Justin: HISTORIARVM PHILIPPICARVM T. POMPEII TROGI LIBRI XLIV IN EPITOMEN REDACTI

[I] Principio rerum gentium nationumque imperium penes reges erat, quod ad fastigium huius maiestatis non ambitio popularis, sed spectata inter bonos moderatio provehebat. Populus nullis legibus tenebatur, arbitria principum pro legibus erant. Fines imperii tueri magis quam proferre mos erat; intra suam cuique patriam regna finiebantur.

[1] At the beginning of affairs, the imperium of peoples and nations was in the hands of kings, and to the pinnacle of this majesty men were advanced not by popular ambition but by moderation approved among good men. The people were bound by no laws; the arbitraments of princes stood in place of laws. It was the custom to guard the frontiers of the imperium rather than to extend them; the realms were limited within each one’s own fatherland.

Primus omnium Ninus, rex Assyriorum, veterem et quasi avitum gentibus morem nova imperii cupiditate mutavit. Hic primus intulit bella finitimis et rudes adhuc ad resistendum populos terminos usque Libyae perdomuit. Fuere quidem temporibus antiquiores Vezosis Aegyptius et Scythiae rex Tanaus, quorum alter in Pontum, alter usque Aegyptum excessit.

First of all, Ninus, king of the Assyrians, by a new cupidity for empire changed the old and, as it were, ancestral custom of the nations. He was the first to bring wars upon his neighbors and, the peoples still raw for resisting, he subdued them as far as the borders of Libya. There were indeed men earlier in time—Vezosis the Egyptian and Tanaus, king of Scythia—of whom the one advanced into Pontus, the other as far as Egypt.

Sed longinqua, non finitima bella gerebant nec imperium sibi, sed populis suis gloriam quaerebant continentique victoria imperio abstinebant. Ninus magnitudine quaesitae dominationis continua possessione firmavit. Domitis igitur proximis, cum accessione virium fortior ad alios transiret et proxima quaeque victoria instrumentum sequentis esset, totius Orientis populos subegit.

But they waged far‑off, not neighboring, wars, and sought not dominion for themselves but glory for their peoples; and, though their victory was continuous, they abstained from imperial rule. Ninus, by contrast, secured the magnitude of the domination he had acquired by continuous possession. Therefore, with the nearest peoples subdued, as, strengthened by an accession of forces, he passed on to others, and as each immediate victory became an instrument of the next, he subjected the peoples of the whole Orient.

Postremum bellum illi fuit cum Zoroastre, rege Bactrianorum, qui primus dicitur artes magicas invenisse et mundi principia siderumque motus diligentissime spectasse. Hoc occiso et ipse decessit, relicto adhuc impubere filio Ninia et uxore Semiramide.

His last war was with Zoroaster, king of the Bactrians, who is said first to have discovered the magical arts and to have most diligently observed the principles of the world and the motions of the stars. With him slain, he himself died, leaving a son Ninia still underage, and a wife, Semiramis.

[II] Haec neque inmaturo puero ausa tradere imperium nec ipsa palam tractare, tot ac tantis gentibus vix patienter Nino viro, nedum feminae parituris, simulat se pro uxore Nini filium, pro femina puerum. Nam et statura utrique mediocris et vox pariter gracilis et liniamentorum qualitas matri ac filio similis. igitur bracchia et crura calciamentis, caput tiara tegit; et ne novo habitu aliquid occultare videretur, eodem ornatu et populum vestiri iubet, quem morem vestis exinde gens universa tenet.

[2] She, neither daring to hand over the imperium to the immature boy nor to manage it herself openly—by so many and so great nations as had scarcely endured Ninus, a man, much less would be about to obey a woman—pretends herself, instead of the wife of Ninus, to be a son; instead of a woman, a boy. For both had a medium stature, and a gracile voice alike, and the quality of the lineaments was similar in mother and son. Therefore she covers her arms and legs with coverings, her head with a tiara; and lest she seem to conceal anything by a new attire, she orders the people also to be clothed in the same adornment, which fashion of dress from then on the entire nation holds.

Sic primis initiis sexum mentita puer esse credita est. Magnas deinde res gessit; quarum amplitudine ubi invidiam superatam putat, quae sit fatetur quemve simulasset. Nec hoc illi dignitatem regni ademit, sed auxit, quod mulier non feminas modo virtute, sed etiam viros anteiret.

Thus, in the first beginnings, having feigned her sex, she was believed to be a boy. Then she accomplished great things; by the amplitude of which, when she considers envy to have been overcome, she confesses what she is and whom she had impersonated. Nor did this take from her the dignity of the kingdom, but it increased it, because the woman outstripped not only women in virtue, but even men.

Haec Babyloniam condidit murumque urbi cocto latere circumdedit, arenae vice bitumine interstrato, quae materia in illis locis passim invenitur e terra exaestuata. Multa et alia praeclara huius reginae fuere; siquidem, non contenta adquisitos viro regni terminos tueri, Aethiopiam quoque imperio adiecit. Sed et Indis bellum intulit, quos praeter illam et Alexandrum Magnum nemo intravit.

