of the Greeks; Syennesis, king of Cilicia, assisted both Cyrus and Artoxerxes. The author then reports the speeches of the two princes to their troops. Clearchus the Spartan, who was in command of the Greeks, and Menon the Thessalian, who accompanied Cyrus, were always at variance, because Cyrus took the advice of Clearchus in everything, while Menon was disregarded. Large numbers deserted from Artoxerxes to Cyrus, none from Cyrus to Artoxerxes. For this reason Artabarius, who meditated desertion, was accused and thrown into the ashes. Cyrus attacked the king’s army and gained the victory, but lost his life by neglecting the advice of Clearchus. His body was mutilated by Artoxerxes, who ordered his head and the hand with which he had struck him to be cut off, and carried them about in triumph. Clearchus the Spartan withdrew during the night with his Greeks, and after he had seized one of the cities belonging to Parysatis, the king made peace with him.
Parysatis set out for Babylon, mourning for the death of Cyrus, and having with difficulty recovered his head and hand sent them to Susa for burial. It was Bagapates who had cut off his head by order of Artoxerxes. Parysatis, when playing at dice with the king, won the game and Bagapates as the prize, and afterwards had him flayed alive and crucified. At length she was persuaded by the entreaties of Artoxerxes to give up mourning for her son. The king rewarded the soldier who brought him Cyrus’s cap, and the Carian who was supposed to have wounded him, whom Parysatis afterwards tortured and put to death. Mitradates having boasted at table of having killed Cyrus, Parysatis demanded that he should be given up to her, and having got him into her hands, put him to death with great cruelty. Such is the contents of the nineteenth and twentieth books.
The twenty-first, twenty-second, and twenty-third books conclude the history. Tissaphernes began to plot against the Greeks, with the assistance of Menon the Thessalian, whom he had won over. In this manner, by cunning and solemn promises, he got Clearchus and the other generals in his power, although Clearchus suspected and was on his guard against treachery and endeavoured to avert it; but the soldiers, being deceived by the words of Menon, compelled the unwilling Clearchus to visit Tissaphernes. Proxenus the Boeotian, who had been already deceived, also advised him to go. Clearchus and the other generals were sent in chains to Artoxerxes at Babylon, where all the people flocked to see Clearchus. Ctesias himself, Parysatis’s physician, bestowed every attention upon Clearchus while he was in prison and did all he could to mitigate his lot. Parysatis would have given him his freedom and let him go, had not Statira persuaded the king to put him to death. After his execution, a marvellous thing happened. A strong wind sprang up and heaped a quantity of earth upon his body, which formed a natural tomb. The other Greeks who had been sent with him were also put to death, with the exception of Menon.
The author next tells us of the insults heaped by Parysatis on Statira, and the poisoning of Statira, which was brought about in the following manner, although she had long been on her guard against this kind of death. A table knife was smeared with poison on one side. One of the little birds, about the size of an egg, called rhyndace, was cut in half by Parysatis, who herself took and ate the portion which had not been touched by the poison, at the same time offering Statira the poisoned half. Statira, seeing that Parysatis was eating her own portion, had no suspicions, and took the fatal poison. The king, enraged with his mother, ordered her eunuchs to be seized and tortured, including her chief confidant Ginge. The latter, being accused and brought to trial, was acquitted by the judges, but the king condemned her and ordered her to be tortured and put to death, which caused a lasting quarrel between mother and son.
The tomb of Clearchus, eight years afterwards, was found covered with palm-trees, which Parysatis had had secretly planted by her eunuchs.
The author next states the cause of the quarrel of Artoxerxes with Evagoras, king of Salamis. The messengers sent by Evagoras to Ctesias about the receiving of letters from Abuletes. The letter of Ctesias to Evagoras concerning reconciliation with Anaxagoras prince of the Cyprians. The return of the messengers of Evagoras to Cyprus and the delivery of the letters from Ctesias to Evagoras. The speech of Conon to Evagoras about visiting the king; and the letter of Evagoras on the honours he had received from him. The letter of Conon to Ctesias, the agreement of Evagoras to pay tribute to the king, and the giving of the letters to Ctesias. Speech of Ctesias to the king about Conon and the letter to him. The presents sent by Evagoras delivered to Satibarzanes; the arrival of the messengers in Cyprus. The letters of Conon to the king and Ctesias. The detention of the Spartan ambassadors to the king. Letter from the king to Conon and the Spartans, delivered to them by Ctesias himself. Conon appointed commander of the fleet by Pharnabazus.
The visit of Ctesias to Cnidus, his native city, and to Sparta. Proceedings against the Spartan ambassadors at Rhodes, and their acquittal. The number of stations, days, and parasangs from Ephesus to Bactria and India. The work concludes with a list of the Assyrian kings from Ninus and Semiramis to Artoxerxes. This writer’s style is clear and very simple, which makes the work agreeable to read. He uses the Ionic dialect, not throughout, as Herodotus does, but only in certain expressions, nor does he, like Herodotus, interrupt the thread of his narrative by ill-timed digressions. Although he reproaches Herodotus for his old wives’ tales, he is not free from the same defect, especially in his account of India. The charm of his history chiefly consists in his manner of relating events, which is strong in the emotional and unexpected, and in his varied use of mythical embellishment. The style is more careless than it should be, and the phraseology often descends to the commonplace, whereas that of Herodotus, both in this and other respects as far as vigour and art are concerned, is the model representative of the Ionic dialect. (trans. J. H. Freese)
