The History of Antiquity, Vol. 2 (of 6)Duncker, Max
History
The History of Antiquity, Vol. 2 (of 6)
Duncker, Max
History, Ancient
Stabrobates was still unshaken; he led out his
elephants, and behind them his infantry. Himself on the right wing,
mounted on the best elephant, he chanced to come opposite Semiramis. He
made a resolute attack upon the queen, and was followed by the rest of
the elephants. The soldiers of Semiramis resisted only a short time. The
elephants caused an immense slaughter; the Assyrians left their ranks,
they fled, and the king pressed forward against Semiramis; his arrow
wounded her arm, and as she turned away his javelin struck her on the
back. She hastened away, while her people were crushed and trodden down
by their own numbers; and at last, as the Indians pressed upon them,
were forced from the bridge into the river. As soon as Semiramis saw the
greater part of her army on the nearer bank, she caused the cables to be
cut which held the bridge; the force of the stream tore the beams
asunder, and many Assyrians who were on the bridge were plunged in the
river. The other Assyrians were now in safety, the wounds of Semiramis
were not dangerous, and the king of the Indians was warned by signs from
heaven and their interpretation by the seers not to cross the river.
After exchanging prisoners Semiramis returned to Bactra. She had lost
two-thirds of her army.
Some time afterwards she was attacked by a conspiracy, which her own son
Ninyas set on foot against her by means of an eunuch. Then she
remembered a prophecy given to her in the temple of Zeus Ammon during
the campaign in Libya; that when her son Ninyas conspired against her
she would disappear from the sight of men, and the honours of an
immortal would be paid to her by some nations of Asia. Hence she
cherished no resentment against Ninyas, but, on the contrary,
transferred to him the kingdom, ordered her viceroys to obey him, and
soon after put herself to death, as though, according to the oracle, she
had raised herself to the gods. Some relate that she was changed into a
dove, and flew out of the palace with a flock of doves. Hence it is that
the Assyrians regard Semiramis as an immortal, and the dove as divine.
She was 62 years old, and had reigned 42 years.
The preceding narrative, which is from Diodorus, is borrowed in
essentials from the Persian history of Ctesias, who lived for some time
at the Persian Court in the first two decades of the reign of Artaxerxes
Mnemon (405-361 B.C.). On the end of Semiramis the account of Ctesias
contained more details than the account of Diodorus. This is made clear
by some fragments from Ctesias preserved by other writers. In Nicolaus
of Damascus we are told that after the Indian war Semiramis marched
through the land of the Medes. Here she visited a very lofty and
precipitous mountain, which could only be ascended on one side. On this
she at once caused an abode to be built from which to survey her army.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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