History of the World/History of the World (Bureau Development, Inc.)(1992).BIN/dp/0418/04187.txt

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$Title{Rollin's Ancient History: History Of The Persians And Grecians
Section I.}
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$Author{Rollin, Charles}
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$Subject{cyrus
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$Date{1731}
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Title:       Rollin's Ancient History: History Of The Persians And Grecians
Book:        Chapter VII.
Author:      Rollin, Charles
Date:        1731

Section I.

The History Of The Persians And Grecians.

Continued During The First Fifteen Years Of The Reign Of Artaxerxes Mnemon.

     This chapter contains the domestic troubles of the court of Persia, the
death of Alcibiades, the re-establishment of the liberty of Athens, and
Lysander's secret design to make himself king.

Section I: Coronation Of Artaxerxes Mnemon.  Cyrus Attempts To Assassinate His
Brother.  Revenge Of Statira.  Death And Character Of Alcibiades.

     Arsaces, upon ascending the throne, assumed the name of Artaxerxes, to
whom the Greeks also gave the surname of Mnemon, ^655 from his very retentive
memory.  Being near his father's bed when he was dying, he asked him, ^656 a
few moments before he expired, what had been the rule of his conduct during so
long and happy a reign as his, that he might make it his example.  "It has
been," replied he, "to do always what justice and religion required of men."
Words of deep import and well worthy of being set up in letters of gold in the
palaces of kings, to keep them perpetually in mind of what ought to be the
guide and rule of all their actions.  It is not uncommon for princes to give
excellent instructions to their children on their death-beds, which would be
more efficacious if preceded by their own example and conduct: without which
they are as weak and impotent as the sick man who gives them, and seldom
survive him long.

[Footnote 655: Which word signifies in the Greek, one of a good memory.]

[Footnote 656: A. M. 3600.  Ant. J. C. 404.  Athen. l. xii. p. 458.]

     Soon after the death of Darius, the new king set out from his capital for
Pasargada, a city of Persia, built by Cyrus the Great, in order to be crowned
according to custom, by the priests of Persia.  There was in that city a
temple of the goddess who presided in war, in which the coronation was
solemnized.  It was attended with very singular ceremonies, which no doubt had
some mysterious sense, though Plutarch does not explain it.  The prince, at
his consecration, took off his robe in the temple, and put on that worn by the
ancient Cyrus, before he came to the throne, which was preserved in that place
with great veneration.  After that, he eat a dry fig, chewed some leaves of
the turpentine tree, and drank a draught composed of milk and vinegar.  This
might signify, that the sweets of sovereign power are mingled with the sours
of care and disquiet; and that, if the throne be surrounded with pleasures and
honors, it is also attended with pains and anxieties.  It seems sufficiently
evident, that the design in putting the robes of Cyrus upon the new king, was
to make him understand, that he should also clothe his mind with the great
qualities and exalted virtues of that prince. ^657

[Footnote 657: Plut. Artax. pp. 10 12.]

     Young Cyrus, whose soul was all ambition, was in despair on being for
ever prevented from ascending a throne which his mother had given him, and on
seeing the sceptre, which he thought his right, transferred into the hands of
his brother.  The blackest crimes cost the ambitious nothing. Cyrus resolved
to assassinate Artaxerxes in the temple itself, and in the presence of the
whole court, just when he took off his own, to put on the robe of Cyrus the
Great.  Artaxerxes was apprised of this design by the priest himself, who had
educated his brother, and to whom he had imparted it.  Cyrus was seized, and
condemned to die, when his mother Parysatis, almost out of her senses, flew to
the place, clasped him in her arms, bound herself to him with the tresses of
her hair, fastened herself upon his neck, and by her shrieks, and tears, and
prayers, prevailed so far as to obtain his pardon, and that he should be sent
back to his government of the maritime provinces.  He carried thither with him
an ambition no less ardent than before, was animated besides with resentment
for the check he had received, and the warm desire of revenge, and armed with
an almost unbounded power.  Artaxerxes upon this occasion acted contrary to
the most common rules of policy, which do not admit the cherishing and
inflaming, by extraordinary honors, the pride and haughtiness of a bold and
enterprising young prince like Cyrus, who had carried his personal enmity to
his brother so far as to have resolved to assassinate him with his own hand,
and whose ambition for empire was so great as to employ the most criminal
methods for the attainment of its end. ^658

[Footnote 658: Ne quis mobiles adolescentium animos praematuris honoribus ad
super biam extolleret. - Tacit. Annal. l. vi. c. 17.]

