1130. After the sea battle Xerxes executed certain Phoenicians who were the first that fled and threatened the rest with punishments answerable to their conduct. For fear of this, the Phoenicians returned that day to Atrica. The night after, they sailed to Asia, (Diod. Sic. l. 11. in the 1st year of the 75th Olympiad.) Many other ships, fearing more the rage of the king than the fury of the enemy, slunk away to their homes. (Justin l. 2.c. 12.) Xerxes was terrified by this disaster at sea and committed his sons to Artemesia the queen. She transported them to Ephesus to be with Hermotimus their governor. (Herod. l. 8. c. 103,107.)

1131. Cleombrotus of Sparta, the brother of Leonidas who died at Thermopylae, built a wall across the neck of land which is called Isthmus Corinthiacus. This was to stop Xerxes from coming by land into Peloponsus. (Herod. l. 8. c. 71.) While he was offering a sacrifice against the Persians, the sun was eclipsed. When this happened, he withdrew his army which was building this fortification and he died shortly after this. He was succeeded by his son Pausanias, as first cousin and tutor of Plistarchus, a child, the son of the dead Leonidas. (Herod. l. 9. c. 10.) The Prutenian account tells us of an eclipse of the sun of 8 digits (2/3 of total) at 1:39 pm that lasted 32 minutes on the 2nd day of October.

1132. To speed Xerxes on his way out of Greece, Themistocles sent a phoney message to him from Salamis that the Greeks planned to send a fleet of ships to Hellespont to destroy his bridge. When he heard this, he made all speed to get out of Europe into Asia. (Herod. l. 8. c. 110. Diod. Sic. l. 11. in the 1st year of the 75th Olympiad and Plut. in the Life of Themistosles.)

1133. Xerxes resolved to leave. He sent his fleet from Phalerus to Hellespont to guard the bridge. He and Mardomius and his army marched speedily towards Thessalie. (Herod. l. 8. c. 107,113,115.)

1134. When Mardonius came with Xerxes into Thessalie, he chose from all his army, 300,000 men. These he kept with him to continue the conquest of Greece. Because the year was far spent, he wintered in Thessalia. (Herod. l. 8. c. 113,114.) Justin from Trogus, (l. 2. c. 13.) and Plutarch in the Life of Aristides agree with Herododus. However, Diod. Sic. states that there remained with him at least 400,000 troops.

1135. In the meantime, the Lacedemonians by the command of the Oracle at Delphi, sent a herald to Xerxes to require reparation from him for the death of their king Leonidas. He answered that Mardonius should pay them their due. After this, he left Mardonius in Thessalie and hurried to the Hellespont. He took a large number of troops for his guard. The rest he left to be brought after him by Hydarnes. (Herod. l. 8. c. 114,115,118.)

1136. The army which he left behind with Mardonius was first hit by famine then a pestilence. So many died that the highways lay strewn with the dead carcases of them. Both birds and beasts of prey followed the army by the smell whereever they went. (Herod. l. 8. c. 115. Justin l. 2. c. 13.)

1137. In Asia, the Archaeanactidae held the kingdom of Bosphorus Cimmerius for 40 years (Diod. Sic. l. 12.) in the 3rd year of the 85th Olympiad. These had their beginning from Archaeanacres of Mitylene whom are said to have built Sigaeum with the stones dug from the ruins of Troy. (Strabo. l. 13.)

3525a AM, 4234 JP, 480 BC

1138. After 45 days, Xerxes came to the Hellespont. (Herod. l. 8. c. 115.) Emil. Probus states it was less time than that in his "Life of Themistocles". He says:

``that upon the way that he took six months in going into Europe, on the same way out, he spent less than 30 days returning to Asia.''

1139. When Xerxes found his bridge smashed by the winter storms, out of fear he crossed in a small fishing boat.

``And truly it was a thing worth the sight and a rare example of human frailty and change of things in this world to see him lie sulking in a small boat. A little before the whole sea seemed too little to contain him. He was destitute of a page to wait upon him whose army the very earth seemed to groan for the burden of it.'' (Justin l. 2. c. 13.)

1140. When the army which followed him under the command of Hydarves found the bridge smashed, they crossed over in boats to Abydus. On the other side they found much more food than they had on their way. They gorged themselves with food and with change of water, they died by the score. The rest accompanied Xerxes to Sardis. (Herod. l. 8. c. 117.)

1141. While Xerxes was on the way to Sardis, he sent Megabyzus to destroy the temple of Delphi. When he desired to be excused, Mattacus an eunuch did the task and returned to Xerxes. (Ctesius.)

1142. When the news came to Susa by the couriers who were sent that Xerxes had taken Athens, the Persians were so happy that they strewed all the streets with myrtle boughs and burnt frankincense in them. They set themselves wholly to sacrificing and feasting. When the news of his defeat at Salamis came, their attitude changed so that every man rent his garments and filled all places with howlings and lamentations. (Herod. l. 8. c. 99.) Ischylus described this turn of affairs in his "Life in Persia."

1143. When the remaining fleet and sailors had ferried the army from Chersonesus to Abydus, they wintered at Cuma in Eolia, (Herod. l. 8. c. 130.)

1144. Artabazus the son of Pharnabazus accompanied Xerxes with 60,000 soldiers to Hellespont. When he saw that he was safely landed in Asia, he returned and stayed near Pallene after Mardonius had wintered in Macedonia and Thessalia and had not looked after the rest of the army. While Artabazus stayed there, he found that the city of Pntidea with Pallene revolted from Persia and Olynthus was planning to. He besieged Potidea and Olynthus. When he captured Olynthus and killed all its Pottiean inhabitants, he put Critobulus of Torona, a Chalcedonian, in charge of the place. (Herod. l. 8. c. 126,127.)

3525 AM, 4235 JP, 479 BC

1145. When the Persians besieged Potidea for 3 months, a huge tide of the sea broke in upon them over their trenches forcing them to lift the seige. Many perished in that flood. When others fought to swim to safety, the Potideans went in boats and knocked them on the head. Those that escaped, Artabazus took with him into Thessalia to Mardonius. (Herod. l. 8. c. 129.)

3525b AM, 4235 JP, 479 BC

1146. In the beginning of spring, the rest of the Persian fleet which had wintered at Cuma, sailed to the Isle of Samos where others of their navy had wintered. The largest part of this navy were Persian and Median sailors. They were joined shortly after by certain commanders, Mardoutes Fitz Bargeus and Attanites Fitz Artacheus. They staying there with 300 ships to keep all of Ionia from revolting. This number includes the Ionians that were with them under their command. (Herod. l. 8. c. 130.) However, Diodorus says that there were no less than 400 ships at Samos which awaited any Ionian revolt in this a year of the 75th Olympiad.

1147. The Greek fleet consisted of 110 ships under two commanders, Leotychides king of the Spartans and Xanthippus an Athenian. They sailed to Egina where messengers came to them from Ionia begging them to immediately come and relieve them in Ionia. After a while they sailed as far as to Delos. (Herod. l. 8. c. 131,132.) However, Diodorus tells us, that after thay stayed some days at Egina, they sailed to Delos with 250 ships.

3525c AM, 4235 JP, 479 BC

1148. Xerxes is said to have built both a palace and a citadel at Celene in Phrygia. (Xen, in his Expedition of Cyrus, l. 1.)

1149. Mardonius with his army came to Athens which was not yet reinhabited ten months after it was first taken by Xerxes. Whatever Xerxes left standing, he destroyed and burnt down. From there he marched into the country of Megare, which was the farthest place west that the Persians went in Greece. (Herod. l. 9. c. 3,13,14.)

3525d AM, 4235 JP, 479 BC

1150. While the Greek fleet stayed at Delos, messengers came to them from Samos, asking their help for themselves and the rest of the Greeks who lived in Asia, against the Persians. At a council of war, Leotychides the king of Sparta resolved to liberate all the Greek cities from the Persians. They entered into a league with the Samians who came with their whole fleet to Samos and stayed near the Temple of Juno. They prepared for a naval battle against the Persians. (Herod. l. 8. c. 89,91,95. Diod. Sic. l. 11.)

1151. When the commanders of the Persian navy stayed at Samos, they heard that the Greeks were coming against them. Knowing they were no match for them in a naval battle, they allowed the Phoenician ships to sail off. The rest sailed to Micale, which is a cape in Ionia where the army was. It was left there by Xerxes to keep Ionia under submission. 60000 men were under the command of Tigranes who was the tallest and most handsome man of all the Persians. Near to the temple of Ceres of Eleusis, they drew up their ships and enclosed them with a rampart which they fortified with stones and stakes and anything else they could find there. (Herod. l. 9. c. 95,96.) They sent to Sardis and the other neighbouring places for more soldiers. With these reinforcements, they had 100,000 troops. They prepared for a battle. (Diod. l. 11.)

1152. In an engagement of cavalry between the Greeks and Persians near Erythrae in Beotia, the Persian commander Masistius was killed by the Greeks. The Greeks called him Macisias. Great lamentations were made by the Persians when he died. (Herod. l. 9. c. 20,22,24. and Plutarch, in the Life of Aristide.)

1153. The Greeks under the command of Pausanias the son of Cleombrotus, routed the Persian army of 120,000 at Platea according to Ctesias. Emil. Probus, in his Pausanias, says there were 200,000 soldiers and 20,000 cavalry. Plutarch in the life of Aristides affirms, that there were no fewer than 300,000 men. To this 300,000 Herodotus adds also, about 50,000 Greek mercenaries hired by Mardonius. (Herod. l. 9. c. 31.) Diodorus Siculus, "to the 75th Olympiad", says, that Mardonius had besides the troops left by Xerxes, also from Thracia and Macedonia and other allies over 200,000 soldiers. In total he had over 500,000 in his army. Herodotus and Plutarch affirm that the Athenians had at least 8000 men. The entire Greek army numbered 100,000 men according to Diodorus Siculus, Trogus, Pompelus and Orosius or 110,000 according to Herodotus. (Herod. l. 9. c. 29.) Plutarch says the Greeks lost 1360 men in the battle. (Plutarch, in the Life of Aristides) Diod. Sic. says they lost 10,000 men.

1154. The Persian general of the entire army, Mardonius the son-in-law, (not of Xerxes, as Imil. Probus, in the life of Pausanias) of Darius who was father to Xerxes, (as I showed before in the note on 3510 AM) was slain in this battle. He was hit by a stone flung at him by Aimnestus or Arimnestus, a man of Sparta. (Herod. l. 1. c. 63.) (Plutarch in the life of Aristides) (Pausanias, l. 1.) Ctesias was incorrect when he said that he was only hurt and so escaped for a time. Later he was killed in a hail storm when he was destroying the temple of Apollo. However, Justin from Trogus and from Justin Orosius states that Mardonius, accompanied with a very small company escaped from there as from a shipwreck.

