Ifrael in long captivity ftill mourns; There Babylon, the wonder of all tongues, His city there thou seeft, and Bactra there; 286 285 And cap. 98. and Strabo calls it a great city, syahn won Lib. XI. p. 522. and Polybius fays that it greatly excelled other cities in riches and magnificence of buildings. Lib. X. And Hecatompylos ber hundred gates, the name fignifies a city with an hundred gates, and fo the capital city of Parthia was call'd, ExaToTURN TO των Παρ buat Bachov, Strabo Lib. XI. p. 514. as was likewife Thebes in Egypt for the fame reafon. There Sufa, the Shufhan of the holy Scriptures, the royal feat of the kings of Perfia, who refided here in the winter and at Ecbatana in the fummer, by Choafpes, fituated on the river Choafpes, or Eulæus, or Ulai as it is called in Daniel, or rather on the confluence of these two rivers, which meeting at Sufa form one great river, fometimes called by one name, fometimes by the other, amber stream, fee the fame expreffion and the conclusion of the note on Paradife Loft III, 359. And Hecatompylos her hundred gates; There Sufa by Choafpes, amber ftream, 359. the drink of none but kings, of which we will fay nothing, as it is fo fully difcufs'd in a note by Mr. Jortin. 289. The drink of none but kings;] If we examin it as an hiftorical problem, whether the kings of Perfia alone drank of Choafpes, we fhall find great reafon to determin in the negative. 1. We have for that opinion the filence of many authors, by whom we might have expected to have found it confirmed, had they known of any fuch cuftom. Herodotus, Strabo, Tibullus, Aufonius, Maximus Tyrius, Ariftides, Plutarch, Pliny the elder, Athenæus, Dionyfius Periegetes, Euftathius, have mention'd Choafpes (or Eulæus) as the drink of the kings of Perfia or Parthia, or have called it Banov dwp regia lympha, but have not faid that they alone drank of it. I fay Choafpes or Eulaus, becaufe fome make them the fame, and others counted them different rivers. The filence of Herodotus ought to be of great weight, becaufe he is fo particular in his account of the Perfian affairs; and next to his, the filence of Pliny, who had read fo many authors, is confiderable. 2. Though it can hardly be expected that a negative fhould be proved any other way than from the filence of writers, yet fo it happens that Elian, if his authority be admit The ted, affords us a full proof that Choafpes might be drunk by the fubjects of the Kings of Perfia. τατε αλλα εφόδια είπε ο τῷ Ξέρξη πολυτελείας και αλαζονείας πεπληρω μενα, και εν και ύδωρ ηκολέθει το εκ το Χοάσπη, Επει δεν τινι ερημω τοπῳ εδίψησαν, εδέπω της θεραπειας ήκεσης, εκηρύχθη τῷ σρατοπεδῳ, ει τις έχει ύδωρ εκ το Χοασπε, ἵνα δω βασιλει πιειν. Και εύρεθη τις βραχυ και (εσηπο εχων. Επιεν εν τετο ὁ Ξέρξης, και ευεργέλην τον δονία ενόμισεν, ότι αν απωλετο τη δίψη, ει μη εκείνο ευρεθη. In the carriages which followed Xerxes, there were abundance of things which ferved only for pomp and oftentation; there was also the water of Choafpes. The army being oppreffed with thirft in a defert place, and the carriages not being yet come up, it was proclamed that if any one had of the water of Choafpes, he fhould give it Xerxes to drink. One was found who had a little, and that not Sweet. Xerxes drank it, and accounted him who gave it him a benefactor, because he had perished with thirst, if that little had not been found. Var. Hift. XII. 40. 3. Mention is made indeed by Agathocles of a certain water, which none but Perfian kings might drink; and if any other writers mention it, they take it from Agathocles. We find it in Athenæus: Ayaboxλns er Πάρσαις φησιν είναι και χρυσεν και epror dwp' δε TUTO 26 The drink of none but kings; of later fame Built by Emathian, or by Parthian hands, n βάδας εβδομηκονία, και μηδένα πινειν απ' αυτε η μόνον βασιλέα και TOY πρεσβύτατον αυτα των παίδων των δε άλλων εαν τις win, Javalo i na. Agathocles fays that there is in Perfia a water called golden, that it is feventy freams, that none drinks of it except the king and his eldeft fon; and that if any other perfon does, death is the punishment. See Herodotus, Edit. Gronov. p. 594. where this paffage is to be found. 4. It appears not that the golden water, and Choafpes were the fame. Euftathius, tranfcribing from Agathocles, fays: TO Το παρα Πέρσαις χρυσεν καλεμενον ύδωρ, ὅπερ ην λιβάδες ἑβδομηκονία, ὑπερ εδεις, φασιν, επινεν ὅτι μη βασιλευς, και ὁ των παίδων αυτά πρεσβυλαία των δ' αλλων εἴ τις της θανατα ή ζημια. Ζηλήλεον δε ει και το Χοάσπειον ύδωρ, Επερ επινε σφαλευομεν ὁ Περσων βασιλευς, τοιαύτην επιλιμιον, κηρα εφειλκελο. The Perfians had a water called golden &c. Quære, whether the water of Choafpes, which the Perfian king drank in his expeditions, was forbidden to all others under the fame penalty. Euftathius in Homer. Iliad. Y, p. 1301. Ed. Bafil. 