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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria,
+Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 9 (of 12), by G. Maspero
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: History Of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 9 (of 12)
+
+Author: G. Maspero
+
+Editor: A.H. Sayce
+
+Translator: M.L. McClure
+
+Release Date: December 16, 2005 [EBook #17329]
+Last Updated: September 8, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF EGYPT, CHALDÆA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Spines]
+
+[Illustration: Cover]
+
+HISTORY OF EGYPT CHALDEA, SYRIA, BABYLONIA, AND ASSYRIA
+
+By G. MASPERO, Honorable Doctor of Civil Laws, and Fellow of Queen’s
+College, Oxford; Member of the Institute and Professor at the College of
+France
+
+Edited by A. H. SAYCE, Professor of Assyriology, Oxford
+
+Translated by M. L. McCLURE, Member of the Committee of the Egypt
+Exploration Fund
+
+
+CONTAINING OVER TWELVE HUNDRED COLORED PLATES AND ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+Volume IX.
+
+
+LONDON
+
+THE GROLIER SOCIETY
+
+PUBLISHERS
+
+[Illustration: 001.jpg Frontispiece] Howling Dervish
+
+[Illustration: Titlepage]
+
+[Illustration: 001.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
+
+[Illustration: 002.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
+
+
+_THE IRANIAN CONQUEST_
+
+_THE IRANIAN RELIGIONS--CYRUS IN LYDIA AND AT BABYLON; CAMBYSES IN
+EGYPT--DARIUS AND THE ORGANISATION OF THE EMPIRE._
+
+_The constitution of the Median empire borrowed from the ancient peoples
+of the Euphrates: its religion only is peculiar to itself--Legends
+concerning Zoroaster, his laws; the Avesta and its history--Elements
+contained in it of primitive religion--The supreme god Ahura-mazâ and
+his Amêsha-spentas: the Yazatas, the Fravashis--Angrô-mainyus and his
+agents, the Daîvas, the Pairîkas, their struggle with Ahura-mazdâ--The
+duties of man here below, funerals, his fate after death---Worship and
+temples: fire-altars, sacrifices, the Magi_.
+
+_Cyrus and the legends concerning his origin: his revolt against
+Astyages and the fall of the Median empire--The early years of the reign
+of Nabonidus: revolutions in Tyre, the taking of Harrân--The end of
+the reign of Alyattes, Lydian art and its earliest coinage--Croesus,
+his relations with continental Greece, his conquests, his alliances with
+Babylon and Egypt--The war between Lydia and Persia: the defeat of
+the Lydians, the taking of Sardes, the death of Croesus and subsequent
+legends relating to it--The submission of the cities of the Asiatic
+littoral._
+
+_Cyrus in Bactriana and in the eastern regions of the Iranian table-land
+--The impression produced on the Chaldæan by his victories; the Jewish
+exiles, Ezekiel and his dreams of restoration, the new temple, the
+prophecies against Babylon; general discontent with Nabonidus--The
+attach of Cyrus and the battle of Zalzallat, the taking of Babylon
+and the fall of Nabonidus: the end of the Chaldæan empire and the
+deliverance of the Jews._
+
+_Egypt under Amasis: building works, support given to the
+Greeks; Naukratis, its temples, its constitution, and its
+prosperity--Preparations for defence and the unpopularity of Amasis with
+the native Egyptians--The death of Cyrus and legends relating to it: his
+palace at Pasargadæ and his tomb--Cambyses and Smerdis--The legendary
+causes of the war with Egypt--Psammetichus III., the battle of Pelusium;
+Egypt reduced to a Persian province._
+
+_Cambyses’ plans for conquest; the abortive expeditions to the oceans of
+Amnion and Carthage--The kingdom of Ethiopia, its kings, its customs:
+the Persians fail to reach Napata, the madness of Cambyses--The fraud of
+Gaumâta, the death of Cambyses and the reign of the pseudo-Smerdis,
+the accession of Darius--The revolution in Susiana, Chaldæa, and Media:
+Nebuchadrezzar III. and the fall of Babylon, the death of Orætes, the
+defeat of Khshatrita, restoration of peace throughout Asia, Egyptian
+affairs and the re-establishment of the royal power._
+
+_The organisation of the country and its division into satrapies: the
+satrap, the military commander, the royal secretary; couriers, main
+roads, the Eyes and Ears of the king--The financial system and the
+provincial taxes: the daric--Advantages and drawbacks of the system of
+division into satrapies; the royal guard and the military organisation
+of the empire--The conquest of the Hapta-Hindu and the prospect of war
+with Greece._
+
+[Illustration: 003.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I--THE IRANIAN CONQUEST
+
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the engraving in Coste and Flandin.
+     The vignette, drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a statuette in
+     terra-cotta, found in Southern Russia, represents a young
+     Scythian.
+
+_The Iranian religions--Cyrus in Lydia and at Babylon: Cambyses in Egypt
+--Darius and the organisation of the empire._
+
+
+The Median empire is the least known of all those which held sway for a
+time over the destinies of a portion of Western Asia. The reason of this
+is not to be ascribed to the shortness of its duration: the Chaldæan
+empire of Nebuchadrezzar lasted for a period quite as brief, and yet the
+main outlines of its history can be established with some certainty in
+spite of large blanks and much obscurity. Whereas at Babylon, moreover,
+original documents abound, enabling us to put together, feature by
+feature, the picture of its ancient civilisation and of the chronology
+of its kings, we possess no contemporary monuments of Ecbatana to
+furnish direct information as to its history. To form any idea of
+the Median kings or their people, we are reduced to haphazard notices
+gleaned from the chroniclers of other lands, retailing a few isolated
+facts, anecdotes, legends, and conjectures, and, as these materials
+reach us through the medium of the Babylonians or the Greeks of the
+fifth or sixth century B.C., the picture which we endeavour to compose
+from them is always imperfect or out of perspective. We seemingly
+catch glimpses of ostentatious luxury, of a political and military
+organisation, and a method of government analogous to that which
+prevailed at later periods among the Persians, but more imperfect,
+ruder, and nearer to barbarism--a Persia, in fact, in the rudimentary
+stage, with its ruling spirit and essential characteristics as yet
+undeveloped. The machinery of state had doubtless been adopted almost
+in its entirety from the political organisations which obtained in the
+kingdoms of Assyria, Elam, and Chaldæa, with which sovereignties the
+founders of the Median empire had held in turns relations as vassals,
+enemies, and allies; but once we penetrate this veneer of Mesopotamian
+civilisation and reach the inner life of the people, we find in the
+religion they profess--mingled with some borrowed traits--a world of
+unfamiliar myths and dogmas of native origin.
+
+The main outlines of this religion were already fixed when the
+Medes rose in rebellion against Assur-bani-pal; and the very name of
+_Confessor_--Fravartîsh--applied to the chief of that day, proves that
+it was the faith of the royal family. It was a religion common to all
+the Iranians, the Persians as well as the Medes, and legend honoured as
+its first lawgiver and expounder an ancient prophet named Zarathustra,
+known to us as Zoroaster.* Most classical writers relegated Zoroaster
+to some remote age of antiquity--thus he is variously said to have lived
+six thousand years before the death of Plato,** five thousand before the
+Trojan war,*** one thousand before Moses, and six hundred before Xerxes’
+campaign against Athens; while some few only affirmed that he had lived
+at a comparatively recent period, and made him out a disciple of the
+philosopher Pythagoras, who flourished about the middle of the fifth
+century B.C.
+
+     * The name Zarathustra has been interpreted in a score of
+     different ways. The Greeks sometimes attributed to it the
+     meaning “worshipper of the stars,” probably by reason of the
+     similarity in sound of the termination “-astres” of
+     Zoroaster with the word “astron.” Among modern writers, H.
+     Rawlinson derived it from the Assyrian Zîru-Ishtar, “the
+     seed of Ishtar,” but the etymology now most generally
+     accepted is that of Burnouf, according to which it would
+     signify “the man with gold-coloured camels,” the “possessor
+     of tawny camels.” The ordinary Greek form Zoroaster seems to
+     be derived from some name quite distinct from Zarathustra.
+
+     ** This was, as Pliny records, the opinion of Eudoxus; not
+     Eudoxus of Cnidus, pupil of Plato, as is usually stated, but
+     a more obscure personage, Eudoxus of Rhodes.
+
+     *** This was the statement of Hermodorus.
+
+According to the most ancient national traditions, he was born in the
+Aryanem-vaêjô, or, in other words, in the region between the Araxes and
+the Kur, to the west of the Caspian Sea. Later tradition asserted
+that his conception was attended by supernatural circumstances, and
+the miracles which accompanied his birth announced the advent of a saint
+destined to regenerate the world by the revelation of the True Law. In
+the belief of an Iranian, every man, every living creature now existing
+or henceforth to exist, not excluding the gods themselves, possesses a
+Frôhar, or guardian spirit, who is assigned to him at his entrance into
+the world, and who is thenceforth devoted entirely to watching over
+his material and moral well-being,* About the time appointed for the
+appearance of the prophet, his Frôhar was, by divine grace, imprisoned
+in the heart of a Haoma,** and was absorbed, along with the juice of
+the plant, by the priest Purushâspa,*** during a sacrifice, a ray of
+heavenly glory descending at the same time into the bosom of a maiden of
+noble race, named Dughdôva, whom Purushâspa shortly afterwards espoused.
+
+     * The Fravashi (for _fravarti_, from _fra-var_, “to support,
+     nourish”), or the _frôhar (feruer)_, is, properly speaking,
+     the nurse, the genius who nurtures. Many of the practices
+     relating to the conception and cult of the Fravashis seem to
+     me to go back to the primitive period of the Iranian
+     religions.
+
+     ** The haoma is an _Asclepias Sarcostema Viminalis_.
+
+     *** The name signifies “He who has many horses.”
+
+Zoroaster was engendered from the mingling of the Frôhar with the
+celestial ray. The evil spirit, whose supremacy he threatened,
+endeavoured to destroy him as soon as he saw the light, and despatched
+one of his agents, named Bôuiti, from the country of the far north to
+oppose him; but the infant prophet immediately pronounced the formula
+with which the psalm for the offering of the waters opens: “The will of
+the Lord is the rule of good!” and proceeded to pour libations in honour
+of the river Darêja, on the banks of which he had been born a moment
+before, reciting at the same time the “profession of faith which puts
+evil spirits to flight.” Bôuiti fled aghast, but his master set to work
+upon some fresh device. Zoroaster allowed him, however, no time to
+complete his plans: he rose up, and undismayed by the malicious riddles
+propounded to him by his adversary, advanced against him with his hands
+full of stones--stones as large as a house--with which the good deity
+supplied him. The mere sight of him dispersed the demons, and they
+regained the gates of their hell in headlong flight, shrieking out, “How
+shall we succeed in destroying him? For he is the weapon which strikes
+down evil beings; he is the scourge of evil beings.” His infancy
+and youth were spent in constant disputation with evil spirits: ever
+assailed, he ever came out victorious, and issued more perfect from each
+attack. When he was thirty years old, one of the good spirits, Vôhumanô,
+appeared to him, and conducted him into the presence of Ahura-mazdâ,
+the Supreme Being. When invited to question the deity, Zoroaster asked,
+“Which is the best of the creatures which are upon the earth?” The
+answer was, that the man whose heart is pure, he excels among his
+fellows. He next desired to know the names and functions of the angels,
+and the nature and attributes of evil. His instruction ended, he crossed
+a mountain of flames, and underwent a terrible ordeal of purification,
+during which his breast was pierced with a sword, and melted lead poured
+into his entrails without his suffering any pain: only after this ordeal
+did he receive from the hands of Ahura-mazdâ the Book of the Law, the
+Avesta, was then sent back to his native land bearing his precious
+burden. At that time, Vîshtâspa, son of Aurvatâspa, was reigning over
+Bactria. For ten years Zoroaster had only one disciple, his cousin
+Maidhyoi-Mâonha, but after that he succeeded in converting, one
+after the other, the two sons of Hvôgva, the grand vizir Jâmâspa, who
+afterwards married the prophet’s daughter, and Frashaoshtra, whose
+daughter Hvôgvi he himself espoused; the queen, Hutaosa, was the next
+convert, and afterwards, through her persuasions, the king Vîshtâspa
+himself became a disciple. The triumph of the good cause was hastened by
+the result of a formal disputation between the prophet and the wise men
+of the court: for three days they essayed to bewilder him with their
+captious objections and their magic arts, thirty standing on his right
+hand and thirty on his left, but he baffled their wiles, aided by grace
+from above, and having forced them to avow themselves at the end of
+their resources, he completed his victory by reciting the Avesta before
+them. The legend adds, that after rallying the majority of the people
+round him, he lived to a good old age, honoured of all men for his
+saintly life. According to some accounts, he was stricken dead by
+lightning,* while others say he was killed by a Turanian soldier,
+Brâtrôk-rêsh, in a war against the Hyaonas.
+
+     * This is, under very diverse forms, the version preferred
+     by Western historians of the post-classical period.
+
+The question has often been asked whether Zoroaster belongs to
+the domain of legend or of history. The only certain thing we know
+concerning him is his name; all the rest is mythical, poetic, or
+religious fiction. Classical writers attributed to him the composition
+or editing of all the writings comprised in Persian literature: the
+whole consisted, they said, of two hundred thousand verses which had
+been expounded and analysed by Hermippus in his commentaries on the
+secret doctrines of the Magi. The Iranians themselves averred that he
+had given the world twenty-one volumes--the twenty-one _Nasks_ of the
+Avesta,* which the Supreme Deity had created from the twenty-one words
+of the Magian profession of faith, the _Ahuna Vairya_. King Vîshtâspa is
+said to have caused two authentic copies of the Avesta--which contained
+in all ten or twelve hundred chapters**--to be made, one of which
+was consigned to the archives of the empire, the other laid up in
+the treasury of a fortress, either Shapîgân, Shîzîgân, Samarcand, or
+Persepolis.***
+
+     * The word _Avesta_, in Pehlevi _Apastâk_, whence come the
+     Persian forms _âvasta, ôstâ_, is derived from the
+     Achæmenian word _Abasta_, which signifies _law_ in the
+     inscriptions of Darius. The term Zend-Avesta, commonly used
+     to designate the sacred book of the Persians, is incorrectly
+     derived from the expression _Apastâc u Zend_, which in
+     Pehlevi designates first the law itself, and then the
+     translation and commentary in more modern language which
+     conduces to a _knowledge (Zend)_ of the law. The customary
+     application, therefore, of the name Zend to the language of
+     the Avesta is incorrect.
+
+     ** The Dinkart fixes the number of chapters at 1000, and the
+     Shâh-Nâmak at 1200, written on plates of gold. According to
+     Masudi, the book itself and the two commentaries formed
+     12,000 volumes, written in letters of gold, the twenty-one
+     Nasks each contained 200 pages, and the whole of these
+     writings had been inscribed on 12,000 cow-hides.
+
+     *** The site of Shapîgân or Shaspîgân is unknown. J.
+     Darmesteter suggests that it ought to be read as _Shizîgân_,
+     which would permit of the identification of the place with
+     Shîz, one of the ancient religious centres of Iran, whose
+     temple was visited by the Sassanids on their accession to
+     the throne. According to the Ardâ-Vîrâf the law was
+     preserved at Istakhr, or Persepolis, according to the Shâh-
+     Nâmak at Samarcand in the temple of the Fire-god.
+
+Alexander is said to have burnt the former copy: the latter, stolen by
+the Greeks, is reported to have been translated into their language and
+to have furnished them with all their scientific knowledge. One of the
+Arsacids, Vologesus I., caused a search to be made for all the fragments
+which existed either in writing or in the memory of the faithful,* and
+this collection, added to in the reign of the Sassanid king, Ardashîr
+Bâbagan, by the high priest Tansar, and fixed in its present form under
+Sapor I., was recognised as the religious code of the empire in the time
+of Sapor II., about the fourth century of the Christian era.*** The text
+is composed, as may be seen, of three distinct strata, which are by no
+means equally ancient;*** one can, nevertheless, make out from it with
+sufficient certainty the principal features of the religion and cult of
+Iran, such as they were under the Achæmenids, and perhaps even under the
+hegemony of the Medes.
+
+     * Tradition speaks simply of a King Valkash, without
+     specifying which of the four kings named Vologesus is
+     intended. James Darmesteter has given good reasons for
+     believing that this Valkash is Vologesus I. (50-75 A.D.),
+     the contemporary of Nero.
+
+     ** This is the tradition reproduced in two versions of the
+     Dinkart.
+
+     *** Darmesteter declares that ancient Zoroastrianism is, in
+     its main lines, the religion of the Median Magi, even though
+     he assigns the latest possible date to the composition of
+     the Avesta as now existing, and thinks he can discern in it
+     Greek, Jewish, and Christian elements.
+
+It is a complicated system of religion, and presupposes a long period of
+development. The doctrines are subtle; the ceremonial order of worship,
+loaded with strict observances, is interrupted at every moment by laws
+prescribing minute details of ritual,* which were only put in practice
+by priests and strict devotees, and were unknown to the mass of the
+faithful.
+
+     * Renan defined the Avesta as “the Code of a very small
+     religious sect; it is a Talmud, a book of casuistry and
+     strict observance. I have difficulty in believing that the
+     great Persian empire, which, at least in religious matters,
+     professed a certain breadth of ideas, could have had a law
+     so strict. I think, that had the Persians possessed a sacred
+     book of this description, the Greeks must have mentioned
+     it.”
+
+The primitive, base of this religion is difficult to discern clearly:
+but we may recognise in it most of those beings or personifications of
+natural phenomena which were the chief objects of worship among all the
+ancient nations of Western Asia--the stars, Sirius, the moon, the sun,
+water and fire, plants, animals beneficial to mankind, such as the cow
+and the dog, good and evil spirits everywhere present, and beneficent
+or malevolent souls of mortal men, but all systematised, graduated, and
+reduced to sacerdotal principles, according to the prescriptions of a
+powerful priesthood. Families consecrated to the service of the altar
+had ended, as among the Hebrews, by separating themselves from the rest
+of the nation and forming a special tribe, that of the Magi, which was
+the last to enter into the composition of the nation in historic times.
+All the Magi were not necessarily devoted to the service of religion,
+but all who did so devote themselves sprang from the Magian tribe; the
+Avesta, in its oldest form, was the sacred book of the Magi, as well as
+that of the priests who handed down their religious tradition under the
+various dynasties, native or foreign, who bore rule over Iran.
+
+The Creator was described as “the whole circle of the heavens,” “the
+most steadfast among the gods,” for “he clothes himself with the solid
+vault of the firmament as his raiment,” “the most beautiful, the most
+intelligent, he whose members are most harmoniously proportioned; his
+body was the light and the sovereign glory, the sun and the moon were
+his eyes.” The theologians had gradually spiritualised the conception
+of this deity without absolutely disconnecting him from the material
+universe.
+
+[Illustration: 012.jpg THE AHURA-MAZDÂ OF THE BAS-RELIEFS OF PERSEPOLIS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Flandin and Coste.
+
+He remained under ordinary circumstances invisible to mortal eyes,
+and he could conceal his identity even from the highest gods, but he
+occasionally manifested himself in human form. He borrowed in such case
+from Assyria the symbol of Assur, and the sculptors depict him with the
+upper part of his body rising above that winged disk which is carved in
+a hovering attitude on the pediments of Assyrian monuments or stelæ.
+
+[Illustration: 012b.jpg HYPOSTYLE OF HALL OF XERXES: DETAIL OF
+ENTABLATURE]
+
+In later days he was portrayed under the form of a king of imposing
+stature and majestic mien, who revealed himself from time to time to the
+princes of Iran.*
+
+     * In a passage of Philo of Byblos the god is described as
+     having the head of a falcon or an eagle, perhaps by
+     confusion with one of the genii represented on the walls of
+     the palaces.
+
+[Illustration: 013.jpg AN IRANIAN GENIUS IN FORM OF A WINGED BULL]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph.
+
+He was named Ahurô-mazdâo or Ahura-mazdâ, the omniscient lord,*
+_Spento-mainyus_, the spirit of good, _Mainyus-spenishtô_** the most
+beneficent of spirits.
+
+     * _Ahura_ is derived from _Ahu_ = _Lord_: Mazdâo can be
+     analysed into the component parts, _maz = great_, and _dâo
+     = he who knows_. At first the two terms were
+     interchangeable, and even in the Gâthas the form Mazda Ahura
+     is employed much more often than the form Ahura Mazda. In
+     the Achsemenian inscriptions, Auramazdâ is only found as a
+     single word, except in an inscription of Xerxes, where the
+     two terms are in one passage separated and declined _Aurahya
+     mazdâha_. The form Ormuzd, Ormazd, usually employed by
+     Europeans, is that assumed by the name in modern Persian.
+
+     ** These two names are given to him more especially in
+     connection with his antagonism to Angrômainyus.
+
+Himself uncreated, he is the creator of all things, but he is assisted
+in the administration of the universe by legions of beings, who are all
+subject to him.*
+
+     * Darius styles Ahura-mazdâ, _mathishta bagânâm_, the
+     greatest of the gods, and Xerxes invokes the protection of
+     Ahura-mazdâ along with that of the gods. The classical
+     writers also mention gods alongside of Ahura-mazdâ as
+     recognised not only among the Achæmenian Persians, but also
+     among the Parthians. Darmesteter considers that the earliest
+     Achæmenids worshipped Ahura-mazdâ alone, “placing the other
+     gods together in a subordinate and anonymous group: May
+     Ahura-mazdâ and the other gods protect me.”
+
+[Illustration: 014.jpg AHURA-MAZDÂ BESTOWING THE TOKENS OF ROYALTY ON AN
+IRANIAN KING]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Dieulafoy.
+
+The most powerful among his ministers were originally nature-gods, such
+as the sun, the moon, the earth, the winds, and the waters. The sunny
+plains of Persia and Media afforded abundant witnesses of their power,
+as did the snow-clad peaks, the deep gorges through which rushed roaring
+torrents, and the mountain ranges of Ararat or Taurus, where the
+force of the subterranean fires was manifested by so many startling
+exhibitions of spontaneous conflagration.* The same spiritualising
+tendency which had already considerably modified the essential concept
+of Ahura-mazdâ, affected also that of the inferior deities, and tended
+to tone down in them the grosser traits of their character. It had
+already placed at their head six genii of a superior order, six
+ever-active energies, who, after assisting their master at the creation
+of the universe, now presided under his guidance over the kingdoms and
+forces of nature.**
+
+     * All these inferior deities, heroes, and genii who presided
+     over Persia, the royal family, and the different parts of
+     the empire, are often mentioned in the most ancient
+     classical authors that have come down to us.
+
+     ** The six Amesha-spentas, with their several
+     characteristics, are enumerated in a passage of the _De
+     Iside_. This exposition of Persian doctrine is usually
+     attributed to Theopompus, from which we may deduce the
+     existence of a belief in the Amesha-spentas in the
+     Achsemenian period. J. Darmesteter affirms, on the contrary,
+     that “the author describes the Zoro-astrianism of his own
+     times (the second century A.D.), and quotes Theopompus for a
+     special doctrine, that of the periods of the world’s life.”
+      Although this last point is correct, the first part of
+     Darmesteter’s theory does not seem to me justified by
+     investigation. The whole passage of Plutarch is a well-
+     arranged composition of uniform style, which may be regarded
+     as an exposition of the system described by Theopompus,
+     probably in the eighth of his Philippics.
+
+[Illustration: 016a.jpg THE MOON-GOD]
+
+[Illustration: 016b.jpg GOD OF THE WIND]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin of King Kanishka,
+     published by Percy Gardner.
+
+These benevolent and immortal beings--_Amesha-spentas_--were, in the
+order of precedence, Vohu-manô (good thought), Asha-vahista (perfect
+holiness), Khshathra-vairya (good government), Spenta-armaiti (meek
+piety), Haurvatât (health), Ameretât (immortality). Each of them had
+a special domain assigned to him in which to display his energy
+untrammelled: Vohu-manô had charge of cattle, Asha-vahista of fire,
+Khshathra-vairya of metals, Spenta-armaiti of the earth, Haurvatât and
+Ameretât of vegetation and of water. They were represented in human
+form, either masculine as Vohu-manô and Asha-vahista,* or feminine as
+Spenta-armaiti, the daughter and spouse of Ahura-mazdâ, who became
+the mother of the first man, Gayomaretan, and, through Gayomaretan,
+ancestress of the whole human race.
+
+     * The image of Asha-vahista is known to us from coins of the
+     Indo-Scythian kings of Bactriana. Vohu-manô is described as
+     a young man.
+
+[Illustration: 017a.jpg ATAR THE GOD OF FIRE]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin of King Kanishka,
+     published by Percy Gardner.
+
+[Illustration: 017b.jpg AURVATASPA]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from coin published by Percy
+     Gardner.
+
+[Illustration: 017c.jpg MITHRA]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin of King Huvishka,
+     published by Percy Gardner.
+
+Sometimes Ahura-mazdâ is himself included among the Amesha-spentas, thus
+bringing their number up to seven; sometimes his place is taken by a
+certain Sraôsha (obedience to the law), the first who offered sacrifice
+and recited the prayers of the ritual. Subordinate to these great
+spirits were the Yazatas, scattered by thousands over creation,
+presiding over the machinery of nature and maintaining it in working
+order. Most of them received no special names, but many exercised wide
+authority, and several were accredited by the people with an influence
+not less than that of the greater deities themselves. Such Were the
+regent of the stars--Tishtrya, the bull with golden horns, Sirius, the
+sparkling one; Mâo, the moon-god; the wind, Vâto; the atmosphere, Vayu,
+the strongest of the strong, the warrior with golden armour, who gathers
+the storm and hurls it against the demon; Atar, fire under its principal
+forms, divine fire, sacred fire, and earthly fire; Vere-thraghna, the
+author of war and giver of victory; Aurva-taspa, the son of the waters,
+the lightning born among the clouds; and lastly, the spirit of the dawn,
+the watchful Mithra, “who, first of the celestial Yazatas, soars above
+Mount Hara,* before the immortal sun with his swift steeds, who, first
+in golden splendour, passes over the beautiful mountains and casts his
+glance benign on the dwellings of the Aryans.” **
+
+     * Hara is Haroberezaiti, or Elburz, the mountain over which
+     the sun rises, “around which many a star revolves, where
+     there is neither night nor darkness, no wind of cold or
+     heat, no sickness leading to a thousand kinds of death, nor
+     infection caused by the Daôvas, and whose summit is never
+     reached by the clouds.”
+
+     ** This is the Mithra whose religion became so powerful in
+     Alexandrian and Roman times. His sphere of action is defined
+     in the Bundehesh.
+
+Mithra was a charming youth of beautiful countenance, his head
+surrounded with a radiant halo. The nymph Anâhita was adored under the
+form of one of the incarnations of the Babylonian goddess Mylitta, a
+youthful and slender female, with well-developed breasts and broad hips,
+sometimes represented clothed in furs and sometimes nude.* Like the
+foreign goddess to whom she was assimilated, she was the dispenser of
+fertility and of love; the heroes of antiquity, and even Ahura-mazdâ
+himself, had vied with one another in their worship of her, and she had
+lavished her favours freely on all.**
+
+     * The popularity of these two deities was already well
+     established at the period we are dealing with, for Herodotus
+     mentions Mithra and confuses him with Anâhita.
+
+     ** Her name Ardvî-Sûra Anâhita seems to signify _the lofty
+     and immaculate power_.
+
+The less important Yazatas were hardly to be distinguished from the
+innumerable multitude of Fravashis. The Fravasliis are the divine types
+of all intelligent beings. They were originally brought into being by
+Ahura-mazdâ as a distinct species from the human, but they had allowed
+themselves to be entangled in matter, and to be fettered in the bodies
+of men, in order to hasten the final destruction of the demons and the
+advent of the reign of good.*
+
+     * The legend of the descent of the Fravashis to dwell among
+     men is narrated in the Bundehesh.
+
+[Illustration: 018.jpg MYLITTA-ANÂHITA]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Loftus
+
+[Illustration: 018a.jpg NANA-ANÂHITA]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin of King Huvishka,
+     published by Percy Gardner.
+
+Once incarnate, a Fravasliis devotes himself to the well-being of the
+mortal with whom he is associated; and when once more released from
+the flesh, he continues the struggle against evil with an energy whose
+efficacy is proportionate to the virtue and purity displayed in life by
+the mortal to whom he has been temporarily joined. The last six days
+of the year are dedicated to the Fravashis. They leave their heavenly
+abodes at this time to visit the spots which were their earthly
+dwelling-places, and they wander through the villages inquiring, “Who
+wishes to hire us? Who will offer us a sacrifice? Who will make us their
+own, welcome us, and receive us with plenteous offerings of food and
+raiment, with a prayer which bestows sanctity on him who offers it?” And
+if they find a man to hearken to their request, they bless him: “May his
+house be blessed with herds of oxen and troops of men, a swift horse
+and a strongly built chariot, a man who knoweth how to pray to God, a
+chieftain in the council who may ever offer us sacrifices with a hand
+filled with food and raiment, with a prayer which bestows sanctity on
+him who offers it!” Ahura-mazdâ created the universe, not by the work
+of his hands, but by the magic of his word, and he desired to create it
+entirely free from defects. His creation, however, can only exist by
+the free play and equilibrium of opposing forces, to which he gives
+activity: the incompatibility of tendency displayed by these forces, and
+their alternations of growth and decay, inspired the Iranians with the
+idea that they were the result of two contradictory principles, the one
+beneficent and good, the other adverse to everything emanating from the
+former.*
+
+     * Spiegel, who at first considered that the Iranian dualism
+     was derived from polytheism, and was a preliminary stage in
+     the development of monotheism, held afterwards that a rigid
+     monotheism had preceded this dualism. The classical writers,
+     who knew Zoroastrianism at the height of its glory, never
+     suggested that the two principles might be derived from a
+     superior principle, nor that they were subject to such a
+     principle. The Iranian books themselves nowhere definitely
+     affirm that there existed a single principle distinct from
+     the two opposing principles.
+
+In opposition to the god of light, they necessarily formed the idea of
+a god of darkness, the god of the underworld, who presides over death,
+Angrô-mainyus. The two opposing principles reigned at first, each in his
+own domain, as rivals, but not as irreconcilable adversaries: they were
+considered as in fixed opposition to each other, and as having coexisted
+for ages without coming into actual conflict, separated as they were by
+the intervening void. As long as the principle of good was content
+to remain shut up inactive in his barren glory, the principle of evil
+slumbered unconscious in a darkness that knew no beginning; but when
+at last “the spirit who giveth increase”--Spentô-mainyus--determined to
+manifest himself, the first throes of his vivifying activity roused from
+inertia the spirit of destruction and of pain, Angrô-mainyus. The heaven
+was not yet in existence, nor the waters, nor the earth, nor ox, nor
+fire, nor man, nor demons, nor brute beasts, nor any living thing, when
+the evil spirit hurled himself upon the light to quench it for ever,
+but Ahura-mazdâ had already called forth the ministers of his
+will--Amêsha-spentas, Yazatas, Fravashis--and he recited the prayer of
+twenty-one words in which all the elements of morality are summed up,
+the Ahuna-vairya: “The will of the Lord is the rule of good. Let the
+gifts of Vohu-manô be bestowed on the works accomplished, at this
+moment, for Mazda. He makes Ahura to reign, he who protects the poor.”
+ The effect of this prayer was irresistible: “When Ahura had pronounced
+the first part of the formula, Zânak Mînoî, the spirit of destruction,
+bowed himself with terror; at the second part he fell upon his knees;
+and at the third and last he felt himself powerless to hurt the
+creatures of Ahura-mazdâ.” *
+
+     * Theopompus was already aware of this alternation of good
+     and bad periods. According to the tradition enshrined in the
+     first chapter of the Bundehesh, it was the result of a sort
+     of compact agreed upon at the beginning by Ahura-mazdâ and
+     Angrô-mainyus. Ahura-mazdâ, rearing to be overcome if he
+     entered upon the struggle immediately, but sure of final
+     victory if he could gain time, proposed to his adversary a
+     truce of nine thousand years, at the expiration of which the
+     battle should begin. As soon as the compact was made, Angrô-
+     mainyus realised that he had been tricked into taking a
+     false step, but it was not till after three thousand years
+     that he decided to break the truce and open the conflict.
+
+The strife, kindled at the beginning of time between the two gods, has
+gone on ever since with alternations of success and defeat; each in turn
+has the victory for a regular period of three thousand years; but when
+these periods are ended, at the expiration of twelve thousand years,
+evil will be finally and for ever defeated. While awaiting this blessed
+fulness of time, as Spentô-mainyus shows himself in all that is good
+and beautiful, in light, virtue, and justice, so Angrô-mainyus is to be
+perceived in all that is hateful and ugly, in darkness, sin, and crime.
+Against the six Amesha-spentas he sets in array six spirits of
+equal power--Akem-manô, evil thought; Andra, the devouring fire, who
+introduces discontent and sin wherever he penetrates; Sauru, the flaming
+arrow of death, who inspires bloodthirsty tyrants, who incites men to
+theft and murder; Nâongaithya, arrogance and pride; Tauru, thirst; and
+Zairi, hunger.*
+
+     * The last five of these spirits are enumerated in the
+     _Vendidad_, and the first, Akem-manô, is there replaced by
+     Nasu, the chief spirit of evil.
+
+To the Yazatas he opposed the Daêvas, who never cease to torment
+mankind, and so through all the ranks of nature he set over against each
+good and useful creation a counter-creation of rival tendency. “‘Like
+a fly he crept into’ and infected ‘the whole universe.’ He rendered the
+world as dark at full noonday as in the darkest night. He covered the
+soil with vermin, with his creatures of venomous bite and poisonous
+sting, with serpents, scorpions, and frogs, so that there was not a
+space as small as a needle’s point but swarmed with his vermin. He smote
+vegetation, and of a sudden the plants withered.... He attacked the
+flames, and mingled them with smoke and dimness. The planets, with their
+thousands of demons, dashed against the vault of heaven and waged war on
+the stars, and the universe became darkened like a space which the fire
+blackens with its smoke.” And the conflict grew ever keener over the
+world and over man, of whom the evil one was jealous, and whom he sought
+to humiliate.
+
+[Illustration: 022.jpg ONE OF THE BAD GENII, SUBJECT TO ANGRÔ-MAINYUS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph taken from the
+     original bas-relief in glazed tiles in the Louvre.
+
+[Illustration: 023.jpg THE KING STRUGGLING AGAINST AN EVIL GENIUS]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the photograph in Marcel Dieulafoy.
+
+The children of Angrô-mainyus disguised themselves under those monstrous
+forms in which the imagination of the Chaldæans had clothed the allies
+of Mummu-Tiamât, such as lions with bulls’ heads, and the wings and
+claws of eagles, which the Achæmenian king combats on behalf of his
+subjects, boldly thrusting them through with his short sword. Aêshma of
+the blood-stained lance, terrible in wrath, is the most trusted leader
+of these dread bands,* the chief of twenty other Daêvas of repulsive
+aspect--Astô-vîdhôtu, the demon of death, who would devote to
+destruction the estimable Fravashis;** Apaosha, the enemy of Tishtrya
+the wicked black horse, the bringer of drought, who interferes with the
+distribution of the fertilising waters; and Bûiti, who essayed to kill
+Zoroaster at his birth.***
+
+     * The name Aêshma means _anger_. He is the Asmodeus, Aêshmo-
+     daevô, of Rabbinic legends.
+
+     ** The name of this demon signifies _He who separates the
+     bones_.
+
+     *** The Greater Bundehesh connects the demon Bûiti with the
+     Indian Buddha, and J. Darmestefer seems inclined to accept
+     this interpretation. In this case we must either admit that
+     the demon Bûiti is of relatively late origin, or that he
+     has, in the legend of Zoroaster, taken the place of a demon
+     whose name resembled his own closely enough to admit of the
+     assimilation.
+
+The female demons, the Bruges, the Incubi (Yâtus), the Succubi
+(Pairîka), the Peris of our fairy tales, mingled familiarly with mankind
+before the time of the prophet, and contracted with them fruitful
+alliances, but Zoroaster broke up their ranks, and prohibited them
+from becoming incarnate in any form but that of beasts; their hatred,
+however, is still unquenched, and their power will only be effectually
+overthrown at the consummation of time. It is a matter of uncertainty
+whether the Medes already admitted the possibility of a fresh
+revelation, preparing the latest generations of mankind for the advent
+of the reign of good. The traditions enshrined in the sacred books
+of Iran announce the coming of three prophets, sons of Zoroaster
+--Ukhshyatereta, Ukhshyatnemô, and Saoshyant* --who shall bring about
+universal salvation.
+
+     * The legend ran that they had been conceived in the waters
+     of the lake Kansu. The name Saoshyant signifies _the useful
+     one, the saviour_; Ukshyate-reta, _he who malces the good
+     increase_; Ukshyatnemô, _he who makes prayer increase_.
+
+Saoshyant, assisted by fifteen men and fifteen pure women, who have
+already lived on earth, and are awaiting their final destiny in a magic
+slumber, shall offer the final sacrifice, the virtue of which shall
+bring about the resurrection of the dead. “The sovereign light shall
+accompany him and his friends, when he shall revivify the world and
+ransom it from old age and death, from corruption and decay, and shall
+render it eternally living, eternally growing, and master of itself.”
+ The fatal conflict shall be protracted, but the champions of Saoshyant
+shall at length obtain the victory. “Before them shall bow Aêshma of the
+blood-stained lance and of ominous renown, and Saoshyant shall strike
+down the she-demon of the unholy light, the daughter of darkness.
+Akem-manô strikes, but Vohu-manô shall strike him in his turn; the lying
+word shall strike, but the word of truth shall strike him in his turn;
+Haurvatât and Ameretâfc shall strike down hunger and thirst; Haurvatât
+and Ameretât shall strike down terrible hunger and terrible thirst.”
+ Angrô-mainyus himself shall be paralysed with terror, and shall be
+forced to confess the supremacy of good: he shall withdraw into the
+depths of hell, whence he shall never again issue forth, and all the
+reanimated beings devoted to the Mazdean law shall live an eternity of
+peace and contentment.
+
+Man, therefore, incessantly distracted between the two principles, laid
+wait for by the Baêvas, defended by the Yazatas, must endeavour to act
+according to law and justice in the condition in which fate has placed
+him. He has been raised up here on earth to contribute as far as in him
+lies to the increase of life and of good, and in proportion as he works
+for this end or against it, is he the _ashavan_, the pure, the faithful
+one on earth and the blessed one in heaven, or the _anashavan_, the
+lawless miscreant who counteracts purity. The highest grade in the
+hierarchy of men belongs of right to the Mage or the _âthravan_, to the
+priest whose voice inspires the demons with fear, or the soldier whose
+club despatches the impious, but a place of honour at their side is
+assigned to the peasant, who reclaims from the power of Angrô-mainyus the
+dry and sterile fields. Among the places where the earth thrives most
+joyously is reckoned that “where a worshipper of Ahura-mazdâ builds a
+house, with a chaplain, with cattle, with a wife, with sons, with a fair
+flock; where man grows the most corn, herbage, and fruit trees; where he
+spreads water on a soil without water, and drains off water where
+there is too much of it.” He who sows corn, sows good, and promotes the
+Mazdean faith; “he nourishes the Mazdean religion as fifty men would do
+rocking a child in the cradle, five hundred women giving it suck from
+their breasts.* When the corn was created the Daêvas leaped, when it
+sprouted the Daêvas lost courage, when the stem set the Daêvas wept,
+when the ear swelled the Daêvas fled. In the house where corn is
+mouldering the Daêvas lodge, but when the corn sprouts, one might say
+that a hot iron is being turned round in their mouths.” And the reason
+of their horror is easily divined: “Whoso eats not, has no power either
+to accomplish a valiant work of religion, or to labour with valour,
+or yet to beget children valiantly; it is by eating that the universe
+lives, and it dies from not eating.” The faithful follower of Zoroaster
+owes no obligation towards the impious man or towards a stranger,** but
+is ever bound to render help to his coreligionist.
+
+     * The original text says in a more enigmatical fashion, “he
+     nourishes the religion of Mazdâ as a hundred feet of men and
+     a thousand breasts of women might do.”
+
+     ** Charity is called in Parsee language, _ashô-dâd_ the
+     _gift to a pious man_, or the _gift of piety_, and the pious
+     man, the _ashavan_, is by definition the worshipper of
+     Ahura-mazdâ alone.
+
+He will give a garment to the naked, and by so doing will wound Zemaka,
+the demon of winter. He will never refuse food to the hungry labourer,
+under pain of eternal torments, and his charity will extend even to
+the brute beasts, provided that they belong to the species created by
+Ahura-mazdâ: he has duties towards them, and their complaints, heard
+in heaven, shall be fatal to him later on if he has provoked them.
+Asha-vahista will condemn to hell the cruel man who has ill-treated the
+ox, or allowed his flocks to suffer; and the killing of a hedgehog is
+no less severely punished--for does not a hedgehog devour the ants
+who steal the grain? The dog is in every case an especially sacred
+animal--the shepherd’s dog, the watchdog, the hunting-dog, even the
+prowling dog. It is not lawful to give any dog a blow which renders him
+impotent, or to slit his ears, or to cut his foot, without incurring
+grave responsibilities in this world and in the next; it is necessary to
+feed the dog well, and not to throw bones to him which are too hard, nor
+have his food served hot enough to burn his tongue or his throat. For
+the rest, the faithful Zoroastrian was bound to believe in his god, to
+offer to him the orthodox prayers and sacrifices, to be simple in heart,
+truthful, the slave of his pledged word, loyal in his very smallest
+acts. If he had once departed from the right way, he could only return
+to it by repentance and by purification, accompanied by pious deeds:
+to exterminate noxious animals, the creatures of Angrô-mainyus and the
+abode of his demons, such as the frog, the scorpion, the serpent or
+the ant, to clear the sterile tracts, to restore impoverished land,
+to construct bridges over running water, to distribute implements of
+husbandry to pions men, or to build them a house, to give a pure and
+healthy maiden in marriage to a just man,--these were so many means of
+expiation appointed by the prophet.* Marriage was strictly obligatory,**
+and seemed more praiseworthy in proportion as the kinship existing
+between the married pair was the closer: not only was the sister united
+in marriage to her brother, as in Egypt, but the father to his daughter,
+and the mother to her son, at least among the Magi.
+
+     * A passage in the _Vendidad_ even enumerates how many
+     noisome beasts must be slain to accomplish one full work of
+     expiation--“to kill 1000 serpents of those who drag
+     themselves upon the belly, and 2000 of the other species,
+     1000 land frogs or 2000 water frogs, 1000 ants who steal the
+     grain,” and so on.
+
+     ** The _Vendidad_ says, “And I tell thee, O Spitama
+     Zarathustra, the man who has a wife is above him who lives
+     in continency;” and, as we have seen in the text, one of
+     these forms of expiation consisted in “marrying to a worthy
+     man a young girl who has never known a man” (_Vendidad_, 14,
+     § 15). Herodotus of old remarked that one of the chief
+     merits in an Iranian was to have many children: the King of
+     Persia encouraged fecundity in his realm, and awarded a
+     prize each year to that one of his subjects who could boast
+     the most numerous progeny.
+
+Polygamy was also encouraged and widely practised: the code imposed no
+limit on the number of wives and concubines, and custom was in favour of
+a man’s having as many wives as his fortune permitted him to maintain.
+On the occasion of a death, it was forbidden to burn the corpse, to bury
+it, or to cast it into a river, as it would have polluted the fire,
+the earth, or the water--an unpardonable offence. The corpse could be
+disposed of in different ways. The Persians were accustomed to cover it
+with a thick layer of wax, and then to bury it in the ground: the wax
+coating obviated the pollution which direct contact would have brought
+upon the soil. The Magi, and probably also strict devotees, following
+their example, exposed the corpse in the open air, abandoning it to the
+birds or beasts of prey. It was considered a great misfortune if these
+respected the body, for it was an almost certain indication of the wrath
+of Ahura-mazdâ, and it was thought that the defunct had led an evil
+life. When the bones had been sufficiently stripped of flesh, they were
+collected together, and deposited either in an earthenware urn or in a
+stone ossuary with a cover, or in a monumental tomb either hollowed out
+in the heart of the mountain or in the living rock, or raised up
+above the level of the ground. Meanwhile the soul remained in the
+neighbourhood for three days, hovering near the head of the corpse, and
+by the recitation of prayers it experienced, according to its condition
+of purity or impurity, as much of joy or sadness as the whole world
+experiences. When the third night was past, the just soul set forth
+across luminous plains, refreshed by a perfumed breeze, and its good
+thoughts and words and deeds took shape before it “under the guise of a
+young maiden, radiant and strong, with well-developed bust, noble mien,
+and glorious face, about fifteen years of age, and as beautiful as the
+most beautiful;” the unrighteous soul, on the contrary, directed its
+course towards the north, through a tainted land, amid the squalls of a
+pestilential hurricane, and there encountered its past ill deeds, under
+the form of an ugly and wicked young woman, the ugliest and most wicked
+it had ever seen. The genius Rashnu Razishta, the essentially truthful,
+weighed its virtues or vices in an unerring balance, and acquitted or
+Condemned it on the impartial testimony of its past life. On issuing
+from the judgment-hall, the soul arrived at the approach to the bridge
+Cinvaut, which, thrown across the abyss of hell, led to paradise. The
+soul, if impious, was unable to cross this bridge, but was hurled down
+into the abyss, where it became the slave of Angrô-mainyus. If pure, it
+crossed the bridge without difficulty by the help of the angel Sraôsha,
+and was welcomed by Vohu-manô, who conducted it before the throne of
+Ahura-mazdâ, in the same way as he had led Zoroaster, and assigned to it
+the post which it should occupy until the day of the resurrection of the
+body.*
+
+     * All this picture of the fate of the soul is taken from the
+     _Vendidad_, where the fate of the just is described, and in
+     the _Yasht_, where the condition of faithful and impious
+     souls respectively is set forth on parallel lines. The
+     classical authors teach us nothing on this subject, and the
+     little they actually say only proves that the Persians
+     believed in the immortality of the soul. The main outlines
+     of the picture here set forth go back to the times of the
+     Achæmenids and the Medes, except the abstract conception of
+     the goddess who leads the soul of the dead as an incarnation
+     of his good or evil deeds.
+
+The religious observances enjoined on the members of the priestly caste
+were innumerable and minute. Ahura-mazdâ and his colleagues had not,
+as was the fashion among the Assyrians and Egyptians, either temples or
+tabernacles, and though they were represented sometimes under human or
+animal forms, and even in some cases on bas-reliefs, yet no one ever
+ventured to set up in their sanctuaries those so-called animated or
+prophetic statues to which the majority of the nations had rendered or
+were rendering their solicitous homage. Altars, however, were erected
+on the tops of hills, in palaces, or in the centre of cities, on which
+fires were kindled in honour of the inferior deities or of the supreme
+god himself.
+
+[Illustration: 031.jpg THE TWO IRANIAN ALTAKRAT NAKHSH-Î-RUSTEM]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a heliogravure in Marcel Dieulafoy.
+
+Two altars were usually set up together, and they are thus found here
+and there among the ruins, as at Nakhsh-î-Kustem, the necropolis of
+Persepolis, where a pair of such altars exist; these are cut, each out
+of a single block, in a rocky mass which rises some thirteen feet above
+the level of the surrounding plain. They are of cubic form and
+squat appearance, looking like towers flanked at the four corners by
+supporting columns which are connected by circular arches; above a
+narrow moulding rises a crest of somewhat triangular projections; the
+hearth is hollowed out on the summit of each altar.*
+
+     * According to Perrot and Chipiez, “it is not impossible
+     that these altars were older than the great buildings of
+     Persepolis, and that they were erected for the old Persian
+     town which Darius raised to the position of capital.”
+
+At Meshed-î-Murgâb, on the site of the ancient Pasargadas, the altars
+have disappeared, but the basements on which they were erected are
+still visible, as also the flight of eight steps by which they were
+approached. Those altars on which burned, a perpetual fire were not
+left exposed to the open air: they would have run too great a risk
+of contracting impurities, such as dust borne by the wind, flights of
+birds, dew, rain, or snow. They were enclosed in slight structures, well
+protected by walls, and attaining in some cases considerable dimensions,
+or in pavilion-shaped edifices of stone adorned with columns.
+
+[Illustration: 032.jpg THE TWO IRANIAN ALTARS OF MURGAB]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from Plandin and Coste.
+
+The sacrificial rites were of long duration, and frequent, and were
+rendered very complex by interminable manual acts, ceremonial gestures,
+and incantations.
+
+[Illustration: 032b.jpg THE OCCUPATIONS OF ANI IN THE ELYSIAN FIELDS]
+
+In cases where the altar was not devoted to maintaining a perpetual
+fire, it was kindled when necessary with small twigs previously barked
+and purified, and was subsequently fed with precious woods, preferably
+cypress or laurel;* care was taken not to quicken the flame by blowing,
+for the human breath would have desecrated the fire by merely passing
+over it; death was the punishment for any one who voluntarily committed
+such a heinous sacrilege. The recognised offering consisted of flowers,
+bread, fruit, and perfumes, but these were often accompanied, as in all
+ancient religions, by a bloody sacrifice; the sacrifice of a horse was
+considered the most efficacious, but an ox, a cow, a sheep, a camel,
+an ass, or a stag was frequently offered: in certain circumstances,
+especially when it was desired to conciliate the favour of the god of
+the underworld, a human victim, probably as a survival of very ancient
+rites was preferred.**
+
+     * Pausanias, who witnessed the cult as practised at
+     Hierocæsarsea, remarked the curious colour of the ashes
+     heaped upon the altar.
+
+     * Most modern writers deny the authenticity of Herodotus’
+     account, because a sacrifice of this kind is opposed to the
+     spirit of the Magian religion, which is undoubtedly the
+     case, as far as the latest form of the religion is
+     concerned; but the testimony of Herodotus is so plain that
+     the fact itself must be considered as indisputable. We may
+     note that the passage refers to the foundation of a city;
+     and if we remember how persistent was the custom of human
+     sacrifice among ancient races at the foundation of
+     buildings, we shall be led to the conclusion that the
+     ceremony described by the Greek historian was a survival of
+     a very ancient usage, which had not yet fallen entirely into
+     desuetude at the Achæmenian epoch.
+
+[Illustration: 033.jpg THE SACRED FIRE BURNING ON THE ALTAR]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the impression of a Persian
+     intaglio.
+
+The king, whose royal position made him the representative of
+Ahura-mazdâ on earth, was, in fact, a high priest, and was himself
+able to officiate at the altar, but no one else could dispense with the
+mediation of the Magi. The worshippers proceeded in solemn procession
+to the spot where the ceremony was to take place, and there the priest,
+wearing the tiara on his head, recited an invocation in a slow and
+mysterious voice, and implored the blessings of heaven on the king
+and nation. He then slaughtered the victim by a blow on the head, and
+divided it into portions, which he gave back to the offerer without
+reserving any of them, for Ahura-mazdâ required nothing but the soul;
+in certain cases, the victim was entirely consumed by fire, but more
+frequently nothing but a little of the fat and some of the entrails
+were taken to feed and maintain the flame, and sometimes even this was
+omitted.* Sacrifices were of frequent occurrence. Without mentioning
+the extraordinary occasions on which a king would have a thousand bulls
+slain at one time,** the Achæmenian kings killed each day a thousand
+bullocks, asses, and stags: sacrifice under such circumstances was
+another name for butchery, the object of which was to furnish the court
+with a sufficient supply of pure meat. The ceremonial bore resemblance
+in many ways to that still employed by the modern Zoroastrians of Persia
+and India.
+
+     * A relic of this custom may be discerned in the expiatory
+     sacrifice decreed in the _Vendidad_: “He shall sacrifice a
+     thousand head of small cattle, and he shall place their
+     entrails devoutly on the fire, with libations.”
+
+     ** The number 1000 seems to have had some ritualistic
+     significance, for it often recurs in the penances imposed on
+     the faithful as expiation for their sins: thus it was
+     enjoined to slay 1000 serpents, 1000 frogs, 1000 ants who
+     steal the grain, 1000 head of small cattle, 1000 swift
+     horses, 1000 camels, 1000 brown oxen.
+
+The officiating priest covered his mouth with the bands which fell from
+his mitre, to prevent the god from being polluted by his breath; he held
+in his hand the baresman, or sacred bunch of tamarisk, and prepared the
+mysterious liquor from the haoma plant.* He was accustomed each morning
+to celebrate divine service before the sacred fire, not to speak of the
+periodic festivals in which he shared the offices with all the members
+of his tribe, such as the feast of Mithra, the feast of the Fravashis,**
+the feast commemorating the rout of Angrô-mainyus,*** the feast of the
+Saksea, during which the slaves were masters of the house.****
+
+     * The drink mentioned by the author of the _De Iside_, which
+     was extracted from the plant Omômi, and which the Magi
+     offered to the god of the underworld, is certainly the
+     haoma. The rite mentioned by the Greek author, which appears
+     to be an incantation against Ahriman, required, it seems, a
+     potion in which the blood of a wolf was a necessary
+     ingredient: this questionable draught was then carried to a
+     place where the sun’s rays never shone, and was there
+     sprinkled on the ground as a libation.
+
+     ** Menander speaks of this festival as conducted in his own
+     times, and tells us that it was called Eurdigan; modern
+     authorities usually admit that it goes back to the times of
+     the Achæmenids or even beyond.
+
+     *** Agathias says that every worshipper of Ahura-mazdâ is
+     enjoined to kill the greatest possible number of animals
+     created by Angrô-mainyus, and bring to the Magi the fruits
+     of his hunting. Herodotus had already spoken of this
+     destruction of life as one of the duties incumbent on every
+     Persian, and this gives probability to the view of modern
+     writers that the festival went back to the Achæmenian epoch.
+
+     **** The festival of the Sakoa is mentioned by Ctesias. It
+     was also a Babylonian festival, and most modern authorities
+     conclude from this double use of the name that the festival
+     was borrowed from the Babylonians by the Persians, but this
+     point is not so certain as it is made out to be, and at any
+     rate the borrowing must have taken place very early, for the
+     festival was already well established in the Achæmenian
+     period.
+
+All the Magi were not necessarily devoted to the priesthood; but
+those only became apt in the execution of their functions who had been
+dedicated to them from infancy, and who, having received the necessary
+instruction, were duly consecrated. These adepts were divided into
+several classes, of which three at least were never confounded in their
+functions--the sorcerers, the interpreters of dreams, and the most
+venerated sages--and from these three classes were chosen the ruling
+body of the order and its supreme head. Their rule of life was
+strict and austere, and was encumbered with a thousand observances
+indispensable to the preservation of perfect purity in their persons,
+their altars, their victims, and their sacrificial vessels and
+implements. The Magi of highest rank abstained from every form of
+living thing as food, and the rest only partook of meat under certain
+restrictions. Their dress was unpretentious, they wore no jewels, and
+observed strict fidelity to the marriage vow;* and the virtues with
+which they were accredited obtained for them, from very early times,
+unbounded influence over the minds of the common people as well as over
+those of the nobles: the king himself boasted of being their pupil, and
+took no serious step in state affairs without consulting Ahura-mazdâ or
+the other gods by their mediation. The classical writers maintain that
+the Magi often cloaked monstrous vices under their apparent strictness,
+and it is possible that this was the case in later days, but even then
+moral depravity was probably rather the exception than the rule among
+them:*** the majority of the Magi faithfully observed the rules of
+honest living and ceremonial purity enjoined on them in the books handed
+down by their ancestors.
+
+     * Clement of Alexandria assures us that they were strictly
+     celibate, but besides the fact that married Magi are
+     mentioned several times, celibacy is still considered by
+     Zoroastrians an inferior state to that of marriage.
+
+     ** In the Greek period, a spurious epitaph of Darius, son of
+     Hystaspes, was quoted, in which the king says of himself, “I
+     was the pupil of the Magi.”
+
+     *** These accusations are nearly all directed against their
+     incestuous marriages: it seems that the classical writers
+     took for a refinement of debauchery what really was before
+     all things a religious practice.
+
+There is reason to believe that the Magi were all-powerful among the
+Medes, and that the reign of Astyages was virtually the reign of the
+priestly caste; but all the Iranian states did not submit so patiently
+to their authority, and the Persians at last proved openly refractory.
+Their kings, lords of Susa as well as of Pasargadse, wielded all the
+resources of Elam, and their military power must have equalled, if it
+did not already surpass, that of their suzerain lords. Their tribes,
+less devoted to the manner of living of the Assyrians and Chaldæans,
+had preserved a vigour and power of endurance which the Medes no longer
+possessed; and they needed but an ambitious and capable leader, to rise
+rapidly from the rank of subjects to that of rulers of Iran, and to
+become in a short time masters of Asia. Such a chief they found in
+Cyrus,* son of Cambyses; but although no more illustrious name than his
+occurs in the list of the founders of mighty empires, the history of no
+other has suffered more disfigurement from the imagination of his own
+subjects or from the rancour of the nations he had conquered.**
+
+     * The original form of the name is Kûru, Kûrush, with a long
+     _o_, which forces us to reject the proposed connection with
+     the name of the Indian hero Kuru, in which the _u_ is short.
+     Numerous etymologies of the name Cyrus have been proposed.
+     The Persians themselves attributed to it the sense of _the
+     Sun_.
+
+     ** We possess two entirely different versions of the history
+     of the origin of Cyrus, but one, that of Herodotus, has
+     reached us intact, while that of Ctesias is only known to us
+     in fragments from extracts made by Nicolas of Damascus, and
+     by Photius. Spiegel and Duncker thought to recognise in the
+     tradition followed by Ctesias one of the Persian accounts of
+     the history of Cyrus, but Bauer refuses to admit this
+     hypothesis, and prefers to consider it as a romance put
+     together by the author, according to the taste of his own
+     times, from facts partly different from those utilised by
+     Herodotus, and partly borrowed from Herodotus himself: but
+     it should very probably be regarded as an account of Median
+     origin, in which the founder of the Persian empire is
+     portrayed in the most unfavourable light. Or perhaps it may
+     be regarded as the form of the legend current among the
+     Pharnaspids who established themselves as satraps of
+     Dascylium in the time of the Achæmenids, and to whom the
+     royal house of Cappadocia traced its origin. It is almost
+     certain that the account given by Herodotus represents a
+     Median version of the legend, and, considering the important
+     part played in it by Harpagus, probably that version which
+     was current among the descendants of that nobleman. The
+     historian Dinon, as far as we can judge from the extant
+     fragments of his work, and from the abridgment made by
+     Trogus Pompeius, adopted the narrative of Ctesias, mingling
+     with it, however, some details taken from Herodotus and the
+     romance of Xenophon, the Cyropodia.
+
+The Medes, who could not forgive him for having made them subject to
+their ancient vassals, took delight in holding him up to scorn, and not
+being able to deny the fact of his triumph, explained it by the adoption
+of tortuous and despicable methods. They would not even allow that he
+was of royal birth, but asserted that he was of ignoble origin, the son
+of a female goatherd and a certain Atradates,* who, belonging to
+the savage clan of the Mardians, lived by brigandage. Cyrus himself,
+according to this account, spent his infancy and early youth in a
+condition not far short of slavery, employed at first in sweeping out
+the exterior portions of the palace, performing afterwards the same
+office in the private apartments, subsequently promoted to the charge of
+the lamps and torches, and finally admitted to the number of the royal
+cupbearers who filled the king’s goblet at table.
+
+     * According to one of the historians consulted by Strabo,
+     Cyrus himself, and not his father, was called Atradates.
+
+[Illustration: 039.jpg A ROYAL HUNTING-PARTY IN HUN]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the silver vase in the Museum
+     of the Hermitage.
+
+When he was at length enrolled in the bodyguard,* he won distinction by
+his skill in all military exercises, and having risen from rank to rank,
+received command of an expedition against the Cadusians.
+
+     * The tradition reproduced by Dinon narrated that Cyrus had
+     begun by serving among the Kavasses, the three hundred
+     staff-bearers who accompanied the sovereign when he appeared
+     in public, and that he passed next into the royal body-
+     guard, and that once having attained this rank, he passed
+     rapidly through all the superior grades of the military
+     profession.
+
+On the march he fell in with a Persian groom named OEbaras,* who
+had been cruelly scourged for some misdeed, and was occupied in the
+transportation of manure in a boat: in obedience to an oracle the two
+united their fortunes, and together devised a vast scheme for liberating
+their compatriots from the Median yoke.
+
+     * This OEbaras whom Ctesias makes the accomplice of Cyrus,
+     seems to be an antedated forestallment of theoebaras whom
+     the tradition followed by Herodotus knows as master of the
+     horse under Darius, and to whom that king owed his elevation
+     to the throne.
+
+How Atradates secretly prepared the revolt of the Mardians; how Cyrus
+left his camp to return to the court at Ecbatana, and obtained from
+Astyages permission to repair to his native country under pretext of
+offering sacrifices, but in reality to place himself at the head of the
+conspirators; how, finally, the indiscretion of a woman revealed the
+whole plot to a eunuch of the harem, and how he warned Astyages in the
+middle of his evening banquet by means of a musician or singing-girl,
+was frequently narrated by the Median bards in their epic poems, and
+hence the story spread until it reached in later times even as far as
+the Greeks.*
+
+     * According to Ctesias, it was a singing-girl who revealed
+     the existence of the plot to Astyages; according to Dinon,
+     it was the bard Angarês. Windischmann has compared this name
+     with that of the Vedic guild of singers, the Angira.
+
+Astyages, roused to action by the danger, abandons the pleasures of the
+chase in which his activity had hitherto found vent, sets out on the
+track of the rebel, wins a preliminary victory on the Hyrba, and kills
+the father of Cyrus: some days after, he again overtakes the rebels, at
+the entrance to the defiles leading to Pasargadse, and for the second
+time fortune is on the point of declaring in his favour, when the
+Persian women, bringing back their husbands and sons to the conflict,
+urge them on to victory. The fame of their triumph having spread abroad,
+the satraps and provinces successfully declared for the conqueror;
+Hyrcania, first, followed by the Parthians, the Sakae, and the
+Bactrians: Astyages was left almost alone, save for a few faithful
+followers, in the palace at Ecbatana. His daughter Amytis and his
+son-in-law Spitamas concealed him so successfully on the top of the
+palace, that he escaped discovery up to the moment when Cyrus was on
+the point of torturing his grandchildren to force them to reveal his
+hiding-place: thereupon he gave himself up to his enemies, but was at
+length, after being subjected to harsh treatment for a time, set at
+liberty and entrusted with the government of a mountain tribe dwelling
+to the south-east of the Caspian Sea, that of the Barcanians. Later on
+he perished through the treachery of OEbaras, and his corpse was left
+unburied in the desert, but by divine interposition relays of lions were
+sent to guard it from the attacks of beasts of prey: Cyrus, acquainted
+with this miraculous circumstance, went in search of the body and gave
+it a magnificent burial.* Another legend asserted, on the contrary,
+that Cyrus was closely connected with the royal line of Cyaxares; this
+tradition was originally circulated among the great Median families who
+attached themselves to the Achaemenian dynasty.**
+
+     * The passage in Herodotus leads Marquart to believe that
+     the murder of Astyages formed part of the primitive legend,
+     but was possibly attributed to Cambysos, son of Cyrus,
+     rather than to OEbaras, the companion of the conqueror’s
+     early years.
+
+     ** This is the legend as told to Herodotus in Asia Minor,
+     probably by the members of the family of Harpagus, which the
+     Greek historian tried to render credible by interpreting the
+     miraculous incidents in a rationalising manner.
+
+[Illustration: 042.jpg REMAINS OF THE PALACE OF ECBATANA]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from Coste and Flandin.
+
+According to this legend Astyages had no male heirs, and the sceptre
+would have naturally descended from him to his daughter Mandanê and
+her sons. Astyages was much alarmed by a certain dream concerning his
+daughter: he dreamt that water gushed forth so copiously from her
+womb as to flood not only Ecbatana, but the whole of Asia, and the
+interpreters, as much terrified as himself, counselled him not to give
+Mandanê in marriage to a Persian noble of the race of the Achæmenids,
+named Cambyses; but a second dream soon troubled the security into which
+this union had lulled him: he saw issuing from his daughter’s womb a
+vine whose branches overshadowed Asia, and the interpreters, being once
+more consulted, predicted that a grandson was about to be born to him
+whose ambition would cost him his crown. He therefore bade a certain
+nobleman of his court, named Harpagus--he whose descendants preserved
+this version of the story of Cyrus--to seize the infant and put it to
+death as soon as its mother should give it birth; but the man, touched
+with pity, caused the child to be exposed in the woods by one of the
+royal shepherds. A bitch gave suck to the tiny creature, who, however,
+would soon have succumbed to the inclemency of the weather, had not the
+shepherd’s wife, being lately delivered of a still-born son, persuaded
+her husband to rescue the infant, whom she nursed with the same
+tenderness as if he had been her own child. The dog was, as we know, a
+sacred animal among the Iranians: the incident of the bitch seems, then,
+to have been regarded by them as an indication of divine intervention,
+but the Greeks were shocked by the idea, and invented an explanation
+consonant with their own customs. They supposed that the woman had borne
+the name of Spakô: Spakô signifying _bitch_ in the language of Media.*
+
+     * Herodotus asserts that the child’s foster-mother was
+     called in Greek _Kynô_, in Median _Spalcô_, which comes to
+     the same thing, for _spaha_ means _bitch_ in Median. Further
+     on he asserts that the parents of the child heard of the
+     name of his nurse with joy, as being of good augury; “and,
+     in order that the Persians might think that Cyrus had been
+     preserved alive by divine agency, _they spread abroad the
+     report that Cyrus had been suckled by a bitch_. And thus
+     arose the fable commonly accepted.” Trogus Pompeius received
+     the original story probably through Dinon, and inserted it
+     in his book.
+
+Cyrus grew to boyhood, and being accepted by Mandanê as her son,
+returned to the court; his grandfather consented to spare his life, but,
+to avenge himself on Harpagus, he caused the limbs of the nobleman’s own
+son to be served up to him at a feast. Thenceforth Harpagus had but
+one idea, to overthrow the tyrant and transfer the crown to the young
+prince: his project succeeded, and Cyrus, having overcome Astyages,
+was proclaimed king by the Medes as well as by the Persians. The real
+history of Cyrus, as far as we can ascertain it, was less romantic. We
+gather that Kurush, known to us as Cyrus, succeeded his father Cambyses
+as ruler of Anshân about 559 or 558 B.C.,* and that he revolted against
+Astyages in 553 or 552 B.C.,** and defeated him. The Median army
+thereupon seizing its own leader, delivered him into the hands of the
+conqueror: Ecbatana was taken and sacked, and the empire fell at one
+blow, or, more properly speaking, underwent a transformation (550 B.C.).
+The transformation was, in fact, an internal revolution in which the
+two peoples of the same race changed places. The name of the Medes lost
+nothing of the prestige which it enjoyed in foreign lands, but that of
+the Persians was henceforth united with it, and shared its renown: like
+Astyages and his predecessors, Cyrus and his successors reigned equally
+over the two leading branches of the ancient Iranian stock, but whereas
+the former had been kings of the Medes and Persians, the latter became
+henceforth kings of the Persians and Medes.***
+
+     * The length of Cyrus’ reign is fixed at thirty years by
+     Ctesias, followed by Dinon and Trogus Pompeius, but at
+     twenty-nine years by Herodotus, whose computation I here
+     follow. Hitherto the beginning of his reign has been made to
+     coincide with the fall of Astyages, which was consequently
+     placed in 569 or 568 B.C., but the discovery of the _Annals
+     of Nabonidus_ obliges us to place the taking of Ecbatana in
+     the sixth year of the Babylonian king, which corresponds to
+     the year 550 B.C., and consequently to hold that Cyrus
+     reckoned his twenty-nine years from the moment when he
+     succeeded his father Cambyses.
+
+     ** The inscription on the _Rassam Cylinder of Abu-Habba_,
+     seems to make the fall of the Median king, who was suzerain
+     of the Scythians of Harrân, coincide with the third year of
+     Nabonidus, or the year 553-2 B.C. But it is only the date of
+     the commencement of hostilities between Cyrus and Astyages
+     which is here furnished, and this manner of interpreting the
+     text agrees with the statement of the Median traditions
+     handed down by the classical authors, that three combats
+     took place between Astyages and Cyrus before the final
+     victory of the Persians.
+
+     *** This equality of the two peoples is indicated by the
+     very terms employed by Darius, whom he speaks of them, in
+     the _Great Inscription of Behistun_. He says, for example,
+     in connection with the revolt of the false Smerdis, that
+     “the deception prevailed greatly in the land, in Persia and
+     Media as well as in the other provinces,” and further on,
+     that “the whole people rose, and passed over from Cambyses
+     to him, Persia and Media as well as the other countries.” In
+     the same way he mentions “the army of Persians and Medes
+     which was with him,” and one sees that he considered Medes
+     and Persians to be on exactly the same footing.
+
+The change effected was so natural that their nearest neighbours, the
+Chaldæans, showed no signs of uneasiness at the outset. They confined
+themselves to the bare registration of the fact in their annals at the
+appointed date, without comment, and Nabonidus in no way deviated from
+the pious routine which it had hitherto pleased him to follow. Under
+a sovereign so good-natured there was little likelihood of war, at all
+events with external foes, but insurrections were always breaking out in
+different parts of his territory, and we read of difficulties in Khumê
+in the first year of his reign, in Hamath in his second year, and
+troubles in Plionicia in the third year, which afforded an opportunity
+for settling the Tyrian question. Tyre had led a far from peaceful
+existence ever since the day when, from sheer apathy, she had accepted
+the supremacy of Nebuchadrezzar.*
+
+     * All these events are known through the excerpt from
+     Menander preserved to us by Josephus in his treatise
+     _Against Apion_.
+
+Baal II. had peacefully reigned there for ten years (574-564), but after
+his death the people had overthrown the monarchy, and various _suffetes_
+had followed one another rapidly--Eknibaal ruled two months, Khelbes ten
+months, the high priest Abbar three months, the two brothers Mutton
+and Gerastratus six years, all of them no doubt in the midst of endless
+disturbances; whereupon a certain Baalezor restored the royal dignity,
+but only to enjoy it for the space of one year. On his death, the
+inhabitants begged the Chaldæans to send them, as a successor to the
+crown, one of those princes whom, according to custom, Baal had not long
+previously given over as hostages for a guarantee of his loyalty, and
+Nergal-sharuzur for this purpose selected from their number Mahar-baal,
+who was probably a son of Ithobaal (558-557).* When, at the end of four
+years, the death of Mahar-baal left the throne vacant (554-553), the
+Tyrians petitioned for his brother Hirôm, and Nabonidus, who was then
+engaged in Syria, came south as far as Phoenicia and installed the
+prince.**
+
+     * The fragment of Menander does not give the Babylonian
+     king’s name, but a simple chronological calculation proves
+     him to have been Nergal-sharuzur.
+
+     ** _Annals of Nabonidus_, where mention is made of a certain
+     Nabu-makhdan-uzur--but the reading of the name is uncertain
+     --who seems to be in revolt against the Chaldæans. Floigl has
+     very ingeniously harmonised the dates of the Annals with
+     those obtained from the fragment of Menander, and has thence
+     concluded that the object of the expedition of the third
+     year was the enthroning of Hirôm which is mentioned in the
+     fragment, and during whose fourteenth year Cyrus became King
+     of Babylon.
+
+This took place at the very moment when Cyrus was preparing his
+expedition against Astyages; and the Babylonian monarch took advantage
+of the agitation into which the Medes were thrown by this invasion, to
+carry into execution a project which he had been planning ever since his
+accession. Shortly after that event he had had a dream, in which Marduk,
+the great lord, and Sin, the light of heaven and earth, had appeared
+on either side of his couch, the former addressing him in the following
+words: “Nabonidus, King of Babylon, with the horses of thy chariot bring
+brick, rebuild E-khul-khul, the temple of Harrân, that Sin, the great
+lord, may take up his abode therein.” Nabonidus had respectfully pointed
+out that the town was in the hands of the Scythians, who were subjects
+of the Medes, but the god had replied: “The Scythian of whom thou
+speakest, he, his country and the kings his protectors, are no more.”
+ Cyrus was the instrument of the fulfilment of the prophecy. Nabonidus
+took possession of Harrân without difficulty, and immediately put the
+necessary work in hand. This was, indeed, the sole benefit that he
+derived from the changes which were taking place, and it is probable
+that his inaction was the result of the enfeebled condition of the
+empire. The country over which he ruled, exhausted by the Assyrian
+conquest, and depopulated by the Scythian invasions, had not had time to
+recover its forces since it had passed into the hands of the Chaldæans;
+and the wars which Nebuchadrezzar had been obliged to undertake for the
+purpose of strengthening his own power, though few in number and not
+fraught with danger, had tended to prolong the state of weakness into
+which it had sunk. If the hero of the dynasty who had conquered Egypt
+had not ventured to measure his strength with the Median princes, and
+if he had courted the friendship not only of the warlike Cyaxares but of
+the effeminate Astyages, it would not be prudent for Nabonidus to come
+into collision with the victorious new-comers from the heart of Iran.
+Chaldsea doubtless was right in avoiding hostilities, at all events so
+long as she had to bear the brunt of them alone, but other nations
+had not the same motives for exercising prudence, and Lydia was fully
+assured that the moment had come for her to again take up the ambitious
+designs which the treaty of 585 had forced her to renounce. Alyattes,
+relieved from anxiety with regard to the Medes, had confined his
+energies to establishing firmly his kingdom in the regions of Asia Minor
+extending westwards from the Halys and the Anti-Taurus. The acquisition
+of Colophon, the destruction of Smyrna, the alliance with the towns of
+the littoral, had ensured him undisputed possession of the valleys of
+the Caicus and the Hermus, but the plains of the Maeander in the south,
+and the mountainous districts of Mysia in the north, were not yet fully
+brought under his sway. He completed the occupation of the Troad and
+Mysia about 584, and afterwards made of the entire province an appanage
+for Adramyttios, who was either his son or his brother.*
+
+     * The doings of Alyattes in Troas and in Mysia are vouched
+     for by the anecdote related by Plutarch concerning this
+     king’s relations with Pittakos. The founding of Adramyttium
+     is attributed to him by Stephen of Byzantium, after
+     Aristotle, who made Adramyttios the brother of Croesus.
+     Radat gives good reasons for believing that Adramyttios was
+     brother to Alyattes and uncle to Crosus, and the same person
+     as Adramys, the son of Sadyattes, according to Xanthus of
+     Lydia. Radet gives the year 584 for the date of these
+     events.
+
+He even carried his arms into Bithynia, where, to enforce his rule, he
+built several strongholds, one of which, called Alyatta, commanded
+the main road leading from the basin of the Rhyndacus to that of
+the Sangarius, skirting the spurs of Olympus.* He experienced some
+difficulty in reducing Caria, and did not finally succeed in his efforts
+till nearly the close of his reign in 566. Adramyttios was then dead,
+and his fief had devolved on his eldest surviving brother or nephew,
+Crosus, whose mother was by birth a Carian. This prince had incurred
+his father’s displeasure by his prodigality, and an influential party
+desired that he should be set aside in favour of his brother Pantaleon,
+the son of Alyattes by an Ionian. Croesus, having sown his wild oats,
+was anxious to regain his father’s favour, and his only chance of so
+doing was by distinguishing himself in the coming war, if only money
+could be found for paying his mercenaries. Sadyattes, the richest banker
+in Lydia, who had already had dealings with all the members of the royal
+family, refused to make him a loan, but Theokharides of Priênê advanced
+him a thousand gold staters, which enabled Crosus to enroll his
+contingent at Bphesus, and to be the first to present himself at the
+rallying-place for the troops.**
+
+     * Radet places the operations in Bithynia before the Median
+     war, towards 594 at the latest. I think that they are more
+     probably connected with those in Mysia, and that they form
+     part of the various measures taken after the Median war to
+     achieve the occupation of the regions west of the Halys.
+
+     ** A mutilated extract from Xanthus of Lydia in Suidas seems
+     to carry these events back to the time of the war against
+     Priênê, towards the beginning of the reign. The united
+     evidence of the accompanying circumstances proves that they
+     belong to the time of the old age of Alyattes, and makes it
+     very likely that they occurred in 566, the date proposed by
+     Radet for the Carian campaign.
+
+Caria was annexed to the kingdom, but the conditions under which the
+annexation took place are not known to us;* and Croesus contributed so
+considerably to the success of the campaign, that he was reinstated in
+popular favour. Alyattes, however, was advancing in years, and was soon
+about to rejoin his adversaries Cyaxares and Nebuchadrezzar in Hades.
+Like the Pharaohs, the kings of Lydia were accustomed to construct
+during their lifetime the monuments in which they were to repose after
+death. Their necropolis was situated not far from Sardes, on the shores
+of the little lake Gygaea; it was here, close to the resting-place of
+his ancestors and their wives, that Alyattes chose the spot for his
+tomb,** and his subjects did not lose the opportunity of proving to what
+extent he had gained their affections.
+
+     * The fragment of Nicolas of Damascus does not speak of the
+     result of the war, but it was certainly favourable, for
+     Herodotus counts the Carians among Croesus’ subjects.
+
+     ** The only one of these monuments, besides that of
+     Alyattes, which is mentioned by the ancients, belonged to
+     one of the favourites of Gyges, and was called _the Tomb of
+     the Courtesan_. Strabo, by a manifest error, has applied
+     this name _to_ the tomb of Alyattes.
+
+[Illustration: 050.jpg THE TUMULUS OF ALYATTES AND THE ENTRANCE TO THE
+PASSAGE]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the sketch by Spiegolthal.
+
+His predecessors had been obliged to finish their work at their own
+expense and by forced labour;* but in the case of Alyattes the three
+wealthiest classes of the population, the merchants, the craftsmen, and
+the courtesans, all united to erect for him an enormous tumulus, the
+remains of which still rise 220 feet above the plains of the Hermus.
+
+
+* This, at least, seems to be the import of the passage in Clearchus of
+Soli, where that historian gives an account of the erection of the _Tomb
+of the Courtesan_.
+
+
+[Illustration: 051.jpg ONE OF THE LYDIAN ORNAMENTS IN THE LOUVRE]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph.
+
+The sub-structure consisted of a circular wall of great blocks of
+limestone resting on the solid rock, and it contained in the centre
+a vault of grey marble which was reached by a vaulted passage. A huge
+mound of red clay and yellowish earth was raised above the chamber,
+surmounted by a small column representing a phallus, and by four stelæ
+covered with inscriptions, erected at the four cardinal points. It
+follows the traditional type of burial-places in use among the old
+Asianic races, but it is constructed with greater regularity than most
+of them; Alyattes was laid within it in 561, after a glorious reign of
+forty-nine years.*
+
+     * Herodotus gave fifty-seven years’ length of reign to
+     Alyattes, whilst the chronographers, who go back as far as
+     Xanthus of Lydia, through Julius Africanus, attribute to him
+     only forty-nine; historians now prefer the latter figures,
+     at least as representing the maximum length of reign.
+
+[Illustration: 052.jpg MOULD FOR JEWELLERY OF LYDIAN ORIGIN]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph.
+
+It was wholly due to him that Lydia was for the moment raised to the
+level of the most powerful states which then existed on the eastern
+shores of the Mediterranean. He was by nature of a violent and
+uncontrolled temper, and during his earlier years he gave way to fits of
+anger, in which he would rend the clothes of those who came in his way
+or would spit in their faces, but with advancing years his character
+became more softened, and he finally earned the reputation of being a
+just and moderate sovereign. The little that we know of his life reveals
+an energy and steadfastness of purpose quite unusual; he proceeded
+slowly but surely in his undertakings, and if he did not succeed in
+extending his domains as far as he had hoped at the beginning of his
+campaigns against the Medes, he at all events never lost any of the
+provinces he had acquired. Under his auspices agriculture flourished,
+and manufactures attained a degree of perfection hitherto unknown.
+
+[Illustration: 053.jpg A LYDIAN FUNERY COUCH]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Choisy.
+
+None of the vases in gold, silver, or wrought-iron, which he dedicated
+and placed among the treasures of the Greek temples, has come down to
+us, but at rare intervals ornaments of admirable workmanship are found
+in the Lydian tombs. Those now in the Louvre exhibit, in addition to
+human figures somewhat awkwardly treated, heads of rams, bulls, and
+griffins of a singular delicacy and faithfulness to nature. These
+examples reveal a blending of Grecian types and methods of production
+with those of Egypt or Chaldæa, the Hellenic being predominant,* and
+the same combination of heterogeneous elements must have existed in the
+other domains of industrial art---in the dyed and embroidered stuffs,**
+the vases,*** and the furniture.****
+
+     * The ornaments, of which we have now no specimens, but only
+     the original moulds cut in serpentine, betray imitation of
+     Assyria and Chaldæa.
+
+
+     ** The custom of clothing themselves in dyed and embroidered
+     stuffs was one of the effeminate habits with which the poet
+     Xenophanes reproached the Ionians as having been learned
+     from their Lydian neighbours.
+
+     *** M. Perrot points out that one of the vases discovered by
+     G. Dennis at Bintépé is an evident imitation of the Egyptian
+     and Phoenician chevroned glasses. The shape of the vase is
+     one of those found represented, with the same decoration, on
+     Egyptian monuments subsequent to the Middle Empire, where
+     the chevroned lines seem to be derived from the undulations
+     of ribbon-alabaster.
+
+     **** The stone funerary couches which have been discovered
+     in Lydian tombs are evidently copied from pieces of wooden
+     furniture similarly arranged and decorated.
+
+[Illustration: 054a.jpg LYDIAN COIN BEARING A RUNNING FOX]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a specimen in the Cabinet des
+     Médailles: a stater of electrum weighing 14.19 grammes.
+
+     [These illustrations are larger than the original pieces.--Tr.]
+
+[Illustration: 054b.jpg LYDIAN COIN WITH A HARE]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin in the _Cabinet des
+     Médailles._
+
+Lydia, inheriting the traditions of Phrygia, and like that state
+situated on the border of two worlds, allied moreover with Egypt as well
+as Babylon, and in regular communication with the Delta, borrowed from
+each that which fell in with her tastes or seemed likely to be most
+helpful to her in her commercial relations. As the country produced
+gold in considerable quantities, and received still more from extraneous
+sources, the precious metal came soon to be employed as a means of
+exchange under other conditions than those which had hitherto prevailed.
+Besides acting as commission agents and middle-men for the disposal
+of merchandise at Sardes, Ephesus, Miletus, Clazomenaa, and all the
+maritime cities, the Lydians performed at the same time the functions
+of pawnbrokers, money-changers, and bankers, and they were ready to
+make loans to private individuals as well as to kings. Obliged by the
+exigencies of their trade to cut up the large gold ingots into sections
+sufficiently small to represent the smallest values required in daily
+life, they did not at first impress upon these portions any stamp as
+a guarantee of the exact weight or the purity of the metal; they were
+estimated like the _tabonu_ of the Egyptians, by actual weighing on the
+occasion of each business transaction.
+
+[Illustration: 055.jpg LYDIAN COINS WITH A LION AND LION’S HEAD]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin in the Cabinet des
+     Médailles.
+
+The idea at length occurred to them to impress each of these pieces with
+a common stamp, serving, like the trade-marks employed by certain guilds
+of artisans, to testify at once to their genuineness and their exact
+weight: in a word, they were the inventors of money. The most ancient
+coinage of their mint was like a flattened sphere, more or less ovoid,
+in form: it consisted at first of electrum, and afterwards of smelted
+gold, upon which parallel striae or shallow creases were made by a
+hammer. There were two kinds of coinage, differing considerably from
+each other; one consisted of the heavy stater, weighing about 14.20
+grammes, perhaps of Phoenician origin, the other of the light stater, of
+some 10.80 grammes in weight, which doubtless served as money for
+the local needs of Lydia: both forms were subdivided into pieces
+representing respectively the third, the sixth, the twelfth, and the
+twenty-fourth of the value of the original.
+
+[Illustration: 056a.jpg COIN BEARING HEAD OF MOUFLON GOAT]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin in the Cabinet des
+     Médailles.
+
+[Illustration: 056b.jpg MONEY OF CROESUS]
+
+The stamp which came to be impressed upon the money was in relief, and
+varied with the banker; * when political communities began to follow the
+example of individuals, it also bore the name of the city where it was
+minted.
+
+     * [The best English numismatists do not agree with M.
+     Babelon’s “banker” theory. Cf. Barclay V. Head, _Historia
+     Nummorum_, p. xxxiv.---Tr.]
+
+The type of impression once selected, was little modified for fear of
+exciting mistrust among the people, but it was more finely executed and
+enlarged so as to cover one of the faces, that which we now call the
+_obverse_. Several subjects entered into the composition of the design,
+each being impressed by a special punch: thus in the central concavity
+we find the figure of a running fox, emblem of Apollo Bassareus, and
+in two similar depressions, one above and the other below the central,
+appear a horse’s or stag’s head, and a flower with four petals. Later
+on the design was simplified, and contained only one, or at most two
+figures--a hare squatting under a tortuous climbing plant, a roaring
+lion crouching with its head turned to the left, the grinning muzzle of
+a lion, the horned profile of an antelope or mouflon sheep: rosettes and
+flowers, included within a square depression, were then used to replace
+the stria and irregular lines of the reverse. These first efforts were
+without inscriptions; it was not long, however, before there came to be
+used, in addition to the figures, legends, from which we sometimes
+learn the name of the banker; we read, for instance, “I am the mark of
+Phannes,” on a stater of electrum struck at Ephesus, with a stag grazing
+on the right. We are ignorant as to which of the Lydian kings first made
+use of the new invention, and so threw into circulation the gold and
+electrum which filled his treasury to overflowing. The ancients say it
+was Gyges, but the Gygads of their time cannot be ascribed to him; they
+were, without any doubt, simply ingots marked with the stamp of the
+banker of the time, and were attributed to Gyges either out of pure
+imagination or by mistake.*
+
+     * The gold of Gyges is known to us through a passage in
+     Pollux. Fr. Lenormant attributed to Gyges the coins which
+     Babelon restores to the banks of Asia Minor. Babelon sees in
+     the Gygads only “ingots of gold, struck _possibly_ in the
+     name of Gyges, capable of being used as coin, doubtless
+     representing a definitely fixed weight, but still lacking
+     that ultimate perfection which characterises the coinage of
+     civilised peoples: from the standpoint of circulation in the
+     market their shape was defective and inconvenient; their
+     subdivision did not extend to such small fractions as to
+     make all payments easy; they were too large and too dear for
+     easy circulation through many hands.”
+
+The same must be said of the pieces of money which have been assigned
+to his successors, and, even when we find on them traces of writing, we
+cannot be sure of their identification; one legend which was considered
+to contain the name of Sadyattes has been made out, without producing
+conviction, as involving, instead, that of Clazomenæ. There is no
+certainty until after the time of Alyattes, that is, in the reign of
+Croesus. It is, as a fact, to this prince that we owe the fine gold and
+silver coins bearing on the obverse a demi-lion couchant confronting
+a bull treated similarly.* The two creatures appear to threaten one
+another, and the introduction of the lion recalls a tradition regarding
+the city of Sardes; it may represent the actual animal which was alleged
+to have been begotten by King Meles of one of his concubines, and which
+he caused to be carried solemnly round the city walls to render them
+impregnable.
+
+Croesus did not succeed to the throne of his father without trouble. His
+enemies had not laid down their arms after the Carian campaign, and they
+endeavoured to rid themselves of him by all the means in use at Oriental
+courts. The Ionian mother of his rival furnished the slave who kneaded
+the bread with poison, telling her to mix it with the dough, but the
+woman revealed the intended crime to her master, who at once took the
+necessary measures to frustrate the plot; later on in life he dedicated
+in the temple of Delphi a statue of gold representing the faithful
+bread-maker.** The chief of the rival party seems to have been
+Sadyattes, the banker from whom Croesus had endeavoured to borrow money
+at the beginning of his career, but several of the Lydian nobles, whose
+exercise of feudal rights had been restricted by the growing authority
+of the Mermnado, either secretly or openly gave their adhesion to
+Pantaleon, among them being Glaucias of Sidênê; the Greek cities, always
+ready to chafe at authority, were naturally inclined to support a
+claimant born of a Greek mother, and Pindarus the tyrant of Ephesus, and
+grandson of the Melas who had married the daughter of Gyges, joined the
+conspirators.
+
+     * Lenormant ascribed an issue of coins without inscriptions
+     to the kings Ardys, Sadyattes, and Alyattes, but this has
+     since been believed not to have been their work.
+
+     ** Herodotus mentions the statue of the bread-maker, giving
+     no reason why Crosus dedicated it. The author quoted by
+     Plutarch would have it that in revenge he made his half-
+     brothers eat the poisoned bread.
+
+[Illustration: 059.jpg VIEW OF THE SITE AND RUINS OF EPHESUS]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph.
+
+As soon as Alyattes was dead, Crosus, who was kept informed by his spies
+of their plans, took action with a rapidity which disconcerted his
+adversaries. It is not known what became of Pantaleon, whether he was
+executed or fled the country, but his friends were tortured to death or
+had to purchase their pardon dearly. Sadyattes was stretched on a rack
+and torn with carding combs.* Glaucias, besieged in his fortress of
+Sidênê, opened its gates after a desperate resistance; the king
+demolished the walls, and pronounced a solemn curse on those who should
+thereafter rebuild them. Pindarus, summoned to surrender, refused, but
+as he had not sufficient troops to defend the entire city, he evacuated
+the lower quarters, and concentrated all his forces on the defence of
+the citadel; he refused to open negotiations until after the fall of a
+tower at the moment when a practicable breach had been made, and
+succeeded in obtaining an honourable capitulation for himself and his
+people by a ruse.
+
+     * The history of Sadyattes and of his part in the conspiracy
+     results from points of agreement which have been established
+     between various passages in Herodotus and in Nicolas of
+     Damascus, where the person is sometimes named and sometimes
+     not.
+
+He dedicated the town to Artemis, and by means of a rope connected
+the city walls with the temple, which stood nearly a mile away in
+the suburbs, and then entreated for peace in the name of the goddess.
+Croesus was amused at the artifice, and granted favourable conditions to
+the inhabitants, but insisted on the expulsion of the tyrant. The latter
+bowed before the decree, and confiding the care of his children and
+possessions to his friend Pasicles, left for the Peloponnesus with his
+retinue. Bphesus up to this time had been a kind of allied principality,
+whose chiefs, united to the royal family of Lydia by marriages from
+generation to generation, recognised the nominal suzerainty of the
+reigning king rather than his effective authority. It was in fact
+a species of protectorate, which, while furthering the commercial
+interests of Lydia, satisfied at the same time the passion of the Greek
+cities for autonomy. Croesus, encouraged by his first success, could
+not rest contented with such a compromise. He attacked, successively,
+Miletus and the various Ionian, Æolian, and Dorian communities of
+the littoral, and brought them all under his sway, promising on their
+capitulation that their local constitutions should be respected if they
+became direct dependencies of his empire. He placed garrisons in such
+towns as were strategically important for him to occupy, but everywhere
+else he razed to the ground the fortresses and ramparts which might
+afford protection to his enemies in case of rebellion, compelling the
+inhabitants to take up their abode on the open plain where they could
+not readily defend themselves.* The administration of the affairs of
+each city was entrusted to either a wealthy citizen, or an hereditary
+tyrant, or an elected magistrate, who was held responsible for its
+loyalty; the administrator paid over the tribute to the sovereign’s
+treasurers, levied the specified contingent and took command of it in
+time of war, settled any quarrels which might occur, and was empowered,
+when necessary, to exile turbulent and ambitious persons whose words
+or actions appeared to him to be suspicious. Croesus treated with
+generosity those republics which tendered him loyal obedience, and
+affected a special devotion to their gods. He gave a large number of
+ex-voto offerings to the much-revered sanctuary of Bran-chidse, in the
+territory of Miletus; he dedicated some golden heifers at the Artemision
+of Ephesus, and erected the greater number of the columns of that temple
+at his own expense.**
+
+     * He treated thus the Ephesians and the Ilians.
+
+     ** The fragments of columns brought from this temple by Wood
+     and preserved in the British Museum have on one of the bases
+     the remains of an inscription confirming the testimony of
+     Herodotus.
+
+At one time in his career he appears to have contemplated extending his
+dominion over the Greek islands, and planned, as was said, the equipment
+of a fleet, but he soon acknowledged the imprudence of such a project,
+and confined his efforts to strengthening his advantageous position on
+the littoral by contracting alliances with the island populations and
+with the nations of Greece proper.*
+
+     * He seems to have been deterred from his project by a
+     sarcastic remark made, as some say, by Pittakos the
+     Mitylenian, or according to others, by Bias of Priênê.
+
+Following the diplomacy of his ancestors, he began by devoting himself
+to the gods of the country, and took every pains to gain the good graces
+of Apollo of Delphi. He dispensed his gifts with such liberality that
+neither his contemporaries nor subsequent generations grew weary
+of admiring it. On one occasion he is said to have sacrificed three
+thousand animals, and burnt, moreover, on the pyre the costly contents
+of a palace--couches covered with silver and gold, coverlets and robes
+of purple, and golden vials. His subjects were commanded to contribute
+to the offering, and he caused one hundred and seventeen hollow
+half-bricks to be cast of the gold which they brought him for this
+purpose. These bricks were placed in regular layers within the treasury
+at Delphi where the gifts of Lydia from the time of Alyattes were
+deposited, and the top of the pile was surmounted by a lion of fine
+gold of such a size that the pedestal and statue together were worth
+£1,200,000 of our present money. These, however, formed only a tithe of
+his gifts; many of the objects dedicated by him were dispersed half a
+century (548 B.C.) later when the temple was burnt, and found their
+way into the treasuries of the Greek states which enjoyed the favour
+of Apollo--among them being an enormous gold cup sent to Clazomeme, and
+four barrels of silver and two bowls, one of silver and one of gold,
+sent to the Corinthians. The people at Delphi, as well as their god,
+participated in the royal largesse, and Croesus distributed to them
+the sum of two staters per head. No doubt their gratitude led them by
+degrees to exaggerate the total of the benefits showered upon them,
+especially as time went on and their recollection of the king became
+fainter; but even when we reduce the number of the many gifts which
+they attributed to him, we are still obliged to acknowledge that they
+surpassed anything hitherto recorded, and that they produced throughout
+the whole of Greece the effect that Croesus had desired. The oracle
+granted to him and to the Lydians the rights of citizenship in
+perpetuity, the privilege of priority in consulting it before all
+comers, precedence for his legates over other foreign embassies, and a
+place of honour at the games and at all religious ceremonies. It was,
+in fact, the admission of Lydia into the Hellenic concert, and the
+offerings which Croesus showered upon the sanctuaries of lesser
+fame--that of Zeus at Dodona, of Amphiaraos at Oropos, of Trophonios at
+Lebadsea, on the oracle of Abee in Phocis, and on the Ismenian Apollo
+at Thebes--secured a general approval of the act. Political alliances
+contracted with the great families of Athens, the Alcmonidæ and
+Eupatridæ,* with the Cypselidæ of, Corinth,** and with the Heraclidæ of
+Sparta,*** completed the policy of bribery which Croesus had inaugurated
+in the sacerdotal republics, with the result that, towards 548, being in
+the position of uncontested patron of the Greeks of Asia, he could count
+upon the sympathetic neutrality of the majority of their compatriots in
+Europe, and on the effective support of a smaller number of them in
+the event of his being forced into hostilities with one or other of his
+Asiatic rivals.
+
+     * Traditions as to Crcesus’ relations with Alcrnseon are
+     preserved by Herodotus. The king compelled the inhabitants of
+     Lampsacus, his vassals, to release the elder Miltiades, whom
+     they had taken prisoner, and thus earned the gratitude of
+     the Eupatridæ.
+
+     ** Alyattes had been the ally of Periander, as is proved by
+     an anecdote in Herodotus. This friendship continued under
+     Crosus, for after the fall of the monarchy, when the special
+     treasuries of Lydia were suppressed, the ex-voto offerings
+     of the Lydian kings were deposited in the treasury of
+     Corinth.
+
+     *** According to Theopompus, the Lacedaemonians, wishing to
+     gild the face of the statue of the Amyclsean, Apollo, and
+     finding no gold in Greece, consulted the Delphian
+     prophetess: by her advice they sent to Lydia to buy the
+     precious metal from Croesus.
+
+This, however, constituted merely one side of his policy, and the
+negotiations which he carried on with his western neighbours were
+conducted simultaneously with his wars against those of the east.
+Alyattes had asserted his supremacy over the whole of the country on the
+western side of the Halys, but it was of a very vague kind, having no
+definite form, and devoid of practical results as far as several of the
+districts in the interior were concerned. Croesus made it a reality, and
+in less than ten years all the peoples contained within it, the Lycians
+excepted--Mysians, Phrygians, Mariandynians, Paphlagonians, Thynians,
+Bithynians, and Pamphylians--had rendered him homage. In its
+constitution his empire in no way differed from those which at that time
+shared the rule of Western Asia; the number of districts administered
+directly by the sovereign were inconsiderable, and most of the states
+comprised in it preserved their autonomy. Phrygia had its own princes,
+who were descendants of Midas,* and in the same way Caria and Mysia
+also retained theirs; but these vassal lords paid tribute and furnished
+contingents to their liege of Sardes, and garrisons lodged in their
+citadels as well as military stations or towns founded in strategic
+positions, such as Prusa** in Bithynia, Cibyra, Hyda, Grimenothyræ, and
+Temenothyræ,*** kept strict watch over them, securing the while free
+circulation for caravans or individual merchants throughout the whole
+country. Croesus had achieved his conquest just as Media was tottering
+to its fall under the attacks of the Persians.
+
+     * This is proved by the history of the Prince Adrastus in
+     Herodotus. Herodotus probably alluded to this colonisation
+     by Crcesus, when he said that the Mysians of Olympus were
+     descendants of Lydian colonists.
+
+     ** Strabo merely says that the Kibyrates were descended from
+     the Lydians who dwelt in Cabalia; since Croesus was, as far
+     as we know, the only Lydian king who ever possessed this
+     part of Asia, Radet, with good reason, concludes that Kibyra
+     was colonised by him.
+
+     *** Radet has given good reasons for believing that at least
+     some of these towns were enlarged and fortified by Croesus.
+
+Their victory placed the Lydian king in a position of great perplexity,
+since it annulled the treaties concluded after the eclipse of 585, and
+by releasing him from the obligations then contracted, afforded him an
+opportunity of extending the limits within which his father had confined
+himself. Now or never was the time for crossing the Halys in order to
+seize those mineral districts with which his subjects had so long had
+commercial relations; on the other hand, the unexpected energy of which
+the Persians had just given proof, their bravery, their desire for
+conquest, and the valour of their leader, all tended to deter him from
+the project: should he be victorious, Cyrus would probably not rest
+contented with tke annexation of a few unimportant districts or the
+imposition of a tribute, but would treat his adversary as he had
+Astyages, and having dethroned him, would divide Lydia into departments
+to be ruled by one or other of his partisans. Warlike ideas,
+nevertheless, prevailed at the court of Sardes, and, taking all into
+consideration, we cannot deny that they had reason on their side. The
+fall of Ecbatana had sealed the fate of Media proper, and its immediate
+dependencies had naturally shared the fortunes of the capital; but the
+more distant provinces still wavered, and they would probably attempt
+to take advantage of the change of rule to regain their liberty. Cyrus,
+obliged to take up arms against them, would no longer have his entire
+forces at his disposal, and by attacking him at that juncture it might
+be possible to check his power before it became irresistible. Having
+sketched out his plan of campaign, Croesus prepared to execute it with
+all possible celerity. Egypt and Chaldæa, like himself, doubtless felt
+themselves menaced; he experienced little difficulty in persuading them
+to act in concert with him in face of the common peril, and he obtained
+from both Amasis and Nabonidus promises of effective co-operation. At
+the same time he had recourse to the Greek oracles, and that of
+Delphi was instrumental in obtaining for him a treaty of alliance and
+friendship with Sparta. Negotiations had been carried on so rapidly,
+that by the end of 548 all was in readiness for a simultaneous movement;
+Sparta was equipping a fleet, and merely awaited the return of the
+favourable season to embark her contingent; Egypt had already despatched
+hers, and her Cypriot vassals were on the point of starting, while bands
+of Thracian infantry were marching to reinforce the Lydian army. These
+various elements represented so considerable a force of men, that, had
+they been ranged on a field of battle, Cyrus would have experienced
+considerable difficulty in overcoming them. An unforeseen act of
+treachery obliged the Lydians to hasten their preparations and commence
+hostilities before the moment agreed on. Eurybatos, an Ephesian, to whom
+the king had entrusted large sums of money for the purpose of raising
+mercenaries in the Peloponnesus, fled with his gold into Persia, and
+betrayed the secret of the coalition. The Achaemenian sovereign did not
+hesitate to forestall the attack, and promptly assumed the offensive.
+The transport of an army from Ecbatana to the middle course of the
+Halys would have been a long and laborious undertaking, even had it kept
+within the territory of the empire; it would have necessitated crossing
+the mountain groups of Armenia at their greatest width, and that at a
+time when the snow was still lying deep upon the ground and the torrents
+were swollen and unfordable. The most direct route, which passed through
+Assyria and the part of Mesopotamia south of the Masios, lay for the
+most part in the hands of the Chaldæans, but their enfeebled condition
+justified Cyrus’s choice of it, and he resolved, in the event of their
+resistance, to cut his way through sword in hand. He therefore bore
+down upon Arbela by the gorges of Rowandîz in the month Nisan, making as
+though he were bound for Karduniash; but before the Babylonians had time
+to recover from their alarm at this movement, he crossed the river not
+far from Nineveh and struck into Mesopotamia. He probably skirted the
+slopes of the Masios, overcoming and killing in the month Iyyâr
+some petty king, probably the ruler of Armenia,* and debouched into
+Cappadocia. This province was almost entirely in the power of the enemy;
+Nabonidus had despatched couriers by the shortest route in order to warn
+his ally, and if necessary to claim his promised help.
+
+     * Ploigl, who was the first to refer a certain passage in
+     the _Annals of Nabonidus_ to the expedition against Croesus,
+     restored Is[parda] as the name of the country mentioned, and
+     saw even the capture of Sardes in the events of the month
+     Iyyâr, in direct contradiction to the Greek tradition. The
+     connection between the campaign beyond the Tigris and the
+     Lydian war seems to me incontestable, but the Babylonian
+     chronicler has merely recorded the events which affected
+     Babylonia. Cyrus’ object was both to intimidate Nabonidus
+     and also to secure possession of the most direct, and at the
+     same time the easiest, route: by cutting across Mesopotamia,
+     he avoided the difficult marches in the mountainous
+     districts of Armenia. Perhaps we should combine, with the
+     information of the _Annals_, the passage of Xenophon, where
+     it is said that the Armenians refused tribute and service to
+     the King of Persia: Cyrus would have punished the rebels on
+     his way, after crossing the Euphrates.
+
+Croesus, when he received them, had with him only the smaller portion of
+his army, the Lydian cavalry, the contingents of his Asiatic subjects,
+and a few Greek veterans, and it would probably have been wiser to defer
+the attack till after the disembarkation of the Lacedaemonians; but
+hesitation at so critical a moment might have discouraged his followers,
+and decided his fate before any action had taken place. He therefore
+collected his troops together, fell upon the right bank of the Halys,*
+devastated the country, occupied Pteria and the neighbouring towns,
+and exiled the inhabitants to a distance. He had just completed the
+subjection of the White Syrians when he was met by an emissary from the
+Persians; Cyrus offered him his life, and confirmed his authority on
+condition of his pleading for mercy and taking the oath of vassalage.**
+Croesus sent a proud refusal, which was followed by a brilliant
+victory, after which a truce of three months was concluded between the
+belligerents.***
+
+     * On this point Herodotus tells a current story of his time:
+     Thaïes had a trench dug behind the army, which was probably
+     encamped in one of the bends made by the Halys; he then
+     diverted the stream into this new bed, with the result that
+     the Lydians found themselves on the right bank of the river
+     without having had the trouble of crossing it.
+
+     ** Nicolas of Damascus records that Cyrus, after the capture
+     of Sardes, for a short time contemplated making Croesus a
+     vassal king, or at least a satrap of Lydia.
+
+     *** We have two very different accounts of this campaign,
+     viz. that of Herodotus, and that of Polyonus. According to
+     Herodotus, Croesus gave battle only once in Pteria, with
+     indecisive result, and on the next day quietly retired to
+     his kingdom, thinking that Cyrus would not dare to pursue
+     him. According to Polyonus, Croesus, victorious in a first
+     engagement owing to a more or less plausible military
+     stratagem, consented to a truce, but on the day after was
+     completely defeated, and obliged to return to his kingdom
+     with a routed army. Herodotus’ account of the fall of
+     Croesus and of Sardes, borrowed partly from a good written
+     source, Xanthus or Charon of Lampsacus, partly from the
+     tradition of the Harpagidse, seems to have for its object
+     the soothing of the vanity both of the Persians and of the
+     Lydians, since, if the result of the war could not be
+     contested, the issue of the battle was at least left
+     uncertain. If he has given a faithful account, no one can
+     understand why Croesus should have retired and ceded White
+     Syria to a rival who had never conquered him. The account
+     given by Polysenus, in spite of the improbability of some of
+     its details, comes from a well-informed author: the defeat
+     of the Lydians in the second battle explains the retreat of
+     Crcesus, who is without excuse in Herodotus’ version of the
+     affair. Pompeius Trogus adopted a version similar to that of
+     Polysenus.
+
+Cyrus employed the respite in attempting to win over the Greek cities
+of the littoral, which he pictured to himself as nursing a bitter
+hatred against the Mermnadæ; but it is to be doubted if his emissaries
+succeeded even in wresting a declaration of neutrality from the
+Milesians; the remainder, Ionians and Æolians, all continued faithful
+to their oaths.* On the resumption of hostilities, the tide of fortune
+turned, and the Lydians were crushed by the superior forces of the
+Persians and the Medes; Crcesus retired under cover of night, burning
+the country as he retreated, to prevent the enemy from following him,
+and crossed the Halys with the remains of his battalions. The season was
+already far advanced; he thought that the Persians, threatened in the
+rear by the Babylonian troops, would shrink from the prospect of a
+winter campaign, and he fell back upon Sardes without further lingering
+in Phrygia. But Nabonidus did not feel himself called upon to show the
+same devotion that his ally had evinced towards him, or perhaps the
+priests who governed in his name did not permit him to fulfil his
+engagements.**
+
+     * Herodotus makes the attempted corruption of the Ionians to
+     date from the beginning of the war, even before Cyrus took
+     the field.
+
+     ** The author followed by Pompeius Trogus has alone
+     preserved the record of this treaty. The fact is important
+     as explaining Croesus’ behaviour after his defeat, but
+     Schubert goes too far when he re-establishes on this ground
+     an actual campaign of Cyrus against Babylon: Radet has come
+     back to the right view in seeing only a treaty made with
+     Nabonidus.
+
+As soon as peace was proposed, he accepted terms, without once
+considering the danger to which the Lydians were exposed by his
+defection. The Persian king raised his camp as soon as all fear of an
+attack to rearward was removed, and, falling upon defenceless Phrygia,
+pushed forward to Sardes in spite of the inclemency of the season. No
+movement could have been better planned, or have produced such
+startling results. Croesus had disbanded the greater part of his feudal
+contingents, and had kept only his body-guard about him, the remainder
+of his army--natives, mercenaries, and allies--having received orders
+not to reassemble till the following spring. The king hastily called
+together all his available troops, both Lydians and foreigners,
+and confronted his enemies for the second time. Even under these
+unfavourable conditions he hoped to gain the advantage, had his cavalry,
+the finest in the world, been able to take part in the engagement. But
+Cyrus had placed in front of his lines a detachment of camels, and the
+smell of these animals so frightened the Lydian horses that they snorted
+and refused to charge.*
+
+     * Herodotus’ mention of the use of camels is confirmed, with
+     various readings, by Xenophon, by Polysenus, and by Ælian;
+     their employment does not necessarily belong to a legendary
+     form of the story, especially if we suppose that the camel,
+     unknown before in Asia Minor, was first introduced there by
+     the Persian army. The site of the battle is not precisely
+     known. According to Herodotus, the fight took place in the
+     great plain before Sardes, which is crossed by several small
+     tributaries of the Hermus, amongst others the Hyllus. Radet
+     recognises that the Hyllus of Herodotus is the whole or part
+     of the stream now called the Kusu-tchaî, and he places the
+     scene of action near the township of Adala, which would
+     correspond with Xenophon’s Thymbrara. This continues to be
+     the most likely hypothesis. After the battle Croesus would
+     have fled along the Hermus towards Sardes. Xenophon’s story
+     is a pure romance.
+
+Croesus was again worsted on the confines of the plain of the Hermus,
+and taking refuge in the citadel of Sardes, he despatched couriers to
+his allies in Greece and Egypt to beg for succour without delay. The
+Lacedaemonians hurried on the mobilisation of their troops, and their
+vessels were on the point of weighing anchor, when the news arrived
+that Sardes had fallen in the early days of December, and that Croesus
+himself was a prisoner.* How the town came to be taken, the Greeks
+themselves never knew, and their chroniclers have given several
+different accounts of the event.**
+
+     * Radet gives the date of the capture of Sardes as about
+     November 15, 546; but the number and importance of the
+     events occurring between the retreat of Croesus and the
+     decisive catastrophe--the negotiations with Babylon, the
+     settling into winter quarters, the march of Cyrus across
+     Phrygia--must have required a longer time than Radet allots
+     to them in his hypothesis, and I make the date a month
+     later.
+
+     ** Ctesias and Xenophon seem to depend on Herodotus, the
+     former with additional fabulous details concerning his
+     OEbaras, Cyrus’ counsellor, which show the probable origin
+     of his additions. Polysenus had at his disposal a different
+     story, the same probably that he used for his account of the
+     campaign in Cappadocia, for in it can be recognised the wish
+     to satisfy, within possible limits, the pride of the
+     Lydians: here again the decisive success is preceded by a
+     check given to Cyrus and a three months’ truce.
+
+The least improbable is that found in Herodotus. The blockade had
+lasted, so he tells us, fourteen days, when Cyrus announced that he
+would richly reward the first man to scale the walls. Many were tempted
+by his promises, but were unsuccessful in their efforts, and their
+failure had discouraged all further attempts, when a Mardian soldier,
+named Hyreades, on duty at the foot of the steep slopes overlooking the
+Tmolus, saw a Lydian descend from rock to rock in search of his helmet
+which he had lost, and regain the city by the same way without any great
+difficulty. He noted carefully the exact spot, and in company with a few
+comrades climbed up till he reached the ramparts; others followed, and
+taking the besieged unawares, they opened the gates to the main body of
+the army.*
+
+     * About three and a half centuries later Sardes was captured
+     in the same way by one of the generals of Antiochus the
+     Great.
+
+Croesus could not bear to survive the downfall of his kingdom: he
+erected a funeral pyre in the courtyard of his palace, and took up his
+position on it, together with his wives, his daughters, and the noblest
+youths of his court, surrounded by his most precious possessions.
+He could cite the example of more than one vanquished monarch of the
+ancient Asiatic world in choosing such an end, and one of the fabulous
+ancestors of his race, Sandon-Herakles, had perished after this fashion
+in the midst of the flames. Was the sacrifice carried out? Everything
+leads us to believe that it was, but popular feeling could not be
+resigned to the idea that a prince who had shown such liberality towards
+the gods in his prosperity should be abandoned by them in the time
+of his direst need. They came to believe that the Lydian monarch had
+expiated by his own defeat the crime by the help of which his ancestor
+Gyges had usurped the throne. Apollo had endeavoured to delay the
+punishment till the next generation, that it might fall on the son of
+his votary, but he had succeeded in obtaining from fate a respite of
+three years only. Even then he had not despaired, and had warned Croesus
+by the voice of the oracles. They had foretold him that, in crossing the
+Halys, the Lydians ^would destroy a great empire, and that their power
+would last till the day when a mule should sit upon the throne of Media.
+Croesus, blinded by fate, could not see that Cyrus, who was of mixed
+race, Persian by his father and Median by his mother, was the predicted
+mule. He therefore crossed the Halys, and a great empire fell, but it
+was his own. At all events, the god might have desired to show that to
+honour his altars and adorn his temple was in itself, after all, the
+best of treasures. “When Sardes, suffering the vengeance of Zeus, was
+conquered by the army of the Persians, the god of the golden sword,
+Apollo, was the guardian of Croesus. When the day of despair arrived,
+the king could not resign himself to tears and servitude; within the
+brazen-walled court he erected a funeral pyre, on which, together with
+his chaste spouse and his bitterly lamenting daughters of beautiful
+locks, he mounted; he raised his hands towards the depths of the ether
+and cried: ‘Proud fate, where is the gratitude of the gods, where is the
+prince, the child of Leto? Where is now the house of Alyattes?... The
+ancient citadel of Sardes has fallen, the Pactolus of golden waves
+runs red with blood; ignominiously are the women driven from their
+well-decked chambers! That which was once my hated foe is now my friend,
+and the sweetest thing is to die!’ Thus he spoke, and ordered the softly
+moving eunuch* to set fire to the wooden structure.
+
+     * The word translated “softly moving eunuch” is here perhaps
+     a proper name: the slave whose duty it was to kindle the
+     pyre was called Abrobatas in the version of the story chosen
+     by Bacchylides, while that adopted by the potter whose work
+     is reproduced on the opposite page, calls him Euthymos.
+
+The maidens shrieked and threw their arms around their mother, for the
+death before them was that most hated by mortals. But just when the
+sparkling fury of the cruel fire had spread around, Zeus, calling up a
+black-flanked cloud, extinguished the yellow flame.
+
+Nothing is incredible of that which the will of the gods has decreed:
+Apollo of Delos, seizing the old man, bore him, together with his
+daughters of tender feet, into the Hyperborean land as a reward for
+his piety, for no mortal had sent richer offerings to the illustrious
+Pythô!”
+
+[Illustration: 075.jpg CIMESUS ON HIS PYRE]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph of the original in
+     the Museum of the Louvre.
+
+This miraculous ending delighted the poets and inspired many fine
+lines, but history could with difficulty accommodate itself to such a
+materialistic intervention of a divine being, and sought a less
+fabulous solution. The legend which appeared most probable to the worthy
+Herodotus did not even admit that the Lydian king took his own life;
+it was Cyrus who condemned him, either with a view of devoting the
+first-fruits of his victory to the immortals, or to test whether the
+immortals would save the rival whose piety had been so frequently held
+up to his admiration. The edges of the pyre had already taken light,
+when the Lydian king sighed and thrice repeated the name of Solon. It
+was a tardy recollection of a conversation in which the Athenian sage
+had stated, without being believed, that none can be accounted truly
+happy while they still live. Cyrus, applying it to himself, was seized
+with remorse or pity, and commanded the bystanders to quench the fire,
+but their efforts were in vain. Thereupon Croesus implored the pity of
+Apollo, and suddenly the sky, which up till then had been serene and
+clear, became overcast; thick clouds collected, and rain fell so
+heavily that the burning pile was at once extinguished.*
+
+     * The story told by Nicolas of Damascus comes down probably
+     from Xanthus of Lydia, but with many additions borrowed
+     directly from Herodotus and rhetorical developments by the
+     author himself. Most other writers who tell the story depend
+     for their information, either directly or indirectly, on
+     Herodotus: in later times it was supposed that the Lydian
+     king was preserved from the flames by the use of some
+     talisman such as the Ephesian letters.
+
+Well treated by his conqueror, the Lydian king is said to have become
+his friend and most loyal counsellor; he accepted from him the fief of
+Barênê in Media, often accompanied him in his campaigns, and on more
+than one occasion was of great service to him by the wise advice which
+he gave.
+
+We may well ask what would have taken place had he gained the decisive
+victory over Cyrus that he hoped. Chaldæa possessed merely the semblance
+of her former greatness and power, and if she still maintained her hold
+over Mesopotamia, Syria, Phoenicia, and parts of Arabia, it was because
+these provinces, impoverished by the Assyrian conquest, and entirely
+laid waste by the Scythians, had lost the most energetic elements
+of their populations, and felt themselves too much enfeebled to
+rise against their suzerain. Egypt, like Chaldæa, was in a state of
+decadence, and even though her Pharaohs attempted to compensate for the
+inferiority of their native troops by employing foreign mercenaries,
+their attempts at Asiatic rule always issued in defeat, and just as the
+Babylonian sovereigns were unable to reduce them to servitude, so they
+on their part were powerless to gain an advantage over the sovereigns of
+Babylon. Hence Lydia, in her youth and vigour, would have found little
+difficulty in gaining the ascendency over her two recent allies, but
+beyond that she could not hope to push her success; her restricted
+territory, sparse population, and outlying position would always have
+debarred her from exercising any durable dominion over them, and though
+absolute mistress of Asia Minor, the countries beyond the Taurus were
+always destined to elude her grasp. If the Achæmenian, therefore, had
+confined himself, at all events for the time being, to the ancient
+limits of his kingdom, Egypt and Chaldæa would have continued to
+vegetate each within their respective area, and the triumph of Croesus
+would, on the whole, have caused but little change in the actual balance
+of power in the East.
+
+The downfall of Croesus, on the contrary, marked a decisive era in the
+world’s history. His army was the only one, from the point of numbers
+and organisation, which was a match for that of Cyrus, and from the day
+of its dispersion it was evident that neither Egypt nor Chaldæa had any
+chance of victory on the battle-field. The subjection of Babylon and
+Harrân, of Hamath, Damascus, Tyre and Sidon, of Memphis and Thebes, now
+became merely a question of time, and that not far distant; the whole of
+Asia, and that part of Africa which had been the oldest cradle of human
+civilisation, were now to pass into the hands of one man and form a
+single empire, for the benefit of the new race which was issuing forth
+in irresistible strength from the recesses of the Iranian table-land. It
+was destined, from the very outset, to come into conflict with an
+older, but no less vigorous race than itself, that of the Greeks, whose
+colonists, after having swarmed along the coasts of the Mediterranean,
+were now beginning to quit the seaboard and penetrate wherever they
+could into the interior.
+
+[Illustration: 078.jpg A PERSIAN KING FIGHTING WITH GREEKS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from an intaglio reproduced in the
+     _Antiquités du Bosphore cimmérien._
+
+They had been on friendly terms with that dynasty of the Meramadæ
+who had shown reverence for the Hellenic gods; they had, as a whole,
+disdained to betray Croesus, or to turn upon him when he was in
+difficulties beyond the Halys; and now that he had succumbed to his
+fate, they considered that the ties which had bound them to Sardes were
+broken, and they were determined to preserve their independence at all
+costs. This spirit of insubordination would have to be promptly dealt
+with and tightly curbed, if perpetual troubles in the future were to
+be avoided. The Asianic peoples soon rallied round their new
+master--Phrygians, Mysians, the inhabitants on the shores of the Black
+Sea, and those of the Pamphylian coast;* even Cilicia, which had held
+its own against Chaldæa, Media, and Lydia, was now brought under the
+rising power, and its kings were henceforward obedient to the Persian
+rule.**
+
+     * None of the documents actually say this, but the general
+     tenor of Herodotus’ account seems to show clearly that, with
+     the exception of the Greek cities of the Carians and
+     Lycians, all the peoples who had formed part of the Lydian
+     dominion under Croesus submitted, without any appreciable
+     resistance, after the taking of Sardes.
+
+     ** Herodotus mentions a second Syennesis king of Cilicia
+     forty years later at the time of the Ionian revolt.
+
+The two leagues of the Ionians and Æolians had at first offered to
+recognise Cyrus as their suzerain under the same conditions as those
+with which Croesus had been satisfied; but he had consented to accept
+it only in the case of Miletus, and had demanded from the rest an
+unconditional surrender. This they had refused, and, uniting in a common
+cause perhaps for the first time in their existence, they had resolved
+to take up arms. As the Persians possessed no fleet, the Creeks had
+nothing to fear from the side of the Ægean, and the severity of the
+winter prevented any attack being made from the land side till the
+following spring. They meanwhile sought the aid of their mother-country,
+and despatched an embassy to the Spartans; the latter did not consider
+it prudent to lend them troops, as they would have done in the case of
+Croesus, but they authorised Lakrines, one of their principal citizens,
+to demand of the great king that he should respect the Hellenic cities,
+under pain of incurring their enmity.
+
+[Illustration: 080.jpg THE PRESENT SITE OF MILETUS]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph.
+
+Cyrus was fully occupied with the events then taking place in the
+eastern regions of Iran; Babylon had not ventured upon any move after
+having learned the news of the fall of Sardes, but the Bactrians and the
+Sakæ had been in open revolt during the whole of the year that he had
+been detained in the extreme west, and a still longer absence might risk
+the loss of his prestige in Media, and even in Persia itself.*
+
+     * The tradition followed by Ctesias maintained that the
+     submission of the eastern peoples was an accomplished fact
+     when the Lydian war began. That adopted by Herodotus placed
+     this event after the fall of Croesus; at any rate, it showed
+     that fear of the Bactrians and the Sakæ, as well as of the
+     Babylonians and Egyptians was the cause that hastened Cyrus’
+     retreat.
+
+The threat of the Lacedaæmonians had little effect upon him; he
+inquired as to what Sparta and Greece were, and having been informed,
+he ironically begged the Lacedæmonian envoy to thank his compatriots for
+the good advice with which they had honoured him; “but,” he added, “take
+care that I do not soon cause you to babble, not of the ills of the
+Ionians, but of your own.” He confided the government of Sardes to one
+of his officers, named Tabalos, and having entrusted Paktyas, one of the
+Lydians who had embraced his cause, with the removal of the treasures
+of Croesus to Persia, he hastily set out for Ecbatana. He had scarcely
+accomplished half of his journey when a revolt broke out in his rear;
+Paktyas, instead of obeying his instructions, intrigued with the
+Ionians, and, with the mercenaries he had hired from them, besieged
+Tabalos in the citadel of Sardes. If the place capitulated, the entire
+conquest would have to be repeated; fortunately it held out, and
+its resistance gave Cyrus time to send its governor reinforcements,
+commanded by Mazares the Median. As soon as they approached the city,
+Paktyas, conscious that he had lost the day, took refuge at Kymê. Its
+inhabitants, on being summoned to deliver him up, refused, but helped
+him to escape to Mytilene, where the inhabitants of the island attempted
+to sell him to the enemy for a large sum of money. The Kymæans saved him
+a second time, and conveyed him to the temple of Athene Poliarchos
+at Chios. The citizens, however, dragged him from his retreat, and
+delivered him over to the Median general in exchange for Atarneus, a
+district of Mysia, the possession of which they were disputing with the
+Lesbians.* Paktyas being a prisoner, the Lydians were soon recalled
+to order, and Mazares was able to devote his entire energies to the
+reduction of the Greek cities; but he had accomplished merely the sack
+of Priênê,** and the devastation of the suburbs of Magnesia on the
+æander, when he died from some illness.
+
+     * A passage which has been preserved of Charon of Lampsacus
+     sums up in a few words the account given by Herodotus of the
+     adventures of Paktyas, but without mentioning the treachery
+     of the islanders: he confines himself to saying Cyrus caught
+     the fugitive after the latter had successively left Chios
+     and Mytilene.
+
+     ** Herodotus attributes the taking of this city to the
+     Persian Tabules, who is evidently the Tabalos of Herodotus.
+
+The Median Harpagus, to whom tradition assigns so curious a part as
+regards Astyages and the infant Cyrus, succeeded him as governor of the
+ancient Lydian kingdom, and completed the work which he had begun.
+The first two places to be besieged were Phocæa and Teos, but their
+inhabitants preferred exile to slavery; the Phocæans sailed away to
+found Marseilles in the western regions of the Mediterranean, and
+the people of Teos settled along the coast of Thracia, near to the
+gold-mines of the Pangseus, and there built Abdera on the site of an
+ancient Clazomenian colony. The other Greek towns were either taken by
+assault or voluntarily opened their gates, so that ere long both Ionians
+and Æolians were, with the exception of the Samians, under Persian rule.
+The very position of the latter rendered them safe from attack; without
+a fleet they could not be approached, and the only people who could have
+furnished Cyrus with vessels were the Phoenicians, who were not as yet
+under his power. The rebellion having been suppressed in this quarter,
+Harpagus made a descent into Caria; the natives hastened to place
+themselves under the Persian yoke, and the Dorian colonies scattered
+along the coast, Halicarnas-sus, Cnidos, and the islands of Cos and
+Rhodes, followed their examples, but Lycia refused to yield without a
+struggle.
+
+[Illustration: 083.jpg A LYCIAN CITY UPON ITS INACCESSIBLE ROCK]
+
+     The rock and tombs of Tlôs, drawn by Boudier, from the view
+     in Fellows.
+
+Its steep mountain chains, its sequestered valleys, its towns and
+fortresses perched on inaccessible rocks, all rendered it easy for the
+inhabitants to carry on a successful petty warfare against the enemy.
+The inhabitants of Xanthos, although very inferior in numbers, issued
+down into the plain and disputed the victory with the invaders for a
+considerable time; at length their defeat and the capitulation of their
+town induced the remainder of the Lycians to lay down arms, and brought
+about the final pacification of the peninsula. It was parcelled out into
+several governorships, according to its ethnographical affinities;
+as for instance, the governorship of Lydia, that of Ionia, that of
+Phrygia,* and others whose names are unknown to us. Harpàgus appeared
+to have resided at Sardes, and exercised vice-regal functions over the
+various districts, but he obtained from the king an extensive property
+in Lycia and in Caria, which subsequently caused these two provinces to
+be regarded as an appanage of his family.
+
+     * Herodotus calls a certain Mitrobates satrap of Daskylion;
+     he had perhaps been already given this office by Cyrus.
+     Orcetes had been made governor of Ionia and Lydia by Cyrus.
+
+While thus consolidating his first conquest, Cyrus penetrated into the
+unknown regions of the far East. Nothing would have been easier for him
+than to have fallen upon Babylon and overthrown, as it were by the way,
+the decadent rule of Nabonidus; but the formidable aspect which the
+empire still presented, in spite of its enfeebled condition, must have
+deceived him, and he was unwilling to come into conflict with it until
+he had made a final reckoning with the restless and unsettled peoples
+between the Caspian and the slopes on the Indian side of the table-land
+of Iran. As far as we are able to judge, they were for the most part of
+Iranian extraction, and had the same religion, institutions, and customs
+as the Medes and Persians. Tradition had already referred the origin of
+Zoroaster, and the scene of his preaching, to Bactriana, that land of
+heroes whose exploits formed the theme of Persian epic song. It is not
+known, as we have already had occasion to remark, by what ties it was
+bound to the empire of Cyaxares, nor indeed if it ever had been actually
+attached to it. We do not possess, unfortunately, more than almost
+worthless scraps of information on this part of the reign of Cyrus,
+perhaps the most important period of it, since then, for the first
+time, peoples who had been hitherto strangers to the Asiatic world were
+brought within its influence. If Ctesias is to be credited, Bactriana
+was one of the first districts to be conquered. Its inhabitants were
+regarded as being among the bravest of the East, and furnished the best
+soldiers. They at first obtained some successes, but laid down arms on
+hearing that Cyrus had married a daughter of Astyages.* This tradition
+was prevalent at a time when the Achaemenians were putting forward the
+theory that they, and Cyrus before them, were the legitimate successors
+of the old Median sovereigns; they welcomed every legend which tended to
+justify their pretensions, and this particular one was certain to please
+them, since it attributed the submission of Bactriana not to a mere
+display of brute force, but to the recognition of an hereditary right.
+The annexation of this province entailed, as a matter of course, that
+of Margiana, of the Khoramnians,** and of Sogdiana. Cyrus constructed
+fortresses in all these districts, the most celebrated being that
+of Kyropolis, which commanded one of the principal fords of the
+Iaxartes.***
+
+     * This is the campaign which Ctesias places before the
+     Lydian war, but which Herodotus relegates to a date after
+     the capture of Sardes.
+
+     ** Ctesias must have spoken of the submission of these
+     peoples, for a few words of a description which he gave of
+     the Khoramnians have been preserved to us.
+
+     *** Tomaschek identifies Kyra or Kyropolis with the present
+     Ura-Tepe, but distinguishes it from the Kyreskhata of
+     Ptolemy, to which he assigns a site near Usgent.
+
+The steppes of Siberia arrested his course on the north, but to the
+east, in the mountains of Chinese Turkestan, the Sakas, who were
+renowned for their wealth and bravery, did not escape his ambitious
+designs. The account which has come down to us of his campaigns against
+them is a mere romance of love and adventure, in which real history
+plays a very small part. He is said to have attacked and defeated
+them at the first onset, taking their King Amorges prisoner; but this
+capture, which Cyrus considered a decisive advantage, was supposed to
+have turned the tide of fortune against him. Sparêthra, the wife of
+Amorges, rallied the fugitives round her, defeated the invaders in
+several engagements, and took so many of their men captive, that they
+were glad to restore her husband to her in exchange for the prisoners
+she had made. The struggle finally ended, however, in the subjection of
+the Sakae; they engaged to pay tribute, and thenceforward constituted
+the advance-guard of the Iranians against the Nomads of the East. Cyrus,
+before quitting their neighbourhood, again ascended the table-land, and
+reduced Ariana, Thatagus, Harauvati, Zaranka, and the country of Cabul;
+and we may well ask if he found leisure to turn southwards beyond Lake
+Hamun and reach the shores of the Indian Ocean. One tradition, of little
+weight, relates that, like Alexander at a later date, he lost his army
+in the arid deserts of Gedrosia; the one fact that remains is that the
+conquest of Gedrosia was achieved, but the details of it are lost. The
+period covered by his campaigns was from five to six years, from 545 to
+539, but Cyrus returned from these expeditions into the unknown only to
+plan fresh undertakings. There remained nothing now to hinder him from
+marching against the Chaldæans, and the discord prevailing at Babylon
+added to his chance of success. Nabonidus’s passion for archæology
+had in no way lessened since the opening of his reign. The temple
+restorations prompted by it absorbed the bulk of his revenues. He made
+excavations in the sub-structures of the most ancient sanctuaries,
+such as Larsam, Uruk, Uru, Sippar, and Nipur; and when his digging was
+rewarded by the discovery of cylinders placed there by his predecessors,
+his delight knew no bounds. Such finds constituted the great events of
+his life, in comparison with which the political revolutions of Asia
+and Africa diminished in importance day by day. It is difficult to tell
+whether this indifference to the weighty affairs of government was as
+complete as it appears to us at this distance of time. Certain facts
+recorded in the official chronicles of that date go to prove that,
+except in name and external pomp, the king was a nonentity. The real
+power lay in the hands of the nobles and generals, and Bel-sharuzur, the
+king’s son, directed affairs for them in his father’s name. Nabonidus
+meanwhile resided in a state of inactivity at his palace of Tima, and it
+is possible that his condition may have really been that of a prisoner,
+for he never left Tima to go to Babylon, even on the days of great
+festivals, and his absence prevented the celebration of the higher
+rites of the national religion, with the procession of Bel and its
+accompanying ceremonies, for several consecutive years. The people
+suffered from these quarrels in high places; not only the native
+Babylonians or Kaldâ, who were thus deprived of their accustomed
+spectacles, and whose piety was scandalised by these dissensions, but
+also the foreign races dispersed over Mesopotamia, from the confluence
+of the Khabur to the mouths of the Euphrates. Too widely scattered or
+too weak to make an open declaration of their independence, their hopes
+and their apprehensions were alternately raised by the various reports
+of hostilities which reached their ears. The news of the first
+victories of the Persians aroused in the exiled Jews the idea of speedy
+deliverance, and Cyrus clearly appeared to them as the hero chosen by
+Jahveh to reinstate them in the country, of their forefathers.
+
+The number of the Jewish exiles, which perhaps at first had not exceeded
+20,000* had largely increased in the half-century of their captivity,
+and even if numerically they were of no great importance, their social
+condition entitled them to be considered as the _élite_ of all Israel.
+
+     * The body of exiles of 597 consisted of ten thousand
+     persons, of whom seven thousand belonged to the wealthy, and
+     one thousand to the artisan class, while the remainder
+     consisted of people attached to the court (2 Kings xxiv. 14-
+     16). In the body of 587 are reckoned three thousand and
+     twenty-three inhabitants of Judah, and eight hundred and
+     thirty-two dwellers in Jerusalem. But the body of exiles of
+     581 numbers only seven hundred and forty-five persons (Jer.
+     lii. 30). These numbers are sufficiently moderate to be
+     possibly exact, but they are far from being certain.
+
+There had at first been the two kings, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah, their
+families, the aristocracy of Judah, the priests and pontiff of the
+temple, the prophets, the most skilled of the artisan class and the
+soldiery. Though distributed over Babylon and the neighbouring cities,
+we know from authentic sources of only one of their settlements, that
+of Tell-Abîb on the Chebar* though many of the Jewish colonies which
+flourished thereabouts in Roman times could undoubtedly trace their
+origin to the days of the captivity; one legend found in the Talmud
+affirmed that the synagogue of Shafyâthîb, near Nehardaa, had been built
+by King Jehoiachin with stones brought from the ruins of the temple at
+Jerusalem. These communities enjoyed a fairly complete autonomy, and
+were free to administer their own affairs as they pleased, provided that
+they paid their tribute or performed their appointed labours without
+complaint. The shêkhs, or elders of the family or tribe, who had played
+so important a part in their native land, still held their respective
+positions; the Chaldæans had permitted them to retain all the
+possessions which they had been able to bring with them into exile, and
+recognised them as the rulers of their people, who were responsible to
+their conquerors for the obedience of those under them, leaving them
+entire liberty to exercise their authority so long as they maintained
+order and tranquillity among their subordinates.**
+
+     * Ezek. iii. 15. The Chebar or Kebar has been erroneously
+     identified with the Khabur; cuneiform documents show that it
+     was one of the canals near Nipur.
+
+     ** Cf. the assemblies of these chiefs at the house of
+     Ezekiel and their action (viii. 1; xiv. 1; xx. 1).
+
+How the latter existed, and what industries they pursued in order to
+earn their daily bread, no writer of the time has left on record. The
+rich plain of the Euphrates differed so widely from the soil to which
+they had been accustomed in the land of Judah, with its bare or sparsely
+wooded hills, slopes cultivated in terraces, narrow and ill-watered
+wadys, and tortuous and parched valleys, that they must have felt
+themselves much out of their element in their Chaldæan surroundings.
+They had all of them, however, whether artisans, labourers, soldiers,
+gold-workers, or merchants, to earn their living, and they succeeded in
+doing so, following meanwhile the advice of Jeremiah, by taking every
+precaution that the seed of Israel should not be diminished.* The
+imagination of pious writers of a later date delighted to represent the
+exiled Jews as giving way to apathy and vain regrets: “By the rivers of
+Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. Upon
+the willows in the midst thereof we hanged up our harps. For there
+they that led us captive required of us songs, and they that wasted
+us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How
+shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” **
+
+     * Jer. xxix. 1-7.
+
+     ** Ps. cxxxvii. 1-4.
+
+This was true of the priests and scribes only. A blank had been made in
+their existence from the moment when the conqueror had dragged them
+from the routine of daily rites which their duties in the temple service
+entailed upon them. The hours which had been formerly devoted to their
+offices were now expended in bewailing the misfortunes of their nation,
+in accusing themselves and others, and in demanding what crime had
+merited this punishment, and why Jahveh, who had so often shown clemency
+to their forefathers, had not extended His forgiveness to them. It
+was, however, by the long-suffering of God that His prophets, and
+particularly Ezekiel, were allowed to make known to them the true cause
+of their downfall. The more Ezekiel in his retreat meditated upon
+their lot, the more did the past appear to him as a lamentable conflict
+between divine justice and Jewish iniquity. At the time of their sojourn
+in Egypt, Jahveh had taken the house of Jacob under His protection,
+and in consideration of His help had merely demanded of them that they
+should be faithful to Him. “Cast ye away every man the abominations of
+his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am the
+Lord your God.” The children of Israel, however, had never observed this
+easy condition, and this was the root of their ills; even before
+they were liberated from the yoke of Pharaoh, they had betrayed their
+Protector, and He had thought to punish them: “But I wrought for My
+name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations,
+among whom they were, in whose sight I made myself known unto them....
+So I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and brought them
+into the wilderness. And I gave them My statutes, and showed them My
+judgments, which if a man do, he shall live in them. Moreover also I
+gave them My sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them... but the house
+of Israel rebelled against Me.” As they had acted in Egypt, so they
+acted at the foot of Sinai, and again Jahveh could not bring Himself to
+destroy them; He confined Himself to decreeing that none of those who
+had offended Him should enter the Promised Land, and He extended His
+goodness to their children. But these again showed themselves no
+wiser than their fathers; scarcely had they taken possession of the
+inheritance which had fallen to them, “a land flowing with milk and
+honey... the glory of all lands,” than when they beheld “every high hill
+and every thick tree... they offered there their sacrifices, and there
+they presented the provocation of their offering, there also they made
+their sweet savour, and they poured out there their drink offerings.”
+ Not contented with profaning their altars by impious ceremonies and
+offerings, they further bowed the knee to idols, thinking in their
+hearts, “We will be as the nations, as the families of the countries,
+to serve wood and stone.” “As I live, saith the Lord God, surely with a
+mighty hand and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will
+I be King over you.” *
+
+     1 Ezek. xx.
+
+However just the punishment, Bzekiel did not believe that it would last
+for ever. The righteousness of God would not permit future generations
+to be held responsible for ever for the sins of generations past and
+present. “What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of
+Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s
+teeth are set on edge? As I live, saith the Lord God, ye shall not have
+occasion to use this proverb any more in Israel! Behold, all souls are
+Mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is Mine;
+the soul that sinneth it shall die. But if a man be just... he shall
+surely live, saith the Lord God.” Israel, therefore, was master of his
+own destiny. If he persisted in erring from the right way, the hour
+of salvation was still further removed from him; if he repented and
+observed the law, the Divine anger would be turned away. “Therefore... O
+house of Israel... cast away from you all your transgressions wherein
+ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit; for why
+will ye die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death
+of him that dieth... wherefore turn yourselves and live.” 1 There were
+those who objected that it was too late to dream of regeneration and of
+hope in the future: “Our bones are dried up and our hope is lost; we are
+clean cut off.” The prophet replied that the Lord had carried him in the
+spirit and set him down in the midst of a plain strewn with bones. “So
+I prophesied... and as I prophesied there was a noise... and the bones
+came together, bone to his bone. And I beheld, and lo, there were sinews
+upon them, and flesh came up and skin covered them above; but there was
+no breath in them. Then said (the Lord) unto me, Prophesy unto the wind,
+prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God: Come
+from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they
+may live. So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into
+them and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great
+army. Then He said unto me... these bones are the whole house of
+Israel.... Behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up
+out of your graves, O my people; and I will bring you into the land of
+Israel.... And I will put My Spirit in you and ye shall live, and I
+will place you in your own land; and ye shall know that I the Lord hath
+spoken it and performed it, saith the Lord.”
+
+A people raised from such depths would require a constitution, a new law
+to take the place of the old, from the day when the exile should cease.
+Ezekiel would willingly have dispensed with the monarchy, as it had been
+tried since the time of Samuel with scarcely any good results. For every
+Hezekiah or Josiah, how many kings of the type of Ahaz or Manasseh had
+there been! The Jews were nevertheless still so sincerely attached to
+the house of David, that the prophet judged it inopportune to exclude
+it from his plan for their future government. He resolved to tolerate
+a king, but a king of greater piety and with less liberty than the
+compiler of the Book of Deuteronomy had pictured to himself, a servant
+of the servants of God, whose principal function should be to provide
+the means of worship. Indeed, the Lord Himself was the only Sovereign
+whom the prophet fully accepted, though his concept of Him differed
+greatly from that of his predecessors: from that, for instance, of
+Amos--the Lord God who would do nothing without revealing “His secret
+unto His servants the prophets;” or of Hosea--who desired “mercy, and
+not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.”
+ The Jahveh of Ezekiel no longer admitted any intercourse with the
+interpreters of His will. He held “the son of man” at a distance, and
+would consent to communicate with him only by means of angels who were
+His messengers. The love of His people was, indeed, acceptable to
+Him, but He preferred their reverence and fear, and the smell of the
+sacrifice offered according to the law was pleasing to His nostrils. The
+first care of the returning exiles, therefore, would be to build Him
+a house upon the holy mountain. Ezekiel called to mind the temple
+of Solomon, in which the far-off years of his youth were spent, and
+mentally rebuilt it on the same plan, but larger and more beautiful;
+first the outer court, then the inner court and its chambers, and lastly
+the sanctuary, the dimensions of which he calculates with scrupulous
+care: “And the breadth of the entrance was ten cubits; and the sides
+of the entrance were five cubits on the one side and five cubits on the
+other side: and he measured the length thereof, forty cubits; and
+the breadth, twenty cubits”--and so forth, with a wealth of technical
+details often difficult to be understood. And as a building so well
+proportioned should be served by a priesthood worthy of it, the sons
+of Zadok only were to bear the sacerdotal office, for they alone had
+preserved their faith unshaken; the other Lévites were to fill merely
+secondary posts, for not only had they shared in the sins of the nation,
+but they had shown a bad example in practising idolatry. The duties and
+prerogatives of each one, the tithes and offerings, the sacrifices, the
+solemn festivals, the preparation of the feasts,--all was foreseen and
+prearranged with scrupulous exactitude. Ezekiel was, as we have seen, a
+priest; the smallest details were as dear to him as the noblest offices
+of his calling, and the minute ceremonial instructions as to the killing
+and cooking of the sacrificial animals appeared to him as necessary to
+the future prosperity of his people as the moral law. Towards the end,
+however, the imagination of the seer soared above the formalism of the
+sacrificing priest; he saw in a vision waters issuing out of the very
+threshold of the divine house, flowing towards the Dead Sea through a
+forest of fruit trees, “whose leaf shall not wither, neither shall the
+fruit thereof fail.” The twelve tribes of Israel, alike those of whom
+a remnant still existed as well as those which at different times
+had become extinct, were to divide the regenerated land by lot among
+them--Dan in the extreme north, Reuben and Judah in the south; and they
+would unite to found once more, around Mount Sion, that new Jerusalem
+whose name henceforth was to be Jahveh-shammah, “The Lord is there.” *
+
+     * Ezek. xlvii., xlviii. The image of the river seems to be
+     borrowed from the _vessel of water_ of Chaldæan mythology.
+
+The influence of Ezekiel does not seem to have extended beyond a
+restricted circle of admirers. Untouched by his preaching, many of the
+exiles still persisted in their worship of the heathen gods; most of
+these probably became merged in the bulk of the Chaldæan population,
+and were lost, as far as Israel was concerned, as completely as were
+the earlier exiles of Ephraim under Tiglath-pileser III. and Sargon. The
+greater number of the Jews, however, remained faithful to their hopes of
+future greatness, and applied themselves to discerning in passing events
+the premonitory signs of deliverance. “Like as a woman with child, that
+draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her
+pangs; so have we been before Thee, O Lord.... Come, my people, enter
+thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself for
+a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the
+Lord cometh forth out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the
+earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and
+shall no more cover her slain.” * The condition of the people improved
+after the death of Nebuchadrezzar. Amil-marduk took Jehoiachin out of
+the prison in which he had languished for thirty years, and treated
+him with honour:** this was not as yet the restoration that had been
+promised, but it was the end of the persecution.
+
+     * An anonymous prophet, about 570, in Isa. xxvi. 17, 20, 21.
+
+     ** 2 Kings xxv. 27-30; cf. Jer. lii. 31-34.
+
+A period of court intrigues followed, during which the sceptre of
+Nebuchadrezzar changed hands four times in less than seven years; then
+came the accession of the peaceful and devout Nabonidus, the fall of
+Astyages, and the first victories of Cyrus. Nothing escaped the vigilant
+eye of the prophets, and they began to proclaim that the time was at
+hand, then to predict the fall of Babylon, and to depict the barbarians
+in revolt against her, and Israel released from the yoke by the
+all-powerful will of the Persians. “Thus saith the Lord to His anointed,
+to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden to subdue nations before him,
+and I will loose the loins of kings; to open the doors before him, and
+the gates shall not be shut; I will go before thee and make the rugged
+places plain: I will break in pieces the doors of brass, rend in sunder
+the bars of iron: and I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and
+hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I am the
+Lord which call thee by thy name, even the God of Israel. For Jacob My
+servant’s sake, and Israel My chosen, I have called thee by thy name: I
+have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known Me.” * Nothing can stand
+before the victorious prince whom Jahveh leads: “Bel boweth down, Nebo
+stoopeth; their idols are upon the beasts, and upon the cattle: the
+things that ye carried about are made a load, a burden to the weary
+beast. They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the
+burden, but themselves are gone into captivity.” ** “O virgin daughter
+of Babylon, sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the
+Chaldæans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate. Take
+the millstones and grind meal: remove thy veil, strip off the train,
+uncover the leg, pass through the rivers. They nakedness shall be
+uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen.... Sit thou silent, and get
+thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldæans: for thou shalt no more
+be called the lady of kingdoms.” ***
+
+     * Second Isaiah, in Isa. xlv. 1-4.
+
+     ** Second Isaiah, in Isa. xlvi. 1, 2.
+
+     *** Second Isaiah, in Isa. xlvii. 1-5.
+
+The task which Cyrus had undertaken was not so difficult as we might
+imagine. Not only was he hailed with delight by the strangers who
+thronged Babylonia, but the Babylonians themselves were weary of their
+king, and the majority of them were ready to welcome the Persian who
+would rid them of him, as in old days they hailed the Assyrian kings who
+delivered them from their Chaldæan lords. It is possible that towards
+the end of his reign Nabonidus partly resumed the supreme power;* but
+anxious for the future, and depending but little on human help, he had
+sought a more powerful aid at the hands of the gods. He had apparently
+revived some of the old forgotten cults, and had applied to their use
+revenues which impoverished the endowment of the prevalent worship of
+his own time. As he felt the growing danger approach, he remembered
+those towns of secondary grade--Uru, Uruk, Larsam, and Eridu--all
+of which, lying outside Nebuchadrezzar’s scheme of defence, would be
+sacrificed in the case of an invasion: he had therefore brought away
+from them the most venerated statues, those in which the spirit of the
+divinity was more particularly pleased to dwell, and had shut them up in
+the capital, within the security of its triple rampart.**
+
+     * This seems to follow from the part which he plays in the
+     final crisis, as told in the _Cylinder of Cyrus_ and in the
+     _Annals_.