1155. When the Persian army lost their general, they fled to a fortress of theirs made of wood. The Greeks overcame it and killed over 100,000 of them. (Diodorus Siculus,) So that of the 300,000 of them, there were not left 3000 men in addition to the 40000 who fled with Artabazus. (Herod. l. 9. c. 69.)

1156. Leotychides, who commanded the Greek navy came to Mycale to liberate the Ionians from the Persians. With his own army and their help, he obtained there a most memorable victory. He slew over 30,000 Persians besides Mardontes the Persian naval commander and Tigranes the general of the army. The two other commanders of their fleet, Artayntes and Ithramitres fled. The rest that escaped fled to the tops of the cape of Mycale. (Herod. l. 9. c. 97-104.) (Diod. Sic. l. 11.)

1157. Both these fights happened near to the two temples of Ceres of Elensis on the same day of the same month. The one battle was at Platea in Europe, early in the morning and the other at Mycale in Asia later in the afternoon. The news spread swiftly far and wide that in a few hours the news of the victory at Platea came to Mycale the same day before the battle. (Herod. l. 9. c. 99, 130.) (Justin l. 2. c. 14.) However, Diod. Sic. thinks (and that more probably) that Leotychides heard nothing at all of what was done at Platea but cunningly spread such a rumour among his soldiers to encourage them. The day of these two battles (Elim. Var. Hist. l. 2. c. 25.) says, was the 6th of the month Thargeleon, the 2nd month in the spring with the Athenians. Plutarch with more wisdom says it was in the month Boedromion which was the 3rd month in summer. It was either on the 3rd day of it (in the life of Camillius and in his discourse of the glory of the Athenians,) or on the 4th. (the Life of Aristides) This battle at Micale happened in the second year after Xerxes' first entering into Greece. (Herod. l. 7. c.80.)

1158. At this time all Ionia revolted from the Persians, (Herod. l. 9. c. 103.) together with the Eolians and their bordering Islands. (Diod. Sic. l.11.)

1159. The Greeks completely burned the Persian ships and camps. They returned to the Isle of Samos and consulted together on how to move the Ionian nation out of Asia. Diod. says they planned to move the Eolians to Greece too since they were exposed to the danger of the Persian cruelty. The Athenians feared that the Ionians, who were now an independent colony would intermix with the rest of Greece. They opposed this plan since the Ionians were also Greeks, they could count on Greece for help against the Persians. They desired that the Ionians remain in Asia. (Herod. l. 9. c. 105. Diod. l. 11. in 2nd year of 75th Olympiad.)

1160. They of Greece entered into a league with those of Samos, Chios, Lesobs and the other islands who had joined in this war against the Persians. They confirmed this with a solemn oath to last for ever. They sailed in a group towards Hellespont and on their way came to anchor first at a cape called Lectium. When an opposing wind changed to a favourable one, they passed on to Abydus. When they found the bridges there already broken down which they intended to destroy, Leotychides with his men of Peloponesus returned home. The Athenians under Xanthippus and (as Thucidides says) with their allies from Ionia and Hellespont who had revolted against the Persians, journeyed from Abydus to Chersonesus and there besieged Sestos. Artayctes, a Persian, was a wicked man whom Xerxes had made governor of that province. The town was surrounded by the strongest wall of any other towns in the area. Ocbasus a Persian, who had stored the cables used in the construction of the bridges at Cardia, left that place and came to Sestos also. (Herod. l. 9. c. 105, 113-115.)

1161. Artabuzus the son of Pharnaces, with 40000 men who fled from the battle at Plataea, travelled quickly through the countries of Phocis, Thessalie, and Macedonia, to Thracia. They took the shortest overland route to Byzantium. Many men were left behind in his march. Some were killed by the Thracians, some of hunger and some from the journey. When he arrived at Byzantium, he crossed over to Asia by ship. (Herod. l. 9. c. 65. 69, 76, 88.)

1162. Those who had saved thmselves in the top of the rock at the cape of Micale, retreated to Sardis where Xerxes still was. On that journey Masystes, one of the sons of Darius Hystaspes, had charged Artayntes one of the chief commanders of the fleet at Mycale with cowardess. When Artayntes attacked him with his sword, Xenagoras of Halicarnassus stepped in and stopped the fight and saved Masystes from that attack. For so saving Xerxes' brother's life, he was made governor of Cilicia. (Herod. l. 9. c. 107.)

1163. While Xerxes spent his time at Sardis, he there fell in love with his brother Masystes' wife. When he could not seduce her, he married her daughter Artaynta to his own son Darius hoping to get his will of her the more easily by this act. When the wedding was over, he returned to Susa, (Herod. l. 9. c. 108.) leaving part of his army at Sardis to continue the war against the Greeks. (Diod. Sic. In 2nd year of 75th Olympiad.)

3526 AM, 4236 JP, 478 BC

1164. In his flight, Xerxes burnt the Oracle of Apollo Didymeus, in Branchis, as he did all the other temples in Asia except at Ephesus. After those of Branchis handed over the treasury of their god, they all went along with him, fearing that if they stayed behind, they would have been punished for sacrilege and treason. (Strabo. l. 14. with Solinus c. 40.) Herodotus says that Xerxes left Sardis and went to Susa but Diodorus says he went to Ecbatane. Ctesias writes that he went from Babylon to Persia. Arrian in his book of Alexanders' Acts, affirms that after he came to Babylon, he demolished the temple of Belus and all other consecrated places including the Sepulchre of Belus. Strabo (l. 16.) says that he took away the statue of Belus made of solid gold twelve cubits high. When the priests opposed it and would not allow it to be removed, he slew them. (Herod. l. 1. c. 183.)

1165. While the Athenians besieged Sestos, the autumn was approaching and they had still not taken it and planned to abandon the seige. However, the people within were so driven with famine that they were boiling their bedcords for food. Artayctes and Oebasus with many of the Persians climbed over the walls by night and fled. When the inhabitants knew this early the next morning, they surrendered to the Athenians. (Herod. l. 9. c. 116, 117.)

1166. A great number of prisoners were taken at Sestos and Byzantium by the Athenians and their confederates in the army. The confederates of their own accord, offered to refer the division of the prey to Cimon, a young Athenian gentleman. He set all the persons on the one hand and all the clothes and ornaments which they wore on the other. He gave them first choice saying the Athenians would take what was left. Herophytus of Samos persuded them to take the clothes and ornaments instead of the people. Later, the friends and kinsmen of the prisoners, came from Phrygia and Lydia and redeemed those prisoners at a high price. With the money, Cimon maintained the fleet four whole months and brought much silver and gold into the treasury at Athens. This act gave him a reputation of wisdom with the Athenians. They received so much money by the bargain, they laughed at their fellows who had formerly laughed at them. (Plutarch in the Life of Cimon and Polyanus, l. 1. Straug.)

1167. When Oebasus had escaped into Thracia, the Thracians, called Absynthii, captured him and sacrificed him to their god Plestorus. His companions were killed by various ways. Artayntes and his followers were captured at Egos Potamus and carried prisoner to Sestos. By the sea side, where Xerxes had made his bridge, or as others say, on a hill near the city Madytus, there they set up gibbets and hung them there after they stoned his own son to death before his eyes. When this was done, the Athenians returned into Greece. In addition to the money, they took the cables and ornaments of the bridges, which were made over the Hellespont. They planned to hang them as trophies in their temples. (Herod. l. 9. c. 118-120.) Xanthippus left a garrison in Sestos and dismissed all strangers. He with his own companies returned to Athens. So the war of the Medes, as they call it, came to an end after it had lasted a full two years. (Diod. Sic. l. 11. in the 75th Olympiad.)

3526 AM, 4236 JP, 478 BC

1168. Bagapates the eunuch died after he had sat by the tomb of Darius for 7 years. (Ctesias)

1169. Megabysus accused his wife Amyris, Xerxes' daughter, of adultery. She very sharply blamed his daughter for it. (Ctesias) All the while, he committed both adultery and incest. Xerxes turned his lewd affection from his brother Masystes' wife, to their daughter Artaynta, whom he had now made his own daughter-in-law. He lay with her continually at Susa. (Herod. l. 9. c. 107,108.)

3527 AM, 4237 JP, 477 BC

1170. Pausanias the son of Cleombrotus was sent as general of the Greeks from Lacedemonia to free the Greek cities that were still held by the the Persians. He had 20 ships from Peloponesus and 30 more from Athens (Diodor. says 50 ships) commanded by Aristides. They sailed to Cyprus and liberated many cities held by Persians. (Thucid. l. 1. Diodor, Sic. in the 4th year of the 75th Olympiad.)

1171. When Xerxes was celebrating his coronation day, he gave his queen Ametris any wish she wanted. She asked for Masystes' wife, Xerxes brother. She had her breasts, nose, ears, lips and tongue cut off and so sent her home again. Masystes conspired with his own children to steal away to the province of Bactria. He wanted to make himself governor and incite Bactria and the Saca to rebel against the king. He was intercepted on the way by Xerxes' soldiers and he, his children and all that were in his company were killed. (Herod. l. 9. c. 108-112.) The governmant of Bactria was given to Hystaspes, the son of Xerxes. (Diod. Sic. in the 4th year of the 78th Olympiad.)

3528 AM, 4238 JP, 476 BC

1172. When Pausanias returned from Cyprus, he captured Byzantium. On his own authority, he sent the Persians whom he had captured (some were close friends and kinsmen of Xerxes) home safely to Xerxes. He let on that they had escaped. All this business was negotiated by Gongylus an Eretrian. He also used him to carry letters to Xerxes that expressed his desire to marry Xerxes' daughter. In return he promised to bring Sparta and all Greece, under his subjection. Xerxes was glad for this news. He replied to him by Artabazus the son of Pharnaces. He said it would be easier to communicate his counsels with Pausanias when they were closer. Therefore he gave him the government of the province of Daseylis and recalled Magabates who was governor there before. With these hopes, Pausanias grew more insolent than before and began to live like a Persian and behaved imperiosly towards those who were in league with that state. Most of them, especially the Ionians and others who had been recenty liberated from their slavery under the Persians, defected to the Athenians and desired to serve under them. (Thucid. l. 1.)

3529 AM, 4239 JP, 475 BC

1173. When Pausanias was accused by the Spartans, he was recalled from Byzantium. He was found guilty and condemned for some small misdemeanours but acquitted of treason against the state. Nevertheless, he was removed from the government of Hellespont. On his own without asking permission he hired a ship under the pretence of aiding in the war effort for the Greeks in those parts. He wanted to advance his own interests with Xerxes. When the Athenians would not allow him to stay in Byzantium, he returned not to Sparta but stayed at Colonae in Troas. He was again accused at Sparta that he consorted with the Persians and that he was up to no good while he was in those parts. When he was accused at Sparta, he was sent for again by the Ephori. When he arrived, they threw him into prison but after a hearing he was acquitted again. (Thucid. l. 1.)

