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'But the greatest misfortune which happened in Darius's reign, was the revolt of the Egyptians. This terrible blow fell out the same year with Pisuthnes's rebellion. But Darius could not reduce Egypt as he had done that rebel. - The Egyptians, weary of the Persian government, flocked from all parts to Amyrteus of Sais, who at last was come out of the fens where he had defended himself, from the suppression of the revolt of Inarus. The Persians were drove out, and Amyrteus proclaimed king of Egypt, where he reigned six years.

After having established himself securely on the throne, and entirely expelled the Persians out of Egypt, he prepared to pursue them as far as Phenicia, and had already concerted measures with the Arabians, to attack them in that country. News of this being brought to the king of Persia, he recalled the fleet which he had promised the Lacedemonians, to employ it in the defence of his own dominions.

Whilst Darius was carrying on the war in Egypt and Arabia, the Medes rebelled; however they were defeated, and reduced to their allegiance by force of arms. To punish them for this revolt, their yoke, till then easy enough, was made heavier: a fate that rebellious subjects always experience, when the gov. ernment, which they endeavoured to throw off, gains upper hand.

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a Darius's arms seem to have had the like success against the Egyptians. Amyrteus dying after he had

m

Thucyd. 1. i. p. 72, 73.

Euseb. in Chron.

Herod. 1. iii. c. 15.

reigned six years, (he possibly was killed in a battle,) Herodotus observes, it was by the assistance of the Persians that Pausiris his son succeeded him in the throne. To effect this, they must either have been masters of Egypt, or their party the strongest in that kingdom.

• After having crushed the rebels in Media, and restored the affairs of Egypt to their former situation, Darius gave Cyrus, the youngest of his sons, the supreme command of all the provinces of Asia Minor: an important commission, by which he commanded all the provincial governors in that part of the empire.

I thought it necessary to anticipate times, and draw together the facts which relate to the kings of Persia ; to prevent my being often obliged to interrupt the history of the Greeks, to which I now return.

SECTION II.

THE ATHENIANS MAKE THEMSELVES MASTERS OF THE ISLAND OF CYTHERA, &c. &c.

THE EIGHTH YEAR OF THE WAR.

THE three or four campaigns which followed the reduction of the small island of Sphacteria, were distinguished by very few considerable events.

P The Athenians under Nicias took the little island of Cythera, situated on the coast of Lacedemonia, near cape Malea, and from thence they infested the whole country.

• A. M. 3597. Ant. J. C. 407.

A. M. 3580. Ant. J. C. 424. Thucyd. 1. iv. p. 286.

Brasidas, on the other side, marched towards Thrace. The Lacedemonians were induced by more than one motive to undertake this expedition; imagining they should oblige the Athenians, who had fallen upon them in their country, to divide their forces. The inhabitants of it invited them thither, and offered to pay the army. In fine, they were extremely glad to embrace that opportunity, to rid themselves of the Helots, whom they expected to rise in rebellion, from the taking of Pylus. They had already made away with two thousand of them in a most horrid manner. Upon the specious pretence of rewarding merit even in slaves, but in reality, to get rid of a body of men whose courage they dreaded, they caused proclamation to be made, that such of the Helots as had done the greatest service to the state in the last campaigns, should enter their names in the public registers, in order for their being made free. Accordingly two thousand gave in their names. They were carried in procession through the temples, with chaplets of flowers on their heads, as if they were really to be set at liberty. After this ceremony they all disappeared, and were never heard of more. We have here an instance, in what manner an umbrageous policy and power, when filled with jealousy and distrust, excite men to the commission of the blackest crimes, without scrupling to make even religion itself, and the authority of the gods, subservient to their dark designs.

They therefore sent seven hundred Helots with Brasidas, whom they had appointed to head this enter

4 Thucyd. I. iv. p. 304-311. Diod. 1. xii. p. 117, 118.

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prise. This general brought over several cities, either by force or intelligence, and still more by his wisdom and moderation. The chief of these were Acanthus and Stagyra, which were two colonies from Andros. 'He also marched afterwards towards Amphipolis, an Athenian colony, on the river Strymon. The inhabitants immediately dispatched a messenger to Thucydides the Athenian general, who was then in Thasus, a little island of the Egean sea, half a days journey from Amphipolis. He instantly set sail with seven ships that were near him, to secure the place before Brasidas could seize it; or, at worst, to get into Eion, which lay very near Amphipolis. Brasidas, who was afraid of Thucydides, from his great credit in all that country, where he was possessed of some gold mines, made all the dispatch imaginable to get thither before him, and offered such advantageous conditions to the besieged, who did not expect succours so soon, that they surrendered. Thucydides arrived the same evening at Eion; and had he failed to come that day, Brasidas would have taken possession of it the next morning by daybreak. Although Thucydides had made all imaginable dispatch, the Athenians however charged him with being the cause of the taking of Amphipolis, and accordingly banished him.

The Athenians were greatly afflicted at the loss of that city, as well because they drew great revenues from it, and timber to build their ships, as because it was a kind of gate for entering Thrace. They were

Thucyd. I. iv. p. 320-324.

The same who wrote the history of the Peloponnesian war.

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afraid that all their allies in that neighbourhood would revolt, especially as Brasidas discovered great moderation and justice, and continually gave out, that he came with no other view but to free the country. He declared to the several nations, that at his leaving Sparta, he had taken an oath in presence of the magistrates, to leave all those the enjoyment of their liberties who would conclude an alliance with him; and that he ought to be considered as the most abandoned of men, should he employ oaths to ensnare their credulity: "For," according to Brasidas, "a fraud cloaked with a specious pretence, reflects infinitely greater dishonour on persons of high stations than open violence; because the latter is the effect of the power which fortune has put into our hands; and the former is founded wholly on perfidy, which is the pest of society. Now I," said he, "should do a great disservice to my country, besides dishonouring it eternally, if, by procuring it some slight advantages, I should ruin the reputation it enjoys, of being just and faithful to its promises, which renders it much more powerful than all its forces united together, because it acquires it the esteem and confidence of other states." Upon such noble and equitable principles as these, Brasidas always formed his conduct, believing that the strongest bulwark of a nation is justice, moderation, integrity, and the firm persuasion which their neighbours and allies entertain, that they are not so base as to harbour a design to usurp their dominions, or deprive them of their liberty. By this conduct he brought over a great number of the enemy's allies.

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