II. The relation of the Greeks differs essentially; but this, according to the Persians, was the cause of Io's arrival in Egypt, and the first act of violence which was committed. In process of time, certain Grecians, concerning whose country writers disagree, but who were really of Crete, are reported to have touched at Tyre, and to have carried away Europa, the daughter of the prince. Thus far the Greeks had only retaliated'; but they were certainly guilty of the second provocation. They made a voyage in a vessel of war to Ea, a city of Colchos, near the river Phasis; and after having accomplished the more immediate object of their expedition, they forcibly carried off the king's daughter Medea. The king of Colchos dispatched a herald, to demand satisfaction for the affront, and the restitution of the princess; but

8

7 Thus far the Greeks had only retaliated.]—The Editor is in possession of a translation of the two first books of Herodotus, published in London so early as the year 1584. It is in black letter, and may be considered as a great curiosity. The above passage is thus rendered: "It chaunced afterward, that certaine Greekes, whose names they knew not, taking shore and landing at Tyrus, in like manner made a rape of the kinges daughter, named Europa. These were the people of Crete, otherwise called the Cretenses. By which meanes yt was cardes and cardes betweene them, the one beyng full meete and quit with the other."--The first Booke of Clio, London, 1584.

8 In a vessel of war.]-Literally in a long vessel.—The long vessels were vessels of war, the round vessels, merchantmen and transports.—T.

the Greeks replied, that they should make no reparation in the present instance, as the violence formerly offered to Io still remained unexpiated.

III. In the age which followed, Alexander, the son of Priam, encouraged by the memory of these events, determined on obtaining a wife from Greece, by means of similar violence; fully persuaded that this, like former wrongs, would never be avenged.

Upon the loss of Helen, the Greeks at first employed messengers to demand her person, as well as a compensation for the affront. All the satisfaction they received was reproach for the injury which had been offered to Medea; and they were farther asked, how, under circumstances entirely alike, they could reasonably require, what they themselves had denied.

IV. Hitherto the animosity betwixt the two nations extended no farther than to acts of private violence. But at this period, the Greeks certainly

9 Violence formerly offered to Io.]-It may be urged that the king of Colchos had nothing to do with the violence offered to Io; she was carried off by the Phoenicians. But, according to the Persians, all the nations of Asia composed but one body, of which they were the head. Any injury, therefore, offered to one of the members, was considered as an hostility against the whole. Thus, as we see in a succeeding paragraph, the Persians considered the Greeks as their enemies, from the time of the destruction of Troy.-Larcher.

laid the foundation of subsequent contention; who, before the Persians invaded Europe, doubtless made military incursions into Asia. The Persians appear to be of opinion, that they who offer violence to women must be insensible to the impressions of justice, but that such provocations are as much beneath revenge, as the women themselves are undeserving of regard: it being obvious, that all the females thus circumstanced must have been more or less accessary 10 to the fact. They asserted also, that although women had been forcibly carried away from Asia, they had never resented the

10 More or less accessary, &c.]-Plutarch, who has written an essay expressly to convict Herodotus of malignity, introduces this as the first argument of the truth of his accusation. The Greeks, says he, unanimously affirm, that Io had divine honours paid her by the Barbarians; that many seas and capacious harbours were called after her name; that to her many illustrious families owe their original: yet this celebrated writer does not hesitate to say of her, that she suffered herself to be enjoyed by a Phoenician mariner, with whom she fled, from the fear of being disgraced by the publication. of her crime. He afterwards endeavours to throw an odium on the most illustrious actions of his countrymen, by intimating that the Trojan war was undertaken on account of a profligate woman. "For it is evident," says he, "that these women would have been never carried away except with their own consent.”—Plutarch on the Malignity of Herodotus.

The motives of the malignity of Plutarch against Herodotus may be explained without difficulty. The Beotians and Corinthians seem to have been the frequent objects of the historian's animadversions. Plutarch was a Beotian, and thought it indispensably incumbent upon him to vindicate the cause of his countrymen.

affront. The Greeks, on the contrary, to avenge the rape of a Lacedæmonian woman, had assembled a mighty fleet, entered Asia in a hostile manner, and had totally overthrown the empire of Priam. Since which event they had always considered the Greeks as the public enemies of their nation. It is to be observed, that the Persians esteem Asia, with all its various and barbarous inhabitants, as their own peculiar possession, considering Europe and Greece as totally distinct and unconnected.

V. The above is the Persian tradition; who date the cause and origin of their enmity to Greece from the destruction of Troy. What relates to Io is denied by the Phoenicians; who affirm, that she was never forcibly carried into Egypt. They assert, that during their continuance at Argos she had an illicit connection with the pilot of their vessel", and, proving pregnant, she voluntarily ac

11 Connection with the pilot of their vessel.]—I make no apology for inserting the following singular translation of the above passage:"With whose assertions the Phonices agree. not aboute the lady Io; whom they flatly denye to have beene caryed by them into Egipt in manner of a rape: shewinge howe that in their abode at Argos, shee fortuned to close with the mayster of a shippe, and feelynge herselfe to bee spedde, fearynge and doubtinge greatlye the severitye and cruell tyrannie of her parentes, and the detection of her owne follye, shee willinglye toke shippe and fledde strayght awaye."-Firste Booke of Clio.

companied them to Egypt, to avoid the detection of her crime and the indignation of her parents. Having now stated the different representations of the Persians and Phoenicians, I shall not detain the reader by an investigation of the truth of either narrative. I shall commence with an account of that personage, of whose first attacks upon Greece I am certainly convinced. I shall, as I proceed, carefully describe both the smaller cities and larger communities: for, many of these, at present possessed neither of opulence nor power, were formerly splendid and illustrious; others have, even within my remembrance, risen from humility to grandeur. From my conviction, therefore, of the precarious nature of human felicity", these shall all be respectively described.

VI. Croesus, by descent a Lydian, was the son of Alyattes, and sovereign of those countries which

12 Precarious nature of human felicity.]-This moral reflection of Herodotus cannot fail of bringing to mind the consolatory letter written from Greece, by Sulpicius to Cicero, on the death of Tullia the orator's daughter. At the distance of more than four hundred years from the time of Herodotus, Sulpicius thus expresses himself on a similar occasion :-" On my return from Asia, as I was sailing from Ægina towards Megara, 1 could not help looking round on the circumjacent country. Behind me was Ægina, before me Megara, Piræus on my right hand, Corinth on my left; all which places, formerly flourishing and happy, now lay before my eyes prostrate and in ruins," &c.