BELESIS, or Nanybrus, is said to have been the founder of the ancient Babylonish empire, and, in conjunction with Arbaces the Mede, to have put an end to the empire of the Assyrians by the defeat and death of Sardanapalus. This prince is variously represented as a crafty, mean-spirited knave, and as a hero of enterprise and renown. Arbaces, his colleague and friend, he is said to have circumvented in the most shameful manner. Having been privately informed by a eunuch that immense treasure had been buried in the conflagration at Nineveh, and being aware that Arbaces knew nothing of the circumstance, his avarice suggested to him the following artifice for obtaining possession of all that the flames had left tmdestroyed. He alleged that, during the war, he had vowed to Belus that, in the event of success, and the palace of the Assyrian monarch being consumed by fire, he would collect the ashes, remove them to Babylon, and there heap them up in a mound near the temple of the god, as a perpetual monument of the subversion of the Assyrian empire; and he now craved permission of his colleague to perform his pretended vow. The trick succeeded to his wish. Arbaces not only granted his request, but appointed him king of Babylon, with an exemption from all tribute; and Belesis carried a prodigious treasure with him to Babylon. But the secret having been discovered, he was called to an account for it, tried by the other chiefs who had assisted in the war, and, on confessing the crime, was condemned to lose his head. Arbaces, however, being a munificent and generous prince, freely forgave him, left him in possession of the treasure, and also confirmed him in the government of Babylon, saying, that the good he had done ought to serve as a veil to cover his crime; and thus he became at once a prince of great wealth and dominion.

But fortune begot folly, and under the successor of Arbaces, Nanybrus, as he was now called, sunk into a degree of effeminacy altogether unworthy of the conqueror of Sardanapalus; and this again, by a natural enough transition, led him to the commission of cruelty. Understanding that a certain robust Mede, called Parsondas, held him in the utmost contempt, and had solicited the king of the Medes to divest him of his dominions, he offered a great reward to the man who should take Parsondas and bring him captive to Babylon. This was effected by stratagem. Parsondas was seized while asleep, bound, and carried before Nanybrus, who bitterly reproached the captive for endeavouring to estrange the king of the Medes from him, and by that means place himself on the throne of Babylon. Parsondas did not deny the charge, but with great intrepidity owned that he thought himself more worthy of a crown than such an indolent and effeminate prince as that before whom he stood. Nanybrus, highly provoked at the liberty taken by the prisoner, swore by the god Belus that Parsondas himself should in a short time reproach none with effeminacy. Accordingly, he ordered the eunuch who had the charge of his music women to shave, paint, and dress him after the manner of those females, and, in short, by all possible means to transform him mtθ a woman. His orders were obeyed to the letter.

In the mean time, the king of the Medes having in vain sought after his favourite servant, and offered great rewards for information concerning him, concluded that he had been destroyed by some wild beast in the chase. But at the end of seven years the Mede was informed o his state and condition by a eunuch, who, having been cruelly scourged by order of Nanybrus, fled into Media . the instigation of Parsondas, and there disclosed the who < [7:4:543]truth to the king. Upon this, the latter immediately dispatched an officer to demand Parsondas. But Nanybrus pretended to know nothing of any such person; upon which another officer was sent by the Mcde, with a peremptory arder to seize on Nanybrus himself if he persisted in the denial, to bind him with his girdle, and lead him to immediate execution. This order had the desired effect. The Baby-onian owned what he had before denied; and Parsondas vas at length set at liberty. But so great a change had aken place in his appearance, that on presenting himself jefore the king of the Medes the latter could scarcely recognise his old servant. The only favour which Parsondas ιow begged of the king for all his past services, was, that ıe would avenge on the Babylonian the base and highly njurious treatment of his servant and petitioner. The Mede accordingly marched to Babylon; and notwithstanding the remonstrances of Nanybrus, who urged that Parsondas had endeavoured to deprive him both of his kingdom and his life, the monarch declared that in ten days time would be passed on him the sentence which he deserved, for presuming to act as judge in his own cause, instead af appealing to his sovereign. But Nanybrus having in the mean time gained Mitraphernes, the Mede’s favourite eunuch, the king was by him prevailed on only to sentence the Babylonian to pay a pecuniary fine; which made Parsondas curse the man who first found out gold, for the sake of which he was doomed to live the sport and derision of an effeminate Babylonian, and to die unavenged.