tortures during ten days; then, after they had torn out his eyes, to pour melted brass into his ears, till he expired in that cruel misery; which was accordingly executed.

Mithridates also, having boasted in an entertainment where he had heated his brain with wine, that it was he gave Cyrus his mortal wound, paid very dear for that sottish and imprudent vanity. He was condemned to suffer the punishment of the troughs, one of the most cruel that was ever invented, and after having languished in torment during seventeen days, died at last slowly in exquisite misery.

There only remained, for the final execution of her project, and fully to satiate her vengeance, the punishment of the king's eunuch Mesabates, who by his master's order had cut off the head and hand of Cyrus. But as there was nothing to take hold of in his conduct, Parysatis laid this snare for him. She was a woman of great address, had abundance of wit, and excelled in playing at a certain game with dice. After the war, she had been reconciled with the king, played often with him, was of all his parties, had an unbounded complaisance for him, and far from contradicting him in any thing, prevented his desires, did not blush at indulging his passions, and even at supplying him with the means of gratifying them. But she took a special care never to lose sight of him, and to leave Statira as little alone with him as she could, desiring to gain an absolute ascendant over her son.

One day seeing the king entirely unemployed, and with no thoughts but of diverting himself, she propos, ed playing at dice with him for one thousand darics,"

P The daric was worth ten livres.

to which he readily consented. She suffered him to win, and paid down the money. But affecting regret and vexation, she pressed him to begin again, and to play with her for an eunuch. The king, who suspected nothing, complied, and they agreed to except five of the favourite eunuchs on each side, that the winner should take their choice out of the rest, and the loser be bound to deliver him. Having made these conditions, they sat down to play. The queen was all attention to the game, and made use of all her skill and address in it; besides which the dice favoured her. She won, and chose Mesabates, for he was not one of the excepted. As soon as she had got him into her hands, before the king could have the least suspicion of the revenge she meditated, she delivered him to the executioners, and commanded them to flea him alive, to lay him afterwards upon three cross bars, and to stretch his skin at large before his eyes upon two stakes prepared for that purpose; which was performed accordingly. When the king knew this, he was very sorry for it, and violent-. ly angry with his mother. But without giving herself further trouble about it, she told him with a smile, and in a jesting way, " Really, you are a great loser, and must be highly in the right, to be so much out of humour for a decrepit wretch of an eunuch, when I, who lost one thousand good darics, and paid them down upon the spot, do not say a word, and am satisfied."

any

All these cruelties seem to have been only essays and preparations for a greater crime Parysatis meditated. She had retained at heart a violent hatred for queen Statira, which she had suffered to escape her 9 Plutarch explains this circumstance no farther.

upon many occasions. She perceived plainly, that her credit with the king her son, was only the effect of his respect and consideration for her as his mother; whereas that for Statira was founded in love and confidence, the best security of credit with him. Of what is not the jealousy of an ambitious woman capable! This resolved to rid herself, whatever it cost her, of so formidable a rival.

For the more certain attainment of her ends, she feigned a reconciliation with her daughter in law, and treated her with all the exterior marks of sincere friendship and real confidence. The two queens appearing therefore to have forgot their former suspicions and differences, lived well together, saw one another as before, and ate at each other's apartments. But as both of them knew how much the friendships and caresses of the court were to be relied upon, especially amongst the women, they were neither of them deceived in the other; and the same fears always subsisting, they kept upon their guard, and never ate but of the same dishes and pieces. Could one believe it possible to deceive so attentive and cautious a vigilance? Parysatis one day, when her daughter in law was at table with her, took an extremely exquisite bird, that had been served up, cut it in two parts, gave one half to Statira, and ate the other herself. Statira soon after was seized with sharp pains, and having quitted the table, died in the most horrible convulsions, not without inspiring the king with the most violent suspicions of his mother, of whose cruelty, and implacable and revengeful spirit, he was sufficiently sensible before. He made the strictest inquiry into the crime.

All his mother's officers and domestics were seized and put to the question; when Gygis, one of Parysatis's women and confidents, confessed the whole. She had caused one side of a knife to be rubbed with poison, so that Parysatis, having cut the bird in two, put the sound part into her own mouth directly, and gave Statira the other that was poisoned. Gygis, was put to death after the manner the Persians punished poisoners, which is thus: they lay their heads upon a great and very broad stone, and beat upon it with another till they are entirely crushed, and have no remains of their former figure. As for Parysatis, the king contented himself with confining her to Babylon, where she demanded to retire, and told her, that he would never set his foot within it while she was there.

CHAPTER III.

THE principal contents of this chapter are, the enterprises of the Lacedemonians in Asia Minor, their defeat at Cnidos, the reestablishment of the walls and power of Athens, the famous peace of Antalcides, prescribed the Greeks by Artaxerxes Mnemon, the wars of that prince against Evagoras king of Cyprus, and the Caducians. The persons who are most conspicuous in this interval, are Lysander and Agesilaus on the side of the Lacedemonians, and Conon on that of the Athenians.

SECTION I.

GRECIAN CITIES OF IONIA IMPLORE AID OF THE LACEDEMONIANS. AGESILAUS ELECTED KING. HIS CHARACTER.

THE cities of Ionia,' that had taken part with Cyrus, apprehending the resentment of Tissaphernes, had applied to the Lacedemonians, as the deliverers of Greece, for their support in the possession of the liberty they enjoyed, and to prevent their country from being ravaged. We have already said that Thimbron was sent thither, to whose troops Xenophon had joined his, after their return from Persia. Thimbron was soon recalled upon some discontent, and had for his successor Dercyllidas, surnamed Sisyphus, from his industry in finding resources, and his capacity in inventing machines of war. He took upon him the command of the army at Ephesus. When he arrived there, he was apprized that there was a difference between the two satraps who commanded in the country.

The provinces of the Persian monarchy, of which several, situated at the extremity of the empire, required too much application to be governed immediately by the prince, were confided to the care of the great lords, commonly called satraps. They had each of them in their government an almost sovereign authority, and were, properly speaking, not unlike the viceroys we see in our days in somne neighbouring states. They were supplied with a number of troops

VOL. 3.

Xenoph. Hist. Græc. 1. iii. p. 479–487.

A. M. 3605. Ant. J. C. 399.

74.