he levelled the walls, and took away the gates, nei ther of which things Cyrus had done before. Three thoufand of the moft diftinguished nobility he order. ed to be crucified; the reft were fuffered to continue where they were. He took care alfo to provide them with women, for the Babylonians, as we have before remarked, to prevent a famine had strangled their wives. Darius ordered the neighbouring nations to fend females to Babylon, each being obliged to furnish a ftipulated number. Thefe in all amounted to fifty thoufand, from whom the Babylonians of the prefent day are defcended. CLX. With refpect to the merit of Zopyrus, in the opinion of Darius it was exceeded by no Perfian of any period, unless by Cyrus; to him, indeed, he thought no one of his countrymen could poffibly be compared. It is affirmed of Darius, that he ufed frequently to affert, that he would rather Zopyrus had fuffered no injury, than have been master of twenty Babylons more. He rewarded him magnificently: every year he presented him with the gifts deemed most honourable in Perfia; he made him alfo governor of Babylon for life, free from their carrying arms, and commanded them to employ their time in finging, mufic, and all kinds of diffipation, &c. The Babylonians did not revolt under Xerxes. Plutarch affigns to him a fact, which regards Darius; however this may be, after the reduction of Babylon the Perfian monarchs fixed their refidence in three great cities; the winter they paffed at Babylon, the fummer at Media, doubtlefs at Ecbatane, and the greater part of the fpring at Sufa.-Larcher. the payment of any tribute, and to these he added other marks of liberality. Megabyzus, who commanded in Ægypt against the Athenians and their allies, was a fon of this Zopyrus, which Megabyzus had a fon named Zopyrus 175, who deferted from the Perfians to the Athenians. 175 A fon named Zopyrus.]-Zopyrus, fon of Megabyzus, and grandfon of the famous Zopyrus, revolted from Artaxerxes after the death of his father and mother, and advanced towards Athens, on account of the friendship which fubfifted betwixt his mother and the Athenians. He went by fea to Caunus, and commanded the inhabitants to give up the place to the Athenians who were with him. The Caunians replied, that they were willing to furrender it to him, but they refused to admit any Athenians. Upon this he mounted the wall; but a Caunian, named Alcides, knocked him on the head with a ftone. His grandmoth Ameftris afterwards crucified this Caunian.-Larcher. HERODOTUS 26 HERODOTUS. воок IV. MEL POMENE. CHAP. I. ARIUS, after the capture of Babylon, undertook an expedi tion against Scythia, Alia was now both populous and rich, and he was defirous of avenging on the Scythians the injuries they had formerly committed by entering Media, and defeating thofe who opposed them. During a period of twenty-eight years, the Scythians, as I have before remarked, retained the fovereignty of the Upper *Afia, entering into which, when in purfuit of the Cimmerians', they expelled the Medes, its ancient poffeffors. 1 Cimmerians.From this people came the proverb of Cimmerian darkness. We reach'd old ocean's utmost bounds, 322 poffeffors. After this long abfence from their coun try, the Scythians were defirous to return, but here as great a labour awaited them as they had experienced in their expedition into Media; for the women, deprived fo long of their husbands; had connected themselves with their flaves, and they found a numerous body in arms ready to difpute their progrefs. There in a lonely land, and gloomy cells, Unhappy race! whom endless night invades, Clouds the dull air, and wraps them round in shades. Od book xi.. Of this proverb Ammianus Marcellinus makes a happy use, when cenfuring the luxury and effeminacy of the Roman nobi 'lity. "If," fays he, (I ufe the version of Mr. Gibbon) "a fly fhould prefume to fettle in the filken folds of their gilded umbrellas, fhould a fun-beam penetrate through some unguarded and imperceptible chink, they deplore their intolerable hardfhips, and lament in affected language that they were not born in the land of the Cimmerians, the regions of eternal darknefs." Ovid also chooses the vicinity of Cimmeria as the propereft place for the palace of the god of fleep. Eft prope Cimmerios, longo fpelunca receffu, The region affigned to this people in ancient geography was part of European Scythia, now called Little Tartary.-T. II. It is a cuftom with the Scythians to deprive all their flaves of fight on account of the milk', which is their cuftomary drink. They have a parti 2 Deprive all their flaves of fight.]-Barbarous as this conduct will appear to every humane reader, although practifed amongst an uncivilized race of men, he will be far more fhocked when I remind him that in the moft refined period of the Roman empire thofe who were deemed the wifeft and most virtuous of mankind did not fcruple to use their flaves with yet more atrocious cruelty. It was cuftomary at Rome to expofe flaves who were fick, old, and useless, to perish miferably in an island of the Tyber. Plutarch tells us, in his Life of Cato, that it was his custom to fell his old flaves for any price, to get rid of the burden.. They were employed, and frequently in chains, in the most laborious offices, and for trivial offences, and not feldom on mere fufpicion, were made to expire under the most horrid tortures that can be imagined.-T. 3 On account of the milk.]-Of this people Homer speaks in the following lines. And where the far-fam'd Hippomolgian ftrays, Renown'd for juftice and for length of days, Thrice happy race, that, innocent of blood, From milk innoxious feek their simple food.—II. xiii. Upon this fubject Larcher gives the following paffage from Niebuhr : "J'entendis et vis moi-même, à Bafra, que lorfq'un Arabe trait la femelle du bufle, un autre lui fourre la main et le bras jufqu'au coude, dans la vulva, parce qu'on prétend favoir par expérience qu'étant chatouillée de la forte, elle donne plus de lait. Cette methode reffemble beaucoup a celle des Scythes."We learn, from fome lines of Antiphanes, preferved in Athenæus, that the Scythians gave this milk to their children as soon as they were born. Ειτ 8 σοφοί δητ' εισιν οι Σκύθαι σφόδρα "Do |