mined to wait the iffue of the conteft, and make the belt terms that he could with Xerxes if victorious. The conduct of the Corcyreans, however, was ftill more perfidious. "The fame emiffaries who vifited Sicily, went alfo to Corcyra, the people of which place they addreffed in the terms they had ufed to Gelon. To thefe they received a promise of immediate and powerful affiftance: they added, that they could by no means be indifferent fpectators of the ruin of Greece, and they felt themfelves impelled to give their aid, from the conviction, that the next step to the conqueft of Greece would be their fervitude; they would therefore affift to the utmoft.-Such was the flattering anfwer they returned. But when they ought to have fulfilled their engagements, having very different views, they fitted out a fleet of fixty veffels; these were put to fea, though not without diffi culty, and failing towards the Peloponnefe, they ftationed them, felves near Pylos and Tænaros, off the coaft of Sparta *. they waited the iffue of the conteft, never imagining that the Greeks would prove victorious, but taking it for granted that the vaft power of the Perfian would reduce the whole of Greece. They acted in this manner to juftify themselves, in addreffing the Perfian monarch to this effect: "The Greeks, O King, have folicited our affiftance, who, after the Athenians, are fecond to none in the number as well as ftrength of our fhips: but we did not wish to oppofe your designs, or to do any thing hoftile to your wishes." By this language they hoped to obtain more favourable conditions; in which they do not to me appear to have been at all unreasonable they had previously concerted their excufe to the Greeks. When the Greeks reproached them for withholding the promised fuccour, they replied that they had abfolutely fitted out a fleet of fixty triremes; but that the north-east winds would not fuffer them to pass the promontory of Malea: and that it was this accident alone, not any want of zeal, which prevented their arrival at Salamis till after the battle. It was thus they attempted to delude the Greeks." Vol. IV. P. 97. The reader will judge for himself how far the conduct of any of the powers lately confederated, or supposed to be confederated, against the French tyrant resembles this conduct of the Corcyreans to the confederacy of antient Greece; while he may learn from the fignal fuccefs of those who continued "The treachery of the people of Corcyra had well nigh coft them dear; after the war the Greeks would have exterminated them, but Themiftocles reprefented to them, that if they were to deftroy all the cities which had not been in alliance with them, Greece would fuftain greater injury than if the Perfians had conquered their country.-Larcher. faithful, faithful, that a nation ought never to defpair when embarked in a righteous cause. The large extracts which we have made both from the text and from the notes of this interefting work, will enable our readers to form a judgment fufficiently accurate of Mr. Beloe's merits in the twofold character of a tranflator and commentator; and if, without offence, we might anticipate that judgment, we fhould fay that it will rank him with Melmoth, and other eminent fcholars, whofe verfions of ancient claffics do honour to English literature. At all events we claim for him the merits of fidelity and diligence; and the following note, with which we fhall conclude this article, will be a fufficient proof that to this claim we might add that of candour. "I remain ftill in doubt, fays Richardfon, whether any fuch expedition was ever undertaken by the paramount fovereign of Perfia. Difguifed in name by fome Greek corruption, Xerxes may poffibly have been a feudatory prince or viceroy of the western diftricts; and that an invafion of Greece may have potlibly taken place under this prince, I fhall readily believe, but upon a fcale I muft alfo believe infinitely narrower than the leaft exaggerated defcription of the Greek hiftorians. "In Herodotus the reputed followers of Xerxes amount to 5,283,220. Ifocrates, in his Panathenaicos, eftimates the land army in round numbers at 5,000,000. And with them Plutarch in general agrees; but fuch myriads appeared to Didorus, Pliny, Elian, and other later writers, fo much ftretched beyond all be. lief, that they at once cut off about four-fifths, to bring them within the line of poffibility. Yet what is this, but a fingular and very unauthorized liberty in one of the most confequential points of the expedition? What circumftance in the whole narra. tion is more explicit in Herodotus, or by it's frequent repetition, not in figures, but in words at length, feems lefs liable to the mifs take of copiers? &c.