The populace, as is generally the case, being deaf to the voice of reason, Pisistratus became tyrant, or king of Athens. He secured the affections of the people by his splendour and munificence. He was eminent for his love of learning, and the fine arts. He adorned Athens with many magnificent buildings.

The restoration of democracy was undertaken by Harmodius and Aristogiton, who were citizens in middle life. They succeeded eventually, though they both lost their lives in the attempt. Aristogiton was previously tortured, having fallen into the hands of Hippias. By the aid of the Lacedæmonians the object was accomplished, and Hippias, who at first escaped the fate of his brother, was at length dethroned.

Passing into Asia, he solicited foreign aid to place him in the sovereignty. Darius at this time meditated the conquest of Greece. Hippias took advantage of the views of an enemy against his native country, and Greece soon became involved in a war with Persia.

10. Under the institutions of Lycurgus the Spartans had become a race of warriors. Being in the neighbourhood of Messenia, they were almost constantly at war with that state. The first Messenian war began 743 years B. C. and lasted 19 years. There were two other periods of contention between Sparta and Messenia, but the latter was finally subdued. The territory was seized and its inhabitants were enslaved.

§ During one of these wars, the Lacedæmonians, it is said, bound themselves by oath not to return home till they had conquered the Messenians. Despairing, however, of ever returning, they sent orders to the women of Sparta to recruit the population, by promiscuous intercourse with the young men, who being children when the war began, had not taken the oath.

The offspring of this singular and improper order were denominated Partheniæ, or Sons of Virgins.

ISRAELITES.

11. The kingdom of ISRAEL, towards the beginning of the present period, (721 B. C.) was subverted by Salmanazar king of Assyria, or Nineveh. The Israelites were carried captive to Assyria, whence they never returned. This event occurred during the reign of Hosea, their last king.

§ Hosea had reigned nine years, when Salmanazar made him tributary. But Hosea having revolted, the Assyrian king besieged Samaria, the capital of the ten tribes, and after three years took and plundered it.

Except a few, who remained in Canaan, the Israelites were dispersed throughout Assyria, and lost their distinctive character. Those who remained in their native country became intermixed with strangers. The descendants of these mingled races were afterwards known by the name of Samaritans.

Thus, in a little more than two centuries after the separation of the ten tribes from those of Judah and Benjamin, were they destroyed as a nation, having, on account of their great sins, previously suffered an awful series of calamities.

JEWS.

12. The kingdom of JUDAH from the commencement of this period enjoyed but a doubtful existence. It was invaded at different times by the Babylonians, rendered tributary, and finally subdued.

Nebuchadnezzar, within 115 years after the destruction of Samaria, took Jerusalem, and razed the city and its temple to its foundations.

§ During the latter part of the kingdom of Judah, the greater portion of its kings were impious. Two or three of them, however, were eminently religious. Such were Hezekiah and Josiah. They were both of them reformers, and destroyed the altars of idolatry.

The idolatry of Ahaz was punished by the captivity of 200,000 of his subjects, though they were afterwards sent back upon the remonstrance of the prophet Obed. Manasseh, an impious and cruel prince, was carried to Babylon, bound with fetters. This affliction, becoming the means of his repentance, God heard his supplications, and brought him again into his kingdom.

13. Under Jehoiachin, who was carried captive to Babylon, together with his people, commenced the Seventy years Captivity of the Jews, 606 B. C. The king was afterwards released, but remained tributary to the king of Babylon.

§ In the reign of Zedekiah, the next but one in succession after Jehoiachin, Jerusalem was taken by the Babylonians, and entirely demolished. Zedekiah, after seeing all his children slain, had his eyes put out, and was brought in fetters to Babylon.

14. The Jews having been in captivity to the Babylonians just 70 years, were permitted, by Cyrus, king of Persia, to return to their native land, 536 years B. C. This was accomplished under the direction of Zerubbabel and Joshua, their leaders.

They soon began the rebuilding of the temple, but their enemies prevented them from making any progress. Several years afterwards they commenced the work anew, and mpleted it in the space of four years, 516 B. C. Upon this event they celebrated the first passover.

§ The return of the Jews from their captivity happened the first year of Cyrus, who, as we shall soon learn, had conquered Babylon, and terminated the Babylonian empire.

The influence of adversity on many of the Jews, seems to have

been very favorable on this occasion. It brought them to repentance, and engaged them in the worship and ordinances of their religion. The vessels of the temple, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought with him from Jerusalem, were all restored by the Persian monarch.

NINEVEH.

15. Of the three kingdoms into which the ancient Assyrian empire was divided upon the death of Sardanapalus, NINEVEH Or Assyria comes first in order. Its first king is supposed to have been Tiglath Pileser, 747 B. C. A few of his successors, during this period, were Salmanazar, Sen nacherib, Esarhaddon, Nebuchadnezzar, and Belshazzar.

Under the last of these kings the kingdom of Nineveh end ed. Babylon, its capital, was taken by Cyaxares II. aided by Cyrus, and Belshazzar was killed, 538 years B. C.

§ Salmanazar was the sovereign mentioned above, in the history of the Israelites. He destroyed the kingdom of the Ten Tribes.

Of Sennacherib it is recorded in his war with the Jews, that having written a letter to Hezekiah full of blasphemy against the God of Israel, God, in order to punish him, when he was just ready to take Jerusalem, sent an angel, who in one night smote 185,000 men of his army.

Covered with shame, he returned to his own country, and there his two eldest sons conspired against and killed him in the temple of Nisroch.

About 108 years after this prince, Nebuchadnezzar began to reign over the kingdom of Nineveh. He signalized his reign by many conquests, particularly of Syria, Palestine, and Egypt.

