[928]men, that they might be guardians, and overseers in her service. Yet, it is said of her, that she took a man to her bed every night, whom she put to death in the morning. How can it be imagined, if she was a woman of such unbridled [929]lust, that she would admit such spies upon her actions? We may as well suppose, that a felon would forge his own gyves, and construct his own prison. Claudian thinks, that she did it to conceal her own sex, by having a set of beardless people about her. [930]Seu prima Semiramis astu Assyriis mentita virum, ne vocis acutæ Mollities, levesque genæ se prodere possent, Hos sibi junxisset socios: seu Parthica ferro Luxuries nasci vetuit lanuginis umbram; Servatosque diu puerili flore coegit Arte retardatam Veneri servire juventam. In respect to Semiramis I do not see how this expedient could avail. She might just as well have dressed up her maids in mens clothes, and with less trouble. In short the whole of these histories in their common acceptation is to the last degree absurd, and improbable: but if we make use of an expedient, which I have often recommended, and for a person substitute a people, we shall find, when it is stripped of its false colouring, that there is much truth in the narration. It was a common mode of expression to call a tribe or family by the name of its founder: and a nation by the head of the line. People are often spoken of collectively in the singular under such a patronymic. Hence we read in Scripture, that Israel abode in tents; that Judah was put to the worst in battle; that Dan abode in ships; and Asher remained on the sea-coast. The same manner of speaking undoubtedly prevailed both in Egypt, and in other countries: and Chus must have been often put for the Cuthites, or Cuseans; Amon for the Amonians; and Asur, or the Assyrian, for the people of Assyria. Hence, when it was said, that the Ninevite performed any great action, it has been ascribed to a person Ninus, the supposed founder of Nineve. And as none of the Assyrian conquests were antecedent to Pul, and Assur Adon, writers have been guilty of an unpardonable anticipation, in ascribing those conquests to the first king of the country. A like anticipation, amounting to a great many centuries, is to be found in the annals of the Babylonians. Every thing that was done in later times, has been attributed to Belus, Semiramis, and other, imaginary princes, who are represented as the founders of the kingdom. We may, I think, be assured, that under the character of Ninus, and Ninyas, we are to understand the Ninevites; as by Semiramis is meant a people called Samarim: and the great actions of these two nations are in the histories of these personages recorded. But writers have rendered the account inconsistent by limiting, what was an historical series of many ages, to the life of a single person. The Ninevites and Samarim did perform all that is attributed to Semiramis, and Ninus.