ATHENIAN LETTERS OR, THE EPISTOLARY CORRESPONDENCE OF AN AGENT OF THE KING of PERSIA, Residing at ATHENS during the PELOPONNESIAN War. A. M. 3578. Third Year of the 88th Olympiad. LETTER CII. HYDASPES to CLEANDER ALAS! CLEANDER, the throne of CYRUS has lost its firmest support, and our monarch the ablest of his ministers, in the person of MEGABYZUS. This great man expired, full of years and honours, at his palace in Susa, the fifteenth of this moon, with a circumstance attending his death, which rarely befals those in his station, that both the tears of the prince and the lamentations of the people attended him to the grave. And indeed their sorrows were with good reason united; for the hereditary estates and dignities, VOL. II. B dignities, which descended to him from his grandfather MEGABYZUS, who assisted to destroy the Magian tyranny, and his father ZOPYRAS, who took Babylon, threw him under no temptations of complying servilely with the measures of a court to raise a fortune, or of giving up the interest of the crown, from which he derived his honours, through an affectation of popularity. At the same time, the virtue and generosity of his temper rendered him incapable of suggesting any counsels but such as tended to the mutual benefit of the monarch and the subject. His many shining qualities, and glorious exploits, are at present the reigning topick of our conversation. And though the remembrance of them rather serves to imbitter than allay our concern, permit me, in compliance with the general task, to indulge myself a little on a subject to which thou thyself mayst be in part a stranger, since thy acquaintance at court was not formed till the most active scenes of his life were over. MEGABYZUS was educated under the eyes of his father in the regular and manly discipline of the ancient Persians; of all others the best adapted to rectify the heart. Hence he imbibed those principles of justice and fortitude, which carried him through the world with untainted integrity. He was early inured to the dangers of war, according to the custom of the young Persian satraps; and performed such services in his first campaigns, as recommended him to the notice of DARIUS, a prince remarkable for a superior skill in distinguishing the merit of his subjects. In the next reign, MEGABYZUS's favour was so far from being diminished, that, when XERXES undertook his expedition against Greece, he made him general of the land forces in conjunction with MARDONIUS; and, as a farther mark of distinction, allied him to the royal blood, by a marriage with AмYTIS, his daughter. As thou knowest that the ill success of the invasion of Greece was owing to the rash counsels which conducted it, there is reason to believe, that MEGABYZUS took no greater share in the management of the war, than the duties of his office required from him; and even declined being concerned in a project, on which XERXES would have sent him, of plundering Delphi. It was in the happy reign of our present monarch, that the merits of this great man principally displayed themselves; for the wisdom of the prince never fails to shed a cherishing influence over the abilities of his servants. The first service which MEGABYZUS performed was no less than that of discovering and preventing the treasons of ARTABANUS, who, after taking away the life of XERXES, imputed the murder to his eldest son DARIUS; and when this detested calumny had brought undeserved punishment on the young prince, he continued his practices against ARTAXERXES, the next heir. MEGABYZUS, not content with distinguishing his fidelity by tracing out this dangerous conspiracy, gave strong proofs of his courage in a battle against the adherents of ARTABANUS, who raised a rebellion to revenge his death. He was afterwards thought the fittest person to command in Ægypt, where the natives had taken the advantage of these troubles to throw off their obedience to Persia, and were strongly supported by the Athenians. MEGABYZUS defeated the rebels and their allies in a battle near Memphis, and soon reduced them to surrender, upon this single condition, that their lives should be spared. Thou wilt wonder that I pass over in silence a few succeeding years of this great man's life; let it suffice to say, that by a steady observance of duty through the remaining part of it, he expiated the short folly he had been guilty of, in departing from that strict submission to his prince which is required by the laws of Persia. Those who were acquainted with his high spirit, and high notions of honour, were perhaps less surprized than others at his indignation, to see his successtal services so ill requited, as that the Egyptian prie soners, and IvARIUS, their pretended king, should be put to death. contrary to the publick faith, which he had engaged to them for their safety. On his return to court, our monarch, who perhaps thought him not sufficiently humbled, or had a mind to put his fidelity to a trial, took hold of an occasion to banish him to Cirta, on pretence that he had viclated a standing law of the empire, which erjoins that none should dare at any hunting to strike the beast, before the king had thrown his javelin. MEGABYZus behaved himself with such resignation in his exile, that, by the intercession of his friends, he was restored to the royal favour, and employed to of pose the attempts of Cros. The constant run of il success, which attended us in every engagement with the Greeks, bad so dispirited our soldiers, that all the conduct of MEGABIZUS could not inspire them with courage, in a battle which he ventured against the Athenian general on the coasts of Cilicia. This induced him to be a strenuous adviser of peace, that the empire might have leisure and opportunity to recover its losses. The conditions of the treaty, which goes by the name of Cryox's peace, were, as thou knowest, rather suited to the exigency of our afairs, than the honour or advantage of the empire, and occasioned at first great discontents among the people. But MEGABYZUS both foresaw and foretold the advantages which must ensue to us, when the Greeks, delivered from foreign wars, would in all probability turn their arms against themselves. This always made him attentive to the progress of those disturbances, which the restless ambition of the states, where thou residest, perpetually excites. He employed AarHMITS of Zells to foment the quarrels between Athens and Sparta; and when the war now carrying on was ready to break out, proposed in council, that thou shouldst be sent to watch over the counsels of Greece. Thou gavest Lim so much satisfaction in this employment, that on his death death-bed he spoke of thy abilities in the strongest as well as the kindest terms, to the king himself, who did him the honour of a visit. And in truth, my CLEANDER, thou hast occasion for the patronage of all thy friends. TERIBAZUS, the treasurer, whose crafty insinuating temper thou art not unacquainted with, privately impels that positive old counsellor, the master of the posts, to spread about disadvantageous reports of thy conduct. They give out, that thou hast indeed transmitted the news of the Piraeus with tolerable exactness; but neither raised up friends to Persia, nor penetrated into the secrets of the Athenian counsels. That, instead of joining with CLEON and his faction, whom it is our interest to support, as they desire the continuance of the war, thou conversest with none but those who declare for peace, and even minglest in their cabals. PETISAS, the eunuch, and ARTASYRAS, keeper of the records, do thee ill offices. The chief aim of this foolish intrigue, of which I have taken some pains to get to the bottom, is to contrive thy removal from Athens, that one TIMOCLES may be thy successor. He is a rhetorician of Euboea, who having fled his country for debt, has rambled over most part of Greece, and procured recommendations to some of the satraps here. He appears, from the little I have seen of him, to be a talkative conceited pedant, pretending to great correspondencies in Greece, and to be well skilled, not only in the politer arts, which have been his study, but in the politicks of each republick, and the dispositions of the ruling men. He is a constant attendant at the tables of several of our satraps, to whom he pays an assiduous court, by flattering every splendid vanity, and complying with each fantastick humour of his patrons; the neverfailing arts by which a parasite and sycophant finds means to shut the doors of the great against modest worth. I can assure the, that the |