She founded Babylon and surrounded the city with a wall of baked brick, with bitumen interlaid in place of sand—a material in those regions found everywhere, seething up from the earth. Many other illustrious deeds of this queen there were; indeed, not content to guard the borders of the realm acquired by her husband, she even added Ethiopia to her empire. And she also brought war upon the Indians, whom, apart from her and Alexander the Great, no one entered.

Ad postremum cum concubitum filii petisset, ab eodem interfecta est, duos et XXX annos post Ninum regno petita. Filius eius Ninias contentus elaborato a parentibus imperio belli studia deposuit et, veluti sexum cum matre mutasset, raro a viris visus in feminarum turba consenuit. Posteri quoque eius id exemplum secuti responsa gentibus per internuntios dabant.

At last, when she had sought the bed of her son, she was killed by that same one, 32 years after Ninus, having attained the kingdom. Her son Ninias, content with the empire wrought by his parents, laid aside the pursuits of war and, as though he had exchanged sex with his mother, grew old in a throng of women, rarely seen by men. His descendants too, following that example, used to give responses to the nations through internuncios.

Imperium Assyrii, qui postea Syri dicti sunt, mille trecentis annis tenuere.

The Assyrians, who later were called Syrians, held the empire for 1,300 years.

[III] Postremus apud eos regnavit Sardanapallus, vir muliere corruptior. Ad hunc videndum (quod nemini ante eum permissum fuerat) praefectus ipsius Medis praepositus, nomine Arbactus, cum admitti magna ambitione aegre obtinuisset, invenit eum inter scortorum greges purpuras colo nentem et muliebri habitu, cum mollitia corporis et oculorum lascivia omnes feminas anteiret, pensa inter virgines partientem. Quibus visis indignatus tali feminae tantum virorum subiectum tractantique lanam ferrum et arma habentes parere, progressus ad socios quid viderit refert; negat se ei parere posse, qui se feminam malit esse quam virum.

[3] Last among them reigned Sardanapalus, a man more corrupt than a woman. To see this man (which had been permitted to no one before him), his own prefect set over the Medes, named Arbactus, when with great striving had scarcely obtained admission, found him among flocks of prostitutes spinning purple with the distaff and in female attire, since in softness of body and the wantonness of his eyes he surpassed all women, dividing the wool-weights among maidens. At the sight of these things, indignant that so many men were subject to such a woman and that those bearing iron and arms obey one handling wool, he went out and reported to his comrades what he had seen; he said that he could not obey one who prefers to be a woman rather than a man.

Fit igitur coniuratio; bellum Sardanapallo infertur. Quo ille audito non ut vir regnum defensurus, sed, ut metu mortis mulieres solent, primo latebras circumspicit, mox deinde cum paucis et inconpositis in bellum progreditur. Victus in regiam se recepit, ubi exstructa incensaque pyra et se et divitias suas in incendium mittit, hoc solo imitatus virum.

Therefore a conspiracy is formed; war is brought against Sardanapalus. When he heard this, not like a man about to defend his kingdom, but, as women are wont through fear of death, at first he looks around for hiding-places, then presently with a few and unarrayed men he advances to war. Defeated, he withdrew into the palace, where, a pyre having been heaped up and set ablaze, he sends both himself and his riches into the conflagration, in this alone imitating a man.

Post hunc rex constituitur interfector eius Arbactus, qui praefectus Medorum fuerat. Is imperium ab Assyriis ad Medos transfert.

After him, his slayer Arbactus—who had been prefect of the Medes—is constituted king. He transfers the imperium from the Assyrians to the Medes.

[IV] Post multos deinde reges per ordinem successionis regnum ad Astyagen descendit. Hic per somnum vidit ex naturalibus filiae, quam unicam habebat, vitem enatam, cuius palmite omnis Asia obumbraretur. Consulti arioli ex eadem filia nepotem ei futurum, cuius magnitudo praenuntiaretur, regnique ei amissionem portendi responderunt.

[4] After many kings, then, in the order of succession the kingdom descended to Astyages. He in sleep saw that from the natural parts of his daughter, whom he had as his only child, a vine had sprung up, by whose shoot all Asia was overshadowed. The diviners, when consulted, answered that from that same daughter there would be a grandson for him, whose greatness was being foreshown, and that loss of the kingdom was being portended to him.

Hoc responso exterritus neque claro viro neque civi filiam suam, ne paterna maternaque nobilitas nepoti animos extolleret, sed ex gente obscura tum temporis Persarum Cambysi, mediocri viro, in matrimonium tradidit. Ac ne sic quidem somnii metu deposito gravidam ad se filiam arcessit, ut sub avi potissimum oculis partus necaretur. Natus infans datur occidendus Harpago, regis arcanorum participi.

Terrified by this response, he gave his daughter neither to a distinguished man nor to a citizen, lest the paternal and maternal nobility should exalt the spirit of his grandson, but handed her in matrimony to Cambyses, from the nation of the Persians, then of obscure stock, a man of moderate station. And not even thus laying aside the fear of the dream, he summoned his pregnant daughter to himself, so that the child might be killed under the very eyes of the grandfather. The infant, once born, is given over to Harpagus, the sharer of the king’s arcana, to be killed.

