potent prince again crossed the Euphrates on an expedition against the nations to the west. He laid siege to Tyre, which underwent a blockade of thirteen years, at the end of which it was deserted by its inhabitants, who removed with their most valuable effects to a neighbouring island. In the mean time his detachments subdued several of the surrounding cities and districts, and made an incursion into Judæa to revenge upon the few remaining people the death of their governor Gedaliah. From Tyre he marched into Egypt, which was then in great confusion from a civil war between Apries and Amasis. His transactions there are but obscurely recorded, but it seems that he laid waste a great part of the country, and carried off a rich booty with numerous captives. Returning to Babylon, he undertook vast works to augment the magnificence of that famous capital, and is said to have built the walls of the city, the temple of Belus, and a new palace with the celebrated hanging gardens, and to have embanked the river and dug canals and artificial lakes. But in the height of his grandeur and prosperity, as he was pronouncing "Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?" an affliction fell upon him, which is mysteriously described in the book of Daniel, as being driven from the society of men, dwelling with the beasts of the field, eating grass like an ox, and being wet with the dews of heaven. By those who do not understand the text literally, it is supposed that he was deprived of his understanding, and was sequestered in some solitude, probably in great neglect, whilst his son, Evil-Merodach, administered the government. In this state he continued seven years, when resuming the diadem, he confined his son for mis-government. He was brought to a deep sense of religion by his sufferings, and having occupied the throne about a year longer, he died B. C. 562, after a reign of forty-three years alone, and nearly two as partner with his father. Daniel. Univers. Hist.-A.

NABUNAL, ELIAS DE, a French cardinal, held in great esteem as a divine by his contemporaries, flourished in the fourteenth century, and took his surname from the place of his nativity in the province of Perigord. He embraced the religious life in the order of friars minors, became successively archbishop of Nicosia, and patriarch of Jerusalem. In

the year 1342, pope Clement VI. promoted him to the dignity of cardinal-priest, with the title of St. Vital. He died at Avignon in 1367. He was the author of a Latin "Commentary" on the four Books of Sentences of Peter Lombard; another Commentary on the Apocalypse;" "A Treatise concerning the contemplative Life;" and "Sermons," explanatory of various passages in the Evangelists. Moreri. Nouv. Dict. Hist.-M.

NACLANTUS,or,NACCHIANTE, JAMES, a learned Italian prelate in the sixteenth century, was a native of Florence, who took the ecclesiastical habit among the Dominican monks. He filled the theological chair in a house belonging to his order at Rome, with such reputation, that pope Paul III. thought proper to raise him to the episcopal rank. He was one of the prelates who took part in the deliberations of the Council of Trent, and died in the year 1569. His works were held in esteem by the Catholics, and some of them were particularly valued by the advocates for the high claims of the papal power. They consist of "Enarratio in Epistolam ad Ephesios;" "Interpretatio Epistolæ ad Romanos;" "Medulla sacræ Scripturae;" "de Papæ et concilii Potestate;" "De Maximo Pontificatu, Maximoque Sacerdotio Christi ;" and other theological treatises, which were collected together, and published at Venice in 1557, in two volumes, folio. Moreri. Nouv. Dict. Hist.-M.

NADAB, king of Israel, succeeded his father Jeroboam on the throne, in the year 954 B. C. During his short reign of two years, he imitated his father's vices and idolatry, and speedily received the punishment which his crimes deserved. crimes deserved. For having advanced with an army to besiege Gibbeton, a fortress belonging to the Philistines, Baasha, one of his generals, a person of the tribe of Issachar, formed a conspiracy against him, and put him to death; after which Baasha seized upon the kingdom, and destroyed the whole race of Jeroboam, according to the prediction of the prophet Ahijah. 1. Kings, xiv. xv. Blair's Chron. Tables.-M.