+
+     ** The chronicler adds that the gods of Sippar, Kutha, and
+     Borsippa were not taken to Babylon; and indeed, these cities
+     being included within the lines of defence of the great
+     city, their gods were as well defended from the enemy as if
+     they had been in Babylon itself.
+
+This attempt to concentrate the divine powers, accentuating as it did
+the supremacy of Bel-Marduk over his compeers, was doubtless flattering
+to his pride and that of his priests, but was ill received by the rest
+of the sacerdotal class and by the populace. All these divine guests had
+not only to be lodged, but required to be watched over, decked, fed, and
+feted, together with their respective temple retinues; and the prestige
+and honour of the local Bel, as well as his revenues, were likely to
+suffer in consequence. The clamour of the gods in the celestial heights
+soon re-echoed throughout the land; the divinities complained of their
+sojourn at Babylon as of a captivity in E-sagilla; they lamented over
+the suppression of their daily sacrifices, and Marduk at length took
+pity on them. He looked upon the countries of Sumir and Akkad, and saw
+their sanctuaries in ruins and their towns lifeless as corpses; “he cast
+his eyes over the surrounding regions; he searched them with his glance
+and sought out a prince, upright, after his own heart, who should take
+his hands. He proclaimed by name Cyrus, King of Anshân, and he called
+him by his name to universal sovereignty.” Alike for the people
+of Babylon and for the exiled Jew, and also doubtless for other
+stranger-colonies, Cyrus appeared as a deliverer chosen by the gods;
+his speedy approach was everywhere expected, if not with the same
+impatience, at least with an almost joyful resignation. His plans were
+carried into action in the early months of 538, and his habitual good
+fortune did not forsake him at this decisive moment of his career. The
+immense citadel raised by Nebuchadrezzar in the midst of his empire, in
+anticipation of an attack by the Medes, was as yet intact, and the walls
+rising one behind another, the moats, and the canals and marshes which
+protected it, had been so well kept up or restored since his time, that
+their security was absolutely complete; a besieging army could do little
+harm--it needed a whole nation in revolt to compass its downfall. A
+whole nation also was required for its defence, but the Babylonians
+were not inclined to second the efforts of their sovereign. Nabonidus
+concentrated his troops at the point most threatened, in the angle
+comprised near Opis between the Medic wall and the bend of the Tigris,
+and waited in inaction the commencement of the attack. It is supposed
+that Cyrus put two bodies of troops in motion: one leaving Susa under
+his own command, took the usual route of all Blamite invasions in the
+direction of the confluence of the Tigris and the Dîyala; the other
+commanded by Gobryas, the satrap of Gutium, followed the course of
+the Adhem or the Dîyala, and brought the northern contingents to the
+rallying-place. From what we know of the facts as a whole, it would
+appear that the besieging force chose the neighbourhood of the present
+Bagdad to make a breach in the fortifications. Taking advantage of the
+months when the rivers were at their lowest, they drew off the water
+from the Dîyala and the Tigris till they so reduced the level that they
+were able to cross on foot; they then cut their way through the ramparts
+on the left bank, and rapidly transported the bulk of their forces
+into the very centre of the enemy’s position. The principal body of the
+Chaldæan troops were still at Opis, cut off from the capital; Cyrus
+fell upon them, overcame them on the banks of the Zalzallat in the early
+days of Tammuz, urging forward Gobryas meanwhile upon Babylon itself.*
+On the 14th of Tammuz, Nabonidus evacuated Sippar, which at once fell
+into the hands of the Persian outposts; on the 16th Gobryas entered
+Babylon without striking a blow, and Nabonidus surrendered himself a
+prisoner.**
+
+     * For the strategic interpretation of the events of this
+     campaign I have generally adopted the explanations of
+     Billerbeck. Herodotus’ account with regard to the river
+     Gyndes is probably a reminiscence of alterations made in the
+     river-courses at the time of the attack in the direction of
+     Bagdad.
+
+     ** The _Cylinder of Cyrus_, 1. 17, expressly says so:
+     “Without combat or battle did Marduk make him enter
+     Babylon,” The _Annals of Nabonidus_ confirm this testimony
+     of the official account.
+
+The victorious army had received orders to avoid all excesses which
+would offend the people; they respected the property of the citizens and
+of the temples, placed a strong detachment around Ê-sagilla to protect
+it from plunder, and no armed soldier was allowed within the enclosure
+until the king’ had determined on the fate of the vanquished. Cyrus
+arrived after a fortnight had elapsed, on the 3rd of March-esvân, and
+his first act was one of clemency. He prohibited all pillage, granted
+mercy to the inhabitants, and entrusted the government of the city to
+Gobryas. Bel-sharuzur, the son of Nabonidus, remained to be dealt
+with, and his energetic nature might have been the cause of serious
+difficulties had he been allowed an opportunity of rallying the last
+partisans of the dynasty around him. Gobryas set out to attack him, and
+on the 11th of March-esvân succeeded in surprising and slaying him. With
+him perished the last hope of the Chaldæans, and the nobles and towns,
+still hesitating on what course to pursue, now vied with each other in
+their haste to tender submission. The means of securing their good
+will, at all events for the moment, was clearly at hand, and it was used
+without any delay: their gods were at once restored to them. This exodus
+extended over nearly two months, during March-esvân and Adar, and on
+its termination a proclamation of six days of mourning, up to the 3rd of
+Nisân, was made for the death of Bel-sharuzur, and as an atonement for
+the faults of Nabonidus, after which, on the 4th of Nisân, the notables
+of the city were called together in the temple of Nebo to join in the
+last expiatory ceremonies. Cyrus did not hesitate for a moment to act
+as Tiglath-pileser III. and most of the Sargonids had done; he “took the
+hands of Bel,” and proclaimed himself king of the country, but in order
+to secure the succession, he associated his son Cambyses with himself
+as King of Babylon. Mesopotamia having been restored to order, the
+provinces in their turn transferred their allegiance to Persia; “the
+kings enthroned in their palaces, from the Upper Sea to the Lower, those
+of Syria and those who dwell in tents, brought their weighty tribute to
+Babylon and kissed the feet of the suzerain.” Events had followed one
+another so quickly, and had entailed so little bloodshed, that popular
+imagination was quite disconcerted: it could not conceive that an
+empire of such an extent and of so formidable an appearance should have
+succumbed almost without a battle, and three generations had not elapsed
+before an entire cycle of legends had gathered round the catastrophe.
+They related how Cyrus, having set out to make war, with provisions of
+all kinds for his household, and especially with his usual stores of
+water from the river Choaspes, the only kind of which he deigned to
+drink, had reached the banks of the Gyndes. While seeking for a ford,
+one of the white horses consecrated to the sun sprang into the river,
+and being overturned by the current, was drowned before it could
+be rescued. Cyrus regarded this accident as a personal affront, and
+interrupted his expedition to avenge it. He employed his army during one
+entire summer in digging three hundred and sixty canals, and thus caused
+the principal arm of the stream to run dry, and he did not resume his
+march upon Babylon till the following spring, when the level of the
+water was low enough to permit of a woman crossing from one bank to the
+other without wetting her knees. The Babylonians at first attempted
+to prevent the blockade of the place, but being repulsed in their
+_sorties_, they retired within the walls, much to Cyrus’s annoyance, for
+they were provisioned for several years. He therefore undertook to
+turn the course of the Euphrates into the Bahr-î-Nejîf, and having
+accomplished it, he crept into the centre of the city by the dry bed of
+the river. If the Babylonians had kept proper guard, the Persians would
+probably have been surrounded and caught like fish in a net; but on that
+particular day they were keeping one of their festivals, and continued
+their dancing and singing till they suddenly found the streets alive
+with the enemy.
+
+Babylon suffered in no way by her servitude, and far from its being a
+source of unhappiness to her, she actually rejoiced in it; she was rid
+of Nabonidus, whose sacrilegious innovations had scandalised her piety,
+and she possessed in Cyrus a legitimate sovereign since he had “taken
+the hands of Bel.” It pleased her to believe that she had conquered her
+victor rather than been conquered by him, and she accommodated herself
+to her Persian dynasty after the same fashion that she had in turn
+accustomed herself to Cossæan or Elamite, Ninevite or Chaldæan dynasties
+in days gone by. Nothing in or around the city was changed, and she
+remained what she had been since the fall of Assyria, the real capital
+of the regions situated between the Mediterranean and the Zagros. It
+seems that none of her subjects--whether Syrians, Tyrians, Arabs, or
+Idumæans--attempted to revolt against their new master, but passively
+accepted him, and the Persian dominion extended uncontested as far as
+the isthmus of Suez; Cyprus even, and such of the Phoenicians as
+were still dependencies of Egypt, did homage to her without further
+hesitation. The Jews alone appeared only half satisfied, for the
+clemency shown by Cyrus to their oppressors disappointed their hopes
+and the predictions of their prophets. They had sung in anticipation of
+children killed before their fathers’ eyes, of houses pillaged, of
+women violated, and Babylon, the glory of the empire and the beauty
+of Chaldæan pride, utterly destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrha when
+overthrown by Jahveh. “It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be
+dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch
+tent there; neither shall shepherds make their flocks to lie down there.
+But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be
+full of doleful creatures; and ostriches shall dwell there, and satyrs
+shall dance there. And wolves shall cry in their castles, and jackals in
+the pleasant palaces.” *
+
+     * The table of the last kings of Ptolemy and the monuments,
+     is given below:--
+
+[Illustration: 105.jpg TABLE OF THE LAST KINGS OF PTOLEMY]
+
+Cyrus, however, was seated on the throne, and the city of
+Nebuchadrezzar, unlike that of Sargon and Sennacherib, still continued
+to play her part in the world’s history. The revenge of Jerusalem had
+not been as complete as that of Samaria, and her sons had to content
+themselves with obtaining the cessation of their exile. It is impossible
+to say whether they had contributed to the downfall of Nabonidus
+otherwise than by the fervency of their prayers, or if they had rendered
+Cyrus some service either in the course of his preparations or during
+his short campaign. They may have contemplated taking up arms in his
+cause, and have been unable to carry the project into execution owing
+to the rapidity with which events took place. However this may be, he
+desired to reward them for their good intentions, and in the same year
+as his victory, he promulgated a solemn edict, in which he granted them
+permission to return to Judah and to rebuild not only their city, but
+the temple of their God. The inhabitants of the places where they were
+living were charged to furnish them with silver, gold, materials, and
+cattle, which would be needed by those among them who should claim the
+benefits of the edict; they even had restored to them, by order of the
+king, what remained in the Babylonian treasury of the vessels of gold
+and silver which had belonged to the sanctuary of Jahveh. The heads
+of the community received the favour granted to them from such high
+quarters, without any enthusiasm. Now that they were free to go, they
+discovered that they were well off at Babylon. They would have to
+give up their houses, their fields, their business, their habits of
+indifference to politics, and brave the dangers of a caravan journey of
+three or four months’ duration, finally encamping in the midst of
+ruins in an impoverished country, surrounded by hostile and jealous
+neighbours; such a prospect was not likely to find favour with many, and
+indeed it was only the priests, the Lévites, and the more ardent of
+the lower classes who welcomed the idea of the return with a touching
+fervour. The first detachment organised their departure in 536,
+under the auspices of one of the princes of the royal house, named
+Shauash-baluzur (Sheshbazzar), a son of Jehoiachin.* It comprised only a
+small number of families, and contained doubtless a few of the captives
+of Nebuchadrezzar who in their childhood had seen the temple standing
+and had been present at its destruction.
+
+     * The name which is written Sheshbazzar in the Hebrew text
+     of the Book of Ezra (i. 9, 11; v. 14, 16) is rendered
+     Sasabalassaros in Lucian’s recension of the Septuagint, and
+     this latter form confirms the hypothesis of Hoonacker, which
+     is now universally accepted, that it corresponds to the
+     Babylonian Shamash-abaluzur. It is known that Shamash
+     becomes Shauash in Babylonian; thus Saosdukhînos comes from
+     Shamash-shumukîn: similarly Shamash-abaluzur has become
+     Shauash-abaluzur. Imbert has recognised Sheshbazzar,
+     Shauash-abaluzur in the Shenazzar mentioned in 1 Chron. iii.
+     8, as being one of the sons of Jeconiah, and this
+     identification has been accepted by several recent
+     historians of Israel. It should be remembered that Shauash-
+     abaluzur and Zerubbabel have long been confounded one with
+     the other.
+
+The returning exiles at first settled in the small towns of Judah and
+Benjamin, and it was not until seven months after their arrival that
+they summoned courage to clear the sacred area in order to erect in its
+midst an altar of sacrifice.*
+
+     * The history of this first return from captivity is
+     summarily set forth in Ezra i.; cf. v. 13-17; vi. 3-5, 15.
+     Its authenticity has been denied: with regard to this point
+     and the questions relating to Jewish history after the
+     exile, the modifications which have been imposed on the
+     original plan of this work have obliged me to suppress much
+     detail in the text and the whole of the bibliography in the
+     notes.
+
+They formed there, in the land of their fathers, a little colony, almost
+lost among the heathen nations of former times--Philistines, Idumasans,
+Moabites, Ammonites, and the settlers implanted at various times in what
+had been the kingdom of Israel by the sovereigns of Assyria and Chaldæa.
+Grouped around the Persian governor, who alone was able to protect them
+from the hatred of their rivals, they had no hope of prospering, or even
+of maintaining their position, except by exhibiting an unshaken fidelity
+to their deliverers. It was on this very feeling that Cyrus mainly
+relied when he granted them permission to return to their native
+hills, and he was actuated as much by a far-seeing policy as from the
+promptings of instinctive generosity. It was with satisfaction that he
+saw in that distant province, lying on the frontier of the only enemy
+yet left to him in the old world, a small band, devoted perforce to his
+interests, and whose very existence depended entirely on that of his
+empire. He no doubt extended the same favour to the other exiles in
+Chaldæa who demanded it of him, but we do not know how many of them
+took advantage of the occasion to return to their native countries, and
+this exodus of the Jews still remains, so far as we know, a unique
+fact. The administration continued the same as it had been under the
+Chaldæans; Aramæan was still the official language in the provincial
+dependencies, and the only change effected was the placing of Persians
+at the head of public offices, as in Asia Minor, and allowing them a
+body of troops to support their authority.*
+
+     * The presence of Persian troops in Asia Minor is proved by
+     the passage in Herodotus where he says that Orotes had with
+     him 1000 Persians as his body-guard.
+
+One great state alone remained of all those who had played a prominent
+part in the history of the East. This was Egypt; and the policy which
+her rulers had pursued since the development of the Iranian power
+apparently rendered a struggle with it inevitable. Amasis had taken part
+in all the coalitions which had as their object the perpetuation of
+the balance of the powers in Western Asia; he had made a treaty with
+Croesus, and it is possible that his contingents had fought in the
+battles before Sardes; Lydia having fallen, he did all in his power to
+encourage Nabonidus in his resistance. As soon as he found himself face
+to face with Cyrus, he understood that a collision was imminent, and
+did his best in preparing to meet it. Even if Cyrus had forgotten the
+support which had been freely given to his rivals, the wealth of Egypt
+was in itself sufficient to attract the Persian hordes to her frontiers.
+
+A century later, the Egyptians, looking back on the past with a
+melancholy retrospection, confessed that “never had the valley been
+more flourishing or happier than under Amasis; never had the river
+shown itself more beneficent to the soil, nor the soil more fertile
+for mankind, and the inhabitated towns might be reckoned at 20,000 in
+number.” The widespread activity exhibited under Psammetichus II., and
+Apries, was redoubled under the usurper, and the quarries of Turah,*
+Silsileh,** Assuan, and even those of Hammamât, were worked as in the
+palmy days of the Theban dynasties. The island of Philæ, whose position
+just below the cataract attracted to it the attention of the military
+engineers, was carefully fortified and a temple built upon it, the
+materials of which were used later on in the masonry of the sanctuary of
+Ptolemaic times. Thebes exhibited a certain outburst of vitality under
+the impulse given by Ankhnasnofiribri and by Shashonqu, the governor of
+her palace;*** two small chapels, built in the centre of the town, still
+witness to the queen’s devotion to Amon, of whom she was the priestess.
+Wealthy private individuals did their best to emulate their sovereign’s
+example, and made for themselves at Shêkh Abd-el-Gurnah and at Assassif
+those rock-hewn tombs which rival those of the best periods in their
+extent and the beauty of their bas-reliefs.****
+
+     * A stele of his forty-fourth year still exists in the
+     quarries of the Mokattam.
+
+     ** According to Herodotus, it was from the quarries of
+     Elephantine that Amasis caused to be brought the largest
+     blocks which he used in the building of Sais.
+
+     *** Her tomb still exists at Deir el-Medineh, and the
+     sarcophagus, taken from the tomb in 1833, is now in the
+     British Museum.
+
+     **** The most important of these tombs is that of Petenit,
+     the father of Shashonqu, who was associated with
+     Ankhnasnofiribri in the government of Thebes.
+
+Most of the cities of the Said were in such a state of decadence that it
+was no longer possible to restore to them their former prosperity, but
+Abydos occupied too important a place in the beliefs connected with the
+future world, and attracted too many pilgrims, to permit of its being
+neglected. The whole of its ancient necropolis had been rifled by
+thieves during the preceding centuries, and the monuments were nearly as
+much buried by sand as in our own times.
+
+[Illustration: 111.jpg AN OSIRIS STRETCHED FULL LENGTH ON THE GROUND]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, after Mariette. The monument is a
+     statuette measuring only 15 centimetres in length; it has
+     been reproduced to give an idea of the probable form of the
+     statue seen by Herodotus.
+
+The dismantled fortress now known as the Shunêt ez-Zebîb served as the
+cemetery for the ibises of Thoth, and for the stillborn children of the
+sacred singing-women, while the two Memnonia of Seti and Ramses, now
+abandoned by their priests, had become mere objects of respectful
+curiosity, on which devout Egyptians or passing travellers--Phoenicians,
+Aramæans, Cypriots, Carians, and Greeks from Ionia and the isles--came
+to carve their names.*
+
+     * The position occupied by the graffiti on certain portions
+     of the walls show that in these places in the temple of Seti
+     there was already a layer of sand varying from one to three
+     metres in depth.
+
+Amasis confided the work of general restoration to one of the principal
+personages of his court, Pefzââunît, Prince of Sais, who devoted his
+attention chiefly to two buildings--the great sanctuary of Osiris, which
+was put into good condition throughout, and the very ancient necropolis
+of Omm-el-Graab, where lay hidden the _àlquhah_, one of the sepulchres
+of the god; he restored the naos, the table of offerings, the barques,
+and the temple furniture, and provided for the sacred patrimony by an
+endowment of fields, vineyards, palm groves, and revenues, so as to
+ensure to the sanctuary offerings in perpetuity. It was a complete
+architectural resurrection. The nomes of Middle Egypt, which had
+suffered considerably during the Ethiopian and Assyrian wars, had
+some chance of prosperity now that their lords were relieved from the
+necessity of constantly fighting for some fresh pretender. Horu, son
+of Psam-metichus, Prince of the Oleander nome, rebuilt the ancient
+sanctuary of Harshafaîtu at Heracleopolis, and endowed it with a
+munificence which rivalled that of Pefzââunîfc at Abydos. The king
+himself devoted his resources chiefly to works at Memphis and in the
+Delta. He founded a temple of Isis at Memphis, which Herodotus
+described as extending over an immense area and being well worth seeing;
+unfortunately nothing now remains of it, nor of the recumbent colossus,
+sixty feet in length, which the king placed before the court of Phtah,
+nor of the two gigantic statues which he raised in front of the temple,
+one on each side of the door.
+
+[Illustration: 112.jpg THE TWO GODDESSES OF LAW; ANI ADORING OSIRIS] THE
+TRIAL OF THE CONSCIENCE; TOTH AND THE FEATHER OF THE LAW.
+
+Besides these architectural works, Amasis invested the funerary
+ceremonies of the Apis-bulls with a magnificence rarely seen before
+his time, and the official stelae which he carved to the memory of
+the animals who died in his reign exhibit a perfection of style quite
+unusual. His labours at Memphis, however, were eclipsed by the admirable
+work which he accomplished at Sais. The propylæ which he added to the
+temple of Nît “surpassed most other buildings of the same kind, as
+much by their height and extent, as by the size and quality of the
+materials;” he had, moreover, embellished them by a fine colonnade, and
+made an approach to them by an avenue of sphinxes.
+
+[Illustration: 113.jpg AMASIS IN ADORATION BEFORE THE BULL APIS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph taken in the
+     Louvre.
+
+In other parts of the same building were to be seen two superb obelisks,
+a recumbent figure similar to that at Memphis, and a monolithic naos
+of rose granite brought from the quarries of Elephantine. Amasis had a
+special predilection for this kind of monument. That which he erected at
+Thmuis is nearly twenty-three feet in height,* and the Louvre contains
+another example, which though smaller still excites the admiration of
+the modern visitor.**
+
+     * The exact measurements are 23 1/2 ft. in height, 12 ft. 9
+     ins. in width, and 10 ft. 6 ins. in depth. The naos of Saft
+     el-Hinneh must have been smaller, but it is impossible to
+     determine its exact dimensions.
+
+     ** It measures 9 ft. 7 ins. in height, 3 ft. 1 in. in width,
+     and 3 ft. 8 ins.
+
+[Illustration: 114.jpg THE NAOS OF AMASIS AT THMUIS]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the sketch of Burton.
+
+The naos of Sais, which amazed Herodotus, was much larger than either of
+the two already mentioned, or, indeed, than any known example. Tradition
+states that it took two thousand boatmen three years to convey it down
+from the first cataract. It measured nearly thirty feet high in the
+interior, twenty-four feet in depth, and twelve feet in breadth; even
+when hollowed out to contain the emblem of the god, it still weighed
+nearly 500,000 kilograms. It never reached its appointed place in the
+sanctuary. The story goes that “the architect, at the moment when the
+monument had been moved as far as a certain spot in the temple, heaved
+a sigh, oppressed with the thought of the time expended on its transport
+and weary of the arduous work. Amasis overheard the sigh, and taking it
+as an omen, he commanded that the block should be dragged no further.
+Others relate that one of the overseers in charge of the work was
+crushed to death by the monument, and for this reason it was left
+standing on the spot,” where for centuries succeeding generations came
+to contemplate it.*
+
+     * The measurements given by Herodotus are so different from
+     those of any naos as yet discovered, that I follow Kenrick
+     in thinking that Herodotus saw the monument of Amasis lying
+     on its side, and that he took for the height what was really
+     the width in depth. It had been erected in the nome of
+     Athribis, and afterwards taken to Alexandria about the
+     Ptolemaic era; it was discovered under water in one of the
+     ports of the town at the beginning of this century, and
+     Drovetti, who recovered it, gave it to the Museum of the
+     Louvre in 1825.
+
+Amasis, in devoting his revenues to such magnificent works, fully shared
+the spirit of the older Pharaohs, and his labours were nattering to
+the national vanity, even though many lives were sacrificed in their
+accomplishment; but the glory which they reflected on Egypt did not
+have the effect of removing the unpopularity in which Tie was personally
+held. The revolution which overthrew Apries had been provoked by the
+hatred of the native party towards the foreigners; he himself had been
+the instrument by which it had been accomplished, and it would have been
+only natural that, having achieved a triumph in spite of the Greeks and
+the mercenaries, he should have wished to be revenged on them, and have
+expelled them from his dominions. But, as a fact, nothing of the kind
+took place, and Amasis, once crowned, forgot the wrongs he had suffered
+as an aspirant to the royal dignity; no sooner was he firmly seated on
+the throne, than he recalled the strangers, and showed that he had only
+friendly intentions with regard to them. His predecessors had received
+them into favour, he, in fact, showed a perfect infatuation for them,
+and became as complete a Greek as it was possible for an Egyptian to be.
+His first care had been to make a treaty with the Dorians of Oyrene, and
+he displayed so much tact in dealing with them, that they forgave him
+for the skirmish of Irasa, and invited him to act as arbitrator in their
+dissensions. A certain Arkesilas II. had recently succeeded the Battos
+who had defeated the Egyptian troops, but his suspicious temper had
+obliged his brothers to separate themselves from him, and they had
+founded further westwards the independent city of Barca. On his
+threatening to evict them, they sent a body of Libyans against him.
+Fighting ensued, and he was beaten close to the town of Leukon. He
+lost 7000 hoplites in the engagement, and the disaster aroused so
+much ill-feeling against him that Laarchos, another of his brothers,
+strangled him. Laarchos succeeded him amid the acclamations of the
+soldiery; but not long after, Eryxô and Polyarchos, the wife and
+brother-in-law of his victim, surprised and assassinated him in his
+turn. The partisans of Laarchos then had recourse to the Pharaoh, who
+showed himself disposed to send them help; but his preparations were
+suspended owing to the death of his mother. Polyarchos repaired to Egypt
+before the royal mourning was ended, and pleaded his cause with such
+urgency that he won over the king to his side; he obtained the royal
+investiture for his sister’s child, who was still a minor, Battos III.,
+the lame, and thus placed Oyrene in a sort of vassalage to the Egyptian
+crown.*
+
+     * Herodotus narrates these events without mentioning Amasis,
+     and Nicolas of Damascus adopted Herodotus’ account with
+     certain modifications taken from other sources. The
+     intervention of Amasis is mentioned only by Plutarch and by
+     Polyaanus; but the record of it had been handed down to them
+     by some more ancient author--perhaps by Akesandros; or
+     perhaps, in the first instance, by Hellanicos of Lesbos, who
+     gave a somewhat detailed account of certain points in
+     Egyptian history. The passage of Herodotus is also found
+     incorporated in accounts of Cyrenian origin: his informants
+     were interested in recalling deeds which reflected glory on
+     their country, like the defeat of Apries at Irasa, but not
+     in the memory of events so humiliating for them as the
+     sovereign intervention of Pharaoh only a few years after
+     this victory. And besides, the merely pacific success which
+     Amasis achieved was not of a nature to leave a profound mark
+     on the Egyptian mind. It is thus easy to explain how it was
+     that Herodotus makes no allusion to the part played by Egypt
+     in this affair.
+
+The ties which connected the two courts were subsequently drawn closer
+by marriage; partly from policy and partly from a whim, Amasis espoused
+a Cyrenian woman named Ladikê, the daughter, according to some, of
+Arkesilas or of Battos, according to others, of a wealthy private
+individual named Kritobulos.* The Greeks of Europe and Asia Minor fared
+no less to their own satisfaction at his hand than their compatriots
+in Africa; following the example of his ally Croesus, he entered
+into relations with their oracles on several occasions, and sent them
+magnificent presents. The temple of Delphi having been burnt down in
+548, the Athenian family of the Alcmæonides undertook to rebuild it from
+the ground for the sum of three hundred talents, of which one-fourth was
+to be furnished by the Delphians. When these, being too poor to pay
+the sum out of their own resources, made an appeal to the generosity of
+other friendly powers, Amasis graciously offered them a thousand talents
+of Egyptian alum, then esteemed the most precious of all others. Alum
+was employed in dyeing, and was an expensive commodity in the markets of
+Europe; the citizens of Delphi were all the more sensible of Pharaoh’s
+generosity, since the united Greeks of the Nile valley contributed only
+twenty _minæ_ of the same mineral as their quota. Amasis erected at
+Cyrene a statue of his wife Ladikê, and another of the goddess Neît,
+gilded from head to foot, and to these he added his own portrait,
+probably painted on a wooden panel.**
+
+     * The very fact of the marriage is considered by Wiedemann
+     as a pure legend, but there is nothing against its
+     authenticity; the curious story of the relations of the
+     woman with Amasis told by the Cyrenian commentators is the
+     only part which need be rejected.
+
+     ** The text of Herodotus can only mean a painted panel
+     similar to those which have been found on the mummies of the
+     Græco-Roman era in the Fayum.
+
+He gave to Athene of Lindos two stone statues and a corselet of linen
+of marvellous fineness;* and Hera of Samos received two wooden statues,
+which a century later Herodotus found still intact. The Greeks flocked
+to Egypt from all quarters of the world in such considerable numbers
+that the laws relating to them had to be remodelled in order to avoid
+conflicts with the natives.
+
+     * It seems that one of these statues is that which, after
+     being taken to Constantinople, was destroyed in a fire in
+     476 A.D. Fragments of the corselet still existed in the
+     first century of our era, but inquisitive persons used to
+     tear off pieces to see for themselves whether, as Herodotus
+     assures us, each thread was composed of three hundred and
+     sixty-five strands, every one visible with the naked eye.
+
+The townships founded a century earlier along the Pelusiac arm of the
+Nile had increased still further since the time of Necho, and to their
+activity was attributable the remarkable prosperity of the surrounding
+region. But the position which they occupied on the most exposed side
+of Egypt was regarded as permanently endangering the security of the
+country: her liberty would be imperilled should they revolt during a war
+with the neighbouring empire, and hand over the line of defence which
+was garrisoned by them to the invader. Amasis therefore dispossessed
+their inhabitants, and transferred them to Memphis and its environs.
+The change benefited him in two ways, for, while securing himself from
+possible treason, he gained a faithful guard for himself in the event of
+risings taking place in his turbulent capital. While he thus distributed
+these colonists of ancient standing to his best interests, he placed
+those of quite recent date in the part of the Delta furthest removed
+from Asia, where surveillance was most easy, in the triangle, namely,
+lying to the west of Sais, between the Canopic branch of the Nile, the
+mountains, and the sea-coast. The Milesians had established here some
+time previously, on a canal connected with the main arm of the river,
+the factory of Naucratis, which long remained in obscurity, but suddenly
+developed at the beginning of the XXVIth dynasty, when Sais became the
+favourite residence of the Pharaohs. This town Amasis made over to the
+Greeks so that they might make it the commercial and religious centre of
+their communities in Egypt.
+
+[Illustration: 120.jpg THE PRESENT SITE OF NAUCRATIS]
+
+     Reduced by Faucher-Gudin from the plan published by Petrie.
+     The site of the Hellenion is marked A, the modern Arab
+     village B, the temenos of Hera and Apollo E, that of the
+     Dioskuri F, and that of Aphrodite G.
+
+Temples already existed there, those of Apollo and Aphrodite, together
+with all the political and religious institutions indispensable to the
+constitution of an Hellenic city; but the influx of immigrants was
+so large and rapid, that, after the lapse of a few years, the entire
+internal organism and external aspect of the city were metamorphosed.
+New buildings rose from the ground with incredible speed--the little
+temple of the Dioskuri, the protectors of the sailor, the temple of the
+Samian Hera, that of Zeus of Ægina, and that of Athene;* ere long the
+great temenos, the Hellenion, was erected at the public expense by nine
+Æolian, Ionian, and Dorian towns of Asia Minor, to serve as a place of
+assembly for their countrymen, as a storehouse, as a sanctuary, and,
+if need be, even as a refuge and fortress, so great was its area and so
+thick its walls.**
+
+     * The temple of Athene, the Nît of the Saite nome, is as yet
+     known only by an inscription in Pctrie.
+
+     ** The site has been rediscovered by Petrie at the southern
+     extremity of and almost outside the town; the walls were
+     about 48 feet thick and 39 feet high, and the rectangular
+     area enclosed by them could easily contain fifty thousand
+     men.
+
+It was not possible for the constitution of Naucratis to be very
+homogeneous, when a score of different elements assisted in its
+composition. It appears to have been a compromise between the
+institutions of the Dorians and those of the Ionians. Its supreme
+magistrates were called timuchi, but their length of office and
+functions are alike unknown to us. The inspectors of the emporia and
+markets could be elected only by the citizens of the nine towns, and it
+is certain that the chief authority was not entirely in the hands either
+of the timuchi or the inspectors; perhaps each quarter of the town had
+its council taken from among the oldest residents. A prytanasum was open
+to all comers where assemblies and banquets were held on feast-days;
+here were celebrated at the public expense the festivals of Dionysos
+and Apollo Komasos. Amasis made the city a free port, accessible at all
+times to whoever should present themselves with peaceable intent, and
+the privileges which he granted naturally brought about the closing of
+all the other seaports of Egypt. When a Greek ship, pursued by pirates,
+buffeted by storms, or disabled by an accident at sea, ran ashore at
+some prohibited spot on the coast, the captain had to appear before the
+nearest magistrate, in order to swear that he had not violated the law
+wilfully, but from the force of circumstances. If his excuse appeared
+reasonable, he was permitted to make his way to the mouth of the Canopic
+branch of the Nile; but when the state of the wind or tide did not allow
+of his departure, his cargo was transferred to boats of the locality,
+and sent to the Hellenic settlement by the canals of the Delta. This
+provision of the law brought prosperity to Naucratis; the whole of the
+commerce of Egypt with the Greek world passed through her docks, and
+in a few years she became one of the wealthiest emporia of the
+Mediterranean. The inhabitants soon overflowed the surrounding country,
+and covered it with villas and townships. Such merchants as refused to
+submit to the rule of their own countrymen found a home in some other
+part of the valley which suited them, and even Upper Egypt and the
+Libyan desert were subject to their pacific inroads. The Milesians
+established depots in the ancient city of Abydos;* the Cypriots and
+Lesbians, and the people of Ephesus, Chios, and Samos, were scattered
+over the islands formed by the network of canals and arms of the Nile,
+and delighted in giving them the names of their respective countries;**
+Greeks of diverse origin settled themselves at Neapolis, not far from
+Panopolis; and the Samians belonging to the Æschrionian tribe penetrated
+as far as the Great Oasis; in fact, there was scarcely a village where
+Hellenic traders were not found, like the _bakals_ of to-day, selling
+wine, perfumes, oil, and salted provisions to the natives, practising
+usury in all its forms, and averse from no means of enriching themselves
+as rapidly as possible.
+
+     * In Stephen of Byzantium the name of the town is said to be
+     derived from that of the Milesian Abydos who founded it,
+     probably on the testimony of Aristagoras. Letronne has seen
+     that the historian meant a factory established by the
+     Milesians probably in the reign of Amasis, at the terminus
+     of the route leading to the Great Oasis.
+
+     ** The compiler confines himself to stating that there were
+     in the Nile islands called Ephesus, Chios, Samos, Lesbos,
+     Cyprus, and so on; the explanation I have given in the text
+     accounts for this curious fact quite simply.
+
+Those who returned to their mother-country carried thither
+strange tales, which aroused the curiosity and cupidity of their
+fellow-citizens; and philosophers, merchants, and soldiers alike set out
+for the land of wonders in pursuit of knowledge, wealth, or adventures.
+Amasis, ever alert upon his Asiatic frontier, and always anxious
+to strengthen himself in that quarter against a Chaldæan or Persian
+invasion, welcomed them with open arms: those who remained in the
+country obtained employment about his person, while such as left it not
+to return, carried away with them the memory of his kindly treatment,
+and secured for him in Hellas alliances of which he might one day
+stand in need. The conduct of Amasis was politic, but it aroused the
+ill-feeling of his subjects against him. Like the Jews under Hezekiah,
+the Babylonians under Nabonidus, and all other decadent races threatened
+by ruin, they attributed their decline, not to their own vices, but to
+the machinations of an angry god, and they looked on favours granted to
+strangers as a sacrilege. Had not the Greeks brought their divinities
+with them? Did they not pervert the simple country-folk, so that they
+associated the Greek religion with that of their own country? Money
+was scarce; Amasis had been obliged to debit the rations and pay of
+his mercenaries to the accounts of the most venerated Egyptian
+temples--those of Sais, Heliopolis, Bubastis, and Memphis; and each
+of these institutions had to rebate so much per cent. on their annual
+revenues in favour of the barbarians, and hand over to them considerable
+quantities of corn, cattle, poultry, stuffs, woods, perfumes, and
+objects of all kinds. The priests were loud in their indignation, the
+echo of which still rang in the ears of the faithful some centuries
+later, and the lower classes making common cause with their priests, a
+spirit of hatred was roused among the populace as bitter as that which
+had previously caused the downfall of Apries. As the fear of the army
+prevented this feeling from manifesting itself in a revolt, it found
+expression in the secret calumnies which were circulated against the
+king, and misrepresented the motives of all his actions. Scores of
+malicious stories were repeated vilifying his character. It was stated
+that before his accession he was much addicted to eating and drinking,
+but that, suffering from want of money, he had not hesitated in
+procuring what he wished for by all sorts of means, the most honest of
+which had been secret theft. When made king, he had several times given
+way to intoxication to such an extent as to be incapable of attending to
+public business; his ministers were then obliged to relate moral tales
+to him to bring him to a state of reason. Many persons having taunted
+him with his low extraction, he had caused a statue of a divinity to be
+made out of a gold basin in which he was accustomed to wash his feet,
+and he had exposed it to the adoration of the faithful. When it had been
+worshipped by them for some time, he revealed the origin of the idol,
+and added “that it had been with himself as with the foot-pan.... If he
+were a private person formerly, yet now he had come to be their king,
+and so he bade them honour and reverence him.” Towards the middle and
+end of his reign he was as much detested as he had been beloved at the
+outset.
+
+He had, notwithstanding, so effectively armed Egypt that the Persians
+had not ventured to risk a collision with her immediately after their
+conquest of Babylon. Cyrus had spent ten years in compassing the
+downfall of Nabonidus, and, calculating that that of Amasis would
+require no less a period of time, he set methodically to work on the
+organisation of his recently acquired territory; the cities of Phoenicia
+acknowledged him as their suzerain, and furnished him with what had
+hitherto been a coveted acquisition, a fleet. These preliminaries
+had apparently been already accomplished, when the movements of the
+barbarians suddenly made his presence in the far East imperative. He
+hurried thither, and was mysteriously lost to sight (529). Tradition
+accounts for his death in several ways. If Xenophon is to be credited,
+he died peaceably on his bed, surrounded by his children, and edifying
+those present by his wisdom and his almost superhuman resignation.*
+
+     * A similar legend, but later in date, told how Cyrus, when
+     a hundred years old, asked one day to see his friends. He
+     was told that his son had had them all put to death: his
+     grief at the cruelty of Cambyses caused his death in a few
+     days.
+
+Berosus tells us that he was killed in a campaign against the Daliæ;
+Ctesias states that, living been wounded in a skirmish with the
+Æerbikes, one of the savage tribes of Bactriana, he succumbed to his
+injuries three days after the engagement. According to the worthy
+Herodotus, he asked the hand of Tomyris, Queen of the Massagetse, in
+marriage, and was refused with disdain. He declared war against her to
+avenge his wounded vanity, set out to fight with her beyond the Araxes,
+in the steppes of Turkestan, defeated the advance-guard of cavalry,
+and took prisoner the heir to the crown, Spargapises, who thereupon ran
+himself through with his sword. “Then Tomyris collected all the forces
+of her kingdom, and gave him (Cyrus) battle.” Of all the combats in which
+barbarians have engaged among themselves, I reckon this to have been the
+fiercest. The following, as I understand, was the manner of it:--First,
+the two armies stood apart and shot their arrows at each other; then,
+when their quivers were empty, they closed and fought hand to hand with
+lances and daggers; and thus they continued fighting for a length
+of time, neither choosing to give ground. At length the Massagetse
+prevailed. The greater part of the army of the Persians was destroyed.
+Search was made among the slain by order of the queen for the body of
+Cyrus; and when it was found, she took a skin, and, filling it full of
+human blood, she dipped the head of Cyrus in the gore, saying, as she
+thus insulted the corse, “I live and have conquered thee in fight, and
+yet by thee am I ruined, for thou tookest my son with guile; but thus I
+make good my threat, and give thee thy fill of blood.” The engagement
+was not as serious as the legend would have us believe, and the growth
+of the Persian power was in no way affected, by it. It cost Cyrus his
+life, but his army experienced no serious disaster, and his men took
+the king’s body and brought it to Pasargadæ. He had a palace there, the
+remains of which can still be seen on the plain of Murgâb. The edifice
+was unpretentious, built upon a rectangular plan, with two porches of
+four columns on the longer sides, a lateral chamber at each of the four
+angles, and a hypostyle hall in the centre, divided lengthways by two
+rows of columns which supported the roof. The walls were decorated with
+bas-reliefs, and wherever the inscriptions have not been destroyed,
+we can read in cuneiform characters in the three languages which
+thenceforward formed the official means of communication of the
+empire--Persian, Medic, and Chaldæan--the name, title, and family of
+the royal occupant. Cyrus himself is represented in a standing posture
+on the pilasters, wearing a costume in which Egyptian and Assyrian
+features are curiously combined. He is clothed from neck to ankle in the
+close-fitting fringed tunic of the Babylonian and Mnevite sovereigns;
+his feet are covered with laced boots, while four great wings, emblems
+of the supreme power, overshadow his shoulders and loins, two of them
+raised in the air, the others pointing to the earth; he wears on
+his head the Egyptian skull-cap, from which rises one of the most
+complicated head-dresses of the royal wardrobe of the Pharaohs. The
+monarch raises his right hand with the gesture of a man speaking to an
+assembled people, and as if repeating the legend traced above his image:
+“I am Cyrus, the king, the Achæmenian.” He was buried not far off, in
+the monumental tomb which he had probably built for himself in a square
+enclosure, having a portico on three of its sides; a small chamber,
+with a ridge roof, rises from a base composed of six receding steps, so
+arranged as to appear of unequal height.
+
+[Illustration: 128.jpg CYRUS THE ACHAEMENIAN]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the photograph by Dieulafoy.
+
+The doorway is narrow, and so low that a man of medium statue finds some
+difficulty in entering. It is surmounted by a hollow moulding, quite
+Egyptian in style, and was closed by a two-leaved stone door. The
+golden coffin rested on a couch of the same metal, covered with precious
+stuffs; and a circular table, laden with drinking-vessels and ornaments
+enriched with precious stones, completed the furniture of the chamber.
+The body of the conqueror remained undisturbed on this spot for two
+centuries under the care of the priests; but while Alexander was waging
+war on the Indian frontier, the Greek officers, to whom he had entrusted
+the government of Persia proper, allowed themselves to be tempted by the
+enormous wealth which the funerary chapel was supposed to contain.
+
+[Illustration: 129.jpg THE TOMB OP CYRUS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the heliogravure of Dieulafoy.
+
+They opened the coffin, broke the couch and the table, and finding them
+too heavy to carry away easily, they contented themselves with stealing
+the drinking-vessels and jewels. Alexander on his return visited the
+place, and caused the entrance to be closed with a slight wall of
+masonry; he intended to restore the monument to its former splendour,
+but he himself perished shortly after, and what remained of the
+contents probably soon disappeared. After the death of Cyrus, popular
+imagination, drawing on the inexhaustible materials furnished by his
+adventurous career, seemed to delight in making him the ideal of all
+a monarch should be; they attributed to him every virtue--gentleness,
+bravery, moderation, justice, and wisdom. There is no reason to doubt
+that he possessed the qualities of a good general--activity, energy, and
+courage, together with the astuteness and the duplicity so necessary to
+success in Asiatic conquest--but he does not appear to have possessed in
+the same degree the gifts of a great administrator. He made no changes
+in the system of government which from the time of Tiglath-pileser III.
+onwards had obtained among all Oriental sovereigns; he placed satraps
+over the towns and countries of recent acquisition, at Sardes and
+Babylon, in Syria and Palestine, but without clearly defining their
+functions or subjecting them to a supervision sufficiently strict to
+ensure the faithful performance of their duties. He believed that he was
+destined to found a single empire in which all the ancient empires were
+to be merged, and he all but carried his task to a successful close:
+Egypt alone remained to be conquered when he passed away.
+
+His wife Kassandanê, a daughter of Pharnaspes, and an Achæmenian like
+himself, had borne him five children; two sons, Cambyses* and Smerdis,**
+and three daughters, Atossa, Roxana, and Artystonê.***
+
+     * The Persian form of the name rendered Kambyses by the
+     Greeks was Kâbuzîyâ or Kambuzîya. Herodotus calls him the
+     son of Kassandanê, and the tradition which he has preserved
+     is certainly authentic. Ctesias has erroneously stated that
+     his mother was Amytis, the daughter of Astyages, and Dinon,
+     also erroneously, the Egyptian women Nitêtis; Diodorus
+     Siculus and Strabo make him the son of Meroê.
+
+     ** The original form was Bardiya or Barzîya, “the laudable,”
+      and the first Greek transcript known, in Æschylus, is
+     Mardos, or, in the scholiasts on the passage, Merdias, which
+     has been corrupted into Marphios by Hellanikos and into
+     Merges by Pompeius Trogus. The form Smerdis in Herodotus,
+     and in the historians who follow him, is the result of a
+     mistaken assimilation of the Persian name with the purely
+     Greek one of Smerdis or Smerdies.
+
+     *** Herodotus says that Atossa was the daughter of
+     Kassandanê, and the position which she held during three
+     reigns shows that she must have been so; Justi, however,
+     calls her the daughter of Amytis. A second daughter is
+     mentioned by Herodotus, the one whom Cambyses killed in
+     Egypt by a kick; he gives her no name, but she is probably
+     the same as the Roxana who according to Ctesias bore a
+     headless child. The youngest, Artystonê, was the favourite
+     wife of Darius. Josephus speaks of a fourth daughter of
+     Cyrus called Meroê, but without saying who was the mother of
+     this princess.
+
+Cambyses was probably born about 558, soon after his father’s accession,
+and he was his legitimate successor, according to the Persian custom
+which assigned the crown to the eldest of the sons born in the purple.
+He had been associated, as we have seen, in the Babylonian regal power
+immediately after the victory over Nabonidus, and on the eve of his
+departure for the fatal campaign against the Massagetse his father,
+again in accordance with the Persian law, had appointed him regent. A
+later tradition, preserved by Ctesias, relates that on this occasion the
+territory had been divided between the two sons: Smerdis, here called
+Tanyoxarkes, having received as his share Bactriana, the Khoramnians,
+the Parthians, and the Carmanians, under the suzerainty of his brother.
+Cambyses, it is clear, inherited the whole empire, but intrigues
+gathered round Smerdis, and revolts broke out in the provinces, incited,
+so it was said, whether rightly or wrongly, by his partisans.* The new
+king was possessed of a violent, merciless temper, and the Persians
+subsequently emphasised the fact by saying that Cyrus had been a
+father to them, Cambyses a master. The rebellions were repressed with a
+vigorous hand, and finally Smerdis disappeared by royal order, and the
+secret of his fate was so well kept, that it was believed, even by his
+mother and sisters, that he was merely imprisoned in some obscure Median
+fortress.**
+
+     * Herodotus speaks of peoples subdued by Cambyses in Asia,
+     and this allusion can only refer to a revolt occurring after
+     the death of Cyrus, before the Egyptian expedition; these
+     troubles are explicitly recorded in Xenophon.
+
+     ** The inscription of Behistun says distinctly that Cambyses
+     had his brother Bardîya put to death before the Egyptian
+     expedition; on the other hand, Herodotus makes the murder
+     occur during the Egyptian expedition and Ctesias after this
+     expedition. Ctesias’ version of the affair adds that
+     Cambyses, the better to dissimulate his crime, ordered the
+     murderer Sphendadates to pass himself off as Tanyoxarkes, as
+     there was a great resemblance between the two: Sphendadates
+     --the historian goes on to say--was exiled to Bactriana,
+     and it was not until five years afterwards that the mother
+     of the two princes heard of the murder and of the
+     substitution. These additions to the story are subsequent
+     developments suggested by the traditional account of the
+     Pseudo-Smerdis. In recent times several authorities have
+     expressed the opinion that all that is told us of the murder
+     of Smerdis and about the Pseudo-Smerdis is merely a legend,
+     invented by Darius or those about him in order to justify
+     his usurpation in the eyes of the people: the Pseudo-Smerdis
+     would be Smerdis himself, who revolted against Cambyses, and
+     was then, after he had reigned a few months, assassinated by
+     Darius. Winckler acknowledges “that certainty is impossible
+     in such a case;” and, in reality, all ancient tradition is
+     against his hypothesis, and it is best to accept Herodotus’
+     account, with all its contradictions, until contemporaneous
+     documents enable us to decide what to accept and what to
+     reject in it.
+
+The ground being cleared of his rival, and affairs on the Scythian
+frontier reduced to order, Cambyses took up the projects against Egypt
+at the exact point at which his predecessor had left them. Amasis, who
+for ten years had been expecting an attack, had taken every precaution
+in his power against it, and had once more patiently begun to make
+overtures of alliance with the Hellenic cities; those on the European
+continent did not feel themselves so seriously menaced as to consider it
+to their interest to furnish him with any assistance, but the Greeks of
+the independent islands, with their chief, Poly crates, tyrant of Samos,
+received his advances with alacrity. Polycrates had at his disposal
+a considerable fleet, the finest hitherto seen in the waters of the
+Ægean, and this, combined with the Egyptian navy, was not any too large
+a force to protect the coasts of the Delta, now that the Persians had at
+their disposition not only the vessels of the Æolian and Ionian cities,
+but those of Phoenicia and Cyprus. A treaty was concluded, bringing
+about an exchange of presents and amenities between the two princes
+which lasted as long as peace prevailed, but was ruptured at the
+critical moment by the action of Polycrates, though not actually through
+his own fault. The aristocratic party, whose chiefs were always secretly
+plotting his overthrow, had given their adherence to the Persians,
+and their conduct became so threatening about the time of the death of
+Cyras, that Polycrates had to break his engagements with Egypt in order
+to avert a catastrophe.*
+
+     * Herodotus laid the blame for the breach of the treaty to
+     the King of Egypt, and attributed to his fear of the
+     constant good fortune of Polycrates. The lattor’s accession
+     to power is fixed at about the year 540 by some, by others
+     in the year 537, or in the year 533-2; his negotiations with
+     Amasis must be placed somewhere during the last fifteen
+     years of the Pharaoh.
+
+He made a treaty with the Persian king, and sent a squadron of forty
+galleys to join the fleet then being equipped in the Phoenician ports.*
+
+     * Herodotus records two opposing traditions: one that the
+     Samians joined in the Egyptian campaign, the other that they
+     went only as far as the neighbourhood of Karpathos.
+
+Amasis, therefore, when war at last broke out, found himself left
+to face the enemy alone. The struggle was inevitable, and all the
+inhabitants of the eastern coasts of the Mediterranean had long foreseen
+its coming. Without taking into consideration the danger to which the
+Persian empire and its Syrian provinces were exposed by the proximity of
+a strong and able power such as Egypt, the hardy and warlike character
+of Cambyses would naturally have prompted him to make an attempt to
+achieve what his predecessors, the warrior-kings of Nineveh and Babylon,
+had always failed to accomplish successfully. Policy ruled his line of
+action, and was sufficient to explain it, but popular imagination sought
+other than the very natural causes which had brought the most ancient
+and most recent of the great empires of the world into opposition;
+romantic reasons were therefore invented to account for the great drama
+which was being enacted, and the details supplied varied considerably,
+according as the tradition was current in Asia or Africa. It was said
+that a physician lent to Cyrus by Amasis, to treat him for an affection
+of the eyes, was the cause of all the evil. The unfortunate man,
+detained at Susa and chafing at his exile, was said to have advised
+Cambyses to ask for the daughter of Pharaoh in marriage, hoping either
+that Amasis would grant the request, and be dishonoured in the eyes
+of his subjects for having degraded the solar race by a union with a
+barbarian, or that he would boldly refuse, and thus arouse the hatred
+of the Persians against himself. Amasis, after a slight hesitation,
+substituted Nitêtis, a daughter of Apries, for his own child. It
+happened that one day in sport Cambyses addressed the princess by the
+name of her supposed father, whereupon she said, “I perceive, O king,
+that you have no suspicion of the way in which you have been deceived by
+Amasis; he took me, and having dressed me up as his own daughter, sent
+me to you. In reality I am the daughter of Apries, who was his lord and
+master until the day that he revolted, and, in concert with the rest of
+the Egyptians, put his sovereign to death.” The deceit which Cambyses
+thus discovered had been put upon him irritated him so greatly as to
+induce him to turn his arms against Egypt. So ran the Persian account of
+the tale, but on the banks of the Nile matters were explained otherwise.
+Here it was said that it was to Cyrus himself that Nitêtis had been
+married, and that she had borne Cambyses to him; the conquest had thus
+been merely a revenge of the legitimate heirs of Psammetichus upon the
+usurper, and Cambyses had ascended the throne less as a conqueror than
+as a Pharaoh of the line of Apries. It was by this childish fiction that
+the Egyptians in their decadence consoled themselves before the stranger
+for their loss of power. Always proud of their ancient prowess, but
+incapable of imitating the deeds of their forefathers, they none the
+less pretended that they could neither be vanquished nor ruled except
+by one of themselves, and the story of Nitêtis afforded complete
+satisfaction to their vanity. If Cambyses were born of a solar princess,
+Persia could not be said to have imposed a barbarian king upon Egypt,
+but, on the contrary, that Egypt had cleverly foisted her Pharaoh upon
+Persia, and through Persia upon half the universe.
+
+One obstacle still separated the two foes--the desert and the marshes
+of the Delta. The distance between the outposts of Pelusium and the
+fortress of Ænysos* on the Syrian frontier was scarcely fifty-six miles,
+and could be crossed by an army in less than ten days.** Formerly the
+width of this strip of desert had been less, but the Assyrians, and
+after them the Chaldæans, had vied with each other in laying waste the
+country, and the absence of any settled population now rendered the
+transit difficult. Cambyses had his head-quarters at Gaza, at the
+extreme limit of his own dominions,*** but he was at a loss how to face
+this solitary region without incurring the risk of seeing half his men
+buried beneath its sands, and his uncertainty was delaying his departure
+when a stroke of fortune relieved him from his difficulty.
+
+     * The Ænysos of Herodotus is now Khân Yunes.
+
+     ** In 1799, Napoleon’s army left Kattiyeh on the 18th of
+     Pluviôse, and was at Gaza on the 7th of Ventose, after
+     remaining from the 21st to the 30th of Pluviôse before El-
+     Arîsh besieging that place.
+
+     *** This seems to follow from the tradition, according to
+     which Cambyses left his treasures at Gaza during the
+     Egyptian campaign, and the town was thence called _Gaza_,
+     “the treasury.” The etymology is false, but the fact that
+     suggested it is probably correct, considering the situation
+     of Gaza and the part it must necessarily play in an invasion
+     of Egypt.
+
+Phanes of Halicarnassus, one of the mercenaries in the service of Egypt,
+a man of shrewd judgment and an able soldier, fell out with Amasis for
+some unknown reason, and left him to offer his services to his rival.
+This was a serious loss for Egypt, since Phanes possessed considerable
+authority over the mercenaries, and was better versed in Egyptian
+affairs than any other person. He was pursued and taken within sight of
+the Lycian coast, but he treated his captors to wine and escaped from
+them while they were intoxicated. He placed Cambyses in communication
+with the shêkh of the scattered tribes between Syria and the Delta. The
+Arab undertook to furnish the Persian king with guides, as one of his
+predecessors had done in years gone by for Esar-haddon, and to station
+relays of camels laden with water along the route that the invading army
+was to follow. Having taken these precautions, Cambyses entrusted the
+cares of government and the regulation of his household to Oropastes,*
+one of the Persian magi, and gave the order to march forward.
+
+     * Herodotus calls this individual Patizeithes, and Dionysius
+     of Miletus, who lived a little before Herodotus, gives
+     Panzythes as a variant of this name: the variant passed into
+     the Syncellus as Pauzythes, but the original form
+     Patikhshâyathiya is a title signifying _viceroy, regent, or
+     minister_, answering to the modern Persian _Padishah_:
+     Herodotus, or the author he quotes, has taken the name of
+     the office for that of the individual. On the other hand,
+     Pompeius Trogus, who drew his information from good sources,
+     mentions, side by side with Comètes or Gaumata, his brother
+     Oropastes, whose name Ahura-upashta is quite correct, and
+     may mean, _Him whom Ahura helps_. It is generally admitted
+     that Pompeius Trogus, or rather Justin, has inverted the
+     parts they played, and that his Comètes is the Pseudo-
+     Smerdis, and not, as he says, Oropastes; it was, then, the
+     latter who was the usurper’s brother, and it is his name of
+     Oropastes which should be substituted for that of the
+     Patizeithes of Herodotus.
+
+[Illustration: 138.jpg Psammetichus III. ]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph of the original in the
+     Louvre.
+
+On arriving at Pelusium, he learned that his adversary no longer
+existed. Amasis had died after a short illness, and was succeeded by his
+son Psammetichus III.
+
+This change of command, at the most critical moment, was almost in
+itself, a disaster. Àmasis, with his consummate experience of men and
+things, his intimate knowledge of the resources of Egypt, his talents as
+a soldier and a general, his personal prestige, his Hellenic leanings,
+commanded the confidence of his own men and the respect of foreigners;
+but what could be expected of his unknown successor, and who could say
+whether he were equal to the heavy task which fate had assigned to him?
+The whole of the Nile valley was a prey to gloomy presentiment.*
+
+     * Psammetichus III. has left us very few monuments, which is
+     accounted for by the extreme shortness of his reign. For the
+     same reason doubtless several writers of classical times
+     have ignored his existence, and have made the conquest of
+     Egypt take place under Amasis. Ctesias calls the Pharaoh
+     Amyrtseus, and gives the same name to those who rebelled
+     against the Persians in his own time, and he had an account
+     of the history of the conquest entirely different from that
+     of Herodotus.
+
+Egypt was threatened not only, as in the previous century, by the
+nations of the Tigris and Euphrates, but all Asia, from the Indus to the
+Hellespont, was about to fall on her to crush her. She was destitute
+of all human help and allies, and the gods themselves appeared to have
+forsaken her. The fellahin, inspired with vague alarm, recognised evil
+omens in all around them. Rain is rare in the Thebaid, and storms occur
+there only twice or three times in a century: but a few days after the
+accession of Psammetichus, a shower of fine rain fell at Thebes, an
+event, so it was stated with the exaggeration characteristic of the
+bearers of ill news, which had never before occurred.*
+
+     * The inhabitants of the Said have, up to our own time,
+     always considered rain in the valley as an ill-omened event.
+     They used to say in the beginning of the nineteenth century,
+     when speaking of Napoleon’s expedition, “We knew that
+     misfortune threatened us, because it rained at Luxor shortly
+     before the French came.” Wilkinson assures us that rain is
+     not so rare at Thebes as Herodotus thought: he speaks of
+     five or six showers a year, and of a great storm on an
+     average every ten years. But even he admits that it is
+     confined to the mountain district, and does not reach the
+     plain: I never heard of rain at Luxor during the six winters
+     that I spent in Upper Egypt.
+
+Pharaoh hastened to meet the invader with all the men, chariots, and
+native bowmen at his disposal, together with his Libyan and Cyrenoan
+auxiliaries, and the Ionians, Carians, and Greeks of the isles and
+mainland. The battle took place before Pelusium, and was fought on
+both sides with brave desperation, since defeat meant servitude for the
+Egyptians, and for the Persians, cut off by the desert from possible
+retreat, captivity or annihilation. Phanes had been obliged to leave his
+children behind him, and Pharaoh included them in his suite, to serve,
+if needful, as hostages. The Carians and Ionians, who felt themselves
+disgraced by the defection of their captain, called loudly for them just
+before the commencement of the action. They were killed immediately in
+front of the lines, their father being a powerless onlooker; their blood
+was thrown into a cask half full of wine, and the horrible mixture
+was drunk by the soldiers, who then furiously charged the enemy’s
+battalions. The issue of the struggle was for a long time doubtful, but
+the Egyptians were inferior in numbers; towards evening their lines gave
+way and the flight began.* All was not, however, lost, if Psammetichus
+had but followed the example of Taharqa, and defended the passage of the
+various canals and arms of the river, disputing the ground inch by inch
+with the Persians, and gaining time meanwhile to collect a fresh army.
+The king lost his presence of mind, and without attempting to rally what
+remained of his regiments, he hastened to take refuge within the White
+Wall. Cambyses halted a few days to reduce Pelusium,** and in the mean
+time sent a vessel of Mitylene to summon Memphis to capitulate: the
+infuriated populace, as soon as they got wind of the message, massacred
+the herald and the crew, and dragged their bleeding limbs through the
+streets.
+
+     * According to Herodotus, eighty years later the battle-
+     field used to be shown covered with bones, and it was said
+     that the Egyptians could be distinguished from the Persians
+     by the relative hardness of their skulls.
+
+     ** Polysenus hands down a story that Cambyses, in order to
+     paralyse the resistance of the besieged, caused cats, dogs,
+     ibises, and other sacred animals to march at the head of his
+     attacking columns: the Egyptians would not venture to use
+     their arms for fear of wounding or killing some of their
+     gods.
+
+The city held out for a considerable time; when at length she opened
+her gates, the remaining inhabitants of the Said who had hesitated up to
+then, hastened to make their submission, and the whole of Egypt as far
+as Philae became at one stroke a Persian province. The Libyans did not
+wait to be summoned to bring their tribute; Cyrene and Barca followed
+their example, but their offerings were so small that the conqueror’s
+irritation was aroused, and deeming himself mocked, he gave way to his
+anger, and instead of accepting them, he threw them to his soldiers with
+his own hand (B.C. 525).*
+
+     * The question as to the year in which Egypt was subdued by
+     Cambyses has long divided historians: I still agree with
+     those who place the conquest in the spring of 525.
+
+This sudden collapse of a power whose exalted position had defied all
+attacks for centuries, and the tragic fate of the king who had received
+his crown merely to lose it, filled contemporary beholders with
+astonishment and pity. It was said that, ten days after the capitulation
+of Memphis, the victorious king desired out of sport to test the
+endurance of his prisoner. Psammetichus beheld his daughter and the
+daughters of his nobles pass before him, half naked, with jars on their
+shoulders, and go down to the Nile to fetch water from the river like
+common slaves; his son and two thousand young men of the same age, in
+chains and with ropes round their necks, also defiled before him on
+their way to die as a revenge for the murder of the Mitylenians; yet he
+never for a moment lost his royal imperturbability. But when one of
+his former companions in pleasure chanced to pass, begging for alms
+and clothed in rags, Psammetichus suddenly broke out into weeping, and
+lacerated his face in despair. Cambyses, surprised at this excessive
+grief in a man who up till then had exhibited such fortitude, demanded
+the reason of his conduct. “Son of Cyrus,” he replied, “the misfortunes
+of my house are too unparalleled to weep over, but not the affliction of
+my friend. When a man, on the verge of old age, falls from luxury and
+abundance into extreme poverty, one may well lament his fate.” When the
+speech was reported to Cambyses, he fully recognised the truth of it.
+Croesus, who was also present, shed tears, and the Persians round him
+were moved with pity. Cambyses, likewise touched, commanded that the
+son of the Pharaoh should be saved, but the remission of the sentence
+arrived too late. He at all events treated Pharaoh himself with
+consideration, and it is possible that he might have replaced him on
+the throne, under an oath of vassalage, had he not surprised him in
+a conspiracy against his own life. He thereupon obliged him to poison
+himself by drinking bulls’ blood, and he confided the government of the
+Nile valley to a Persian named Aryandes.
+
+No part of the ancient world now remained unconquered except the
+semi-fabulous kingdom of Ethiopia in the far-off south. Cities and
+monarchies, all the great actors of early times, had been laid in
+the dust one after another--Tyre, Damascus, Carchemish, Urartu, Elam,
+Assyria, Jerusalem, Media, the Lydians, Babylon, and finally Egypt; and
+the prey they had fought over so fiercely and for so many centuries,
+now belonged in its entirety to one master for the first time as far
+as memory could reach back into the past. Cambyses, following in the
+footsteps of Cyrus, had pursued his victorious way successfully, but
+it was another matter to consolidate his conquests and to succeed
+in governing within the limits of one empire so many incongruous
+elements--the people of the Caucasus and those of the Nile valley, the
+Greeks of the Ægean and the Iranians, the Scythians from beyond the Oxus
+and the Semites of the banks of the Euphrates or of the Mediterranean
+coast; and time alone would show whether this heritage would not fall to
+pieces as quickly as it had been built up. The Asiatic elements of the
+empire appeared, at all events for the moment, content with their lot,
+and Babylon showed herself more than usually resigned; but Egypt
+had never accepted the yoke of the stranger willingly, and the most
+fortunate of her Assyrian conquerors had never exercised more than a
+passing supremacy over her. Cambyses realised that he would never master
+her except by governing her himself for a period of several years, and
+by making himself as Egyptian as a Persian could be without offending
+his own subjects at home. He adopted the titles of the Pharaohs, their
+double cartouche, their royal costume, and their solar filiation; as
+much to satisfy his own personal animosity as to conciliate the Egyptian
+priests, he repaired to Sais, violated the tomb of Amasis, and burnt the
+mummy after offering it every insult.*
+
+     * Herodotus gives also a second account, which declares that
+     Cambyses thus treated the body, not of Amasis, but of some
+     unknown person whom he took for Amasis. The truth of the
+     story is generally contested, for the deed would have been,
+     as Herodotus himself remarks, contrary to Persian ideas
+     about the sanctity of fire. I think that by his cruel
+     treatment of the mummy, Cambyses wished to satisfy the
+     hatred of the natives against the Greek-loving king, and so
+     render himself more acceptable to them. The destruction of
+     the mummy entailing that of the soul, his act gave the
+     Saitic population a satisfaction similar to that experienced
+     by the refined cruelty of those who, a few centuries ago,
+     killed their enemies when in a state of deadly sin, and so
+     ensure not only their dismissal from this world, but also
+     their condemnation in the next.
+
+[Illustration: 145.jpg THE NAOPHOROS STATUETTE OF THE VATICAN]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph: the head and
+     hands are a restoration of the eighteenth century, in the
+     most inappropriate Græco-Roman style.
+
+He removed his troops from the temple of Nît, which they had turned into
+a barrack to the horror of the faithful, and restored at his own expense
+the damage they had done to the building. He condescended so far as
+to receive instruction in the local religion, and was initiated in the
+worship of the goddess by the priest Uzaharrîsnîti. This was, after
+all, a pursuance of the policy employed by his father towards the
+Babylonians, and the projects which he had in view necessitated his
+gaining the confidence of the people at all costs. Asia having no more
+to offer him, two almost untried fields lay open to his ambition--Africa
+and Europe--the Greek world and what lay beyond it, the Carthaginian
+world and Ethiopia. The necessity of making a final reckoning with Egypt
+had at the outset summoned him to Africa, and it was therefore in that
+continent that he determined to carry on his conquests. Memphis was
+necessarily the base of his operations, the only point from which
+he could direct the march of his armies in a westerly or southerly
+direction, and at the same time keep in touch with the rest of his
+empire, and he would indeed have been imprudent had he neglected
+anything which could make him acceptable to its inhabitants. As soon as
+he felt he had gained their sympathies, he despatched two expeditions,
+one to Carthage and one to Ethiopia. Cyrene had spontaneously offered
+him her homage; he now further secured it by sending thither with all
+honour Ladikê, the widow of Amasis, and he apparently contemplated
+taking advantage of the good will of the Cyrenians to approach Carthage
+by sea. The combined fleets of Ionia and Phonicia were without doubt
+numerically sufficient for this undertaking, but the Tyrians refused to
+serve against their own colonies, and he did not venture to employ the
+Greeks alone in waters which were unfamiliar to them. Besides this, the
+information which he obtained from those about him convinced him that
+the overland route would enable him to reach his destination more surely
+if more slowly; it would lead him from the banks of the Nile to the
+Oases of the Theban desert, from there to the Ammonians, and thence by
+way of the Libyans bordering on the Syrtes and the Liby-phoenicians. He
+despatched an advance-guard of fifty thousand men from Thebes to occupy
+the Oasis of Ammon and to prepare the various halting-places for
+the bulk of the troops. The fate of these men has never been clearly
+ascertained. They crossed the Oasis of El-Khargeh and proceeded to
+the north-west in the direction of the oracle. The natives afterwards
+related that when they had arrived halfway, a sudden storm of wind fell
+upon them, and the entire force was buried under mounds of sand during
+a halt. Cambyses was forced to take their word; in spite of all his
+endeavours, no further news of his troops was forthcoming, except that
+they never reached the temple, and that none of the generals or soldiers
+ever again saw Egypt (524). The expedition to Ethiopia was not more
+successful. Since the retreat of Tanuatamanu, the Pharaohs of Napata had
+severed all direct relations with Asia; but on being interfered with
+by Psammetichus I. and II., they had repulsed the invaders, and had
+maintained their frontier almost within sight of Philæ.* In Nubia proper
+they had merely a few outposts stationed in the ruins of the towns of
+the Theban period--at Derr, at Pnubsu, at Wady-Halfa, and at Semneh;
+the population again becoming dense and the valley fertile to the
+south of this spot. Kush, like Egypt, was divided into two regions
+--To-Qonusît, with its cities of Danguru,** Napata, Asta-muras, and
+Barua; and Alo,*** which extended along the White and the Blue Nile
+in the plain of Sennaar: the Asmakh, the descendants of the Mashauasha
+emigrants of the time of Psammetichus I., dwelt on the southern border
+of Alo.
+
+     * The northern boundary of Ethiopia is given us
+     approximately by the lists of temples in the inscriptions of
+     Harsiatef and of Nastosenen: Pnubsu is mentioned several
+     times as receiving gifts from the king, which carries the
+     permanent dominion of the Ethiopian kings as far as the
+     second cataract.
+
+     ** Now Old Dongola.
+
+     *** Berua is the Meroê of Strabo, Astaboras the modern Ed-
+     Dameîr, and Alo the kingdom of Aloah of the mediæval Arab
+     geographers.
+
+[Illustration: 147.jpg ETHIOPIAN GKOUP]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the photograph by Berghoff.
+
+A number of half-savage tribes, Maditi and Bohrehsa, were settled to
+the right and to the left of the territory watered by the Nile, between
+Darfur, the mountains of Abyssinia, and the Red Sea; and the
+warlike disposition of the Ethiopian kings found in these tribes an
+inexhaustible field for obtaining easy victories and abundant spoil.
+Many of these sovereigns--Piônkhi, Alaru, Harsiatef, Nastosenen--whose
+respective positions in the royal line are still undetermined, specially
+distinguished themselves in these struggles, but the few monuments
+they have left, though bearing witness to their military enterprise and
+ability, betray their utter decadence in everything connected with art,
+language, and religion. The ancient Egyptian syllabary, adapted to
+the needs of a barbarous tongue, had ended by losing its elegance;
+architecture was degenerating, and sculpture slowly growing more and
+more clumsy in appearance. Some of the work, however, is not wanting in
+a certain rude nobility--as, for instance, the god and goddess carved
+side by side in a block of grey granite. Ethiopian worship had become
+permeated with strange superstitions, and its creed was degraded,
+in spite of the strictness with which the priests supervised
+its application and kept watch against every attempt to introduce
+innovations. Towards the end of the seventh century some of the families
+attached to the temple of Am on at Napata had endeavoured to bring about
+a kind of religious reform; among other innovations they adopted the
+practice of substituting for the ordinary sacrifice, new rites, the
+chief feature of which was the offering of the flesh of the victim raw,
+instead of roasted with fire. This custom, which was doubtless borrowed
+from the negroes of the Upper Nile, was looked upon as a shameful heresy
+by the orthodox. The king repaired in state to the temple of Anion,
+seized the priests who professed these seditious beliefs, and burnt them
+alive.
+
+[Illustration: 148.jpg Encampment de Bacharis]
+
+The use of raw meat, nevertheless, was not discontinued, and it gained
+such ground in the course of ages that even Christianity was unable to
+suppress it; up to the present time, the _brindê_, or piece of beef cut
+from the living animal and eaten raw, is considered a delicacy by the
+Abyssinians.
+
+The isolation of the Ethiopians had rather increased than lowered their
+reputation among other nations. Their transitory appearance on the
+battle-fields of Asia had left a deep impression on the memories of
+their opponents. The tenacity they had displayed during their conflict
+with Assyria had effaced the remembrance of their defeat. Popular fancy
+delighted to extol the wisdom of Sabaco,* and exalted Taharqa to the
+first rank among the conquerors of the old world; now that Kush once
+more came within the range of vision, it was invested with a share of
+all these virtues, and the inquiries Cambyses made concerning it were
+calculated to make him believe that he was about to enter on a struggle
+with a nation of demigods rather than of men. He was informed that they
+were taller, more beautiful, and more vigorous than all other mortals,
+that their age was prolonged to one hundred and twenty years and more,
+and that they possessed a marvellous fountain whose waters imparted
+perpetual youth to then-bodies. There existed near their capital a
+meadow, perpetually furnishing an inexhaustible supply of food and
+drink; whoever would might partake of this “Table of the Sun,” and eat
+to his fill.**
+
+     * The eulogy bestowed on him by Herodotus shows the esteem
+     in which he was held even in the Saite period; later on he
+     seems to have become two persons, and so to have given birth
+     to the good Ethiopian king Aktisanes.
+
+     ** Pausanias treats it as a traveller’s tale. Heeren thought
+     that he saw in Herodotus’ account a reference to intercourse
+     by signs, so frequent in Africa. The “Table of the Sun”
+      would thus have been a kind of market, whither the natives
+     would come for their provisions, using exchange to procure
+     them. I am inclined rather to believe the story to be a
+     recollection, partly of the actual custom of placing meats,
+     which the first comer might take, on the tombs in the
+     necropolis, partly of the mythical “Meadow of Offerings”
+      mentioned in the funerary texts, to which the souls of the
+     dead and the gods alike had access. This divine region would
+     have transferred to our earth by some folk-tale, like the
+     judgment of the dead, the entrance into the solar bark, and
+     other similar beliefs.
+
+Gold was so abundant that it was used for common purposes, even for the
+chains of their prisoners; but, on the other hand, copper was rare
+and much prized. Canibyses despatched some spies chosen from among the
+Ichthyophagi of the Bed Sea to explore this region, and acting on the
+report they brought back, he left Memphis at the head of an army and
+a fleet.* The expedition was partly a success and partly a failure. It
+followed the Nile valley as far as Korosko, and then struck across the
+desert in the direction of Napata;** but provisions ran short before a
+quarter of the march had been achieved, and famine obliged the invaders
+to retrace their steps after having endured terrible sufferings.***
+
+     * Herodotus’ text speaks of an army only, but the accounts
+     of the wars between Ethiopia and Egypt show that the army
+     was always accompanied by the necessary fleet.
+
+     ** It is usually thought that the expedition marched by the
+     side of the Nile as far as Napata; to support this theory
+     the name of a place mentioned in Pliny is quoted, Cambusis
+     at the third cataract, which is supposed to contain the name
+     of the conqueror. This town, which is sometimes mentioned by
+     the classical geographers, is called Kambiusit in the
+     Ethiopie texts, and the form of the name makes its
+     connection with the history of Cambyses easy. I think it
+     follows, from the text of Herodotus, that the Persians left
+     the grassy land, the river-valley, at a given moment, to
+     enter the sand, i.e. the desert. Now this is done to-day at
+     two points--near Korosko to rejoin the Nile at Abu-Hammed,
+     and near Wady-Halfah to avoid the part of the Nile called
+     the “Stony belly,” Batn el-Hagar. The Korosko route, being
+     the only one suitable for the transit of a body of troops,
+     and also the only route known to Herodotus, seems, I think,
+     likely to be the one which was followed in the present
+     instance; at all events, it fits in best with the fact that
+     Cambyses was obliged to retrace his steps hurriedly, when he
+     had accomplished hardly a fifth of the journey.
+
+     *** Many modern historians are inclined to assume that
+     Cambyses’ expedition was completely successful, and that its
+     result was the overthrow of the ancient kingdom of Nepata
+     and the foundation of that of Meroê. Cambyses would have
+     given the new town which he built there the name of his
+     sister Meroê. The traditions concerning Cambusis and Meroê
+     belong to the Alexandrine era, and rest only on chance
+     similarities of sound. With regard to the Ethiopian province
+     of the Persian empire and to the Ethiopian neighbours of
+     Egypt whom Cambyses subdued, the latter are not necessarily
+     Ethiopians of Napata. Herodotus himself says that the
+     Ethiopians dwelt in the country above Elephantine, and that
+     half of what he calls the island of Takhompsô was inhabited
+     by Ethiopians: the subjugated Ethiopians and their country
+     plainly correspond with the Dodekaschênos of the Græco-Roman
+     era.
+
+Cambyses had to rest content with the acquisition of those portions of
+Nubia adjoining the first cataract--the same, in fact, that had been
+annexed to Egypt by Psammetichus I. and II. (523). The failure of this
+expedition to the south, following so closely on the disaster which
+befell that of the west, had a deplorable effect on the mind of
+Cambyses. He had been subject, from childhood, to attacks of epilepsy,
+during which he became a maniac and had no control over his actions.
+These reverses of fortune aggravated the disease, and increased the
+frequency and length of the attacks.*
+
+     * Recent historians admit neither the reality of the illness
+     of Cambyses nor the madness resulting from it, but consider
+     them Egyptian fables, invented out of spite towards the king
+     who had conquered and persecuted them.
+
+The bull Apis had died shortly before the close of the Ethiopian
+campaign, and the Egyptians, after mourning for him during the
+prescribed number of weeks, were bringing his successor with rejoicings
+into the temple of Phtah, when the remains of the army re-entered
+Memphis. Cambyses, finding the city holiday-making, imagined that it was
+rejoicing over his misfortunes. He summoned the magistrates before him,
+and gave them over to the executioner without deigning to listen to
+their explanations. He next caused the priests to be brought to him, and
+when they had paraded the Apis before him, he plunged his dagger into
+its flank with derisive laughter: “Ah, evil people! So you make for
+yourselves divinities of flesh and blood which fear the sword! It is
+indeed a fine god that you Egyptians have here; I will have you to know,
+however, that you shall not rejoice overmuch at having deceived me!” The
+priests were beaten as impostors, and the bull languished from its wound
+and died in a few days*1 its priests buried it, and chose another in its
+place without the usual ceremonies, so as not to exasperate the anger
+of the tyrant,** but the horror evoked by this double sacrilege raised
+passions against Cambyses which the ruin of the country had failed to
+excite.
+
+     * Later historians improved upon the account of Herodotus,
+     and it is said in the _De Iside_, that Cambyses killed the
+     Apis and threw him to the dogs. Here there is probably a
+     confusion between the conduct of Cambyses and that
+     attributed to the eunuch Bagoas nearly two centuries later,
+     at the time of the second conquest of Egypt by Ochus.
+
+     ** Mariette discovered in the Serapseum and sent to the
+     Louvre fragments of the epitaph of an Apis buried in Epiphi
+     in the sixth year of Cambyses, which had therefore died a
+     few months previously. This fact contradicts the inference
+     from the epitaph of the Apis that died in the fourth year of
+     Darius, which would have been born in the fifth year of
+     Cambyses, if we allow that there could not have been two
+     Apises in Egypt at once. This was, indeed, the usual rule,
+     but a comparison of the two dates shows that here it was not
+     followed, and it is therefore simplest, until we have
+     further evidence, to conclude that at all events in cases of
+     violence, such as sacrilegious murder, there could have been
+     two Apises at once, one discharging his functions, and the
+     other unknown, living still in the midst of the herds.
+
+The manifestations of this antipathy irritated him to such an extent
+that he completely changed his policy, and set himself from that time
+forward to act counter to the customs and prejudices of the Egyptians.
+They consequently regarded his memory with a vindictive hatred. The
+people related that the gods had struck him with madness to avenge the
+murder of the Apis, and they attributed to him numberless traits of
+senseless cruelty, in which we can scarcely distinguish truth from
+fiction. It was said that, having entered the temple of Phtah, he had
+ridiculed the grotesque figure under which the god was represented,
+and had commanded the statues to be burnt. On another occasion he had
+ordered the ancient sepulchres to be opened, that he might see what was
+the appearance of the mummies. The most faithful members of his family
+and household, it was said, did not escape his fury. He killed his own
+sister Roxana, whom he had married, by a kick in the abdomen; he slew
+the son of Prexaspes with an arrow; he buried alive twelve influential
+Persians; he condemned Croesus to death, and then repented, but punished
+the officers who had failed to execute the sentence pronounced against
+the Lydian king.*
+
+     * The whole of this story of Croesus is entirely fabulous.
+
+He had no longer any reason for remaining in Egypt, since he had failed
+in his undertakings; yet he did not quit the country, and through
+repeated delays his departure was retarded a whole year. Meanwhile his
+long sojourn in Africa, the report of his failures, and perhaps whispers
+of his insanity, had sown the seeds of discontent in Asia; and as Darius
+said in after-years, when recounting these events, “untruth had spread
+all over the country, not only in Persia and Media, but in other
+provinces.” Cambyses himself felt that a longer absence would be
+injurious to his interests; he therefore crossed the isthmus in the
+spring of 521, and was making his way through Northern Syria, perhaps
+in the neighbourhood of Hamath,* when he learned that a revolution had
+broken out, and that its rapid progress threatened the safety of his
+throne and life.
+
+     * Herodotus calls the place where Cambyses died Agbatana
+     (Ecbatana). Pliny says that the town of Carmel was thus
+     named at first; but the place here mentioned cannot well
+     have been in that direction. It has been identified with
+     Batansea in the country between the Orontes and the
+     Euphrates, but the most likely theory is the one suggested
+     by a passage in Stephen of Byzantium, that the place in
+     question is the large Syrian city of Hamath. Josephus makes
+     him die at Damascus.
+
+Tradition asserted that a herald appeared before him and proclaimed
+aloud, in the hearing of the whole army, that Cambyses, son of Cyrus,
+had ceased to reign, and summoned whoever had till that day obeyed him
+to acknowledge henceforth Smerdis, son of Cyrus, as their lord. Cambyses
+at first believed that his brother had been spared by the assassins, and
+now, after years of concealment, had at length declared himself; but he
+soon received proofs that his orders had been faithfully accomplished,
+and it is said that he wept at the remembrance of the fruitless crime.
+The usurper was Gaumâta, one of the Persian Magi, whose resemblance
+to Smerdis was so remarkable that even those who were cognisant of it
+invariably mistook the one for the other,* and he was brother to that
+Oropastes to whom Cambyses had entrusted the administration of his
+household before setting out for Egypt.**
+
+     * Greek tradition is unanimous on this point, but the
+     inscription of Behistun does not mention it.
+
+     ** The inscription of Behistun informs us that the usurper’s
+     name was Gaumâta. Pompeius Trogus alone, probably following
+     some author who made use of Charon of Lampsacus, handed down
+     this name in the form Comètes or Gometes, which his
+     abbreviator Justin carelessly applied to the second brother.
+     Ctesias gives the Mage the name Sphendadates, which answers
+     to the Old Persian Spentôdâta, “he who is given by the Holy
+     One,” i.e. by Ahura-mazdâ. The supporters of the Mage gave
+     him this name, as an heroic champion of the Mazdoan faith
+     who had destroyed such sanctuaries as were illegal, and
+     identified him with Spentôdâta, son of Wistâspa.
+
+Both of them were aware of the fate of Smerdis; they also knew that the
+Persians were ignorant of it, and that every one at court, including
+the mother and sisters of the prince, believed that he was still alive.
+Gaumâta headed a revolt in the little town of Pasyauvadâ on the 14th
+of Viyakhna, in the early days of March, 521, and he was hailed by the
+common people from the moment of his appearance. Persia, Media, and the
+Iranian provinces pronounced in his favour, and solemnly enthroned him
+three months later, on the 9th of Garmapada; Babylon next accepted him,
+followed by Elam and the regions of the Tigris. Though astounded at
+first by such a widespread defection, Cambyses soon recovered his
+presence of mind, and was about to march forward at the head of the
+troops who were still loyal to him, when he mysteriously disappeared.
+Whether he was the victim of a plot set on foot by those about him, is
+not known. The official version of the story given by Darius states
+that he died by his own hand, and it seems to insinuate that it was
+a voluntary act, but another account affirms that he succumbed to an
+accident;* while mounting his horse, the point of his dagger pierced
+his thigh in the same spot in which he had stabbed the Apis of the
+Egyptians. Feeling himself seriously wounded, he suddenly asked the
+name of the place where he was lying, and was told it was “Agbatana”
+ (Ecbatana). “Now, long before this, the oracle of Buto had predicted
+that he should end his days in Agbatana, and he, believing it to be the
+Agbatana in Media where were his treasures, understood that he should
+die there in his old age; whereas the oracle meant Agbatana in Syria.
+When he heard the name, he perceived his error. He understood what the
+god intended, and cried, ‘It is here, then, that Cambyses, son of Cyrus,
+must perish!’” He expired about three weeks after, leaving no posterity
+and having appointed no successor.**
+
+     * It has been pointed out, for the purpose of harmonising
+     the testimony of Herodotus with that of the inscription of
+     Behistun, that although the latter speaks of the death of
+     Cambyses by his own hand, it does not say whether that death
+     was voluntary or accidental.
+
+     ** The story of a person whose death has been predicted to
+     take place in some well-known place, and who has died in
+     some obscure spot of the same name, occurs several times in
+     different historians, e.g. in the account of the Emperor
+     Julian, and in that of Henry III. of England, who had been
+     told that he would die in Jerusalem, and whose death took
+     place in the Jerusalem Chamber at Westminster. Ctesias has
+     preserved an altogether different tradition--that Cambyses
+     on his return from Babylon wounded himself while carving a
+     piece of wood for his amusement, and died eleven days after
+     the accident.
+
+What took place in the ensuing months still remains an enigma to us.
+The episode of Gaumâta has often been looked on as a national movement,
+which momentarily restored to the Medes the supremacy of which Cyrus had
+robbed them; but it was nothing of the sort. Gaumâta was not a Mede by
+birth: he was a Persian, born in Persia, in the township of Pisyauvadâ,
+at the foot of Mount Ara-kadrish, and the Persians recognised and
+supported him as much as did the Medes. It has also been thought that
+he had attempted to foment a religious revolution,* and, as a matter of
+fact, he destroyed several temples in a few months.
+
+     * Most of the ancient writers shared this opinion, and have
+     been followed therein by many modern writers. Rawlinson was
+     the first to show that Gaumâta’s movement was not Median,
+     and that he did not in the least alter the position of the
+     Persians in the empire: but he allows the Magian usurpation
+     to have been the prelude to a sort of religious reform.
+
+Here, however, the reform touched less upon a question of belief than on
+one of fact. The unity of the empire presupposed the unity of the royal
+fire, and where-ever that fire was burning another could not be lighted
+without sacrilege in the eyes of the faithful. The pyres that Gaumâta
+desired to extinguish were, no doubt, those which the feudal families
+had maintained for their separate use in defiance of the law, and the
+measure which abolished them had a political as well as a religious
+side. The little we can glean of the line of action adopted by Smerdis
+does not warrant the attribution to him of the vast projects which
+some modern writers credit him with. He naturally sought to strengthen
+himself on the throne, which by a stroke of good fortune he had
+ascended, and whatever he did tended solely to this end. The name and
+the character that he had assumed secured him the respect and fidelity
+of the Iranians: “there was not one, either among the Medes or the
+Persians, nor among the members of the Achæmenian race, who dreamed of
+disputing his power” in the early days of his reign. The important thing
+in his eyes was, therefore, to maintain among his subjects as long as
+possible the error as to his identity. He put to death all, whether
+small or great, who had been in any way implicated in the affairs of the
+real Smerdis, or whom he suspected of any knowledge of the murder. He
+withdrew from public life as far as practicable, and rarely allowed
+himself to be seen. Having inherited the harem of his predecessors,
+together with their crown, he even went so far as to condemn his wives
+to a complete seclusion. He did not venture to hope, nor did those in
+his confidence, that the truth would not one day be known, but he hoped
+to gain, without loss of time, sufficient popularity to prevent the
+revelation of the imposture from damaging his prospects. The seven great
+houses which he had dispossessed would, in such a case, refuse to
+rally round him, and it was doubtless to lessen their prestige that he
+extinguished their pyres; but the people did not trouble themselves as
+to the origin of their sovereign, if he showed them his favour and took
+proper precautions to secure their good will. He therefore exempted the
+provinces from taxes and military service for a period of three years.
+He had not time to pursue this policy, and if we may believe tradition,
+the very precautions which he took to conceal his identity became the
+cause of his misfortunes. In the royal harem there were, together with
+the daughters of Cyrus, relatives of all the Persian nobility, and the
+order issued to stop all their communications with the outer world had
+excited suspicion: the avowals which had escaped Cambyses before the
+catastrophe were now called to mind, and it was not long before those
+in high places became convinced that they had been the dupes of an
+audacious imposture. A conspiracy broke out, under the leadership of the
+chiefs of the seven clans, among whom was numbered Darius, the son of
+Hystaspes, who was connected, according to a genealogy more or less
+authentic, with the family of the Achæmenides:* the conspirators
+surprised Gaumâta in his palace of Sikayauvatish, which was situated in
+the district of Nisaya, not far from Ecbatana, and assassinated him on
+the 10th of Bâgayâdîsh, 521 B.C.
+
+     * The passage in the Behistun inscription, in which Darius
+     sets forth his own genealogy, has received various
+     interpretations. That of Oppert seems still the most
+     probable, that the text indicates two parallel branches of
+     Achæmenides, which nourished side by side until Cambyses
+     died and Darius ascended the throne. Such a genealogy,
+     however, appears to be fictitious, invented solely for the
+     purpose of connecting Darius with the ancient royal line,
+     with which in reality he could claim no kinship, or only a
+     very distant connection.
+
+[Illustration: 159.jpg DARIUS, SON OF HYSTASPES]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from M. Dieulafoy.
+
+The exact particulars of this scene were never known, but popular
+imagination soon supplied the defect, furnishing a full and complete
+account of all that took place. In the first place, Phædimê, daughter
+of Otanes, one of the seven, furnished an authentic proof of the fraud
+which had been perpetrated. Her father had opportunely recalled the
+marvellous resemblance between Smerdis and the Magian, and remembered
+at the same time that the latter had been deprived of his ears in
+punishment for some misdeed: he therefore sent certain instructions to
+Phffidimê, who, when she made the discovery, at the peril of her life,
+that her husband had no ears, communicated the information to the
+disaffected nobles. The conspirators thereupon resolved to act without
+delay; but when they arrived at the palace, they were greeted with an
+extraordinary piece of intelligence. The Magi, disquieted by some vague
+rumours which were being circulated against them, had besought Prexaspes
+to proclaim to the people that the reigning monarch was indeed Smerdis
+himself. But Prexaspes, instead of making the desired declaration,
+informed the multitude that the son of Cyrus was indeed dead, for he
+himself had murdered him at the bidding of Cambyses, and, having
+made this confession, he put himself to death, in order to escape
+the vengeance of the Magi. This act of Prexaspes was an additional
+inducement to the conspirators to execute their purpose. The guard
+stationed at the gates of the palace dared not refuse admission to so
+noble a company, and when the throne-room was reached and the eunuchs
+forbade further advance, the seven boldly drew their swords and forced
+their way to the apartment occupied by the two Magi. The usurpers
+defended themselves with bravery, but succumbed at length to the
+superior number of their opponents, after having wounded two of the
+conspirators. Gobryas pinioned Gaumâta with his arms, and in such a way
+that Darius hesitated to make the fatal thrust for fear of wounding
+his comrade; but the latter bade him strike at all hazards, and by good
+fortune the sword did not even graze him. The crime accomplished, the
+seven conspirators agreed to choose as king that member of their company
+whose horse should first neigh after sunrise: a stratagem of his groom
+caused the election to fall on Darius. As soon as he was duly enthroned,
+he instituted a festival called the “magophonia,” or “massacre of the
+Magi,” in commemoration of the murder which had given him the crown.
+
+His first care was to recompense the nobles to whom he owed his position
+by restoring to them the privileges of which they had been deprived by
+the pseudo-Smerdis, namely, the right of free access to the king, as
+well as the right of each individual to a funeral pyre; but the usurper
+had won the affection of the people, and even the inhabitants of those
+countries which had been longest subject to the Persian sway did not
+receive the new sovereign favourably. Darius found himself, therefore,
+under the necessity of conquering his dominions one after the other.*
+
+     * The history of the early part of the reign of Darius is
+     recorded in the great inscription which the king caused to
+     be cut in three languages on the rocks of Behistun. The
+     order of the events recorded in it is not always easy to
+     determine. I have finally adopted, with some modifications,
+     the arrangement of Marquart, which seems to me to give the
+     clearest “conspectus” of these confused wars.
+
+The Persian empire, like those of the Chaldæans and Medes, had consisted
+hitherto of nothing but a fortuitous collection of provinces under
+military rule, of vassal kingdoms, and of semi-independent cities and
+tribes; there was no fixed division of authority, and no regular system
+of government for the outlying provinces. The governors assigned by
+Cyrus and Cambyses to rule the various provinces acquired by conquest,
+were actual viceroys, possessing full control of an army, and in some
+cases of a fleet as well, having at their disposal considerable revenues
+both in money and in kind, and habituated, owing to their distance from
+the capital, to settle pressing questions on their own responsibility,
+subject only to the necessity of making a report to the sovereign when
+the affair was concluded, or when the local resources were insufficient
+to bring it to a successful issue. For such free administrators the
+temptation must have been irresistible to break the last slender ties
+which bound them to the empire, and to set themselves up as independent
+monarchs. The two successive revolutions which had taken place in less
+than a year, convinced such governors, and the nations over which they
+bore rule, that the stately edifice erected by Cyrus and Cambyses was
+crumbling to pieces, and that the moment was propitious for each of them
+to carve out of its ruins a kingdom for himself; the news of the murder,
+rapidly propagated, sowed the seeds of revolt in its course--in Susiana,
+at Babylon, in Media, in Parthia, in Margiana, among the Sattagydes,
+in Asia Minor, and even in Egypt itself*--which showed itself in
+some places in an open and undisguised form, while in others it was
+contemptuously veiled under the appearance of neutrality, or the
+pretence of waiting to see the issue of events.
+
+     * In the _Behistun Inscription_, it is stated that
+     insurrections broke out in all these countries while Darius
+     was at Babylon; that is to say, while he was occupied in
+     besieging that city, as is evident from the order of the
+     events narrated.
+
+The first to break out into open rebellion were the neighbouring
+countries of Elam and Chaldæa: the death of Smerdis took place towards
+the end of September, and a fortnight later saw two rebel chiefs
+enthroned--a certain Athrîna at Susa, and a Nadinta-bel at Babylon.*
+Athrîna, the son of Umbadaranma, was a scion of the dynasty dispossessed
+by the successors of Sargon in the preceding century, but nevertheless
+he met with but lukewarm assistance from his own countrymen;** he was
+taken prisoner before a month had passed, and sent to Darius, who slew
+him with his own hand.
+
+     * The latest known document of the pseudo-Smerdis is dated
+     the 1st of Tisri at Babylon, and the first of Nebuchadrezzar
+     III. are dated the 17th and 20th of the same month. The
+     revolt of Babylon, then, must be placed between the 1st and
+     17th of Tisri; that is, either at the end of September or
+     the beginning of October, 521 B.C.
+
+     ** The revolt cannot have lasted much more than six weeks,
+     for on the 26th of Athriyâdiya following, that is to say, at
+     the beginning of December, Darius had already joined issue
+     with the Babylonians on the banks of the Tigris.
+
+Babylon was not so easily mastered. Her chosen sovereign claimed to
+be the son of Nabonidus, and had, on ascending the throne, assumed the
+illustrious name of Nebuchadrezzar; he was not supported, moreover, by
+only a few busybodies, but carried the whole population with him. The
+Babylonians, who had at first welcomed Cyrus so warmly, and had fondly
+imagined that they had made him one of themselves, as they had made
+so many of their conquerors for centuries past, soon realised their
+mistake. The differences of language, manners, spirit, and religion
+between themselves and the Persians were too fundamental to allow of
+the naturalisation of the new sovereign, and of the acceptance by
+the Achæmenides of that fiction of a double personality to which
+Tiglath-pileser III., Shalmaneser, and even Assur-bani-pal had
+submitted. Popular fancy grew weary of Cyrus, as it had already grown
+weary in turn of all the foreigners it had at first acclaimed--whether
+Elamite, Kaldâ, or Assyrian--and by a national reaction the self-styled
+son of Nabonidus enjoyed the benefit of a devotion proportionately as
+great as the hatred which had been felt twenty years before for his
+pretended sire. The situation might become serious if he were given time
+to consolidate his power, for the loyalty of the ancient provinces of
+the Chaldæan empire was wavering, and there was no security that they
+would not feel inclined to follow the example of the capital as soon
+as they should receive news of the sedition. Darius, therefore, led
+the bulk of his forces to Babylon without a day’s more delay than was
+absolutely necessary, and the event proved that he had good reason for
+such haste. Nebuchadrezzar III. had taken advantage of the few weeks
+which had elapsed since his accession, to garrison the same positions
+on the right bank of the Tigris, as Nabonidus had endeavoured to defend
+against Cyrus at the northern end of the fortifications erected by his
+ancestor. A well-equipped flotilla patrolled the river, and his lines
+presented so formidable a front that Darius could not venture on a
+direct attack. He arranged his troops in two divisions, which he mounted
+partly on horses, partly on camels, and eluding the vigilance of his
+adversary by attacking him simultaneously on many sides, succeeded in
+gaining the opposite bank of the river. The Chaldæans, striving in vain
+to drive him back into the stream, were at length defeated on the 27th
+of Athriyâdiya, and they retired in good order on Babylon. Six days
+later, on the 2nd of Anâmaka, they fought a second battle at Zazanu,
+on the bank of the Euphrates, and were again totally defeated.
+Nebuchadrezzar escaped with a handful of cavalry, and hastened to shut
+himself up in his city. Darius soon followed him, but if he cherished a
+hope that the Babylonians would open their gates to him without further
+resistance, as they had done to Cyrus, he met with a disappointment,
+for he was compelled to commence a regular siege and suspend all other
+operations, and that, too, at a moment when the provinces were breaking
+out into open insurrection on every hand.*
+
+     * The account given by Darius seems to imply that no
+     interval of time elapsed between the second defeat of
+     Nebuchadrezzar III. and the taking of Babylon, so that
+     several modern historians have rejected the idea of an
+     obstinate resistance. Herodotus, however, speaks of the long
+     siege the city sustained, and the discovery of tablets dated
+     in the first and even the second year of Nebuchadrezzar III.
+     shows that the siege was prolonged into the second year of
+     this usurper, at least until the month of Nisân (March-
+     April), 520 B.C. No evidence can be drawn from the tablets
+     dated in the reign of Darius, for the oldest yet discovered,
+     which is dated in the month Sebat (Jan.-Feb.), in the year
+     of his accession, and consequently prior to the second year
+     of Nebuchadrezzar, comes from Abu-habba. On the other hand,
+     the statement that all the revolts broke out while Darius
+     was “at Babylon” does not allow of the supposition that all
+     the events recorded before his departure for Media could
+     have been compressed into the space of three or four months.
+     It seems, therefore, more probable that the siege lasted
+     till 519 B.C., as it can well have done if credit be given
+     to the mention of “twenty-one months at least” by Herodotus;
+     perhaps the siege was brought to an end in the May of that
+     year, as calculated by Marquart.
+
+[Illustration: 166.jpg DARIUS PIERCING A REBEL WITH HIS LANCE BEFORE A
+GROUP OF FOUR PRISONERS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the impression of an intaglio
+     at St. Petersburg.
+
+The attempt of the Persian adventurer Martîya to stir up the Susians to
+revolt in his rear failed, thanks to the favourable disposition of the
+natives, who refused to recognise in him Ummanîsh, the heir of
+their national princes. Media, however, yielded unfortunately to the
+solicitations of a certain Fravartîsh, who had assumed the personality
+of Khshatrita of the race of Cyaxares, and its revolt marked almost the
+beginning of a total break-up of the empire. The memory of Astyages and
+Cyaxares had not yet faded so completely as to cause the Median nobles
+to relinquish the hope of reasserting the supremacy of Media; the
+opportunity for accomplishing this aim now seemed all the more
+favourable, from the fact that Darius had been obliged to leave this
+province almost immediately after the assassination of the Usurper, and
+to take from it all the troops that he could muster for the siege of
+Babylon. Several of the nomadic tribes still remained faithful to him,
+but all the settled inhabitants of Media ranged themselves under the
+banner of the pretender, and the spirit of insurrection spread thereupon
+into Armenia and Assyria. For one moment there was a fear lest it should
+extend to Asia Minor also, where Orcetes, accustomed, in the absence of
+Cambyses, to act as an autonomous sovereign, displayed little zeal in
+accommodating himself to the new order of things. There was so much
+uncertainty as to the leanings of the Persian guard of Orcetes, that
+Darius did not venture to degrade the satrap officially, but despatched
+Bagseus to Sardes with precise instructions, which enabled him to
+accomplish his mission by degrees, so as not to risk a Lydian revolt.
+His first act was to show the guard a rescript by which they were
+relieved from attendance on Orcetes, and “thereupon they immediately
+laid down their spears.” Emboldened by their ready obedience, Bagseus
+presented to the secretary a second letter, which contained his
+instructions: “The great king commands those Persians who are in Sardes
+to kill Orestes.” “Whereupon,” it is recorded, “they drew their swords
+and slew him.” *
+
+     * The context of Herodotus indicates that the events
+     narrated took place shortly after the accession of Darius.
+     Further on Herodotus mentions, as contemporaneous with the
+     siege of Babylon, events which took place after the death of
+     Orcetes; it is probable, therefore, that the scene described
+     by Herodotus occurred in 520 B.C. at the latest.
+
+A revolt in Asia Minor was thus averted, at a time when civil war
+continued to rage in the centre of Iran. The situation, however,
+continued critical. Darius could not think of abandoning the siege of
+Babylon, and of thus both losing the fruits of his victories and seeing
+Nebuchadrezzar reappear in Assyria or Susiana. On the other hand, his
+army was a small one, and he would incur great risks in detaching any of
+his military chiefs for a campaign against the Mede with an insufficient
+force. He decided, however, to adopt the latter course, and while he
+himself presided over the blockade, he simultaneously despatched two
+columns--one to Media, under the command of the Persian Vidarna, one of
+the seven; the other to Armenia, under the Armenian Dâdarshîsh. Vidarna,
+encountered Khshatrita near Marush, in the mountainous region of the
+old Namri, on the 27th of Anâmaka, and gave him battle; but though he
+claimed the victory, the result was so indecisive that he halted in
+Kambadênê, at the entrance to the gorges of the Zagros mountains, and
+was there obliged to await reinforcements before advancing further.
+Dâdarshîsh, on his side, gained three victories over the Armenians--one
+near Zuzza on the 8th of Thuravâhara, another at Tigra ten days later,
+and the third on the 2nd of Thâigarshîsh, at a place not far from
+Uhyâma--but he also was compelled to suspend operations and remain
+inactive pending the arrival of fresh troops. Half the year was spent in
+inaction on either side, for the rebels had not suffered less than their
+opponents, and, while endeavouring to reorganise their forces, they
+opened negotiations with the provinces of the north-east with the view
+of prevailing on them to join their cause. Darius, still detained before
+Babylon, was unable to recommence hostilities until the end of 520
+B.C. He sent Vaumisa to replace Dâdarshîsh as the head of the army in
+Armenia, and the new general distinguished himself at the outset by
+winning a decisive victory on the 15th of Anâmaka, near Izitush in
+Assyria; but the effect which he hoped to secure from this success was
+neutralised almost immediately by grievous defections. Sagartia, in the
+first place, rose in rebellion at the call of a pretended descendant
+of Oyaxares, named Chitrantakhma; Hyrcania, the province governed by
+Hystaspes, the father of Darius, followed suit and took up the cause
+of Khshatrita, and soon after Margiana broke out into revolt at the
+instigation of a certain Frâda. Even Persia itself deserted Darius, and
+chose another king instead of a sovereign whom no one seemed willing to
+acknowledge. Many of the mountain tribes could not yet resign themselves
+to the belief that the male line of Cyrus had become extinct with the
+death of Cambyses. The usurpation of Gaumâta and the accession of Darius
+had not quenched their faith in the existence of Smerdis: if the Magian
+were an impostor, it did not necessarily follow that Smerdis had been
+assassinated, and when a certain Vahyazdâta rose up in the town of
+Târavâ in the district of Yautiyâ, and announced himself as the younger
+son of Cyrus, they received him with enthusiastic acclamations. A
+preliminary success gained by Hystaspes at Vispauzatîsh, in Parthia, on
+the 22nd of Viyakhna, 519 B.C., prevented the guerilla bands of Hyrcania
+from joining forces with the Medes, and some days later the fall of
+Babylon at length set Darius free to utilise his resources to the
+utmost. The long resistance of Nebuchadrezzar furnished a fruitful theme
+for legend: a fanciful story was soon substituted for the true account
+of the memorable siege he had sustained. Half a century later, when
+his very name was forgotten, the heroism of his people continued to
+be extolled beyond measure. When Darius arrived before the ramparts he
+found the country a desert, the banks of the canals cut through, and the
+gardens and pleasure-houses destroyed. The crops had been gathered and
+the herds driven within the walls of the city, while the garrison had
+reduced by a massacre the number of non-combatants, the women having all
+been strangled, with the exception of those who were needed to bake the
+bread. At the end of twenty months the siege seemed no nearer to its
+close than at the outset, and the besiegers were on the point of losing
+heart, when at length Zopyrus, one of the seven, sacrificed himself
+for the success of the blockading army. Slitting his nose and ears, and
+lacerating his back with the lash of a whip, he made his way into the
+city as a deserter, and persuaded the garrison to assign him a post of
+danger under pretence of avenging the ill-treatment he had received
+from his former master. He directed some successful sallies on points
+previously agreed upon, and having thus lulled to rest any remaining
+feelings of distrust on the part of the garrison, he treacherously
+opened to the Persians the two gates of which he was in charge; three
+thousand Babylonians were impaled, the walls were razed to the ground,
+and the survivors of the struggle were exiled and replaced by strange
+colonists.* The only authentic fact about this story is the length of
+the siege. Nebuchadrezzar was put to death, and Darius, at length
+free to act, hastened to despatch one of his lieutenants, the Persian
+Artavardiya, against Vahyazdâta, while he himself marched upon the Medes
+with the main body of the royal army.**
+
+     * Ctesias places the siege of Babylon forty years later,
+     under Xerxes I.; according to him, it was Megabysus, son of
+     Zopyrus, who betrayed the city. Polysenus asserts that the
+     stratagem of Zopyrus was adopted in imitation of a Sakian
+     who dwelt beyond the Oxus. Latin writers transferred the
+     story to Italy, and localised it at Gabii: but the Roman
+     hero, Sextus Tarquinius, did not carry his devotion to the
+     point of mutilating himself.
+
+     ** _Beldstun Inscr_.: “Then I sent the army of the Persians
+     and Medes which was with me. One named Artavardiya, a
+     Persian, my servant, I made their general; the rest of the
+     Persian army went to Media with me.”
+
+The rebels had hitherto been confronted by the local militia, brave
+but inexperienced troops, with whom they had been able to contend on a
+fairly equal footing: the entry into the field of the veteran regiments
+of Cyrus and Cambyses changed the aspect of affairs, and promptly
+brought the campaign to a successful issue. Darius entered Media by
+the defiles of Kerend, reinforced Vidarna in Kambadçnê, and crushed the
+enemy near the town of Kundurush, on the 20th of Adukanîsh, 519 B.C.
+Khshatrita fled towards the north with some few horsemen, doubtless
+hoping to reach the recesses of Mount Elburz, and to continue there
+the struggle; but he was captured at Bagâ and carried to Ecbatana. His
+horrible punishment was proportionate to the fear he had inspired: his
+nose, ears, and tongue were cut off, and his eyes gouged out, and in
+this mutilated condition he was placed in chains at the gate of the
+palace, to demonstrate to his former subjects how the Achæmenian’
+king could punish an impostor. When the people had laid this lesson
+sufficiently to heart, Khshatrita was impaled; many of his principal
+adherents were ranged around him and suffered the same fate, while
+the rest were decapitated as an example. Babylon and Media being thus
+successfully vanquished, the possession of the empire was assured to
+Darius, whatever might happen in other parts of his territory, and
+henceforth the process of repressing disaffection went on unchecked.
+Immediately after the decisive battle of Kundurush, Vaumisa accomplished
+the pacification of Armenia by a victory won near Autiyâra, and
+Artavardiya defeated Vahyazdâta for the first time at Eakhâ in Persia.
+Vahyazdâta had committed the mistake of dividing his forces and sending
+a portion of them to Arachosia. Vivâna, the governor of this province,
+twice crushed the invaders, and almost at the same time the Persian
+Dâdardîsh of Bactriana was triumphing over Frâda and winning Margiana
+back to allegiance. For a moment it seemed as if the decisive issue of
+the struggle might be prolonged for months, since it was announced that
+the appearance of a new pseudo-Smerdis on the scene had been followed
+by the advent of a second pseudo-Nebuchadrezzar in Chaldæa. Darius left
+only a weak garrison at Babylon when he started to attack Khshatrita:
+a certain Arakha, an Armenian by birth, presenting himself to the
+Babylonian people as the son of Nabonidus, caused himself to be
+proclaimed king in December, 519 B.C.; but the city was still suffering
+so severely from the miseries of the long siege, that it was easy for
+the Mede Vindafrâ to reduce it promptly to submission after a month or
+six weeks of semi-independence. This was the last attempt at revolt.
+Chitran-takhma expiated his crimes by being impaled, and Hystaspes
+routed the Hyrcanian battalions at Patigrabana in Parthia: Artavardiya
+having defeated Vahyazdâta, near Mount Paraga, on the 6th of Garmapada,
+618 B.C., besieged him in his fortress of Uvâdeshaya, and was not long
+in effecting his capture. The civil war came thus to an end.
+
+It had been severe, but it had brought into such prominence the
+qualities of the sovereign that no one henceforth dared to dispute his
+possession of the crown. A man of less energetic character and calm
+judgment would have lost his head at the beginning of the struggle, when
+almost every successive week brought him news of a fresh rebellion--in
+Susiana, Babylon, Media, Armenia, Assyria, Margiana, Hyrcania, and even
+Persia itself, not to speak of the intrigues in Asia Minor and Egypt;
+he would have scattered his forces to meet the dangers on all sides
+at once, and would assuredly have either succumbed in the struggle, or
+succeeded only by chance after his fate had trembled in the balance for
+years. Darius, however, from the very beginning knew how to single out
+the important points upon which to deal such vigorous blows as would
+ensure him the victory with the least possible delay. He saw that
+Babylon, with its numerous population, its immense wealth and prestige,
+and its memory of recent supremacy, was the real danger to his empire,
+and he never relaxed his hold on it until it was subdued, leaving
+his generals to deal with the other nations, the Medes included, and
+satisfied if each of them could but hold his adversary in check
+without gaining any decided advantage over him. The event justified his
+decision. When once Babylon had fallen, the remaining rebels were
+no longer a source of fear; to defeat Khshatrita was the work of a
+few weeks only, and the submission of the other provinces followed as a
+natural consequence on the ruin of Media.*
+
+     * Mention of some new wars is made towards the end of the
+     inscription, but the text here is so mutilated that the
+     sense can no longer be easily determined.
+
+[Illustration: 174.jpg REBELS BROUGHT TO DARIUS BY AHURA-MAZD] This is
+the scene depicted on the rock of Behistun.
+
+After consummating his victories, Darius caused an inscription in
+commemoration of them to be carved on the rocks in the pass of Bagistana
+[Behistun], one of the most frequented routes leading from the basin of
+the Tigris to the tableland of Iran.
+
+[Illustration: 175.jpg THE ROCKS OF BEHISTUN]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from Flandin and Coste.
+
+There his figure is still to be seen standing, with his foot resting on
+the prostrate body of an enemy, and his hand raised in the attitude of
+one addressing an audience, while nine figures march in file to meet
+him, their arms tied behind their backs, and cords round their
+necks, representing all the pretenders whom he had fought and put
+to death--Athrîna, Nadinta-bel, Khshatrita, Vahyazdâta, Arakha, and
+Chitrantakhma; an inscription, written in the three official languages
+of the court, recounts at full length his mighty deeds. The drama did
+not, however, come to a close with the punishment of Vahyazdâta, for
+though no tribe or chieftain remained now in open revolt, many of those
+who had taken no active share in the rebellion had, by their conduct
+during the crisis, laid themselves open to grave suspicions, and it
+seemed but prudent to place them under strict surveillance or to remove
+them from office altogether. Orotes had been summarily despatched, and
+his execution did not disturb the peace of Asia Minor; but Aryandes, to
+whose rule Cambyses had entrusted the valley of the Nile, displayed no
+less marked symptoms of disaffection, and deserved the same fate. Though
+he had not ventured to usurp openly the title of king, he had arrogated
+to himself all the functions and rights of royalty, and had manifested
+as great an independence in his government as if he had been an actual
+Pharaoh. The inhabitants of Gyrene did not approve of the eagerness
+displayed by their tyrant Arkesilas III. to place himself under the
+Persian yoke: after first expelling and then recalling him, they drove
+him away a second time, and at length murdered him at Barca, whither
+he had fled for refuge. Pheretimô came to Egypt to seek the help of
+Aryandes, just as Laarchos had formerly implored the assistance of
+Amasis, and represented to him that her son had fallen a victim to his
+devotion to his suzerain. It was a good opportunity to put to ransom
+one of the wealthiest countries of Africa; so the governor sent to the
+Cyrenaica all the men and vessels at his disposal. Barca was the only
+city to offer any resistance, and the Persian troops were detained
+for nine months motionless before its walls, and the city then only
+succumbed through treachery. Some detachments forced their way as far
+as the distant town of Euesperides,* and it is possible that Aryandes
+dreamt for a moment of realising the designs which Cambyses had formed
+against Carthage. Insufficiency of supplies stayed the advance of his
+generals; but the riches of their ally, Cyrene, offered them a strong
+temptation, and they were deliberating how they might make this wealth
+their own before returning to Memphis, and were, perhaps, on the point
+of risking the attempt, when they received orders to withdraw. The march
+across the desert proved almost fatal to them. The Libyans of Marmarica,
+attracted by the spoils with which the Persian troops were laden,
+harassed them incessantly, and inflicted on them serious losses; they
+succeeded, however, in arriving safely with their prisoners, among whom
+were the survivors of the inhabitants of Barca. At this time the tide of
+fortune was setting strongly in favour of Darius: Aryandes, anxious to
+propitiate that monarch, despatched these wretched captives to Persia as
+a trophy of his success, and Darius sent them into Bactriana, where they
+founded a new Barca.**
+
+     * This is the town which later on under the Lagidæ received
+     the name of Berenice, and which is now called Benghazi.
+
+     ** It is doubtless to these acts of personal authority on
+     the part of Aryandes that Darius alludes in the Behistun
+     Inscription, when he says, “While I was before Babylon, the
+     following provinces revolted against me--Persia and Susiana,
+     the Medes and Assyria, and the Egyptians...”
+
+But this tardy homage availed him nothing. Darius himself visited Egypt
+and disembarrassed himself of ‘his troublesome subject by his summary
+execution, inflicted, some said, because he had issued coins of a
+superior fineness to those of the royal mint,* while, according to
+others, it was because he had plundered Egypt and so ill-treated the
+Egyptians as to incite them to rebellion.
+
+     * It is not certain that Aryandes did actually strike any
+     coinage in his own name, and perhaps Herodotus has only
+     repeated a popular story current in Egypt in his days. If
+     this money actually existed, its coinage was but a pretext
+     employed by Darius; the true motive of the condemnation of
+     Aryandes was certainly an armed revolt, or a serious
+     presumption of revolutionary intentions.
+
+After the suppression of this rival, Darius set himself to win the
+affection of his Egyptian province, or, at least, to render its
+servitude bearable. With a country so devout and so impressed with its
+own superiority over all other nations, the best means of accomplishing
+his object was to show profound respect for its national gods and
+its past glory. Darius, therefore, proceeded to shower favours on the
+priests, who had been subject to persecution ever since the disastrous
+campaign in Ethiopia. Cambyses had sent into exile in Elam the chief
+priest of Sais--that Uza-harrîsnîti who had initiated him into the
+sacred rites; Darius gave permission to this important personage to
+return to his native land, and commissioned him to repair the damage
+inflicted by the madness of the son of Cyrus. Uzaharrîsnîti, escorted
+back with honour to his native city, re-established there the colleges
+of sacred scribes, and restored to the temple of Nît the lands and
+revenues which had been confiscated. Greek tradition soon improved upon
+the national account of this episode, and asserted that Darius took an
+interest in the mysteries of Egyptian theology, and studied the sacred
+books, and that on his arrival at Memphis in 517 B.C., immediately after
+the death of an Apis, he took part publicly in the general mourning,
+and promised a reward of a hundred talents of gold to whosoever should
+discover the successor of the bull. According to a popular story still
+current when Herodotus travelled in Egypt, the king visited the temple
+of Pthah before leaving Memphis, and ordered his statue to be erected
+there beside that of Sesostris. The priests refused to obey this
+command, for, said they, “Darius has not equalled the deeds of
+Sesostris: he has not conquered the Scythians, whom Sesostris overcame.”
+ Darius replied that “he hoped to accomplish as much as Sesostris
+had done, if he lived as long as Sesostris,” and so conciliated
+the patriotic pride of the priests. The Egyptians, grateful for his
+moderation, numbered him among the legislators whose memory they
+revered, by the side of Menés, Asykhis, Bocchoris, and Sabaco.
+
+The whole empire was now obedient to the will of one man, but the ordeal
+from which it had recently escaped showed how loosely the elements of it
+were bound together, and with what facility they could be disintegrated.
+The system of government in force hitherto was that introduced
+into Assyria by Tiglath-pileser III., which had proved so eminently
+successful in the time of Sargon and his descendants; Babylon and
+Ecbatana had inherited it from Nineveh, and Persepolis had in turn
+adopted it from Ecbatana and Babylon. It had always been open to
+objections, of which by no means the least was the great amount of power
+and independence accorded by it to the provincial governors; but this
+inconvenience had been little felt when the empire was of moderate
+dimensions, and when no province permanently annexed to the empire lay
+at any very great distance from the capital for the time being. But this
+was no longer the case, now that Persian rule extended over nearly the
+whole of Asia, from the Indus to the Thracian Bosphorus, and over a
+portion of Africa also. It must have seemed far from prudent to set
+governors invested with almost regal powers over countries so distant
+that a decree despatched from the palace might take several weeks
+to reach its destination. The heterogeneity of the elements in each
+province was a guarantee of peace in the eyes of the sovereign, and
+Darius carefully abstained from any attempt at unification: not only did
+he allow vassal republics, and tributary kingdoms and nations to subsist
+side by side, but he took care that each should preserve its own local
+dynasty, language, writing, customs, religion, and peculiar legislation,
+besides the right to coin money stamped with the name of its chief or
+its civic symbol. The Greek cities of the coast maintained their own
+peculiar constitutions which they had enjoyed under the Mernmadas;
+Darius merely required that the chief authority among them should rest
+in the hands of the aristocratic party, or in those of an elective or
+hereditary tyrant whose personal interest secured his fidelity. The
+Carians,* Lycians,** Pamphylians, and Cilicians*** continued under the
+rule of their native princes, subject only to the usual obligations.
+of the _corvée_, taxation, and military service as in past days; the
+majority of the barbarous tribes which inhabited the Taurus and the
+mountainous regions in the centre of Asia Minor were even exempted from
+all definite taxes, and were merely required to respect the couriers,
+caravans, and armies which passed through their territory.
+
+     * Herodotus cites among the commanders of the Persian fleet
+     three Carian dynasts, Histiseus, Pigres, and Damasithymus,
+     besides the famous Artemisia of Halicarnassus.
+
+     ** In Herodotus where a dynast named Kyberniskos, son of
+     Sika, is mentioned among the commanders of the fleet. The
+     received text of Herodotus needs correction, and we should
+     read Kybernis, son of Kossika, some of whose coins are still
+     in existence.
+
+     *** The Cilician contingent in the fleet of Xerxes at
+     Salamis was commanded by Syennesis himself, and Cilicia
+     never had a satrap until the time of Cyrus the younger.
+
+[Illustration: 181.jpg MAP OF THE ARCHAEMENIAN STRAPIES]
+
+Native magistrates and kings still bore sway in Phoenicia* and Cyprus,
+and the shêkhs of the desert preserved their authority over the
+marauding and semi-nomadic tribes of Idumasa, Nabatsea, Moab, and Ammon,
+and the wandering Bedâwin on the Euphrates and the Khabur. Egypt,
+under Darius, remained what she had been under the Saitic and Ethiopian
+dynasties, a feudal state governed by a Pharaoh, who, though a
+foreigner, was yet reputed to be of the solar race; the land continued
+to be divided unequally into diverse principalities, Thebes still
+preserving its character as a theocracy under the guidance of the
+pallacide of Amon and her priestly counsellors, while the other
+districts subsisted under military chieftains. Our information
+concerning the organisation of the central and eastern provinces is
+incomplete, but it is certain that here also the same system prevailed.
+In the years of peace which succeeded the troubled opening of his reign,
+that is, from 519 to 515 B.C.,** Darius divided the whole empire into
+satrapies, whose number varied at different periods of his reign from
+twenty to twenty-three, and even twenty-eight.***
+
+     * Three kings, viz. the kings of Sidon, Tyre, and Arvad,
+     bore commands in the Phoenician fleet of Xerxes.
+
+     ** Herodotus states that this dividing of the empire into
+     provinces took place immediately after the accession of
+     Darius, and this mistake is explained by the fact that he
+     ignores almost entirely the civil wars which filled the
+     earliest years of the reign. His enumeration of twenty
+     satrapies comprises India and omits Thrace, which enables us
+     to refer the drawing up of his list to a period before the
+     Scythian campaign, viz. before 514 B.C. Herodotus very
+     probably copied it from the work of Hecatseus of Miletus,
+     and consequently it reproduces a document contemporary with
+     Darius himself.
+
+     *** The number twenty is, as has been remarked, that given
+     by Herodotus, and probably by Hecatæus of Miletus. The great
+     Behistun Inscription enumerates twenty-three countries, and
+     the Inscription of Nakhsh-î-Rustem gives twenty-eight.
+
+Persia proper was not included among these, for she had been the cradle
+of the reigning house, and the instrument of conquest.*
+
+     * In the great Behistun Inscription Darius mentions Persia
+     first of all the countries in his possession. In the
+     Inscription E of Persepolis he omits it entirely, and in
+     that of Nakhsh-î-Rustem he does not include it in the
+     general catalogue.
+
+The Iranian table-land, and the parts of India or regions
+beyond the Oxus which bordered on it, formed twelve important
+vice-royalties--Media, Hyrcania, Parthia, Zaranka, Aria, Khorasmia,
+Bactriana, Sogdiana, Gandaria, and the country of the Sakae--reaching
+from the plains of Tartary almost to the borders of China, the country
+of the Thatagus in the upper basin of the Elmend, Arachosia, and the
+land of Maka on the shores of the Indian Ocean. Ten satrapies were
+reckoned in the west--Uvayâ, Elam, in which lay Susa, one of the
+favourite residences of Darius; Babirus (Babylon) and Chaldæa; Athurâ,
+the ancient kingdom of Assyria; Arabayâ, stretching from the Khabur to
+the Litany, the Jordan, and the Orontes; Egypt, the peoples of the sea,
+among whom were reckoned the Phoenicians, Cilicians, and Cypriots, and
+the islanders of the Ægean; Yaunâ, which comprised Lycia, Caria, and the
+Greek colonies along the coast; Sparda, with Phrygia and Mysia; Armenia;
+and lastly, Katpatuka or Cappadocia, which lay on both sides of the
+Halys from the Taurus to the Black Sea. If each of these provinces had
+been governed, as formerly, by a single individual, who thus became king
+in all but name and descent, the empire would have run great risk of a
+speedy dissolution. Darius therefore avoided concentrating the civil and
+military powers in the same hands. In each province he installed three
+officials independent of each other, but each in direct communication
+with himself--a satrap, a general, and a secretary of state. The satraps
+were chosen from any class in the nation, from among the poor as well as
+from among the wealthy, from foreigners as well as from Persians;* but
+the most important satrapies were bestowed only on persons allied by
+birth** or marriage with the Achæmenids,*** and, by preference, on the
+legitimate descendants of the six noble houses. They were not appointed
+for any prescribed period, but continued in office during the king’s
+pleasure. They exercised absolute authority in all civil matters, and
+maintained a court, a body-guard,**** palaces and extensive parks, or
+_paradises_, where they indulged in the pleasures of the chase; they
+controlled the incidence of taxation,^ administered justice, and
+possessed the power of life and death.
+
+     * Herodotus mentions a satrap chosen from among the Lydians,
+     Pactyas, and another satrap of Greek extraction, Xenagoras
+     of Halicarnassus.
+
+     ** The most characteristic instance is that of Hystaspes,
+     who was satrap of Persia under Oambyses, and of Parthia and
+     Hyrcania under his own son. One of the brothers of Darius,
+     Artaphernes, was satrap of Sardes, and three of the king’s
+     sons, Achemenes, Ariabignes, and Masistes, were satraps of
+     Egypt, Ionia, and Bactriana respectively.
+
+     *** To understand how well established was the custom of
+     bestowing satrapies on those only who were allied by
+     marriage to the royal house, it is sufficient to recall the
+     fact that, later on, under Xerxes I., when Pausanias, King
+     of Sparta, had thoughts of obtaining the position of satrap
+     in Greece, he asked for the hand of an Achæmenian princess.
+
+     **** We know, for example, that Orcotes, satrap of Sardes
+     under Cyrus, Cambyses, and Darius, had a body-guard of 1000
+     Persians.
+
+     ^ Thus, Artaphernes, satrap of Sardes, had a cadastral
+     survey made of the territory of the Ionians, and by the
+     results of this survey he regulated the imposition of taxes,
+     “which from that time up to the present day are exacted
+     according to his ordinance.”
+
+Attached to each satrap was a secretary of state, who ostensibly acted
+as his chancellor, but whose real function was to exercise a secret
+supervision over his conduct and report upon it to the imperial
+ministers.* The Persian troops, native militia and auxiliary forces
+quartered in the province, were placed under the orders, moreover, of
+a general, who was usually hostile to the satrap and the secretary.**
+These three officials counterbalanced each other, and held each other
+mutually in check, so that a revolt was rendered very difficult, if not
+impossible. All three were kept in constant communication with the
+court by relays of regular couriers, who carried their despatches on
+horseback or on camels, from one end of Asia to the other, in the space
+of a few weeks.***
+
+     * The rôle played by the secretary is clearly indicated by
+     the history of Orotes, satrap of Sardes.
+
+     ** While Darius appoints his brother Artaphernes satrap of
+     Lydia, he entrusts the command of the army and the fleet to
+     Otanes, son of Sisamnes. Similarly several generals are met
+     with at the side of Artaphernes in the Ionic revolt.
+
+     *** Xenophon compares their speed in travelling to the
+     flight of birds. A good example of the use of the camel for
+     the postal service is cited by Strabo, on the occasion of
+     the death of Philotas and the execution of Parmenion under
+     Alexander.
+
+The most celebrated of the post-roads was that which ran from Sardes
+to Susa through Lydia and Phrygia, crossing the Halys, traversing
+Cappadocia and Cilicia, and passing through Armenia and across the
+Euphrates, until at length, after passing through Matiênê and the
+country of the Cossæans, it reached Elam. This main route was divided
+into one hundred and eleven stages, which were performed by couriers on
+horseback and partly in ferry-boats, in eighty-four days. Other routes,
+of which we have no particular information, led to Egypt, Media,
+Bactria, and India,* and by their means the imperial officials in the
+capital were kept fully informed of all that took place in the most
+distant parts of the empire. As an extra precaution, the king sent
+out annually certain officers, called his “eyes” or his “ears,” ** who
+appeared on the scene when they were least expected, and investigated
+the financial or political situation, reformed abuses in the
+administration, and reprimanded or even suspended the government
+officials; they were accompanied by a body of troops to support their
+decisions, whose presence invested their counsels with the strongest
+sanction.*** An unfavourable report, a slight irregularity, a mere
+suspicion, even, was sufficient to disqualify a satrap. Sometimes he
+was deposed, often secretly condemned to death without a trial, and the
+execution of the judgment was committed even to his own servants.
+
+     * Ctesias at the end of his work describes the route leading
+     from Ephesus to Bactriana and India. It is probable that the
+     route described by Isidorus of Charax in his _Stathma
+     Parthica_ already existed in the times of the Achæmenids,
+     and was traversed by their postal couriers.
+
+     ** Mention of the _Eye of the king_ occurs in Herodotus, in
+     Æschylus, and in Plutarch, of the _Ear_ in Xenophon; cf.
+     the Persian proverb, according to which “The king has many
+     eyes and many ears.”
+
+     *** Xenophon affirms that these inspections were still held
+     in his day.
+
+[Illustration: 186.jpg Street Vender of Curios] After the Painting by
+Gerome.
+
+A messenger would arrive unexpectedly, and remit to the guards an order
+charging them to put their chief to death--an order which was promptly
+executed at the mere sight of the royal decree.
+
+This reform in the method of government was displeasing to the Persian
+nobles, whose liberty of action it was designed to curtail, and they
+took their revenge in sneering at the obedience they could not refuse
+to render. Cyrus, they said, had been a father, Cambyses a master,
+but Darius was only a pedler greedy of gain. The chief reason for this
+division of the empire into provinces was, indeed, fiscal rather than
+political: to arrange the incidence of taxation in his province, to
+collect the revenue in due time and forward the total amount to the
+imperial treasury, formed the fundamental duty of a satrap, to which all
+others had to yield. Persia proper was exempt from the payment of any
+fixed sum, its inhabitants being merely required to offer presents
+to the king whenever he passed through their districts. These
+semi-compulsory gifts were proportioned to the fortunes of the
+individual contributors; they might consist merely of an ox or a
+sheep, a little milk or cheese, some dates, a handful of flour, or some
+vegetables. The other provinces, after being subjected to a careful
+survey, were assessed partly in money, partly in kind, according to
+their natural capacity or wealth. The smallest amount of revenue
+raised in any province amounted to 170 talents of silver--the sum, for
+instance, collected from Arachosia with its dependencies Gedrosia and
+Grandara; while Egypt yielded a revenue of 700 talents, and the amount
+furnished by Babylon, the wealthiest province of all, amounted to
+1000 talents. The total revenue of the empire reached the enormous sum
+of.£3,311,997, estimated by weight of silver, which is equivalent to
+over £26,000,000 of modern English money, if the greater value of silver
+in antiquity is taken into consideration. In order to facilitate the
+collection of the revenue, Darius issued the gold and silver coins which
+are named after him. On the obverse side these darics are stamped with a
+figure of the sovereign, armed with the bow or javelin. They were coined
+on the scale of 3000 gold darics to one talent, each daric weighing
+normally.2788 oz. troy, and being worth exactly 20 silver drachmae
+or Medic shekels; so that the relative value of the two metals was
+approximately 1 to 13 1/2|.
+
+[Illustration: 188.jpg daric of darius, SON OF HYSTASPES]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a specimen in the Bibliothèque
+     Nationale.
+
+The most ancient type of daric was thick and irregular in shape, and
+rudely stamped, but of remarkable fineness, the amount of alloy being
+never more than three per cent. The use of this coinage was nowhere
+obligatory, and it only became general in the countries bordering on the
+Mediterranean, where it met the requirements of international traffic
+and political relations, and in the payment of the army and the navy.
+In the interior, the medium of exchange used in wholesale and retail
+commercial transactions continued to be metals estimated by weight, and
+the kings of Persia themselves preferred to store their revenues in the
+shape of bullion; as the metal was received at the royal treasury it
+was melted and poured into clay moulds, and was minted into money only
+gradually, according to the whim or necessity of the moment.*
+
+     * Arrian relates that Alexander found 50,000 talents’ weight
+     of silver in the treasury at Susa; other hoards quite as
+     rich were contained in the palaces of Persepolis and
+     Pasargadæ.
+
+Taxes in kind were levied even more largely than in money, but the exact
+form they assumed in the different regions of the empire has not yet
+been ascertained. The whole empire was divided into districts, which
+were charged with the victualling of the army and the court, and Babylon
+alone bore a third of the charges under this head. We learn elsewhere
+that Egypt was bound to furnish corn for the 120,000 men of the army
+of occupation, and that the fisheries of the Fayum yielded the king a
+yearly revenue of 240 talents. The Medes furnished similarly 100,000
+sheep, 4000 mules, and 3000 horses; the Armenians, 30,000 foals;
+the Cilicians, 365 white horses, one for each day in the year; the
+Babylonians, 500 youthful eunuchs; and any city or town which produced
+or manufactured any valuable commodity was bound to furnish a regular
+supply to the sovereign. Thus, Chalybon provided wine; Libya and the
+Oases, salt; India, dogs, with whose support four large villages in
+Babylonia were charged; the Æolian Assos, cheese; and other places, in
+like manner, wool, wines, dyes, medicines, and chemicals. These imperial
+taxes, though they seem to us somewhat heavy, were not excessive, but
+taken by themselves they give us no idea of the burdens which each
+province had to resign itself to bear. The state provided no income for
+the satraps; their maintenance and that of their suite were charged on
+the province, and they made ample exactions on the natives. The province
+of Babylon was required to furnish its satrap daily with an _ardeb_ of
+silver; Egypt, India, Media, and Syria each provided a no less generous
+allowance for its governor, and the poorest provinces were not less
+heavily burdened. The satraps required almost as much to satisfy their
+requirements as did the king; but for the most part they fairly earned
+their income, and saved more to their subjects than they extorted
+from them. They repressed brigandage, piracy, competition between the
+various cities, and local wars; while quarrels, which formerly would
+have been settled by an appeal to arms, were now composed before their
+judgment-seats, and in case of need the rival factions were forcibly
+compelled to submit to their decisions. They kept up the roads,
+and afforded complete security to travellers by night and day; they
+protected industries and agriculture, and, in accordance with the
+precepts of their religious code, they accounted it an honourable task
+to break up waste land or replant deserted sites. Darius himself did
+not disdain to send congratulations to a satrap who had planted trees
+in Asia Minor, and laid out one of those wooded parks in which the king
+delighted to refresh himself after the fatigues of government, by the
+exercise of walking or in the pleasures of the chase. In spite of its
+defects, the system of government inaugurated by Darius secured real
+prosperity to his subjects, and to himself a power far greater than that
+enjoyed by any of his predecessors. It rendered revolts on the part of
+the provincial governors extremely difficult, and enabled the court to
+draw up a regular budget and provide for its expenses without any undue
+pressure on its subjects; in one point only was it defective, but that
+point was a cardinal one, namely, in the military organisation. Darius
+himself maintained, for his personal protection, a bodyguard recruited
+from the Persians and the Medes. It was divided into three corps,
+consisting respectively of 2000 cavalry, 2000 infantry of noble birth,
+armed with lances whose shafts were ornamented below with apples of gold
+or silver--whence their name of _mêlophori_--and under them the 10,000
+“immortals,” in ten battalions, the first of which had its lances
+ornamented with golden pomegranates. This guard formed the nucleus of
+the standing army, which could be reinforced by the first and second
+grades of Persian and Median feudal nobility at the first summons.
+Forces of varying strength garrisoned the most important fortresses of
+the empire, such as Sardes, Memphis, Elephantine, Daphnæ, Babylon, and
+many others, to hold the restless natives in check. These were, indeed,
+the only regular troops on which the king could always rely. Whenever
+a war broke out which demanded no special effort, the satraps of the
+provinces directly involved summoned the military contingents of the
+cities and vassal states under their control, and by concerted action
+endeavoured to bring the affair to a successful issue without the
+necessity of an appeal to the central authority. If, on the contrary,
+troubles arose which threatened the welfare of the whole empire, and the
+sovereign felt called upon to conduct the campaign in person, he would
+mobilise his guard, and summon the reserves from several provinces or
+even from all of them. Veritable hordes of recruits then poured in, but
+these masses of troops, differing from each other in their equipment and
+methods of fighting, in disposition and in language, formed a herd
+of men rather than an army. They had no cohesion or confidence in
+themselves, and their leaders, unaccustomed to command such enormous
+numbers, suffered themselves to be led rather than exercise authority
+as guides. Any good qualities the troops may have possessed were
+neutralised by lack of unity in their methods of action, and their
+actual faults exaggerated this defect, so that, in spite of their
+splendid powers of endurance and their courage under every ordeal, they
+ran the risk of finding themselves in a state of hopeless inferiority
+when called upon to meet armies very much smaller, but composed of
+homogenous elements, all animated with the same spirit and drilled in
+the same school.
+
+By continual conquests, the Persians were now reduced to only two
+outlets for their energies, in two opposite directions--in the east
+towards India, in the west towards Greece. Everywhere else their advance
+was arrested by the sea or other obstacles almost as impassable to their
+heavily armed battalions: to the north the empire was bounded by the
+Black Sea, the Caucasus, the Caspian Sea, and the Siberian steppes; to
+the south, by the Indian Ocean, the sandy table-land of Arabia, and the
+African deserts. At one moment, about 512 B.C., it is possible that they
+pushed forward towards the east.*
+
+     * India is not referred to in the Behistun Inscription, but
+     is mentioned in one of the Inscriptions of Persepolis, and
+     in that of Nakhsh-î-Rustem. The campaign in which it was
+     subjugated must be placed about 512 B.C.
+
+[Illustration: 192.jpg FUNERAL OFFERINGS.]
+
+From the Iranian plateau they beheld from afar the immense plain of the
+Hapta Hindu (or the Punjab). Darius invaded this territory, and made
+himself master of extensive districts which he formed into a new
+satrapy, that of India, but subsequently, renouncing all idea of
+pushing eastward as far as the Granges, he turned his steps towards the
+southeast. A fleet, constructed at Peukêla and placed under the command
+of a Greek admiral, Scylax of Caryanda, descended the Indus by order
+of the king;* subjugating the tribes who dwelt along the banks as he
+advanced, Scylax at length reached the ocean, on which he ventured
+forth, undismayed by the tides, and proceeded in a westerly direction,
+exploring, in less than thirty months, the shores of Gedrosia and
+Arabia.
+
+     * Scylax published an account of his voyage which was still
+     extant in the time of Aristotle. Hugo Berger questions the
+     authenticity of the circumnavigation of Arabia, as that of
+     the circumnavigation of Africa under Necho.
+
+Once on the threshold of India, the Persians saw open before them a
+brilliant and lucrative career: the circumstances which prevented them
+from following up this preliminary success are unknown--perhaps the
+first developments of nascent Buddhism deterred them--but certain it
+is that they arrested their steps when they had touched merely the
+outskirts of the basin of the Indus, and retreated at once towards the
+west. The conquest of Lydia, and subsequently of the Greek cities and
+islands along the coast of the Ægean, had doubtless enriched the empire
+by the acquisition of active subject populations, whose extraordinary
+aptitude in the arts of peace as well as of war might offer incalculable
+resources to a sovereign who should know how to render them tractable
+and rule them wisely. Not only did they possess the elements of a navy
+as enterprising and efficacious as that of the Phoenicians, but the
+perfection of their equipment and their discipline on land rendered them
+always superior to any Asiatic army, in whatever circumstances, unless
+they were crushed by overwhelming numbers. Inquisitive, bold, and
+restless, greedy of gain, and inured to the fatigues and dangers of
+travel, the Greeks were to be encountered everywhere--in Asia Minor,
+Egypt, Syria, Babylon, and even Persia itself; and it was a Greek, we
+must remember, whom the great king commissioned to navigate the course
+of the Indus and the waters of the Indian Ocean. At the same time, the
+very ardour of their temperament, and their consequent pride, their
+impatience of all regular control, their habitual proneness to
+civic strife, and to sanguinary quarrels with the inhabitants of
+the neighbouring cities, rendered them the most dangerous subjects
+imaginable to govern, and their loyalty very uncertain. Moreover,
+their admission as vassals of the Persian empire had not altered their
+relations with European Greece, and commercial transactions between the
+opposite shores of the Ægean, inter-marriages, the travels of voyagers,
+movements of mercenaries, and political combinations, went on as freely
+and frequently under the satraps of Sardes as under the Mermnadas. It
+was to Corinth, Sparta, and Athens that the families banished by Cyrus
+after his conquest fled for refuge, and every time a change of party
+raised a new tyrant to power in one of the Æolian, Ionian, or Doric
+communities, the adherents of the deposed ruler rushed in similar manner
+to seek shelter among their friends across the sea, sure to repay their
+hospitality should occasion ever require it. Plots and counterplots were
+formed between the two shores, without any one paying much heed to the
+imperial authority of Persia, and the constant support which the subject
+Greeks found among their free brethren was bound before long to rouse
+the anger of the court at Susa. When Polycrates, foreseeing the fall of
+Amasis, placed himself under the suzerainty of Cambyses, the Corinthians
+and Spartans came to besiege him in Samos without manifesting any
+respect for the great king. They failed in this particular enterprise,*
+but later on, after Oroetes had been seized and put to death, it was to
+the Spartans that the successor of Polycrates, Maaandrios, applied
+for help to assert his claim to the possession of the tyranny against
+Syloson, brother of Polycrates and a personal friend of Darius.**
+
+     * The date of the death of Polycrates must be placed between
+     that of the conquest of Egypt and that of the revolt of
+     Gaumâta, either in 524 or 523 B.C.
+
+     ** The reinstatement of Syloson may be placed in 516 B.C.,
+     about the time when Darius was completing the reorganisation
+     of the empire and preparing to attack Greece.
+
+This constant intervention of the foreigner was in evident contradiction
+to the spirit which had inspired the reorganisation of the empire. Just
+when efforts were being made to strengthen the imperial power and ensure
+more effective obedience from the provincials by the institution of
+satrapies, it was impossible to put up with acts of unwarrantable
+interference, which would endanger the prestige of the sovereign and the
+authority of his officers. Conquest presented the one and only natural
+means of escape from the difficulties of the present situation and of
+preventing their recurrence; when satraps should rule over the European
+as well as over the Asiatic coasts of the Ægean, all these turbulent
+Greeks would be forced to live at peace with one another and in awe of
+the sovereign, as far as their fickle nature would allow. It was not
+then, as is still asserted, the mere caprice of a despot which brought
+upon the Greek world the scourge of the Persian wars, but the imperious
+necessity of security, which obliges well-organised empires to subjugate
+in turn all the tribes and cities which cause constant trouble on its
+frontiers. Darius, who was already ruler of a good third of the Hellenic
+world, from Trebizond to Barca, saw no other means of keeping what he
+already possessed, and of putting a stop to the incessant fomentation of
+rebellion in his own territories, than to conquer the mother-country as
+he had conquered the colonies, and to reduce to subjection the whole of
+European Hellas.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II--THE LAST DAYS OF THE OLD EASTERN WORLD
+
+
+_THE MEDIAN WAR--THE LAST NATIVE DYNASTIES OF EGYPT--THE EASTERN WORLD
+ON THE EVE OP THE MACEDONIAN CONQUEST._
+
+_The Persians in 512 B.C.--European Greece and the dangers which its
+independence presented to the safety of the empire--The preliminaries
+of the Median wars: the Scythian expedition, the conquest of Thrace and
+Macedonia--The Ionic revolt, the intervention of Athens and the taking
+of Sardes; the battle of Lade--Mardonius in Thrace and in Macedonia._
+
+_The Median wars--The expedition of Datis and Artaphernes: the taking
+of Eretria, the battle of Marathon (490)--The revolt of Egypt under
+Khabbisha; the death of Darius and the accession of Xerxes I.--The
+revolt of Babylon under Shamasherïb--The invasion of Greece: Artemision,
+Thermopylæ, the taking of Athens, Salamis--Platsæ and the final retreat
+of the Persians: Mycalê--The war carried on by the Athenians and the
+league of Delos: Inaros, the campaigns in Cyprus and Egypt, the peace of
+Oallias--The death of Xerxes._
+
+_Artaxerxes I. (465-424): the revolt of Megabyzos--The palaces of
+Pasargadæ. Persepolis, and Susa; Persian architecture and sculpture;
+court life, the king and his harem--Revolutions in the palace--Xerxes
+I., Sekudianos, Darius II.--Intervention in Greek affairs and the
+convention of Miletus; the end of the peace of Gallias--Artaxerxes II.
+(404-359) and Gyrus the Younger: the battle of Kunaxa and the retreat of
+the ten thousand (401)._
+
+_Troubles in Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt--Amyrtxus and the XXVIIIth
+Saite dynasty--The XXIXth Sebennytic dynasty--Nephorites I, Hakoris,
+Psammutis, their alliances with Evagoras and with the states of
+Continental Greece--The XXXth Mendesian dynasty--Nectanebo I, Tachôs
+and the invasion of Syria, the revolt of Nectanebo II.--The death of
+Artaxerxes II.--The accession of Ochus (359 B.C.), his unfortunate wars
+in the Delta, the conquest of Egypt (342) and the reconstitution of the
+empire._
+
+_The Eastern world: Elam, Urartu, the Syrian kingdoms, the ancient
+Semitic states decayed and decaying--Babylon in its decline--The Jewish
+state and its miseries--Nehemiah, Ezra--Egypt in the eyes of the Greeks:
+Sais, the Delta, the inhabitants of the marshes--Memphis, its monuments,
+its population--Travels in Upper Egypt: the Fayum, Khemmis, Thebes,
+Elephantine--The apparent vigour and actual feebleness of Egypt._
+
+_Persia and its powerlessness to resist attack: the rise of Macedonia,
+Philippi --Arses (337) and Darius Codomannos (336)--Alexander the
+Great--The invasion of Asia--The battle of Granicus and the conquest
+of the Asianic peninsula--Issus, the siege of Tyre and of Gaza, the
+conquest of Egypt, the foundation of Alexandria--Arbela: the conquest
+of Babylon, Susa, and Ecbatana--The death of Darius and the last days of
+the old Eastern world._
+
+[Illustration: 199.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
+
+[Page 200 and 201 need to be rescanned]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II--THE LAST DAYS OF THE OLD EASTERN WORLD
+
+
+_The Median wars--The last native dynasties of Egypt--The Eastern world
+on the eve of the Macedonian conquest._
+
+     [Drawn by Boudier, from one of the sarcophagi of Sidon, now
+     in the Museum of St. Irene. The vignette, which is by
+     Faucher-Gudin, represents the sitting cyno-cephalus of
+     Nectanebo I., now in the Egyptian Museum at the Vatican.]