Is veritus, si ad filiam mortuo rege venisset imperium, quia nullum Astyages virilis sexus genuerat, ne illa necati infantis ultionem, quoniam a patre non potuisset, a ministro exigeret, pastori regii pecoris puerum exponendum tradit. Forte eodem tempore et ipsi pastori natus filius erat. Eius igitur uxor audita regii infantis expositione summis precibus rogat sibi perferri ostendique puerum.

He, fearing that, if upon the king’s death the imperium should come to the daughter—since Astyages had begotten no male offspring—she, because she could not have exacted it from her father, would exact the vengeance for the slain infant from the minister, handed the boy over to the shepherd of the royal flock to be exposed. By chance at the same time a son had been born also to that shepherd himself. Therefore his wife, when she heard of the exposure of the royal infant, with highest entreaties begs that the boy be brought to her and shown.

Cuius precibus fatigatus pastor reversus in silvam invenit iuxta infantem canem feminam parvulo ubera praebentem et a feris alitibusque defendentem. Motus et ipse misericordia, qua motam etiam canem viderat, puerum defert ad stabula, eadem cane anxie prosequente. Quem ubi in manum mulier accepit, veluti ad notam adlusit, tantusque in illo vigor et dulcis quidam blandientis infantis risus apparuit, ut pastorem ultro rogaret uxor, suum partum pro illo exponeret permitteretque sibi sive fortunae ipsius sive spei suae puerum nutrire.

Cajoled by her entreaties, the shepherd, returning into the forest, found beside the infant a female dog offering her teats to the little one and defending him from wild beasts and birds. Moved himself also by mercy, by which he had seen even the dog moved, he carries the boy to the stalls, the same dog anxiously following. When the woman took him into her hand, she fondled him as if to one familiar, and so great a vigor appeared in him and a certain sweet smile of a coaxing infant, that the wife begged the shepherd of her own accord to expose her own newborn in his place and to allow her to rear the boy, either for his own fortune or for her hope.

Atque ita permutata sorte parvulorum hic pro filio pastoris educatur, ille pro nepote regis exponitur. Nutrici postea nomen Spargos fuit, quia canem Persae sic vocant.

And thus, with the lot of the little ones exchanged, this one is reared as the shepherd’s son, that one is exposed as the king’s grandson. To the nurse thereafter the name was Spargos, because the Persians call a dog thus.

[V] Puer deinde cum imperiusus inter pastores esset, Cyri nomen accepit. Mox rex inter ludentes sorte delectus cum per lasciviam contumaces flagellis cecidisset, a parentibus puerorum querele regi delata, indignantibus a servo regio ingenuos homines servilibus verberibus adfectos. Ille arcessito puero et interrogato, cum nihil mutato vultu fecisse se ut regem respondisset, admiratum constantiam in memoriam somnii responsique revocatur.

[5] Then the boy, since he was imperious among the shepherds, received the name Cyrus. Soon, as “king” among the players, chosen by lot, when in sportive license he had struck the contumacious with scourges, complaints were brought to the king by the boys’ parents, indignant that freeborn men had been subjected to servile lashes by a royal slave. He, the boy having been summoned and questioned, when, with nothing changed in his countenance, he answered that he had acted as a king, admiring his constancy, is recalled to the memory of the dream and the response.

Atque ita cum et vultus similitudo et expositionis tempora et pastoris confessio convenirent, nepotem agnovit. Et quoniam defunctus sibi somnio videretur agitato inter pastores regno, animum minacem dumtaxat in illo fregit. Ceterum Harpago, amico suo, infestus in ultionem servati nepotis filium eius interfecit epulandumque patri tradidit.

And so, since both the likeness of the face and the times of the exposure and the shepherd’s confession agreed, he recognized his grandson. And since, by the dream, he seemed to himself to have been discharged, with the kingship having been exercised among the shepherds, he only broke the menacing spirit in that one. However, Harpagus, hostile toward his friend, in vengeance for the grandson who had been spared, killed his son and handed him over to the father for a banquet.

Sed Harpagus ad praesens tempus dissimulato dolore odium regis in vindictae occasionem distulit. Interiecto deinde tempore cum adolevisset Cyrus, dolore orbitatis admonitus scribit ei, ut ablegatus ab avo in Persas fuerit, ut occidi eum parvulum avus iusserit, ut beneficio suo servatus sit, ut regem offenderit, ut filium amiserit. Hortatur exercitum paret et pronam ad regnum viam ingrediatur, Medorum transitionem pollicitus.

But Harpagus, for the present time, with his pain dissimulated, deferred the king’s hatred to an occasion for vengeance. Then, time having intervened, when Cyrus had grown up, reminded by the grief of bereavement, he writes to him that he had been sent away by his grandfather to the Persians, that his grandfather had ordered him to be killed when a small child, that by his own beneficence he had been preserved, that he had offended the king, that he had lost his son. He exhorts him to prepare an army and to enter upon the prone road to kingship, promising the transition—defection—of the Medes.

