her persevering in this request, after every present she received, Euelthon was at length induced to send her a gold spindle, and a distaff with wool; observing, that this was a more suitable present for a woman than an army.

CLXIII. In the mean time Arcesilaus was indefatigable at Samos; by promising a division of lands, he assembled a numerous army: he then sailed to Delphi, to make inquiry concerning the event of his return. The Pythian made him this answer:-" To four Batti 158, and to "the same number of the name of Arcesilaus, Apollo has granted the dominion of Cyrene. Beyond these eight generations the deity forbids

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even the attempt to reign: to you it is recom"mended to return, and live tranquilly at home. "If you happen to find a furnace filled with "earthen vessels, do not suffer them to be baked, "but throw them into the air; if you set fire "to the furnace, beware of entering a place "surrounded by water. If you disregard this

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injunction, you will perish yourself, as will also a very beautiful bull."

158 To four Batti.]—According to the Scholiast on Pindar, the Battiades reigned at Cyrene for the space of two hundred years. Battus, son of the last of these, endeavoured to assume the government, but the Cyreneans drove him from their country, and he retired to the Hesperides, where he finished his days.-Larcher.

CLXIV. The Pythian made this reply to Arcesilaus he, however, returned to Cyrene with the forces he had raised at Samos; and having recovered his authority, thought no more of the oracle. He proceeded to institute a persecution against those who, taking up arms against him, had compelled him to fly. Some of these sought and found a refuge in exile, others were taken into custody and sent to Cyprus, to undergo the punishment of death. These the Cnidians delivered, for they touched at their island in their passage, and they were afterwards transported to Thera; a number of them fled to a large tower, the property of an individual named Aglomachus, but Arcesilaus destroyed them, tower and all, by fire. No sooner had he perpetrated this deed than he remembered the declaration of the oracle, which forbade him to set fire to a furnace* filled with earthern vessels; fearing therefore to suffer for what he had done, he retired from Cyrene, which place he considered as surrounded by water. He had married a relation, the daughter of Alazir, king of Barce, to him therefore he went; but upon his appearing in public, the Barceans, in conjunction with some Cyrenean

* The explanation of the destruction of the furnace filled with earthen vessels is easy enough, but we hear nothing of the beautiful bull. Perhaps there might be some affinity in the name of Alazir.

fugitives, put him to death, together with Alazir his father-in-law. Such was the fate of Arcesilaus, he having, designedly or from accident, violated the injunctions of the oracle.

CLXV. Whilst the son was thus hastening his destiny at Barce, Pheretime159, his mother, enjoyed at Cyrene, the supreme authority; and among other regal acts presided in the senate. But as soon as she received intelligence of the death of Arcesilaus, she sought refuge in Ægypt. Her son had some claims upon the liberality of Cambyses, son of Cyrus; he had delivered Cyrene into his power, and paid him tribute. On her arrival in Ægypt, she presented herself before Aryandes in the character of a suppliant, and besought him to revenge her cause, pretending that her son had lost his life, merely on account of his attachment to the Medes.

CLXVI. The Aryandes had been appointed præfect of Egypt by Cambyses; but afterwards, presuming to rival Darius, he was by him put to death. He had heard, and indeed he had seen, that Darius was desirous to leave some monument of himself, which should exceed all the

159 Pheretime.]-See this story well related in the Stratagemata of Polyænus, book viii. c. 47.-T..

efforts of his predecessors. He thought proper to attempt somewhat similar, but it cost him his life. Darius had issued a coin 160 of the very purest

160 Darius had issued a coin.]- "About the same time seem to have been coined those famous pieces of gold called Darics, which by reason of their fineness were for several ages preferred before all other coin throughout the east: for we are told that the author of this coin was not Darius Hystaspes, as some have imagined, but a more ancient Darius. But there is no ancienter Darius mentioned to have reigned in the east, excepting only this Darius, whom the Scripture calls Darius the Median; and therefore it is most likely he was the author of this coin, and that during the two years that he reigned at Babylon, while Cyrus was absent on his Syrian, Ægyptian, and other expeditions, he caused it to be made there out of the vast quantity of gold which had been brought thither into the treasury; from hence it became dispersed all over the east, and also into Greece, where it was of great reputation: according to Dr. Bernard, it weighed two grains more than one of our guineas, but the fineness added much more to its value; for it was in a manner all of pure gold, having none, or at least very little alloy in it; and therefore may be well reckoned, as the proportion of gold and silver now stands with us, to be worth twenty-five shillings of our money. In those parts of the Scripture which were written after the Babylonish captivity, thesc pieces are mentioned by the name of Adarkonim; and in the Talmudists, by the name of Darkoneth, both from the Greek Aapɛko, Darics. And it is to be observed, that all those pieces of gold which were afterwards coined of the same weight and value by the succeeding kings, not only of the Persian but also of the Macedonian race, were all called Darics, from the Darius who was the first author

gold: the præfect of Egypt issued one of the purest silver, and called it an Aryandic. It may

of them. And there were either whole Darics or halfDarics, as with us there are guineas and half-guineas."— Prideaux.

The above note from Prideaux contains much which is exceptionable and erroneous; what follows will perhaps be found to contain all that is necessary to elucidate the subject.

Darius, the son of Hystaspes, being the first sovereign who coined gold in Persia, the coins which he struck were called, after his name, Darics, in the same manner as the gold coins of Philip, the father of Alexander, were called Philips,

Rettulit acceptos, regale nomisma, Philippos.

Hor. Epist. lib. ii. 1, 23.

Herodotus is himself an evidence, that the Darics were made of pure gold, and he is confirmed in that point by the testimony of Julius Pollux: Καὶ οἱ δαρεικοὶ, ἀπὸ Δαρειον, ὡς ὑπ ̓ ἐκείνου ακριβωθέντες εἰς κάθαρσιν τοῦ χρυσίου. Lib. iii. c. xi. The type of these coins represented an archer, as may be gathered from the following witticism, said to have been used by Agesilaus : Τοῦ δὲ Περσικό νομίσματος χάραγμα τοξότην ἔχοντος, ἀναζευγνύων ἔφη, Τρισμυρίοις τοξόταις ὑπὸ βασιλέως ἐξελαύνεσθαι τῆς ̓Ασίας τοσέτων γὰρ εἰς Αθήνας καὶ Θήβας κομισθέντων διὰ Τιμοκράτους χρυσῶν δαρεικῶν καὶ διαδοθέντων τοῖς δημαγωγοῖς, ἐξεπολεμώθησαν οἱ δῆμοι πρὸς τὰς Σπαρτιάτας. Plutarch, Apophth. Lacon. xl. The Daric was equivalent in value to the Attic χρυσός.--Εισὶ μὲν χρυσοὶ στατήρες οἱ Δαρεικοί. ἡδύνατο δὲ ἕκαστος αὐτῶν, ὅπερ καὶ ὁ παρὰ τοῖς Αττικοῖς ὀνομαζόμενος χρυσός. Suidas, in voce Δαρεικές. Harpocration records the same circumstance with respect to the Daric, which, it appears from the description given by both these writers,