شيف

713

the confines of Cilicia, in the fpace of one hundred 4.0.
and four parafangs, there are eight-and-twenty.
ftathmi. At the entrance of Cilicia are two necks
of land, both well defended; paffing beyond which
through the country, are three ftathmi in the space
of fifteen parafangs and a half: Cilicia, as well as
Armenia, are terminated by the Euphrates, which
is only paffable in veffels. In Armenia, and with
in the space of fifty-fix parafangs and a half, there
are fifteen stathmi, in which alfo are guards :
through this country flow the waters of four
rivers, the paffage of which is indifpenfable, but
can only be effected in boats. Of these the first is
the Tigris; by the fame name alfo the fecond and
the third are diftinguished, though they are by no
means the fame, nor proceeding from the fame
fource of these latter the one rifes in Armenia, 2
the other from amongft the Matieni. The fourth
river is called the Gyndes, which was formerly di-
vided by Cyrus into three hundred and fixty chan-
nels. From Armenia to the country of the Ma-
tieni, are four ftathmi: from hence, through Ciffia,
as far as the river Choafpes, there are eleven
ftathmi, and a space of forty-two parafangs and a
half. The Choafpes is alfo to be paffed in boats,
and beyond this Sufa is fituated. Thus it appears,
that from Sardis to Sufa are one hundred and ele-
ven 4 ftations, or ftathmi,

64 One hundred and eleven.]-According to the account given by Herodotus in this chapter.

112

3

116

LIII. If this measurement of the royal road by parafangs, be accurate, and a parafang be fuppofed equal to thirty ftadia, which it really is, from Sardis to the royal refidence of Memnon are thirteen thousand five hundred ftadia, or four hundred and fifty parafangs: allowing, therefore, one hundred and fifty ftadia to each day, the whole distance will be a journey of ninety entire days.

LIV. Ariftagoras was, therefore, correct in telling Cleomenes the Lacedæmonian, that it was a three months march to the refidence of the Perfian monarch. For the benefit of thofe who wish to have more fatisfactory information on the fubject, it may not be amifs to add the particulars of the distance betwixt Sardis and Ephefus. From the Greek fea to Sufa, the name by which the city of Memnon is generally known, is fourteen thou

So that here muft evidently be fome mistake, as instead of 111 ftathmi, we have only 81; instead of 450 parafangs, only 313. Weffeling remarks on the paffage, that if the numbers were accurate, much advantage might be derived from knowing the exact proportion of diftance between a ftathmus and a parafang. The fame defect is obfervable in the Anabafis of Xenophon, which Hutchinfon tries in vain to explain.-T.

65 Of Memnon.]-Strabo fays that Sufa was built by Titron, the

13.135.

fand and forty ftadia: from Ephefus to Sardis is five hundred and forty ftadia; thus three days muft. be added to the computation of the three months.

LV. From Sparta Ariftagoras went to Athens, which at this period had recovered its liberty : Ariftogiton and Harmodius 66, who were Gephy

reans

the father of Memnon; Herodotus alfo, in another place, calls Sufa the city of Memnon.

65 Ariftogiton and Harmodius.]-To the reader of the moft common claffical taste the story of these Athenians must be too familiar to require any repetition in this place. An extract from a poem of Sir William Jones, in which the incident is happily introduced, being lefs common, may not perhaps be unacceptable. It is entitled,

3.

reans by defcent, had put to death Hipparchus, fon of Pififtratus, and brother of Hippias the tyrant. We are informed that Hipparchus had received intimation in a vifion 67 of the difafter which afterwards

Quis myrteâ enfem fronde reconditum
Cantabit? Illum civibus Harmodi
Dilecte fervatis, nec ullo
Interiture die tenebas :

Vix fe refrænat fulmineus chalybs,
Mox igne cœlefti emicat, exilit
Et cor reluctantis tyranni

Perforat ictibus haud remiffis.

O ter placentem Palladi victimam, &c.

The reader will perceive that Julii Melefigoni is an anagram of William Jones.

A more particular account of thefe deliverers of their country may be found in Thucydides, book vi. c. 12. Paufanias, book i. and in Suidas.-T.

67 In a vifion.]-The ancients imagined that a diftinct dream was a certain declaration of the future, or that the event was not to be averted, but by certain expiatory ceremonies. See the Electra of Sophocles, and other places.-Larcher.

One method which the ancients had of averting the effects of difagreeable vifions, was to relate them to the Sun, who they believed had the power of turning afide any evils which the night might have menaced.-T.

From Larcher's prolix note on the subject of Ariftogiton and Harmodius, I extract such particulars as I think will be most interefting to an English reader.

Harmodius is reported to have infpired the tyrant Hipparchus with an unnatural paffion, who loving and being beloved by Ariftogiton, communicated the fecret to him, and joined with him in his refolution to deftroy their perfecutor. This is

fufficiently

afterwards befel him; though for four years after his death the people of Athens fuffered greater oppression than before.

LVI. The particulars of the vifion which Hipparchus faw are thus related: in the night preceding the festival of the Panathenæa 68, Hipparchus 2463,701.

beheld

fufficiently contradicted, with respect to the attachment betwixt Harmodius and Aristogiton, which appears to have been the true emotions of friendship only.

The courtezan Leana, who was beloved by Harmodius, was tortured by Hippias, to make her discover the accomplices in the assassination of Hipparchus. Diftrusting her own fortitude, fhe bit off her tongue. The Athenians, in honour of her memory, erected in the veftibule of the citadel a ftatue in bronze of a lionefs without a tongue.

Thucydides feems willing to impute the action which caused the death of Hipparchus to a lefs noble motive than the love of liberty; but the cotemporaries of the confpirators, and pofterity, have rendered Harmodius and Ariftogiton the merit which was their due.

Popular fongs were made in their honour, one of which is preserved in Athenæus, book xv. chap. 15. It is alfo to be feen in the Analecta of Brunck, i. 155. This fong has been imputed to Alcæus, but falfely, for that poet died before Hipparchus.

The defcendants of the confpirators who destroyed the tyrant were maintained in the Prytaneum at the public expence.

One of the pofterity of Harmodius, proud of his birth, reproached Iphicrates with the meannefs of his family: "My nobility," answered Iphicrates," commences with me, yours terminates in you." In the very time of the decline of Athens, the love of liberty was there fo hereditary and indelible, that they erected ftatues to the affaffins of Cæfar.

Panathenaa.]-On this fubject I give, from different writers, the more interefting particulars.