ous, was inured from his infancy to a sober and military life. The Medes, formerly so laborious and martial, at length softened by their plenty, as is always the case, stood in need of such a general*. Cyrus availed himself of their riches, and of their name so long respected in the East; but placed his hopes of success in the troops he had brought from Persia †. In the first battle, the king of Babylon was slain, and the Assyrians routed. The victor offered the new king single combat, and while he shewed his courage, he gained the reputation of a merciful prince, who desires to spare the blood of his subjects. He joined policy to valour. For fear of ruining so fine a country, which he already looked upon as his conquest, he caused it to be agreed, that the husbandmen should be spared on both sides. He found means to awaken the jealousy of the neighbouring nations against the haughty power of Babylon, who was aiming at universal sway; and at length the glory, which he had acquired as much by his generosity and his justice, as by the success of his arms, having united them all under his standards, with so great assistance he subjected that vast extent of country, of which he composed his empire.

Thus arose that monarchy. Cyrus rendered it so powerful, that it could not well fail of augmenting under his successors. But in order to understand what ruined it, we need only to compare the Persians and the successors of Cyrus with the Grecians

Polyb. v. 44. x. 24. + Xen. Cyr. iv. v.

and their generals, especially with Alexander.

V. The Persians, Grecians, and Alexander.

CAMBYSES, son of Cyrus, was the corrupter of the Persian manners. His father, so well trained up in the toils of war, did not takesufficient care to give the successor to so great an empire an education like his own*; and by the usual fate of human things, too much greatness proved injurious to virtue. Darius, son of Hystapses, who from a private life was raised to the throne, brought better dispositions to the sovereign power, and made some efforts to rectify disorders: but corruption was, by that time, too universal; plenty had introduced too much irregularity into manners, and Darius had not himself preserved fortitude enough to be capable of entirely reforming others. Every thing degenerated under his successors, and the luxury of the Persians went beyond all measure.

But although that people, become powerful, had lost much of their former virtue, by giving themselves up to pleasure, they had still preserved something that was great and noble. What can we find more noble than the abhorrence they had of lying, which was ever accounted, among them, a mean and shameful vicet? What they held most infamous, next to a lie, was to live by borPlat. de Leg. iii. ↑ Plat, Alcib. 1. Herod. lib. i,

rowing. Such a life appeared to them idle, shameful, servile, and so much the more contemptible, because it led to lying. Through a generosity natural to their nation, they treated vanquished kings honourably*. So far as the children of those princes were capable of agreeing with their victors, they allowed them to rule in their own countries with almost all the marks of their former dignity. The Persians were honest, courteous, liberal to strangers, and knew how to make use of them. Persons of merit were taken notice of among them. It is true, they did not arrive at a perfect knowledge of that wisdom which teaches to govern well. Their great empire was always ruled with some confusion. They could never find out that excellent art, so well practised afterward by the Romans, of uniting all the parts of a great state, and making of them one perfect whole: so that they were hardly ever without considerable revolts. They were not, however, without policy. The rules of justice were known among them, and they had some great kings, who caused them to be observed with an admirable exactness. Crimes were severely punished, but with this moderation, that as first faults were freely pardoned, relapses were corrected by rigorous chastisements †. They had many good laws, most of which they owed to Cyrus, and Darius, son of Hystaspest. They had maxims of government, regular councils + Herod. i.

* Herod. iii.
Plat. de Leg. iii. Est. i. 13.

to maintain them, and a great subordination in all employments. When they said that the grandees who composed the council were the eyes and ears of the prince, they admonished at once the prince, that he had his ministers, as we have the organs of our senses, not to lie idle, but to act by their means *; and the ministers, that they were not to act for themselves, but for the prince, who was their head, and for the body of the state. The ministers were to be learned in the ancient maxims of the monarchy. The register, which was kept of past transactions, served for a rule to posterity . There were recorded the services that every one had performed, lest, to the shame of the prince, and the great misfortune of the state, they should have remained unrewarded. This was an excellent way of attaching individuals to the public weal, to teach them, that they were never to sacrifice for themselves only, but for the king, and the whole state, whereof each was a member with the rest §. One of the prince's first cares was to make agriculture flourish ; and the Satraps, whose province was best improved, had the greatest share in his favour. As there were offices appointed for the direction of arms, so were there also for inspecting rural labours: these were two similar offices; one had the care of guarding the country, and the other that of cultivating it. The prince protected them with almost equal affection, and made them + Est. i. 13.

* Xenop. Cyrop. viii.
Ibid. vi. 1. § Herod. 1.

|| Xenoph. Oecon,

concur to the public good. Next to those who had gained some advantage in war, the most honoured were they who had brought up many children *. The respect instilled into the Persians from their childhood, for the royal authority, went even to excess; for they mixed adoration with it, and seemed rather slaves than subjects submitted by reason to a lawful power: but such was the turn of the Easterns, and perhaps the lively and violent disposition of those people required a more steady and absolute govern

ment.

The manner in which the king's children were bred up is admired by Plato, and proposed to the Grecians as the model of a perfect educationt. At seven years of age, they were taken out of the hands of the eunuchs, in order to be taught riding, and trained to the chace. At the age of fourteen, when the mind begins to form, there were given them, for their instructors, four of the most wise and virtuous men in the kingdom. The first, says Plato, instructed them in magic, that is, in their language, the worship of the Gods, according to the ancient maxims, and according to the laws of Zorastres, son of Oromasdes. The second accustomed them to speak the truth, and to do justice. The third taught them sensual suffer themselves to be overcome by not to pleasures, that so they might always be free, and truly kings, masters of themselves, and of their desires. The fourth fortified their