3530 AM, 4240 JP, 474 BC

1174. In Greece because of the hatred to Pausanias, the common dislike of the Lacedemonians was transferred to the Athenians. Under a pretence of revenging the wrong done to the various countries by the common enemy, the Athenians made a tax of money and ships that each city should contribute against the Persians. The cities in Greece and the Greek cites in Asia readily agreed to this for the common safety of all. The first tax amounted to 460 (not as Diodorus has it, 560) talents. It was stored in the Isle of Delos which was the common treasury of all Greece. (Thucid, l. 1. Diod. l. 11. Justin l. 16. c. 3. Plutarch and Emil. Probus, in the life of Aristides.)

1175. When Pausanias was exposed by Argilius, his homosexual lover, to whom he had committed his last letters to be sent to Artabazus, the Ephori starved him to death. (Thusic. l. 1. Diod. l. 11. Emil. Prob. in the Life of Pausanias.)

3531 AM, 4241 JP, 473 BC

1176. Artabazus, an Hyrcanian, was captain of the guard and was most trusted and had more authority with Xerxes, as his father Artasyras had previously with Darius. He conspired with Mithridares an eunuch, chamberlain to the king, (Cresias calls him Spamitres of Aspamiters) who was his close friend and kinsman. He was let into the bedchamber with his seven young robust sons at night and they slew Xerxes as he lay in his bed. In the middle of the night they went speedily to Artaxerxes and told him that Darius, (who was the eldest of the three sons of Xerxes) had killed his father so he would be king sooner. (Elian. l. 13. c. 3. relates this as if it were indeed the truth) By this lie, he persuaded Artaxerxes to have the king's guard kill his brother Darius. (Ctesias, Diod. Justin l. 3. c. 1.)

1177. By Artabanus' plot, Artaxerxes was the next king. (Ctesias) He was a man of a mild disposition and full of magnanimity to all. He was surnamed Longimanus because his right hand was longer than his left. (Plutarch in the beginning of the life of Artaxerxes.) The 7 first months of his reign are attributed to Artabanus. (Euseb. in his Chron.) It seems for that period of time, he ruled all things in Artaxerxes' name. Diodorus intimates that Artabanus was presently executed for his murder of Xerxes and Darius. Yet there was some time elapsed before this happened as appears by the more complete accounts of this by Ctesias and Justin.

3531 AM, 4241 JP, 473 BC

1178. Themistocles of Athens was suspected of the conspiracy with Pausanias for the betraying of Greece into the hands of the Persians. They searched for him and had they found him they would have killed him. Therefore he fled from Greece and came to Pydna, a town beside the Thermaic Bay of Macedonia. There he found a merchant ship going into Ionia and went aboard. A tempest carried the ship into the middle of the Athenian forces which besieged Naxos. The captain of the ship who was well paid by Themistocles, lay a whole night and a day at anchor beyond the Athenian fleet. When the tempest was over, he came safely to Ephesus. (Thucid. l. 1. Emil. Prob. in the life of Themistocles. Polyan. l. 1. Stratag.) Plutarch reports that he came to Cuma and found many sea captains wanting to capture him, especially Ergoteles and Theodorus. Xerxes had promised 200 talents to whoever would bring him his head. Therefore, he quietly left the area and came to a little town called Etas in Eolia. He hid for a few days in the house of one Nicogenes, a very wealthy man in those parts who was very familiar with several of the king's most trusted attendants. Diodorus calls him Lysitheis and says further, that he was a man of so very great wealth that when Xerxes passed that way he feasted both him and all his army in a very magnificent manner. By this good host's means, he was put into a covered wagon, such as the kings and other great men's harlots used among the Persians. He came safely into Persia according to both Plutarch and Thucidides. However, Thucidides only says, that he went the way from the sea side into Persia in the company of a certain Persian. Herodotus tells us that from Ephesus to Sardis is a 3 day's journey and from there to Susa, 3 months. (Herod. l. 5. c. 50,53,54.)

1179. Artabanus planned to kill Artaxerxes, as he had done to his father and brother. He told his plan to Megabyzus, whom he knew to be unhappy for the jealousy of his wife's supposed unfaithfulness. She was Amytis the sister to Artaxerxes. They swore secrecy to each other, but Megabysus presently went and disclosed the matter to the king who put Artabanus to death. Then also came to light, his hand in the death of Xerxes and his son Darius. Aspamitres, or Spamitres the eunuch, who was involved with him in this, was cruelly executed by certain racks and other engines in a boat. (This is described more fully by Plutarch, in the life of Artaxerxes) (Ctesias.) For Megabysus, Justin puts Becabasus, as consort with Artabanus in this plot and sets out the manner of Artabanus' death thusly:

``Artaxerxes, fearing the number of Artabanus' children, commanded all the army to be ready in the field the next day. He planned to review his troops, the number of them and also how every man could stand to his arms. When Artbanus was there present in his armour, Artaxerxes said, that his own armour was a little short for him and that he would change with Artabanus. When Artabanus at the command of the king, had taken off his armour, Artaxerxes ran his naked body through with his sword,''

1180. From the size of his armour, we may learn that Artaxerxes, was not at this time a child as Justin claims, but that he was a man and old enough that the Scripture tells us, that in the 7th year of his kingdom, he was a father of several sons. Ezr 7:23

1181. After Artabanus' death, there was a battle fought between his friends and the other Persians in which three of his sons were slain. Megabysus on the Persian side was seriously wounded. This grieved Artaxerxes, his sisters, Amytis the wife of Megabysus' wife and Rhodogyne and his mother Amestris. Megabyzus recovered due to the great skill of Apollonis, a doctor from the Isle of Coos. After this Bactria revolted from Artaxerxes and a different Artabanus was made governor there. Between Artabanus and them a field was selected where they parted on even terms. (Ctesias) Yet those words in the Greek are ambiguous. For either it may be meant, as I have here expressed it, according to the interpretation of it made by Hen. Stephanus. He says that there was another Artabanus made governor of Bactria instead of the former, or that there was at this time another Artabanus who was governor of that province not the same person whom the king killed. If we take the latter sense, then this revolt of the Bactrians must refer to a later time but if the first, then to the present time. For at this time, Hystaspes, Xerxes' son, was governor of Bactria according to Diodor. Sic. He was the middle brother between Darius and Artaxerxes according to Ctesias. It seems reasonable that when Hystaspes saw his younger brother Artaxerxes preferred before him in the kingdom, he would incite not only the Bactrians whom he governed but also all his other friends, to recover his right of the kingdom.

1182. Eusebius in his Chron. notes, that in the 4th year of this 76th Olympiad, (upon which we now are) Themistocles fled to the Persians. This agrees with the account of Thucidides. He places the coming of Themistocles to Artaxerxes, between the siege of Naxos and that famous victory over the Persians at the mouth of the river Eurymedon by Cimon the Athenian. He makes the beginning of the reign of Artaxerxes to happen at the same time for he says that Themistocles sent letters to Artaxerxes when he was recently crowned king. He desired his favour and offered him his service against the Greeks. From this we may fully discern that the true beginning of Artaxerxes' reign was almost a full nine years earlier than it is commonly said to have been.

(Since this was written in 1650 new evidence has been found confirming Ussher's date.

``The date commonly given for this is B.C. 445; but Ussher gave 454, and Hengstenberg and others contend that this is the true date. Hengstenberg shows in his "Christiology" how the mistake arose. Vitringa rectified the date, and Krüger, by independent enquiry, also proved the old date was wrong. Some hieroglyphic inscriptions in Egypt have shown that Artaxerxes was associated with his father in the twelfth year of the reign of Xerxes, and this information confirms the date given by Ussher and others.'' (article Seventy Weeks, p. 708, Concise Bible Dictionary, Bible Truth Publishers, 59 Industrial Road, Addison, Illinois, 60101)

Ussher correctly identifies the starting date for Artaxerxes reign at 473 BC. From this we can correctly calculate the start of Daniels 70 weeks of years. Those who use the date of 464 BC are forced to bend the Bible to fit with this incorrect date. One of the most common methods is to fudge the date of the death of Christ and to assume the that a prophetic year was only 360 days long. Nowhere does the Bible state this and at no time in recorded history did any people use a year of exactly 360 days. This is merely another attempt to bend the Bible to fit the opinions of men. The start of Artaxerxes reign is confirmed by three authorities, the Bible, Eusebius in his Chronicles and by Thucidides who was born about 4 years after this time. A threefold cord is not easily broken. Editor.)

1183. Plutarch from Phanias reports that Themistocles was brought into Artaxerxes favour by Artabanus, a colonel. According to Eratosthenes, he obtained this favour from the colonel by the means of his harlot who was from Eretria. He does not explain which Artabanus this was, whether he was the one slain by Artaxerxes or that Artabanus that Xerxes entrusted government of his kingdom 7 years earlier when he went to Greece. For if he meant the first, then Themistocles must have come to Artaxerxes within the first 7 months of being crowned king according to Euseb. If someone else then the time he came to the king might have happened in any other month of that year. This would agree well with Thucidides, where he says:

``he was brought to Artaxerxes, when he was newly crowned king.''

1184. If was the right of the office of the colonel or chiliarch, being the second officer in the kingdom, to bring those who were to be admitted into the presence of the king. (Emilius Probus, in the life of Conon) (Elian, l. 1.) (Vartius Histor. c. 21.)

1185. When Themistocles was thus graciously received by the king, a new danger presented itself. Mandane a daughter of Darius Hystaspes, lost all her children in the naval battle before Salamis. She sought revenge upon Themistocles for this. When she could not prevail with the king, or her friends and great men in the court, she stirred up the common people. When they all rushed into the court, Artaxerxes told them fairly, that he would refer the whole matter to the judgment of his lords. So by appointing a time for a hearing, he saved Themistocles from the people's hands. (Diod. Sic. l. 11.)

3532 AM, 4242 JP, 472 BC

1186. In the second battle, a strong wind in their favour helped the Persians defeat and again subject the Bactrians to Artaxerxes. (Ctesias.)

1187. Themistocles spent a whole year in learning the Persian language, laws and customs of the country. When he came to trial, he cleared himself of all the charges and endeared himself to the king as no other Greek had done before him. Artaxerxes took him on hunting trips and had him attend his private delights and recreations at home. He was admitted to the presence of Amestris the king's mother and conversed familiarly with her. He bestowed on him also, a Persian wife of noble parentage, excellent for beauty, and goodness of disposition. He had servants to wait on him and cupboards of dishes of all sorts and all other things. These were for his needs and entertainment. (Thucidides, l. 1. Diodorus Siculus, l. 11. Plutarch in the Life of Themistocles.)

