war which he still had with some of the provinces that had there revolted from him in the beginning of his reign, and made him generalissimo of all his forces in those parts. Mentor having thus gained so great a share in the favour of Ochus, he made use of it to reconcile unto him Memnon his brother, and Artabazus who had married their sister; for they had both been in war against him. Of the revolt of Artabazus, and the several victories which he had gained over the king's forces, I have already spoken; but he being at length overpowered, took refuge with Philip king of Macedon; and Memnon, who had joined with him in those wars, was forced to bear with him the same banishment. After this reconciliation, they both became very serviceable to Ochus, and his successors of that race, especially Memnon, who was a person of the greatest valour and military skill of any of his time. And Mentor was not wanting in answering that confidence which the king had placed in him: for, when settled in his province, he soon restored the king's authority in those parts, and made all that had revolted again submit to him. Some he circumvented by stratagem and military skill, and others he subdued by open force, and so wisely managed all his advantages, that at length he reduced all again under their former yoke, and thoroughly re-established the king's affairs in all those provinces.

An. 348.
Ochus 11.

In them first year of the 108th Olympiad died Plato, the famous Athenian philosopher. The eminentest of his scholars was Aristotle, the founder of the Peripatetic philosophy. He was by birth of Stagira, a small city on the river Strymon, in the northern confines of Macedonia. He was born in the first year of the 99th Olympiad (which was the year before Christ 384.) At the age of seventeen he came to Athens, and became one of the scholars of Plato, and heard him till his death. Speusippus succeeding Plato in his school, Aristotle went into Asia,

1 Diodor. Sic. lib. 16, p. 538.

m Diogenes Lærtius in Platone. Dionysius Halicarnesseus in Epistola ad Ammaeum de Demosthene. Athenæus, lib. 5, c. 13.

n Diog. Laert. in Aristotele. See also Mr. Stanley's account of the Life of Aristotle, in his History of Philosophy.

to Hermias the eunuch, who was king of Atarna, a city of Mysia, and having married his niece, lived with him three years; till at length Hermias, being circumvented and drawn into a snare by Mentor the Rhodian, who commanded for Ochus in those parts, was taken prisoner, and sent to the Persian court, where he was put to death. Hereon Aristotle fled to Mitylene, and from thence went into Macedonia, and became preceptor to Alexander the Great, with whom he tarried eight years. After this he returned to Athens, and there taught the Peripatetic philosophy in the Lyceum twelve years. But being accused of holding some notions contrary to the religion there established, and not daring to venture himself on a trial, for fear of Socrates' fate, he withdrew to Chalcis, a town in Euboea, and there died about two years after, being then sixtythree years old. While he lived with Hermias in Asia, he there fell acquainted with a Jew of wonderful wisdom, temperance, and goodness, who came thither from the upper parts of Asia upon some business which he had on those maritime coasts, and, having frequent conversation with him, learned much from him. This, Josephus tells us, from a book written by Clearchus, who was one of the chiefest of Aristotle's scholars. And from what he then learned from this Jew, it is most likely, proceeded what Aristobulus,P and out of him Clemens Alexandrinus, have observed of Aristotle's philosophy, that is, that it contains many things which agree with what is written by Moses and the prophets in the Scriptures of the Old Testament.

Ochus 12.

Ochus, after he had subdued Egypt, and reduced. again all the revolted provinces, gave himself wholly up to his ease, spending the rest of his An. 347. life in luxury, laziness, and pleasure; and left the administration of his affairs wholly to his ministers; the chiefest of whom were Bagoas his favourite eunuch, and Mentor the Rhodian, who agreeing to part the power between them, the former governed.

all the provinces of the Upper Asia, and the latter those of the Lower.

Johanan, high priest of the Jews, died in the eighteenth year of Ochus, after he had been in An. 341. that office thirty-two years, and was succeeded by Jaddua, his son, who held it

Ochus 18.

twenty years.

An. 338.
Ochus 21.

Ochus died after he had reigned twenty-one years, being poisoned by Bagoas, the eunuch. This eunuch being an Egyptian by birth, had a love for his country, and a zeal for his country religion, and thought to have influenced Ochus in favour of both, on the conquest of that kingdom; but, not being able to over-rule the brutal ferocity of that prince, those acts were done in respect of each of them which he deeply resented ever after. For Ochus, on his conquering of Egypt, not only dismantled their cities, robbed the inhabitants, and plundered their temples (as hath been already mentioned) but also carried away all their public records (which were reposited and kept with great sacredness in their temples,) and, in contempt of their religion, slew their god Apis, that is, the sacred bull which they worshipped under that name. For Ochusy being as remarkable for his sloth and stupid inactivity, as he was for his cruelty, the Egyptians, for this reason, nick-named him the ass, which angered him so far, that he caused their Apis to be taken out of the temple where he was kept, and made him to be sacrificed to an ass, and then ordered his cook to dress up the flesh of the slain beast to be eaten by his attendants. All this greatly offended Bagoas. The records he afterwards redeemed with a great sum of money, and sent them back again to their former archives. But the affront offered his religion he most resented; and it is said, that it was chiefly in revenge of this that he poisoned him. And his revenge did not rest here; but having caused another body to be buried instead of his, he kept

r Chronicon Alexandr.

s Joseph. Antiq. lib. 11, c. 7.