NADIR SHAH, otherwise called KOULIKHAN, a famous usurper and conqueror, was born in 1686 at Kallat, a fortress in Khorasan. His father was a Turkman of the tribe of Afshar, who, according to one account, was a maker of caps and sheep-skin coats; but another relation represents him as hereditary governor

of a fortress built by his countrymen against the Tartars. He died when Nadir was thirteen years of age, and an uncle took possession of the office which should have devolved to the youth. He was obliged, in order to support himself and his mother, to employ an ass and camel, which were his sole property, in carrying for sale to the next town fagots which he collected in the woods. He was made a slave by the Usbeks, but escaped from them after a servitude of four years. In 1712 he entered the service of a begh, who sent him with dispatches to court; and it is said that he killed his comrade, assassinated his master on his return, carried off his daughter to the mountains, and subsisted for some time on robbery. In 1714 he became gentleman-usher to the governor of Khorasan, which seems to prove, at least, that the crimes imputed to him were not notorious. In this situation his conduct was so laudable, that he was intrusted with a company of cavalry to act against the Tartars. His courage and military talents soon raised him to the command of a thousand horse, in which station he obtained general esteem. When in 1730 the Usbeks invaded Khorasan with ten thousand men, Nadir offered the governor to repulse them with only six thousand, and completely performed his promise, killing the Tartar chief with his own hand. For this success the governor proposed to procure for him from the court of Persia the post of lieutenantgeneral of Khorasan; but the shah, receiving an unfavourable impression of Nadir, gave the office to another. Nadir, irritated at his disappointment, reproached his patron in such insolent terms, that he was discharged from the service, after a severe bastinado. Fired with indignation, he retired to the fortress of Kallat, commanded by his uncle; and soon after joined a troop of banditti, at the head of whom he pillaged several caravans, and laid Khorasan and the surrounding provinces under contribution. At this time the Afghans under Mahmoud were become masters of Ispahan, while the Turks and Russians pressed upon Persia in other quarters, so that shah Thamas, the lawful sovereign, was possessed only of two or three provinces. In 1727 one of the shah's generals in disgust joined Nadir with one thousand five hundred men, which increased his troop to a formidable body. His uncle now wrote to him, promising to obtain his pardon if he would engage in the service of Thamas. Nadir accepted the offer, and repaired to Kallat, which he seized, and murdered his uncle..

VOL. VI.

Thamas was obliged to overlook this villany on account of the occasion he had for his services, and Nadir marched against the Afghans, defeated them, and took possession of Nishabour in the name of the shah. That prince made him a lieutenant-general; and he so well insinuated himself into the confidence of Thamas, that he was able to make him believe that the general in chief had formed a conspiracy against him. That officer was taken off by assassination, and Nadir in 1729 was appointed his successor.

He had now a free career for his ambition, and he began with rendering important services to his sovereign. He reduced the whole of Khorasan, and was recompensed by a title which in that despotic country was regarded as highly honourable. It was that of Thamas Kouli Khan, signifying the khan or lord slave of Thamas. His successes alarmed Ashraf, now chief of the Afghans, who marched towards Khorasan to oppose him, but was defeated and driven back to Ispahan, which he soon quitted. Kouli-Khan had then the satisfaction of re-instating his king in the capital of his empire 3 thus rising to the highest distinction a subject could enjoy. He continued in the field, and pursuing Ashraf, gave him a new defeat, followed by his death, and entirely cleared the country of the Afghans. Among the captives whom he rescued from this people were the aunt and sister of the shah, who gave the first in mar riage to Kouli. The general then proceeded against the Turks, gained a complete victory over them, and recovered Hamadan and Tauris. While he was absent in another part, Thamas marched in person against the Turks, and met with a defeat, which induced him to make peace with that power. Kouli strongly opposed the peace; and being desired, after its ratification, to disband his army, instead of complying, he led seventy thousand men, all devoted to his interest, to Ispahan, seized upon the shah, confined and deposed him, and proclaimed his infant son Abbas in his stead. Every thing in Persia was now at his disposal. He renewed the war with the Turks, obtained two victories over them, and recovered all the provinces which they had wrested from Persia in the preceding war; thus justifying the opposition he had made to the inglorious treaty which had left them in their possession.