+
+Darius appears to have formed this project of conquest immediately after
+his first victories, when his initial attempts to institute satrapies
+had taught him not only the condition and needs of Asia Minor, but of
+the teaching the Scythians such a lesson as would prevent them from
+bearing down upon his right flank during his march, or upon his rear
+while engaged in a crucial struggle in the Hellenic peninsula. On the
+other hand, the geographical information possessed by the Persians with
+regard to the Danubian regions was of so vague a character, that Darius
+must have believed the Scythians to have been nearer to his line of
+operations, and their country less desolate than was really the case.* A
+flotilla, commanded by Ariaramnes, satrap of Cappadocia, ventured across
+the Black Sea in 515,** landed a few thousand men upon the opposite
+shore, and brought back prisoners who furnished those in command with
+the information they required.***
+
+     * The motives imputed to Darius by the ancients for making
+     this expedition are the desire of avenging the disasters of
+     the Scythian invasion, or of performing an exploit which
+     should render him as famous as his predecessors in the eyes
+     of posterity.
+
+     ** The reconnaissance of Ariaramnes is intimately connected
+     with the expedition itself in Ctesias, and could have
+     preceded it by a few months only. If we take for the date of
+     the latter the year 514-513, the date given in the Table of
+     the Capitol, that of the former cannot be earlier than 515.
+     Ariaramnes was not satrap of Cappadocia, for Cappadocia
+     belonged then to the satrapy of Daskylion.
+
+     *** The supplementary paragraphs of the Inscription of
+     Behistun speak of an expedition of Darius against the Sako,
+     which is supposed to have had as its objective either the
+     sea of Aral or the Tigris. Would it not be possible to
+     suppose that the sea mentioned is the Pontus Euxinus, and to
+     take the mutilated text of Behistun to be a description
+     either of the campaign beyond the Danube, or rather of the
+     preliminary _reconnaissance_ of Ariaramnes a year before the
+     expedition itself?
+
+Darius, having learned what he could from these poor wretches, crossed
+the Bosphorus in 514, with a body of troops which tradition computed
+at 800,000, conquered the eastern coast of Thrace, and won his way in
+a series of conflicts as far as the Ister. The Ionian sailors built for
+him a bridge of boats, which he entrusted to their care, and he then
+started forward into the steppes in search of the enemy. The Scythians
+refused a pitched battle, but they burnt the pastures before him on
+every side, filled up the wells, carried off the cattle, and then slowly
+retreated into the interior, leaving Darius to face the vast extent of
+the steppes and the terrors of famine. Later tradition stated that he
+wandered for two months in these solitudes between the Ister and the
+Tanais; he had constructed on the banks of this latter river a series
+of earthworks, the remains of which were shown in the time of Herodotus,
+and had at length returned to his point of departure with merely the
+loss of a few sick men. The barbarians stole a march upon him, and
+advised the Greeks to destroy the bridge, retire within their cities,
+and abandon the Persians to their fate. The tyrant of the Ohersonnesus,
+Miltiades the Athenian, was inclined to follow their advice; but
+Histiasus, the governor of Miletus, opposed it, and eventually carried
+his point. Darius reached the southern bank without difficulty, and
+returned to Asia.*
+
+     * Ctesias limits the campaign beyond the Danube to a fifteen
+     days’ march; and Strabo places the crossing of the Danube
+     near the mouth of that river, at the island of Peukê, and
+     makes the expedition stop at the Dniester. Neither the line
+     of direction of the Persian advance nor their farthest point
+     reached is known. The eight forts which they were said to
+     have built, the ruins of which were shown on the banks of
+     the Oaros as late as the time of Herodotus, were probably
+     tumuli similar to those now met with on the Russian steppes,
+     the origin of which is ascribed by the people to persons
+     celebrated in their history or traditions.
+
+The Greek towns of Thrace thought themselves rid of him, and rose in
+revolt; but he left 80,000 men in Europe who, at first under Megabyzos,
+and then under Otanes, reduced them to subjection one after another, and
+even obliged Amyntas I., the King of Macedonia, to become a tributary of
+the empire. The expedition had not only failed to secure the submission
+of the Scythians, but apparently provoked reprisals on their part, and
+several of their bands penetrated ere long into the Chersonnesus. It
+nevertheless was not without solid result, for it showed that Darius,
+even if he could not succeed in subjugating the savage Danubian tribes,
+had but little to fear from them; it also secured for him a fresh
+province, that of Thrace, and, by the possession of Macedonia, brought
+his frontier into contact with Northern Greece. The overland route, in
+any case the more satisfactory of the two, was now in the hands of the
+invader.
+
+Revolutions at Athens prevented him from setting out on his expedition
+as soon as he had anticipated. Hippias had been overthrown in 510, and
+having taken refuge at Sigoum, was seeking on all sides for some one
+to avenge him against his fellow-citizens. The satrap of Sardes,
+Arta-phernes, declined at first to listen to him, for he hoped that the
+Athenians themselves would appeal to him, without his being obliged to
+have recourse to their former tyrant. As a matter of fact, they sent him
+an embassy, and begged his help against the Spartans. He promised it
+on condition that they would yield the traditional homage of earth and
+water, and their delegates complied with his demand, though on their
+return to Athens they were disowned by the citizens (508). Artaphernes,
+disappointed in this direction, now entered into communications with
+Hippias, and such close relations soon existed between the two that
+the Athenians showed signs of uneasiness. Two years later they again
+despatched fresh deputies to Sardes to beg the satrap not to espouse
+the cause of their former ruler. For a reply the satrap summoned them
+to recall the exiles, and, on their refusing (506),* their city became
+thenceforward the ostensible objective of the Persian army and fleet.
+The partisans of Hippias within the town were both numerous and active;
+it was expected that they would rise and hand over the city as soon as
+their chief should land on a point of territory with a force sufficient
+to intimidate the opposing faction. Athens in the hands of Hippias,
+would mean Athens in the hands of the Persians, and Greece accessible to
+the Persian hordes at all times by the shortest route. Darius therefore
+prepared to make the attempt, and in order to guard against any mishap,
+he caused all the countries that he was about to attack to be explored
+beforehand. Spies attached to his service were sent to scour the coasts
+of the Peloponnesus and take note of all its features, the state of
+its ports, the position of the islands and the fortresses; and they
+penetrated as far as Italy, if we may believe the story subsequently
+told to Herodotus.**
+
+     * Herodotus fixes the date at the time when the Athenians
+     first ostracised the principal partisans of the
+     Pisistratids, and amongst others Hipparchus, son of Charmes,
+     i.e. in 507-6.
+
+     ** Herodotus said that Darius sent spies with the physician
+     Democedes of Crotona shortly before the Scythian expedition.
+
+While he thus studied the territory from a distance, he did not neglect
+precautions nearer to hand, but ordered the Milesians to occupy in
+his name the principal stations of the Ægean between Ionia and Attica.
+Histiasus, whose loyalty had stood Darius in such good stead at the
+bridge over the Danube, did not, however, appear to him equal to so
+delicate a task: the king summoned him to Susa on some slight pretext,
+loaded him with honours, and replaced him by his nephew Aristagoras.
+Aristagoras at once attempted to justify the confidence placed in him by
+taking possession of Naxos; but the surprise that he had prepared ended
+in failure, discontent crept in among his men, and after a fruitless
+siege of four months he was obliged to withdraw (499).* His failure
+changed the tide of affairs. He was afraid that the Persians would
+regard it as a crime, and this fear prompted him to risk everything to
+save his fortune and his life. He retired from his office as tyrant,
+exhorted the Milesians, who were henceforth free to do so, to make war
+on the barbarians, and seduced from their allegiance the crews of the
+vessels just returned from Naxos, and still lying in the mouths of the
+Meander; the tyrants who commanded them were seized, some exiled,
+and some put to death. The Æolians soon made common cause with their
+neighbours the Ionians, and by the last days of autumn the whole of the
+Ægean littoral was under arms (499).**
+
+     * Herodotus attributes an unlikely act of treachery to
+     Megabates the Persian, who was commanding the Iranian
+     contingent attached to the Ionian troops.
+
+     ** The Dorian cities took no part in the revolt--at least
+     Herodotus never mentions them among the confederates. The
+     three Ionian cities of Ephesus, Kolophon, and Lebedos also
+     seem to have remained aloof, and we know that the Ephesians
+     were not present at the battle of Ladê.
+
+From the outset Aristagoras realised that they would be promptly
+overcome if Asiatic Hellas were not supported by Hellas in Europe.
+While the Lydian satrap was demanding reinforcements from his sovereign,
+Aristagoras therefore repaired to the Peloponnesus as a suppliant for
+help. Sparta, embroiled in one of her periodical quarrels with Argos,
+gave him an insolent refusal;* even Athens, where the revolution had
+for the moment relieved her from the fear of the Pisistratidaa and
+the terrors of a barbarian invasion, granted him merely twenty
+triremes--enough to draw down reprisals on her immediately after their
+defeat, without sensibly augmenting the rebels’ chances of success; to
+the Athenian contingent Bretria added five vessels, and this comprised
+his whole force. The leaders of the movement did not hesitate to assume
+the offensive with these slender resources. As early as the spring
+of 498, before Artaphernes had received reinforcements, they marched
+suddenly on Sardes. They burnt the lower town, but, as on many previous
+occasions, the citadel held out; after having encamped for several
+days at the foot of its rock, they returned to Ephesus laden with the
+spoil.**
+
+     * Aristagoras had with him a map of the world engraved on a
+     bronze plate, which was probably a copy of the chart drawn
+     up by Hecatseus of Miletus.
+
+     ** Herodotus says that the Ionians on their return suffered
+     a serious reverse near Ephesus. The author seems to have
+     adopted some Lydian or Persian tradition hostile to the
+     Ionians, for Charon of Lampsacus, who lived nearer to the
+     time of these events, mentions only the retreat, and hints
+     at no defeat. If the expedition had really ended in this
+     disaster, it is not at all likely that the revolt would have
+     attained the dimensions it did immediately afterwards.
+
+This indeed was a check to their hostilities, and such an abortive
+attempt was calculated to convince them of their powerlessness against
+the foreign rule. None the less, however, when it was generally known
+that they had burnt the capital of Asia Minor, and had with impunity
+made the representative of the great king feel in his palace the smoke
+of the conflagration, the impression was such as actual victory could
+have produced. The cities which had hitherto hesitated to join them, now
+espoused their cause--the ports of the Troad and the Hellespont, Lycia,
+the Carians, and Cyprus--and their triumph would possibly have been
+secured had Greece beyond the Ægean followed the general movement and
+joined the coalition. Sparta, however, persisted in her indifference,
+and Athens took the opportunity of withdrawing from the struggle. The
+Asiatic Greeks made as good a defence as they could, but their resources
+fell far short of those of the enemy, and they could do no more than
+delay the catastrophe and save their honour by their bravery. Cyprus
+was the first to yield during the winter of 498-497. Its vessels,
+in conjunction with those of the Ionians, dispersed the fleet of the
+Phoenicians off Salamis, but the troops of their princes, still imbued
+with the old system of military tactics, could not sustain the charge
+of the Persian battalions; they gave way under the walls of Salamis, and
+their chief, Onesilus, was killed in a final charge of his chariotry.*
+
+     * The movement in Cyprus must have begun in the winter of
+     499-498, for Onesilus was already in the field when Darius
+     heard of the burning of Sardes; and as it lasted for a year,
+     it must have been quelled in the winter of 498-497.
+
+His death effected the ruin of the Ionian cause in Cyprus, which on the
+continent suffered at the same time no less serious reverses. The towns
+of the Hellespont and of Æolia succumbed one after another; Kymê and
+Clazomenæ next opened their gates; the Carians were twice beaten, once
+near the White Columns, and again near Labranda, and their victory at
+Pedasos suspended merely for an instant the progress of the Persian
+arms, so that towards the close of 497 the struggle was almost entirely
+concentrated round Miletus. Aristagoras, seeing that his cause was
+now desperate, agreed with his partisans that they should expatriate
+themselves. He fell fighting against the Edonians of Thrace, attempting
+to force the important town of Enneahodoi, near the mouth of the Strymon
+(496);* but his defection had not discouraged any one, and Histiseus,
+who had been sent to Sardes by the great king to negotiate the
+submission of the rebels, failed in his errand. Even when blockaded on
+the land side, Miletus could defy an attack so long as communication
+with the sea was not cut off.
+
+     * In Herodotus the town is not named, but a passage in
+     Thucydides shows that it was Enneahodoi, afterwards
+     Amphipolis, and that the death of Aristagoras took place
+     thirty-two years before the Athenian defeat at Drabeskos,
+     i.e. probably in 496.
+
+[Illustration: 209.jpg A CYPRIOT CHARIOT]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the terra-cotta group in the
+     New York Museum.
+
+Darius therefore brought up the Phoenician fleet, reinforced it with
+the Cypriot contingents, and despatched the united squadrons to the
+Archipelago during the summer of 494. The confederates, even after the
+disasters of the preceding years, still possessed 353 vessels, most of
+them of 30 to 50 oars; they were, however, completely defeated near the
+small island of Ladê, in the latter part of the summer, and Miletus,
+from that moment cut off from the rest of the world, capitulated a few
+weeks later. A small proportion of its inhabitants continued to dwell
+in the ruined city, but the greater number were carried away to Ampê, at
+the mouth of the Tigris, in the marshes of the Nâr-Marratum.*
+
+     * The year 497, i.e. three years before the capture of the
+     town, appears to be an unlikely date for the battle of Ladê:
+     Miletus must have fallen in the autumn or winter months
+     following the defeat.
+
+Caria was reconquered during the winter of 494-493, and by the early
+part of 493, Chios, Lesbos, Tenedos, the cities of the Chersonnesus
+and of Propontis--in short, all which yet held out--were reduced to
+obedience. Artaphernes reorganised his vanquished states entirely in the
+interest of Persia. He did not interfere with the constitutions of
+the several republics, but he reinstated the tyrants. He regulated and
+augmented the various tributes, prohibited private wars, and gave to the
+satrap the right of disposing of all quarrels at his own tribunal. The
+measures which he adopted had long after his day the force of law among
+the Asiatic Greeks, and it was by them they regulated their relations
+with the representatives of the great king.
+
+If Darius had ever entertained doubts as to the necessity for occupying
+European Greece to ensure the preservation of peace in her Asiatic
+sister-country, the revolt of Ionia must have completely dissipated
+them. It was a question whether the cities which had so obstinately
+defied him for six long years, would ever resign themselves to servitude
+as long as they saw the peoples of their race maintaining their
+independence on the opposite shores of the Ægean, and while the misdeeds
+of which the contingents of Eretria and Athens had been guilty during
+the rebellion remained unpunished. A tradition, which sprang up soon
+after the event, related that on hearing of the burning of Sardes,
+Darius had bent his bow and let fly an arrow towards the sky, praying
+Zeus to avenge him on the Athenians: and at the same time he had
+commanded one of his slaves to repeat three times a day before him, at
+every meal, “Sire, remember the Athenians!”*
+
+     * The legend is clearly older than the time of Herodotus,
+     for in the _Persæ_ of Eschylus the shade of Darius, when
+     coming out of his tomb, cries to the old men, “Remember
+     Athens and Greece!”
+
+As a matter of fact, the intermeddling of these strangers between
+the sovereign and his subjects was at once a serious insult to the
+Achæmenids and a cause of anxiety to the empire; to leave it unpunished
+would have been an avowal of weakness or timidity, which would not fail
+to be quickly punished in Syria, Egypt, Babylon, and on the Scythian
+frontiers, and would ere long give rise to similar acts of revolt and
+interference. Darius, therefore, resumed his projects, but with greater
+activity than before, and with a resolute purpose to make a final
+reckoning with the Greeks, whatever it might cost him. The influence of
+his nephew Mardonius at first inclined him to adopt the overland route,
+and he sent him into Thrace with a force of men and a fleet of galleys
+sufficient to overcome all obstacles. Mardonius marched against the
+Greek colonies and native tribes which had throw off the yoke during the
+Ionian war, and reduced those who had still managed to preserve their
+independence. The Bryges opposed him with such determination, that
+summer was drawing to its close before he was able to continue his
+march. He succeeded, however, in laying hands on Macedonia, and obliged
+its king, Alexander, to submit to the conditions accepted by his father
+Amyntas; but at this juncture half of his fleet was destroyed by a
+tempest in the vicinity of Mount Athos, and the disaster, which
+took place just as winter was approaching, caused him to suspend his
+operations (492). He was recalled on account of his failure, and
+the command was transferred to Datis the Mede and to the Persian
+Artaphernes. Darius, however, while tentatively using the land routes
+through Greece for his expeditions, had left no stone unturned to secure
+for himself that much-coveted sea-way which would carry him straight
+into the heart of the enemy’s position, and he had opened negotiations
+with the republics of Greece proper. Several of them had consented to
+tender him earth and water, among them being Ægina,* and besides this,
+the state of the various factions in Athens was such, that he had every
+reason to believe that he could count on the support of a large section
+of the population when the day came for him to disembark his force on
+the shores of Attica.
+
+     * Herodotus states that _all_ the island-dwelling Greeks
+     submitted to the great king. But Herodotus himself says
+     later on that the people of Naxos, at all events, proved
+     refractory.
+
+[Illustration: 212a.jpg ALEXANDER I. OF MACEDON]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin in the _Cabinet des
+     Médailles_.
+
+[Illustration: 212b.jpg A PHOENICIAN GALLEY]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin of Byblos in the
+     _Cabinet des Médailles_.
+
+He therefore decided to direct his next expedition against Athens
+itself, and he employed the year 491 in concentrating his troops and
+triremes in Cilicia, at a sufficient distance from the European coast
+to ensure their safety from any sudden attack. In the spring of 490 the
+army recruited from among the most warlike nations of the empire--the
+Persians, Medes, and Sakse--went aboard the Phoenician fleet, while
+galleys built on a special model were used as transports for the
+cavalry. The entire convoy sailed safely out of the mouth of the Pyramos
+to the port of Samos, coasting the shores of Asia Minor, and then
+passing through the Cyclades, from Samos to Naxos, where they met
+with no opposition from the inhabitants, headed for Delos, where Datis
+offered a sacrifice to Apollo, whom he confounded with his god
+Mithra; finally they reached Eubæa, where Eretria and Carystos vainly
+endeavoured to hold their own against them. Eretria was reduced to
+ashes, as Sardes had been, and such of its citizens as had not fled into
+the mountains at the enemy’s approach were sent into exile among the
+Kissians in the township of Arderikka. Hippias meanwhile had joined the
+Persians and had been taken into their confidence. While awaiting the
+result of the intrigues of his partisans in Athens, he had advised
+Datis to land on the eastern coast of Attica, in the neighbourhood of
+Marathon, at the very place from whence his father Pisistratus had set
+out forty years before to return to his country after his first exile.
+The position was well chosen for the expected engagement.
+
+[Illustration: 214.jpg MAP OF MARATHON]
+
+The bay and the strand which bordered it afforded an excellent station
+for the fleet, and the plain, in spite of its marshes and brushwood, was
+one of those rare spots where cavalry might be called into play without
+serious drawbacks. A few hours on foot would bring the bulk of the
+infantry up to the Acropolis by a fairly good road, while by the same
+time the fleet would be able to reach the roadstead of Phalerum. All had
+been arranged beforehand for concerted action when the expected rising
+should take place; but it never did take place, and instead of the
+friends whom the Persians expected, an armed force presented itself,
+commanded by the polemarch Callimachus and the ten strategi, among whom
+figured the famous Miltiades. At the first news of the disembarkation
+of the enemy, the republic had despatched the messenger Phidippides to
+Sparta to beg for immediate assistance, and in the mean time had sent
+forward all her able-bodied troops to meet the invaders. They comprised
+about 10,000 hoplites, accompanied, as was customary, by nearly as many
+more light infantry, who were shortly reinforced by 1000 Platæans. They
+encamped in the valley of Avlona, around a small temple of Heracles, in
+a position commanding the roads into the interior, and from whence
+they could watch the enemy without exposing themselves to an unexpected
+attack.
+
+[Illustration: 215.jpg THE BATTLE-FIELD OF MARATHON]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. Amédée Hauvette.
+
+The two armies watched each other for a fortnight, Datis expecting a
+popular outbreak which would render an engagement unnecessary, Miltiades
+waiting patiently till the Lacedaemonians had come up, or till some
+false move on the part of his opponent gave him the opportunity of
+risking a decisive action. What took place at the end of this time is
+uncertain. Whether Datis grew tired of inaction, or whether he suddenly
+resolved to send part of his forces by sea, so as to land on the
+neighbouring shore of Athens, and Miltiades fell upon his rear when
+only half his men had got on board the fleet, is not known. At any rate,
+Miltiades, with the Platæans on his left, set his battalions in movement
+without warning, and charged the enemy with a rush. The Persians and
+the Sakæ broke the centre of the line, but the two wings, after having
+dispersed the assailants on their front, wheeled round upon them and
+overcame them: 6000 barbarians were left dead upon the field as against
+some 200 Athenians and Platæans, but by dint of their valiant efforts
+the remainder managed to save the fleet with a loss of only seven
+galleys. Datis anchored that evening off the island of Ægilia, and at
+the same moment the victorious army perceived a signal hoisted on the
+heights of Pentelicus apparently to attract his attention; when he set
+sail the next morning and, instead of turning eastwards, proceeded to
+double Cape Sunion, Miltiades had no longer any doubt that treachery was
+at work, and returned to Athens by forced marches. Datis, on entering
+the roads of Phalerum, found the shore defended, and the army that he
+had left at Marathon encamped upon the Cynosargê. He cruised about for
+a few hours in sight of the shore, and finding no movement made to
+encourage him to land, he turned his vessels about and set sail for
+Ionia.
+
+The material loss to the Persians was inconsiderable, for even the
+Cyclades remained under their authority; Miltiades, who endeavoured
+to retake them, met with a reverse before Paros, and the Athenians,
+disappointed by his unsuccessful attempt, made no further efforts to
+regain them. The moral effect of the victory on Greece and the empire
+was extraordinary. Up till then the Median soldiers had been believed
+to be the only invincible troops in the world; the sight of them
+alone excited dread in the bravest hearts, and their name was received
+everywhere with reverential awe. But now a handful of hoplites from one
+of the towns of the continent, and that not the most renowned for its
+prowess, without cavalry or bowmen, had rushed upon and overthrown the
+most terrible of all Oriental battalions, the Persians and the Sakæ.
+Darius could not put up with such an affront without incurring the risk
+of losing his prestige with the people of Asia and Europe, who up till
+then had believed him all-powerful, and of thus exposing himself to the
+possibility of revolutions in recently subdued countries, such as Egypt,
+which had always retained the memory of her past greatness. In the
+interest of his own power, as well as to soothe his wounded pride, a
+renewed attack was imperative, and this time it must be launched with
+such dash and vigour that all resistance would be at once swept before
+it. Events had shown him that the influence of the Pisistratidæ had not
+been strong enough to secure for him the opening of the gates of Athens,
+and that the sea route did not permit of his concentrating an adequate
+force of cavalry and infantry on the field of battle; he therefore
+reverted to the project of an expedition by the overland route, skirting
+the coasts of Thrace and Macedonia. During three years he collected
+arms, provisions, horses, men, and vessels, and was ready to commence
+hostilities in the spring of 487, when affairs in Egypt prevented him.
+This country had undeniably prospered under his suzerainty. It formed,
+with Cyrene and the coast of Libya, the sixth of his satrapies, to which
+were attached the neighbouring Nubian tribes of the southern frontier.*
+The Persian satrap, installed at the White Wall in the ancient palace of
+the Pharaohs, was supported by an army of 120,000 men, who occupied the
+three entrenched camps of the Saites--Daphnæ and Marea on the confines
+of the Delta, and Elephantinê in the south.** Outside these military
+stations, where the authority of the great king was exercised in a
+direct manner, the ancient feudal organisation existed intact. The
+temples retained their possessions and their vassals, and the nobles
+within their principalities were as independent and as inclined to
+insurrection as in past times. The annual tribute, the heaviest paid by
+any province with the exception of Cossæa and Assyria, amounted only
+to 700 talents of silver. To this sum must be added the farming of the
+fishing in Lake Moeris, which, according to Herodotus,*** brought in one
+talent a day during the six months of the high Nile, but, according to
+Diodorus,**** during the whole year, as well as the 120,000 medimni of
+wheat required for the army of occupation, and the obligation to furnish
+the court of Susa with Libyan nitre and Nile water; the total of these
+impositions was far from constituting a burden disproportionate to the
+wealth of the Nile valley.
+
+     * The Nubian tribes, who are called Ethiopians by Herodotus
+     and the cuneiform inscriptions, paid no regular tribute, but
+     were obliged to send annually two chænikes of pure gold, two
+     hundred pieces of ebony, twenty elephants’ tusks, and five
+     young slaves, all under the name of a free gift.
+
+     ** Herodotus states that in his own time the Persians, like
+     the Saite Pharaohs, still had garrisons at Daphnæ and at
+     Elephantine.
+
+     *** Herodotus says that the produce sank to the value of a
+     third of a talent a day during the six other months.
+
+     **** Diodorus Siculus says that the revenue produced by the
+     fisheries in the Lake had been handed over by Moris to his
+     wife for the expenses of her toilet.
+
+[Illustration: 219.jpg DARIUS ON THE STELE OF THE ISTHMUS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the _Description de l’Egypte_.
+
+Commerce brought in to it, in fact, at least as much money as the
+tribute took out of it. Incorporated with an empire which extended over
+three continents, Egypt had access to regions whither the products of
+her industry and her soil had never yet been carried. The produce of
+Ethiopia and the Sudan passed through her emporia on its way to attract
+customers in the markets of Tyre, Sidon, Babylon, and Susa, and the
+isthmus of Suez and Kosseir were the nearest ports through which Arabia
+and India could reach the Mediterranean. Darius therefore resumed the
+work of Necho, and beginning simultaneously at both extremities, he cut
+afresh the canal between the Nile and the Gulf of Suez. Trilingual
+stelæ in Egyptian, Persian, and Medic were placed at intervals along its
+banks, and set forth to all comers the method of procedure by which the
+sovereign had brought his work to a successful end. In a similar manner
+he utilised the Wadys which wind between Koptos and the Red Sea, and
+by their means placed the cities of the Said in communication with the
+“Ladders of Incense,” Punt and the Sabæans.*
+
+     * Several of the inscriptions engraved on the rocks of the
+     Wady Hammamât show to what an extent the route was
+     frequented at certain times during the reign. They bear the
+     dates of the 26th, 27th, 28th, 30th, and 36th years of
+     Darius. The country of Saba (Sheba) is mentioned on one of
+     the stelæ of the isthmus.
+
+He extended his favour equally to the commerce which they carried on
+with the interior of Africa; indeed, in order to ensure the safety of
+the caravans in the desert regions nearest to the Nile, he skilfully
+fortified the Great Oasis. He erected at Habît, Kushît, and other
+places, several of those rectangular citadels with massive walls of
+unburnt brick, which resisted every effort of the nomad tribes to break
+through them; and as the temple at Habit, raised in former times by the
+Theban Pharaohs, had become ruinous, he rebuilt it from its foundations.
+
+[Illustration: 220.jpg WALLS OF THE FORTRESS OF DITSH-EL-QALÂA]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the engraving by Cailliaud. Dush is
+     the Kushît of the hieroglyphs, the Kysis of Græco-Roman
+     times, and is situated on the southern border of the Great
+     Oasis, about the latitude of Assuân.
+
+He was generous in his gifts to the gods, and even towns as obscure as
+Edfu was then received from him grants of money and lands. The Egyptians
+at first were full of gratitude for the favours shown them, but the news
+of the defeat at Marathon, and the taxes with which the Susian court
+burdened them in order to make provision for the new war with Greece,
+aroused a deep-seated discontent, at all events amongst those who,
+living in the Delta, had had their patriotism or their interests most
+affected by the downfall of the Saite dynasty. It would appear that the
+priests of Buto, whose oracles exercised an indisputable influence alike
+over Greeks and natives, had energetically incited the people to revolt.
+The storm broke in 486, and a certain Khabbisha, who perhaps belonged
+to the family of Psammetichus, proclaimed himself king both at Sais and
+Memphis.*
+
+     * Herodotus does not give the name of the leader of the
+     rebellion, but says that it took place in the fourth year
+     after Marathon. A demotic contract in the Turin Museum bears
+     the date of the third month of the second season of the
+     thirty-fifth year of Darius I.: Khabbîsha’s rebellion
+     therefore broke out between June and September, 486. Stern
+     makes this prince to have been of Libyan origin. From the
+     form of his name, Révillout has supposed that he was an
+     Arab, and Birch was inclined to think that he was a Persian
+     satrap who made a similar attempt to that of Aryandes. But
+     nothing is really known of him or of his family previous to
+     his insurrection against Darius.
+
+[Illustration: 221.jpg THE GREAT TEMPLE OF DARIUS AT HABÎT]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the engraving by Cailliaud.
+
+Darius did not believe the revolt to be of sufficient gravity to delay
+his plans for any length of time. He hastily assembled a second
+army, and was about to commence hostilities on the banks of the Nile
+simultaneously with those on the Hellespont, when he died in 485, in the
+thirty-sixth year of his reign. He was one of the great sovereigns of
+the ancient world--the greatest without exception of those who had ruled
+over Persia. Cyrus and Cambyses had been formidable warriors, and the
+kingdoms of the Bast had fallen before their arms, but they were purely
+military sovereigns, and if their successor had not possessed other
+abilities than theirs, their empire would have shared the fate of that
+of the Medes and the Chaldæans; it would have sunk to its former level
+as rapidly as it had risen, and the splendour of its opening years
+would have soon faded from remembrance. Darius was no less a general
+by instinct and training than they, as is proved by the campaigns which
+procured him his crown; but, after having conquered, he knew how to
+organise and build up a solid fabric out of the materials which his
+predecessors had left in a state of chaos; if Persia maintained her rule
+over the East for two entire centuries, it was due to him and to him
+alone. The question of the succession, with its almost inevitable
+popular outbreaks, had at once to be dealt with. Darius had had several
+wives, and among them, the daughter of Gobryas, who had borne him
+three children: Artabazanes, the eldest, had long been regarded as the
+heir-presumptive, and had probably filled the office of regent during
+the expedition in Scythia. But Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus, who had
+already been queen under Cambyses and Gaumâta, was indignant at the
+thought of her sons bowing down before the child of a woman who was not
+of Achæmenian race, and at the moment when affairs in Egypt augured
+ill for the future, and when the old king, according to custom, had
+to appoint his successor, she intreated him to choose Khshayarsha, the
+eldest of her children, who had been borne to the purple, and in whose
+veins flowed the blood of Cyrus. Darius acceded to her request, and
+on his death, a few months after, Khshayarsha ascended the throne. His
+brothers offered no opposition, and the Persian nobles did homage to
+their new king. Khshayarsha, whom the Greeks called Xerxes, was at that
+time thirty-four years of age. He was tall, vigorous, of an imposing
+figure and noble countenance, and he had the reputation of being the
+handsomest man of his time, but neither his intelligence nor disposition
+corresponded to his outward appearance; he was at once violent and
+feeble, indolent, narrow-minded, and sensual, and was easily swayed by
+his courtiers and mistresses. The idea of a war had no attractions for
+him, and he was inclined to shirk it. His uncle Artabanus exhorted him
+to follow his inclination for peace, and he lent a favourable ear to his
+advice until his cousin Mardonius remonstrated with him, and begged him
+not to leave the disgrace of Marathon unpunished, or he would lower the
+respect attached to the name of Persia throughout the world. He wished,
+at all events, to bring Egyptian affairs to an issue before involving
+himself in a serious European war. Khabbîsha had done his best to
+prepare a stormy reception for him. During a period of two years
+Khabbîsha had worked at the extension of the entrenchments along the
+coast and at the mouths of the Nile, in order to repulse the attack that
+he foresaw would take place simultaneously with that on land, but his
+precautions proved fruitless when the decisive moment arrived, and he
+was completely crushed by the superior numbers of Xerxes.
+
+[Illustration: 224.jpg Xerxes]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a daric in the _Cabinet des
+     Médailles_.
+
+The nomes of the Delta which had taken a foremost part in the rising
+were ruthlessly raided, the priests heavily fined, and the oracle of
+Buto deprived of its possessions as a punishment for the encouragement
+freely given to the rebels. Khabbîsha disappeared, and his fate is
+unknown. Achæmenes, one of the king’s brothers, was made satrap, but,
+as on previous occasions, the constitution of the country underwent
+no modification. The temples retained their inherited domains, and the
+nomes continued in the hands of their hereditary princes, without a
+suspicion crossing the mind of Xerxes that his tolerance of the priestly
+institutions and the local dynasties was responsible for the maintenance
+of a body of chiefs ever in readiness for future insurrection (483).*
+
+     * The only detailed information on this revolt furnished by
+     the Egyptian monuments is given in the Stele of Ptolemy, the
+     son of Lagos. An Apis, whose sarcophagus still exists, was
+     buried by Khabbîsha in the Serapoum in the second year of
+     his reign, which proves that he was in possession of
+     Memphis: the White Wall had perhaps been deprived of its
+     garrison in order to reinforce the army prepared against
+     Greece, and it was possibly thus that it fell into the hands
+     of Khabbîsha.
+
+Order was once more restored, but he was not yet entirely at liberty to
+pursue his own plan of action. Classical tradition tells us, that on
+the occasion of his first visit to Babylon he had offended the religious
+prejudices of the Chaldæans by a sacrilegious curiosity. He had, in
+spite of the entreaties of the priests, forced an entrance into the
+ancient burial-place of Bel-Etana, and had beheld the body of the old
+hero preserved in oil in a glass sarcophagus, which, however, was not
+quite full of the liquid. A notice posted up beside it, threatened the
+king who should violate the secret of the tomb with a cruel fate, unless
+he filled the sarcophagus to the brim, and Xerxes had attempted to
+accomplish this mysterious injunction, but all his efforts had failed.
+The example set by Egypt and the change of sovereign are sufficient to
+account for the behaviour of the Babylonians; they believed that the
+accession of a comparatively young monarch, and the difficulties of the
+campaign on the banks of the Nile, afforded them a favourable occasion
+for throwing off the yoke. They elected as king a certain Shamasherib,
+whose antecedents are unknown; but their independence was of short
+duration,* for Megabyzos, son of Zopyrus, who governed the province by
+hereditary right, forced them to disarm after a siege of a few months.
+
+     * This Shamasherib is mentioned only on a contract dated
+     from his accession, which is preserved in the British
+     Museum.
+
+It would appear that Xerxes treated them with the greatest severity: he
+pillaged the treasury and temple of Bel, appropriated the golden statue
+which decorated the great inner hall of the ziggurât, and carried away
+many of the people into captivity (581). Babylon never recovered this
+final blow: the quarters of the town that had been pillaged remained
+uninhabited and fell into ruins; commerce dwindled and industry flagged.
+The counsellors of Xerxes had, no doubt, wished to give an object-lesson
+to the province by their treatment of Babylon, and thus prevent the
+possibility of a revolution taking place in Asia while its ruler was
+fully engaged in a struggle with the Greeks. Meanwhile all preparations
+were completed, and the contingents of the eastern and southern
+provinces concentrated at Kritalla, in Cappadocia, merely awaited the
+signal to set out. Xerxes gave the order to advance in the autumn of
+481, crossed the Halys and took up his quarters at Sardes, while his
+fleet prepared to winter in the neighbouring ports of Phocæ and Kymê.*
+
+     * Diodorus, who probably follows Ephorus, is the only writer
+     who informs us of the place where the fleet was assembled.
+
+Gathered together in that little corner of the world, were forces such
+as no king had ever before united under his command; they comprised 1200
+vessels of various build, and probably 120,000 combatants, besides the
+rabble of servants, hucksters, and women which followed all the armies
+of that period. The Greeks exaggerated the number of the force beyond
+all probability. They estimated it variously at 800,000, at 3,000,000,
+and at 5,283,220 men; 1,700,000 of whom were able-bodied foot-soldiers,
+and 80,000 of them horsemen.*
+
+     * Herodotus records the epigram to the effect that 3,000,000
+     men attacked Thermopylæ. Ctesias and Ephorus adopt the same
+     figures; Iso-crates is contented with 700,000 combatants and
+     5,000,000 men in all.
+
+[Illustration: 227.jpg A TRIREME IN MOTION]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin: the left portion is a free
+     reproduction of a photograph of the bas-relief of the
+     Acropolis; the right, of the picture of Pozzo. The two
+     partly overlap one another, and give both together the idea
+     of a trireme going at full speed.
+
+The troops which they could bring up to oppose these hordes were,
+indeed, so slender in number, when reckoned severally, that all hope
+of success seemed impossible. Xerxes once more summoned the Greeks to
+submit, and most of the republics appeared inclined to comply; Athens
+and Sparta alone refused, but from different motives. Athens knew that,
+after the burning of Sardes and the victory of Marathon, they could hope
+for no pity, and she was well aware that Persia had decreed her complete
+destruction; the Athenians were familiar with the idea of a struggle in
+which their very existence was at stake, and they counted on the navy
+with which Themistocles had just provided them to enable them to emerge
+from the affair with honour. Sparta was not threatened with the same
+fate, but she was at that time the first military state in Greece, and
+the whole of the Peloponnesus acknowledged her sway; in the event of her
+recognising the suzerainty of the barbarians, the latter would not fail
+to require of her the renunciation of her hegemony, and she would then
+be reduced to the same rank as her former rivals, Tegea and Argos.
+Athens and Sparta therefore united to repulse the common enemy, and the
+advantage that this alliance afforded them was so patent that none of
+the other states ventured to declare openly for the great king. Argos
+and Crete, the boldest of them, announced that they would observe
+neutrality; the remainder, Thessalians, Boeotians, and people
+of Corcyra, gave their support to the national cause, but did so
+unwillingly.
+
+Xerxes crossed the Hellespont in the spring of 480, by two bridges of
+boats thrown across it between Abydos and Sestos; he then formed his
+force into three columns, and made his way slowly along the coast,
+protected on the left by the whole of his fleet from any possible attack
+by the squadrons of the enemy. The Greeks had three lines of defence
+which they could hold against him, the natural strength of which nearly
+compensated them for the inferiority of their forces; these were Mount
+Olympus, Mount OEta, and the isthmus of Corinth. The first, however, was
+untenable, owing to the ill will of the Thessalians; as a precautionary
+measure 10,000 hoplites were encamped upon it, but they evacuated the
+position as soon as the enemy’s advance-guard came into sight. The
+natural barrier of OEta, less formidable than that of Olympus, was
+flanked by the Euboean straits on the extreme right, but the range
+was of such extent that it did not require to be guarded with equal
+vigilance along its whole length. The Spartans did not at first occupy
+it, for they intended to accumulate all the Greek forces, both troops
+and vessels, around the isthmus. At that point the neck of land was so
+narrow, and the sea so shut in, that the numbers of the invading force
+proved a drawback to them, and the advantage almost of necessity lay
+with that of the two adversaries who should be best armed and best
+officered. This plan of the Spartans was a wise one, but Athens, which
+was thereby sacrificed to the general good, refused to adopt it, and
+as she alone furnished almost half the total number of vessels, her
+decision had to be deferred to. A body of about 10,000 hoplites
+was therefore posted in the pass of Thermopylæ under the command of
+Leonidas, while a squadron of 271 vessels disposed themselves near the
+promontory of Artemision, off the Euripus, and protected the right flank
+of the pass against a diversion from the fleet. Meanwhile Xerxes had
+been reinforced in the course of his march by the contingents from
+Macedonia, and had received the homage of the cities of Thessaly; having
+reached the defiles of the OEta and the Euboea, he began by attacking
+the Creeks directly in front, both fleets and armies facing one another.
+Leonidas succeeded in withstanding the assault on two successive days,
+and then the inevitable took place. A detachment of Persians, guided
+by the natives of the country, emerged by a path which had been left
+unguarded, and bore down upon the Greeks in the rear; a certain number
+managed to escape, but the bulk of the force, along with the 300
+Spartans and their king, succumbed after a desperate resistance. As for
+the fleet, it had borne itself bravely, and had retained the ascendency
+throughout, in spite of the superiority of the enemy’s numbers; on
+hearing the news of the glorious death of Leonidas, they believed their
+task ended for the time being, and retired with the Athenians in their
+wake, ready to sustain the attack should they come again to close
+quarters. The victorious side had suffered considerable losses in men
+and vessels, but they had forced the passage, and Central Greece now
+lay at their mercy. Xerxes received the submission of the Thebans, the
+Phocæans, the Locrians, the Dorians, and of all who appealed to his
+clemency; then, having razed to the ground Platæa and Thespisæ, the only
+two towns which refused to come to terms with him, he penetrated into
+Attica by the gorges of the Cithssron. The population had taken refuge
+in Salamis, Ægina, and Troezen. The few fanatics who refused to desist
+in their defence of the Acropolis, soon perished behind their ramparts;
+Xerxes destroyed the temple of Pallas by fire to avenge the burning of
+Sardes, and then entrenched his troops on the approaches to the isthmus,
+stationing his squadrons in the ports of Munychia, Phalerum, and the
+Piræus, and suspended all hostilities while waiting to see what policy
+the Greeks would pursue. It is possible that he hoped that a certain
+number of them would intreat for mercy, and others being encouraged
+by their example to submit, no further serious battle would have to be
+fought. When he found that no such request was proffered, he determined
+to take advantage of the superiority of his numbers, and, if possible,
+destroy at one blow the whole of the Greek naval reserve; he therefore
+gave orders to his admirals to assume the offensive. The Greek fleet lay
+at anchor across the bay of Salamis. The left squadron of the Persians,
+leaving Munychia in the middle of the night, made for the promontory of
+Cynosura, landing some troops as it passed on the island of Psyttalia,
+on which it was proposed to fall back in case of accident, while
+the right division, sailing close to the coast of Attica, closed
+the entrance to the straits in the direction of Eleusis; this double
+movement was all but completed, when the Greeks were informed by
+fugitives of what was taking place, and the engagement was inevitable.
+They accepted it fearlessly. Xerxes, enthroned with his Immortals on the
+slopes of Ægialeos, could, from his exalted position, see the Athenians
+attack his left squadron: the rest of the allies followed them, and
+from afar these words were borne upon the breeze: “Go, sons of Greece,
+deliver your country, deliver your children, your wives, and the temples
+of the gods of your fathers and the tombs of your ancestors. A single
+battle will decide the fate of all you possess.” The Persians fought
+with their accustomed bravery, “but before long their numberless
+vessels, packed closely together in a restricted space, begin to hamper
+each other’s movements, and their rams of brass collide; whole rows of
+oars are broken.” The Greek vessels, lighter and easier to manoeuvre
+than those of the Phoenicians, surround the latter and disable them in
+detail. “The surface of the sea is hidden with floating wreckage and
+corpses; the shore and the rocks are covered with the dead.” At length,
+towards evening, the energy of the barbarians beginning to flag, they
+slowly fell back upon the Piræus, closely followed by their adversaries,
+while Aristides bore down upon Psyttalia with a handful of Athenians.
+“Like tunnies, like fish just caught in a net, with blows from broken
+oars, with fragments of spars, they fall upon the Persians, they tear
+them to pieces. The sea resounds from afar with groans and cries of
+lamentation. Night at length unveils her sombre face” and separates the
+combatants.*
+
+     * Æschylus gives the only contemporaneous account of the
+     battle, and the one which Herodotus and all the historians
+     after him have paraphrased, while they also added to it oral
+     traditions.
+
+[Illustration: 233.jpg PART OF THE BATTLEFIELD OF SALAMIS]
+
+The advantage lay that day with the Greeks, but hostilities might
+be resumed on the morrow, and the resources of the Persians were so
+considerable that their chances of victory were not yet exhausted.
+Xerxes at first showed signs of wishing to continue the struggle; he
+repaired the injured vessels and ordered a dyke to be constructed,
+which, by uniting Salamis to the mainland, would enable him to oust the
+Athenians from their last retreat. But he had never exhibited much zest
+for the war; the inevitable fatigues and dangers of a campaign were
+irksome to his indolent nature, and winter was approaching, which he
+would be obliged to spend far from Susa, in the midst of a country
+wasted and trampled underfoot by two great armies. Mardonius, guessing
+what was passing in his sovereign’s mind, advised him to take advantage
+of the fine autumn weather to return to Sardes; he proposed to take over
+from Xerxes the command of the army in Greece, and to set to work to
+complete the conquest of the Peloponnesus. He was probably glad to
+be rid of a sovereign whose luxurious habits were a hindrance to his
+movements. Xerxes accepted his proposal with evident satisfaction,
+and summarily despatching his vessels to the Hellespont to guard the
+bridges, he set out on his return journey by the overland route.
+
+At the time of his departure the issue of the struggle was as yet
+unforeseen. Mardonius evacuated Attica, which was too poor and desolate
+a country to support so large an army, and occupied comfortable winter
+quarters in the rich plains of Thessaly, where he recruited his strength
+for a supreme effort in the spring. He had with him about 60,000 men,
+picked troops from all parts of Asia--Medes, Sakæ, Bactrians, and
+Indians, besides the regiment of the Immortals and the Egyptian veterans
+who had distinguished themselves by their bravery at Salamis; the heavy
+hoplites of Thebes and of the Boeotian towns, the Thessalian cavalry,
+and the battalions of Macedonia were also in readiness to join him as
+soon as called on. The whole of these troops, relieved from the presence
+of the useless multitude which had impeded its movements under Xerxes,
+and commanded by a bold and active general, were anxious to distinguish
+themselves, and the probabilities of their final success were great. The
+confederates were aware of the fact, and although resolved to persevere
+to the end, their maoeuvres betrayed an unfortunate indecision. Their
+fleet followed the Persian squadron bound for the Hellespont for several
+days, but on realising that the enemy were not planning a diversion
+against the Peloponnesus, they put about and returned to their various
+ports. The winter was passed in preparations on both sides. Xerxes, on
+his return to Sardes, had got together a fleet of 200 triremes and an
+army of 60,000 men, and had stationed them at Cape Mycale, opposite
+Samos, to be ready in case of an Ionian revolt, or perhaps to bear down
+upon any given point in the Peloponnesus when Mardonius had gained
+some initial advantage. The Lacædemonians, on their part, seem to have
+endeavoured to assume the defensive both by land and sea; while their
+foot-soldiers were assembling in the neighbourhood of Corinth, their
+fleet sailed as far as Delos and there anchored, as reluctant to venture
+beyond as if it had been a question of proceeding to the Pillars of
+Hercules. Athens, which ran the risk of falling into the enemy’s hands
+for the second time through these hesitations, evinced such marked
+displeasure that Mardonius momentarily attempted to take advantage of
+it. He submitted to the citizens, through Alexander, King of Macedon,
+certain conditions, the leniency of which gave uneasiness to the
+Spartans; the latter at once promised Athens all she wanted, and on the
+strength of their oaths she at once broke off the negotiations with the
+Persians. Mardonius immediately resolved on action: he left his quarters
+in Thessaly in the early days of May, reached Attica by a few
+quick marches, and spread his troops over the country before the
+Peloponnesians were prepared to resist. The people again took refuge in
+Salamis; the Persians occupied Athens afresh, and once more had recourse
+to diplomacy. This time the Spartans were alarmed to good purpose; they
+set out to the help of their ally, and from that moment Mardonius showed
+no further consideration in his dealing with Athens. He devastated the
+surrounding country, razed the city walls to the ground, and demolished
+and burnt the remaining houses and temples; he then returned to Boeotia,
+the plains of which were more suited to the movements of his squadrons,
+and took up a position in an entrenched camp on the right bank of the
+Asopos. The Greek army, under the command of Pausanias, King of Sparta,
+subsequently followed him there, and at first stationed themselves on
+the lower slopes of Mount Cithseron. Their force was composed of about
+25,000 hoplites, and about as many more light troops, and was scarcely
+inferior in numbers to the enemy, but it had no cavalry of any kind.
+Several days passed in skirmishing without definite results, Mardonius
+fearing to let his Asiatic troops attack the heights held by the heavy
+Greek infantry, and Pausanias alarmed lest his men should be crushed by
+the Thessalian and Persian horse if he ventured down into the plains.
+Want of water at length obliged the Greeks to move slightly westwards,
+their right wing descending as far as the spring of Gargaphia, and their
+left to the bank of the Asopos. But this position facing east, exposed
+them so seriously to the attacks of the light Asiatic horse, that after
+enduring it for ten days they raised their camp and fell back in the
+night on Platæa. Unaccustomed to manouvre together, they were unable
+to preserve their distances; when day dawned, their lines, instead
+of presenting a continuous front, were distributed into three unequal
+bodies occupying various parts of the plain. Mardonius unhesitatingly
+seized his opportunity. He crossed the Asopos, ordered the Thebans to
+attack the Athenians, and with the bulk of his Asiatic troops charged
+the Spartan contingents. Here, as at Marathon, the superiority of
+equipment soon gave the Greeks the advantage: Mardonius was killed while
+leading the charge of the Persian guard, and, as is almost always the
+case among Orientals, his death decided the issue of the battle. The
+Immortals were cut to pieces round his dead body, while the rest took
+flight and sought refuge in their camp.
+
+[Illustration: 238.jpg MAP]
+
+[Illustration: 239.jpg THE BATTLE-FIELD OF PLATAEA]
+
+Almost simultaneously the Athenians succeeded in routing the Boeotians.
+They took the entrenchments by assault, gained possession of an immense
+quantity of spoil, and massacred many of the defenders, but they could
+not prevent Artabazus from retiring in perfect order with 40,000 of
+his best troops protected by his cavalry. He retired successively from
+Thessaly, Macedonia, and Thrace, reached Asia after suffering severe
+losses, and European Greece was freed for ever from the presence of the
+barbarians. While her fate was being decided at Platsæ, that of Asiatic
+Greece was being fought out on the coast of Ionia. The entreaties of the
+Samians had at length encouraged Leotychidas and Xanthippus to take the
+initiative. The Persian generals, who were not expecting this aggressive
+movement, had distributed the greater part of their vessels throughout
+the Ionian ports, and had merely a small squadron left at their disposal
+at Mycale. Surprised by the unexpected appearance of the enemy, they
+were compelled to land, were routed, and their vessels burnt (479). This
+constituted the signal for a general revolt: Samos, Chios, and Lesbos
+affiliated themselves to the Hellenic confederation, and the cities of
+the littoral, which Sparta would have been powerless to protect for want
+of a fleet, concluded an alliance with Athens, whose naval superiority
+had been demonstrated by recent events. The towns of the Hellespont
+threw off the yoke as soon as the triremes of the confederates appeared
+within their waters, and Sestos, the only one of them prevented by its
+Persian garrison from yielding to the Athenians, succumbed, after a long
+siege, during the winter of 479-478. The campaign of 478 completed the
+deliverance of the Greeks. A squadron commanded by Pausanias roused the
+islands of the Carian coast and Cyprus itself, without encountering
+any opposition, and then steering northwards drove the Persians from
+Byzantium. The following winter the conduct of operations passed out of
+the hands of Sparta into those of Athens--from the greatest military to
+the greatest naval power in Greece; and the latter, on assuming command,
+at once took steps to procure the means which would enable her to carry,
+out her task thoroughly. She brought about the formation of a permanent
+league between the Asiatic Greeks and those of the islands. Each city
+joining it preserved a complete autonomy as far as its internal affairs
+were concerned, but pledged itself to abide by the advice of Athens
+in everything connected with the war against the Persian empire, and
+contributed a certain quota of vessels, men, and money, calculated
+according to its resources, for the furtherance of the national cause.
+The centre of the confederation was fixed at Delos; the treasure held
+in common was there deposited under the guardianship of the god, and the
+delegates from the confederate states met there every year at the solemn
+festivals, Athens to audit the accounts of her administration, and
+the allies to discuss the interests of the league and to decide on the
+measures to be taken against the common enemy.
+
+Oriental empires maintain their existence only on condition of being
+always on the alert and always victorious. They can neither restrict
+themselves within definite limits nor remain upon the defensive, for
+from the day when they desist from extending their area their ruin
+becomes inevitable; they must maintain their career of conquest, or they
+must cease to exist. This very activity which saves them from downfall
+depends, like the control of affairs, entirely on the ruling sovereign;
+when he chances to be too indolent or too incapable of government, he
+retards progress by his inertness or misdirects it through his want of
+skill, and the fate of the people is made thus to depend entirely on the
+natural disposition of the prince, since none of his subjects possesses
+sufficient authority to correct the mistakes of his master. Having
+conquered Asia, the Persian race, finding itself hemmed in by
+insurmountable obstacles--the sea, the African and Arabian deserts, the
+mountains of Turkestan and the Caucasus, and the steppes of Siberia--had
+only two outlets for its energy, Greece and India. Darius had led
+his army against the Greeks, and, in spite of the resistance he had
+encountered from them, he had gained ground, and was on the point of
+striking a crucial blow, when death cut short his career. The impetus
+that he had given to the militant policy was so great that Xerxes was
+at first carried away by it; but he was naturally averse to war, without
+individual energy and destitute of military genius, so that he allowed
+himself to be beaten where, had he possessed anything of the instincts
+of a commander, he would have been able to crush his adversary with the
+sheer weight of his ships and battalions. Even after Salamis, even after
+Platæa and Mycale, the resources of Hellas, split up as it was into
+fifty different republics, could hardly bear comparison with those
+of all Asia concentrated in the hands of one man: Xerxes must have
+triumphed in the end had he persevered in his undertaking, and utilised
+the inexhaustible amount of fresh material with which his empire could
+have furnished him. But to do that he would have had to take a serious
+view of his duties as a sovereign, as Cyrus and Darius had done, whereas
+he appears to have made use of his power merely for the satisfaction of
+his luxurious tastes and his capricious affections. During the winter
+following his return, and while he was reposing at Sardes after the
+fatigues of his campaign in Greece, he fell in love with the wife of
+Masistes, one of his brothers, and as she refused to entertain his suit,
+he endeavoured to win her by marrying his son Darius to her daughter
+Artayntas. He was still amusing himself with this ignoble intrigue
+during the year which witnessed the disasters of Platæa and Mycale, when
+he was vaguely entertaining the idea of personally conducting a fresh
+army beyond the Ægean: but the marriage of his son having taken place,
+he returned to Susa in the autumn, accompanied by the entire court, and
+from thenceforward he remained shut up in the heart of his empire. After
+his departure the war lost its general character, and deteriorated into
+a series of local skirmishes between the satraps in the vicinity of the
+Mediterranean and the members of the league of Delos. The Phoenician
+fleet played the principal part in the naval operations, but the
+central and eastern Asiatics--Bactrians, Indians, Parthians, Arians,
+Arachosians, Armenians, and the people from Susa and Babylon--scarcely
+took any part in the struggle. The Athenians at the outset assumed the
+offensive under the intelligent direction of Cimon. They expelled the
+Persian garrisons from Eion and Thrace in 476. They placed successively
+under their own hegemony all the Greek communities of the Asianic
+littoral. Towards 466, they destroyed a fleet anchored within the Gulf
+of Pamphylia, close to the mouth of the Eurymedon, and, as at Mycale,
+they landed and dispersed the force destined to act in concert with
+the squadron. Sailing from thence to Cyprus, they destroyed a second
+Phoenician fleet of eighty vessels, and returned to the Piraeus laden
+with booty. Such exploits were not devoid of glory and profit for
+the time being, but they had no permanent results. All these naval
+expeditions were indeed successful, and the islands and towns of the
+Ægean, and even those of the Black Sea and the southern coasts of Asia
+Minor, succeeded without difficulty in freeing themselves from the
+Persian yoke under the protection of the Athenian triremes; but their
+influence did not penetrate further inland than a few miles from the
+shore, beyond which distance they ran the risk of being cut off from
+their vessels, and the barbarians of the interior--Lydians, Phrygians,
+Mysians, Pamphylians, and even most of the Lycians and Carians--remained
+subject to the rule of the satraps. The territory thus liberated formed
+but a narrow border along the coast of the peninsula; a border rent and
+interrupted at intervals, constantly in peril of seizure by the enemy,
+and demanding considerable efforts every year for its defence. Athens
+was in danger of exhausting her resources in the performance of this
+ungrateful task, unless she could succeed in fomenting some revolution
+in the vast possessions of her adversary which should endanger the
+existence of his empire, or which, at any rate, should occupy the
+Persian soldiery in constantly recurring hostilities against the
+rebellious provinces. If none of the countries in the centre of Asia
+Minor would respond to their call, and if the interests of their
+commercial rivals, the Phoenicians, were so far opposed to their own as
+to compel them to maintain the conflict to the very end, Egypt, at any
+rate, always proud of her past glory and impatient of servitude,
+was ever seeking to rid herself of the foreign yoke and recover her
+independent existence under, the authority of her Pharaohs. It was not
+easy to come to terms with her and give her efficient help from Athens
+itself; but Cyprus, with its semi-Greek population hostile to the
+Achæmenids, could, if they were to take possession of it, form an
+admirable base of operations in that corner of the Mediterranean. The
+Athenians were aware of this from the outset, and, after their victory
+at the mouth of the Eurymedon, a year never elapsed without their
+despatching a more or less numerous fleet into Cypriot waters; by so
+doing they protected the Ægean from the piracy of the Phoenicians, and
+at the same time, in the event of any movement arising on the banks of
+the Nile, they were close enough to the Delta to be promptly informed
+of it, and to interfere to their own advantage before any repressive
+measures could be taken.
+
+The field of hostilities having shifted, and Greece having now set
+herself to attempt the dismemberment of the Persian empire, we may well
+ask what has become of Xerxes. The little energy and intelligence he
+had possessed at the outset were absorbed by a life of luxury and
+debauchery. Weary of his hopeless pursuit of the wife of Masistes,
+he transferred his attentions to the Artayntas whom he had given in
+marriage to his son Darius, and succeeded in seducing her. The vanity
+of this unfortunate woman at length excited the jealously of the queen.
+Amestris believed herself threatened by the ascendency of this mistress;
+she therefore sent for the girl’s mother, whom she believed guilty of
+instigating the intrigue, and, having cut off her breasts, ears, nose,
+lips, and torn out her tongue, she sent her back, thus mutilated, to her
+family. Masistes, wishing to avenge her, set out for Bactriana, of which
+district he was satrap: he could easily have incited the province to
+rebel, for its losses in troops during the wars in Europe had been
+severe, and a secret discontent was widespread; but Xerxes, warned in
+time, despatched horsemen in pursuit, who overtook and killed him. The
+incapacity of the king, and the slackness with which he held the reins
+of government’, were soon so apparent as to produce intrigues at court:
+Artabanus, the chief captain of the guards, was emboldened by the
+state of affairs to attempt to substitute his own rule for that of
+the Achæmenids, and one night he assassinated Xerxes. His method of
+procedure was never exactly known, and several accounts of it were soon
+afterwards current. One of them related that he had as his accomplice
+the eunuch Aspamithres. Having committed the crime, both of them rushed
+to the chamber of Artaxerxes,* one of the sons of the sovereign, but
+still a child; they accused Darius, the heir to the throne, of the
+murder, and having obtained an order to seize him, they dragged him
+before his brother and stabbed him, while he loudly protested his
+innocence.
+
+     * Artaxerxes is the form commonly adopted by the Greek
+     historians and by the moderns who follow them, but Ctcsias
+     and others after him prefer Artoxerxes. The original form of
+     the Persian name was Artakhshathra.
+
+[Illustration: 247.jpg Artaxerxes]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a daric in the _Cabinet des
+     Médailles_.
+
+Other tales related that Artabanus had taken advantage of the free
+access to the palace which his position allowed him, to conceal himself
+one night within it, in company with his seven sons. Having murdered
+Xerxes, he convinced Artaxerxes of the guilt of his brother, and
+conducting him to the latter’s chamber, where he was found asleep,
+Artabanus stabbed him on the spot, on the pretence that he was only
+feigning slumber.*
+
+     * Of the two principal accounts, the first is as old as
+     Ctesias, who was followed in general outline by Ephorus, of
+     whose account Diodorus Siculus preserves a summary
+     compilation; the second was circulated by Dinon, and has
+     come down to us through the abbreviation of Pompeius Trogus.
+     The remains of a third account are met with in Aristotle.
+     Ælian knew a fourth in which the murder was ascribed to the
+     son of Xerxes himself.
+
+The murderer at first became the virtual sovereign, and he exercised his
+authority so openly that later chronographers inserted his name in the
+list of the Achæmenids, between that of his victim and his _protégé_;
+but at the end of six months, when he was planning the murder of the
+young prince, he was betrayed by Megabyzos and slain, together with his
+accomplices. His sons, fearing a similar fate, escaped into the country
+with some of the troops. They perished in a skirmish, sword in hand; but
+their prompt defeat, though it helped to establish the new king upon his
+throne, did not ensure peace, for the most turbulent provinces at the
+two extremes of the empire, Bactriana on the northeast and Egypt in the
+south-west, at once rose in arms. The Bactrians were led by Hystaspes,
+one of the sons of Xerxes, who, being older than Artaxerxes, claimed
+the throne; his pretensions were not supported by the neighbouring
+provinces, and two bloody battles soon sealed his fate (462).* The
+chastisement of Egypt proved a harder task. Since the downfall of the
+Saites, the eastern nomes of the Delta had always constituted a single
+fief, which the Greeks called the kingdom of Libya. Lords of Marea and
+of the fertile districts extending between the Canopic arm of the Nile,
+the mountains, and the sea, its princes probably exercised suzerainty
+over several of the Libyan tribes of Marmarica. Inaros, son of
+Psammetichus,** who was then the ruling sovereign, defied the Persians
+openly. The inhabitants of the Delta, oppressed by the tax-gatherers of
+Achæmenes,*** welcomed him with open arms, and he took possession of
+the country between the two branches of the Nile, probably aided by the
+Cyrenians; the Nile valley itself and Memphis, closely guarded by the
+Persian garrisons, did not, however, range themselves on his side.
+
+     * The date 462 is approximate, and is inferred from the fact
+     that the war in Bactriana is mentioned in Ctesias between
+     the war against the sons of Artabanus which must have
+     occupied a part of 463, and the Egyptian rebellion which
+     broke out about 462, as Diodorus Siculus points out,
+     doubtless following Ephorus.
+
+     ** The name of the father of Inaros is given us by the
+     contemporary testimony of Thucydides.
+
+     *** Achomenes is the form given by Herodotus and by Diodorus
+     Siculus, who make him the son of Darius I., appointed
+     governor of Egypt after the repression of the revolt of
+     Khabbîsha. Ctesias calls him Achæmenides, and says that he
+     was the son of Xerxes.
+
+Meanwhile the satrap, fearing that the troops at his disposal were
+insufficient, had gone to beg assistance of his nephew. Artaxerxes had
+assembled an army and a fleet, and, in the first moment of enthusiasm,
+had intended to assume the command in person; but, by the advice of his
+counsellors, he was with little difficulty dissuaded from carrying this
+whim into effect, and he delegated the conduct of affairs to Achæmenes.
+The latter at first repulsed the Libyans (460), and would probably
+have soon driven them back into their deserts, had not the Athenians
+interfered in the fray. They gave orders to their fleet at Cyprus
+to support the insurgents by every means in their power, and their
+appearance on the scene about the autumn of 469 changed the course
+of affairs. Achæmenes was overcome at Papremis, and his army almost
+completely exterminated. Inaros struck him down with his own hand in the
+struggle; but the same evening he caused the body to be recovered, and
+sent it to the court of Susa, though whether out of bravado, or from
+respect to the Achæmenian race, it is impossible to say.*
+
+     * Diodorus Siculus says in so many words that the Athenians
+     took part in the battle of Papremis; Thucydides and
+     Herodotus do not speak of their being there, and several
+     modern historians take this silence as a proof that their
+     squadron arrived after the battle had been fought.
+
+His good fortune did not yet forsake him. Some days afterwards, the
+Athenian squadron of Charitimides came up by chance with the Phoenician
+fleet, which was sailing to the help of the Persians, and had not yet
+received the news of the disaster which had befallen them at Papremis.
+The Greeks sunk thirty of the enemy’s vessels and took twenty more, and,
+after this success, the allies believed that they had merely to show
+themselves to bring about a general rising of the fellahîn, and effect
+the expulsion of the Persians from the whole of Egypt. They sailed up
+the river and forced Memphis after a few days’ siege; but the garrison
+of the White Wall refused to surrender, and the allies were obliged to
+lay siege to it in the ordinary manner (459):* in the issue this proved
+their ruin. Artaxerxes raised a fresh force in Cilicia, and while
+completing his preparations, attempted to bring about a diversion in
+Greece. The strength of Pharaoh did not so much depend on his Libyan and
+Egyptian hordes, as on the little body of hoplites and the crews of
+the Athenian squadron; and if the withdrawal of the latter could be
+effected, the repulse of the others would be a certainty. Persian agents
+were therefore employed to beg the Spartans to invade Attica; but the
+remembrance of Salamis and Platæa was as yet too fresh to permit of the
+Lacedæmonians allying themselves with the common enemy, and their virtue
+on this occasion was proof against the darics of the Orientals.** The
+Egyptian army was placed in the field early in the year 456, under the
+leadership of Megabyzos, the satrap of Syria: it numbered, so it was
+said, some 300,000 men, and it was supported by 300 Phoenician vessels
+commanded by Artabazos.***
+
+     * The date of 459-8 for the arrival of the Athenians is
+     concluded from the passage of Thucydides, who gives an
+     account of the end of the war after the cruise of Tolmides
+     in 455, in the sixth year of its course.
+
+     ** Megabyzos opened these negotiations, and his presence at
+     Sparta during the winter of 457-6 is noticed.
+
+     *** Ctesias here introduces the Persian admiral Horiscos,
+     but Diodorus places Artabazos and Megabyzos side by side, as
+     was the case later on in the war in Cyprus, one at the head
+     of the fleet, the other of the army; it is probable that the
+     historian from whom Diodorus copied, viz. Ephorus,
+     recognised the same division of leadership in the Egyptian
+     campaign.
+
+The allies raised the blockade of the White Wall as soon as he
+entered the Delta, and hastened to attack him; but they had lost their
+opportunity. Defeated in a desperate encounter, in which Charitimides
+was killed and Inaros wounded in the thigh, they barricaded themselves
+within the large island of Prosopitis, about the first fortnight in
+January of the year 455, and there sustained a regular siege for the
+space of eighteen months. At the end of that time Megabyzos succeeded in
+turning an arm of the river, which left their fleet high and dry, and,
+rather than allow it to fall into his hands, they burned their vessels,
+whereupon he gave orders to make the final assault. The bulk of the
+Athenian auxiliaries perished in that day’s attack, the remainder
+withdrew with Inaros into the fortified town of Byblos, where Megabyzos,
+unwilling to prolong a struggle with a desperate enemy, permitted them
+to capitulate on honourable terms. Some of them escaped and returned to
+Cyrene, from whence they took ship to their own country; but the main
+body, to the number of 6000, were carried away to Susa by Megabyzos in
+order to receive the confirmation of the treaty which he had concluded.
+As a crowning stroke of misfortune, a reinforcement of fifty Athenian
+triremes, which at this juncture entered the Mendesian mouth of the
+Nile, was surrounded by the Phoenician fleet, and more than half of them
+destroyed. The fall of Prosopitis brought the rebellion to an end.*
+
+     * The accounts of these events given by Ctesias and
+     Thucydides are complementary, and, in spite of their
+     brevity, together form a whole which must be sufficiently
+     near the truth. That of Ephorus, preserved in Diodorus, is
+     derived from an author who shows partiality to the
+     Athenians, and who passes by everything not to their honour,
+     while he seeks to throw the blame for the final disaster on
+     the cowardice of the Egyptians. The summary of Aristodemus
+     comes directly from that of Thucydides.
+
+The nomes of the Delta were restored to order, and, as was often
+customary in Oriental kingdoms, the vanquished petty princes or their
+children were reinvested in their hereditary fiefs; even Libya was not
+taken from the family of Inaros, but was given to his son Thannyras and
+a certain Psammetichus. A few bands of fugitives, however, took refuge
+in the marshes of the littoral, in the place where the Saites in former
+times had sought a safe retreat, and they there proclaimed king a
+certain Amyrtgeus, who was possibly connected with the line of Amasis,
+and successfully defied the repeated attempts of the Persians to
+dislodge them.
+
+The Greek league had risked the best of its forces in this rash
+undertaking, and had failed in its enterprise. It had cost the allies so
+dearly in men and galleys, that if the Persians had at once assumed the
+offensive, most of the Asiatic cities would have found themselves in a
+most critical situation; and Athens, then launched in a quarrel with
+the states of the Peloponnesus, would have experienced the greatest
+difficulty in succouring them. The feebleness of Artaxerxes, however,
+and possibly the intrigues at court and troubles in various other parts
+of the empire, prevented the satraps from pursuing their advantage, and
+when at length they meditated taking action, the opportunity had gone
+by. They nevertheless attempted to regain the ascendency over Cyprus;
+Artabazos with a Sidonian fleet cruised about the island, Megabyzos
+assembled troops in Cilicia, and the petty kings of Greek origin raised
+a cry of alarm. Athens, which had just concluded a truce with the
+Peloponnesians, at once sent two hundred vessels to their assistance
+under the command of Oimon (449). Cimon acted as though he were about
+to reopen the campaign in Egypt and despatched sixty of his triremes to
+King Amyrtceus, while he himself took Marion and blockaded Kition with
+the rest of his forces. The siege dragged on; he was perhaps about to
+abandon it, when he took to his bed and died. Those who succeeded him in
+the command were obliged to raise the blockade for want of provisions,
+but as they returned and were passing Salamis, they fell in with the
+Phoenician vessels which had just been landing the Cilician troops, and
+defeated them; they then disembarked, and, as at Mycale and Eurymedon,
+they gained a second victory in the open field, after which they joined
+the squadron which had been sent to Egypt, and sailed for Athens with
+the dead body of their chief. They had once more averted the danger of
+an attack on the Ægean, but that was all. The Athenian statesmen had
+for some time past realised that it was impossible for them to sustain
+a double conflict, and fight the battles of Greece against the common
+enemy, while half of the cities whose safety was secured by their heroic
+devotion were harassing them on the continent, but the influence of
+Cimon had up till now encouraged them to persist; on the death of Cimon,
+they gave up the attempt, and Callias, one of their leaders, repaired in
+state to Susa for the purpose of opening negotiations. The peace which
+was concluded on the occasion of this embassy might at first sight
+appear advantageous to their side. The Persian king, without actually
+admitting his reverses, accepted their immediate consequences. He
+recognised the independence of the Asiatic Creeks, of those at least who
+belonged to the league of Delos, and he promised that his armies on
+land should never advance further than three days’ march from the Ægean
+littoral. On the seas, he forbade his squadrons to enter Hellenic waters
+from the Chelidonian to the Cyanæan rocks--that is, from the eastern
+point of Lycia to the opening of the Black Sea: this prohibition did
+not apply to the merchant vessels of the contracting parties, and
+they received permission to traffic freely in each other’s waters--the
+Phoenicians in Greece, and the Greeks in Phonicia, Cilicia, and Egypt.
+And yet, when we consider the matter, Athens and Hellas were, of the
+two, the greater losers by this convention, which appeared to imply
+their superiority. Not only did they acknowledge indirectly that they
+felt themselves unequal to the task of overthrowing the empire, but
+they laid down their arms before they had accomplished the comparatively
+restricted task which they had set themselves to perform, that of
+freeing all the Greeks from the Iranian yoke: their Egyptian compatriots
+still remained Persian tributaries, in company with the cities of
+Cyrenaïca, Pamphylia, and Cilicia, and, above all, that island of
+Cyprus in which they had gained some of their most signal triumphs.
+The Persians, relieved from a war which for a quarter of a century had
+consumed their battalions and squadrons, drained their finances, and
+excited their subjects to revolt, were now free to regain their former
+wealth and perhaps their vigour, could they only find generals to
+command their troops and guide their politics. Artaxerxes was incapable
+of directing this revival, and his inveterate weakness exposed him
+perpetually to the plotting of his satraps or to the intrigues of
+the women of his harem. The example of Artabanus, followed by that of
+Hystaspes, had shown how easy it was for an ambitious man to get rid
+secretly of a monarch or a prince and seriously endanger the crown. The
+members of the families who had placed Darius on the throne, possessed
+by hereditary right, or something little short of it, the wealthiest
+and most populous provinces--Babylonia, Syria, Lydia, Phrygia, and the
+countries of the Halys--and they were practically kings in all but name,
+in spite of the _surveillance_ which the general and the secretary were
+supposed to exercise over their actions. Besides this, the indifference
+and incapacity of the ruling sovereigns had already tended to destroy
+the order of the administrative system so ably devised by Darius: the
+satrap had, as a rule, absorbed the functions of a general within his
+own province, and the secretary was too insignificant a personage
+to retain authority and independence unless he received the constant
+support of the sovereign. The latter, a tool in the hands of women and
+eunuchs, usually felt himself powerless to deal with his great vassals.
+His toleration went to all lengths if he could thereby avoid a revolt;
+when this was inevitable, and the rebels were vanquished, he still
+continued to conciliate them, and in most cases their fiefs and rights
+were preserved or restored to them, the monarch knowing that he could
+rid himself of them treacherously by poison or the dagger in the case
+of their proving themselves too troublesome. Megabyzos by his turbulence
+was a thorn in the side of Artaxerxes during the half of his reign. He
+had ended his campaign in Egypt by engaging to preserve the lives of
+Inaros and the 6000 Greeks who had capitulated at Byblos, and, in spite
+of the anger of the king, he succeeded in keeping his word for five
+years, but at the end of that time the demands of Amestris prevailed.
+She succeeded in obtaining from him some fifty Greeks whom she beheaded,
+besides Inaros himself, whom she impaled to avenge Achæmenes. Megabyzos,
+who had not recovered from the losses he had sustained in his last
+campaign against Cimon, at first concealed his anger, but he asked
+permission to visit his Syrian province, and no sooner did he reach it,
+than he resorted to hostilities. He defeated in succession Usiris and
+Menostates, the two generals despatched against him, and when force
+failed to overcome his obstinate resistance, the government condescended
+to treat with him, and swore to forget the past if he would consent
+to lay down arms. To this he agreed, and reappeared at court; but once
+there, his confidence nearly proved fatal to him. Having been invited to
+take part in a hunt, he pierced with his javelin a lion which threatened
+to attack the king: Artaxerxes called to mind an ancient law which
+punished by death any intervention of that kind, and he ordered that
+the culprit should be beheaded. Megabyzos with difficulty escaped this
+punishment through the entreaties of Amestris and of his wife Amytis;
+but he was deprived of his fiefs, and sent to Kyrta, on the shores of
+the Persian Gulf. After five years this exile became unbearable; he
+therefore spread the report that he was attacked by leprosy, and he
+returned home without any one venturing to hinder him, from fear of
+defiling themselves by contact with his person. Amestris and Amytis
+brought about his reconciliation with his sovereign; and thenceforward
+he regulated his conduct so successfully that the past was completely
+forgotten, and when he died, at the age of seventy-six years, Artaxerxes
+deeply regretted his loss.*
+
+     * These events are known to us only through Ctesias. Their
+     date is uncertain, but there is no doubt that they occurred
+     after Cimon’s campaign in Cyprus and the conclusion of the
+     peace of Callias.
+
+Peace having been signed with Athens, and the revolt of Megabyzos being
+at an end, Artaxerxes was free to enjoy himself without further care
+for the future, and to pass his time between his various capitals and
+palaces.
+
+[Illustration: 258.jpg VIEW OF THE ACHAEMENIAN RUINS OF ISTAKHR]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the engraving of Flandin and Coste.
+
+His choice lay between Susa and Persepolis, between Ecbatana and
+Babylon, according as the heat of the summer or the cold of the winter
+induced him to pass from the plains to the mountains, or from the latter
+to the plains. During his visits to Babylon he occupied one of the
+old Chaldæan palaces, but at Ecbatana he possessed merely the ancient
+residence of the Median kings, and the seraglio built or restored by
+Xerxes in the fashion of the times: at Susa and in Persia proper, the
+royal buildings were entirely the work of the Achæmenids, mostly that
+of Darius and Xerxes. The memory of Cyrus and of the kings to whom
+primitive Persia owed her organisation in the obscure century preceding
+her career of conquest, was piously preserved in the rude buildings of
+Pasargadæ, which was regarded as a sacred city, whither the sovereigns
+repaired for coronation as soon as their predecessors had expired.
+But its lonely position and simple appointments no longer suited their
+luxurious and effeminate habits, and Darius had in consequence fixed
+his residence a few miles to the south of it, near to the village, which
+after its development became the immense royal city of Persepolis. He
+there erected buildings more suited to the splendour of his court, and
+found the place so much to his taste during his lifetime, that he was
+unwilling to leave it after death. He therefore caused his tomb to be
+cut in the steep limestone cliff which borders the plain about half a
+mile to the north-west of the town. It is an opening in the form of a
+Greek cross, the upper part of which contains a bas-relief in which the
+king, standing in front of the altar, implores the help of Ahura-mazdâ
+poised with extended wings above him; the platform on which the king
+stands is supported by two rows of caryatides in low relief, whose
+features and dress are characteristic of Persian vassals, while other
+personages, in groups of three on either side, are shown in the attitude
+of prayer. Below, in the transverse arms of the cross, is carved a flat
+portico with four columns, in the centre of which is the entrance to
+the funeral vault. Within the latter, in receptacles hollowed out of the
+rock, Darius and eight of his family were successively laid.
+
+Xerxes caused a tomb in every way similar to be cut for himself near
+that of Darius, and in the course of years others were added close by.*
+
+     * The tomb of Darius alone bears an inscription. Darius III.
+     was also buried there by command of Alexander.
+
+
+[Illustration: 260.jpg THE TOMB OF DARIUS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the heliogravure by Marcel
+     Dieulafoy.
+
+Both the tombs and the palace are built in that eclectic style which
+characterises the Achæmenian period of Iranian art. The main features
+are borrowed from the architecture of those nations which were vassals
+or neighbours of the empire--Babylonia, Egypt, and Greece; but these
+various elements have been combined and modified in such a manner as to
+form a rich and harmonious whole.
+
+[Illustration: 261.jpg THE HILL OF THE ROYAL ACHAEMENIAN TOMBS AT
+NAKUSH-I-RUSTEM]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the engraving of Flandin and Coste.
+
+The core of the walls was of burnt bricks, similar to those employed in
+the Euphrates valley, but these were covered with a facing of enamelled
+tiles, disposed as a skirting or a frieze, on which figured those
+wonderful processions of archers, and the lions which now adorn the
+Louvre, while the pilasters at the angles, the columns, pillars,
+window-frames, and staircases were of fine white limestone or of hard
+bluish-grey marble.
+
+[Illustration: 262.jpg ONE OF THE CAPITALS FROM SUSA]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph taken in the Louvre by
+     Faucher-Gudin.
+
+[Illustration: 262b.jpg FREIZE OF ARCHERS AT SUZA]
+
+[Illustration: 263.jpg GENERAL RUINS OF PERSIPOLIS]
+
+The doorways are high and narrow; the moulding which frames them
+is formed of three Ionic fillets, each projecting beyond the other,
+surmounted by a coved Egyptian lintel springing from a row of alternate
+eggs and disks. The framing of the doors is bare, but the embrasures are
+covered with bas-reliefs representing various scenes in which the king
+is portrayed fulfilling his royal functions--engaged in struggles with
+evil genii which have the form of lions or fabulous animals, occupied in
+hunting, granting audiences, or making an entrance in state, shaded by
+an umbrella which is borne by a eunuch behind him. The columns employed
+in this style of architecture constitute its most original feature.
+The base of them usually consists of two mouldings, resting either on
+a square pedestal or on a cylindrical drum, widening out below into a
+bell-like curve, and sometimes ornamented with several rows of inverted
+leaves. The shafts, which have forty-eight perpendicular ribs cut on
+their outer surface, are perhaps rather tall in proportion to their
+thickness. They terminate in a group of large leaves, an evident
+imitation of the Egyptian palm-leaf capital, from which spring a sort of
+rectangular fluted die or abacus, flanked on either side with four rows
+of volutes curved in opposite directions, generally two at the base and
+two at the summit. The heads and shoulders of two bulls, placed back to
+back, project above the volutes, and take the place of the usual abacus
+of the capital. The dimensions of these columns, their gracefulness, and
+the distance at which they were placed from one another, prove that they
+supported not a stone architrave, but enormous beams of wood, which
+were inserted between the napes of the bulls’ necks, and upon which the
+joists of the roof were superimposed. The palace of Persepolis, built by
+Darius after he had crushed the revolts which took place at the outset
+of his reign, was situated at the foot of a chain of rugged mountains
+which skirt the plain on its eastern side, and was raised on an
+irregularly shaped platform or terrace, which was terminated by a wall
+of enormous polygonal blocks of masonry. The terrace was reached by
+a double flight of steps, the lateral walls of which are covered
+with bas-reliefs, representing processions of satellites, slaves, and
+tributaries, hunting scenes, fantastic episodes of battle, and lions
+fighting with and devouring bulls. The area of the raised platform was
+not of uniform level, and was laid out in gardens, in the midst of which
+rose the pavilions that served as dwelling-places. The reception-rooms
+were placed near the top of the flight of steps, and the more important
+of them had been built under the two preceding kings. Those nearest to
+the edge of the platform were the propylæ of Xerxes--gigantic entrances
+whose gateways were guarded on either side by winged bulls of Assyrian
+type; beyond these was the _apadana_, or hall of honour, where the
+sovereign presided in state at the ordinary court ceremonies. To the
+east of the _apadana_, and almost in the centre of the raised terrace,
+rose the Hall of a Hundred Columns, erected by Darius, and used only
+on special occasions. Artaxerxes I. seems to have had a particular
+affection for Susa. It had found favour with his predecessors, and they
+had so frequently resided there, even after the building of Persepolis,
+that it had continued to be regarded as the real capital of the empire
+by other nations, whereas the Persian sovereigns themselves had sought
+to make it rather an impregnable retreat than a luxurious residence.
+Artaxerxes built there an _apadana_ on a vaster scale than any hitherto
+designed.
+
+[Illustration: 267.jpg THE PROPYLAEA OF XERXES I. AT PERSEPOLIS]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the heliogravure of Marcel Dieulafoy.
+
+It comprised three colonnades, which, taken together, formed a rectangle
+measuring 300 feet by 250 feet on the two sides, the area being
+approximately that of the courtyard of the Louvre. The central
+colonnade, which was the largest of the three, was enclosed by walls on
+three sides, but was open to the south. Immense festoons of drapery hung
+from the wooden entablature, and curtains, suspended from rods between
+the first row of columns, afforded protection from the sun and from the
+curiosity of the vulgar.
+
+[Illustration: 268.jpg BAS-RELIEF OF THE STAIRCASE LEADING TO THE
+APADANA OF XERXES]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Marcel Dieulafoy.
+
+At the hour appointed for the ceremonies, the great king took his seat
+in solitary grandeur on the gilded throne of the Achæmenids; at the
+extreme end of the colonnade his eunuchs, nobles, and guards ranged
+themselves in silence on either side, each in the place which etiquette
+assigned to him. Meanwhile the foreign ambassadors who had been honoured
+by an invitation to the audience--Greeks from Thebes, Sparta, or Athens;
+Sakae from the regions of the north; Indians, Arabs, nomad chiefs from
+mysterious Ethiopia-ascended in procession the flights of steps which
+led from the town to the palace, bearing the presents destined for its
+royal master.
+
+[Illustration: 269.jpg THE KING ON HIS THRONE]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Plandin and Coste.
+
+Having reached the terrace, the curtains of the _apadana_ were suddenly
+parted, and in the distance, through a vista of columns, they perceived
+a motionless figure, resplendent with gold and purple, before whom
+they fell prostrate with their faces to the earth. The heralds were
+the bearers of their greetings, and brought back to them a gracious or
+haughty reply, as the case may be. When they rose from the ground, the
+curtains had closed, the kingly vision was eclipsed, and the escort
+which had accompanied them into the palace conducted them back to the
+town, dazzled with the momentary glimpse of the spectacle vouchsafed to
+them.
+
+[Illustration: 270.jpg A VIEW OF THE APADANA OF SUSA, RESTORED]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the restoration by Marcel Dieulafoy.
+
+The Achæemenian monarchs were not regarded as gods or as sons of gods,
+like the Egyptian Pharaohs, and the Persian religion forbade their
+ever becoming so, but the person of the king was hedged round with such
+ceremonial respect as in other Oriental nations was paid only to the
+gods: this was but natural, for was he not a despot, who with a word
+or gesture could abase the noblest of his subjects, and determine the
+well-being or misery of his people? His dress differed from that of his
+nobles only by the purple dye of its material and the richness of the
+gold embroideries with which it was adorned, but he was distinguished
+from all others by the peculiar felt cap, or _kidaris_, which he wore,
+and the blue-and-white band which encircled it like a crown; the king
+is never represented without his long sceptre with pommelled handle,
+whether he be sitting or standing, and wherever he went he was attended
+by his umbrella- and fan-bearers. The prescriptions of court etiquette
+were such as to convince his subjects and persuade himself that he was
+sprung from a nobler race than that of any of his magnates, and that he
+was outside the pale of ordinary humanity. The greater part of his
+time was passed in privacy, where he was attended only by the eunuchs
+appointed to receive his orders; and these orders, once issued, were
+irrevocable, as was also the king’s word, however much he might desire
+to recall a promise once made. His meals were, as a rule, served to him
+alone; he might not walk on foot beyond the precincts of the palace, and
+he never showed himself in public except on horseback or in his chariot,
+surrounded by his servants and his guards. The male members of the royal
+family and those belonging to the six noble houses enjoyed the privilege
+of approaching the king at any hour of the day or night, provided he was
+not in the company of one of his wives. These privileged persons formed
+his council, which he convoked on important occasions, but all ordinary
+business was transacted by means of the scribes and inferior officials,
+on whom devolved the charge of the various departments of the
+government. A vigorous ruler, such as Darius had proved himself,
+certainly trusted no one but himself to read the reports sent in by the
+satraps, the secretaries, and the generals, or to dictate the answers
+required by each; but Xerxes and Artaxerxes delegated the heaviest part
+of such business to their ministers, and they themselves only fulfilled
+such state functions as it was impossible to shirk--the public
+administration of justice, receptions of ambassadors or victorious
+generals, distributions of awards, annual sacrifices, and state
+banquets: they were even obliged, in accordance with an ancient and
+inviolable tradition, once a year to set aside their usual sober habits
+and drink to excess on the day of the feast of Mithra. Occasionally they
+would break through their normal routine of life to conduct in person
+some expedition of small importance, directed against one of the
+semi-independent tribes of Iran, such as the Cadusians, but their
+most glorious and frequent exploits were confined to the chase. They
+delighted to hunt the bull, the wild boar, the deer, the wild ass, and
+the hare, as the Pharaohs or Assyrian kings of old had done; and they
+would track the lion to his lair and engage him single-handed; in fact,
+they held a strict monopoly in such conflicts, a law which punished with
+death any huntsman who had the impertinence to interpose between the
+monarch and his prey being only abolished by Artaxerxes. A crowd of
+menials, slaves, great nobles, and priests filled the palace; grooms,
+stool-bearers, umbrella- and fan-carriers, _havasses_, “Immortals,”
+ bakers, perfumers, soldiers, and artisans formed a retinue so numerous
+as to require a thousand bullocks, asses, and stags to be butchered
+every day for its maintenance; and when the king made a journey in full
+state, this enormous train looked like an army on the march. The women
+of the royal harem lived in seclusion in a separate wing of the palace,
+or in isolated buildings erected in the centre of the gardens. The
+legitimate wives of the sovereign were selected from the ladies of
+the royal house, the sisters or cousins of the king, and from the six
+princely Persian families; but their number were never very large,
+usually three or four at most.*
+
+     * Cambyses had had three wives, including his two sisters
+     Atossa and Roxana. Darius had four wives--two daughters of
+     Cyrus, Atossa and Artystônê, Parmys daughter of Srnerdis,
+     and a daughter of Otanes.
+
+The concubines, on the other hand, were chosen from all classes of
+society, and were counted by hundreds.
+
+[Illustration: 273.jpg PROCESSIONAL DISPLAY OF TRIBUTE BROUGHT TO THE
+KING OF PERSIA]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from plates in Flandin and Coste.
+
+They sang or played on musical instruments at the state banquets of the
+court, they accompanied their master to the battle-field or the chase,
+and probably performed the various inferior domestic duties in the
+interior of the harem, such as spinning, weaving, making perfumes, and
+attending to the confectionery and cooking. Each of the king’s wives
+had her own separate suite of apartments and special attendants, and
+occupied a much higher position than a mere concubine; but only one was
+actually queen and had the right to wear the crown, and this position
+belonged of right to a princess of Achæ-menian race. Thus Atossa,
+daughter of Cyrus, was queen successively to Cambyses, Gaumâta, and
+Darius; Amestris to Xerxes; and Damaspia to Artaxerxes. Besides the
+influence naturally exerted by the queen over the mind of her husband,
+she often acquired boundless authority in the empire, in spite of her
+secluded life.*
+
+     * Thus Atossa induced Darius to designate Xerxes as his
+     heir-apparent.
+
+Her power was still further increased when she became a widow, if the
+new king happened to be one of her own sons. In such circumstances she
+retained the external attributes of royalty, sitting at the royal
+table whenever the king deigned to dine in the women’s apartments, and
+everywhere taking precedence of the young queen; she was attended by her
+own body of eunuchs, of whom, as well as of her private revenues,
+she had absolute control. Those whom the queen-mother took under her
+protection escaped punishment, even though they richly deserved it,
+but the object of her hatred was doomed to perish in the end, either by
+poison treacherously administered, or by some horrible form of torture,
+being impaled, suffocated in ashes, tortured in the trough, or flayed
+alive. Artaxerxes reigned for forty-two years, spending his time between
+the pleasures of the chase and the harem; no serious trouble disturbed
+his repose after his suppression of the revolt under Megabyzos, but on
+his death in 424 B.C. there was a renewal of the intrigues and ambitious
+passions which had stained with bloodshed the opening years of his
+reign. The legitimate heir, Xerxes II., was assassinated, after a reign
+of forty-five days, by Secudianus (Sogdianus), one of his illegitimate
+brothers, and the _cortège_ which was escorting the bodies of his
+parents conveyed his also to the royal burying-place at Persepolis.
+Meanwhile Secudianus became suspicious of another of his brothers,
+named Ochus, whom Artaxerxes had caused to marry Parysatis, one of the
+daughters of Xerxes, and whom he had set over the important province of
+Hyrcania. Ochus received repeated summonses to appear in his brother’s
+presence to pay him homage, and at last obeyed the mandate, but arrived
+at the head of an army. The Persian nobility rose at his approach, and
+one by one the chief persons of the state declared themselves in his
+favour: first Arbarius, commander of the cavalry; then Arxanes, the
+satrap of Egypt; and lastly, the eunuch Artoxares, the ruler of
+Armenia. These three all combined in urging Ochus to assume the _Edaris_
+publicly, which he, with feigned reluctance, consented to do, and
+proceeded, at the suggestion of Parysatis, to open negotiations with
+Secudianus, offering to divide the regal power with him. Secudianus
+accepted the offer, against the advice of his minister Menostanes, and
+gave himself up into the hands of the rebels. He was immediately seized
+and cast into the ashes, where he perished miserably, after a reign of
+six months and fifteen days.
+
+On ascending the throne, Ochus assumed the name of Darius. His
+confidential advisers were three eunuchs, who ruled the empire in his
+name--Artoxares, who had taken such a prominent part in the campaign
+which won him the crown, Artibarzanes, and Athôos; but the guiding
+spirit of his government was, in reality, his wife, the detestable
+Parysatis. She had already borne him two children before she became
+queen; a daughter, Amestris, and a son, Arsaces, who afterwards became
+king under the name of Artaxerxes. Soon after the accession of her
+husband, she bore him a second son, whom she named Cyrus, in memory
+of the founder of the empire, and a daughter, Artostê; several other
+children were born subsequently, making thirteen in all, but these all
+died in childhood, except one named Oxendras. Violent, false, jealous,
+and passionately fond of the exercise of power, Parysatis hesitated at
+no crime to rid herself of those who thwarted her schemes, even though
+they might be members of her own family; and, not content with putting
+them out of the way, she delighted in making them taste her hatred to
+the full, by subjecting them to the most skilfully graduated refinements
+of torture; she deservedly left behind her the reputation of being one
+of the most cruel of all the cruel queens, whose memory was a terror not
+only to the harems of Persia, but to the whole of the Eastern world.
+The numerous revolts which broke out soon after her husband’s accession,
+furnished occasions for the revelation of her perfidious cleverness.
+All the malcontents of the reign of Artaxerxes, those who had
+been implicated in the murder of Xerxes II., or who had sided with
+Secudianus, had rallied round a younger brother of Darius, named
+Arsites, and one of them, Artyphios, son of Megabyzos, took the field in
+Asia Minor. Being supported by a large contingent of Greek mercenaries,
+he won two successive victories at the opening of the campaign, but was
+subsequently defeated, though his forces still remained formidable. But
+Persian gold accomplished what Persian bravery had failed to achieve,
+and prevailed over the mercenaries so successfully that all deserted him
+with the exception of three Milesians.
+
+[Illustration: 276.jpg Darius II.]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the coins in the
+     _Cabinet des Médailles._
+
+Artyphios and Arsites, thus discouraged, committed the imprudence of
+capitulating on condition of receiving a promise that their lives should
+be spared, and that they should be well treated; but Parysatis persuaded
+her husband to break his plighted word, and they perished in the ashes.
+Their miserable fate did not discourage the satrap of Lydia, Pissuthnes,
+who was of Achæmenian race: he entered the lists in 418 B.C., with the
+help of the Athenians. The relations between the Persian empire and
+Greece had continued fairly satisfactory since the peace of 449
+B.C., and the few outbreaks which had taken place had not led to any
+widespread disturbance. The Athenians, absorbed in their quarrel with
+Sparta, preferred to close their eyes to all side issues, lest the
+Persians should declare war against them, and the satraps of Asia Minor,
+fully alive to the situation, did not hesitate to take advantage of any
+pretext for recovering a part of the territory they coveted: it was thus
+that they had seized Colophon about 430 B.C., and so secured once more a
+port on the Ægean. Darius despatched to oppose Pissuthnes a man of noble
+birth, named Tissaphernes, giving him plenary power throughout the whole
+of the peninsula, and Tissaphernes endeavoured to obtain by treachery
+the success he would with difficulty have won on the field of battle: he
+corrupted by his darics Lycon, the commander of the Athenian contingent,
+and Pissuthnes, suddenly abandoned by his best auxiliaries, was forced
+to surrender at discretion. He also was suffocated in the ashes, and
+Darius bestowed his office on Tissaphernes.
+
+But the punishment of Pissuthnes did not put an end to the troubles:
+his son Amorges roused Caria to revolt, and with the title of king
+maintained his independence for some years longer. While these incidents
+were taking place, the news of the disasters in Sicily reached the East:
+as soon as it was known in Susa that Athens had lost at Syracuse the
+best part of her fleet and the choicest of her citizens, the moment was
+deemed favourable to violate the treaty and regain control of the whole
+of Asia Minor. Two noteworthy men were at that time set over the
+western satrapies, Tissaphernes ruling at Sardes, and Tiribazus over
+Hellespontine Phrygia. These satraps opened negotiations with Sparta
+at the beginning of 412 B.C., and concluded a treaty with her at
+Miletus itself, by the terms of which the Peloponnesians recognised the
+suzerainty of Darius over all the territory once held by his ancestors
+in Asia, including the cities since incorporated into the Athenian
+league. They hoped shortly to be strong enough to snatch from him what
+they now ceded, and to set free once more the Greeks whom they thus
+condemned to servitude after half a century of independence, but their
+expectations were frustrated. The towns along the coast fell one after
+another into the power of Tissaphernes, Amorges was taken prisoner in
+lassos, and at the beginning of 411 B.C. there remained to the Athenians
+in Ionia and Caria merely the two ports of Halicarnassus and Notium, and
+the three islands of Cos, Samos, and Lesbos: from that time the power of
+the great king increased from year to year, and weighed heavily on the
+destinies of Greece. Meanwhile Darius II. was growing old, and intrigues
+with regard to the succession were set on foot. Two of his sons put
+forward claims to the throne: Arsaces had seniority in his favour, but
+had been born when his father was still a mere satrap; Cyrus, on the
+contrary, had been born in the purple, and his mother Parysatis
+was passionately devoted to him.* Thanks to her manouvres, he was
+practically created viceroy of Asia Minor in 407 B.C., with such
+abundant resources of men and money at his disposal, that he was
+virtually an independent sovereign. While he was consolidating his
+power in the west, his mother endeavoured to secure his accession to the
+throne by intriguing at the court of the aged king; if her plans failed,
+Cyrus was prepared to risk everything by an appeal to arms.
+
+     * Cyrus was certainly not more than seventeen years old in
+     407 B.C., evening admitting that he was born immediately
+     after his father’s accession in 424-3 B.C.
+
+[Illustration: 279.jpg CYRUS THE YOUNGER]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the coins in the
+     _Cabinet des Médailles_.
+
+He realised that the Greeks would prove powerful auxiliaries in such
+a contingency; and as soon as he had set up his court at Sardes, he
+planned how best to conciliate their favour, or at least to win over
+those whose support was likely to be most valuable. Athens, as a
+maritime power, was not in a position to support him in an enterprise
+which especially required the co-operation of a considerable force of
+heavily armed infantry. He therefore deliberately espoused the cause
+of the Peloponnesians, and the support he gave them was not without its
+influence on the issue of the struggle: the terrible day of Ægos Potamos
+was a day of triumph for him as much as for the Lacedaemonians (405
+B.C.).
+
+His intimacy with Lysander, however, his constant enlistments of
+mercenary troops, and his secret dealings with the neighbouring
+provinces, had already aroused suspicion, and the satraps placed under
+his orders, especially Tissaphernes, accused him to the king of treason.
+Darius summoned him to Susa to explain his conduct (405 B.C.), and he
+arrived just in time to be present at his father’s death (404), but
+too late to obtain his designation as heir to the throne through the
+intervention of his mother, Parysatis; Arsaces inherited the crown, and
+assumed the name of Artaxerxes.
+
+[Illustration: 280.jpg ARTAXERXES MNEMON]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin in the Cabinet des
+     Médailles. This coin, which was struck at Mallos, in
+     Cilicia, bears as a counter-mark the figure of a bull and
+     the name of the city of Issus.
+
+Cyrus entered the temple of Pasargadae surreptitiously during the
+coronation ceremony, with the intention of killing his brother at the
+foot of the altar; but Tissaphernes, warned by one of the priests,
+denounced him, and he would have been put to death on the spot, had not
+his mother thrown her arms around him and prevented the executioner from
+fulfilling his office. Having with difficulty obtained pardon and been
+sent back to his province, he collected thirty thousand Greeks and a
+hundred thousand native troops, and, hastily leaving Sardes (401 B.C.),
+he crossed Asia Minor, Northern Syria, and Mesopotamia, encountered the
+royal army at Cunaxa, to the north of Babylon, and rashly met his end
+at the very moment of victory. He was a brave, active, and generous
+prince, endowed with all the virtues requisite to make a good Oriental
+monarch, and he had, moreover, learnt, through contact with the Greeks,
+to recognise the weak points of his own nation, and was fully determined
+to remedy them: his death, perhaps, was an irreparable misfortune for
+his country. Had he survived and supplanted the feeble Artaxerxes, it is
+quite possible that he might have confirmed and strengthened the power
+of Persia, or, at least, temporarily have arrested its decline. Having
+lost their leader, his Asiatic followers at once dispersed; but the
+mercenaries did not lose heart, and, crossing Asia and Armenia, gained
+at length the shores of the Black Sea. Up to that time the Greeks had
+looked upon Persia as a compact state, which they were sufficiently
+powerful to conquer by sea and hold in check by land, but which
+they could not, without imprudence, venture to attack within its own
+frontiers. The experience of the Ten Thousand was a proof to them that
+a handful of men, deprived of their proper generals, without guides,
+money, or provisions, might successfully oppose the overwhelming forces
+of the great king, and escape from his clutches without any serious
+difficulty. National discords prevented them from at once utilising
+the experience they thus acquired, but the lesson was not lost upon
+the court of Susa. The success of Lysander had been ensured by Persian
+subsidies, and now Sparta hesitated to fulfil the conditions of the
+treaty of Miletus; the Lacedæmonians demanded liberty once more for the
+former allies of Athens, fostered the war in Asia in order to enforce
+their claims, and their king Agesilaus, penetrating to the very heart of
+Phrygia, would have pressed still further forward in the tracks of the
+Ten Thousand, had not an opportune diversion been created in his rear by
+the bribery of the Persians. Athens once more flew to arms: her fleet,
+in conjunction with the Phoenicians, took possession of Cythera; the
+Long Walls were rebuilt at the expense of the great king, and Sparta,
+recalled by these reverses to a realisation of her position, wisely
+abandoned her inclination for distant enterprises. Asia Minor was
+reconquered, and Persia passed from the position of a national enemy
+to that of the friend and arbiter of Greece; but she did so by force of
+circumstances only, and not from having merited in any way the supremacy
+she attained. Her military energy, indeed, was far from being exhausted;
+but poor Artaxerxes, bewildered by the rivalries between his mother and
+his wives, did not know how to make the most of the immense resources
+still at his disposal, and he met with repeated checks as soon as he
+came face to face with a nation and leaders who refused to stoop to
+treachery. He had no sooner recovered possession of the Ægean littoral
+than Egypt was snatched from his grasp by a new Pharaoh who had arisen
+in the Nile valley. The peace had not been seriously disturbed in Egypt
+during the forty years which had elapsed since the defeat of Inarus.
+Satrap had peaceably succeeded satrap in the fortress of Memphis;
+the exhaustion of Libya had pre-vented any movement on the part of
+Thannyras; the aged Amyrtæus had passed from the scene, and his son,
+Pausiris, bent his neck submissively to the Persian yoke. More than
+once, however, unexpected outbursts had shown that the fires of
+rebellion were still smouldering. A Psammetichus, who reigned about 445
+B.C. in a corner of the Delta, had dared to send corn and presents to
+the Athenians, then at war with Artaxerxes I., and the second year of
+Darius II. had been troubled by a sanguinary sedition, which, however,
+was easily suppressed by the governor then in power; finally, about
+410 B.C., a king of Egypt had, not without some show of evidence,
+laid himself open to the charge of sending a piratical expedition into
+Phoenician waters, an Arab king having contributed to the enterprise.*
+
+     * The revolt mentioned by Ctesias has nothing to do with the
+     insurrection of the satrap of Egypt which is here referred
+     to, the date of which is furnished by the Syncellus.
+
+It was easy to see, moreover, from periodical revolts--such as that of
+Megabyzos in Syria, those of Artyphios and Arsites, of Pissuthnes and
+Amorges in Asia Minor--with what impunity the wrath of the great king
+could be defied: it was not to be wondered at, therefore, that, about
+405 B.C., an enemy should appear in the heart of the Delta in the person
+of a grandson and namesake of Amyrtæus. He did not at first rouse the
+whole country to revolt, for Egyptian troops were still numbered in the
+army of Artaxerxes at the battle of Cunaxa in 401 B.C.; but he succeeded
+in establishing a regular native government, and struggled so resolutely
+against the foreign domination that the historians of the sacred
+colleges inscribed his name on the list of the Pharaohs. He is there
+made to represent a whole dynasty, the XXVIIIth which lasted six years,
+coincident with the six years of his reign. It was due to a Mendesian
+dynasty, however, whose founder was Nephorites, that Egypt obtained its
+entire freedom, and was raised once more to the rank of a nation. This
+dynasty from the very outset adopted the policy which had proved so
+successful in the case of the Saites three centuries previously, and
+employed it with similar success. Egypt had always been in the position
+of a besieged fortress, which needed, for its complete security, that
+its first lines of defence should be well in advance of its citadel: she
+must either possess Syria or win her as an ally, if she desired to be
+protected against all chance of sudden invasion. Nephorites and his
+successors, therefore, formed alliances beyond the isthmus, and even on
+the other side of the Mediterranean, with Cyprus, Caria, and Greece, in
+one case to purchase support, and in another to re-establish the ancient
+supremacy exercised by the Theban Pharaohs.*
+
+     * This is, at any rate, the idea given of him by Egyptian
+     tradition in the time of the Ptolemies, as results from a
+     passage in the _Demotic Rhapsody_, where his reign is
+     mentioned.
+
+Every revolt against the Persians, every quarrel among the satraps,
+helped forward their cause, since they compelled the great king to
+suspend his attacks against Egypt altogether or to prosecute them at
+wide intervals: the Egyptians therefore fomented such quarrels, or even,
+at need, provoked them, and played their game so well that for a long
+time they had to oppose only a fraction of the Persian forces. Like the
+Saite Pharaohs before them, they were aware how little reliance could
+be placed on native troops, and they recruited their armies at great
+expense from the European Greeks. This occurred at the time when
+mercenary forces were taking the place of native levies throughout
+Hellas, and war was developing into a lucrative trade for those who
+understood how to conduct it: adventurers, greedy for booty, flocked
+to the standards of the generals who enjoyed the best reputation for
+kindness or ability, and the generals themselves sold their services
+to the highest bidder. The Persian kings took large advantage of this
+arrangement to procure troops: the Pharaohs imitated their example, and
+in the years which followed, the most experienced captains, Iphicrates,
+Chabrias, and Timotheus, passed from one camp to another, as often
+against the will as with the consent of their fatherland. The power of
+Sparta was at her zenith when Nephorites ascended the throne, and she
+was just preparing for her expedition to Phrygia. The Pharaoh concluded
+an alliance with the Lacedomonians, and in 396 B.C. sent to Agesilaus
+a fleet laden with arms, corn, and supplies, which, however, was
+intercepted by Conon, who was at that moment cruising in the direction
+of Rhodes in command of the Persian squadron. This misadventure and the
+abrupt retreat of the Spartans from Asia Minor cooled the good will of
+the Egyptian king towards his allies. Thinking that they had abandoned
+him, and that he was threatened with an imminent attack on the shore
+of the Delta, he assembled, probably at Pelusium, the forces he had
+apparently intended for a distant enterprise.
+
+Matters took longer to come to a crisis than he had expected. The
+retreat of Agesilaus had not pacified the Ægean satrapies; after the
+disturbance created by Cyrus the Younger, the greater number of the
+native tribes--Mysians, Pisidians, people of Pontus and Paphlagonia--had
+shaken off the Persian yoke, and it was a matter of no small difficulty
+to reduce them once more to subjection. Their incessant turbulence gave
+Egypt time to breathe and to organise new combinations. Cyprus entered
+readily into her designs. Since the subjugation of that island in 445
+B.C., the Greek cities had suffered terrible oppression at the hands of
+the great king. Artaxerxes I., despairing of reducing them to obedience,
+depended exclusively for support on the Phoenician inhabitants of the
+island, who, through his favour, regained so much vigour that in the
+space of less than two generations they had recovered most of the ground
+lost during the preceding centuries: Semitic rulers replaced the Achaean
+tyrants at Salamis, and in most of the other cities, and Citium became
+what it had been before the rise of Salamis, the principal commercial
+centre in the island. Evagoras, a descendant of the ancient kings,
+endeavoured to retrieve the Grecian cause: after driving out of Salamis
+Abdemon, its Tyrian ruler, he took possession of all the other towns
+except Citium and Amathus. This is not the place to recount the
+brilliant part played by Evagoras, in conjunction with Conon, during the
+campaigns against the Spartans in the Peloponnesian war. The activity he
+then displayed and the ambitious designs he revealed soon drew upon him
+the dislike of the Persian governors and their sovereign; and from
+391 B.C. he was at open war with Persia. He would have been unable,
+single-handed, to maintain the struggle for any length of time, but
+Egypt and Greece were at his back, ready to support him with money or
+arms. Hakoris had succeeded Nephorites I. in 393 B.C.,* and had repulsed
+an attack of Artaxerxes between 390 and 386.**
+
+     * The length of the reign of Nephorites I. is fixed at six
+     years by the lists of Manetho; the last-known date of his
+     reign is that of his fourth year, on a mummy-bandage
+     preserved in the Louvre.
+
+     ** This war is alluded to by several ancient authors in
+     passages which have been brought together and explained by
+     Judeah; but unfortunately the detailed history of the
+     events is not known.
+
+He was not unduly exalted by his success, and had immediately taken wise
+precautions in view of a second invasion. After safeguarding his western
+frontier by concluding a treaty with the Libyans of Barca, he entered
+into an alliance with Evagoras and the Athenians.
+
+[Illustration: 287.jpg HAKORIS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Lepsius.
+
+He sent lavish gifts of corn to the Cypriots, as well as munitions of
+war, ships, and money while Athens sent them several thousand men under
+the command of Chabrias; not only did an expedition despatched
+against them under Autophradates fail miserably, but Evagoras seized
+successively Citium and Amathus, and, actually venturing across the sea,
+took Tyre by assault and devastated Phoenicia and Cilicia. The princes
+of Asia Minor were already preparing for revolt, and one of them,
+Hecatomnus of Caria, had openly joined the allies, when Sparta suddenly
+opened negotiations with Persia: Antalcidas presented himself at Susa
+to pay homage before the throne of the great king. The treaty of Miletus
+had brought the efforts of Athens to naught, and sold the Asiatic
+Greeks to their oppressors: the peace obtained by Antalcidas effaced the
+results of Salamis and Platsæ, and laid European Greece prostrate at
+the feet of her previously vanquished foes. An order issuing from the
+centre of Persia commanded the cities of Greece to suspend hostilities
+and respect each other’s liberties; the issuing of such an order was
+equivalent to treating them as vassals whose quarrels it is the function
+of the suzerain to repress, but they nevertheless complied with the
+command (387 B.C.), Artaxerxes, relieved from anxiety for the moment,
+as to affairs on the Ægean, was now free to send his best generals into
+the rebel countries, and such was the course his ministers recommended.
+Evagoras was naturally the first to be attacked. Cyprus was, in fact, an
+outpost of Egypt; commanding as she did the approach by sea, she was in
+a position to cut the communications of any army, which, issuing from
+Palestine, should march upon the Delta. Artaxerxes assembled three
+hundred thousand foot-soldiers and three hundred triremes under the
+command of Tiribazus, and directed the whole force against the island.
+At first the Cypriot cruisers intercepted the convoys which were
+bringing provisions for this large force, and by so doing reduced the
+invaders to such straits that sedition broke out in their camp; but
+Evagoras was defeated at sea off the promontory of Citium, and
+his squadron destroyed. He was not in any way discouraged by this
+misfortune, but leaving his son, Pnytagoras, to hold the barbarian
+forces in check, he hastened to implore the help of the Pharaoh (385
+B.C.). But Hakoris was too much occupied with securing his own immediate
+safety to risk anything in so desperate an enterprise. Evagoras was
+able to bring back merely an insufficient subsidy; he shut himself up
+in Salamis, and there maintained the conflict for some years longer.
+Meanwhile Hakoris, realising that the submission of Cyprus would oppose
+his flank to attack, tried to effect a diversion in Asia Minor, and by
+entering into alliance with the Pisidians, then in open insurrection, he
+procured for it a respite, of which he himself took advantage to prepare
+for the decisive struggle. The peace effected by Antalcidas had left
+most of the mercenary soldiers of Greece without employment. Hakoris
+hired twenty thousand of them, and the Phoenician admirals, still
+occupied in blockading the ports of Cyprus, failed to intercept the
+vessels which brought him these reinforcements. It was fortunate for
+Egypt that they did so, for the Pharaoh died in 381 B.C., and his
+successors, Psamuthis IL, Mutis, and Nephorites IL, each occupied the
+throne for a very short time, and the whole country was in confusion for
+rather more than two years (381-379 B.c.) during the settlement of the
+succession.*
+
+     * Hakoris reigned thirteen years, from 393 to 381 B.C. The
+     reigns of the three succeeding kings occupied only two years
+     and four months between them, from the end of 381 to the
+     beginning of 378. Muthes or Mutis, who is not mentioned in
+     all the lists of Manetho, seems to have his counterpart in
+     the _Demotic Rhapsody_. Wiedemann has inverted the order
+     usually adopted, and proposed the following series:
+     Nephorites I., Muthes, Psamuthis, Hakoris, Nephorites II.
+     The discovery at Karnak of a small temple where Psamuthis
+     mentions Hakoris as his predecessor shows that on this point
+     at least Manetho was well informed.
+
+The turbulent disposition of the great feudatory nobles, which had so
+frequently brought trouble upon previous Pharaohs during the
+Assyrian wars, was no less dangerous in this last century of Egyptian
+independence; it caused the fall of the Mendesian dynasty in the very
+face of the enemy, and the prince of Sebennytos, Nakht-har-habît,
+Nectanebo I., was raised to the throne by the military faction.
+According to a tradition current in Ptolemaic times, this sovereign was
+a son of Nephorites I., who had been kept out of his heritage by the
+jealousy of the gods; whatever his origin, the people had no cause
+to repent of having accepted him as their king. He began his reign
+by suppressing the slender subsidies which Evagoras had continued to
+receive from his predecessors, and this measure, if not generous, was
+at least politic. For Cyprus was now virtually in the power of the
+Persians, and the blockade of a few thousand men in Salamis did not
+draught away a sufficiently large proportion of their effective force to
+be of any service to Egypt: the money which had hitherto been devoted to
+the Cypriots was henceforth reserved for the direct defence of the Nile
+valley. Evagoras obtained unexpectedly favourable conditions: Artaxerxes
+conceded to him his title of king and the possession of his city (383
+B.C.), and turned his whole attention to Nectanebo, the last of his
+enemies who still held out.
+
+Nectanebo had spared no pains in preparing effectively to receive his
+foe. He chose as his coadjutor the Athenian Chabrias, whose capacity as
+a general had been manifested by recent events, and the latter accepted
+this office although he had received no instructions from his government
+to do so, and had transformed the Delta into an entrenched camp. He had
+fortified the most vulnerable points along the coast, had built towers
+at each of the mouths of the river to guard the entrance, and had
+selected the sites for his garrison fortresses so judiciously that they
+were kept up long after his time to protect the country. Two of them are
+mentioned by name: one, situated below Pelusium, called the Castle of
+Chabrias; the other, not far from Lake Mareotis, which was known as his
+township.*
+
+     * Both are mentioned by Strabo; the exact sites of these two
+     places are not yet identified. Diodorus Siculus, describing
+     the defensive preparations of Egypt, does not state
+     expressly that they were the work of Chabrias, but this fact
+     seems to result from a general consideration of the context.
+
+[Illustration: 291.jpg PHARNABAZUS]
+
+     Drawn by faucher-Gudin, from a coin in the _Cabinet des
+     Médailles_.
+
+The Persian generals endeavoured to make their means of attack
+proportionate to the defences of the enemy. Acre was the only port in
+Southern Syria large enough to form the rendezvous for a fleet, where it
+might be secure from storms and surprises of the enemy. This was chosen
+as the Persian headquarters, and formed the base of their operations.
+During three years they there accumulated supplies of food and military
+stores, Phoenician and Creek vessels, and both foreign and native
+troops. The rivalries between the military commanders, Tithraustes,
+Datâmes, and Abrocomas, and the intrigues of the court, had on several
+occasions threatened the ruin of the enterprise, but Pharnabazus, who
+from the outset had held supreme command, succeeded in ridding himself
+of his rivals, and in the spring of 374 B.C. was at length ready for
+the advance. The expedition consisted of two hundred thousand Asiatic
+troops, and twenty thousand Greeks, three hundred triremes, two hundred
+galleys of thirty oars, and numerous transports. Superiority of numbers
+was on the side of the Persians, and that just at the moment when
+Nectanebo lost his most experienced general. Artaxerxes had remonstrated
+with the Athenians for permitting one of their generals to serve in
+Egypt, in spite of their professed friendship for himself, and, besides
+insisting on his recall, had requested for himself the services of the
+celebrated Iphicrates. The Athenians complied with his demand, and while
+summoning Chabrias to return to Athens, despatched Iphicrates to Syria,
+where he was placed in command of the mercenary troops. Pharnabazus
+ordered a general advance in May, 374 B.C.,* but when he arrived before
+Pelusium, he perceived that he was not in a position to take the town
+by storm; not only had the fortifications been doubled, but the banks of
+the canals had been cut and the approaches inundated. Iphicrates advised
+him not to persevere in attempting a regular siege: he contended that it
+would be more profitable to detach an expeditionary force towards some
+less well-protected point on the coast, and there to make a breach in
+the system of defence which protected the enemies’ front.
+
+     * As Kenrick justly observes, “the Persian and Athenian
+     generals committed the same mistake which led to the defeat
+     of Saint Louis and the capture of his army in 1249 A.D., and
+     which Bonaparte avoided in his campaign of 1798.” Anyhow, it
+     seems that the fault must be laid on Pharnabazus alone, and
+     that Iphicrates was entirely blameless.
+
+Three thousand men were despatched with all secrecy to the mouth of the
+Mendesian branch of the Nile, and there disembarked unexpectedly before
+the forts which guarded the entrance. The garrison, having imprudently
+made a sortie in face of the enemy, was put to rout, and pursued so
+hotly that victors and vanquished entered pell-mell within the walls.
+
+[Illustration: 293.jpg ARTAXERXES II.]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a silver stater in the _Cabinet
+     des Médailles_.
+
+After this success victory was certain, if the Persians pursued their
+advantage promptly and pushed forward straight into the heart of the
+Delta; the moment was the more propitious for such a movement, since
+Nectanebo had drained Memphis of troops to protect his frontier.
+Iphicrates, having obtained this information from one of the prisoners,
+advised Pharnabazus to proceed up the Nile with the fleet, and take
+the capital by storm before the enemy should have time to garrison it
+afresh; the Persian general, however, considered the plan too hazardous,
+and preferred to wait until the entire army should have joined him.
+Iphicrates offered to risk the adventure with his body of auxiliary
+troops only, but was suspected of harbouring some ambitious design, and
+was refused permission to advance. Meanwhile these delays had given the
+Egyptians time to recover from their first alarm; they boldly took
+the offensive, surrounded the position held by Pharnabazus, and were
+victorious in several skirmishes. Summer advanced, the Nile rose more
+rapidly than usual, and soon the water encroached upon the land; the
+invaders were obliged to beat a retreat before it, and fall back towards
+Syria. Iphicrates, disgusted at the ineptitude and suspicion of his
+Asiatic colleagues, returned secretly to Greece: the remains of the
+army were soon after disbanded, and Egypt once more breathed freely.
+The check received by the Persian arms, however, was not sufficiently
+notorious to shake that species of supremacy which Artaxerxes had
+exercised in Greece since the peace of 387. Sparta, Thebes, and Athens
+vied with each other in obtaining an alliance with him as keenly as if
+he had been successful before Pelusium. Antalcidas reappeared at Susa in
+372 B.C. to procure a fresh act of intervention; Pelopidas and Ismenias,
+in 367, begged for a rescript similar to that of Antalcidas; and finally
+Athens sent a solemn embassy to entreat for a subsidy. It seemed as if
+the great king had become a kind of supreme arbiter for Greece, and that
+all the states hitherto leagued against him now came in turn to submit
+their mutual differences for his decision. But this arbiter who thus
+imposed his will on states beyond the borders of his empire was never
+fully master within his own domains. Of gentle nature and pliant
+disposition, inclined to clemency rather than to severity, and,
+moreover, so lacking in judgment as a general that he had almost
+succumbed to an attack by the Cadusians on the only occasion that he
+had, in a whim of the moment, undertaken the command of an army in
+person, Artaxerxes busied himself with greater zeal in religious reforms
+than in military projects. He introduced the rites of Mithra and Anâhita
+into the established religion of the state, but he had not the energy
+necessary to curb the ambitions of his provincial governors. Asia Minor,
+whose revolts followed closely on those of Egypt, rose in rebellion
+against him immediately after the campaign on the Nile, Ariobarzanes
+heading the rebellion in Phrygia, Datâmes and Aspis that in Cilicia and
+Cappadocia, and both defying his power for several years. When at length
+they succumbed through treachery, the satraps of the Mediterranean
+district, from the Hellespont to the isthmus of Suez, formed a coalition
+and simultaneously took the field: the break-up of the empire would have
+been complete had not Persian darics been lavishly employed once more in
+the affair. Meanwhile Nectanebo had died in 361,* and had been succeeded
+by Tachôs.**
+
+     * The lists of Manetho assign ten or eighteen years to his
+     reign. A sarcophagus in Vienna bears the date of his
+     fifteenth year, and the great inscription of Edfu speaks of
+     gifts he made to the temple in this town in the eighteenth
+     year of his reign. The reading eighteen is therefore
+     preferable to the reading ten in the lists of Manetho; if
+     the very obscure text of the _Demotic Rhapsody_ really
+     applies the number nine or ten to the length of the reign,
+     this reckoning must be explained by some mystic calculations
+     of the priests of the Ptolemaic epoch.
+
+     ** The name of this king, written by the Greeks Teôs or
+     Tachôs, in accordance with the pronunciation of different
+     Egyptian dialects, has been discovered in hieroglyphic
+     writing on the external wall of the temple of Khonsu at
+     Karnak.
+
+The new Pharaoh deemed the occasion opportune to make a diversion
+against Persia and to further secure his own safety: he therefore
+offered his support to the satraps, who sent Eheomitres as a delegate
+to discuss the terms of an offensive and defensive alliance. Having
+inherited from Nectanebo a large fleet and a full treasury, Tachôs
+entrusted to the ambassador 500 talents of silver, and gave him fifty
+ships, with which he cruised along the coast of Asia Minor towards
+Leukê. His accomplices were awaiting him there, rejoicing at the success
+of his mission, but he himself had no confidence in the final issue of
+the struggle, and merely sought how he might enter once more into favour
+with the Persian court; he therefore secured his safety by betraying his
+associates. He handed over the subsidies and the Egyptian squadron to
+Orontes, the satrap of Daskylium, and then seizing the insurgent
+chiefs sent them in chains to Susa. These acts of treachery changed
+the complexion of affairs; the league suddenly dissolved after the
+imprisonment of its leaders, and Arta-xerxes re-established his
+authority over Asia Minor.
+
+[Illustration: 296.jpg DATAMES III.]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin in the _Cabinet des
+     Médailles_.
+
+Egypt became once more the principal object of attack, and by the
+irony of fate Pharaoh had himself contributed to enrich the coffers and
+reinforce the fleet of his foes. In spite of this mischance, however,
+circumstances were so much in his favour that he ventured to consider
+whether it would not be more advantageous to forestall the foe by
+attacking him, rather than passively to await an onslaught behind his
+own lines. He had sought the friendship of Athens,* and, though it had
+not been granted in explicit terms, the republic had, nevertheless,
+permitted Ghabrias to resume his former post at his side.
+
+     * The memory of this embassy has been preserved for us by a
+     decree of the Athenian assembly, unfortunately much
+     mutilated, which has been assigned to various dates between
+     362 and 358 B.C. M. Paul Foucart has shown that the date of
+     the decree must be referred to one of three archon-ships--
+     the archonship of Callimedes, 360-59; that of Eucharistus,
+     359-8; or that of Cephisodotus, 358-7^ Without entering into
+     a discussion of the other evidence on the subject, it seems
+     to me probable that the embassy may be most conveniently
+     assigned to the archonship of Callimedes, towards the end of
+     360 B.C., at the moment when Chabrias had just arrived in
+     Egypt, and was certain to endeavour to secure the help of
+     Athens for the king he served.
+
+Chabrias exhorted him to execute his project, and as he had not
+sufficient money to defray the expenses of a long campaign outside his
+own borders, the Athenian general instructed him how he might procure
+the necessary funds. He suggested to him that, as the Egyptian priests
+were wealthy, the sums of money annually assigned to them for the
+sacrifices and maintenance of the temples would be better employed
+in the service of the state, and counselled him to reduce or even to
+suppress most of the sacerdotal colleges. The priests secured their own
+safety by abandoning their personal property, and the king graciously
+deigned to accept their gifts, and then declared to them that in future,
+as long as the struggle against Persia continued, he should exact from
+them nine-tenths of their sacred revenues. This tax would have sufficed
+for all requirements if it had been possible to collect it in full, but
+there is no doubt that very soon the priests must have discovered means
+of avoiding part of the payment, for it was necessary to resort to other
+expedients. Chabrias advised that the poll and house taxes should be
+increased; that one obol should be exacted for each “ardeb” of corn
+sold, and a tithe levied on the produce of all ship-building yards,
+manufactories, and manual industries. Money now poured into the
+treasury, but a difficulty arose which demanded immediate solution.
+Egypt possessed very little specie, and the natives still employed
+barter in the ordinary transactions of life, while the foreign
+mercenaries refused to accept payment in kind or uncoined metal; they
+demanded good money as the price of their services. Orders were issued
+to the natives to hand over to the royal exchequer all the gold and
+silver in their possession, whether wrought or in ingots, the state
+guaranteeing gradual repayment through the nomarchs from the future
+product of the poll-tax, and the bullion so obtained was converted into
+specie for the payment of the auxiliary troops. These measures, though
+winning some unpopularity for Tachôs, enabled him to raise eighty
+thousand native troops and ten thousand Greeks, to equip a fleet of
+two hundred vessels, and to engage the best generals of the period. His
+eagerness to secure the latter, however, was injurious to his cause.
+Having already engaged Chabrias and obtained the good will of Athens, he
+desired also to gain the help of Agesilaus and the favourable opinion
+of the Lacedaemonians. Though now eighty years old, Agesilaus was still
+under the influence of cupidity and vanity; the promise of being placed
+in supreme command enticed him, and he set sail with one thousand
+hoplites. A disappointment awaited him at the moment of his
+disembarkation: Tachôs gave him command of the mercenary troops only,
+reserving for himself the general direction of operations, and placing
+the whole fleet under the orders of Chabrias. The aged hero, having
+vented his indignation by indulging a more than ordinary display of
+Spartan rudeness, allowed himself to be appeased by abundant presents,
+and assumed the post assigned to him. But soon after a more serious
+subject of disagreement arose between him and his ally; Agesilaus was
+disposed to think that Tachôs should remain quietly on the banks of the
+Nile, and leave to his generals the task of conducting the campaign.
+The ease with which mercenary leaders passed from one camp to the other,
+according to the fancy of the moment, was not calculated to inspire the
+Egyptian Pharaoh with confidence: he refused to comply with the wishes
+of Agesilaus, and, entrusting the regency to one of his relatives,
+proceeded to invade Syria. He found the Persians unprepared: they shut
+themselves up in their strongholds, and the Pharaoh confided to his
+cousin Nectanebo, son of the regent, the task of dislodging them. The
+war dragged on for some time; discontent crept in among the native
+levies, and brought treachery in its train. The fiscal measures which
+had been adopted had exasperated the priests and the common people;
+complaints, at first only muttered in fear, found bold expression as
+soon as the expeditionary force had crossed the frontier.
+
+[Illustration: 299.jpb NECTANEBO I]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Lepsius.
+
+The regent secretly encouraged the malcontents, and wrote to his son
+warning him of what was going on, and advised him to seize the crown.
+Nectanebo could easily have won over the Egyptian troops to his cause,
+but their support would have proved useless as long as the Greeks did
+not pronounce in his favour, and Chabrias refused to break his oaths.
+Agesilaus, however, was not troubled by the same scruples. His vanity
+had been sorely wounded by the Pharaoh: after being denied the position
+which was, he fancied, his by right, his short stature, his ill-health,
+and native coarseness had exposed him to the unseemly mockery of the
+courtiers. Tachôs, considering his ability had been over-estimated,
+applied to him, it is said, the fable of the mountain bringing forth a
+mouse; to which he had replied, “When opportunity offers, I will prove
+to him that I am the lion.” When Tachôs requested him to bring the
+rebels to order, he answered ironically that he was there to help the
+Egyptians, not to attack them; and before giving his support to either
+of the rival claimants, he should consult the Ephors. The Ephors
+enjoined him to act in accordance with the welfare of his country, and
+he thereupon took the side of Nectanebo, despite the remonstrances of
+Chabrias. Tachôs, deserted by his veterans, fled to Sidon, and thence to
+Susa, where Artaxerxes received him hospitably and without reproaching
+him (359 B.C.); but the news of his fall was not received on the banks
+of the Nile with as much rejoicing as he had anticipated. The people had
+no faith in any revolution in which the Greeks whom they detested took
+the chief part, and the feudal lords refused to acknowledge a sovereign
+whom they had not themselves chosen; they elected one of their
+number--the prince of Mendes--to oppose Nectanebo. The latter was
+obliged to abandon the possessions won by his predecessor, and return
+with his army to Egypt: he there encountered the forces of his enemy,
+which, though as yet undisciplined, were both numerous and courageous.
+Agesilaus counselled an immediate attack before these troops had time to
+become experienced in tactics, but he no longer stood well at court;
+the prince of Mendes had endeavoured to corrupt him, and, though he had
+shown unexpected loyalty, many, nevertheless, suspected his good
+faith. Nectanebo set up his headquarters at Tanis, where he was shortly
+blockaded by his adversary. It is well known how skilfully the Egyptians
+handled the pick-axe, and how rapidly they could construct walls of
+great strength; the circle of entrenchments was already near completion,
+and provisions were beginning to fail, when Agesilaus received
+permission to attempt a sortie. He broke through the besieging lines
+under cover of the night, and some days later won a decisive victory
+(359 B.C.). Nectanebo would now have gladly kept the Spartan general at
+his side, for he was expecting a Persian attack; but Agesilaus, who had
+had enough of Egypt and its intrigues, deserted his cause, and shortly
+afterwards died of exhaustion on the coast near Cyrene. The anticipated
+Persian invasion followed shortly after, but it was conducted without
+energy or decision. Artaxerxes had entrusted the conduct of the
+expedition to Tachôs, doubtless promising to reinstate him in his former
+power as satrap or vassal king of Egypt, but Tachôs died before he could
+even assume his post,* and the discords which rent the family of the
+Persian king prevented the generals who replaced him from taking any
+effective action.
+
+     * Ælian narrates, probably following Dinon, that Tachôs died
+     of dysentery due to over-indulgence at dinner.
+
+The aged Artaxerxes had had, it was reported, one hundred and fifteen
+sons by the different women in his harem, but only three of those by his
+queen Statira were now living--Darius, Ariaspes, and Ochus. Darius,
+the eldest of the three, had been formally recognised as
+heir-apparent--perhaps at the time of the disastrous war against the
+Cadusians* --but the younger brother, Ochus, who secretly aspired to
+the throne, had managed to inspire him with anxiety with regard to
+the succession, and incited him to put the aged king out of the way.
+Contemporary historians, ill informed as to the intrigues in the
+palace, whose effects they noted without any attempt to explore their
+intricacies, invented several stories to account for the conduct of the
+young prince. Some assigned as the reason of his conspiracy a romantic
+love-affair. They said that Cyrus the Younger had had an Ionian mistress
+named Aspasia, who, after the fatal battle of Cunaxa, had been taken
+into the harem of the conqueror, and had captivated him by her beauty.
+Darius conceived a violent passion for this damsel, and his father was
+at first inclined to give her up to him, but afterwards, repenting of
+his complaisance, consecrated her to the service of Mithra, a cult which
+imposed on her the obligation of perpetual chastity. Darius, exasperated
+by this treatment, began to contemplate measures of vengeance, but,
+being betrayed by his brother Ochus, was put to death with his whole
+family.**
+
+     * Pompeius Trogus asserts that such co-regencies were
+     contrary to Persian law; we have seen above that, on the
+     contrary, they were obligatory when the sovereign was
+     setting out on a campaign.
+
+     ** This is the version of the story given by Dinon and
+     accepted by Pompoius Trogus. A chronological calculation
+     easily demonstrates its unlikelihood. It follows from the
+     evidence given by Justin himself that Artaxerxes died of
+     grief soon after the execution of his son; but, on the other
+     hand, that the battle of Cunaxa took place in 400 B.C.:
+     Aspasia must then have been fifty or sixty years old when
+     Darius fell in love with her.
+
+By the removal of this first obstacle the crafty prince found himself
+only one step nearer success, for his brother Ariaspes was acknowledged
+as heir-apparent: Ochus therefore persuaded him that their father,
+convinced of the complicity of Ariaspes in the plot imputed to Darius,
+intended to put him to an ignominious death, and so worked upon him that
+he committed suicide to escape the executioner. A bastard named Arsames,
+who might possibly have aspired to the crown, was assassinated by Ochus.
+This last blow was too much for Artaxerxes, and he died of grief after a
+reign of forty-six years (358 B.C.).* Ochus, who immediately assumed the
+name of Artaxerxes, began his reign by the customary massacre: he put to
+death all the princes of the royal family,** and having thus rid
+himself of all the rival claimants to the supreme power, he hastened on
+preparations for the war with Egypt which had been interrupted by his
+father’s death and his own accession.
+
+     * This is the length attributed by Plutarch to this reign,
+     and which is generally accepted. It was narrated in after-
+     days that the king kept the fact of his father’s death
+     hidden for ten months, but it is impossible to tell how much
+     truth there is in this statement, which was accepted by
+     Dinon.
+
+     ** According to the author followed by Pompeius Trogus, the
+     princesses themselves were involved in this massacre. This
+     is certainly an exaggeration, for we shall shortly see that
+     Darius III., the last king of Persia, was accounted to be
+     the grandson of Darius II.; the massacre can only have
+     involved the direct heirs of Artaxerxes.
+
+The necessity for restoring Persian dominion on the banks of the Nile
+was then more urgent than at any previous time. During the half-century
+which had elapsed since the recovery of her independence, Egypt had
+been a perpetual source of serious embarrassment to the great king. The
+contemporaries of Amyrtseus, whether Greeks or barbarians, had at first
+thought that his revolt was nothing more than a local rising, like many
+a previous one which had lasted but a short time and had been promptly
+suppressed. But when it was perceived that the native dynasties had
+taken a hold upon the country, and had carried on a successful contest
+with Persia, in spite of the immense disproportion in their respective
+resources; when not only the bravest soldiers of Asia, but the best
+generals of Greece, had miserably failed in their attacks on the
+frontier of the Delta, Phoenicia and Syria began to think whether what
+was possible in Africa might not also be possible in Asia. From that
+time forward, whenever a satrap or vassal prince meditated revolt, it
+was to Egypt that he turned as a natural ally, and from Egypt he sought
+the means to carry out his project; however needy the Pharaoh of that
+day might be, he was always able to procure for such a suitor sufficient
+money, munitions of war, ships, and men to enable him to make war
+against the empire. The attempt made by Ochus failed, as all previous
+attempts had done: the two adventurers who commanded the forces of
+Nectanebo, the Athenian Diophantes and Lamius of Sparta, inflicted a
+disastrous defeat on the imperial troops, and forced them to beat a
+hasty retreat. This defeat was all the more serious in its consequences
+because of the magnitude of the efforts which had been made: the king
+himself was in command of the troops, and had been obliged to turn his
+back precipitately on the foe. The Syrian provinces, which had been in
+an unsettled condition ever since the invasion under Tachôs, flew to
+arms; nine petty kings of Cyprus, including Evagoras II., nephew of the
+famous prince of that name, refused to pay tribute, and Artabazus
+roused Asia Minor to rebellion. The Phoenicians still hesitated; but
+the insolence of their satrap, the rapacity of the generals who had
+been repulsed from Egypt, and the lack of discipline in the Persian
+army forced them to a decision. In a convention summoned at Tripoli, the
+representatives of the Phoenician cities conferred on Tennes, King
+of Sidon, the perilous honour of conducting the operations of the
+confederate army, and his first act was to destroy the royal villa
+in the Lebanon, and his next to burn the provisions which had been
+accumulated in various ports in view of the Egyptian war (351-350 B.C.).
+
+[Illustration: 305.jpg evagoras ii. of salamis]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin in the _Cabinet des
+     Médailles_.
+
+Ochus imagined at the outset that his generals would soon suppress these
+rebellions, and, in fact, Idrieus, tyrant of Caria, supported by eight
+thousand mercenaries under the Athenian Phocion, overcame the petty
+tyrants of Cyprus without much difficulty; but in Asia Minor, Artabazus,
+supported by Athens and Thebes, held at bay the generals sent to oppose
+him, and Tennes won a signal victory in Syria. He turned for support
+to Egypt, and Nectanebo, as might be expected, put Greek troops at his
+disposal to the number of four thousand, commanded by one of his best
+generals, Mentor of Ehodes: Belesys, the satrap of Syria, and Mazseus,
+satrap of Cilicia, suffered a total defeat. Ochus, exasperated at their
+want of success, called out every available soldier, three hundred
+thousand Asiatics and ten thousand Greeks; the Sidonians, on their side,
+dug a triple trench round their city, raised their ramparts, and set
+fire to their ships, to demonstrate their intention of holding out
+to the end. Unfortunately, their king, Tennes, was not a man of firm
+resolution. Hitherto he had lived a life of self-indulgence, surrounded
+by the women of his harem, whom he had purchased at great cost in Ionia
+and Greece, and had made it the chief object of his ambition to surpass
+in magnificence the most ostentatious princes of Cyprus, especially
+Nicocles of Salamis, son of Evagoras. The approach of Ochus confused
+his scanty wits; he endeavoured to wipe out his treachery towards his
+suzerain by the betrayal of his own subjects. He secretly despatched
+his confidential minister, a certain Thessalion, to the Persian camp,
+promising to betray Sidon to the Persian king, and to act as his guide
+into Egypt on condition of having his life preserved and his royal rank
+guaranteed to him. Ochus had already agreed to these conditions, when
+an impulse of vanity on his part nearly ruined the whole arrangement.
+Thessalion, not unreasonably doubting the king’s good faith, had
+demanded that he should swear by his right hand to fulfil to the letter
+all the clauses of the treaty; whereupon Ochus, whose dignity was
+offended by this insistence, gave orders for the execution of the
+ambassador. But as the latter was being dragged away, he cried out that
+the king could do as he liked, but that if he disdained the help of
+Tennes, he would fail in his attacks both upon Phonicia and Egypt. These
+words produced a sudden reaction, and Thessalion obtained all that he
+demanded. When the Persians had arrived within a few days’ march of
+Sidon, Tennes proclaimed that a general assembly of the Phoenician
+deputies was to be held, and under pretext of escorting the hundred
+leading men of his city to the appointed place of meeting, led them into
+the enemy’s camp, where they were promptly despatched by the javelins of
+the soldiery. The Sidonians, deserted by their king, were determined
+to carry on the struggle, in the expectation of receiving succour from
+Egypt; but the Persian darics had already found their way into the hands
+of the mercenary troops, and the general whom Nectanebo had lent them,
+declared that his men considered the position desperate, and that he
+should surrender the city at the first summons. The Sidonians thereupon
+found themselves reduced to the necessity of imploring the mercy of the
+conqueror, and five hundred of them set out to meet him as suppliants,
+carrying olive branches in their hands. Bub Ochus was the most cruel
+monarch who had ever reigned in Persia--the only one, perhaps, who was
+really bloodthirsty by nature; he refused to listen to the entreaties of
+the suppliants, and, like the preceding hundred delegates, they were all
+slain. The remaining citizens, perceiving that they could not hope for
+pardon, barricaded themselves in their houses, to which they set fire
+with their own hands; forty thousand persons perished in the flames, and
+so great was the luxury in the appointments of the private houses,
+that large sums were paid for the right to dig for the gold and silver
+ornaments buried in the ruins. The destruction of the city was almost as
+complete as in the days of Esarhaddon. When Sidon had thus met her fate,
+the Persians had no further reason for sparing its king, Tennes, and he
+was delivered to the executioner; whereupon the other Phoenician kings,
+terrified by his fate, opened their gates without a struggle.
+
+Once more the treachery of a few traitors had disconcerted the plans of
+the Pharaoh, and delivered the outposts of Egypt into the hands of the
+enemy: but Ochus renewed his preparations with marvellous tenacity, and
+resolved to neglect nothing which might contribute to his final success.
+His victories had confirmed the cities of the empire in their loyalty,
+and they vied with one another in endeavouring to win oblivion for their
+former hesitation by their present zeal: “What city, or what nation of
+Asia did not send embassies to the sovereign? what wealth did they not
+lavish on him, whether the natural products of the soil, or the rare and
+precious productions of art? Did he not receive a quantity of tapestry
+and woven hangings, some of purple, some of diverse colours, others of
+pure white? many gilded pavilions, completely furnished, and containing
+an abundant supply of linen and sumptuous beds? chased silver, wrought
+gold, cups and bowls, enriched with precious stones, or valuable for the
+perfection and richness of their work? He also received untold supplies
+of barbarian and Grecian weapons, and still larger numbers of draught
+cattle and of sacrificial victims, bushels of preserved fruits, bales
+and sacks full of parchments or books, and all kinds of useful articles?
+So great was the quantity of salted meats which poured in from all
+sides, that from a distance the piles might readily be mistaken for
+rows of hillocks or high mounds.” The land-force was divided into three
+corps, each under a barbarian and a Greek general. It advanced along
+the sea coast, following the ancient route pursued by the armies of the
+Pharaohs, and as it skirted the marshes of Sirbonis, some detachments,
+having imprudently ventured over the treacherous soil, perished to a
+man. When the main force arrived in safety before Pelusium, it found
+Nectanebo awaiting it behind his ramparts and marshes. He had fewer men
+than his adversary, his force numbering only six thousand Egyptians,
+twenty thousand Libyans, and the same number of Greeks; but the
+remembrance of the successes won by himself and his predecessors with
+inferior numbers inspired him with confidence in the issue of the
+struggle. His fleet could not have ventured to meet in battle the
+combined squadrons of Cyprus and Phoenicia, but, on the other hand, he
+had a sufficient number of flat-bottomed boats to prevent any adversary
+from entering the mouths of the Nile. The weak points along his
+Mediterranean seaboard and eastern frontier were covered by strongholds,
+fortifications, and entrenched camps: in short, his plans were
+sufficiently well laid to ensure success in a defensive war, if the
+rash ardour of his Greek mercenaries had not defeated his plans. Five
+thousand of these troops were in occupation of Pelusium, under command
+of Philophrôn. Some companies of Thebans, who were serving under
+Lacrates in the Persian army, crossed a deep canal which separated them
+from the city, and provoked the garrison to risk an encounter in
+the open field. Philophrôn, instead of treating their challenge with
+indifference, accepted it, and engaged in a combat which lasted till
+nightfall. On the following day, Lacrates, having drawn off the waters
+of the canal and thrown a dyke across it, led his entire force up to the
+glacis of the fortifications, dug some trenches, and brought up a
+line of battering-rams. He would soon have effected a breach, but the
+Egyptians understood how to use the spade as well as the lance, and
+while the outer wall was crumbling, they improvised behind it a second
+wall, crowned with wooden turrets. Nectanebo, who had come up with
+thirty thousand native, five thousand Greek troops, and half the
+Libyan contingent, observed the vicissitudes of the siege from a short
+distance, and by his presence alone opposed the advance of the bulk
+of the Persian army. Weeks passed by, the time of the inundation was
+approaching, and it seemed as if this policy of delay would have its
+accustomed success, when an unforeseen incident decided in a moment the
+fate of Egypt. Among the officers of Ochus was a certain Nicostratus of
+Argos, who on account of his prodigious strength was often compared to
+Heracles, and who out of vanity dressed himself up in the traditional
+costume of that hero, the lion’s skin and the club. Having imbibed,
+doubtless, the ideas formerly propounded by Iphicrates, Nicostratus
+forced some peasants, whose wives and children he had seized as
+hostages, to act as his guides, and made his way up one of the canals
+which traverse the marshes of Menzaleh: there he disembarked his men in
+the rear of Nectanebo, and took up a very strong position on the
+border of the cultivated land. This enterprise, undertaken with a very
+insufficient force, was an extremely rash one; if the Egyptian generals
+had contented themselves with harassing Nicostratus without venturing on
+engaging him in a pitched battle, they would speedily have forced him to
+re-embark or to lay down his arms. Unfortunately, however, five thousand
+mercenaries, who formed the garrison of one of the neighbouring towns,
+hastened to attack him under the command of Clinias of Cos, and suffered
+a severe defeat. As a result, the gates of the town were thrown open
+to the enemy, and if the Persians, encouraged by the success of this
+forlorn hope, had followed it up boldly, Nectanebo would have run the
+risk of being cut off from his troops which were around Pelusium, and of
+being subsequently crushed. He thought it wiser to retreat towards the
+apex of the Delta, but this very act of prudence exposed him to one of
+those accidental misfortunes which are wont to occur in armies formed
+of very diverse elements. While he was concentrating his reserves at
+Memphis, the troops of the first line thought that, by leaving
+them exposed to the assaults of the great king, he was deliberately
+sacrificing them. Pelusium capitulated to Lacrates; Mentor of Ehodes
+pushed forward and seized Bubastis, and the other cities in the eastern
+portion of the Delta, fearing to bring upon themselves the fate
+of Sidon, opened their gates to the Persians after a mere show of
+resistance. The forces which had collected at Memphis thereupon
+disbanded, and Nectanebo, ruined by these successive disasters,
+collected his treasures and fled to Ethiopia. The successful issue of
+the rash enterprise of Nicostratus had overthrown the empire of the
+Pharaohs, and re-established the Persian empire in its integrity (342
+B.C.).*
+
+     * The complete history of this war is related by Diodorus
+     Siculus, who generally follows the narrative of Theopompus.
+     The chronology is still sufficiently uncertain to leave some
+     doubt as to the exact date of each event; I have followed
+     that arrangement which seems to accord best with the general
+     history of the period. The following table may be drawn up
+     of the last Egyptian dynasties as far as they can be
+     restored at present:--
+
+[Illustration: 312.jpg TABLE OF THE LAST EGYPTIAN DYNASTIES]
+
+Egypt had prospered under the strong rule of its last native Pharaohs.