5. It may be granted, and it is not at all improbable, that none befides the king might drink of that water of Choafpes, which was boiled and barrel'd up for his ufe in his military expeditions. 6. Solinus indeed, who is a frivolous writer, VOL. I. 290 The 289. of later fame &c] Cities of later date, built by Emathian, that is Macedonian, the fuc ceffors of Alexander in Afia, or by Parthian hands, the great Seleucia built near the river Tigris by Seleucus Nicator, one of Alexander's captains, and called great to diftinguish it from others of the fame name; Nifibis, another city. upon the Tigris, called alfo Antiochia, Antiochia, quam nifibin vocant. Plin. Nat. Hift. Lib. 6. Sect. 16. Artaxata, the chief city of Armenia, seated upon the river Araxes, juxta Araxem Artaxata. Plin. Lib. 6. Sect. 10. Teredon, a city near the Perfian bay, below the confluence of Euphrates and Tigris, Teredon infra confluentem Euphratis et Tigris. Plin. Lib. 6. Sect. 32. Ctesiphon near Seleucia, K the The great Seleucia, Nifibis, and there Turning with easy eye thou may'st behold. the winter refidence of the Parthian Kings. Strabo. Lib. 16. P. 743. All these cities, which before belonged to the Seleucidæ or Syro-Macedonian princes, fometimes called kings of Antioch, from their ufual place of refidence, are now under the dominion of the Parthians, whofe empire was founded by Arfaces, who revolted from Antiochus Theus according to Prideaux 250 years before Chrift. This view of the Parthian empire is much more agreeably and poetically defcribed than Adam's prospect of the kingdoms of the world from the mount of vifion in the Paradife Loft, XI. 385- -411: but fill the anachronifm in this is worse than in the other: in the former Adam is fuppofed to take a view of cities many years before they were built, and in the latter our Saviour beholds cities, as 295 In Nineveh, Babylon &c. in their florifhing condition many years after they were laid in ruins; but it was the defign of the former vision to exhibit what was future, it was not the defign of the latter to exhibit what was past. 298. And just in time thou com'ft to have a view Of his great pow'r ;] Although Milton in this temptation had no lefs a fcene at his command than all the empires of the world, yet being fenfible how incapable his fubject was of poetic decoration in many other parts of it, and confidering too, very probably, that a geographic defcription of kingdoms, however varied in the manner of expreffion and diverfified with little circumftances, muft foon grow tedious, has very judiciously thrown in this digreffive picture In Ctesiphon hath gather'd all his hoft 300 Against the Scythian, whofe incurfions wild He marches now in hafte; fee, though from far, 304 picture of an army muftering for an expedition, which he has executed in a very masterly manner. The fame conduct he has obferved in the fubfequent defcription of the Roman empire by introducing into the scene prætors and proconfuls marching out to their provinces with troops, liftors, rods, and other enfigns of power, and embaffadors making their entrance into that imperial city from all parts of the world. There is great art and design in this contrivance of the author's, and the more as there is no appearance of any, fo naturally are the parts connected. Thyer. 299. - for now the Parthian king In Ctesiphon hath gather'd all his hoft] When Strabo mentions Ctefiphon, Lib. 16. p. 743. which In we quoted before, he fays that the Parthian kings made it their winter refidence to prevent the incurfions of the Scythians; and he defcribes it as a place able to contain a vaft multitude and all preparations and provifions for them: Ταύτην δ' εποιςντο χειμαδίον οἱ των Παρθυαίων βασιλεῖς, φειδόμενοι των Σελευκείων, ίνα μη καταταθμευ οιντο ύπο το Σκυθικο φυλο και τρα τιωτικό δυναμει εν Παρθική πολις αυτό κωμης επι και το μεγεθω τοσεῖον γε πληθα δεχομενη, και την κατασκευην x. T. A. and therefore the poet might well fuppofe the Scythians at this time to have made an incurfion into Sogdiana, which was the province next adjoining to them, and the Parthian king to have affembled a great army at Ctefiphon in order to oppofe them. |