In the beginning of 1736 the young king died; and all the great men being assembled to consider of a successor, Kouli proposed the restoration of Thamas. His real wishes were,

however, too well known for the adoption of this hypocritical proposal, and he was himself desired to accept the crown. He accepted it on the condition that it should be hereditary in his family: and he annexed another condition which gives a favourable idea of his religious sentiments. This was, that they should forbear the anniversary curses of the caliphs preceding Ali, and the fanatic commemoration of Hussein's death, which keep up the animosity of the shiite Mahometans against the sunnites. The opposition of the head of the clergy to this innovation was punished with the bowstring; and on the next day Kouli-Khan was proclaimed king of Persia by the name of shah Nadir. He then concluded an honourable peace with the Turks; and in December 1737 set out on an expedition to reduce Kandahar, leaving his son Rizi Kouli to govern during his absence. After a long siege, the town of Kandahar surrendered to his arms; but he found it necessary to confirm the former possessor in his government, on terms of allegiance. Whilst he was still in this country he received an invitation from Nizam al Mulk, and other officers about the court of Mohammed-shah the Mogul emperor, to come and take possession of that empire. Such an application he was not likely to reject; accordingly, in 1738, he began his march for the frontiers of India, at the head of 120,000 men of different nations, enured to war. After making himself master of some places of less consequence, he took Cabul by storm, in which capital he found great treasures. The treacherous ministers of the emperor suffered him to advance without opposition, and he arrived at Lahor before the Mogul army had proceeded far from Delhi. At length they came in sight of each other; and the vanguard of the Persian army proved sufficient to discomfit the numerous but unwarlike host of the Mogols. Mohammed-shah, thoroughly terrified, sent Nizam ul Mulk to Nadir's camp to propose an accommodation. The Persian made it an essential preliminary that Mohammed should come to him in his camp. He was received by Nadir with courtesy, but was severely upbraided by the conqueror for his great inattention to his affairs, demonstrated by his neglecting to return answers to Nadir's letters, and his suffering one of the Persian embassadors to be killed, contrary to all the laws of nations. From regard to the race of Timur he said he did not mean to dethrone him; but he expected to be remunerated for the expence and trouble of his jour

ney. He ended with declaring his intention of marching to Delhi to refresh his army after its fatigues. Mohammed was thenceforth keptunder guard, and all his arms, treasures and jewels were seized. Soon after, the two emperors with their train proceeded to Delhi, which metropolis Nadir entered in March 1739, with twenty thousand horse, leaving the rest of his army encamped without the walls. A short time only elapsed before tumults arose between the soldiery and the turbulent populace of this vast city. Mutual provocations proceeded so far that several were slain on both sides, and a musket was fired at Nadir himself, which killed an officer near him. Inflamed with rage, he ordered a general massacre; and from eight in the morning to three in the afternoon, fire, sword, and pillage spread uncontrolled through the streets of Delhi. Both sexes and all ages were sacrificed to the fury of the. barbarous invaders, and numbers of women fell by their own hands, or by those of their protectors, in order to escape violation. A hundred and twenty thousand persons are reported to have lost their lives in this dreadful. massacre, which is scarcely to be paralleled in modern history. Nadir was at length persuaded, by the intercession of the unfortunate monarch of these people, to give orders for the cessation of slaughter. Peace was restored;. and measures were taken for raising the fine or ransom imposed by the conqueror, amounting to the sum of twenty-five millions sterling,. exclusive of the booty he had already made. Great rigour was used in levying it, and many of the principal nobles and courtiers were reduced to beggary by the extortion. In the beginning of May this terrible visitant set out. on his march homeward, his soldiers still plundering and murdering within the range of their track. It is computed that Nadir carried out: of India to the value of eighty-seven millions and a half of pounds sterling in money, jewels and effects, besides twelve millions shared by. his officers and soldiers; and the loss to the Mogul empire by fire and devastation made a vast addition to those sums. He replaced with his own hands the crown upon Mohammed'shead before his departure, but obliged him to resign to the Persian empire all his territories to. the west of the rivers Attock, Sind, and its branch the Nala Sundra.