     Artaxerxes had espoused Statira.  Scarcely had her husband ascended the
throne, when she employed the power her beauty gave her over him, to avenge
the death of her brother Teriteuchmes.  History does not record a more
tragical scene, nor a more monstrous complication of adultery, incest, and
murder; which, after having occasioned great disorders in the royal family,
terminated at length in the most fatal manner to all who had any share in it.
But it is necessary to give the reader a knowledge of the fact, to trace it
from the beginning. ^659

[Footnote 659: Ctes. c. li. lv.]

     Hidarnes, Statira's father, a Persian of very great quality, was governor
of one of the principal provinces of the empire.  Statira was a lady of
extraordinary beauty, which induced Artaxerxes to marry her, who was then
called Arsaces.  At the same time Teriteuchmes, Statira's brother, married
Hamestris, sister of Arsaces, one of the daughters of Darius and Parysatis; in
consequence of which marriage, Teriteuchmes, upon his father's death, had his
government given him.  There was also another sister in this family, no less
beautiful than Statira, and who besides excelled in the arts of shooting with
the bow, and throwing the dart. Teriteuchmes her brother conceived a criminal
passion for her, and to gratify it, resolved to set himself at liberty by
killing Hamestris, whom he had espoused.  Darius having been informed of this
design, by the force of presents and promises, engaged Udiastes, the intimate
friend and confidant of Teriteuchmes, to prevent it, by assassinating him.  He
obeyed, and received for his reward the government of him he had put to death
with his own hands.

     Among the guards of Teriteuchmes, was a son of Udiastes, called
Mithridates, very much attached to his master.  The young gentleman, upon
hearing that his father had committed this murder in person, uttered all
manner of imprecations against him; and full of horror for so infamous and
vile an action seized on the city of Zaris, and openly revolting, declared for
the establishment of Teriteuchmes's son.  But that young man could not hold
out long against Darius.  He was shut up in the place with the son of
Teriteuchmes, whom he had with him; and all the rest of the family of Hidarnes
were put in prison, and delivered to Parysatis, to do with them as she,
exasperated to the highest degree by the treatment either done or intended
against her daughter Hamestris, should think fit.  That cruel princess began
by causing Roxana, whose beauty had been the occasion of this evil, to be
sawed in two, and ordered all the rest to be put to death, except Statira,
whose life she granted to the tears, and the most tender and ardent
solicitations of Arsaces, whose love for his wife made him spare no pains for
her preservation, though Darius, his father, believed it necessary, even for
his own good, that she should share the same fate with the rest of her family.
Such was the state of the affair at the death of Darius.

     Statira, as soon as her husband was upon the throne, caused Udiastes to
be delivered into her hands.  She ordered his tongue to be torn out, and made
him die in the most exquisite torments she could invent, to punish the crime
which had occasioned the ruin of her family.  She gave his government to
Mithridates, in recompense for his attachment to the interests of her family.
Parysatis, on her side, took her revenge on the son of Teriteuchmes, whom she
caused to be poisoned; and we shall see that Statira's turn was not very
remote.

     We see here the terrible effects of female revenge, and in general of
what excesses they are capable who find themselves above all laws, and have no
other rule for their actions than their will and passions.