Epistula quia palam ferri nequibat regis custodibus omnes aditus obsidentibus, exenterato lepori inseritur lepusque in Persas Cyro ferendus fido servo traditur; addita retia, ut sub specie venatoris dolus lateret.

Because the epistle could not be borne openly, with the king’s guards besieging all approaches, it was inserted into an eviscerated hare; and the hare, to be carried to Cyrus in Persia, was handed over to a faithful servant; nets were added, so that under the guise of a hunter the stratagem might lie hidden.

[VI] Lectis ille epistulis eadem somnio adgredi iussus, sed praemonitus, ut quem primum postera die obvium habuisset, socium coeptis adsumeret. Igitur antelucano tempore ruri iter ingressus obvium habuit servum de ergastulo cuiusdam Medi, nomine Sybaren. Huius requisita origine ut in Persis genitum audivit, demptis conpedibus adsumptoque comite Persepolim regreditur.

[VI] Having read the epistles, he was ordered by a dream to approach the same course, but forewarned to assume, as a partner in the undertakings, whoever he should first meet on the next day. Therefore, at an antelucan hour, having entered upon a journey in the countryside, he encountered a slave from the ergastulum of a certain Mede, by name Sybares. When, his origin having been inquired into, he heard that he had been born among the Persians, with the fetters removed and the companion assumed, he returns to Persepolis.

Ibi convocato populo iubet omnes praesto cum securibus esse et silvam viae circumdatam excidere. Quod cum strenue fecissent, eosdem postera die adparatis epulis invitat; dein cum alacriores ipso convivio factos videret, rogat: si condicio ponatur, utrius vitae sortem legant, hesterni laboris an praesentium epularum? "Praesentium" ut adclamavere omnes, ait hesterno similem labori omnem vitam acturos, quoad Medis pareant; se secutos hodiernis epulis.

There, the people having been convoked, he orders all to be at the ready with axes and to cut down the forest surrounding the road. When they had done this strenuously, on the next day he invites the same men to a banquet with the feasts prepared; then, when he saw them made more lively by the very convivium, he asks: if a condition be proposed, which lot of life would they choose, that of yesterday’s labor or of today’s feasting? When all acclaimed “Of the present,” he says that they are going to live their whole life similar to yesterday in labor, so long as they obey the Medes; but, if they follow him, then with today’s banquets.

Laetis omnibus bellum Medis infert. Astyages meriti sui in Harpago oblitus summam belli eidem committit, qui exercitum acceptum statim Cyro per deditionem tradidit regisque crudelitatem perfidia defectionis ulciscitur. Quod ubi Astyages audivit, contractis undique auxiliis ipse in Persas proficiscitur et repetito alacrius certamine pugnantibus suis partem exercitus de tergo ponit et tergiversantes ferro agi in hostes iubet ac denuntiat suis, ni vincerent, non minus fortes post terga inventuros, quam a frontibus viros; proinde videant, fugientibus haec an illa pugnantibus acies rumpenda sit.

With all rejoicing, he brings war upon the Medes. Astyages, forgetful of his own deserts toward Harpagus, entrusts to that same man the supreme command of the war; who, the army once received, forthwith delivered it to Cyrus by surrender and avenged the king’s cruelty by the treachery of defection. When Astyages heard this, having gathered auxiliaries from every side, he himself sets out against the Persians; and, the combat being more briskly renewed, while his men are fighting he stations a part of the army at their rear and orders the shirkers to be driven with steel against the enemy, and he formally warns his men that, unless they should conquer, they will find behind their backs men no less brave than those in front; therefore let them consider whether these ranks are to be broken by the fleeing, or those by the fighting.

Ingens post necessitatem pugnandi animus exercitui eius accessit. Pulsataque cum Persarum acies paulatim cederet, matres et uxores eorum obviam occurrunt; orant in proelium revertantur; cunctantibus sublata veste obscena corporis ostendunt regantes, num in uteros matrum vel uxorum vellent refugere. Hac repressi castigatione in proelium redeunt et facta inpressione quos fugiebant fugere conpellunt.

A vast courage, after the necessity of fighting, came to his army. And when the battle-line of the Persians, having been beaten, was little by little giving way, their mothers and wives ran to meet them; they implore that they return into the battle; as they hesitated, with garment lifted they show the obscene parts of the body, upbraiding them, whether they wished to flee back into the wombs of their mothers or of their wives. Checked by this chastisement, they return into the battle and, an assault having been made, compel to flee those whom they had been fleeing.

In eo proelio Astyages capitur, cui Cyrus nihil aliud quam regnum abstulit nepotemque in illo magis quam victorem egit, eumque maximae genti Hyrcanorum praeposuit. Nam in Medos reverti ipse noluit. Hic finis imperii Medorum fuit.

In that battle Astyages is captured, from whom Cyrus took away nothing other than the kingdom and bore himself toward him more as a grandson than as a victor, and he set him over the very great nation of the Hyrcanians. For he himself did not wish to return to the Medes. This was the end of the empire of the Medes.

regnaverunt annis CCCL.

they reigned for 350 years.