+Every one of them, from Amyrtous down to Nectanebo, had done his best
+to efface all traces of the Persian invasions and restore to the country
+the appearance which it had presented before the days of its servitude;
+even kings like Psamutis and Tachôs, whose reign had been of the
+briefest, had, like those who ruled for longer periods, constructed or
+beautified the monuments of the country. The Thebaid was in this respect
+a special field of their labours. The island of Philæ, exposed to the
+ceaseless attacks of the Ethiopians, had been reduced to little more
+than a pile of ruins.
+
+[Illustration: 313.jpg SMALL TEMPLE OF NECTANEBO, AT THE SOUTHERN
+EXTREMITY OF PHILAE]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Beato.
+
+Nectanebo II. erected a magnificent gate there, afterwards incorporated
+into the first pylon of the temple built by the Ptolemies, and one
+at least of the buildings that still remain, the charming rectangular
+kiosk, the pillars of which, with their Hathor capitals, rise above
+the southern extremity of the island and mark the spot at which the
+Ethiopian pilgrims first set foot on the sacred territory of the
+bountiful Isis. Nectanebo I. restored the sanctuaries of Nekhabît at
+El-Kab, and of Horus at Edfu, in which latter place he has left an
+admirable naos which delights the modern traveller by its severe
+proportions and simplicity of ornament, while Nectanebo II. repaired the
+ancient temple of Mînu at Coptos; in short, without giving a detailed
+list of what was accomplished by each of these later Pharaohs, it may be
+said that there are few important sites in the valley of the Nile where
+some striking evidence of their activity may not still be discovered
+even after the lapse of so many centuries.
+
+[Illustration: 314.jpg NAOS OF NECTANEBO IN THE TEMPLE AT EDFU]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Beato.
+
+It will be sufficient to mention Thebes, Memphis, Sebennytos, Bubastis,
+Pahabît, Patumu, and Tanis. Nor did the Theban oases, including that of
+Amon himself, escape their zeal, for the few Europeans who have visited
+them in modern times have observed their cartouches there.
+
+[Illustration: 315.jpg GREAT GATE OF NECTANEBO AT KARNAK]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Beato.
+
+Moreover, in spite of the brief space of time within which they were
+carried out, the majority of these works betray no signs of haste
+or slipshod execution; the craftsmen employed on them seem to have
+preserved in their full integrity all the artistic traditions of earlier
+times, and were capable of producing masterpieces which will bear
+comparison with those of the golden age. The Eastern gate, erected at
+Karnak in the time of Nectanebo II., is in no way inferior either in
+purity of proportion or in the beauty of its carvings to what remains of
+the gates of Amenôthes III.
+
+[Illustration: 316.jpg fragment of a Naos of THE time of nectanebo II.
+in the Bologna Museum]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Flinders Pétrie.
+
+The sarcophagus of Nectanebo I. is carved and decorated with a
+perfection of skill which had never been surpassed in any age, and
+elsewhere, on all the monuments which bear the name of this monarch the
+hieroglyphics have been designed and carved with as much care as though
+each one of them had been a precious cameo.*
+
+     * The sarcophagus was for a long time preserved near the
+     mosque of Ibn-Tulun, and was credited with peculiar virtues
+     by the superstitious inhabitants of Cairo.
+
+The basalt torso of Nectanebo II., which attracts so much admiration
+in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris for accuracy of proportion and
+delicacy of modelling, deserves to rank with the finest statues of the
+ancient empire. The men’s heads are veritable portraits, in which such
+details as a peculiar conformation of the skull, prominent cheekbones,
+deep-set eyes, sunken cheeks, or the modelling of the chin, have all
+been observed and reproduced with a fidelity and keenness of observation
+which we fail to find in such works of the earlier artists as have come
+down to us. These later sculptors display the same regard for truth in
+their treatment of animals, and their dog-headed divinities; their dogs,
+lions, and sphinxes will safely bear comparison with the most lifelike
+presentments of these creatures to be found among the remains of the
+Memphite or Theban eras. Egypt was thus in the full tide of material
+prosperity when it again fell under the Persian yoke, and might have
+become a source of inexhaustible wealth to Ochus had he known how to
+secure acceptance of his rule, as Darius, son of Hystaspes, had done in
+the days of Amasis.
+
+[Illustration: 317.jpg ONE OF THE LIONS IN THE VATICAN]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Flinders Pétrie.
+
+The violence of his temperament, however, impelled him to a course of
+pitiless oppression, and his favourite minister, the eunuch Bagoas,
+seems to have done his best to stimulate his master’s natural cruelty.
+In the days when they felt themselves securely protected from his anger
+by their Libyan and Greek troops, the fellahîn had freely indulged in
+lampoons at the expense of their Persian suzerain; they had compared him
+to Typhon on account of his barbarity, and had nicknamed him “the Ass,”
+ this animal being in their eyes a type of everything that is vile.
+On his arrival at Memphis, Ochus gave orders that an ass should be
+installed in the temple of Phtah, and have divine honours paid to it; he
+next had the bull Apis slaughtered and served up at a set banquet which
+he gave to his friends on taking possession of the White Wall. The
+sacred goat of Mendes suffered the same fate as the Apis, and doubtless
+none of the other sacred animals were spared. Bagoas looted the temples
+in the most systematic way, despatched the sacred books to Persia, razed
+the walls of the cities to the ground, and put every avowed partisan of
+the native dynasty to the sword. After these punitive measures had been
+carried out, Ochus disbanded his mercenaries and returned to Babylon,
+leaving Pherendates in charge of the reconquered province.*
+
+     * It seems that a part of the atrocities committed by Ochus
+     and Bagoas soon came to be referred to the time of the
+     “Impure” and to that of Cambyses.
+
+The downfall of Egypt struck terror into the rebellious satraps who were
+in arms elsewhere. Artabazus, who had kept Asia Minor in a ferment ever
+since the time of Artaxerxes II., gave up the struggle of his own accord
+and took refuge in Macedonia. The petty kings of the cities on the
+shores of the Hellespont and the Ægean submitted themselves in order to
+regain favour, or if, like Hermias of Atarnasa, the friend of Aristotle,
+they still resisted, they were taken prisoners and condemned to death.
+The success of Ochus was a reality, but there was still much to be done
+before things were restored to the footing they had occupied before the
+crisis. We know enough of the course of events in the western provinces
+to realise the pitch of weakness to which the imbecility of Darius II.
+and his son Artaxerxes II. had reduced the empire of Darius and
+Xerxes, but it is quite certain that the disastrous effects of their
+misgovernment were not confined to the shores of the Mediterranean,
+but were felt no less acutely in the eastern and central regions of the
+empire. There, as on the Greek frontiers, the system built up at the
+cost of so much ingenuity by Darius was gradually being broken down with
+each year that passed, and the central government could no longer
+make its power felt at the extremities of the empire save at irregular
+intervals, when its mandates were not intercepted or nullified in
+transmission. The functions of the “Eyes” and “Ears” of the king had
+degenerated into a mere meaningless formality, and were, more often
+than not, dispensed with altogether. The line of demarcation between
+the military and civil power had been obliterated: not only had the
+originally independent offices of satrap, general, and secretary ceased
+to exist in each separate province, but, in many instances, the satrap,
+after usurping the functions of his two colleagues, contrived to extend
+his jurisdiction till it included several provinces, thus establishing
+himself as a kind of viceroy. Absorbed in disputes among themselves, or
+in conspiracies against the Achsemenian dynasty, these officials had no
+time to look after the well-being of the districts under their control,
+and the various tribes and cities took advantage of this to break the
+ties of vassalage. To take Asia Minor alone, some of the petty kings
+of Bithynia, Paphlagonia, and certain districts of Cappadocia or the
+mountainous parts of Phrygia still paid their tribute intermittently,
+and only when compelled to do so; others, however, such as the
+Pisidians, Lycaonians, a part of the Lycians, and some races of Mount
+Taurus, no longer dreamed of doing so. The three satrapies on the shores
+of the Caspian, which a hundred years before had wedged themselves in
+between that sea and the Euxine, were now dissolved, all trace of them
+being lost in a confused medley of kingdoms and small states, some of
+which were ready enough to acknowledge the supremacy of Persia, while
+others, such as the Gordiseans, Taochi, Chalybes, Colchi, Mosynoki, and
+Tibarenians, obeyed no rule but their own.
+
+[Illustration: 321.jpg MAP OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE]
+
+All along the Caspian, the Cadusians and Amardians, on either side of
+the chain of mountains bordering the Iranian plateau, defied all the
+efforts made to subdue them.* India and the Sakse had developed from
+the condition of subjects into that of friendly allies, and the
+savage hordes of Gedrosia and the Paropamisus refused to recognise any
+authority at all.**
+
+     * They appear in the history of every epoch as the
+     irreconcilable foes of the great king, enemies against whom
+     even the most peacefully disposed sovereigns were compelled
+     to take the field in person.
+
+     ** The Sakæ fought at Arbela, but only as allies of the
+     Persians. The Indians who are mentioned with them came from
+     the neighbourhood of Cabul; most of the races who had
+     formerly figured in Darius’ satrapy of India had become
+     independent by the time Alexander penetrated into the basin
+     of the Indus.
+
+The whole empire needed to be reconquered and reorganised bit by bit if
+it was to exercise that influence in the world to which its immense size
+entitled it, and the question arose whether the elements of which it
+consisted would lend themselves to any permanent reorganisation or
+readjustment.
+
+The races of the ancient Eastern world, or, at any rate, that portion of
+them which helped to make its history, either existed no longer or had
+sunk into their dotage. They had worn each other out in the centuries
+of their prime, Chaldæans and Assyrians fighting against Cossæans or
+Elamites, Egyptians against Ethiopians and against Hittites, Urartians,
+Armæans, the peoples of Lebanon and of Damascus, the Phoenicians,
+Canaanites and Jews, until at last, with impoverished blood and flagging
+energies, they were thrown into conflict with younger and more vigorous
+nations. The Medes had swept away all that still remained of Assyria
+and Urartu; the Persians had overthrown the Medes, the Lydians, and the
+Chaldæans, till Egypt alone remained and was struck down by them in her
+turn. What had become of these conquered nations during the period
+of nearly two hundred years that the Achæmenians had ruled over them?
+First, as regards Elam, one of the oldest and formerly the most powerful
+of them all. She had been rent into two halves, each of them destined
+to have a different fate. In the mountains, the Uxians, Mardians,
+Elymasans, and Cossæans--tribes who had formerly been the backbone of
+the nation--had relapsed into a semi-barbarous condition, or rather,
+while the rest of the world had progressed in civilization and
+refinement, they had remained in a state of stagnation, adhering
+obstinately to the customs of their palmy days: just as they had harried
+the Chaldæans or Assyrians in the olden times, so now they harried the
+Persians; then, taking refuge in their rocky fastnesses, they lived on
+the proceeds of their forays, successfully resisting all attempts made
+to dislodge them. The people of the plains, on the other hand, kept in
+check from the outset by the presence of the court at Susa, not only
+promptly resigned themselves to their fate, but even took pleasure in
+it, and came to look upon themselves as in some sort the masters of
+Asia. Was it not to their country, to the very spot occupied by the
+palace of their king, that, for nearly two hundred years, satraps,
+vassal kings, the legates of foreign races, ambassadors of Greek
+republics--in a word, all the great ones of this world--came every year
+to render homage, and had not the treasures which these visitors brought
+with them been expended, in part at any rate, on their country? The
+memory of their former prosperity paled before the splendours of their
+new destiny, and the glory of their ancestors suffered eclipse. The
+names of the national kings, the story of their Chaldæan and Syrian
+conquests, the trophies of their victories over the great generals
+of Nineveh, the horrors of their latest discords and of the final
+catastrophe were all forgotten; even the documents which might have
+helped to recall them lay buried in the heart of the mound which served
+as a foundation for the palace of the Achgernenides. Beyond the vague
+consciousness of a splendid past, the memory of the common people was
+a blank, and when questioned by strangers they could tell them nothing
+save legends of the gods or the exploits of mythical heroes; and from
+them the Greeks borrowed their Memnon, that son of Tithonus and Eôs
+who rushed to the aid of Priam with his band of Ethiopians, and whose
+prowess had failed to retard by a single day the downfall of Troy.
+Further northwards, the Urartians and peoples of ancient Naîri, less
+favoured by fortune, lost ground with each successive generation,
+yielding to the steady pressure of the Armenians. In the time of
+Herodotus they were still in possession of the upper basins of the
+Euphrates and Araxus, and, in conjunction with the Matieni and Saspires,
+formed a satrapy--the eighteenth--the boundaries of which coincided
+pretty closely with those of the kingdom ruled over by the last kings
+of Van in the days of Assur-bani-pal; the Armenians, on their side,
+constituted the thirteenth satrapy, between Mount Taurus and the Lower
+Arsanias.
+
+[Illustration: 325.jpg COINS OF THE SATRAPS WITH ARAMAEAN INSCRIPTIONS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from coins in the _Cabinet des
+     Médailles_
+
+The whole face of their country had undergone a profound change since
+that time: the Urartians, driven northwards, became intermingled with
+the tribes on the slopes of the Caucasus, while the Armenians, carried
+along towards the east, as though by some resistless current, were
+now scaling the mountainous bulwark of Ararat, and slowly but surely
+encroaching on the lower plains of the Araxes. These political
+changes had been almost completed by the time of Ochus, and Urartu had
+disappeared from the scene, but an Armenia now flourished in the very
+region where Urartu had once ruled, and its princes, who were related
+to the family of the Achæmenides, wielded an authority little short of
+regal under the modest name of satraps. Thanks to their influence, the
+religions and customs of Iran were introduced into the eastern borders
+of Asia Minor. They made their way into the valleys of the Iris and the
+Halys, into Cappadocia and the country round Mount Taurus, and thither
+they brought with them the official script of the empire, the Persian
+and Aramaean cuneiform which was employed in public documents, in
+inscriptions, and on coins. The centre of the peninsula remained very
+much the same as it had been in the period of the Phrygian supremacy,
+but further westward Hellenic influences gradually made themselves felt.
+
+[Illustration: 326.jpg A LYCIAN TOMB]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a woodcut in Bonndorff.
+
+The arts of Greece, its manners, religious ideals, and modes of thought,
+were slowly displacing civilisations of the Asianic type, and even in
+places like Lycia, where the language successfully withstood the Greek
+invasion, the life of the nations, and especially of their rulers,
+became so deeply impregnated with Hellenism as to differ but little from
+that in the cities on the Ionic, Æolian, or Doric seaboard. The Lycians
+still adhered to the ancient forms which characterised their funerary
+architecture, but it was to Greek sculptors, or pupils from the Grecian
+schools, that they entrusted the decoration of the sides of their
+sarcophagi and of their tombs.
+
+[Illustration: 327b.jpg STATUE OF MAUSOLUS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph of the original in
+     the British Museum.
+
+[Illustration: 327a.jpg COIN OF A LYCIAN KING]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a silver stater in the _Cabinet
+     des Médailles._ The king in question was named Deneveles,
+     and is only known by the coins bearing his superscription.
+     He flourished about 395 B.C.
+
+Their kings minted coins many of which are reckoned among the
+masterpieces of antique engraving; and if we pass from Lycia to the
+petty states of Caria, we come upon one of the greatest triumphs of
+Greek art--that huge mausoleum in which the inconsolable Artemisia
+enclosed the ashes and erected the statue of her husband. The Asia Minor
+of Egyptian times, with its old-world dynasties, its old-world names,
+and old-world races, had come to be nothing more than an historic
+memory; even that martial world, in which the Assyrian conquerors fought
+so many battles from the Euphrates to the Black Sea, was now no more,
+and its neighbours and enemies of former days had, for the most part,
+disappeared from the land of the living.
+
+[Illustration: 328.jpg LYCIAN SARCOPHAGUS DECORATED WITH GREEK CARVINGS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photogravure published by
+     Hamdy-Beg and Th. Reinach.
+
+The Lotanu were gone, the Khâti were gone, and gone, too, were
+Carchemish, Arpad, and Qodshu, much of th§ir domain having been
+swallowed up again by the desert for want of hands to water and till it;
+even Assyria itself seemed but a shadow half shrouded in the mists of
+oblivion. Sangara, Nisibis, Resaina, and Edessa still showed some signs
+of vigour, but on quitting the slopes of the Masios and proceeding
+southwards, piles of ruins alone marked the sites of those wealthy
+cities through which the Ninevite monarchs had passed in their
+journeyings towards Syria. Here wide tracts of arid and treeless
+country were now to be seen covered with aromatic herbage, where the
+Scenite Arabs were wont to pursue the lion, wild ass, ostrich, bustard,
+antelope, and gazelle; a few abandoned forts, such as Korsortê, Anatho,
+and Is (Hit) marked the halting-places of armies on the banks of the
+Euphrates. In the region of the Tigris, the descendants of Assyrian
+captives who, like the Jews, had been set free by Cyrus, had rebuilt
+Assur, and had there grown wealthy by husbandry and commerce,* but in
+the district of the Zab solitude reigned supreme.** Calah and Nineveh
+were alike deserted, and though their ruins still littered the sites
+where they had stood, their names were unknown in the neighbouring
+villages. Xenophon, relying on his guides, calls the former place
+Larissa, the second Mespila.***
+
+     * This seems to be indicated by a mutilated passage in the
+     _Cylinder of Gyrus_, where Assur is mentioned in the list of
+     towns and countries whose inhabitants were sent back to
+     their homes by Cyrus after the capture of Babylon. Xenophon
+     calls it Esense, this being, possibly, a translation of the
+     name given to it by its inhabitants. Nothing could be more
+     natural than for exiles to call the villages founded by them
+     on their return “new.” The town seems to have been a large
+     and wealthy one.
+
+     ** Xenophon calls this country Media, a desert region which
+     the Ten Thousand took six days to cross.
+
+     *** The name Larissa is, possibly, a corruption of some name
+     similar to that of the city of Larsam in Chaldæa; Mespila
+     may be a generic term. [Mespila is Muspula, “the low ground”
+      at the foot of Kouyunjik; Larissa probably Al Resen or
+     Res-eni, between Kouyunjik and Nebi Yunus.--Ed.]
+
+Already there were historians who took the ziggurât at Nineveh to be
+the burial-place of Sardanapalus. They declared that Cyrus had pulled it
+down in order to strengthen his camp during the siege of the town, and
+that formerly it had borne an epitaph afterwards put into verse by the
+poet Choerilus of Iassus: “I reigned, and so long as I beheld the light
+of the sun, I ate, I drank, I loved, well knowing how brief is the
+life of man, and to how many vicissitudes it is liable.” Many writers,
+remembering the Assyrian monument at Anchialê in Cilicia, were inclined
+to place the king’s tomb there. It was surmounted by the statue of a
+man--according to one account, with his hands crossed upon his breast,
+according to another, in the act of snapping his fingers--and bore the
+following inscription in Chaldaic letters: “I, Sardanapalus, son of
+Anakyndaraxes, founded Anchialê and Tarsus in one day, but now am dead.”
+ Thus ten centuries of conquests and massacre had passed away like a
+vapour, leaving nothing but a meagre residue of old men’s tales and
+moral axioms.
+
+In one respect only does the civilisation of the Euphrates seem to have
+fairly held its own. Cossæa, though it had lost its independence, had
+lost but little of its wealth; its former rebellions had done it no
+great injury, and its ancient cities were still left standing, though
+shorn of their early splendour. Uru, it is true, numbered but few
+citizens round its tottering sanctuaries, but Uruk maintained a school
+of theologians and astronomers no less famous throughout the East than
+those of Borsippa. The swamps, however, which surrounded it possessed
+few attractions, and Greek travellers rarely ventured thither. They
+generally stopped at Babylon, or if they ventured off the beaten track,
+it was only to visit the monuments of Nebuchadrezzar, or the tombs of
+the early kings in its immediate neighbourhood. Babylon was, indeed, one
+of the capitals of the empire--nay, for more than half a century, during
+the closing years of Artaxerxes I., in the reign of Darius II., and
+in the early days of Artaxerxes IL, it had been the real capital; even
+under Ochus, the court spent the winter months there, and resorted
+thither in quest of those resources of industry and commerce which Susa
+lacked. The material benefits due to the presence of the sovereign seem
+to have reconciled the city to its subject condition; there had been no
+seditious movement there since the ill-starred rising of Shamasherîb,
+which Xerxes had quelled with ruthless severity. The Greek mercenaries
+or traders who visited it, though prepared for its huge size by general
+report, could not repress a feeling of astonishment as they approached
+it. First of all there was the triple wall of Nebuchadrezzar, with its
+moats, its rows of towers, and its colossal gateways. Unlike the Greek
+cities, it had been laid out according to a regular plan, and formed a
+perfect square, inside which the streets crossed one another at right
+angles, some parallel to the Euphrates, others at right angles to it;
+every one of the latter terminated in a brazen gate opening through the
+masonry of the quay, and giving access to the river. The passengers who
+crowded the streets included representatives of all the Asiatic races,
+the native Babylonians being recognisable by their graceful dress,
+consisting of a linen tunic falling to the feet, a fringed shawl, round
+cap, and heavy staff terminating in a knob. From this ever-changing
+background stood out many novel features calculated to stimulate Greek
+curiosity, such as the sick persons exposed at street-corners in
+order that they might beg the passers-by to prescribe for them, the
+prostitution of her votaries within the courts of the goddess Mylitta,
+and the disposal of marriageable girls by auction: Herodotus, however,
+regretted that this latter custom had fallen into abeyance. And yet to
+the attentive eye of a close observer even Babylon must have furnished
+many unmistakable symptoms of decay. The huge boundary wall enclosed
+too large an area for the population sheltered behind it; whole quarters
+were crumbling into heaps of ruins, and the flower and vegetable gardens
+were steadily encroaching on spaces formerly covered with houses. Public
+buildings had suffered quite as much as private dwellings from the
+Persian wars. Xerxes had despoiled the temples, and no restoration
+had been attempted since his time. The ziggurât of Bel lay half buried
+already beneath piles of rubbish; the golden statues which had once
+stood within its chambers had disappeared, and the priests no longer
+carried on their astronomical observations on its platform.*
+
+     * Herodotus merely mentions that Xerxes had despoiled the
+     temple; Strabo tells us that Alexander wished to restore it,
+     but that it was in such a state of dilapidation that it
+     would have taken ten thousand men two months merely to
+     remove the rubbish.
+
+The palaces of the ancient kings were falling to pieces from lack of
+repairs, though the famous hanging gardens in the citadel were still
+shown to strangers. The guides, of course, gave them out to be a device
+of Semiramis, but the well-informed knew that they had been constructed
+by Nebuchadrezzar for one of his wives the daughter of Oyaxares, who
+pined for the verdure of her native mountains. “They were square in
+shape, each side being four hundred feet long; one approached them by
+steps leading to terraces placed one above the other, the arrangement
+of the whole, resembling that of an amphitheatre. Each terrace rested on
+pillars which, gradually increasing in size, supported the weight of
+the soil and its produce. The loftiest pillar attained a height of fifty
+feet; it reached to the upper part of the garden, its capital being on
+a level with the balustrades of the boundary wall. The terraces were
+covered with a layer of soil of sufficient depth for the roots of the
+largest trees; plants of all kinds that delight the eye by their shape
+or beauty were grown there. One of the columns was hollowed from top
+to bottom; it contained hydraulic engines which pumped up quantities of
+water, no part of the mechanism being visible from the outside.”
+ Many travellers were content to note down only such marvels as they
+considered likely to make their narratives more amusing, but others took
+pains to collect information of a more solid character, and before
+they had carried their researches very far, were at once astounded and
+delighted with the glimpses they obtained of Chaldæan genius. No doubt,
+they exaggerated when they went so far as to maintain that all their
+learning came to them originally from Babylon, and that the most famous
+scholars of Greece, Pherecydes of Scyros, Democritus of Abdera, and
+Pythagoras,* owed the rudiments of philosophy, mathematics, physics, and
+astrology to the school of the _Magi_.
+
+     * The story which asserts that Pythagoras served under
+     Nergilos, King of Assyria, is probably based on some
+     similarity of names: thus among the Greek kings of Cyprus,
+     and in the time of Assur-bani-pal, we find one whose name
+     would recall that of Pythagoras, if the accuracy of the
+     reading were beyond question.
+
+Yet it is not surprising that they should have believed this to be the
+case, when increasing familiarity with the priestly seminaries revealed
+to them the existence of those libraries of clay tablets in which, side
+by side with theoretic treatises dating from two thousand years back
+and more, were to be found examples of applied mechanics, observations,
+reckonings, and novel solutions of problems, which generations
+of scribes had accumulated in the course of centuries. The Greek
+astronomers took full advantage of these documents, but it was their
+astrologers and soothsayers who were specially indebted to them. The
+latter acknowledged their own inferiority the moment they came into
+contact with their Euphratean colleagues, and endeavoured to make good
+their deficiencies by taking lessons from the latter or persuading them
+to migrate to Greece. A hundred years later saw the Babylonian Berosus
+opening at Cos a public school of divination by the stars. From
+thenceforward “Chaldæan” came to be synonymous with “astrologer” or
+“sorcerer,” and Chaldæan magic became supreme throughout the world at
+the very moment when Chaldæa itself was in its death-throes.
+
+Nor was its unquestioned supremacy in the black art the sole legacy that
+Chaldæa bequeathed to the coming generations: its language survived, and
+reigned for centuries afterwards in the regions subjugated by its arms.
+The cultivated tongue employed by the scribes of Nineve and Babylon
+in the palmy days of their race, had long become a sort of literary
+dialect, used in writings of a lofty character and understood by a
+select few, but unintelligible to the common people. The populace in
+town or country talked an Aramaic jargon, clumsier and more prolix
+than Assyrian, but easier to understand. We know how successfully the
+Aramæans had managed to push their way along the Euphrates and into
+Syria towards the close of the Hittite supremacy: their successive
+encroachments had been favoured, first by the Assyrian, later by the
+Chaldæan conquests, and now they had become sole possessors of the
+ancient Naharaîna, the plains of Cilicia, the basin of the Orontes, and
+the country round Damascus; but the true home of the Aramæans was in
+Syria rather than in the districts of the Lower Euphrates. Even in the
+time of the Sargonids their alphabet had made so much headway that at
+Nineveh itself and at Calah it had come into everyday use; when Chaldæan
+supremacy gave way to that of the Persians, its triumph--in the western
+provinces, at any rate--was complete, and it became the recognised
+vehicle of the royal decrees: we come upon it in every direction, on
+the coins issued by the satraps of Asia Minor, on the seals of local
+governors or dynasts, on inscriptions or stelæ in Egypt, in the letters
+of the scribes, and in the rescripts of the great king. From Nisib
+to Baphia, between the Tigris and the Mediterranean, it gradually
+supplanted most of the other dialects--Semitic or otherwise--which had
+hitherto prevailed. Phoenician held its ground in the seaports, but
+Hebrew gave way before it, and ended by being restricted to religious
+purposes, as a literary and liturgical language. It was in the
+neighbourhood of Babylon itself that the Judæan exiles had, during the
+Captivity, adopted the Aramaic language, and their return to Canaan
+failed to restore either the purity of their own language or the dignity
+and independence of their religious life. Their colony at Jerusalem
+possessed few resources; the wealthier Hebrews had, for the most part,
+remained in Chaldæa, leaving the privilege of repopulating the holy city
+to those of their brethren who were less plenteously endowed with this
+world’s goods. These latter soon learned to their cost that Zion was not
+the ideal city whose “gates shall be open continually; they shall not
+be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the wealth of
+the nations;” far from “sucking the milk of nations and the breast of
+kings,” * their fields produced barely sufficient to satisfy the more
+pressing needs of daily life. “Ye have sown much, and bring in little,”
+ as Jahveh declared to them “ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink,
+but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none
+warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with
+holes.” **
+
+     * An anonymous prophet in Isa. lx. 11-16.
+
+     ** Hagg. i. 6.
+
+They quickly relinquished the work of restoration, finding themselves
+forgotten by all--their Babylonian brethren included--in the midst of
+the great events which were then agitating the world, the preparations
+for the conquest of Egypt, the usurpation of the pseudo-Smerdis, the
+accession of Darius, the Babylonian and Median insurrections. Possibly
+they believed that the Achæmenides had had their day, and that a new
+Chaldæan empire, with a second Nebuchadrezzar at its head, was about to
+regain the ascendency. It would seem that the downfall of Nadintav-bel
+inspired them with new faith in the future and encouraged them to
+complete their task: in the second year of Darius, two prophets, Haggai
+and Zechariah, arose in their midst and lifted up their voices.
+
+[Illustration: 337.jpg CHALDEAN SEAL WITH ARAMAIC INSCRIPTION]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photogravure published in
+     Menant.
+
+Zerubbabel, a prince of the royal line, governed Judah in the Persian
+interest, and with him was associated the high priest Joshua, who looked
+after the spiritual interests of the community: the reproaches of the
+two prophets aroused the people from their inaction, and induced them to
+resume their interrupted building operations. Darius, duly informed of
+what was going on by the governor of Syria, gave orders that they were
+not to be interfered with, and four years later the building of the
+temple was completed.*
+
+     * Ezra iv.-vi.; the account given by Josephus of the two
+     expeditions of Zerubbabel seems to have been borrowed partly
+     from the canonical book, partly from the Apocryphal writing
+     known as the _1st Book of Esdras_.
+
+For nearly a century after this the little Jewish republic remained
+quiescent. It had slowly developed until it had gradually won back
+a portion of the former territories of Benjamin and Judah, but its
+expansion southwards was checked by the Idumæans, to whom Nebuchadrezzar
+had years before handed over Hebron and Acrabattenê (Akrabbim) as a
+reward for the services they had rendered.
+
+On the north its neighbours were the descendants of those Aramaean
+exiles whom Sargon, Sennacherib, and Esar-haddon, kings of Assyria,
+had, on various occasions, installed around Samaria in Mount Ephraim. At
+first these people paid no reverence to the “God of the land,” so that
+Jahveh, in order to punish them, sent lions, which spread carnage in
+their ranks. Then the King of Assyria allotted them an Israelitish
+priest from among his prisoners, who taught them “the law” of Jahveh,
+and appointed other priests chosen from the people, and showed them how
+to offer up sacrifices on the ancient high places.*
+
+     * Kings xvii. 24-40. There do not seem to have been the
+     continual disputes between the inhabitants of Judaea and
+     Samaria before the return of Nehemiah, which the compilers
+     of the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah seem to have believed.
+
+Thus another Israel began to rise up again, and, at first, the new
+Judah seems to have been on tolerably friendly terms with it: the two
+communities traded and intermarried with one another, the Samaritans
+took part in the religious ceremonies, and certain of their leaders
+occupied a court in the temple at Jerusalem. The alliance, however,
+proved dangerous to the purity of the faith, for the proselytes, while
+they adopted Jahveh and gave Him that supreme place in their devotions
+which was due to “the God of the land,” had by no means entirely
+forsworn their national superstitions, and Adrammelek, Nergal, Tartak,
+Anammelek, and other deities still found worshippers among them. Judah,
+which in the days of its independence had so often turned aside after
+the gods of Canaan and Moab, was in danger of being led away by the
+idolatrous practices of its new neighbours; intermarriage with the
+daughters of Moab and Ammon, of Philistia and Samaria, was producing
+a gradual degeneracy: the national language was giving way before the
+Aramaean; unless some one could be found to stem the tide of decadence
+and help the people to remount the slope which they were descending,
+the fate of Judah was certain. A prophet--the last of those whose
+predictions have survived to our time--stood forth amid the general
+laxity and called the people to account for their transgressions, in
+the name of the Eternal, but his single voice, which seemed but a
+feeble echo of the great prophets of former ages, did not meet with
+a favourable hearing. Salvation came at length from the Jews outside
+Judah, the naturalised citizens of Babylon, a well-informed and wealthy
+body, occupying high places in the administration of the empire, and
+sometimes in the favour of the sovereign also, yet possessed by an
+ardent zeal for the religion of their fathers and a steadfast faith
+in the vitality of their race. One of these, a certain Nehemiah, was
+employed as cupbearer to Artaxerxes II. He was visited at Susa by some
+men of Judah whose business had brought them to that city and inquired
+of them how matters fared in Jerusalem. Hanani, one of his visitors,
+replied that “the remnant that are left of the captivity there in the
+province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem
+also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.”
+ Nehemiah took advantage of a moment when the king seemed in a jovial
+mood to describe the wretched state of his native land in moving terms:
+he obtained leave to quit Susa and authority to administer the city in
+which his fathers had dwelt.*
+
+     * Nehemiah i., ii.
+
+This took place in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, about 385 B.C.
+Nehemiah at once made his way to Jerusalem with such escort as
+befitted his dignity, and the news of his mission, and, apparently,
+the sentiments of rigid orthodoxy professed by him from the beginning,
+provoked the resentment of the neighbouring potentates against him:
+Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite, chief of the Samaritans,
+and Geshem the Bedâwin did their best to thwart him in the execution of
+his plans. He baffled their intrigues by his promptitude in rebuilding
+the walls, and when once he had rendered himself safe from any sudden
+attack, he proceeded with the reforms which he deemed urgent. His tenure
+of office lasted twelve years--from 384 to 373 B.C.--and during the
+whole of that time he refused to accept any of the dues to which he was
+entitled, and which his predecessors had received without scruple. Ever
+since their return from exile, the common people had been impoverished
+and paralysed by usury. The poor had been compelled to mortgage their
+fields and their vineyards in order to pay the king’s taxes; then, when
+their land was gone, they had pledged their sons and their daughters;
+the moneyed classes of the new Israel thus absorbed the property of
+their poorer brethren, and reduced the latter to slavery. Nehemiah
+called the usurers before him and severely rebuking them for their
+covetousness, bade them surrender the interest and capital of existing
+debts, and restore the properties which had fallen into their hands
+owing to their shameful abuse of wealth, and release all those of their
+co-religionists whom they had enslaved in default of payment of their
+debts.* His high place in the royal favour doubtless had its effect
+on those whose cupidity suffered from his zeal, and prevented external
+enemies from too openly interfering in the affairs of the community:
+by the time he returned to the court, in 372 B.C., after an absence of
+twelve years, Jerusalem and its environs had to some extent regained
+the material prosperity of former days. The part played by Nehemiah was,
+however, mainly political, and the religious problem remained in very
+much the same state as before. The high priests, who alone possessed the
+power of solving it, had fallen in with the current that was carrying
+away the people, and--latterly, at any rate--had become disqualified
+through intermarriage with aliens: what was wanted was a scribe deeply
+versed in sacred things to direct them in the right way, and such a man
+could be found only in Babylonia, the one country in which the study of
+the ancient traditions still flourished. A certain Ezra, son of Seraiah,
+presented himself in 369 B.C., and, as he was a man of some standing,
+Artaxerxes not only authorised him to go himself, but to take with him
+a whole company of priests and Lévites and families formerly attached to
+the service of the temple.** The books containing the Law of God and
+the history of His people had, since the beginning of the captivity,
+undergone alterations which had profoundly modified their text and
+changed their spirit.
+
+     * Neh. v.
+
+     ** Neh. xiii. 6: “in the two and thirtieth year of
+     Artaxerxes, King of Babylon, I went unto the king.”
+
+This work of revision, begun under the influence of Ezekiel, and perhaps
+by his own followers, had, since his time, been carried on without
+interruption, and by mingling the juridical texts with narratives of
+the early ages collected from different sources, a lengthy work had been
+produced, very similar in composition and wording to the five Books
+of Moses and the Book of Joshua as we now possess them.* It was this
+version of the Revelation of Jahveh that Ezra brought with him from
+Babylon in order to instruct the people of Judah, and the first
+impressions received by him at the end of his journey convinced him that
+his task would be no light one, for the number of mixed marriages had
+been so great as to demoralise not only the common people, but even
+the priests and leading nobles as well. Nevertheless, at a general
+assembly** of the people he succeeded in persuading them to consent to
+the repudiation of alien wives.
+
+     * This is the priestly revision presupposed by recent
+     critics; here again, in order to keep within the prescribed
+     limits of space, I have been compelled to omit much that I
+     should have liked to add in regard to the nature of this
+     work and the spirit in which it was carried out.
+
+     ** Ezra, vii.-xi., where the dates given do not form part of
+     the work as written by Ezra, but have been introduced later
+     by the editor of the book as it now stands.
+
+But this preliminary success would have led to nothing unless he
+could secure formal recognition of the rigorous code of which he had
+constituted himself the champion, and protracted negotiations were
+necessary before he could claim a victory on this point as well as
+on the other. At length, about 367 B.C., more than a year after his
+arrival, he gained his point, and the covenant between Jahveh and His
+people was sealed with ceremonies modelled on those which had attended
+the promulgation of Deuteronomy in the time of Josiah. On the first day
+of the seventh month, a little before the autumn festival, the people
+assembled at Jerusalem in “the broad place which was before the water
+gate.” Ezra mounted a wooden pulpit, and the chief among the priests sat
+beside him. He “opened the book in the sight of all the people... and...
+all the people stood up: and Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God.
+And all the people answered ‘Amen, amen!’ with the lifting up of their
+hands; and they bowed their heads and worshipped the Lord with their
+faces to the ground.” Then began the reading of the sacred text. As each
+clause was read, the Lévites stationed here and there among the people
+interpreted and explained its provisions in the vulgar tongue, so as
+to make their meaning clear to all. The prolix enumeration of sins and
+their expiation, and threats expressed in certain chapters, produced
+among the crowd the same effect of nervous terror as had once before
+been called forth by the precepts and maledictions of Deuteronomy. The
+people burst into tears, and so vehement were their manifestations of
+despair, that all the efforts of Ezra and his colleagues were needed to
+calm them. Ezra took advantage of this state of fervour to demand the
+immediate application of the divine ordinances. And first of all, it was
+“found written in the law, how that the Lord had commanded by Moses
+that the children of Israel should dwell in booths.” For, seven days
+Jerusalem was decked with leaves; tabernacles of olive, myrtle, and palm
+branches rose up on all sides, on the roofs of houses, in courtyards,
+in the courts of the temple, at the gates of the city. Then, on the 27th
+day of the same month, the people put on mourning in order to confess
+their own sins and the sins of their fathers. Finally, to crown the
+whole, Ezra and his followers required the assembly to swear a solemn
+oath that they would respect “the law of Moses,” and regulate their
+conduct by it.* After the first enthusiasm was passed, a reaction
+speedily set in. Many even among the priests thought that Ezra had gone
+too far in forbidding marriage with strangers, and that the increase of
+the tithes and sacrifices would lay too heavy a burden on the nation.
+The Gentile women reappeared, the Sabbath was no longer observed either
+by the Israelites or aliens; Eliashîb, son of the high priest Joiakim,
+did not even deprive Tobiah the Ammonite of the chamber in the
+temple which he had formerly prepared for him, and things were
+almost imperceptibly drifting back into the same state as before the
+reformation, when Nehemiah returned from Susa towards the close of the
+reign of Artaxerxes. He lost no time in re-establishing respect for the
+law, and from henceforward opposition, if it did not entirely die out,
+ceased to manifest itself in Jerusalem.**
+
+     * Neh. viii., ix., with an interpolation in ver. 9 of chap,
+     viii., inserted in order to identify Nehemiah with the
+     representative of the Persian government.
+
+     ** Neh. xiii.
+
+Elsewhere, however, among the Samaritans, Indumæans, and Philistines, it
+continued as keen as ever, and the Jews themselves were imprudent enough
+to take part in the political revolutions that were happening around
+them in their corner of the empire. Their traditions tell how they
+were mixed up in the rising of the Phoenician cities against Ochus, and
+suffered the penalty; when Sidon capitulated, they were punished with
+the other rebels, the more recalcitrant among them being deported into
+Hyrcania.
+
+Assyria was nothing more than a name, Babylon and Phoenicia were growing
+weaker every day; the Jews, absorbed in questions of religious ethics,
+were deficient in material power, and had not as yet attained sufficient
+moral authority to exercise an influence over the eastern world: the
+Egypt indestructible had alone escaped the general shipwreck, and
+seemed fated to survive her rivals for a long time. Of all these ancient
+nations it was she who appealed most strongly to the imagination of the
+Greeks: Greek traders, mercenaries, scholars, and even tourists wandered
+freely within her borders, and accounts of the strange and marvellous
+things to be found there were published far and wide in the writings
+of Hecataeus of Miletus, Herodotus of Halicarnassus, and Hellanicus of
+Lesbos. As a rule, they entered the country from the west, as European
+tourists and merchants still do; but Eakôtis, the first port at which
+they touched, was a mere village, and its rocky Pharos had no claim to
+distinction beyond the fact that it had been mentioned by Homer.
+From hence they followed the channel of the Canopic arm, and as
+they gradually ascended, they had pointed out to them Anthylla,
+Arkandrupolis, and Gyna> copolis, townships dependent on Naucratis,
+lying along the banks, or situated some distance off on one of the minor
+canals; then Naucratis itself, still a flourishing place, in spite
+of the rebellions in the Delta and the suppressive measures of the
+Persians. All this region seemed to them to be merely an extension of
+Greece under the African sky: to their minds the real Egypt began at
+Sais, a few miles further eastwards. Sais was full in memories of the
+XXVIth dynasty; there they had pointed out to them the tombs of
+the Pharaohs in the enclosure of Nit, the audience hall in which
+Psammetichus II. received the deputation of the Eleians, the prison
+where the unfortunate Apries had languished after his defeat. The
+gateways of the temple of Nit seemed colossal to eyes accustomed to the
+modest dimensions of most Greek sanctuaries; these were, moreover, the
+first great monuments that the strangers had seen since they landed, and
+the novelty of their appearance had a good deal to do with the keenness
+of the impression produced. The goddess showed herself in hospitable
+guise to the visitors; she welcomed them all, Greek or Persian, at her
+festivals, and initiated them into several of her minor rites, without
+demanding from them anything beyond tolerance on certain points of
+doctrine.
+
+[Illustration: 346.jpg FOUNTAIN AND SCHOOL OF THE MOTHER OF LITTLE
+MOHAMAD]
+
+Her dual attributes as wielder of the bow and shuttle had inspired the
+Greeks with the belief that she was identical with that one of their own
+goddesses who most nearly combined in her person this complex mingling
+of war and industry: in her they Fountain and School of the Mother of
+Little Mohammed worshipped the prototype of their own Pallas. On the
+evening of the 17th day of Thoth, Herodotus saw the natives, rich and
+poor, placing on the fronts of their dwellings large flat lamps filled
+with a mixture of salt and oil which they kept alight all night in
+honour of Osiris and of the dead.*
+
+     * In my opinion it is not the festivals of Athyr that are
+     here referred to, but those of the month of Thoth, when, as
+     the inscriptions show, it was the practice to _light the new
+     fire_, according to the ritual, after first extinguishing
+     the fire of the previous year, not only in the temple of the
+     god, but in all the houses of the city.
+
+He made his way into the dwelling of the ineffable god, and there,
+unobserved among the crowd, he witnessed scenes from the divine life
+represented by the priests on the lake by the light of torches, episodes
+of his passion, mourning, and resurrection. The priests did not disclose
+their subtler mysteries before barbarian eyes, nor did they teach the
+inner meaning of their dogmas, but the little they did allow him
+to discern filled the traveller with respect and wonder, recalling
+sometimes by their resemblance to them the mysteries in which he was
+accustomed to take part in his own country. Then, as now, but little
+attention was paid to the towns in the centre and east of the Delta;
+travellers endeavoured to visit one or two of them as types, and
+collected as much information as they could about the remainder.
+Herodotus and his rivals attached little importance to those details of
+landscape which possess so much attraction for the modern tourist. They
+bestowed no more than a careless glance on the chapels scattered up and
+down the country like the Mohammedan shrines at the present day, and the
+waters extending on all sides beneath the acacias and palm trees during
+the inundation, or the fellahin trotting along on their little asses
+beside the pools, did not strike them as being of sufficient interest to
+deserve passing mention in an account of their travels.
+
+[Illustration: 348.jpg MODERN MOHAMMEDAN SHEKHS TOMBS]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Gautier.
+
+They passed by the most picturesque villages with indifference, and
+it was only when they reached some great city, or came upon some
+exceptionally fine temple or eccentric deity, that their curiosity was
+aroused. Mendes worshipped its patron god in the form of a live ram,*
+and bestowed on all members of the same species some share of the
+veneration it lavished on the divine animal. The inhabitants of
+Atarbêkhis,** on the island of Prosopitis, gave themselves up to the
+worship of the bull.
+
+     * Herodotus says that both the goats and the god were named
+     Mendes in Egyptian, but he is here confusing ordinary goats
+     with the special goat which was supposed to contain the soul
+     of Osiris. It was the latter that the Egyptians named after
+     the god himself, Baînibdîduît, i.e. _the soul of the master
+     of the city of Diduît_.
+
+     ** The old explanation of this name as the _City of Hathor_
+     has been rightly rejected as inconsistent with one of the
+     elementary rules of hieroglyphic grammar. The name, when
+     properly divided into its three constituent parts, means
+     literally _the Castle of horus the Sparrow-hawk, or Hat-har-
+     baki_
+
+When one of these animals died in the neighbourhood they buried it,
+leaving one horn above the earth in order to mark the spot, and once
+every year the boats of Atarbêkhis made a tour round the island to
+collect the skeletons or decaying bodies, in order that they might be
+interred in a common burying-place.
+
+[Illustration: 349.jpg PART OF THE INUNDATION IN A PALM GROVE]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Gautier.
+
+The people of Busiris patronised a savage type of religion. During the
+festival of Isis they gave themselves up to fierce conflicts, their
+fanatical fury even infecting strangers who chanced to be present. The
+Carians also had hit upon a means of outdoing the extravagance of the
+natives themselves: like the Shiite Mohammedans of the present day
+at the festival of the Hassanên, they slashed their faces with knives
+amidst shrieks and yells. At Paprêmis a pitched battle formed part of
+the religious observances: it took place, however, under certain special
+conditions. On the evening of the festival of Anhurît, as the sun went
+down, a number of priests performed a hasty sacrifice in the temple,
+while the remainder of the local priesthood stationed themselves at
+the gate armed with heavy cudgels. When the ceremony was over, the
+celebrants placed the statue of the god on a four-wheeled car as though
+about to take it away to some other locality, but their colleagues
+at the gate opposed its departure and barred the way. It was at this
+juncture that the faithful intervened; they burst in the door and set
+upon the priests with staves, the latter offering a stout resistance.
+The cudgels were heavy, the arms that wielded them lusty, and the fight
+lasted a long time, yet no one was ever killed in the fray--at least,
+so the priests averred--and I am at a loss to understand why Herodotus,
+who was not a native of Paprêmis, should have been so unkind as to doubt
+their testimony.*
+
+     * The god whom the Greeks identified with their Ares was
+     Anhurît, as is proved by one of the Leyden Papyri. So, too,
+     in modern times at Cairo, it used to be affirmed that no
+     Mohammedan who submitted to the dôseh was ever seriously
+     injured by the hoofs of the horse which trampled over the
+     bodies extended on the ground.
+
+[Illustration: 350.jpg EPHEMERAL HOVELS OF CLAY OR DRIED BRICKS]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Haussoullier.
+
+It is nearly always in connection with some temple or religious festival
+that he refers to the towns of the Delta, and, indeed, in most of the
+minor cities of Egypt, just as in those of modern Italy there is little
+to interest visitors except the religious monuments or ceremonies.
+Herodotus went to Tanis or Mendes as we go to Orvieto or Loretto, to
+admire the buildings or pay our devotions at a famous shrine. More
+often than not the place was nothing in itself, consisting merely of a
+fortified enclosure, a few commonplace houses occupied by the wealthy
+inhabitants or by government officials, and on mounds of ancient
+_debris_, the accumulation of centuries, a number of ephemeral hovels
+built of clay, or dried bricks, divided into irregular blocks by winding
+alleys. The whole local interest was centred in the sanctuary and its
+inmates, human and divine. The traveller made his way in as best he
+could, went into ecstasies over the objects that were shown to him, and
+as soon as he had duly gone the rounds, set out for the next place on
+his list, deeming himself lucky if he happened to arrive during one
+of the annual fairs, such as that of Bubastis, for instance. Bands
+of pilgrims flocked in from all parts of Egypt; the river craft were
+overflowing with men and women, who converted the journey into one long
+carnival. Every time the vessel put in to land, the women rushed on
+shore, amid the din of castanets and flutes, and ran hither and thither
+challenging the women of the place with abuse to dance against them with
+uplifted garments. To the foreigners there was little to distinguish the
+festival of Bastît from many other Egyptian ceremonies of the kind; it
+consisted of a solemn procession, accompanied by the singing of hymns
+and playing of harps, dancing and sacrifices, but for weeks before and
+after it the town was transformed into one vast pleasure-ground. The
+people of Bubastis took a certain pride in declaring that more wine was
+drunk in it during a single day than during the rest of the whole year.
+Butô enjoyed exceptional popularity among the Greeks in Egypt. Its
+patron goddess, the Isis who took refuge amid the pools in a moving
+thicket of reeds and lotus, in order that she might protect her son
+Horus from the jealousy of Typhon, reminded them of the story of Latona
+and the cycle of the Delian legends; they, visited her in crowds,
+and her oracle became to most of them what that of Delos was to their
+brethren in Europe. At Butô they found a great temple, similar to all
+Egyptian temples, a shrine in which the statues of the goddess continued
+her mysterious existence, and, in the midst of the sacred lake, the
+little island of Khemmis, which was said to float hither and thither
+upon the waters. Herodotus did not venture to deny this absolutely,
+but states that he had never seen it change its position or even stir:
+perhaps his incredulity may have been quickened by the fact that this
+miracle had already been inquired into by Hecatasus of Miletus, an
+author who was his pet aversion. The priests of Butô declared that their
+prophets had foretold everything that had happened for a long time past,
+and for each event they had a version which redounded to the credit of
+their goddess: she had shown Pheron how he might recover his sight,
+had foretold how long the reign of Mykerinos would last, had informed
+Psammetichus that he would be saved by men of brass rising out of the
+sea, and had revealed to Cambyses that he should die in a town named
+Ecbatana. Her priests had taken an active part in the revolt of
+Khabbîsha against Darius, and had lost a goodly portion of their
+treasure and endowments for their pains. They still retained their
+prestige, however, in spite of the underhand rivalry of the oracle
+of Zeus Ammon. The notaries of the Libyan deity could bring forward
+miracles even more marvellous than those credited to the Egyptian
+Latona, and in the case of many of the revolutions which had taken place
+on the banks of the Nile, a version of the legend in his honour was
+circulated side by side with the legends of Butô. The latter city lay
+on the very outskirts of one of those regions which excited the greatest
+curiosity among travellers, the almost inaccessible Bucolicum, where,
+it was said, no rebel ever failed to find a safe refuge from his alien
+pursuers. The Egyptians of the marshes were a very courageous race,
+but savage, poor, and ill fed. They drank nothing but beer, and obtained
+their oil not from the olive, but from the castor-oil plant,* and having
+no corn, lived on the seeds or roots of the lotus, or even on the stalks
+of the papyrus, which they roasted or boiled.
+
+     * It seems, moreover, that this custom was not confined to
+     the Delta; Herodotus, in contrasting the custom of Bucolicum
+     with that of the rest of Egypt, was evidently thinking of
+     Sais, Memphis, and other great cities in which he had
+     resided, where foreign olive oil obtained from Greece or
+     Syria was generally used.
+
+Fish was their staple article of food, and this they obtained in
+considerable quantity from Lake Menzaleh, the lagoons along the coast,
+and the canals or pools left by the inundation. But little was known
+of their villages or monuments, and probably they were not worth the
+trouble of a visit after those of the cities of the plain: endless
+stories were told of feats of brigandage and of the mysterious
+hiding-places which these localities offered to every outlaw, one of the
+most celebrated being the isle of Elbô, where the blind Anysis defied
+the power of Ethiopia for thirty years, and in which the first Amyrtasus
+found refuge. With the exception of a few merchants or adventurers
+who visited them with an eye to gain, most travellers coming from or
+returning to Asia avoided their territory, and followed the military
+road along the Pelusiac arm of the Nile from Pehisium to Daphno or Zalu,
+and from Daphnæ or Zalu to Bubastis. A little below Kerkasoron, near
+the apex of the Delta, the pyramids stood out on the horizon, looking
+insignificant at first, but afterwards so lofty that, during the period
+of inundation, when the whole valley, from the mountains of Arabia to
+those of Libya, was nothing but one vast river, a vessel seemed to
+sail in their shadow for a long time before it reached their base. The
+traveller passed Heliopolis on his left with its temple of the Sun,
+next the supposed sources of the Northern Nile, the quarries of the Red
+Mountain, and then entering at length the Nile itself, after a journey
+of some hours, came to anchor by the quays of Memphis.
+
+To the Greeks of that time, Memphis was very much what Cairo is to
+us, viz. the typical Oriental city, the quintessence and chief
+representative of ancient Egypt. In spite of the disasters which had
+overwhelmed it during the last few centuries, it was still a very
+beautiful city, ranking with Babylon as one of the largest in the world.
+Its religious festivals, especially those in honour of Apis, attracted
+numberless pilgrims to it at certain seasons of the year, and hosts of
+foreigners, recruited from every imaginable race of the old continent,
+resorted to it for purposes of trade. Most of the nationalities who
+frequented it had a special quarter, which was named after them; the
+Phoenicians occupied the _Tyrian Camp_, the Greeks and Carians the
+_Hellenic Wall and Carian Wall_, and there were Oaromemphites or
+Hellenomemphites side by side with the native inhabitants. A Persian
+garrison was stationed within the White Wall, ready to execute the
+satrap’s orders in the event of rebellion, and could have held out for
+a long time even after the rest of the country had fallen into the hands
+of the insurgents. Animals which one would scarcely have expected
+to find in the streets of a capital, such as cows, sheep, and goats,
+wandered about unheeded in the most crowded thoroughfares; for the
+common people, instead of living apart from their beasts, as the Greeks
+did, stabled them in their own houses. Nor was this the only custom
+which must have seemed strange in the eyes of a newly arrived visitor,
+for the Egyptians might almost have been said to make a point of doing
+everything differently from other nation’s. The baker, seen at the
+kneading-trough inside his shop, worked the dough with his foot; on the
+other hand, the mason used no trowel in applying his mortar, and the
+poorer classes scraped up handfuls of mud mixed with dung when they had
+occasion to repair the walls of their hovels. In Greece, even the very
+poorest retired to their houses and ate with closed doors; the Egyptians
+felt no repugnance at eating and drinking in the open air, declaring
+that unbecoming and improper acts should be performed in secret, but
+seemly acts in public. The first blind alley they came to, a recess
+between two hovels, the doorstep of a house or temple, any of these
+seemed to them a perfectly natural place to dine in. Their bill of
+fare was not a sumptuous one. A sort of flat pancake somewhat bitter in
+taste, and made--not of corn or barley--but of spelt, a little oil, an
+onion or a leek, with an occasional scrap of meat or poultry, washed
+down by a jug of beer or wine; there was nothing here to tempt the
+foreigner, and, besides, it would not have been thought right for him
+to invite himself. A Greek who lived on the flesh of the cow was looked
+upon as unclean in the highest degree; no Egyptian would have thought of
+using the same pot or knife with him, or of kissing him on the mouth by
+way of greeting. Moreover, Egyptian etiquette did not tolerate the same
+familiarities as the Greek: two friends on catching sight of one another
+paused before they met, bowed, then clasped one another round the knees
+or pretended to do so. Young people gave way to an old man, or, if
+seated, rose to let him pass. The traveller recalled the fact that the
+Spartans behaved in the same way, and approved this mark of deference;
+but nothing in his home-life had prepared him for the sight of
+respectable women coming and going as they pleased, without escort and
+unveiled, carrying burdens on their shoulders (whereas the men carried
+them on their heads), going to market, keeping stalls or shops, while
+their husbands or fathers stayed comfortably at home, wove cloth,
+kneaded the potter’s clay or turned the wheel, and worked at their
+trades; no wonder that they were ready to believe that the man was the
+slave, and the wife the mistress of the family. Some historians traced
+the origin of these customs back to Osiris, others only as far as
+Sesostris: Sesostris was the last resource of Greek historians when they
+got into difficulties. The city was crowded with monuments; there was
+the temple of the Phoenician Astarte, in which priests of Syrian descent
+had celebrated the mysteries of the great goddess ever since the days
+of the XVIIIth dynasty; then there was the temple of Râ, the temple of
+Amon, the temple of Tamu, the temple of Bastît, and the temple of Isis.*
+
+     * This list is taken mainly from one of the mutilated
+     letters found on the back of the _Sallier Papyrus_. The
+     Phoenician Astarte, called a foreign Aphrodite by Herodotus,
+     was regarded by the Egyptians as a counterpart of Bastît,
+     lady of Onkhtoui.
+
+The temple of Phtah, as yet intact, provided the visitor with a
+spectacle scarcely less admirable than that offered by the temple of the
+Theban Amon at Karnak. The kings had modified the original plan as each
+thought best, one adding obelisks or colossal statues, another a pylon,
+a third a pillared hall. Completed in this way by the labours of a score
+of dynasties, it formed, as it were, a microcosm of Egyptian history, in
+which each image, inscription and statue, aroused the attention of the
+curious. They naturally desired to learn who were the strangely dressed
+races shown struggling in a battle scene, the name of the king who had
+conquered them, and the reasons which had led him to construct this or
+that part of a monument, and there were plenty of busybodies ready to
+satisfy, as far as they could, the curiosity of visitors. Interpreters
+were at hand who bartered such information as they possessed, and
+the modern traveller who has had occasion to employ the services of a
+dragoman will have no difficulty in estimating the value of intelligence
+thus hawked about in ancient times. Priests of the lower class,
+doorkeepers and sacristans were trained to act as _ciceroni_, and knew
+the main outlines of the history of the temple in which they lived.
+Menés planned it, Moeris added the northern propylæ, Ehampsinitus those
+on the west, Psammetichus the south, Asychis those on the east, the most
+noteworthy of them all. A native of Memphis, born at the foot of the
+pyramids, had been familiar with the names of Menés and Cheops from
+childhood; he was consequently apt to attribute to them everything of
+importance achieved by the Pharaohs of the old days. Menés had built the
+temple, Menés had founded the city, Menés had created the soil on
+which the city stood, and preserved it from floods by his dykes. The
+thoughtful traveller would assent, for had he not himself observed the
+action of the mud; a day’s journey from the coast one could not let down
+a plummet without drawing it up covered with a blackish slime, a clear
+proof that the Nile continued to gain upon the sea. Menés, at all
+events, had really existed; but as to Asychis, Moris, Proteus, Pheron,
+and most of the characters glibly enumerated by Herodotus, it would be
+labour lost to search for their names among the inscriptions; they are
+mere puppets of popular romance, some of their names, such as Pirâui or
+Pruti, being nothing more than epithets employed by the story-tellers to
+indicate in general terms the heroes of their tales. We can understand
+how strangers, placed at the mercy of their dragoman, were misled by
+this, and tempted to transform each title into a man, taking Pruti and
+Pirâui to be Pharaoh Proteus and Pharaoh Pheron, each of them celebrated
+for his fabulous exploits. The guides told Herodotus, and Herodotus
+retails to us, as sober historical facts, the remedy employed by this
+unhistorical Pheron in order to recover his sight; the adventures of
+Paris and Helen at the court of Proteus,* and the droll tricks played by
+a thief at the expense of the simple Ehampsinitus.
+
+     * Some dragomans identified the Helen of the Homeric legend
+     with the “foreign Aphrodite” who had a temple in the Tyrian
+     quarter at Memphis, and who was really a Semitic divinity.
+
+[Illustration: 359.jpg THE STEP PYRAMID SEEN FROM THE GROVE OP PALM
+TREES TO THE NORTH OF SAQQARAH]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Haussoullier.
+
+The excursions made by the Greek traveller in the environs of Memphis
+were very similar to those taken by modern visitors to Cairo: on the
+opposite bank of the Nile there was Heliopolis with its temple of Râ,
+then there were the quarries of Turah, which had been worked from time
+immemorial, yet never exhausted, and from which the monuments he had
+been admiring, and the very Pyramids themselves had been taken stone by
+stone.*
+
+     * These are “the quarries in the Arabian Mountain,”
+      mentioned by Herodotus without indication of the local name.
+
+The Sphinx probably lay hidden beneath the sand, and the nearest
+Pyramids, those at Saqqarah, were held in small esteem by visitors;*
+they were told as they passed by that the step Pyramid was the most
+ancient of all, having been erected by Uenephes, one of the kings of the
+first dynasty, and they asked no further questions.
+
+     * Herodotus does not mention it, nor does any other writer
+     of the Greek period.
+
+Their whole curiosity was reserved for the three giants at Gizeh and
+their inmates, Cheops, Chephren, Mykerinos, and the fair Nitokris with
+the rosy cheeks. Through all the country round, at Heliopolis, and even
+in the Fayum itself, they heard the same names that had been dinned into
+their ears at Memphis; the whole of the monuments were made to fit into
+a single cycle of popular history, and what they learned at one place
+completed, or seemed to complete, what they had learned at another.
+
+I cannot tell whether many of them cared to stray much beyond Lake
+Moris: the repressive measures of Ochus had, as it would appear,
+interrupted for a time the regular trade which, ever since the Saite
+kings of the XXVIth dynasty, had been carried on by the Greeks with the
+Oases, by way of Abydos. A stranger who ventured as far as the Thebaid
+would have found himself in the same plight as a European of the last
+century who undertook to reach the first cataract. Their point
+of departure--Memphis or Cairo--was very much the same; their
+destinations--Elephantine and Assuan--differed but little. They employed
+the same means of transport, for, excepting the cut of the sails, the
+modern dahabeah is an exact counterpart of the pleasure and passenger
+boats shown on the monuments. Lastly, they set out at the same time of
+year, in November or December, after the floods had subsided. The same
+length of time was required for the trip; it took a month to reach
+Assuan from Cairo if the wind-were favourable, and if only such
+stoppages were made as were strictly necessary for taking in fresh
+provisions. Pococke, having left Cairo on the 6th of December, 1737,
+about midday, was at Akhmîm by the 17th. He set sail again on the 18th,
+stayed at Thebes from the 13th of January, 1738, till the 17th, and
+finally moored at Assuan on the evening of January 20th, making in
+all forty-five days, fourteen of which were spent at various
+stopping-places. If the diary of a Greek excursionist or tourist had
+come down to us, we should probably find in it entries of a very similar
+kind.* The departure from Memphis would take place in November or
+December; ten or twelve days later the traveller would find himself
+at Panopolis;** from Panopolis to Elephantine, stopping at Coptos and
+Thebes, would take about a month, allowing time for a stay at Thebes,
+and returning to Memphis in February or March.
+
+     * Herodotus fixes twenty days for the voyage from Sais to
+     Elephantine. This period of time must be probably correct,
+     since at the present day dahabeahs constantly run from Cairo
+     to the second cataract and back in two months, including
+     stoppages of ten days to a fortnight for seeing the
+     monuments. The twenty days of Herodotus represent the
+     minimum duration of the voyage, without taking into account
+     the stoppages and accidents which often delay sailing
+     vessels on the Nile. Nine days, which Herodotus gives as the
+     time for reaching Thebes, is not sufficient, if the voyage
+     is undertaken in the usual way, stopping every evening for
+     the night; but it would be possible if the navigation were
+     uninterrupted day and night. This is now rarely done, but it
+     might have been frequent in ancient times, especially in the
+     service of the State.
+
+     ** It would seem clear that Herodotus stopped at Panopolis
+     and had communications with the people of the town.
+     [Panopolis or Khemmis is the present Ekhmîm.--Tr.]
+
+[Illustration: 362a.jpg LONG STRINGS OF LADEN VESSELS]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Gautier.
+
+The greater part of the time was employed in getting from one point to
+another, and the necessity of taking advantage of a favourable wind in
+going up the river, often obliged the travellers to neglect more than
+one interesting locality.
+
+[Illustration: 302b.jpg THE VAST SHEET OF WATER IN THE MIDDAY HEAT]
+
+The Greek was not so keenly alive to the picturesqueness of the scenes
+through which he passed as the modern visitor, and in the account of
+his travels he took no note of the long lines of laden boats going up or
+down stream, nor of the vast sheet of water glowing in the midday sun,
+nor of the mountains honeycombed with tombs and quarries, at the foot of
+which he would be sailing day after day. What interested him above all
+things was information with regard to the sources of the immense river
+itself, and the reasons for its periodic inundation, and, according to
+the mental attitude impressed on him by his education, he accepted the
+mythological solution offered by the natives, or he sought for a more
+natural one in the physical lore of his own _savants_: thus he was told
+that the Nile took its rise at Elephantine, between the two rocks called
+Krôphi and Môphi, and in showing them to him his informant would add
+that Psammetichus I. had attempted to sound the depth of the river at
+this point, but had failed to fathom it. At the few places where the
+pilot of the barque put in to port, the population showed themselves
+unfriendly, and refused to hold any communication with the Greeks.
+
+[Illustration: 363.jpg the mountains honeycombed with tombs AND
+Quarries]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Gautier.
+
+The interpreters, who were almost all natives of the Delta, were not
+always familiar with the people and customs of the Said, and felt almost
+as completely foreign at Thebes as did their employers. Their office
+was confined to translating the information furnished by the inhabitants
+when the latter were sufficiently civilised to hold communication with
+the travellers. What most astonished Herodotus at Panopolis was the
+temple and the games held in honour, so he believed, of Perseus, the son
+of Danaë. These exercises terminated in an attempt to climb a regular
+“greasy pole” fixed in the ground, and strengthened right and left by
+three rows of stays attached to the mast at different heights; as for
+Perseus, he was the ithyphallic god of the locality, Mînu himself, one
+of whose epithets--Pehresu, the runner--was confounded by the Greek ear
+with the name of the hero. The dragomans, enlarging on this mistaken
+identity, imagined that the town was the birthplace of Danaos and
+Lyncseus; that Perseus, returning from Libya with the head of Medusa,
+had gone out of his way to visit the cradle of his family, and that he
+had instituted the games in remembrance of his stay there. Thebes had
+become the ghost of its former self; the Persian governors had neglected
+the city, and its princesses and their ministers were so impoverished
+that they were unable to keep up its temples and palaces. Herodotus
+scarcely mentions it, and we can hardly wonder at it: he had visited
+the still flourishing Memphis, where the temples were cared for and
+were filled with worshippers. What had Thebes to show him in the way of
+marvels which he had not already seen, and that, too, in a better state
+of preservation? His Theban ciceroni also told him the same stories that
+he had heard in Lower Egypt, and he states that their information agreed
+in the main with that which he had received at Memphis and Heliopolis,
+which made it unnecessary to repeat it at length. Two or three things
+only appeared to him worthy of mention. His admiration was first roused
+by the 360 statues of the high priests of Amon which had already excited
+the wonder of his rival Hecataeus; he noted that all these personages
+were, without exception, represented as mere men, each the son of
+another man, and he took the opportunity of ridiculing the vanity of his
+compatriots, who did not hesitate to inscribe the name of a god at the
+head of their genealogies, removed by some score of generations only
+from their own. On the other hand, the temple servitors related to him
+how two Theban priestesses, carried off by the Phoenicians and sold, one
+in Libya and the other in Greece, had set up the first oracles known
+in those two countries: Herodotus thereupon remembered the story he had
+heard in Epirus of two black doves which had flown away from Thebes, one
+towards the Oasis of Ammon, the other in the direction of Dodona; the
+latter had alighted on an old beech tree, and in a human voice had
+requested that a temple consecrated to Zeus should be founded on the
+spot.*
+
+     * This indicates a confusion in the minds of the Egyptian
+     dragomans with the two brooding birds of Osiris, Isis and
+     Nephthys, considered as _Zarait_, that is to say, as two
+     birds of a different species, according to the different
+     traditions either vultures, rooks, or doves.
+
+Herodotus is quite overcome with joy at the thought that Greek
+divination could thus be directly traced to that of Egypt, for like most
+of his contemporaries, he felt that the Hellenic cult was ennobled by
+the fact of its being derived from the Egyptian. The traveller on the
+Nile had to turn homewards on reaching Elephantine, as that was the
+station of the last Persian garrison. Nubia lay immediately beyond the
+cataract, and the Ethiopians at times crossed the frontier and carried
+their raids as far as Thebes. Elephantine, like Assuan at the present
+day, was the centre of a flourishing trade. Here might be seen
+Kushites from Napata or Meroë, negroes from the Upper Nile and the Bahr
+el-Ghazal, and Ammonians, from all of whom the curious visitor might
+glean information while frequenting the bazaars. The cataract was
+navigable all the year round, and the natives in its vicinity enjoyed
+the privilege of piloting freight boats through its difficult channel.
+It took four days to pass through it, instead of the three, or even
+two, which suffice at the present day. Above it, the Nile spread out
+and resembled a lake dotted over with islands, several of which, such
+as Phike and Biggeh, contained celebrated temples, which were as much
+frequented by the Ethiopians as by the Egyptians.
+
+Correctly speaking, it was not Egypt herself that the Greeks saw,
+but her external artistic aspect and the outward setting of Egyptian
+civilisation. The vastness of her monuments, the splendour of her tombs,
+the pomp of her ceremonies, the dignity and variety of her religious
+formulas, attracted their curiosity and commanded their respect: the
+wisdom of the Egyptians had passed into a proverb with them, as it had
+with the Hebrews. But if they had penetrated behind the scenes, they
+would have been obliged to acknowledge that beneath this attractive
+exterior there was hopeless decay. As with all creatures when they have
+passed their prime, Egypt had begun to grow old, and was daily losing
+her elasticity and energy. Her spirit had sunk into a torpor, she
+had become unresponsive to her environment, and could no longer adapt
+herself to the form she had so easily acquired in her youth: it was as
+much as she could do to occupy fully the narrower limits to which she
+had been reduced, and to maintain those limits unbroken. The instinct
+which made her shrink from the intrusion of foreign customs and ideas,
+or even mere contact with nations of recent growth, was not the mere
+outcome of vanity. She realised that she maintained her integrity only
+by relying on the residue of her former solidarity and on the force of
+custom. The slightest disturbance of the equilibrium established among
+her members, instead of strengthening her, would have robbed her of the
+vigour she still possessed, and brought about her dissolution.
+
+[Illustration: 367.jpg DARIUS III.]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin in the Cabinet des
+     Médailles.
+
+She owed whatever activity she possessed to impulses imparted to her by
+the play of her ancient mechanism--a mechanism so stable in its action,
+and so ingeniously constructed, that it had still a reserve of power
+within it sufficient to keep the whole in motion for centuries, provided
+there was no attempt to introduce new wheels among the old. She had
+never been singularly distinguished for her military qualities; not that
+she was cowardly, and shrank from facing death, but because she lacked
+energy and enthusiasm for warlike enterprise. The tactics and armaments
+by which she had won her victories up to her prime, had at length become
+fetters which she was no longer inclined to shake off, and even if she
+was still able to breed a military caste, she was no longer able to
+produce armies fit to win battles without the aid of mercenaries. In
+order to be successful in the field, she had to associate with her own
+troops recruits from other countries--Libyans, Asiatics, and Greeks, who
+served to turn the scale. The Egyptians themselves formed a compact body
+in this case, and bearing down upon the enemy already engaged by the
+mercenaries, broke through his ranks by their sheer weight, or, if they
+could not accomplish this, they stood their ground bravely, taking to
+flight only when the vacancies in their ranks showed them that further
+resistance was impossible. The machinery of government, like the
+organisation of their armies, had become antiquated and degenerate.
+
+[Illustration: 368.jpg AN ELEPHANT ARMED FOR WAR]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a little terra-cotta group from
+     Myrrhina now in the Louvre. This object dates from the time
+     of the kings of Pergamos, and the soldier round whom the
+     elephant winds his trunk in order to dash him to the ground
+     is a Gaul of Asia Minor.
+
+The nobility were as turbulent as in former times, and the royal
+authority was as powerless now as of old to assert itself in the absence
+of external help, or when treason was afoot among the troops. Religion
+alone maintained its ascendency, and began to assume to itself
+the loyalty once given to the Pharaoh, and the devotion previously
+consecrated to the fatherland. The fellahîn had never fully realised the
+degradation involved in serving a stranger, and what they detested in
+the Persian king was not exactly the fact that he was a Persian. Their
+national pride, indeed, always prompted them to devise some means
+of connecting the foreign monarch with their own solar line, and to
+transform an Achæmenian king into a legitimate Pharaoh. That which was
+especially odious to them in a Cambyses or an Ochus was the disdain
+which such sovereigns displayed for their religion, and the persecution
+to which they subjected the immortals. They accustomed themselves
+without serious repining to have no longer one of their own race upon
+the throne, and to behold their cities administered by Asiatics, but
+they could not understand why the foreigner preferred his own gods,
+and would not admit Amon, Phtah, Horus, and Râ to the rank of supreme
+deities. Ochus had, by his treatment of the Apis and the other divine
+animals, put it out of his power ever to win their good will. His
+brutality had made an irreconcilable enemy of that state which alone
+gave signs of vitality among the nations of the decaying East. This was
+all the more to be regretted, since the Persian empire, in spite of the
+accession of power which it had just manifested, was far from having
+regained the energy which had animated it, not perhaps in the time
+of Darius, but at all events under the first Xerxes. The army and the
+wealth of the country were doubtless still intact--an army and a revenue
+which, in spite of all losses, were still the largest in the world--but
+the valour of the troops was not proportionate to their number. The
+former prowess of the Persians, Medians, Bactrians, and other tribes of
+Iran showed no degeneracy: these nations still produced the same race
+of brave and hardy foot-soldiers, the same active and intrepid horsemen;
+but for a century past there had not been the improvements either in
+the armament of the troops or in the tactics of the generals which were
+necessary to bring them up to the standard of excellence of the Greek
+army. The Persian king placed great faith in extraordinary military
+machines. He believed in the efficacy of chariots armed with scythes;
+besides this, his relations with India had shown him what use his
+Oriental neighbours made of elephants, and having determined to employ
+these animals, he had collected a whole corps of them, from which he.
+hoped great things. In spite of the addition of these novel recruits, it
+was not on the Asiatic contingents that he chiefly relied in the event
+of war, but on the mercenaries who’ were hired at great expense, and who
+formed the chief support of his power. From the time of Artaxerxes II.
+onwards, it was the Greek hoplites and peltasts who had always decided
+the issue of the Persian battles. The expeditions both by land and
+sea had been under the conduct of Athenian or Spartan generals--Conon,
+Chabrias, Iphi-crates, Agesilas, Timotheus, and their pupils; and again
+also it was to the Greeks--to the Rhodian Mentor and to, Memnon--that
+Ochus had owed his successes. The older nations--Egypt, Syria, Chaldæa,
+and Elam--had all had their day of supremacy; they had declined in the
+course of centuries, and Assyria had for a short time united them under
+her rule. On the downfall of Assyria, the Iranians had succeeded to
+her heritage, and they had built up a single empire comprising all the
+states which had preceded them in Western Asia; but decadence had fallen
+upon them also, and when they had been masters for scarcely two short
+centuries, they were in their turn threatened with destruction. Their
+rule continued to be universal, not by reason of its inherent vigour,
+but on account of the weakness of their subjects and neighbours, and a
+determined attack on any of the frontiers of the empire would doubtless
+have resulted in its overthrow.
+
+Greece herself was too demoralised to cause Darius any grave anxiety.
+Not only had she renounced all intention of attacking the great king in
+his own domain, as in the days of the Athenian hegemony, when she could
+impose her own conditions of peace, but her perpetual discords had
+yielded her an easy prey to Persia, and were likely to do so more and
+more. The Greek cities chose the great king as the arbiter in their
+quarrels; they vied with each other in obtaining his good will, his
+subsidies in men and vessels, and his darics: they armed or disarmed at
+his command, and the day seemed at hand when they would become a normal
+dependency of Persia, little short of a regular satrapy like Asiatic
+Hellas. One chance of escape from such a fate remained to them--if one
+or other of them, or some neighbouring state, could acquire such an
+ascendency as to make it possible to unite what forces remained to them
+under one rule. Macedonia in particular, having hitherto kept aloof from
+the general stream of politics, had at this juncture begun to shake
+off its lethargy, and had entered with energy into the Hellenic concert
+under the auspices of its king, Philip. Bagoas recognised the danger
+which threatened his people in the person of this ambitious sovereign,
+and did not hesitate to give substantial support to the adversaries of
+the Macedonian prince; Chersobleptes of Thrace and the town of Perinthus
+receiving from him such succour as enabled them to repulse Philip
+successfully (340). Unfortunately, while Bagoas was endeavouring
+to avert danger in this quarter, his rivals at court endeavoured to
+prejudice the mind of the king against him, and their intrigues were so
+successful that he found himself ere long condemned to the alternative
+of murdering his sovereign or perishing himself. He therefore poisoned
+Ochus, to avoid being assassinated or put to the torture, and placed on
+the throne Arses, the youngest of the king’s sons, while he caused the
+remaining royal children to be put to death (336).* Egypt hailed
+this tragic end as a mark of the vengeance of the gods whom Ochus had
+outraged. A report was spread that the eunuch was an Egyptian, that he
+had taken part in the murder of the Apis under fear of death, but that
+when he was sure of his own safety he had avenged the sacrilege. As soon
+as the poison had taken effect, it was said he ate a portion of the dead
+body and threw the remainder to the cats: he then collected the bones
+and made them into whistles and knife-handles.**
+
+     * Plutarch calls the successor of Ochus Oarses, which
+     recalls the name which Dinon gives to Artaxerxes II.
+     Diodorus says that Bagoas destroyed the whole family of
+     Ochus, but he is mistaken. Arrian mentions a son of Ochus
+     about 330, and several other members of the royal Achæmenian
+     race are known to have been living in the time of Alexander.
+
+     ** The body of the enemy thrown to the cats to be devoured
+     is a detail added by the popular imagination, which crops up
+     again in the Tale of Satni Khâmois.
+
+Ochus had astonished his contemporaries by the rapidity with which he
+had re-established the integrity of the empire; they were pleased to
+compare him with the heroes of his race, with Cyrus, Cambyses, and
+Darius. But to exalt him to such a level said little for their moral or
+intellectual perceptions, since in spite of his victories he was merely
+a despot of the ordinary type; his tenacity degenerated into brutal
+obstinacy, his severity into cruelty, and if he obtained successes,
+they were due rather to his generals and his ministers than to his own
+ability. His son Arses was at first content to be a docile instrument
+in the hands of Bagoas; but when the desire for independence came to him
+with the habitual exercise of power, and he began to chafe at his bonds,
+the eunuch sacrificed him to his own personal safety, and took his life
+as he had done that of his father in the preceding year (336). So
+many murders following each other in rapid succession had considerably
+reduced the Achsemenian family, and Bagoas for a moment was puzzled
+where to find a king: he at length decided in favour of Codomannos, who
+according to some was a great-grandson of Darius II., but according to
+others was not of the royal line, but had in his youth been employed as
+a courier. He had distinguished himself in the hostilities against the
+Casduians, and had been nominated satrap of Armenia by Ochus as a reward
+for his bravery. He assumed at his accession the name of Darius; brave,
+generous, clement, and possessed with an ardent desire to do right,
+he was in every way the superior of his immediate predecessors, and he
+deserved to have reigned at a time when the empire was less threatened.
+Bagoas soon perceived that his new protégé, whose conduct he had
+reckoned on directing as he pleased, intended to govern for himself, and
+he therefore attempted to get rid of him; Bagoas was, however, betrayed
+by his accomplices, and compelled to drink the poison which he had
+prepared for Darius. These revolutions had distracted the attention of
+the court of Susa from the events which were taking place on the shores
+of the Ægean, and Philip had taken advantage of them to carry into
+effect the designs against Persia which he had been long meditating.
+After having been victorious against the Greeks, he had despatched an
+army of ten thousand men into Asia under the command of Parmenion and
+Attains (336). We may ask if it were not he who formed the project of
+universal conquest which was so soon to be associated with the name of
+his son Alexander. He was for the moment content to excite revolt among
+the cities of the Ægean littoral, and restore to them that liberty of
+which they had been deprived for nearly a century. He himself followed
+as soon as these lost children of Greece had established themselves
+firmly in Asia. The story of his assassination on the eve of his
+departure is well known (336), and of the difficulties which compelled
+Alexander to suspend the execution of the plans which his father had
+made. Darius attempted to make use of the respite thus afforded him by
+fortune; he adopted the usual policy of liberally bribing one part of
+Greece to take up arms against Macedonia--a method which was at first
+successful. While Alexander was occupied in the destruction of Thebes,
+the Rhodian general Memnon, to whom had been entrusted the defence of
+Asia Minor, forced the invaders to entrench themselves in the Troad. If
+the Persian fleet had made its appearance in good time, and had kept
+an active watch over the straits, the advance-guard of the Macedonians
+would have succumbed to the enemy before the main body of the troops
+had succeeded in joining them in Asia, and it was easy to foretell
+what would have been the fate of an enterprise inaugurated by such
+a disaster. Persia, however, had not yet learnt to seize the crucial
+moment for action: her vessels were still arming when the enemy made
+their appearance on the European shore of Hellespont, and Alexander had
+ample time to embark and disembark the whole of his army without having
+to draw his sword from the scabbard. He was accompanied by about thirty
+thousand foot soldiers and four thousand five hundred horse; the finest
+troops commanded by the best generals of the time--Parmenion, his two
+sons Nikanor and Philotas, Crater, Clitos, Antigonus, and others
+whose names are familiar to us all; a larger force than Memnon and his
+subordinates were able to bring up to oppose him, at all events at
+the opening of the campaign, during the preliminary operations which
+determined the success of the enterprise.
+
+The first years of the campaign seem like a review of the countries
+and nations which in bygone times had played the chief part in Oriental
+history. An engagement at the fords of the Granicus, only a few days
+after the crossing of the Hellespont, placed Asia Minor at the mercy
+of the invader (334). Mysia, Lydia, Caria, and Lycia tendered their
+submission, Miletus and Halicarnassus being the only towns to offer any
+resistance. In the spring of 333, Phrygia followed the general movement,
+in company with Cappadocia and Cilicia; these represented the Hittite
+and Asianic world, the last representatives of which thus escaped from
+the influences of the East and passed under the Hellenic supremacy.
+
+[Illustration: 376.jpg THE BATTLEFIELD OF ISSUS]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Lortet.
+
+At the foot of the Amanus, Alexander came into conflict not only with
+the generals of Darius, but with the great king himself. The Amanus, and
+the part of the Taurus which borders on the Euphrates valley, had always
+constituted the line of demarcation between the domain of the races of
+the Asianic peninsula and that of the Semitic peoples.
+
+[Illustration: 377.jpg A BAS-RELIEF ON A SIDONIAN SARCOPHAGUS]
+
+A second battle near the Issus, at the entrance to the Cilician gates,
+cleared the ground, and gave the conqueror time to receive the homage of
+the maritime provinces. Both Northern and Coele-Syria submitted to him
+from Samosata to Damascus.
+
+[Illustration: 379.jpg THE ISTHMUS OF TYRE AT THE PRESENT DAY]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a sketch by Lortet.
+
+The less important towns of Phonicia, such as Arvad, Byblos, Sidon, and
+those of Cyprus, followed their example; but Tyre closed its gates,
+and trusted to its insular position for the preservation of its
+independence, as it had done of old in the time of Sennacherib and of
+Nebuchadrezzar. It was not so much a scrupulous feeling of loyalty which
+emboldened her to take this step, as a keen realisation of what her
+conquest by the Macedonian would entail. It was entirely-owing to Persia
+that she had not succumbed in all parts of the Eastern Mediterranean in
+that struggle with Greece which had now lasted for centuries: Persia had
+not only arrested the progress of Hellenic colonisation in Cyprus, but
+had given a fresh impulse to that of Tyre, and Phoenician influence
+had regained its ascendency over a considerable part of the island. The
+surrender of Tyre, therefore, would be equivalent to a Greek victory,
+and would bring about the decay of the city; hence its inhabitants
+preferred hostilities, and they were prolonged in desperation over a
+period of seven months. At the end of that time Alexander succeeded in
+reducing the place by constructing a dyke or causeway, by means of
+which he brought his machines of war up to the foot of the ramparts, and
+filled in the channel which separated the town from the mainland; the
+island thus became a peninsula, and Tyre henceforth was reduced to
+the rank of an ordinary town, still able to maintain her commercial
+activity, but having lost her power as an independent state (332).
+Phoenicia being thus brought into subjection, Judæa and Samaria yielded
+to the conqueror without striking a blow, though the fortress of Gaza
+followed the example set by Tyre, and for the space of two months
+blocked the way to the Delta. Egypt revolted at the approach of her
+liberator, and the rising was so unanimous as to dismay the satrap
+Mazakes, who capitulated at the first summons. Alexander passed the
+winter on the banks of the Nile. Finding that the ancient capitals of
+the country--Thebes, Sais, and even Memphis itself--occupied positions
+which were no longer suited to the exigencies of the times, he founded
+opposite to the island of Pharos, in the township of Eakotis, a city
+to which he gave his own name. The rapid growth of the prosperity of
+Alexandria showed how happy the founder had been in the choice of its
+site: in less than half a century from the date of its foundation, it
+had eclipsed all the other capitals of the Eastern Mediterranean, and
+had become the centre of African Hellenism. While its construction
+was in progress, Alexander, having had opportunities of studying the
+peculiarities and characteristics of the Egyptians, had decided to
+perform the one act which would conciliate the good feeling of the
+natives, and secure for him their fidelity during his wars in the East:
+he selected from among their gods the one who was also revered by the
+Greeks, Zeus-Amnion, and repaired to the Oasis that he might be adopted
+by the deity. As a son of the god, he became a legitimate Pharaoh,
+an Egyptian like themselves, and on returning to Memphis he no longer
+hesitated to adopt the _pschent_ crown with the accompanying ancient
+rites. He returned to Asia early in the year 331, and crossed the
+Euphrates. Darius had attempted to wrest Asia Minor from his grasp, but
+Antigonus, the governor of Phrygia, had dispersed the troops despatched
+for this purpose in 332, and Alexander was able to push forward
+fearlessly into those regions beyond the Euphrates, where the Ten
+Thousand had pursued their victorious march before him. He crossed the
+Tigris about the 20th of September, and a week later fell in with
+his rival in the very heart of Assyria, not far from, the village
+of Gaugamela, where he took up a position which had been previously
+studied, and was particularly suited for the evolutions of cavalry.
+
+[Illustration: 382.jpg THE BATTLE OF ARBELA, FROM THE MOSAIC OF
+HERCULANUM]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph.
+
+At the Granicus and near Issus, the Greek element had played an
+important part among the forces which contested the field; on this
+occasion, however, the great king was accompanied by merely two or three
+thousand mercenaries, while, on the other hand, the whole of Asia seemed
+to have roused herself for a last effort, and brought forward her most
+valiant troops to oppose the disciplined ranks of the Macedonians.
+Persians, Susians, Medes, Armenians, Iranians from Bactriana, Sakae, and
+Indians were all in readiness to do their best, and were accompanied
+by every instrument of military warfare employed in Oriental tactics;
+chariots armed with scythes, the last descendants of the chariotry which
+had dominated all the battle-fields from the time of the XVIIIth Theban
+dynasty down to the latest Sargonids, and, employed side by side with
+these relics of a bygone day, were Indian elephants, now for the first
+time brought into use against European battalions. These picked troops
+sold their lives dearly, but the perfection of the Macedonian arms, and,
+above all, the superiority of the tactics employed by their generals,
+carried the day; the evening of the 30th of September found Darius in
+flight, and the Achæmenian empire crushed by the furious charges of
+Alexander’s squadrons. Babylon fell into their hands a few days later,
+followed by Susa, and in the spring of 330, Ecbatana; and shortly after
+Darius met his end on the way to Media, assassinated by the last of his
+generals.
+
+With his death, Persia sank back into the obscurity from which Cyrus had
+raised her rather more than two centuries previously. With the exception
+of the Medes, none of the nations which had exercised the hegemony of
+the East before her time, not even Assyria, had had at their disposal
+such a wealth of resources and had left behind them so few traces of
+their power. A dozen or so of palaces, as many tombs, a few scattered
+altars and stelæ, remains of epics preserved by the Greeks, fragments of
+religious books, often remodelled, and issuing in the Avesta--when
+we have reckoned up all that remains to us of her, what do we find
+to compare in interest and in extent with the monuments and wealth of
+writings bequeathed to us by Egypt and Chaldæa? The Iranians received
+Oriental civilisation at a time when the latter was in its decline, and
+caught the spirit of decadence in their contact with it. In succeeding
+to the patrimony of the nations they conquered, they also inherited
+their weakness; in a few years they had lost all the vigour of their
+youth, and were barely able to maintain the integrity of the empire
+they had founded. Moreover, the great peoples to whom they succeeded,
+although lacking the vigour necessary for the continuance of their
+independent existence, had not yet sunk so low as to acquiesce in their
+own decay, and resign themselves to allowing their national life to be
+absorbed is that of another power: they believed that they would emerge
+from the crisis, as they had done from so many others, with fresh
+strength, and, as soon as an occasion presented itself, they renewed the
+war against their Iranian suzerain. Prom, the first to the latest of the
+sovereigns bearing the name of Darius, the history of the Achæmenids in
+an almost uninterrupted series of internal wars and provincial revolts.
+The Greeks of Ionia, the Egyptians, Chaldæans, Syrians, and the tribes
+of Asia Minor, all rose one after another, sometimes alone, sometimes
+in concert; some carrying on hostilities for not more than two or
+three years; others, like Egypt, maintaining them for more than half a
+century. They were not discouraged by the reprisals which followed each
+of these rebellions; they again had recourse to arms as soon as there
+seemed the least chance of success, and they renewed the struggle till
+from sheer exhaustion the sword fell from their hand. Persia was worn
+out by this perpetual warfare, in which at the same time each of her
+rivals expended the last relics of their vitality, and when Macedonia
+entered on the scene, both lords and vassals were reduced to such a
+state of prostration, that it was easy to foretell their approaching
+end. The old Oriental world was in its death-throes; but before it
+passed away, the successful audacity of Alexander had summoned Greece to
+succeed to its inheritance.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria,
+Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 9 (of 12), by G. Maspero
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF EGYPT, CHALDÆA ***
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+      History of Egypt, by Maspero, Volume 9
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+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria,
+Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 9 (of 12), by G. Maspero
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: History Of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 9 (of 12)
+
+Author: G. Maspero
+
+Editor: A.H. Sayce
+
+Translator: M.L. McClure
+
+Release Date: December 16, 2005 [EBook #17329]
+Last Updated: September 8, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF EGYPT, CHALDÆA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+Character set: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+</pre>
+
+    <p>
+      <br /> <a name="linkimage-0001" id="linkimage-0001">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/spines.jpg" width="100%" alt="Spines " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0002" id="linkimage-0002">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/cover.jpg" width="100%" alt="Cover " />
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      HISTORY OF EGYPT <br /><br /> CHALDEA, SYRIA, BABYLONIA, AND ASSYRIA
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      By G. MASPERO, <br /><br /> Honorable Doctor of Civil Laws, and Fellow of
+      Queen&rsquo;s College, <br /> Oxford; Member of the Institute and Professor at
+      the College of France
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      Edited by A. H. SAYCE, <br /> Professor of Assyriology, Oxford
+    </h3>
+    <h4>
+      Translated by M. L. McCLURE, <br /> Member of the Committee of the Egypt
+      Exploration Fund
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      CONTAINING OVER TWELVE HUNDRED COLORED PLATES AND ILLUSTRATIONS
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      Volume IX.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      LONDON <br /> THE GROLIER SOCIETY <br /> PUBLISHERS
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/frontispiece.jpg" width="100%" alt="Frontispiece " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /> A Howling Dervish <br /> <br /> <a name="linkimage-0004"      id="linkimage-0004">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/titlepage.jpg" width="100%" alt="Titlepage " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0005" id="linkimage-0005">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/001.jpg" width="100%" alt="001.jpg Page Image " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0006" id="linkimage-0006">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/002.jpg" width="100%" alt="002.jpg Page Image " />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      <i>THE IRANIAN CONQUEST</i>
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <i>THE IRANIAN RELIGIONS&mdash;CYRUS IN LYDIA AND AT BABYLON; CAMBYSES IN
+      EGYPT&mdash;DARIUS AND THE ORGANISATION OF THE EMPIRE.</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>The constitution of the Median empire borrowed from the ancient peoples
+      of the Euphrates: its religion only is peculiar to itself&mdash;Legends
+      concerning Zoroaster, his laws; the Avesta and its history&mdash;Elements
+      contained in it of primitive religion&mdash;The supreme god Ahura-mazâ and
+      his Amêsha-spentas: the Yazatas, the Fravashis&mdash;Angrô-mainyus and his
+      agents, the Daîvas, the Pairîkas, their struggle with Ahura-mazdâ&mdash;The
+      duties of man here below, funerals, his fate after death&mdash;-Worship
+      and temples: fire-altars, sacrifices, the Magi</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Cyrus and the legends concerning his origin: his revolt against
+      Astyages and the fall of the Median empire&mdash;The early years of the
+      reign of Nabonidus: revolutions in Tyre, the taking of Harrân&mdash;The
+      end of the reign of Alyattes, Lydian art and its earliest coinage&mdash;Croesus,
+      his relations with continental Greece, his conquests, his alliances with
+      Babylon and Egypt&mdash;The war between Lydia and Persia: the defeat of
+      the Lydians, the taking of Sardes, the death of Croesus and subsequent
+      legends relating to it&mdash;The submission of the cities of the Asiatic
+      littoral.</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Cyrus in Bactriana and in the eastern regions of the Iranian table-land
+      &mdash;The impression produced on the Chaldæan by his victories; the
+      Jewish exiles, Ezekiel and his dreams of restoration, the new temple, the
+      prophecies against Babylon; general discontent with Nabonidus&mdash;The
+      attach of Cyrus and the battle of Zalzallat, the taking of Babylon and the
+      fall of Nabonidus: the end of the Chaldæan empire and the deliverance of
+      the Jews.</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Egypt under Amasis: building works, support given to the Greeks;
+      Naukratis, its temples, its constitution, and its prosperity&mdash;Preparations
+      for defence and the unpopularity of Amasis with the native Egyptians&mdash;The
+      death of Cyrus and legends relating to it: his palace at Pasargadæ and his
+      tomb&mdash;Cambyses and Smerdis&mdash;The legendary causes of the war with
+      Egypt&mdash;Psammetichus III., the battle of Pelusium; Egypt reduced to a
+      Persian province.</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Cambyses&rsquo; plans for conquest; the abortive expeditions to the oceans of
+      Amnion and Carthage&mdash;The kingdom of Ethiopia, its kings, its customs:
+      the Persians fail to reach Napata, the madness of Cambyses&mdash;The fraud
+      of Gaumâta, the death of Cambyses and the reign of the pseudo-Smerdis, the
+      accession of Darius&mdash;The revolution in Susiana, Chaldæa, and Media:
+      Nebuchadrezzar III. and the fall of Babylon, the death of Orætes, the
+      defeat of Khshatrita, restoration of peace throughout Asia, Egyptian
+      affairs and the re-establishment of the royal power.</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>The organisation of the country and its division into satrapies: the
+      satrap, the military commander, the royal secretary; couriers, main roads,
+      the Eyes and Ears of the king&mdash;The financial system and the
+      provincial taxes: the daric&mdash;Advantages and drawbacks of the system
+      of division into satrapies; the royal guard and the military organisation
+      of the empire&mdash;The conquest of the Hapta-Hindu and the prospect of
+      war with Greece.</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br />
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I&mdash;THE IRANIAN CONQUEST </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkB2HCH0001"> CHAPTER II&mdash;THE LAST DAYS OF THE OLD
+        EASTERN WORLD </a>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br /> <br />
+      </p>
+      <hr />
+      <p>
+        <br /> <br />
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <big><b>List of Illustrations</b></big>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br />
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0001"> Spines </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0002"> Cover </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0004"> Titlepage </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0005"> 001.jpg Page Image </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0006"> 002.jpg Page Image </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0007"> 003.jpg Page Image </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0008"> 012.jpg the Ahura-mazd of The Bas-reliefs Of
+        Persepolis </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0009"> 012b.jpg Hypostyle of Hall Of Xerxes: Detail
+        Of Entablature </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0010"> 013.jpg an Iranian Genius in Form of a Winged
+        Bull </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0011"> 014.jpg Ahura-mazd Bestowing the Tokens of
+        Royalty on An Iranian King </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0012"> 016a.jpg the Moon-god </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0013"> 016b.jpg God of the Wind </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0014"> 017a.jpg Atar the God of Fire </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0015"> 017b.jpg Aurvataspa </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0016"> 017c.jpg Mithra </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0017"> 018.jpg Mylitta-anÂhita </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0018"> 018a.jpg Nana-anÂhita </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0019"> 022.jpg One of the Bad Genii, Subject to
+        AngrÔ-mainyus </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0020"> 023.jpg the King Struggling Against an Evil
+        Genius </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0021"> 031.jpg the Two Iranian Altakrat
+        Nakhsh-Î-rustem </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0022"> 032.jpg the Two Iranian Altars of Murgab </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0023"> 032b.jpg the Occupations of Ani in The
+        Elysian Fields </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0024"> 033.jpg the Sacred Fire Burning on The Altar
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0025"> 039.jpg a Royal Hunting-party in Hun </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0026"> 042.jpg Remains of the Palace Of Ecbatana
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0027"> 050.jpg the Tumulus of Alyattes and The
+        Entrance to The Passage </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0028"> 051.jpg One of the Lydian Ornaments in The
+        Louvre </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0029"> 052.jpg Mould for Jewellery of Lydian Origin
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0030"> 053.jpg a Lydian Funery Couch </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0031"> 054a.jpg Lydian Coin Bearing a Running Fox
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0032"> 054b.jpg Lydian Coin With a Hare </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0033"> 055.jpg Lydian Coins With a Lion and Lion&rsquo;s
+        Head </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0034"> 056a.jpg Coin Bearing Head of Mouflon Goat
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0035"> 056b.jpg Money of Croesus </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0036"> 059.jpg View of the Site and Ruins Of Ephesus
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0037"> 075.jpg Croesus on his Pyre </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0038"> 078.jpg a Persian King Fighting With Greeks
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0039"> 080.jpg the Present Site of Miletus </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0040"> 083.jpg a Lycian City Upon Its Inaccessible
+        Rock </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0041"> 105.jpg Table of the Last Kings Of Ptolemy
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0042"> 111.jpg an Osiris Stretched Full Length on
+        the Ground </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0043"> 112.jpg the Two Goddesses of Law; Ani Adoring
+        Osiris The Trial of the Conscience; Toth and The Feather Of The Law.
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0044"> 113.jpg Amasis in Adoration Before the Bull
+        Apis </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0045"> 114.jpg the Naos of Amasis at Thmuis </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0046"> 120.jpg the Present Site of Naucratis </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0047"> 128.jpg Cyrus the Achaemenian </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0048"> 129.jpg the Tomb Op Cyrus </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0049"> 138.jpg Psammetichus Iii. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0050"> 145.jpg the Naophoros Statuette of The
+        Vatican </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0051"> 147.jpg Ethiopian Gkoup </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0052"> 148.jpg Encampment de Bacharis </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0053"> 159.jpg Darius, Son of Hystaspes </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0054"> 166.jpg Darius Piercing a Rebel With his
+        Lance Before A Group of Four Prisoners </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0055"> 174.jpg Rebels Brought to Darius by
+        Ahura-mazd This Is The Scene Depicted on the Rock of Behistun. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0056"> 175.jpg the Rocks of Behistun </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0057"> 181.jpg Map of the Archaemenian Strapies </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0058"> 186.jpg Street Vender of Curios After the
+        Painting By Gerome. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0059"> 188.jpg Daric of Darius, Son Of Hystaspes
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0060"> 192.jpg Funeral Offerings. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0005"> 197.jpg Page Image </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0006"> 198.jpg Page Image </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0007"> 199.jpg Page Image </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0008"> 209.jpg a Cypriot Chariot </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0009"> 212a.jpg Alexander I. Of Macedon </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0010"> 212b.jpg a Phoenician Galley </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0011"> 214.jpg Map of Marathon </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0012"> 215.jpg the Battle-field of Marathon </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0013"> 219.jpg Darius on the Stele of The Isthmus
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0014"> 220.jpg Walls of the Fortress Of
+        Ditsh-el-qalÂa </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0015"> 221.jpg the Great Temple of Darius at HabÎt
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0016"> 224.jpg Xerxes </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0017"> 227.jpg a Trireme in Motion </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0019"> 238.jpg Map </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0020"> 239.jpg the Battle-field of Plataea </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0021"> 247.jpg Artaxerxes </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0022"> 258.jpg View of the Achaemenian Ruins Of
+        Istakhr </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0023"> 260.jpg the Tomb of Darius </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0024"> 261.jpg the Hill of The Royal Achaemenian
+        Tombs At Nakush-i-rustem </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0025"> 262.jpg One of the Capitals from Susa </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0026"> 262b.jpg Freize of Archers at Suza </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0027"> 263.jpg General Ruins of Persipolis </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0028"> 267.jpg the Propylaea of Xerxes I. At
+        Persepolis </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0029"> 268.jpg Bas-relief of the Staircase Leading
+        to The Apadana of Xerxes </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0030"> 269.jpg the King on his Throne </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0031"> 270.jpg a View of the Apadana Of Susa,
+        Restored </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0032"> 273.jpg Processional Display of Tribute
+        Brought to The King of Persia </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0033"> 276.jpg Darius II. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0034"> 279.jpg Cyrus the Younger </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0035"> 280.jpg Artaxerxes Mnemon </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0036"> 287.jpg Hakoris </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0037"> 291.jpg Pharnabazus </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0038"> 293.jpg Artaxerxes II. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0039"> 296.jpg Datames III. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0040"> 299.jpb Nectanebo I </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0041"> 305.jpg Evagoras II. Of Salamis </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0042"> 312.jpg Table of the Last Egyptian Dynasties
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0043"> 313.jpg Small Temple of Nectanebo, at the
+        Southern Extremity of Philae </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0044"> 314.jpg Naos of Nectanebo in the Temple at
+        Edfu </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0045"> 315.jpg Great Gate of Nectanebo at Karnak
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0046"> 316.jpg Fragment of a Naos Of the Time Of
+        Nectanebo II. In the Bologna Museum </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0047"> 317.jpg One of the Lions in The Vatican </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0048"> 321.jpg Map of the Persian Empire </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0049"> 325.jpg Coins of the Satraps With Aramaean
+        Inscriptions </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0050"> 326.jpg a Lycian Tomb </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0051"> 327b.jpg Statue of Mausolus </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0052"> 327a.jpg Coin of a Lycian King </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0053"> 328.jpg Lycian Sarcophagus Decorated With
+        Greek Carvings </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0054"> 337.jpg Chaldean Seal With Aramaic
+        Inscription </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0055"> 346.jpg Fountain and School of the Mother Of
+        Little Mohamad </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0056"> 348.jpg Modern Mohammedan Shekhs Tombs </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0057"> 349.jpg Part of the Inundation in a Palm
+        Grove </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0058"> 350.jpg Ephemeral Hovels of Clay Or Dried
+        Bricks </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0059"> 359.jpg the Step Pyramid Seen from The Grove
+        Op Palm Trees to the North of Saqqarah </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0060"> 362a.jpg Long Strings of Laden Vessels </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0061"> 362b.jpg the Vast Sheet of Water in The
+        Midday Heat </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0062"> 363.jpg the Mountains Honeycombed With Tombs
+        And Quarries </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0063"> 367.jpg Darius III. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0064"> 368.jpg an Elephant Armed for War </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0065"> 376.jpg the Battlefield of Issus </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0066"> 377.jpg a Bas-relief on A Sidonian
+        Sarcophagus </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0067"> 379.jpg the Isthmus of Tyre at The Present
+        Day </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0068"> 382.jpg the Battle of Arbela, from The
+        Mosaic Of Herculanum </a>
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a> <br /> <a name="linkimage-0007" id="linkimage-0007">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/003.jpg" width="100%" alt="003.jpg Page Image " />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I&mdash;THE IRANIAN CONQUEST
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <i>The Iranian religions&mdash;Cyrus in Lydia and at Babylon: Cambyses in
+      Egypt &mdash;Darius and the organisation of the empire.</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Median empire is the least known of all those which held sway for a
+      time over the destinies of a portion of Western Asia. The reason of this
+      is not to be ascribed to the shortness of its duration: the Chaldæan
+      empire of Nebuchadrezzar lasted for a period quite as brief, and yet the
+      main outlines of its history can be established with some certainty in
+      spite of large blanks and much obscurity. Whereas at Babylon, moreover,
+      original documents abound, enabling us to put together, feature by
+      feature, the picture of its ancient civilisation and of the chronology of
+      its kings, we possess no contemporary monuments of Ecbatana to furnish
+      direct information as to its history. To form any idea of the Median kings
+      or their people, we are reduced to haphazard notices gleaned from the
+      chroniclers of other lands, retailing a few isolated facts, anecdotes,
+      legends, and conjectures, and, as these materials reach us through the
+      medium of the Babylonians or the Greeks of the fifth or sixth century
+      B.C., the picture which we endeavour to compose from them is always
+      imperfect or out of perspective. We seemingly catch glimpses of
+      ostentatious luxury, of a political and military organisation, and a
+      method of government analogous to that which prevailed at later periods
+      among the Persians, but more imperfect, ruder, and nearer to barbarism&mdash;a
+      Persia, in fact, in the rudimentary stage, with its ruling spirit and
+      essential characteristics as yet undeveloped. The machinery of state had
+      doubtless been adopted almost in its entirety from the political
+      organisations which obtained in the kingdoms of Assyria, Elam, and
+      Chaldæa, with which sovereignties the founders of the Median empire had
+      held in turns relations as vassals, enemies, and allies; but once we
+      penetrate this veneer of Mesopotamian civilisation and reach the inner
+      life of the people, we find in the religion they profess&mdash;mingled
+      with some borrowed traits&mdash;a world of unfamiliar myths and dogmas of
+      native origin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The main outlines of this religion were already fixed when the Medes rose
+      in rebellion against Assur-bani-pal; and the very name of <i>Confessor</i>&mdash;Fravartîsh&mdash;applied
+      to the chief of that day, proves that it was the faith of the royal
+      family. It was a religion common to all the Iranians, the Persians as well
+      as the Medes, and legend honoured as its first lawgiver and expounder an
+      ancient prophet named Zarathustra, known to us as Zoroaster.* Most
+      classical writers relegated Zoroaster to some remote age of antiquity&mdash;thus
+      he is variously said to have lived six thousand years before the death of
+      Plato,** five thousand before the Trojan war,*** one thousand before
+      Moses, and six hundred before Xerxes&rsquo; campaign against Athens; while some
+      few only affirmed that he had lived at a comparatively recent period, and
+      made him out a disciple of the philosopher Pythagoras, who flourished
+      about the middle of the fifth century B.C.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The name Zarathustra has been interpreted in a score of
+     different ways. The Greeks sometimes attributed to it the
+     meaning &ldquo;worshipper of the stars,&rdquo; probably by reason of the
+     similarity in sound of the termination &ldquo;-astres&rdquo; of
+     Zoroaster with the word &ldquo;astron.&rdquo; Among modern writers, H.
+     Rawlinson derived it from the Assyrian Zîru-Ishtar, &ldquo;the
+     seed of Ishtar,&rdquo; but the etymology now most generally
+     accepted is that of Burnouf, according to which it would
+     signify &ldquo;the man with gold-coloured camels,&rdquo; the &ldquo;possessor
+     of tawny camels.&rdquo; The ordinary Greek form Zoroaster seems to
+     be derived from some name quite distinct from Zarathustra.
+
+     ** This was, as Pliny records, the opinion of Eudoxus; not
+     Eudoxus of Cnidus, pupil of Plato, as is usually stated, but
+     a more obscure personage, Eudoxus of Rhodes.
+
+     *** This was the statement of Hermodorus.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      According to the most ancient national traditions, he was born in the
+      Aryanem-vaêjô, or, in other words, in the region between the Araxes and
+      the Kur, to the west of the Caspian Sea. Later tradition asserted that his
+      conception was attended by supernatural circumstances, and the miracles
+      which accompanied his birth announced the advent of a saint destined to
+      regenerate the world by the revelation of the True Law. In the belief of
+      an Iranian, every man, every living creature now existing or henceforth to
+      exist, not excluding the gods themselves, possesses a Frôhar, or guardian
+      spirit, who is assigned to him at his entrance into the world, and who is
+      thenceforth devoted entirely to watching over his material and moral
+      well-being,* About the time appointed for the appearance of the prophet,
+      his Frôhar was, by divine grace, imprisoned in the heart of a Haoma,** and
+      was absorbed, along with the juice of the plant, by the priest
+      Purushâspa,*** during a sacrifice, a ray of heavenly glory descending at
+      the same time into the bosom of a maiden of noble race, named Dughdôva,
+      whom Purushâspa shortly afterwards espoused.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The Fravashi (for <i>fravarti</i>, from <i>fra-var</i>, &ldquo;to support,
+     nourish&rdquo;), or the <i>frôhar (feruer)</i>, is, properly speaking,
+     the nurse, the genius who nurtures. Many of the practices
+     relating to the conception and cult of the Fravashis seem to
+     me to go back to the primitive period of the Iranian
+     religions.
+
+     ** The haoma is an <i>Asclepias Sarcostema Viminalis</i>.
+
+     *** The name signifies &ldquo;He who has many horses.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      Zoroaster was engendered from the mingling of the Frôhar with the
+      celestial ray. The evil spirit, whose supremacy he threatened, endeavoured
+      to destroy him as soon as he saw the light, and despatched one of his
+      agents, named Bôuiti, from the country of the far north to oppose him; but
+      the infant prophet immediately pronounced the formula with which the psalm
+      for the offering of the waters opens: &ldquo;The will of the Lord is the rule of
+      good!&rdquo; and proceeded to pour libations in honour of the river Darêja, on
+      the banks of which he had been born a moment before, reciting at the same
+      time the &ldquo;profession of faith which puts evil spirits to flight.&rdquo; Bôuiti
+      fled aghast, but his master set to work upon some fresh device. Zoroaster
+      allowed him, however, no time to complete his plans: he rose up, and
+      undismayed by the malicious riddles propounded to him by his adversary,
+      advanced against him with his hands full of stones&mdash;stones as large
+      as a house&mdash;with which the good deity supplied him. The mere sight of
+      him dispersed the demons, and they regained the gates of their hell in
+      headlong flight, shrieking out, &ldquo;How shall we succeed in destroying him?
+      For he is the weapon which strikes down evil beings; he is the scourge of
+      evil beings.&rdquo; His infancy and youth were spent in constant disputation
+      with evil spirits: ever assailed, he ever came out victorious, and issued
+      more perfect from each attack. When he was thirty years old, one of the
+      good spirits, Vôhumanô, appeared to him, and conducted him into the
+      presence of Ahura-mazdâ, the Supreme Being. When invited to question the
+      deity, Zoroaster asked, &ldquo;Which is the best of the creatures which are upon
+      the earth?&rdquo; The answer was, that the man whose heart is pure, he excels
+      among his fellows. He next desired to know the names and functions of the
+      angels, and the nature and attributes of evil. His instruction ended, he
+      crossed a mountain of flames, and underwent a terrible ordeal of
+      purification, during which his breast was pierced with a sword, and melted
+      lead poured into his entrails without his suffering any pain: only after
+      this ordeal did he receive from the hands of Ahura-mazdâ the Book of the
+      Law, the Avesta, was then sent back to his native land bearing his
+      precious burden. At that time, Vîshtâspa, son of Aurvatâspa, was reigning
+      over Bactria. For ten years Zoroaster had only one disciple, his cousin
+      Maidhyoi-Mâonha, but after that he succeeded in converting, one after the
+      other, the two sons of Hvôgva, the grand vizir Jâmâspa, who afterwards
+      married the prophet&rsquo;s daughter, and Frashaoshtra, whose daughter Hvôgvi he
+      himself espoused; the queen, Hutaosa, was the next convert, and
+      afterwards, through her persuasions, the king Vîshtâspa himself became a
+      disciple. The triumph of the good cause was hastened by the result of a
+      formal disputation between the prophet and the wise men of the court: for
+      three days they essayed to bewilder him with their captious objections and
+      their magic arts, thirty standing on his right hand and thirty on his
+      left, but he baffled their wiles, aided by grace from above, and having
+      forced them to avow themselves at the end of their resources, he completed
+      his victory by reciting the Avesta before them. The legend adds, that
+      after rallying the majority of the people round him, he lived to a good
+      old age, honoured of all men for his saintly life. According to some
+      accounts, he was stricken dead by lightning,* while others say he was
+      killed by a Turanian soldier, Brâtrôk-rêsh, in a war against the Hyaonas.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * This is, under very diverse forms, the version preferred
+     by Western historians of the post-classical period.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The question has often been asked whether Zoroaster belongs to the domain
+      of legend or of history. The only certain thing we know concerning him is
+      his name; all the rest is mythical, poetic, or religious fiction.
+      Classical writers attributed to him the composition or editing of all the
+      writings comprised in Persian literature: the whole consisted, they said,
+      of two hundred thousand verses which had been expounded and analysed by
+      Hermippus in his commentaries on the secret doctrines of the Magi. The
+      Iranians themselves averred that he had given the world twenty-one volumes&mdash;the
+      twenty-one <i>Nasks</i> of the Avesta,* which the Supreme Deity had
+      created from the twenty-one words of the Magian profession of faith, the
+      <i>Ahuna Vairya</i>. King Vîshtâspa is said to have caused two authentic
+      copies of the Avesta&mdash;which contained in all ten or twelve hundred
+      chapters**&mdash;to be made, one of which was consigned to the archives of
+      the empire, the other laid up in the treasury of a fortress, either
+      Shapîgân, Shîzîgân, Samarcand, or Persepolis.***
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The word <i>Avesta</i>, in Pehlevi <i>Apastâk</i>, whence come the
+     Persian forms <i>âvasta, ôstâ</i>, is derived from the
+     Achæmenian word <i>Abasta</i>, which signifies <i>law</i> in the
+     inscriptions of Darius. The term Zend-Avesta, commonly used
+     to designate the sacred book of the Persians, is incorrectly
+     derived from the expression <i>Apastâc u Zend</i>, which in
+     Pehlevi designates first the law itself, and then the
+     translation and commentary in more modern language which
+     conduces to a <i>knowledge (Zend)</i> of the law. The customary
+     application, therefore, of the name Zend to the language of
+     the Avesta is incorrect.
+
+     ** The Dinkart fixes the number of chapters at 1000, and the
+     Shâh-Nâmak at 1200, written on plates of gold. According to
+     Masudi, the book itself and the two commentaries formed
+     12,000 volumes, written in letters of gold, the twenty-one
+     Nasks each contained 200 pages, and the whole of these
+     writings had been inscribed on 12,000 cow-hides.
+
+     *** The site of Shapîgân or Shaspîgân is unknown. J.
+     Darmesteter suggests that it ought to be read as <i>Shizîgân</i>,
+     which would permit of the identification of the place with
+     Shîz, one of the ancient religious centres of Iran, whose
+     temple was visited by the Sassanids on their accession to
+     the throne. According to the Ardâ-Vîrâf the law was
+     preserved at Istakhr, or Persepolis, according to the Shâh-
+     Nâmak at Samarcand in the temple of the Fire-god.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Alexander is said to have burnt the former copy: the latter, stolen by the
+      Greeks, is reported to have been translated into their language and to
+      have furnished them with all their scientific knowledge. One of the
+      Arsacids, Vologesus I., caused a search to be made for all the fragments
+      which existed either in writing or in the memory of the faithful,* and
+      this collection, added to in the reign of the Sassanid king, Ardashîr
+      Bâbagan, by the high priest Tansar, and fixed in its present form under
+      Sapor I., was recognised as the religious code of the empire in the time
+      of Sapor II., about the fourth century of the Christian era.*** The text
+      is composed, as may be seen, of three distinct strata, which are by no
+      means equally ancient;*** one can, nevertheless, make out from it with
+      sufficient certainty the principal features of the religion and cult of
+      Iran, such as they were under the Achæmenids, and perhaps even under the
+      hegemony of the Medes.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Tradition speaks simply of a King Valkash, without
+     specifying which of the four kings named Vologesus is
+     intended. James Darmesteter has given good reasons for
+     believing that this Valkash is Vologesus I. (50-75 A.D.),
+     the contemporary of Nero.
+
+     ** This is the tradition reproduced in two versions of the
+     Dinkart.
+
+     *** Darmesteter declares that ancient Zoroastrianism is, in
+     its main lines, the religion of the Median Magi, even though
+     he assigns the latest possible date to the composition of
+     the Avesta as now existing, and thinks he can discern in it
+     Greek, Jewish, and Christian elements.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It is a complicated system of religion, and presupposes a long period of
+      development. The doctrines are subtle; the ceremonial order of worship,
+      loaded with strict observances, is interrupted at every moment by laws
+      prescribing minute details of ritual,* which were only put in practice by
+      priests and strict devotees, and were unknown to the mass of the faithful.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Renan defined the Avesta as &ldquo;the Code of a very small
+     religious sect; it is a Talmud, a book of casuistry and
+     strict observance. I have difficulty in believing that the
+     great Persian empire, which, at least in religious matters,
+     professed a certain breadth of ideas, could have had a law
+     so strict. I think, that had the Persians possessed a sacred
+     book of this description, the Greeks must have mentioned
+     it.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0010" id="linkimage-0010">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:53%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/013.jpg"
+       alt="013.jpg an Iranian Genius in Form of a Winged Bull " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The primitive, base of this religion is difficult to discern clearly: but
+      we may recognise in it most of those beings or personifications of natural
+      phenomena which were the chief objects of worship among all the ancient
+      nations of Western Asia&mdash;the stars, Sirius, the moon, the sun, water
+      and fire, plants, animals beneficial to mankind, such as the cow and the
+      dog, good and evil spirits everywhere present, and beneficent or
+      malevolent souls of mortal men, but all systematised, graduated, and
+      reduced to sacerdotal principles, according to the prescriptions of a
+      powerful priesthood. Families consecrated to the service of the altar had
+      ended, as among the Hebrews, by separating themselves from the rest of the
+      nation and forming a special tribe, that of the Magi, which was the last
+      to enter into the composition of the nation in historic times. All the
+      Magi were not necessarily devoted to the service of religion, but all who
+      did so devote themselves sprang from the Magian tribe; the Avesta, in its
+      oldest form, was the sacred book of the Magi, as well as that of the
+      priests who handed down their religious tradition under the various
+      dynasties, native or foreign, who bore rule over Iran.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Creator was described as &ldquo;the whole circle of the heavens,&rdquo; &ldquo;the most
+      steadfast among the gods,&rdquo; for &ldquo;he clothes himself with the solid vault of
+      the firmament as his raiment,&rdquo; &ldquo;the most beautiful, the most intelligent,
+      he whose members are most harmoniously proportioned; his body was the
+      light and the sovereign glory, the sun and the moon were his eyes.&rdquo; The
+      theologians had gradually spiritualised the conception of this deity
+      without absolutely disconnecting him from the material universe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0008" id="linkimage-0008">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/012.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="012.jpg the Ahura-mazd of The Bas-reliefs Of Persepolis " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Flandin and Coste.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      He remained under ordinary circumstances invisible to mortal eyes, and he
+      could conceal his identity even from the highest gods, but he occasionally
+      manifested himself in human form. He borrowed in such case from Assyria
+      the symbol of Assur, and the sculptors depict him with the upper part of
+      his body rising above that winged disk which is carved in a hovering
+      attitude on the pediments of Assyrian monuments or stelæ.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0009" id="linkimage-0009">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/012b.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="012b.jpg Hypostyle of Hall Of Xerxes: Detail Of Entablature " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      In later days he was portrayed under the form of a king of imposing
+      stature and majestic mien, who revealed himself from time to time to the
+      princes of Iran.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * In a passage of Philo of Byblos the god is described as
+     having the head of a falcon or an eagle, perhaps by
+     confusion with one of the genii represented on the walls of
+     the palaces.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      He was named Ahurô-mazdâo or Ahura-mazdâ, the omniscient lord,* <i>Spento-mainyus</i>,
+      the spirit of good, <i>Mainyus-spenishtô</i>** the most beneficent of
+      spirits.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * <i>Ahura</i> is derived from <i>Ahu</i> = <i>Lord</i>: Mazdâo can be
+     analysed into the component parts, <i>maz = great</i>, and <i>dâo
+     = he who knows</i>. At first the two terms were
+     interchangeable, and even in the Gâthas the form Mazda Ahura
+     is employed much more often than the form Ahura Mazda. In
+     the Achsemenian inscriptions, Auramazdâ is only found as a
+     single word, except in an inscription of Xerxes, where the
+     two terms are in one passage separated and declined <i>Aurahya
+     mazdâha</i>. The form Ormuzd, Ormazd, usually employed by
+     Europeans, is that assumed by the name in modern Persian.
+
+     ** These two names are given to him more especially in
+     connection with his antagonism to Angrômainyus.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Himself uncreated, he is the creator of all things, but he is assisted in
+      the administration of the universe by legions of beings, who are all
+      subject to him.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Darius styles Ahura-mazdâ, <i>mathishta bagânâm</i>, the
+     greatest of the gods, and Xerxes invokes the protection of
+     Ahura-mazdâ along with that of the gods. The classical
+     writers also mention gods alongside of Ahura-mazdâ as
+     recognised not only among the Achæmenian Persians, but also
+     among the Parthians. Darmesteter considers that the earliest
+     Achæmenids worshipped Ahura-mazdâ alone, &ldquo;placing the other
+     gods together in a subordinate and anonymous group: May
+     Ahura-mazdâ and the other gods protect me.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0011" id="linkimage-0011">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/014.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="014.jpg Ahura-mazd Bestowing the Tokens of Royalty on An Iranian King " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Dieulafoy.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The most powerful among his ministers were originally nature-gods, such as
+      the sun, the moon, the earth, the winds, and the waters. The sunny plains
+      of Persia and Media afforded abundant witnesses of their power, as did the
+      snow-clad peaks, the deep gorges through which rushed roaring torrents,
+      and the mountain ranges of Ararat or Taurus, where the force of the
+      subterranean fires was manifested by so many startling exhibitions of
+      spontaneous conflagration.* The same spiritualising tendency which had
+      already considerably modified the essential concept of Ahura-mazdâ,
+      affected also that of the inferior deities, and tended to tone down in
+      them the grosser traits of their character. It had already placed at their
+      head six genii of a superior order, six ever-active energies, who, after
+      assisting their master at the creation of the universe, now presided under
+      his guidance over the kingdoms and forces of nature.**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * All these inferior deities, heroes, and genii who presided
+     over Persia, the royal family, and the different parts of
+     the empire, are often mentioned in the most ancient
+     classical authors that have come down to us.
+
+     ** The six Amesha-spentas, with their several
+     characteristics, are enumerated in a passage of the <i>De
+     Iside</i>. This exposition of Persian doctrine is usually
+     attributed to Theopompus, from which we may deduce the
+     existence of a belief in the Amesha-spentas in the
+     Achsemenian period. J. Darmesteter affirms, on the contrary,
+     that &ldquo;the author describes the Zoro-astrianism of his own
+     times (the second century A.D.), and quotes Theopompus for a
+     special doctrine, that of the periods of the world&rsquo;s life.&rdquo;
+      Although this last point is correct, the first part of
+     Darmesteter&rsquo;s theory does not seem to me justified by
+     investigation. The whole passage of Plutarch is a well-
+     arranged composition of uniform style, which may be regarded
+     as an exposition of the system described by Theopompus,
+     probably in the eighth of his Philippics.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0012" id="linkimage-0012">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:20%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/016a.jpg" alt="016a.jpg the Moon-god " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0013" id="linkimage-0013">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:18%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/016b.jpg" alt="016b.jpg God of the Wind " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      These benevolent and immortal beings&mdash;<i>Amesha-spentas</i>&mdash;were,
+      in the order of precedence, Vohu-manô (good thought), Asha-vahista
+      (perfect holiness), Khshathra-vairya (good government), Spenta-armaiti
+      (meek piety), Haurvatât (health), Ameretât (immortality). Each of them had
+      a special domain assigned to him in which to display his energy
+      untrammelled: Vohu-manô had charge of cattle, Asha-vahista of fire,
+      Khshathra-vairya of metals, Spenta-armaiti of the earth, Haurvatât and
+      Ameretât of vegetation and of water. They were represented in human form,
+      either masculine as Vohu-manô and Asha-vahista,* or feminine as
+      Spenta-armaiti, the daughter and spouse of Ahura-mazdâ, who became the
+      mother of the first man, Gayomaretan, and, through Gayomaretan, ancestress
+      of the whole human race.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The image of Asha-vahista is known to us from coins of the
+     Indo-Scythian kings of Bactriana. Vohu-manô is described as
+     a young man.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0014" id="linkimage-0014">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:17%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/017a.jpg"
+       alt="017a.jpg Atar the God of Fire " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by
+Faucher-Gudin;
+coin of King
+Kanishka,
+
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0015" id="linkimage-0015">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:17%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/017b.jpg" alt="017b.jpg Aurvataspa " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by
+Faucher-Gudin
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Sometimes Ahura-mazdâ is himself included among the Amesha-spentas, thus
+      bringing their number up to seven; sometimes his place is taken by a
+      certain Sraôsha (obedience to the law), the first who offered sacrifice
+      and recited the prayers of the ritual. Subordinate to these great spirits
+      were the Yazatas, scattered by thousands over creation, presiding over the
+      machinery of nature and maintaining it in working order. Most of them
+      received no special names, but many exercised wide authority, and several
+      were accredited by the people with an influence not less than that of the
+      greater deities themselves. Such Were the regent of the stars&mdash;Tishtrya,
+      the bull with golden horns, Sirius, the sparkling one; Mâo, the moon-god;
+      the wind, Vâto; the atmosphere, Vayu, the strongest of the strong, the
+      warrior with golden armour, who gathers the storm and hurls it against the
+      demon; Atar, fire under its principal forms, divine fire, sacred fire, and
+      earthly fire; Vere-thraghna, the author of war and giver of victory;
+      Aurva-taspa, the son of the waters, the lightning born among the clouds;
+      and lastly, the spirit of the dawn, the watchful Mithra, &ldquo;who, first of
+      the celestial Yazatas, soars above Mount Hara,* before the immortal sun
+      with his swift steeds, who, first in golden splendour, passes over the
+      beautiful mountains and casts his glance benign on the dwellings of the
+      Aryans.&rdquo; **
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Hara is Haroberezaiti, or Elburz, the mountain over which
+     the sun rises, &ldquo;around which many a star revolves, where
+     there is neither night nor darkness, no wind of cold or
+     heat, no sickness leading to a thousand kinds of death, nor
+     infection caused by the Daôvas, and whose summit is never
+     reached by the clouds.&rdquo;
+
+     ** This is the Mithra whose religion became so powerful in
+     Alexandrian and Roman times. His sphere of action is defined
+     in the Bundehesh.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0016" id="linkimage-0016">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:18%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/017c.jpg" alt="017c.jpg Mithra " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by
+Faucher-Gudin;
+coin of King
+Huvishka,
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Mithra was a charming youth of beautiful countenance, his head surrounded
+      with a radiant halo. The nymph Anâhita was adored under the form of one of
+      the incarnations of the Babylonian goddess Mylitta, a youthful and slender
+      female, with well-developed breasts and broad hips, sometimes represented
+      clothed in furs and sometimes nude.* Like the foreign goddess to whom she
+      was assimilated, she was the dispenser of fertility and of love; the
+      heroes of antiquity, and even Ahura-mazdâ himself, had vied with one
+      another in their worship of her, and she had lavished her favours freely
+      on all.**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The popularity of these two deities was already well
+     established at the period we are dealing with, for Herodotus
+     mentions Mithra and confuses him with Anâhita.
+
+     ** Her name Ardvî-Sûra Anâhita seems to signify <i>the lofty
+     and immaculate power</i>.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The less important Yazatas were hardly to be distinguished from the
+      innumerable multitude of Fravashis. The Fravasliis are the divine types of
+      all intelligent beings. They were originally brought into being by
+      Ahura-mazdâ as a distinct species from the human, but they had allowed
+      themselves to be entangled in matter, and to be fettered in the bodies of
+      men, in order to hasten the final destruction of the demons and the advent
+      of the reign of good.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The legend of the descent of the Fravashis to dwell among
+     men is narrated in the Bundehesh.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0017" id="linkimage-0017">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:22%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/018a.jpg" alt="018a.jpg Mylitta-anÂhita " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by Faucher-
+Gudin, from Loftus
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0018" id="linkimage-0018">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:18%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/018b.jpg" alt="018b.jpg Nana-anÂhita " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by
+Faucher-Gudin,
+coin of King
+Huvishka,
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Once incarnate, a Fravasliis devotes himself to the well-being of the
+      mortal with whom he is associated; and when once more released from the
+      flesh, he continues the struggle against evil with an energy whose
+      efficacy is proportionate to the virtue and purity displayed in life by
+      the mortal to whom he has been temporarily joined. The last six days of
+      the year are dedicated to the Fravashis. They leave their heavenly abodes
+      at this time to visit the spots which were their earthly dwelling-places,
+      and they wander through the villages inquiring, &ldquo;Who wishes to hire us?
+      Who will offer us a sacrifice? Who will make us their own, welcome us, and
+      receive us with plenteous offerings of food and raiment, with a prayer
+      which bestows sanctity on him who offers it?&rdquo; And if they find a man to
+      hearken to their request, they bless him: &ldquo;May his house be blessed with
+      herds of oxen and troops of men, a swift horse and a strongly built
+      chariot, a man who knoweth how to pray to God, a chieftain in the council
+      who may ever offer us sacrifices with a hand filled with food and raiment,
+      with a prayer which bestows sanctity on him who offers it!&rdquo; Ahura-mazdâ
+      created the universe, not by the work of his hands, but by the magic of
+      his word, and he desired to create it entirely free from defects. His
+      creation, however, can only exist by the free play and equilibrium of
+      opposing forces, to which he gives activity: the incompatibility of
+      tendency displayed by these forces, and their alternations of growth and
+      decay, inspired the Iranians with the idea that they were the result of
+      two contradictory principles, the one beneficent and good, the other
+      adverse to everything emanating from the former.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Spiegel, who at first considered that the Iranian dualism
+     was derived from polytheism, and was a preliminary stage in
+     the development of monotheism, held afterwards that a rigid
+     monotheism had preceded this dualism. The classical writers,
+     who knew Zoroastrianism at the height of its glory, never
+     suggested that the two principles might be derived from a
+     superior principle, nor that they were subject to such a
+     principle. The Iranian books themselves nowhere definitely
+     affirm that there existed a single principle distinct from
+     the two opposing principles.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0019" id="linkimage-0019">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:51%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/022.jpg"
+       alt="022.jpg One of the Bad Genii, Subject to AngrÔ-mainyus " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a
+photograph taken from the
+original bas-relief in glazed
+tiles in the Louvre.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      In opposition to the god of light, they necessarily formed the idea of a
+      god of darkness, the god of the underworld, who presides over death,
+      Angrô-mainyus. The two opposing principles reigned at first, each in his
+      own domain, as rivals, but not as irreconcilable adversaries: they were
+      considered as in fixed opposition to each other, and as having coexisted
+      for ages without coming into actual conflict, separated as they were by
+      the intervening void. As long as the principle of good was content to
+      remain shut up inactive in his barren glory, the principle of evil
+      slumbered unconscious in a darkness that knew no beginning; but when at
+      last &ldquo;the spirit who giveth increase&rdquo;&mdash;Spentô-mainyus&mdash;determined
+      to manifest himself, the first throes of his vivifying activity roused
+      from inertia the spirit of destruction and of pain, Angrô-mainyus. The
+      heaven was not yet in existence, nor the waters, nor the earth, nor ox,
+      nor fire, nor man, nor demons, nor brute beasts, nor any living thing,
+      when the evil spirit hurled himself upon the light to quench it for ever,
+      but Ahura-mazdâ had already called forth the ministers of his will&mdash;Amêsha-spentas,
+      Yazatas, Fravashis&mdash;and he recited the prayer of twenty-one words in
+      which all the elements of morality are summed up, the Ahuna-vairya: &ldquo;The
+      will of the Lord is the rule of good. Let the gifts of Vohu-manô be
+      bestowed on the works accomplished, at this moment, for Mazda. He makes
+      Ahura to reign, he who protects the poor.&rdquo; The effect of this prayer was
+      irresistible: &ldquo;When Ahura had pronounced the first part of the formula,
+      Zânak Mînoî, the spirit of destruction, bowed himself with terror; at the
+      second part he fell upon his knees; and at the third and last he felt
+      himself powerless to hurt the creatures of Ahura-mazdâ.&rdquo; *
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Theopompus was already aware of this alternation of good
+     and bad periods. According to the tradition enshrined in the
+     first chapter of the Bundehesh, it was the result of a sort
+     of compact agreed upon at the beginning by Ahura-mazdâ and
+     Angrô-mainyus. Ahura-mazdâ, rearing to be overcome if he
+     entered upon the struggle immediately, but sure of final
+     victory if he could gain time, proposed to his adversary a
+     truce of nine thousand years, at the expiration of which the
+     battle should begin. As soon as the compact was made, Angrô-
+     mainyus realised that he had been tricked into taking a
+     false step, but it was not till after three thousand years
+     that he decided to break the truce and open the conflict.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The strife, kindled at the beginning of time between the two gods, has
+      gone on ever since with alternations of success and defeat; each in turn
+      has the victory for a regular period of three thousand years; but when
+      these periods are ended, at the expiration of twelve thousand years, evil
+      will be finally and for ever defeated. While awaiting this blessed fulness
+      of time, as Spentô-mainyus shows himself in all that is good and
+      beautiful, in light, virtue, and justice, so Angrô-mainyus is to be
+      perceived in all that is hateful and ugly, in darkness, sin, and crime.
+      Against the six Amesha-spentas he sets in array six spirits of equal power&mdash;Akem-manô,
+      evil thought; Andra, the devouring fire, who introduces discontent and sin
+      wherever he penetrates; Sauru, the flaming arrow of death, who inspires
+      bloodthirsty tyrants, who incites men to theft and murder; Nâongaithya,
+      arrogance and pride; Tauru, thirst; and Zairi, hunger.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The last five of these spirits are enumerated in the
+     <i>Vendidad</i>, and the first, Akem-manô, is there replaced by
+     Nasu, the chief spirit of evil.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      To the Yazatas he opposed the Daêvas, who never cease to torment mankind,
+      and so through all the ranks of nature he set over against each good and
+      useful creation a counter-creation of rival tendency. &ldquo;&lsquo;Like a fly he
+      crept into&rsquo; and infected &lsquo;the whole universe.&rsquo; He rendered the world as
+      dark at full noonday as in the darkest night. He covered the soil with
+      vermin, with his creatures of venomous bite and poisonous sting, with
+      serpents, scorpions, and frogs, so that there was not a space as small as
+      a needle&rsquo;s point but swarmed with his vermin. He smote vegetation, and of
+      a sudden the plants withered.... He attacked the flames, and mingled them
+      with smoke and dimness. The planets, with their thousands of demons,
+      dashed against the vault of heaven and waged war on the stars, and the
+      universe became darkened like a space which the fire blackens with its
+      smoke.&rdquo; And the conflict grew ever keener over the world and over man, of
+      whom the evil one was jealous, and whom he sought to humiliate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The children of Angrô-mainyus disguised themselves under those monstrous
+      forms in which the imagination of the Chaldæans had clothed the allies of
+      Mummu-Tiamât, such as lions with bulls&rsquo; heads, and the wings and claws of
+      eagles, which the Achæmenian king combats on behalf of his subjects,
+      boldly thrusting them through with his short sword. Aêshma of the
+      blood-stained lance, terrible in wrath, is the most trusted leader of
+      these dread bands,* the chief of twenty other Daêvas of repulsive aspect&mdash;Astô-vîdhôtu,
+      the demon of death, who would devote to destruction the estimable
+      Fravashis;** Apaosha, the enemy of Tishtrya the wicked black horse, the
+      bringer of drought, who interferes with the distribution of the
+      fertilising waters; and Bûiti, who essayed to kill Zoroaster at his
+      birth.***
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The name Aêshma means <i>anger</i>. He is the Asmodeus, Aêshmo-
+     daevô, of Rabbinic legends.
+
+     ** The name of this demon signifies <i>He who separates the
+     bones</i>.
+
+     *** The Greater Bundehesh connects the demon Bûiti with the
+     Indian Buddha, and J. Darmestefer seems inclined to accept
+     this interpretation. In this case we must either admit that
+     the demon Bûiti is of relatively late origin, or that he
+     has, in the legend of Zoroaster, taken the place of a demon
+     whose name resembled his own closely enough to admit of the
+     assimilation.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The female demons, the Bruges, the Incubi (Yâtus), the Succubi (Pairîka),
+      the Peris of our fairy tales, mingled familiarly with mankind before the
+      time of the prophet, and contracted with them fruitful alliances, but
+      Zoroaster broke up their ranks, and prohibited them from becoming
+      incarnate in any form but that of beasts; their hatred, however, is still
+      unquenched, and their power will only be effectually overthrown at the
+      consummation of time. It is a matter of uncertainty whether the Medes
+      already admitted the possibility of a fresh revelation, preparing the
+      latest generations of mankind for the advent of the reign of good. The
+      traditions enshrined in the sacred books of Iran announce the coming of
+      three prophets, sons of Zoroaster &mdash;Ukhshyatereta, Ukhshyatnemô, and
+      Saoshyant* &mdash;who shall bring about universal salvation.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The legend ran that they had been conceived in the waters
+     of the lake Kansu. The name Saoshyant signifies <i>the useful
+     one, the saviour</i>; Ukshyate-reta, <i>he who malces the good
+     increase</i>; Ukshyatnemô, <i>he who makes prayer increase</i>.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0020" id="linkimage-0020">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:29%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/023.jpg"
+       alt="023.jpg the King Struggling Against an Evil Genius " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by Boudier,
+from the photograph
+in Marcel Dieulafoy.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Saoshyant, assisted by fifteen men and fifteen pure women, who have
+      already lived on earth, and are awaiting their final destiny in a magic
+      slumber, shall offer the final sacrifice, the virtue of which shall bring
+      about the resurrection of the dead. &ldquo;The sovereign light shall accompany
+      him and his friends, when he shall revivify the world and ransom it from
+      old age and death, from corruption and decay, and shall render it
+      eternally living, eternally growing, and master of itself.&rdquo; The fatal
+      conflict shall be protracted, but the champions of Saoshyant shall at
+      length obtain the victory. &ldquo;Before them shall bow Aêshma of the
+      blood-stained lance and of ominous renown, and Saoshyant shall strike down
+      the she-demon of the unholy light, the daughter of darkness. Akem-manô
+      strikes, but Vohu-manô shall strike him in his turn; the lying word shall
+      strike, but the word of truth shall strike him in his turn; Haurvatât and
+      Ameretâfc shall strike down hunger and thirst; Haurvatât and Ameretât
+      shall strike down terrible hunger and terrible thirst.&rdquo; Angrô-mainyus
+      himself shall be paralysed with terror, and shall be forced to confess the
+      supremacy of good: he shall withdraw into the depths of hell, whence he
+      shall never again issue forth, and all the reanimated beings devoted to
+      the Mazdean law shall live an eternity of peace and contentment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Man, therefore, incessantly distracted between the two principles, laid
+      wait for by the Baêvas, defended by the Yazatas, must endeavour to act
+      according to law and justice in the condition in which fate has placed
+      him. He has been raised up here on earth to contribute as far as in him
+      lies to the increase of life and of good, and in proportion as he works
+      for this end or against it, is he the <i>ashavan</i>, the pure, the
+      faithful one on earth and the blessed one in heaven, or the <i>anashavan</i>,
+      the lawless miscreant who counteracts purity. The highest grade in the
+      hierarchy of men belongs of right to the Mage or the <i>âthravan</i>, to
+      the priest whose voice inspires the demons with fear, or the soldier whose
+      club despatches the impious, but a place of honour at their side is
+      assigned to the peasant, who reclaims from the power of Angrô-mainyus the
+      dry and sterile fields. Among the places where the earth thrives most
+      joyously is reckoned that &ldquo;where a worshipper of Ahura-mazdâ builds a
+      house, with a chaplain, with cattle, with a wife, with sons, with a fair
+      flock; where man grows the most corn, herbage, and fruit trees; where he
+      spreads water on a soil without water, and drains off water where there is
+      too much of it.&rdquo; He who sows corn, sows good, and promotes the Mazdean
+      faith; &ldquo;he nourishes the Mazdean religion as fifty men would do rocking a
+      child in the cradle, five hundred women giving it suck from their
+      breasts.* When the corn was created the Daêvas leaped, when it sprouted
+      the Daêvas lost courage, when the stem set the Daêvas wept, when the ear
+      swelled the Daêvas fled. In the house where corn is mouldering the Daêvas
+      lodge, but when the corn sprouts, one might say that a hot iron is being
+      turned round in their mouths.&rdquo; And the reason of their horror is easily
+      divined: &ldquo;Whoso eats not, has no power either to accomplish a valiant work
+      of religion, or to labour with valour, or yet to beget children valiantly;
+      it is by eating that the universe lives, and it dies from not eating.&rdquo; The
+      faithful follower of Zoroaster owes no obligation towards the impious man
+      or towards a stranger,** but is ever bound to render help to his
+      coreligionist.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The original text says in a more enigmatical fashion, &ldquo;he
+     nourishes the religion of Mazdâ as a hundred feet of men and
+     a thousand breasts of women might do.&rdquo;
+
+     ** Charity is called in Parsee language, <i>ashô-dâd</i> the
+     <i>gift to a pious man</i>, or the <i>gift of piety</i>, and the pious
+     man, the <i>ashavan</i>, is by definition the worshipper of
+     Ahura-mazdâ alone.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      He will give a garment to the naked, and by so doing will wound Zemaka,
+      the demon of winter. He will never refuse food to the hungry labourer,
+      under pain of eternal torments, and his charity will extend even to the
+      brute beasts, provided that they belong to the species created by
+      Ahura-mazdâ: he has duties towards them, and their complaints, heard in
+      heaven, shall be fatal to him later on if he has provoked them.
+      Asha-vahista will condemn to hell the cruel man who has ill-treated the
+      ox, or allowed his flocks to suffer; and the killing of a hedgehog is no
+      less severely punished&mdash;for does not a hedgehog devour the ants who
+      steal the grain? The dog is in every case an especially sacred animal&mdash;the
+      shepherd&rsquo;s dog, the watchdog, the hunting-dog, even the prowling dog. It
+      is not lawful to give any dog a blow which renders him impotent, or to
+      slit his ears, or to cut his foot, without incurring grave
+      responsibilities in this world and in the next; it is necessary to feed
+      the dog well, and not to throw bones to him which are too hard, nor have
+      his food served hot enough to burn his tongue or his throat. For the rest,
+      the faithful Zoroastrian was bound to believe in his god, to offer to him
+      the orthodox prayers and sacrifices, to be simple in heart, truthful, the
+      slave of his pledged word, loyal in his very smallest acts. If he had once
+      departed from the right way, he could only return to it by repentance and
+      by purification, accompanied by pious deeds: to exterminate noxious
+      animals, the creatures of Angrô-mainyus and the abode of his demons, such
+      as the frog, the scorpion, the serpent or the ant, to clear the sterile
+      tracts, to restore impoverished land, to construct bridges over running
+      water, to distribute implements of husbandry to pions men, or to build
+      them a house, to give a pure and healthy maiden in marriage to a just man,&mdash;these
+      were so many means of expiation appointed by the prophet.* Marriage was
+      strictly obligatory,** and seemed more praiseworthy in proportion as the
+      kinship existing between the married pair was the closer: not only was the
+      sister united in marriage to her brother, as in Egypt, but the father to
+      his daughter, and the mother to her son, at least among the Magi.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * A passage in the <i>Vendidad</i> even enumerates how many
+     noisome beasts must be slain to accomplish one full work of
+     expiation&mdash;&ldquo;to kill 1000 serpents of those who drag
+     themselves upon the belly, and 2000 of the other species,
+     1000 land frogs or 2000 water frogs, 1000 ants who steal the
+     grain,&rdquo; and so on.
+
+     ** The <i>Vendidad</i> says, &ldquo;And I tell thee, O Spitama
+     Zarathustra, the man who has a wife is above him who lives
+     in continency;&rdquo; and, as we have seen in the text, one of
+     these forms of expiation consisted in &ldquo;marrying to a worthy
+     man a young girl who has never known a man&rdquo; (<i>Vendidad</i>, 14,
+     § 15). Herodotus of old remarked that one of the chief
+     merits in an Iranian was to have many children: the King of
+     Persia encouraged fecundity in his realm, and awarded a
+     prize each year to that one of his subjects who could boast
+     the most numerous progeny.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0022" id="linkimage-0022">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:39%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/032.jpg"
+       alt="032.jpg the Two Iranian Altars of Murgab " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by Boudier,
+from Plandin and Coste.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Polygamy was also encouraged and widely practised: the code imposed no
+      limit on the number of wives and concubines, and custom was in favour of a
+      man&rsquo;s having as many wives as his fortune permitted him to maintain. On
+      the occasion of a death, it was forbidden to burn the corpse, to bury it,
+      or to cast it into a river, as it would have polluted the fire, the earth,
+      or the water&mdash;an unpardonable offence. The corpse could be disposed
+      of in different ways. The Persians were accustomed to cover it with a
+      thick layer of wax, and then to bury it in the ground: the wax coating
+      obviated the pollution which direct contact would have brought upon the
+      soil. The Magi, and probably also strict devotees, following their
+      example, exposed the corpse in the open air, abandoning it to the birds or
+      beasts of prey. It was considered a great misfortune if these respected
+      the body, for it was an almost certain indication of the wrath of
+      Ahura-mazdâ, and it was thought that the defunct had led an evil life.