1188. When Demaratus the Lacedemonian, who returned from Greece with Xerxes, displeased the king greatly when he rode into Sardis in his chariot wearing his turban upright on his head in a way reserved only for kings. Themistocles interceded for him and Artaxerxes wrath was pacified so that they became friends again. (Plutarch in Them. with Seneca l. 6. de Benesi c. 31.)

1189. When Themistocles was made governor of the province of Magnesia, he returned into Asia. (Thucid. l. 1.)

1190. On his return, he escaped an ambush planned by Epyxius, a Persian governor of the Upper Phrygia and the Pisidians. He was warned in a dream of it by Dinaymena, the mother of the gods when he was resting at noon. As a memorial, he built her a temple at Magnesia and made his own daughter Muesiptolema to be a consecrated priestess to her. (Plutarch in Themistocles) Some say it was his wife. (Strabo, l. 14.)

1191. So that Themistocles might appear in Asia with the greater honour, the king gave him besides the government of the province of Magnesia, the very city of Magnesia on the Meander River. This city paid the king yearly fifty talents. This paid the food for his table. Lampsacus in Hellespont supplied him with money to buy him wine for his meal. Myus, at the mouth of Meander paid for his second course. Neanthes Cyzioenus and Phanias and Atheneus, (l. 1. c. 27.) listed two more cities in the country of Troas, that is Percotes and Palescepsis to supply him with clothes and carpets. (Thucid. 1. Diod. l. 11. Plut. and Emil. Prob. in the life of Themistocles.)

3533 AM, 4243 JP, 471 BC

1192. Cimon the son of Miltiades, who was general in the battle at Marathon, was now made general by the Athenians against the Persians. He set out from the Pyreum at Athens with 200 fighting ships bound for Caria. Ships from Ionia and other parts joined him to increase the size of the fleet to 300 ships. The coastal towns which were founded by the Greeks revolted from the Persians to him. The rest which were inhabited by the natives of the country and held by the Persian garrisons, he attacked and conquered. When he finished his work in Caria, he sailed into Lycia and did in like manner there. When they submitted to the Athenian government, he demanded ships of them and greatly increased his navy. (Diod. l. 11.)

1193. The Persians conscripted into the army what men they could from the other dominions of the kings. For naval forces, they sent to the Phoenicians, Cyprians and Cilians. The chief commander of all the Persian fleet was Tithraustes, a bastard son of Xerxes. (Diod. l. 11) Ephorus says that he was admiral of the fleet and Pherendates commander by land. Callisthenes says that Ariomandes the son of Gobryas commanded the army. (Plut. in Cimone.)

3534 AM, 4244 JP, 470 BC

1194. After the Athenians had subdued Naxos, (Thucidides, l. 1.) they and their confederates under the conduct of their general Cimon, in only one day, defeated the Persians both in a naval battle sea-fight not far from the Isle of Cyprus and also in a battle on land at the mouth of the river Eurymedon in Pamphylia. This was in the 3rd year of the 77th Olympiad. (Diod. Sic. l. 11.) He was of the opinion, (and so was Justin, l. 2. in sine,) that Xerxes was yet living contrary to what Thucidides states, who of these lived closest to that time. Therefore Eusebius is right when he says this great victory was in the 4th year of Artaxerxes. He also notes:

``Cimon obtained this victory by sea and land against the Persians, near the River Eurymedon and so the war with the Medes ended.''

1195. For from the beginning of Artaxerxes' reign (as we have put it according to Thucidedes' account) his 4th year was the same as the 3rd year of the 77th Olympiad mentioned here by Diodorus. Eusebius puts the first year of his reign with the first year of the 79th Olympiad. Hence he must of necessity have placed his 4th year with the 4th year of the same Olympiad. The best way is to set down this whole matter in the same order as we find it in Diodor and Plutarch, thusly.

1196. When Cimon had heard that the king's captains had taken up their station with a great army by land and a fleet by sea in the coast of Pamphylia, he stayed at sea so that they might not come within the Chelidonian Islands. He went with 200 ships from Cnidus and Triopium to the Greek city of Phaselites. When they would not allow his navy into their port nor defect from the Persians, he burned their country and assaulted their city. Nevertheless, at the intercession of those of Chios, who were in the fleet, peace was made on the condition that they should pay ten talents and follow Cimon in the war against the Persians. (Plut. in the life of Cimon.)

1197. When Cimon understood that the Persian fleet sailed about the coast of Cyprus, he presently set sail towards them with 250 ships against 340 of theirs. (Diod. Sic.) Though Ephorus says that the Persians were 350 and Phanodemus 600 strong. Yet these did nothing worthy of so great a navy. They that were next to the land abandoned their ships and fled to land to the army that was arranged in battle array there. The rest were attacked by Cimon, taken and killed. (Plutarch) Thucidides says that they took all 200 of the Phoenician ships and sank them. Emil. Probus (in the life of Cimon) says that he overcame and took all the fleet of the Cyprians and Phoenicians to the number of 200 ships. Diodorus states that the Athenians sank many of their ships and took 100 ships with their crew as prisoners. When the soldiers were fled from the ships into Cyprus, they took those ships without any prisoners. These verses recall this victory which the Athenians made and offered to their god. They are found both in Diodorus and also in Aristides' Platonic Oration.

For these when soldiers all were killed at land,
An hundred ships of the Phoenicians took,
All full of men.

1198. Plutarch in his little discourse of the Athenian glory, says that Cimon brought from Eurymedon about 100 Phoenician ships of war. Diodorus affirms that he took not only more than 100 but also 340 ships, that is, the whole Persian navy and 20,000 men.

1199. Cimon was not satisfied with this victory at sea. He attacked the land army of the Persians in Asia which he saw ranged on the shore near the mouth of the river Eurymedon. To better achieve victory, he dressed all his soldiers in the Persian clothes which he had taken. The Persians thought these were their navy and welcomed them. Therefore, Cimon, as soon as it was night, (and it was very dark without the moon shining) landed his men. They attacked the enemies camp and killed all they met. Pherendates, one of the two chief commanders and the king's brother's son was killed as he lay in his pavilion. The enemy was soon put to flight. (Diodorus) Commenting on this stratagem, Polyenus, (l. 1.) mentions but mistakenly says that Cimon landed his men in Cyprus and not in Pamphilia. Likewise does Julius Frontinus, in the end of his 4th book, where Conon is found written instead of Cimon.

1200. Cimon captured 80 Phoenician ships near Hydus which were not in the battle nor had even heard of it.

3535 AM, 4245 JP, 469 BC

1201. Cimon sailed from Athens with 4 ships and captured 13 Persian ships in the Chersonese of Thracia. He expelled the Persians and Thracians and took possession of the place for the Athenians. In all Asia from Ionia to Pamphylia, the Persian army was driven out. (Plut. in the Life of Cimon.) Pericles assumed the leadership of Athens. He set out with 50 ships and Ephialtes with 30 more. They sailed beyond the Chelidonian Islands in the sea of Pamphylia, never saw a Persian ship all the way, according to Plutarch from Calisthenes. Isocrates, in his Panathenaic, says, that neither a Persian war ship went closer to Greece than the port Phaselis nor any company of them by land crossed over the river Halys. However, Diod. writes that when the Persians saw the increase of the Athenian power, they started building ships faster than ever.

3537b AM, 4247 JP, 467 BC

1202. Ezra the priest, a scribe or a lawyer skilled in the law of Moses, obtained permission from Artaxerxes the king and his seven counsellors to resettle the Jewish state and to reform the religion at Jerusalem. By this grant, it was again made lawful for all the willing Jews to return. They could send or carry with them any gold or silver that either the king and his nobles or the Jews would offer to their God. There were also thereby given all sorts of furnishings for the Lord's house. The treasurers beyond the river were ordered to supply them with all other needs from the king's treasury. All who worked in the temple would be free from tribute. All the people were allowed to live according to their own laws. Ezr 7:11-26

3537c AM, 4247 JP, 467 BC

1203. In the 7th year of Artaxerxes, the first day of the first month, Ezra, with a great number of Jews, left Babylon for Israel. Ezr 7:6,7,9 8:1-14,30

3537d AM, 4247 JP, 467 BC

1204. On the 12th day of the 1st month, they left from the river Ahava and on the 10th day of the 5th month, in the 7th year of Artaxerxes' reign, they arrived at Jerusalem. They rested there for 3 days. Ezr 7:8,9 8:30,32

1205. On the 4th day of the 5th month, the gold and silver which they had brought was weighed and with the other furnishings, were put in the house of the Lord. Those who returned offered their sacrifices to God. When this was done, the king's edicts were given to the governors and rulers beyond the river who showed much favour to the people and the house of the Lord. Ezr 8:33-36

3538a AM, 4247 JP, 467 BC

1206. When Ezra knew that the Israelites had intermarried with the heathen he mourned and fasted. He publicly made intersession to God, to avert his wrath on them. Ezr 9:1-15 When many of the people sorrowed for this, Shecaniah advised Ezra to direct the people that they would vow to God to put away their heathen wives and the children whom they had by them. This was done. Ezr 10:1-17

1207. Those who returned from captivity, were ordered to appear at Jerusalem within 3 days. Those that did not would be punished. Therefore all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered in the court of the temple, on the 20th day of the 9th month. They trembled over the seriousness of the matter and because of the inclement weather. Ezra commanded every male to separate himself from his heathen wife. This they agreed to and desired that judges might be appointed to see that the orders were followed. Two priests and two Levites were appointed to help carry this out. Ezr 10:7-15

3538b AM, 4248 JP, 466 BC

1208. This examination was held from the 1st day of the 10th month to the 1st of the 1st month. In two months the matter of the heathen wives was settled. Ezr 10:16,17

3538d AM, 4248 JP, 466 BC

1209. Themistocles died a natural death at Magnesia. Others say he poisoned himself voluntarily when he saw that he could not subdue Greece as he had promised the king. (Thuc. l. 1.) Cicero says in his Laelius, that he killed himself 20 years after the death of Coriolan. According to Dionysius Halicarnassaeus, that would be in the 3rd year of the 78th Olympiad. That year has this note by Eusebius in his Chron.

``Themistocles, whom his own worth had made the conqueror, his own country's wrong made him the general of the Persians. However, so that he might keep himself from attacking it, he appointed a sacrifice at which he drank a bowl full of the bull's blood. Hence he fell as a noble sacrifice of piety, dead before the altar. So memorable was his departure from this life that it had this effect that Greece would never need another Themistocles after him.''

