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CHAPTER II.

"Semiramis for empire cast away
The woman, and went forth in brazen arms."

"In the early ages of the world, while the forest-covered Europe afforded a retreat to a few wandering savages, the inhabitants of Asia were already collected into populous cities, and reduced under extensive empires, the seat of the arts, of luxury, and of despotism. The Assyrians reigned over the east till the sceptre of Ninus and Semiramis dropt from the hands of their enervated successors. We have already exhibited to our young readers some of the splendours of

* Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 1, page 217.

those great cities Nineveh and Babylon, not one vestige of which remains to mark the place which they once occupied upon the earth's surface; and we shall now resume the history of Semiramis, who wielded the sceptre of her mighty empire with no weak or trembling hand, and shall follow the history of her dynasty, till we see that sceptre violently wrenched from the feeble grasp of her effeminate and degraded successors.

When Semiramis had finished such of those great works in Babylon as belonged to her, for many of them are attributed to Nebuchadnezzar and his daughter-in-law Nitocris, she made a progress through the vast provinces of her empire, in the course of which she left many monuments of her munificence, by causing works either of ornament or utility to be erected in the different cities she visited; in building aqueducts for supplying the inhabitants with water, and in making roads of easy access from one city or province to another, in which if mountains obstructed her way she levelled them, and literally filled up the valleys.

The influence of this queen over her people is

said to have been so great, that her presence alone was sufficient to quell sedition. It is related that, on one occasion, being informed of a tumult in the city, while she was dressing, she left her toilet on the instant, and appearing with her hair flowing, and in her loose robes, the rioters were immediately appeased. A statue was erected to the queen on this occasion, in which she is represented in an undress as above recited, which appears to render the anecdote sufficiently authentic.

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This ambitious princess, not satisfied with the extent of empire left to her by Ninus, conquered by her arms great part of Ethiopia. So restless and insatiable is ambition, or rather perhaps that thirst for happiness which consumes the soul when its desires are placed on objects incapable of gratifying its immortal nature, that it pursues one chimera after another, and finds them all say, "that which you seek is not in me." In her expedition into Ethiopia, she consulted the oracle of Jupiter Ammon, inquiring how long she had to live. The oracle replied, that she should not die till her son had conspired against her; and

that, after her death, one part of Asia should pay her divine honours.

The greatest and last expedition of Semiramis was against India. The immense army which she raised from all quarters of her dominions, had orders to meet her at Bactria. There being destitute of elephants, an animal which formed the chief stength of the Indian armies, she substituted in their stead a number of camels, accoutred and caparisoned with the furniture of elephants, in hopes of deceiving the enemy; but her stratagem was unsuccessful. She advanced with her troops towards the Indus, and having prepared a sufficient number of boats, she attempted the passage of that river, where after a lengthened conflict and most sanguinary battle, she put the Indian army to flight, sunk above a thousand of their boats, and took an hundred thousand prisoners. Encouraged by the successful result of this enterprise, the Queen immediately advanced into the enemy's country, leaving behind her sixty thou sand of her troops, to protect her bridge of boats, This rash and precipitate movement on the part of Semiramis, was precisely the step which the

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Indian prince desired she should adopt, who af fected to retreat before her, only for the purpose of giving her battle in the heart of his own dominions. Whenever he imagined her to be sufficiently advanced, he made a movement against her, and a second conflict took place more sanguinary than the first, and fatal to the army of the queen: For the counterfeit elephants unable to sustain the tremendous shock of the real, those enormous and powerful animals put the camels to flight, who in their rout, crushed and confounded every thing that opposed their retreat, and totally disorganized their own army. Semiramis used every effort to restore order, and to rally her dispirited soldiers, but in vain. The Indian monarch perceiving her engaged in the fight, assailed, and wounded her, in two places, though not mortally. She was indebted to the swiftness of her horse for safety, who carried her beyond the reach of the enemy. As her forces retreated towards the Indus, where the bridge of boats still remained, numbers of them perished through the confusion, distraction, and tumult of the day. When such as could save themselves had repassed the

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