+      When the bones had been sufficiently stripped of flesh, they were
+      collected together, and deposited either in an earthenware urn or in a
+      stone ossuary with a cover, or in a monumental tomb either hollowed out in
+      the heart of the mountain or in the living rock, or raised up above the
+      level of the ground. Meanwhile the soul remained in the neighbourhood for
+      three days, hovering near the head of the corpse, and by the recitation of
+      prayers it experienced, according to its condition of purity or impurity,
+      as much of joy or sadness as the whole world experiences. When the third
+      night was past, the just soul set forth across luminous plains, refreshed
+      by a perfumed breeze, and its good thoughts and words and deeds took shape
+      before it &ldquo;under the guise of a young maiden, radiant and strong, with
+      well-developed bust, noble mien, and glorious face, about fifteen years of
+      age, and as beautiful as the most beautiful;&rdquo; the unrighteous soul, on the
+      contrary, directed its course towards the north, through a tainted land,
+      amid the squalls of a pestilential hurricane, and there encountered its
+      past ill deeds, under the form of an ugly and wicked young woman, the
+      ugliest and most wicked it had ever seen. The genius Rashnu Razishta, the
+      essentially truthful, weighed its virtues or vices in an unerring balance,
+      and acquitted or Condemned it on the impartial testimony of its past life.
+      On issuing from the judgment-hall, the soul arrived at the approach to the
+      bridge Cinvaut, which, thrown across the abyss of hell, led to paradise.
+      The soul, if impious, was unable to cross this bridge, but was hurled down
+      into the abyss, where it became the slave of Angrô-mainyus. If pure, it
+      crossed the bridge without difficulty by the help of the angel Sraôsha,
+      and was welcomed by Vohu-manô, who conducted it before the throne of
+      Ahura-mazdâ, in the same way as he had led Zoroaster, and assigned to it
+      the post which it should occupy until the day of the resurrection of the
+      body.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * All this picture of the fate of the soul is taken from the
+     <i>Vendidad</i>, where the fate of the just is described, and in
+     the <i>Yasht</i>, where the condition of faithful and impious
+     souls respectively is set forth on parallel lines. The
+     classical authors teach us nothing on this subject, and the
+     little they actually say only proves that the Persians
+     believed in the immortality of the soul. The main outlines
+     of the picture here set forth go back to the times of the
+     Achæmenids and the Medes, except the abstract conception of
+     the goddess who leads the soul of the dead as an incarnation
+     of his good or evil deeds.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The religious observances enjoined on the members of the priestly caste
+      were innumerable and minute. Ahura-mazdâ and his colleagues had not, as
+      was the fashion among the Assyrians and Egyptians, either temples or
+      tabernacles, and though they were represented sometimes under human or
+      animal forms, and even in some cases on bas-reliefs, yet no one ever
+      ventured to set up in their sanctuaries those so-called animated or
+      prophetic statues to which the majority of the nations had rendered or
+      were rendering their solicitous homage. Altars, however, were erected on
+      the tops of hills, in palaces, or in the centre of cities, on which fires
+      were kindled in honour of the inferior deities or of the supreme god
+      himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0021" id="linkimage-0021">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/031.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="031.jpg the Two Iranian Altakrat Nakhsh-Î-rustem " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a heliogravure in Marcel Dieulafoy.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Two altars were usually set up together, and they are thus found here and
+      there among the ruins, as at Nakhsh-î-Kustem, the necropolis of
+      Persepolis, where a pair of such altars exist; these are cut, each out of
+      a single block, in a rocky mass which rises some thirteen feet above the
+      level of the surrounding plain. They are of cubic form and squat
+      appearance, looking like towers flanked at the four corners by supporting
+      columns which are connected by circular arches; above a narrow moulding
+      rises a crest of somewhat triangular projections; the hearth is hollowed
+      out on the summit of each altar.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * According to Perrot and Chipiez, &ldquo;it is not impossible
+     that these altars were older than the great buildings of
+     Persepolis, and that they were erected for the old Persian
+     town which Darius raised to the position of capital.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      At Meshed-î-Murgâb, on the site of the ancient Pasargadas, the altars have
+      disappeared, but the basements on which they were erected are still
+      visible, as also the flight of eight steps by which they were approached.
+      Those altars on which burned, a perpetual fire were not left exposed to
+      the open air: they would have run too great a risk of contracting
+      impurities, such as dust borne by the wind, flights of birds, dew, rain,
+      or snow. They were enclosed in slight structures, well protected by walls,
+      and attaining in some cases considerable dimensions, or in pavilion-shaped
+      edifices of stone adorned with columns.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sacrificial rites were of long duration, and frequent, and were
+      rendered very complex by interminable manual acts, ceremonial gestures,
+      and incantations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0023" id="linkimage-0023">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/032b.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="032b.jpg the Occupations of Ani in The Elysian Fields " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      In cases where the altar was not devoted to maintaining a perpetual fire,
+      it was kindled when necessary with small twigs previously barked and
+      purified, and was subsequently fed with precious woods, preferably cypress
+      or laurel;* care was taken not to quicken the flame by blowing, for the
+      human breath would have desecrated the fire by merely passing over it;
+      death was the punishment for any one who voluntarily committed such a
+      heinous sacrilege. The recognised offering consisted of flowers, bread,
+      fruit, and perfumes, but these were often accompanied, as in all ancient
+      religions, by a bloody sacrifice; the sacrifice of a horse was considered
+      the most efficacious, but an ox, a cow, a sheep, a camel, an ass, or a
+      stag was frequently offered: in certain circumstances, especially when it
+      was desired to conciliate the favour of the god of the underworld, a human
+      victim, probably as a survival of very ancient rites was preferred.**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Pausanias, who witnessed the cult as practised at
+     Hierocæsarsea, remarked the curious colour of the ashes
+     heaped upon the altar.
+
+     * Most modern writers deny the authenticity of Herodotus&rsquo;
+     account, because a sacrifice of this kind is opposed to the
+     spirit of the Magian religion, which is undoubtedly the
+     case, as far as the latest form of the religion is
+     concerned; but the testimony of Herodotus is so plain that
+     the fact itself must be considered as indisputable. We may
+     note that the passage refers to the foundation of a city;
+     and if we remember how persistent was the custom of human
+     sacrifice among ancient races at the foundation of
+     buildings, we shall be led to the conclusion that the
+     ceremony described by the Greek historian was a survival of
+     a very ancient usage, which had not yet fallen entirely into
+     desuetude at the Achæmenian epoch.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0024" id="linkimage-0024">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:35%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/033.jpg"
+       alt="033.jpg the Sacred Fire Burning on The Altar " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by Faucher-Gudin,
+from the impression of
+a Persian intaglio.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The king, whose royal position made him the representative of Ahura-mazdâ
+      on earth, was, in fact, a high priest, and was himself able to officiate
+      at the altar, but no one else could dispense with the mediation of the
+      Magi. The worshippers proceeded in solemn procession to the spot where the
+      ceremony was to take place, and there the priest, wearing the tiara on his
+      head, recited an invocation in a slow and mysterious voice, and implored
+      the blessings of heaven on the king and nation. He then slaughtered the
+      victim by a blow on the head, and divided it into portions, which he gave
+      back to the offerer without reserving any of them, for Ahura-mazdâ
+      required nothing but the soul; in certain cases, the victim was entirely
+      consumed by fire, but more frequently nothing but a little of the fat and
+      some of the entrails were taken to feed and maintain the flame, and
+      sometimes even this was omitted.* Sacrifices were of frequent occurrence.
+      Without mentioning the extraordinary occasions on which a king would have
+      a thousand bulls slain at one time,** the Achæmenian kings killed each day
+      a thousand bullocks, asses, and stags: sacrifice under such circumstances
+      was another name for butchery, the object of which was to furnish the
+      court with a sufficient supply of pure meat. The ceremonial bore
+      resemblance in many ways to that still employed by the modern Zoroastrians
+      of Persia and India.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * A relic of this custom may be discerned in the expiatory
+     sacrifice decreed in the <i>Vendidad</i>: &ldquo;He shall sacrifice a
+     thousand head of small cattle, and he shall place their
+     entrails devoutly on the fire, with libations.&rdquo;
+
+     ** The number 1000 seems to have had some ritualistic
+     significance, for it often recurs in the penances imposed on
+     the faithful as expiation for their sins: thus it was
+     enjoined to slay 1000 serpents, 1000 frogs, 1000 ants who
+     steal the grain, 1000 head of small cattle, 1000 swift
+     horses, 1000 camels, 1000 brown oxen.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The officiating priest covered his mouth with the bands which fell from
+      his mitre, to prevent the god from being polluted by his breath; he held
+      in his hand the baresman, or sacred bunch of tamarisk, and prepared the
+      mysterious liquor from the haoma plant.* He was accustomed each morning to
+      celebrate divine service before the sacred fire, not to speak of the
+      periodic festivals in which he shared the offices with all the members of
+      his tribe, such as the feast of Mithra, the feast of the Fravashis,** the
+      feast commemorating the rout of Angrô-mainyus,*** the feast of the Saksea,
+      during which the slaves were masters of the house.****
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The drink mentioned by the author of the <i>De Iside</i>, which
+     was extracted from the plant Omômi, and which the Magi
+     offered to the god of the underworld, is certainly the
+     haoma. The rite mentioned by the Greek author, which appears
+     to be an incantation against Ahriman, required, it seems, a
+     potion in which the blood of a wolf was a necessary
+     ingredient: this questionable draught was then carried to a
+     place where the sun&rsquo;s rays never shone, and was there
+     sprinkled on the ground as a libation.
+
+     ** Menander speaks of this festival as conducted in his own
+     times, and tells us that it was called Eurdigan; modern
+     authorities usually admit that it goes back to the times of
+     the Achæmenids or even beyond.
+
+     *** Agathias says that every worshipper of Ahura-mazdâ is
+     enjoined to kill the greatest possible number of animals
+     created by Angrô-mainyus, and bring to the Magi the fruits
+     of his hunting. Herodotus had already spoken of this
+     destruction of life as one of the duties incumbent on every
+     Persian, and this gives probability to the view of modern
+     writers that the festival went back to the Achæmenian epoch.
+
+     **** The festival of the Sakoa is mentioned by Ctesias. It
+     was also a Babylonian festival, and most modern authorities
+     conclude from this double use of the name that the festival
+     was borrowed from the Babylonians by the Persians, but this
+     point is not so certain as it is made out to be, and at any
+     rate the borrowing must have taken place very early, for the
+     festival was already well established in the Achæmenian
+     period.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      All the Magi were not necessarily devoted to the priesthood; but those
+      only became apt in the execution of their functions who had been dedicated
+      to them from infancy, and who, having received the necessary instruction,
+      were duly consecrated. These adepts were divided into several classes, of
+      which three at least were never confounded in their functions&mdash;the
+      sorcerers, the interpreters of dreams, and the most venerated sages&mdash;and
+      from these three classes were chosen the ruling body of the order and its
+      supreme head. Their rule of life was strict and austere, and was
+      encumbered with a thousand observances indispensable to the preservation
+      of perfect purity in their persons, their altars, their victims, and their
+      sacrificial vessels and implements. The Magi of highest rank abstained
+      from every form of living thing as food, and the rest only partook of meat
+      under certain restrictions. Their dress was unpretentious, they wore no
+      jewels, and observed strict fidelity to the marriage vow;* and the virtues
+      with which they were accredited obtained for them, from very early times,
+      unbounded influence over the minds of the common people as well as over
+      those of the nobles: the king himself boasted of being their pupil, and
+      took no serious step in state affairs without consulting Ahura-mazdâ or
+      the other gods by their mediation. The classical writers maintain that the
+      Magi often cloaked monstrous vices under their apparent strictness, and it
+      is possible that this was the case in later days, but even then moral
+      depravity was probably rather the exception than the rule among them:***
+      the majority of the Magi faithfully observed the rules of honest living
+      and ceremonial purity enjoined on them in the books handed down by their
+      ancestors.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Clement of Alexandria assures us that they were strictly
+     celibate, but besides the fact that married Magi are
+     mentioned several times, celibacy is still considered by
+     Zoroastrians an inferior state to that of marriage.
+
+     ** In the Greek period, a spurious epitaph of Darius, son of
+     Hystaspes, was quoted, in which the king says of himself, &ldquo;I
+     was the pupil of the Magi.&rdquo;
+
+     *** These accusations are nearly all directed against their
+     incestuous marriages: it seems that the classical writers
+     took for a refinement of debauchery what really was before
+     all things a religious practice.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      There is reason to believe that the Magi were all-powerful among the
+      Medes, and that the reign of Astyages was virtually the reign of the
+      priestly caste; but all the Iranian states did not submit so patiently to
+      their authority, and the Persians at last proved openly refractory. Their
+      kings, lords of Susa as well as of Pasargadse, wielded all the resources
+      of Elam, and their military power must have equalled, if it did not
+      already surpass, that of their suzerain lords. Their tribes, less devoted
+      to the manner of living of the Assyrians and Chaldæans, had preserved a
+      vigour and power of endurance which the Medes no longer possessed; and
+      they needed but an ambitious and capable leader, to rise rapidly from the
+      rank of subjects to that of rulers of Iran, and to become in a short time
+      masters of Asia. Such a chief they found in Cyrus,* son of Cambyses; but
+      although no more illustrious name than his occurs in the list of the
+      founders of mighty empires, the history of no other has suffered more
+      disfigurement from the imagination of his own subjects or from the rancour
+      of the nations he had conquered.**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The original form of the name is Kûru, Kûrush, with a long
+     <i>o</i>, which forces us to reject the proposed connection with
+     the name of the Indian hero Kuru, in which the <i>u</i> is short.
+     Numerous etymologies of the name Cyrus have been proposed.
+     The Persians themselves attributed to it the sense of <i>the
+     Sun</i>.
+
+     ** We possess two entirely different versions of the history
+     of the origin of Cyrus, but one, that of Herodotus, has
+     reached us intact, while that of Ctesias is only known to us
+     in fragments from extracts made by Nicolas of Damascus, and
+     by Photius. Spiegel and Duncker thought to recognise in the
+     tradition followed by Ctesias one of the Persian accounts of
+     the history of Cyrus, but Bauer refuses to admit this
+     hypothesis, and prefers to consider it as a romance put
+     together by the author, according to the taste of his own
+     times, from facts partly different from those utilised by
+     Herodotus, and partly borrowed from Herodotus himself: but
+     it should very probably be regarded as an account of Median
+     origin, in which the founder of the Persian empire is
+     portrayed in the most unfavourable light. Or perhaps it may
+     be regarded as the form of the legend current among the
+     Pharnaspids who established themselves as satraps of
+     Dascylium in the time of the Achæmenids, and to whom the
+     royal house of Cappadocia traced its origin. It is almost
+     certain that the account given by Herodotus represents a
+     Median version of the legend, and, considering the important
+     part played in it by Harpagus, probably that version which
+     was current among the descendants of that nobleman. The
+     historian Dinon, as far as we can judge from the extant
+     fragments of his work, and from the abridgment made by
+     Trogus Pompeius, adopted the narrative of Ctesias, mingling
+     with it, however, some details taken from Herodotus and the
+     romance of Xenophon, the Cyropodia.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The Medes, who could not forgive him for having made them subject to their
+      ancient vassals, took delight in holding him up to scorn, and not being
+      able to deny the fact of his triumph, explained it by the adoption of
+      tortuous and despicable methods. They would not even allow that he was of
+      royal birth, but asserted that he was of ignoble origin, the son of a
+      female goatherd and a certain Atradates,* who, belonging to the savage
+      clan of the Mardians, lived by brigandage. Cyrus himself, according to
+      this account, spent his infancy and early youth in a condition not far
+      short of slavery, employed at first in sweeping out the exterior portions
+      of the palace, performing afterwards the same office in the private
+      apartments, subsequently promoted to the charge of the lamps and torches,
+      and finally admitted to the number of the royal cupbearers who filled the
+      king&rsquo;s goblet at table.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * According to one of the historians consulted by Strabo,
+     Cyrus himself, and not his father, was called Atradates.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0025" id="linkimage-0025">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/039.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="039.jpg a Royal Hunting-party in Hun " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the silver vase in the Museum
+     of the Hermitage.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      When he was at length enrolled in the bodyguard,* he won distinction by
+      his skill in all military exercises, and having risen from rank to rank,
+      received command of an expedition against the Cadusians.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The tradition reproduced by Dinon narrated that Cyrus had
+     begun by serving among the Kavasses, the three hundred
+     staff-bearers who accompanied the sovereign when he appeared
+     in public, and that he passed next into the royal body-
+     guard, and that once having attained this rank, he passed
+     rapidly through all the superior grades of the military
+     profession.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      On the march he fell in with a Persian groom named OEbaras,* who had been
+      cruelly scourged for some misdeed, and was occupied in the transportation
+      of manure in a boat: in obedience to an oracle the two united their
+      fortunes, and together devised a vast scheme for liberating their
+      compatriots from the Median yoke.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * This OEbaras whom Ctesias makes the accomplice of Cyrus,
+     seems to be an antedated forestallment of theoebaras whom
+     the tradition followed by Herodotus knows as master of the
+     horse under Darius, and to whom that king owed his elevation
+     to the throne.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      How Atradates secretly prepared the revolt of the Mardians; how Cyrus left
+      his camp to return to the court at Ecbatana, and obtained from Astyages
+      permission to repair to his native country under pretext of offering
+      sacrifices, but in reality to place himself at the head of the
+      conspirators; how, finally, the indiscretion of a woman revealed the whole
+      plot to a eunuch of the harem, and how he warned Astyages in the middle of
+      his evening banquet by means of a musician or singing-girl, was frequently
+      narrated by the Median bards in their epic poems, and hence the story
+      spread until it reached in later times even as far as the Greeks.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * According to Ctesias, it was a singing-girl who revealed
+     the existence of the plot to Astyages; according to Dinon,
+     it was the bard Angarês. Windischmann has compared this name
+     with that of the Vedic guild of singers, the Angira.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Astyages, roused to action by the danger, abandons the pleasures of the
+      chase in which his activity had hitherto found vent, sets out on the track
+      of the rebel, wins a preliminary victory on the Hyrba, and kills the
+      father of Cyrus: some days after, he again overtakes the rebels, at the
+      entrance to the defiles leading to Pasargadse, and for the second time
+      fortune is on the point of declaring in his favour, when the Persian
+      women, bringing back their husbands and sons to the conflict, urge them on
+      to victory. The fame of their triumph having spread abroad, the satraps
+      and provinces successfully declared for the conqueror; Hyrcania, first,
+      followed by the Parthians, the Sakae, and the Bactrians: Astyages was left
+      almost alone, save for a few faithful followers, in the palace at
+      Ecbatana. His daughter Amytis and his son-in-law Spitamas concealed him so
+      successfully on the top of the palace, that he escaped discovery up to the
+      moment when Cyrus was on the point of torturing his grandchildren to force
+      them to reveal his hiding-place: thereupon he gave himself up to his
+      enemies, but was at length, after being subjected to harsh treatment for a
+      time, set at liberty and entrusted with the government of a mountain tribe
+      dwelling to the south-east of the Caspian Sea, that of the Barcanians.
+      Later on he perished through the treachery of OEbaras, and his corpse was
+      left unburied in the desert, but by divine interposition relays of lions
+      were sent to guard it from the attacks of beasts of prey: Cyrus,
+      acquainted with this miraculous circumstance, went in search of the body
+      and gave it a magnificent burial.* Another legend asserted, on the
+      contrary, that Cyrus was closely connected with the royal line of
+      Cyaxares; this tradition was originally circulated among the great Median
+      families who attached themselves to the Achaemenian dynasty.**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The passage in Herodotus leads Marquart to believe that
+     the murder of Astyages formed part of the primitive legend,
+     but was possibly attributed to Cambysos, son of Cyrus,
+     rather than to OEbaras, the companion of the conqueror&rsquo;s
+     early years.
+
+     ** This is the legend as told to Herodotus in Asia Minor,
+     probably by the members of the family of Harpagus, which the
+     Greek historian tried to render credible by interpreting the
+     miraculous incidents in a rationalising manner.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0026" id="linkimage-0026">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:48%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/042.jpg"
+       alt="042.jpg Remains of the Palace Of Ecbatana " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by Boudier,
+from Coste and Flandin.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      According to this legend Astyages had no male heirs, and the sceptre would
+      have naturally descended from him to his daughter Mandanê and her sons.
+      Astyages was much alarmed by a certain dream concerning his daughter: he
+      dreamt that water gushed forth so copiously from her womb as to flood not
+      only Ecbatana, but the whole of Asia, and the interpreters, as much
+      terrified as himself, counselled him not to give Mandanê in marriage to a
+      Persian noble of the race of the Achæmenids, named Cambyses; but a second
+      dream soon troubled the security into which this union had lulled him: he
+      saw issuing from his daughter&rsquo;s womb a vine whose branches overshadowed
+      Asia, and the interpreters, being once more consulted, predicted that a
+      grandson was about to be born to him whose ambition would cost him his
+      crown. He therefore bade a certain nobleman of his court, named Harpagus&mdash;he
+      whose descendants preserved this version of the story of Cyrus&mdash;to
+      seize the infant and put it to death as soon as its mother should give it
+      birth; but the man, touched with pity, caused the child to be exposed in
+      the woods by one of the royal shepherds. A bitch gave suck to the tiny
+      creature, who, however, would soon have succumbed to the inclemency of the
+      weather, had not the shepherd&rsquo;s wife, being lately delivered of a
+      still-born son, persuaded her husband to rescue the infant, whom she
+      nursed with the same tenderness as if he had been her own child. The dog
+      was, as we know, a sacred animal among the Iranians: the incident of the
+      bitch seems, then, to have been regarded by them as an indication of
+      divine intervention, but the Greeks were shocked by the idea, and invented
+      an explanation consonant with their own customs. They supposed that the
+      woman had borne the name of Spakô: Spakô signifying <i>bitch</i> in the
+      language of Media.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Herodotus asserts that the child&rsquo;s foster-mother was
+     called in Greek <i>Kynô</i>, in Median <i>Spalcô</i>, which comes to
+     the same thing, for <i>spaha</i> means <i>bitch</i> in Median. Further
+     on he asserts that the parents of the child heard of the
+     name of his nurse with joy, as being of good augury; &ldquo;and,
+     in order that the Persians might think that Cyrus had been
+     preserved alive by divine agency, <i>they spread abroad the
+     report that Cyrus had been suckled by a bitch</i>. And thus
+     arose the fable commonly accepted.&rdquo; Trogus Pompeius received
+     the original story probably through Dinon, and inserted it
+     in his book.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Cyrus grew to boyhood, and being accepted by Mandanê as her son, returned
+      to the court; his grandfather consented to spare his life, but, to avenge
+      himself on Harpagus, he caused the limbs of the nobleman&rsquo;s own son to be
+      served up to him at a feast. Thenceforth Harpagus had but one idea, to
+      overthrow the tyrant and transfer the crown to the young prince: his
+      project succeeded, and Cyrus, having overcome Astyages, was proclaimed
+      king by the Medes as well as by the Persians. The real history of Cyrus,
+      as far as we can ascertain it, was less romantic. We gather that Kurush,
+      known to us as Cyrus, succeeded his father Cambyses as ruler of Anshân
+      about 559 or 558 B.C.,* and that he revolted against Astyages in 553 or
+      552 B.C.,** and defeated him. The Median army thereupon seizing its own
+      leader, delivered him into the hands of the conqueror: Ecbatana was taken
+      and sacked, and the empire fell at one blow, or, more properly speaking,
+      underwent a transformation (550 B.C.). The transformation was, in fact, an
+      internal revolution in which the two peoples of the same race changed
+      places. The name of the Medes lost nothing of the prestige which it
+      enjoyed in foreign lands, but that of the Persians was henceforth united
+      with it, and shared its renown: like Astyages and his predecessors, Cyrus
+      and his successors reigned equally over the two leading branches of the
+      ancient Iranian stock, but whereas the former had been kings of the Medes
+      and Persians, the latter became henceforth kings of the Persians and
+      Medes.***
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The length of Cyrus&rsquo; reign is fixed at thirty years by
+     Ctesias, followed by Dinon and Trogus Pompeius, but at
+     twenty-nine years by Herodotus, whose computation I here
+     follow. Hitherto the beginning of his reign has been made to
+     coincide with the fall of Astyages, which was consequently
+     placed in 569 or 568 B.C., but the discovery of the <i>Annals
+     of Nabonidus</i> obliges us to place the taking of Ecbatana in
+     the sixth year of the Babylonian king, which corresponds to
+     the year 550 B.C., and consequently to hold that Cyrus
+     reckoned his twenty-nine years from the moment when he
+     succeeded his father Cambyses.
+
+     ** The inscription on the <i>Rassam Cylinder of Abu-Habba</i>,
+     seems to make the fall of the Median king, who was suzerain
+     of the Scythians of Harrân, coincide with the third year of
+     Nabonidus, or the year 553-2 B.C. But it is only the date of
+     the commencement of hostilities between Cyrus and Astyages
+     which is here furnished, and this manner of interpreting the
+     text agrees with the statement of the Median traditions
+     handed down by the classical authors, that three combats
+     took place between Astyages and Cyrus before the final
+     victory of the Persians.
+
+     *** This equality of the two peoples is indicated by the
+     very terms employed by Darius, whom he speaks of them, in
+     the <i>Great Inscription of Behistun</i>. He says, for example,
+     in connection with the revolt of the false Smerdis, that
+     &ldquo;the deception prevailed greatly in the land, in Persia and
+     Media as well as in the other provinces,&rdquo; and further on,
+     that &ldquo;the whole people rose, and passed over from Cambyses
+     to him, Persia and Media as well as the other countries.&rdquo; In
+     the same way he mentions &ldquo;the army of Persians and Medes
+     which was with him,&rdquo; and one sees that he considered Medes
+     and Persians to be on exactly the same footing.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The change effected was so natural that their nearest neighbours, the
+      Chaldæans, showed no signs of uneasiness at the outset. They confined
+      themselves to the bare registration of the fact in their annals at the
+      appointed date, without comment, and Nabonidus in no way deviated from the
+      pious routine which it had hitherto pleased him to follow. Under a
+      sovereign so good-natured there was little likelihood of war, at all
+      events with external foes, but insurrections were always breaking out in
+      different parts of his territory, and we read of difficulties in Khumê in
+      the first year of his reign, in Hamath in his second year, and troubles in
+      Plionicia in the third year, which afforded an opportunity for settling
+      the Tyrian question. Tyre had led a far from peaceful existence ever since
+      the day when, from sheer apathy, she had accepted the supremacy of
+      Nebuchadrezzar.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * All these events are known through the excerpt from
+     Menander preserved to us by Josephus in his treatise
+     <i>Against Apion</i>.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Baal II. had peacefully reigned there for ten years (574-564), but after
+      his death the people had overthrown the monarchy, and various <i>suffetes</i>
+      had followed one another rapidly&mdash;Eknibaal ruled two months, Khelbes
+      ten months, the high priest Abbar three months, the two brothers Mutton
+      and Gerastratus six years, all of them no doubt in the midst of endless
+      disturbances; whereupon a certain Baalezor restored the royal dignity, but
+      only to enjoy it for the space of one year. On his death, the inhabitants
+      begged the Chaldæans to send them, as a successor to the crown, one of
+      those princes whom, according to custom, Baal had not long previously
+      given over as hostages for a guarantee of his loyalty, and Nergal-sharuzur
+      for this purpose selected from their number Mahar-baal, who was probably a
+      son of Ithobaal (558-557).* When, at the end of four years, the death of
+      Mahar-baal left the throne vacant (554-553), the Tyrians petitioned for
+      his brother Hirôm, and Nabonidus, who was then engaged in Syria, came
+      south as far as Phoenicia and installed the prince.**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The fragment of Menander does not give the Babylonian
+     king&rsquo;s name, but a simple chronological calculation proves
+     him to have been Nergal-sharuzur.
+
+     ** <i>Annals of Nabonidus</i>, where mention is made of a certain
+     Nabu-makhdan-uzur&mdash;but the reading of the name is uncertain
+     &mdash;who seems to be in revolt against the Chaldæans. Floigl has
+     very ingeniously harmonised the dates of the Annals with
+     those obtained from the fragment of Menander, and has thence
+     concluded that the object of the expedition of the third
+     year was the enthroning of Hirôm which is mentioned in the
+     fragment, and during whose fourteenth year Cyrus became King
+     of Babylon.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      This took place at the very moment when Cyrus was preparing his expedition
+      against Astyages; and the Babylonian monarch took advantage of the
+      agitation into which the Medes were thrown by this invasion, to carry into
+      execution a project which he had been planning ever since his accession.
+      Shortly after that event he had had a dream, in which Marduk, the great
+      lord, and Sin, the light of heaven and earth, had appeared on either side
+      of his couch, the former addressing him in the following words:
+      &ldquo;Nabonidus, King of Babylon, with the horses of thy chariot bring brick,
+      rebuild E-khul-khul, the temple of Harrân, that Sin, the great lord, may
+      take up his abode therein.&rdquo; Nabonidus had respectfully pointed out that
+      the town was in the hands of the Scythians, who were subjects of the
+      Medes, but the god had replied: &ldquo;The Scythian of whom thou speakest, he,
+      his country and the kings his protectors, are no more.&rdquo; Cyrus was the
+      instrument of the fulfilment of the prophecy. Nabonidus took possession of
+      Harrân without difficulty, and immediately put the necessary work in hand.
+      This was, indeed, the sole benefit that he derived from the changes which
+      were taking place, and it is probable that his inaction was the result of
+      the enfeebled condition of the empire. The country over which he ruled,
+      exhausted by the Assyrian conquest, and depopulated by the Scythian
+      invasions, had not had time to recover its forces since it had passed into
+      the hands of the Chaldæans; and the wars which Nebuchadrezzar had been
+      obliged to undertake for the purpose of strengthening his own power,
+      though few in number and not fraught with danger, had tended to prolong
+      the state of weakness into which it had sunk. If the hero of the dynasty
+      who had conquered Egypt had not ventured to measure his strength with the
+      Median princes, and if he had courted the friendship not only of the
+      warlike Cyaxares but of the effeminate Astyages, it would not be prudent
+      for Nabonidus to come into collision with the victorious new-comers from
+      the heart of Iran. Chaldsea doubtless was right in avoiding hostilities,
+      at all events so long as she had to bear the brunt of them alone, but
+      other nations had not the same motives for exercising prudence, and Lydia
+      was fully assured that the moment had come for her to again take up the
+      ambitious designs which the treaty of 585 had forced her to renounce.
+      Alyattes, relieved from anxiety with regard to the Medes, had confined his
+      energies to establishing firmly his kingdom in the regions of Asia Minor
+      extending westwards from the Halys and the Anti-Taurus. The acquisition of
+      Colophon, the destruction of Smyrna, the alliance with the towns of the
+      littoral, had ensured him undisputed possession of the valleys of the
+      Caicus and the Hermus, but the plains of the Maeander in the south, and
+      the mountainous districts of Mysia in the north, were not yet fully
+      brought under his sway. He completed the occupation of the Troad and Mysia
+      about 584, and afterwards made of the entire province an appanage for
+      Adramyttios, who was either his son or his brother.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The doings of Alyattes in Troas and in Mysia are vouched
+     for by the anecdote related by Plutarch concerning this
+     king&rsquo;s relations with Pittakos. The founding of Adramyttium
+     is attributed to him by Stephen of Byzantium, after
+     Aristotle, who made Adramyttios the brother of Croesus.
+     Radat gives good reasons for believing that Adramyttios was
+     brother to Alyattes and uncle to Crosus, and the same person
+     as Adramys, the son of Sadyattes, according to Xanthus of
+     Lydia. Radet gives the year 584 for the date of these
+     events.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0027" id="linkimage-0027">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:55%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/050.jpg"
+       alt="050.jpg the Tumulus of Alyattes and The Entrance to The Passage " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by Boudier, from the
+sketch by Spiegolthal.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      He even carried his arms into Bithynia, where, to enforce his rule, he
+      built several strongholds, one of which, called Alyatta, commanded the
+      main road leading from the basin of the Rhyndacus to that of the
+      Sangarius, skirting the spurs of Olympus.* He experienced some difficulty
+      in reducing Caria, and did not finally succeed in his efforts till nearly
+      the close of his reign in 566. Adramyttios was then dead, and his fief had
+      devolved on his eldest surviving brother or nephew, Crosus, whose mother
+      was by birth a Carian. This prince had incurred his father&rsquo;s displeasure
+      by his prodigality, and an influential party desired that he should be set
+      aside in favour of his brother Pantaleon, the son of Alyattes by an
+      Ionian. Croesus, having sown his wild oats, was anxious to regain his
+      father&rsquo;s favour, and his only chance of so doing was by distinguishing
+      himself in the coming war, if only money could be found for paying his
+      mercenaries. Sadyattes, the richest banker in Lydia, who had already had
+      dealings with all the members of the royal family, refused to make him a
+      loan, but Theokharides of Priênê advanced him a thousand gold staters,
+      which enabled Crosus to enroll his contingent at Bphesus, and to be the
+      first to present himself at the rallying-place for the troops.**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Radet places the operations in Bithynia before the Median
+     war, towards 594 at the latest. I think that they are more
+     probably connected with those in Mysia, and that they form
+     part of the various measures taken after the Median war to
+     achieve the occupation of the regions west of the Halys.
+
+     ** A mutilated extract from Xanthus of Lydia in Suidas seems
+     to carry these events back to the time of the war against
+     Priênê, towards the beginning of the reign. The united
+     evidence of the accompanying circumstances proves that they
+     belong to the time of the old age of Alyattes, and makes it
+     very likely that they occurred in 566, the date proposed by
+     Radet for the Carian campaign.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Caria was annexed to the kingdom, but the conditions under which the
+      annexation took place are not known to us;* and Croesus contributed so
+      considerably to the success of the campaign, that he was reinstated in
+      popular favour. Alyattes, however, was advancing in years, and was soon
+      about to rejoin his adversaries Cyaxares and Nebuchadrezzar in Hades. Like
+      the Pharaohs, the kings of Lydia were accustomed to construct during their
+      lifetime the monuments in which they were to repose after death. Their
+      necropolis was situated not far from Sardes, on the shores of the little
+      lake Gygaea; it was here, close to the resting-place of his ancestors and
+      their wives, that Alyattes chose the spot for his tomb,** and his subjects
+      did not lose the opportunity of proving to what extent he had gained their
+      affections.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The fragment of Nicolas of Damascus does not speak of the
+     result of the war, but it was certainly favourable, for
+     Herodotus counts the Carians among Croesus&rsquo; subjects.
+
+     ** The only one of these monuments, besides that of
+     Alyattes, which is mentioned by the ancients, belonged to
+     one of the favourites of Gyges, and was called <i>the Tomb of
+     the Courtesan</i>. Strabo, by a manifest error, has applied
+     this name <i>to</i> the tomb of Alyattes.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      His predecessors had been obliged to finish their work at their own
+      expense and by forced labour;* but in the case of Alyattes the three
+      wealthiest classes of the population, the merchants, the craftsmen, and
+      the courtesans, all united to erect for him an enormous tumulus, the
+      remains of which still rise 220 feet above the plains of the Hermus.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+* This, at least, seems to be the import of the passage in Clearchus of
+Soli, where that historian gives an account of the erection of the <i>Tomb
+of the Courtesan</i>.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0028" id="linkimage-0028">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:46%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/051.jpg"
+       alt="051.jpg One of the Lydian Ornaments in The Louvre " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by Faucher-Gudin,
+from a photograph.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The sub-structure consisted of a circular wall of great blocks of
+      limestone resting on the solid rock, and it contained in the centre a
+      vault of grey marble which was reached by a vaulted passage. A huge mound
+      of red clay and yellowish earth was raised above the chamber, surmounted
+      by a small column representing a phallus, and by four stelæ covered with
+      inscriptions, erected at the four cardinal points. It follows the
+      traditional type of burial-places in use among the old Asianic races, but
+      it is constructed with greater regularity than most of them; Alyattes was
+      laid within it in 561, after a glorious reign of forty-nine years.*
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      * Herodotus gave fifty-seven years&rsquo; length of reign to Alyattes, whilst
+      the chronographers, who go back as far as Xanthus of Lydia, through Julius
+      Africanus, attribute to him only forty-nine; historians now prefer the
+      latter figures, at least as representing the maximum length of reign.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0029" id="linkimage-0029">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/052.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="052.jpg Mould for Jewellery of Lydian Origin " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It was wholly due to him that Lydia was for the moment raised to the level
+      of the most powerful states which then existed on the eastern shores of
+      the Mediterranean. He was by nature of a violent and uncontrolled temper,
+      and during his earlier years he gave way to fits of anger, in which he
+      would rend the clothes of those who came in his way or would spit in their
+      faces, but with advancing years his character became more softened, and he
+      finally earned the reputation of being a just and moderate sovereign. The
+      little that we know of his life reveals an energy and steadfastness of
+      purpose quite unusual; he proceeded slowly but surely in his undertakings,
+      and if he did not succeed in extending his domains as far as he had hoped
+      at the beginning of his campaigns against the Medes, he at all events
+      never lost any of the provinces he had acquired. Under his auspices
+      agriculture flourished, and manufactures attained a degree of perfection
+      hitherto unknown.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0030" id="linkimage-0030">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/053.jpg" width="100%" alt="053.jpg a Lydian Funery Couch " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Choisy.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      None of the vases in gold, silver, or wrought-iron, which he dedicated and
+      placed among the treasures of the Greek temples, has come down to us, but
+      at rare intervals ornaments of admirable workmanship are found in the
+      Lydian tombs. Those now in the Louvre exhibit, in addition to human
+      figures somewhat awkwardly treated, heads of rams, bulls, and griffins of
+      a singular delicacy and faithfulness to nature. These examples reveal a
+      blending of Grecian types and methods of production with those of Egypt or
+      Chaldæa, the Hellenic being predominant,* and the same combination of
+      heterogeneous elements must have existed in the other domains of
+      industrial art&mdash;-in the dyed and embroidered stuffs,** the vases,***
+      and the furniture.****
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The ornaments, of which we have now no specimens, but only
+     the original moulds cut in serpentine, betray imitation of
+     Assyria and Chaldæa.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     ** The custom of clothing themselves in dyed and embroidered
+     stuffs was one of the effeminate habits with which the poet
+     Xenophanes reproached the Ionians as having been learned
+     from their Lydian neighbours.
+
+     *** M. Perrot points out that one of the vases discovered by
+     G. Dennis at Bintépé is an evident imitation of the Egyptian
+     and Phoenician chevroned glasses. The shape of the vase is
+     one of those found represented, with the same decoration, on
+     Egyptian monuments subsequent to the Middle Empire, where
+     the chevroned lines seem to be derived from the undulations
+     of ribbon-alabaster.
+
+     **** The stone funerary couches which have been discovered
+     in Lydian tombs are evidently copied from pieces of wooden
+     furniture similarly arranged and decorated.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0031" id="linkimage-0031">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:32%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/054a.jpg"
+       alt="054a.jpg Lydian Coin Bearing a Running Fox " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by
+Faucher-
+Gudin.
+
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0032" id="linkimage-0032">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:18%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/054b.jpg"
+       alt="054b.jpg Lydian Coin With a Hare " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by
+Faucher-
+Gudin.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      [These illustrations are larger than the original pieces.&mdash;Tr.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lydia, inheriting the traditions of Phrygia, and like that state situated
+      on the border of two worlds, allied moreover with Egypt as well as
+      Babylon, and in regular communication with the Delta, borrowed from each
+      that which fell in with her tastes or seemed likely to be most helpful to
+      her in her commercial relations. As the country produced gold in
+      considerable quantities, and received still more from extraneous sources,
+      the precious metal came soon to be employed as a means of exchange under
+      other conditions than those which had hitherto prevailed. Besides acting
+      as commission agents and middle-men for the disposal of merchandise at
+      Sardes, Ephesus, Miletus, Clazomenaa, and all the maritime cities, the
+      Lydians performed at the same time the functions of pawnbrokers,
+      money-changers, and bankers, and they were ready to make loans to private
+      individuals as well as to kings. Obliged by the exigencies of their trade
+      to cut up the large gold ingots into sections sufficiently small to
+      represent the smallest values required in daily life, they did not at
+      first impress upon these portions any stamp as a guarantee of the exact
+      weight or the purity of the metal; they were estimated like the <i>tabonu</i>
+      of the Egyptians, by actual weighing on the occasion of each business
+      transaction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0033" id="linkimage-0033">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:17%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/055a.jpg"
+       alt="055a.jpg Lydian Coins With a Lion and Lion&rsquo;s Head " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img alt="055b (7K)" src="images/055b.jpg" width="100%" />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <a name="linkimage-0034" id="linkimage-0034">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/056a.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="056a.jpg Coin Bearing Head of Mouflon Goat " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <a name="linkimage-0035" id="linkimage-0035">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/056b.jpg" width="100%" alt="056b.jpg Money of Croesus " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The idea at length occurred to them to impress each of these pieces with a
+      common stamp, serving, like the trade-marks employed by certain guilds of
+      artisans, to testify at once to their genuineness and their exact weight:
+      in a word, they were the inventors of money. The most ancient coinage of
+      their mint was like a flattened sphere, more or less ovoid, in form: it
+      consisted at first of electrum, and afterwards of smelted gold, upon which
+      parallel striae or shallow creases were made by a hammer. There were two
+      kinds of coinage, differing considerably from each other; one consisted of
+      the heavy stater, weighing about 14.20 grammes, perhaps of Phoenician
+      origin, the other of the light stater, of some 10.80 grammes in weight,
+      which doubtless served as money for the local needs of Lydia: both forms
+      were subdivided into pieces representing respectively the third, the
+      sixth, the twelfth, and the twenty-fourth of the value of the original.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The stamp which came to be impressed upon the money was in relief, and
+      varied with the banker; * when political communities began to follow the
+      example of individuals, it also bore the name of the city where it was
+      minted.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * [The best English numismatists do not agree with M.
+     Babelon&rsquo;s &ldquo;banker&rdquo; theory. Cf. Barclay V. Head, <i>Historia
+     Nummorum</i>, p. xxxiv.&mdash;-Tr.]
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The type of impression once selected, was little modified for fear of
+      exciting mistrust among the people, but it was more finely executed and
+      enlarged so as to cover one of the faces, that which we now call the <i>obverse</i>.
+      Several subjects entered into the composition of the design, each being
+      impressed by a special punch: thus in the central concavity we find the
+      figure of a running fox, emblem of Apollo Bassareus, and in two similar
+      depressions, one above and the other below the central, appear a horse&rsquo;s
+      or stag&rsquo;s head, and a flower with four petals. Later on the design was
+      simplified, and contained only one, or at most two figures&mdash;a hare
+      squatting under a tortuous climbing plant, a roaring lion crouching with
+      its head turned to the left, the grinning muzzle of a lion, the horned
+      profile of an antelope or mouflon sheep: rosettes and flowers, included
+      within a square depression, were then used to replace the stria and
+      irregular lines of the reverse. These first efforts were without
+      inscriptions; it was not long, however, before there came to be used, in
+      addition to the figures, legends, from which we sometimes learn the name
+      of the banker; we read, for instance, &ldquo;I am the mark of Phannes,&rdquo; on a
+      stater of electrum struck at Ephesus, with a stag grazing on the right. We
+      are ignorant as to which of the Lydian kings first made use of the new
+      invention, and so threw into circulation the gold and electrum which
+      filled his treasury to overflowing. The ancients say it was Gyges, but the
+      Gygads of their time cannot be ascribed to him; they were, without any
+      doubt, simply ingots marked with the stamp of the banker of the time, and
+      were attributed to Gyges either out of pure imagination or by mistake.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The gold of Gyges is known to us through a passage in
+     Pollux. Fr. Lenormant attributed to Gyges the coins which
+     Babelon restores to the banks of Asia Minor. Babelon sees in
+     the Gygads only &ldquo;ingots of gold, struck <i>possibly</i> in the
+     name of Gyges, capable of being used as coin, doubtless
+     representing a definitely fixed weight, but still lacking
+     that ultimate perfection which characterises the coinage of
+     civilised peoples: from the standpoint of circulation in the
+     market their shape was defective and inconvenient; their
+     subdivision did not extend to such small fractions as to
+     make all payments easy; they were too large and too dear for
+     easy circulation through many hands.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      The same must be said of the pieces of money which have been assigned to
+      his successors, and, even when we find on them traces of writing, we
+      cannot be sure of their identification; one legend which was considered to
+      contain the name of Sadyattes has been made out, without producing
+      conviction, as involving, instead, that of Clazomenæ. There is no
+      certainty until after the time of Alyattes, that is, in the reign of
+      Croesus. It is, as a fact, to this prince that we owe the fine gold and
+      silver coins bearing on the obverse a demi-lion couchant confronting a
+      bull treated similarly.* The two creatures appear to threaten one another,
+      and the introduction of the lion recalls a tradition regarding the city of
+      Sardes; it may represent the actual animal which was alleged to have been
+      begotten by King Meles of one of his concubines, and which he caused to be
+      carried solemnly round the city walls to render them impregnable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Croesus did not succeed to the throne of his father without trouble. His
+      enemies had not laid down their arms after the Carian campaign, and they
+      endeavoured to rid themselves of him by all the means in use at Oriental
+      courts. The Ionian mother of his rival furnished the slave who kneaded the
+      bread with poison, telling her to mix it with the dough, but the woman
+      revealed the intended crime to her master, who at once took the necessary
+      measures to frustrate the plot; later on in life he dedicated in the
+      temple of Delphi a statue of gold representing the faithful bread-maker.**
+      The chief of the rival party seems to have been Sadyattes, the banker from
+      whom Croesus had endeavoured to borrow money at the beginning of his
+      career, but several of the Lydian nobles, whose exercise of feudal rights
+      had been restricted by the growing authority of the Mermnado, either
+      secretly or openly gave their adhesion to Pantaleon, among them being
+      Glaucias of Sidênê; the Greek cities, always ready to chafe at authority,
+      were naturally inclined to support a claimant born of a Greek mother, and
+      Pindarus the tyrant of Ephesus, and grandson of the Melas who had married
+      the daughter of Gyges, joined the conspirators.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Lenormant ascribed an issue of coins without inscriptions
+     to the kings Ardys, Sadyattes, and Alyattes, but this has
+     since been believed not to have been their work.
+
+     ** Herodotus mentions the statue of the bread-maker, giving
+     no reason why Crosus dedicated it. The author quoted by
+     Plutarch would have it that in revenge he made his half-
+     brothers eat the poisoned bread.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0036" id="linkimage-0036">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/059.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="059.jpg View of the Site and Ruins Of Ephesus " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      As soon as Alyattes was dead, Crosus, who was kept informed by his spies
+      of their plans, took action with a rapidity which disconcerted his
+      adversaries. It is not known what became of Pantaleon, whether he was
+      executed or fled the country, but his friends were tortured to death or
+      had to purchase their pardon dearly. Sadyattes was stretched on a rack and
+      torn with carding combs.* Glaucias, besieged in his fortress of Sidênê,
+      opened its gates after a desperate resistance; the king demolished the
+      walls, and pronounced a solemn curse on those who should thereafter
+      rebuild them. Pindarus, summoned to surrender, refused, but as he had not
+      sufficient troops to defend the entire city, he evacuated the lower
+      quarters, and concentrated all his forces on the defence of the citadel;
+      he refused to open negotiations until after the fall of a tower at the
+      moment when a practicable breach had been made, and succeeded in obtaining
+      an honourable capitulation for himself and his people by a ruse.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The history of Sadyattes and of his part in the conspiracy
+     results from points of agreement which have been established
+     between various passages in Herodotus and in Nicolas of
+     Damascus, where the person is sometimes named and sometimes
+     not.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      He dedicated the town to Artemis, and by means of a rope connected the
+      city walls with the temple, which stood nearly a mile away in the suburbs,
+      and then entreated for peace in the name of the goddess. Croesus was
+      amused at the artifice, and granted favourable conditions to the
+      inhabitants, but insisted on the expulsion of the tyrant. The latter bowed
+      before the decree, and confiding the care of his children and possessions
+      to his friend Pasicles, left for the Peloponnesus with his retinue.
+      Bphesus up to this time had been a kind of allied principality, whose
+      chiefs, united to the royal family of Lydia by marriages from generation
+      to generation, recognised the nominal suzerainty of the reigning king
+      rather than his effective authority. It was in fact a species of
+      protectorate, which, while furthering the commercial interests of Lydia,
+      satisfied at the same time the passion of the Greek cities for autonomy.
+      Croesus, encouraged by his first success, could not rest contented with
+      such a compromise. He attacked, successively, Miletus and the various
+      Ionian, Æolian, and Dorian communities of the littoral, and brought them
+      all under his sway, promising on their capitulation that their local
+      constitutions should be respected if they became direct dependencies of
+      his empire. He placed garrisons in such towns as were strategically
+      important for him to occupy, but everywhere else he razed to the ground
+      the fortresses and ramparts which might afford protection to his enemies
+      in case of rebellion, compelling the inhabitants to take up their abode on
+      the open plain where they could not readily defend themselves.* The
+      administration of the affairs of each city was entrusted to either a
+      wealthy citizen, or an hereditary tyrant, or an elected magistrate, who
+      was held responsible for its loyalty; the administrator paid over the
+      tribute to the sovereign&rsquo;s treasurers, levied the specified contingent and
+      took command of it in time of war, settled any quarrels which might occur,
+      and was empowered, when necessary, to exile turbulent and ambitious
+      persons whose words or actions appeared to him to be suspicious. Croesus
+      treated with generosity those republics which tendered him loyal
+      obedience, and affected a special devotion to their gods. He gave a large
+      number of ex-voto offerings to the much-revered sanctuary of Bran-chidse,
+      in the territory of Miletus; he dedicated some golden heifers at the
+      Artemision of Ephesus, and erected the greater number of the columns of
+      that temple at his own expense.**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * He treated thus the Ephesians and the Ilians.
+
+     ** The fragments of columns brought from this temple by Wood
+     and preserved in the British Museum have on one of the bases
+     the remains of an inscription confirming the testimony of
+     Herodotus.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      At one time in his career he appears to have contemplated extending his
+      dominion over the Greek islands, and planned, as was said, the equipment
+      of a fleet, but he soon acknowledged the imprudence of such a project, and
+      confined his efforts to strengthening his advantageous position on the
+      littoral by contracting alliances with the island populations and with the
+      nations of Greece proper.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * He seems to have been deterred from his project by a
+     sarcastic remark made, as some say, by Pittakos the
+     Mitylenian, or according to others, by Bias of Priênê.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Following the diplomacy of his ancestors, he began by devoting himself to
+      the gods of the country, and took every pains to gain the good graces of
+      Apollo of Delphi. He dispensed his gifts with such liberality that neither
+      his contemporaries nor subsequent generations grew weary of admiring it.
+      On one occasion he is said to have sacrificed three thousand animals, and
+      burnt, moreover, on the pyre the costly contents of a palace&mdash;couches
+      covered with silver and gold, coverlets and robes of purple, and golden
+      vials. His subjects were commanded to contribute to the offering, and he
+      caused one hundred and seventeen hollow half-bricks to be cast of the gold
+      which they brought him for this purpose. These bricks were placed in
+      regular layers within the treasury at Delphi where the gifts of Lydia from
+      the time of Alyattes were deposited, and the top of the pile was
+      surmounted by a lion of fine gold of such a size that the pedestal and
+      statue together were worth £1,200,000 of our present money. These,
+      however, formed only a tithe of his gifts; many of the objects dedicated
+      by him were dispersed half a century (548 B.C.) later when the temple was
+      burnt, and found their way into the treasuries of the Greek states which
+      enjoyed the favour of Apollo&mdash;among them being an enormous gold cup
+      sent to Clazomeme, and four barrels of silver and two bowls, one of silver
+      and one of gold, sent to the Corinthians. The people at Delphi, as well as
+      their god, participated in the royal largesse, and Croesus distributed to
+      them the sum of two staters per head. No doubt their gratitude led them by
+      degrees to exaggerate the total of the benefits showered upon them,
+      especially as time went on and their recollection of the king became
+      fainter; but even when we reduce the number of the many gifts which they
+      attributed to him, we are still obliged to acknowledge that they surpassed
+      anything hitherto recorded, and that they produced throughout the whole of
+      Greece the effect that Croesus had desired. The oracle granted to him and
+      to the Lydians the rights of citizenship in perpetuity, the privilege of
+      priority in consulting it before all comers, precedence for his legates
+      over other foreign embassies, and a place of honour at the games and at
+      all religious ceremonies. It was, in fact, the admission of Lydia into the
+      Hellenic concert, and the offerings which Croesus showered upon the
+      sanctuaries of lesser fame&mdash;that of Zeus at Dodona, of Amphiaraos at
+      Oropos, of Trophonios at Lebadsea, on the oracle of Abee in Phocis, and on
+      the Ismenian Apollo at Thebes&mdash;secured a general approval of the act.
+      Political alliances contracted with the great families of Athens, the
+      Alcmonidæ and Eupatridæ,* with the Cypselidæ of, Corinth,** and with the
+      Heraclidæ of Sparta,*** completed the policy of bribery which Croesus had
+      inaugurated in the sacerdotal republics, with the result that, towards
+      548, being in the position of uncontested patron of the Greeks of Asia, he
+      could count upon the sympathetic neutrality of the majority of their
+      compatriots in Europe, and on the effective support of a smaller number of
+      them in the event of his being forced into hostilities with one or other
+      of his Asiatic rivals.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Traditions as to Crcesus&rsquo; relations with Alcrnseon are
+     preserved by Herodotus. The king compelled the inhabitants of
+     Lampsacus, his vassals, to release the elder Miltiades, whom
+     they had taken prisoner, and thus earned the gratitude of
+     the Eupatridæ.
+
+     ** Alyattes had been the ally of Periander, as is proved by
+     an anecdote in Herodotus. This friendship continued under
+     Crosus, for after the fall of the monarchy, when the special
+     treasuries of Lydia were suppressed, the ex-voto offerings
+     of the Lydian kings were deposited in the treasury of
+     Corinth.
+
+     *** According to Theopompus, the Lacedaemonians, wishing to
+     gild the face of the statue of the Amyclsean, Apollo, and
+     finding no gold in Greece, consulted the Delphian
+     prophetess: by her advice they sent to Lydia to buy the
+     precious metal from Croesus.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      This, however, constituted merely one side of his policy, and the
+      negotiations which he carried on with his western neighbours were
+      conducted simultaneously with his wars against those of the east. Alyattes
+      had asserted his supremacy over the whole of the country on the western
+      side of the Halys, but it was of a very vague kind, having no definite
+      form, and devoid of practical results as far as several of the districts
+      in the interior were concerned. Croesus made it a reality, and in less
+      than ten years all the peoples contained within it, the Lycians excepted&mdash;Mysians,
+      Phrygians, Mariandynians, Paphlagonians, Thynians, Bithynians, and
+      Pamphylians&mdash;had rendered him homage. In its constitution his empire
+      in no way differed from those which at that time shared the rule of
+      Western Asia; the number of districts administered directly by the
+      sovereign were inconsiderable, and most of the states comprised in it
+      preserved their autonomy. Phrygia had its own princes, who were
+      descendants of Midas,* and in the same way Caria and Mysia also retained
+      theirs; but these vassal lords paid tribute and furnished contingents to
+      their liege of Sardes, and garrisons lodged in their citadels as well as
+      military stations or towns founded in strategic positions, such as Prusa**
+      in Bithynia, Cibyra, Hyda, Grimenothyræ, and Temenothyræ,*** kept strict
+      watch over them, securing the while free circulation for caravans or
+      individual merchants throughout the whole country. Croesus had achieved
+      his conquest just as Media was tottering to its fall under the attacks of
+      the Persians.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * This is proved by the history of the Prince Adrastus in
+     Herodotus. Herodotus probably alluded to this colonisation
+     by Crcesus, when he said that the Mysians of Olympus were
+     descendants of Lydian colonists.
+
+     ** Strabo merely says that the Kibyrates were descended from
+     the Lydians who dwelt in Cabalia; since Croesus was, as far
+     as we know, the only Lydian king who ever possessed this
+     part of Asia, Radet, with good reason, concludes that Kibyra
+     was colonised by him.
+
+     *** Radet has given good reasons for believing that at least
+     some of these towns were enlarged and fortified by Croesus.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Their victory placed the Lydian king in a position of great perplexity,
+      since it annulled the treaties concluded after the eclipse of 585, and by
+      releasing him from the obligations then contracted, afforded him an
+      opportunity of extending the limits within which his father had confined
+      himself. Now or never was the time for crossing the Halys in order to
+      seize those mineral districts with which his subjects had so long had
+      commercial relations; on the other hand, the unexpected energy of which
+      the Persians had just given proof, their bravery, their desire for
+      conquest, and the valour of their leader, all tended to deter him from the
+      project: should he be victorious, Cyrus would probably not rest contented
+      with tke annexation of a few unimportant districts or the imposition of a
+      tribute, but would treat his adversary as he had Astyages, and having
+      dethroned him, would divide Lydia into departments to be ruled by one or
+      other of his partisans. Warlike ideas, nevertheless, prevailed at the
+      court of Sardes, and, taking all into consideration, we cannot deny that
+      they had reason on their side. The fall of Ecbatana had sealed the fate of
+      Media proper, and its immediate dependencies had naturally shared the
+      fortunes of the capital; but the more distant provinces still wavered, and
+      they would probably attempt to take advantage of the change of rule to
+      regain their liberty. Cyrus, obliged to take up arms against them, would
+      no longer have his entire forces at his disposal, and by attacking him at
+      that juncture it might be possible to check his power before it became
+      irresistible. Having sketched out his plan of campaign, Croesus prepared
+      to execute it with all possible celerity. Egypt and Chaldæa, like himself,
+      doubtless felt themselves menaced; he experienced little difficulty in
+      persuading them to act in concert with him in face of the common peril,
+      and he obtained from both Amasis and Nabonidus promises of effective
+      co-operation. At the same time he had recourse to the Greek oracles, and
+      that of Delphi was instrumental in obtaining for him a treaty of alliance
+      and friendship with Sparta. Negotiations had been carried on so rapidly,
+      that by the end of 548 all was in readiness for a simultaneous movement;
+      Sparta was equipping a fleet, and merely awaited the return of the
+      favourable season to embark her contingent; Egypt had already despatched
+      hers, and her Cypriot vassals were on the point of starting, while bands
+      of Thracian infantry were marching to reinforce the Lydian army. These
+      various elements represented so considerable a force of men, that, had
+      they been ranged on a field of battle, Cyrus would have experienced
+      considerable difficulty in overcoming them. An unforeseen act of treachery
+      obliged the Lydians to hasten their preparations and commence hostilities
+      before the moment agreed on. Eurybatos, an Ephesian, to whom the king had
+      entrusted large sums of money for the purpose of raising mercenaries in
+      the Peloponnesus, fled with his gold into Persia, and betrayed the secret
+      of the coalition. The Achaemenian sovereign did not hesitate to forestall
+      the attack, and promptly assumed the offensive. The transport of an army
+      from Ecbatana to the middle course of the Halys would have been a long and
+      laborious undertaking, even had it kept within the territory of the
+      empire; it would have necessitated crossing the mountain groups of Armenia
+      at their greatest width, and that at a time when the snow was still lying
+      deep upon the ground and the torrents were swollen and unfordable. The
+      most direct route, which passed through Assyria and the part of
+      Mesopotamia south of the Masios, lay for the most part in the hands of the
+      Chaldæans, but their enfeebled condition justified Cyrus&rsquo;s choice of it,
+      and he resolved, in the event of their resistance, to cut his way through
+      sword in hand. He therefore bore down upon Arbela by the gorges of
+      Rowandîz in the month Nisan, making as though he were bound for
+      Karduniash; but before the Babylonians had time to recover from their
+      alarm at this movement, he crossed the river not far from Nineveh and
+      struck into Mesopotamia. He probably skirted the slopes of the Masios,
+      overcoming and killing in the month Iyyâr some petty king, probably the
+      ruler of Armenia,* and debouched into Cappadocia. This province was almost
+      entirely in the power of the enemy; Nabonidus had despatched couriers by
+      the shortest route in order to warn his ally, and if necessary to claim
+      his promised help.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Ploigl, who was the first to refer a certain passage in
+     the <i>Annals of Nabonidus</i> to the expedition against Croesus,
+     restored Is[parda] as the name of the country mentioned, and
+     saw even the capture of Sardes in the events of the month
+     Iyyâr, in direct contradiction to the Greek tradition. The
+     connection between the campaign beyond the Tigris and the
+     Lydian war seems to me incontestable, but the Babylonian
+     chronicler has merely recorded the events which affected
+     Babylonia. Cyrus&rsquo; object was both to intimidate Nabonidus
+     and also to secure possession of the most direct, and at the
+     same time the easiest, route: by cutting across Mesopotamia,
+     he avoided the difficult marches in the mountainous
+     districts of Armenia. Perhaps we should combine, with the
+     information of the <i>Annals</i>, the passage of Xenophon, where
+     it is said that the Armenians refused tribute and service to
+     the King of Persia: Cyrus would have punished the rebels on
+     his way, after crossing the Euphrates.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Croesus, when he received them, had with him only the smaller portion of
+      his army, the Lydian cavalry, the contingents of his Asiatic subjects, and
+      a few Greek veterans, and it would probably have been wiser to defer the
+      attack till after the disembarkation of the Lacedaemonians; but hesitation
+      at so critical a moment might have discouraged his followers, and decided
+      his fate before any action had taken place. He therefore collected his
+      troops together, fell upon the right bank of the Halys,* devastated the
+      country, occupied Pteria and the neighbouring towns, and exiled the
+      inhabitants to a distance. He had just completed the subjection of the
+      White Syrians when he was met by an emissary from the Persians; Cyrus
+      offered him his life, and confirmed his authority on condition of his
+      pleading for mercy and taking the oath of vassalage.** Croesus sent a
+      proud refusal, which was followed by a brilliant victory, after which a
+      truce of three months was concluded between the belligerents.***
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * On this point Herodotus tells a current story of his time:
+     Thaïes had a trench dug behind the army, which was probably
+     encamped in one of the bends made by the Halys; he then
+     diverted the stream into this new bed, with the result that
+     the Lydians found themselves on the right bank of the river
+     without having had the trouble of crossing it.
+
+     ** Nicolas of Damascus records that Cyrus, after the capture
+     of Sardes, for a short time contemplated making Croesus a
+     vassal king, or at least a satrap of Lydia.
+
+     *** We have two very different accounts of this campaign,
+     viz. that of Herodotus, and that of Polyonus. According to
+     Herodotus, Croesus gave battle only once in Pteria, with
+     indecisive result, and on the next day quietly retired to
+     his kingdom, thinking that Cyrus would not dare to pursue
+     him. According to Polyonus, Croesus, victorious in a first
+     engagement owing to a more or less plausible military
+     stratagem, consented to a truce, but on the day after was
+     completely defeated, and obliged to return to his kingdom
+     with a routed army. Herodotus&rsquo; account of the fall of
+     Croesus and of Sardes, borrowed partly from a good written
+     source, Xanthus or Charon of Lampsacus, partly from the
+     tradition of the Harpagidse, seems to have for its object
+     the soothing of the vanity both of the Persians and of the
+     Lydians, since, if the result of the war could not be
+     contested, the issue of the battle was at least left
+     uncertain. If he has given a faithful account, no one can
+     understand why Croesus should have retired and ceded White
+     Syria to a rival who had never conquered him. The account
+     given by Polysenus, in spite of the improbability of some of
+     its details, comes from a well-informed author: the defeat
+     of the Lydians in the second battle explains the retreat of
+     Crcesus, who is without excuse in Herodotus&rsquo; version of the
+     affair. Pompeius Trogus adopted a version similar to that of
+     Polysenus.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Cyrus employed the respite in attempting to win over the Greek cities of
+      the littoral, which he pictured to himself as nursing a bitter hatred
+      against the Mermnadæ; but it is to be doubted if his emissaries succeeded
+      even in wresting a declaration of neutrality from the Milesians; the
+      remainder, Ionians and Æolians, all continued faithful to their oaths.* On
+      the resumption of hostilities, the tide of fortune turned, and the Lydians
+      were crushed by the superior forces of the Persians and the Medes; Crcesus
+      retired under cover of night, burning the country as he retreated, to
+      prevent the enemy from following him, and crossed the Halys with the
+      remains of his battalions. The season was already far advanced; he thought
+      that the Persians, threatened in the rear by the Babylonian troops, would
+      shrink from the prospect of a winter campaign, and he fell back upon
+      Sardes without further lingering in Phrygia. But Nabonidus did not feel
+      himself called upon to show the same devotion that his ally had evinced
+      towards him, or perhaps the priests who governed in his name did not
+      permit him to fulfil his engagements.**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Herodotus makes the attempted corruption of the Ionians to
+     date from the beginning of the war, even before Cyrus took
+     the field.
+
+     ** The author followed by Pompeius Trogus has alone
+     preserved the record of this treaty. The fact is important
+     as explaining Croesus&rsquo; behaviour after his defeat, but
+     Schubert goes too far when he re-establishes on this ground
+     an actual campaign of Cyrus against Babylon: Radet has come
+     back to the right view in seeing only a treaty made with
+     Nabonidus.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      As soon as peace was proposed, he accepted terms, without once considering
+      the danger to which the Lydians were exposed by his defection. The Persian
+      king raised his camp as soon as all fear of an attack to rearward was
+      removed, and, falling upon defenceless Phrygia, pushed forward to Sardes
+      in spite of the inclemency of the season. No movement could have been
+      better planned, or have produced such startling results. Croesus had
+      disbanded the greater part of his feudal contingents, and had kept only
+      his body-guard about him, the remainder of his army&mdash;natives,
+      mercenaries, and allies&mdash;having received orders not to reassemble
+      till the following spring. The king hastily called together all his
+      available troops, both Lydians and foreigners, and confronted his enemies
+      for the second time. Even under these unfavourable conditions he hoped to
+      gain the advantage, had his cavalry, the finest in the world, been able to
+      take part in the engagement. But Cyrus had placed in front of his lines a
+      detachment of camels, and the smell of these animals so frightened the
+      Lydian horses that they snorted and refused to charge.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Herodotus&rsquo; mention of the use of camels is confirmed, with
+     various readings, by Xenophon, by Polysenus, and by Ælian;
+     their employment does not necessarily belong to a legendary
+     form of the story, especially if we suppose that the camel,
+     unknown before in Asia Minor, was first introduced there by
+     the Persian army. The site of the battle is not precisely
+     known. According to Herodotus, the fight took place in the
+     great plain before Sardes, which is crossed by several small
+     tributaries of the Hermus, amongst others the Hyllus. Radet
+     recognises that the Hyllus of Herodotus is the whole or part
+     of the stream now called the Kusu-tchaî, and he places the
+     scene of action near the township of Adala, which would
+     correspond with Xenophon&rsquo;s Thymbrara. This continues to be
+     the most likely hypothesis. After the battle Croesus would
+     have fled along the Hermus towards Sardes. Xenophon&rsquo;s story
+     is a pure romance.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Croesus was again worsted on the confines of the plain of the Hermus, and
+      taking refuge in the citadel of Sardes, he despatched couriers to his
+      allies in Greece and Egypt to beg for succour without delay. The
+      Lacedaemonians hurried on the mobilisation of their troops, and their
+      vessels were on the point of weighing anchor, when the news arrived that
+      Sardes had fallen in the early days of December, and that Croesus himself
+      was a prisoner.* How the town came to be taken, the Greeks themselves
+      never knew, and their chroniclers have given several different accounts of
+      the event.**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Radet gives the date of the capture of Sardes as about
+     November 15, 546; but the number and importance of the
+     events occurring between the retreat of Croesus and the
+     decisive catastrophe&mdash;the negotiations with Babylon, the
+     settling into winter quarters, the march of Cyrus across
+     Phrygia&mdash;must have required a longer time than Radet allots
+     to them in his hypothesis, and I make the date a month
+     later.
+
+     ** Ctesias and Xenophon seem to depend on Herodotus, the
+     former with additional fabulous details concerning his
+     OEbaras, Cyrus&rsquo; counsellor, which show the probable origin
+     of his additions. Polysenus had at his disposal a different
+     story, the same probably that he used for his account of the
+     campaign in Cappadocia, for in it can be recognised the wish
+     to satisfy, within possible limits, the pride of the
+     Lydians: here again the decisive success is preceded by a
+     check given to Cyrus and a three months&rsquo; truce.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The least improbable is that found in Herodotus. The blockade had lasted,
+      so he tells us, fourteen days, when Cyrus announced that he would richly
+      reward the first man to scale the walls. Many were tempted by his
+      promises, but were unsuccessful in their efforts, and their failure had
+      discouraged all further attempts, when a Mardian soldier, named Hyreades,
+      on duty at the foot of the steep slopes overlooking the Tmolus, saw a
+      Lydian descend from rock to rock in search of his helmet which he had
+      lost, and regain the city by the same way without any great difficulty. He
+      noted carefully the exact spot, and in company with a few comrades climbed
+      up till he reached the ramparts; others followed, and taking the besieged
+      unawares, they opened the gates to the main body of the army.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * About three and a half centuries later Sardes was captured
+     in the same way by one of the generals of Antiochus the
+     Great.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Croesus could not bear to survive the downfall of his kingdom: he erected
+      a funeral pyre in the courtyard of his palace, and took up his position on
+      it, together with his wives, his daughters, and the noblest youths of his
+      court, surrounded by his most precious possessions. He could cite the
+      example of more than one vanquished monarch of the ancient Asiatic world
+      in choosing such an end, and one of the fabulous ancestors of his race,
+      Sandon-Herakles, had perished after this fashion in the midst of the
+      flames. Was the sacrifice carried out? Everything leads us to believe that
+      it was, but popular feeling could not be resigned to the idea that a
+      prince who had shown such liberality towards the gods in his prosperity
+      should be abandoned by them in the time of his direst need. They came to
+      believe that the Lydian monarch had expiated by his own defeat the crime
+      by the help of which his ancestor Gyges had usurped the throne. Apollo had
+      endeavoured to delay the punishment till the next generation, that it
+      might fall on the son of his votary, but he had succeeded in obtaining
+      from fate a respite of three years only. Even then he had not despaired,
+      and had warned Croesus by the voice of the oracles. They had foretold him
+      that, in crossing the Halys, the Lydians ^would destroy a great empire,
+      and that their power would last till the day when a mule should sit upon
+      the throne of Media. Croesus, blinded by fate, could not see that Cyrus,
+      who was of mixed race, Persian by his father and Median by his mother, was
+      the predicted mule. He therefore crossed the Halys, and a great empire
+      fell, but it was his own. At all events, the god might have desired to
+      show that to honour his altars and adorn his temple was in itself, after
+      all, the best of treasures. &ldquo;When Sardes, suffering the vengeance of Zeus,
+      was conquered by the army of the Persians, the god of the golden sword,
+      Apollo, was the guardian of Croesus. When the day of despair arrived, the
+      king could not resign himself to tears and servitude; within the
+      brazen-walled court he erected a funeral pyre, on which, together with his
+      chaste spouse and his bitterly lamenting daughters of beautiful locks, he
+      mounted; he raised his hands towards the depths of the ether and cried:
+      &lsquo;Proud fate, where is the gratitude of the gods, where is the prince, the
+      child of Leto? Where is now the house of Alyattes?... The ancient citadel
+      of Sardes has fallen, the Pactolus of golden waves runs red with blood;
+      ignominiously are the women driven from their well-decked chambers! That
+      which was once my hated foe is now my friend, and the sweetest thing is to
+      die!&rsquo; Thus he spoke, and ordered the softly moving eunuch* to set fire to
+      the wooden structure.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The word translated &ldquo;softly moving eunuch&rdquo; is here perhaps
+     a proper name: the slave whose duty it was to kindle the
+     pyre was called Abrobatas in the version of the story chosen
+     by Bacchylides, while that adopted by the potter whose work
+     is reproduced on the opposite page, calls him Euthymos.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The maidens shrieked and threw their arms around their mother, for the
+      death before them was that most hated by mortals. But just when the
+      sparkling fury of the cruel fire had spread around, Zeus, calling up a
+      black-flanked cloud, extinguished the yellow flame.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing is incredible of that which the will of the gods has decreed:
+      Apollo of Delos, seizing the old man, bore him, together with his
+      daughters of tender feet, into the Hyperborean land as a reward for his
+      piety, for no mortal had sent richer offerings to the illustrious Pythô!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0037" id="linkimage-0037">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/075.jpg" width="100%" alt="075.jpg Cimesus on his Pyre " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph of the original in
+     the Museum of the Louvre.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      This miraculous ending delighted the poets and inspired many fine lines,
+      but history could with difficulty accommodate itself to such a
+      materialistic intervention of a divine being, and sought a less fabulous
+      solution. The legend which appeared most probable to the worthy Herodotus
+      did not even admit that the Lydian king took his own life; it was Cyrus
+      who condemned him, either with a view of devoting the first-fruits of his
+      victory to the immortals, or to test whether the immortals would save the
+      rival whose piety had been so frequently held up to his admiration. The
+      edges of the pyre had already taken light, when the Lydian king sighed and
+      thrice repeated the name of Solon. It was a tardy recollection of a
+      conversation in which the Athenian sage had stated, without being
+      believed, that none can be accounted truly happy while they still live.
+      Cyrus, applying it to himself, was seized with remorse or pity, and
+      commanded the bystanders to quench the fire, but their efforts were in
+      vain. Thereupon Croesus implored the pity of Apollo, and suddenly the sky,
+      which up till then had been serene and clear, became overcast; thick
+      clouds collected, and rain fell so heavily that the burning pile was at
+      once extinguished.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The story told by Nicolas of Damascus comes down probably
+     from Xanthus of Lydia, but with many additions borrowed
+     directly from Herodotus and rhetorical developments by the
+     author himself. Most other writers who tell the story depend
+     for their information, either directly or indirectly, on
+     Herodotus: in later times it was supposed that the Lydian
+     king was preserved from the flames by the use of some
+     talisman such as the Ephesian letters.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Well treated by his conqueror, the Lydian king is said to have become his
+      friend and most loyal counsellor; he accepted from him the fief of Barênê
+      in Media, often accompanied him in his campaigns, and on more than one
+      occasion was of great service to him by the wise advice which he gave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0038" id="linkimage-0038">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:30%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/078.jpg"
+       alt="078.jpg a Persian King Fighting With Greeks " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by Faucher-Gudin,
+from an intaglio
+reproduced in the
+<i>Antiquités du
+Bosphore cimmérien.</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      We may well ask what would have taken place had he gained the decisive
+      victory over Cyrus that he hoped. Chaldæa possessed merely the semblance
+      of her former greatness and power, and if she still maintained her hold
+      over Mesopotamia, Syria, Phoenicia, and parts of Arabia, it was because
+      these provinces, impoverished by the Assyrian conquest, and entirely laid
+      waste by the Scythians, had lost the most energetic elements of their
+      populations, and felt themselves too much enfeebled to rise against their
+      suzerain. Egypt, like Chaldæa, was in a state of decadence, and even
+      though her Pharaohs attempted to compensate for the inferiority of their
+      native troops by employing foreign mercenaries, their attempts at Asiatic
+      rule always issued in defeat, and just as the Babylonian sovereigns were
+      unable to reduce them to servitude, so they on their part were powerless
+      to gain an advantage over the sovereigns of Babylon. Hence Lydia, in her
+      youth and vigour, would have found little difficulty in gaining the
+      ascendency over her two recent allies, but beyond that she could not hope
+      to push her success; her restricted territory, sparse population, and
+      outlying position would always have debarred her from exercising any
+      durable dominion over them, and though absolute mistress of Asia Minor,
+      the countries beyond the Taurus were always destined to elude her grasp.
+      If the Achæmenian, therefore, had confined himself, at all events for the
+      time being, to the ancient limits of his kingdom, Egypt and Chaldæa would
+      have continued to vegetate each within their respective area, and the
+      triumph of Croesus would, on the whole, have caused but little change in
+      the actual balance of power in the East.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The downfall of Croesus, on the contrary, marked a decisive era in the
+      world&rsquo;s history. His army was the only one, from the point of numbers and
+      organisation, which was a match for that of Cyrus, and from the day of its
+      dispersion it was evident that neither Egypt nor Chaldæa had any chance of
+      victory on the battle-field. The subjection of Babylon and Harrân, of
+      Hamath, Damascus, Tyre and Sidon, of Memphis and Thebes, now became merely
+      a question of time, and that not far distant; the whole of Asia, and that
+      part of Africa which had been the oldest cradle of human civilisation,
+      were now to pass into the hands of one man and form a single empire, for
+      the benefit of the new race which was issuing forth in irresistible
+      strength from the recesses of the Iranian table-land. It was destined,
+      from the very outset, to come into conflict with an older, but no less
+      vigorous race than itself, that of the Greeks, whose colonists, after
+      having swarmed along the coasts of the Mediterranean, were now beginning
+      to quit the seaboard and penetrate wherever they could into the interior.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had been on friendly terms with that dynasty of the Meramadæ who had
+      shown reverence for the Hellenic gods; they had, as a whole, disdained to
+      betray Croesus, or to turn upon him when he was in difficulties beyond the
+      Halys; and now that he had succumbed to his fate, they considered that the
+      ties which had bound them to Sardes were broken, and they were determined
+      to preserve their independence at all costs. This spirit of
+      insubordination would have to be promptly dealt with and tightly curbed,
+      if perpetual troubles in the future were to be avoided. The Asianic
+      peoples soon rallied round their new master&mdash;Phrygians, Mysians, the
+      inhabitants on the shores of the Black Sea, and those of the Pamphylian
+      coast;* even Cilicia, which had held its own against Chaldæa, Media, and
+      Lydia, was now brought under the rising power, and its kings were
+      henceforward obedient to the Persian rule.**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * None of the documents actually say this, but the general
+     tenor of Herodotus&rsquo; account seems to show clearly that, with
+     the exception of the Greek cities of the Carians and
+     Lycians, all the peoples who had formed part of the Lydian
+     dominion under Croesus submitted, without any appreciable
+     resistance, after the taking of Sardes.
+
+     ** Herodotus mentions a second Syennesis king of Cilicia
+     forty years later at the time of the Ionian revolt.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The two leagues of the Ionians and Æolians had at first offered to
+      recognise Cyrus as their suzerain under the same conditions as those with
+      which Croesus had been satisfied; but he had consented to accept it only
+      in the case of Miletus, and had demanded from the rest an unconditional
+      surrender. This they had refused, and, uniting in a common cause perhaps
+      for the first time in their existence, they had resolved to take up arms.
+      As the Persians possessed no fleet, the Creeks had nothing to fear from
+      the side of the Ægean, and the severity of the winter prevented any attack
+      being made from the land side till the following spring. They meanwhile
+      sought the aid of their mother-country, and despatched an embassy to the
+      Spartans; the latter did not consider it prudent to lend them troops, as
+      they would have done in the case of Croesus, but they authorised Lakrines,
+      one of their principal citizens, to demand of the great king that he
+      should respect the Hellenic cities, under pain of incurring their enmity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0039" id="linkimage-0039">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/080.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="080.jpg the Present Site of Miletus " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Cyrus was fully occupied with the events then taking place in the eastern
+      regions of Iran; Babylon had not ventured upon any move after having
+      learned the news of the fall of Sardes, but the Bactrians and the Sakæ had
+      been in open revolt during the whole of the year that he had been detained
+      in the extreme west, and a still longer absence might risk the loss of his
+      prestige in Media, and even in Persia itself.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The tradition followed by Ctesias maintained that the
+     submission of the eastern peoples was an accomplished fact
+     when the Lydian war began. That adopted by Herodotus placed
+     this event after the fall of Croesus; at any rate, it showed
+     that fear of the Bactrians and the Sakæ, as well as of the
+     Babylonians and Egyptians was the cause that hastened Cyrus&rsquo;
+     retreat.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The threat of the Lacedaæmonians had little effect upon him; he inquired
+      as to what Sparta and Greece were, and having been informed, he ironically
+      begged the Lacedæmonian envoy to thank his compatriots for the good advice
+      with which they had honoured him; &ldquo;but,&rdquo; he added, &ldquo;take care that I do
+      not soon cause you to babble, not of the ills of the Ionians, but of your
+      own.&rdquo; He confided the government of Sardes to one of his officers, named
+      Tabalos, and having entrusted Paktyas, one of the Lydians who had embraced
+      his cause, with the removal of the treasures of Croesus to Persia, he
+      hastily set out for Ecbatana. He had scarcely accomplished half of his
+      journey when a revolt broke out in his rear; Paktyas, instead of obeying
+      his instructions, intrigued with the Ionians, and, with the mercenaries he
+      had hired from them, besieged Tabalos in the citadel of Sardes. If the
+      place capitulated, the entire conquest would have to be repeated;
+      fortunately it held out, and its resistance gave Cyrus time to send its
+      governor reinforcements, commanded by Mazares the Median. As soon as they
+      approached the city, Paktyas, conscious that he had lost the day, took
+      refuge at Kymê. Its inhabitants, on being summoned to deliver him up,
+      refused, but helped him to escape to Mytilene, where the inhabitants of
+      the island attempted to sell him to the enemy for a large sum of money.
+      The Kymæans saved him a second time, and conveyed him to the temple of
+      Athene Poliarchos at Chios. The citizens, however, dragged him from his
+      retreat, and delivered him over to the Median general in exchange for
+      Atarneus, a district of Mysia, the possession of which they were disputing
+      with the Lesbians.* Paktyas being a prisoner, the Lydians were soon
+      recalled to order, and Mazares was able to devote his entire energies to
+      the reduction of the Greek cities; but he had accomplished merely the sack
+      of Priênê,** and the devastation of the suburbs of Magnesia on the æander,
+      when he died from some illness.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * A passage which has been preserved of Charon of Lampsacus
+     sums up in a few words the account given by Herodotus of the
+     adventures of Paktyas, but without mentioning the treachery
+     of the islanders: he confines himself to saying Cyrus caught
+     the fugitive after the latter had successively left Chios
+     and Mytilene.
+
+     ** Herodotus attributes the taking of this city to the
+     Persian Tabules, who is evidently the Tabalos of Herodotus.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0040" id="linkimage-0040">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:39%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/083.jpg"
+       alt="083.jpg a Lycian City Upon Its Inaccessible Rock " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+The rock and tombs of Tlôs,
+drawn by Boudier, from
+the view in Fellows.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The Median Harpagus, to whom tradition assigns so curious a part as
+      regards Astyages and the infant Cyrus, succeeded him as governor of the
+      ancient Lydian kingdom, and completed the work which he had begun. The
+      first two places to be besieged were Phocæa and Teos, but their
+      inhabitants preferred exile to slavery; the Phocæans sailed away to found
+      Marseilles in the western regions of the Mediterranean, and the people of
+      Teos settled along the coast of Thracia, near to the gold-mines of the
+      Pangseus, and there built Abdera on the site of an ancient Clazomenian
+      colony. The other Greek towns were either taken by assault or voluntarily
+      opened their gates, so that ere long both Ionians and Æolians were, with
+      the exception of the Samians, under Persian rule. The very position of the
+      latter rendered them safe from attack; without a fleet they could not be
+      approached, and the only people who could have furnished Cyrus with
+      vessels were the Phoenicians, who were not as yet under his power. The
+      rebellion having been suppressed in this quarter, Harpagus made a descent
+      into Caria; the natives hastened to place themselves under the Persian
+      yoke, and the Dorian colonies scattered along the coast, Halicarnas-sus,
+      Cnidos, and the islands of Cos and Rhodes, followed their examples, but
+      Lycia refused to yield without a struggle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Its steep mountain chains, its sequestered valleys, its towns and
+      fortresses perched on inaccessible rocks, all rendered it easy for the
+      inhabitants to carry on a successful petty warfare against the enemy. The
+      inhabitants of Xanthos, although very inferior in numbers, issued down
+      into the plain and disputed the victory with the invaders for a
+      considerable time; at length their defeat and the capitulation of their
+      town induced the remainder of the Lycians to lay down arms, and brought
+      about the final pacification of the peninsula. It was parcelled out into
+      several governorships, according to its ethnographical affinities; as for
+      instance, the governorship of Lydia, that of Ionia, that of Phrygia,* and
+      others whose names are unknown to us. Harpàgus appeared to have resided at
+      Sardes, and exercised vice-regal functions over the various districts, but
+      he obtained from the king an extensive property in Lycia and in Caria,
+      which subsequently caused these two provinces to be regarded as an
+      appanage of his family.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Herodotus calls a certain Mitrobates satrap of Daskylion;
+     he had perhaps been already given this office by Cyrus.
+     Orcetes had been made governor of Ionia and Lydia by Cyrus.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      While thus consolidating his first conquest, Cyrus penetrated into the
+      unknown regions of the far East. Nothing would have been easier for him
+      than to have fallen upon Babylon and overthrown, as it were by the way,
+      the decadent rule of Nabonidus; but the formidable aspect which the empire
+      still presented, in spite of its enfeebled condition, must have deceived
+      him, and he was unwilling to come into conflict with it until he had made
+      a final reckoning with the restless and unsettled peoples between the
+      Caspian and the slopes on the Indian side of the table-land of Iran. As
+      far as we are able to judge, they were for the most part of Iranian
+      extraction, and had the same religion, institutions, and customs as the
+      Medes and Persians. Tradition had already referred the origin of
+      Zoroaster, and the scene of his preaching, to Bactriana, that land of
+      heroes whose exploits formed the theme of Persian epic song. It is not
+      known, as we have already had occasion to remark, by what ties it was
+      bound to the empire of Cyaxares, nor indeed if it ever had been actually
+      attached to it. We do not possess, unfortunately, more than almost
+      worthless scraps of information on this part of the reign of Cyrus,
+      perhaps the most important period of it, since then, for the first time,
+      peoples who had been hitherto strangers to the Asiatic world were brought
+      within its influence. If Ctesias is to be credited, Bactriana was one of
+      the first districts to be conquered. Its inhabitants were regarded as
+      being among the bravest of the East, and furnished the best soldiers. They
+      at first obtained some successes, but laid down arms on hearing that Cyrus
+      had married a daughter of Astyages.* This tradition was prevalent at a
+      time when the Achaemenians were putting forward the theory that they, and
+      Cyrus before them, were the legitimate successors of the old Median
+      sovereigns; they welcomed every legend which tended to justify their
+      pretensions, and this particular one was certain to please them, since it
+      attributed the submission of Bactriana not to a mere display of brute
+      force, but to the recognition of an hereditary right. The annexation of
+      this province entailed, as a matter of course, that of Margiana, of the
+      Khoramnians,** and of Sogdiana. Cyrus constructed fortresses in all these
+      districts, the most celebrated being that of Kyropolis, which commanded
+      one of the principal fords of the Iaxartes.***
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * This is the campaign which Ctesias places before the
+     Lydian war, but which Herodotus relegates to a date after
+     the capture of Sardes.
+
+     ** Ctesias must have spoken of the submission of these
+     peoples, for a few words of a description which he gave of
+     the Khoramnians have been preserved to us.
+
+     *** Tomaschek identifies Kyra or Kyropolis with the present
+     Ura-Tepe, but distinguishes it from the Kyreskhata of
+     Ptolemy, to which he assigns a site near Usgent.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The steppes of Siberia arrested his course on the north, but to the east,
+      in the mountains of Chinese Turkestan, the Sakas, who were renowned for
+      their wealth and bravery, did not escape his ambitious designs. The
+      account which has come down to us of his campaigns against them is a mere
+      romance of love and adventure, in which real history plays a very small
+      part. He is said to have attacked and defeated them at the first onset,
+      taking their King Amorges prisoner; but this capture, which Cyrus
+      considered a decisive advantage, was supposed to have turned the tide of
+      fortune against him. Sparêthra, the wife of Amorges, rallied the fugitives
+      round her, defeated the invaders in several engagements, and took so many
+      of their men captive, that they were glad to restore her husband to her in
+      exchange for the prisoners she had made. The struggle finally ended,
+      however, in the subjection of the Sakae; they engaged to pay tribute, and
+      thenceforward constituted the advance-guard of the Iranians against the
+      Nomads of the East. Cyrus, before quitting their neighbourhood, again
+      ascended the table-land, and reduced Ariana, Thatagus, Harauvati, Zaranka,
+      and the country of Cabul; and we may well ask if he found leisure to turn
+      southwards beyond Lake Hamun and reach the shores of the Indian Ocean. One
+      tradition, of little weight, relates that, like Alexander at a later date,
+      he lost his army in the arid deserts of Gedrosia; the one fact that
+      remains is that the conquest of Gedrosia was achieved, but the details of
+      it are lost. The period covered by his campaigns was from five to six
+      years, from 545 to 539, but Cyrus returned from these expeditions into the
+      unknown only to plan fresh undertakings. There remained nothing now to
+      hinder him from marching against the Chaldæans, and the discord prevailing
+      at Babylon added to his chance of success. Nabonidus&rsquo;s passion for
+      archæology had in no way lessened since the opening of his reign. The
+      temple restorations prompted by it absorbed the bulk of his revenues. He
+      made excavations in the sub-structures of the most ancient sanctuaries,
+      such as Larsam, Uruk, Uru, Sippar, and Nipur; and when his digging was
+      rewarded by the discovery of cylinders placed there by his predecessors,
+      his delight knew no bounds. Such finds constituted the great events of his
+      life, in comparison with which the political revolutions of Asia and
+      Africa diminished in importance day by day. It is difficult to tell
+      whether this indifference to the weighty affairs of government was as
+      complete as it appears to us at this distance of time. Certain facts
+      recorded in the official chronicles of that date go to prove that, except
+      in name and external pomp, the king was a nonentity. The real power lay in
+      the hands of the nobles and generals, and Bel-sharuzur, the king&rsquo;s son,
+      directed affairs for them in his father&rsquo;s name. Nabonidus meanwhile
+      resided in a state of inactivity at his palace of Tima, and it is possible
+      that his condition may have really been that of a prisoner, for he never
+      left Tima to go to Babylon, even on the days of great festivals, and his
+      absence prevented the celebration of the higher rites of the national
+      religion, with the procession of Bel and its accompanying ceremonies, for
+      several consecutive years. The people suffered from these quarrels in high
+      places; not only the native Babylonians or Kaldâ, who were thus deprived
+      of their accustomed spectacles, and whose piety was scandalised by these
+      dissensions, but also the foreign races dispersed over Mesopotamia, from
+      the confluence of the Khabur to the mouths of the Euphrates. Too widely
+      scattered or too weak to make an open declaration of their independence,
+      their hopes and their apprehensions were alternately raised by the various
+      reports of hostilities which reached their ears. The news of the first
+      victories of the Persians aroused in the exiled Jews the idea of speedy
+      deliverance, and Cyrus clearly appeared to them as the hero chosen by
+      Jahveh to reinstate them in the country, of their forefathers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The number of the Jewish exiles, which perhaps at first had not exceeded
+      20,000* had largely increased in the half-century of their captivity, and
+      even if numerically they were of no great importance, their social
+      condition entitled them to be considered as the <i>élite</i> of all
+      Israel.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The body of exiles of 597 consisted of ten thousand
+     persons, of whom seven thousand belonged to the wealthy, and
+     one thousand to the artisan class, while the remainder
+     consisted of people attached to the court (2 Kings xxiv. 14-
+     16). In the body of 587 are reckoned three thousand and
+     twenty-three inhabitants of Judah, and eight hundred and
+     thirty-two dwellers in Jerusalem. But the body of exiles of
+     581 numbers only seven hundred and forty-five persons (Jer.
+     lii. 30). These numbers are sufficiently moderate to be
+     possibly exact, but they are far from being certain.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      There had at first been the two kings, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah, their
+      families, the aristocracy of Judah, the priests and pontiff of the temple,
+      the prophets, the most skilled of the artisan class and the soldiery.
+      Though distributed over Babylon and the neighbouring cities, we know from
+      authentic sources of only one of their settlements, that of Tell-Abîb on
+      the Chebar* though many of the Jewish colonies which flourished
+      thereabouts in Roman times could undoubtedly trace their origin to the
+      days of the captivity; one legend found in the Talmud affirmed that the
+      synagogue of Shafyâthîb, near Nehardaa, had been built by King Jehoiachin
+      with stones brought from the ruins of the temple at Jerusalem. These
+      communities enjoyed a fairly complete autonomy, and were free to
+      administer their own affairs as they pleased, provided that they paid
+      their tribute or performed their appointed labours without complaint. The
+      shêkhs, or elders of the family or tribe, who had played so important a
+      part in their native land, still held their respective positions; the
+      Chaldæans had permitted them to retain all the possessions which they had
+      been able to bring with them into exile, and recognised them as the rulers
+      of their people, who were responsible to their conquerors for the
+      obedience of those under them, leaving them entire liberty to exercise
+      their authority so long as they maintained order and tranquillity among
+      their subordinates.**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Ezek. iii. 15. The Chebar or Kebar has been erroneously
+     identified with the Khabur; cuneiform documents show that it
+     was one of the canals near Nipur.
+
+     ** Cf. the assemblies of these chiefs at the house of
+     Ezekiel and their action (viii. 1; xiv. 1; xx. 1).
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      How the latter existed, and what industries they pursued in order to earn
+      their daily bread, no writer of the time has left on record. The rich
+      plain of the Euphrates differed so widely from the soil to which they had
+      been accustomed in the land of Judah, with its bare or sparsely wooded
+      hills, slopes cultivated in terraces, narrow and ill-watered wadys, and
+      tortuous and parched valleys, that they must have felt themselves much out
+      of their element in their Chaldæan surroundings. They had all of them,
+      however, whether artisans, labourers, soldiers, gold-workers, or
+      merchants, to earn their living, and they succeeded in doing so, following
+      meanwhile the advice of Jeremiah, by taking every precaution that the seed
+      of Israel should not be diminished.* The imagination of pious writers of a
+      later date delighted to represent the exiled Jews as giving way to apathy
+      and vain regrets: &ldquo;By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we
+      wept, when we remembered Zion. Upon the willows in the midst thereof we
+      hanged up our harps. For there they that led us captive required of us
+      songs, and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one
+      of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord&rsquo;s song in a strange
+      land?&rdquo; **
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Jer. xxix. 1-7.
+
+     ** Ps. cxxxvii. 1-4.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      This was true of the priests and scribes only. A blank had been made in
+      their existence from the moment when the conqueror had dragged them from
+      the routine of daily rites which their duties in the temple service
+      entailed upon them. The hours which had been formerly devoted to their
+      offices were now expended in bewailing the misfortunes of their nation, in
+      accusing themselves and others, and in demanding what crime had merited
+      this punishment, and why Jahveh, who had so often shown clemency to their
+      forefathers, had not extended His forgiveness to them. It was, however, by
+      the long-suffering of God that His prophets, and particularly Ezekiel,
+      were allowed to make known to them the true cause of their downfall. The
+      more Ezekiel in his retreat meditated upon their lot, the more did the
+      past appear to him as a lamentable conflict between divine justice and
+      Jewish iniquity. At the time of their sojourn in Egypt, Jahveh had taken
+      the house of Jacob under His protection, and in consideration of His help
+      had merely demanded of them that they should be faithful to Him. &ldquo;Cast ye
+      away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves
+      with the idols of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.&rdquo; The children of Israel,
+      however, had never observed this easy condition, and this was the root of
+      their ills; even before they were liberated from the yoke of Pharaoh, they
+      had betrayed their Protector, and He had thought to punish them: &ldquo;But I
+      wrought for My name&rsquo;s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of
+      the nations, among whom they were, in whose sight I made myself known unto
+      them.... So I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and
+      brought them into the wilderness. And I gave them My statutes, and showed
+      them My judgments, which if a man do, he shall live in them. Moreover also
+      I gave them My sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them... but the house
+      of Israel rebelled against Me.&rdquo; As they had acted in Egypt, so they acted
+      at the foot of Sinai, and again Jahveh could not bring Himself to destroy
+      them; He confined Himself to decreeing that none of those who had offended
+      Him should enter the Promised Land, and He extended His goodness to their
+      children. But these again showed themselves no wiser than their fathers;
+      scarcely had they taken possession of the inheritance which had fallen to
+      them, &ldquo;a land flowing with milk and honey... the glory of all lands,&rdquo; than
+      when they beheld &ldquo;every high hill and every thick tree... they offered
+      there their sacrifices, and there they presented the provocation of their
+      offering, there also they made their sweet savour, and they poured out
+      there their drink offerings.&rdquo; Not contented with profaning their altars by
+      impious ceremonies and offerings, they further bowed the knee to idols,
+      thinking in their hearts, &ldquo;We will be as the nations, as the families of
+      the countries, to serve wood and stone.&rdquo; &ldquo;As I live, saith the Lord God,
+      surely with a mighty hand and with a stretched out arm, and with fury
+      poured out, will I be King over you.&rdquo; *
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     1 Ezek. xx.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      However just the punishment, Bzekiel did not believe that it would last
+      for ever. The righteousness of God would not permit future generations to
+      be held responsible for ever for the sins of generations past and present.
+      &ldquo;What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel,
+      saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children&rsquo;s teeth are
+      set on edge? As I live, saith the Lord God, ye shall not have occasion to
+      use this proverb any more in Israel! Behold, all souls are Mine; as the
+      soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is Mine; the soul that
+      sinneth it shall die. But if a man be just... he shall surely live, saith
+      the Lord God.&rdquo; Israel, therefore, was master of his own destiny. If he
+      persisted in erring from the right way, the hour of salvation was still
+      further removed from him; if he repented and observed the law, the Divine
+      anger would be turned away. &ldquo;Therefore... O house of Israel... cast away
+      from you all your transgressions wherein ye have transgressed; and make
+      you a new heart and a new spirit; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
+      For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth... wherefore turn
+      yourselves and live.&rdquo; 1 There were those who objected that it was too late
+      to dream of regeneration and of hope in the future: &ldquo;Our bones are dried
+      up and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off.&rdquo; The prophet replied that
+      the Lord had carried him in the spirit and set him down in the midst of a
+      plain strewn with bones. &ldquo;So I prophesied... and as I prophesied there was
+      a noise... and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And I beheld,
+      and lo, there were sinews upon them, and flesh came up and skin covered
+      them above; but there was no breath in them. Then said (the Lord) unto me,
+      Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus
+      saith the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon
+      these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as He commanded me, and
+      the breath came into them and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an
+      exceeding great army. Then He said unto me... these bones are the whole
+      house of Israel.... Behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come
+      up out of your graves, O my people; and I will bring you into the land of
+      Israel.... And I will put My Spirit in you and ye shall live, and I will
+      place you in your own land; and ye shall know that I the Lord hath spoken
+      it and performed it, saith the Lord.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A people raised from such depths would require a constitution, a new law
+      to take the place of the old, from the day when the exile should cease.
+      Ezekiel would willingly have dispensed with the monarchy, as it had been
+      tried since the time of Samuel with scarcely any good results. For every
+      Hezekiah or Josiah, how many kings of the type of Ahaz or Manasseh had
+      there been! The Jews were nevertheless still so sincerely attached to the
+      house of David, that the prophet judged it inopportune to exclude it from
+      his plan for their future government. He resolved to tolerate a king, but
+      a king of greater piety and with less liberty than the compiler of the
+      Book of Deuteronomy had pictured to himself, a servant of the servants of
+      God, whose principal function should be to provide the means of worship.
+      Indeed, the Lord Himself was the only Sovereign whom the prophet fully
+      accepted, though his concept of Him differed greatly from that of his
+      predecessors: from that, for instance, of Amos&mdash;the Lord God who
+      would do nothing without revealing &ldquo;His secret unto His servants the
+      prophets;&rdquo; or of Hosea&mdash;who desired &ldquo;mercy, and not sacrifice; and
+      the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.&rdquo; The Jahveh of Ezekiel no
+      longer admitted any intercourse with the interpreters of His will. He held
+      &ldquo;the son of man&rdquo; at a distance, and would consent to communicate with him
+      only by means of angels who were His messengers. The love of His people
+      was, indeed, acceptable to Him, but He preferred their reverence and fear,
+      and the smell of the sacrifice offered according to the law was pleasing
+      to His nostrils. The first care of the returning exiles, therefore, would
+      be to build Him a house upon the holy mountain. Ezekiel called to mind the
+      temple of Solomon, in which the far-off years of his youth were spent, and
+      mentally rebuilt it on the same plan, but larger and more beautiful; first
+      the outer court, then the inner court and its chambers, and lastly the
+      sanctuary, the dimensions of which he calculates with scrupulous care:
+      &ldquo;And the breadth of the entrance was ten cubits; and the sides of the
+      entrance were five cubits on the one side and five cubits on the other
+      side: and he measured the length thereof, forty cubits; and the breadth,
+      twenty cubits&rdquo;&mdash;and so forth, with a wealth of technical details
+      often difficult to be understood. And as a building so well proportioned
+      should be served by a priesthood worthy of it, the sons of Zadok only were
+      to bear the sacerdotal office, for they alone had preserved their faith
+      unshaken; the other Lévites were to fill merely secondary posts, for not
+      only had they shared in the sins of the nation, but they had shown a bad
+      example in practising idolatry. The duties and prerogatives of each one,
+      the tithes and offerings, the sacrifices, the solemn festivals, the
+      preparation of the feasts,&mdash;all was foreseen and prearranged with
+      scrupulous exactitude. Ezekiel was, as we have seen, a priest; the
+      smallest details were as dear to him as the noblest offices of his
+      calling, and the minute ceremonial instructions as to the killing and
+      cooking of the sacrificial animals appeared to him as necessary to the
+      future prosperity of his people as the moral law. Towards the end,
+      however, the imagination of the seer soared above the formalism of the
+      sacrificing priest; he saw in a vision waters issuing out of the very
+      threshold of the divine house, flowing towards the Dead Sea through a
+      forest of fruit trees, &ldquo;whose leaf shall not wither, neither shall the
+      fruit thereof fail.&rdquo; The twelve tribes of Israel, alike those of whom a
+      remnant still existed as well as those which at different times had become
+      extinct, were to divide the regenerated land by lot among them&mdash;Dan
+      in the extreme north, Reuben and Judah in the south; and they would unite
+      to found once more, around Mount Sion, that new Jerusalem whose name
+      henceforth was to be Jahveh-shammah, &ldquo;The Lord is there.&rdquo; *
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Ezek. xlvii., xlviii. The image of the river seems to be
+     borrowed from the <i>vessel of water</i> of Chaldæan mythology.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The influence of Ezekiel does not seem to have extended beyond a
+      restricted circle of admirers. Untouched by his preaching, many of the
+      exiles still persisted in their worship of the heathen gods; most of these
+      probably became merged in the bulk of the Chaldæan population, and were
+      lost, as far as Israel was concerned, as completely as were the earlier
+      exiles of Ephraim under Tiglath-pileser III. and Sargon. The greater
+      number of the Jews, however, remained faithful to their hopes of future
+      greatness, and applied themselves to discerning in passing events the
+      premonitory signs of deliverance. &ldquo;Like as a woman with child, that
+      draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her
+      pangs; so have we been before Thee, O Lord.... Come, my people, enter thou
+      into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself for a
+      little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord
+      cometh forth out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for
+      their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more
+      cover her slain.&rdquo; * The condition of the people improved after the death of
+      Nebuchadrezzar. Amil-marduk took Jehoiachin out of the prison in which he
+      had languished for thirty years, and treated him with honour:** this was
+      not as yet the restoration that had been promised, but it was the end of
+      the persecution.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * An anonymous prophet, about 570, in Isa. xxvi. 17, 20, 21.
+
+     ** 2 Kings xxv. 27-30; cf. Jer. lii. 31-34.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      A period of court intrigues followed, during which the sceptre of
+      Nebuchadrezzar changed hands four times in less than seven years; then
+      came the accession of the peaceful and devout Nabonidus, the fall of
+      Astyages, and the first victories of Cyrus. Nothing escaped the vigilant
+      eye of the prophets, and they began to proclaim that the time was at hand,
+      then to predict the fall of Babylon, and to depict the barbarians in
+      revolt against her, and Israel released from the yoke by the all-powerful
+      will of the Persians. &ldquo;Thus saith the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus,
+      whose right hand I have holden to subdue nations before him, and I will
+      loose the loins of kings; to open the doors before him, and the gates
+      shall not be shut; I will go before thee and make the rugged places plain:
+      I will break in pieces the doors of brass, rend in sunder the bars of
+      iron: and I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of
+      secret places, that thou mayest know that I am the Lord which call thee by
+      thy name, even the God of Israel. For Jacob My servant&rsquo;s sake, and Israel
+      My chosen, I have called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though
+      thou hast not known Me.&rdquo; * Nothing can stand before the victorious prince
+      whom Jahveh leads: &ldquo;Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth; their idols are upon
+      the beasts, and upon the cattle: the things that ye carried about are made
+      a load, a burden to the weary beast. They stoop, they bow down together;
+      they could not deliver the burden, but themselves are gone into
+      captivity.&rdquo; ** &ldquo;O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground without a
+      throne, O daughter of the Chaldæans: for thou shalt no more be called
+      tender and delicate. Take the millstones and grind meal: remove thy veil,
+      strip off the train, uncover the leg, pass through the rivers. They
+      nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen.... Sit thou
+      silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldæans: for thou
+      shalt no more be called the lady of kingdoms.&rdquo; ***
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Second Isaiah, in Isa. xlv. 1-4.
+
+     ** Second Isaiah, in Isa. xlvi. 1, 2.
+
+     *** Second Isaiah, in Isa. xlvii. 1-5.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The task which Cyrus had undertaken was not so difficult as we might
+      imagine. Not only was he hailed with delight by the strangers who thronged
+      Babylonia, but the Babylonians themselves were weary of their king, and
+      the majority of them were ready to welcome the Persian who would rid them
+      of him, as in old days they hailed the Assyrian kings who delivered them
+      from their Chaldæan lords. It is possible that towards the end of his
+      reign Nabonidus partly resumed the supreme power;* but anxious for the
+      future, and depending but little on human help, he had sought a more
+      powerful aid at the hands of the gods. He had apparently revived some of
+      the old forgotten cults, and had applied to their use revenues which
+      impoverished the endowment of the prevalent worship of his own time. As he
+      felt the growing danger approach, he remembered those towns of secondary
+      grade&mdash;Uru, Uruk, Larsam, and Eridu&mdash;all of which, lying outside
+      Nebuchadrezzar&rsquo;s scheme of defence, would be sacrificed in the case of an
+      invasion: he had therefore brought away from them the most venerated
+      statues, those in which the spirit of the divinity was more particularly
+      pleased to dwell, and had shut them up in the capital, within the security
+      of its triple rampart.**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * This seems to follow from the part which he plays in the
+     final crisis, as told in the <i>Cylinder of Cyrus</i> and in the
+     <i>Annals</i>.
+
+     ** The chronicler adds that the gods of Sippar, Kutha, and
+     Borsippa were not taken to Babylon; and indeed, these cities
+     being included within the lines of defence of the great
+     city, their gods were as well defended from the enemy as if
+     they had been in Babylon itself.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      This attempt to concentrate the divine powers, accentuating as it did the
+      supremacy of Bel-Marduk over his compeers, was doubtless flattering to his
+      pride and that of his priests, but was ill received by the rest of the
+      sacerdotal class and by the populace. All these divine guests had not only
+      to be lodged, but required to be watched over, decked, fed, and feted,
+      together with their respective temple retinues; and the prestige and
+      honour of the local Bel, as well as his revenues, were likely to suffer in
+      consequence. The clamour of the gods in the celestial heights soon
+      re-echoed throughout the land; the divinities complained of their sojourn
+      at Babylon as of a captivity in E-sagilla; they lamented over the
+      suppression of their daily sacrifices, and Marduk at length took pity on
+      them. He looked upon the countries of Sumir and Akkad, and saw their
+      sanctuaries in ruins and their towns lifeless as corpses; &ldquo;he cast his
+      eyes over the surrounding regions; he searched them with his glance and
+      sought out a prince, upright, after his own heart, who should take his
+      hands. He proclaimed by name Cyrus, King of Anshân, and he called him by
+      his name to universal sovereignty.&rdquo; Alike for the people of Babylon and
+      for the exiled Jew, and also doubtless for other stranger-colonies, Cyrus
+      appeared as a deliverer chosen by the gods; his speedy approach was
+      everywhere expected, if not with the same impatience, at least with an
+      almost joyful resignation. His plans were carried into action in the early
+      months of 538, and his habitual good fortune did not forsake him at this
+      decisive moment of his career. The immense citadel raised by
+      Nebuchadrezzar in the midst of his empire, in anticipation of an attack by
+      the Medes, was as yet intact, and the walls rising one behind another, the
+      moats, and the canals and marshes which protected it, had been so well
+      kept up or restored since his time, that their security was absolutely
+      complete; a besieging army could do little harm&mdash;it needed a whole
+      nation in revolt to compass its downfall. A whole nation also was required
+      for its defence, but the Babylonians were not inclined to second the
+      efforts of their sovereign. Nabonidus concentrated his troops at the point
+      most threatened, in the angle comprised near Opis between the Medic wall
+      and the bend of the Tigris, and waited in inaction the commencement of the
+      attack. It is supposed that Cyrus put two bodies of troops in motion: one
+      leaving Susa under his own command, took the usual route of all Blamite
+      invasions in the direction of the confluence of the Tigris and the Dîyala;
+      the other commanded by Gobryas, the satrap of Gutium, followed the course
+      of the Adhem or the Dîyala, and brought the northern contingents to the
+      rallying-place. From what we know of the facts as a whole, it would appear
+      that the besieging force chose the neighbourhood of the present Bagdad to
+      make a breach in the fortifications. Taking advantage of the months when
+      the rivers were at their lowest, they drew off the water from the Dîyala
+      and the Tigris till they so reduced the level that they were able to cross
+      on foot; they then cut their way through the ramparts on the left bank,
+      and rapidly transported the bulk of their forces into the very centre of
+      the enemy&rsquo;s position. The principal body of the Chaldæan troops were still
+      at Opis, cut off from the capital; Cyrus fell upon them, overcame them on
+      the banks of the Zalzallat in the early days of Tammuz, urging forward
+      Gobryas meanwhile upon Babylon itself.* On the 14th of Tammuz, Nabonidus
+      evacuated Sippar, which at once fell into the hands of the Persian
+      outposts; on the 16th Gobryas entered Babylon without striking a blow, and
+      Nabonidus surrendered himself a prisoner.**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * For the strategic interpretation of the events of this
+     campaign I have generally adopted the explanations of
+     Billerbeck. Herodotus&rsquo; account with regard to the river
+     Gyndes is probably a reminiscence of alterations made in the
+     river-courses at the time of the attack in the direction of
+     Bagdad.
+
+     ** The <i>Cylinder of Cyrus</i>, 1. 17, expressly says so:
+     &ldquo;Without combat or battle did Marduk make him enter
+     Babylon,&rdquo; The <i>Annals of Nabonidus</i> confirm this testimony
+     of the official account.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The victorious army had received orders to avoid all excesses which would
+      offend the people; they respected the property of the citizens and of the
+      temples, placed a strong detachment around Ê-sagilla to protect it from
+      plunder, and no armed soldier was allowed within the enclosure until the
+      king&rsquo; had determined on the fate of the vanquished. Cyrus arrived after a
+      fortnight had elapsed, on the 3rd of March-esvân, and his first act was
+      one of clemency. He prohibited all pillage, granted mercy to the
+      inhabitants, and entrusted the government of the city to Gobryas.
+      Bel-sharuzur, the son of Nabonidus, remained to be dealt with, and his
+      energetic nature might have been the cause of serious difficulties had he
+      been allowed an opportunity of rallying the last partisans of the dynasty
+      around him. Gobryas set out to attack him, and on the 11th of March-esvân
+      succeeded in surprising and slaying him. With him perished the last hope
+      of the Chaldæans, and the nobles and towns, still hesitating on what
+      course to pursue, now vied with each other in their haste to tender
+      submission. The means of securing their good will, at all events for the
+      moment, was clearly at hand, and it was used without any delay: their gods
+      were at once restored to them. This exodus extended over nearly two
+      months, during March-esvân and Adar, and on its termination a proclamation
+      of six days of mourning, up to the 3rd of Nisân, was made for the death of
+      Bel-sharuzur, and as an atonement for the faults of Nabonidus, after
+      which, on the 4th of Nisân, the notables of the city were called together
+      in the temple of Nebo to join in the last expiatory ceremonies. Cyrus did
+      not hesitate for a moment to act as Tiglath-pileser III. and most of the
+      Sargonids had done; he &ldquo;took the hands of Bel,&rdquo; and proclaimed himself
+      king of the country, but in order to secure the succession, he associated
+      his son Cambyses with himself as King of Babylon. Mesopotamia having been
+      restored to order, the provinces in their turn transferred their
+      allegiance to Persia; &ldquo;the kings enthroned in their palaces, from the
+      Upper Sea to the Lower, those of Syria and those who dwell in tents,
+      brought their weighty tribute to Babylon and kissed the feet of the
+      suzerain.&rdquo; Events had followed one another so quickly, and had entailed so
+      little bloodshed, that popular imagination was quite disconcerted: it
+      could not conceive that an empire of such an extent and of so formidable
+      an appearance should have succumbed almost without a battle, and three
+      generations had not elapsed before an entire cycle of legends had gathered
+      round the catastrophe. They related how Cyrus, having set out to make war,
+      with provisions of all kinds for his household, and especially with his
+      usual stores of water from the river Choaspes, the only kind of which he
+      deigned to drink, had reached the banks of the Gyndes. While seeking for a
+      ford, one of the white horses consecrated to the sun sprang into the
+      river, and being overturned by the current, was drowned before it could be
+      rescued. Cyrus regarded this accident as a personal affront, and
+      interrupted his expedition to avenge it. He employed his army during one
+      entire summer in digging three hundred and sixty canals, and thus caused
+      the principal arm of the stream to run dry, and he did not resume his
+      march upon Babylon till the following spring, when the level of the water
+      was low enough to permit of a woman crossing from one bank to the other
+      without wetting her knees. The Babylonians at first attempted to prevent
+      the blockade of the place, but being repulsed in their <i>sorties</i>,
+      they retired within the walls, much to Cyrus&rsquo;s annoyance, for they were
+      provisioned for several years. He therefore undertook to turn the course
+      of the Euphrates into the Bahr-î-Nejîf, and having accomplished it, he
+      crept into the centre of the city by the dry bed of the river. If the
+      Babylonians had kept proper guard, the Persians would probably have been
+      surrounded and caught like fish in a net; but on that particular day they
+      were keeping one of their festivals, and continued their dancing and
+      singing till they suddenly found the streets alive with the enemy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Babylon suffered in no way by her servitude, and far from its being a
+      source of unhappiness to her, she actually rejoiced in it; she was rid of
+      Nabonidus, whose sacrilegious innovations had scandalised her piety, and
+      she possessed in Cyrus a legitimate sovereign since he had &ldquo;taken the
+      hands of Bel.&rdquo; It pleased her to believe that she had conquered her victor
+      rather than been conquered by him, and she accommodated herself to her
+      Persian dynasty after the same fashion that she had in turn accustomed
+      herself to Cossæan or Elamite, Ninevite or Chaldæan dynasties in days gone
+      by. Nothing in or around the city was changed, and she remained what she
+      had been since the fall of Assyria, the real capital of the regions
+      situated between the Mediterranean and the Zagros. It seems that none of
+      her subjects&mdash;whether Syrians, Tyrians, Arabs, or Idumæans&mdash;attempted
+      to revolt against their new master, but passively accepted him, and the
+      Persian dominion extended uncontested as far as the isthmus of Suez;
+      Cyprus even, and such of the Phoenicians as were still dependencies of
+      Egypt, did homage to her without further hesitation. The Jews alone
+      appeared only half satisfied, for the clemency shown by Cyrus to their
+      oppressors disappointed their hopes and the predictions of their prophets.
+      They had sung in anticipation of children killed before their fathers&rsquo;
+      eyes, of houses pillaged, of women violated, and Babylon, the glory of the
+      empire and the beauty of Chaldæan pride, utterly destroyed like Sodom and
+      Gomorrha when overthrown by Jahveh. &ldquo;It shall never be inhabited, neither
+      shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the
+      Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall shepherds make their flocks to lie
+      down there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their
+      houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and ostriches shall dwell
+      there, and satyrs shall dance there. And wolves shall cry in their
+      castles, and jackals in the pleasant palaces.&rdquo; *
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The table of the last kings of Ptolemy and the monuments,
+     is given below:&mdash;
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0041" id="linkimage-0041">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/105.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="105.jpg Table of the Last Kings Of Ptolemy " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Cyrus, however, was seated on the throne, and the city of Nebuchadrezzar,
+      unlike that of Sargon and Sennacherib, still continued to play her part in
+      the world&rsquo;s history. The revenge of Jerusalem had not been as complete as
+      that of Samaria, and her sons had to content themselves with obtaining the
+      cessation of their exile. It is impossible to say whether they had
+      contributed to the downfall of Nabonidus otherwise than by the fervency of
+      their prayers, or if they had rendered Cyrus some service either in the
+      course of his preparations or during his short campaign. They may have
+      contemplated taking up arms in his cause, and have been unable to carry
+      the project into execution owing to the rapidity with which events took
+      place. However this may be, he desired to reward them for their good
+      intentions, and in the same year as his victory, he promulgated a solemn
+      edict, in which he granted them permission to return to Judah and to
+      rebuild not only their city, but the temple of their God. The inhabitants
+      of the places where they were living were charged to furnish them with
+      silver, gold, materials, and cattle, which would be needed by those among
+      them who should claim the benefits of the edict; they even had restored to
+      them, by order of the king, what remained in the Babylonian treasury of
+      the vessels of gold and silver which had belonged to the sanctuary of
+      Jahveh. The heads of the community received the favour granted to them
+      from such high quarters, without any enthusiasm. Now that they were free
+      to go, they discovered that they were well off at Babylon. They would have
+      to give up their houses, their fields, their business, their habits of
+      indifference to politics, and brave the dangers of a caravan journey of
+      three or four months&rsquo; duration, finally encamping in the midst of ruins in
+      an impoverished country, surrounded by hostile and jealous neighbours;
+      such a prospect was not likely to find favour with many, and indeed it was
+      only the priests, the Lévites, and the more ardent of the lower classes
+      who welcomed the idea of the return with a touching fervour. The first
+      detachment organised their departure in 536, under the auspices of one of
+      the princes of the royal house, named Shauash-baluzur (Sheshbazzar), a son
+      of Jehoiachin.* It comprised only a small number of families, and
+      contained doubtless a few of the captives of Nebuchadrezzar who in their
+      childhood had seen the temple standing and had been present at its
+      destruction.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The name which is written Sheshbazzar in the Hebrew text
+     of the Book of Ezra (i. 9, 11; v. 14, 16) is rendered
+     Sasabalassaros in Lucian&rsquo;s recension of the Septuagint, and
+     this latter form confirms the hypothesis of Hoonacker, which
+     is now universally accepted, that it corresponds to the
+     Babylonian Shamash-abaluzur. It is known that Shamash
+     becomes Shauash in Babylonian; thus Saosdukhînos comes from
+     Shamash-shumukîn: similarly Shamash-abaluzur has become
+     Shauash-abaluzur. Imbert has recognised Sheshbazzar,
+     Shauash-abaluzur in the Shenazzar mentioned in 1 Chron. iii.
+     8, as being one of the sons of Jeconiah, and this
+     identification has been accepted by several recent
+     historians of Israel. It should be remembered that Shauash-
+     abaluzur and Zerubbabel have long been confounded one with
+     the other.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The returning exiles at first settled in the small towns of Judah and
+      Benjamin, and it was not until seven months after their arrival that they
+      summoned courage to clear the sacred area in order to erect in its midst
+      an altar of sacrifice.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The history of this first return from captivity is
+     summarily set forth in Ezra i.; cf. v. 13-17; vi. 3-5, 15.
+     Its authenticity has been denied: with regard to this point
+     and the questions relating to Jewish history after the
+     exile, the modifications which have been imposed on the
+     original plan of this work have obliged me to suppress much
+     detail in the text and the whole of the bibliography in the
+     notes.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      They formed there, in the land of their fathers, a little colony, almost
+      lost among the heathen nations of former times&mdash;Philistines,
+      Idumasans, Moabites, Ammonites, and the settlers implanted at various
+      times in what had been the kingdom of Israel by the sovereigns of Assyria
+      and Chaldæa. Grouped around the Persian governor, who alone was able to
+      protect them from the hatred of their rivals, they had no hope of
+      prospering, or even of maintaining their position, except by exhibiting an
+      unshaken fidelity to their deliverers. It was on this very feeling that
+      Cyrus mainly relied when he granted them permission to return to their
+      native hills, and he was actuated as much by a far-seeing policy as from
+      the promptings of instinctive generosity. It was with satisfaction that he
+      saw in that distant province, lying on the frontier of the only enemy yet
+      left to him in the old world, a small band, devoted perforce to his
+      interests, and whose very existence depended entirely on that of his
+      empire. He no doubt extended the same favour to the other exiles in
+      Chaldæa who demanded it of him, but we do not know how many of them took
+      advantage of the occasion to return to their native countries, and this
+      exodus of the Jews still remains, so far as we know, a unique fact. The
+      administration continued the same as it had been under the Chaldæans;
+      Aramæan was still the official language in the provincial dependencies,
+      and the only change effected was the placing of Persians at the head of
+      public offices, as in Asia Minor, and allowing them a body of troops to
+      support their authority.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The presence of Persian troops in Asia Minor is proved by
+     the passage in Herodotus where he says that Orotes had with
+     him 1000 Persians as his body-guard.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      One great state alone remained of all those who had played a prominent
+      part in the history of the East. This was Egypt; and the policy which her
+      rulers had pursued since the development of the Iranian power apparently
+      rendered a struggle with it inevitable. Amasis had taken part in all the
+      coalitions which had as their object the perpetuation of the balance of
+      the powers in Western Asia; he had made a treaty with Croesus, and it is
+      possible that his contingents had fought in the battles before Sardes;
+      Lydia having fallen, he did all in his power to encourage Nabonidus in his
+      resistance. As soon as he found himself face to face with Cyrus, he
+      understood that a collision was imminent, and did his best in preparing to
+      meet it. Even if Cyrus had forgotten the support which had been freely
+      given to his rivals, the wealth of Egypt was in itself sufficient to
+      attract the Persian hordes to her frontiers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A century later, the Egyptians, looking back on the past with a melancholy
+      retrospection, confessed that &ldquo;never had the valley been more flourishing
+      or happier than under Amasis; never had the river shown itself more
+      beneficent to the soil, nor the soil more fertile for mankind, and the
+      inhabitated towns might be reckoned at 20,000 in number.&rdquo; The widespread
+      activity exhibited under Psammetichus II., and Apries, was redoubled under
+      the usurper, and the quarries of Turah,* Silsileh,** Assuan, and even
+      those of Hammamât, were worked as in the palmy days of the Theban
+      dynasties. The island of Philæ, whose position just below the cataract
+      attracted to it the attention of the military engineers, was carefully
+      fortified and a temple built upon it, the materials of which were used
+      later on in the masonry of the sanctuary of Ptolemaic times. Thebes
+      exhibited a certain outburst of vitality under the impulse given by
+      Ankhnasnofiribri and by Shashonqu, the governor of her palace;*** two
+      small chapels, built in the centre of the town, still witness to the
+      queen&rsquo;s devotion to Amon, of whom she was the priestess. Wealthy private
+      individuals did their best to emulate their sovereign&rsquo;s example, and made
+      for themselves at Shêkh Abd-el-Gurnah and at Assassif those rock-hewn
+      tombs which rival those of the best periods in their extent and the beauty
+      of their bas-reliefs.****
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * A stele of his forty-fourth year still exists in the
+     quarries of the Mokattam.
+
+     ** According to Herodotus, it was from the quarries of
+     Elephantine that Amasis caused to be brought the largest
+     blocks which he used in the building of Sais.
+
+     *** Her tomb still exists at Deir el-Medineh, and the
+     sarcophagus, taken from the tomb in 1833, is now in the
+     British Museum.
+
+     **** The most important of these tombs is that of Petenit,
+     the father of Shashonqu, who was associated with
+     Ankhnasnofiribri in the government of Thebes.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Most of the cities of the Said were in such a state of decadence that it
+      was no longer possible to restore to them their former prosperity, but
+      Abydos occupied too important a place in the beliefs connected with the
+      future world, and attracted too many pilgrims, to permit of its being
+      neglected. The whole of its ancient necropolis had been rifled by thieves
+      during the preceding centuries, and the monuments were nearly as much
+      buried by sand as in our own times.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0042" id="linkimage-0042">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/111.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="111.jpg an Osiris Stretched Full Length on the Ground " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, after Mariette. The monument is a
+     statuette measuring only 15 centimetres in length; it has
+     been reproduced to give an idea of the probable form of the
+     statue seen by Herodotus.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The dismantled fortress now known as the Shunêt ez-Zebîb served as the
+      cemetery for the ibises of Thoth, and for the stillborn children of the
+      sacred singing-women, while the two Memnonia of Seti and Ramses, now
+      abandoned by their priests, had become mere objects of respectful
+      curiosity, on which devout Egyptians or passing travellers&mdash;Phoenicians,
+      Aramæans, Cypriots, Carians, and Greeks from Ionia and the isles&mdash;came
+      to carve their names.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The position occupied by the graffiti on certain portions
+     of the walls show that in these places in the temple of Seti
+     there was already a layer of sand varying from one to three
+     metres in depth.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Amasis confided the work of general restoration to one of the principal
+      personages of his court, Pefzââunît, Prince of Sais, who devoted his
+      attention chiefly to two buildings&mdash;the great sanctuary of Osiris,
+      which was put into good condition throughout, and the very ancient
+      necropolis of Omm-el-Graab, where lay hidden the <i>àlquhah</i>, one of
+      the sepulchres of the god; he restored the naos, the table of offerings,
+      the barques, and the temple furniture, and provided for the sacred
+      patrimony by an endowment of fields, vineyards, palm groves, and revenues,
+      so as to ensure to the sanctuary offerings in perpetuity. It was a
+      complete architectural resurrection. The nomes of Middle Egypt, which had
+      suffered considerably during the Ethiopian and Assyrian wars, had some
+      chance of prosperity now that their lords were relieved from the necessity
+      of constantly fighting for some fresh pretender. Horu, son of
+      Psam-metichus, Prince of the Oleander nome, rebuilt the ancient sanctuary
+      of Harshafaîtu at Heracleopolis, and endowed it with a munificence which
+      rivalled that of Pefzââunîfc at Abydos. The king himself devoted his
+      resources chiefly to works at Memphis and in the Delta. He founded a
+      temple of Isis at Memphis, which Herodotus described as extending over an
+      immense area and being well worth seeing; unfortunately nothing now
+      remains of it, nor of the recumbent colossus, sixty feet in length, which
+      the king placed before the court of Phtah, nor of the two gigantic statues
+      which he raised in front of the temple, one on each side of the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0043" id="linkimage-0043">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/112b.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="112b.jpg the Two Goddesses of Law; Ani Adoring Osiris  The Trial of the Conscience; Toth and The Feather Of The Law. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Besides these architectural works, Amasis invested the funerary ceremonies
+      of the Apis-bulls with a magnificence rarely seen before his time, and the
+      official stelae which he carved to the memory of the animals who died in
+      his reign exhibit a perfection of style quite unusual. His labours at
+      Memphis, however, were eclipsed by the admirable work which he
+      accomplished at Sais. The propylæ which he added to the temple of Nît
+      &ldquo;surpassed most other buildings of the same kind, as much by their height
+      and extent, as by the size and quality of the materials;&rdquo; he had,
+      moreover, embellished them by a fine colonnade, and made an approach to
+      them by an avenue of sphinxes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0044" id="linkimage-0044">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/113.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="113.jpg Amasis in Adoration Before the Bull Apis " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph taken in the
+     Louvre.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      In other parts of the same building were to be seen two superb obelisks, a
+      recumbent figure similar to that at Memphis, and a monolithic naos of rose
+      granite brought from the quarries of Elephantine. Amasis had a special
+      predilection for this kind of monument. That which he erected at Thmuis is
+      nearly twenty-three feet in height,* and the Louvre contains another
+      example, which though smaller still excites the admiration of the modern
+      visitor.**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The exact measurements are 23 1/2 ft. in height, 12 ft. 9
+     ins. in width, and 10 ft. 6 ins. in depth. The naos of Saft
+     el-Hinneh must have been smaller, but it is impossible to
+     determine its exact dimensions.
+
+     ** It measures 9 ft. 7 ins. in height, 3 ft. 1 in. in width,
+     and 3 ft. 8 ins.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0045" id="linkimage-0045">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/114.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="114.jpg the Naos of Amasis at Thmuis " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the sketch of Burton.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The naos of Sais, which amazed Herodotus, was much larger than either of
+      the two already mentioned, or, indeed, than any known example. Tradition
+      states that it took two thousand boatmen three years to convey it down
+      from the first cataract. It measured nearly thirty feet high in the
+      interior, twenty-four feet in depth, and twelve feet in breadth; even when
+      hollowed out to contain the emblem of the god, it still weighed nearly
+      500,000 kilograms. It never reached its appointed place in the sanctuary.
+      The story goes that &ldquo;the architect, at the moment when the monument had
+      been moved as far as a certain spot in the temple, heaved a sigh,
+      oppressed with the thought of the time expended on its transport and weary
+      of the arduous work. Amasis overheard the sigh, and taking it as an omen,
+      he commanded that the block should be dragged no further. Others relate
+      that one of the overseers in charge of the work was crushed to death by
+      the monument, and for this reason it was left standing on the spot,&rdquo; where
+      for centuries succeeding generations came to contemplate it.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The measurements given by Herodotus are so different from
+     those of any naos as yet discovered, that I follow Kenrick
+     in thinking that Herodotus saw the monument of Amasis lying
+     on its side, and that he took for the height what was really
+     the width in depth. It had been erected in the nome of
+     Athribis, and afterwards taken to Alexandria about the
+     Ptolemaic era; it was discovered under water in one of the
+     ports of the town at the beginning of this century, and
+     Drovetti, who recovered it, gave it to the Museum of the
+     Louvre in 1825.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Amasis, in devoting his revenues to such magnificent works, fully shared
+      the spirit of the older Pharaohs, and his labours were nattering to the
+      national vanity, even though many lives were sacrificed in their
+      accomplishment; but the glory which they reflected on Egypt did not have
+      the effect of removing the unpopularity in which Tie was personally held.
+      The revolution which overthrew Apries had been provoked by the hatred of
+      the native party towards the foreigners; he himself had been the
+      instrument by which it had been accomplished, and it would have been only
+      natural that, having achieved a triumph in spite of the Greeks and the
+      mercenaries, he should have wished to be revenged on them, and have
+      expelled them from his dominions. But, as a fact, nothing of the kind took
+      place, and Amasis, once crowned, forgot the wrongs he had suffered as an
+      aspirant to the royal dignity; no sooner was he firmly seated on the
+      throne, than he recalled the strangers, and showed that he had only
+      friendly intentions with regard to them. His predecessors had received
+      them into favour, he, in fact, showed a perfect infatuation for them, and
+      became as complete a Greek as it was possible for an Egyptian to be. His
+      first care had been to make a treaty with the Dorians of Oyrene, and he
+      displayed so much tact in dealing with them, that they forgave him for the
+      skirmish of Irasa, and invited him to act as arbitrator in their
+      dissensions. A certain Arkesilas II. had recently succeeded the Battos who
+      had defeated the Egyptian troops, but his suspicious temper had obliged
+      his brothers to separate themselves from him, and they had founded further
+      westwards the independent city of Barca. On his threatening to evict them,
+      they sent a body of Libyans against him. Fighting ensued, and he was
+      beaten close to the town of Leukon. He lost 7000 hoplites in the
+      engagement, and the disaster aroused so much ill-feeling against him that
+      Laarchos, another of his brothers, strangled him. Laarchos succeeded him
+      amid the acclamations of the soldiery; but not long after, Eryxô and
+      Polyarchos, the wife and brother-in-law of his victim, surprised and
+      assassinated him in his turn. The partisans of Laarchos then had recourse
+      to the Pharaoh, who showed himself disposed to send them help; but his
+      preparations were suspended owing to the death of his mother. Polyarchos
+      repaired to Egypt before the royal mourning was ended, and pleaded his
+      cause with such urgency that he won over the king to his side; he obtained
+      the royal investiture for his sister&rsquo;s child, who was still a minor,
+      Battos III., the lame, and thus placed Oyrene in a sort of vassalage to
+      the Egyptian crown.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Herodotus narrates these events without mentioning Amasis,
+     and Nicolas of Damascus adopted Herodotus&rsquo; account with
+     certain modifications taken from other sources. The
+     intervention of Amasis is mentioned only by Plutarch and by
+     Polyaanus; but the record of it had been handed down to them
+     by some more ancient author&mdash;perhaps by Akesandros; or
+     perhaps, in the first instance, by Hellanicos of Lesbos, who
+     gave a somewhat detailed account of certain points in
+     Egyptian history. The passage of Herodotus is also found
+     incorporated in accounts of Cyrenian origin: his informants
+     were interested in recalling deeds which reflected glory on
+     their country, like the defeat of Apries at Irasa, but not
+     in the memory of events so humiliating for them as the
+     sovereign intervention of Pharaoh only a few years after
+     this victory. And besides, the merely pacific success which
+     Amasis achieved was not of a nature to leave a profound mark
+     on the Egyptian mind. It is thus easy to explain how it was
+     that Herodotus makes no allusion to the part played by Egypt
+     in this affair.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The ties which connected the two courts were subsequently drawn closer by
+      marriage; partly from policy and partly from a whim, Amasis espoused a
+      Cyrenian woman named Ladikê, the daughter, according to some, of Arkesilas
+      or of Battos, according to others, of a wealthy private individual named
+      Kritobulos.* The Greeks of Europe and Asia Minor fared no less to their
+      own satisfaction at his hand than their compatriots in Africa; following
+      the example of his ally Croesus, he entered into relations with their
+      oracles on several occasions, and sent them magnificent presents. The
+      temple of Delphi having been burnt down in 548, the Athenian family of the
+      Alcmæonides undertook to rebuild it from the ground for the sum of three
+      hundred talents, of which one-fourth was to be furnished by the Delphians.
+      When these, being too poor to pay the sum out of their own resources, made
+      an appeal to the generosity of other friendly powers, Amasis graciously
+      offered them a thousand talents of Egyptian alum, then esteemed the most
+      precious of all others. Alum was employed in dyeing, and was an expensive
+      commodity in the markets of Europe; the citizens of Delphi were all the
+      more sensible of Pharaoh&rsquo;s generosity, since the united Greeks of the Nile
+      valley contributed only twenty <i>minæ</i> of the same mineral as their
+      quota. Amasis erected at Cyrene a statue of his wife Ladikê, and another
+      of the goddess Neît, gilded from head to foot, and to these he added his
+      own portrait, probably painted on a wooden panel.**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The very fact of the marriage is considered by Wiedemann
+     as a pure legend, but there is nothing against its
+     authenticity; the curious story of the relations of the
+     woman with Amasis told by the Cyrenian commentators is the
+     only part which need be rejected.
+
+     ** The text of Herodotus can only mean a painted panel
+     similar to those which have been found on the mummies of the
+     Græco-Roman era in the Fayum.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      He gave to Athene of Lindos two stone statues and a corselet of linen of
+      marvellous fineness;* and Hera of Samos received two wooden statues, which
+      a century later Herodotus found still intact. The Greeks flocked to Egypt
+      from all quarters of the world in such considerable numbers that the laws
+      relating to them had to be remodelled in order to avoid conflicts with the
+      natives.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * It seems that one of these statues is that which, after
+     being taken to Constantinople, was destroyed in a fire in
+     476 A.D. Fragments of the corselet still existed in the
+     first century of our era, but inquisitive persons used to
+     tear off pieces to see for themselves whether, as Herodotus
+     assures us, each thread was composed of three hundred and
+     sixty-five strands, every one visible with the naked eye.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The townships founded a century earlier along the Pelusiac arm of the Nile
+      had increased still further since the time of Necho, and to their activity
+      was attributable the remarkable prosperity of the surrounding region. But
+      the position which they occupied on the most exposed side of Egypt was
+      regarded as permanently endangering the security of the country: her
+      liberty would be imperilled should they revolt during a war with the
+      neighbouring empire, and hand over the line of defence which was
+      garrisoned by them to the invader. Amasis therefore dispossessed their
+      inhabitants, and transferred them to Memphis and its environs. The change
+      benefited him in two ways, for, while securing himself from possible
+      treason, he gained a faithful guard for himself in the event of risings
+      taking place in his turbulent capital. While he thus distributed these
+      colonists of ancient standing to his best interests, he placed those of
+      quite recent date in the part of the Delta furthest removed from Asia,
+      where surveillance was most easy, in the triangle, namely, lying to the
+      west of Sais, between the Canopic branch of the Nile, the mountains, and
+      the sea-coast. The Milesians had established here some time previously, on
+      a canal connected with the main arm of the river, the factory of
+      Naucratis, which long remained in obscurity, but suddenly developed at the
+      beginning of the XXVIth dynasty, when Sais became the favourite residence
+      of the Pharaohs. This town Amasis made over to the Greeks so that they
+      might make it the commercial and religious centre of their communities in
+      Egypt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0046" id="linkimage-0046">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/120.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="120.jpg the Present Site of Naucratis " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Reduced by Faucher-Gudin from the plan published by Petrie.
+     The site of the Hellenion is marked A, the modern Arab
+     village B, the temenos of Hera and Apollo E, that of the
+     Dioskuri F, and that of Aphrodite G.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Temples already existed there, those of Apollo and Aphrodite, together
+      with all the political and religious institutions indispensable to the
+      constitution of an Hellenic city; but the influx of immigrants was so
+      large and rapid, that, after the lapse of a few years, the entire internal
+      organism and external aspect of the city were metamorphosed. New buildings
+      rose from the ground with incredible speed&mdash;the little temple of the
+      Dioskuri, the protectors of the sailor, the temple of the Samian Hera,
+      that of Zeus of Ægina, and that of Athene;* ere long the great temenos,
+      the Hellenion, was erected at the public expense by nine Æolian, Ionian,
+      and Dorian towns of Asia Minor, to serve as a place of assembly for their
+      countrymen, as a storehouse, as a sanctuary, and, if need be, even as a
+      refuge and fortress, so great was its area and so thick its walls.**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The temple of Athene, the Nît of the Saite nome, is as yet
+     known only by an inscription in Pctrie.
+
+     ** The site has been rediscovered by Petrie at the southern
+     extremity of and almost outside the town; the walls were
+     about 48 feet thick and 39 feet high, and the rectangular
+     area enclosed by them could easily contain fifty thousand
+     men.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It was not possible for the constitution of Naucratis to be very
+      homogeneous, when a score of different elements assisted in its
+      composition. It appears to have been a compromise between the institutions
+      of the Dorians and those of the Ionians. Its supreme magistrates were
+      called timuchi, but their length of office and functions are alike unknown
+      to us. The inspectors of the emporia and markets could be elected only by
+      the citizens of the nine towns, and it is certain that the chief authority
+      was not entirely in the hands either of the timuchi or the inspectors;
+      perhaps each quarter of the town had its council taken from among the
+      oldest residents. A prytanasum was open to all comers where assemblies and
+      banquets were held on feast-days; here were celebrated at the public
+      expense the festivals of Dionysos and Apollo Komasos. Amasis made the city
+      a free port, accessible at all times to whoever should present themselves
+      with peaceable intent, and the privileges which he granted naturally
+      brought about the closing of all the other seaports of Egypt. When a Greek
+      ship, pursued by pirates, buffeted by storms, or disabled by an accident
+      at sea, ran ashore at some prohibited spot on the coast, the captain had
+      to appear before the nearest magistrate, in order to swear that he had not
+      violated the law wilfully, but from the force of circumstances. If his
+      excuse appeared reasonable, he was permitted to make his way to the mouth
+      of the Canopic branch of the Nile; but when the state of the wind or tide
+      did not allow of his departure, his cargo was transferred to boats of the
+      locality, and sent to the Hellenic settlement by the canals of the Delta.
+      This provision of the law brought prosperity to Naucratis; the whole of
+      the commerce of Egypt with the Greek world passed through her docks, and
+      in a few years she became one of the wealthiest emporia of the
+      Mediterranean. The inhabitants soon overflowed the surrounding country,
+      and covered it with villas and townships. Such merchants as refused to
+      submit to the rule of their own countrymen found a home in some other part
+      of the valley which suited them, and even Upper Egypt and the Libyan
+      desert were subject to their pacific inroads. The Milesians established
+      depots in the ancient city of Abydos;* the Cypriots and Lesbians, and the
+      people of Ephesus, Chios, and Samos, were scattered over the islands
+      formed by the network of canals and arms of the Nile, and delighted in
+      giving them the names of their respective countries;** Greeks of diverse
+      origin settled themselves at Neapolis, not far from Panopolis; and the
+      Samians belonging to the Æschrionian tribe penetrated as far as the Great
+      Oasis; in fact, there was scarcely a village where Hellenic traders were
+      not found, like the <i>bakals</i> of to-day, selling wine, perfumes, oil,
+      and salted provisions to the natives, practising usury in all its forms,
+      and averse from no means of enriching themselves as rapidly as possible.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * In Stephen of Byzantium the name of the town is said to be
+     derived from that of the Milesian Abydos who founded it,
+     probably on the testimony of Aristagoras. Letronne has seen
+     that the historian meant a factory established by the
+     Milesians probably in the reign of Amasis, at the terminus
+     of the route leading to the Great Oasis.
+
+     ** The compiler confines himself to stating that there were
+     in the Nile islands called Ephesus, Chios, Samos, Lesbos,
+     Cyprus, and so on; the explanation I have given in the text
+     accounts for this curious fact quite simply.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Those who returned to their mother-country carried thither strange tales,
+      which aroused the curiosity and cupidity of their fellow-citizens; and
+      philosophers, merchants, and soldiers alike set out for the land of
+      wonders in pursuit of knowledge, wealth, or adventures. Amasis, ever alert
+      upon his Asiatic frontier, and always anxious to strengthen himself in
+      that quarter against a Chaldæan or Persian invasion, welcomed them with
+      open arms: those who remained in the country obtained employment about his
+      person, while such as left it not to return, carried away with them the
+      memory of his kindly treatment, and secured for him in Hellas alliances of
+      which he might one day stand in need. The conduct of Amasis was politic,
+      but it aroused the ill-feeling of his subjects against him. Like the Jews
+      under Hezekiah, the Babylonians under Nabonidus, and all other decadent
+      races threatened by ruin, they attributed their decline, not to their own
+      vices, but to the machinations of an angry god, and they looked on favours
+      granted to strangers as a sacrilege. Had not the Greeks brought their
+      divinities with them? Did they not pervert the simple country-folk, so
+      that they associated the Greek religion with that of their own country?
+      Money was scarce; Amasis had been obliged to debit the rations and pay of
+      his mercenaries to the accounts of the most venerated Egyptian temples&mdash;those
+      of Sais, Heliopolis, Bubastis, and Memphis; and each of these institutions
+      had to rebate so much per cent. on their annual revenues in favour of the
+      barbarians, and hand over to them considerable quantities of corn, cattle,
+      poultry, stuffs, woods, perfumes, and objects of all kinds. The priests
+      were loud in their indignation, the echo of which still rang in the ears
+      of the faithful some centuries later, and the lower classes making common
+      cause with their priests, a spirit of hatred was roused among the populace
+      as bitter as that which had previously caused the downfall of Apries. As
+      the fear of the army prevented this feeling from manifesting itself in a
+      revolt, it found expression in the secret calumnies which were circulated
+      against the king, and misrepresented the motives of all his actions.
+      Scores of malicious stories were repeated vilifying his character. It was
+      stated that before his accession he was much addicted to eating and
+      drinking, but that, suffering from want of money, he had not hesitated in
+      procuring what he wished for by all sorts of means, the most honest of
+      which had been secret theft. When made king, he had several times given
+      way to intoxication to such an extent as to be incapable of attending to
+      public business; his ministers were then obliged to relate moral tales to
+      him to bring him to a state of reason. Many persons having taunted him
+      with his low extraction, he had caused a statue of a divinity to be made
+      out of a gold basin in which he was accustomed to wash his feet, and he
+      had exposed it to the adoration of the faithful. When it had been
+      worshipped by them for some time, he revealed the origin of the idol, and
+      added &ldquo;that it had been with himself as with the foot-pan.... If he were a
+      private person formerly, yet now he had come to be their king, and so he
+      bade them honour and reverence him.&rdquo; Towards the middle and end of his
+      reign he was as much detested as he had been beloved at the outset.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had, notwithstanding, so effectively armed Egypt that the Persians had
+      not ventured to risk a collision with her immediately after their conquest
+      of Babylon. Cyrus had spent ten years in compassing the downfall of
+      Nabonidus, and, calculating that that of Amasis would require no less a
+      period of time, he set methodically to work on the organisation of his
+      recently acquired territory; the cities of Phoenicia acknowledged him as
+      their suzerain, and furnished him with what had hitherto been a coveted
+      acquisition, a fleet. These preliminaries had apparently been already
+      accomplished, when the movements of the barbarians suddenly made his
+      presence in the far East imperative. He hurried thither, and was
+      mysteriously lost to sight (529). Tradition accounts for his death in
+      several ways. If Xenophon is to be credited, he died peaceably on his bed,
+      surrounded by his children, and edifying those present by his wisdom and
+      his almost superhuman resignation.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * A similar legend, but later in date, told how Cyrus, when
+     a hundred years old, asked one day to see his friends. He
+     was told that his son had had them all put to death: his
+     grief at the cruelty of Cambyses caused his death in a few
+     days.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0047" id="linkimage-0047">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:40%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/128.jpg" alt="128.jpg Cyrus the Achaemenian " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the photograph by Dieulafoy.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Berosus tells us that he was killed in a campaign against the Daliæ;
+      Ctesias states that, living been wounded in a skirmish with the Æerbikes,
+      one of the savage tribes of Bactriana, he succumbed to his injuries three
+      days after the engagement. According to the worthy Herodotus, he asked the
+      hand of Tomyris, Queen of the Massagetse, in marriage, and was refused
+      with disdain. He declared war against her to avenge his wounded vanity,
+      set out to fight with her beyond the Araxes, in the steppes of Turkestan,
+      defeated the advance-guard of cavalry, and took prisoner the heir to the
+      crown, Spargapises, who thereupon ran himself through with his sword.