[VII] Initio regni Cyrus Sybaren, coeptorum socium, quem iuxta nocturnum visum ergastulo liberaverat comitemque in omnibus rebus habuerat, Persis praeposuit sororemque suam ei in matrimonium dedit. Sed civitates, quae Medorum tributariae fuerant, mutato imperio etiam condicionem suam mutatam arbitrantes a Cyro defecerunt, quae res multorum bellorum Cyro causa et origo fuit. Domitis deinde plerisque cum adversus Babylonios bellum gereret, Babyloniis rex Lydorum Croesus, cuius opes divitiaeque insignes ea tempestate erant, in auxilium venit; victusque iam de se sollicitus in regnum refugit.

[7] At the beginning of his reign Cyrus set Sybares, a partner in his undertakings—whom, in accordance with a nocturnal vision, he had freed from the dungeon and had had as a companion in all matters—over the Persians, and he gave his own sister to him in matrimony. But the cities which had been tributary to the Medes, the empire having been changed, thinking that their own condition too was changed, defected from Cyrus; which matter was for Cyrus the cause and origin of many wars. Then, most having been subdued, while he was waging war against the Babylonians, Croesus, king of the Lydians—whose wealth and riches were remarkable at that season—came to the Babylonians as an aid; and, defeated and now anxious about himself, he fled back into his kingdom.

Cyrus quoque post victoriam conpositis in Babylonia rebus bellum transfert in Lydiam. Ibi fortuna prioris proelii perculsum iam Croesi exercitum nullo negotio fundit; Croesus ipse capitur. Sed quanto bellum minoris periculi, tanto et mitior victoria.

Cyrus also, after victory, with affairs composed in Babylonia, transfers the war to Lydia. There, thanks to the fortune of the prior battle, he routs Croesus’s army, already stricken, with no difficulty; Croesus himself is captured. But the less perilous the war, the gentler too the victory.

Croeso et vita et patrimonii partes et urbs Beroe concessa, in qua etsi non regiam vitam, proximam tamen maiestati regiae degeret. Haec clementia non minus victori quam victo utilis fuit. Quippe ex universa Graecia, cognito quod inlatum Croeso bellum esset, auxilia velut ad commune extinguendum incendium confluebant; tantus Croesi amor apud omnes urbes erat passurusque Cyrus grave bellum Graeciae fuit, si quid in Croeso crudelius consuluisset.

To Croesus both life and portions of his patrimony and the city Beroe were granted, in which, although not a royal life, yet he might pass one nearest to royal majesty. This clemency was no less useful to the victor than to the vanquished. For from all Greece, once it was learned that war had been brought upon Croesus, auxiliaries were converging as if to extinguish a common conflagration; so great was the love of Croesus among all the cities, and Cyrus would have had to undergo a grievous war with Greece, if he had resolved on anything more cruel concerning Croesus.

Interiecto deinde tempore occupato in aliis bellis Cyro Lydi rebellavere, quibus iterum victis arma et equi adempti iussique cauponas et ludicras artes et lenocinia exercere. Ac sic gens industria quondam potens et manu strenua effeminata mollitie luxuriaque virtutem pristinam perdidit et quos ante Cyrum invictos bella praestiterunt, in luxuriam lapsos otium ac desidia superavit.

Then, after an interval of time, with Cyrus occupied in other wars, the Lydians rebelled; when they were again conquered, their arms and horses were taken away, and they were ordered to keep taverns and to practice the ludic arts and procuring. And thus a nation once powerful in industry and with a strenuous hand, effeminated by softness and luxury, lost its former virtue; and those whom wars had shown undefeated before Cyrus, once they had slipped into luxury, were overcome by leisure and sloth.

Fuere Lydis multi ante Croesum reges variis casibus memorabiles, nullus tamen fortunae Candauli conparandus. Hic uxorem, quam propter formae pulchritudinem deperibat, praedicare omnibus solebat, non contentus voluptatum suarum tacita conscientia, nisi etiam matrimonii reticenda publicaret, prorsus quasi silentium damnum pulchritudinis esset. Ad postremum, ut adfirmationi suae fidem faceret, nudam sodali suo Gygi ostendit.

There were for the Lydians many kings before Croesus, memorable for various vicissitudes, yet none comparable to the fortune of Candaules. He used to proclaim to everyone his wife, for whom, on account of the beauty of her form, he was desperately enamored, not content with the tacit consciousness of his pleasures unless he also publicized the things of marriage that ought to be kept quiet—altogether as if silence were a loss to beauty. At last, to give credence to his assertion, he showed her naked to his companion Gyges.

Quo facto et amicum in adulterium uxoris sollicitatum hostem sibi fecit et uxorem, veluti tradito alii amore, a se alienavit. Namque brevi tempore caedes Candauli nuptiarum praemium fuit et uxor mariti sanguine dotata regnum viri et se pariter adultero tradidit.

By this deed, having solicited his friend into adultery with his wife, he made an enemy for himself, and his wife—just as though her love had been handed over to another—he alienated from himself. For in a short time the slaying of Candaules was the prize of the nuptials, and the wife, endowed with her husband’s blood as a dowry, delivered both the kingdom of her man and herself alike to the adulterer.