     Cyrus, having resolved to dethrone his brother, employed Clearchus, the
Lacedaemonian general, to raise a body of Grecian troops, under pretence of
war, which that Spartan was to carry into Thrace.  I shall defer speaking of
this famous expedition, and also of the death of Socrates, which happened
about the same time, intending to treat of those two great events as fully as
they deserve.  It was without doubt with the same view, that Cyrus presented
Lysander a galley of two cubits in length, made of ivory and gold, to
congratulate him upon his naval victory.  That galley was consecrated to
Apollo in the temple of Delphos.  Lysander went soon after to Sardis, charged
with magnificent presents for Cyrus from the allies.

     It was upon that occasion that Cyrus had the celebrated conversation with
Lysander, related by Xenophon, and which Cicero after him has applied so
beautifully. ^660 That young prince, who prided himself more upon his
integrity and politeness than nobility and grandeur, pleased himself with
conducting in person so illustrious a guest through his gardens, and to make
him observe the various beauties of them.  Lysander, struck with so fine a
prospect, admired the manner in which the several parts were laid out; the
height and projection of the trees; the neatness and disposition of the walks;
the abundance of fruits, planted with an art which had known how to unite the
useful with the agreeable; the beauty of the parterres, and the glowing
variety of flowers, exhaling odors throughout the delightful scene.
"Everything in this place charms and transports me," said Lysander, addressing
himself to Cyrus; "but what strikes me most, is the exquisite taste and
elegant industry of the person who drew the plan of the several parts of this
garden, and gave it the fine order, wonderful disposition and happiness of
symmetry which I cannot sufficiently admire." Cyrus, infinitely pleased with
this discourse, replied, "It was I that drew the plan, and entirely marked it
out; and not only that, many of the trees which you see were planted by my own
hands." "What," replied Lysander, regarding him from head to foot, "is it
possible, with these purple robes and splendid vestments, those strings of
jewels and bracelets of gold, those buskins so richly embroidered, that you
could act the gardener, and employ your royal hands in planting trees?" "Does
that surprise you?" said Cyrus; "I swear by the god Mithras, ^661 that when my
health admits I never sit down to table without having made myself sweat with
some fatigue or other, either in military exercise, rural labor, or some other
toilsome employment, to which I apply with pleasure, and without sparing
myself." Lysander was amazed at his discourse, and pressing him by the hand,
"Cyrus," said he, "you are truly happy, and deserve your high fortune, because
you unite it with virtue." ^662

[Footnote 660: Narrat Socrates in eo libro, Cyrum minorem, regem Persarum,
praestantem ingenio atque imperii gloria, cum Lysander Lacedaemonius, vir
summae virtutis, venisset ad eum, Sardes, eique dona a sociis attulisset, et
ceteris in rebus comem erga Lysandrum atque humanum fuisse, et ei quemdam
conseptum agrum diligenter consitum ostendisse.  Cum autem admiraretur
Lysander et proceritates arborum, et directos in quincuncem ordines, et humum
subactam atque puram, et suavitatem odorum qui efflarentur e floribus; tum eum
dixisse mirari se non modo diligentiam, sed etiam solertiam ejus, a quo essent
illa dimensa atque descripta.  Et ei Cyrum respondisse: atqui ego ista sum
dimensus, mei sunt ordines, mea descriptio, multa etiam istarum arborum mea
manu sunt satae.  Tum Lysandrum. intuentem ejus purpuram et nitorem corporis,
ornatumque Persicum multo auro multisque gemmis dixisse: recte vero, te, Cyre,
beatum ferunt, quoniam virtuti tua fortuna conjucta est. - Cic. de Senect. n.
39.]

[Footnote 661: The Persians adored the sun under that name, who was their
principal god.]

[Footnote 662: Which Cicero translates: recte vero, te, Cyre, beatum ferunt,
quoniam virtuti tua fortuna conjuncta est.]