+      &ldquo;Then Tomyris collected all the forces of her kingdom, and gave him
+      (Cyrus) battle.&rdquo; Of all the combats in which barbarians have engaged among
+      themselves, I reckon this to have been the fiercest. The following, as I
+      understand, was the manner of it:&mdash;First, the two armies stood apart
+      and shot their arrows at each other; then, when their quivers were empty,
+      they closed and fought hand to hand with lances and daggers; and thus they
+      continued fighting for a length of time, neither choosing to give ground.
+      At length the Massagetse prevailed. The greater part of the army of the
+      Persians was destroyed. Search was made among the slain by order of the
+      queen for the body of Cyrus; and when it was found, she took a skin, and,
+      filling it full of human blood, she dipped the head of Cyrus in the gore,
+      saying, as she thus insulted the corse, &ldquo;I live and have conquered thee in
+      fight, and yet by thee am I ruined, for thou tookest my son with guile;
+      but thus I make good my threat, and give thee thy fill of blood.&rdquo; The
+      engagement was not as serious as the legend would have us believe, and the
+      growth of the Persian power was in no way affected, by it. It cost Cyrus
+      his life, but his army experienced no serious disaster, and his men took
+      the king&rsquo;s body and brought it to Pasargadæ. He had a palace there, the
+      remains of which can still be seen on the plain of Murgâb. The edifice was
+      unpretentious, built upon a rectangular plan, with two porches of four
+      columns on the longer sides, a lateral chamber at each of the four angles,
+      and a hypostyle hall in the centre, divided lengthways by two rows of
+      columns which supported the roof. The walls were decorated with
+      bas-reliefs, and wherever the inscriptions have not been destroyed, we can
+      read in cuneiform characters in the three languages which thenceforward
+      formed the official means of communication of the empire&mdash;Persian,
+      Medic, and Chaldæan&mdash;the name, title, and family of the royal
+      occupant. Cyrus himself is represented in a standing posture on the
+      pilasters, wearing a costume in which Egyptian and Assyrian features are
+      curiously combined. He is clothed from neck to ankle in the close-fitting
+      fringed tunic of the Babylonian and Mnevite sovereigns; his feet are
+      covered with laced boots, while four great wings, emblems of the supreme
+      power, overshadow his shoulders and loins, two of them raised in the air,
+      the others pointing to the earth; he wears on his head the Egyptian
+      skull-cap, from which rises one of the most complicated head-dresses of
+      the royal wardrobe of the Pharaohs. The monarch raises his right hand with
+      the gesture of a man speaking to an assembled people, and as if repeating
+      the legend traced above his image: &ldquo;I am Cyrus, the king, the Achæmenian.&rdquo;
+       He was buried not far off, in the monumental tomb which he had probably
+      built for himself in a square enclosure, having a portico on three of its
+      sides; a small chamber, with a ridge roof, rises from a base composed of
+      six receding steps, so arranged as to appear of unequal height.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The doorway is narrow, and so low that a man of medium statue finds some
+      difficulty in entering. It is surmounted by a hollow moulding, quite
+      Egyptian in style, and was closed by a two-leaved stone door. The golden
+      coffin rested on a couch of the same metal, covered with precious stuffs;
+      and a circular table, laden with drinking-vessels and ornaments enriched
+      with precious stones, completed the furniture of the chamber. The body of
+      the conqueror remained undisturbed on this spot for two centuries under
+      the care of the priests; but while Alexander was waging war on the Indian
+      frontier, the Greek officers, to whom he had entrusted the government of
+      Persia proper, allowed themselves to be tempted by the enormous wealth
+      which the funerary chapel was supposed to contain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0048" id="linkimage-0048">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/129.jpg" width="100%" alt="129.jpg the Tomb Op Cyrus " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the heliogravure of Dieulafoy.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      They opened the coffin, broke the couch and the table, and finding them
+      too heavy to carry away easily, they contented themselves with stealing
+      the drinking-vessels and jewels. Alexander on his return visited the
+      place, and caused the entrance to be closed with a slight wall of masonry;
+      he intended to restore the monument to its former splendour, but he
+      himself perished shortly after, and what remained of the contents probably
+      soon disappeared. After the death of Cyrus, popular imagination, drawing
+      on the inexhaustible materials furnished by his adventurous career, seemed
+      to delight in making him the ideal of all a monarch should be; they
+      attributed to him every virtue&mdash;gentleness, bravery, moderation,
+      justice, and wisdom. There is no reason to doubt that he possessed the
+      qualities of a good general&mdash;activity, energy, and courage, together
+      with the astuteness and the duplicity so necessary to success in Asiatic
+      conquest&mdash;but he does not appear to have possessed in the same degree
+      the gifts of a great administrator. He made no changes in the system of
+      government which from the time of Tiglath-pileser III. onwards had
+      obtained among all Oriental sovereigns; he placed satraps over the towns
+      and countries of recent acquisition, at Sardes and Babylon, in Syria and
+      Palestine, but without clearly defining their functions or subjecting them
+      to a supervision sufficiently strict to ensure the faithful performance of
+      their duties. He believed that he was destined to found a single empire in
+      which all the ancient empires were to be merged, and he all but carried
+      his task to a successful close: Egypt alone remained to be conquered when
+      he passed away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His wife Kassandanê, a daughter of Pharnaspes, and an Achæmenian like
+      himself, had borne him five children; two sons, Cambyses* and Smerdis,**
+      and three daughters, Atossa, Roxana, and Artystonê.***
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The Persian form of the name rendered Kambyses by the
+     Greeks was Kâbuzîyâ or Kambuzîya. Herodotus calls him the
+     son of Kassandanê, and the tradition which he has preserved
+     is certainly authentic. Ctesias has erroneously stated that
+     his mother was Amytis, the daughter of Astyages, and Dinon,
+     also erroneously, the Egyptian women Nitêtis; Diodorus
+     Siculus and Strabo make him the son of Meroê.
+
+     ** The original form was Bardiya or Barzîya, &ldquo;the laudable,&rdquo;
+      and the first Greek transcript known, in Æschylus, is
+     Mardos, or, in the scholiasts on the passage, Merdias, which
+     has been corrupted into Marphios by Hellanikos and into
+     Merges by Pompeius Trogus. The form Smerdis in Herodotus,
+     and in the historians who follow him, is the result of a
+     mistaken assimilation of the Persian name with the purely
+     Greek one of Smerdis or Smerdies.
+
+     *** Herodotus says that Atossa was the daughter of
+     Kassandanê, and the position which she held during three
+     reigns shows that she must have been so; Justi, however,
+     calls her the daughter of Amytis. A second daughter is
+     mentioned by Herodotus, the one whom Cambyses killed in
+     Egypt by a kick; he gives her no name, but she is probably
+     the same as the Roxana who according to Ctesias bore a
+     headless child. The youngest, Artystonê, was the favourite
+     wife of Darius. Josephus speaks of a fourth daughter of
+     Cyrus called Meroê, but without saying who was the mother of
+     this princess.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Cambyses was probably born about 558, soon after his father&rsquo;s accession,
+      and he was his legitimate successor, according to the Persian custom which
+      assigned the crown to the eldest of the sons born in the purple. He had
+      been associated, as we have seen, in the Babylonian regal power
+      immediately after the victory over Nabonidus, and on the eve of his
+      departure for the fatal campaign against the Massagetse his father, again
+      in accordance with the Persian law, had appointed him regent. A later
+      tradition, preserved by Ctesias, relates that on this occasion the
+      territory had been divided between the two sons: Smerdis, here called
+      Tanyoxarkes, having received as his share Bactriana, the Khoramnians, the
+      Parthians, and the Carmanians, under the suzerainty of his brother.
+      Cambyses, it is clear, inherited the whole empire, but intrigues gathered
+      round Smerdis, and revolts broke out in the provinces, incited, so it was
+      said, whether rightly or wrongly, by his partisans.* The new king was
+      possessed of a violent, merciless temper, and the Persians subsequently
+      emphasised the fact by saying that Cyrus had been a father to them,
+      Cambyses a master. The rebellions were repressed with a vigorous hand, and
+      finally Smerdis disappeared by royal order, and the secret of his fate was
+      so well kept, that it was believed, even by his mother and sisters, that
+      he was merely imprisoned in some obscure Median fortress.**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Herodotus speaks of peoples subdued by Cambyses in Asia,
+     and this allusion can only refer to a revolt occurring after
+     the death of Cyrus, before the Egyptian expedition; these
+     troubles are explicitly recorded in Xenophon.
+
+     ** The inscription of Behistun says distinctly that Cambyses
+     had his brother Bardîya put to death before the Egyptian
+     expedition; on the other hand, Herodotus makes the murder
+     occur during the Egyptian expedition and Ctesias after this
+     expedition. Ctesias&rsquo; version of the affair adds that
+     Cambyses, the better to dissimulate his crime, ordered the
+     murderer Sphendadates to pass himself off as Tanyoxarkes, as
+     there was a great resemblance between the two: Sphendadates
+     &mdash;the historian goes on to say&mdash;was exiled to Bactriana,
+     and it was not until five years afterwards that the mother
+     of the two princes heard of the murder and of the
+     substitution. These additions to the story are subsequent
+     developments suggested by the traditional account of the
+     Pseudo-Smerdis. In recent times several authorities have
+     expressed the opinion that all that is told us of the murder
+     of Smerdis and about the Pseudo-Smerdis is merely a legend,
+     invented by Darius or those about him in order to justify
+     his usurpation in the eyes of the people: the Pseudo-Smerdis
+     would be Smerdis himself, who revolted against Cambyses, and
+     was then, after he had reigned a few months, assassinated by
+     Darius. Winckler acknowledges &ldquo;that certainty is impossible
+     in such a case;&rdquo; and, in reality, all ancient tradition is
+     against his hypothesis, and it is best to accept Herodotus&rsquo;
+     account, with all its contradictions, until contemporaneous
+     documents enable us to decide what to accept and what to
+     reject in it.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The ground being cleared of his rival, and affairs on the Scythian
+      frontier reduced to order, Cambyses took up the projects against Egypt at
+      the exact point at which his predecessor had left them. Amasis, who for
+      ten years had been expecting an attack, had taken every precaution in his
+      power against it, and had once more patiently begun to make overtures of
+      alliance with the Hellenic cities; those on the European continent did not
+      feel themselves so seriously menaced as to consider it to their interest
+      to furnish him with any assistance, but the Greeks of the independent
+      islands, with their chief, Poly crates, tyrant of Samos, received his
+      advances with alacrity. Polycrates had at his disposal a considerable
+      fleet, the finest hitherto seen in the waters of the Ægean, and this,
+      combined with the Egyptian navy, was not any too large a force to protect
+      the coasts of the Delta, now that the Persians had at their disposition
+      not only the vessels of the Æolian and Ionian cities, but those of
+      Phoenicia and Cyprus. A treaty was concluded, bringing about an exchange
+      of presents and amenities between the two princes which lasted as long as
+      peace prevailed, but was ruptured at the critical moment by the action of
+      Polycrates, though not actually through his own fault. The aristocratic
+      party, whose chiefs were always secretly plotting his overthrow, had given
+      their adherence to the Persians, and their conduct became so threatening
+      about the time of the death of Cyras, that Polycrates had to break his
+      engagements with Egypt in order to avert a catastrophe.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Herodotus laid the blame for the breach of the treaty to
+     the King of Egypt, and attributed to his fear of the
+     constant good fortune of Polycrates. The lattor&rsquo;s accession
+     to power is fixed at about the year 540 by some, by others
+     in the year 537, or in the year 533-2; his negotiations with
+     Amasis must be placed somewhere during the last fifteen
+     years of the Pharaoh.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      He made a treaty with the Persian king, and sent a squadron of forty
+      galleys to join the fleet then being equipped in the Phoenician ports.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Herodotus records two opposing traditions: one that the
+     Samians joined in the Egyptian campaign, the other that they
+     went only as far as the neighbourhood of Karpathos.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0049" id="linkimage-0049">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:29%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/138.jpg" alt="138.jpg Psammetichus III. " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by Boudier,
+from a photograph
+of the original
+in the Louvre.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Amasis, therefore, when war at last broke out, found himself left to face
+      the enemy alone. The struggle was inevitable, and all the inhabitants of
+      the eastern coasts of the Mediterranean had long foreseen its coming.
+      Without taking into consideration the danger to which the Persian empire
+      and its Syrian provinces were exposed by the proximity of a strong and
+      able power such as Egypt, the hardy and warlike character of Cambyses
+      would naturally have prompted him to make an attempt to achieve what his
+      predecessors, the warrior-kings of Nineveh and Babylon, had always failed
+      to accomplish successfully. Policy ruled his line of action, and was
+      sufficient to explain it, but popular imagination sought other than the
+      very natural causes which had brought the most ancient and most recent of
+      the great empires of the world into opposition; romantic reasons were
+      therefore invented to account for the great drama which was being enacted,
+      and the details supplied varied considerably, according as the tradition
+      was current in Asia or Africa. It was said that a physician lent to Cyrus
+      by Amasis, to treat him for an affection of the eyes, was the cause of all
+      the evil. The unfortunate man, detained at Susa and chafing at his exile,
+      was said to have advised Cambyses to ask for the daughter of Pharaoh in
+      marriage, hoping either that Amasis would grant the request, and be
+      dishonoured in the eyes of his subjects for having degraded the solar race
+      by a union with a barbarian, or that he would boldly refuse, and thus
+      arouse the hatred of the Persians against himself. Amasis, after a slight
+      hesitation, substituted Nitêtis, a daughter of Apries, for his own child.
+      It happened that one day in sport Cambyses addressed the princess by the
+      name of her supposed father, whereupon she said, &ldquo;I perceive, O king, that
+      you have no suspicion of the way in which you have been deceived by
+      Amasis; he took me, and having dressed me up as his own daughter, sent me
+      to you. In reality I am the daughter of Apries, who was his lord and
+      master until the day that he revolted, and, in concert with the rest of
+      the Egyptians, put his sovereign to death.&rdquo; The deceit which Cambyses thus
+      discovered had been put upon him irritated him so greatly as to induce him
+      to turn his arms against Egypt. So ran the Persian account of the tale,
+      but on the banks of the Nile matters were explained otherwise. Here it was
+      said that it was to Cyrus himself that Nitêtis had been married, and that
+      she had borne Cambyses to him; the conquest had thus been merely a revenge
+      of the legitimate heirs of Psammetichus upon the usurper, and Cambyses had
+      ascended the throne less as a conqueror than as a Pharaoh of the line of
+      Apries. It was by this childish fiction that the Egyptians in their
+      decadence consoled themselves before the stranger for their loss of power.
+      Always proud of their ancient prowess, but incapable of imitating the
+      deeds of their forefathers, they none the less pretended that they could
+      neither be vanquished nor ruled except by one of themselves, and the story
+      of Nitêtis afforded complete satisfaction to their vanity. If Cambyses
+      were born of a solar princess, Persia could not be said to have imposed a
+      barbarian king upon Egypt, but, on the contrary, that Egypt had cleverly
+      foisted her Pharaoh upon Persia, and through Persia upon half the
+      universe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One obstacle still separated the two foes&mdash;the desert and the marshes
+      of the Delta. The distance between the outposts of Pelusium and the
+      fortress of Ænysos* on the Syrian frontier was scarcely fifty-six miles,
+      and could be crossed by an army in less than ten days.** Formerly the
+      width of this strip of desert had been less, but the Assyrians, and after
+      them the Chaldæans, had vied with each other in laying waste the country,
+      and the absence of any settled population now rendered the transit
+      difficult. Cambyses had his head-quarters at Gaza, at the extreme limit of
+      his own dominions,*** but he was at a loss how to face this solitary
+      region without incurring the risk of seeing half his men buried beneath
+      its sands, and his uncertainty was delaying his departure when a stroke of
+      fortune relieved him from his difficulty.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The Ænysos of Herodotus is now Khân Yunes.
+
+     ** In 1799, Napoleon&rsquo;s army left Kattiyeh on the 18th of
+     Pluviôse, and was at Gaza on the 7th of Ventose, after
+     remaining from the 21st to the 30th of Pluviôse before El-
+     Arîsh besieging that place.
+
+     *** This seems to follow from the tradition, according to
+     which Cambyses left his treasures at Gaza during the
+     Egyptian campaign, and the town was thence called <i>Gaza</i>,
+     &ldquo;the treasury.&rdquo; The etymology is false, but the fact that
+     suggested it is probably correct, considering the situation
+     of Gaza and the part it must necessarily play in an invasion
+     of Egypt.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Phanes of Halicarnassus, one of the mercenaries in the service of Egypt, a
+      man of shrewd judgment and an able soldier, fell out with Amasis for some
+      unknown reason, and left him to offer his services to his rival. This was
+      a serious loss for Egypt, since Phanes possessed considerable authority
+      over the mercenaries, and was better versed in Egyptian affairs than any
+      other person. He was pursued and taken within sight of the Lycian coast,
+      but he treated his captors to wine and escaped from them while they were
+      intoxicated. He placed Cambyses in communication with the shêkh of the
+      scattered tribes between Syria and the Delta. The Arab undertook to
+      furnish the Persian king with guides, as one of his predecessors had done
+      in years gone by for Esar-haddon, and to station relays of camels laden
+      with water along the route that the invading army was to follow. Having
+      taken these precautions, Cambyses entrusted the cares of government and
+      the regulation of his household to Oropastes,* one of the Persian magi,
+      and gave the order to march forward.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Herodotus calls this individual Patizeithes, and Dionysius
+     of Miletus, who lived a little before Herodotus, gives
+     Panzythes as a variant of this name: the variant passed into
+     the Syncellus as Pauzythes, but the original form
+     Patikhshâyathiya is a title signifying <i>viceroy, regent, or
+     minister</i>, answering to the modern Persian <i>Padishah</i>:
+     Herodotus, or the author he quotes, has taken the name of
+     the office for that of the individual. On the other hand,
+     Pompeius Trogus, who drew his information from good sources,
+     mentions, side by side with Comètes or Gaumata, his brother
+     Oropastes, whose name Ahura-upashta is quite correct, and
+     may mean, <i>Him whom Ahura helps</i>. It is generally admitted
+     that Pompeius Trogus, or rather Justin, has inverted the
+     parts they played, and that his Comètes is the Pseudo-
+     Smerdis, and not, as he says, Oropastes; it was, then, the
+     latter who was the usurper&rsquo;s brother, and it is his name of
+     Oropastes which should be substituted for that of the
+     Patizeithes of Herodotus.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      On arriving at Pelusium, he learned that his adversary no longer existed.
+      Amasis had died after a short illness, and was succeeded by his son
+      Psammetichus III.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This change of command, at the most critical moment, was almost in itself,
+      a disaster. Àmasis, with his consummate experience of men and things, his
+      intimate knowledge of the resources of Egypt, his talents as a soldier and
+      a general, his personal prestige, his Hellenic leanings, commanded the
+      confidence of his own men and the respect of foreigners; but what could be
+      expected of his unknown successor, and who could say whether he were equal
+      to the heavy task which fate had assigned to him? The whole of the Nile
+      valley was a prey to gloomy presentiment.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Psammetichus III. has left us very few monuments, which is
+     accounted for by the extreme shortness of his reign. For the
+     same reason doubtless several writers of classical times
+     have ignored his existence, and have made the conquest of
+     Egypt take place under Amasis. Ctesias calls the Pharaoh
+     Amyrtseus, and gives the same name to those who rebelled
+     against the Persians in his own time, and he had an account
+     of the history of the conquest entirely different from that
+     of Herodotus.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Egypt was threatened not only, as in the previous century, by the nations
+      of the Tigris and Euphrates, but all Asia, from the Indus to the
+      Hellespont, was about to fall on her to crush her. She was destitute of
+      all human help and allies, and the gods themselves appeared to have
+      forsaken her. The fellahin, inspired with vague alarm, recognised evil
+      omens in all around them. Rain is rare in the Thebaid, and storms occur
+      there only twice or three times in a century: but a few days after the
+      accession of Psammetichus, a shower of fine rain fell at Thebes, an event,
+      so it was stated with the exaggeration characteristic of the bearers of
+      ill news, which had never before occurred.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The inhabitants of the Said have, up to our own time,
+     always considered rain in the valley as an ill-omened event.
+     They used to say in the beginning of the nineteenth century,
+     when speaking of Napoleon&rsquo;s expedition, &ldquo;We knew that
+     misfortune threatened us, because it rained at Luxor shortly
+     before the French came.&rdquo; Wilkinson assures us that rain is
+     not so rare at Thebes as Herodotus thought: he speaks of
+     five or six showers a year, and of a great storm on an
+     average every ten years. But even he admits that it is
+     confined to the mountain district, and does not reach the
+     plain: I never heard of rain at Luxor during the six winters
+     that I spent in Upper Egypt.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Pharaoh hastened to meet the invader with all the men, chariots, and
+      native bowmen at his disposal, together with his Libyan and Cyrenoan
+      auxiliaries, and the Ionians, Carians, and Greeks of the isles and
+      mainland. The battle took place before Pelusium, and was fought on both
+      sides with brave desperation, since defeat meant servitude for the
+      Egyptians, and for the Persians, cut off by the desert from possible
+      retreat, captivity or annihilation. Phanes had been obliged to leave his
+      children behind him, and Pharaoh included them in his suite, to serve, if
+      needful, as hostages. The Carians and Ionians, who felt themselves
+      disgraced by the defection of their captain, called loudly for them just
+      before the commencement of the action. They were killed immediately in
+      front of the lines, their father being a powerless onlooker; their blood
+      was thrown into a cask half full of wine, and the horrible mixture was
+      drunk by the soldiers, who then furiously charged the enemy&rsquo;s battalions.
+      The issue of the struggle was for a long time doubtful, but the Egyptians
+      were inferior in numbers; towards evening their lines gave way and the
+      flight began.* All was not, however, lost, if Psammetichus had but
+      followed the example of Taharqa, and defended the passage of the various
+      canals and arms of the river, disputing the ground inch by inch with the
+      Persians, and gaining time meanwhile to collect a fresh army. The king
+      lost his presence of mind, and without attempting to rally what remained
+      of his regiments, he hastened to take refuge within the White Wall.
+      Cambyses halted a few days to reduce Pelusium,** and in the mean time sent
+      a vessel of Mitylene to summon Memphis to capitulate: the infuriated
+      populace, as soon as they got wind of the message, massacred the herald
+      and the crew, and dragged their bleeding limbs through the streets.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * According to Herodotus, eighty years later the battle-
+     field used to be shown covered with bones, and it was said
+     that the Egyptians could be distinguished from the Persians
+     by the relative hardness of their skulls.
+
+     ** Polysenus hands down a story that Cambyses, in order to
+     paralyse the resistance of the besieged, caused cats, dogs,
+     ibises, and other sacred animals to march at the head of his
+     attacking columns: the Egyptians would not venture to use
+     their arms for fear of wounding or killing some of their
+     gods.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The city held out for a considerable time; when at length she opened her
+      gates, the remaining inhabitants of the Said who had hesitated up to then,
+      hastened to make their submission, and the whole of Egypt as far as Philae
+      became at one stroke a Persian province. The Libyans did not wait to be
+      summoned to bring their tribute; Cyrene and Barca followed their example,
+      but their offerings were so small that the conqueror&rsquo;s irritation was
+      aroused, and deeming himself mocked, he gave way to his anger, and instead
+      of accepting them, he threw them to his soldiers with his own hand (B.C.
+      525).*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The question as to the year in which Egypt was subdued by
+     Cambyses has long divided historians: I still agree with
+     those who place the conquest in the spring of 525.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      This sudden collapse of a power whose exalted position had defied all
+      attacks for centuries, and the tragic fate of the king who had received
+      his crown merely to lose it, filled contemporary beholders with
+      astonishment and pity. It was said that, ten days after the capitulation
+      of Memphis, the victorious king desired out of sport to test the endurance
+      of his prisoner. Psammetichus beheld his daughter and the daughters of his
+      nobles pass before him, half naked, with jars on their shoulders, and go
+      down to the Nile to fetch water from the river like common slaves; his son
+      and two thousand young men of the same age, in chains and with ropes round
+      their necks, also defiled before him on their way to die as a revenge for
+      the murder of the Mitylenians; yet he never for a moment lost his royal
+      imperturbability. But when one of his former companions in pleasure
+      chanced to pass, begging for alms and clothed in rags, Psammetichus
+      suddenly broke out into weeping, and lacerated his face in despair.
+      Cambyses, surprised at this excessive grief in a man who up till then had
+      exhibited such fortitude, demanded the reason of his conduct. &ldquo;Son of
+      Cyrus,&rdquo; he replied, &ldquo;the misfortunes of my house are too unparalleled to
+      weep over, but not the affliction of my friend. When a man, on the verge
+      of old age, falls from luxury and abundance into extreme poverty, one may
+      well lament his fate.&rdquo; When the speech was reported to Cambyses, he fully
+      recognised the truth of it. Croesus, who was also present, shed tears, and
+      the Persians round him were moved with pity. Cambyses, likewise touched,
+      commanded that the son of the Pharaoh should be saved, but the remission
+      of the sentence arrived too late. He at all events treated Pharaoh himself
+      with consideration, and it is possible that he might have replaced him on
+      the throne, under an oath of vassalage, had he not surprised him in a
+      conspiracy against his own life. He thereupon obliged him to poison
+      himself by drinking bulls&rsquo; blood, and he confided the government of the
+      Nile valley to a Persian named Aryandes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No part of the ancient world now remained unconquered except the
+      semi-fabulous kingdom of Ethiopia in the far-off south. Cities and
+      monarchies, all the great actors of early times, had been laid in the dust
+      one after another&mdash;Tyre, Damascus, Carchemish, Urartu, Elam, Assyria,
+      Jerusalem, Media, the Lydians, Babylon, and finally Egypt; and the prey
+      they had fought over so fiercely and for so many centuries, now belonged
+      in its entirety to one master for the first time as far as memory could
+      reach back into the past. Cambyses, following in the footsteps of Cyrus,
+      had pursued his victorious way successfully, but it was another matter to
+      consolidate his conquests and to succeed in governing within the limits of
+      one empire so many incongruous elements&mdash;the people of the Caucasus
+      and those of the Nile valley, the Greeks of the Ægean and the Iranians,
+      the Scythians from beyond the Oxus and the Semites of the banks of the
+      Euphrates or of the Mediterranean coast; and time alone would show whether
+      this heritage would not fall to pieces as quickly as it had been built up.
+      The Asiatic elements of the empire appeared, at all events for the moment,
+      content with their lot, and Babylon showed herself more than usually
+      resigned; but Egypt had never accepted the yoke of the stranger willingly,
+      and the most fortunate of her Assyrian conquerors had never exercised more
+      than a passing supremacy over her. Cambyses realised that he would never
+      master her except by governing her himself for a period of several years,
+      and by making himself as Egyptian as a Persian could be without offending
+      his own subjects at home. He adopted the titles of the Pharaohs, their
+      double cartouche, their royal costume, and their solar filiation; as much
+      to satisfy his own personal animosity as to conciliate the Egyptian
+      priests, he repaired to Sais, violated the tomb of Amasis, and burnt the
+      mummy after offering it every insult.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Herodotus gives also a second account, which declares that
+     Cambyses thus treated the body, not of Amasis, but of some
+     unknown person whom he took for Amasis. The truth of the
+     story is generally contested, for the deed would have been,
+     as Herodotus himself remarks, contrary to Persian ideas
+     about the sanctity of fire. I think that by his cruel
+     treatment of the mummy, Cambyses wished to satisfy the
+     hatred of the natives against the Greek-loving king, and so
+     render himself more acceptable to them. The destruction of
+     the mummy entailing that of the soul, his act gave the
+     Saitic population a satisfaction similar to that experienced
+     by the refined cruelty of those who, a few centuries ago,
+     killed their enemies when in a state of deadly sin, and so
+     ensure not only their dismissal from this world, but also
+     their condemnation in the next.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0050" id="linkimage-0050">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:30%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/145.jpg"
+       alt="145.jpg the Naophoros Statuette of The Vatican " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by Faucher-Gudin,
+from a photograph: the
+head and hands are a
+restoration of the
+eighteenth century,
+in the most
+inappropriate
+Græco-Roman style.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      He removed his troops from the temple of Nît, which they had turned into a
+      barrack to the horror of the faithful, and restored at his own expense the
+      damage they had done to the building. He condescended so far as to receive
+      instruction in the local religion, and was initiated in the worship of the
+      goddess by the priest Uzaharrîsnîti. This was, after all, a pursuance of
+      the policy employed by his father towards the Babylonians, and the
+      projects which he had in view necessitated his gaining the confidence of
+      the people at all costs. Asia having no more to offer him, two almost
+      untried fields lay open to his ambition&mdash;Africa and Europe&mdash;the
+      Greek world and what lay beyond it, the Carthaginian world and Ethiopia.
+      The necessity of making a final reckoning with Egypt had at the outset
+      summoned him to Africa, and it was therefore in that continent that he
+      determined to carry on his conquests. Memphis was necessarily the base of
+      his operations, the only point from which he could direct the march of his
+      armies in a westerly or southerly direction, and at the same time keep in
+      touch with the rest of his empire, and he would indeed have been imprudent
+      had he neglected anything which could make him acceptable to its
+      inhabitants. As soon as he felt he had gained their sympathies, he
+      despatched two expeditions, one to Carthage and one to Ethiopia. Cyrene
+      had spontaneously offered him her homage; he now further secured it by
+      sending thither with all honour Ladikê, the widow of Amasis, and he
+      apparently contemplated taking advantage of the good will of the Cyrenians
+      to approach Carthage by sea. The combined fleets of Ionia and Phonicia
+      were without doubt numerically sufficient for this undertaking, but the
+      Tyrians refused to serve against their own colonies, and he did not
+      venture to employ the Greeks alone in waters which were unfamiliar to
+      them. Besides this, the information which he obtained from those about him
+      convinced him that the overland route would enable him to reach his
+      destination more surely if more slowly; it would lead him from the banks
+      of the Nile to the Oases of the Theban desert, from there to the
+      Ammonians, and thence by way of the Libyans bordering on the Syrtes and
+      the Liby-phoenicians. He despatched an advance-guard of fifty thousand men
+      from Thebes to occupy the Oasis of Ammon and to prepare the various
+      halting-places for the bulk of the troops. The fate of these men has never
+      been clearly ascertained. They crossed the Oasis of El-Khargeh and
+      proceeded to the north-west in the direction of the oracle. The natives
+      afterwards related that when they had arrived halfway, a sudden storm of
+      wind fell upon them, and the entire force was buried under mounds of sand
+      during a halt. Cambyses was forced to take their word; in spite of all his
+      endeavours, no further news of his troops was forthcoming, except that
+      they never reached the temple, and that none of the generals or soldiers
+      ever again saw Egypt (524). The expedition to Ethiopia was not more
+      successful. Since the retreat of Tanuatamanu, the Pharaohs of Napata had
+      severed all direct relations with Asia; but on being interfered with by
+      Psammetichus I. and II., they had repulsed the invaders, and had
+      maintained their frontier almost within sight of Philæ.* In Nubia proper
+      they had merely a few outposts stationed in the ruins of the towns of the
+      Theban period&mdash;at Derr, at Pnubsu, at Wady-Halfa, and at Semneh; the
+      population again becoming dense and the valley fertile to the south of
+      this spot. Kush, like Egypt, was divided into two regions &mdash;To-Qonusît,
+      with its cities of Danguru,** Napata, Asta-muras, and Barua; and Alo,***
+      which extended along the White and the Blue Nile in the plain of Sennaar:
+      the Asmakh, the descendants of the Mashauasha emigrants of the time of
+      Psammetichus I., dwelt on the southern border of Alo.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The northern boundary of Ethiopia is given us
+     approximately by the lists of temples in the inscriptions of
+     Harsiatef and of Nastosenen: Pnubsu is mentioned several
+     times as receiving gifts from the king, which carries the
+     permanent dominion of the Ethiopian kings as far as the
+     second cataract.
+
+     ** Now Old Dongola.
+
+     *** Berua is the Meroê of Strabo, Astaboras the modern Ed-
+     Dameîr, and Alo the kingdom of Aloah of the mediæval Arab
+     geographers.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0051" id="linkimage-0051">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/147.jpg" width="100%" alt="147.jpg Ethiopian Gkoup " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the photograph by Berghoff.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      A number of half-savage tribes, Maditi and Bohrehsa, were settled to the
+      right and to the left of the territory watered by the Nile, between
+      Darfur, the mountains of Abyssinia, and the Red Sea; and the warlike
+      disposition of the Ethiopian kings found in these tribes an inexhaustible
+      field for obtaining easy victories and abundant spoil. Many of these
+      sovereigns&mdash;Piônkhi, Alaru, Harsiatef, Nastosenen&mdash;whose
+      respective positions in the royal line are still undetermined, specially
+      distinguished themselves in these struggles, but the few monuments they
+      have left, though bearing witness to their military enterprise and
+      ability, betray their utter decadence in everything connected with art,
+      language, and religion. The ancient Egyptian syllabary, adapted to the
+      needs of a barbarous tongue, had ended by losing its elegance;
+      architecture was degenerating, and sculpture slowly growing more and more
+      clumsy in appearance. Some of the work, however, is not wanting in a
+      certain rude nobility&mdash;as, for instance, the god and goddess carved
+      side by side in a block of grey granite. Ethiopian worship had become
+      permeated with strange superstitions, and its creed was degraded, in spite
+      of the strictness with which the priests supervised its application and
+      kept watch against every attempt to introduce innovations. Towards the end
+      of the seventh century some of the families attached to the temple of Am
+      on at Napata had endeavoured to bring about a kind of religious reform;
+      among other innovations they adopted the practice of substituting for the
+      ordinary sacrifice, new rites, the chief feature of which was the offering
+      of the flesh of the victim raw, instead of roasted with fire. This custom,
+      which was doubtless borrowed from the negroes of the Upper Nile, was
+      looked upon as a shameful heresy by the orthodox. The king repaired in
+      state to the temple of Anion, seized the priests who professed these
+      seditious beliefs, and burnt them alive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0052" id="linkimage-0052">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/148b.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="148b.jpg Encampment de Bacharis " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The use of raw meat, nevertheless, was not discontinued, and it gained
+      such ground in the course of ages that even Christianity was unable to
+      suppress it; up to the present time, the <i>brindê</i>, or piece of beef
+      cut from the living animal and eaten raw, is considered a delicacy by the
+      Abyssinians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The isolation of the Ethiopians had rather increased than lowered their
+      reputation among other nations. Their transitory appearance on the
+      battle-fields of Asia had left a deep impression on the memories of their
+      opponents. The tenacity they had displayed during their conflict with
+      Assyria had effaced the remembrance of their defeat. Popular fancy
+      delighted to extol the wisdom of Sabaco,* and exalted Taharqa to the first
+      rank among the conquerors of the old world; now that Kush once more came
+      within the range of vision, it was invested with a share of all these
+      virtues, and the inquiries Cambyses made concerning it were calculated to
+      make him believe that he was about to enter on a struggle with a nation of
+      demigods rather than of men. He was informed that they were taller, more
+      beautiful, and more vigorous than all other mortals, that their age was
+      prolonged to one hundred and twenty years and more, and that they
+      possessed a marvellous fountain whose waters imparted perpetual youth to
+      then-bodies. There existed near their capital a meadow, perpetually
+      furnishing an inexhaustible supply of food and drink; whoever would might
+      partake of this &ldquo;Table of the Sun,&rdquo; and eat to his fill.**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The eulogy bestowed on him by Herodotus shows the esteem
+     in which he was held even in the Saite period; later on he
+     seems to have become two persons, and so to have given birth
+     to the good Ethiopian king Aktisanes.
+
+     ** Pausanias treats it as a traveller&rsquo;s tale. Heeren thought
+     that he saw in Herodotus&rsquo; account a reference to intercourse
+     by signs, so frequent in Africa. The &ldquo;Table of the Sun&rdquo;
+      would thus have been a kind of market, whither the natives
+     would come for their provisions, using exchange to procure
+     them. I am inclined rather to believe the story to be a
+     recollection, partly of the actual custom of placing meats,
+     which the first comer might take, on the tombs in the
+     necropolis, partly of the mythical &ldquo;Meadow of Offerings&rdquo;
+      mentioned in the funerary texts, to which the souls of the
+     dead and the gods alike had access. This divine region would
+     have transferred to our earth by some folk-tale, like the
+     judgment of the dead, the entrance into the solar bark, and
+     other similar beliefs.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Gold was so abundant that it was used for common purposes, even for the
+      chains of their prisoners; but, on the other hand, copper was rare and
+      much prized. Canibyses despatched some spies chosen from among the
+      Ichthyophagi of the Bed Sea to explore this region, and acting on the
+      report they brought back, he left Memphis at the head of an army and a
+      fleet.* The expedition was partly a success and partly a failure. It
+      followed the Nile valley as far as Korosko, and then struck across the
+      desert in the direction of Napata;** but provisions ran short before a
+      quarter of the march had been achieved, and famine obliged the invaders to
+      retrace their steps after having endured terrible sufferings.***
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Herodotus&rsquo; text speaks of an army only, but the accounts
+     of the wars between Ethiopia and Egypt show that the army
+     was always accompanied by the necessary fleet.
+
+     ** It is usually thought that the expedition marched by the
+     side of the Nile as far as Napata; to support this theory
+     the name of a place mentioned in Pliny is quoted, Cambusis
+     at the third cataract, which is supposed to contain the name
+     of the conqueror. This town, which is sometimes mentioned by
+     the classical geographers, is called Kambiusit in the
+     Ethiopie texts, and the form of the name makes its
+     connection with the history of Cambyses easy. I think it
+     follows, from the text of Herodotus, that the Persians left
+     the grassy land, the river-valley, at a given moment, to
+     enter the sand, i.e. the desert. Now this is done to-day at
+     two points&mdash;near Korosko to rejoin the Nile at Abu-Hammed,
+     and near Wady-Halfah to avoid the part of the Nile called
+     the &ldquo;Stony belly,&rdquo; Batn el-Hagar. The Korosko route, being
+     the only one suitable for the transit of a body of troops,
+     and also the only route known to Herodotus, seems, I think,
+     likely to be the one which was followed in the present
+     instance; at all events, it fits in best with the fact that
+     Cambyses was obliged to retrace his steps hurriedly, when he
+     had accomplished hardly a fifth of the journey.
+
+     *** Many modern historians are inclined to assume that
+     Cambyses&rsquo; expedition was completely successful, and that its
+     result was the overthrow of the ancient kingdom of Nepata
+     and the foundation of that of Meroê. Cambyses would have
+     given the new town which he built there the name of his
+     sister Meroê. The traditions concerning Cambusis and Meroê
+     belong to the Alexandrine era, and rest only on chance
+     similarities of sound. With regard to the Ethiopian province
+     of the Persian empire and to the Ethiopian neighbours of
+     Egypt whom Cambyses subdued, the latter are not necessarily
+     Ethiopians of Napata. Herodotus himself says that the
+     Ethiopians dwelt in the country above Elephantine, and that
+     half of what he calls the island of Takhompsô was inhabited
+     by Ethiopians: the subjugated Ethiopians and their country
+     plainly correspond with the Dodekaschênos of the Græco-Roman
+     era.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Cambyses had to rest content with the acquisition of those portions of
+      Nubia adjoining the first cataract&mdash;the same, in fact, that had been
+      annexed to Egypt by Psammetichus I. and II. (523). The failure of this
+      expedition to the south, following so closely on the disaster which befell
+      that of the west, had a deplorable effect on the mind of Cambyses. He had
+      been subject, from childhood, to attacks of epilepsy, during which he
+      became a maniac and had no control over his actions. These reverses of
+      fortune aggravated the disease, and increased the frequency and length of
+      the attacks.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Recent historians admit neither the reality of the illness
+     of Cambyses nor the madness resulting from it, but consider
+     them Egyptian fables, invented out of spite towards the king
+     who had conquered and persecuted them.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The bull Apis had died shortly before the close of the Ethiopian campaign,
+      and the Egyptians, after mourning for him during the prescribed number of
+      weeks, were bringing his successor with rejoicings into the temple of
+      Phtah, when the remains of the army re-entered Memphis. Cambyses, finding
+      the city holiday-making, imagined that it was rejoicing over his
+      misfortunes. He summoned the magistrates before him, and gave them over to
+      the executioner without deigning to listen to their explanations. He next
+      caused the priests to be brought to him, and when they had paraded the
+      Apis before him, he plunged his dagger into its flank with derisive
+      laughter: &ldquo;Ah, evil people! So you make for yourselves divinities of flesh
+      and blood which fear the sword! It is indeed a fine god that you Egyptians
+      have here; I will have you to know, however, that you shall not rejoice
+      overmuch at having deceived me!&rdquo; The priests were beaten as impostors, and
+      the bull languished from its wound and died in a few days*1 its priests
+      buried it, and chose another in its place without the usual ceremonies, so
+      as not to exasperate the anger of the tyrant,** but the horror evoked by
+      this double sacrilege raised passions against Cambyses which the ruin of
+      the country had failed to excite.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Later historians improved upon the account of Herodotus,
+     and it is said in the <i>De Iside</i>, that Cambyses killed the
+     Apis and threw him to the dogs. Here there is probably a
+     confusion between the conduct of Cambyses and that
+     attributed to the eunuch Bagoas nearly two centuries later,
+     at the time of the second conquest of Egypt by Ochus.
+
+     ** Mariette discovered in the Serapseum and sent to the
+     Louvre fragments of the epitaph of an Apis buried in Epiphi
+     in the sixth year of Cambyses, which had therefore died a
+     few months previously. This fact contradicts the inference
+     from the epitaph of the Apis that died in the fourth year of
+     Darius, which would have been born in the fifth year of
+     Cambyses, if we allow that there could not have been two
+     Apises in Egypt at once. This was, indeed, the usual rule,
+     but a comparison of the two dates shows that here it was not
+     followed, and it is therefore simplest, until we have
+     further evidence, to conclude that at all events in cases of
+     violence, such as sacrilegious murder, there could have been
+     two Apises at once, one discharging his functions, and the
+     other unknown, living still in the midst of the herds.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The manifestations of this antipathy irritated him to such an extent that
+      he completely changed his policy, and set himself from that time forward
+      to act counter to the customs and prejudices of the Egyptians. They
+      consequently regarded his memory with a vindictive hatred. The people
+      related that the gods had struck him with madness to avenge the murder of
+      the Apis, and they attributed to him numberless traits of senseless
+      cruelty, in which we can scarcely distinguish truth from fiction. It was
+      said that, having entered the temple of Phtah, he had ridiculed the
+      grotesque figure under which the god was represented, and had commanded
+      the statues to be burnt. On another occasion he had ordered the ancient
+      sepulchres to be opened, that he might see what was the appearance of the
+      mummies. The most faithful members of his family and household, it was
+      said, did not escape his fury. He killed his own sister Roxana, whom he
+      had married, by a kick in the abdomen; he slew the son of Prexaspes with
+      an arrow; he buried alive twelve influential Persians; he condemned
+      Croesus to death, and then repented, but punished the officers who had
+      failed to execute the sentence pronounced against the Lydian king.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The whole of this story of Croesus is entirely fabulous.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      He had no longer any reason for remaining in Egypt, since he had failed in
+      his undertakings; yet he did not quit the country, and through repeated
+      delays his departure was retarded a whole year. Meanwhile his long sojourn
+      in Africa, the report of his failures, and perhaps whispers of his
+      insanity, had sown the seeds of discontent in Asia; and as Darius said in
+      after-years, when recounting these events, &ldquo;untruth had spread all over
+      the country, not only in Persia and Media, but in other provinces.&rdquo;
+       Cambyses himself felt that a longer absence would be injurious to his
+      interests; he therefore crossed the isthmus in the spring of 521, and was
+      making his way through Northern Syria, perhaps in the neighbourhood of
+      Hamath,* when he learned that a revolution had broken out, and that its
+      rapid progress threatened the safety of his throne and life.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Herodotus calls the place where Cambyses died Agbatana
+     (Ecbatana). Pliny says that the town of Carmel was thus
+     named at first; but the place here mentioned cannot well
+     have been in that direction. It has been identified with
+     Batansea in the country between the Orontes and the
+     Euphrates, but the most likely theory is the one suggested
+     by a passage in Stephen of Byzantium, that the place in
+     question is the large Syrian city of Hamath. Josephus makes
+     him die at Damascus.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Tradition asserted that a herald appeared before him and proclaimed aloud,
+      in the hearing of the whole army, that Cambyses, son of Cyrus, had ceased
+      to reign, and summoned whoever had till that day obeyed him to acknowledge
+      henceforth Smerdis, son of Cyrus, as their lord. Cambyses at first
+      believed that his brother had been spared by the assassins, and now, after
+      years of concealment, had at length declared himself; but he soon received
+      proofs that his orders had been faithfully accomplished, and it is said
+      that he wept at the remembrance of the fruitless crime. The usurper was
+      Gaumâta, one of the Persian Magi, whose resemblance to Smerdis was so
+      remarkable that even those who were cognisant of it invariably mistook the
+      one for the other,* and he was brother to that Oropastes to whom Cambyses
+      had entrusted the administration of his household before setting out for
+      Egypt.**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Greek tradition is unanimous on this point, but the
+     inscription of Behistun does not mention it.
+
+     ** The inscription of Behistun informs us that the usurper&rsquo;s
+     name was Gaumâta. Pompeius Trogus alone, probably following
+     some author who made use of Charon of Lampsacus, handed down
+     this name in the form Comètes or Gometes, which his
+     abbreviator Justin carelessly applied to the second brother.
+     Ctesias gives the Mage the name Sphendadates, which answers
+     to the Old Persian Spentôdâta, &ldquo;he who is given by the Holy
+     One,&rdquo; i.e. by Ahura-mazdâ. The supporters of the Mage gave
+     him this name, as an heroic champion of the Mazdoan faith
+     who had destroyed such sanctuaries as were illegal, and
+     identified him with Spentôdâta, son of Wistâspa.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Both of them were aware of the fate of Smerdis; they also knew that the
+      Persians were ignorant of it, and that every one at court, including the
+      mother and sisters of the prince, believed that he was still alive.
+      Gaumâta headed a revolt in the little town of Pasyauvadâ on the 14th of
+      Viyakhna, in the early days of March, 521, and he was hailed by the common
+      people from the moment of his appearance. Persia, Media, and the Iranian
+      provinces pronounced in his favour, and solemnly enthroned him three
+      months later, on the 9th of Garmapada; Babylon next accepted him, followed
+      by Elam and the regions of the Tigris. Though astounded at first by such a
+      widespread defection, Cambyses soon recovered his presence of mind, and
+      was about to march forward at the head of the troops who were still loyal
+      to him, when he mysteriously disappeared. Whether he was the victim of a
+      plot set on foot by those about him, is not known. The official version of
+      the story given by Darius states that he died by his own hand, and it
+      seems to insinuate that it was a voluntary act, but another account
+      affirms that he succumbed to an accident;* while mounting his horse, the
+      point of his dagger pierced his thigh in the same spot in which he had
+      stabbed the Apis of the Egyptians. Feeling himself seriously wounded, he
+      suddenly asked the name of the place where he was lying, and was told it
+      was &ldquo;Agbatana&rdquo; (Ecbatana). &ldquo;Now, long before this, the oracle of Buto had
+      predicted that he should end his days in Agbatana, and he, believing it to
+      be the Agbatana in Media where were his treasures, understood that he
+      should die there in his old age; whereas the oracle meant Agbatana in
+      Syria. When he heard the name, he perceived his error. He understood what
+      the god intended, and cried, &lsquo;It is here, then, that Cambyses, son of
+      Cyrus, must perish!&rsquo;&rdquo; He expired about three weeks after, leaving no
+      posterity and having appointed no successor.**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * It has been pointed out, for the purpose of harmonising
+     the testimony of Herodotus with that of the inscription of
+     Behistun, that although the latter speaks of the death of
+     Cambyses by his own hand, it does not say whether that death
+     was voluntary or accidental.
+
+     ** The story of a person whose death has been predicted to
+     take place in some well-known place, and who has died in
+     some obscure spot of the same name, occurs several times in
+     different historians, e.g. in the account of the Emperor
+     Julian, and in that of Henry III. of England, who had been
+     told that he would die in Jerusalem, and whose death took
+     place in the Jerusalem Chamber at Westminster. Ctesias has
+     preserved an altogether different tradition&mdash;that Cambyses
+     on his return from Babylon wounded himself while carving a
+     piece of wood for his amusement, and died eleven days after
+     the accident.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      What took place in the ensuing months still remains an enigma to us. The
+      episode of Gaumâta has often been looked on as a national movement, which
+      momentarily restored to the Medes the supremacy of which Cyrus had robbed
+      them; but it was nothing of the sort. Gaumâta was not a Mede by birth: he
+      was a Persian, born in Persia, in the township of Pisyauvadâ, at the foot
+      of Mount Ara-kadrish, and the Persians recognised and supported him as
+      much as did the Medes. It has also been thought that he had attempted to
+      foment a religious revolution,* and, as a matter of fact, he destroyed
+      several temples in a few months.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Most of the ancient writers shared this opinion, and have
+     been followed therein by many modern writers. Rawlinson was
+     the first to show that Gaumâta&rsquo;s movement was not Median,
+     and that he did not in the least alter the position of the
+     Persians in the empire: but he allows the Magian usurpation
+     to have been the prelude to a sort of religious reform.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Here, however, the reform touched less upon a question of belief than on
+      one of fact. The unity of the empire presupposed the unity of the royal
+      fire, and where-ever that fire was burning another could not be lighted
+      without sacrilege in the eyes of the faithful. The pyres that Gaumâta
+      desired to extinguish were, no doubt, those which the feudal families had
+      maintained for their separate use in defiance of the law, and the measure
+      which abolished them had a political as well as a religious side. The
+      little we can glean of the line of action adopted by Smerdis does not
+      warrant the attribution to him of the vast projects which some modern
+      writers credit him with. He naturally sought to strengthen himself on the
+      throne, which by a stroke of good fortune he had ascended, and whatever he
+      did tended solely to this end. The name and the character that he had
+      assumed secured him the respect and fidelity of the Iranians: &ldquo;there was
+      not one, either among the Medes or the Persians, nor among the members of
+      the Achæmenian race, who dreamed of disputing his power&rdquo; in the early days
+      of his reign. The important thing in his eyes was, therefore, to maintain
+      among his subjects as long as possible the error as to his identity. He
+      put to death all, whether small or great, who had been in any way
+      implicated in the affairs of the real Smerdis, or whom he suspected of any
+      knowledge of the murder. He withdrew from public life as far as
+      practicable, and rarely allowed himself to be seen. Having inherited the
+      harem of his predecessors, together with their crown, he even went so far
+      as to condemn his wives to a complete seclusion. He did not venture to
+      hope, nor did those in his confidence, that the truth would not one day be
+      known, but he hoped to gain, without loss of time, sufficient popularity
+      to prevent the revelation of the imposture from damaging his prospects.
+      The seven great houses which he had dispossessed would, in such a case,
+      refuse to rally round him, and it was doubtless to lessen their prestige
+      that he extinguished their pyres; but the people did not trouble
+      themselves as to the origin of their sovereign, if he showed them his
+      favour and took proper precautions to secure their good will. He therefore
+      exempted the provinces from taxes and military service for a period of
+      three years. He had not time to pursue this policy, and if we may believe
+      tradition, the very precautions which he took to conceal his identity
+      became the cause of his misfortunes. In the royal harem there were,
+      together with the daughters of Cyrus, relatives of all the Persian
+      nobility, and the order issued to stop all their communications with the
+      outer world had excited suspicion: the avowals which had escaped Cambyses
+      before the catastrophe were now called to mind, and it was not long before
+      those in high places became convinced that they had been the dupes of an
+      audacious imposture. A conspiracy broke out, under the leadership of the
+      chiefs of the seven clans, among whom was numbered Darius, the son of
+      Hystaspes, who was connected, according to a genealogy more or less
+      authentic, with the family of the Achæmenides:* the conspirators surprised
+      Gaumâta in his palace of Sikayauvatish, which was situated in the district
+      of Nisaya, not far from Ecbatana, and assassinated him on the 10th of
+      Bâgayâdîsh, 521 B.C.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The passage in the Behistun inscription, in which Darius
+     sets forth his own genealogy, has received various
+     interpretations. That of Oppert seems still the most
+     probable, that the text indicates two parallel branches of
+     Achæmenides, which nourished side by side until Cambyses
+     died and Darius ascended the throne. Such a genealogy,
+     however, appears to be fictitious, invented solely for the
+     purpose of connecting Darius with the ancient royal line,
+     with which in reality he could claim no kinship, or only a
+     very distant connection.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0053" id="linkimage-0053">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:27%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/159.jpg"
+       alt="159.jpg Darius, Son of Hystaspes " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by Faucher-Gudin,
+from M. Dieulafoy.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The exact particulars of this scene were never known, but popular
+      imagination soon supplied the defect, furnishing a full and complete
+      account of all that took place. In the first place, Phædimê, daughter of
+      Otanes, one of the seven, furnished an authentic proof of the fraud which
+      had been perpetrated. Her father had opportunely recalled the marvellous
+      resemblance between Smerdis and the Magian, and remembered at the same
+      time that the latter had been deprived of his ears in punishment for some
+      misdeed: he therefore sent certain instructions to Phffidimê, who, when
+      she made the discovery, at the peril of her life, that her husband had no
+      ears, communicated the information to the disaffected nobles. The
+      conspirators thereupon resolved to act without delay; but when they
+      arrived at the palace, they were greeted with an extraordinary piece of
+      intelligence. The Magi, disquieted by some vague rumours which were being
+      circulated against them, had besought Prexaspes to proclaim to the people
+      that the reigning monarch was indeed Smerdis himself. But Prexaspes,
+      instead of making the desired declaration, informed the multitude that the
+      son of Cyrus was indeed dead, for he himself had murdered him at the
+      bidding of Cambyses, and, having made this confession, he put himself to
+      death, in order to escape the vengeance of the Magi. This act of Prexaspes
+      was an additional inducement to the conspirators to execute their purpose.
+      The guard stationed at the gates of the palace dared not refuse admission
+      to so noble a company, and when the throne-room was reached and the
+      eunuchs forbade further advance, the seven boldly drew their swords and
+      forced their way to the apartment occupied by the two Magi. The usurpers
+      defended themselves with bravery, but succumbed at length to the superior
+      number of their opponents, after having wounded two of the conspirators.
+      Gobryas pinioned Gaumâta with his arms, and in such a way that Darius
+      hesitated to make the fatal thrust for fear of wounding his comrade; but
+      the latter bade him strike at all hazards, and by good fortune the sword
+      did not even graze him. The crime accomplished, the seven conspirators
+      agreed to choose as king that member of their company whose horse should
+      first neigh after sunrise: a stratagem of his groom caused the election to
+      fall on Darius. As soon as he was duly enthroned, he instituted a festival
+      called the &ldquo;magophonia,&rdquo; or &ldquo;massacre of the Magi,&rdquo; in commemoration of
+      the murder which had given him the crown.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His first care was to recompense the nobles to whom he owed his position
+      by restoring to them the privileges of which they had been deprived by the
+      pseudo-Smerdis, namely, the right of free access to the king, as well as
+      the right of each individual to a funeral pyre; but the usurper had won
+      the affection of the people, and even the inhabitants of those countries
+      which had been longest subject to the Persian sway did not receive the new
+      sovereign favourably. Darius found himself, therefore, under the necessity
+      of conquering his dominions one after the other.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The history of the early part of the reign of Darius is
+     recorded in the great inscription which the king caused to
+     be cut in three languages on the rocks of Behistun. The
+     order of the events recorded in it is not always easy to
+     determine. I have finally adopted, with some modifications,
+     the arrangement of Marquart, which seems to me to give the
+     clearest &ldquo;conspectus&rdquo; of these confused wars.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The Persian empire, like those of the Chaldæans and Medes, had consisted
+      hitherto of nothing but a fortuitous collection of provinces under
+      military rule, of vassal kingdoms, and of semi-independent cities and
+      tribes; there was no fixed division of authority, and no regular system of
+      government for the outlying provinces. The governors assigned by Cyrus and
+      Cambyses to rule the various provinces acquired by conquest, were actual
+      viceroys, possessing full control of an army, and in some cases of a fleet
+      as well, having at their disposal considerable revenues both in money and
+      in kind, and habituated, owing to their distance from the capital, to
+      settle pressing questions on their own responsibility, subject only to the
+      necessity of making a report to the sovereign when the affair was
+      concluded, or when the local resources were insufficient to bring it to a
+      successful issue. For such free administrators the temptation must have
+      been irresistible to break the last slender ties which bound them to the
+      empire, and to set themselves up as independent monarchs. The two
+      successive revolutions which had taken place in less than a year,
+      convinced such governors, and the nations over which they bore rule, that
+      the stately edifice erected by Cyrus and Cambyses was crumbling to pieces,
+      and that the moment was propitious for each of them to carve out of its
+      ruins a kingdom for himself; the news of the murder, rapidly propagated,
+      sowed the seeds of revolt in its course&mdash;in Susiana, at Babylon, in
+      Media, in Parthia, in Margiana, among the Sattagydes, in Asia Minor, and
+      even in Egypt itself*&mdash;which showed itself in some places in an open
+      and undisguised form, while in others it was contemptuously veiled under
+      the appearance of neutrality, or the pretence of waiting to see the issue
+      of events.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * In the <i>Behistun Inscription</i>, it is stated that
+     insurrections broke out in all these countries while Darius
+     was at Babylon; that is to say, while he was occupied in
+     besieging that city, as is evident from the order of the
+     events narrated.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The first to break out into open rebellion were the neighbouring countries
+      of Elam and Chaldæa: the death of Smerdis took place towards the end of
+      September, and a fortnight later saw two rebel chiefs enthroned&mdash;a
+      certain Athrîna at Susa, and a Nadinta-bel at Babylon.* Athrîna, the son
+      of Umbadaranma, was a scion of the dynasty dispossessed by the successors
+      of Sargon in the preceding century, but nevertheless he met with but
+      lukewarm assistance from his own countrymen;** he was taken prisoner
+      before a month had passed, and sent to Darius, who slew him with his own
+      hand.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The latest known document of the pseudo-Smerdis is dated
+     the 1st of Tisri at Babylon, and the first of Nebuchadrezzar
+     III. are dated the 17th and 20th of the same month. The
+     revolt of Babylon, then, must be placed between the 1st and
+     17th of Tisri; that is, either at the end of September or
+     the beginning of October, 521 B.C.
+
+     ** The revolt cannot have lasted much more than six weeks,
+     for on the 26th of Athriyâdiya following, that is to say, at
+     the beginning of December, Darius had already joined issue
+     with the Babylonians on the banks of the Tigris.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Babylon was not so easily mastered. Her chosen sovereign claimed to be the
+      son of Nabonidus, and had, on ascending the throne, assumed the
+      illustrious name of Nebuchadrezzar; he was not supported, moreover, by
+      only a few busybodies, but carried the whole population with him. The
+      Babylonians, who had at first welcomed Cyrus so warmly, and had fondly
+      imagined that they had made him one of themselves, as they had made so
+      many of their conquerors for centuries past, soon realised their mistake.
+      The differences of language, manners, spirit, and religion between
+      themselves and the Persians were too fundamental to allow of the
+      naturalisation of the new sovereign, and of the acceptance by the
+      Achæmenides of that fiction of a double personality to which
+      Tiglath-pileser III., Shalmaneser, and even Assur-bani-pal had submitted.
+      Popular fancy grew weary of Cyrus, as it had already grown weary in turn
+      of all the foreigners it had at first acclaimed&mdash;whether Elamite,
+      Kaldâ, or Assyrian&mdash;and by a national reaction the self-styled son of
+      Nabonidus enjoyed the benefit of a devotion proportionately as great as
+      the hatred which had been felt twenty years before for his pretended sire.
+      The situation might become serious if he were given time to consolidate
+      his power, for the loyalty of the ancient provinces of the Chaldæan empire
+      was wavering, and there was no security that they would not feel inclined
+      to follow the example of the capital as soon as they should receive news
+      of the sedition. Darius, therefore, led the bulk of his forces to Babylon
+      without a day&rsquo;s more delay than was absolutely necessary, and the event
+      proved that he had good reason for such haste. Nebuchadrezzar III. had
+      taken advantage of the few weeks which had elapsed since his accession, to
+      garrison the same positions on the right bank of the Tigris, as Nabonidus
+      had endeavoured to defend against Cyrus at the northern end of the
+      fortifications erected by his ancestor. A well-equipped flotilla patrolled
+      the river, and his lines presented so formidable a front that Darius could
+      not venture on a direct attack. He arranged his troops in two divisions,
+      which he mounted partly on horses, partly on camels, and eluding the
+      vigilance of his adversary by attacking him simultaneously on many sides,
+      succeeded in gaining the opposite bank of the river. The Chaldæans,
+      striving in vain to drive him back into the stream, were at length
+      defeated on the 27th of Athriyâdiya, and they retired in good order on
+      Babylon. Six days later, on the 2nd of Anâmaka, they fought a second
+      battle at Zazanu, on the bank of the Euphrates, and were again totally
+      defeated. Nebuchadrezzar escaped with a handful of cavalry, and hastened
+      to shut himself up in his city. Darius soon followed him, but if he
+      cherished a hope that the Babylonians would open their gates to him
+      without further resistance, as they had done to Cyrus, he met with a
+      disappointment, for he was compelled to commence a regular siege and
+      suspend all other operations, and that, too, at a moment when the
+      provinces were breaking out into open insurrection on every hand.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The account given by Darius seems to imply that no
+     interval of time elapsed between the second defeat of
+     Nebuchadrezzar III. and the taking of Babylon, so that
+     several modern historians have rejected the idea of an
+     obstinate resistance. Herodotus, however, speaks of the long
+     siege the city sustained, and the discovery of tablets dated
+     in the first and even the second year of Nebuchadrezzar III.
+     shows that the siege was prolonged into the second year of
+     this usurper, at least until the month of Nisân (March-
+     April), 520 B.C. No evidence can be drawn from the tablets
+     dated in the reign of Darius, for the oldest yet discovered,
+     which is dated in the month Sebat (Jan.-Feb.), in the year
+     of his accession, and consequently prior to the second year
+     of Nebuchadrezzar, comes from Abu-habba. On the other hand,
+     the statement that all the revolts broke out while Darius
+     was &ldquo;at Babylon&rdquo; does not allow of the supposition that all
+     the events recorded before his departure for Media could
+     have been compressed into the space of three or four months.
+     It seems, therefore, more probable that the siege lasted
+     till 519 B.C., as it can well have done if credit be given
+     to the mention of &ldquo;twenty-one months at least&rdquo; by Herodotus;
+     perhaps the siege was brought to an end in the May of that
+     year, as calculated by Marquart.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0054" id="linkimage-0054">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/166.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="166.jpg Darius Piercing a Rebel With his Lance Before A Group of Four Prisoners " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the impression of an intaglio
+     at St. Petersburg.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The attempt of the Persian adventurer Martîya to stir up the Susians to
+      revolt in his rear failed, thanks to the favourable disposition of the
+      natives, who refused to recognise in him Ummanîsh, the heir of their
+      national princes. Media, however, yielded unfortunately to the
+      solicitations of a certain Fravartîsh, who had assumed the personality of
+      Khshatrita of the race of Cyaxares, and its revolt marked almost the
+      beginning of a total break-up of the empire. The memory of Astyages and
+      Cyaxares had not yet faded so completely as to cause the Median nobles to
+      relinquish the hope of reasserting the supremacy of Media; the opportunity
+      for accomplishing this aim now seemed all the more favourable, from the
+      fact that Darius had been obliged to leave this province almost
+      immediately after the assassination of the Usurper, and to take from it
+      all the troops that he could muster for the siege of Babylon. Several of
+      the nomadic tribes still remained faithful to him, but all the settled
+      inhabitants of Media ranged themselves under the banner of the pretender,
+      and the spirit of insurrection spread thereupon into Armenia and Assyria.
+      For one moment there was a fear lest it should extend to Asia Minor also,
+      where Orcetes, accustomed, in the absence of Cambyses, to act as an
+      autonomous sovereign, displayed little zeal in accommodating himself to
+      the new order of things. There was so much uncertainty as to the leanings
+      of the Persian guard of Orcetes, that Darius did not venture to degrade
+      the satrap officially, but despatched Bagseus to Sardes with precise
+      instructions, which enabled him to accomplish his mission by degrees, so
+      as not to risk a Lydian revolt. His first act was to show the guard a
+      rescript by which they were relieved from attendance on Orcetes, and
+      &ldquo;thereupon they immediately laid down their spears.&rdquo; Emboldened by their
+      ready obedience, Bagseus presented to the secretary a second letter, which
+      contained his instructions: &ldquo;The great king commands those Persians who
+      are in Sardes to kill Orestes.&rdquo; &ldquo;Whereupon,&rdquo; it is recorded, &ldquo;they drew
+      their swords and slew him.&rdquo; *
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The context of Herodotus indicates that the events
+     narrated took place shortly after the accession of Darius.
+     Further on Herodotus mentions, as contemporaneous with the
+     siege of Babylon, events which took place after the death of
+     Orcetes; it is probable, therefore, that the scene described
+     by Herodotus occurred in 520 B.C. at the latest.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      A revolt in Asia Minor was thus averted, at a time when civil war
+      continued to rage in the centre of Iran. The situation, however, continued
+      critical. Darius could not think of abandoning the siege of Babylon, and
+      of thus both losing the fruits of his victories and seeing Nebuchadrezzar
+      reappear in Assyria or Susiana. On the other hand, his army was a small
+      one, and he would incur great risks in detaching any of his military
+      chiefs for a campaign against the Mede with an insufficient force. He
+      decided, however, to adopt the latter course, and while he himself
+      presided over the blockade, he simultaneously despatched two columns&mdash;one
+      to Media, under the command of the Persian Vidarna, one of the seven; the
+      other to Armenia, under the Armenian Dâdarshîsh. Vidarna, encountered
+      Khshatrita near Marush, in the mountainous region of the old Namri, on the
+      27th of Anâmaka, and gave him battle; but though he claimed the victory,
+      the result was so indecisive that he halted in Kambadênê, at the entrance
+      to the gorges of the Zagros mountains, and was there obliged to await
+      reinforcements before advancing further. Dâdarshîsh, on his side, gained
+      three victories over the Armenians&mdash;one near Zuzza on the 8th of
+      Thuravâhara, another at Tigra ten days later, and the third on the 2nd of
+      Thâigarshîsh, at a place not far from Uhyâma&mdash;but he also was
+      compelled to suspend operations and remain inactive pending the arrival of
+      fresh troops. Half the year was spent in inaction on either side, for the
+      rebels had not suffered less than their opponents, and, while endeavouring
+      to reorganise their forces, they opened negotiations with the provinces of
+      the north-east with the view of prevailing on them to join their cause.
+      Darius, still detained before Babylon, was unable to recommence
+      hostilities until the end of 520 B.C. He sent Vaumisa to replace
+      Dâdarshîsh as the head of the army in Armenia, and the new general
+      distinguished himself at the outset by winning a decisive victory on the
+      15th of Anâmaka, near Izitush in Assyria; but the effect which he hoped to
+      secure from this success was neutralised almost immediately by grievous
+      defections. Sagartia, in the first place, rose in rebellion at the call of
+      a pretended descendant of Oyaxares, named Chitrantakhma; Hyrcania, the
+      province governed by Hystaspes, the father of Darius, followed suit and
+      took up the cause of Khshatrita, and soon after Margiana broke out into
+      revolt at the instigation of a certain Frâda. Even Persia itself deserted
+      Darius, and chose another king instead of a sovereign whom no one seemed
+      willing to acknowledge. Many of the mountain tribes could not yet resign
+      themselves to the belief that the male line of Cyrus had become extinct
+      with the death of Cambyses. The usurpation of Gaumâta and the accession of
+      Darius had not quenched their faith in the existence of Smerdis: if the
+      Magian were an impostor, it did not necessarily follow that Smerdis had
+      been assassinated, and when a certain Vahyazdâta rose up in the town of
+      Târavâ in the district of Yautiyâ, and announced himself as the younger
+      son of Cyrus, they received him with enthusiastic acclamations. A
+      preliminary success gained by Hystaspes at Vispauzatîsh, in Parthia, on
+      the 22nd of Viyakhna, 519 B.C., prevented the guerilla bands of Hyrcania
+      from joining forces with the Medes, and some days later the fall of
+      Babylon at length set Darius free to utilise his resources to the utmost.
+      The long resistance of Nebuchadrezzar furnished a fruitful theme for
+      legend: a fanciful story was soon substituted for the true account of the
+      memorable siege he had sustained. Half a century later, when his very name
+      was forgotten, the heroism of his people continued to be extolled beyond
+      measure. When Darius arrived before the ramparts he found the country a
+      desert, the banks of the canals cut through, and the gardens and
+      pleasure-houses destroyed. The crops had been gathered and the herds
+      driven within the walls of the city, while the garrison had reduced by a
+      massacre the number of non-combatants, the women having all been
+      strangled, with the exception of those who were needed to bake the bread.
+      At the end of twenty months the siege seemed no nearer to its close than
+      at the outset, and the besiegers were on the point of losing heart, when
+      at length Zopyrus, one of the seven, sacrificed himself for the success of
+      the blockading army. Slitting his nose and ears, and lacerating his back
+      with the lash of a whip, he made his way into the city as a deserter, and
+      persuaded the garrison to assign him a post of danger under pretence of
+      avenging the ill-treatment he had received from his former master. He
+      directed some successful sallies on points previously agreed upon, and
+      having thus lulled to rest any remaining feelings of distrust on the part
+      of the garrison, he treacherously opened to the Persians the two gates of
+      which he was in charge; three thousand Babylonians were impaled, the walls
+      were razed to the ground, and the survivors of the struggle were exiled
+      and replaced by strange colonists.* The only authentic fact about this
+      story is the length of the siege. Nebuchadrezzar was put to death, and
+      Darius, at length free to act, hastened to despatch one of his
+      lieutenants, the Persian Artavardiya, against Vahyazdâta, while he himself
+      marched upon the Medes with the main body of the royal army.**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Ctesias places the siege of Babylon forty years later,
+     under Xerxes I.; according to him, it was Megabysus, son of
+     Zopyrus, who betrayed the city. Polysenus asserts that the
+     stratagem of Zopyrus was adopted in imitation of a Sakian
+     who dwelt beyond the Oxus. Latin writers transferred the
+     story to Italy, and localised it at Gabii: but the Roman
+     hero, Sextus Tarquinius, did not carry his devotion to the
+     point of mutilating himself.
+
+     ** <i>Beldstun Inscr</i>.: &ldquo;Then I sent the army of the Persians
+     and Medes which was with me. One named Artavardiya, a
+     Persian, my servant, I made their general; the rest of the
+     Persian army went to Media with me.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      The rebels had hitherto been confronted by the local militia, brave but
+      inexperienced troops, with whom they had been able to contend on a fairly
+      equal footing: the entry into the field of the veteran regiments of Cyrus
+      and Cambyses changed the aspect of affairs, and promptly brought the
+      campaign to a successful issue. Darius entered Media by the defiles of
+      Kerend, reinforced Vidarna in Kambadçnê, and crushed the enemy near the
+      town of Kundurush, on the 20th of Adukanîsh, 519 B.C. Khshatrita fled
+      towards the north with some few horsemen, doubtless hoping to reach the
+      recesses of Mount Elburz, and to continue there the struggle; but he was
+      captured at Bagâ and carried to Ecbatana. His horrible punishment was
+      proportionate to the fear he had inspired: his nose, ears, and tongue were
+      cut off, and his eyes gouged out, and in this mutilated condition he was
+      placed in chains at the gate of the palace, to demonstrate to his former
+      subjects how the Achæmenian&rsquo; king could punish an impostor. When the
+      people had laid this lesson sufficiently to heart, Khshatrita was impaled;
+      many of his principal adherents were ranged around him and suffered the
+      same fate, while the rest were decapitated as an example. Babylon and
+      Media being thus successfully vanquished, the possession of the empire was
+      assured to Darius, whatever might happen in other parts of his territory,
+      and henceforth the process of repressing disaffection went on unchecked.
+      Immediately after the decisive battle of Kundurush, Vaumisa accomplished
+      the pacification of Armenia by a victory won near Autiyâra, and
+      Artavardiya defeated Vahyazdâta for the first time at Eakhâ in Persia.
+      Vahyazdâta had committed the mistake of dividing his forces and sending a
+      portion of them to Arachosia. Vivâna, the governor of this province, twice
+      crushed the invaders, and almost at the same time the Persian Dâdardîsh of
+      Bactriana was triumphing over Frâda and winning Margiana back to
+      allegiance. For a moment it seemed as if the decisive issue of the
+      struggle might be prolonged for months, since it was announced that the
+      appearance of a new pseudo-Smerdis on the scene had been followed by the
+      advent of a second pseudo-Nebuchadrezzar in Chaldæa. Darius left only a
+      weak garrison at Babylon when he started to attack Khshatrita: a certain
+      Arakha, an Armenian by birth, presenting himself to the Babylonian people
+      as the son of Nabonidus, caused himself to be proclaimed king in December,
+      519 B.C.; but the city was still suffering so severely from the miseries
+      of the long siege, that it was easy for the Mede Vindafrâ to reduce it
+      promptly to submission after a month or six weeks of semi-independence.
+      This was the last attempt at revolt. Chitran-takhma expiated his crimes by
+      being impaled, and Hystaspes routed the Hyrcanian battalions at
+      Patigrabana in Parthia: Artavardiya having defeated Vahyazdâta, near Mount
+      Paraga, on the 6th of Garmapada, 618 B.C., besieged him in his fortress of
+      Uvâdeshaya, and was not long in effecting his capture. The civil war came
+      thus to an end.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It had been severe, but it had brought into such prominence the qualities
+      of the sovereign that no one henceforth dared to dispute his possession of
+      the crown. A man of less energetic character and calm judgment would have
+      lost his head at the beginning of the struggle, when almost every
+      successive week brought him news of a fresh rebellion&mdash;in Susiana,
+      Babylon, Media, Armenia, Assyria, Margiana, Hyrcania, and even Persia
+      itself, not to speak of the intrigues in Asia Minor and Egypt; he would
+      have scattered his forces to meet the dangers on all sides at once, and
+      would assuredly have either succumbed in the struggle, or succeeded only
+      by chance after his fate had trembled in the balance for years. Darius,
+      however, from the very beginning knew how to single out the important
+      points upon which to deal such vigorous blows as would ensure him the
+      victory with the least possible delay. He saw that Babylon, with its
+      numerous population, its immense wealth and prestige, and its memory of
+      recent supremacy, was the real danger to his empire, and he never relaxed
+      his hold on it until it was subdued, leaving his generals to deal with the
+      other nations, the Medes included, and satisfied if each of them could but
+      hold his adversary in check without gaining any decided advantage over
+      him. The event justified his decision. When once Babylon had fallen, the
+      remaining rebels were no longer a source of fear; to defeat Khshatrita was
+      the work of a few weeks only, and the submission of the other provinces
+      followed as a natural consequence on the ruin of Media.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Mention of some new wars is made towards the end of the
+     inscription, but the text here is so mutilated that the
+     sense can no longer be easily determined.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0055" id="linkimage-0055">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/174.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="174.jpg Rebels Brought to Darius by Ahura-mazd  This Is The Scene Depicted on the Rock of Behistun. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      After consummating his victories, Darius caused an inscription in
+      commemoration of them to be carved on the rocks in the pass of Bagistana
+      [Behistun], one of the most frequented routes leading from the basin of
+      the Tigris to the tableland of Iran.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0056" id="linkimage-0056">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/175.jpg" width="100%" alt="175.jpg the Rocks of Behistun " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Boudier, from Flandin and Coste.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      There his figure is still to be seen standing, with his foot resting on
+      the prostrate body of an enemy, and his hand raised in the attitude of one
+      addressing an audience, while nine figures march in file to meet him,
+      their arms tied behind their backs, and cords round their necks,
+      representing all the pretenders whom he had fought and put to death&mdash;Athrîna,
+      Nadinta-bel, Khshatrita, Vahyazdâta, Arakha, and Chitrantakhma; an
+      inscription, written in the three official languages of the court,
+      recounts at full length his mighty deeds. The drama did not, however, come
+      to a close with the punishment of Vahyazdâta, for though no tribe or
+      chieftain remained now in open revolt, many of those who had taken no
+      active share in the rebellion had, by their conduct during the crisis,
+      laid themselves open to grave suspicions, and it seemed but prudent to
+      place them under strict surveillance or to remove them from office
+      altogether. Orotes had been summarily despatched, and his execution did
+      not disturb the peace of Asia Minor; but Aryandes, to whose rule Cambyses
+      had entrusted the valley of the Nile, displayed no less marked symptoms of
+      disaffection, and deserved the same fate. Though he had not ventured to
+      usurp openly the title of king, he had arrogated to himself all the
+      functions and rights of royalty, and had manifested as great an
+      independence in his government as if he had been an actual Pharaoh. The
+      inhabitants of Gyrene did not approve of the eagerness displayed by their
+      tyrant Arkesilas III. to place himself under the Persian yoke: after first
+      expelling and then recalling him, they drove him away a second time, and
+      at length murdered him at Barca, whither he had fled for refuge. Pheretimô
+      came to Egypt to seek the help of Aryandes, just as Laarchos had formerly
+      implored the assistance of Amasis, and represented to him that her son had
+      fallen a victim to his devotion to his suzerain. It was a good opportunity
+      to put to ransom one of the wealthiest countries of Africa; so the
+      governor sent to the Cyrenaica all the men and vessels at his disposal.
+      Barca was the only city to offer any resistance, and the Persian troops
+      were detained for nine months motionless before its walls, and the city
+      then only succumbed through treachery. Some detachments forced their way
+      as far as the distant town of Euesperides,* and it is possible that
+      Aryandes dreamt for a moment of realising the designs which Cambyses had
+      formed against Carthage. Insufficiency of supplies stayed the advance of
+      his generals; but the riches of their ally, Cyrene, offered them a strong
+      temptation, and they were deliberating how they might make this wealth
+      their own before returning to Memphis, and were, perhaps, on the point of
+      risking the attempt, when they received orders to withdraw. The march
+      across the desert proved almost fatal to them. The Libyans of Marmarica,
+      attracted by the spoils with which the Persian troops were laden, harassed
+      them incessantly, and inflicted on them serious losses; they succeeded,
+      however, in arriving safely with their prisoners, among whom were the
+      survivors of the inhabitants of Barca. At this time the tide of fortune
+      was setting strongly in favour of Darius: Aryandes, anxious to propitiate
+      that monarch, despatched these wretched captives to Persia as a trophy of
+      his success, and Darius sent them into Bactriana, where they founded a new
+      Barca.**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * This is the town which later on under the Lagidæ received
+     the name of Berenice, and which is now called Benghazi.
+
+     ** It is doubtless to these acts of personal authority on
+     the part of Aryandes that Darius alludes in the Behistun
+     Inscription, when he says, &ldquo;While I was before Babylon, the
+     following provinces revolted against me&mdash;Persia and Susiana,
+     the Medes and Assyria, and the Egyptians...&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      But this tardy homage availed him nothing. Darius himself visited Egypt
+      and disembarrassed himself of &lsquo;his troublesome subject by his summary
+      execution, inflicted, some said, because he had issued coins of a superior
+      fineness to those of the royal mint,* while, according to others, it was
+      because he had plundered Egypt and so ill-treated the Egyptians as to
+      incite them to rebellion.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * It is not certain that Aryandes did actually strike any
+     coinage in his own name, and perhaps Herodotus has only
+     repeated a popular story current in Egypt in his days. If
+     this money actually existed, its coinage was but a pretext
+     employed by Darius; the true motive of the condemnation of
+     Aryandes was certainly an armed revolt, or a serious
+     presumption of revolutionary intentions.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      After the suppression of this rival, Darius set himself to win the
+      affection of his Egyptian province, or, at least, to render its servitude
+      bearable. With a country so devout and so impressed with its own
+      superiority over all other nations, the best means of accomplishing his
+      object was to show profound respect for its national gods and its past
+      glory. Darius, therefore, proceeded to shower favours on the priests, who
+      had been subject to persecution ever since the disastrous campaign in
+      Ethiopia. Cambyses had sent into exile in Elam the chief priest of Sais&mdash;that
+      Uza-harrîsnîti who had initiated him into the sacred rites; Darius gave
+      permission to this important personage to return to his native land, and
+      commissioned him to repair the damage inflicted by the madness of the son
+      of Cyrus. Uzaharrîsnîti, escorted back with honour to his native city,
+      re-established there the colleges of sacred scribes, and restored to the
+      temple of Nît the lands and revenues which had been confiscated. Greek
+      tradition soon improved upon the national account of this episode, and
+      asserted that Darius took an interest in the mysteries of Egyptian
+      theology, and studied the sacred books, and that on his arrival at Memphis
+      in 517 B.C., immediately after the death of an Apis, he took part publicly
+      in the general mourning, and promised a reward of a hundred talents of
+      gold to whosoever should discover the successor of the bull. According to
+      a popular story still current when Herodotus travelled in Egypt, the king
+      visited the temple of Pthah before leaving Memphis, and ordered his statue
+      to be erected there beside that of Sesostris. The priests refused to obey
+      this command, for, said they, &ldquo;Darius has not equalled the deeds of
+      Sesostris: he has not conquered the Scythians, whom Sesostris overcame.&rdquo;
+       Darius replied that &ldquo;he hoped to accomplish as much as Sesostris had done,
+      if he lived as long as Sesostris,&rdquo; and so conciliated the patriotic pride
+      of the priests. The Egyptians, grateful for his moderation, numbered him
+      among the legislators whose memory they revered, by the side of Menés,
+      Asykhis, Bocchoris, and Sabaco.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The whole empire was now obedient to the will of one man, but the ordeal
+      from which it had recently escaped showed how loosely the elements of it
+      were bound together, and with what facility they could be disintegrated.
+      The system of government in force hitherto was that introduced into
+      Assyria by Tiglath-pileser III., which had proved so eminently successful
+      in the time of Sargon and his descendants; Babylon and Ecbatana had
+      inherited it from Nineveh, and Persepolis had in turn adopted it from
+      Ecbatana and Babylon. It had always been open to objections, of which by
+      no means the least was the great amount of power and independence accorded
+      by it to the provincial governors; but this inconvenience had been little
+      felt when the empire was of moderate dimensions, and when no province
+      permanently annexed to the empire lay at any very great distance from the
+      capital for the time being. But this was no longer the case, now that
+      Persian rule extended over nearly the whole of Asia, from the Indus to the
+      Thracian Bosphorus, and over a portion of Africa also. It must have seemed
+      far from prudent to set governors invested with almost regal powers over
+      countries so distant that a decree despatched from the palace might take
+      several weeks to reach its destination. The heterogeneity of the elements
+      in each province was a guarantee of peace in the eyes of the sovereign,
+      and Darius carefully abstained from any attempt at unification: not only
+      did he allow vassal republics, and tributary kingdoms and nations to
+      subsist side by side, but he took care that each should preserve its own
+      local dynasty, language, writing, customs, religion, and peculiar
+      legislation, besides the right to coin money stamped with the name of its
+      chief or its civic symbol. The Greek cities of the coast maintained their
+      own peculiar constitutions which they had enjoyed under the Mernmadas;
+      Darius merely required that the chief authority among them should rest in
+      the hands of the aristocratic party, or in those of an elective or
+      hereditary tyrant whose personal interest secured his fidelity. The
+      Carians,* Lycians,** Pamphylians, and Cilicians*** continued under the
+      rule of their native princes, subject only to the usual obligations. of
+      the <i>corvée</i>, taxation, and military service as in past days; the
+      majority of the barbarous tribes which inhabited the Taurus and the
+      mountainous regions in the centre of Asia Minor were even exempted from
+      all definite taxes, and were merely required to respect the couriers,
+      caravans, and armies which passed through their territory.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Herodotus cites among the commanders of the Persian fleet
+     three Carian dynasts, Histiseus, Pigres, and Damasithymus,
+     besides the famous Artemisia of Halicarnassus.
+
+     ** In Herodotus where a dynast named Kyberniskos, son of
+     Sika, is mentioned among the commanders of the fleet. The
+     received text of Herodotus needs correction, and we should
+     read Kybernis, son of Kossika, some of whose coins are still
+     in existence.
+
+     *** The Cilician contingent in the fleet of Xerxes at
+     Salamis was commanded by Syennesis himself, and Cilicia
+     never had a satrap until the time of Cyrus the younger.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0057" id="linkimage-0057">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/181.jpg" height="622" width="1093"      alt="181.jpg Map of the Archaemenian Strapies " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Native magistrates and kings still bore sway in Phoenicia* and Cyprus, and
+      the shêkhs of the desert preserved their authority over the marauding and
+      semi-nomadic tribes of Idumasa, Nabatsea, Moab, and Ammon, and the
+      wandering Bedâwin on the Euphrates and the Khabur. Egypt, under Darius,
+      remained what she had been under the Saitic and Ethiopian dynasties, a
+      feudal state governed by a Pharaoh, who, though a foreigner, was yet
+      reputed to be of the solar race; the land continued to be divided
+      unequally into diverse principalities, Thebes still preserving its
+      character as a theocracy under the guidance of the pallacide of Amon and
+      her priestly counsellors, while the other districts subsisted under
+      military chieftains. Our information concerning the organisation of the
+      central and eastern provinces is incomplete, but it is certain that here
+      also the same system prevailed. In the years of peace which succeeded the
+      troubled opening of his reign, that is, from 519 to 515 B.C.,** Darius
+      divided the whole empire into satrapies, whose number varied at different
+      periods of his reign from twenty to twenty-three, and even
+      twenty-eight.***
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Three kings, viz. the kings of Sidon, Tyre, and Arvad,
+     bore commands in the Phoenician fleet of Xerxes.
+
+     ** Herodotus states that this dividing of the empire into
+     provinces took place immediately after the accession of
+     Darius, and this mistake is explained by the fact that he
+     ignores almost entirely the civil wars which filled the
+     earliest years of the reign. His enumeration of twenty
+     satrapies comprises India and omits Thrace, which enables us
+     to refer the drawing up of his list to a period before the
+     Scythian campaign, viz. before 514 B.C. Herodotus very
+     probably copied it from the work of Hecatseus of Miletus,
+     and consequently it reproduces a document contemporary with
+     Darius himself.
+
+     *** The number twenty is, as has been remarked, that given
+     by Herodotus, and probably by Hecatæus of Miletus. The great
+     Behistun Inscription enumerates twenty-three countries, and
+     the Inscription of Nakhsh-î-Rustem gives twenty-eight.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Persia proper was not included among these, for she had been the cradle of
+      the reigning house, and the instrument of conquest.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * In the great Behistun Inscription Darius mentions Persia
+     first of all the countries in his possession. In the
+     Inscription E of Persepolis he omits it entirely, and in
+     that of Nakhsh-î-Rustem he does not include it in the
+     general catalogue.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The Iranian table-land, and the parts of India or regions beyond the Oxus
+      which bordered on it, formed twelve important vice-royalties&mdash;Media,
+      Hyrcania, Parthia, Zaranka, Aria, Khorasmia, Bactriana, Sogdiana,
+      Gandaria, and the country of the Sakae&mdash;reaching from the plains of
+      Tartary almost to the borders of China, the country of the Thatagus in the
+      upper basin of the Elmend, Arachosia, and the land of Maka on the shores
+      of the Indian Ocean. Ten satrapies were reckoned in the west&mdash;Uvayâ,
+      Elam, in which lay Susa, one of the favourite residences of Darius;
+      Babirus (Babylon) and Chaldæa; Athurâ, the ancient kingdom of Assyria;
+      Arabayâ, stretching from the Khabur to the Litany, the Jordan, and the
+      Orontes; Egypt, the peoples of the sea, among whom were reckoned the
+      Phoenicians, Cilicians, and Cypriots, and the islanders of the Ægean;
+      Yaunâ, which comprised Lycia, Caria, and the Greek colonies along the
+      coast; Sparda, with Phrygia and Mysia; Armenia; and lastly, Katpatuka or
+      Cappadocia, which lay on both sides of the Halys from the Taurus to the
+      Black Sea. If each of these provinces had been governed, as formerly, by a
+      single individual, who thus became king in all but name and descent, the
+      empire would have run great risk of a speedy dissolution. Darius therefore
+      avoided concentrating the civil and military powers in the same hands. In
+      each province he installed three officials independent of each other, but
+      each in direct communication with himself&mdash;a satrap, a general, and a
+      secretary of state. The satraps were chosen from any class in the nation,
+      from among the poor as well as from among the wealthy, from foreigners as
+      well as from Persians;* but the most important satrapies were bestowed
+      only on persons allied by birth** or marriage with the Achæmenids,*** and,
+      by preference, on the legitimate descendants of the six noble houses. They
+      were not appointed for any prescribed period, but continued in office
+      during the king&rsquo;s pleasure. They exercised absolute authority in all civil
+      matters, and maintained a court, a body-guard,**** palaces and extensive
+      parks, or <i>paradises</i>, where they indulged in the pleasures of the
+      chase; they controlled the incidence of taxation,^ administered justice,
+      and possessed the power of life and death.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Herodotus mentions a satrap chosen from among the Lydians,
+     Pactyas, and another satrap of Greek extraction, Xenagoras
+     of Halicarnassus.
+
+     ** The most characteristic instance is that of Hystaspes,
+     who was satrap of Persia under Oambyses, and of Parthia and
+     Hyrcania under his own son. One of the brothers of Darius,
+     Artaphernes, was satrap of Sardes, and three of the king&rsquo;s
+     sons, Achemenes, Ariabignes, and Masistes, were satraps of
+     Egypt, Ionia, and Bactriana respectively.
+
+     *** To understand how well established was the custom of
+     bestowing satrapies on those only who were allied by
+     marriage to the royal house, it is sufficient to recall the
+     fact that, later on, under Xerxes I., when Pausanias, King
+     of Sparta, had thoughts of obtaining the position of satrap
+     in Greece, he asked for the hand of an Achæmenian princess.
+
+     **** We know, for example, that Orcotes, satrap of Sardes
+     under Cyrus, Cambyses, and Darius, had a body-guard of 1000
+     Persians.
+
+     ^ Thus, Artaphernes, satrap of Sardes, had a cadastral
+     survey made of the territory of the Ionians, and by the
+     results of this survey he regulated the imposition of taxes,
+     &ldquo;which from that time up to the present day are exacted
+     according to his ordinance.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      Attached to each satrap was a secretary of state, who ostensibly acted as
+      his chancellor, but whose real function was to exercise a secret
+      supervision over his conduct and report upon it to the imperial
+      ministers.* The Persian troops, native militia and auxiliary forces
+      quartered in the province, were placed under the orders, moreover, of a
+      general, who was usually hostile to the satrap and the secretary.** These
+      three officials counterbalanced each other, and held each other mutually
+      in check, so that a revolt was rendered very difficult, if not impossible.
+      All three were kept in constant communication with the court by relays of
+      regular couriers, who carried their despatches on horseback or on camels,
+      from one end of Asia to the other, in the space of a few weeks.***
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The rôle played by the secretary is clearly indicated by
+     the history of Orotes, satrap of Sardes.
+
+     ** While Darius appoints his brother Artaphernes satrap of
+     Lydia, he entrusts the command of the army and the fleet to
+     Otanes, son of Sisamnes. Similarly several generals are met
+     with at the side of Artaphernes in the Ionic revolt.
+
+     *** Xenophon compares their speed in travelling to the
+     flight of birds. A good example of the use of the camel for
+     the postal service is cited by Strabo, on the occasion of
+     the death of Philotas and the execution of Parmenion under
+     Alexander.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The most celebrated of the post-roads was that which ran from Sardes to
+      Susa through Lydia and Phrygia, crossing the Halys, traversing Cappadocia
+      and Cilicia, and passing through Armenia and across the Euphrates, until
+      at length, after passing through Matiênê and the country of the Cossæans,
+      it reached Elam. This main route was divided into one hundred and eleven
+      stages, which were performed by couriers on horseback and partly in
+      ferry-boats, in eighty-four days. Other routes, of which we have no
+      particular information, led to Egypt, Media, Bactria, and India,* and by
+      their means the imperial officials in the capital were kept fully informed
+      of all that took place in the most distant parts of the empire. As an
+      extra precaution, the king sent out annually certain officers, called his
+      &ldquo;eyes&rdquo; or his &ldquo;ears,&rdquo; ** who appeared on the scene when they were least
+      expected, and investigated the financial or political situation, reformed
+      abuses in the administration, and reprimanded or even suspended the
+      government officials; they were accompanied by a body of troops to support
+      their decisions, whose presence invested their counsels with the strongest
+      sanction.*** An unfavourable report, a slight irregularity, a mere
+      suspicion, even, was sufficient to disqualify a satrap. Sometimes he was
+      deposed, often secretly condemned to death without a trial, and the
+      execution of the judgment was committed even to his own servants.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Ctesias at the end of his work describes the route leading
+     from Ephesus to Bactriana and India. It is probable that the
+     route described by Isidorus of Charax in his <i>Stathma
+     Parthica</i> already existed in the times of the Achæmenids,
+     and was traversed by their postal couriers.
+
+     ** Mention of the <i>Eye of the king</i> occurs in Herodotus, in
+     Æschylus, and in Plutarch, of the <i>Ear</i> in Xenophon; cf.
+     the Persian proverb, according to which &ldquo;The king has many
+     eyes and many ears.&rdquo;
+
+     *** Xenophon affirms that these inspections were still held
+     in his day.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0058" id="linkimage-0058">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/186b.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="186b.jpg Street Vender of Curios  After the Painting By Gerome. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      A messenger would arrive unexpectedly, and remit to the guards an order
+      charging them to put their chief to death&mdash;an order which was
+      promptly executed at the mere sight of the royal decree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0059" id="linkimage-0059">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:18%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/188.jpg"
+       alt="188.jpg Daric of Darius, Son Of Hystaspes " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by
+Faucher-Gudin,
+from a specimen
+in the Bibliothèque
+Nationale.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      This reform in the method of government was displeasing to the Persian
+      nobles, whose liberty of action it was designed to curtail, and they took
+      their revenge in sneering at the obedience they could not refuse to
+      render. Cyrus, they said, had been a father, Cambyses a master, but Darius
+      was only a pedler greedy of gain. The chief reason for this division of
+      the empire into provinces was, indeed, fiscal rather than political: to
+      arrange the incidence of taxation in his province, to collect the revenue
+      in due time and forward the total amount to the imperial treasury, formed
+      the fundamental duty of a satrap, to which all others had to yield. Persia
+      proper was exempt from the payment of any fixed sum, its inhabitants being
+      merely required to offer presents to the king whenever he passed through
+      their districts. These semi-compulsory gifts were proportioned to the
+      fortunes of the individual contributors; they might consist merely of an
+      ox or a sheep, a little milk or cheese, some dates, a handful of flour, or
+      some vegetables. The other provinces, after being subjected to a careful
+      survey, were assessed partly in money, partly in kind, according to their
+      natural capacity or wealth. The smallest amount of revenue raised in any
+      province amounted to 170 talents of silver&mdash;the sum, for instance,
+      collected from Arachosia with its dependencies Gedrosia and Grandara;
+      while Egypt yielded a revenue of 700 talents, and the amount furnished by
+      Babylon, the wealthiest province of all, amounted to 1000 talents. The
+      total revenue of the empire reached the enormous sum of.£3,311,997,
+      estimated by weight of silver, which is equivalent to over £26,000,000 of
+      modern English money, if the greater value of silver in antiquity is taken
+      into consideration. In order to facilitate the collection of the revenue,
+      Darius issued the gold and silver coins which are named after him. On the
+      obverse side these darics are stamped with a figure of the sovereign,
+      armed with the bow or javelin. They were coined on the scale of 3000 gold
+      darics to one talent, each daric weighing normally.2788 oz. troy, and
+      being worth exactly 20 silver drachmae or Medic shekels; so that the
+      relative value of the two metals was approximately 1 to 13 1/2|.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The most ancient type of daric was thick and irregular in shape, and
+      rudely stamped, but of remarkable fineness, the amount of alloy being
+      never more than three per cent. The use of this coinage was nowhere
+      obligatory, and it only became general in the countries bordering on the
+      Mediterranean, where it met the requirements of international traffic and
+      political relations, and in the payment of the army and the navy. In the
+      interior, the medium of exchange used in wholesale and retail commercial
+      transactions continued to be metals estimated by weight, and the kings of
+      Persia themselves preferred to store their revenues in the shape of
+      bullion; as the metal was received at the royal treasury it was melted and
+      poured into clay moulds, and was minted into money only gradually,
+      according to the whim or necessity of the moment.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Arrian relates that Alexander found 50,000 talents&rsquo; weight
+     of silver in the treasury at Susa; other hoards quite as
+     rich were contained in the palaces of Persepolis and
+     Pasargadæ.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Taxes in kind were levied even more largely than in money, but the exact
+      form they assumed in the different regions of the empire has not yet been
+      ascertained. The whole empire was divided into districts, which were
+      charged with the victualling of the army and the court, and Babylon alone
+      bore a third of the charges under this head. We learn elsewhere that Egypt
+      was bound to furnish corn for the 120,000 men of the army of occupation,
+      and that the fisheries of the Fayum yielded the king a yearly revenue of
+      240 talents. The Medes furnished similarly 100,000 sheep, 4000 mules, and
+      3000 horses; the Armenians, 30,000 foals; the Cilicians, 365 white horses,
+      one for each day in the year; the Babylonians, 500 youthful eunuchs; and
+      any city or town which produced or manufactured any valuable commodity was
+      bound to furnish a regular supply to the sovereign. Thus, Chalybon
+      provided wine; Libya and the Oases, salt; India, dogs, with whose support
+      four large villages in Babylonia were charged; the Æolian Assos, cheese;
+      and other places, in like manner, wool, wines, dyes, medicines, and
+      chemicals. These imperial taxes, though they seem to us somewhat heavy,
+      were not excessive, but taken by themselves they give us no idea of the
+      burdens which each province had to resign itself to bear. The state
+      provided no income for the satraps; their maintenance and that of their
+      suite were charged on the province, and they made ample exactions on the
+      natives. The province of Babylon was required to furnish its satrap daily
+      with an <i>ardeb</i> of silver; Egypt, India, Media, and Syria each
+      provided a no less generous allowance for its governor, and the poorest
+      provinces were not less heavily burdened. The satraps required almost as
+      much to satisfy their requirements as did the king; but for the most part
+      they fairly earned their income, and saved more to their subjects than
+      they extorted from them. They repressed brigandage, piracy, competition
+      between the various cities, and local wars; while quarrels, which formerly
+      would have been settled by an appeal to arms, were now composed before
+      their judgment-seats, and in case of need the rival factions were forcibly
+      compelled to submit to their decisions. They kept up the roads, and
+      afforded complete security to travellers by night and day; they protected
+      industries and agriculture, and, in accordance with the precepts of their
+      religious code, they accounted it an honourable task to break up waste
+      land or replant deserted sites. Darius himself did not disdain to send
+      congratulations to a satrap who had planted trees in Asia Minor, and laid
+      out one of those wooded parks in which the king delighted to refresh
+      himself after the fatigues of government, by the exercise of walking or in
+      the pleasures of the chase. In spite of its defects, the system of
+      government inaugurated by Darius secured real prosperity to his subjects,
+      and to himself a power far greater than that enjoyed by any of his
+      predecessors. It rendered revolts on the part of the provincial governors
+      extremely difficult, and enabled the court to draw up a regular budget and
+      provide for its expenses without any undue pressure on its subjects; in
+      one point only was it defective, but that point was a cardinal one,
+      namely, in the military organisation. Darius himself maintained, for his
+      personal protection, a bodyguard recruited from the Persians and the
+      Medes. It was divided into three corps, consisting respectively of 2000
+      cavalry, 2000 infantry of noble birth, armed with lances whose shafts were
+      ornamented below with apples of gold or silver&mdash;whence their name of
+      <i>mêlophori</i>&mdash;and under them the 10,000 &ldquo;immortals,&rdquo; in ten
+      battalions, the first of which had its lances ornamented with golden
+      pomegranates. This guard formed the nucleus of the standing army, which
+      could be reinforced by the first and second grades of Persian and Median
+      feudal nobility at the first summons. Forces of varying strength
+      garrisoned the most important fortresses of the empire, such as Sardes,
+      Memphis, Elephantine, Daphnæ, Babylon, and many others, to hold the
+      restless natives in check. These were, indeed, the only regular troops on
+      which the king could always rely. Whenever a war broke out which demanded
+      no special effort, the satraps of the provinces directly involved summoned
+      the military contingents of the cities and vassal states under their
+      control, and by concerted action endeavoured to bring the affair to a
+      successful issue without the necessity of an appeal to the central
+      authority. If, on the contrary, troubles arose which threatened the
+      welfare of the whole empire, and the sovereign felt called upon to conduct
+      the campaign in person, he would mobilise his guard, and summon the
+      reserves from several provinces or even from all of them. Veritable hordes
+      of recruits then poured in, but these masses of troops, differing from
+      each other in their equipment and methods of fighting, in disposition and
+      in language, formed a herd of men rather than an army. They had no
+      cohesion or confidence in themselves, and their leaders, unaccustomed to
+      command such enormous numbers, suffered themselves to be led rather than
+      exercise authority as guides. Any good qualities the troops may have
+      possessed were neutralised by lack of unity in their methods of action,
+      and their actual faults exaggerated this defect, so that, in spite of
+      their splendid powers of endurance and their courage under every ordeal,
+      they ran the risk of finding themselves in a state of hopeless inferiority
+      when called upon to meet armies very much smaller, but composed of
+      homogenous elements, all animated with the same spirit and drilled in the
+      same school.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By continual conquests, the Persians were now reduced to only two outlets
+      for their energies, in two opposite directions&mdash;in the east towards
+      India, in the west towards Greece. Everywhere else their advance was
+      arrested by the sea or other obstacles almost as impassable to their
+      heavily armed battalions: to the north the empire was bounded by the Black
+      Sea, the Caucasus, the Caspian Sea, and the Siberian steppes; to the
+      south, by the Indian Ocean, the sandy table-land of Arabia, and the
+      African deserts. At one moment, about 512 B.C., it is possible that they
+      pushed forward towards the east.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * India is not referred to in the Behistun Inscription, but
+     is mentioned in one of the Inscriptions of Persepolis, and
+     in that of Nakhsh-î-Rustem. The campaign in which it was
+     subjugated must be placed about 512 B.C.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0060" id="linkimage-0060">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/192.jpg" width="100%" alt="192.jpg Funeral Offerings. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      From the Iranian plateau they beheld from afar the immense plain of the
+      Hapta Hindu (or the Punjab). Darius invaded this territory, and made
+      himself master of extensive districts which he formed into a new satrapy,
+      that of India, but subsequently, renouncing all idea of pushing eastward
+      as far as the Granges, he turned his steps towards the southeast. A fleet,
+      constructed at Peukêla and placed under the command of a Greek admiral,
+      Scylax of Caryanda, descended the Indus by order of the king;* subjugating
+      the tribes who dwelt along the banks as he advanced, Scylax at length
+      reached the ocean, on which he ventured forth, undismayed by the tides,
+      and proceeded in a westerly direction, exploring, in less than thirty
+      months, the shores of Gedrosia and Arabia.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Scylax published an account of his voyage which was still
+     extant in the time of Aristotle. Hugo Berger questions the
+     authenticity of the circumnavigation of Arabia, as that of
+     the circumnavigation of Africa under Necho.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Once on the threshold of India, the Persians saw open before them a
+      brilliant and lucrative career: the circumstances which prevented them
+      from following up this preliminary success are unknown&mdash;perhaps the
+      first developments of nascent Buddhism deterred them&mdash;but certain it
+      is that they arrested their steps when they had touched merely the
+      outskirts of the basin of the Indus, and retreated at once towards the
+      west. The conquest of Lydia, and subsequently of the Greek cities and
+      islands along the coast of the Ægean, had doubtless enriched the empire by
+      the acquisition of active subject populations, whose extraordinary
+      aptitude in the arts of peace as well as of war might offer incalculable
+      resources to a sovereign who should know how to render them tractable and
+      rule them wisely. Not only did they possess the elements of a navy as
+      enterprising and efficacious as that of the Phoenicians, but the
+      perfection of their equipment and their discipline on land rendered them
+      always superior to any Asiatic army, in whatever circumstances, unless
+      they were crushed by overwhelming numbers. Inquisitive, bold, and
+      restless, greedy of gain, and inured to the fatigues and dangers of
+      travel, the Greeks were to be encountered everywhere&mdash;in Asia Minor,
+      Egypt, Syria, Babylon, and even Persia itself; and it was a Greek, we must
+      remember, whom the great king commissioned to navigate the course of the
+      Indus and the waters of the Indian Ocean. At the same time, the very
+      ardour of their temperament, and their consequent pride, their impatience
+      of all regular control, their habitual proneness to civic strife, and to
+      sanguinary quarrels with the inhabitants of the neighbouring cities,
+      rendered them the most dangerous subjects imaginable to govern, and their
+      loyalty very uncertain. Moreover, their admission as vassals of the
+      Persian empire had not altered their relations with European Greece, and
+      commercial transactions between the opposite shores of the Ægean,
+      inter-marriages, the travels of voyagers, movements of mercenaries, and
+      political combinations, went on as freely and frequently under the satraps
+      of Sardes as under the Mermnadas. It was to Corinth, Sparta, and Athens
+      that the families banished by Cyrus after his conquest fled for refuge,
+      and every time a change of party raised a new tyrant to power in one of
+      the Æolian, Ionian, or Doric communities, the adherents of the deposed
+      ruler rushed in similar manner to seek shelter among their friends across
+      the sea, sure to repay their hospitality should occasion ever require it.
+      Plots and counterplots were formed between the two shores, without any one
+      paying much heed to the imperial authority of Persia, and the constant
+      support which the subject Greeks found among their free brethren was bound
+      before long to rouse the anger of the court at Susa. When Polycrates,
+      foreseeing the fall of Amasis, placed himself under the suzerainty of
+      Cambyses, the Corinthians and Spartans came to besiege him in Samos
+      without manifesting any respect for the great king. They failed in this
+      particular enterprise,* but later on, after Oroetes had been seized and
+      put to death, it was to the Spartans that the successor of Polycrates,
+      Maaandrios, applied for help to assert his claim to the possession of the
+      tyranny against Syloson, brother of Polycrates and a personal friend of
+      Darius.**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The date of the death of Polycrates must be placed between
+     that of the conquest of Egypt and that of the revolt of
+     Gaumâta, either in 524 or 523 B.C.
+
+     ** The reinstatement of Syloson may be placed in 516 B.C.,
+     about the time when Darius was completing the reorganisation
+     of the empire and preparing to attack Greece.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      This constant intervention of the foreigner was in evident contradiction
+      to the spirit which had inspired the reorganisation of the empire. Just
+      when efforts were being made to strengthen the imperial power and ensure
+      more effective obedience from the provincials by the institution of
+      satrapies, it was impossible to put up with acts of unwarrantable
+      interference, which would endanger the prestige of the sovereign and the
+      authority of his officers. Conquest presented the one and only natural
+      means of escape from the difficulties of the present situation and of
+      preventing their recurrence; when satraps should rule over the European as
+      well as over the Asiatic coasts of the Ægean, all these turbulent Greeks
+      would be forced to live at peace with one another and in awe of the
+      sovereign, as far as their fickle nature would allow. It was not then, as
+      is still asserted, the mere caprice of a despot which brought upon the
+      Greek world the scourge of the Persian wars, but the imperious necessity
+      of security, which obliges well-organised empires to subjugate in turn all
+      the tribes and cities which cause constant trouble on its frontiers.
+      Darius, who was already ruler of a good third of the Hellenic world, from
+      Trebizond to Barca, saw no other means of keeping what he already
+      possessed, and of putting a stop to the incessant fomentation of rebellion
+      in his own territories, than to conquer the mother-country as he had
+      conquered the colonies, and to reduce to subjection the whole of European
+      Hellas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img alt="196 (8K)" src="images/196.jpg" width="100%" />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="linkBimage-0005" id="linkBimage-0005">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/197.jpg" width="100%" alt="197.jpg Page Image " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0006" id="linkBimage-0006">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/198.jpg" width="100%" alt="198.jpg Page Image " />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      <i>THE LAST DAYS OF THE OLD EASTERN WORLD</i>
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <i>THE MEDIAN WAR&mdash;THE LAST NATIVE DYNASTIES OF EGYPT&mdash;THE
+      EASTERN WORLD ON THE EVE OP THE MACEDONIAN CONQUEST.</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>The Persians in 512 B.C.&mdash;European Greece and the dangers which
+      its independence presented to the safety of the empire&mdash;The
+      preliminaries of the Median wars: the Scythian expedition, the conquest of
+      Thrace and Macedonia&mdash;The Ionic revolt, the intervention of Athens
+      and the taking of Sardes; the battle of Lade&mdash;Mardonius in Thrace and
+      in Macedonia.</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>The Median wars&mdash;The expedition of Datis and Artaphernes: the
+      taking of Eretria, the battle of Marathon (490)&mdash;The revolt of Egypt
+      under Khabbisha; the death of Darius and the accession of Xerxes I.&mdash;The
+      revolt of Babylon under Shamasherïb&mdash;The invasion of Greece:
+      Artemision, Thermopylæ, the taking of Athens, Salamis&mdash;Platsæ and the
+      final retreat of the Persians: Mycalê&mdash;The war carried on by the
+      Athenians and the league of Delos: Inaros, the campaigns in Cyprus and
+      Egypt, the peace of Oallias&mdash;The death of Xerxes.</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Artaxerxes I. (465-424): the revolt of Megabyzos&mdash;The palaces of
+      Pasargadæ. Persepolis, and Susa; Persian architecture and sculpture; court
+      life, the king and his harem&mdash;Revolutions in the palace&mdash;Xerxes
+      I., Sekudianos, Darius II.&mdash;Intervention in Greek affairs and the
+      convention of Miletus; the end of the peace of Gallias&mdash;Artaxerxes
+      II. (404-359) and Gyrus the Younger: the battle of Kunaxa and the retreat
+      of the ten thousand (401).</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Troubles in Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt&mdash;Amyrtxus and the
+      XXVIIIth Saite dynasty&mdash;The XXIXth Sebennytic dynasty&mdash;Nephorites
+      I, Hakoris, Psammutis, their alliances with Evagoras and with the states
+      of Continental Greece&mdash;The XXXth Mendesian dynasty&mdash;Nectanebo I,
+      Tachôs and the invasion of Syria, the revolt of Nectanebo II.&mdash;The
+      death of Artaxerxes II.&mdash;The accession of Ochus (359 B.C.), his
+      unfortunate wars in the Delta, the conquest of Egypt (342) and the
+      reconstitution of the empire.</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>The Eastern world: Elam, Urartu, the Syrian kingdoms, the ancient
+      Semitic states decayed and decaying&mdash;Babylon in its decline&mdash;The
+      Jewish state and its miseries&mdash;Nehemiah, Ezra&mdash;Egypt in the eyes
+      of the Greeks: Sais, the Delta, the inhabitants of the marshes&mdash;Memphis,
+      its monuments, its population&mdash;Travels in Upper Egypt: the Fayum,
+      Khemmis, Thebes, Elephantine&mdash;The apparent vigour and actual
+      feebleness of Egypt.</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Persia and its powerlessness to resist attack: the rise of Macedonia,
+      Philippi &mdash;Arses (337) and Darius Codomannos (336)&mdash;Alexander
+      the Great&mdash;The invasion of Asia&mdash;The battle of Granicus and the
+      conquest of the Asianic peninsula&mdash;Issus, the siege of Tyre and of
+      Gaza, the conquest of Egypt, the foundation of Alexandria&mdash;Arbela:
+      the conquest of Babylon, Susa, and Ecbatana&mdash;The death of Darius and
+      the last days of the old Eastern world.</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [Page 200 and 201 need to be rescanned DW] <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="linkB2HCH0001" id="linkB2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a> <br /> <a name="linkBimage-0007"      id="linkBimage-0007">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/199.jpg" width="100%" alt="199.jpg Page Image " />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II&mdash;THE LAST DAYS OF THE OLD EASTERN WORLD
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <i>The Median wars&mdash;The last native dynasties of Egypt&mdash;The
+      Eastern world on the eve of the Macedonian conquest.</i>
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [Drawn by Boudier, from one of the sarcophagi of Sidon, now
+     in the Museum of St. Irene. The vignette, which is by
+     Faucher-Gudin, represents the sitting cyno-cephalus of
+     Nectanebo I., now in the Egyptian Museum at the Vatican.]
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Darius appears to have formed this project of conquest immediately after
+      his first victories, when his initial attempts to institute satrapies had
+      taught him not only the condition and needs of Asia Minor, but of the
+      teaching the Scythians such a lesson as would prevent them from bearing
+      down upon his right flank during his march, or upon his rear while engaged
+      in a crucial struggle in the Hellenic peninsula. On the other hand, the
+      geographical information possessed by the Persians with regard to the
+      Danubian regions was of so vague a character, that Darius must have
+      believed the Scythians to have been nearer to his line of operations, and
+      their country less desolate than was really the case.* A flotilla,
+      commanded by Ariaramnes, satrap of Cappadocia, ventured across the Black
+      Sea in 515,** landed a few thousand men upon the opposite shore, and
+      brought back prisoners who furnished those in command with the information
+      they required.***
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The motives imputed to Darius by the ancients for making
+     this expedition are the desire of avenging the disasters of
+     the Scythian invasion, or of performing an exploit which
+     should render him as famous as his predecessors in the eyes
+     of posterity.
+
+     ** The reconnaissance of Ariaramnes is intimately connected
+     with the expedition itself in Ctesias, and could have
+     preceded it by a few months only. If we take for the date of
+     the latter the year 514-513, the date given in the Table of
+     the Capitol, that of the former cannot be earlier than 515.
+     Ariaramnes was not satrap of Cappadocia, for Cappadocia
+     belonged then to the satrapy of Daskylion.
+
+     *** The supplementary paragraphs of the Inscription of
+     Behistun speak of an expedition of Darius against the Sako,
+     which is supposed to have had as its objective either the
+     sea of Aral or the Tigris. Would it not be possible to
+     suppose that the sea mentioned is the Pontus Euxinus, and to
+     take the mutilated text of Behistun to be a description
+     either of the campaign beyond the Danube, or rather of the
+     preliminary <i>reconnaissance</i> of Ariaramnes a year before the
+     expedition itself?
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Darius, having learned what he could from these poor wretches, crossed the
+      Bosphorus in 514, with a body of troops which tradition computed at
+      800,000, conquered the eastern coast of Thrace, and won his way in a
+      series of conflicts as far as the Ister. The Ionian sailors built for him
+      a bridge of boats, which he entrusted to their care, and he then started
+      forward into the steppes in search of the enemy. The Scythians refused a
+      pitched battle, but they burnt the pastures before him on every side,
+      filled up the wells, carried off the cattle, and then slowly retreated
+      into the interior, leaving Darius to face the vast extent of the steppes
+      and the terrors of famine. Later tradition stated that he wandered for two
+      months in these solitudes between the Ister and the Tanais; he had
+      constructed on the banks of this latter river a series of earthworks, the
+      remains of which were shown in the time of Herodotus, and had at length
+      returned to his point of departure with merely the loss of a few sick men.
+      The barbarians stole a march upon him, and advised the Greeks to destroy
+      the bridge, retire within their cities, and abandon the Persians to their
+      fate. The tyrant of the Ohersonnesus, Miltiades the Athenian, was inclined
+      to follow their advice; but Histiasus, the governor of Miletus, opposed
+      it, and eventually carried his point. Darius reached the southern bank
+      without difficulty, and returned to Asia.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Ctesias limits the campaign beyond the Danube to a fifteen
+     days&rsquo; march; and Strabo places the crossing of the Danube
+     near the mouth of that river, at the island of Peukê, and
+     makes the expedition stop at the Dniester. Neither the line
+     of direction of the Persian advance nor their farthest point
+     reached is known. The eight forts which they were said to
+     have built, the ruins of which were shown on the banks of
+     the Oaros as late as the time of Herodotus, were probably
+     tumuli similar to those now met with on the Russian steppes,
+     the origin of which is ascribed by the people to persons
+     celebrated in their history or traditions.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The Greek towns of Thrace thought themselves rid of him, and rose in
+      revolt; but he left 80,000 men in Europe who, at first under Megabyzos,
+      and then under Otanes, reduced them to subjection one after another, and
+      even obliged Amyntas I., the King of Macedonia, to become a tributary of
+      the empire. The expedition had not only failed to secure the submission of
+      the Scythians, but apparently provoked reprisals on their part, and
+      several of their bands penetrated ere long into the Chersonnesus. It
+      nevertheless was not without solid result, for it showed that Darius, even
+      if he could not succeed in subjugating the savage Danubian tribes, had but
+      little to fear from them; it also secured for him a fresh province, that
+      of Thrace, and, by the possession of Macedonia, brought his frontier into
+      contact with Northern Greece. The overland route, in any case the more
+      satisfactory of the two, was now in the hands of the invader.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Revolutions at Athens prevented him from setting out on his expedition as
+      soon as he had anticipated. Hippias had been overthrown in 510, and having
+      taken refuge at Sigoum, was seeking on all sides for some one to avenge
+      him against his fellow-citizens. The satrap of Sardes, Arta-phernes,
+      declined at first to listen to him, for he hoped that the Athenians
+      themselves would appeal to him, without his being obliged to have recourse
+      to their former tyrant. As a matter of fact, they sent him an embassy, and
+      begged his help against the Spartans. He promised it on condition that
+      they would yield the traditional homage of earth and water, and their
+      delegates complied with his demand, though on their return to Athens they
+      were disowned by the citizens (508). Artaphernes, disappointed in this
+      direction, now entered into communications with Hippias, and such close
+      relations soon existed between the two that the Athenians showed signs of
+      uneasiness. Two years later they again despatched fresh deputies to Sardes
+      to beg the satrap not to espouse the cause of their former ruler. For a
+      reply the satrap summoned them to recall the exiles, and, on their
+      refusing (506),* their city became thenceforward the ostensible objective
+      of the Persian army and fleet. The partisans of Hippias within the town
+      were both numerous and active; it was expected that they would rise and
+      hand over the city as soon as their chief should land on a point of
+      territory with a force sufficient to intimidate the opposing faction.
+      Athens in the hands of Hippias, would mean Athens in the hands of the
+      Persians, and Greece accessible to the Persian hordes at all times by the
+      shortest route. Darius therefore prepared to make the attempt, and in
+      order to guard against any mishap, he caused all the countries that he was
+      about to attack to be explored beforehand. Spies attached to his service
+      were sent to scour the coasts of the Peloponnesus and take note of all its
+      features, the state of its ports, the position of the islands and the
+      fortresses; and they penetrated as far as Italy, if we may believe the
+      story subsequently told to Herodotus.**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Herodotus fixes the date at the time when the Athenians
+     first ostracised the principal partisans of the
+     Pisistratids, and amongst others Hipparchus, son of Charmes,
+     i.e. in 507-6.
+
+     ** Herodotus said that Darius sent spies with the physician
+     Democedes of Crotona shortly before the Scythian expedition.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      While he thus studied the territory from a distance, he did not neglect
+      precautions nearer to hand, but ordered the Milesians to occupy in his
+      name the principal stations of the Ægean between Ionia and Attica.
+      Histiasus, whose loyalty had stood Darius in such good stead at the bridge
+      over the Danube, did not, however, appear to him equal to so delicate a
+      task: the king summoned him to Susa on some slight pretext, loaded him
+      with honours, and replaced him by his nephew Aristagoras. Aristagoras at
+      once attempted to justify the confidence placed in him by taking
+      possession of Naxos; but the surprise that he had prepared ended in
+      failure, discontent crept in among his men, and after a fruitless siege of
+      four months he was obliged to withdraw (499).* His failure changed the
+      tide of affairs. He was afraid that the Persians would regard it as a
+      crime, and this fear prompted him to risk everything to save his fortune
+      and his life. He retired from his office as tyrant, exhorted the
+      Milesians, who were henceforth free to do so, to make war on the
+      barbarians, and seduced from their allegiance the crews of the vessels
+      just returned from Naxos, and still lying in the mouths of the Meander;
+      the tyrants who commanded them were seized, some exiled, and some put to
+      death. The Æolians soon made common cause with their neighbours the
+      Ionians, and by the last days of autumn the whole of the Ægean littoral
+      was under arms (499).**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Herodotus attributes an unlikely act of treachery to
+     Megabates the Persian, who was commanding the Iranian
+     contingent attached to the Ionian troops.
+
+     ** The Dorian cities took no part in the revolt&mdash;at least
+     Herodotus never mentions them among the confederates. The
+     three Ionian cities of Ephesus, Kolophon, and Lebedos also
+     seem to have remained aloof, and we know that the Ephesians
+     were not present at the battle of Ladê.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      From the outset Aristagoras realised that they would be promptly overcome
+      if Asiatic Hellas were not supported by Hellas in Europe. While the Lydian
+      satrap was demanding reinforcements from his sovereign, Aristagoras
+      therefore repaired to the Peloponnesus as a suppliant for help. Sparta,
+      embroiled in one of her periodical quarrels with Argos, gave him an
+      insolent refusal;* even Athens, where the revolution had for the moment
+      relieved her from the fear of the Pisistratidaa and the terrors of a
+      barbarian invasion, granted him merely twenty triremes&mdash;enough to
+      draw down reprisals on her immediately after their defeat, without
+      sensibly augmenting the rebels&rsquo; chances of success; to the Athenian
+      contingent Bretria added five vessels, and this comprised his whole force.
+      The leaders of the movement did not hesitate to assume the offensive with
+      these slender resources. As early as the spring of 498, before Artaphernes
+      had received reinforcements, they marched suddenly on Sardes. They burnt
+      the lower town, but, as on many previous occasions, the citadel held out;
+      after having encamped for several days at the foot of its rock, they
+      returned to Ephesus laden with the spoil.**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Aristagoras had with him a map of the world engraved on a
+     bronze plate, which was probably a copy of the chart drawn
+     up by Hecatseus of Miletus.
+
+     ** Herodotus says that the Ionians on their return suffered
+     a serious reverse near Ephesus. The author seems to have
+     adopted some Lydian or Persian tradition hostile to the
+     Ionians, for Charon of Lampsacus, who lived nearer to the
+     time of these events, mentions only the retreat, and hints
+     at no defeat. If the expedition had really ended in this
+     disaster, it is not at all likely that the revolt would have
+     attained the dimensions it did immediately afterwards.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      This indeed was a check to their hostilities, and such an abortive attempt
+      was calculated to convince them of their powerlessness against the foreign
+      rule. None the less, however, when it was generally known that they had
+      burnt the capital of Asia Minor, and had with impunity made the
+      representative of the great king feel in his palace the smoke of the
+      conflagration, the impression was such as actual victory could have
+      produced. The cities which had hitherto hesitated to join them, now
+      espoused their cause&mdash;the ports of the Troad and the Hellespont,
+      Lycia, the Carians, and Cyprus&mdash;and their triumph would possibly have
+      been secured had Greece beyond the Ægean followed the general movement and
+      joined the coalition. Sparta, however, persisted in her indifference, and
+      Athens took the opportunity of withdrawing from the struggle. The Asiatic
+      Greeks made as good a defence as they could, but their resources fell far
+      short of those of the enemy, and they could do no more than delay the
+      catastrophe and save their honour by their bravery. Cyprus was the first
+      to yield during the winter of 498-497. Its vessels, in conjunction with
+      those of the Ionians, dispersed the fleet of the Phoenicians off Salamis,
+      but the troops of their princes, still imbued with the old system of
+      military tactics, could not sustain the charge of the Persian battalions;
+      they gave way under the walls of Salamis, and their chief, Onesilus, was
+      killed in a final charge of his chariotry.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The movement in Cyprus must have begun in the winter of
+     499-498, for Onesilus was already in the field when Darius
+     heard of the burning of Sardes; and as it lasted for a year,
+     it must have been quelled in the winter of 498-497.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      His death effected the ruin of the Ionian cause in Cyprus, which on the
+      continent suffered at the same time no less serious reverses. The towns of
+      the Hellespont and of Æolia succumbed one after another; Kymê and
+      Clazomenæ next opened their gates; the Carians were twice beaten, once
+      near the White Columns, and again near Labranda, and their victory at
+      Pedasos suspended merely for an instant the progress of the Persian arms,
+      so that towards the close of 497 the struggle was almost entirely
+      concentrated round Miletus. Aristagoras, seeing that his cause was now
+      desperate, agreed with his partisans that they should expatriate
+      themselves. He fell fighting against the Edonians of Thrace, attempting to
+      force the important town of Enneahodoi, near the mouth of the Strymon
+      (496);* but his defection had not discouraged any one, and Histiseus, who
+      had been sent to Sardes by the great king to negotiate the submission of
+      the rebels, failed in his errand. Even when blockaded on the land side,
+      Miletus could defy an attack so long as communication with the sea was not
+      cut off.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * In Herodotus the town is not named, but a passage in
+     Thucydides shows that it was Enneahodoi, afterwards
+     Amphipolis, and that the death of Aristagoras took place
+     thirty-two years before the Athenian defeat at Drabeskos,
+     i.e. probably in 496.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Darius therefore brought up the Phoenician fleet, reinforced it with the
+      Cypriot contingents, and despatched the united squadrons to the
+      Archipelago during the summer of 494. The confederates, even after the
+      disasters of the preceding years, still possessed 353 vessels, most of
+      them of 30 to 50 oars; they were, however, completely defeated near the
+      small island of Ladê, in the latter part of the summer, and Miletus, from
+      that moment cut off from the rest of the world, capitulated a few weeks
+      later. A small proportion of its inhabitants continued to dwell in the
+      ruined city, but the greater number were carried away to Ampê, at the
+      mouth of the Tigris, in the marshes of the Nâr-Marratum.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The year 497, i.e. three years before the capture of the
+     town, appears to be an unlikely date for the battle of Ladê:
+     Miletus must have fallen in the autumn or winter months
+     following the defeat.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0008" id="linkBimage-0008">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:39%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/209.jpg" alt="209.jpg a Cypriot Chariot " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from
+the terra-cotta group in the
+New York Museum.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Caria was reconquered during the winter of 494-493, and by the early part
+      of 493, Chios, Lesbos, Tenedos, the cities of the Chersonnesus and of
+      Propontis&mdash;in short, all which yet held out&mdash;were reduced to
+      obedience. Artaphernes reorganised his vanquished states entirely in the
+      interest of Persia. He did not interfere with the constitutions of the
+      several republics, but he reinstated the tyrants. He regulated and
+      augmented the various tributes, prohibited private wars, and gave to the
+      satrap the right of disposing of all quarrels at his own tribunal. The
+      measures which he adopted had long after his day the force of law among
+      the Asiatic Greeks, and it was by them they regulated their relations with
+      the representatives of the great king.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If Darius had ever entertained doubts as to the necessity for occupying
+      European Greece to ensure the preservation of peace in her Asiatic
+      sister-country, the revolt of Ionia must have completely dissipated them.
+      It was a question whether the cities which had so obstinately defied him
+      for six long years, would ever resign themselves to servitude as long as
+      they saw the peoples of their race maintaining their independence on the
+      opposite shores of the Ægean, and while the misdeeds of which the
+      contingents of Eretria and Athens had been guilty during the rebellion
+      remained unpunished. A tradition, which sprang up soon after the event,
+      related that on hearing of the burning of Sardes, Darius had bent his bow
+      and let fly an arrow towards the sky, praying Zeus to avenge him on the
+      Athenians: and at the same time he had commanded one of his slaves to
+      repeat three times a day before him, at every meal, &ldquo;Sire, remember the
+      Athenians!&rdquo;*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The legend is clearly older than the time of Herodotus,
+     for in the <i>Persæ</i> of Eschylus the shade of Darius, when
+     coming out of his tomb, cries to the old men, &ldquo;Remember
+     Athens and Greece!&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      As a matter of fact, the intermeddling of these strangers between the
+      sovereign and his subjects was at once a serious insult to the Achæmenids
+      and a cause of anxiety to the empire; to leave it unpunished would have
+      been an avowal of weakness or timidity, which would not fail to be quickly
+      punished in Syria, Egypt, Babylon, and on the Scythian frontiers, and
+      would ere long give rise to similar acts of revolt and interference.
+      Darius, therefore, resumed his projects, but with greater activity than
+      before, and with a resolute purpose to make a final reckoning with the
+      Greeks, whatever it might cost him. The influence of his nephew Mardonius
+      at first inclined him to adopt the overland route, and he sent him into
+      Thrace with a force of men and a fleet of galleys sufficient to overcome
+      all obstacles. Mardonius marched against the Greek colonies and native
+      tribes which had throw off the yoke during the Ionian war, and reduced
+      those who had still managed to preserve their independence. The Bryges
+      opposed him with such determination, that summer was drawing to its close
+      before he was able to continue his march. He succeeded, however, in laying
+      hands on Macedonia, and obliged its king, Alexander, to submit to the
+      conditions accepted by his father Amyntas; but at this juncture half of
+      his fleet was destroyed by a tempest in the vicinity of Mount Athos, and
+      the disaster, which took place just as winter was approaching, caused him
+      to suspend his operations (492). He was recalled on account of his
+      failure, and the command was transferred to Datis the Mede and to the
+      Persian Artaphernes. Darius, however, while tentatively using the land
+      routes through Greece for his expeditions, had left no stone unturned to
+      secure for himself that much-coveted sea-way which would carry him
+      straight into the heart of the enemy&rsquo;s position, and he had opened
+      negotiations with the republics of Greece proper. Several of them had
+      consented to tender him earth and water, among them being Ægina,* and
+      besides this, the state of the various factions in Athens was such, that
+      he had every reason to believe that he could count on the support of a
+      large section of the population when the day came for him to disembark his
+      force on the shores of Attica.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Herodotus states that <i>all</i> the island-dwelling Greeks
+     submitted to the great king. But Herodotus himself says
+     later on that the people of Naxos, at all events, proved
+     refractory.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0009" id="linkBimage-0009">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:18%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/212a.jpg"
+       alt="212a.jpg Alexander I. Of Macedon " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by
+Faucher-
+Gudin
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0010" id="linkBimage-0010">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:17%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/212b.jpg" alt="212b.jpg a Phoenician Galley " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by
+Faucher-
+Gudin
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      He therefore decided to direct his next expedition against Athens itself,
+      and he employed the year 491 in concentrating his troops and triremes in
+      Cilicia, at a sufficient distance from the European coast to ensure their
+      safety from any sudden attack. In the spring of 490 the army recruited
+      from among the most warlike nations of the empire&mdash;the Persians,
+      Medes, and Sakse&mdash;went aboard the Phoenician fleet, while galleys
+      built on a special model were used as transports for the cavalry. The
+      entire convoy sailed safely out of the mouth of the Pyramos to the port of
+      Samos, coasting the shores of Asia Minor, and then passing through the
+      Cyclades, from Samos to Naxos, where they met with no opposition from the
+      inhabitants, headed for Delos, where Datis offered a sacrifice to Apollo,
+      whom he confounded with his god Mithra; finally they reached Eubæa, where
+      Eretria and Carystos vainly endeavoured to hold their own against them.
+      Eretria was reduced to ashes, as Sardes had been, and such of its citizens
+      as had not fled into the mountains at the enemy&rsquo;s approach were sent into
+      exile among the Kissians in the township of Arderikka. Hippias meanwhile
+      had joined the Persians and had been taken into their confidence. While
+      awaiting the result of the intrigues of his partisans in Athens, he had
+      advised Datis to land on the eastern coast of Attica, in the neighbourhood
+      of Marathon, at the very place from whence his father Pisistratus had set
+      out forty years before to return to his country after his first exile. The
+      position was well chosen for the expected engagement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0011" id="linkBimage-0011">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/214.jpg" width="100%" alt="214.jpg Map of Marathon " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The bay and the strand which bordered it afforded an excellent station for
+      the fleet, and the plain, in spite of its marshes and brushwood, was one
+      of those rare spots where cavalry might be called into play without
+      serious drawbacks. A few hours on foot would bring the bulk of the
+      infantry up to the Acropolis by a fairly good road, while by the same time
+      the fleet would be able to reach the roadstead of Phalerum. All had been
+      arranged beforehand for concerted action when the expected rising should
+      take place; but it never did take place, and instead of the friends whom
+      the Persians expected, an armed force presented itself, commanded by the
+      polemarch Callimachus and the ten strategi, among whom figured the famous
+      Miltiades. At the first news of the disembarkation of the enemy, the
+      republic had despatched the messenger Phidippides to Sparta to beg for
+      immediate assistance, and in the mean time had sent forward all her
+      able-bodied troops to meet the invaders. They comprised about 10,000
+      hoplites, accompanied, as was customary, by nearly as many more light
+      infantry, who were shortly reinforced by 1000 Platæans. They encamped in
+      the valley of Avlona, around a small temple of Heracles, in a position
+      commanding the roads into the interior, and from whence they could watch
+      the enemy without exposing themselves to an unexpected attack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0012" id="linkBimage-0012">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/215.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="215.jpg the Battle-field of Marathon " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. Amédée Hauvette.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The two armies watched each other for a fortnight, Datis expecting a
+      popular outbreak which would render an engagement unnecessary, Miltiades
+      waiting patiently till the Lacedaemonians had come up, or till some false
+      move on the part of his opponent gave him the opportunity of risking a
+      decisive action. What took place at the end of this time is uncertain.
+      Whether Datis grew tired of inaction, or whether he suddenly resolved to
+      send part of his forces by sea, so as to land on the neighbouring shore of
+      Athens, and Miltiades fell upon his rear when only half his men had got on
+      board the fleet, is not known. At any rate, Miltiades, with the Platæans
+      on his left, set his battalions in movement without warning, and charged
+      the enemy with a rush. The Persians and the Sakæ broke the centre of the
+      line, but the two wings, after having dispersed the assailants on their
+      front, wheeled round upon them and overcame them: 6000 barbarians were
+      left dead upon the field as against some 200 Athenians and Platæans, but
+      by dint of their valiant efforts the remainder managed to save the fleet
+      with a loss of only seven galleys. Datis anchored that evening off the
+      island of Ægilia, and at the same moment the victorious army perceived a
+      signal hoisted on the heights of Pentelicus apparently to attract his
+      attention; when he set sail the next morning and, instead of turning
+      eastwards, proceeded to double Cape Sunion, Miltiades had no longer any
+      doubt that treachery was at work, and returned to Athens by forced
+      marches. Datis, on entering the roads of Phalerum, found the shore
+      defended, and the army that he had left at Marathon encamped upon the
+      Cynosargê. He cruised about for a few hours in sight of the shore, and
+      finding no movement made to encourage him to land, he turned his vessels
+      about and set sail for Ionia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0013" id="linkBimage-0013">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:16%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/219.jpg"
+       alt="219.jpg Darius on the Stele of The Isthmus " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by
+Faucher-
+Gudin
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The material loss to the Persians was inconsiderable, for even the
+      Cyclades remained under their authority; Miltiades, who endeavoured to
+      retake them, met with a reverse before Paros, and the Athenians,
+      disappointed by his unsuccessful attempt, made no further efforts to
+      regain them. The moral effect of the victory on Greece and the empire was
+      extraordinary. Up till then the Median soldiers had been believed to be
+      the only invincible troops in the world; the sight of them alone excited
+      dread in the bravest hearts, and their name was received everywhere with
+      reverential awe. But now a handful of hoplites from one of the towns of
+      the continent, and that not the most renowned for its prowess, without
+      cavalry or bowmen, had rushed upon and overthrown the most terrible of all
+      Oriental battalions, the Persians and the Sakæ. Darius could not put up
+      with such an affront without incurring the risk of losing his prestige
+      with the people of Asia and Europe, who up till then had believed him
+      all-powerful, and of thus exposing himself to the possibility of
+      revolutions in recently subdued countries, such as Egypt, which had always
+      retained the memory of her past greatness. In the interest of his own
+      power, as well as to soothe his wounded pride, a renewed attack was
+      imperative, and this time it must be launched with such dash and vigour
+      that all resistance would be at once swept before it. Events had shown him
+      that the influence of the Pisistratidæ had not been strong enough to
+      secure for him the opening of the gates of Athens, and that the sea route
+      did not permit of his concentrating an adequate force of cavalry and
+      infantry on the field of battle; he therefore reverted to the project of
+      an expedition by the overland route, skirting the coasts of Thrace and
+      Macedonia. During three years he collected arms, provisions, horses, men,
+      and vessels, and was ready to commence hostilities in the spring of 487,
+      when affairs in Egypt prevented him. This country had undeniably prospered
+      under his suzerainty. It formed, with Cyrene and the coast of Libya, the
+      sixth of his satrapies, to which were attached the neighbouring Nubian
+      tribes of the southern frontier.* The Persian satrap, installed at the
+      White Wall in the ancient palace of the Pharaohs, was supported by an army
+      of 120,000 men, who occupied the three entrenched camps of the Saites&mdash;Daphnæ
+      and Marea on the confines of the Delta, and Elephantinê in the south.**
+      Outside these military stations, where the authority of the great king was
+      exercised in a direct manner, the ancient feudal organisation existed
+      intact. The temples retained their possessions and their vassals, and the
+      nobles within their principalities were as independent and as inclined to
+      insurrection as in past times. The annual tribute, the heaviest paid by
+      any province with the exception of Cossæa and Assyria, amounted only to
+      700 talents of silver. To this sum must be added the farming of the
+      fishing in Lake Moeris, which, according to Herodotus,*** brought in one
+      talent a day during the six months of the high Nile, but, according to
+      Diodorus,**** during the whole year, as well as the 120,000 medimni of
+      wheat required for the army of occupation, and the obligation to furnish
+      the court of Susa with Libyan nitre and Nile water; the total of these
+      impositions was far from constituting a burden disproportionate to the
+      wealth of the Nile valley.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The Nubian tribes, who are called Ethiopians by Herodotus
+     and the cuneiform inscriptions, paid no regular tribute, but
+     were obliged to send annually two chænikes of pure gold, two
+     hundred pieces of ebony, twenty elephants&rsquo; tusks, and five
+     young slaves, all under the name of a free gift.
+
+     ** Herodotus states that in his own time the Persians, like
+     the Saite Pharaohs, still had garrisons at Daphnæ and at
+     Elephantine.
+
+     *** Herodotus says that the produce sank to the value of a
+     third of a talent a day during the six other months.
+
+     **** Diodorus Siculus says that the revenue produced by the
+     fisheries in the Lake had been handed over by Moris to his
+     wife for the expenses of her toilet.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Commerce brought in to it, in fact, at least as much money as the tribute
+      took out of it. Incorporated with an empire which extended over three
+      continents, Egypt had access to regions whither the products of her
+      industry and her soil had never yet been carried. The produce of Ethiopia
+      and the Sudan passed through her emporia on its way to attract customers
+      in the markets of Tyre, Sidon, Babylon, and Susa, and the isthmus of Suez
+      and Kosseir were the nearest ports through which Arabia and India could
+      reach the Mediterranean. Darius therefore resumed the work of Necho, and
+      beginning simultaneously at both extremities, he cut afresh the canal
+      between the Nile and the Gulf of Suez. Trilingual stelæ in Egyptian,
+      Persian, and Medic were placed at intervals along its banks, and set forth
+      to all comers the method of procedure by which the sovereign had brought
+      his work to a successful end. In a similar manner he utilised the Wadys
+      which wind between Koptos and the Red Sea, and by their means placed the
+      cities of the Said in communication with the &ldquo;Ladders of Incense,&rdquo; Punt
+      and the Sabæans.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Several of the inscriptions engraved on the rocks of the
+     Wady Hammamât show to what an extent the route was
+     frequented at certain times during the reign. They bear the
+     dates of the 26th, 27th, 28th, 30th, and 36th years of
+     Darius. The country of Saba (Sheba) is mentioned on one of
+     the stelæ of the isthmus.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      He extended his favour equally to the commerce which they carried on with
+      the interior of Africa; indeed, in order to ensure the safety of the
+      caravans in the desert regions nearest to the Nile, he skilfully fortified
+      the Great Oasis. He erected at Habît, Kushît, and other places, several of
+      those rectangular citadels with massive walls of unburnt brick, which
+      resisted every effort of the nomad tribes to break through them; and as
+      the temple at Habit, raised in former times by the Theban Pharaohs, had
+      become ruinous, he rebuilt it from its foundations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0014" id="linkBimage-0014">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/220.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="220.jpg Walls of the Fortress Of Ditsh-el-qalÂa " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the engraving by Cailliaud. Dush is
+     the Kushît of the hieroglyphs, the Kysis of Græco-Roman
+     times, and is situated on the southern border of the Great
+     Oasis, about the latitude of Assuân.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      He was generous in his gifts to the gods, and even towns as obscure as
+      Edfu was then received from him grants of money and lands. The Egyptians
+      at first were full of gratitude for the favours shown them, but the news
+      of the defeat at Marathon, and the taxes with which the Susian court
+      burdened them in order to make provision for the new war with Greece,
+      aroused a deep-seated discontent, at all events amongst those who, living
+      in the Delta, had had their patriotism or their interests most affected by
+      the downfall of the Saite dynasty. It would appear that the priests of
+      Buto, whose oracles exercised an indisputable influence alike over Greeks
+      and natives, had energetically incited the people to revolt. The storm
+      broke in 486, and a certain Khabbisha, who perhaps belonged to the family
+      of Psammetichus, proclaimed himself king both at Sais and Memphis.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Herodotus does not give the name of the leader of the
+     rebellion, but says that it took place in the fourth year
+     after Marathon. A demotic contract in the Turin Museum bears
+     the date of the third month of the second season of the
+     thirty-fifth year of Darius I.: Khabbîsha&rsquo;s rebellion
+     therefore broke out between June and September, 486. Stern
+     makes this prince to have been of Libyan origin. From the
+     form of his name, Révillout has supposed that he was an
+     Arab, and Birch was inclined to think that he was a Persian
+     satrap who made a similar attempt to that of Aryandes. But
+     nothing is really known of him or of his family previous to
+     his insurrection against Darius.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0015" id="linkBimage-0015">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/221.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="221.jpg the Great Temple of Darius at HabÎt " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the engraving by Cailliaud.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0016" id="linkBimage-0016">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:13%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/224.jpg" alt="224.jpg Xerxes " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by
+Faucher-
+Gudin
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Darius did not believe the revolt to be of sufficient gravity to delay his
+      plans for any length of time. He hastily assembled a second army, and was
+      about to commence hostilities on the banks of the Nile simultaneously with
+      those on the Hellespont, when he died in 485, in the thirty-sixth year of
+      his reign. He was one of the great sovereigns of the ancient world&mdash;the
+      greatest without exception of those who had ruled over Persia. Cyrus and
+      Cambyses had been formidable warriors, and the kingdoms of the Bast had
+      fallen before their arms, but they were purely military sovereigns, and if
+      their successor had not possessed other abilities than theirs, their
+      empire would have shared the fate of that of the Medes and the Chaldæans;
+      it would have sunk to its former level as rapidly as it had risen, and the
+      splendour of its opening years would have soon faded from remembrance.
+      Darius was no less a general by instinct and training than they, as is
+      proved by the campaigns which procured him his crown; but, after having
+      conquered, he knew how to organise and build up a solid fabric out of the
+      materials which his predecessors had left in a state of chaos; if Persia
+      maintained her rule over the East for two entire centuries, it was due to
+      him and to him alone. The question of the succession, with its almost
+      inevitable popular outbreaks, had at once to be dealt with. Darius had had
+      several wives, and among them, the daughter of Gobryas, who had borne him
+      three children: Artabazanes, the eldest, had long been regarded as the
+      heir-presumptive, and had probably filled the office of regent during the
+      expedition in Scythia. But Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus, who had already
+      been queen under Cambyses and Gaumâta, was indignant at the thought of her
+      sons bowing down before the child of a woman who was not of Achæmenian
+      race, and at the moment when affairs in Egypt augured ill for the future,
+      and when the old king, according to custom, had to appoint his successor,
+      she intreated him to choose Khshayarsha, the eldest of her children, who
+      had been borne to the purple, and in whose veins flowed the blood of
+      Cyrus. Darius acceded to her request, and on his death, a few months
+      after, Khshayarsha ascended the throne. His brothers offered no
+      opposition, and the Persian nobles did homage to their new king.
+      Khshayarsha, whom the Greeks called Xerxes, was at that time thirty-four
+      years of age. He was tall, vigorous, of an imposing figure and noble
+      countenance, and he had the reputation of being the handsomest man of his
+      time, but neither his intelligence nor disposition corresponded to his
+      outward appearance; he was at once violent and feeble, indolent,
+      narrow-minded, and sensual, and was easily swayed by his courtiers and
+      mistresses. The idea of a war had no attractions for him, and he was
+      inclined to shirk it. His uncle Artabanus exhorted him to follow his
+      inclination for peace, and he lent a favourable ear to his advice until
+      his cousin Mardonius remonstrated with him, and begged him not to leave
+      the disgrace of Marathon unpunished, or he would lower the respect
+      attached to the name of Persia throughout the world. He wished, at all
+      events, to bring Egyptian affairs to an issue before involving himself in
+      a serious European war. Khabbîsha had done his best to prepare a stormy
+      reception for him. During a period of two years Khabbîsha had worked at
+      the extension of the entrenchments along the coast and at the mouths of
+      the Nile, in order to repulse the attack that he foresaw would take place
+      simultaneously with that on land, but his precautions proved fruitless
+      when the decisive moment arrived, and he was completely crushed by the
+      superior numbers of Xerxes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The nomes of the Delta which had taken a foremost part in the rising were
+      ruthlessly raided, the priests heavily fined, and the oracle of Buto
+      deprived of its possessions as a punishment for the encouragement freely
+      given to the rebels. Khabbîsha disappeared, and his fate is unknown.