[VIII] Cyrus subacta Asia et universo Oriente in potestatem redacto Scythis bellum infert. Erat eo tempore regina Scytharum Tamyris, quae non muliebriter adventu hostium territa, cum prohibere eos transitu Araxis fluminis posset, transire permisit, et sibi faciliorem pugnam intra regni sui terminos rata et hostibus obiectu fluminis fugam difficiliorem. Itaque Cyrus traiectis copiis, cum aliquantisper in Scythiam processisset, castra metatus est.

[8] Cyrus, with Asia subdued and the whole Orient reduced into his power, makes war upon the Scythians. At that time the queen of the Scythians was Tamyris, who, not in womanly fashion terrified at the arrival of the enemies, although she could prevent them from crossing the river Araxes, allowed them to cross, reckoning the fight to be easier for herself within the borders of her own realm, and flight to be more difficult for the enemies by the river set in their way. And so Cyrus, his forces carried across, when he had advanced a little way into Scythia, pitched camp.

Dein postera die simulato metu, quasi refugiens castra deseruisset, ita vini adfatim et ea, quae epulis erant necessaria, reliquit. Quod cum nuntiatum reginae esset, adulescentulum filium ad insequendum eum cum tertia parte copiarum mittit. Cum ventum ad castra Cyri esset, ignarus rei militaris adulescens, veluti ad epulas, non ad proelium venisset, omissis hostibus insuetos barbaros vino se onerare patitur, priusque Scythae ebrietate quam bello vincuntur.

Then on the following day, with fear simulated, as if fleeing he had abandoned the camp, he left wine in profusion and the things that were necessary for banquets. When this had been reported to the queen, she sends her adolescent son to pursue him with a third part of the forces. When they came to the camp of Cyrus, the adolescent, ignorant of the military art, as if he had come to banquets, not to battle, with the enemy disregarded, allows the unaccustomed barbarians to load themselves with wine, and the Scythians are conquered by drunkenness sooner than by war.

Nam cognitis his Cyrus reversus per noctem saucios opprimit omnesque Scythas cum reginae filio interfecit. Amisso tanto exercitu et, quod gravius dolendum, unico filio Tamyris orbitatis dolorem non in lacrimas effudit, sed in ultionis solacia intendit hostesque recenti victoria exsultantes pari insidiarum fraude circumvenit; quippe simulata diffidentia propter vulnus acceptum refugiens Cyrum ad angustias usque perduxit. Ibi conpositis in montibus insidiis ducenta milia Persarum cum ipso rege trucidavit.

Now, when these things were learned, Cyrus returned and during the night overpowered the wounded and killed all the Scythians together with the queen’s son. With so great an army lost, and—what was more grievous to be lamented—her only son, Tamyris did not pour out the grief of bereavement into tears, but aimed it toward the consolations of vengeance; and she circumvented the enemies exulting in their recent victory with an equal fraud of ambush; for, feigning diffidence on account of the wound received and falling back, she led Cyrus even to the narrows. There, with ambushes arranged in the mountains, she slaughtered 200,000 Persians along with the king himself.

In qua victoria etiam illud memorabile fuit, quod ne nuntiuss quidem tantae cladis superfuit. Caput Cyri amputatum in utrem humano sanguine repletum coici regina iubet cum hac exprobratione crudelitatis: "Satia te" inquit "sanguine, quem sitisti cuiusque insatiabilis semper fuisti". Cyrus regnavit annis XXX, non initio tantum regni, sed continuo totius temporis successu admirabiliter insignis.

In that victory this too was memorable, that not even a messenger of so great a disaster survived. The head of Cyrus, severed, the queen orders to be thrown into a wineskin filled with human blood, with this reproach of cruelty: "Sate yourself," she says, "with blood which you thirsted for and of which you have always been insatiable." Cyrus reigned for 30 years, remarkably distinguished not only at the beginning of his reign, but by the continuous success of the whole period.

[IX] Huic successit filius Cambyses, qui imperio patris Aegyptum adiecit; sed offensus superstitionibus Aegyptiorum Apis ceterorumque deorum aedes dirui iubet. Ad Hammonis quoque nobilissimum templum expugnandum exercitum mittit, qui tempestatibus et harenarum molibus oppressus interiit. Post haec per quietem vidit fratrem suum Mergim regnaturum.

[9] To him succeeded his son Cambyses, who added Egypt to his father's empire; but, offended by the superstitions of the Egyptians, he orders the temples of Apis and of the other gods to be demolished. He also sends an army to storm the most noble temple of Ammon, which, overwhelmed by storms and masses of sand, perished. After these things, in sleep, he saw that his brother Mergis would reign.

Quo somnio exterritus non dubitavit post sacrilegia etiam parricidium facere. Erat enim difficile, ut parceret suis, qui cum contemptu religionis grassatus etiam adversus deos fuerat. Ad hoc tam crudele ministerium magum quendam ex amicis delegit, nomine Cometen.

Terrified by that dream, he did not hesitate, after his sacrileges, to commit even parricide. For it was difficult that he should spare his own kin, he who, with contempt of religion, had run riot even against the gods. For this so cruel a commission he chose from among his friends a certain Magus, by the name Cometes.

