CHAP. IX.

Of matters concurring with the Peloponnesian war, or shortly following it.

SECT. I.

How the affairs of Persia stood in these times. DURING the times of this Peloponnesian war, and those other less expeditions foregoing it, Artaxerxes Longimanus, having peaceably enjoyed a long reign over the Persians, left it by his death either to Darius, who was called Darius Nothus, or the Bastard, whom the Greek historians (lightly passing over Xerxes the second, and Sogdianus, as usurpers, and for their short reign little to be regarded) place next unto him, or to Xerxes the second, who, and his brother Sogdianus after him, (seeming to have been the sons of Hester,) held the kingdom but one year between them, the younger succeeding his elder brother. It is not my purpose (as I have said before) to pursue the history of the Persians from henceforth, by rehearsal of all the particulars, otherwise than as they shall be incident to the affairs of Greece. It may therefore suffice to say, that Xerxes the second, being a vicious prince, did perish after a month or two, if not by surfeit, then by treachery of his as riotous brother Sogdianus. Likewise of Sogdianus it is found, that being as ill as his brother, and more cruel, he slew unjustly Bagorazus a principal eunuch, and would have done as much to his brother Darius the Bastard, had not he foreseen it, and by raising a stronger army than this hated king Sogdianus could levy, seized at once upon the king and kingdom. Darius, having slain his brother, held the empire nineteen years. Amyrtæus of Sais, an Egyptian, rebelled against him, and having partly slain, partly chased out of the land the Persian garrisons, allied himself so firmly with the Greeks, that by their aid he maintained the kingdom, and delivered it over to his posterity, who (notwithstanding the fury of their civil wars) maintained it against the Persian all the days of this Darius and of his son Artaxerxes

Mnemon. Likewise Amorges, a subject of his own, and of the royal blood, being lieutenant of Caria, rebelled against him, confederating himself with the Athenians. But the great calamity before spoken of, which fell upon the Athenians in Sicil, having put new life into the Spartans, and given courage to the islanders and others, subject to the state of Athens, to shake off the yoke of their long continued bondage; it fell out well for Darius, that the Lacedæmonians being destitute of money wherewith to defray the charge of a great navy, without which it was impossible to advance the war against the state of Athens, that remained powerful by sea, were driven to crave his assistance, which he granted unto them, first upon what conditions best pleased himself, though afterwards the articles of the league between him and them were set down in more precise terms, wherein it was concluded, that he and they should make war jointly upon the Athenians, and upon all that should rebel from either of them, and (which was highly to the king's honour and profit) that all the cities of Asia, which had formerly been his, or his predecessors, should return to his obedience. By this treaty, and the war ensuing, (of which I have already spoken,) he recovered all that his grandfather and father had lost in Asia. Likewise by assistance of the Lacedæmonians he got Amorges alive into his hands, who was taken in the city of Iasus, the Athenians wanting either force or courage to succour him. Nevertheless Egypt still held out against him; the cause whereof cannot be the employment of the Persian forces on the parts of Greece, for he abounded in men, of whom he had enough for all occasions, but they wanted manhood, which caused him to fight with gold, which effected for him by soldiers of other nations, and his natural enemies, what the valour of his own subjects was insufficient to perform. Darius had in marriage Parysatis, his own sister, who bare unto him (besides other children) Artaxerxes called Mnemon, that is to say, the mindful, or the rememberer, who succeeded him in the kingdom; and Cyrus the younger, a prince of singular virtue, and accounted by all

that knew him the most excellent man that ever Persia bred after Cyrus the Great. But the old king Darius, intending to leave unto his elder son Artaxerxes the inheritance of that great empire, did cast a jealous eye upon the doings of young Cyrus, who, being lieutenant of the Lower Asia, took more upon him than befitted a subject; for which cause his father sent for him, with intent to have taken some very sharp course with him, had not his own death prevented the coming of his younger son, and placed the elder in his throne. Of the war between these brethren, and summarily of Artaxerxes, we shall have occasion to speak somewhat in more convenient place.

SECT. II.