     Alcibiades was at no small pains to discover the mystery of the levies
laid by Cyrus, and went into the province of Pharnabazus, with design to
proceed to the court of Persia, and to apprise Artaxerxes of the scheme laid
against him.  Had he arrived there, a discovery of such importance would have
infallibly procured him the favor of that prince, and the assistance he wanted
for the re-establishment of his country.  But the Lacedaemonian partisans at
Athens, that is to say, the thirty tyrants, apprehended the intrigues of so
superior a genius as his, and represented to their masters that they were
inevitably ruined if they did not find means to rid themselves of Alcibiades.
The Lacedaemonians thereupon wrote to Pharnabazus, and with an abject meanness
not to be excused, and which showed how much Sparta had degenerated from her
ancient manners, strongly pressed him to deliver them at any rate from so
formidable an enemy.  The satrap complied with their wish.  Alcibiades was
then in a small town of Phrygia, where he lived with his concubine Timandra.
^663 Those who were sent to kill him, not daring to enter his house, contented
themselves with surrounding and setting it on fire.  Alcibiades having quitted
it through the flames, sword in hand, the barbarians were afraid to remain to
come to blows with him, but flying and retreating as he advanced, they poured
their darts and arrows upon him, and he fell dead upon the spot.  Timandra
took up his body, and having adorned and covered it with the finest robes she
had, she made as magnificent a funeral for it as her condition would admit.

[Footnote 663: It was said that Lais, the famous courtezan, called the
Corinthian, was the daughter of this Timandra.]

     Such was the end of Alcibiades, whose great virtues were stifled and
suppressed by still greater vices.  It is not easy to say whether his good or
bad qualities were most pernicious to his country, for with one he deceived,
and with the other he oppressed it. ^664 In him, distinguished valor was
united with nobility of blood.  His person was beautiful and finely made; he
was eloquent, of great ability in business, insinuating, and formed for
charming all mankind.  He loved glory, but without prejudice to his
inclination for pleasure; nor was he so fond of pleasure as to neglect his
glory for it.  He knew how to yield, or abstract himself from it according to
the situation of his affairs.  Never was there ductility of genius equal to
his.  He metamorphosed himself with incredible facility, like a Proteus, into
the most contrary forms, and supported them with as much ease and grace as if
each had been natural to him.

[Footnote 664: Cujus nescio utrum bona an vitia patriae perniciosiora fuerint;
illis enim cives suos decepit. his affixit. - Val. Max. l. iii. c. 1.]

     This versatility of character, according to occasions, the customs of
countries, and his own interests, discover a heart void of principle, without
either truth or justice.  He did not confine himself either to religion,
virtue, laws, duties, or his country.  His sole rule of action was his private
ambition, to which he reduced everything.  His aim was to please, to dazzle,
and be beloved, but at the same time to subject those he soothed.  He favored
them only as they served his purposes; and made his correspondence and society
a means for engrossing everything to himself.

     His life was a perpetual mixture of good and evil.  His studies for
virtue were ill sustained, and quickly degenerated into vices and crimes, very
little to the honor of the instructions of that great philosopher, who took no
small pains to cultivate him into a man of worth.  His actions were glorious,
but without rule or principle.  His character was elevated and grand, but
without connection and consistence.  He was successively the support and
terror of the Lacedaemonians and Persians.  He was either the misfortune or
refuge of his own country, according to his declaring for or against it.  In
fine, he was the author of a general and destructive war in Greece, from the
sole motive of commanding, by inducing the Athenians to besiege Syracuse, much
less from the hope of conquering Sicily, and afterwards Africa, than with the
design of keeping Athens in dependence upon himself; convinced that having to
deal with an inconstant, suspicious, ungrateful, jealous people, averse to
those that governed, it was necessary to engage them continually in some great
affair, in order to make his services always necessary to them, and that they
might not be at leisure to examine, censure, and condemn his conduct.

     He had the fate generally experienced by persons of his character, and of
which they cannot reasonably complain.  He never loved any one, self being his
sole motive; non ever found a friend.  He made it his merit and glory to amuse
all men; and nobody confided in, or adhered to him. His sole view was to live
with splendor, and to lord it universally; and he perished miserably,
abandoned by the whole world, and obliged at his death to the feeble services
and impotent zeal of a single woman, for the last honors rendered to his
remains.

     About this time died Democritus the philosopher, of whom more will be
said elsewhere.