On his return to Kandahar, Nadir marched with an army against the Usbeks, who had made incursions into Persia during his absence. He brought the khan of Bokhara to submission,

and took and put to death the prince of Khyeva, who had murdered his embassadors. Return ing to Meshed, he was shot at and wounded in the hand by an Afghan whom his son Rizi Kouli had employed to assassinate him. That prince, on a rumour of his father's defeat in Hindostan, revolted, and murdered the deposed shah Thamas in the fortress in which he was confined. His father's affection was not extinguished by this criminality, and he would have pardoned him; but, provoked by his taunting language, he caused him to be deprived of sight. Quelling revolts in different parts of his dominions, and a war with the Turks, to whom in 1745 he gave a great defeat near Erivan, employed some succeeding years of his life. In the mean time Persia was suffering under all the evils of tyranny, and the avarice and cruelty of Nadir became insupportable to his subjects. The hatred he inspired at length proved fatal to him. As he was encamped on the plains of Sultan Meydan, a conspiracy was formed between the commander of his body guard, another great officer, and his own nephew. The former, named Saleh-beg, with four chosen men, rushed one night into his tent after killing a woman and an eunuch, and roused him by the alarm. Nadir drew his sabre, and asked what they wanted; when Saleh answered by a cut near his collar-bone. He resisted, however, with so much vigour as to kill two of the soldiers; but attempting to retire, he stumhled over the cords and fell. Saleh repeated his blow, and to Nadir's cries for mercy he replied, "You have shown no mercy, and deserve none." He was dispatched, and his head was struck off.

This successful usurper was of a tall stature andarobust form, with a comely aspect, a high forehead, large expressive eyes, and dark hair and complexion. He had a tenacious memory, great presence of mind, and quick decision. So devoid of education as scarcely to be able to read, he yet acquired a thorough knowledge of business, and was acquainted with every particular of the revenue. He was simple in his diet, plain in his dress except with respect to jewels, in which he took pride; and never was there a greater collector of them. He was at tached to women, but an enemy to unnatural indulgences; cruel, insolent, and rapacious. The variety of religious sects among his subjects made him indifferent to all. He heard their systems, and treated them with contempt; and it is said that he declared his intentions of giving to the world a better faith than any of

them. He was cut off at the age of sixty-one, after a reign of eleven years and three months. Mod. Univers. Hist.-A.

NÆVIUS, CNEIUS, an ancient Roman poet and historian, was a native of Campania, and served in the army in the first Punic war. Of this war he wrote a history in Saturnian verse, with all the rudeness of those illiterate times, but yet, according to Cicero, perspicuously; and he adds that Ennius, who alludes to the work contemptuously, borrowed much from it. Nævius was likewise the second Roman who brought dramatic compositions on the stage. His first comedy was acted B. C. 235, or, according to another authority, B. C. 228. It appears to have given offence to some of the leading men at Rome; for Plautus, in his "Miles Gloriosus," hints at his being confined in prison. He was finally obliged to quit Rome through the enmity of the patrician family of Metelli, and died at Utica, B. C. 203. A highly laudatory epitaph on him is extant, said to have been written by himself. Of the works of this poet only some inconsiderable fragments, preserved by grammarians, have reached modern times. Aulus Gellius. Vossii Hist. & Poet. Lat.-A.

Ac

NAHUM, the seventh in number of the minor Hebrew prophets, according to their order in the Hebrew Bible, though probably the fifth in order of time. He gives himself the surname of the Elkoshite, which St. Jerome, in, the preface to his comment on this prophet, derives from Elkegai, a village in Galilee, and the supposed place of his birth or residence. With respect to the time when he delivered his prophecy, very different opinions have been entertained both by the ancients and moderns. Josephus places him in the reign of Jothar,, and says that his predictions came to pass one hundred and fifteen years afterwards. cording to our best chronologers, this date. would bring us to the year in which Samaria was taken, or 721 B. C. St. Jerome, Theodorct, and Theophylact, agree in supposing that he prophesied under the reign of Hezekiah, or Manasseh. The late primate of Ireland concurs in opinion with those who think that Nahum uttered this prophecy in the reign of Hezekiah, and not long after the subver-, sion of the kingdom of Israel by Salmanazar, or between the years 720 and 698 B. C; which hypothesis carries with it great appearance of probability. The subject of this prophecy is the destruction of Nineveh. It opens by setting forth, the justice and power of God,

