The Kings of the _Medes_ before _Cyrus_ were _Dejoces_, _Phraortes_, _Astyages_, _Cyaxeres_, or _Cyaxares_, and _Darius_: the three first Reigned before the Kingdom grew great, the two last were great conquerors, and erected the Empire; for _Æschylus_, who flourished in the Reigns of _Darius Hystaspis_, and _Xerxes_, and died in the 76th Olympiad, introduces _Darius_ thus complaining of those who persuaded his son _Xerxes_ to invade _Greece_; [400] Τοιγαρ σφιν εργον εστιν εξειργασμενον Μεγιστον, αιειμνηστον ‛οιον ουδεπω, Το δ' αστυ Σουσων εξεκεινωσεν πεσον· Εξ ‛ουτε τιμην Ζευς αναξ τηνδ' ωπασεν Εν ανδρα πασης Ασιαδος μηλοτροφου Ταγειν, εχοντα σκηπτρον ευθυντηριον Μηδος γαρ ην ‛ο πρωτος ‛ηγεμων στρατου· Αλλος δ' εκεινου παις τοδ' εργον ηνυσε· Φρενες γαρ αυτου θυμον οιακοστροφουν. Τριτος δ' απ' αυτου Κυρος, ευδαιμων ανηρ, &c. _They have done a work_ _The greatest, and most memorable, such as never happen'd,_ _For it has emptied the falling _Sufa_:_ _From the time that King_ Jupiter _granted this honour,_ _That one man should Reign over all fruitful _Asia_,_ _Having the imperial Scepter._ _For he that first led the Army was a _Mede_;_ _The next, who was his son, finisht the work,_ _For prudence directed his soul;_ _The third was _Cyrus_, a happy man_, &c. The Poet here attributes the founding of the _Medo-Persian_ Empire to the two immediate predecessors of _Cyrus_, the first of which was a _Mede_, and the second was his son: the second was _Darius_ the _Mede_, the immediate predecessor of _Cyrus_, according to _Daniel_; and therefore the first was the father of _Darius_, that is, _Achsuerus_, _Assuerus_, _Oxyares_, _Axeres_, Prince _Axeres_, or _Cy-Axeres_, the word _Cy_ signifying a Prince: for _Daniel_ tells us, that _Darius_ was the son of _Achsuerus_, or _Ahasuerus_, as the _Masoretes_ erroneously call him, of the seed of the _Medes_, that is, of the seed royal: this is that _Assuerus_ who together with _Nebuchadnezzar_ took and destroyed _Nineveh_, according to _Tobit_: which action is by the _Greeks_ ascribed to _Cyaxeres_, and by _Eupolemus_ to _Astibares_, a name perhaps corruptly written for _Assuerus_. By this victory over the _Assyrians_, and subversion of their Empire seated at _Nineveh_, and the ensuing conquests of _Armenia_, _Cappadocia_ and _Persia_, he began to extend the Reign of one man over all _Asia_; and his son _Darius_ the _Mede_, by conquering the Kingdoms of _Lydia_ and _Babylon_, finished the work: and the third King was _Cyrus_, a happy man for his great successes under and against _Darius_, and large and peaceable dominion in his own Reign.