Interim ipse gladio sua sponte evaginato in femur graviter vulneratus occubuit poenasque luit seu imperati parricidii seu perpetrati sacrilegii. Quo nuntio accepto magus ante famam amissi regis occupat facinus prostratoque Mergide, cui regnum debebatur, fratrem suum subiecit Oropasten. Erat enim et oris et corporis liniamentis persimilis, ac nemine subesse dolum arbitrante pro Mergide rex Oropasta coonstituitur.

Meanwhile he himself, with his sword of his own accord unsheathed, was grievously wounded in the thigh, fell dead, and paid the penalties either of the commanded parricide or of the perpetrated sacrilege. Upon this news being received, the magus, before the rumor of the lost king spread, seizes the deed; and Mergis laid low— to whom the kingdom was owed— he substituted his brother Oropastes. For he was very similar in the lineaments of face and body; and with no one supposing that deceit underlay, in place of Mergis Oropasta is established as king.

Quae res eo occultior fuit, quod apud Persas persona regis sub specie maiestatis occulitur. Igitur magi ad favorem populi conciliandum tributa et militiae vacationem in triennium permittunt, ut regnum, quod fraude quaesierant, indulgentiae largitionibus confirmarent. Quae res suspecta primo Hostani, viro nobili et in coniectura sagacissimo, fuit.

This matter was all the more occult, because among the Persians the persona of the king is hidden under the semblance of majesty. Therefore the magi, to conciliate the favor of the people, permit a remission of taxes and an exemption from military service for 3 years, so that they might confirm the kingship, which they had sought by fraud, by largesses of indulgence. This was at first suspect to Hostanes, a noble man and most sagacious in conjecture.

Itaque per internuntios quaerit de filia, quae inter regias paelices erat, an Cyri filius rex esset. Illa nec se ipsam scire ait nec ex alia posse cognoscere, quia singulae separatae recludantur. Tum pertractare caput dormienti iubet: nam mago Cambyses aures utrasque praeciderat.

Therefore through inter-nuncios he inquires about his daughter, who was among the royal concubines, whether the son of Cyrus were king. She says that neither does she herself know nor can she learn from another, because each is kept recluse, separated. Then he orders her to feel over the head of the sleeper; for Cambyses had cut off both ears of the magus.

Factus dein per filiam certior sine auribus regem esse, optimatibus Persarum rem indicat et in caedem falsi regis inpulsos sacramenti religione adstringit. Septem tantum conscii fuere huius coniurationis, qui ex continenti, ne dato in paenitentiam spatio res per quemquam narraretur, occultato sub veste ferro ad regiam pergunt. Ibi obviis interfectis ad magos perveniunt, quibus ne ipsis quidem animus in auxilium sui defuit, siquidem stricto ferro duos de coniuratis interficiunt.

Then, made more certain through his daughter that the king was without ears, he discloses the matter to the Persian optimates and binds them, impelled to the slaughter of the false king, by the sanctity of the sacrament (oath). Only seven were privy to this conspiracy, who immediately, lest by any interval granted for repentance the affair be told by anyone, proceed to the palace with iron hidden beneath their garment. There, those who met them having been slain, they reach the magi; nor was courage lacking to the magi themselves for the aid of their own, since, with sword drawn, they kill two of the conspirators.

Ipsi tamen corripiuntur a pluribus, quorum alterum Gobryas medium amplexus, cunuctantibus sociis, ne ipsum pro mago transfoderent, quia res obscuro loco gerebatur, vel per suum corpus adigi mago ferrum iussit. Fortuna tamen ita regente illo incolumi magus interficitur.

Ipsi, however, are seized by a greater number; of whom Gobryas, having embraced one about the middle, with his comrades hesitating, lest they should run him through instead of the magus, because the affair was being conducted in a dark place, even ordered that the steel be driven to the magus through his own body. Fortune, however, so directing, with him unharmed the magus is slain.

[X] Occisis magis magna quidem gloria recuperati regni principum fuit, sed multo maior in eo, quod, cum de regno ambigerent, concordare potuerunt. Erant enim virtute et nobilitate ita pares, ut difficilem ex his populo electionem aequalitas faceret. Ipsi igitur viam invenerunt, qua de se iudicium religioni et fortunae committerent, pactique inter se sunt, ut die statuta omnes equos ante regiam primo mane perducerent, et cuius equus inter solis ortum hinnitum primus edidisset, is rex esset.

[10] With the magi slain, great indeed was the glory of the princes of the recovered kingdom, but much greater in this: that, though they were in doubt about the kingship, they were able to concord. For they were so equal in virtue and nobility that their equality made the people’s election among them difficult. They themselves therefore found a way by which they might commit the judgment about themselves to religion and fortune, and they made a pact among themselves that, on the appointed day, they would lead all their horses before the royal palace at first light, and that he whose horse should have produced the first neigh at the sun’s rising would be king.