How the thirty tyrants got their dominion in Athens. I HOLD it in this place most convenient to shew the proceedings of the Greeks, after the subversion of the walls of Athens, which gave end to that war called the Peloponnesian war, but could not free the unhappy country of Greece from civil broils. The thirty governors, commonly called the thirty tyrants of Athens, were chosen at the first by the people to compile a body of their law, and make a collection of such ancient statutes as were meetest to be put in practice; the condition of the city standing as it did in that so sudden alteration. To this charge was annexed the supreme authority, either as a recompense of their labours, or because the necessity of the times did so require it, wherein the law being uncertain, it was fit that such men should give judgment in particular causes, to whose judgment the laws themselves, by which the city was to be ordered, were become subject. But these thirty having so great power in their hands, were more careful to hold it, than to deserve it by faithful execution of that which was committed to them in trust.

Therefore apprehending such troublesome fellows as were odious to the city, though not punishable therefore by law, they condemned them to death; which proceeding was by all men highly approved, who considered their lewd condi

tions, but did not withal bethink themselves how easy a thing it would be unto these thirty men to take away the lives of innocents, by calling them perturbers of the peace, or what else they listed, when condemnation, without due trial and proof, had been once well allowed. Having thus plausibly entered into a wicked course of government, they thought it best to fortify themselves with a sure guard, ere they brake out into those disorders which they must needs commit for the establishing of their authority. Wherefore despatching two of their own company to Sparta, they informed the Lacedæmonians, that it was the full intent of the thirty to keep the city free from all rebellious motions, to which purpose it behoved them to cut off such as were seditious, and therefore desired the Lacedæmonians to send them a garrison, which they promised at their own cost to maintain. This motion was well approved, and a guard sent, the captain of which was so well entertained by the thirty, that none of their misdeeds could want his high commendations at Sparta. Hereupon the tyrants began to take heart, and looking no more after base and detested persons, invaded the principal men of the city, sending armed men from house to house, who drew out such as were of great reputation, and likely or able to make any head against this wicked form of government; whereby there was such effusion of blood, as to Theramenes (one of the thirty) seemed very horrible, and unable to escape vengeance. His dislike of their proceedings being openly discovered, caused his fellows to bethink themselves, and provide for their own security and his destruction, lest he should make himself a captain of the discontented, (which were almost the whole city,) and redeem his own peace with their ruin. Wherefore they selected three thousand of the citizens, whom they thought meetest, and gave unto them some part of public authority; the rest they disarmed; and having thus increased their own strength, and weakened their opposites, they began afresh to shed the blood, not only of their private enemies, but of such whose money or goods might enrich them, and enable them for the payment of their guard.

And to this purpose they concluded, that every one of them should name one man upon whose goods he should seize, putting the owner to death. But when Theramenes uttered his detestation of so wicked intent, then did Critias, who of all the thirty was most tyrannical, accuse him to the council as a treacherous man, and (whereas one main privilege of the three thousand was, that none of them should suffer death at the appointment of the thirty, but have the accustomed trial) he took upon him to strike out of that number the name of Theramenes, and so reduced him under the trial and sentence of that order. It was well alleged by Theramenes, that his name was not more easy to be blotted out of the catalogue than any other man's, upon which consideration he advised them all to conceive no otherwise of his case than as of their own, who were liable to the same form of proceeding; but (every man choosing rather to preserve his own life by silence, than presently to draw upon himself the danger which as yet concerned him little, and perhaps would never come near him) the tyrants, interpreting silence as consent, condemned him forthwith, and compelled him to drink poison.

SECT. III.

The conspiracy against the thirty tyrants, and their deposition. AFTER the death of Theramenes, the thirty began to use such outrage as excelled their former villainies. For having three thousand (as they thought) firm unto them, they robbed all others without fear or shame, despoiling them of lands and goods, and causing them to fly into banishment for safeguard of their lives. This flight of the citizens procured their liberty, and the general good of the city for the banished citizens, who were fled to Thebes, entered into consultation, and resolved to hazard their lives in setting free the city of Athens. The very thought of such a practice had been treason at home, which had no other danger abroad than might be found in the execution. Seventy men, or thereabout, were the first undertakers, who, with their captain Thrasybulus, took Phyla, a place