wore it publicly; whereby Hamestris, being thoroughly confirmed in what she was afore only jealous of, became enraged to the utmost degree; but instead of turning her wrath against the daughter, who only was faulty in this matter, resolved to be revenged on the mother, as if all this intrigue had been of her contrivance, who was wholly innocent of it. And therefore waiting the great festival that used annually to be celebrated on the king's birth-day, which was then approaching, whereon it was the custom for the king to grant her whatsoever she should then desire, she asked of him the wife of Masistes to be given unto her. The king perceiving the malice of the woman, and what she intended, abhorred it to the utmost, both for the sake of his brother, and also for what he knew of the innocency of the lady, as to that for which Hamestris was exasperated against her; and therefore at first, withstood her in this request all that he could. But her importunity not being to be diverted, nor what was said for the custom to be gainsayed, he was forced to yield to her. Whereon the lady being seized by the king's guards, and delivered to her, she caused her breasts, her tongue, nose, ears, and lips, to be cut off, and thrown to the dogs before her face, and then sent her home again thus mangled to her husband's house. In the interim, Xerxes, to mollify the matter as much as he could, sent for Masistes, and told him, that it was his desire that he must part with his wife, and that, instead of her, he would give him one of his daughters in marriage. But Masistes, having an entire affection for his wife, could not be induced to consent hereto : whereon Xerxes told him, in an angry manner, that, since he refused to accept of his daughter, when offered to him, he should neither have her nor his wife either; and so dismissed him in displeasure. Whereon Masistes, suspecting some mischief was done him, made haste home to see how matters there stood; where finding his wife in that mangled condition as hath been mentioned, and being thereby exasperated to the utmost, as the case deserved, he immediately got together all his family, servants, and dependents, and made all the haste he could towards Bactria, the province of ous usage. which he was governour; purposing, as soon as he should arrive, thither, to raise an army, and make war upon the king, to be revenged of him for this barbarBut Xerxes, hearing of his sudden retreat, and suspecting from thence what he intended, sent a party of horse after him, who, overtaking him on the road, cut him off, with his wife and children, and all that belonged to him. This Masistes was brother of Xerxes by Atossa the same mother, as well as by the same father, and was a person of great worth and honour, as well as of great fidelity to the king; and he had done him great services in his Grecian war, having been one of his chief generals, who had the leading of his army in that expedition; and he was personally engaged for him in the battle of Mycale, and was in truth the chief honour of his house, and never gave him any just cause to be offended with him. However, all this could not protect him from Xerxes' cruelty; which sufficiently shews, that, where there is a vicious prince, with an arbitrary power in the government, there is nothing that can be sufficient to secure any man's safety under him. And there is another fact related of Hamestris, equally cruel and impious; that is, that she caused fourteen boys of the best families in Persia to be buried alive, as a sacrifice to the infernal gods. And, in the relating of this, as well as her other cruelties abovementioned, I have been the more particular, because several having been of opinion, by reason of the similitude that is between the names of Hamestris and Esther, that Xerxes was the Ahasuerus, and Hamestris the Esther, mentioned in Scripture, it may from hence appear, how impossible it is, that a woman of so vile and abominable a character, as Hamestris was, could have ever been that queen of Persia, who, by the name of Esther, is so renowned in holy writ, and is there recorded as the instrument by whom God was pleased, in so signal a manner, to deliver his people from that utter destruction which was designed against them. i Herodotus, lib. 7. VOL. I. 54 Scaliger and his followers. An. 476. After the death of Masistes, Xerxes appointed 1Hystaspes, his second son, to be governour of Bactria in his stead; which obliging him to be absent from court, gave Artaxerxes, his younger brother, the opportunity of mounting the throne before him, on the death of Xerxes, as will be hereafter related. The Grecian fleet, having effected at Cyprus, what they went thither for," sailed from thence Xerxes 10. to the Hellespont, and took in Byzantium; where several Persians of eminent note, and some of them of the kindred of Xerxes, being taken prisoners, Pausanias treacherously released them all, pretending they had made their escape, and by some of them entered into a treaty with Xerxes to betray Greece unto him, upon condition that he would give him one of his daughters in marriage; which being readily agreed to by Xerxes, Pausanias thenceforth took upon him to live after another rate than formerly, affecting the pomp and grandeur of the Persians, and carrying himself haughtily and tyrannically towards the