Nam et solem Persae unum deum esse credunt et equos eidem deo sacratos ferunt. Et erat inter coniuratos Darius, Hystaspis filius, cui de regno sollicito equi custos ait, si ea res victoriam moraretur, nihil negotii superesse. Per noctem deinde equum pridie constitutam diem ad eundem locum ducit ibique equae admittit, ratus ex voluptate Veneris futurum quod evenit.

For the Persians also believe the sun to be the one god, and they report that horses are consecrated to that same god. And among the conspirators was Darius, son of Hystaspes, to whom, being anxious about the kingship, the horse’s keeper said that, if that plan should delay victory, no difficulty would remain. Then during the night before the appointed day he leads the horse to the same place and there admits mares to him, thinking that from the pleasure of Venus there would result what in fact came to pass.

Postera die itaque, cum ad statutam horam omnes convenissent, Darii equus cognito loco ex desiderio feminae hinnitum statim edidit et segnibus aliis felix auspicium domino primus emisit. Tanta moderatio ceteris fuit, ut audito auspicio confestim equis desilierint et Darium regem salutaverint. Populus quoque universus secutus iudicium principum eundem regem constituit.

On the next day, therefore, when at the appointed hour all had assembled, Darius’s horse, recognizing the place, immediately uttered a neigh from desire for the mare and, the others being sluggish, first sent forth a fortunate auspice for his master. So great was the moderation of the rest that, the auspice having been heard, they at once leapt down from their horses and hailed Darius as king. The whole people likewise, following the judgment of the princes, established the same man as king.

Sic regnum Persarum septem nobilissimorum virorum virtute quaesitum tam levi momento in unum conlatum est. Incredibile prorsus tanta patientia gessisse eos, quod ut eriperent magis, mori non recusaverint. Quamquam praeter formam virtutemque hoc imperio dignam etiam cognatio Darioiunctta cum pristinis regibus fuit.

Thus the kingdom of the Persians, acquired by the virtue of seven most noble men, was on so slight a moment conferred upon one. It is utterly incredible that they managed with such patience that which they would rather not have refused to die to wrest away. Although, besides a form and a virtue worthy of this empire, there was also for Darius a kinship joined with the former kings.

Principio igitur regni Cyri filiam in matrimonium recepit, regalibus nuptiis regnum firmaturus, ut non tam in extraneum translatum, quam in familiam Cyri reversum videretur. Interiecto deinde tempore cum Assyrii descivissent et Babyloniam occupassent difficilisque urbis expugnatio esset, aestuante rege unus de interfectoribus magorum, Zopyrus, domi se verberibus lacerari toto corpore iubet, nasum, aures et labia sibi praecidi, atque ita regi inopinanti se offert. Attonitum et quaerentem Darium causas auctoremque tam foedae lacerationis tacitus quo proposito fecerit edocet, formatoque in futura consilio transfugae titulo Babyloniam proficiscitur.

At the beginning, therefore, of the reign he took the daughter of Cyrus in marriage, being about to strengthen the kingdom by regal nuptials, so that it might seem not so much transferred to an outsider as returned to the family of Cyrus. Then, after an interval of time, when the Assyrians had defected and had occupied Babylonia and the storming of the city was difficult, with the king in a fever, one of the slayers of the Magi, Zopyrus, orders himself at home to be torn with blows over his whole body, to have his nose, ears, and lips cut off, and thus presents himself to the unsuspecting king. To Darius, astonished and asking the causes and the author of so foul a laceration, he quietly instructs for what purpose he did it; and, a plan having been formed for what was to come, under the title of a deserter he sets out for Babylon.

Ibi ostendit populo laniatum corpus, queritur crudelitatem regis, a quo in regni petitione non virtute, sed auspicio, non iudicio hominum, sed hinnitu equi superatus sit; iubet illos ex amicis exemplum capere, quid hostibus cavendum sit; hortatur, non moenibus magis quam armis confidant, patianturque se commune bellum recentiore ira gerere. Nota nobilitas viri pariter et virtus omnibus erat, nec de fide timebant, cuius veluti pignora vulnera corporis et iniuriae notas habebant. Constituitur ergo dux omnium suffragio, et accepta parva manu semel atque iterum cedentibus ex consulto Persis secunda proelia facit.

There he showed the people his lacerated body, complained of the cruelty of the king, by whom, in the petition for the kingship, he had been overcome not by virtue but by auspice, not by the judgment of men but by the neighing of a horse; he ordered them to take from friends an example of what must be guarded against in enemies; he exhorted them to trust not so much in walls as in arms, and to allow themselves to wage the common war with a fresher wrath. The man’s nobility and likewise his virtue were known to all, nor did they fear for his good faith, of which they had, as it were, pledges in the wounds of his body and the marks of injuries. Therefore he is appointed leader by the suffrage of all, and, after taking a small band, with the Persians yielding by design once and again, he wins successful engagements.

Ac postremo universum sibi creditum exercitum Dario prodit urbemque ipsam in potestatem eius redigit. Post haec Darius bellum Scythis infert, quod sequenti volumine referetur.

And finally he betrays to Darius the entire army entrusted to him and brings the city itself into his power. After these things Darius makes war upon the Scythians, which will be recounted in the following volume.