1210. Concerning his death, Tully in his Burtus, makes Pompo Atticus to state it this way:

``For as you now tell us a tale of Coriolan, so Clitarchus and Stratocles do the same of Themistocles. Thucidides, who was an Athenian of noble rank and an excellent man, lived not long after him. He says only that he died and that he was buried privately in some place in Attica and that there was some suspicion that he poisoned himself. Concerning him these men write that when he had sacrificed a bull, he drank the blood of it in a basin and died in that place:''

1211. Though indeed before the writing of this History by Thucidides, the Athenians themselves had heard it from Aristophanes, in Equitibus. He wrote this in Athens the 7th year of the Peloponesian war, when Stratocles was ruler of Athens. He states that Themistocles died from the drinking of bull's blood.

3540a AM, 4249 JP, 465 BC

1212. The 20th Jubilee.

3544 AM, 4254 JP, 460 BC

1213. Inaros, the son of Psammericus king of Libya (not a Lydian as Ctesias has it) journeyed from Marca a city bordering on Pharus caused much of Egypt to defect from Artaxerxes. He was proclaimed king by them and sent for the Athenians at Cyprus. These were engaged in a war with 200 ships, some of their own and the rest from their allies. (Thusid. l. 1.)

1214. When Artaxerxes heard of the Egyptian revolt, he gathered an army and a navy from all his dominions. He spared no pains nor cost in doing this. (Diodorus Siculus, 2nd year, 79th Olympiad) This is 2 years earlier than the more precise account given by Thucidides.

1215. Artaxerxes planned to head this army into Egypt but his friends persuaded him otherwise. He sent his brother Achemenes to head that expedition with 400,000 soldiers and 80 ships. (Ctesius) Diodorus agrees with him that he sent Achemenes as general in this Egyptian war but he says that he was the son of Darius and Artxerxes was his great uncle and he had only 300,000 troops. He means by this that it was Achemenes the son of Darius Hystaspis and Atossa, to whom Xerxes had given the government of Egypt after Xerxes had conquered it. (Herod. l. 7. c. 7, 97.)

3545 AM, 4255 JP, 459 BC

1216. When Achemenes (also called Achemenides) came into Egypt, he refreshed his army at the Nile River after the long march and prepared for battle. Those on the other side gathered what forces they could from Egypt and Libya and waited for the Athenians to arrive. (Diod. Sic.)

1217. The Athenians came from sea and entering the mouth of the Nile. They quickly made themselves masters of the river. (Thucid.) Inaros, together with Charamitis, who was admiral of a fleet of 40 Athenian ships defeated the Persians. Of the 50 Persian ships, they took 20 with all their men and sank the other 30. (Ctesias) But Diodorus Siculus tells us, that the entire Athenian fleet of 200 ships at Cyprus came to Egypt, not 40 ships only, as Ctesias said.

1218. Inaros with his own Egyptian troops and Athenian reinforcements, fought a battle with the Persians on land. By their sheer numbers, the Persians were winning. When the Athenians came and forced their one wing of troops to retire, many Persians were killed. The rest of the Persian army fled and many were slaughtered. (Diodor.) Of the 400,000 men who Achemenes brought into the battle, he and 100,000 of his troops were killed. He died of a wound which he received from Inaros' own hand and his body was sent to Artaxerxes. (Ctesias) Herodotus mentions (Herod. l. 3. c. 12. l. 7. c. 7.) that Achamenes a son of Darius and of other Persians were slain by Inaros a Libyan, son of Psammitichus at Papremes.

1219. The Athenians routed the Persians and took two thirds of Memphis. They attacked the other part called the White Wall, where the Persians and Medes had fled. (Thucid. and Diod.)

3546 AM, 4256 JP, 458 BC

1220. When Artaxerxes heard of this great defeat, he sent Megabasus a Persian to Sparta with money to pay the Peloponesians to attack the Athenians. He thought that this would draw the Athenians from Egypt. The Lacedemonians would not take his money nor yield to any of his plans. When the king realised this, he called Megabazus home again with the money that was left. He commanded Megabyzus, the son of Zopyrus to make provisions to go to Egypt. (Thucid. and Diod.) Megabysus was formerly a general in Xerxes' army. (Herod. l. 7. c. 82.) He married Xerxes' daughter, Amytis. (Ctesias) He was the son of Zopyrus who recovered Babylon for Darius, the son of Hystaspes, according to Herodotus at the very end of his third book.

3547 AM, 4257 JP, 457 BC

1221. Artabazus and Megabyzus were made commanders for the war in Egypt. They had an army of 300,000 troops. (Diod.) Ctesias says they only had 200,000.

1222. When they came into Cilicia and Phoenicia, the commanders stayed for a time to allow the army a rest after so long a march. Meanwhile, they ordered the Cilicians, Cyprians and Phoenicians to provide the navy. They of Thrice provided 300 ships, fully manned and equipped for war. (Diod.) Oriscus was the admiral of the fleet. (Ctesias.)

1223. They spent almost a whole year in training the troops for war. The Athenians continued to besiege the fort of the White Wall in Memphis. The Persians manfully defended it and the Athenians saw no possibility of taking it by a direct attack. However, they besieged it for all this year. (Diod.)

3548 AM, 4258 JP, 456 BC

1224. When the Persian commanders in Asia had trained their troops, they marched from there through Syria and Phoenicia. Their navy of 300 ships sailed along the coast as they went. When they came to Memphis, (Diod.) their army of 200,000 was joined by 300,000 troops left by Achemenes in Egypt. They fought a fierce battle with the Egyptians and many died on each side. More Egyptians were killed than Persians. Megabyzus wounded Inaros in the thigh who fled into the stronghold, called Byblus, on the Isle of Prosopitis in the river of Nile. He was joined by the surviving Greeks but the Greek general Charamites was killed in this battle. All Egypt except that fort of Byblus defected to Megabysus.(Ctesias.)

1225. When Megabysus had driven both Egyptians and Greeks from the field of battle and out of Memphis, he besieged them in the little Isle of Prosopitis for 18 months. (Thucid. l. 1.)

3550a AM, 4259 JP, 455 BC

1226. In the 20th year of the reign of Artaxerxes, in the 9th month called Chisleu, Nehemiah was at Susa, the winter quarters of the Persian kings. (Athenaus, Despnosoph. 12.) When he received news how the wall of Jerusalem was still broken down and the gates burnt with fire, he mourned, fasted and prayed to God. He asked that God would forgive the people's sins and give him grace in the eyes of the king. Neh 1:1-11

3550c AM, 4260 JP, 454 BC

1227. In the same 20th year of the king, in the month Nisan, Nehemiah's turn came to serve as cupbearer to the king. Both the king and queen, (whom I suppose to be her whom Ctesias calls Damaspia) noticed his sorrowful appearance. He presented his request to them and obtained permission from the king to be the governor of Judah and to rebuild Jerusalem. Neh 2:1-6 This event marks the start of Daniel's 70 weeks. Da 9:24,25 (For starting date of Artaxeres reign, see note on 3531 AM <<1190>>. Editor.)

1228. Nehemiah with a commission and supplies from the king came to Jerusalem in spite of the opposition from the governors Sanballat the Horonite of Moab and of Tobiah the Ammonite. He began the work and replied to them who laughed at him for undertaking so foolish an undertaking. Neh 2:7-20

1229. The Persian commanders in Egypt made the river dry which flowed around the Isle of Prosopitis by diverting the water into another course. This left the Athenian ships aground and joined the Isle of Prosopitis to the mainland. As soon as the Egyptians saw the Athenian ships aground, they surrendered and made peace with the Persians. When the Athenians were deserted by the Egyptians, they burned their ships so they would not fall into the hands of the enemy. The Persians crossed the dry channel and took the island. When they saw the valour of the Athenians and remembering the losses they had received by them previously, they allowed the 6000 of them to return home with their possessions. (Thucid. Diod. Ctesias.)

1230. The fortunes of the Athenians in Egypt, where they had spent 6 years in war came to naught. Egypt returned under the control of Artaxerxes except for Amyrtaeus, who was king of those who lived in the low countries of Egypt. They could not take him because of the vastness of the low country and its inhabitants were most warlike. (Thucid. l. 1.)

3550d AM, 4260 JP, 454 BC

1231. Eliashib, the son of Joiakim, the son of Jehu (or Jehoshua) the high priest and the rest of the Jews, started to build the wall of Jerusalem, Neh 3:1-32 on the 4th day of the 5th month Ab. Neh 6:15

1232. Sanballat and Tobiah with the Samaritans and other enemies of the Jews, first laughed at this new work. When they saw the wall half up, they stopped mocking and consulted how to destroy the builders. When Nehemiah knew this, he first prayed to God and then ordered his men to be ready for a battle. Thus he thwarted the plans of their enemies.Neh 4:1-23

1233. When Nehemiah heard the outcries of the people, he ordered them to be freed, the slaves from their bondage and the debtor from their debt. Those who had mortgaged their lands or goods were to be freed from their debt. He set a good example by releasing his debts and all engagements of lands or goods made to him and freed the poor of public taxes. He gave liberally to those in need. Neh 5:1-19

1234. Nehemiah was not only in danger from Sanballat and other enemies abroad but also from false prophets and false brethren at home. They tried to hinder the work as much as the others did. In spite of these difficulties, the wall was finished in 52 days, on the 25th day of the 6th month called Elul. Neh 6:1-19

1235. The dedication of the wall was performed with much celebration and great joy. Neh 12:27-43

1236. Nehemiah took care of the various offices belonging to the house of the Lord. He appointed governors over the city and ordered its guards. He called the congregation together and numbered those who had returned from the captivity. He selected a number of people to live in the city with the rest of its inhabitants. Everyone according to his ability, made their various offerings to God, Neh 7:1-73

1237. When 50 Greek ships were sent to Egypt to relieve those who were there for so long, they knew nothing of what had happened to their country men. They anchored at Mendesium which is a mouth of Nile. They were attacked by the Persians from the land and the Phoenicians by sea. Most of them were killed. A few escaped to carry news to Greece. Of that great army which was there before, only a few returned into Greece again. Most were lost as they passed through the deserts of Libya to get to Cyrene. This was the sad end which came to that great expedition of the Athenians in Egypt. (Thucid. l. 1.)