allies: whereon, they being disgusted with his conduct, and not being able any longer to bear it, did put themselves under the Athenians, who, thenceforth, by this means, obtained the chief command at sea in all the Grecian affairs, and held it for many years after. The Lacedæmonians, having received an account of these miscarriages of Pausanias, deposed him from his command on the Hellespont, and recalling him home, put him under public censure for them. An. 475. However," the next year he went again to the Hellespont, although without the consent of the Xerxes 11. state, or any commission from them, sailing thither in a private ship, which he hired on pretence of fighting against the Persians as a volunteer in that war, but in reality to carry on his treasonable designs with them, Artabazus being appointed governour on the Propontis of purpose to be there at hand to treat with him. But while he was at Byzan 1 Diodorus Siculus, lib. 11. in Thucydides, lib. 1. n Thucydides, lib. 1. Nepos in Pausania. Diodor. Sic. lib. 11. Plutarchus in Aristide. tium, his behaviour was such, that the Athenians drove him thence; whereon he went to the country. of Troas, and there tarried some time the better to carry on his correspondence with Artabazus; of which there being some suspicions, the Lacedæmonians summoned him home by a public officer, and, on his return, put him in prison; but no evidence appearing of this thing in his trial, he was again discharged. But some time after the whole of it being brought to light, and discovered by one whom he had made use of to carry on the correspondence, they put him to death for it. An. 472. Xerxes 14. Themistocles, by his wisdom and great application, having much advanced the power and interest of the Athenians, hereby drew on him. the bitter enmity of the Lacedæmonians: for they, seeing their honour eclipsed, and that authority, whereby they had hitherto borne the chief sway among the Greeks, now rivalled and diminished by the growing up of this flourishing state, could not with patience bear it; and therefore, to gratify their revenge, resolved on the ruin of him that had been the author of it. In order whereto, they caused him first to be accused at Athens, of being a confederate with Pausanias in his treason against Greece; but nothing being proved of what was laid to his charge, he was there acquitted. But the next year after, Themistocles being banished Athens, they renewed their design against him. He was not banished for any Xerxes 15. crime, but by ostracism: which was a way An. 471. among them, whereby, for the better securing of their liberty, they used to suppress those that were grown to too great a power and authority among them, by banishing them the city for a certain term of years. Themistocles being thus necessitated for a time to leave his country, settled at Argos; of which the Lacedæmonians taking the advantage, prosecuted anew their charge against him before the general o Herodotus, lib. 7, &c. Thucydides, lib. 1. Plutarchus in Themistocic. Diodor. Sic. lib. 11. p Thucydides, lib. 1. Plutarchus in Themistocle. Diodor. Sie. lib. 11. q Plutarchus in Aristide. 1 council of all Greece, then met at Sparta, and summoned him to appear before them to answer to it, accusing him there of treason against the whole community of Greece. Themistocles seeing how bitterly the Lacedæmonians were set against him, and knowing that they could carry every thing as they pleased in that assembly, durst not trust his cause with them, but fled first to Corcyra, and from thence to Admetus, king of the Molossians, by whose assistance being conveyed to the coasts of the Egean sea, he took shipping at Pydna in Macedonia, and from thence passed over to Cyma, a city of Æoli in the Lesser Asia. But Xerxes having put a price of two hundred talents upon his head, (which amounted to thirty-seven thousand five hundred pounds of our money,) several were there upon the hunt after him for the gain of so great a reward. For the avoiding of this danger, he was forced there to lie hid for some time; till at length, by the contrivance and assistance of his friend and host Nicogenes, the richest man of that country, he was conveyed safe to Susa, in one of those close chariots, in which the Persians used to carry their women; they that had the conducting of him giving out, that they were carrying a young Greek lady to the court for one of the nobility; by which means he got to the Persian court without any danger: where being arrived, he addressed himself to Artabanus, the captain of the guards, to whose office it belonged to bring those to the audience of the king that had any business with him: by him he was introduced into Xerxes' presence; and being there asked who he was, he told him he was Themistocles the Athenian; that, though he had done him great hurt in his wars, yet he had in many things much served him, particularly in hindering the Greeks from pursuing him after the battle of Salamis, and obstructing his retreat over the Hellespont; that, for these his services to him being driven out of his country, he was now fled to him for refuge, hoping that he would have more regard to what he had done for his interest, than to what with the rest of his countrymen he had in the wars acted against it. Xerxes, then said nothing to him; though, as soon as |