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being very beautiful and fair, was made choice of among other virgins on this occasion, and was carried to the king's palace, and there committed to the care of Hegai the king's chamberlain, who was appointed to have the custody of these virgins; whom she pleased so well by her good carriage, that he shewed her favour before all the other virgins under his care; and therefore he assigned her the best apartment of the house, and provided her of the first with those things that were requisite for her purification. For the custom was, that every virgin thus taken into the palace for the king's use, was to go through a course of purification by sweet oils and perfumes for a whole year; and therefore Hadassah having been by the favour of the chamberlain, of the earliest provided with these things, was one of the first that was prepared and made ready for the king's bed, and therefore was one of the soonest that was called to it.

The term therefore of her purification being ac

complished, her turn came to go in unto the An. 460 king, who was so well pleased with her, that Artax. 5. he often again called her by name; which he used not to do, but to those only of his women whom he was much delighted with. From this time she seems to have had the name of Esther; for it is of a Persian original; the signification of it is not now known.

The Egyptians being very impatient of a foreign yoke, in order to deliver themselves from it, rebelled against Artaxerxes, and, making Inarus prince of the Lybians, their king, called in the Athenians to their assistance, who, having then a fleet of two hundred sail at Cyprus, gladly laid hold of the invitation, and forthwith sailed for Egypt, looking on this as a favourable opportunity for the crushing of the Persian power, by driving them out of that country.

Artaxerxes, on the hearing of this revolt, made ready an army of three hundred thousand men for the suppressing of it, proposing himself to march into Egypt at the head of them; but being dissuaded from

k Thucydides, lib. 1. Ctesias.

1 Diodorus Siculus, lib. 11. Ctesias.

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An. 459.

Artax. 6.

hazarding his person in this expedition, he committed it to the care of Achæmenides, one of his brothers. Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus" say, that it was Achæmines, the brother of Xerxes, and uncle of Artaxerxes, the same who afore had the government of Egypt in the beginning of the reign of Xerxes, that had the conduct of this war: but herein they were deceived by the similitude of the names; for it appears by Ctesias, that he was the son of Hamestris, whom Artaxerxes sent with his army into Egypt. Achæmenides, being arrived in Egypt with his numerous army, encamped on the river Nile. In the interim, the Athenians having beaten the Persian fleet at sea, and destroyed or taken fifty of their ships, sailed up the Nile, and, having landed their forces, under the command of Charitimis, their general, joined Inarus and the Egyptians; whereon, falling on Achæmenides with their joint forces, they overthrew him in a great battle, killing one hundred thousand of his men, and among them Achæmenides himself. The remainder fled to Memphis, where the victors pursuing them, took two parts of the town: but the Persians securing themselves in the third, called the white wall, which was by much the largest and the strongest part, there suffered a siege of near three years; during all which time they valiantly defended themselves against their assailants, till at length they were succoured by those who were sent to their relief. Artaxerxes having received an account of the defeat of his army in Egypt, and what part the Athenians bore in, the effecting of it, in order to divert their forces from being thus employed against him, he sent an ambassador to the Lacedæmonians, with great sums of money, to induce them to make war upon the Athenians; but, they not being by any means to be wrought to it, Artaxerxes resolved to endeavour this diversion another way, by sending himself an army into Attica, with Themistocles at the head of it; which he thought could not fail

Im Herodot. lib. 3, et lib. 7.

An. 458.

Artax. 7.

n Diodorus Siculus, lib. 11. o Thucydides, lib. 1. Ctesias. Diodorus Siculus, lib. 11, p Thucydides, lib. 1. Diodorus Siculus, lib. 11.

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of making them recall their forces out of Egypt, because then they would need them at home for their own defence. And accordingly orders were sent to Themistocles to prepare for the expedition; and an army and a fleet were drawing towards the Ionian coast to be committed to his conduct for this purpose. But Themistocles not knowing how to decline the command, by reason of the great benefits he had received from the king, and the promises he had made of serving him on such occasion, and, on the other hand, abhorring the bringing of a war upon his country, to extricate himself from this difficulty, resolved to put an end to his life; and therefore, inviting all his friends together, and having sacrificed a bull, he drank a large draught of his blood, and so died. But there are others that say, this was done not so much out of a love to his country, as out of a fear of encountering the valour and good fortune of Cimon, who, being then general of the Athenians, carried victory with him wherever he went. But, had this been all the matter, so wise and valiant a man would have seen enough in this case not to have run upon so fatal a resolution. It is possible he might have beaten Cimon; if not, it would have been time enough for him to have saved his credit this way, by dying in battle when vanquished; and therefore he needed not to have anticipated it by a poisonous draught. In the interim, Artabazus governour of Cilicia, and Megabyzus governour of Syria, were ordered to get ready an army for the relief of those who were besieged in the white wall, and for the carrying on of the Egyptian war. This Megabyzust was the son of Zopyrus, and had been one of the generals that commanded in the army which Xerxes led into Greece, whose daughter Amytis he had married; but she having very much abused his bed by her frequent adulteries, which she was very infamously addicted to, he grew very much disgusted at it; and that not only with her, but also with the whole royal

q Plutarchus in Themistocle.

Thucydides, lib. 1. Plutarchus in Themistocle et Cimone.
Thucydides, lib. 1. Diodorus, lib. 11. Ctesias.

Herodotus, lib. 3, in fine, & lib. 7. Ctesias.

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