3551a AM, 4260 JP, 454 BC

1238. In the feast of trumpets, in the 1st day of the 7th month, all the Jews came together at Jerusalem. The law of God was read by Ezra and expounded to them. When they heard it, they were all greatly grieved and wept. They were encouraged by Nehemiah, Ezra and the Levites to keep that feast with joy. Neh 8:1-12

1239. On the 2nd day of the same month, the elders of the families, the priests and Levites consulted with Ezra concerning questions arising from the reading of the law. They were encouraged to keep the feast of tabernacles Neh 8:13-15 outside in the fields in booths made of boughs as stated in the law. Le 23:40

1240. On the 15th to the 21st day, the feast of Tabernacles was celebrated with great care and devotion. For 7 days together, the law of God was read and the 8th day also was kept very solemnly according to the law. Le 23:36

``Neither was there the like feast of Tabernacles kept from the days of Joshua, the son of Nun, to that time and there was great joy made.'' Neh 8:17,18

1241. Of this the Jews in their Greater Chronicle, (c. 30) speak in this manner:

``It may be said that he compares this the return of the children of Israel into the land in the days of Joshua. For as in the days of Joshua they were bound to tithes, to the year of Shemite, or Remission and to Jubilees and to the hallowing of their walled towns. So now in their return in the time of Ezra, they were in like manner obliged to keep the law of tithes of the years of Shemite or Releasings, of Jubilees and to the hallowing of their walled cities. They rejoiced greatly before the Lord.''

1242. On the 24th of this month, the Israelites who returned, separated themselves from all strangers, made public profession of their repentance. Neh 9:1-38 They renewed their covenant with God and bound themselves to observe the law of God, his worship, Neh 10:1-39 and the law, Le 25:4 De 15:1 of the sabbath and the sabbatical year. Neh 10:31

1243. The chief heads of the people feasted at Jerusalem. The rest cast lots, according to which every tenth man would live in Jerusalem. Neh 11:1-36 1Ch 9:1-44

3551a AM, 4260 JP, 454 BC

1244. Megabyzus left Sartamah as governor of Egypt and returned to Artaxerxes with Inaros and some other Greeks. He gave them his word that they would not be harmed. Artaxerxes carefully observed this though he was incensed against Inaros for having slain his brother Achemenes. When his mother Amestris (called Amytis by Ctesias) desired vengeance on Inaros, the Greeks and Megabyzus, the king refused her request. (Ctesias)

3554 AM, 4264 JP, 450 BC

1245. The Athenians sent Cimon their general with a fleet of 200 ships of their own and their confederates into Cyprus. 60 went to Egypt to Amyrtaeus who was still in Egypt. The rest besieged Citium, a city in Cyprus. (Thucid. l. 1.) At this time Artabazus and Megabyzus commanded the Persian forces. Artabazus had his fleet of 300 ships around Cyprus. Megabyzus with the army of 300,000 troops stayed in Cilicia. (Diod. Sic. l. 12. in the 3rd year of 82nd Olympiad)

1246. Cimon sent messengers to the oracle at the temple of Ammon to ask about some secret matter. (Plutarch in the Life of Cimon)

3555 AM, 4265 JP, 449 BC

1247. In the siege of Citium in Cyprus, (as Thucidides says) Cimon died either of a natural disease, (as Emil. Probus has it) or, as others say, of a wound which he received in battle. When he was about to die, he advised those that were about him to conceal his death and to return home as fast as they could. It happened that this secret was well kept and all the Greek army returned home safely under the conduct (as Phanedemus speaks) of Cimon who had been dead a whole month. Those who were sent to consult the oracle, received the answer that Cimon was already with him. When they returned to Egypt and they understood that Cimon died at that very time when the oracle answered them. (Plutarch in the Life of Cimon.)

1248. When the Greek army returned from Egypt, they who besieged Citium in Cyprus, were short of supplies. They lifted their siege and sailed to Salamis in the same island. Here they fought with the Phoenicians, Cyprians and Cilicians, by sea and land. In the naval battle, they sunk many enemy ships and captured a 100 with all the soldiers and sailors still in them. The rest they pursued as far as Phoenicia. The Persians with the remaining ships, fled into Cilicia where Megabyzus was with the army. The Athenians sailed there as fast as possible and landed their men on the open shore and attacked the enemy. In this fight, Anaxicrates who commanded the fleet, behaved himself most courageously and died a most noble and heroic death. They defeated the Persians and slew many of the enemy. They returned to their ships and sailed home with those returning from Egypt. (Diod. Sic. in the 3rd and 4th year of the 82nd Olympiad,) as he stands corrected from Thucidides. Elian writes that the Athenians lost in Egypt 200 ships and in Cyprus 150 with all their equipment. (Elian. Variar. Histor. l. 5. c. 10.)

1249. When Artaxerxes heard of the loss of his men in Cyprus, he sought advice from his council concerning this war. It was resolved that it was for the good of the kingdom that peace should be made with the Greeks. Therefore the king wrote letters to the captains and commanders in Cyprus that they make peace with the Greeks on any terms. Hereupon Artabazus and Megabyzus sent messengers to Athens to seek peace. When the Athenians had consented to their conditions, they sent commissioners to represent them having full power and authority. The leader of the group was Callias, the son of Hipponicus. (Diod. in the 4th year of the 82nd Olympiad.) At this time, the men of Argos sent their messengers to Susa to know if Artaxerxes would honour the league they had made with his father Xerxes, or if he considered them enemies. Artaxerxes answered that the league continued and that he considered no city more friendly to him than Argos. (Herodotus, l. 7. c. 152.)

1250. The peace between the Athenians and their confederates on the one side and the Persians on the other was concluded with these conditions:

``That no Persian governor would at any time come within three days journey of the sea and that there would be no warship from either side be found between Phaselis and the Cyantan Isles:''

1251. Or as Plutarch expresses it,

``That the king would not have any warships in all the sea between the Cyancan and the Cheldonian Islands.''

1252. When the king and his council of war had subscribed to these articles, then the Athenians took an oath that they would not invade any of the king's provinces. (Diod. in the 4th year of the 82nd Olympiad)

1253. Plutarch (in the life of Cimon) says that they built an altar in memory of this peace and that they gave many honours on Callias who had been the architect of it.

3556 AM, 4266 JP, 448 BC

1254. Artaxerxes wearied for 5 years with his mother's nagging, gave Inaros the Egyptian king and the Greeks that came with him into her hand. The queen had the body of Inaros to be so racked and stretched out and wrenched several ways. He hung on three different crosses at one time. She had the 50 Greeks (for she could catch no more) decapitated. (Ctesius) Thucidides says that Inaros king of Libya was taken by treachery and crucified. Herodotus tells us, that his son Thammyras by the favour of the Persians, held the government of Egypt which his father had held before him. (Herod. l. 3. c. 5.)

1255. Megabyzus was greatly grieved by the death of Inaros and those Greeks. He asked permission to go to his own government in Syria. He had secretly sent the rest of the Greeks there. He following them there and as soon as he came to Syria he revolted from the king and gathered an army of 150,000 men. (Ctesias)

3557 AM, 4267 JP, 447 BC

1256. Osiris was sent against Megabyzus with an army of 200,000 men. In the battle, Osiris wounded Megabyzus with a dart in the thigh two inches deep. Likewise, he wounded Osiris with a dart first in the thigh and then in the shoulder. As Osiris fell from his horse, Megabyzus caught him about by the middle and saved him. Many of the Persians fell and the two sons of Megabyzus, Zopyrus and Artipsyus fought valiantly that day. Megabyzus won and carefully returned Osiris to Artaxerxes who demanded his return. (Ctesias.)

3558 AM, 4268 JP, 446 BC

1257. Another army was sent against Megabyzus. The general was Menostanes, or Menostates, son to Artarius, governor of Babylon and brother to king Artaxerxes. In the battle, Megabyzus wounded Menostanes in the shoulder and in the head. Neither of those wounds were mortal, but when it happened, he and all his army fled and Megabyzus had a most glorious victory. (Ctesias)

1258. Artarius, Artoxares the eunuch, a Paphlagonian and Amestris, the queen mother, persuaded Megabyzus to come to terms with the king. After much effort, Artarius, Amytis' wife and Artoxares, who was now 20 years of age and Petisas, the son of Osiris, prevailed with him to come to the king. When he came, the king sent him word that he freely pardoned him all his past offences. A little later when the king was hunting, a lion set upon him. When Megabyzus saw the lion raised upon his hind feet, slew him with his spear. The king was angry with him because he had done it before the king could. He commanded that Megabyzus be decapitated. The intercession of Amestris, Amyris and others, spared his life and he was sent away and confined to the island of Cirta in the Read Sea (sic). Artoxares the eunuch for having spoken too freely with the king on the behalf of Megabyzus, was banished into Armenia. (Ctesias.)

3559 AM, 4269 JP, 445 BC

1259. When Herodotus read his books at Athens before the council there, he was much honoured for them, according to Euseb. in his Chron. There Scaliger notes that Herodotus wrote his books before his going into Great Greece (Southern Italy) not in Great Greece itself as some think following Pliny on this. We shall see more in the next year. But I observe that in these books mention is made often of the Peloponesian war, both in (the 7th book c. 137. and in the 9th book c. 72.) In the former reference, a thing is related that was done in the 2nd year of that war. In the later, a thing that happened in the 19th year of it at Decelaea. This is 22 years after the time consigned by Euseb. to the reading of his book at Athens. See more on this in the year 3596 and 3597.

3560 AM, 4270 JP, 444 BC

1260. In the first year of the 84th Olympiad, when Praxiteles was the governor of Athens, 12 years before the Peloponesian war began, the Athenians sent a colony into Great Greece (Southern Italy) to rebuild the decayed city of Thurii. Lysias, a youth of 15 years of age was one of the leaders in this group (Plutarch and Dionysus Halicarnassaeus in the life of Lysians the Orator) along with Herodotus who was 41 years old. Although he was born at Halicarnassus in Caria, he obtained the surname of Thurius after this because of his part in reestablishing Thurii. (Strabo, l. 14) The 84th Olympiad happened on the 310th year from the founding of Rome, according to Varro's account. In this year Pliny says that Herodotus compiled his History in Thurii in Italy, (Pliny l. 12. c. 4.) as mentioned in the previous year.

3562 AM, 4272 JP, 442 BC

1261. In this year all wars ceased throughout Asia, Greece, Sicily, Italy, Gaul, Spain and almost the entire world. (Diod. Sic. 3rd year of the 84th Olympiad.)

1262. After Nehemiah had governed Judah for 12 years, that is from the 20th year of the reign of Artaxerxes to the 32nd of the same, he returned to the king. (Ne 5:14, 13:6)

1263. In his absence Eliashib the priest, who was over the chamber of the house of God and had made an alliance with Tobiah, prepared a room for him in the court of the temple. In this place the gifts and tithes were formerly kept. The son of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, (who was a different man from Eliashib of whom I just mentioned) became son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite after he married his daughter. When Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem with a new commission, he quickly redressed and severely punished these and other wrong doings. (Ne 13:1-31)

3563 AM, 4273 JP, 441 BC

1264. After Megabyzus had lived 5 years in exile, he fled from the Island where he was confined and feigning himself to be a "pisagas", (i.e. leper in the Persian language and one to whom no man might approach) he came home to his wife Amytis. By her and Amestris, the king's mother, he was at last reconciled to the king. He sat at the king's table as before and died at age 76. The king grieved very much for him. (Ctesias.)

