[Greek:  Toigar sphin ergon estin exeirgasmenon] [Greek:  Megiston, aieimneston hoion oudepo,] [Greek:  To d’ asty Souson exekeinosen peson;] [Greek:  Ex houte timen Zeus anax tend’ opasen] [Greek:  En andra pases Asiados melotrophou] [Greek:  Tagein, echonta skeptron euthynterion] [Greek:  Medos gar en ho protos hegemon stratou;] [Greek:  Allos d’ ekeinou pais tod’ ergon enyse;] [Greek:  Phrenes gar autou thymon oiakostrophoun.] [Greek:  Tritos d’ ap’ autou Kyros, eudaimon aner,] &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.

Cyrus lived seventy years, according to Cicero, and Reigned nine years over Babylon, according to Ptolemy’s Canon, and therefore was 61 years old at the taking of Babylon; at which time Darius the Mede was 62 years old, according to Daniel:  and therefore Darius was two Generations younger than Astyages, the grandfather of Cyrus:  for Astyages,