Canon Ptol.

u Diod. Sic. lib. 17, p. 564.
x Diod. Sic. lib. 16, p. 537.

y Severus Sulpitius, lib. 2. Eliani Var. Hist. lib. 4, c. 8. Suidas in N xos. z Eliani Var. Hist. lib. 6, c. 8.

the true carcass, and, in revenge of his having caused the flesh of their Apis to be eaten by his attendants, he cut his flesh into bits, and gave it to be eaten by cats, and made of his bones handles for swords. And, no doubt, when he did all this, there were other causes concurring to excite him hereto, which reviving the old resentments, and creating new ones, provoked the traitor to all this villany against his master and benefactor, which he executed upon him.

An. 337.

Arses 1.

After the death of Ochus, Bagoas, who had now the whole power of the empire in his hands, a made Árses, the youngest of his sons, king in his stead, and put all the rest to death; thinking that, by thus removing all rivals, he might best secure to himself the authority which he had usurped; for the name of king was all that he allowed to Arses; the power and authority of the government he wholly reserved to himself.

C

Philip, king of Macedon, having overthrown the Thebans and Athenians in a great battle at Chæronea, made himself thereby in a manner lord of all Greece; and therefore, calling together at Corinth an assembly of all the Grecian cities and states, he there caused himself to be chosen captain-general of all Greece, for the carrying on of a war against the Persians, and made every city to be taxed at a certain number of men, which each of them was to send and maintain in this expedition.

An. 336.

Arses 2.

And the next year after, he sent Parmenio, Amyntas, and Attalus, three of his chiefest captains, into Asia to begin the war, purposing soon after to follow in person with all his forces, and carry the war into the heart of the Persian empire. But when he was just ready to set forward on this expedition, he was slain at home while he was celebrating the marriage of Cleopatra, his daughter, with Alexander king of Epirus. Pausanias, a young noble

a Diod. Sic. lib. 17, p. 564.

b Plutarch. in Demosthene et Phocione. Diod. Sic. lib. 16, p. 555. Justin. lib. 9, c. 3.

c Justin. lib. 9, c. 5. Diod. Sic. lib. 16, p. 557.

d Justin. and Diodorus, ibid.

e Justin. lib. 9, e. 6. Diod. Sic. lib. 16, p. 558, 559.

Macedonian, and one of his guards, having hat his body forced, and sodomitically abused, by Attalus, the chief of the king's confidents, he had often complained to Philip of the injury; but finding no redress, he turned his revenge from the author of the injury upon him that refused to do him justice for it, and slew him as he was passing in great pomp to the theatre to finish the solemnities whereby he honoured his daughter's marriage. It is observed by Diodorus, that, in this solemnity, the images of the twelve gods and goddesses being carried before him into the theatre, he added his own for the thirteenth, dressed in the same pompous habit, whereby he vainly arrogated to himself the honour of a god; but he being slain as soon as this image entered the theatre, this very sig-' nally proved him to be a mortal. After his death, he was succeeded by Alexander his son, being then twenty years old.

About the same time, Arses, king of Persia, g was slain by the like treachery, but not for so just a cause. For Bagoas, finding that Arses began to be apprized of all his villanies and treacheries, and was taking measures to be revenged on him for them, for the preventing hereof, he came beforehand with him, and cut off him and all his family.

An. 335.
Darius 1.

After Bagoas had thus made the throne vacant by the murder of Arses, he placed on it 8 Darius, the third of that name that reigned in Persia. His true name was Codomannus; that of Darius he took afterwards, when he came to be king, He is said not to be of the royal family, because he was not the son of any king that reigned before him. However he was of the royal seed as descended from Darius Nothus; for that Darius had a son called Ostanes, of whom mention is made in Plutarch, and he had a son called Arsanes, who marrying Sysigambis, his sister, was by her the father of Codomannus. This Ostanes Ochus put to death, on his first ascending the throne, and with him above eighty of his sons and grandsons. How Codomannus came to escape this

f Diod. Sic. lib 16, p. 558. g Diod. Sic. lib. 17, p. 564. h In Artaxerxe.

i Diod Sic. lib. 17, p. 564.

k Q. Curtius, lib. 10, c. 5.