+      Achæmenes, one of the king&rsquo;s brothers, was made satrap, but, as on
+      previous occasions, the constitution of the country underwent no
+      modification. The temples retained their inherited domains, and the nomes
+      continued in the hands of their hereditary princes, without a suspicion
+      crossing the mind of Xerxes that his tolerance of the priestly
+      institutions and the local dynasties was responsible for the maintenance
+      of a body of chiefs ever in readiness for future insurrection (483).*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The only detailed information on this revolt furnished by
+     the Egyptian monuments is given in the Stele of Ptolemy, the
+     son of Lagos. An Apis, whose sarcophagus still exists, was
+     buried by Khabbîsha in the Serapoum in the second year of
+     his reign, which proves that he was in possession of
+     Memphis: the White Wall had perhaps been deprived of its
+     garrison in order to reinforce the army prepared against
+     Greece, and it was possibly thus that it fell into the hands
+     of Khabbîsha.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Order was once more restored, but he was not yet entirely at liberty to
+      pursue his own plan of action. Classical tradition tells us, that on the
+      occasion of his first visit to Babylon he had offended the religious
+      prejudices of the Chaldæans by a sacrilegious curiosity. He had, in spite
+      of the entreaties of the priests, forced an entrance into the ancient
+      burial-place of Bel-Etana, and had beheld the body of the old hero
+      preserved in oil in a glass sarcophagus, which, however, was not quite
+      full of the liquid. A notice posted up beside it, threatened the king who
+      should violate the secret of the tomb with a cruel fate, unless he filled
+      the sarcophagus to the brim, and Xerxes had attempted to accomplish this
+      mysterious injunction, but all his efforts had failed. The example set by
+      Egypt and the change of sovereign are sufficient to account for the
+      behaviour of the Babylonians; they believed that the accession of a
+      comparatively young monarch, and the difficulties of the campaign on the
+      banks of the Nile, afforded them a favourable occasion for throwing off
+      the yoke. They elected as king a certain Shamasherib, whose antecedents
+      are unknown; but their independence was of short duration,* for Megabyzos,
+      son of Zopyrus, who governed the province by hereditary right, forced them
+      to disarm after a siege of a few months.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * This Shamasherib is mentioned only on a contract dated
+     from his accession, which is preserved in the British
+     Museum.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It would appear that Xerxes treated them with the greatest severity: he
+      pillaged the treasury and temple of Bel, appropriated the golden statue
+      which decorated the great inner hall of the ziggurât, and carried away
+      many of the people into captivity (581). Babylon never recovered this
+      final blow: the quarters of the town that had been pillaged remained
+      uninhabited and fell into ruins; commerce dwindled and industry flagged.
+      The counsellors of Xerxes had, no doubt, wished to give an object-lesson
+      to the province by their treatment of Babylon, and thus prevent the
+      possibility of a revolution taking place in Asia while its ruler was fully
+      engaged in a struggle with the Greeks. Meanwhile all preparations were
+      completed, and the contingents of the eastern and southern provinces
+      concentrated at Kritalla, in Cappadocia, merely awaited the signal to set
+      out. Xerxes gave the order to advance in the autumn of 481, crossed the
+      Halys and took up his quarters at Sardes, while his fleet prepared to
+      winter in the neighbouring ports of Phocæ and Kymê.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Diodorus, who probably follows Ephorus, is the only writer
+     who informs us of the place where the fleet was assembled.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Gathered together in that little corner of the world, were forces such as
+      no king had ever before united under his command; they comprised 1200
+      vessels of various build, and probably 120,000 combatants, besides the
+      rabble of servants, hucksters, and women which followed all the armies of
+      that period. The Greeks exaggerated the number of the force beyond all
+      probability. They estimated it variously at 800,000, at 3,000,000, and at
+      5,283,220 men; 1,700,000 of whom were able-bodied foot-soldiers, and
+      80,000 of them horsemen.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Herodotus records the epigram to the effect that 3,000,000
+     men attacked Thermopylæ. Ctesias and Ephorus adopt the same
+     figures; Iso-crates is contented with 700,000 combatants and
+     5,000,000 men in all.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0017" id="linkBimage-0017">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/227.jpg" width="100%" alt="227.jpg a Trireme in Motion " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin: the left portion is a free
+     reproduction of a photograph of the bas-relief of the
+     Acropolis; the right, of the picture of Pozzo. The two
+     partly overlap one another, and give both together the idea
+     of a trireme going at full speed.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The troops which they could bring up to oppose these hordes were, indeed,
+      so slender in number, when reckoned severally, that all hope of success
+      seemed impossible. Xerxes once more summoned the Greeks to submit, and
+      most of the republics appeared inclined to comply; Athens and Sparta alone
+      refused, but from different motives. Athens knew that, after the burning
+      of Sardes and the victory of Marathon, they could hope for no pity, and
+      she was well aware that Persia had decreed her complete destruction; the
+      Athenians were familiar with the idea of a struggle in which their very
+      existence was at stake, and they counted on the navy with which
+      Themistocles had just provided them to enable them to emerge from the
+      affair with honour. Sparta was not threatened with the same fate, but she
+      was at that time the first military state in Greece, and the whole of the
+      Peloponnesus acknowledged her sway; in the event of her recognising the
+      suzerainty of the barbarians, the latter would not fail to require of her
+      the renunciation of her hegemony, and she would then be reduced to the
+      same rank as her former rivals, Tegea and Argos. Athens and Sparta
+      therefore united to repulse the common enemy, and the advantage that this
+      alliance afforded them was so patent that none of the other states
+      ventured to declare openly for the great king. Argos and Crete, the
+      boldest of them, announced that they would observe neutrality; the
+      remainder, Thessalians, Boeotians, and people of Corcyra, gave their
+      support to the national cause, but did so unwillingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Xerxes crossed the Hellespont in the spring of 480, by two bridges of
+      boats thrown across it between Abydos and Sestos; he then formed his force
+      into three columns, and made his way slowly along the coast, protected on
+      the left by the whole of his fleet from any possible attack by the
+      squadrons of the enemy. The Greeks had three lines of defence which they
+      could hold against him, the natural strength of which nearly compensated
+      them for the inferiority of their forces; these were Mount Olympus, Mount
+      OEta, and the isthmus of Corinth. The first, however, was untenable, owing
+      to the ill will of the Thessalians; as a precautionary measure 10,000
+      hoplites were encamped upon it, but they evacuated the position as soon as
+      the enemy&rsquo;s advance-guard came into sight. The natural barrier of OEta,
+      less formidable than that of Olympus, was flanked by the Euboean straits
+      on the extreme right, but the range was of such extent that it did not
+      require to be guarded with equal vigilance along its whole length. The
+      Spartans did not at first occupy it, for they intended to accumulate all
+      the Greek forces, both troops and vessels, around the isthmus. At that
+      point the neck of land was so narrow, and the sea so shut in, that the
+      numbers of the invading force proved a drawback to them, and the advantage
+      almost of necessity lay with that of the two adversaries who should be
+      best armed and best officered. This plan of the Spartans was a wise one,
+      but Athens, which was thereby sacrificed to the general good, refused to
+      adopt it, and as she alone furnished almost half the total number of
+      vessels, her decision had to be deferred to. A body of about 10,000
+      hoplites was therefore posted in the pass of Thermopylæ under the command
+      of Leonidas, while a squadron of 271 vessels disposed themselves near the
+      promontory of Artemision, off the Euripus, and protected the right flank
+      of the pass against a diversion from the fleet. Meanwhile Xerxes had been
+      reinforced in the course of his march by the contingents from Macedonia,
+      and had received the homage of the cities of Thessaly; having reached the
+      defiles of the OEta and the Euboea, he began by attacking the Creeks
+      directly in front, both fleets and armies facing one another. Leonidas
+      succeeded in withstanding the assault on two successive days, and then the
+      inevitable took place. A detachment of Persians, guided by the natives of
+      the country, emerged by a path which had been left unguarded, and bore
+      down upon the Greeks in the rear; a certain number managed to escape, but
+      the bulk of the force, along with the 300 Spartans and their king,
+      succumbed after a desperate resistance. As for the fleet, it had borne
+      itself bravely, and had retained the ascendency throughout, in spite of
+      the superiority of the enemy&rsquo;s numbers; on hearing the news of the
+      glorious death of Leonidas, they believed their task ended for the time
+      being, and retired with the Athenians in their wake, ready to sustain the
+      attack should they come again to close quarters. The victorious side had
+      suffered considerable losses in men and vessels, but they had forced the
+      passage, and Central Greece now lay at their mercy. Xerxes received the
+      submission of the Thebans, the Phocæans, the Locrians, the Dorians, and of
+      all who appealed to his clemency; then, having razed to the ground Platæa
+      and Thespisæ, the only two towns which refused to come to terms with him,
+      he penetrated into Attica by the gorges of the Cithssron. The population
+      had taken refuge in Salamis, Ægina, and Troezen. The few fanatics who
+      refused to desist in their defence of the Acropolis, soon perished behind
+      their ramparts; Xerxes destroyed the temple of Pallas by fire to avenge
+      the burning of Sardes, and then entrenched his troops on the approaches to
+      the isthmus, stationing his squadrons in the ports of Munychia, Phalerum,
+      and the Piræus, and suspended all hostilities while waiting to see what
+      policy the Greeks would pursue. It is possible that he hoped that a
+      certain number of them would intreat for mercy, and others being
+      encouraged by their example to submit, no further serious battle would
+      have to be fought. When he found that no such request was proffered, he
+      determined to take advantage of the superiority of his numbers, and, if
+      possible, destroy at one blow the whole of the Greek naval reserve; he
+      therefore gave orders to his admirals to assume the offensive. The Greek
+      fleet lay at anchor across the bay of Salamis. The left squadron of the
+      Persians, leaving Munychia in the middle of the night, made for the
+      promontory of Cynosura, landing some troops as it passed on the island of
+      Psyttalia, on which it was proposed to fall back in case of accident,
+      while the right division, sailing close to the coast of Attica, closed the
+      entrance to the straits in the direction of Eleusis; this double movement
+      was all but completed, when the Greeks were informed by fugitives of what
+      was taking place, and the engagement was inevitable. They accepted it
+      fearlessly. Xerxes, enthroned with his Immortals on the slopes of
+      Ægialeos, could, from his exalted position, see the Athenians attack his
+      left squadron: the rest of the allies followed them, and from afar these
+      words were borne upon the breeze: &ldquo;Go, sons of Greece, deliver your
+      country, deliver your children, your wives, and the temples of the gods of
+      your fathers and the tombs of your ancestors. A single battle will decide
+      the fate of all you possess.&rdquo; The Persians fought with their accustomed
+      bravery, &ldquo;but before long their numberless vessels, packed closely
+      together in a restricted space, begin to hamper each other&rsquo;s movements,
+      and their rams of brass collide; whole rows of oars are broken.&rdquo; The Greek
+      vessels, lighter and easier to manoeuvre than those of the Phoenicians,
+      surround the latter and disable them in detail. &ldquo;The surface of the sea is
+      hidden with floating wreckage and corpses; the shore and the rocks are
+      covered with the dead.&rdquo; At length, towards evening, the energy of the
+      barbarians beginning to flag, they slowly fell back upon the Piræus,
+      closely followed by their adversaries, while Aristides bore down upon
+      Psyttalia with a handful of Athenians. &ldquo;Like tunnies, like fish just
+      caught in a net, with blows from broken oars, with fragments of spars,
+      they fall upon the Persians, they tear them to pieces. The sea resounds
+      from afar with groans and cries of lamentation. Night at length unveils
+      her sombre face&rdquo; and separates the combatants.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Æschylus gives the only contemporaneous account of the
+     battle, and the one which Herodotus and all the historians
+     after him have paraphrased, while they also added to it oral
+     traditions.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The advantage lay that day with the Greeks, but hostilities might be
+      resumed on the morrow, and the resources of the Persians were so
+      considerable that their chances of victory were not yet exhausted. Xerxes
+      at first showed signs of wishing to continue the struggle; he repaired the
+      injured vessels and ordered a dyke to be constructed, which, by uniting
+      Salamis to the mainland, would enable him to oust the Athenians from their
+      last retreat. But he had never exhibited much zest for the war; the
+      inevitable fatigues and dangers of a campaign were irksome to his indolent
+      nature, and winter was approaching, which he would be obliged to spend far
+      from Susa, in the midst of a country wasted and trampled underfoot by two
+      great armies. Mardonius, guessing what was passing in his sovereign&rsquo;s
+      mind, advised him to take advantage of the fine autumn weather to return
+      to Sardes; he proposed to take over from Xerxes the command of the army in
+      Greece, and to set to work to complete the conquest of the Peloponnesus.
+      He was probably glad to be rid of a sovereign whose luxurious habits were
+      a hindrance to his movements. Xerxes accepted his proposal with evident
+      satisfaction, and summarily despatching his vessels to the Hellespont to
+      guard the bridges, he set out on his return journey by the overland route.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the time of his departure the issue of the struggle was as yet
+      unforeseen. Mardonius evacuated Attica, which was too poor and desolate a
+      country to support so large an army, and occupied comfortable winter
+      quarters in the rich plains of Thessaly, where he recruited his strength
+      for a supreme effort in the spring. He had with him about 60,000 men,
+      picked troops from all parts of Asia&mdash;Medes, Sakæ, Bactrians, and
+      Indians, besides the regiment of the Immortals and the Egyptian veterans
+      who had distinguished themselves by their bravery at Salamis; the heavy
+      hoplites of Thebes and of the Boeotian towns, the Thessalian cavalry, and
+      the battalions of Macedonia were also in readiness to join him as soon as
+      called on. The whole of these troops, relieved from the presence of the
+      useless multitude which had impeded its movements under Xerxes, and
+      commanded by a bold and active general, were anxious to distinguish
+      themselves, and the probabilities of their final success were great. The
+      confederates were aware of the fact, and although resolved to persevere to
+      the end, their maoeuvres betrayed an unfortunate indecision. Their fleet
+      followed the Persian squadron bound for the Hellespont for several days,
+      but on realising that the enemy were not planning a diversion against the
+      Peloponnesus, they put about and returned to their various ports. The
+      winter was passed in preparations on both sides. Xerxes, on his return to
+      Sardes, had got together a fleet of 200 triremes and an army of 60,000
+      men, and had stationed them at Cape Mycale, opposite Samos, to be ready in
+      case of an Ionian revolt, or perhaps to bear down upon any given point in
+      the Peloponnesus when Mardonius had gained some initial advantage. The
+      Lacædemonians, on their part, seem to have endeavoured to assume the
+      defensive both by land and sea; while their foot-soldiers were assembling
+      in the neighbourhood of Corinth, their fleet sailed as far as Delos and
+      there anchored, as reluctant to venture beyond as if it had been a
+      question of proceeding to the Pillars of Hercules. Athens, which ran the
+      risk of falling into the enemy&rsquo;s hands for the second time through these
+      hesitations, evinced such marked displeasure that Mardonius momentarily
+      attempted to take advantage of it. He submitted to the citizens, through
+      Alexander, King of Macedon, certain conditions, the leniency of which gave
+      uneasiness to the Spartans; the latter at once promised Athens all she
+      wanted, and on the strength of their oaths she at once broke off the
+      negotiations with the Persians. Mardonius immediately resolved on action:
+      he left his quarters in Thessaly in the early days of May, reached Attica
+      by a few quick marches, and spread his troops over the country before the
+      Peloponnesians were prepared to resist. The people again took refuge in
+      Salamis; the Persians occupied Athens afresh, and once more had recourse
+      to diplomacy. This time the Spartans were alarmed to good purpose; they
+      set out to the help of their ally, and from that moment Mardonius showed
+      no further consideration in his dealing with Athens. He devastated the
+      surrounding country, razed the city walls to the ground, and demolished
+      and burnt the remaining houses and temples; he then returned to Boeotia,
+      the plains of which were more suited to the movements of his squadrons,
+      and took up a position in an entrenched camp on the right bank of the
+      Asopos. The Greek army, under the command of Pausanias, King of Sparta,
+      subsequently followed him there, and at first stationed themselves on the
+      lower slopes of Mount Cithseron. Their force was composed of about 25,000
+      hoplites, and about as many more light troops, and was scarcely inferior
+      in numbers to the enemy, but it had no cavalry of any kind. Several days
+      passed in skirmishing without definite results, Mardonius fearing to let
+      his Asiatic troops attack the heights held by the heavy Greek infantry,
+      and Pausanias alarmed lest his men should be crushed by the Thessalian and
+      Persian horse if he ventured down into the plains. Want of water at length
+      obliged the Greeks to move slightly westwards, their right wing descending
+      as far as the spring of Gargaphia, and their left to the bank of the
+      Asopos. But this position facing east, exposed them so seriously to the
+      attacks of the light Asiatic horse, that after enduring it for ten days
+      they raised their camp and fell back in the night on Platæa. Unaccustomed
+      to manouvre together, they were unable to preserve their distances; when
+      day dawned, their lines, instead of presenting a continuous front, were
+      distributed into three unequal bodies occupying various parts of the
+      plain. Mardonius unhesitatingly seized his opportunity. He crossed the
+      Asopos, ordered the Thebans to attack the Athenians, and with the bulk of
+      his Asiatic troops charged the Spartan contingents. Here, as at Marathon,
+      the superiority of equipment soon gave the Greeks the advantage: Mardonius
+      was killed while leading the charge of the Persian guard, and, as is
+      almost always the case among Orientals, his death decided the issue of the
+      battle. The Immortals were cut to pieces round his dead body, while the
+      rest took flight and sought refuge in their camp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0019" id="linkBimage-0019">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/238.jpg" width="100%" alt="238.jpg Map " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0020" id="linkBimage-0020">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/239.jpg" height="743" width="1089"      alt="239.jpg the Battle-field of Plataea " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Almost simultaneously the Athenians succeeded in routing the Boeotians.
+      They took the entrenchments by assault, gained possession of an immense
+      quantity of spoil, and massacred many of the defenders, but they could not
+      prevent Artabazus from retiring in perfect order with 40,000 of his best
+      troops protected by his cavalry. He retired successively from Thessaly,
+      Macedonia, and Thrace, reached Asia after suffering severe losses, and
+      European Greece was freed for ever from the presence of the barbarians.
+      While her fate was being decided at Platsæ, that of Asiatic Greece was
+      being fought out on the coast of Ionia. The entreaties of the Samians had
+      at length encouraged Leotychidas and Xanthippus to take the initiative.
+      The Persian generals, who were not expecting this aggressive movement, had
+      distributed the greater part of their vessels throughout the Ionian ports,
+      and had merely a small squadron left at their disposal at Mycale.
+      Surprised by the unexpected appearance of the enemy, they were compelled
+      to land, were routed, and their vessels burnt (479). This constituted the
+      signal for a general revolt: Samos, Chios, and Lesbos affiliated
+      themselves to the Hellenic confederation, and the cities of the littoral,
+      which Sparta would have been powerless to protect for want of a fleet,
+      concluded an alliance with Athens, whose naval superiority had been
+      demonstrated by recent events. The towns of the Hellespont threw off the
+      yoke as soon as the triremes of the confederates appeared within their
+      waters, and Sestos, the only one of them prevented by its Persian garrison
+      from yielding to the Athenians, succumbed, after a long siege, during the
+      winter of 479-478. The campaign of 478 completed the deliverance of the
+      Greeks. A squadron commanded by Pausanias roused the islands of the Carian
+      coast and Cyprus itself, without encountering any opposition, and then
+      steering northwards drove the Persians from Byzantium. The following
+      winter the conduct of operations passed out of the hands of Sparta into
+      those of Athens&mdash;from the greatest military to the greatest naval
+      power in Greece; and the latter, on assuming command, at once took steps
+      to procure the means which would enable her to carry, out her task
+      thoroughly. She brought about the formation of a permanent league between
+      the Asiatic Greeks and those of the islands. Each city joining it
+      preserved a complete autonomy as far as its internal affairs were
+      concerned, but pledged itself to abide by the advice of Athens in
+      everything connected with the war against the Persian empire, and
+      contributed a certain quota of vessels, men, and money, calculated
+      according to its resources, for the furtherance of the national cause. The
+      centre of the confederation was fixed at Delos; the treasure held in
+      common was there deposited under the guardianship of the god, and the
+      delegates from the confederate states met there every year at the solemn
+      festivals, Athens to audit the accounts of her administration, and the
+      allies to discuss the interests of the league and to decide on the
+      measures to be taken against the common enemy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oriental empires maintain their existence only on condition of being
+      always on the alert and always victorious. They can neither restrict
+      themselves within definite limits nor remain upon the defensive, for from
+      the day when they desist from extending their area their ruin becomes
+      inevitable; they must maintain their career of conquest, or they must
+      cease to exist. This very activity which saves them from downfall depends,
+      like the control of affairs, entirely on the ruling sovereign; when he
+      chances to be too indolent or too incapable of government, he retards
+      progress by his inertness or misdirects it through his want of skill, and
+      the fate of the people is made thus to depend entirely on the natural
+      disposition of the prince, since none of his subjects possesses sufficient
+      authority to correct the mistakes of his master. Having conquered Asia,
+      the Persian race, finding itself hemmed in by insurmountable obstacles&mdash;the
+      sea, the African and Arabian deserts, the mountains of Turkestan and the
+      Caucasus, and the steppes of Siberia&mdash;had only two outlets for its
+      energy, Greece and India. Darius had led his army against the Greeks, and,
+      in spite of the resistance he had encountered from them, he had gained
+      ground, and was on the point of striking a crucial blow, when death cut
+      short his career. The impetus that he had given to the militant policy was
+      so great that Xerxes was at first carried away by it; but he was naturally
+      averse to war, without individual energy and destitute of military genius,
+      so that he allowed himself to be beaten where, had he possessed anything
+      of the instincts of a commander, he would have been able to crush his
+      adversary with the sheer weight of his ships and battalions. Even after
+      Salamis, even after Platæa and Mycale, the resources of Hellas, split up
+      as it was into fifty different republics, could hardly bear comparison
+      with those of all Asia concentrated in the hands of one man: Xerxes must
+      have triumphed in the end had he persevered in his undertaking, and
+      utilised the inexhaustible amount of fresh material with which his empire
+      could have furnished him. But to do that he would have had to take a
+      serious view of his duties as a sovereign, as Cyrus and Darius had done,
+      whereas he appears to have made use of his power merely for the
+      satisfaction of his luxurious tastes and his capricious affections. During
+      the winter following his return, and while he was reposing at Sardes after
+      the fatigues of his campaign in Greece, he fell in love with the wife of
+      Masistes, one of his brothers, and as she refused to entertain his suit,
+      he endeavoured to win her by marrying his son Darius to her daughter
+      Artayntas. He was still amusing himself with this ignoble intrigue during
+      the year which witnessed the disasters of Platæa and Mycale, when he was
+      vaguely entertaining the idea of personally conducting a fresh army beyond
+      the Ægean: but the marriage of his son having taken place, he returned to
+      Susa in the autumn, accompanied by the entire court, and from
+      thenceforward he remained shut up in the heart of his empire. After his
+      departure the war lost its general character, and deteriorated into a
+      series of local skirmishes between the satraps in the vicinity of the
+      Mediterranean and the members of the league of Delos. The Phoenician fleet
+      played the principal part in the naval operations, but the central and
+      eastern Asiatics&mdash;Bactrians, Indians, Parthians, Arians, Arachosians,
+      Armenians, and the people from Susa and Babylon&mdash;scarcely took any
+      part in the struggle. The Athenians at the outset assumed the offensive
+      under the intelligent direction of Cimon. They expelled the Persian
+      garrisons from Eion and Thrace in 476. They placed successively under
+      their own hegemony all the Greek communities of the Asianic littoral.
+      Towards 466, they destroyed a fleet anchored within the Gulf of Pamphylia,
+      close to the mouth of the Eurymedon, and, as at Mycale, they landed and
+      dispersed the force destined to act in concert with the squadron. Sailing
+      from thence to Cyprus, they destroyed a second Phoenician fleet of eighty
+      vessels, and returned to the Piraeus laden with booty. Such exploits were
+      not devoid of glory and profit for the time being, but they had no
+      permanent results. All these naval expeditions were indeed successful, and
+      the islands and towns of the Ægean, and even those of the Black Sea and
+      the southern coasts of Asia Minor, succeeded without difficulty in freeing
+      themselves from the Persian yoke under the protection of the Athenian
+      triremes; but their influence did not penetrate further inland than a few
+      miles from the shore, beyond which distance they ran the risk of being cut
+      off from their vessels, and the barbarians of the interior&mdash;Lydians,
+      Phrygians, Mysians, Pamphylians, and even most of the Lycians and Carians&mdash;remained
+      subject to the rule of the satraps. The territory thus liberated formed
+      but a narrow border along the coast of the peninsula; a border rent and
+      interrupted at intervals, constantly in peril of seizure by the enemy, and
+      demanding considerable efforts every year for its defence. Athens was in
+      danger of exhausting her resources in the performance of this ungrateful
+      task, unless she could succeed in fomenting some revolution in the vast
+      possessions of her adversary which should endanger the existence of his
+      empire, or which, at any rate, should occupy the Persian soldiery in
+      constantly recurring hostilities against the rebellious provinces. If none
+      of the countries in the centre of Asia Minor would respond to their call,
+      and if the interests of their commercial rivals, the Phoenicians, were so
+      far opposed to their own as to compel them to maintain the conflict to the
+      very end, Egypt, at any rate, always proud of her past glory and impatient
+      of servitude, was ever seeking to rid herself of the foreign yoke and
+      recover her independent existence under, the authority of her Pharaohs. It
+      was not easy to come to terms with her and give her efficient help from
+      Athens itself; but Cyprus, with its semi-Greek population hostile to the
+      Achæmenids, could, if they were to take possession of it, form an
+      admirable base of operations in that corner of the Mediterranean. The
+      Athenians were aware of this from the outset, and, after their victory at
+      the mouth of the Eurymedon, a year never elapsed without their despatching
+      a more or less numerous fleet into Cypriot waters; by so doing they
+      protected the Ægean from the piracy of the Phoenicians, and at the same
+      time, in the event of any movement arising on the banks of the Nile, they
+      were close enough to the Delta to be promptly informed of it, and to
+      interfere to their own advantage before any repressive measures could be
+      taken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0021" id="linkBimage-0021">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:12%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/247.jpg" alt="247.jpg Artaxerxes " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by
+Faucher-
+Gudin
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The field of hostilities having shifted, and Greece having now set herself
+      to attempt the dismemberment of the Persian empire, we may well ask what
+      has become of Xerxes. The little energy and intelligence he had possessed
+      at the outset were absorbed by a life of luxury and debauchery. Weary of
+      his hopeless pursuit of the wife of Masistes, he transferred his
+      attentions to the Artayntas whom he had given in marriage to his son
+      Darius, and succeeded in seducing her. The vanity of this unfortunate
+      woman at length excited the jealously of the queen. Amestris believed
+      herself threatened by the ascendency of this mistress; she therefore sent
+      for the girl&rsquo;s mother, whom she believed guilty of instigating the
+      intrigue, and, having cut off her breasts, ears, nose, lips, and torn out
+      her tongue, she sent her back, thus mutilated, to her family. Masistes,
+      wishing to avenge her, set out for Bactriana, of which district he was
+      satrap: he could easily have incited the province to rebel, for its losses
+      in troops during the wars in Europe had been severe, and a secret
+      discontent was widespread; but Xerxes, warned in time, despatched horsemen
+      in pursuit, who overtook and killed him. The incapacity of the king, and
+      the slackness with which he held the reins of government&rsquo;, were soon so
+      apparent as to produce intrigues at court: Artabanus, the chief captain of
+      the guards, was emboldened by the state of affairs to attempt to
+      substitute his own rule for that of the Achæmenids, and one night he
+      assassinated Xerxes. His method of procedure was never exactly known, and
+      several accounts of it were soon afterwards current. One of them related
+      that he had as his accomplice the eunuch Aspamithres. Having committed the
+      crime, both of them rushed to the chamber of Artaxerxes,* one of the sons
+      of the sovereign, but still a child; they accused Darius, the heir to the
+      throne, of the murder, and having obtained an order to seize him, they
+      dragged him before his brother and stabbed him, while he loudly protested
+      his innocence.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Artaxerxes is the form commonly adopted by the Greek
+     historians and by the moderns who follow them, but Ctcsias
+     and others after him prefer Artoxerxes. The original form of
+     the Persian name was Artakhshathra.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Other tales related that Artabanus had taken advantage of the free access
+      to the palace which his position allowed him, to conceal himself one night
+      within it, in company with his seven sons. Having murdered Xerxes, he
+      convinced Artaxerxes of the guilt of his brother, and conducting him to
+      the latter&rsquo;s chamber, where he was found asleep, Artabanus stabbed him on
+      the spot, on the pretence that he was only feigning slumber.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Of the two principal accounts, the first is as old as
+     Ctesias, who was followed in general outline by Ephorus, of
+     whose account Diodorus Siculus preserves a summary
+     compilation; the second was circulated by Dinon, and has
+     come down to us through the abbreviation of Pompeius Trogus.
+     The remains of a third account are met with in Aristotle.
+     Ælian knew a fourth in which the murder was ascribed to the
+     son of Xerxes himself.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The murderer at first became the virtual sovereign, and he exercised his
+      authority so openly that later chronographers inserted his name in the
+      list of the Achæmenids, between that of his victim and his <i>protégé</i>;
+      but at the end of six months, when he was planning the murder of the young
+      prince, he was betrayed by Megabyzos and slain, together with his
+      accomplices. His sons, fearing a similar fate, escaped into the country
+      with some of the troops. They perished in a skirmish, sword in hand; but
+      their prompt defeat, though it helped to establish the new king upon his
+      throne, did not ensure peace, for the most turbulent provinces at the two
+      extremes of the empire, Bactriana on the northeast and Egypt in the
+      south-west, at once rose in arms. The Bactrians were led by Hystaspes, one
+      of the sons of Xerxes, who, being older than Artaxerxes, claimed the
+      throne; his pretensions were not supported by the neighbouring provinces,
+      and two bloody battles soon sealed his fate (462).* The chastisement of
+      Egypt proved a harder task. Since the downfall of the Saites, the eastern
+      nomes of the Delta had always constituted a single fief, which the Greeks
+      called the kingdom of Libya. Lords of Marea and of the fertile districts
+      extending between the Canopic arm of the Nile, the mountains, and the sea,
+      its princes probably exercised suzerainty over several of the Libyan
+      tribes of Marmarica. Inaros, son of Psammetichus,** who was then the
+      ruling sovereign, defied the Persians openly. The inhabitants of the
+      Delta, oppressed by the tax-gatherers of Achæmenes,*** welcomed him with
+      open arms, and he took possession of the country between the two branches
+      of the Nile, probably aided by the Cyrenians; the Nile valley itself and
+      Memphis, closely guarded by the Persian garrisons, did not, however, range
+      themselves on his side.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The date 462 is approximate, and is inferred from the fact
+     that the war in Bactriana is mentioned in Ctesias between
+     the war against the sons of Artabanus which must have
+     occupied a part of 463, and the Egyptian rebellion which
+     broke out about 462, as Diodorus Siculus points out,
+     doubtless following Ephorus.
+
+     ** The name of the father of Inaros is given us by the
+     contemporary testimony of Thucydides.
+
+     *** Achomenes is the form given by Herodotus and by Diodorus
+     Siculus, who make him the son of Darius I., appointed
+     governor of Egypt after the repression of the revolt of
+     Khabbîsha. Ctesias calls him Achæmenides, and says that he
+     was the son of Xerxes.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile the satrap, fearing that the troops at his disposal were
+      insufficient, had gone to beg assistance of his nephew. Artaxerxes had
+      assembled an army and a fleet, and, in the first moment of enthusiasm, had
+      intended to assume the command in person; but, by the advice of his
+      counsellors, he was with little difficulty dissuaded from carrying this
+      whim into effect, and he delegated the conduct of affairs to Achæmenes.
+      The latter at first repulsed the Libyans (460), and would probably have
+      soon driven them back into their deserts, had not the Athenians interfered
+      in the fray. They gave orders to their fleet at Cyprus to support the
+      insurgents by every means in their power, and their appearance on the
+      scene about the autumn of 469 changed the course of affairs. Achæmenes was
+      overcome at Papremis, and his army almost completely exterminated. Inaros
+      struck him down with his own hand in the struggle; but the same evening he
+      caused the body to be recovered, and sent it to the court of Susa, though
+      whether out of bravado, or from respect to the Achæmenian race, it is
+      impossible to say.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Diodorus Siculus says in so many words that the Athenians
+     took part in the battle of Papremis; Thucydides and
+     Herodotus do not speak of their being there, and several
+     modern historians take this silence as a proof that their
+     squadron arrived after the battle had been fought.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      His good fortune did not yet forsake him. Some days afterwards, the
+      Athenian squadron of Charitimides came up by chance with the Phoenician
+      fleet, which was sailing to the help of the Persians, and had not yet
+      received the news of the disaster which had befallen them at Papremis. The
+      Greeks sunk thirty of the enemy&rsquo;s vessels and took twenty more, and, after
+      this success, the allies believed that they had merely to show themselves
+      to bring about a general rising of the fellahîn, and effect the expulsion
+      of the Persians from the whole of Egypt. They sailed up the river and
+      forced Memphis after a few days&rsquo; siege; but the garrison of the White Wall
+      refused to surrender, and the allies were obliged to lay siege to it in
+      the ordinary manner (459):* in the issue this proved their ruin.
+      Artaxerxes raised a fresh force in Cilicia, and while completing his
+      preparations, attempted to bring about a diversion in Greece. The strength
+      of Pharaoh did not so much depend on his Libyan and Egyptian hordes, as on
+      the little body of hoplites and the crews of the Athenian squadron; and if
+      the withdrawal of the latter could be effected, the repulse of the others
+      would be a certainty. Persian agents were therefore employed to beg the
+      Spartans to invade Attica; but the remembrance of Salamis and Platæa was
+      as yet too fresh to permit of the Lacedæmonians allying themselves with
+      the common enemy, and their virtue on this occasion was proof against the
+      darics of the Orientals.** The Egyptian army was placed in the field early
+      in the year 456, under the leadership of Megabyzos, the satrap of Syria:
+      it numbered, so it was said, some 300,000 men, and it was supported by 300
+      Phoenician vessels commanded by Artabazos.***
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The date of 459-8 for the arrival of the Athenians is
+     concluded from the passage of Thucydides, who gives an
+     account of the end of the war after the cruise of Tolmides
+     in 455, in the sixth year of its course.
+
+     ** Megabyzos opened these negotiations, and his presence at
+     Sparta during the winter of 457-6 is noticed.
+
+     *** Ctesias here introduces the Persian admiral Horiscos,
+     but Diodorus places Artabazos and Megabyzos side by side, as
+     was the case later on in the war in Cyprus, one at the head
+     of the fleet, the other of the army; it is probable that the
+     historian from whom Diodorus copied, viz. Ephorus,
+     recognised the same division of leadership in the Egyptian
+     campaign.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The allies raised the blockade of the White Wall as soon as he entered the
+      Delta, and hastened to attack him; but they had lost their opportunity.
+      Defeated in a desperate encounter, in which Charitimides was killed and
+      Inaros wounded in the thigh, they barricaded themselves within the large
+      island of Prosopitis, about the first fortnight in January of the year
+      455, and there sustained a regular siege for the space of eighteen months.
+      At the end of that time Megabyzos succeeded in turning an arm of the
+      river, which left their fleet high and dry, and, rather than allow it to
+      fall into his hands, they burned their vessels, whereupon he gave orders
+      to make the final assault. The bulk of the Athenian auxiliaries perished
+      in that day&rsquo;s attack, the remainder withdrew with Inaros into the
+      fortified town of Byblos, where Megabyzos, unwilling to prolong a struggle
+      with a desperate enemy, permitted them to capitulate on honourable terms.
+      Some of them escaped and returned to Cyrene, from whence they took ship to
+      their own country; but the main body, to the number of 6000, were carried
+      away to Susa by Megabyzos in order to receive the confirmation of the
+      treaty which he had concluded. As a crowning stroke of misfortune, a
+      reinforcement of fifty Athenian triremes, which at this juncture entered
+      the Mendesian mouth of the Nile, was surrounded by the Phoenician fleet,
+      and more than half of them destroyed. The fall of Prosopitis brought the
+      rebellion to an end.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The accounts of these events given by Ctesias and
+     Thucydides are complementary, and, in spite of their
+     brevity, together form a whole which must be sufficiently
+     near the truth. That of Ephorus, preserved in Diodorus, is
+     derived from an author who shows partiality to the
+     Athenians, and who passes by everything not to their honour,
+     while he seeks to throw the blame for the final disaster on
+     the cowardice of the Egyptians. The summary of Aristodemus
+     comes directly from that of Thucydides.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The nomes of the Delta were restored to order, and, as was often customary
+      in Oriental kingdoms, the vanquished petty princes or their children were
+      reinvested in their hereditary fiefs; even Libya was not taken from the
+      family of Inaros, but was given to his son Thannyras and a certain
+      Psammetichus. A few bands of fugitives, however, took refuge in the
+      marshes of the littoral, in the place where the Saites in former times had
+      sought a safe retreat, and they there proclaimed king a certain Amyrtgeus,
+      who was possibly connected with the line of Amasis, and successfully
+      defied the repeated attempts of the Persians to dislodge them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Greek league had risked the best of its forces in this rash
+      undertaking, and had failed in its enterprise. It had cost the allies so
+      dearly in men and galleys, that if the Persians had at once assumed the
+      offensive, most of the Asiatic cities would have found themselves in a
+      most critical situation; and Athens, then launched in a quarrel with the
+      states of the Peloponnesus, would have experienced the greatest difficulty
+      in succouring them. The feebleness of Artaxerxes, however, and possibly
+      the intrigues at court and troubles in various other parts of the empire,
+      prevented the satraps from pursuing their advantage, and when at length
+      they meditated taking action, the opportunity had gone by. They
+      nevertheless attempted to regain the ascendency over Cyprus; Artabazos
+      with a Sidonian fleet cruised about the island, Megabyzos assembled troops
+      in Cilicia, and the petty kings of Greek origin raised a cry of alarm.
+      Athens, which had just concluded a truce with the Peloponnesians, at once
+      sent two hundred vessels to their assistance under the command of Oimon
+      (449). Cimon acted as though he were about to reopen the campaign in Egypt
+      and despatched sixty of his triremes to King Amyrtceus, while he himself
+      took Marion and blockaded Kition with the rest of his forces. The siege
+      dragged on; he was perhaps about to abandon it, when he took to his bed
+      and died. Those who succeeded him in the command were obliged to raise the
+      blockade for want of provisions, but as they returned and were passing
+      Salamis, they fell in with the Phoenician vessels which had just been
+      landing the Cilician troops, and defeated them; they then disembarked,
+      and, as at Mycale and Eurymedon, they gained a second victory in the open
+      field, after which they joined the squadron which had been sent to Egypt,
+      and sailed for Athens with the dead body of their chief. They had once
+      more averted the danger of an attack on the Ægean, but that was all. The
+      Athenian statesmen had for some time past realised that it was impossible
+      for them to sustain a double conflict, and fight the battles of Greece
+      against the common enemy, while half of the cities whose safety was
+      secured by their heroic devotion were harassing them on the continent, but
+      the influence of Cimon had up till now encouraged them to persist; on the
+      death of Cimon, they gave up the attempt, and Callias, one of their
+      leaders, repaired in state to Susa for the purpose of opening
+      negotiations. The peace which was concluded on the occasion of this
+      embassy might at first sight appear advantageous to their side. The
+      Persian king, without actually admitting his reverses, accepted their
+      immediate consequences. He recognised the independence of the Asiatic
+      Creeks, of those at least who belonged to the league of Delos, and he
+      promised that his armies on land should never advance further than three
+      days&rsquo; march from the Ægean littoral. On the seas, he forbade his squadrons
+      to enter Hellenic waters from the Chelidonian to the Cyanæan rocks&mdash;that
+      is, from the eastern point of Lycia to the opening of the Black Sea: this
+      prohibition did not apply to the merchant vessels of the contracting
+      parties, and they received permission to traffic freely in each other&rsquo;s
+      waters&mdash;the Phoenicians in Greece, and the Greeks in Phonicia,
+      Cilicia, and Egypt. And yet, when we consider the matter, Athens and
+      Hellas were, of the two, the greater losers by this convention, which
+      appeared to imply their superiority. Not only did they acknowledge
+      indirectly that they felt themselves unequal to the task of overthrowing
+      the empire, but they laid down their arms before they had accomplished the
+      comparatively restricted task which they had set themselves to perform,
+      that of freeing all the Greeks from the Iranian yoke: their Egyptian
+      compatriots still remained Persian tributaries, in company with the cities
+      of Cyrenaïca, Pamphylia, and Cilicia, and, above all, that island of
+      Cyprus in which they had gained some of their most signal triumphs. The
+      Persians, relieved from a war which for a quarter of a century had
+      consumed their battalions and squadrons, drained their finances, and
+      excited their subjects to revolt, were now free to regain their former
+      wealth and perhaps their vigour, could they only find generals to command
+      their troops and guide their politics. Artaxerxes was incapable of
+      directing this revival, and his inveterate weakness exposed him
+      perpetually to the plotting of his satraps or to the intrigues of the
+      women of his harem. The example of Artabanus, followed by that of
+      Hystaspes, had shown how easy it was for an ambitious man to get rid
+      secretly of a monarch or a prince and seriously endanger the crown. The
+      members of the families who had placed Darius on the throne, possessed by
+      hereditary right, or something little short of it, the wealthiest and most
+      populous provinces&mdash;Babylonia, Syria, Lydia, Phrygia, and the
+      countries of the Halys&mdash;and they were practically kings in all but
+      name, in spite of the <i>surveillance</i> which the general and the
+      secretary were supposed to exercise over their actions. Besides this, the
+      indifference and incapacity of the ruling sovereigns had already tended to
+      destroy the order of the administrative system so ably devised by Darius:
+      the satrap had, as a rule, absorbed the functions of a general within his
+      own province, and the secretary was too insignificant a personage to
+      retain authority and independence unless he received the constant support
+      of the sovereign. The latter, a tool in the hands of women and eunuchs,
+      usually felt himself powerless to deal with his great vassals. His
+      toleration went to all lengths if he could thereby avoid a revolt; when
+      this was inevitable, and the rebels were vanquished, he still continued to
+      conciliate them, and in most cases their fiefs and rights were preserved
+      or restored to them, the monarch knowing that he could rid himself of them
+      treacherously by poison or the dagger in the case of their proving
+      themselves too troublesome. Megabyzos by his turbulence was a thorn in the
+      side of Artaxerxes during the half of his reign. He had ended his campaign
+      in Egypt by engaging to preserve the lives of Inaros and the 6000 Greeks
+      who had capitulated at Byblos, and, in spite of the anger of the king, he
+      succeeded in keeping his word for five years, but at the end of that time
+      the demands of Amestris prevailed. She succeeded in obtaining from him
+      some fifty Greeks whom she beheaded, besides Inaros himself, whom she
+      impaled to avenge Achæmenes. Megabyzos, who had not recovered from the
+      losses he had sustained in his last campaign against Cimon, at first
+      concealed his anger, but he asked permission to visit his Syrian province,
+      and no sooner did he reach it, than he resorted to hostilities. He
+      defeated in succession Usiris and Menostates, the two generals despatched
+      against him, and when force failed to overcome his obstinate resistance,
+      the government condescended to treat with him, and swore to forget the
+      past if he would consent to lay down arms. To this he agreed, and
+      reappeared at court; but once there, his confidence nearly proved fatal to
+      him. Having been invited to take part in a hunt, he pierced with his
+      javelin a lion which threatened to attack the king: Artaxerxes called to
+      mind an ancient law which punished by death any intervention of that kind,
+      and he ordered that the culprit should be beheaded. Megabyzos with
+      difficulty escaped this punishment through the entreaties of Amestris and
+      of his wife Amytis; but he was deprived of his fiefs, and sent to Kyrta,
+      on the shores of the Persian Gulf. After five years this exile became
+      unbearable; he therefore spread the report that he was attacked by
+      leprosy, and he returned home without any one venturing to hinder him,
+      from fear of defiling themselves by contact with his person. Amestris and
+      Amytis brought about his reconciliation with his sovereign; and
+      thenceforward he regulated his conduct so successfully that the past was
+      completely forgotten, and when he died, at the age of seventy-six years,
+      Artaxerxes deeply regretted his loss.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * These events are known to us only through Ctesias. Their
+     date is uncertain, but there is no doubt that they occurred
+     after Cimon&rsquo;s campaign in Cyprus and the conclusion of the
+     peace of Callias.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Peace having been signed with Athens, and the revolt of Megabyzos being at
+      an end, Artaxerxes was free to enjoy himself without further care for the
+      future, and to pass his time between his various capitals and palaces.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0022" id="linkBimage-0022">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/258.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="258.jpg View of the Achaemenian Ruins Of Istakhr " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the engraving of Flandin and Coste.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      His choice lay between Susa and Persepolis, between Ecbatana and Babylon,
+      according as the heat of the summer or the cold of the winter induced him
+      to pass from the plains to the mountains, or from the latter to the
+      plains. During his visits to Babylon he occupied one of the old Chaldæan
+      palaces, but at Ecbatana he possessed merely the ancient residence of the
+      Median kings, and the seraglio built or restored by Xerxes in the fashion
+      of the times: at Susa and in Persia proper, the royal buildings were
+      entirely the work of the Achæmenids, mostly that of Darius and Xerxes. The
+      memory of Cyrus and of the kings to whom primitive Persia owed her
+      organisation in the obscure century preceding her career of conquest, was
+      piously preserved in the rude buildings of Pasargadæ, which was regarded
+      as a sacred city, whither the sovereigns repaired for coronation as soon
+      as their predecessors had expired. But its lonely position and simple
+      appointments no longer suited their luxurious and effeminate habits, and
+      Darius had in consequence fixed his residence a few miles to the south of
+      it, near to the village, which after its development became the immense
+      royal city of Persepolis. He there erected buildings more suited to the
+      splendour of his court, and found the place so much to his taste during
+      his lifetime, that he was unwilling to leave it after death. He therefore
+      caused his tomb to be cut in the steep limestone cliff which borders the
+      plain about half a mile to the north-west of the town. It is an opening in
+      the form of a Greek cross, the upper part of which contains a bas-relief
+      in which the king, standing in front of the altar, implores the help of
+      Ahura-mazdâ poised with extended wings above him; the platform on which
+      the king stands is supported by two rows of caryatides in low relief,
+      whose features and dress are characteristic of Persian vassals, while
+      other personages, in groups of three on either side, are shown in the
+      attitude of prayer. Below, in the transverse arms of the cross, is carved
+      a flat portico with four columns, in the centre of which is the entrance
+      to the funeral vault. Within the latter, in receptacles hollowed out of
+      the rock, Darius and eight of his family were successively laid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Xerxes caused a tomb in every way similar to be cut for himself near that
+      of Darius, and in the course of years others were added close by.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The tomb of Darius alone bears an inscription. Darius III.
+     was also buried there by command of Alexander.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0023" id="linkBimage-0023">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/260.jpg" width="100%" alt="260.jpg the Tomb of Darius " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the heliogravure by Marcel
+     Dieulafoy.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Both the tombs and the palace are built in that eclectic style which
+      characterises the Achæmenian period of Iranian art. The main features are
+      borrowed from the architecture of those nations which were vassals or
+      neighbours of the empire&mdash;Babylonia, Egypt, and Greece; but these
+      various elements have been combined and modified in such a manner as to
+      form a rich and harmonious whole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0024" id="linkBimage-0024">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/261.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="261.jpg the Hill of The Royal Achaemenian Tombs At Nakush-i-rustem " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the engraving of Flandin and Coste.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The core of the walls was of burnt bricks, similar to those employed in
+      the Euphrates valley, but these were covered with a facing of enamelled
+      tiles, disposed as a skirting or a frieze, on which figured those
+      wonderful processions of archers, and the lions which now adorn the
+      Louvre, while the pilasters at the angles, the columns, pillars,
+      window-frames, and staircases were of fine white limestone or of hard
+      bluish-grey marble.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0025" id="linkBimage-0025">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/262.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="262.jpg One of the Capitals from Susa " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph taken in the Louvre by
+     Faucher-Gudin.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0026" id="linkBimage-0026">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/262b.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="262b.jpg Freize of Archers at Suza " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0027" id="linkBimage-0027">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/263.jpg" height="744" width="1076"      alt="263.jpg General Ruins of Persipolis " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0030" id="linkBimage-0030">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:25%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/269.jpg"
+       alt="269.jpg the King on his Throne " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by
+Faucher-Gudin,
+from Plandin
+and Coste.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The doorways are high and narrow; the moulding which frames them is formed
+      of three Ionic fillets, each projecting beyond the other, surmounted by a
+      coved Egyptian lintel springing from a row of alternate eggs and disks.
+      The framing of the doors is bare, but the embrasures are covered with
+      bas-reliefs representing various scenes in which the king is portrayed
+      fulfilling his royal functions&mdash;engaged in struggles with evil genii
+      which have the form of lions or fabulous animals, occupied in hunting,
+      granting audiences, or making an entrance in state, shaded by an umbrella
+      which is borne by a eunuch behind him. The columns employed in this style
+      of architecture constitute its most original feature. The base of them
+      usually consists of two mouldings, resting either on a square pedestal or
+      on a cylindrical drum, widening out below into a bell-like curve, and
+      sometimes ornamented with several rows of inverted leaves. The shafts,
+      which have forty-eight perpendicular ribs cut on their outer surface, are
+      perhaps rather tall in proportion to their thickness. They terminate in a
+      group of large leaves, an evident imitation of the Egyptian palm-leaf
+      capital, from which spring a sort of rectangular fluted die or abacus,
+      flanked on either side with four rows of volutes curved in opposite
+      directions, generally two at the base and two at the summit. The heads and
+      shoulders of two bulls, placed back to back, project above the volutes,
+      and take the place of the usual abacus of the capital. The dimensions of
+      these columns, their gracefulness, and the distance at which they were
+      placed from one another, prove that they supported not a stone architrave,
+      but enormous beams of wood, which were inserted between the napes of the
+      bulls&rsquo; necks, and upon which the joists of the roof were superimposed. The
+      palace of Persepolis, built by Darius after he had crushed the revolts
+      which took place at the outset of his reign, was situated at the foot of a
+      chain of rugged mountains which skirt the plain on its eastern side, and
+      was raised on an irregularly shaped platform or terrace, which was
+      terminated by a wall of enormous polygonal blocks of masonry. The terrace
+      was reached by a double flight of steps, the lateral walls of which are
+      covered with bas-reliefs, representing processions of satellites, slaves,
+      and tributaries, hunting scenes, fantastic episodes of battle, and lions
+      fighting with and devouring bulls. The area of the raised platform was not
+      of uniform level, and was laid out in gardens, in the midst of which rose
+      the pavilions that served as dwelling-places. The reception-rooms were
+      placed near the top of the flight of steps, and the more important of them
+      had been built under the two preceding kings. Those nearest to the edge of
+      the platform were the propylæ of Xerxes&mdash;gigantic entrances whose
+      gateways were guarded on either side by winged bulls of Assyrian type;
+      beyond these was the <i>apadana</i>, or hall of honour, where the
+      sovereign presided in state at the ordinary court ceremonies. To the east
+      of the <i>apadana</i>, and almost in the centre of the raised terrace,
+      rose the Hall of a Hundred Columns, erected by Darius, and used only on
+      special occasions. Artaxerxes I. seems to have had a particular affection
+      for Susa. It had found favour with his predecessors, and they had so
+      frequently resided there, even after the building of Persepolis, that it
+      had continued to be regarded as the real capital of the empire by other
+      nations, whereas the Persian sovereigns themselves had sought to make it
+      rather an impregnable retreat than a luxurious residence. Artaxerxes built
+      there an <i>apadana</i> on a vaster scale than any hitherto designed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0028" id="linkBimage-0028">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/267.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="267.jpg the Propylaea of Xerxes I. At Persepolis " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the heliogravure of Marcel Dieulafoy.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It comprised three colonnades, which, taken together, formed a rectangle
+      measuring 300 feet by 250 feet on the two sides, the area being
+      approximately that of the courtyard of the Louvre. The central colonnade,
+      which was the largest of the three, was enclosed by walls on three sides,
+      but was open to the south. Immense festoons of drapery hung from the
+      wooden entablature, and curtains, suspended from rods between the first
+      row of columns, afforded protection from the sun and from the curiosity of
+      the vulgar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0029" id="linkBimage-0029">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/268.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="268.jpg Bas-relief of the Staircase Leading to The Apadana of Xerxes " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Marcel Dieulafoy.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      At the hour appointed for the ceremonies, the great king took his seat in
+      solitary grandeur on the gilded throne of the Achæmenids; at the extreme
+      end of the colonnade his eunuchs, nobles, and guards ranged themselves in
+      silence on either side, each in the place which etiquette assigned to him.
+      Meanwhile the foreign ambassadors who had been honoured by an invitation
+      to the audience&mdash;Greeks from Thebes, Sparta, or Athens; Sakae from
+      the regions of the north; Indians, Arabs, nomad chiefs from mysterious
+      Ethiopia-ascended in procession the flights of steps which led from the
+      town to the palace, bearing the presents destined for its royal master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having reached the terrace, the curtains of the <i>apadana</i> were
+      suddenly parted, and in the distance, through a vista of columns, they
+      perceived a motionless figure, resplendent with gold and purple, before
+      whom they fell prostrate with their faces to the earth. The heralds were
+      the bearers of their greetings, and brought back to them a gracious or
+      haughty reply, as the case may be. When they rose from the ground, the
+      curtains had closed, the kingly vision was eclipsed, and the escort which
+      had accompanied them into the palace conducted them back to the town,
+      dazzled with the momentary glimpse of the spectacle vouchsafed to them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0031" id="linkBimage-0031">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/270.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="270.jpg a View of the Apadana Of Susa, Restored " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the restoration by Marcel Dieulafoy.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The Achæemenian monarchs were not regarded as gods or as sons of gods,
+      like the Egyptian Pharaohs, and the Persian religion forbade their ever
+      becoming so, but the person of the king was hedged round with such
+      ceremonial respect as in other Oriental nations was paid only to the gods:
+      this was but natural, for was he not a despot, who with a word or gesture
+      could abase the noblest of his subjects, and determine the well-being or
+      misery of his people? His dress differed from that of his nobles only by
+      the purple dye of its material and the richness of the gold embroideries
+      with which it was adorned, but he was distinguished from all others by the
+      peculiar felt cap, or <i>kidaris</i>, which he wore, and the
+      blue-and-white band which encircled it like a crown; the king is never
+      represented without his long sceptre with pommelled handle, whether he be
+      sitting or standing, and wherever he went he was attended by his umbrella-
+      and fan-bearers. The prescriptions of court etiquette were such as to
+      convince his subjects and persuade himself that he was sprung from a
+      nobler race than that of any of his magnates, and that he was outside the
+      pale of ordinary humanity. The greater part of his time was passed in
+      privacy, where he was attended only by the eunuchs appointed to receive
+      his orders; and these orders, once issued, were irrevocable, as was also
+      the king&rsquo;s word, however much he might desire to recall a promise once
+      made. His meals were, as a rule, served to him alone; he might not walk on
+      foot beyond the precincts of the palace, and he never showed himself in
+      public except on horseback or in his chariot, surrounded by his servants
+      and his guards. The male members of the royal family and those belonging
+      to the six noble houses enjoyed the privilege of approaching the king at
+      any hour of the day or night, provided he was not in the company of one of
+      his wives. These privileged persons formed his council, which he convoked
+      on important occasions, but all ordinary business was transacted by means
+      of the scribes and inferior officials, on whom devolved the charge of the
+      various departments of the government. A vigorous ruler, such as Darius
+      had proved himself, certainly trusted no one but himself to read the
+      reports sent in by the satraps, the secretaries, and the generals, or to
+      dictate the answers required by each; but Xerxes and Artaxerxes delegated
+      the heaviest part of such business to their ministers, and they themselves
+      only fulfilled such state functions as it was impossible to shirk&mdash;the
+      public administration of justice, receptions of ambassadors or victorious
+      generals, distributions of awards, annual sacrifices, and state banquets:
+      they were even obliged, in accordance with an ancient and inviolable
+      tradition, once a year to set aside their usual sober habits and drink to
+      excess on the day of the feast of Mithra. Occasionally they would break
+      through their normal routine of life to conduct in person some expedition
+      of small importance, directed against one of the semi-independent tribes
+      of Iran, such as the Cadusians, but their most glorious and frequent
+      exploits were confined to the chase. They delighted to hunt the bull, the
+      wild boar, the deer, the wild ass, and the hare, as the Pharaohs or
+      Assyrian kings of old had done; and they would track the lion to his lair
+      and engage him single-handed; in fact, they held a strict monopoly in such
+      conflicts, a law which punished with death any huntsman who had the
+      impertinence to interpose between the monarch and his prey being only
+      abolished by Artaxerxes. A crowd of menials, slaves, great nobles, and
+      priests filled the palace; grooms, stool-bearers, umbrella- and
+      fan-carriers, <i>havasses</i>, &ldquo;Immortals,&rdquo; bakers, perfumers, soldiers,
+      and artisans formed a retinue so numerous as to require a thousand
+      bullocks, asses, and stags to be butchered every day for its maintenance;
+      and when the king made a journey in full state, this enormous train looked
+      like an army on the march. The women of the royal harem lived in seclusion
+      in a separate wing of the palace, or in isolated buildings erected in the
+      centre of the gardens. The legitimate wives of the sovereign were selected
+      from the ladies of the royal house, the sisters or cousins of the king,
+      and from the six princely Persian families; but their number were never
+      very large, usually three or four at most.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Cambyses had had three wives, including his two sisters
+     Atossa and Roxana. Darius had four wives&mdash;two daughters of
+     Cyrus, Atossa and Artystônê, Parmys daughter of Srnerdis,
+     and a daughter of Otanes.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The concubines, on the other hand, were chosen from all classes of
+      society, and were counted by hundreds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0032" id="linkBimage-0032">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/273.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="273.jpg Processional Display of Tribute Brought to The King of Persia " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from plates in Flandin and Coste.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      They sang or played on musical instruments at the state banquets of the
+      court, they accompanied their master to the battle-field or the chase, and
+      probably performed the various inferior domestic duties in the interior of
+      the harem, such as spinning, weaving, making perfumes, and attending to
+      the confectionery and cooking. Each of the king&rsquo;s wives had her own
+      separate suite of apartments and special attendants, and occupied a much
+      higher position than a mere concubine; but only one was actually queen and
+      had the right to wear the crown, and this position belonged of right to a
+      princess of Achæ-menian race. Thus Atossa, daughter of Cyrus, was queen
+      successively to Cambyses, Gaumâta, and Darius; Amestris to Xerxes; and
+      Damaspia to Artaxerxes. Besides the influence naturally exerted by the
+      queen over the mind of her husband, she often acquired boundless authority
+      in the empire, in spite of her secluded life.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Thus Atossa induced Darius to designate Xerxes as his
+     heir-apparent.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Her power was still further increased when she became a widow, if the new
+      king happened to be one of her own sons. In such circumstances she
+      retained the external attributes of royalty, sitting at the royal table
+      whenever the king deigned to dine in the women&rsquo;s apartments, and
+      everywhere taking precedence of the young queen; she was attended by her
+      own body of eunuchs, of whom, as well as of her private revenues, she had
+      absolute control. Those whom the queen-mother took under her protection
+      escaped punishment, even though they richly deserved it, but the object of
+      her hatred was doomed to perish in the end, either by poison treacherously
+      administered, or by some horrible form of torture, being impaled,
+      suffocated in ashes, tortured in the trough, or flayed alive. Artaxerxes
+      reigned for forty-two years, spending his time between the pleasures of
+      the chase and the harem; no serious trouble disturbed his repose after his
+      suppression of the revolt under Megabyzos, but on his death in 424 B.C.
+      there was a renewal of the intrigues and ambitious passions which had
+      stained with bloodshed the opening years of his reign. The legitimate
+      heir, Xerxes II., was assassinated, after a reign of forty-five days, by
+      Secudianus (Sogdianus), one of his illegitimate brothers, and the <i>cortège</i>
+      which was escorting the bodies of his parents conveyed his also to the
+      royal burying-place at Persepolis. Meanwhile Secudianus became suspicious
+      of another of his brothers, named Ochus, whom Artaxerxes had caused to
+      marry Parysatis, one of the daughters of Xerxes, and whom he had set over
+      the important province of Hyrcania. Ochus received repeated summonses to
+      appear in his brother&rsquo;s presence to pay him homage, and at last obeyed the
+      mandate, but arrived at the head of an army. The Persian nobility rose at
+      his approach, and one by one the chief persons of the state declared
+      themselves in his favour: first Arbarius, commander of the cavalry; then
+      Arxanes, the satrap of Egypt; and lastly, the eunuch Artoxares, the ruler
+      of Armenia. These three all combined in urging Ochus to assume the <i>Edaris</i>
+      publicly, which he, with feigned reluctance, consented to do, and
+      proceeded, at the suggestion of Parysatis, to open negotiations with
+      Secudianus, offering to divide the regal power with him. Secudianus
+      accepted the offer, against the advice of his minister Menostanes, and
+      gave himself up into the hands of the rebels. He was immediately seized
+      and cast into the ashes, where he perished miserably, after a reign of six
+      months and fifteen days.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On ascending the throne, Ochus assumed the name of Darius. His
+      confidential advisers were three eunuchs, who ruled the empire in his name&mdash;Artoxares,
+      who had taken such a prominent part in the campaign which won him the
+      crown, Artibarzanes, and Athôos; but the guiding spirit of his government
+      was, in reality, his wife, the detestable Parysatis. She had already borne
+      him two children before she became queen; a daughter, Amestris, and a son,
+      Arsaces, who afterwards became king under the name of Artaxerxes. Soon
+      after the accession of her husband, she bore him a second son, whom she
+      named Cyrus, in memory of the founder of the empire, and a daughter,
+      Artostê; several other children were born subsequently, making thirteen in
+      all, but these all died in childhood, except one named Oxendras. Violent,
+      false, jealous, and passionately fond of the exercise of power, Parysatis
+      hesitated at no crime to rid herself of those who thwarted her schemes,
+      even though they might be members of her own family; and, not content with
+      putting them out of the way, she delighted in making them taste her hatred
+      to the full, by subjecting them to the most skilfully graduated
+      refinements of torture; she deservedly left behind her the reputation of
+      being one of the most cruel of all the cruel queens, whose memory was a
+      terror not only to the harems of Persia, but to the whole of the Eastern
+      world. The numerous revolts which broke out soon after her husband&rsquo;s
+      accession, furnished occasions for the revelation of her perfidious
+      cleverness. All the malcontents of the reign of Artaxerxes, those who had
+      been implicated in the murder of Xerxes II., or who had sided with
+      Secudianus, had rallied round a younger brother of Darius, named Arsites,
+      and one of them, Artyphios, son of Megabyzos, took the field in Asia
+      Minor. Being supported by a large contingent of Greek mercenaries, he won
+      two successive victories at the opening of the campaign, but was
+      subsequently defeated, though his forces still remained formidable. But
+      Persian gold accomplished what Persian bravery had failed to achieve, and
+      prevailed over the mercenaries so successfully that all deserted him with
+      the exception of three Milesians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0033" id="linkBimage-0033">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:15%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/276.jpg" alt="276.jpg Darius II. " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by
+Faucher-
+Gudin
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Artyphios and Arsites, thus discouraged, committed the imprudence of
+      capitulating on condition of receiving a promise that their lives should
+      be spared, and that they should be well treated; but Parysatis persuaded
+      her husband to break his plighted word, and they perished in the ashes.
+      Their miserable fate did not discourage the satrap of Lydia, Pissuthnes,
+      who was of Achæmenian race: he entered the lists in 418 B.C., with the
+      help of the Athenians. The relations between the Persian empire and Greece
+      had continued fairly satisfactory since the peace of 449 B.C., and the few
+      outbreaks which had taken place had not led to any widespread disturbance.
+      The Athenians, absorbed in their quarrel with Sparta, preferred to close
+      their eyes to all side issues, lest the Persians should declare war
+      against them, and the satraps of Asia Minor, fully alive to the situation,
+      did not hesitate to take advantage of any pretext for recovering a part of
+      the territory they coveted: it was thus that they had seized Colophon
+      about 430 B.C., and so secured once more a port on the Ægean. Darius
+      despatched to oppose Pissuthnes a man of noble birth, named Tissaphernes,
+      giving him plenary power throughout the whole of the peninsula, and
+      Tissaphernes endeavoured to obtain by treachery the success he would with
+      difficulty have won on the field of battle: he corrupted by his darics
+      Lycon, the commander of the Athenian contingent, and Pissuthnes, suddenly
+      abandoned by his best auxiliaries, was forced to surrender at discretion.
+      He also was suffocated in the ashes, and Darius bestowed his office on
+      Tissaphernes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the punishment of Pissuthnes did not put an end to the troubles: his
+      son Amorges roused Caria to revolt, and with the title of king maintained
+      his independence for some years longer. While these incidents were taking
+      place, the news of the disasters in Sicily reached the East: as soon as it
+      was known in Susa that Athens had lost at Syracuse the best part of her
+      fleet and the choicest of her citizens, the moment was deemed favourable
+      to violate the treaty and regain control of the whole of Asia Minor. Two
+      noteworthy men were at that time set over the western satrapies,
+      Tissaphernes ruling at Sardes, and Tiribazus over Hellespontine Phrygia.
+      These satraps opened negotiations with Sparta at the beginning of 412
+      B.C., and concluded a treaty with her at Miletus itself, by the terms of
+      which the Peloponnesians recognised the suzerainty of Darius over all the
+      territory once held by his ancestors in Asia, including the cities since
+      incorporated into the Athenian league. They hoped shortly to be strong
+      enough to snatch from him what they now ceded, and to set free once more
+      the Greeks whom they thus condemned to servitude after half a century of
+      independence, but their expectations were frustrated. The towns along the
+      coast fell one after another into the power of Tissaphernes, Amorges was
+      taken prisoner in lassos, and at the beginning of 411 B.C. there remained
+      to the Athenians in Ionia and Caria merely the two ports of Halicarnassus
+      and Notium, and the three islands of Cos, Samos, and Lesbos: from that
+      time the power of the great king increased from year to year, and weighed
+      heavily on the destinies of Greece. Meanwhile Darius II. was growing old,
+      and intrigues with regard to the succession were set on foot. Two of his
+      sons put forward claims to the throne: Arsaces had seniority in his
+      favour, but had been born when his father was still a mere satrap; Cyrus,
+      on the contrary, had been born in the purple, and his mother Parysatis was
+      passionately devoted to him.* Thanks to her manouvres, he was practically
+      created viceroy of Asia Minor in 407 B.C., with such abundant resources of
+      men and money at his disposal, that he was virtually an independent
+      sovereign. While he was consolidating his power in the west, his mother
+      endeavoured to secure his accession to the throne by intriguing at the
+      court of the aged king; if her plans failed, Cyrus was prepared to risk
+      everything by an appeal to arms.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Cyrus was certainly not more than seventeen years old in
+     407 B.C., evening admitting that he was born immediately
+     after his father&rsquo;s accession in 424-3 B.C.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0034" id="linkBimage-0034">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:13%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/279.jpg" alt="279.jpg Cyrus the Younger " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by
+Faucher-
+Gudin
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      He realised that the Greeks would prove powerful auxiliaries in such a
+      contingency; and as soon as he had set up his court at Sardes, he planned
+      how best to conciliate their favour, or at least to win over those whose
+      support was likely to be most valuable. Athens, as a maritime power, was
+      not in a position to support him in an enterprise which especially
+      required the co-operation of a considerable force of heavily armed
+      infantry. He therefore deliberately espoused the cause of the
+      Peloponnesians, and the support he gave them was not without its influence
+      on the issue of the struggle: the terrible day of Ægos Potamos was a day
+      of triumph for him as much as for the Lacedaemonians (405 B.C.).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His intimacy with Lysander, however, his constant enlistments of mercenary
+      troops, and his secret dealings with the neighbouring provinces, had
+      already aroused suspicion, and the satraps placed under his orders,
+      especially Tissaphernes, accused him to the king of treason. Darius
+      summoned him to Susa to explain his conduct (405 B.C.), and he arrived
+      just in time to be present at his father&rsquo;s death (404), but too late to
+      obtain his designation as heir to the throne through the intervention of
+      his mother, Parysatis; Arsaces inherited the crown, and assumed the name
+      of Artaxerxes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0035" id="linkBimage-0035">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:17%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/280.jpg" alt="280.jpg Artaxerxes Mnemon " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin in the Cabinet des
+Médailles. This coin, which was struck at Mallos, in
+Cilicia, bears as a counter-mark the figure of a bull and
+the name of the city of Issus.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Cyrus entered the temple of Pasargadae surreptitiously during the
+      coronation ceremony, with the intention of killing his brother at the foot
+      of the altar; but Tissaphernes, warned by one of the priests, denounced
+      him, and he would have been put to death on the spot, had not his mother
+      thrown her arms around him and prevented the executioner from fulfilling
+      his office. Having with difficulty obtained pardon and been sent back to
+      his province, he collected thirty thousand Greeks and a hundred thousand
+      native troops, and, hastily leaving Sardes (401 B.C.), he crossed Asia
+      Minor, Northern Syria, and Mesopotamia, encountered the royal army at
+      Cunaxa, to the north of Babylon, and rashly met his end at the very moment
+      of victory. He was a brave, active, and generous prince, endowed with all
+      the virtues requisite to make a good Oriental monarch, and he had,
+      moreover, learnt, through contact with the Greeks, to recognise the weak
+      points of his own nation, and was fully determined to remedy them: his
+      death, perhaps, was an irreparable misfortune for his country. Had he
+      survived and supplanted the feeble Artaxerxes, it is quite possible that
+      he might have confirmed and strengthened the power of Persia, or, at
+      least, temporarily have arrested its decline. Having lost their leader,
+      his Asiatic followers at once dispersed; but the mercenaries did not lose
+      heart, and, crossing Asia and Armenia, gained at length the shores of the
+      Black Sea. Up to that time the Greeks had looked upon Persia as a compact
+      state, which they were sufficiently powerful to conquer by sea and hold in
+      check by land, but which they could not, without imprudence, venture to
+      attack within its own frontiers. The experience of the Ten Thousand was a
+      proof to them that a handful of men, deprived of their proper generals,
+      without guides, money, or provisions, might successfully oppose the
+      overwhelming forces of the great king, and escape from his clutches
+      without any serious difficulty. National discords prevented them from at
+      once utilising the experience they thus acquired, but the lesson was not
+      lost upon the court of Susa. The success of Lysander had been ensured by
+      Persian subsidies, and now Sparta hesitated to fulfil the conditions of
+      the treaty of Miletus; the Lacedæmonians demanded liberty once more for
+      the former allies of Athens, fostered the war in Asia in order to enforce
+      their claims, and their king Agesilaus, penetrating to the very heart of
+      Phrygia, would have pressed still further forward in the tracks of the Ten
+      Thousand, had not an opportune diversion been created in his rear by the
+      bribery of the Persians. Athens once more flew to arms: her fleet, in
+      conjunction with the Phoenicians, took possession of Cythera; the Long
+      Walls were rebuilt at the expense of the great king, and Sparta, recalled
+      by these reverses to a realisation of her position, wisely abandoned her
+      inclination for distant enterprises. Asia Minor was reconquered, and
+      Persia passed from the position of a national enemy to that of the friend
+      and arbiter of Greece; but she did so by force of circumstances only, and
+      not from having merited in any way the supremacy she attained. Her
+      military energy, indeed, was far from being exhausted; but poor
+      Artaxerxes, bewildered by the rivalries between his mother and his wives,
+      did not know how to make the most of the immense resources still at his
+      disposal, and he met with repeated checks as soon as he came face to face
+      with a nation and leaders who refused to stoop to treachery. He had no
+      sooner recovered possession of the Ægean littoral than Egypt was snatched
+      from his grasp by a new Pharaoh who had arisen in the Nile valley. The
+      peace had not been seriously disturbed in Egypt during the forty years
+      which had elapsed since the defeat of Inarus. Satrap had peaceably
+      succeeded satrap in the fortress of Memphis; the exhaustion of Libya had
+      pre-vented any movement on the part of Thannyras; the aged Amyrtæus had
+      passed from the scene, and his son, Pausiris, bent his neck submissively
+      to the Persian yoke. More than once, however, unexpected outbursts had
+      shown that the fires of rebellion were still smouldering. A Psammetichus,
+      who reigned about 445 B.C. in a corner of the Delta, had dared to send
+      corn and presents to the Athenians, then at war with Artaxerxes I., and
+      the second year of Darius II. had been troubled by a sanguinary sedition,
+      which, however, was easily suppressed by the governor then in power;
+      finally, about 410 B.C., a king of Egypt had, not without some show of
+      evidence, laid himself open to the charge of sending a piratical
+      expedition into Phoenician waters, an Arab king having contributed to the
+      enterprise.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The revolt mentioned by Ctesias has nothing to do with the
+     insurrection of the satrap of Egypt which is here referred
+     to, the date of which is furnished by the Syncellus.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It was easy to see, moreover, from periodical revolts&mdash;such as that
+      of Megabyzos in Syria, those of Artyphios and Arsites, of Pissuthnes and
+      Amorges in Asia Minor&mdash;with what impunity the wrath of the great king
+      could be defied: it was not to be wondered at, therefore, that, about 405
+      B.C., an enemy should appear in the heart of the Delta in the person of a
+      grandson and namesake of Amyrtæus. He did not at first rouse the whole
+      country to revolt, for Egyptian troops were still numbered in the army of
+      Artaxerxes at the battle of Cunaxa in 401 B.C.; but he succeeded in
+      establishing a regular native government, and struggled so resolutely
+      against the foreign domination that the historians of the sacred colleges
+      inscribed his name on the list of the Pharaohs. He is there made to
+      represent a whole dynasty, the XXVIIIth which lasted six years, coincident
+      with the six years of his reign. It was due to a Mendesian dynasty,
+      however, whose founder was Nephorites, that Egypt obtained its entire
+      freedom, and was raised once more to the rank of a nation. This dynasty
+      from the very outset adopted the policy which had proved so successful in
+      the case of the Saites three centuries previously, and employed it with
+      similar success. Egypt had always been in the position of a besieged
+      fortress, which needed, for its complete security, that its first lines of
+      defence should be well in advance of its citadel: she must either possess
+      Syria or win her as an ally, if she desired to be protected against all
+      chance of sudden invasion. Nephorites and his successors, therefore,
+      formed alliances beyond the isthmus, and even on the other side of the
+      Mediterranean, with Cyprus, Caria, and Greece, in one case to purchase
+      support, and in another to re-establish the ancient supremacy exercised by
+      the Theban Pharaohs.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * This is, at any rate, the idea given of him by Egyptian
+     tradition in the time of the Ptolemies, as results from a
+     passage in the <i>Demotic Rhapsody</i>, where his reign is
+     mentioned.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Every revolt against the Persians, every quarrel among the satraps, helped
+      forward their cause, since they compelled the great king to suspend his
+      attacks against Egypt altogether or to prosecute them at wide intervals:
+      the Egyptians therefore fomented such quarrels, or even, at need, provoked
+      them, and played their game so well that for a long time they had to
+      oppose only a fraction of the Persian forces. Like the Saite Pharaohs
+      before them, they were aware how little reliance could be placed on native
+      troops, and they recruited their armies at great expense from the European
+      Greeks. This occurred at the time when mercenary forces were taking the
+      place of native levies throughout Hellas, and war was developing into a
+      lucrative trade for those who understood how to conduct it: adventurers,
+      greedy for booty, flocked to the standards of the generals who enjoyed the
+      best reputation for kindness or ability, and the generals themselves sold
+      their services to the highest bidder. The Persian kings took large
+      advantage of this arrangement to procure troops: the Pharaohs imitated
+      their example, and in the years which followed, the most experienced
+      captains, Iphicrates, Chabrias, and Timotheus, passed from one camp to
+      another, as often against the will as with the consent of their
+      fatherland. The power of Sparta was at her zenith when Nephorites ascended
+      the throne, and she was just preparing for her expedition to Phrygia. The
+      Pharaoh concluded an alliance with the Lacedomonians, and in 396 B.C. sent
+      to Agesilaus a fleet laden with arms, corn, and supplies, which, however,
+      was intercepted by Conon, who was at that moment cruising in the direction
+      of Rhodes in command of the Persian squadron. This misadventure and the
+      abrupt retreat of the Spartans from Asia Minor cooled the good will of the
+      Egyptian king towards his allies. Thinking that they had abandoned him,
+      and that he was threatened with an imminent attack on the shore of the
+      Delta, he assembled, probably at Pelusium, the forces he had apparently
+      intended for a distant enterprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Matters took longer to come to a crisis than he had expected. The retreat
+      of Agesilaus had not pacified the Ægean satrapies; after the disturbance
+      created by Cyrus the Younger, the greater number of the native tribes&mdash;Mysians,
+      Pisidians, people of Pontus and Paphlagonia&mdash;had shaken off the
+      Persian yoke, and it was a matter of no small difficulty to reduce them
+      once more to subjection. Their incessant turbulence gave Egypt time to
+      breathe and to organise new combinations. Cyprus entered readily into her
+      designs. Since the subjugation of that island in 445 B.C., the Greek
+      cities had suffered terrible oppression at the hands of the great king.
+      Artaxerxes I., despairing of reducing them to obedience, depended
+      exclusively for support on the Phoenician inhabitants of the island, who,
+      through his favour, regained so much vigour that in the space of less than
+      two generations they had recovered most of the ground lost during the
+      preceding centuries: Semitic rulers replaced the Achaean tyrants at
+      Salamis, and in most of the other cities, and Citium became what it had
+      been before the rise of Salamis, the principal commercial centre in the
+      island. Evagoras, a descendant of the ancient kings, endeavoured to
+      retrieve the Grecian cause: after driving out of Salamis Abdemon, its
+      Tyrian ruler, he took possession of all the other towns except Citium and
+      Amathus. This is not the place to recount the brilliant part played by
+      Evagoras, in conjunction with Conon, during the campaigns against the
+      Spartans in the Peloponnesian war. The activity he then displayed and the
+      ambitious designs he revealed soon drew upon him the dislike of the
+      Persian governors and their sovereign; and from 391 B.C. he was at open
+      war with Persia. He would have been unable, single-handed, to maintain the
+      struggle for any length of time, but Egypt and Greece were at his back,
+      ready to support him with money or arms. Hakoris had succeeded Nephorites
+      I. in 393 B.C.,* and had repulsed an attack of Artaxerxes between 390 and
+      386.**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The length of the reign of Nephorites I. is fixed at six
+     years by the lists of Manetho; the last-known date of his
+     reign is that of his fourth year, on a mummy-bandage
+     preserved in the Louvre.
+
+     ** This war is alluded to by several ancient authors in
+     passages which have been brought together and explained by
+     Judeah; but unfortunately the detailed history of the
+     events is not known.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      He was not unduly exalted by his success, and had immediately taken wise
+      precautions in view of a second invasion. After safeguarding his western
+      frontier by concluding a treaty with the Libyans of Barca, he entered into
+      an alliance with Evagoras and the Athenians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0036" id="linkBimage-0036">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:27%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/287.jpg" alt="287.jpg Hakoris " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by Faucher-Gudin,
+from Lepsius.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      He sent lavish gifts of corn to the Cypriots, as well as munitions of war,
+      ships, and money while Athens sent them several thousand men under the
+      command of Chabrias; not only did an expedition despatched against them
+      under Autophradates fail miserably, but Evagoras seized successively
+      Citium and Amathus, and, actually venturing across the sea, took Tyre by
+      assault and devastated Phoenicia and Cilicia. The princes of Asia Minor
+      were already preparing for revolt, and one of them, Hecatomnus of Caria,
+      had openly joined the allies, when Sparta suddenly opened negotiations
+      with Persia: Antalcidas presented himself at Susa to pay homage before the
+      throne of the great king. The treaty of Miletus had brought the efforts of
+      Athens to naught, and sold the Asiatic Greeks to their oppressors: the
+      peace obtained by Antalcidas effaced the results of Salamis and Platsæ,
+      and laid European Greece prostrate at the feet of her previously
+      vanquished foes. An order issuing from the centre of Persia commanded the
+      cities of Greece to suspend hostilities and respect each other&rsquo;s
+      liberties; the issuing of such an order was equivalent to treating them as
+      vassals whose quarrels it is the function of the suzerain to repress, but
+      they nevertheless complied with the command (387 B.C.), Artaxerxes,
+      relieved from anxiety for the moment, as to affairs on the Ægean, was now
+      free to send his best generals into the rebel countries, and such was the
+      course his ministers recommended. Evagoras was naturally the first to be
+      attacked. Cyprus was, in fact, an outpost of Egypt; commanding as she did
+      the approach by sea, she was in a position to cut the communications of
+      any army, which, issuing from Palestine, should march upon the Delta.
+      Artaxerxes assembled three hundred thousand foot-soldiers and three
+      hundred triremes under the command of Tiribazus, and directed the whole
+      force against the island. At first the Cypriot cruisers intercepted the
+      convoys which were bringing provisions for this large force, and by so
+      doing reduced the invaders to such straits that sedition broke out in
+      their camp; but Evagoras was defeated at sea off the promontory of Citium,
+      and his squadron destroyed. He was not in any way discouraged by this
+      misfortune, but leaving his son, Pnytagoras, to hold the barbarian forces
+      in check, he hastened to implore the help of the Pharaoh (385 B.C.). But
+      Hakoris was too much occupied with securing his own immediate safety to
+      risk anything in so desperate an enterprise. Evagoras was able to bring
+      back merely an insufficient subsidy; he shut himself up in Salamis, and
+      there maintained the conflict for some years longer. Meanwhile Hakoris,
+      realising that the submission of Cyprus would oppose his flank to attack,
+      tried to effect a diversion in Asia Minor, and by entering into alliance
+      with the Pisidians, then in open insurrection, he procured for it a
+      respite, of which he himself took advantage to prepare for the decisive
+      struggle. The peace effected by Antalcidas had left most of the mercenary
+      soldiers of Greece without employment. Hakoris hired twenty thousand of
+      them, and the Phoenician admirals, still occupied in blockading the ports
+      of Cyprus, failed to intercept the vessels which brought him these
+      reinforcements. It was fortunate for Egypt that they did so, for the
+      Pharaoh died in 381 B.C., and his successors, Psamuthis IL, Mutis, and
+      Nephorites IL, each occupied the throne for a very short time, and the
+      whole country was in confusion for rather more than two years (381-379
+      B.c.) during the settlement of the succession.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Hakoris reigned thirteen years, from 393 to 381 B.C. The
+     reigns of the three succeeding kings occupied only two years
+     and four months between them, from the end of 381 to the
+     beginning of 378. Muthes or Mutis, who is not mentioned in
+     all the lists of Manetho, seems to have his counterpart in
+     the <i>Demotic Rhapsody</i>. Wiedemann has inverted the order
+     usually adopted, and proposed the following series:
+     Nephorites I., Muthes, Psamuthis, Hakoris, Nephorites II.
+     The discovery at Karnak of a small temple where Psamuthis
+     mentions Hakoris as his predecessor shows that on this point
+     at least Manetho was well informed.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The turbulent disposition of the great feudatory nobles, which had so
+      frequently brought trouble upon previous Pharaohs during the Assyrian
+      wars, was no less dangerous in this last century of Egyptian independence;
+      it caused the fall of the Mendesian dynasty in the very face of the enemy,
+      and the prince of Sebennytos, Nakht-har-habît, Nectanebo I., was raised to
+      the throne by the military faction. According to a tradition current in
+      Ptolemaic times, this sovereign was a son of Nephorites I., who had been
+      kept out of his heritage by the jealousy of the gods; whatever his origin,
+      the people had no cause to repent of having accepted him as their king. He
+      began his reign by suppressing the slender subsidies which Evagoras had
+      continued to receive from his predecessors, and this measure, if not
+      generous, was at least politic. For Cyprus was now virtually in the power
+      of the Persians, and the blockade of a few thousand men in Salamis did not
+      draught away a sufficiently large proportion of their effective force to
+      be of any service to Egypt: the money which had hitherto been devoted to
+      the Cypriots was henceforth reserved for the direct defence of the Nile
+      valley. Evagoras obtained unexpectedly favourable conditions: Artaxerxes
+      conceded to him his title of king and the possession of his city (383
+      B.C.), and turned his whole attention to Nectanebo, the last of his
+      enemies who still held out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nectanebo had spared no pains in preparing effectively to receive his foe.
+      He chose as his coadjutor the Athenian Chabrias, whose capacity as a
+      general had been manifested by recent events, and the latter accepted this
+      office although he had received no instructions from his government to do
+      so, and had transformed the Delta into an entrenched camp. He had
+      fortified the most vulnerable points along the coast, had built towers at
+      each of the mouths of the river to guard the entrance, and had selected
+      the sites for his garrison fortresses so judiciously that they were kept
+      up long after his time to protect the country. Two of them are mentioned
+      by name: one, situated below Pelusium, called the Castle of Chabrias; the
+      other, not far from Lake Mareotis, which was known as his township.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Both are mentioned by Strabo; the exact sites of these two
+     places are not yet identified. Diodorus Siculus, describing
+     the defensive preparations of Egypt, does not state
+     expressly that they were the work of Chabrias, but this fact
+     seems to result from a general consideration of the context.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0037" id="linkBimage-0037">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:17%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/291.jpg" alt="291.jpg Pharnabazus " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by
+Faucher-
+Gudin
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The Persian generals endeavoured to make their means of attack
+      proportionate to the defences of the enemy. Acre was the only port in
+      Southern Syria large enough to form the rendezvous for a fleet, where it
+      might be secure from storms and surprises of the enemy. This was chosen as
+      the Persian headquarters, and formed the base of their operations. During
+      three years they there accumulated supplies of food and military stores,
+      Phoenician and Creek vessels, and both foreign and native troops. The
+      rivalries between the military commanders, Tithraustes, Datâmes, and
+      Abrocomas, and the intrigues of the court, had on several occasions
+      threatened the ruin of the enterprise, but Pharnabazus, who from the
+      outset had held supreme command, succeeded in ridding himself of his
+      rivals, and in the spring of 374 B.C. was at length ready for the advance.
+      The expedition consisted of two hundred thousand Asiatic troops, and
+      twenty thousand Greeks, three hundred triremes, two hundred galleys of
+      thirty oars, and numerous transports. Superiority of numbers was on the
+      side of the Persians, and that just at the moment when Nectanebo lost his
+      most experienced general. Artaxerxes had remonstrated with the Athenians
+      for permitting one of their generals to serve in Egypt, in spite of their
+      professed friendship for himself, and, besides insisting on his recall,
+      had requested for himself the services of the celebrated Iphicrates. The
+      Athenians complied with his demand, and while summoning Chabrias to return
+      to Athens, despatched Iphicrates to Syria, where he was placed in command
+      of the mercenary troops. Pharnabazus ordered a general advance in May, 374
+      B.C.,* but when he arrived before Pelusium, he perceived that he was not
+      in a position to take the town by storm; not only had the fortifications
+      been doubled, but the banks of the canals had been cut and the approaches
+      inundated. Iphicrates advised him not to persevere in attempting a regular
+      siege: he contended that it would be more profitable to detach an
+      expeditionary force towards some less well-protected point on the coast,
+      and there to make a breach in the system of defence which protected the
+      enemies&rsquo; front.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * As Kenrick justly observes, &ldquo;the Persian and Athenian
+     generals committed the same mistake which led to the defeat
+     of Saint Louis and the capture of his army in 1249 A.D., and
+     which Bonaparte avoided in his campaign of 1798.&rdquo; Anyhow, it
+     seems that the fault must be laid on Pharnabazus alone, and
+     that Iphicrates was entirely blameless.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Three thousand men were despatched with all secrecy to the mouth of the
+      Mendesian branch of the Nile, and there disembarked unexpectedly before
+      the forts which guarded the entrance. The garrison, having imprudently
+      made a sortie in face of the enemy, was put to rout, and pursued so hotly
+      that victors and vanquished entered pell-mell within the walls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0038" id="linkBimage-0038">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:32%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/293.jpg" alt="293.jpg Artaxerxes II. " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from
+a silver stater in the
+<i>Cabinet des Médailles</i>.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      After this success victory was certain, if the Persians pursued their
+      advantage promptly and pushed forward straight into the heart of the
+      Delta; the moment was the more propitious for such a movement, since
+      Nectanebo had drained Memphis of troops to protect his frontier.
+      Iphicrates, having obtained this information from one of the prisoners,
+      advised Pharnabazus to proceed up the Nile with the fleet, and take the
+      capital by storm before the enemy should have time to garrison it afresh;
+      the Persian general, however, considered the plan too hazardous, and
+      preferred to wait until the entire army should have joined him. Iphicrates
+      offered to risk the adventure with his body of auxiliary troops only, but
+      was suspected of harbouring some ambitious design, and was refused
+      permission to advance. Meanwhile these delays had given the Egyptians time
+      to recover from their first alarm; they boldly took the offensive,
+      surrounded the position held by Pharnabazus, and were victorious in
+      several skirmishes. Summer advanced, the Nile rose more rapidly than
+      usual, and soon the water encroached upon the land; the invaders were
+      obliged to beat a retreat before it, and fall back towards Syria.
+      Iphicrates, disgusted at the ineptitude and suspicion of his Asiatic
+      colleagues, returned secretly to Greece: the remains of the army were soon
+      after disbanded, and Egypt once more breathed freely. The check received
+      by the Persian arms, however, was not sufficiently notorious to shake that
+      species of supremacy which Artaxerxes had exercised in Greece since the
+      peace of 387. Sparta, Thebes, and Athens vied with each other in obtaining
+      an alliance with him as keenly as if he had been successful before
+      Pelusium. Antalcidas reappeared at Susa in 372 B.C. to procure a fresh act
+      of intervention; Pelopidas and Ismenias, in 367, begged for a rescript
+      similar to that of Antalcidas; and finally Athens sent a solemn embassy to
+      entreat for a subsidy. It seemed as if the great king had become a kind of
+      supreme arbiter for Greece, and that all the states hitherto leagued
+      against him now came in turn to submit their mutual differences for his
+      decision. But this arbiter who thus imposed his will on states beyond the
+      borders of his empire was never fully master within his own domains. Of
+      gentle nature and pliant disposition, inclined to clemency rather than to
+      severity, and, moreover, so lacking in judgment as a general that he had
+      almost succumbed to an attack by the Cadusians on the only occasion that
+      he had, in a whim of the moment, undertaken the command of an army in
+      person, Artaxerxes busied himself with greater zeal in religious reforms
+      than in military projects. He introduced the rites of Mithra and Anâhita
+      into the established religion of the state, but he had not the energy
+      necessary to curb the ambitions of his provincial governors. Asia Minor,
+      whose revolts followed closely on those of Egypt, rose in rebellion
+      against him immediately after the campaign on the Nile, Ariobarzanes
+      heading the rebellion in Phrygia, Datâmes and Aspis that in Cilicia and
+      Cappadocia, and both defying his power for several years. When at length
+      they succumbed through treachery, the satraps of the Mediterranean
+      district, from the Hellespont to the isthmus of Suez, formed a coalition
+      and simultaneously took the field: the break-up of the empire would have
+      been complete had not Persian darics been lavishly employed once more in
+      the affair. Meanwhile Nectanebo had died in 361,* and had been succeeded
+      by Tachôs.**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The lists of Manetho assign ten or eighteen years to his
+     reign. A sarcophagus in Vienna bears the date of his
+     fifteenth year, and the great inscription of Edfu speaks of
+     gifts he made to the temple in this town in the eighteenth
+     year of his reign. The reading eighteen is therefore
+     preferable to the reading ten in the lists of Manetho; if
+     the very obscure text of the <i>Demotic Rhapsody</i> really
+     applies the number nine or ten to the length of the reign,
+     this reckoning must be explained by some mystic calculations
+     of the priests of the Ptolemaic epoch.
+
+     ** The name of this king, written by the Greeks Teôs or
+     Tachôs, in accordance with the pronunciation of different
+     Egyptian dialects, has been discovered in hieroglyphic
+     writing on the external wall of the temple of Khonsu at
+     Karnak.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The new Pharaoh deemed the occasion opportune to make a diversion against
+      Persia and to further secure his own safety: he therefore offered his
+      support to the satraps, who sent Eheomitres as a delegate to discuss the
+      terms of an offensive and defensive alliance. Having inherited from
+      Nectanebo a large fleet and a full treasury, Tachôs entrusted to the
+      ambassador 500 talents of silver, and gave him fifty ships, with which he
+      cruised along the coast of Asia Minor towards Leukê. His accomplices were
+      awaiting him there, rejoicing at the success of his mission, but he
+      himself had no confidence in the final issue of the struggle, and merely
+      sought how he might enter once more into favour with the Persian court; he
+      therefore secured his safety by betraying his associates. He handed over
+      the subsidies and the Egyptian squadron to Orontes, the satrap of
+      Daskylium, and then seizing the insurgent chiefs sent them in chains to
+      Susa. These acts of treachery changed the complexion of affairs; the
+      league suddenly dissolved after the imprisonment of its leaders, and
+      Arta-xerxes re-established his authority over Asia Minor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Egypt became once more the principal object of attack, and by the irony of
+      fate Pharaoh had himself contributed to enrich the coffers and reinforce
+      the fleet of his foes. In spite of this mischance, however, circumstances
+      were so much in his favour that he ventured to consider whether it would
+      not be more advantageous to forestall the foe by attacking him, rather
+      than passively to await an onslaught behind his own lines. He had sought
+      the friendship of Athens,* and, though it had not been granted in explicit
+      terms, the republic had, nevertheless, permitted Ghabrias to resume his
+      former post at his side.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The memory of this embassy has been preserved for us by a
+     decree of the Athenian assembly, unfortunately much
+     mutilated, which has been assigned to various dates between
+     362 and 358 B.C. M. Paul Foucart has shown that the date of
+     the decree must be referred to one of three archon-ships&mdash;
+     the archonship of Callimedes, 360-59; that of Eucharistus,
+     359-8; or that of Cephisodotus, 358-7^ Without entering into
+     a discussion of the other evidence on the subject, it seems
+     to me probable that the embassy may be most conveniently
+     assigned to the archonship of Callimedes, towards the end of
+     360 B.C., at the moment when Chabrias had just arrived in
+     Egypt, and was certain to endeavour to secure the help of
+     Athens for the king he served.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0039" id="linkBimage-0039">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:18%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/296.jpg" alt="296.jpg Datames III. " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by
+Faucher-
+Gudin
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Chabrias exhorted him to execute his project, and as he had not sufficient
+      money to defray the expenses of a long campaign outside his own borders,
+      the Athenian general instructed him how he might procure the necessary
+      funds. He suggested to him that, as the Egyptian priests were wealthy, the
+      sums of money annually assigned to them for the sacrifices and maintenance
+      of the temples would be better employed in the service of the state, and
+      counselled him to reduce or even to suppress most of the sacerdotal
+      colleges. The priests secured their own safety by abandoning their
+      personal property, and the king graciously deigned to accept their gifts,
+      and then declared to them that in future, as long as the struggle against
+      Persia continued, he should exact from them nine-tenths of their sacred
+      revenues. This tax would have sufficed for all requirements if it had been
+      possible to collect it in full, but there is no doubt that very soon the
+      priests must have discovered means of avoiding part of the payment, for it
+      was necessary to resort to other expedients. Chabrias advised that the
+      poll and house taxes should be increased; that one obol should be exacted
+      for each &ldquo;ardeb&rdquo; of corn sold, and a tithe levied on the produce of all
+      ship-building yards, manufactories, and manual industries. Money now
+      poured into the treasury, but a difficulty arose which demanded immediate
+      solution. Egypt possessed very little specie, and the natives still
+      employed barter in the ordinary transactions of life, while the foreign
+      mercenaries refused to accept payment in kind or uncoined metal; they
+      demanded good money as the price of their services. Orders were issued to
+      the natives to hand over to the royal exchequer all the gold and silver in
+      their possession, whether wrought or in ingots, the state guaranteeing
+      gradual repayment through the nomarchs from the future product of the
+      poll-tax, and the bullion so obtained was converted into specie for the
+      payment of the auxiliary troops. These measures, though winning some
+      unpopularity for Tachôs, enabled him to raise eighty thousand native
+      troops and ten thousand Greeks, to equip a fleet of two hundred vessels,
+      and to engage the best generals of the period. His eagerness to secure the
+      latter, however, was injurious to his cause. Having already engaged
+      Chabrias and obtained the good will of Athens, he desired also to gain the
+      help of Agesilaus and the favourable opinion of the Lacedaemonians. Though
+      now eighty years old, Agesilaus was still under the influence of cupidity
+      and vanity; the promise of being placed in supreme command enticed him,
+      and he set sail with one thousand hoplites. A disappointment awaited him
+      at the moment of his disembarkation: Tachôs gave him command of the
+      mercenary troops only, reserving for himself the general direction of
+      operations, and placing the whole fleet under the orders of Chabrias. The
+      aged hero, having vented his indignation by indulging a more than ordinary
+      display of Spartan rudeness, allowed himself to be appeased by abundant
+      presents, and assumed the post assigned to him. But soon after a more
+      serious subject of disagreement arose between him and his ally; Agesilaus
+      was disposed to think that Tachôs should remain quietly on the banks of
+      the Nile, and leave to his generals the task of conducting the campaign.
+      The ease with which mercenary leaders passed from one camp to the other,
+      according to the fancy of the moment, was not calculated to inspire the
+      Egyptian Pharaoh with confidence: he refused to comply with the wishes of
+      Agesilaus, and, entrusting the regency to one of his relatives, proceeded
+      to invade Syria. He found the Persians unprepared: they shut themselves up
+      in their strongholds, and the Pharaoh confided to his cousin Nectanebo,
+      son of the regent, the task of dislodging them. The war dragged on for
+      some time; discontent crept in among the native levies, and brought
+      treachery in its train. The fiscal measures which had been adopted had
+      exasperated the priests and the common people; complaints, at first only
+      muttered in fear, found bold expression as soon as the expeditionary force
+      had crossed the frontier.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0040" id="linkBimage-0040">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:24%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/299.jpg" alt="299.jpb Nectanebo I " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by Faucher-
+Gudin, from Lepsius.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The regent secretly encouraged the malcontents, and wrote to his son
+      warning him of what was going on, and advised him to seize the crown.
+      Nectanebo could easily have won over the Egyptian troops to his cause, but
+      their support would have proved useless as long as the Greeks did not
+      pronounce in his favour, and Chabrias refused to break his oaths.
+      Agesilaus, however, was not troubled by the same scruples. His vanity had
+      been sorely wounded by the Pharaoh: after being denied the position which
+      was, he fancied, his by right, his short stature, his ill-health, and
+      native coarseness had exposed him to the unseemly mockery of the
+      courtiers. Tachôs, considering his ability had been over-estimated,
+      applied to him, it is said, the fable of the mountain bringing forth a
+      mouse; to which he had replied, &ldquo;When opportunity offers, I will prove to
+      him that I am the lion.&rdquo; When Tachôs requested him to bring the rebels to
+      order, he answered ironically that he was there to help the Egyptians, not
+      to attack them; and before giving his support to either of the rival
+      claimants, he should consult the Ephors. The Ephors enjoined him to act in
+      accordance with the welfare of his country, and he thereupon took the side
+      of Nectanebo, despite the remonstrances of Chabrias. Tachôs, deserted by
+      his veterans, fled to Sidon, and thence to Susa, where Artaxerxes received
+      him hospitably and without reproaching him (359 B.C.); but the news of his
+      fall was not received on the banks of the Nile with as much rejoicing as
+      he had anticipated. The people had no faith in any revolution in which the
+      Greeks whom they detested took the chief part, and the feudal lords
+      refused to acknowledge a sovereign whom they had not themselves chosen;
+      they elected one of their number&mdash;the prince of Mendes&mdash;to
+      oppose Nectanebo. The latter was obliged to abandon the possessions won by
+      his predecessor, and return with his army to Egypt: he there encountered
+      the forces of his enemy, which, though as yet undisciplined, were both
+      numerous and courageous. Agesilaus counselled an immediate attack before
+      these troops had time to become experienced in tactics, but he no longer
+      stood well at court; the prince of Mendes had endeavoured to corrupt him,
+      and, though he had shown unexpected loyalty, many, nevertheless, suspected
+      his good faith. Nectanebo set up his headquarters at Tanis, where he was
+      shortly blockaded by his adversary. It is well known how skilfully the
+      Egyptians handled the pick-axe, and how rapidly they could construct walls
+      of great strength; the circle of entrenchments was already near
+      completion, and provisions were beginning to fail, when Agesilaus received
+      permission to attempt a sortie. He broke through the besieging lines under
+      cover of the night, and some days later won a decisive victory (359 B.C.).
+      Nectanebo would now have gladly kept the Spartan general at his side, for
+      he was expecting a Persian attack; but Agesilaus, who had had enough of
+      Egypt and its intrigues, deserted his cause, and shortly afterwards died
+      of exhaustion on the coast near Cyrene. The anticipated Persian invasion
+      followed shortly after, but it was conducted without energy or decision.
+      Artaxerxes had entrusted the conduct of the expedition to Tachôs,
+      doubtless promising to reinstate him in his former power as satrap or
+      vassal king of Egypt, but Tachôs died before he could even assume his
+      post,* and the discords which rent the family of the Persian king
+      prevented the generals who replaced him from taking any effective action.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Ælian narrates, probably following Dinon, that Tachôs died
+     of dysentery due to over-indulgence at dinner.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The aged Artaxerxes had had, it was reported, one hundred and fifteen sons
+      by the different women in his harem, but only three of those by his queen
+      Statira were now living&mdash;Darius, Ariaspes, and Ochus. Darius, the
+      eldest of the three, had been formally recognised as heir-apparent&mdash;perhaps
+      at the time of the disastrous war against the Cadusians* &mdash;but the
+      younger brother, Ochus, who secretly aspired to the throne, had managed to
+      inspire him with anxiety with regard to the succession, and incited him to
+      put the aged king out of the way. Contemporary historians, ill informed as
+      to the intrigues in the palace, whose effects they noted without any
+      attempt to explore their intricacies, invented several stories to account
+      for the conduct of the young prince. Some assigned as the reason of his
+      conspiracy a romantic love-affair. They said that Cyrus the Younger had
+      had an Ionian mistress named Aspasia, who, after the fatal battle of
+      Cunaxa, had been taken into the harem of the conqueror, and had captivated
+      him by her beauty. Darius conceived a violent passion for this damsel, and
+      his father was at first inclined to give her up to him, but afterwards,
+      repenting of his complaisance, consecrated her to the service of Mithra, a
+      cult which imposed on her the obligation of perpetual chastity. Darius,
+      exasperated by this treatment, began to contemplate measures of vengeance,
+      but, being betrayed by his brother Ochus, was put to death with his whole
+      family.**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Pompeius Trogus asserts that such co-regencies were
+     contrary to Persian law; we have seen above that, on the
+     contrary, they were obligatory when the sovereign was
+     setting out on a campaign.
+
+     ** This is the version of the story given by Dinon and
+     accepted by Pompoius Trogus. A chronological calculation
+     easily demonstrates its unlikelihood. It follows from the
+     evidence given by Justin himself that Artaxerxes died of
+     grief soon after the execution of his son; but, on the other
+     hand, that the battle of Cunaxa took place in 400 B.C.:
+     Aspasia must then have been fifty or sixty years old when
+     Darius fell in love with her.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      By the removal of this first obstacle the crafty prince found himself only
+      one step nearer success, for his brother Ariaspes was acknowledged as
+      heir-apparent: Ochus therefore persuaded him that their father, convinced
+      of the complicity of Ariaspes in the plot imputed to Darius, intended to
+      put him to an ignominious death, and so worked upon him that he committed
+      suicide to escape the executioner. A bastard named Arsames, who might
+      possibly have aspired to the crown, was assassinated by Ochus. This last
+      blow was too much for Artaxerxes, and he died of grief after a reign of
+      forty-six years (358 B.C.).* Ochus, who immediately assumed the name of
+      Artaxerxes, began his reign by the customary massacre: he put to death all
+      the princes of the royal family,** and having thus rid himself of all the
+      rival claimants to the supreme power, he hastened on preparations for the
+      war with Egypt which had been interrupted by his father&rsquo;s death and his
+      own accession.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * This is the length attributed by Plutarch to this reign,
+     and which is generally accepted. It was narrated in after-
+     days that the king kept the fact of his father&rsquo;s death
+     hidden for ten months, but it is impossible to tell how much
+     truth there is in this statement, which was accepted by
+     Dinon.
+
+     ** According to the author followed by Pompeius Trogus, the
+     princesses themselves were involved in this massacre. This
+     is certainly an exaggeration, for we shall shortly see that
+     Darius III., the last king of Persia, was accounted to be
+     the grandson of Darius II.; the massacre can only have
+     involved the direct heirs of Artaxerxes.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The necessity for restoring Persian dominion on the banks of the Nile was
+      then more urgent than at any previous time. During the half-century which
+      had elapsed since the recovery of her independence, Egypt had been a
+      perpetual source of serious embarrassment to the great king. The
+      contemporaries of Amyrtseus, whether Greeks or barbarians, had at first
+      thought that his revolt was nothing more than a local rising, like many a
+      previous one which had lasted but a short time and had been promptly
+      suppressed. But when it was perceived that the native dynasties had taken
+      a hold upon the country, and had carried on a successful contest with
+      Persia, in spite of the immense disproportion in their respective
+      resources; when not only the bravest soldiers of Asia, but the best
+      generals of Greece, had miserably failed in their attacks on the frontier
+      of the Delta, Phoenicia and Syria began to think whether what was possible
+      in Africa might not also be possible in Asia. From that time forward,
+      whenever a satrap or vassal prince meditated revolt, it was to Egypt that
+      he turned as a natural ally, and from Egypt he sought the means to carry
+      out his project; however needy the Pharaoh of that day might be, he was
+      always able to procure for such a suitor sufficient money, munitions of
+      war, ships, and men to enable him to make war against the empire. The
+      attempt made by Ochus failed, as all previous attempts had done: the two
+      adventurers who commanded the forces of Nectanebo, the Athenian Diophantes
+      and Lamius of Sparta, inflicted a disastrous defeat on the imperial
+      troops, and forced them to beat a hasty retreat. This defeat was all the
+      more serious in its consequences because of the magnitude of the efforts
+      which had been made: the king himself was in command of the troops, and
+      had been obliged to turn his back precipitately on the foe. The Syrian
+      provinces, which had been in an unsettled condition ever since the
+      invasion under Tachôs, flew to arms; nine petty kings of Cyprus, including
+      Evagoras II., nephew of the famous prince of that name, refused to pay
+      tribute, and Artabazus roused Asia Minor to rebellion. The Phoenicians
+      still hesitated; but the insolence of their satrap, the rapacity of the
+      generals who had been repulsed from Egypt, and the lack of discipline in
+      the Persian army forced them to a decision. In a convention summoned at
+      Tripoli, the representatives of the Phoenician cities conferred on Tennes,
+      King of Sidon, the perilous honour of conducting the operations of the
+      confederate army, and his first act was to destroy the royal villa in the
+      Lebanon, and his next to burn the provisions which had been accumulated in
+      various ports in view of the Egyptian war (351-350 B.C.).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0041" id="linkBimage-0041">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:18%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/305.jpg"
+       alt="305.jpg Evagoras Ii. Of Salamis " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by
+Faucher-
+Gudin
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Ochus imagined at the outset that his generals would soon suppress these
+      rebellions, and, in fact, Idrieus, tyrant of Caria, supported by eight
+      thousand mercenaries under the Athenian Phocion, overcame the petty
+      tyrants of Cyprus without much difficulty; but in Asia Minor, Artabazus,
+      supported by Athens and Thebes, held at bay the generals sent to oppose
+      him, and Tennes won a signal victory in Syria. He turned for support to
+      Egypt, and Nectanebo, as might be expected, put Greek troops at his
+      disposal to the number of four thousand, commanded by one of his best
+      generals, Mentor of Ehodes: Belesys, the satrap of Syria, and Mazseus,
+      satrap of Cilicia, suffered a total defeat. Ochus, exasperated at their
+      want of success, called out every available soldier, three hundred
+      thousand Asiatics and ten thousand Greeks; the Sidonians, on their side,
+      dug a triple trench round their city, raised their ramparts, and set fire
+      to their ships, to demonstrate their intention of holding out to the end.
+      Unfortunately, their king, Tennes, was not a man of firm resolution.
+      Hitherto he had lived a life of self-indulgence, surrounded by the women
+      of his harem, whom he had purchased at great cost in Ionia and Greece, and
+      had made it the chief object of his ambition to surpass in magnificence
+      the most ostentatious princes of Cyprus, especially Nicocles of Salamis,
+      son of Evagoras. The approach of Ochus confused his scanty wits; he
+      endeavoured to wipe out his treachery towards his suzerain by the betrayal
+      of his own subjects. He secretly despatched his confidential minister, a
+      certain Thessalion, to the Persian camp, promising to betray Sidon to the
+      Persian king, and to act as his guide into Egypt on condition of having
+      his life preserved and his royal rank guaranteed to him. Ochus had already
+      agreed to these conditions, when an impulse of vanity on his part nearly
+      ruined the whole arrangement. Thessalion, not unreasonably doubting the
+      king&rsquo;s good faith, had demanded that he should swear by his right hand to
+      fulfil to the letter all the clauses of the treaty; whereupon Ochus, whose
+      dignity was offended by this insistence, gave orders for the execution of
+      the ambassador. But as the latter was being dragged away, he cried out
+      that the king could do as he liked, but that if he disdained the help of
+      Tennes, he would fail in his attacks both upon Phonicia and Egypt. These
+      words produced a sudden reaction, and Thessalion obtained all that he
+      demanded. When the Persians had arrived within a few days&rsquo; march of Sidon,
+      Tennes proclaimed that a general assembly of the Phoenician deputies was
+      to be held, and under pretext of escorting the hundred leading men of his
+      city to the appointed place of meeting, led them into the enemy&rsquo;s camp,
+      where they were promptly despatched by the javelins of the soldiery. The
+      Sidonians, deserted by their king, were determined to carry on the
+      struggle, in the expectation of receiving succour from Egypt; but the
+      Persian darics had already found their way into the hands of the mercenary
+      troops, and the general whom Nectanebo had lent them, declared that his
+      men considered the position desperate, and that he should surrender the
+      city at the first summons. The Sidonians thereupon found themselves
+      reduced to the necessity of imploring the mercy of the conqueror, and five
+      hundred of them set out to meet him as suppliants, carrying olive branches
+      in their hands. Bub Ochus was the most cruel monarch who had ever reigned
+      in Persia&mdash;the only one, perhaps, who was really bloodthirsty by
+      nature; he refused to listen to the entreaties of the suppliants, and,
+      like the preceding hundred delegates, they were all slain. The remaining
+      citizens, perceiving that they could not hope for pardon, barricaded
+      themselves in their houses, to which they set fire with their own hands;
+      forty thousand persons perished in the flames, and so great was the luxury
+      in the appointments of the private houses, that large sums were paid for
+      the right to dig for the gold and silver ornaments buried in the ruins.
+      The destruction of the city was almost as complete as in the days of
+      Esarhaddon. When Sidon had thus met her fate, the Persians had no further
+      reason for sparing its king, Tennes, and he was delivered to the
+      executioner; whereupon the other Phoenician kings, terrified by his fate,
+      opened their gates without a struggle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once more the treachery of a few traitors had disconcerted the plans of
+      the Pharaoh, and delivered the outposts of Egypt into the hands of the
+      enemy: but Ochus renewed his preparations with marvellous tenacity, and
+      resolved to neglect nothing which might contribute to his final success.
+      His victories had confirmed the cities of the empire in their loyalty, and
+      they vied with one another in endeavouring to win oblivion for their
+      former hesitation by their present zeal: &ldquo;What city, or what nation of
+      Asia did not send embassies to the sovereign? what wealth did they not
+      lavish on him, whether the natural products of the soil, or the rare and
+      precious productions of art? Did he not receive a quantity of tapestry and
+      woven hangings, some of purple, some of diverse colours, others of pure
+      white? many gilded pavilions, completely furnished, and containing an
+      abundant supply of linen and sumptuous beds? chased silver, wrought gold,
+      cups and bowls, enriched with precious stones, or valuable for the
+      perfection and richness of their work? He also received untold supplies of
+      barbarian and Grecian weapons, and still larger numbers of draught cattle
+      and of sacrificial victims, bushels of preserved fruits, bales and sacks
+      full of parchments or books, and all kinds of useful articles? So great
+      was the quantity of salted meats which poured in from all sides, that from
+      a distance the piles might readily be mistaken for rows of hillocks or
+      high mounds.&rdquo; The land-force was divided into three corps, each under a
+      barbarian and a Greek general. It advanced along the sea coast, following
+      the ancient route pursued by the armies of the Pharaohs, and as it skirted
+      the marshes of Sirbonis, some detachments, having imprudently ventured
+      over the treacherous soil, perished to a man. When the main force arrived
+      in safety before Pelusium, it found Nectanebo awaiting it behind his
+      ramparts and marshes. He had fewer men than his adversary, his force
+      numbering only six thousand Egyptians, twenty thousand Libyans, and the
+      same number of Greeks; but the remembrance of the successes won by himself
+      and his predecessors with inferior numbers inspired him with confidence in
+      the issue of the struggle. His fleet could not have ventured to meet in
+      battle the combined squadrons of Cyprus and Phoenicia, but, on the other
+      hand, he had a sufficient number of flat-bottomed boats to prevent any
+      adversary from entering the mouths of the Nile. The weak points along his
+      Mediterranean seaboard and eastern frontier were covered by strongholds,
+      fortifications, and entrenched camps: in short, his plans were
+      sufficiently well laid to ensure success in a defensive war, if the rash
+      ardour of his Greek mercenaries had not defeated his plans. Five thousand
+      of these troops were in occupation of Pelusium, under command of
+      Philophrôn. Some companies of Thebans, who were serving under Lacrates in
+      the Persian army, crossed a deep canal which separated them from the city,
+      and provoked the garrison to risk an encounter in the open field.
+      Philophrôn, instead of treating their challenge with indifference,
+      accepted it, and engaged in a combat which lasted till nightfall. On the
+      following day, Lacrates, having drawn off the waters of the canal and
+      thrown a dyke across it, led his entire force up to the glacis of the
+      fortifications, dug some trenches, and brought up a line of
+      battering-rams. He would soon have effected a breach, but the Egyptians
+      understood how to use the spade as well as the lance, and while the outer
+      wall was crumbling, they improvised behind it a second wall, crowned with
+      wooden turrets. Nectanebo, who had come up with thirty thousand native,
+      five thousand Greek troops, and half the Libyan contingent, observed the
+      vicissitudes of the siege from a short distance, and by his presence alone
+      opposed the advance of the bulk of the Persian army. Weeks passed by, the
+      time of the inundation was approaching, and it seemed as if this policy of
+      delay would have its accustomed success, when an unforeseen incident
+      decided in a moment the fate of Egypt. Among the officers of Ochus was a
+      certain Nicostratus of Argos, who on account of his prodigious strength
+      was often compared to Heracles, and who out of vanity dressed himself up
+      in the traditional costume of that hero, the lion&rsquo;s skin and the club.
+      Having imbibed, doubtless, the ideas formerly propounded by Iphicrates,
+      Nicostratus forced some peasants, whose wives and children he had seized
+      as hostages, to act as his guides, and made his way up one of the canals
+      which traverse the marshes of Menzaleh: there he disembarked his men in
+      the rear of Nectanebo, and took up a very strong position on the border of
+      the cultivated land. This enterprise, undertaken with a very insufficient
+      force, was an extremely rash one; if the Egyptian generals had contented
+      themselves with harassing Nicostratus without venturing on engaging him in
+      a pitched battle, they would speedily have forced him to re-embark or to
+      lay down his arms. Unfortunately, however, five thousand mercenaries, who
+      formed the garrison of one of the neighbouring towns, hastened to attack
+      him under the command of Clinias of Cos, and suffered a severe defeat. As
+      a result, the gates of the town were thrown open to the enemy, and if the
+      Persians, encouraged by the success of this forlorn hope, had followed it
+      up boldly, Nectanebo would have run the risk of being cut off from his
+      troops which were around Pelusium, and of being subsequently crushed. He
+      thought it wiser to retreat towards the apex of the Delta, but this very
+      act of prudence exposed him to one of those accidental misfortunes which
+      are wont to occur in armies formed of very diverse elements. While he was
+      concentrating his reserves at Memphis, the troops of the first line
+      thought that, by leaving them exposed to the assaults of the great king,
+      he was deliberately sacrificing them. Pelusium capitulated to Lacrates;
+      Mentor of Ehodes pushed forward and seized Bubastis, and the other cities
+      in the eastern portion of the Delta, fearing to bring upon themselves the
+      fate of Sidon, opened their gates to the Persians after a mere show of
+      resistance. The forces which had collected at Memphis thereupon disbanded,
+      and Nectanebo, ruined by these successive disasters, collected his
+      treasures and fled to Ethiopia. The successful issue of the rash
+      enterprise of Nicostratus had overthrown the empire of the Pharaohs, and
+      re-established the Persian empire in its integrity (342 B.C.).*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The complete history of this war is related by Diodorus
+     Siculus, who generally follows the narrative of Theopompus.
+     The chronology is still sufficiently uncertain to leave some
+     doubt as to the exact date of each event; I have followed
+     that arrangement which seems to accord best with the general
+     history of the period. The following table may be drawn up
+     of the last Egyptian dynasties as far as they can be
+     restored at present:&mdash;
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0042" id="linkBimage-0042">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/312.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="312.jpg Table of the Last Egyptian Dynasties " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Egypt had prospered under the strong rule of its last native Pharaohs.
+      Every one of them, from Amyrtous down to Nectanebo, had done his best to
+      efface all traces of the Persian invasions and restore to the country the
+      appearance which it had presented before the days of its servitude; even
+      kings like Psamutis and Tachôs, whose reign had been of the briefest, had,
+      like those who ruled for longer periods, constructed or beautified the
+      monuments of the country. The Thebaid was in this respect a special field
+      of their labours. The island of Philæ, exposed to the ceaseless attacks of
+      the Ethiopians, had been reduced to little more than a pile of ruins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0043" id="linkBimage-0043">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/313.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="313.jpg Small Temple of Nectanebo, at the Southern Extremity of Philae " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Beato.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Nectanebo II. erected a magnificent gate there, afterwards incorporated
+      into the first pylon of the temple built by the Ptolemies, and one at
+      least of the buildings that still remain, the charming rectangular kiosk,
+      the pillars of which, with their Hathor capitals, rise above the southern
+      extremity of the island and mark the spot at which the Ethiopian pilgrims
+      first set foot on the sacred territory of the bountiful Isis. Nectanebo I.
+      restored the sanctuaries of Nekhabît at El-Kab, and of Horus at Edfu, in
+      which latter place he has left an admirable naos which delights the modern
+      traveller by its severe proportions and simplicity of ornament, while
+      Nectanebo II. repaired the ancient temple of Mînu at Coptos; in short,
+      without giving a detailed list of what was accomplished by each of these
+      later Pharaohs, it may be said that there are few important sites in the
+      valley of the Nile where some striking evidence of their activity may not
+      still be discovered even after the lapse of so many centuries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0044" id="linkBimage-0044">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/314.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="314.jpg Naos of Nectanebo in the Temple at Edfu " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Beato.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It will be sufficient to mention Thebes, Memphis, Sebennytos, Bubastis,
+      Pahabît, Patumu, and Tanis. Nor did the Theban oases, including that of
+      Amon himself, escape their zeal, for the few Europeans who have visited
+      them in modern times have observed their cartouches there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0045" id="linkBimage-0045">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/315.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="315.jpg Great Gate of Nectanebo at Karnak " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Beato.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Moreover, in spite of the brief space of time within which they were
+      carried out, the majority of these works betray no signs of haste or
+      slipshod execution; the craftsmen employed on them seem to have preserved
+      in their full integrity all the artistic traditions of earlier times, and
+      were capable of producing masterpieces which will bear comparison with
+      those of the golden age. The Eastern gate, erected at Karnak in the time
+      of Nectanebo II., is in no way inferior either in purity of proportion or
+      in the beauty of its carvings to what remains of the gates of Amenôthes
+      III.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sarcophagus of Nectanebo I. is carved and decorated with a perfection
+      of skill which had never been surpassed in any age, and elsewhere, on all
+      the monuments which bear the name of this monarch the hieroglyphics have
+      been designed and carved with as much care as though each one of them had
+      been a precious cameo.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The sarcophagus was for a long time preserved near the
+     mosque of Ibn-Tulun, and was credited with peculiar virtues
+     by the superstitious inhabitants of Cairo.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The basalt torso of Nectanebo II., which attracts so much admiration in
+      the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris for accuracy of proportion and
+      delicacy of modelling, deserves to rank with the finest statues of the
+      ancient empire. The men&rsquo;s heads are veritable portraits, in which such
+      details as a peculiar conformation of the skull, prominent cheekbones,
+      deep-set eyes, sunken cheeks, or the modelling of the chin, have all been
+      observed and reproduced with a fidelity and keenness of observation which
+      we fail to find in such works of the earlier artists as have come down to
+      us. These later sculptors display the same regard for truth in their
+      treatment of animals, and their dog-headed divinities; their dogs, lions,
+      and sphinxes will safely bear comparison with the most lifelike
+      presentments of these creatures to be found among the remains of the
+      Memphite or Theban eras. Egypt was thus in the full tide of material
+      prosperity when it again fell under the Persian yoke, and might have
+      become a source of inexhaustible wealth to Ochus had he known how to
+      secure acceptance of his rule, as Darius, son of Hystaspes, had done in
+      the days of Amasis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0047" id="linkBimage-0047">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/317.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="317.jpg One of the Lions in The Vatican " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Flinders Pétrie.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The violence of his temperament, however, impelled him to a course of
+      pitiless oppression, and his favourite minister, the eunuch Bagoas, seems
+      to have done his best to stimulate his master&rsquo;s natural cruelty. In the
+      days when they felt themselves securely protected from his anger by their
+      Libyan and Greek troops, the fellahîn had freely indulged in lampoons at
+      the expense of their Persian suzerain; they had compared him to Typhon on
+      account of his barbarity, and had nicknamed him &ldquo;the Ass,&rdquo; this animal
+      being in their eyes a type of everything that is vile. On his arrival at
+      Memphis, Ochus gave orders that an ass should be installed in the temple
+      of Phtah, and have divine honours paid to it; he next had the bull Apis
+      slaughtered and served up at a set banquet which he gave to his friends on
+      taking possession of the White Wall. The sacred goat of Mendes suffered
+      the same fate as the Apis, and doubtless none of the other sacred animals
+      were spared. Bagoas looted the temples in the most systematic way,
+      despatched the sacred books to Persia, razed the walls of the cities to
+      the ground, and put every avowed partisan of the native dynasty to the
+      sword. After these punitive measures had been carried out, Ochus disbanded
+      his mercenaries and returned to Babylon, leaving Pherendates in charge of
+      the reconquered province.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * It seems that a part of the atrocities committed by Ochus
+     and Bagoas soon came to be referred to the time of the
+     &ldquo;Impure&rdquo; and to that of Cambyses.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0046" id="linkBimage-0046">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:39%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/316.jpg"
+       alt="316.jpg Fragment of a Naos Of the Time Of Nectanebo Ii. In the Bologna Museum " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by Boudier,
+from a photograph
+by Flinders Pétrie.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The downfall of Egypt struck terror into the rebellious satraps who were
+      in arms elsewhere. Artabazus, who had kept Asia Minor in a ferment ever
+      since the time of Artaxerxes II., gave up the struggle of his own accord
+      and took refuge in Macedonia. The petty kings of the cities on the shores
+      of the Hellespont and the Ægean submitted themselves in order to regain
+      favour, or if, like Hermias of Atarnasa, the friend of Aristotle, they
+      still resisted, they were taken prisoners and condemned to death. The
+      success of Ochus was a reality, but there was still much to be done before
+      things were restored to the footing they had occupied before the crisis.
+      We know enough of the course of events in the western provinces to realise
+      the pitch of weakness to which the imbecility of Darius II. and his son
+      Artaxerxes II. had reduced the empire of Darius and Xerxes, but it is
+      quite certain that the disastrous effects of their misgovernment were not
+      confined to the shores of the Mediterranean, but were felt no less acutely
+      in the eastern and central regions of the empire. There, as on the Greek
+      frontiers, the system built up at the cost of so much ingenuity by Darius
+      was gradually being broken down with each year that passed, and the
+      central government could no longer make its power felt at the extremities
+      of the empire save at irregular intervals, when its mandates were not
+      intercepted or nullified in transmission. The functions of the &ldquo;Eyes&rdquo; and
+      &ldquo;Ears&rdquo; of the king had degenerated into a mere meaningless formality, and
+      were, more often than not, dispensed with altogether. The line of
+      demarcation between the military and civil power had been obliterated: not
+      only had the originally independent offices of satrap, general, and
+      secretary ceased to exist in each separate province, but, in many
+      instances, the satrap, after usurping the functions of his two colleagues,
+      contrived to extend his jurisdiction till it included several provinces,
+      thus establishing himself as a kind of viceroy. Absorbed in disputes among
+      themselves, or in conspiracies against the Achsemenian dynasty, these
+      officials had no time to look after the well-being of the districts under
+      their control, and the various tribes and cities took advantage of this to
+      break the ties of vassalage. To take Asia Minor alone, some of the petty
+      kings of Bithynia, Paphlagonia, and certain districts of Cappadocia or the
+      mountainous parts of Phrygia still paid their tribute intermittently, and
+      only when compelled to do so; others, however, such as the Pisidians,
+      Lycaonians, a part of the Lycians, and some races of Mount Taurus, no
+      longer dreamed of doing so. The three satrapies on the shores of the
+      Caspian, which a hundred years before had wedged themselves in between
+      that sea and the Euxine, were now dissolved, all trace of them being lost
+      in a confused medley of kingdoms and small states, some of which were
+      ready enough to acknowledge the supremacy of Persia, while others, such as
+      the Gordiseans, Taochi, Chalybes, Colchi, Mosynoki, and Tibarenians,
+      obeyed no rule but their own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0048" id="linkBimage-0048">
+      <!-- IMG --></a> <a href="images/320.jpg">ENLARGE TO FULL SIZE</a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img alt="320th (163K) Map of the Persian Empire" src="images/320th.jpg"
+       width="100%" />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /> [Click on the Map to enlarge it to full size.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All along the Caspian, the Cadusians and Amardians, on either side of the
+      chain of mountains bordering the Iranian plateau, defied all the efforts
+      made to subdue them.* India and the Sakse had developed from the condition
+      of subjects into that of friendly allies, and the savage hordes of
+      Gedrosia and the Paropamisus refused to recognise any authority at all.**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * They appear in the history of every epoch as the
+     irreconcilable foes of the great king, enemies against whom
+     even the most peacefully disposed sovereigns were compelled
+     to take the field in person.
+
+     ** The Sakæ fought at Arbela, but only as allies of the
+     Persians. The Indians who are mentioned with them came from
+     the neighbourhood of Cabul; most of the races who had
+     formerly figured in Darius&rsquo; satrapy of India had become
+     independent by the time Alexander penetrated into the basin
+     of the Indus.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The whole empire needed to be reconquered and reorganised bit by bit if it
+      was to exercise that influence in the world to which its immense size
+      entitled it, and the question arose whether the elements of which it
+      consisted would lend themselves to any permanent reorganisation or
+      readjustment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The races of the ancient Eastern world, or, at any rate, that portion of
+      them which helped to make its history, either existed no longer or had
+      sunk into their dotage. They had worn each other out in the centuries of
+      their prime, Chaldæans and Assyrians fighting against Cossæans or
+      Elamites, Egyptians against Ethiopians and against Hittites, Urartians,
+      Armæans, the peoples of Lebanon and of Damascus, the Phoenicians,
+      Canaanites and Jews, until at last, with impoverished blood and flagging
+      energies, they were thrown into conflict with younger and more vigorous
+      nations. The Medes had swept away all that still remained of Assyria and
+      Urartu; the Persians had overthrown the Medes, the Lydians, and the
+      Chaldæans, till Egypt alone remained and was struck down by them in her
+      turn. What had become of these conquered nations during the period of
+      nearly two hundred years that the Achæmenians had ruled over them? First,
+      as regards Elam, one of the oldest and formerly the most powerful of them
+      all. She had been rent into two halves, each of them destined to have a
+      different fate. In the mountains, the Uxians, Mardians, Elymasans, and
+      Cossæans&mdash;tribes who had formerly been the backbone of the nation&mdash;had
+      relapsed into a semi-barbarous condition, or rather, while the rest of the
+      world had progressed in civilization and refinement, they had remained in
+      a state of stagnation, adhering obstinately to the customs of their palmy
+      days: just as they had harried the Chaldæans or Assyrians in the olden
+      times, so now they harried the Persians; then, taking refuge in their
+      rocky fastnesses, they lived on the proceeds of their forays, successfully
+      resisting all attempts made to dislodge them. The people of the plains, on
+      the other hand, kept in check from the outset by the presence of the court
+      at Susa, not only promptly resigned themselves to their fate, but even
+      took pleasure in it, and came to look upon themselves as in some sort the
+      masters of Asia. Was it not to their country, to the very spot occupied by
+      the palace of their king, that, for nearly two hundred years, satraps,
+      vassal kings, the legates of foreign races, ambassadors of Greek republics&mdash;in
+      a word, all the great ones of this world&mdash;came every year to render
+      homage, and had not the treasures which these visitors brought with them
+      been expended, in part at any rate, on their country? The memory of their
+      former prosperity paled before the splendours of their new destiny, and
+      the glory of their ancestors suffered eclipse. The names of the national
+      kings, the story of their Chaldæan and Syrian conquests, the trophies of
+      their victories over the great generals of Nineveh, the horrors of their
+      latest discords and of the final catastrophe were all forgotten; even the
+      documents which might have helped to recall them lay buried in the heart
+      of the mound which served as a foundation for the palace of the
+      Achgernenides. Beyond the vague consciousness of a splendid past, the
+      memory of the common people was a blank, and when questioned by strangers
+      they could tell them nothing save legends of the gods or the exploits of
+      mythical heroes; and from them the Greeks borrowed their Memnon, that son
+      of Tithonus and Eôs who rushed to the aid of Priam with his band of
+      Ethiopians, and whose prowess had failed to retard by a single day the
+      downfall of Troy. Further northwards, the Urartians and peoples of ancient
+      Naîri, less favoured by fortune, lost ground with each successive
+      generation, yielding to the steady pressure of the Armenians. In the time
+      of Herodotus they were still in possession of the upper basins of the
+      Euphrates and Araxus, and, in conjunction with the Matieni and Saspires,
+      formed a satrapy&mdash;the eighteenth&mdash;the boundaries of which
+      coincided pretty closely with those of the kingdom ruled over by the last
+      kings of Van in the days of Assur-bani-pal; the Armenians, on their side,
+      constituted the thirteenth satrapy, between Mount Taurus and the Lower
+      Arsanias.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0049" id="linkBimage-0049">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/325.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="325.jpg Coins of the Satraps With Aramaean Inscriptions " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from coins in the <i>Cabinet des
+     Médailles</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0050" id="linkBimage-0050">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:34%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/326.jpg" alt="326.jpg a Lycian Tomb " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by Faucher-Gudin,
+from a woodcut in Bonndorff.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The whole face of their country had undergone a profound change since that
+      time: the Urartians, driven northwards, became intermingled with the
+      tribes on the slopes of the Caucasus, while the Armenians, carried along
+      towards the east, as though by some resistless current, were now scaling
+      the mountainous bulwark of Ararat, and slowly but surely encroaching on
+      the lower plains of the Araxes. These political changes had been almost
+      completed by the time of Ochus, and Urartu had disappeared from the scene,
+      but an Armenia now flourished in the very region where Urartu had once
+      ruled, and its princes, who were related to the family of the Achæmenides,
+      wielded an authority little short of regal under the modest name of
+      satraps. Thanks to their influence, the religions and customs of Iran were
+      introduced into the eastern borders of Asia Minor. They made their way
+      into the valleys of the Iris and the Halys, into Cappadocia and the
+      country round Mount Taurus, and thither they brought with them the
+      official script of the empire, the Persian and Aramaean cuneiform which
+      was employed in public documents, in inscriptions, and on coins. The
+      centre of the peninsula remained very much the same as it had been in the
+      period of the Phrygian supremacy, but further westward Hellenic influences
+      gradually made themselves felt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The arts of Greece, its manners, religious ideals, and modes of thought,
+      were slowly displacing civilisations of the Asianic type, and even in
+      places like Lycia, where the language successfully withstood the Greek
+      invasion, the life of the nations, and especially of their rulers, became
+      so deeply impregnated with Hellenism as to differ but little from that in
+      the cities on the Ionic, Æolian, or Doric seaboard. The Lycians still
+      adhered to the ancient forms which characterised their funerary
+      architecture, but it was to Greek sculptors, or pupils from the Grecian
+      schools, that they entrusted the decoration of the sides of their
+      sarcophagi and of their tombs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Their kings minted coins many of which are reckoned among the masterpieces
+      of antique engraving; and if we pass from Lycia to the petty states of
+      Caria, we come upon one of the greatest triumphs of Greek art&mdash;that
+      huge mausoleum in which the inconsolable Artemisia enclosed the ashes and
+      erected the statue of her husband. The Asia Minor of Egyptian times, with
+      its old-world dynasties, its old-world names, and old-world races, had
+      come to be nothing more than an historic memory; even that martial world,
+      in which the Assyrian conquerors fought so many battles from the Euphrates
+      to the Black Sea, was now no more, and its neighbours and enemies of
+      former days had, for the most part, disappeared from the land of the
+      living.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0053" id="linkBimage-0053">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/328.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="328.jpg Lycian Sarcophagus Decorated With Greek Carvings " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photogravure published by
+     Hamdy-Beg and Th. Reinach.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The Lotanu were gone, the Khâti were gone, and gone, too, were Carchemish,
+      Arpad, and Qodshu, much of th§ir domain having been swallowed up again by
+      the desert for want of hands to water and till it; even Assyria itself
+      seemed but a shadow half shrouded in the mists of oblivion. Sangara,
+      Nisibis, Resaina, and Edessa still showed some signs of vigour, but on
+      quitting the slopes of the Masios and proceeding southwards, piles of
+      ruins alone marked the sites of those wealthy cities through which the
+      Ninevite monarchs had passed in their journeyings towards Syria. Here wide
+      tracts of arid and treeless country were now to be seen covered with
+      aromatic herbage, where the Scenite Arabs were wont to pursue the lion,
+      wild ass, ostrich, bustard, antelope, and gazelle; a few abandoned forts,
+      such as Korsortê, Anatho, and Is (Hit) marked the halting-places of armies
+      on the banks of the Euphrates. In the region of the Tigris, the
+      descendants of Assyrian captives who, like the Jews, had been set free by
+      Cyrus, had rebuilt Assur, and had there grown wealthy by husbandry and
+      commerce,* but in the district of the Zab solitude reigned supreme.**
+      Calah and Nineveh were alike deserted, and though their ruins still
+      littered the sites where they had stood, their names were unknown in the
+      neighbouring villages. Xenophon, relying on his guides, calls the former
+      place Larissa, the second Mespila.***
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * This seems to be indicated by a mutilated passage in the
+     <i>Cylinder of Gyrus</i>, where Assur is mentioned in the list of
+     towns and countries whose inhabitants were sent back to
+     their homes by Cyrus after the capture of Babylon. Xenophon
+     calls it Esense, this being, possibly, a translation of the
+     name given to it by its inhabitants. Nothing could be more
+     natural than for exiles to call the villages founded by them
+     on their return &ldquo;new.&rdquo; The town seems to have been a large
+     and wealthy one.
+
+     ** Xenophon calls this country Media, a desert region which
+     the Ten Thousand took six days to cross.
+
+     *** The name Larissa is, possibly, a corruption of some name
+     similar to that of the city of Larsam in Chaldæa; Mespila
+     may be a generic term. [Mespila is Muspula, &ldquo;the low ground&rdquo;
+      at the foot of Kouyunjik; Larissa probably Al Resen or
+     Res-eni, between Kouyunjik and Nebi Yunus.&mdash;Ed.]
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0051" id="linkBimage-0051">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:23%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/327b.jpg" alt="327b.jpg Statue of Mausolus " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by Faucher-
+Gudin, from a
+photograph of the
+original in the
+British Museum.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Already there were historians who took the ziggurât at Nineveh to be the
+      burial-place of Sardanapalus. They declared that Cyrus had pulled it down
+      in order to strengthen his camp during the siege of the town, and that
+      formerly it had borne an epitaph afterwards put into verse by the poet
+      Choerilus of Iassus: &ldquo;I reigned, and so long as I beheld the light of the
+      sun, I ate, I drank, I loved, well knowing how brief is the life of man,
+      and to how many vicissitudes it is liable.&rdquo; Many writers, remembering the
+      Assyrian monument at Anchialê in Cilicia, were inclined to place the
+      king&rsquo;s tomb there. It was surmounted by the statue of a man&mdash;according
+      to one account, with his hands crossed upon his breast, according to
+      another, in the act of snapping his fingers&mdash;and bore the following
+      inscription in Chaldaic letters: &ldquo;I, Sardanapalus, son of Anakyndaraxes,
+      founded Anchialê and Tarsus in one day, but now am dead.&rdquo; Thus ten
+      centuries of conquests and massacre had passed away like a vapour, leaving
+      nothing but a meagre residue of old men&rsquo;s tales and moral axioms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In one respect only does the civilisation of the Euphrates seem to have
+      fairly held its own. Cossæa, though it had lost its independence, had lost
+      but little of its wealth; its former rebellions had done it no great
+      injury, and its ancient cities were still left standing, though shorn of
+      their early splendour. Uru, it is true, numbered but few citizens round
+      its tottering sanctuaries, but Uruk maintained a school of theologians and
+      astronomers no less famous throughout the East than those of Borsippa. The
+      swamps, however, which surrounded it possessed few attractions, and Greek
+      travellers rarely ventured thither. They generally stopped at Babylon, or
+      if they ventured off the beaten track, it was only to visit the monuments
+      of Nebuchadrezzar, or the tombs of the early kings in its immediate
+      neighbourhood. Babylon was, indeed, one of the capitals of the empire&mdash;nay,
+      for more than half a century, during the closing years of Artaxerxes I.,
+      in the reign of Darius II., and in the early days of Artaxerxes IL, it had
+      been the real capital; even under Ochus, the court spent the winter months
+      there, and resorted thither in quest of those resources of industry and
+      commerce which Susa lacked. The material benefits due to the presence of
+      the sovereign seem to have reconciled the city to its subject condition;
+      there had been no seditious movement there since the ill-starred rising of
+      Shamasherîb, which Xerxes had quelled with ruthless severity. The Greek
+      mercenaries or traders who visited it, though prepared for its huge size
+      by general report, could not repress a feeling of astonishment as they
+      approached it. First of all there was the triple wall of Nebuchadrezzar,
+      with its moats, its rows of towers, and its colossal gateways. Unlike the
+      Greek cities, it had been laid out according to a regular plan, and formed
+      a perfect square, inside which the streets crossed one another at right
+      angles, some parallel to the Euphrates, others at right angles to it;
+      every one of the latter terminated in a brazen gate opening through the
+      masonry of the quay, and giving access to the river. The passengers who
+      crowded the streets included representatives of all the Asiatic races, the
+      native Babylonians being recognisable by their graceful dress, consisting
+      of a linen tunic falling to the feet, a fringed shawl, round cap, and
+      heavy staff terminating in a knob. From this ever-changing background
+      stood out many novel features calculated to stimulate Greek curiosity,
+      such as the sick persons exposed at street-corners in order that they
+      might beg the passers-by to prescribe for them, the prostitution of her
+      votaries within the courts of the goddess Mylitta, and the disposal of
+      marriageable girls by auction: Herodotus, however, regretted that this
+      latter custom had fallen into abeyance. And yet to the attentive eye of a
+      close observer even Babylon must have furnished many unmistakable symptoms
+      of decay. The huge boundary wall enclosed too large an area for the
+      population sheltered behind it; whole quarters were crumbling into heaps
+      of ruins, and the flower and vegetable gardens were steadily encroaching
+      on spaces formerly covered with houses. Public buildings had suffered
+      quite as much as private dwellings from the Persian wars. Xerxes had
+      despoiled the temples, and no restoration had been attempted since his
+      time. The ziggurât of Bel lay half buried already beneath piles of
+      rubbish; the golden statues which had once stood within its chambers had
+      disappeared, and the priests no longer carried on their astronomical
+      observations on its platform.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Herodotus merely mentions that Xerxes had despoiled the
+     temple; Strabo tells us that Alexander wished to restore it,
+     but that it was in such a state of dilapidation that it
+     would have taken ten thousand men two months merely to
+     remove the rubbish.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0052" id="linkBimage-0052">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:17%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/327a.jpg"
+       alt="327a.jpg Coin of a Lycian King " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a silver stater in the <i>Cabinet
+     des Médailles.</i> The king in question was named Deneveles,
+     and is only known by the coins bearing his superscription.
+     He flourished about 395 B.C.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The palaces of the ancient kings were falling to pieces from lack of
+      repairs, though the famous hanging gardens in the citadel were still shown
+      to strangers. The guides, of course, gave them out to be a device of
+      Semiramis, but the well-informed knew that they had been constructed by
+      Nebuchadrezzar for one of his wives the daughter of Oyaxares, who pined
+      for the verdure of her native mountains. &ldquo;They were square in shape, each
+      side being four hundred feet long; one approached them by steps leading to
+      terraces placed one above the other, the arrangement of the whole,
+      resembling that of an amphitheatre. Each terrace rested on pillars which,
+      gradually increasing in size, supported the weight of the soil and its
+      produce. The loftiest pillar attained a height of fifty feet; it reached
+      to the upper part of the garden, its capital being on a level with the
+      balustrades of the boundary wall. The terraces were covered with a layer
+      of soil of sufficient depth for the roots of the largest trees; plants of
+      all kinds that delight the eye by their shape or beauty were grown there.
+      One of the columns was hollowed from top to bottom; it contained hydraulic
+      engines which pumped up quantities of water, no part of the mechanism
+      being visible from the outside.&rdquo; Many travellers were content to note down
+      only such marvels as they considered likely to make their narratives more
+      amusing, but others took pains to collect information of a more solid
+      character, and before they had carried their researches very far, were at
+      once astounded and delighted with the glimpses they obtained of Chaldæan
+      genius. No doubt, they exaggerated when they went so far as to maintain
+      that all their learning came to them originally from Babylon, and that the
+      most famous scholars of Greece, Pherecydes of Scyros, Democritus of
+      Abdera, and Pythagoras,* owed the rudiments of philosophy, mathematics,
+      physics, and astrology to the school of the <i>Magi</i>.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The story which asserts that Pythagoras served under
+     Nergilos, King of Assyria, is probably based on some
+     similarity of names: thus among the Greek kings of Cyprus,
+     and in the time of Assur-bani-pal, we find one whose name
+     would recall that of Pythagoras, if the accuracy of the
+     reading were beyond question.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Yet it is not surprising that they should have believed this to be the
+      case, when increasing familiarity with the priestly seminaries revealed to
+      them the existence of those libraries of clay tablets in which, side by
+      side with theoretic treatises dating from two thousand years back and
+      more, were to be found examples of applied mechanics, observations,
+      reckonings, and novel solutions of problems, which generations of scribes
+      had accumulated in the course of centuries. The Greek astronomers took
+      full advantage of these documents, but it was their astrologers and
+      soothsayers who were specially indebted to them. The latter acknowledged
+      their own inferiority the moment they came into contact with their
+      Euphratean colleagues, and endeavoured to make good their deficiencies by
+      taking lessons from the latter or persuading them to migrate to Greece. A
+      hundred years later saw the Babylonian Berosus opening at Cos a public
+      school of divination by the stars. From thenceforward &ldquo;Chaldæan&rdquo; came to
+      be synonymous with &ldquo;astrologer&rdquo; or &ldquo;sorcerer,&rdquo; and Chaldæan magic became
+      supreme throughout the world at the very moment when Chaldæa itself was in
+      its death-throes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nor was its unquestioned supremacy in the black art the sole legacy that
+      Chaldæa bequeathed to the coming generations: its language survived, and
+      reigned for centuries afterwards in the regions subjugated by its arms.
+      The cultivated tongue employed by the scribes of Nineve and Babylon in the
+      palmy days of their race, had long become a sort of literary dialect, used
+      in writings of a lofty character and understood by a select few, but
+      unintelligible to the common people. The populace in town or country
+      talked an Aramaic jargon, clumsier and more prolix than Assyrian, but
+      easier to understand. We know how successfully the Aramæans had managed to
+      push their way along the Euphrates and into Syria towards the close of the
+      Hittite supremacy: their successive encroachments had been favoured, first
+      by the Assyrian, later by the Chaldæan conquests, and now they had become
+      sole possessors of the ancient Naharaîna, the plains of Cilicia, the basin
+      of the Orontes, and the country round Damascus; but the true home of the
+      Aramæans was in Syria rather than in the districts of the Lower Euphrates.
+      Even in the time of the Sargonids their alphabet had made so much headway
+      that at Nineveh itself and at Calah it had come into everyday use; when
+      Chaldæan supremacy gave way to that of the Persians, its triumph&mdash;in
+      the western provinces, at any rate&mdash;was complete, and it became the
+      recognised vehicle of the royal decrees: we come upon it in every
+      direction, on the coins issued by the satraps of Asia Minor, on the seals
+      of local governors or dynasts, on inscriptions or stelæ in Egypt, in the
+      letters of the scribes, and in the rescripts of the great king. From Nisib
+      to Baphia, between the Tigris and the Mediterranean, it gradually
+      supplanted most of the other dialects&mdash;Semitic or otherwise&mdash;which
+      had hitherto prevailed. Phoenician held its ground in the seaports, but
+      Hebrew gave way before it, and ended by being restricted to religious
+      purposes, as a literary and liturgical language. It was in the
+      neighbourhood of Babylon itself that the Judæan exiles had, during the
+      Captivity, adopted the Aramaic language, and their return to Canaan failed
+      to restore either the purity of their own language or the dignity and
+      independence of their religious life. Their colony at Jerusalem possessed
+      few resources; the wealthier Hebrews had, for the most part, remained in
+      Chaldæa, leaving the privilege of repopulating the holy city to those of
+      their brethren who were less plenteously endowed with this world&rsquo;s goods.
