ll that related to Assyria,
which he designed to make the subject of an elaborate work distinct from
his general history.

Ctesias, like Herodotus, had had the advantage of visiting the East. It
may be argued that he possessed even better opportunities than the
earlier writer for becoming acquainted with the views which the
Orientals entertained of their own past. Herodotus probably devoted but
a few months, or at most a year or two, to his Oriental travels; Ctesias
passed seventeen years at the Court of Persia. Herodotus was merely an
ordinary traveller, and had no peculiar facilities for acquiring
information in the East; Ctesias was court-physician to Artaxerxes
Mnemon, and was thus likely to gain access to any archives which the
Persian kings might have in their keeping. But these advantages seem to
have been more than neutralized by the temper and spirit of the man. He
commenced his work with the broad assertion that Herodotus was "a liar,"
and was therefore bound to differ from him when he treated of the same
periods or nations. He does differ from him, and also from Thucydides,
whenever they handle the same transactions; but in scarcely a single
instance where he differs from either writer does his narrative seem to
be worthy of credit. The cuneiform monuments, while they generally
confirm Herodotus, contradict Ctesias perpetually. He is at variance
with Manetho on Egyptian, with Ptolemy on Babylonian, chronology. No
independent writer confirms him on any important point. His Oriental
history is quite incompatible with the narrative of Scripture. On every
ground, the judgment of Aristotle, of Plutarch, of Arrian, of Scaliger,
and of almost all the best critics of modern times, with respect to the
credibility of Ctesias, is to be maintained, and his authority is to be
regarded as of the very slightest value in determining any controverted
matter.

The chronology of Herodotus, which is on all accounts to be preferred,
assigns the commencement of the Assyrian Empire to about B.C. 1250, or a
little earlier, and gives the monarchy a duration of nearly 650 years
from that time. The Assyrians, according to him, held the undisputed
supremacy of Western Asia for 520 years, or from about B.C. 1250 to
about B.C. 730--after which they maintained themselves in an independent
but less exalted position for about 130 years longer, till nearly the
close of the seventh century before our era. These dates are not indeed
to be acc