3564 AM, 4274 JP, 440 BC

1265. In this year, the Samians and Milesians went to war over the ownership of the city of Priene. This was the beginning of the 6th year, (according to Thucidides) of the 30 years of peace and the league between the Athenians and Lacedemonians. It was in the middle of the 4th year of the 84th Olympiad according to Diodorus. Priene was a city in Caria, which the Samians and Milesians each claimed. The Milesians were too weak to defeat the Samians. They drew to their side some Samians who were unhappy with things in their country. They went to Athens and complained of the behaviour of the citizens of Samos. The Athenians sent for them to lay down their arms and negotiate the matter at Athens. When the Samians refused to do this, Pericles prevailed to have war declared against them. He did this as a favour to his prostitute Aspasia, that famous courtesan whom he doted on not so much for her beauty as for her wit. She was the daughter of Axiochus of Milesia. The Athenians sent a fleet of 40 ships under the command of Pericles and easily took the city of Samos. He changed the government from an aristocracy to a democratic one.

1266. After Pericles returned from Samos, there arose in Samos a terrible sedition. Some wanted a democratic government and others wanted the old aristocracy. Those who disliked the democratic form, conspired with the chief men of the city and sent to Asia to Pissuthnes, the son of Hystalpes the governor of Sardis. When they had made a league with him, he gave them a band of 700 soldiers. They returned in the still of the night to the Samos and were joined by others of their consorts. They surprised and captured the town. They declared themselves enemies to the Athenians and took the whole garrison of them with the captain and officers. They sent them to Pissuthnes as a gift. They immediately marched against Miletus. The inhabitants of Byzantium were also allies with them against the Athenians.

1267. When the Athenians heard of the revolt of Samos, they sent 60 ships. 16 went towards Caria to attack the Phoenician fleet in those parts and into Chios and Lesbos to take on allies from there. The other 44 vessels continued with Pericles as the admiral and his 9 colleagues. The Samians recalled their 20 ships which they had sent full of soldiers to assault Miletus. They were joined by 50 more ships. They fought with the 44 ships of the Athenians near an island called Tragia and were defeated. From there the Athenians with 40 more ships from home and 25 more from Chios and Lesbos, went and landed with their forces on the Isle of Samos. They captured the island and made a triple ditch about the city by land. They besieged the city with their ships.

1268. A few days later Pericles learned by letters from Caria and Caunus, that the Phoenician fleet was coming towards him to relieve Samos. He left part of his army to maintain the siege and took 60 ships from the navy. He went as fast as he could to meet the Phoenician navy. Stesagoras went with him with 5 ships from Samos.

1269. The Samians took advantage of the absence of Pericles. Under the command of Melislus, the son of Ithogenes an outstanding philosopher, they attacked the Athenian camp which was neither fenced nor manned as it ought to have been. When they sunk the ships which kept the island and defeated and routed the army, they freely traded and brought in supplies for 14 days.

1270. When Pericles heard what had happened to his men at Samos, he hurried back as fast as he could with a larger fleet. Thucidides, Agnon and Phormio joined him with 40 ships. Tlepolemus and Anticles brought 20 more ships from Athens. Chios and Mitylene sent him 30 ships. With these great forces, he attacked and defeated Melislus. He besieged the town by land and sea as before and harassed them with frequent assaults on every side. Some say that those engines of battery, as Rams and Vines and Galleries were first invented here by one Artemon of Clazomena. Ephorus the historian confuses him with Artemon Periphresus of whom Anacreon the poet in his poetry mentions. (recited by Athenaeus l. 12.) (Thucid. l. 1.) (Diod. Sic. in the 4th year of 84th Olympiad) (Plutarch in the life of Pericles,)

1271. After a 9 month siege, the Samians surrendered. The town was immediately destroyed and they gave hostages for their fidelity in time to come. They gave up all their ships. They paid for the expense of the war and made an instalment payment then. Those of Byzantium submitted to the Athenian government as before. (Thucid. l. 1.)

3566 AM, 4276 JP, 438 BC

1272. Spartacus succeeded Archaeanactides in the kingdom of Bosphorus Cimmerius. (Diod. the 3rd year of the 85th Olympiad.)

3571 AM, 4281 JP, 433 BC

1273. Spartacus died after reigning 17 years. (Diod. Sic. in the 4th year of the 86th Olympiad) In the 3rd year of the 85th Olympiad, he states that he reigned 17 years. The interval between these two Olympic years assigned by him the one to the beginning, the other to the end of his reign only make up 5 or at most both parts being included only 6 years of his reign. After him came Seleucus.

3572 AM, 4282 JP, 432 BC

1274. At Athens in the year when Apseudes was over the government and in the last year almost ended in the 86th Olympiad, Metone observed the summer solstice to be upon the 21st day of the Egyptian month, Phamenoth (or the 27th day of June, according to the Julian calendar) in the morning. (Ptolemy, in his Mag. Syntax l. 3. c. 2.) From this he formulated the Cyclus Punaris, or the circle of the moon which we call the Golden Number of 19 years. (Diod. Sic. the 4th year of the 85th Olympiad) He deduced the beginning of this cycle from the next new moon following that solstice on the 15th day of July, according to the Julian calendar.

3573 AM, 4283 JP, 431 BC

1275. Arcesilaus was killed by his subjects the Cyrenians. He was the 8th king in that state and the man who in the 3rd year of the 73rd Olympiad, won the 31st Pythian race with his chariot. He was made famous for that by Pindarus, in his 4th and 5th Ode. When his son would have succeeded, he was disallowed by the Cyrenians. Thereupon he sailed into the Hesperides or western islands and there died. So that kingdom of Cyrenia which had stood for 200 years came to an end. It had four kings of the name of Battus and four of the name of Archelaus. These interchangeably succeeded each other in the kingdom according to the oracle at Delphi as reported by Herod. (Herod. l. 4. c. 163.) (Scholiast. Pind. in Od. 4. Pythion.)

1276. Toward the end of the 1st year of the 87th Olympiad, when there were only two months remaining in the rule of Pythodorus of Athens in the beginning of the spring, the Peloponesian war started between the Lacedemonians and the Athenians. The nations living along the coast of Asia, sided with the Athenians, All the Carians, the Dores, the Ionians, those of Hellespont, and all the adjoining islanders supported Athens except for the two islands of Melos and Thera. Both sides sent their embassies to Artaxerxes asking for help. (Thucid. l. 2.)

1277. At the beginning of this war lived 3 famous historians, Hellanicus of the age of 65, Herodotus at 53 and Thucidides at 40. (A. Gellius, in his 15th book. c. 23. states this from Pamphylia, l. 11.) Thucidides wrote the entire history of this war to its 21st year. He carefully wrote what happened by the winters and summers. He began every summer from the first of the spring and every winter from the first of autumn.

1278. In the first summer of this war, there was a total eclipse of the sun that was so dark, the stars appeared in the sky. (Thucid. l. 2.) This caused great fear among all men as a sad and great omen in the world. When Pericles saw the captain of the ship he was on, troubled by the eclipse, he put his cloak over his eyes. He asked him whether he was afraid at that or whether he thought it portended any great event or not. When he said no, then Pericles replied what was the difference between this covering of the sun and that except that the eclipsed area was much larger than my cloak? (Plutarch in the life of Pericles) He discussed with him the causes of the eclipses of the sun and moon and their motions by which they moved, according as he had learned from his teacher Anaxagoras. He persuaded his fellow citizens not to trouble themselves with a vain and needless fear. (Valer. Max. l. 8. c. 11.) This eclipse happened on August 3rd at 5 o'clock in the afternoon at Athens. About 80% or 10 digits of the sun was covered.

3574 AM, 4284 JP, 430 BC

1279. A dreadful plague started first in Ethiopia and spread from there into Libya and Egypt and especially into the regions of the Persian dominion. It raged unchecked in the city of Athens in the 2nd year of this war. (Thucid. l. 2.) From a historical perspective, he documents the nature of this plague. He was sick with it and often in company with those who were sick. Hippocrates as a physician who lived in Athens and was used in the curing of various persons afflicted with the plague. He describes the plague from a medical view point. (l. 3. Epidem. Sect. 3.) Lucretius, who lived many years after, describes this in his poetry.

1280. A sedition happened in a town of the Colophonians, called Notium. When Itamenes and his Median soldiers were called in by one of the sides, they came and possessed the strongest part of the town. (Thucid. l. 3.)

1281. In the later end of this summer, Aristeas, the son of Adimantus a Corinthian and the ambassadors of the Lacedemonians, Aneristus and Nicolaus, and Patrodemus and Timagoras of Tegrea and Polis of Argos, journeyed into Asia toward Artaxerxes to ask of him aid of men and money for the war. They went by Thrace and came to its king, Sitalces, the son of Tereas. They planned to pass over the Hellespont and to go to Pharnaces, the son of Pharnatacus, hoping to have him convoy them to safely to Artaxerxes. They were betrayed by Saducus, the son of Sitalces the king and Nymphodorus of Abdera, the son of Pytheus. They were all taken to Athens. The Athenians without any hearing killed them the same day they arrived and threw their bodies into a ditch. (Thucid. l. 2. with Herod. l. 7, c. 137.)

3575a AM, 4284 JP, 430 BC

1282. The following winter the Athenians sent 6 ships to Caria under the command of Melesandrus. They intended to gather money from those parts and to rid the seas of pirates. These were from Peloponesus and preyed on poor merchants ships with their cargo which they traded along the coast of Phaselis, Phenice and other ports of the continent. Melesandrus with his Athenians and other confederates did not stay at sea. They went ashore in Licia and were defeated by the enemy. He and most of his army were killed. (Thucid. l. 2.)

1283. Seleucus, the king of Bosphorus Cimmerius, died after ruling for 4 years. (Diod. 4th of the 86th Olympiad.) After him Spartacus the 2nd reigned for 22 years.

3576 AM, 4286 JP, 428 BC

1284. Pericles died in the 4th year of 87th Olympiad, (Diod. l. 12.) 2 years and 6 months after the beginning of the Peloponesian war which he was the main cause of. (Thucid. l. 2.) He was senior statesman had continued as a prince of the Athenian state for 40 years. (Cic. l. 3. de oratore and Plutarch in the life of Pericles.)