His heart being elated with success, God, to punish him for his pride, reduced him to such a state of insanity, that, wandering in the forests, he lived upon grass, like a wild beast. He recovered twelve months before his death, and, by a solemn edict, published throughout the whole of his dominions the astonishing things that God had wrought in him.

Labynit, or the scripture Belshazzar, became peculiarly infamous, by profanely using the holy vessels which Nebuchadnezzar had brought out of the spoils of the temple. He was at length besieged by Cyaxares II. king of the Medes, in conjunction with Cyrus.

During the siege he made a great entertainment for his whole court on a certain night; but their joy was greatly disturbed by a vision, and still more by the explanation which Daniel, the prophet, a Jew. ish captive, gave of it to the king, that his kingdom was taken from him, and delivered to the Medes and Persians. That very night Babylon was taken and Belshazzar killed.

BABYLON.

16. BABYLON, the next kingdom in order of the second em

pire of Assyria, continued separate not quite 70 years. Nabonassar was its first king. After a few successive reigns, and interregnums, it was subdued by Esarhaddon, one of the kings of Nineveh, and annexed to his dominions, 680 B. C.

The famous astronomical epocha at Babylon, called the era of Nabonassar, commenced from the reign of this prince. We are unacquainted with the history of his successors, only Merodach seems to be the same prince who sent ambassadors to Hezekiah, to congratulate him on the recovery of his health.

MEDES.

17. The last in order of the kingdoms that constituted the second empire of Assyria was that of the MEDES. After the destruction of the first Assyrian empire, the Medes enjoyed for some time the liberty they had acquired by their valour. They formed a republic; but anarchy having prevailed, they elected a king after 37 years.

Dejoces, the first king, was elected 690 years B. C. The fourth king after him, viz. Cyaxares II. or Darius the Mede, having with his nephew, Cyrus, conquered Babylon, reigned over it two years in conjunction with Cyrus; after which the kingdom of the Medes, and indeed the whole Assyrian empire, was united to that of Persia, 536 years B. C.

§ The Medes are supposed to be the descendants of Madai, the third son of Japhet, from whom they derived their name. They seem to have been independent tribes at first, and not to have been united under one monarchy till the time of Dejoces.

They were governed by petty princes, and some are of opinion, that one of the four kings, who in the time of Abraham, invaded the southern coast of Canaan, reigned in Media. They were first brought into subjection to the Assyrian yoke by Ninus.

Some time after they had shaken off this yoke, they were governed by kings of their own, who became absolute, and were controlled by no law. Of Dejoces it is recorded, that he no sooner ascended the throne, than he endeavoured to civilize and polish his subjects. He built the beautiful city of Ecbatana, and made it the capital of his empire.

He then contrived a code of laws for the good of the state, and caused them to be strictly obeyed. In a war with Nebuchadnezzar I. his capital was plundered, and stripped of all its ornaments, and falling into the conqueror's hands, he was cruelly shot to death with

arrows.

Phraortes, his successor, was much more fortunate, and conquered almost all upper Asia. Cyaxares I. a brave prince, made war upon the kingdom of Nineveh, to avenge the wrongs inflicted by Nebuchadnezzar. A battle ensued, in which the Ninevites or Assyrians

f

LYDIANS.

19. In the history of the LYDIANS, the last of its dynasties, was that of the Mermnadæ. Gyges, one of the chief officers of Candaules the king, having murdered the latter, became possessed of his queen and throne, 718 years B. C. He was the first of the Mermnadæ race. The fourth prince after him was Crœsus, so celebrated for his riches. His kingdom was conquered by Cyrus.

§ A circumstance worthy of record occurred in the contest between Cyrus and Crœsus. After Croesus was taken prisoner, he was condemned by the conqueror to be burnt alive. When the unhappy prince was led to the funeral pile, he exclaimed aloud three times, Solon! Solon! Solon!

Cyrus immediately demanded, why he pronounced that celebrated philosopher's name with so much vehemence in that extremity. Cræsus answered, that the observation of Solon, "That no mortal could be esteemed happy till the end of life," had forcibly recurred to his recollection.

Cyrus was struck with the remark, and, as if in anticipation of his own tragical end, ordered the unhappy king to be taken from the pile, and treated him ever after with honour and respect.

EGYPT.

20. EGYPT, during the present period, was governed by the following kings-Sabbacon, Tharaca, Pharaoh-Necho, Psammenitus, and a few others. Under the last of these, 525 B. C. Egypt was conquered by Cambyses, king of Per sia, to which power it was subject more than a century.

§ Sabbacon, a king of Ethiopia, it seems, conquered Egypt. He killed Nechus, king of Sais; burnt Bocchoris, another king, to death, and forced Anysis the blind to retire into the morasses. During his continuance in Egypt, he acquired a high reputation for wisdom and integrity. He finally relinquished the sceptre, and returned into Ethiopia, because he would not massacre the priests, agreeably to a suggestion said to have been imparted unto him by the tutelar god of Thebes.

Tharaca, called in scripture Tirhakah, made war against Sennacherib, king of Assyria. After him there was an anarchy of two years, and an aristocracy of twelve governors for fifteen years.

Pharaoh-Necho waged war against the Assyrians and Jews, killed Josiah king of Judah, captured Jerusalem, imprisoned Jehoahaz, and appointed Jehoiachim king.

Psammenitus reigned only six months before the invasion of Cambyses, and the subjection of his kingdom. He was kindly treated at first by the conquerer, but thirsting for an opportunity to revenge himself, he was condemned to drink bull's blood, and died wretchedly.