336

THE DECLINE AND FALL

chap, monarchy, obtained a firm and permanent estab-

__)„lishment beyond the Euphrates. *

Artaxerx- Prudence as well as glory might have justifiedthe* 1 pro- a war on the side of Artaxerxes , had his viewsAsia 6 and been confined to the defence or the acquisitiondeclares 0 f a use f u i frontier. But the ambitious Persian

war against

the Ro- openly avowed a far more extensive design ofa. d.’ 23 o. conquest; and he thought himself able to sup-port his lofty pretensions by the arms of reasonas well as by those of power. Cyrus, he alleged,had first subdued, and his successors had for along time possessed, the whole extent of Asia , asfar as the Propontis and the JEgean sea; theprovinces of Caria and Ionia , under their empire,had been governed by Persian satraps, and allEgypt , to the confines ofiEthiopia,had acknow-ledged their sovereignty.* Their rights hadbeen suspended, though not destroyed, by a longusurpation; and as soon as he received the Per-sian diadem, which birth and successful valourhad placed upon his head, the first great duty ofhis station called upon him to restore the ancientlimits and splendour of the monarchy. Thegreat king, therefore (such was the haughtystyle of his embassies to the emperor Alexander),commanded the Romans instantly to depart from

1 This kingdom, from Osrhoes, who gave a now name to the country,to the last Abgarus , had lasted 353 years. See the learned work of M.Bayer, Historia Osrhoeua et Edessena.

a Xenophon , in the preface to the Cyropaedia, gives a clear andmagnificent idea of the extent of the empire of Cyrus. Herodotus (1.iii, c. 79, Stc.) enters into a curious and particular description ofthe twenty great satrapies into which the Persian empire was dividedby Darius Hystaspes .