-See Richardfon. "Upon this fubject, Larcher, who probably had never feen Richardfon's book, writes as follows: "This immenfe army aftonishes the imagination, but ftill is not incredible. All the people dependant on Perfia were flaves; they were compelled to march, without diftinction of birth or profeffion. Extreme youth or advanced age were probably the only reafons which excufed them from bearing arms. The only reasonable objection to be made to this recital of Herodotus is that which Voltaire has omitted to make-where were provifions to be had for fo numerous an army? But Herodotus has anticipated this objection: "We have with us," fays Xerxes," abundance of provisions, and all the nations among which we shall come, not being fhepherds, but hufbandmen, we fhall find corn in their coun try, which we fhall appropriate to our own ufe." "Subfequent writers have, it is true, differed from Herodotus, and diminished the number of the army of Xerxes; but Herodotus, who was in fome measure a cotemporary, and who recited his hif tory to Greeks affembled at Olympia, where were many who fought at Salamis and Platea, is more deferving of credit than later hiftorians. "The truth perhaps may lie betwixt the two different opinions of Richardfon and Larcher. It is not likely, as there were many exiles from Greece at the court of Perfia, that Xerxes fhould be ignorant of the numbers and refources of Greece. To lead there fo many millions feems at firft fight not only unneceffary but prepofterous. Admitting that fo vaft an army had marched against Greece, no one of common fenfe would have thought of making an attack by the way of Thermopyla, where the paffage mult have been fo tedious, and any refiftance, as fo few in proportion could poffibly be brought to act, might be made almost on equal terms: whilft, on the contrary, to make a defcent, they had the whole range of coaft before them. With refpect to provifions, the difficulty appears ftill greater, and almost infurmountable. I recur therefore to what I have before intimated; and believe, in contradiction to Richardfon, that the expedition actually took place; but I cannot think, with Larcher, that the numbers recorded by Herodotus are confiftent with probability.-T. "Rennel fays, that the Perfians may be compared, in refpect to the rest of the army of Xerxes, with the Europeans in a British army in India, compofed chiefly of fepoys and native troops. "In reviewing the arguments on both fides in this fecond edition, there appears to me more good fenfe in the above short remark of Rennel, than in all that Richardfon and Larcher have written on the fubject.-The former is indeed abfurd enough; he difbelieves Herodotus, yet feems inclined to credit the Perfian poets, hence his dreams about the dignity of the Perfian monarchs, and the expeditions of their feudatory princes, by which he attempts to explain or rather to confound the Scriptures. It appears from Herodotus himfelf, that the regular troops were but an inconfider. able part of the number. Probably Xerxes had not many more actual foldiers than the Greeks; the reft were defultory hordes fit only for plunder, and four-fifths of the whole were followers of the camp with rice, provifions, &c.-The army that marched under Lord Cornwallis at the fiege of Seringapatam, in the first campaign, confifted of 20,000 troops, but the followers were more than 100,000.-This is the cafe in all Eaftern countries." Vol. IV. p. I. This edition of the tranflation of Herodotus is enriched with a copious, an accurate, and therefore a valuable Index; and with a map of Lower Egypt, antient and modern, of which it is fufficient to fay that it is by Major Rennel. ART. ART. IV. Recherches fur le Tems le plus Reculé de l'Ufage des Voûtes, chez les Anciens. Par M. L. Dutens, Hiftoriographe du Roi de la Grande Bretagne, de la Société Royale de Londres, &c. &c. De Boffe, London. 37 pp. 4to. 1805. ART. V. An Introduction to the fourth Volume of the Munimenta Antiqua; with further Obfervations concerning the Invention of the Arch, in Addition to thofe made in the fecond Volume. By Edward King, Efq. F. R. S. and F. A. S. 21 pp. fol. Nicol, London. 