tempered by lenity and goodness; and then suddenly addresses to the Assyrians a prediction of their perplexity and overthrow, the merited punishment of their devising evil against the true God. In the next place it contains a proclamation of speedy freedom to Judah from the galling Assyrian yoke, and the destruction of the Assyrian idols; after which Nineveh is called upon to prepare for the approach of her enemies, as instruments in the hands of Jehovah; and the military array and muster of the Medes and Babylonians, their rapid approach to the city, the process of the siege, the capture of the place, &c. are described in the true spirit of eastern poetry. The prophet afterwards denounces a woe against Nineveh for her perfidy, violence, and idolatry; describes the number of her chariots and cavalry, her burnished arms, and the unrelenting slaughter which she spread around; pronounces that all her preparations for defence, her numbers, her opulence, her multitudes of chief men, would prove of no avail; foretels her tributary nations would desert her in the day of her distress; and concludes with announcing the triumphs of others over her, on account of her extensive oppressions. This short view of the subject of this prophetical book we have taken from bishop Newcome, and we cannot better conclude this article than by following his example în quoting the judgment of bishop Lowth, concerning its style."None of the minor prophets," says he, "seem to equal Nahum, in boldness, ardour, and sublimity. His prophecy too forms a regular and perfect poem; the exordium is not merely magnificent, it is truly majestic; the preparation for the destruction of Nineveh, and the description of its downfall and desolation, are expressed in the most vivid colours, and are bold and luminous in the highest degree." Book of Nahum. Joseph. Ant. lib. ix. cap. xi. sect. 3. Moreri. Newcome's improved Version of the minor Prophets. Lowth's prelect. de sacra poesi Heb. xxi. Gregory's Trans. Blair's Chron. Tab.-M. NAIN DE TILLEMONT, LEWIS SEBASTIAN LE. See TILLEMONT.

NAIRONI, ANTHONY-FAUSTUs, a learned Maronite, who flourished in the seventeenth century, was born within the district of Mount Libanus, about the year 1631. He was the nephew and disciple of Abraham Ecchellensis, and became professor of the Chaldee and Syriac languages in the college of Sapienza, at Rome, where he died in 1711, having nearly completed his eightieth year. He was the author

of two works, one entitled, "Euoplia Fidei Ca tholicæ Romanæ historico-dogmatica, ex vetus-tissimis Syrorum seu Chaldæorum Monumentis eruta, adversus ævi nostri novatores," 1694, octavo; and the other, "Dissertatio de Origine,, Nomine, ac Religione Maronitarum," 1679. In these works the author attempts to prove, that the Maronites have preserved the genuine christian faith from the time of the apostles ;and that they derive their name, not from John Maron, a monothelite, who died in 707, but from St. Maron, a celebrated anchorite,. who lived towards the close of the fourth cen tury. It is remarked, however, by catholic critics, that the documents to which he appeals. are not of a date sufficiently ancient to beproduced in evidence of the facts which he endeavours to establish; that his principal. authority is Thomas a monothelite archbishop. of Kfartab, who is said to have lived about the eleventh century; and that the works of other authors whom he cites frequently refer to an-tiquity events which took place in their own time, or are evidently compiled from books of the Maronites written after their reconciliation with Rome. Moreri. Nouv. Dict. Hist.-M.

NANCEL, NICHOLAS DE, a physician and philologist, was born in 1539, at a village of that name between Noyon and Soissons. He studied at the college of Presles at Paris, of. which the celebrated Ramus was at that. time principal. He made such a proficiency, that at. the age of eighteen Ramus appointed him to. teach the Latin and Greek languages in the college. He afterwards commenced the study. of physic, but the civil wars which broke out. in France interrupted his progress, and he retired to Flanders, where in 1562 he became professor of the learned languages at Douay.. Returning to Paris, he occupied a chair in the college of Presles, and also was aggregated to the medical faculty. He removed for the prac-tice of his profession to Soissons, and afterwards settled and married at Tours. In that. city he resided till 1587, when he obtained the place of physician to the princess Eleanor of Bourbon, abbess of Fontevrault, whither he. removed. He died in 1610. Of the works of this learned writer the following are the most. remarkable: "Stichologia Græca Latinaque informanda reformandaque," 1579, octavo: this. is an attempt to reduce French verse to the rules of Greek and Latin poetry, which incurred the ridicule that has attended all similar attempts. "Discours de la Peste," 1581, octavo; " De Immortalitate Animi, velitatio ad