1285. In the year Anaxagoras of Clazomenae died. He was Pericles' teacher and was born in the 70th Olympiad and died in the 1st year of the 88th Olympiad, according to Laetius in his life from Apollodorus' Chron. However, there it is incorrectly stated as Olympiad 78. He adds that the men of Lampsacus bestowed on him an honourable burial with this epitaph, as recorded also by Elian, (l. 8. Var. Histor. c. ult.) on his tomb.

Great Anaxagoras lies here in mould,
Who did all secrets of the heavens unfold.

3577 AM, 4287 JP, 427 BC

1286. In the winter season of the 4th year of the Peloponesian war, the Athenians sent 12 ships commanded by Lysicles with four commissioners to collect their tribute from their confederate cities. Lysicles went from place to place to gather money. When he was leaving Myus through Caria, the Carians and Anaeitae ambushed and killed him and most of his army. (Thucid. l. 3.)

1287. When Alcides, the commander of the Lacedemonian fleet, came to the cape of Myonesus in the country of the Teii, he killed most of the Greeks whom he had taken prisoners from Asia. When he came to Ephesus, some messengers from the Samians who were of the Anaeitae, rebuked him. They said he was wrong to deliver the Greek nation from servitude if he purposed to destroy people who never bare arms against him nor were his enemies. Their only crime was being forced to pay tribute to the Athenians. He then spared the rest and let them go.

1288. A new broil arose between the old citizens which dwelt in the lower town of Notium and those which had recently fled there. When these saw the power of the Arcadians and other barbarians as Pissuthnes which the governor of Lydia had sent. They made a wall around the upper town for a fortification against the lower town. They made a league with the Colophonians who lived in the upper town and sided with the Medes making one accord with them. The other side sent for Pachetes, a captain of the Athenians to come and help them. When he came, he defeated Hippias. Pissuthnes the captain of the Arcadians in the fort was asked to leave the fort for a talk. They promised him that if they could not agree, he could return safely to the fort again. When he came, Pachetes took and committed him to safe custody without manacles or fetters. He attacked and captured the fort. Everyone in the fort was killed, both Arcadians and Barbarians. Lastly, to keep his word with Hippias he let him return safely to the fort. As soon as he came to the fort, they laid hold on him again and shot him to death with arrows. So Pachetes restored Botium to the Colophonians, except to those who had sided with the Medes. Afterward the Athenians sent a colony there and governed the place according to their own laws. They gathered as many of the Colophonians from all parts as they could find to live there. (Thucid. l. 3. Polya. Stratag. l. 3.)

3579c AM, 4289 JP, 425 BC

1289. Artaxerxes sent Artaphernes, a Persian ambassador, with a letter written in the Assyrian language to Lacedemon. Among other things he said that he did not know what they wanted from him for they had sent so many ambassadors to him. None of them agreed with each other. Therefore if they would have him understand what they wanted, they should send some men of their own to him. (Thucid. l. 4.)

3579c AM, 4289 JP, 425 BC

1290. In the interim, Artaxerxes died and his son Xerxes succeeded him for only one year. (Diod. Sic. the 4th year of the 88th Olympiad) His mother Damaspia died the same day that her husband Artaxerxes (as the sequel shows) did. Bagorazus the eunuch carried the bodies of both the father and mother into Persia. (Ctesias.)

3580a AM, 4289 JP, 425 BC

1291. In the winter of the 7th year of the Peloponesian war, Aristides, the son of Archippus, one of the captains who were sent from Athens to gather the tribute of their confederates captured Artaphernes the Persian ambassador as he was going to Lacedemon. This was at a place called Etone on the river Strimon. He brought him as a prisoner to Athens whom the Athenians presently sent back to Ephesus accompanied with an ambassador. When they came there and heard that Artaxerxes had recently died, they returned home again. (Thucid. l. 4.)

3580b AM, 4290 JP, 424 BC

1292. In the beginning of the next summer (the beginning of spring), Thucidedes says there was a partial eclipse of the sun, beginning on the first day of spring, on the 21st day of March, according to the Julian Calendar. This was toward the end of the 4th year of the 88th Olympiad, in the morning. The sun was more than half eclipsed, according to the Prutenian account.

1293. The exiles from Mitylene after their city was taken by the Athenians joined with the exiles from Lesbos. They hired some others from Peloponesus and went and took Rhaetium. After they received money from them, they spared the city. From there they went to Antandrus and it was betrayed into their hands. Their initial purpose was to liberate Mitylenian cities in Actea now controlled by Athens and in particular, Antandrus. They fortified it. Using timber from the hill Ida, they planned to build ships. They hoped to take over the city of Lesbos and other cities in Eolia. (Thucid. l. 4.)

3580c AM, 4290 JP, 424 BC

1294. At the same time, Aristides and Demodocus also called Symmachus, the captains of the Athenian Navy were in the Hellespont gathering their tribute. Lamachus, their third captain, was gone with 10 ships into Pontus. When they heard that the Mitylenians purposed to fortify Antandrus, they gathered an army of their confederates and set sail for Mitylene. When the enemy sallied out from there, they defeated them in the field and captured the town. When Lamachus who was gone into Pontus, came to the mouth of the river Caleces, (Diodorus calls it Cachetes) in Heracleotis, he left his ships at anchor and spoiled all the country about Heraclea. These cities favoured Persia and had refused to pay tribute to Athens. After a heavy rain, the swollen river current drove their ships on the rocky shore. He lost his whole fleet and a large part of his army besides. He could not return home by sea and dared not return by land with so small a company through so many fierce and warlike nations. The Heraclea, used this occasion to befriend these nations rather than to be revenged of them. They used the tribute for Athens to influence friends and buy provisions for their return trip home. Lamachus, with the company which he had left went overland through the country of the Thracians, who dwelt on the Asian side and came safely to Chalcedon. (Thucid. l. 4. Diodor. l. 12. Justin l. 16. c. 3.)

3580d AM, 4290 JP, 424 BC

1295. When Xerxes was roaring drunk on a festival day, he was killed in his chamber when he was sleeping. His brother Secundianus, born of Aloguna, a Babylonish woman and Pharnacyas an eunuch, murdered him. (Ctesias.)

1296. Secundianus had for a long time borne a grudge to Bagoras the eunuch. He picked a quarrel with him for burying his father's body without his advise and ordered that he be stoned to death. His army took offence at this even though he gave them much money. From that time on the army hated him for murdering his brother. (Ctesias.)

3581a AM, 4290 JP, 424 BC

1297. Secundianus sent for his brother Ochus whom his father Artaxerxes had made governor of Hyrcania. He refused to come. He sent word he would come but he did not. This he did often. Finally he gathered a mighty army and intended to take over the kingdom. Arbarius who was general of the cavalry to Secundianus, defected to Ochus. Arxanes, the governor of Egypt, also defected. Artoxares came in person from Armenia and asked if he planned to make himself king. (Ctesias.)

3581b AM, 4291 JP, 423 BC

1298. Ochus was made king and called himself after that time Darius. By the advice of both Parysatis, his wife and his sister, he first tried to win over his brother Secundianus. Menosthanes, who was the greatest man with him among all his eunuchs, urged Secundianus not to believe his words nor have any treaty with faithless men. However, Secundianus came to a treaty and was captured there and died when thrown into a heap of ashes. (Ctesias) Concerning this type of punishment, see note on 3485b AM and /APC 2Ma 13:5,6.

1299. When Secundianus, or Sogdianus, was dead, then Ochus reigned alone and was known by the name of Darius Nothus. This happened toward the end of the first year of the 89th Olympiad. (Thucid. l. 8.) (Diod. Sic. 3rd year 89th Olympiad)

3582 AM, 4292 JP, 422 BC

1300. When the men of Delos were driven out of their country by the Athenians, Pharnaces gave them Adramyttium in Asia to live in. (Thucid. l. 5. Diod. Sic. 3rd year 89th Olympiad.)

3583 AM, 4293 JP, 421 BC

1301. The Athenians, by command of the oracle at Delphi, restored those of Delos to their island again. (Thucid. l. 5.)

3588 AM, 4298 JP, 416 BC

1302. Those of Byzantium and Chalcedon were joined by the Thracians and passed with a great army into Bithynia. When they had wasted the country and forced many of the smaller towns, they used unmeasurable cruelties toward them. When they had gathered an huge multitude of men, women and children, they butchered everyone of them. (Diod. 1st year of 91st. Olympiad.)

3589a AM, 4298 JP, 416 BC

1303. Jubilee 21 was the last one seen by the prophets of the Old Testament. For in Ne 12:22 is not to be understood of Darius but of this Darius Nothus in whose time Ne 12:22 signifies, that Johananes, called also Johannes and Jonathan, obtained the high priesthood after his father Joiada, (whom Josephus calls Judas). Jadduas' son, who succeeded his father in the priesthood, was born then also. These things Nehemiah mentions only in passing. His book ends with the time of Artaxerxes Longimanus, the father of this Darius, of whom Josephus (l. 1. cont. Aplons) says:

``From the death of Moses to Artaxerxes, king of Persia who succeeded Xerxes, the prophets wrote 13 books. From Artaxerxes to our time, all things indeed have been likewise committed to writing but not held in the same esteem as the former because the succession of the prophets one after another has been uncertain.''

1304. Euseb. in Chron. in the 32nd year of Artaxerxes, with whom the continued history of Nehemiah ended, states:

``Hitherto, the divine Scriptures of the Hebrews contain the annals of the times. Those things which were done among them after this time, we must derive from the books of the Maccabees and from the writings of Josephus and Africanus. He wrote a general history of things done among them down to the Roman times.''

1305. Malachi, the last of the prophets, was contemporary with Nehemiah. This we gather from the following. He nowhere exhorts the people to build the temple as Haggai and Zechariah did. Since the Temple was now built, he reproved those disorders among the Jews which Nehemiah at his second return with a new commission did also. These are, the marriage with foreign women, Mal 2:11 withholding of tithes, Mal 3:8 and abuses in the worship of God. Mal 1:13 2:8 Now they were no longer to expect a continual succession of prophets as before. Therefore Malachi in the last words of his prophecy exhorts them that they should hold fast to the law of Moses until Christ that great prophet of the church should appear whose with his forerunner John the Baptist.

``in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the rebels to the wisdom of the just,Mal 4:5 Lu 1:17 Mt 11:14 17:12 to which has reference to Jerome (l. 13. of his comment upon Isaiah chapter 49.) After Haggai and Zechariah and Malachi, I see no other prophet till John the Baptist. See /APC 1Ma 4:46 9:27 and (August. de Cicit. Dei l. 17. c. 24.)

1306. We read in the book of Pirke Abbeth, that the men of the Great Synagogue succeeded the prophets. However, the Jews in later times count even Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, among them and make Ezra the president of this Great Synagogue.