1806. Alfo an Appendix to the above Introduction. 35 pp. fol. Nicol, London. 1806. IN N the fecond volume of the Munimenta Antiqua, p. 223 to 273, Mr. King was led by his fubject to difcufs the queftion relating to the date of the invention of the architectural arch; the refult of which inquiry was, that "this arch was invented no very long time before the age of Auguftus; that it was brought into general use only by Adrian; and that it had its ornaments reduced to fine proportions, and perfected in the times of Trajan and the Antonines." Mr. Dutens, in an advertifement to his Recherches, acquaints us that the queftion concerning the time of the invention of the arch having been put to him in converfation, he engaged to inveftigate the fubject, and that he here delivers the arguments which convince him that this date is much older than had been imagined. He adds, that when he entered upon this inquiry he had no knowledge whatever of Mr. King's difcuffion on the fubject. This tract gave rife to Mr. King's prefent Introduction, in which he refumes the difquifition; and in an ample note controverts fome of Mr. Dutens' evidences. The latter hereupon republifhed his tract, and added fome ftrictures on the obfervations of that veteran antiquary, which inftantly drew forth Mr. King's appendix, wherein he fill further contends for the legitimacy of his proofs. Lafly, two further reciprocal anfwers and rejoinders clofe the controverfy for the prefent. We hope to confult the convenience of our readers by laying before them a connected view of the facts and arguments adduced in favour of both fides of the question: and first we shall briefly analyse the contents of Mr. Dutens' differtation. He fets out by afferting, that the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin words aa, átis, taxis, 062os, fornix, apfis, tholus, are all by Lexicographers rendered by arch or arcade; and on this authority he founds his interpretation of the many paffages of ancient authors, which he quotes in proof of the high antiquity of the arch. The firft inftance of an arched roof he finds in Paufanias's defcription of the royal treasury, built by Minyas, 1350 years before Chiift, at Órchomenus, in Boetia. The tombs of Atreus and Agamemnon at Mycenæ, alfo defcribed by Paufanias, and the rudera of which have been lately vifited by Mr. Thomas Hope, are faid to have been built by Perfeus, who was a contemporary of Minyas, and to difplay manifeft appearances of vaulted arches. The filence of Homer and Herodotus touching thefe monuments, is here rejected, as a proof of their not having been covered by arches, as thofe authors, perhaps, never were on the fpots; or, if they were, had not, like Paufanias, vifited them with a view to examine the structure of the remarkable edifices they contained. Egypt fupplies the next examples. Here he finds an arch fill remaining among the ruins of Canopus; a bridge of fifteen arches over the canal which communicates with the lake Moeris, and several aqueducts, which served to convey the waters of the Nile to the principal towns in Lower Egypt: The authorities on which the existence of arches in these ftructures is afferted are Paul Lucas and Sonini. But more decifive than all these are said to be the remains of the famous labyrinth as defcribed by the above-named Paul Lucas, and the late French Conful Maillet: Pliny, in fpeaking of this magnificent edifice, uses the word fornix when he speaks of its roof or covering. The Lovers Fountain, a farcophagus now in the British Museum, is delineated by Mayer as ftanding at Cairo, within an arched recefs, the remote antiquity of which Mr. Dutens is not willing to call in queftion. The penfile gardens of Semiramis, at Babylon, are, on the authority of Strabo, afferted to have been fupported by arches And Diodorus Siculus is appealed to for the fact, that the fubterraneous communication under the Euphrates, conftructed by the fame queen, was actually supported by arches. The bible is next quoted as evidence that the Temple of Solomon, built 1005 years before the chriftian æra, had many parts which were fupported by vaulted arches as the word 'aa is rendered in our verfion. Paul Lucas, Chandler, and Pocock mention a variety of inftances in Afia Minor, where there are evident traces of ancient arches, particularly at Ephefus, where the Temple of Diana is, by the laft of the above-mentioned authors, po fitively afferted to have been fupported by arches. Of |