whilst Graves allows only 6933, making a difference of than 52 feet; which is really astonishing. One cau variation must necessarily be the difference of foot-mea which we know sometimes to vary even half an inch in a foot rule. Few of these measures possibly vary less tha an inch in a foot; so that this would make a difference height, of more than 20 feet. Graves may be suppos have used every proper measure, and to him I think we look with most confidence on this subject. HERODOTUS. BOOK III. THALIA1. CHAP. I. GAINST this Amasis, Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, led an army, composed as well of his other subjects, as of the Ionic and Æolic Greeks. His induce ments were these: by an am bassador whom he dispatched for this purpose into Egypt, he demanded the daughter of Amasis, 1 Thalia.]-On the commencement of his observations on this book, M. Larcher remarks, that the names of the Muses were only affixed to the books of Herodotus at a subsequent and later period. Porphyry does not distinguish the second book of our historian by the name of Euterpe, but is satisfied with calling it the book which treats of the affairs of Egypt. Athenæus also says, the first or the second book of the histories of Herodotus. I am nevertheless rather inclined to believe that these names were annexed to the books of Herodotus from the spontaneous impulse of admiration which was excited amongst the first hearers of them at the Olympic games. According " which he did at the suggestion of a certain Ægyptian who had entertained an enmity against his master. This man was a physician, and when Cyrus had once requested of Amasis, the best medical advice which Ægypt could afford, for a disorder in his eyes, the king had forced him, in preference to all others, from his wife and family, and sent him into Persia. In revenge for which treatment, this Ægyptian instigated Cambyses to According to Pausanias, there were originally no more than three Muses; whose names were Μελετη, Μνημη, and Aodn. Their number was afterwards increased to nine, their residence confined to Parnassus, and the direction or patronage of them, if these be not improper terms, assigned to Apollo. Their contest for superiority with the nine daughters of Evippe, and consequent victory, is agreeably described by Ovid. Met. book v. Their order and influence seem in a great measure to have been arbitrary. The names of the books of Herodotus have been generally adopted as determinate with respect to their order. This was, however, without any assigned motive, perverted by Ausonius, in the subjoined epigram: Clio gesta canens, transactis tempora reddit. Uranie cœli motus scrutatur et astra. Signat cuncta manu, loquitur Polyhymnia gestu. require the daughter of Amasis, that he might either suffer affliction from the loss of his child, or, by refusing to send her, provoke the resentment of Cambyses. Amasis both dreaded and detested the power of Persia, and was unwilling to accept, though fearful of refusing, the overture. But he well knew that his daughter was not meant to be the wife but the concubine of Cambyses, and therefore he determined on this mode of conduct: Apries, the former king, had left an only daughter: her name was Nitetis, and she was possessed of much elegance and beauty. The king, having decorated her with great splendour of dress, sent her into Persia as 2 Nitetis.]-Cambyses had not long been king, ere he resolved upon a war with the Ægyptians, by reason of some offence taken against Amasis their king. Herodotus tells us it was because Amasis, when he desired of him one of his daughters to wife, sent him a daughter of Apries instead of his own. But this could not be true, because, Apries having been dead above forty years before, no daughter of his could be young enough to be acceptable to Cambyses.-So far Prideaux. But Larcher endeavours to reconcile the apparent improbability, by saying that there is great reason to suppose that Apries lived a prisoner many years after Amasis dethroned him and succeeded to his power; and that there is no impossibility in the opinion that Nitetis might, thercfore, be no more than twenty or twenty-two years of age when she was sent to Cambyses.-T. Jablonski observes that these names of Nitetis, Nitocris, and the like, are derived from Neith, who was the Minerva of the Egyptians. 66 his own child. Not long after, when Cambyses occasionally addressed her as the daughter of Amasis, "Sir," said she, "you are greatly mis"taken, and Amasis has deceived you; he has "adorned my person, and sent me to you as his daughter; but Apries was my father, whom "Amasis, with his other rebellious subjects, de"throned and put to death." This speech and this occasion immediately prompted Cambyses in great wrath, to commence hostilities against Ægypt.Such is the Persian account of the story. II. The Ægyptians claim Cambyses as their own, by asserting that this incident did not happen to him, but to Cyrus3, from whom, and from this daughter of Apries, they say he was born. This, however, is certainly not true. The Ægyptians are of all mankind the best conversant with 3 But to Cyrus.]-They speak with more probability, who say it was Cyrus, and not Cambyses, to whom this daughter of Apries was sent.-Prideaux. 4 They say he was born.]-Polyænus, in his Stratagemata, relates the affair in this manner :-Nitetis, who was in reality the daughter of Apries, cohabited a long time with Cyrus as the daughter of Amasis. After having many children by Cyrus, she disclosed to him who she really was; for though Amasis was dead, she wished to revenge herself on his son Psammenitus. Cyrus acceded to her wishes, but died in the midst of his preparations for an Egyptian war. This, Cambyses was persuaded by his mother to undertake, and revenged on the Egyptians the cause of the family of Apries.-T. |