+      These latter soon learned to their cost that Zion was not the ideal city
+      whose &ldquo;gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor
+      night; that men may bring unto thee the wealth of the nations;&rdquo; far from
+      &ldquo;sucking the milk of nations and the breast of kings,&rdquo; * their fields
+      produced barely sufficient to satisfy the more pressing needs of daily
+      life. &ldquo;Ye have sown much, and bring in little,&rdquo; as Jahveh declared to them
+      &ldquo;ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with
+      drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages
+      earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.&rdquo; **
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * An anonymous prophet in Isa. lx. 11-16.
+
+     ** Hagg. i. 6.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      They quickly relinquished the work of restoration, finding themselves
+      forgotten by all&mdash;their Babylonian brethren included&mdash;in the
+      midst of the great events which were then agitating the world, the
+      preparations for the conquest of Egypt, the usurpation of the
+      pseudo-Smerdis, the accession of Darius, the Babylonian and Median
+      insurrections. Possibly they believed that the Achæmenides had had their
+      day, and that a new Chaldæan empire, with a second Nebuchadrezzar at its
+      head, was about to regain the ascendency. It would seem that the downfall
+      of Nadintav-bel inspired them with new faith in the future and encouraged
+      them to complete their task: in the second year of Darius, two prophets,
+      Haggai and Zechariah, arose in their midst and lifted up their voices.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Zerubbabel, a prince of the royal line, governed Judah in the Persian
+      interest, and with him was associated the high priest Joshua, who looked
+      after the spiritual interests of the community: the reproaches of the two
+      prophets aroused the people from their inaction, and induced them to
+      resume their interrupted building operations. Darius, duly informed of
+      what was going on by the governor of Syria, gave orders that they were not
+      to be interfered with, and four years later the building of the temple was
+      completed.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Ezra iv.-vi.; the account given by Josephus of the two
+     expeditions of Zerubbabel seems to have been borrowed partly
+     from the canonical book, partly from the Apocryphal writing
+     known as the <i>1st Book of Esdras</i>.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      For nearly a century after this the little Jewish republic remained
+      quiescent. It had slowly developed until it had gradually won back a
+      portion of the former territories of Benjamin and Judah, but its expansion
+      southwards was checked by the Idumæans, to whom Nebuchadrezzar had years
+      before handed over Hebron and Acrabattenê (Akrabbim) as a reward for the
+      services they had rendered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the north its neighbours were the descendants of those Aramaean exiles
+      whom Sargon, Sennacherib, and Esar-haddon, kings of Assyria, had, on
+      various occasions, installed around Samaria in Mount Ephraim. At first
+      these people paid no reverence to the &ldquo;God of the land,&rdquo; so that Jahveh,
+      in order to punish them, sent lions, which spread carnage in their ranks.
+      Then the King of Assyria allotted them an Israelitish priest from among
+      his prisoners, who taught them &ldquo;the law&rdquo; of Jahveh, and appointed other
+      priests chosen from the people, and showed them how to offer up sacrifices
+      on the ancient high places.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Kings xvii. 24-40. There do not seem to have been the
+     continual disputes between the inhabitants of Judaea and
+     Samaria before the return of Nehemiah, which the compilers
+     of the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah seem to have believed.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0054" id="linkBimage-0054">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:33%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/337.jpg"
+       alt="337.jpg Chaldean Seal With Aramaic Inscription " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by Faucher-
+Gudin, from a
+photogravure
+published in
+Menant.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Thus another Israel began to rise up again, and, at first, the new Judah
+      seems to have been on tolerably friendly terms with it: the two
+      communities traded and intermarried with one another, the Samaritans took
+      part in the religious ceremonies, and certain of their leaders occupied a
+      court in the temple at Jerusalem. The alliance, however, proved dangerous
+      to the purity of the faith, for the proselytes, while they adopted Jahveh
+      and gave Him that supreme place in their devotions which was due to &ldquo;the
+      God of the land,&rdquo; had by no means entirely forsworn their national
+      superstitions, and Adrammelek, Nergal, Tartak, Anammelek, and other
+      deities still found worshippers among them. Judah, which in the days of
+      its independence had so often turned aside after the gods of Canaan and
+      Moab, was in danger of being led away by the idolatrous practices of its
+      new neighbours; intermarriage with the daughters of Moab and Ammon, of
+      Philistia and Samaria, was producing a gradual degeneracy: the national
+      language was giving way before the Aramaean; unless some one could be
+      found to stem the tide of decadence and help the people to remount the
+      slope which they were descending, the fate of Judah was certain. A prophet&mdash;the
+      last of those whose predictions have survived to our time&mdash;stood
+      forth amid the general laxity and called the people to account for their
+      transgressions, in the name of the Eternal, but his single voice, which
+      seemed but a feeble echo of the great prophets of former ages, did not
+      meet with a favourable hearing. Salvation came at length from the Jews
+      outside Judah, the naturalised citizens of Babylon, a well-informed and
+      wealthy body, occupying high places in the administration of the empire,
+      and sometimes in the favour of the sovereign also, yet possessed by an
+      ardent zeal for the religion of their fathers and a steadfast faith in the
+      vitality of their race. One of these, a certain Nehemiah, was employed as
+      cupbearer to Artaxerxes II. He was visited at Susa by some men of Judah
+      whose business had brought them to that city and inquired of them how
+      matters fared in Jerusalem. Hanani, one of his visitors, replied that &ldquo;the
+      remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great
+      affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and
+      the gates thereof are burned with fire.&rdquo; Nehemiah took advantage of a
+      moment when the king seemed in a jovial mood to describe the wretched
+      state of his native land in moving terms: he obtained leave to quit Susa
+      and authority to administer the city in which his fathers had dwelt.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Nehemiah i., ii.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      This took place in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, about 385 B.C.
+      Nehemiah at once made his way to Jerusalem with such escort as befitted
+      his dignity, and the news of his mission, and, apparently, the sentiments
+      of rigid orthodoxy professed by him from the beginning, provoked the
+      resentment of the neighbouring potentates against him: Sanballat the
+      Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite, chief of the Samaritans, and Geshem the
+      Bedâwin did their best to thwart him in the execution of his plans. He
+      baffled their intrigues by his promptitude in rebuilding the walls, and
+      when once he had rendered himself safe from any sudden attack, he
+      proceeded with the reforms which he deemed urgent. His tenure of office
+      lasted twelve years&mdash;from 384 to 373 B.C.&mdash;and during the whole
+      of that time he refused to accept any of the dues to which he was
+      entitled, and which his predecessors had received without scruple. Ever
+      since their return from exile, the common people had been impoverished and
+      paralysed by usury. The poor had been compelled to mortgage their fields
+      and their vineyards in order to pay the king&rsquo;s taxes; then, when their
+      land was gone, they had pledged their sons and their daughters; the
+      moneyed classes of the new Israel thus absorbed the property of their
+      poorer brethren, and reduced the latter to slavery. Nehemiah called the
+      usurers before him and severely rebuking them for their covetousness, bade
+      them surrender the interest and capital of existing debts, and restore the
+      properties which had fallen into their hands owing to their shameful abuse
+      of wealth, and release all those of their co-religionists whom they had
+      enslaved in default of payment of their debts.* His high place in the
+      royal favour doubtless had its effect on those whose cupidity suffered
+      from his zeal, and prevented external enemies from too openly interfering
+      in the affairs of the community: by the time he returned to the court, in
+      372 B.C., after an absence of twelve years, Jerusalem and its environs had
+      to some extent regained the material prosperity of former days. The part
+      played by Nehemiah was, however, mainly political, and the religious
+      problem remained in very much the same state as before. The high priests,
+      who alone possessed the power of solving it, had fallen in with the
+      current that was carrying away the people, and&mdash;latterly, at any rate&mdash;had
+      become disqualified through intermarriage with aliens: what was wanted was
+      a scribe deeply versed in sacred things to direct them in the right way,
+      and such a man could be found only in Babylonia, the one country in which
+      the study of the ancient traditions still flourished. A certain Ezra, son
+      of Seraiah, presented himself in 369 B.C., and, as he was a man of some
+      standing, Artaxerxes not only authorised him to go himself, but to take
+      with him a whole company of priests and Lévites and families formerly
+      attached to the service of the temple.** The books containing the Law of
+      God and the history of His people had, since the beginning of the
+      captivity, undergone alterations which had profoundly modified their text
+      and changed their spirit.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Neh. v.
+
+     ** Neh. xiii. 6: &ldquo;in the two and thirtieth year of
+     Artaxerxes, King of Babylon, I went unto the king.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      This work of revision, begun under the influence of Ezekiel, and perhaps
+      by his own followers, had, since his time, been carried on without
+      interruption, and by mingling the juridical texts with narratives of the
+      early ages collected from different sources, a lengthy work had been
+      produced, very similar in composition and wording to the five Books of
+      Moses and the Book of Joshua as we now possess them.* It was this version
+      of the Revelation of Jahveh that Ezra brought with him from Babylon in
+      order to instruct the people of Judah, and the first impressions received
+      by him at the end of his journey convinced him that his task would be no
+      light one, for the number of mixed marriages had been so great as to
+      demoralise not only the common people, but even the priests and leading
+      nobles as well. Nevertheless, at a general assembly** of the people he
+      succeeded in persuading them to consent to the repudiation of alien wives.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * This is the priestly revision presupposed by recent
+     critics; here again, in order to keep within the prescribed
+     limits of space, I have been compelled to omit much that I
+     should have liked to add in regard to the nature of this
+     work and the spirit in which it was carried out.
+
+     ** Ezra, vii.-xi., where the dates given do not form part of
+     the work as written by Ezra, but have been introduced later
+     by the editor of the book as it now stands.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      But this preliminary success would have led to nothing unless he could
+      secure formal recognition of the rigorous code of which he had constituted
+      himself the champion, and protracted negotiations were necessary before he
+      could claim a victory on this point as well as on the other. At length,
+      about 367 B.C., more than a year after his arrival, he gained his point,
+      and the covenant between Jahveh and His people was sealed with ceremonies
+      modelled on those which had attended the promulgation of Deuteronomy in
+      the time of Josiah. On the first day of the seventh month, a little before
+      the autumn festival, the people assembled at Jerusalem in &ldquo;the broad place
+      which was before the water gate.&rdquo; Ezra mounted a wooden pulpit, and the
+      chief among the priests sat beside him. He &ldquo;opened the book in the sight
+      of all the people... and... all the people stood up: and Ezra blessed the
+      Lord, the great God. And all the people answered &lsquo;Amen, amen!&rsquo; with the
+      lifting up of their hands; and they bowed their heads and worshipped the
+      Lord with their faces to the ground.&rdquo; Then began the reading of the sacred
+      text. As each clause was read, the Lévites stationed here and there among
+      the people interpreted and explained its provisions in the vulgar tongue,
+      so as to make their meaning clear to all. The prolix enumeration of sins
+      and their expiation, and threats expressed in certain chapters, produced
+      among the crowd the same effect of nervous terror as had once before been
+      called forth by the precepts and maledictions of Deuteronomy. The people
+      burst into tears, and so vehement were their manifestations of despair,
+      that all the efforts of Ezra and his colleagues were needed to calm them.
+      Ezra took advantage of this state of fervour to demand the immediate
+      application of the divine ordinances. And first of all, it was &ldquo;found
+      written in the law, how that the Lord had commanded by Moses that the
+      children of Israel should dwell in booths.&rdquo; For, seven days Jerusalem was
+      decked with leaves; tabernacles of olive, myrtle, and palm branches rose
+      up on all sides, on the roofs of houses, in courtyards, in the courts of
+      the temple, at the gates of the city. Then, on the 27th day of the same
+      month, the people put on mourning in order to confess their own sins and
+      the sins of their fathers. Finally, to crown the whole, Ezra and his
+      followers required the assembly to swear a solemn oath that they would
+      respect &ldquo;the law of Moses,&rdquo; and regulate their conduct by it.* After the
+      first enthusiasm was passed, a reaction speedily set in. Many even among
+      the priests thought that Ezra had gone too far in forbidding marriage with
+      strangers, and that the increase of the tithes and sacrifices would lay
+      too heavy a burden on the nation. The Gentile women reappeared, the
+      Sabbath was no longer observed either by the Israelites or aliens;
+      Eliashîb, son of the high priest Joiakim, did not even deprive Tobiah the
+      Ammonite of the chamber in the temple which he had formerly prepared for
+      him, and things were almost imperceptibly drifting back into the same
+      state as before the reformation, when Nehemiah returned from Susa towards
+      the close of the reign of Artaxerxes. He lost no time in re-establishing
+      respect for the law, and from henceforward opposition, if it did not
+      entirely die out, ceased to manifest itself in Jerusalem.**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Neh. viii., ix., with an interpolation in ver. 9 of chap,
+     viii., inserted in order to identify Nehemiah with the
+     representative of the Persian government.
+
+     ** Neh. xiii.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Elsewhere, however, among the Samaritans, Indumæans, and Philistines, it
+      continued as keen as ever, and the Jews themselves were imprudent enough
+      to take part in the political revolutions that were happening around them
+      in their corner of the empire. Their traditions tell how they were mixed
+      up in the rising of the Phoenician cities against Ochus, and suffered the
+      penalty; when Sidon capitulated, they were punished with the other rebels,
+      the more recalcitrant among them being deported into Hyrcania.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Assyria was nothing more than a name, Babylon and Phoenicia were growing
+      weaker every day; the Jews, absorbed in questions of religious ethics,
+      were deficient in material power, and had not as yet attained sufficient
+      moral authority to exercise an influence over the eastern world: the Egypt
+      indestructible had alone escaped the general shipwreck, and seemed fated
+      to survive her rivals for a long time. Of all these ancient nations it was
+      she who appealed most strongly to the imagination of the Greeks: Greek
+      traders, mercenaries, scholars, and even tourists wandered freely within
+      her borders, and accounts of the strange and marvellous things to be found
+      there were published far and wide in the writings of Hecataeus of Miletus,
+      Herodotus of Halicarnassus, and Hellanicus of Lesbos. As a rule, they
+      entered the country from the west, as European tourists and merchants
+      still do; but Eakôtis, the first port at which they touched, was a mere
+      village, and its rocky Pharos had no claim to distinction beyond the fact
+      that it had been mentioned by Homer. From hence they followed the channel
+      of the Canopic arm, and as they gradually ascended, they had pointed out
+      to them Anthylla, Arkandrupolis, and Gyna> copolis, townships dependent on
+      Naucratis, lying along the banks, or situated some distance off on one of
+      the minor canals; then Naucratis itself, still a flourishing place, in
+      spite of the rebellions in the Delta and the suppressive measures of the
+      Persians. All this region seemed to them to be merely an extension of
+      Greece under the African sky: to their minds the real Egypt began at Sais,
+      a few miles further eastwards. Sais was full in memories of the XXVIth
+      dynasty; there they had pointed out to them the tombs of the Pharaohs in
+      the enclosure of Nit, the audience hall in which Psammetichus II. received
+      the deputation of the Eleians, the prison where the unfortunate Apries had
+      languished after his defeat. The gateways of the temple of Nit seemed
+      colossal to eyes accustomed to the modest dimensions of most Greek
+      sanctuaries; these were, moreover, the first great monuments that the
+      strangers had seen since they landed, and the novelty of their appearance
+      had a good deal to do with the keenness of the impression produced. The
+      goddess showed herself in hospitable guise to the visitors; she welcomed
+      them all, Greek or Persian, at her festivals, and initiated them into
+      several of her minor rites, without demanding from them anything beyond
+      tolerance on certain points of doctrine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0055" id="linkBimage-0055">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/346b.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="346.jpg Fountain and School of the Mother Of Little Mohamad " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img alt="346b-text (9K)" src="images/346b-text.jpg" height="95"
+       width="531" />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Her dual attributes as wielder of the bow and shuttle had inspired the
+      Greeks with the belief that she was identical with that one of their own
+      goddesses who most nearly combined in her person this complex mingling of
+      war and industry: in her they Fountain and School of the Mother of Little
+      Mohammed worshipped the prototype of their own Pallas. On the evening of
+      the 17th day of Thoth, Herodotus saw the natives, rich and poor, placing
+      on the fronts of their dwellings large flat lamps filled with a mixture of
+      salt and oil which they kept alight all night in honour of Osiris and of
+      the dead.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * In my opinion it is not the festivals of Athyr that are
+     here referred to, but those of the month of Thoth, when, as
+     the inscriptions show, it was the practice to <i>light the new
+     fire</i>, according to the ritual, after first extinguishing
+     the fire of the previous year, not only in the temple of the
+     god, but in all the houses of the city.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0056" id="linkBimage-0056">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:32%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/348.jpg"
+       alt="348.jpg Modern Mohammedan Shekhs Tombs " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by Boudier,
+from a photograph by Gautier.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      He made his way into the dwelling of the ineffable god, and there,
+      unobserved among the crowd, he witnessed scenes from the divine life
+      represented by the priests on the lake by the light of torches, episodes
+      of his passion, mourning, and resurrection. The priests did not disclose
+      their subtler mysteries before barbarian eyes, nor did they teach the
+      inner meaning of their dogmas, but the little they did allow him to
+      discern filled the traveller with respect and wonder, recalling sometimes
+      by their resemblance to them the mysteries in which he was accustomed to
+      take part in his own country. Then, as now, but little attention was paid
+      to the towns in the centre and east of the Delta; travellers endeavoured
+      to visit one or two of them as types, and collected as much information as
+      they could about the remainder. Herodotus and his rivals attached little
+      importance to those details of landscape which possess so much attraction
+      for the modern tourist. They bestowed no more than a careless glance on
+      the chapels scattered up and down the country like the Mohammedan shrines
+      at the present day, and the waters extending on all sides beneath the
+      acacias and palm trees during the inundation, or the fellahin trotting
+      along on their little asses beside the pools, did not strike them as being
+      of sufficient interest to deserve passing mention in an account of their
+      travels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They passed by the most picturesque villages with indifference, and it was
+      only when they reached some great city, or came upon some exceptionally
+      fine temple or eccentric deity, that their curiosity was aroused. Mendes
+      worshipped its patron god in the form of a live ram,* and bestowed on all
+      members of the same species some share of the veneration it lavished on
+      the divine animal. The inhabitants of Atarbêkhis,** on the island of
+      Prosopitis, gave themselves up to the worship of the bull.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Herodotus says that both the goats and the god were named
+     Mendes in Egyptian, but he is here confusing ordinary goats
+     with the special goat which was supposed to contain the soul
+     of Osiris. It was the latter that the Egyptians named after
+     the god himself, Baînibdîduît, i.e. <i>the soul of the master
+     of the city of Diduît</i>.
+
+     ** The old explanation of this name as the <i>City of Hathor</i>
+     has been rightly rejected as inconsistent with one of the
+     elementary rules of hieroglyphic grammar. The name, when
+     properly divided into its three constituent parts, means
+     literally <i>the Castle of horus the Sparrow-hawk, or Hat-har-
+     baki</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0057" id="linkBimage-0057">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:38%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/349.jpg"
+       alt="349.jpg Part of the Inundation in a Palm Grove " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by Boudier,
+from a photograph
+by Gautier.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      When one of these animals died in the neighbourhood they buried it,
+      leaving one horn above the earth in order to mark the spot, and once every
+      year the boats of Atarbêkhis made a tour round the island to collect the
+      skeletons or decaying bodies, in order that they might be interred in a
+      common burying-place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The people of Busiris patronised a savage type of religion. During the
+      festival of Isis they gave themselves up to fierce conflicts, their
+      fanatical fury even infecting strangers who chanced to be present. The
+      Carians also had hit upon a means of outdoing the extravagance of the
+      natives themselves: like the Shiite Mohammedans of the present day at the
+      festival of the Hassanên, they slashed their faces with knives amidst
+      shrieks and yells. At Paprêmis a pitched battle formed part of the
+      religious observances: it took place, however, under certain special
+      conditions. On the evening of the festival of Anhurît, as the sun went
+      down, a number of priests performed a hasty sacrifice in the temple, while
+      the remainder of the local priesthood stationed themselves at the gate
+      armed with heavy cudgels. When the ceremony was over, the celebrants
+      placed the statue of the god on a four-wheeled car as though about to take
+      it away to some other locality, but their colleagues at the gate opposed
+      its departure and barred the way. It was at this juncture that the
+      faithful intervened; they burst in the door and set upon the priests with
+      staves, the latter offering a stout resistance. The cudgels were heavy,
+      the arms that wielded them lusty, and the fight lasted a long time, yet no
+      one was ever killed in the fray&mdash;at least, so the priests averred&mdash;and
+      I am at a loss to understand why Herodotus, who was not a native of
+      Paprêmis, should have been so unkind as to doubt their testimony.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The god whom the Greeks identified with their Ares was
+     Anhurît, as is proved by one of the Leyden Papyri. So, too,
+     in modern times at Cairo, it used to be affirmed that no
+     Mohammedan who submitted to the dôseh was ever seriously
+     injured by the hoofs of the horse which trampled over the
+     bodies extended on the ground.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0058" id="linkBimage-0058">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:39%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/350.jpg"
+       alt="350.jpg Ephemeral Hovels of Clay Or Dried Bricks " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by Boudier,
+from a photograph
+by Haussoullier.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It is nearly always in connection with some temple or religious festival
+      that he refers to the towns of the Delta, and, indeed, in most of the
+      minor cities of Egypt, just as in those of modern Italy there is little to
+      interest visitors except the religious monuments or ceremonies. Herodotus
+      went to Tanis or Mendes as we go to Orvieto or Loretto, to admire the
+      buildings or pay our devotions at a famous shrine. More often than not the
+      place was nothing in itself, consisting merely of a fortified enclosure, a
+      few commonplace houses occupied by the wealthy inhabitants or by
+      government officials, and on mounds of ancient <i>debris</i>, the
+      accumulation of centuries, a number of ephemeral hovels built of clay, or
+      dried bricks, divided into irregular blocks by winding alleys. The whole
+      local interest was centred in the sanctuary and its inmates, human and
+      divine. The traveller made his way in as best he could, went into
+      ecstasies over the objects that were shown to him, and as soon as he had
+      duly gone the rounds, set out for the next place on his list, deeming
+      himself lucky if he happened to arrive during one of the annual fairs,
+      such as that of Bubastis, for instance. Bands of pilgrims flocked in from
+      all parts of Egypt; the river craft were overflowing with men and women,
+      who converted the journey into one long carnival. Every time the vessel
+      put in to land, the women rushed on shore, amid the din of castanets and
+      flutes, and ran hither and thither challenging the women of the place with
+      abuse to dance against them with uplifted garments. To the foreigners
+      there was little to distinguish the festival of Bastît from many other
+      Egyptian ceremonies of the kind; it consisted of a solemn procession,
+      accompanied by the singing of hymns and playing of harps, dancing and
+      sacrifices, but for weeks before and after it the town was transformed
+      into one vast pleasure-ground. The people of Bubastis took a certain pride
+      in declaring that more wine was drunk in it during a single day than
+      during the rest of the whole year. Butô enjoyed exceptional popularity
+      among the Greeks in Egypt. Its patron goddess, the Isis who took refuge
+      amid the pools in a moving thicket of reeds and lotus, in order that she
+      might protect her son Horus from the jealousy of Typhon, reminded them of
+      the story of Latona and the cycle of the Delian legends; they, visited her
+      in crowds, and her oracle became to most of them what that of Delos was to
+      their brethren in Europe. At Butô they found a great temple, similar to
+      all Egyptian temples, a shrine in which the statues of the goddess
+      continued her mysterious existence, and, in the midst of the sacred lake,
+      the little island of Khemmis, which was said to float hither and thither
+      upon the waters. Herodotus did not venture to deny this absolutely, but
+      states that he had never seen it change its position or even stir: perhaps
+      his incredulity may have been quickened by the fact that this miracle had
+      already been inquired into by Hecatasus of Miletus, an author who was his
+      pet aversion. The priests of Butô declared that their prophets had
+      foretold everything that had happened for a long time past, and for each
+      event they had a version which redounded to the credit of their goddess:
+      she had shown Pheron how he might recover his sight, had foretold how long
+      the reign of Mykerinos would last, had informed Psammetichus that he would
+      be saved by men of brass rising out of the sea, and had revealed to
+      Cambyses that he should die in a town named Ecbatana. Her priests had
+      taken an active part in the revolt of Khabbîsha against Darius, and had
+      lost a goodly portion of their treasure and endowments for their pains.
+      They still retained their prestige, however, in spite of the underhand
+      rivalry of the oracle of Zeus Ammon. The notaries of the Libyan deity
+      could bring forward miracles even more marvellous than those credited to
+      the Egyptian Latona, and in the case of many of the revolutions which had
+      taken place on the banks of the Nile, a version of the legend in his
+      honour was circulated side by side with the legends of Butô. The latter
+      city lay on the very outskirts of one of those regions which excited the
+      greatest curiosity among travellers, the almost inaccessible Bucolicum,
+      where, it was said, no rebel ever failed to find a safe refuge from his
+      alien pursuers. The Egyptians of the marshes were a very courageous race,
+      but savage, poor, and ill fed. They drank nothing but beer, and obtained
+      their oil not from the olive, but from the castor-oil plant,* and having
+      no corn, lived on the seeds or roots of the lotus, or even on the stalks
+      of the papyrus, which they roasted or boiled.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * It seems, moreover, that this custom was not confined to
+     the Delta; Herodotus, in contrasting the custom of Bucolicum
+     with that of the rest of Egypt, was evidently thinking of
+     Sais, Memphis, and other great cities in which he had
+     resided, where foreign olive oil obtained from Greece or
+     Syria was generally used.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Fish was their staple article of food, and this they obtained in
+      considerable quantity from Lake Menzaleh, the lagoons along the coast, and
+      the canals or pools left by the inundation. But little was known of their
+      villages or monuments, and probably they were not worth the trouble of a
+      visit after those of the cities of the plain: endless stories were told of
+      feats of brigandage and of the mysterious hiding-places which these
+      localities offered to every outlaw, one of the most celebrated being the
+      isle of Elbô, where the blind Anysis defied the power of Ethiopia for
+      thirty years, and in which the first Amyrtasus found refuge. With the
+      exception of a few merchants or adventurers who visited them with an eye
+      to gain, most travellers coming from or returning to Asia avoided their
+      territory, and followed the military road along the Pelusiac arm of the
+      Nile from Pehisium to Daphno or Zalu, and from Daphnæ or Zalu to Bubastis.
+      A little below Kerkasoron, near the apex of the Delta, the pyramids stood
+      out on the horizon, looking insignificant at first, but afterwards so
+      lofty that, during the period of inundation, when the whole valley, from
+      the mountains of Arabia to those of Libya, was nothing but one vast river,
+      a vessel seemed to sail in their shadow for a long time before it reached
+      their base. The traveller passed Heliopolis on his left with its temple of
+      the Sun, next the supposed sources of the Northern Nile, the quarries of
+      the Red Mountain, and then entering at length the Nile itself, after a
+      journey of some hours, came to anchor by the quays of Memphis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To the Greeks of that time, Memphis was very much what Cairo is to us,
+      viz. the typical Oriental city, the quintessence and chief representative
+      of ancient Egypt. In spite of the disasters which had overwhelmed it
+      during the last few centuries, it was still a very beautiful city, ranking
+      with Babylon as one of the largest in the world. Its religious festivals,
+      especially those in honour of Apis, attracted numberless pilgrims to it at
+      certain seasons of the year, and hosts of foreigners, recruited from every
+      imaginable race of the old continent, resorted to it for purposes of
+      trade. Most of the nationalities who frequented it had a special quarter,
+      which was named after them; the Phoenicians occupied the <i>Tyrian Camp</i>,
+      the Greeks and Carians the <i>Hellenic Wall and Carian Wall</i>, and there
+      were Oaromemphites or Hellenomemphites side by side with the native
+      inhabitants. A Persian garrison was stationed within the White Wall, ready
+      to execute the satrap&rsquo;s orders in the event of rebellion, and could have
+      held out for a long time even after the rest of the country had fallen
+      into the hands of the insurgents. Animals which one would scarcely have
+      expected to find in the streets of a capital, such as cows, sheep, and
+      goats, wandered about unheeded in the most crowded thoroughfares; for the
+      common people, instead of living apart from their beasts, as the Greeks
+      did, stabled them in their own houses. Nor was this the only custom which
+      must have seemed strange in the eyes of a newly arrived visitor, for the
+      Egyptians might almost have been said to make a point of doing everything
+      differently from other nation&rsquo;s. The baker, seen at the kneading-trough
+      inside his shop, worked the dough with his foot; on the other hand, the
+      mason used no trowel in applying his mortar, and the poorer classes
+      scraped up handfuls of mud mixed with dung when they had occasion to
+      repair the walls of their hovels. In Greece, even the very poorest retired
+      to their houses and ate with closed doors; the Egyptians felt no
+      repugnance at eating and drinking in the open air, declaring that
+      unbecoming and improper acts should be performed in secret, but seemly
+      acts in public. The first blind alley they came to, a recess between two
+      hovels, the doorstep of a house or temple, any of these seemed to them a
+      perfectly natural place to dine in. Their bill of fare was not a sumptuous
+      one. A sort of flat pancake somewhat bitter in taste, and made&mdash;not
+      of corn or barley&mdash;but of spelt, a little oil, an onion or a leek,
+      with an occasional scrap of meat or poultry, washed down by a jug of beer
+      or wine; there was nothing here to tempt the foreigner, and, besides, it
+      would not have been thought right for him to invite himself. A Greek who
+      lived on the flesh of the cow was looked upon as unclean in the highest
+      degree; no Egyptian would have thought of using the same pot or knife with
+      him, or of kissing him on the mouth by way of greeting. Moreover, Egyptian
+      etiquette did not tolerate the same familiarities as the Greek: two
+      friends on catching sight of one another paused before they met, bowed,
+      then clasped one another round the knees or pretended to do so. Young
+      people gave way to an old man, or, if seated, rose to let him pass. The
+      traveller recalled the fact that the Spartans behaved in the same way, and
+      approved this mark of deference; but nothing in his home-life had prepared
+      him for the sight of respectable women coming and going as they pleased,
+      without escort and unveiled, carrying burdens on their shoulders (whereas
+      the men carried them on their heads), going to market, keeping stalls or
+      shops, while their husbands or fathers stayed comfortably at home, wove
+      cloth, kneaded the potter&rsquo;s clay or turned the wheel, and worked at their
+      trades; no wonder that they were ready to believe that the man was the
+      slave, and the wife the mistress of the family. Some historians traced the
+      origin of these customs back to Osiris, others only as far as Sesostris:
+      Sesostris was the last resource of Greek historians when they got into
+      difficulties. The city was crowded with monuments; there was the temple of
+      the Phoenician Astarte, in which priests of Syrian descent had celebrated
+      the mysteries of the great goddess ever since the days of the XVIIIth
+      dynasty; then there was the temple of Râ, the temple of Amon, the temple
+      of Tamu, the temple of Bastît, and the temple of Isis.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * This list is taken mainly from one of the mutilated
+     letters found on the back of the <i>Sallier Papyrus</i>. The
+     Phoenician Astarte, called a foreign Aphrodite by Herodotus,
+     was regarded by the Egyptians as a counterpart of Bastît,
+     lady of Onkhtoui.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The temple of Phtah, as yet intact, provided the visitor with a spectacle
+      scarcely less admirable than that offered by the temple of the Theban Amon
+      at Karnak. The kings had modified the original plan as each thought best,
+      one adding obelisks or colossal statues, another a pylon, a third a
+      pillared hall. Completed in this way by the labours of a score of
+      dynasties, it formed, as it were, a microcosm of Egyptian history, in
+      which each image, inscription and statue, aroused the attention of the
+      curious. They naturally desired to learn who were the strangely dressed
+      races shown struggling in a battle scene, the name of the king who had
+      conquered them, and the reasons which had led him to construct this or
+      that part of a monument, and there were plenty of busybodies ready to
+      satisfy, as far as they could, the curiosity of visitors. Interpreters
+      were at hand who bartered such information as they possessed, and the
+      modern traveller who has had occasion to employ the services of a dragoman
+      will have no difficulty in estimating the value of intelligence thus
+      hawked about in ancient times. Priests of the lower class, doorkeepers and
+      sacristans were trained to act as <i>ciceroni</i>, and knew the main
+      outlines of the history of the temple in which they lived. Menés planned
+      it, Moeris added the northern propylæ, Ehampsinitus those on the west,
+      Psammetichus the south, Asychis those on the east, the most noteworthy of
+      them all. A native of Memphis, born at the foot of the pyramids, had been
+      familiar with the names of Menés and Cheops from childhood; he was
+      consequently apt to attribute to them everything of importance achieved by
+      the Pharaohs of the old days. Menés had built the temple, Menés had
+      founded the city, Menés had created the soil on which the city stood, and
+      preserved it from floods by his dykes. The thoughtful traveller would
+      assent, for had he not himself observed the action of the mud; a day&rsquo;s
+      journey from the coast one could not let down a plummet without drawing it
+      up covered with a blackish slime, a clear proof that the Nile continued to
+      gain upon the sea. Menés, at all events, had really existed; but as to
+      Asychis, Moris, Proteus, Pheron, and most of the characters glibly
+      enumerated by Herodotus, it would be labour lost to search for their names
+      among the inscriptions; they are mere puppets of popular romance, some of
+      their names, such as Pirâui or Pruti, being nothing more than epithets
+      employed by the story-tellers to indicate in general terms the heroes of
+      their tales. We can understand how strangers, placed at the mercy of their
+      dragoman, were misled by this, and tempted to transform each title into a
+      man, taking Pruti and Pirâui to be Pharaoh Proteus and Pharaoh Pheron,
+      each of them celebrated for his fabulous exploits. The guides told
+      Herodotus, and Herodotus retails to us, as sober historical facts, the
+      remedy employed by this unhistorical Pheron in order to recover his sight;
+      the adventures of Paris and Helen at the court of Proteus,* and the droll
+      tricks played by a thief at the expense of the simple Ehampsinitus.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Some dragomans identified the Helen of the Homeric legend
+     with the &ldquo;foreign Aphrodite&rdquo; who had a temple in the Tyrian
+     quarter at Memphis, and who was really a Semitic divinity.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0059" id="linkBimage-0059">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/359.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="359.jpg the Step Pyramid Seen from The Grove Op Palm Trees to the North of Saqqarah " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Haussoullier.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The excursions made by the Greek traveller in the environs of Memphis were
+      very similar to those taken by modern visitors to Cairo: on the opposite
+      bank of the Nile there was Heliopolis with its temple of Râ, then there
+      were the quarries of Turah, which had been worked from time immemorial,
+      yet never exhausted, and from which the monuments he had been admiring,
+      and the very Pyramids themselves had been taken stone by stone.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * These are &ldquo;the quarries in the Arabian Mountain,&rdquo;
+      mentioned by Herodotus without indication of the local name.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The Sphinx probably lay hidden beneath the sand, and the nearest Pyramids,
+      those at Saqqarah, were held in small esteem by visitors;* they were told
+      as they passed by that the step Pyramid was the most ancient of all,
+      having been erected by Uenephes, one of the kings of the first dynasty,
+      and they asked no further questions.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Herodotus does not mention it, nor does any other writer
+     of the Greek period.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0060" id="linkBimage-0060">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:40%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/362a.jpg"
+       alt="362a.jpg Long Strings of Laden Vessels " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by Boudier,
+from a photograph
+by Gautier.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Their whole curiosity was reserved for the three giants at Gizeh and their
+      inmates, Cheops, Chephren, Mykerinos, and the fair Nitokris with the rosy
+      cheeks. Through all the country round, at Heliopolis, and even in the
+      Fayum itself, they heard the same names that had been dinned into their
+      ears at Memphis; the whole of the monuments were made to fit into a single
+      cycle of popular history, and what they learned at one place completed, or
+      seemed to complete, what they had learned at another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I cannot tell whether many of them cared to stray much beyond Lake Moris:
+      the repressive measures of Ochus had, as it would appear, interrupted for
+      a time the regular trade which, ever since the Saite kings of the XXVIth
+      dynasty, had been carried on by the Greeks with the Oases, by way of
+      Abydos. A stranger who ventured as far as the Thebaid would have found
+      himself in the same plight as a European of the last century who undertook
+      to reach the first cataract. Their point of departure&mdash;Memphis or
+      Cairo&mdash;was very much the same; their destinations&mdash;Elephantine
+      and Assuan&mdash;differed but little. They employed the same means of
+      transport, for, excepting the cut of the sails, the modern dahabeah is an
+      exact counterpart of the pleasure and passenger boats shown on the
+      monuments. Lastly, they set out at the same time of year, in November or
+      December, after the floods had subsided. The same length of time was
+      required for the trip; it took a month to reach Assuan from Cairo if the
+      wind-were favourable, and if only such stoppages were made as were
+      strictly necessary for taking in fresh provisions. Pococke, having left
+      Cairo on the 6th of December, 1737, about midday, was at Akhmîm by the
+      17th. He set sail again on the 18th, stayed at Thebes from the 13th of
+      January, 1738, till the 17th, and finally moored at Assuan on the evening
+      of January 20th, making in all forty-five days, fourteen of which were
+      spent at various stopping-places. If the diary of a Greek excursionist or
+      tourist had come down to us, we should probably find in it entries of a
+      very similar kind.* The departure from Memphis would take place in
+      November or December; ten or twelve days later the traveller would find
+      himself at Panopolis;** from Panopolis to Elephantine, stopping at Coptos
+      and Thebes, would take about a month, allowing time for a stay at Thebes,
+      and returning to Memphis in February or March.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Herodotus fixes twenty days for the voyage from Sais to
+     Elephantine. This period of time must be probably correct,
+     since at the present day dahabeahs constantly run from Cairo
+     to the second cataract and back in two months, including
+     stoppages of ten days to a fortnight for seeing the
+     monuments. The twenty days of Herodotus represent the
+     minimum duration of the voyage, without taking into account
+     the stoppages and accidents which often delay sailing
+     vessels on the Nile. Nine days, which Herodotus gives as the
+     time for reaching Thebes, is not sufficient, if the voyage
+     is undertaken in the usual way, stopping every evening for
+     the night; but it would be possible if the navigation were
+     uninterrupted day and night. This is now rarely done, but it
+     might have been frequent in ancient times, especially in the
+     service of the State.
+
+     ** It would seem clear that Herodotus stopped at Panopolis
+     and had communications with the people of the town.
+     [Panopolis or Khemmis is the present Ekhmîm.&mdash;Tr.]
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The greater part of the time was employed in getting from one point to
+      another, and the necessity of taking advantage of a favourable wind in
+      going up the river, often obliged the travellers to neglect more than one
+      interesting locality.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0061" id="linkBimage-0061">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:47%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/362b.jpg"
+       alt="362b.jpg the Vast Sheet of Water in The Midday Heat " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The Greek was not so keenly alive to the picturesqueness of the scenes
+      through which he passed as the modern visitor, and in the account of his
+      travels he took no note of the long lines of laden boats going up or down
+      stream, nor of the vast sheet of water glowing in the midday sun, nor of
+      the mountains honeycombed with tombs and quarries, at the foot of which he
+      would be sailing day after day. What interested him above all things was
+      information with regard to the sources of the immense river itself, and
+      the reasons for its periodic inundation, and, according to the mental
+      attitude impressed on him by his education, he accepted the mythological
+      solution offered by the natives, or he sought for a more natural one in
+      the physical lore of his own <i>savants</i>: thus he was told that the
+      Nile took its rise at Elephantine, between the two rocks called Krôphi and
+      Môphi, and in showing them to him his informant would add that
+      Psammetichus I. had attempted to sound the depth of the river at this
+      point, but had failed to fathom it. At the few places where the pilot of
+      the barque put in to port, the population showed themselves unfriendly,
+      and refused to hold any communication with the Greeks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0062" id="linkBimage-0062">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:38%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/363.jpg"
+       alt="363.jpg the Mountains Honeycombed With Tombs And Quarries " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by Boudier, from
+a photograph by Gautier.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The interpreters, who were almost all natives of the Delta, were not
+      always familiar with the people and customs of the Said, and felt almost
+      as completely foreign at Thebes as did their employers. Their office was
+      confined to translating the information furnished by the inhabitants when
+      the latter were sufficiently civilised to hold communication with the
+      travellers. What most astonished Herodotus at Panopolis was the temple and
+      the games held in honour, so he believed, of Perseus, the son of Danaë.
+      These exercises terminated in an attempt to climb a regular &ldquo;greasy pole&rdquo;
+       fixed in the ground, and strengthened right and left by three rows of
+      stays attached to the mast at different heights; as for Perseus, he was
+      the ithyphallic god of the locality, Mînu himself, one of whose epithets&mdash;Pehresu,
+      the runner&mdash;was confounded by the Greek ear with the name of the
+      hero. The dragomans, enlarging on this mistaken identity, imagined that
+      the town was the birthplace of Danaos and Lyncseus; that Perseus,
+      returning from Libya with the head of Medusa, had gone out of his way to
+      visit the cradle of his family, and that he had instituted the games in
+      remembrance of his stay there. Thebes had become the ghost of its former
+      self; the Persian governors had neglected the city, and its princesses and
+      their ministers were so impoverished that they were unable to keep up its
+      temples and palaces. Herodotus scarcely mentions it, and we can hardly
+      wonder at it: he had visited the still flourishing Memphis, where the
+      temples were cared for and were filled with worshippers. What had Thebes
+      to show him in the way of marvels which he had not already seen, and that,
+      too, in a better state of preservation? His Theban ciceroni also told him
+      the same stories that he had heard in Lower Egypt, and he states that
+      their information agreed in the main with that which he had received at
+      Memphis and Heliopolis, which made it unnecessary to repeat it at length.
+      Two or three things only appeared to him worthy of mention. His admiration
+      was first roused by the 360 statues of the high priests of Amon which had
+      already excited the wonder of his rival Hecataeus; he noted that all these
+      personages were, without exception, represented as mere men, each the son
+      of another man, and he took the opportunity of ridiculing the vanity of
+      his compatriots, who did not hesitate to inscribe the name of a god at the
+      head of their genealogies, removed by some score of generations only from
+      their own. On the other hand, the temple servitors related to him how two
+      Theban priestesses, carried off by the Phoenicians and sold, one in Libya
+      and the other in Greece, had set up the first oracles known in those two
+      countries: Herodotus thereupon remembered the story he had heard in Epirus
+      of two black doves which had flown away from Thebes, one towards the Oasis
+      of Ammon, the other in the direction of Dodona; the latter had alighted on
+      an old beech tree, and in a human voice had requested that a temple
+      consecrated to Zeus should be founded on the spot.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * This indicates a confusion in the minds of the Egyptian
+     dragomans with the two brooding birds of Osiris, Isis and
+     Nephthys, considered as <i>Zarait</i>, that is to say, as two
+     birds of a different species, according to the different
+     traditions either vultures, rooks, or doves.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Herodotus is quite overcome with joy at the thought that Greek divination
+      could thus be directly traced to that of Egypt, for like most of his
+      contemporaries, he felt that the Hellenic cult was ennobled by the fact of
+      its being derived from the Egyptian. The traveller on the Nile had to turn
+      homewards on reaching Elephantine, as that was the station of the last
+      Persian garrison. Nubia lay immediately beyond the cataract, and the
+      Ethiopians at times crossed the frontier and carried their raids as far as
+      Thebes. Elephantine, like Assuan at the present day, was the centre of a
+      flourishing trade. Here might be seen Kushites from Napata or Meroë,
+      negroes from the Upper Nile and the Bahr el-Ghazal, and Ammonians, from
+      all of whom the curious visitor might glean information while frequenting
+      the bazaars. The cataract was navigable all the year round, and the
+      natives in its vicinity enjoyed the privilege of piloting freight boats
+      through its difficult channel. It took four days to pass through it,
+      instead of the three, or even two, which suffice at the present day. Above
+      it, the Nile spread out and resembled a lake dotted over with islands,
+      several of which, such as Phike and Biggeh, contained celebrated temples,
+      which were as much frequented by the Ethiopians as by the Egyptians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0063" id="linkBimage-0063">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:17%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/367.jpg" alt="367.jpg Darius Iii. " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by
+Faucher-
+Gudin
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Correctly speaking, it was not Egypt herself that the Greeks saw, but her
+      external artistic aspect and the outward setting of Egyptian civilisation.
+      The vastness of her monuments, the splendour of her tombs, the pomp of her
+      ceremonies, the dignity and variety of her religious formulas, attracted
+      their curiosity and commanded their respect: the wisdom of the Egyptians
+      had passed into a proverb with them, as it had with the Hebrews. But if
+      they had penetrated behind the scenes, they would have been obliged to
+      acknowledge that beneath this attractive exterior there was hopeless
+      decay. As with all creatures when they have passed their prime, Egypt had
+      begun to grow old, and was daily losing her elasticity and energy. Her
+      spirit had sunk into a torpor, she had become unresponsive to her
+      environment, and could no longer adapt herself to the form she had so
+      easily acquired in her youth: it was as much as she could do to occupy
+      fully the narrower limits to which she had been reduced, and to maintain
+      those limits unbroken. The instinct which made her shrink from the
+      intrusion of foreign customs and ideas, or even mere contact with nations
+      of recent growth, was not the mere outcome of vanity. She realised that
+      she maintained her integrity only by relying on the residue of her former
+      solidarity and on the force of custom. The slightest disturbance of the
+      equilibrium established among her members, instead of strengthening her,
+      would have robbed her of the vigour she still possessed, and brought about
+      her dissolution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She owed whatever activity she possessed to impulses imparted to her by
+      the play of her ancient mechanism&mdash;a mechanism so stable in its
+      action, and so ingeniously constructed, that it had still a reserve of
+      power within it sufficient to keep the whole in motion for centuries,
+      provided there was no attempt to introduce new wheels among the old. She
+      had never been singularly distinguished for her military qualities; not
+      that she was cowardly, and shrank from facing death, but because she
+      lacked energy and enthusiasm for warlike enterprise. The tactics and
+      armaments by which she had won her victories up to her prime, had at
+      length become fetters which she was no longer inclined to shake off, and
+      even if she was still able to breed a military caste, she was no longer
+      able to produce armies fit to win battles without the aid of mercenaries.
+      In order to be successful in the field, she had to associate with her own
+      troops recruits from other countries&mdash;Libyans, Asiatics, and Greeks,
+      who served to turn the scale. The Egyptians themselves formed a compact
+      body in this case, and bearing down upon the enemy already engaged by the
+      mercenaries, broke through his ranks by their sheer weight, or, if they
+      could not accomplish this, they stood their ground bravely, taking to
+      flight only when the vacancies in their ranks showed them that further
+      resistance was impossible. The machinery of government, like the
+      organisation of their armies, had become antiquated and degenerate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0064" id="linkBimage-0064">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:44%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/368.jpg"
+       alt="368.jpg an Elephant Armed for War " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Drawn by Boudier, from a little terra-cotta
+group from Myrrhina now in the Louvre. This
+object dates from the time of the kings of
+Pergamos, and the soldier round whom the
+elephant winds his trunk in order to dash
+him to the ground is a Gaul of Asia Minor.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The nobility were as turbulent as in former times, and the royal authority
+      was as powerless now as of old to assert itself in the absence of external
+      help, or when treason was afoot among the troops. Religion alone
+      maintained its ascendency, and began to assume to itself the loyalty once
+      given to the Pharaoh, and the devotion previously consecrated to the
+      fatherland. The fellahîn had never fully realised the degradation involved
+      in serving a stranger, and what they detested in the Persian king was not
+      exactly the fact that he was a Persian. Their national pride, indeed,
+      always prompted them to devise some means of connecting the foreign
+      monarch with their own solar line, and to transform an Achæmenian king
+      into a legitimate Pharaoh. That which was especially odious to them in a
+      Cambyses or an Ochus was the disdain which such sovereigns displayed for
+      their religion, and the persecution to which they subjected the immortals.
+      They accustomed themselves without serious repining to have no longer one
+      of their own race upon the throne, and to behold their cities administered
+      by Asiatics, but they could not understand why the foreigner preferred his
+      own gods, and would not admit Amon, Phtah, Horus, and Râ to the rank of
+      supreme deities. Ochus had, by his treatment of the Apis and the other
+      divine animals, put it out of his power ever to win their good will. His
+      brutality had made an irreconcilable enemy of that state which alone gave
+      signs of vitality among the nations of the decaying East. This was all the
+      more to be regretted, since the Persian empire, in spite of the accession
+      of power which it had just manifested, was far from having regained the
+      energy which had animated it, not perhaps in the time of Darius, but at
+      all events under the first Xerxes. The army and the wealth of the country
+      were doubtless still intact&mdash;an army and a revenue which, in spite of
+      all losses, were still the largest in the world&mdash;but the valour of
+      the troops was not proportionate to their number. The former prowess of
+      the Persians, Medians, Bactrians, and other tribes of Iran showed no
+      degeneracy: these nations still produced the same race of brave and hardy
+      foot-soldiers, the same active and intrepid horsemen; but for a century
+      past there had not been the improvements either in the armament of the
+      troops or in the tactics of the generals which were necessary to bring
+      them up to the standard of excellence of the Greek army. The Persian king
+      placed great faith in extraordinary military machines. He believed in the
+      efficacy of chariots armed with scythes; besides this, his relations with
+      India had shown him what use his Oriental neighbours made of elephants,
+      and having determined to employ these animals, he had collected a whole
+      corps of them, from which he. hoped great things. In spite of the addition
+      of these novel recruits, it was not on the Asiatic contingents that he
+      chiefly relied in the event of war, but on the mercenaries who&rsquo; were hired
+      at great expense, and who formed the chief support of his power. From the
+      time of Artaxerxes II. onwards, it was the Greek hoplites and peltasts who
+      had always decided the issue of the Persian battles. The expeditions both
+      by land and sea had been under the conduct of Athenian or Spartan generals&mdash;Conon,
+      Chabrias, Iphi-crates, Agesilas, Timotheus, and their pupils; and again
+      also it was to the Greeks&mdash;to the Rhodian Mentor and to, Memnon&mdash;that
+      Ochus had owed his successes. The older nations&mdash;Egypt, Syria,
+      Chaldæa, and Elam&mdash;had all had their day of supremacy; they had
+      declined in the course of centuries, and Assyria had for a short time
+      united them under her rule. On the downfall of Assyria, the Iranians had
+      succeeded to her heritage, and they had built up a single empire
+      comprising all the states which had preceded them in Western Asia; but
+      decadence had fallen upon them also, and when they had been masters for
+      scarcely two short centuries, they were in their turn threatened with
+      destruction. Their rule continued to be universal, not by reason of its
+      inherent vigour, but on account of the weakness of their subjects and
+      neighbours, and a determined attack on any of the frontiers of the empire
+      would doubtless have resulted in its overthrow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Greece herself was too demoralised to cause Darius any grave anxiety. Not
+      only had she renounced all intention of attacking the great king in his
+      own domain, as in the days of the Athenian hegemony, when she could impose
+      her own conditions of peace, but her perpetual discords had yielded her an
+      easy prey to Persia, and were likely to do so more and more. The Greek
+      cities chose the great king as the arbiter in their quarrels; they vied
+      with each other in obtaining his good will, his subsidies in men and
+      vessels, and his darics: they armed or disarmed at his command, and the
+      day seemed at hand when they would become a normal dependency of Persia,
+      little short of a regular satrapy like Asiatic Hellas. One chance of
+      escape from such a fate remained to them&mdash;if one or other of them, or
+      some neighbouring state, could acquire such an ascendency as to make it
+      possible to unite what forces remained to them under one rule. Macedonia
+      in particular, having hitherto kept aloof from the general stream of
+      politics, had at this juncture begun to shake off its lethargy, and had
+      entered with energy into the Hellenic concert under the auspices of its
+      king, Philip. Bagoas recognised the danger which threatened his people in
+      the person of this ambitious sovereign, and did not hesitate to give
+      substantial support to the adversaries of the Macedonian prince;
+      Chersobleptes of Thrace and the town of Perinthus receiving from him such
+      succour as enabled them to repulse Philip successfully (340).
+      Unfortunately, while Bagoas was endeavouring to avert danger in this
+      quarter, his rivals at court endeavoured to prejudice the mind of the king
+      against him, and their intrigues were so successful that he found himself
+      ere long condemned to the alternative of murdering his sovereign or
+      perishing himself. He therefore poisoned Ochus, to avoid being
+      assassinated or put to the torture, and placed on the throne Arses, the
+      youngest of the king&rsquo;s sons, while he caused the remaining royal children
+      to be put to death (336).* Egypt hailed this tragic end as a mark of the
+      vengeance of the gods whom Ochus had outraged. A report was spread that
+      the eunuch was an Egyptian, that he had taken part in the murder of the
+      Apis under fear of death, but that when he was sure of his own safety he
+      had avenged the sacrilege. As soon as the poison had taken effect, it was
+      said he ate a portion of the dead body and threw the remainder to the
+      cats: he then collected the bones and made them into whistles and
+      knife-handles.**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Plutarch calls the successor of Ochus Oarses, which
+     recalls the name which Dinon gives to Artaxerxes II.
+     Diodorus says that Bagoas destroyed the whole family of
+     Ochus, but he is mistaken. Arrian mentions a son of Ochus
+     about 330, and several other members of the royal Achæmenian
+     race are known to have been living in the time of Alexander.
+
+     ** The body of the enemy thrown to the cats to be devoured
+     is a detail added by the popular imagination, which crops up
+     again in the Tale of Satni Khâmois.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Ochus had astonished his contemporaries by the rapidity with which he had
+      re-established the integrity of the empire; they were pleased to compare
+      him with the heroes of his race, with Cyrus, Cambyses, and Darius. But to
+      exalt him to such a level said little for their moral or intellectual
+      perceptions, since in spite of his victories he was merely a despot of the
+      ordinary type; his tenacity degenerated into brutal obstinacy, his
+      severity into cruelty, and if he obtained successes, they were due rather
+      to his generals and his ministers than to his own ability. His son Arses
+      was at first content to be a docile instrument in the hands of Bagoas; but
+      when the desire for independence came to him with the habitual exercise of
+      power, and he began to chafe at his bonds, the eunuch sacrificed him to
+      his own personal safety, and took his life as he had done that of his
+      father in the preceding year (336). So many murders following each other
+      in rapid succession had considerably reduced the Achsemenian family, and
+      Bagoas for a moment was puzzled where to find a king: he at length decided
+      in favour of Codomannos, who according to some was a great-grandson of
+      Darius II., but according to others was not of the royal line, but had in
+      his youth been employed as a courier. He had distinguished himself in the
+      hostilities against the Casduians, and had been nominated satrap of
+      Armenia by Ochus as a reward for his bravery. He assumed at his accession
+      the name of Darius; brave, generous, clement, and possessed with an ardent
+      desire to do right, he was in every way the superior of his immediate
+      predecessors, and he deserved to have reigned at a time when the empire
+      was less threatened. Bagoas soon perceived that his new protégé, whose
+      conduct he had reckoned on directing as he pleased, intended to govern for
+      himself, and he therefore attempted to get rid of him; Bagoas was,
+      however, betrayed by his accomplices, and compelled to drink the poison
+      which he had prepared for Darius. These revolutions had distracted the
+      attention of the court of Susa from the events which were taking place on
+      the shores of the Ægean, and Philip had taken advantage of them to carry
+      into effect the designs against Persia which he had been long meditating.
+      After having been victorious against the Greeks, he had despatched an army
+      of ten thousand men into Asia under the command of Parmenion and Attains
+      (336). We may ask if it were not he who formed the project of universal
+      conquest which was so soon to be associated with the name of his son
+      Alexander. He was for the moment content to excite revolt among the cities
+      of the Ægean littoral, and restore to them that liberty of which they had
+      been deprived for nearly a century. He himself followed as soon as these
+      lost children of Greece had established themselves firmly in Asia. The
+      story of his assassination on the eve of his departure is well known
+      (336), and of the difficulties which compelled Alexander to suspend the
+      execution of the plans which his father had made. Darius attempted to make
+      use of the respite thus afforded him by fortune; he adopted the usual
+      policy of liberally bribing one part of Greece to take up arms against
+      Macedonia&mdash;a method which was at first successful. While Alexander
+      was occupied in the destruction of Thebes, the Rhodian general Memnon, to
+      whom had been entrusted the defence of Asia Minor, forced the invaders to
+      entrench themselves in the Troad. If the Persian fleet had made its
+      appearance in good time, and had kept an active watch over the straits,
+      the advance-guard of the Macedonians would have succumbed to the enemy
+      before the main body of the troops had succeeded in joining them in Asia,
+      and it was easy to foretell what would have been the fate of an enterprise
+      inaugurated by such a disaster. Persia, however, had not yet learnt to
+      seize the crucial moment for action: her vessels were still arming when
+      the enemy made their appearance on the European shore of Hellespont, and
+      Alexander had ample time to embark and disembark the whole of his army
+      without having to draw his sword from the scabbard. He was accompanied by
+      about thirty thousand foot soldiers and four thousand five hundred horse;
+      the finest troops commanded by the best generals of the time&mdash;Parmenion,
+      his two sons Nikanor and Philotas, Crater, Clitos, Antigonus, and others
+      whose names are familiar to us all; a larger force than Memnon and his
+      subordinates were able to bring up to oppose him, at all events at the
+      opening of the campaign, during the preliminary operations which
+      determined the success of the enterprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first years of the campaign seem like a review of the countries and
+      nations which in bygone times had played the chief part in Oriental history.
+      An engagement at the fords of the Granicus, only a few days after the
+      crossing of the Hellespont, placed Asia Minor at the mercy of the invader
+      (334). Mysia, Lydia, Caria, and Lycia tendered their submission, Miletus
+      and Halicarnassus being the only towns to offer any resistance. In the
+      spring of 333, Phrygia followed the general movement, in company with
+      Cappadocia and Cilicia; these represented the Hittite and Asianic world,
+      the last representatives of which thus escaped from the influences of the
+      East and passed under the Hellenic supremacy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0065" id="linkBimage-0065">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/376.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="376.jpg the Battlefield of Issus " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Lortet.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      At the foot of the Amanus, Alexander came into conflict not only with the
+      generals of Darius, but with the great king himself. The Amanus, and the
+      part of the Taurus which borders on the Euphrates valley, had always
+      constituted the line of demarcation between the domain of the races of the
+      Asianic peninsula and that of the Semitic peoples.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0066" id="linkBimage-0066">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/376b.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="376b.jpg a Bas-relief on A Sidonian Sarcophagus " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      A second battle near the Issus, at the entrance to the Cilician gates,
+      cleared the ground, and gave the conqueror time to receive the homage of
+      the maritime provinces. Both Northern and Coele-Syria submitted to him
+      from Samosata to Damascus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0067" id="linkBimage-0067">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/379.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="379.jpg the Isthmus of Tyre at The Present Day " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a sketch by Lortet.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The less important towns of Phonicia, such as Arvad, Byblos, Sidon, and
+      those of Cyprus, followed their example; but Tyre closed its gates, and
+      trusted to its insular position for the preservation of its independence,
+      as it had done of old in the time of Sennacherib and of Nebuchadrezzar. It
+      was not so much a scrupulous feeling of loyalty which emboldened her to
+      take this step, as a keen realisation of what her conquest by the
+      Macedonian would entail. It was entirely-owing to Persia that she had not
+      succumbed in all parts of the Eastern Mediterranean in that struggle with
+      Greece which had now lasted for centuries: Persia had not only arrested
+      the progress of Hellenic colonisation in Cyprus, but had given a fresh
+      impulse to that of Tyre, and Phoenician influence had regained its
+      ascendency over a considerable part of the island. The surrender of Tyre,
+      therefore, would be equivalent to a Greek victory, and would bring about
+      the decay of the city; hence its inhabitants preferred hostilities, and
+      they were prolonged in desperation over a period of seven months. At the
+      end of that time Alexander succeeded in reducing the place by constructing
+      a dyke or causeway, by means of which he brought his machines of war up to
+      the foot of the ramparts, and filled in the channel which separated the
+      town from the mainland; the island thus became a peninsula, and Tyre
+      henceforth was reduced to the rank of an ordinary town, still able to
+      maintain her commercial activity, but having lost her power as an
+      independent state (332). Phoenicia being thus brought into subjection,
+      Judæa and Samaria yielded to the conqueror without striking a blow, though
+      the fortress of Gaza followed the example set by Tyre, and for the space
+      of two months blocked the way to the Delta. Egypt revolted at the approach
+      of her liberator, and the rising was so unanimous as to dismay the satrap
+      Mazakes, who capitulated at the first summons. Alexander passed the winter
+      on the banks of the Nile. Finding that the ancient capitals of the country&mdash;Thebes,
+      Sais, and even Memphis itself&mdash;occupied positions which were no
+      longer suited to the exigencies of the times, he founded opposite to the
+      island of Pharos, in the township of Eakotis, a city to which he gave his
+      own name. The rapid growth of the prosperity of Alexandria showed how
+      happy the founder had been in the choice of its site: in less than half a
+      century from the date of its foundation, it had eclipsed all the other
+      capitals of the Eastern Mediterranean, and had become the centre of
+      African Hellenism. While its construction was in progress, Alexander,
+      having had opportunities of studying the peculiarities and characteristics
+      of the Egyptians, had decided to perform the one act which would
+      conciliate the good feeling of the natives, and secure for him their
+      fidelity during his wars in the East: he selected from among their gods
+      the one who was also revered by the Greeks, Zeus-Amnion, and repaired to
+      the Oasis that he might be adopted by the deity. As a son of the god, he
+      became a legitimate Pharaoh, an Egyptian like themselves, and on returning
+      to Memphis he no longer hesitated to adopt the <i>pschent</i> crown with
+      the accompanying ancient rites. He returned to Asia early in the year 331,
+      and crossed the Euphrates. Darius had attempted to wrest Asia Minor from
+      his grasp, but Antigonus, the governor of Phrygia, had dispersed the
+      troops despatched for this purpose in 332, and Alexander was able to push
+      forward fearlessly into those regions beyond the Euphrates, where the Ten
+      Thousand had pursued their victorious march before him. He crossed the
+      Tigris about the 20th of September, and a week later fell in with his
+      rival in the very heart of Assyria, not far from, the village of
+      Gaugamela, where he took up a position which had been previously studied,
+      and was particularly suited for the evolutions of cavalry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0068" id="linkBimage-0068">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/382.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="382.jpg the Battle of Arbela, from The Mosaic Of Herculanum " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      At the Granicus and near Issus, the Greek element had played an important
+      part among the forces which contested the field; on this occasion,
+      however, the great king was accompanied by merely two or three thousand
+      mercenaries, while, on the other hand, the whole of Asia seemed to have
+      roused herself for a last effort, and brought forward her most valiant
+      troops to oppose the disciplined ranks of the Macedonians. Persians,
+      Susians, Medes, Armenians, Iranians from Bactriana, Sakae, and Indians
+      were all in readiness to do their best, and were accompanied by every
+      instrument of military warfare employed in Oriental tactics; chariots
+      armed with scythes, the last descendants of the chariotry which had
+      dominated all the battle-fields from the time of the XVIIIth Theban
+      dynasty down to the latest Sargonids, and, employed side by side with
+      these relics of a bygone day, were Indian elephants, now for the first
+      time brought into use against European battalions. These picked troops
+      sold their lives dearly, but the perfection of the Macedonian arms, and,
+      above all, the superiority of the tactics employed by their generals,
+      carried the day; the evening of the 30th of September found Darius in
+      flight, and the Achæmenian empire crushed by the furious charges of
+      Alexander&rsquo;s squadrons. Babylon fell into their hands a few days later,
+      followed by Susa, and in the spring of 330, Ecbatana; and shortly after
+      Darius met his end on the way to Media, assassinated by the last of his
+      generals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With his death, Persia sank back into the obscurity from which Cyrus had
+      raised her rather more than two centuries previously. With the exception
+      of the Medes, none of the nations which had exercised the hegemony of the
+      East before her time, not even Assyria, had had at their disposal such a
+      wealth of resources and had left behind them so few traces of their power.
+      A dozen or so of palaces, as many tombs, a few scattered altars and stelæ,
+      remains of epics preserved by the Greeks, fragments of religious books,
+      often remodelled, and issuing in the Avesta&mdash;when we have reckoned up
+      all that remains to us of her, what do we find to compare in interest and
+      in extent with the monuments and wealth of writings bequeathed to us by
+      Egypt and Chaldæa? The Iranians received Oriental civilisation at a time
+      when the latter was in its decline, and caught the spirit of decadence in
+      their contact with it. In succeeding to the patrimony of the nations they
+      conquered, they also inherited their weakness; in a few years they had
+      lost all the vigour of their youth, and were barely able to maintain the
+      integrity of the empire they had founded. Moreover, the great peoples to
+      whom they succeeded, although lacking the vigour necessary for the
+      continuance of their independent existence, had not yet sunk so low as to
+      acquiesce in their own decay, and resign themselves to allowing their
+      national life to be absorbed is that of another power: they believed that
+      they would emerge from the crisis, as they had done from so many others,
+      with fresh strength, and, as soon as an occasion presented itself, they
+      renewed the war against their Iranian suzerain. Prom, the first to the
+      latest of the sovereigns bearing the name of Darius, the history of the
+      Achæmenids in an almost uninterrupted series of internal wars and
+      provincial revolts. The Greeks of Ionia, the Egyptians, Chaldæans,
+      Syrians, and the tribes of Asia Minor, all rose one after another,
+      sometimes alone, sometimes in concert; some carrying on hostilities for
+      not more than two or three years; others, like Egypt, maintaining them for
+      more than half a century. They were not discouraged by the reprisals which
+      followed each of these rebellions; they again had recourse to arms as soon
+      as there seemed the least chance of success, and they renewed the struggle
+      till from sheer exhaustion the sword fell from their hand. Persia was worn
+      out by this perpetual warfare, in which at the same time each of her
+      rivals expended the last relics of their vitality, and when Macedonia
+      entered on the scene, both lords and vassals were reduced to such a state
+      of prostration, that it was easy to foretell their approaching end. The
+      old Oriental world was in its death-throes; but before it passed away, the
+      successful audacity of Alexander had summoned Greece to succeed to its
+      inheritance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img alt="385 (9K)" src="images/385.jpg" width="100%" />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria,
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+</pre>
+  </body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria,
+Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 9 (of 12), by G. Maspero
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 9 (of 12)
+
+Author: G. Maspero
+
+Editor: A.H. Sayce
+
+Translator: M.L. McClure
+
+Release Date: December 16, 2005 [EBook #17329]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF EGYPT, CHALDAEA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Spines]
+
+[Illustration: Cover]
+
+HISTORY OF EGYPT CHALDEA, SYRIA, BABYLONIA, AND ASSYRIA
+
+By G. MASPERO, Honorable Doctor of Civil Laws, and Fellow of Queen's
+College, Oxford; Member of the Institute and Professor at the College of
+France
+
+Edited by A. H. SAYCE, Professor of Assyriology, Oxford
+
+Translated by M. L. McCLURE, Member of the Committee of the Egypt
+Exploration Fund
+
+
+CONTAINING OVER TWELVE HUNDRED COLORED PLATES AND ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+Volume IX.
+
+
+LONDON
+
+THE GROLIER SOCIETY
+
+PUBLISHERS
+
+[Illustration: 001.jpg Frontispiece] Howling Dervish
+
+[Illustration: Titlepage]
+
+[Illustration: 001.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
+
+[Illustration: 002.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
+
+
+_THE IRANIAN CONQUEST_
+
+_THE IRANIAN RELIGIONS--CYRUS IN LYDIA AND AT BABYLON; CAMBYSES IN
+EGYPT--DARIUS AND THE ORGANISATION OF THE EMPIRE._
+
+_The constitution of the Median empire borrowed from the ancient peoples
+of the Euphrates: its religion only is peculiar to itself--Legends
+concerning Zoroaster, his laws; the Avesta and its history--Elements
+contained in it of primitive religion--The supreme god Ahura-maza and
+his Amesha-spentas: the Yazatas, the Fravashis--Angro-mainyus and his
+agents, the Daivas, the Pairikas, their struggle with Ahura-mazda--The
+duties of man here below, funerals, his fate after death---Worship and
+temples: fire-altars, sacrifices, the Magi_.
+
+_Cyrus and the legends concerning his origin: his revolt against
+Astyages and the fall of the Median empire--The early years of the reign
+of Nabonidus: revolutions in Tyre, the taking of Harran--The end of
+the reign of Alyattes, Lydian art and its earliest coinage--Croesus,
+his relations with continental Greece, his conquests, his alliances with
+Babylon and Egypt--The war between Lydia and Persia: the defeat of
+the Lydians, the taking of Sardes, the death of Croesus and subsequent
+legends relating to it--The submission of the cities of the Asiatic
+littoral._
+
+_Cyrus in Bactriana and in the eastern regions of the Iranian table-land
+--The impression produced on the Chaldaean by his victories; the Jewish
+exiles, Ezekiel and his dreams of restoration, the new temple, the
+prophecies against Babylon; general discontent with Nabonidus--The
+attach of Cyrus and the battle of Zalzallat, the taking of Babylon
+and the fall of Nabonidus: the end of the Chaldaean empire and the
+deliverance of the Jews._
+
+_Egypt under Amasis: building works, support given to the
+Greeks; Naukratis, its temples, its constitution, and its
+prosperity--Preparations for defence and the unpopularity of Amasis with
+the native Egyptians--The death of Cyrus and legends relating to it: his
+palace at Pasargadae and his tomb--Cambyses and Smerdis--The legendary
+causes of the war with Egypt--Psammetichus III., the battle of Pelusium;
+Egypt reduced to a Persian province._
+
+_Cambyses' plans for conquest; the abortive expeditions to the oceans of
+Amnion and Carthage--The kingdom of Ethiopia, its kings, its customs:
+the Persians fail to reach Napata, the madness of Cambyses--The fraud of
+Gaumata, the death of Cambyses and the reign of the pseudo-Smerdis,
+the accession of Darius--The revolution in Susiana, Chaldaea, and Media:
+Nebuchadrezzar III. and the fall of Babylon, the death of Oraetes, the
+defeat of Khshatrita, restoration of peace throughout Asia, Egyptian
+affairs and the re-establishment of the royal power._
+
+_The organisation of the country and its division into satrapies: the
+satrap, the military commander, the royal secretary; couriers, main
+roads, the Eyes and Ears of the king--The financial system and the
+provincial taxes: the daric--Advantages and drawbacks of the system of
+division into satrapies; the royal guard and the military organisation
+of the empire--The conquest of the Hapta-Hindu and the prospect of war
+with Greece._
+
+[Illustration: 003.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I--THE IRANIAN CONQUEST
+
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the engraving in Coste and Flandin.
+     The vignette, drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a statuette in
+     terra-cotta, found in Southern Russia, represents a young
+     Scythian.
+
+_The Iranian religions--Cyrus in Lydia and at Babylon: Cambyses in Egypt
+--Darius and the organisation of the empire._
+
+
+The Median empire is the least known of all those which held sway for a
+time over the destinies of a portion of Western Asia. The reason of this
+is not to be ascribed to the shortness of its duration: the Chaldaean
+empire of Nebuchadrezzar lasted for a period quite as brief, and yet the
+main outlines of its history can be established with some certainty in
+spite of large blanks and much obscurity. Whereas at Babylon, moreover,
+original documents abound, enabling us to put together, feature by
+feature, the picture of its ancient civilisation and of the chronology
+of its kings, we possess no contemporary monuments of Ecbatana to
+furnish direct information as to its history. To form any idea of
+the Median kings or their people, we are reduced to haphazard notices
+gleaned from the chroniclers of other lands, retailing a few isolated
+facts, anecdotes, legends, and conjectures, and, as these materials
+reach us through the medium of the Babylonians or the Greeks of the
+fifth or sixth century B.C., the picture which we endeavour to compose
+from them is always imperfect or out of perspective. We seemingly
+catch glimpses of ostentatious luxury, of a political and military
+organisation, and a method of government analogous to that which
+prevailed at later periods among the Persians, but more imperfect,
+ruder, and nearer to barbarism--a Persia, in fact, in the rudimentary
+stage, with its ruling spirit and essential characteristics as yet
+undeveloped. The machinery of state had doubtless been adopted almost
+in its entirety from the political organisations which obtained in the
+kingdoms of Assyria, Elam, and Chaldaea, with which sovereignties the
+founders of the Median empire had held in turns relations as vassals,
+enemies, and allies; but once we penetrate this veneer of Mesopotamian
+civilisation and reach the inner life of the people, we find in the
+religion they profess--mingled with some borrowed traits--a world of
+unfamiliar myths and dogmas of native origin.
+
+The main outlines of this religion were already fixed when the
+Medes rose in rebellion against Assur-bani-pal; and the very name of
+_Confessor_--Fravartish--applied to the chief of that day, proves that
+it was the faith of the royal family. It was a religion common to all
+the Iranians, the Persians as well as the Medes, and legend honoured as
+its first lawgiver and expounder an ancient prophet named Zarathustra,
+known to us as Zoroaster.* Most classical writers relegated Zoroaster
+to some remote age of antiquity--thus he is variously said to have lived
+six thousand years before the death of Plato,** five thousand before the
+Trojan war,*** one thousand before Moses, and six hundred before Xerxes'
+campaign against Athens; while some few only affirmed that he had lived
+at a comparatively recent period, and made him out a disciple of the
+philosopher Pythagoras, who flourished about the middle of the fifth
+century B.C.
+
+     * The name Zarathustra has been interpreted in a score of
+     different ways. The Greeks sometimes attributed to it the
+     meaning "worshipper of the stars," probably by reason of the
+     similarity in sound of the termination "-astres" of
+     Zoroaster with the word "astron." Among modern writers, H.
+     Rawlinson derived it from the Assyrian Ziru-Ishtar, "the
+     seed of Ishtar," but the etymology now most generally
+     accepted is that of Burnouf, according to which it would
+     signify "the man with gold-coloured camels," the "possessor
+     of tawny camels." The ordinary Greek form Zoroaster seems to
+     be derived from some name quite distinct from Zarathustra.
+
+     ** This was, as Pliny records, the opinion of Eudoxus; not
+     Eudoxus of Cnidus, pupil of Plato, as is usually stated, but
+     a more obscure personage, Eudoxus of Rhodes.
+
+     *** This was the statement of Hermodorus.
+
+According to the most ancient national traditions, he was born in the
+Aryanem-vaejo, or, in other words, in the region between the Araxes and
+the Kur, to the west of the Caspian Sea. Later tradition asserted
+that his conception was attended by supernatural circumstances, and
+the miracles which accompanied his birth announced the advent of a saint
+destined to regenerate the world by the revelation of the True Law. In
+the belief of an Iranian, every man, every living creature now existing
+or henceforth to exist, not excluding the gods themselves, possesses a
+Frohar, or guardian spirit, who is assigned to him at his entrance into
+the world, and who is thenceforth devoted entirely to watching over
+his material and moral well-being,* About the time appointed for the
+appearance of the prophet, his Frohar was, by divine grace, imprisoned
+in the heart of a Haoma,** and was absorbed, along with the juice of
+the plant, by the priest Purushaspa,*** during a sacrifice, a ray of
+heavenly glory descending at the same time into the bosom of a maiden of
+noble race, named Dughdova, whom Purushaspa shortly afterwards espoused.
+
+     * The Fravashi (for _fravarti_, from _fra-var_, "to support,
+     nourish"), or the _frohar (feruer)_, is, properly speaking,
+     the nurse, the genius who nurtures. Many of the practices
+     relating to the conception and cult of the Fravashis seem to
+     me to go back to the primitive period of the Iranian
+     religions.
+
+     ** The haoma is an _Asclepias Sarcostema Viminalis_.
+
+     *** The name signifies "He who has many horses."
+
+Zoroaster was engendered from the mingling of the Frohar with the
+celestial ray. The evil spirit, whose supremacy he threatened,
+endeavoured to destroy him as soon as he saw the light, and despatched
+one of his agents, named Bouiti, from the country of the far north to
+oppose him; but the infant prophet immediately pronounced the formula
+with which the psalm for the offering of the waters opens: "The will of
+the Lord is the rule of good!" and proceeded to pour libations in honour
+of the river Dareja, on the banks of which he had been born a moment
+before, reciting at the same time the "profession of faith which puts
+evil spirits to flight." Bouiti fled aghast, but his master set to work
+upon some fresh device. Zoroaster allowed him, however, no time to
+complete his plans: he rose up, and undismayed by the malicious riddles
+propounded to him by his adversary, advanced against him with his hands
+full of stones--stones as large as a house--with which the good deity
+supplied him. The mere sight of him dispersed the demons, and they
+regained the gates of their hell in headlong flight, shrieking out, "How
+shall we succeed in destroying him? For he is the weapon which strikes
+down evil beings; he is the scourge of evil beings." His infancy
+and youth were spent in constant disputation with evil spirits: ever
+assailed, he ever came out victorious, and issued more perfect from each
+attack. When he was thirty years old, one of the good spirits, Vohumano,
+appeared to him, and conducted him into the presence of Ahura-mazda,
+the Supreme Being. When invited to question the deity, Zoroaster asked,
+"Which is the best of the creatures which are upon the earth?" The
+answer was, that the man whose heart is pure, he excels among his
+fellows. He next desired to know the names and functions of the angels,
+and the nature and attributes of evil. His instruction ended, he crossed
+a mountain of flames, and underwent a terrible ordeal of purification,
+during which his breast was pierced with a sword, and melted lead poured
+into his entrails without his suffering any pain: only after this ordeal
+did he receive from the hands of Ahura-mazda the Book of the Law, the
+Avesta, was then sent back to his native land bearing his precious
+burden. At that time, Vishtaspa, son of Aurvataspa, was reigning over
+Bactria. For ten years Zoroaster had only one disciple, his cousin
+Maidhyoi-Maonha, but after that he succeeded in converting, one
+after the other, the two sons of Hvogva, the grand vizir Jamaspa, who
+afterwards married the prophet's daughter, and Frashaoshtra, whose
+daughter Hvogvi he himself espoused; the queen, Hutaosa, was the next
+convert, and afterwards, through her persuasions, the king Vishtaspa
+himself became a disciple. The triumph of the good cause was hastened by
+the result of a formal disputation between the prophet and the wise men
+of the court: for three days they essayed to bewilder him with their
+captious objections and their magic arts, thirty standing on his right
+hand and thirty on his left, but he baffled their wiles, aided by grace
+from above, and having forced them to avow themselves at the end of
+their resources, he completed his victory by reciting the Avesta before
+them. The legend adds, that after rallying the majority of the people
+round him, he lived to a good old age, honoured of all men for his
+saintly life. According to some accounts, he was stricken dead by
+lightning,* while others say he was killed by a Turanian soldier,
+Bratrok-resh, in a war against the Hyaonas.
+
+     * This is, under very diverse forms, the version preferred
+     by Western historians of the post-classical period.
+
+The question has often been asked whether Zoroaster belongs to
+the domain of legend or of history. The only certain thing we know
+concerning him is his name; all the rest is mythical, poetic, or
+religious fiction. Classical writers attributed to him the composition
+or editing of all the writings comprised in Persian literature: the
+whole consisted, they said, of two hundred thousand verses which had
+been expounded and analysed by Hermippus in his commentaries on the
+secret doctrines of the Magi. The Iranians themselves averred that he
+had given the world twenty-one volumes--the twenty-one _Nasks_ of the
+Avesta,* which the Supreme Deity had created from the twenty-one words
+of the Magian profession of faith, the _Ahuna Vairya_. King Vishtaspa is
+said to have caused two authentic copies of the Avesta--which contained
+in all ten or twelve hundred chapters**--to be made, one of which
+was consigned to the archives of the empire, the other laid up in
+the treasury of a fortress, either Shapigan, Shizigan, Samarcand, or
+Persepolis.***
+
+     * The word _Avesta_, in Pehlevi _Apastak_, whence come the
+     Persian forms _avasta, osta_, is derived from the
+     Achaemenian word _Abasta_, which signifies _law_ in the
+     inscriptions of Darius. The term Zend-Avesta, commonly used
+     to designate the sacred book of the Persians, is incorrectly
+     derived from the expression _Apastac u Zend_, which in
+     Pehlevi designates first the law itself, and then the
+     translation and commentary in more modern language which
+     conduces to a _knowledge (Zend)_ of the law. The customary
+     application, therefore, of the name Zend to the language of
+     the Avesta is incorrect.
+
+     ** The Dinkart fixes the number of chapters at 1000, and the
+     Shah-Namak at 1200, written on plates of gold. According to
+     Masudi, the book itself and the two commentaries formed
+     12,000 volumes, written in letters of gold, the twenty-one
+     Nasks each contained 200 pages, and the whole of these
+     writings had been inscribed on 12,000 cow-hides.
+
+     *** The site of Shapigan or Shaspigan is unknown. J.
+     Darmesteter suggests that it ought to be read as _Shizigan_,
+     which would permit of the identification of the place with
+     Shiz, one of the ancient religious centres of Iran, whose
+     temple was visited by the Sassanids on their accession to
+     the throne. According to the Arda-Viraf the law was
+     preserved at Istakhr, or Persepolis, according to the Shah-
+     Namak at Samarcand in the temple of the Fire-god.
+
+Alexander is said to have burnt the former copy: the latter, stolen by
+the Greeks, is reported to have been translated into their language and
+to have furnished them with all their scientific knowledge. One of the
+Arsacids, Vologesus I., caused a search to be made for all the fragments
+which existed either in writing or in the memory of the faithful,* and
+this collection, added to in the reign of the Sassanid king, Ardashir
+Babagan, by the high priest Tansar, and fixed in its present form under
+Sapor I., was recognised as the religious code of the empire in the time
+of Sapor II., about the fourth century of the Christian era.*** The text
+is composed, as may be seen, of three distinct strata, which are by no
+means equally ancient;*** one can, nevertheless, make out from it with
+sufficient certainty the principal features of the religion and cult of
+Iran, such as they were under the Achaemenids, and perhaps even under the
+hegemony of the Medes.
+
+     * Tradition speaks simply of a King Valkash, without
+     specifying which of the four kings named Vologesus is
+     intended. James Darmesteter has given good reasons for
+     believing that this Valkash is Vologesus I. (50-75 A.D.),
+     the contemporary of Nero.
+
+     ** This is the tradition reproduced in two versions of the
+     Dinkart.
+
+     *** Darmesteter declares that ancient Zoroastrianism is, in
+     its main lines, the religion of the Median Magi, even though
+     he assigns the latest possible date to the composition of
+     the Avesta as now existing, and thinks he can discern in it
+     Greek, Jewish, and Christian elements.
+
+It is a complicated system of religion, and presupposes a long period of
+development. The doctrines are subtle; the ceremonial order of worship,
+loaded with strict observances, is interrupted at every moment by laws
+prescribing minute details of ritual,* which were only put in practice
+by priests and strict devotees, and were unknown to the mass of the
+faithful.
+
+     * Renan defined the Avesta as "the Code of a very small
+     religious sect; it is a Talmud, a book of casuistry and
+     strict observance. I have difficulty in believing that the
+     great Persian empire, which, at least in religious matters,
+     professed a certain breadth of ideas, could have had a law
+     so strict. I think, that had the Persians possessed a sacred
+     book of this description, the Greeks must have mentioned
+     it."
+
+The primitive, base of this religion is difficult to discern clearly:
+but we may recognise in it most of those beings or personifications of
+natural phenomena which were the chief objects of worship among all the
+ancient nations of Western Asia--the stars, Sirius, the moon, the sun,
+water and fire, plants, animals beneficial to mankind, such as the cow
+and the dog, good and evil spirits everywhere present, and beneficent
+or malevolent souls of mortal men, but all systematised, graduated, and
+reduced to sacerdotal principles, according to the prescriptions of a
+powerful priesthood. Families consecrated to the service of the altar
+had ended, as among the Hebrews, by separating themselves from the rest
+of the nation and forming a special tribe, that of the Magi, which was
+the last to enter into the composition of the nation in historic times.
+All the Magi were not necessarily devoted to the service of religion,
+but all who did so devote themselves sprang from the Magian tribe; the
+Avesta, in its oldest form, was the sacred book of the Magi, as well as
+that of the priests who handed down their religious tradition under the
+various dynasties, native or foreign, who bore rule over Iran.
+
+The Creator was described as "the whole circle of the heavens," "the
+most steadfast among the gods," for "he clothes himself with the solid
+vault of the firmament as his raiment," "the most beautiful, the most
+intelligent, he whose members are most harmoniously proportioned; his
+body was the light and the sovereign glory, the sun and the moon were
+his eyes." The theologians had gradually spiritualised the conception
+of this deity without absolutely disconnecting him from the material
+universe.
+
+[Illustration: 012.jpg THE AHURA-MAZDA OF THE BAS-RELIEFS OF PERSEPOLIS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Flandin and Coste.
+
+He remained under ordinary circumstances invisible to mortal eyes,
+and he could conceal his identity even from the highest gods, but he
+occasionally manifested himself in human form. He borrowed in such case
+from Assyria the symbol of Assur, and the sculptors depict him with the
+upper part of his body rising above that winged disk which is carved in
+a hovering attitude on the pediments of Assyrian monuments or stelae.
+
+[Illustration: 012b.jpg HYPOSTYLE OF HALL OF XERXES: DETAIL OF
+ENTABLATURE]
+
+In later days he was portrayed under the form of a king of imposing
+stature and majestic mien, who revealed himself from time to time to the
+princes of Iran.*
+
+     * In a passage of Philo of Byblos the god is described as
+     having the head of a falcon or an eagle, perhaps by
+     confusion with one of the genii represented on the walls of
+     the palaces.
+
+[Illustration: 013.jpg AN IRANIAN GENIUS IN FORM OF A WINGED BULL]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph.
+
+He was named Ahuro-mazdao or Ahura-mazda, the omniscient lord,*
+_Spento-mainyus_, the spirit of good, _Mainyus-spenishto_** the most
+beneficent of spirits.
+
+     * _Ahura_ is derived from _Ahu_ = _Lord_: Mazdao can be
+     analysed into the component parts, _maz = great_, and _dao
+     = he who knows_. At first the two terms were
+     interchangeable, and even in the Gathas the form Mazda Ahura
+     is employed much more often than the form Ahura Mazda. In
+     the Achsemenian inscriptions, Auramazda is only found as a
+     single word, except in an inscription of Xerxes, where the
+     two terms are in one passage separated and declined _Aurahya
+     mazdaha_. The form Ormuzd, Ormazd, usually employed by
+     Europeans, is that assumed by the name in modern Persian.
+
+     ** These two names are given to him more especially in
+     connection with his antagonism to Angromainyus.
+
+Himself uncreated, he is the creator of all things, but he is assisted
+in the administration of the universe by legions of beings, who are all
+subject to him.*
+
+     * Darius styles Ahura-mazda, _mathishta baganam_, the
+     greatest of the gods, and Xerxes invokes the protection of
+     Ahura-mazda along with that of the gods. The classical
+     writers also mention gods alongside of Ahura-mazda as
+     recognised not only among the Achaemenian Persians, but also
+     among the Parthians. Darmesteter considers that the earliest
+     Achaemenids worshipped Ahura-mazda alone, "placing the other
+     gods together in a subordinate and anonymous group: May
+     Ahura-mazda and the other gods protect me."
+
+[Illustration: 014.jpg AHURA-MAZDA BESTOWING THE TOKENS OF ROYALTY ON AN
+IRANIAN KING]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Dieulafoy.
+
+The most powerful among his ministers were originally nature-gods, such
+as the sun, the moon, the earth, the winds, and the waters. The sunny
+plains of Persia and Media afforded abundant witnesses of their power,
+as did the snow-clad peaks, the deep gorges through which rushed roaring
+torrents, and the mountain ranges of Ararat or Taurus, where the
+force of the subterranean fires was manifested by so many startling
+exhibitions of spontaneous conflagration.* The same spiritualising
+tendency which had already considerably modified the essential concept
+of Ahura-mazda, affected also that of the inferior deities, and tended
+to tone down in them the grosser traits of their character. It had
+already placed at their head six genii of a superior order, six
+ever-active energies, who, after assisting their master at the creation
+of the universe, now presided under his guidance over the kingdoms and
+forces of nature.**
+
+     * All these inferior deities, heroes, and genii who presided
+     over Persia, the royal family, and the different parts of
+     the empire, are often mentioned in the most ancient
+     classical authors that have come down to us.
+
+     ** The six Amesha-spentas, with their several
+     characteristics, are enumerated in a passage of the _De
+     Iside_. This exposition of Persian doctrine is usually
+     attributed to Theopompus, from which we may deduce the
+     existence of a belief in the Amesha-spentas in the
+     Achsemenian period. J. Darmesteter affirms, on the contrary,
+     that "the author describes the Zoro-astrianism of his own
+     times (the second century A.D.), and quotes Theopompus for a
+     special doctrine, that of the periods of the world's life."
+     Although this last point is correct, the first part of
+     Darmesteter's theory does not seem to me justified by
+     investigation. The whole passage of Plutarch is a well-
+     arranged composition of uniform style, which may be regarded
+     as an exposition of the system described by Theopompus,
+     probably in the eighth of his Philippics.
+
+[Illustration: 016a.jpg THE MOON-GOD]
+
+[Illustration: 016b.jpg GOD OF THE WIND]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin of King Kanishka,
+     published by Percy Gardner.
+
+These benevolent and immortal beings--_Amesha-spentas_--were, in the
+order of precedence, Vohu-mano (good thought), Asha-vahista (perfect
+holiness), Khshathra-vairya (good government), Spenta-armaiti (meek
+piety), Haurvatat (health), Ameretat (immortality). Each of them had
+a special domain assigned to him in which to display his energy
+untrammelled: Vohu-mano had charge of cattle, Asha-vahista of fire,
+Khshathra-vairya of metals, Spenta-armaiti of the earth, Haurvatat and
+Ameretat of vegetation and of water. They were represented in human
+form, either masculine as Vohu-mano and Asha-vahista,* or feminine as
+Spenta-armaiti, the daughter and spouse of Ahura-mazda, who became
+the mother of the first man, Gayomaretan, and, through Gayomaretan,
+ancestress of the whole human race.
+
+     * The image of Asha-vahista is known to us from coins of the
+     Indo-Scythian kings of Bactriana. Vohu-mano is described as
+     a young man.
+
+[Illustration: 017a.jpg ATAR THE GOD OF FIRE]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin of King Kanishka,
+     published by Percy Gardner.
+
+[Illustration: 017b.jpg AURVATASPA]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from coin published by Percy
+     Gardner.
+
+[Illustration: 017c.jpg MITHRA]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin of King Huvishka,
+     published by Percy Gardner.
+
+Sometimes Ahura-mazda is himself included among the Amesha-spentas, thus
+bringing their number up to seven; sometimes his place is taken by a
+certain Sraosha (obedience to the law), the first who offered sacrifice
+and recited the prayers of the ritual. Subordinate to these great
+spirits were the Yazatas, scattered by thousands over creation,
+presiding over the machinery of nature and maintaining it in working
+order. Most of them received no special names, but many exercised wide
+authority, and several were accredited by the people with an influence
+not less than that of the greater deities themselves. Such Were the
+regent of the stars--Tishtrya, the bull with golden horns, Sirius, the
+sparkling one; Mao, the moon-god; the wind, Vato; the atmosphere, Vayu,
+the strongest of the strong, the warrior with golden armour, who gathers
+the storm and hurls it against the demon; Atar, fire under its principal
+forms, divine fire, sacred fire, and earthly fire; Vere-thraghna, the
+author of war and giver of victory; Aurva-taspa, the son of the waters,
+the lightning born among the clouds; and lastly, the spirit of the dawn,
+the watchful Mithra, "who, first of the celestial Yazatas, soars above
+Mount Hara,* before the immortal sun with his swift steeds, who, first
+in golden splendour, passes over the beautiful mountains and casts his
+glance benign on the dwellings of the Aryans."**
+
+     * Hara is Haroberezaiti, or Elburz, the mountain over which
+     the sun rises, "around which many a star revolves, where
+     there is neither night nor darkness, no wind of cold or
+     heat, no sickness leading to a thousand kinds of death, nor
+     infection caused by the Daovas, and whose summit is never
+     reached by the clouds."
+
+     ** This is the Mithra whose religion became so powerful in
+     Alexandrian and Roman times. His sphere of action is defined
+     in the Bundehesh.
+
+Mithra was a charming youth of beautiful countenance, his head
+surrounded with a radiant halo. The nymph Anahita was adored under the
+form of one of the incarnations of the Babylonian goddess Mylitta, a
+youthful and slender female, with well-developed breasts and broad hips,
+sometimes represented clothed in furs and sometimes nude.* Like the
+foreign goddess to whom she was assimilated, she was the dispenser of
+fertility and of love; the heroes of antiquity, and even Ahura-mazda
+himself, had vied with one another in their worship of her, and she had
+lavished her favours freely on all.**
+
+     * The popularity of these two deities was already well
+     established at the period we are dealing with, for Herodotus
+     mentions Mithra and confuses him with Anahita.
+
+     ** Her name Ardvi-Sura Anahita seems to signify _the lofty
+     and immaculate power_.
+
+The less important Yazatas were hardly to be distinguished from the
+innumerable multitude of Fravashis. The Fravasliis are the divine types
+of all intelligent beings. They were originally brought into being by
+Ahura-mazda as a distinct species from the human, but they had allowed
+themselves to be entangled in matter, and to be fettered in the bodies
+of men, in order to hasten the final destruction of the demons and the
+advent of the reign of good.*
+
+     * The legend of the descent of the Fravashis to dwell among
+     men is narrated in the Bundehesh.
+
+[Illustration: 018.jpg MYLITTA-ANAHITA]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Loftus
+
+[Illustration: 018a.jpg NANA-ANAHITA]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin of King Huvishka,
+     published by Percy Gardner.
+
+Once incarnate, a Fravasliis devotes himself to the well-being of the
+mortal with whom he is associated; and when once more released from
+the flesh, he continues the struggle against evil with an energy whose
+efficacy is proportionate to the virtue and purity displayed in life by
+the mortal to whom he has been temporarily joined. The last six days
+of the year are dedicated to the Fravashis. They leave their heavenly
+abodes at this time to visit the spots which were their earthly
+dwelling-places, and they wander through the villages inquiring, "Who
+wishes to hire us? Who will offer us a sacrifice? Who will make us their
+own, welcome us, and receive us with plenteous offerings of food and
+raiment, with a prayer which bestows sanctity on him who offers it?" And
+if they find a man to hearken to their request, they bless him: "May his
+house be blessed with herds of oxen and troops of men, a swift horse
+and a strongly built chariot, a man who knoweth how to pray to God, a
+chieftain in the council who may ever offer us sacrifices with a hand
+filled with food and raiment, with a prayer which bestows sanctity on
+him who offers it!" Ahura-mazda created the universe, not by the work
+of his hands, but by the magic of his word, and he desired to create it
+entirely free from defects. His creation, however, can only exist by
+the free play and equilibrium of opposing forces, to which he gives
+activity: the incompatibility of tendency displayed by these forces, and
+their alternations of growth and decay, inspired the Iranians with the
+idea that they were the result of two contradictory principles, the one
+beneficent and good, the other adverse to everything emanating from the
+former.*
+
+     * Spiegel, who at first considered that the Iranian dualism
+     was derived from polytheism, and was a preliminary stage in
+     the development of monotheism, held afterwards that a rigid
+     monotheism had preceded this dualism. The classical writers,
+     who knew Zoroastrianism at the height of its glory, never
+     suggested that the two principles might be derived from a
+     superior principle, nor that they were subject to such a
+     principle. The Iranian books themselves nowhere definitely
+     affirm that there existed a single principle distinct from
+     the two opposing principles.
+
+In opposition to the god of light, they necessarily formed the idea of
+a god of darkness, the god of the underworld, who presides over death,
+Angro-mainyus. The two opposing principles reigned at first, each in his
+own domain, as rivals, but not as irreconcilable adversaries: they were
+considered as in fixed opposition to each other, and as having coexisted
+for ages without coming into actual conflict, separated as they were by
+the intervening void. As long as the principle of good was content
+to remain shut up inactive in his barren glory, the principle of evil
+slumbered unconscious in a darkness that knew no beginning; but when
+at last "the spirit who giveth increase"--Spento-mainyus--determined to
+manifest himself, the first throes of his vivifying activity roused from
+inertia the spirit of destruction and of pain, Angro-mainyus. The heaven
+was not yet in existence, nor the waters, nor the earth, nor ox, nor
+fire, nor man, nor demons, nor brute beasts, nor any living thing, when
+the evil spirit hurled himself upon the light to quench it for ever,
+but Ahura-mazda had already called forth the ministers of his
+will--Amesha-spentas, Yazatas, Fravashis--and he recited the prayer of
+twenty-one words in which all the elements of morality are summed up,
+the Ahuna-vairya: "The will of the Lord is the rule of good. Let the
+gifts of Vohu-mano be bestowed on the works accomplished, at this
+moment, for Mazda. He makes Ahura to reign, he who protects the poor."
+The effect of this prayer was irresistible: "When Ahura had pronounced
+the first part of the formula, Zanak Minoi, the spirit of destruction,
+bowed himself with terror; at the second part he fell upon his knees;
+and at the third and last he felt himself powerless to hurt the
+creatures of Ahura-mazda."*
+
+     * Theopompus was already aware of this alternation of good
+     and bad periods. According to the tradition enshrined in the
+     first chapter of the Bundehesh, it was the result of a sort
+     of compact agreed upon at the beginning by Ahura-mazda and
+     Angro-mainyus. Ahura-mazda, rearing to be overcome if he
+     entered upon the struggle immediately, but sure of final
+     victory if he could gain time, proposed to his adversary a
+     truce of nine thousand years, at the expiration of which the
+     battle should begin. As soon as the compact was made, Angro-
+     mainyus realised that he had been tricked into taking a
+     false step, but it was not till after three thousand years
+     that he decided to break the truce and open the conflict.
+
+The strife, kindled at the beginning of time between the two gods, has
+gone on ever since with alternations of success and defeat; each in turn
+has the victory for a regular period of three thousand years; but when
+these periods are ended, at the expiration of twelve thousand years,
+evil will be finally and for ever defeated. While awaiting this blessed
+fulness of time, as Spento-mainyus shows himself in all that is good
+and beautiful, in light, virtue, and justice, so Angro-mainyus is to be
+perceived in all that is hateful and ugly, in darkness, sin, and crime.
+Against the six Amesha-spentas he sets in array six spirits of
+equal power--Akem-mano, evil thought; Andra, the devouring fire, who
+introduces discontent and sin wherever he penetrates; Sauru, the flaming
+arrow of death, who inspires bloodthirsty tyrants, who incites men to
+theft and murder; Naongaithya, arrogance and pride; Tauru, thirst; and
+Zairi, hunger.*
+
+     * The last five of these spirits are enumerated in the
+     _Vendidad_, and the first, Akem-mano, is there replaced by
+     Nasu, the chief spirit of evil.
+
+To the Yazatas he opposed the Daevas, who never cease to torment
+mankind, and so through all the ranks of nature he set over against each
+good and useful creation a counter-creation of rival tendency. "'Like
+a fly he crept into' and infected 'the whole universe.' He rendered the
+world as dark at full noonday as in the darkest night. He covered the
+soil with vermin, with his creatures of venomous bite and poisonous
+sting, with serpents, scorpions, and frogs, so that there was not a
+space as small as a needle's point but swarmed with his vermin. He smote
+vegetation, and of a sudden the plants withered.... He attacked the
+flames, and mingled them with smoke and dimness. The planets, with their
+thousands of demons, dashed against the vault of heaven and waged war on
+the stars, and the universe became darkened like a space which the fire
+blackens with its smoke." And the conflict grew ever keener over the
+world and over man, of whom the evil one was jealous, and whom he sought
+to humiliate.
+
+[Illustration: 022.jpg ONE OF THE BAD GENII, SUBJECT TO ANGRO-MAINYUS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph taken from the
+     original bas-relief in glazed tiles in the Louvre.
+
+[Illustration: 023.jpg THE KING STRUGGLING AGAINST AN EVIL GENIUS]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the photograph in Marcel Dieulafoy.
+
+The children of Angro-mainyus disguised themselves under those monstrous
+forms in which the imagination of the Chaldaeans had clothed the allies
+of Mummu-Tiamat, such as lions with bulls' heads, and the wings and
+claws of eagles, which the Achaemenian king combats on behalf of his
+subjects, boldly thrusting them through with his short sword. Aeshma of
+the blood-stained lance, terrible in wrath, is the most trusted leader
+of these dread bands,* the chief of twenty other Daevas of repulsive
+aspect--Asto-vidhotu, the demon of death, who would devote to
+destruction the estimable Fravashis;** Apaosha, the enemy of Tishtrya
+the wicked black horse, the bringer of drought, who interferes with the
+distribution of the fertilising waters; and Buiti, who essayed to kill
+Zoroaster at his birth.***
+
+     * The name Aeshma means _anger_. He is the Asmodeus, Aeshmo-
+     daevo, of Rabbinic legends.
+
+     ** The name of this demon signifies _He who separates the
+     bones_.
+
+     *** The Greater Bundehesh connects the demon Buiti with the
+     Indian Buddha, and J. Darmestefer seems inclined to accept
+     this interpretation. In this case we must either admit that
+     the demon Buiti is of relatively late origin, or that he
+     has, in the legend of Zoroaster, taken the place of a demon
+     whose name resembled his own closely enough to admit of the
+     assimilation.
+
+The female demons, the Bruges, the Incubi (Yatus), the Succubi
+(Pairika), the Peris of our fairy tales, mingled familiarly with mankind
+before the time of the prophet, and contracted with them fruitful
+alliances, but Zoroaster broke up their ranks, and prohibited them
+from becoming incarnate in any form but that of beasts; their hatred,
+however, is still unquenched, and their power will only be effectually
+overthrown at the consummation of time. It is a matter of uncertainty
+whether the Medes already admitted the possibility of a fresh
+revelation, preparing the latest generations of mankind for the advent
+of the reign of good. The traditions enshrined in the sacred books
+of Iran announce the coming of three prophets, sons of Zoroaster
+--Ukhshyatereta, Ukhshyatnemo, and Saoshyant* --who shall bring about
+universal salvation.
+
+     * The legend ran that they had been conceived in the waters
+     of the lake Kansu. The name Saoshyant signifies _the useful
+     one, the saviour_; Ukshyate-reta, _he who malces the good
+     increase_; Ukshyatnemo, _he who makes prayer increase_.
+
+Saoshyant, assisted by fifteen men and fifteen pure women, who have
+already lived on earth, and are awaiting their final destiny in a magic
+slumber, shall offer the final sacrifice, the virtue of which shall
+bring about the resurrection of the dead. "The sovereign light shall
+accompany him and his friends, when he shall revivify the world and
+ransom it from old age and death, from corruption and decay, and shall
+render it eternally living, eternally growing, and master of itself."
+The fatal conflict shall be protracted, but the champions of Saoshyant
+shall at length obtain the victory. "Before them shall bow Aeshma of the
+blood-stained lance and of ominous renown, and Saoshyant shall strike
+down the she-demon of the unholy light, the daughter of darkness.
+Akem-mano strikes, but Vohu-mano shall strike him in his turn; the lying
+word shall strike, but the word of truth shall strike him in his turn;
+Haurvatat and Ameretafc shall strike down hunger and thirst; Haurvatat
+and Ameretat shall strike down terrible hunger and terrible thirst."
+Angro-mainyus himself shall be paralysed with terror, and shall be
+forced to confess the supremacy of good: he shall withdraw into the
+depths of hell, whence he shall never again issue forth, and all the
+reanimated beings devoted to the Mazdean law shall live an eternity of
+peace and contentment.
+
+Man, therefore, incessantly distracted between the two principles, laid
+wait for by the Baevas, defended by the Yazatas, must endeavour to act
+according to law and justice in the condition in which fate has placed
+him. He has been raised up here on earth to contribute as far as in him
+lies to the increase of life and of good, and in proportion as he works
+for this end or against it, is he the _ashavan_, the pure, the faithful
+one on earth and the blessed one in heaven, or the _anashavan_, the
+lawless miscreant who counteracts purity. The highest grade in the
+hierarchy of men belongs of right to the Mage or the _athravan_, to the
+priest whose voice inspires the demons with fear, or the soldier whose
+club despatches the impious, but a place of honour at their side is
+assigned to the peasant, who reclaims from the power of Angro-mainyus the
+dry and sterile fields. Among the places where the earth thrives most
+joyously is reckoned that "where a worshipper of Ahura-mazda builds a
+house, with a chaplain, with cattle, with a wife, with sons, with a fair
+flock; where man grows the most corn, herbage, and fruit trees; where he
+spreads water on a soil without water, and drains off water where
+there is too much of it." He who sows corn, sows good, and promotes the
+Mazdean faith; "he nourishes the Mazdean religion as fifty men would do
+rocking a child in the cradle, five hundred women giving it suck from
+their breasts.* When the corn was created the Daevas leaped, when it
+sprouted the Daevas lost courage, when the stem set the Daevas wept,
+when the ear swelled the Daevas fled. In the house where corn is
+mouldering the Daevas lodge, but when the corn sprouts, one might say
+that a hot iron is being turned round in their mouths." And the reason
+of their horror is easily divined: "Whoso eats not, has no power either
+to accomplish a valiant work of religion, or to labour with valour,
+or yet to beget children valiantly; it is by eating that the universe
+lives, and it dies from not eating." The faithful follower of Zoroaster
+owes no obligation towards the impious man or towards a stranger,** but
+is ever bound to render help to his coreligionist.
+
+     * The original text says in a more enigmatical fashion, "he
+     nourishes the religion of Mazda as a hundred feet of men and
+     a thousand breasts of women might do."
+
+     ** Charity is called in Parsee language, _asho-dad_ the
+     _gift to a pious man_, or the _gift of piety_, and the pious
+     man, the _ashavan_, is by definition the worshipper of
+     Ahura-mazda alone.
+
+He will give a garment to the naked, and by so doing will wound Zemaka,
+the demon of winter. He will never refuse food to the hungry labourer,
+under pain of eternal torments, and his charity will extend even to
+the brute beasts, provided that they belong to the species created by
+Ahura-mazda: he has duties towards them, and their complaints, heard
+in heaven, shall be fatal to him later on if he has provoked them.
+Asha-vahista will condemn to hell the cruel man who has ill-treated the
+ox, or allowed his flocks to suffer; and the killing of a hedgehog is
+no less severely punished--for does not a hedgehog devour the ants
+who steal the grain? The dog is in every case an especially sacred
+animal--the shepherd's dog, the watchdog, the hunting-dog, even the
+prowling dog. It is not lawful to give any dog a blow which renders him
+impotent, or to slit his ears, or to cut his foot, without incurring
+grave responsibilities in this world and in the next; it is necessary to
+feed the dog well, and not to throw bones to him which are too hard, nor
+have his food served hot enough to burn his tongue or his throat. For
+the rest, the faithful Zoroastrian was bound to believe in his god, to
+offer to him the orthodox prayers and sacrifices, to be simple in heart,
+truthful, the slave of his pledged word, loyal in his very smallest
+acts. If he had once departed from the right way, he could only return
+to it by repentance and by purification, accompanied by pious deeds:
+to exterminate noxious animals, the creatures of Angro-mainyus and the
+abode of his demons, such as the frog, the scorpion, the serpent or
+the ant, to clear the sterile tracts, to restore impoverished land,
+to construct bridges over running water, to distribute implements of
+husbandry to pions men, or to build them a house, to give a pure and
+healthy maiden in marriage to a just man,--these were so many means of
+expiation appointed by the prophet.* Marriage was strictly obligatory,**
+and seemed more praiseworthy in proportion as the kinship existing
+between the married pair was the closer: not only was the sister united
+in marriage to her brother, as in Egypt, but the father to his daughter,
+and the mother to her son, at least among the Magi.
+
+     * A passage in the _Vendidad_ even enumerates how many
+     noisome beasts must be slain to accomplish one full work of
+     expiation--"to kill 1000 serpents of those who drag
+     themselves upon the belly, and 2000 of the other species,
+     1000 land frogs or 2000 water frogs, 1000 ants who steal the
+     grain," and so on.
+
+     ** The _Vendidad_ says, "And I tell thee, O Spitama
+     Zarathustra, the man who has a wife is above him who lives
+     in continency;" and, as we have seen in the text, one of
+     these forms of expiation consisted in "marrying to a worthy
+     man a young girl who has never known a man" (_Vendidad_, 14,
+     Sec. 15). Herodotus of old remarked that one of the chief
+     merits in an Iranian was to have many children: the King of
+     Persia encouraged fecundity in his realm, and awarded a
+     prize each year to that one of his subjects who could boast
+     the most numerous progeny.
+
+Polygamy was also encouraged and widely practised: the code imposed no
+limit on the number of wives and concubines, and custom was in favour of
+a man's having as many wives as his fortune permitted him to maintain.
+On the occasion of a death, it was forbidden to burn the corpse, to bury
+it, or to cast it into a river, as it would have polluted the fire,
+the earth, or the water--an unpardonable offence. The corpse could be
+disposed of in different ways. The Persians were accustomed to cover it
+with a thick layer of wax, and then to bury it in the ground: the wax
+coating obviated the pollution which direct contact would have brought
+upon the soil. The Magi, and probably also strict devotees, following
+their example, exposed the corpse in the open air, abandoning it to the
+birds or beasts of prey. It was considered a great misfortune if these
+respected the body, for it was an almost certain indication of the wrath
+of Ahura-mazda, and it was thought that the defunct had led an evil
+life. When the bones had been sufficiently stripped of flesh, they were
+collected together, and deposited either in an earthenware urn or in a
+stone ossuary with a cover, or in a monumental tomb either hollowed out
+in the heart of the mountain or in the living rock, or raised up
+above the level of the ground. Meanwhile the soul remained in the
+neighbourhood for three days, hovering near the head of the corpse, and
+by the recitation of prayers it experienced, according to its condition
+of purity or impurity, as much of joy or sadness as the whole world
+experiences. When the third night was past, the just soul set forth
+across luminous plains, refreshed by a perfumed breeze, and its good
+thoughts and words and deeds took shape before it "under the guise of a
+young maiden, radiant and strong, with well-developed bust, noble mien,
+and glorious face, about fifteen years of age, and as beautiful as the
+most beautiful;" the unrighteous soul, on the contrary, directed its
+course towards the north, through a tainted land, amid the squalls of a
+pestilential hurricane, and there encountered its past ill deeds, under
+the form of an ugly and wicked young woman, the ugliest and most wicked
+it had ever seen. The genius Rashnu Razishta, the essentially truthful,
+weighed its virtues or vices in an unerring balance, and acquitted or
+Condemned it on the impartial testimony of its past life. On issuing
+from the judgment-hall, the soul arrived at the approach to the bridge
+Cinvaut, which, thrown across the abyss of hell, led to paradise. The
+soul, if impious, was unable to cross this bridge, but was hurled down
+into the abyss, where it became the slave of Angro-mainyus. If pure, it
+crossed the bridge without difficulty by the help of the angel Sraosha,
+and was welcomed by Vohu-mano, who conducted it before the throne of
+Ahura-mazda, in the same way as he had led Zoroaster, and assigned to it
+the post which it should occupy until the day of the resurrection of the
+body.*
+
+     * All this picture of the fate of the soul is taken from the
+     _Vendidad_, where the fate of the just is described, and in
+     the _Yasht_, where the condition of faithful and impious
+     souls respectively is set forth on parallel lines. The
+     classical authors teach us nothing on this subject, and the
+     little they actually say only proves that the Persians
+     believed in the immortality of the soul. The main outlines
+     of the picture here set forth go back to the times of the
+     Achaemenids and the Medes, except the abstract conception of
+     the goddess who leads the soul of the dead as an incarnation
+     of his good or evil deeds.
+
+The religious observances enjoined on the members of the priestly caste
+were innumerable and minute. Ahura-mazda and his colleagues had not,
+as was the fashion among the Assyrians and Egyptians, either temples or
+tabernacles, and though they were represented sometimes under human or
+animal forms, and even in some cases on bas-reliefs, yet no one ever
+ventured to set up in their sanctuaries those so-called animated or
+prophetic statues to which the majority of the nations had rendered or
+were rendering their solicitous homage. Altars, however, were erected
+on the tops of hills, in palaces, or in the centre of cities, on which
+fires were kindled in honour of the inferior deities or of the supreme
+god himself.
+
+[Illustration: 031.jpg THE TWO IRANIAN ALTAKRAT NAKHSH-I-RUSTEM]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a heliogravure in Marcel Dieulafoy.
+
+Two altars were usually set up together, and they are thus found here
+and there among the ruins, as at Nakhsh-i-Kustem, the necropolis of
+Persepolis, where a pair of such altars exist; these are cut, each out
+of a single block, in a rocky mass which rises some thirteen feet above
+the level of the surrounding plain. They are of cubic form and
+squat appearance, looking like towers flanked at the four corners by
+supporting columns which are connected by circular arches; above a
+narrow moulding rises a crest of somewhat triangular projections; the
+hearth is hollowed out on the summit of each altar.*
+
+     * According to Perrot and Chipiez, "it is not impossible
+     that these altars were older than the great buildings of
+     Persepolis, and that they were erected for the old Persian
+     town which Darius raised to the position of capital."
+
+At Meshed-i-Murgab, on the site of the ancient Pasargadas, the altars
+have disappeared, but the basements on which they were erected are
+still visible, as also the flight of eight steps by which they were
+approached. Those altars on which burned, a perpetual fire were not
+left exposed to the open air: they would have run too great a risk
+of contracting impurities, such as dust borne by the wind, flights of
+birds, dew, rain, or snow. They were enclosed in slight structures, well
+protected by walls, and attaining in some cases considerable dimensions,
+or in pavilion-shaped edifices of stone adorned with columns.
+
+[Illustration: 032.jpg THE TWO IRANIAN ALTARS OF MURGAB]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from Plandin and Coste.
+
+The sacrificial rites were of long duration, and frequent, and were
+rendered very complex by interminable manual acts, ceremonial gestures,
+and incantations.
+
+[Illustration: 032b.jpg THE OCCUPATIONS OF ANI IN THE ELYSIAN FIELDS]
+
+In cases where the altar was not devoted to maintaining a perpetual
+fire, it was kindled when necessary with small twigs previously barked
+and purified, and was subsequently fed with precious woods, preferably
+cypress or laurel;* care was taken not to quicken the flame by blowing,
+for the human breath would have desecrated the fire by merely passing
+over it; death was the punishment for any one who voluntarily committed
+such a heinous sacrilege. The recognised offering consisted of flowers,
+bread, fruit, and perfumes, but these were often accompanied, as in all
+ancient religions, by a bloody sacrifice; the sacrifice of a horse was
+considered the most efficacious, but an ox, a cow, a sheep, a camel,
+an ass, or a stag was frequently offered: in certain circumstances,
+especially when it was desired to conciliate the favour of the god of
+the underworld, a human victim, probably as a survival of very ancient
+rites was preferred.**
+
+     * Pausanias, who witnessed the cult as practised at
+     Hierocaesarsea, remarked the curious colour of the ashes
+     heaped upon the altar.
+
+     * Most modern writers deny the authenticity of Herodotus'
+     account, because a sacrifice of this kind is opposed to the
+     spirit of the Magian religion, which is undoubtedly the
+     case, as far as the latest form of the religion is
+     concerned; but the testimony of Herodotus is so plain that
+     the fact itself must be considered as indisputable. We may
+     note that the passage refers to the foundation of a city;
+     and if we remember how persistent was the custom of human
+     sacrifice among ancient races at the foundation of
+     buildings, we shall be led to the conclusion that the
+     ceremony described by the Greek historian was a survival of
+     a very ancient usage, which had not yet fallen entirely into
+     desuetude at the Achaemenian epoch.
+
+[Illustration: 033.jpg THE SACRED FIRE BURNING ON THE ALTAR]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the impression of a Persian
+     intaglio.
+
+The king, whose royal position made him the representative of
+Ahura-mazda on earth, was, in fact, a high priest, and was himself
+able to officiate at the altar, but no one else could dispense with the
+mediation of the Magi. The worshippers proceeded in solemn procession
+to the spot where the ceremony was to take place, and there the priest,
+wearing the tiara on his head, recited an invocation in a slow and
+mysterious voice, and implored the blessings of heaven on the king
+and nation. He then slaughtered the victim by a blow on the head, and
+divided it into portions, which he gave back to the offerer without
+reserving any of them, for Ahura-mazda required nothing but the soul;
+in certain cases, the victim was entirely consumed by fire, but more
+frequently nothing but a little of the fat and some of the entrails
+were taken to feed and maintain the flame, and sometimes even this was
+omitted.* Sacrifices were of frequent occurrence. Without mentioning
+the extraordinary occasions on which a king would have a thousand bulls
+slain at one time,** the Achaemenian kings killed each day a thousand
+bullocks, asses, and stags: sacrifice under such circumstances was
+another name for butchery, the object of which was to furnish the court
+with a sufficient supply of pure meat. The ceremonial bore resemblance
+in many ways to that still employed by the modern Zoroastrians of Persia
+and India.
+
+     * A relic of this custom may be discerned in the expiatory
+     sacrifice decreed in the _Vendidad_: "He shall sacrifice a
+     thousand head of small cattle, and he shall place their
+     entrails devoutly on the fire, with libations."
+
+     ** The number 1000 seems to have had some ritualistic
+     significance, for it often recurs in the penances imposed on
+     the faithful as expiation for their sins: thus it was
+     enjoined to slay 1000 serpents, 1000 frogs, 1000 ants who
+     steal the grain, 1000 head of small cattle, 1000 swift
+     horses, 1000 camels, 1000 brown oxen.
+
+The officiating priest covered his mouth with the bands which fell from
+his mitre, to prevent the god from being polluted by his breath; he held
+in his hand the baresman, or sacred bunch of tamarisk, and prepared the
+mysterious liquor from the haoma plant.* He was accustomed each morning
+to celebrate divine service before the sacred fire, not to speak of the
+periodic festivals in which he shared the offices with all the members
+of his tribe, such as the feast of Mithra, the feast of the Fravashis,**
+the feast commemorating the rout of Angro-mainyus,*** the feast of the
+Saksea, during which the slaves were masters of the house.****
+
+     * The drink mentioned by the author of the _De Iside_, which
+     was extracted from the plant Omomi, and which the Magi
+     offered to the god of the underworld, is certainly the
+     haoma. The rite mentioned by the Greek author, which appears
+     to be an incantation against Ahriman, required, it seems, a
+     potion in which the blood of a wolf was a necessary
+     ingredient: this questionable draught was then carried to a
+     place where the sun's rays never shone, and was there
+     sprinkled on the ground as a libation.
+
+     ** Menander speaks of this festival as conducted in his own
+     times, and tells us that it was called Eurdigan; modern
+     authorities usually admit that it goes back to the times of
+     the Achaemenids or even beyond.
+
+     *** Agathias says that every worshipper of Ahura-mazda is
+     enjoined to kill the greatest possible number of animals
+     created by Angro-mainyus, and bring to the Magi the fruits
+     of his hunting. Herodotus had already spoken of this
+     destruction of life as one of the duties incumbent on every
+     Persian, and this gives probability to the view of modern
+     writers that the festival went back to the Achaemenian epoch.
+
+     **** The festival of the Sakoa is mentioned by Ctesias. It
+     was also a Babylonian festival, and most modern authorities
+     conclude from this double use of the name that the festival
+     was borrowed from the Babylonians by the Persians, but this
+     point is not so certain as it is made out to be, and at any
+     rate the borrowing must have taken place very early, for the
+     festival was already well established in the Achaemenian
+     period.
+
+All the Magi were not necessarily devoted to the priesthood; but
+those only became apt in the execution of their functions who had been
+dedicated to them from infancy, and who, having received the necessary
+instruction, were duly consecrated. These adepts were divided into
+several classes, of which three at least were never confounded in their
+functions--the sorcerers, the interpreters of dreams, and the most
+venerated sages--and from these three classes were chosen the ruling
+body of the order and its supreme head. Their rule of life was
+strict and austere, and was encumbered with a thousand observances
+indispensable to the preservation of perfect purity in their persons,
+their altars, their victims, and their sacrificial vessels and
+implements. The Magi of highest rank abstained from every form of
+living thing as food, and the rest only partook of meat under certain
+restrictions. Their dress was unpretentious, they wore no jewels, and
+observed strict fidelity to the marriage vow;* and the virtues with
+which they were accredited obtained for them, from very early times,
+unbounded influence over the minds of the common people as well as over
+those of the nobles: the king himself boasted of being their pupil, and
+took no serious step in state affairs without consulting Ahura-mazda or
+the other gods by their mediation. The classical writers maintain that
+the Magi often cloaked monstrous vices under their apparent strictness,
+and it is possible that this was the case in later days, but even then
+moral depravity was probably rather the exception than the rule among
+them:*** the majority of the Magi faithfully observed the rules of
+honest living and ceremonial purity enjoined on them in the books handed
+down by their ancestors.
+
+     * Clement of Alexandria assures us that they were strictly
+     celibate, but besides the fact that married Magi are
+     mentioned several times, celibacy is still considered by
+     Zoroastrians an inferior state to that of marriage.
+
+     ** In the Greek period, a spurious epitaph of Darius, son of
+     Hystaspes, was quoted, in which the king says of himself, "I
+     was the pupil of the Magi."
+
+     *** These accusations are nearly all directed against their
+     incestuous marriages: it seems that the classical writers
+     took for a refinement of debauchery what really was before
+     all things a religious practice.
+
+There is reason to believe that the Magi were all-powerful among the
+Medes, and that the reign of Astyages was virtually the reign of the
+priestly caste; but all the Iranian states did not submit so patiently
+to their authority, and the Persians at last proved openly refractory.
+Their kings, lords of Susa as well as of Pasargadse, wielded all the
+resources of Elam, and their military power must have equalled, if it
+did not already surpass, that of their suzerain lords. Their tribes,
+less devoted to the manner of living of the Assyrians and Chaldaeans,
+had preserved a vigour and power of endurance which the Medes no longer
+possessed; and they needed but an ambitious and capable leader, to rise
+rapidly from the rank of subjects to that of rulers of Iran, and to
+become in a short time masters of Asia. Such a chief they found in
+Cyrus,* son of Cambyses; but although no more illustrious name than his
+occurs in the list of the founders of mighty empires, the history of no
+other has suffered more disfigurement from the imagination of his own
+subjects or from the rancour of the nations he had conquered.**
+
+     * The original form of the name is Kuru, Kurush, with a long
+     _o_, which forces us to reject the proposed connection with
+     the name of the Indian hero Kuru, in which the _u_ is short.
+     Numerous etymologies of the name Cyrus have been proposed.
+     The Persians themselves attributed to it the sense of _the
+     Sun_.
+
+     ** We possess two entirely different versions of the history
+     of the origin of Cyrus, but one, that of Herodotus, has
+     reached us intact, while that of Ctesias is only known to us
+     in fragments from extracts made by Nicolas of Damascus, and
+     by Photius. Spiegel and Duncker thought to recognise in the
+     tradition followed by Ctesias one of the Persian accounts of
+     the history of Cyrus, but Bauer refuses to admit this
+     hypothesis, and prefers to consider it as a romance put
+     together by the author, according to the taste of his own
+     times, from facts partly different from those utilised by
+     Herodotus, and partly borrowed from Herodotus himself: but
+     it should very probably be regarded as an account of Median
+     origin, in which the founder of the Persian empire is
+     portrayed in the most unfavourable light. Or perhaps it may
+     be regarded as the form of the legend current among the
+     Pharnaspids who established themselves as satraps of
+     Dascylium in the time of the Achaemenids, and to whom the
+     royal house of Cappadocia traced its origin. It is almost
+     certain that the account given by Herodotus represents a
+     Median version of the legend, and, considering the important
+     part played in it by Harpagus, probably that version which
+     was current among the descendants of that nobleman. The
+     historian Dinon, as far as we can judge from the extant
+     fragments of his work, and from the abridgment made by
+     Trogus Pompeius, adopted the narrative of Ctesias, mingling
+     with it, however, some details taken from Herodotus and the
+     romance of Xenophon, the Cyropodia.
+
+The Medes, who could not forgive him for having made them subject to
+their ancient vassals, took delight in holding him up to scorn, and not
+being able to deny the fact of his triumph, explained it by the adoption
+of tortuous and despicable methods. They would not even allow that he
+was of royal birth, but asserted that he was of ignoble origin, the son
+of a female goatherd and a certain Atradates,* who, belonging to
+the savage clan of the Mardians, lived by brigandage. Cyrus himself,
+according to this account, spent his infancy and early youth in a
+condition not far short of slavery, employed at first in sweeping out
+the exterior portions of the palace, performing afterwards the same
+office in the private apartments, subsequently promoted to the charge of
+the lamps and torches, and finally admitted to the number of the royal
+cupbearers who filled the king's goblet at table.
+
+     * According to one of the historians consulted by Strabo,
+     Cyrus himself, and not his father, was called Atradates.
+
+[Illustration: 039.jpg A ROYAL HUNTING-PARTY IN HUN]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the silver vase in the Museum
+     of the Hermitage.
+
+When he was at length enrolled in the bodyguard,* he won distinction by
+his skill in all military exercises, and having risen from rank to rank,
+received command of an expedition against the Cadusians.
+
+     * The tradition reproduced by Dinon narrated that Cyrus had
+     begun by serving among the Kavasses, the three hundred
+     staff-bearers who accompanied the sovereign when he appeared
+     in public, and that he passed next into the royal body-
+     guard, and that once having attained this rank, he passed
+     rapidly through all the superior grades of the military
+     profession.
+
+On the march he fell in with a Persian groom named OEbaras,* who
+had been cruelly scourged for some misdeed, and was occupied in the
+transportation of manure in a boat: in obedience to an oracle the two
+united their fortunes, and together devised a vast scheme for liberating
+their compatriots from the Median yoke.
+
+     * This OEbaras whom Ctesias makes the accomplice of Cyrus,
+     seems to be an antedated forestallment of theoebaras whom
+     the tradition followed by Herodotus knows as master of the
+     horse under Darius, and to whom that king owed his elevation
+     to the throne.
+
+How Atradates secretly prepared the revolt of the Mardians; how Cyrus
+left his camp to return to the court at Ecbatana, and obtained from
+Astyages permission to repair to his native country under pretext of
+offering sacrifices, but in reality to place himself at the head of the
+conspirators; how, finally, the indiscretion of a woman revealed the
+whole plot to a eunuch of the harem, and how he warned Astyages in the
+middle of his evening banquet by means of a musician or singing-girl,
+was frequently narrated by the Median bards in their epic poems, and
+hence the story spread until it reached in later times even as far as
+the Greeks.*
+
+     * According to Ctesias, it was a singing-girl who revealed
+     the existence of the plot to Astyages; according to Dinon,
+     it was the bard Angares. Windischmann has compared this name
+     with that of the Vedic guild of singers, the Angira.
+
+Astyages, roused to action by the danger, abandons the pleasures of the
+chase in which his activity had hitherto found vent, sets out on the
+track of the rebel, wins a preliminary victory on the Hyrba, and kills
+the father of Cyrus: some days after, he again overtakes the rebels, at
+the entrance to the defiles leading to Pasargadse, and for the second
+time fortune is on the point of declaring in his favour, when the
+Persian women, bringing back their husbands and sons to the conflict,
+urge them on to victory. The fame of their triumph having spread abroad,
+the satraps and provinces successfully declared for the conqueror;
+Hyrcania, first, followed by the Parthians, the Sakae, and the
+Bactrians: Astyages was left almost alone, save for a few faithful
+followers, in the palace at Ecbatana. His daughter Amytis and his
+son-in-law Spitamas concealed him so successfully on the top of the
+palace, that he escaped discovery up to the moment when Cyrus was on
+the point of torturing his grandchildren to force them to reveal his
+hiding-place: thereupon he gave himself up to his enemies, but was at
+length, after being subjected to harsh treatment for a time, set at
+liberty and entrusted with the government of a mountain tribe dwelling
+to the south-east of the Caspian Sea, that of the Barcanians. Later on
+he perished through the treachery of OEbaras, and his corpse was left
+unburied in the desert, but by divine interposition relays of lions were
+sent to guard it from the attacks of beasts of prey: Cyrus, acquainted
+with this miraculous circumstance, went in search of the body and gave
+it a magnificent burial.* Another legend asserted, on the contrary,
+that Cyrus was closely connected with the royal line of Cyaxares; this
+tradition was originally circulated among the great Median families who
+attached themselves to the Achaemenian dynasty.**
+
+     * The passage in Herodotus leads Marquart to believe that
+     the murder of Astyages formed part of the primitive legend,
+     but was possibly attributed to Cambysos, son of Cyrus,
+     rather than to OEbaras, the companion of the conqueror's
+     early years.
+
+     ** This is the legend as told to Herodotus in Asia Minor,
+     probably by the members of the family of Harpagus, which the
+     Greek historian tried to render credible by interpreting the
+     miraculous incidents in a rationalising manner.
+
+[Illustration: 042.jpg REMAINS OF THE PALACE OF ECBATANA]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from Coste and Flandin.
+
+According to this legend Astyages had no male heirs, and the sceptre
+would have naturally descended from him to his daughter Mandane and
+her sons. Astyages was much alarmed by a certain dream concerning his
+daughter: he dreamt that water gushed forth so copiously from her
+womb as to flood not only Ecbatana, but the whole of Asia, and the
+interpreters, as much terrified as himself, counselled him not to give
+Mandane in marriage to a Persian noble of the race of the Achaemenids,
+named Cambyses; but a second dream soon troubled the security into which
+this union had lulled him: he saw issuing from his daughter's womb a
+vine whose branches overshadowed Asia, and the interpreters, being once
+more consulted, predicted that a grandson was about to be born to him
+whose ambition would cost him his crown. He therefore bade a certain
+nobleman of his court, named Harpagus--he whose descendants preserved
+this version of the story of Cyrus--to seize the infant and put it to
+death as soon as its mother should give it birth; but the man, touched
+with pity, caused the child to be exposed in the woods by one of the
+royal shepherds. A bitch gave suck to the tiny creature, who, however,
+would soon have succumbed to the inclemency of the weather, had not the
+shepherd's wife, being lately delivered of a still-born son, persuaded
+her husband to rescue the infant, whom she nursed with the same
+tenderness as if he had been her own child. The dog was, as we know, a
+sacred animal among the Iranians: the incident of the bitch seems, then,
+to have been regarded by them as an indication of divine intervention,
+but the Greeks were shocked by the idea, and invented an explanation
+consonant with their own customs. They supposed that the woman had borne
+the name of Spako: Spako signifying _bitch_ in the language of Media.*
+
+     * Herodotus asserts that the child's foster-mother was
+     called in Greek _Kyno_, in Median _Spalco_, which comes to
+     the same thing, for _spaha_ means _bitch_ in Median. Further
+     on he asserts that the parents of the child heard of the
+     name of his nurse with joy, as being of good augury; "and,
+     in order that the Persians might think that Cyrus had been
+     preserved alive by divine agency, _they spread abroad the
+     report that Cyrus had been suckled by a bitch_. And thus
+     arose the fable commonly accepted." Trogus Pompeius received
+     the original story probably through Dinon, and inserted it
+     in his book.
+
+Cyrus grew to boyhood, and being accepted by Mandane as her son,
+returned to the court; his grandfather consented to spare his life, but,
+to avenge himself on Harpagus, he caused the limbs of the nobleman's own
+son to be served up to him at a feast. Thenceforth Harpagus had but
+one idea, to overthrow the tyrant and transfer the crown to the young
+prince: his project succeeded, and Cyrus, having overcome Astyages,
+was proclaimed king by the Medes as well as by the Persians. The real
+history of Cyrus, as far as we can ascertain it, was less romantic. We
+gather that Kurush, known to us as Cyrus, succeeded his father Cambyses
+as ruler of Anshan about 559 or 558 B.C.,* and that he revolted against
+Astyages in 553 or 552 B.C.,** and defeated him. The Median army
+thereupon seizing its own leader, delivered him into the hands of the
+conqueror: Ecbatana was taken and sacked, and the empire fell at one
+blow, or, more properly speaking, underwent a transformation (550 B.C.).
+The transformation was, in fact, an internal revolution in which the
+two peoples of the same race changed places. The name of the Medes lost
+nothing of the prestige which it enjoyed in foreign lands, but that of
+the Persians was henceforth united with it, and shared its renown: like
+Astyages and his predecessors, Cyrus and his successors reigned equally
+over the two leading branches of the ancient Iranian stock, but whereas
+the former had been kings of the Medes and Persians, the latter became
+henceforth kings of the Persians and Medes.***
+
+     * The length of Cyrus' reign is fixed at thirty years by
+     Ctesias, followed by Dinon and Trogus Pompeius, but at
+     twenty-nine years by Herodotus, whose computation I here
+     follow. Hitherto the beginning of his reign has been made to
+     coincide with the fall of Astyages, which was consequently
+     placed in 569 or 568 B.C., but the discovery of the _Annals
+     of Nabonidus_ obliges us to place the taking of Ecbatana in
+     the sixth year of the Babylonian king, which corresponds to
+     the year 550 B.C., and consequently to hold that Cyrus
+     reckoned his twenty-nine years from the moment when he
+     succeeded his father Cambyses.
+
+     ** The inscription on the _Rassam Cylinder of Abu-Habba_,
+     seems to make the fall of the Median king, who was suzerain
+     of the Scythians of Harran, coincide with the third year of
+     Nabonidus, or the year 553-2 B.C. But it is only the date of
+     the commencement of hostilities between Cyrus and Astyages
+     which is here furnished, and this manner of interpreting the
+     text agrees with the statement of the Median traditions
+     handed down by the classical authors, that three combats
+     took place between Astyages and Cyrus before the final
+     victory of the Persians.
+
+     *** This equality of the two peoples is indicated by the
+     very terms employed by Darius, whom he speaks of them, in
+     the _Great Inscription of Behistun_. He says, for example,
+     in connection with the revolt of the false Smerdis, that
+     "the deception prevailed greatly in the land, in Persia and
+     Media as well as in the other provinces," and further on,
+     that "the whole people rose, and passed over from Cambyses
+     to him, Persia and Media as well as the other countries." In
+     the same way he mentions "the army of Persians and Medes
+     which was with him," and one sees that he considered Medes
+     and Persians to be on exactly the same footing.
+
+The change effected was so natural that their nearest neighbours, the
+Chaldaeans, showed no signs of uneasiness at the outset. They confined
+themselves to the bare registration of the fact in their annals at the
+appointed date, without comment, and Nabonidus in no way deviated from
+the pious routine which it had hitherto pleased him to follow. Under
+a sovereign so good-natured there was little likelihood of war, at all
+events with external foes, but insurrections were always breaking out in
+different parts of his territory, and we read of difficulties in Khume
+in the first year of his reign, in Hamath in his second year, and
+troubles in Plionicia in the third year, which afforded an opportunity
+for settling the Tyrian question. Tyre had led a far from peaceful
+existence ever since the day when, from sheer apathy, she had accepted
+the supremacy of Nebuchadrezzar.*
+
+     * All these events are known through the excerpt from
+     Menander preserved to us by Josephus in his treatise
+     _Against Apion_.
+
+Baal II. had peacefully reigned there for ten years (574-564), but after
+his death the people had overthrown the monarchy, and various _suffetes_
+had followed one another rapidly--Eknibaal ruled two months, Khelbes ten
+months, the high priest Abbar three months, the two brothers Mutton
+and Gerastratus six years, all of them no doubt in the midst of endless
+disturbances; whereupon a certain Baalezor restored the royal dignity,
+but only to enjoy it for the space of one year. On his death, the
+inhabitants begged the Chaldaeans to send them, as a successor to the
+crown, one of those princes whom, according to custom, Baal had not long
+previously given over as hostages for a guarantee of his loyalty, and
+Nergal-sharuzur for this purpose selected from their number Mahar-baal,
+who was probably a son of Ithobaal (558-557).* When, at the end of four
+years, the death of Mahar-baal left the throne vacant (554-553), the
+Tyrians petitioned for his brother Hirom, and Nabonidus, who was then
+engaged in Syria, came south as far as Phoenicia and installed the
+prince.**
+
+     * The fragment of Menander does not give the Babylonian
+     king's name, but a simple chronological calculation proves
+     him to have been Nergal-sharuzur.
+
+     ** _Annals of Nabonidus_, where mention is made of a certain
+     Nabu-makhdan-uzur--but the reading of the name is uncertain
+     --who seems to be in revolt against the Chaldaeans. Floigl has
+     very ingeniously harmonised the dates of the Annals with
+     those obtained from the fragment of Menander, and has thence
+     concluded that the object of the expedition of the third
+     year was the enthroning of Hirom which is mentioned in the
+     fragment, and during whose fourteenth year Cyrus became King
+     of Babylon.
+
+This took place at the very moment when Cyrus was preparing his
+expedition against Astyages; and the Babylonian monarch took advantage
+of the agitation into which the Medes were thrown by this invasion, to
+carry into execution a project which he had been planning ever since his
+accession. Shortly after that event he had had a dream, in which Marduk,
+the great lord, and Sin, the light of heaven and earth, had appeared
+on either side of his couch, the former addressing him in the following
+words: "Nabonidus, King of Babylon, with the horses of thy chariot bring
+brick, rebuild E-khul-khul, the temple of Harran, that Sin, the great
+lord, may take up his abode therein." Nabonidus had respectfully pointed
+out that the town was in the hands of the Scythians, who were subjects
+of the Medes, but the god had replied: "The Scythian of whom thou
+speakest, he, his country and the kings his protectors, are no more."
+Cyrus was the instrument of the fulfilment of the prophecy. Nabonidus
+took possession of Harran without difficulty, and immediately put the
+necessary work in hand. This was, indeed, the sole benefit that he
+derived from the changes which were taking place, and it is probable
+that his inaction was the result of the enfeebled condition of the
+empire. The country over which he ruled, exhausted by the Assyrian
+conquest, and depopulated by the Scythian invasions, had not had time to
+recover its forces since it had passed into the hands of the Chaldaeans;
+and the wars which Nebuchadrezzar had been obliged to undertake for the
+purpose of strengthening his own power, though few in number and not
+fraught with danger, had tended to prolong the state of weakness into
+which it had sunk. If the hero of the dynasty who had conquered Egypt
+had not ventured to measure his strength with the Median princes, and
+if he had courted the friendship not only of the warlike Cyaxares but of
+the effeminate Astyages, it would not be prudent for Nabonidus to come
+into collision with the victorious new-comers from the heart of Iran.
+Chaldsea doubtless was right in avoiding hostilities, at all events so
+long as she had to bear the brunt of them alone, but other nations
+had not the same motives for exercising prudence, and Lydia was fully
+assured that the moment had come for her to again take up the ambitious
+designs which the treaty of 585 had forced her to renounce. Alyattes,
+relieved from anxiety with regard to the Medes, had confined his
+energies to establishing firmly his kingdom in the regions of Asia Minor
+extending westwards from the Halys and the Anti-Taurus. The acquisition
+of Colophon, the destruction of Smyrna, the alliance with the towns of
+the littoral, had ensured him undisputed possession of the valleys of
+the Caicus and the Hermus, but the plains of the Maeander in the south,
+and the mountainous districts of Mysia in the north, were not yet fully
+brought under his sway. He completed the occupation of the Troad and
+Mysia about 584, and afterwards made of the entire province an appanage
+for Adramyttios, who was either his son or his brother.*
+
+     * The doings of Alyattes in Troas and in Mysia are vouched
+     for by the anecdote related by Plutarch concerning this
+     king's relations with Pittakos. The founding of Adramyttium
+     is attributed to him by Stephen of Byzantium, after
+     Aristotle, who made Adramyttios the brother of Croesus.
+     Radat gives good reasons for believing that Adramyttios was
+     brother to Alyattes and uncle to Crosus, and the same person
+     as Adramys, the son of Sadyattes, according to Xanthus of
+     Lydia. Radet gives the year 584 for the date of these
+     events.
+
+He even carried his arms into Bithynia, where, to enforce his rule, he
+built several strongholds, one of which, called Alyatta, commanded
+the main road leading from the basin of the Rhyndacus to that of
+the Sangarius, skirting the spurs of Olympus.* He experienced some
+difficulty in reducing Caria, and did not finally succeed in his efforts
+till nearly the close of his reign in 566. Adramyttios was then dead,
+and his fief had devolved on his eldest surviving brother or nephew,
+Crosus, whose mother was by birth a Carian. This prince had incurred
+his father's displeasure by his prodigality, and an influential party
+desired that he should be set aside in favour of his brother Pantaleon,
+the son of Alyattes by an Ionian. Croesus, having sown his wild oats,
+was anxious to regain his father's favour, and his only chance of so
+doing was by distinguishing himself in the coming war, if only money
+could be found for paying his mercenaries. Sadyattes, the richest banker
+in Lydia, who had already had dealings with all the members of the royal
+family, refused to make him a loan, but Theokharides of Priene advanced
+him a thousand gold staters, which enabled Crosus to enroll his
+contingent at Bphesus, and to be the first to present himself at the
+rallying-place for the troops.**
+
+     * Radet places the operations in Bithynia before the Median
+     war, towards 594 at the latest. I think that they are more
+     probably connected with those in Mysia, and that they form
+     part of the various measures taken after the Median war to
+     achieve the occupation of the regions west of the Halys.
+
+     ** A mutilated extract from Xanthus of Lydia in Suidas seems
+     to carry these events back to the time of the war against
+     Priene, towards the beginning of the reign. The united
+     evidence of the accompanying circumstances proves that they
+     belong to the time of the old age of Alyattes, and makes it
+     very likely that they occurred in 566, the date proposed by
+     Radet for the Carian campaign.
+
+Caria was annexed to the kingdom, but the conditions under which the
+annexation took place are not known to us;* and Croesus contributed so
+considerably to the success of the campaign, that he was reinstated in
+popular favour. Alyattes, however, was advancing in years, and was soon
+about to rejoin his adversaries Cyaxares and Nebuchadrezzar in Hades.
+Like the Pharaohs, the kings of Lydia were accustomed to construct
+during their lifetime the monuments in which they were to repose after
+death. Their necropolis was situated not far from Sardes, on the shores
+of the little lake Gygaea; it was here, close to the resting-place of
+his ancestors and their wives, that Alyattes chose the spot for his
+tomb,** and his subjects did not lose the opportunity of proving to what
+extent he had gained their affections.
+
+     * The fragment of Nicolas of Damascus does not speak of the
+     result of the war, but it was certainly favourable, for
+     Herodotus counts the Carians among Croesus' subjects.
+
+     ** The only one of these monuments, besides that of
+     Alyattes, which is mentioned by the ancients, belonged to
+     one of the favourites of Gyges, and was called _the Tomb of
+     the Courtesan_. Strabo, by a manifest error, has applied
+     this name _to_ the tomb of Alyattes.
+
+[Illustration: 050.jpg THE TUMULUS OF ALYATTES AND THE ENTRANCE TO THE
+PASSAGE]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the sketch by Spiegolthal.
+
+His predecessors had been obliged to finish their work at their own
+expense and by forced labour;* but in the case of Alyattes the three
+wealthiest classes of the population, the merchants, the craftsmen, and
+the courtesans, all united to erect for him an enormous tumulus, the
+remains of which still rise 220 feet above the plains of the Hermus.
+
+
+* This, at least, seems to be the import of the passage in Clearchus of
+Soli, where that historian gives an account of the erection of the _Tomb
+of the Courtesan_.
+
+
+[Illustration: 051.jpg ONE OF THE LYDIAN ORNAMENTS IN THE LOUVRE]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph.
+
+The sub-structure consisted of a circular wall of great blocks of
+limestone resting on the solid rock, and it contained in the centre
+a vault of grey marble which was reached by a vaulted passage. A huge
+mound of red clay and yellowish earth was raised above the chamber,
+surmounted by a small column representing a phallus, and by four stelae
+covered with inscriptions, erected at the four cardinal points. It
+follows the traditional type of burial-places in use among the old
+Asianic races, but it is constructed with greater regularity than most
+of them; Alyattes was laid within it in 561, after a glorious reign of
+forty-nine years.*
+
+     * Herodotus gave fifty-seven years' length of reign to
+     Alyattes, whilst the chronographers, who go back as far as
+     Xanthus of Lydia, through Julius Africanus, attribute to him
+     only forty-nine; historians now prefer the latter figures,
+     at least as representing the maximum length of reign.
+
+[Illustration: 052.jpg MOULD FOR JEWELLERY OF LYDIAN ORIGIN]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph.
+
+It was wholly due to him that Lydia was for the moment raised to the
+level of the most powerful states which then existed on the eastern
+shores of the Mediterranean. He was by nature of a violent and
+uncontrolled temper, and during his earlier years he gave way to fits of
+anger, in which he would rend the clothes of those who came in his way
+or would spit in their faces, but with advancing years his character
+became more softened, and he finally earned the reputation of being a
+just and moderate sovereign. The little that we know of his life reveals
+an energy and steadfastness of purpose quite unusual; he proceeded
+slowly but surely in his undertakings, and if he did not succeed in
+extending his domains as far as he had hoped at the beginning of his
+campaigns against the Medes, he at all events never lost any of the
+provinces he had acquired. Under his auspices agriculture flourished,
+and manufactures attained a degree of perfection hitherto unknown.
+
+[Illustration: 053.jpg A LYDIAN FUNERY COUCH]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Choisy.
+
+None of the vases in gold, silver, or wrought-iron, which he dedicated
+and placed among the treasures of the Greek temples, has come down to
+us, but at rare intervals ornaments of admirable workmanship are found
+in the Lydian tombs. Those now in the Louvre exhibit, in addition to
+human figures somewhat awkwardly treated, heads of rams, bulls, and
+griffins of a singular delicacy and faithfulness to nature. These
+examples reveal a blending of Grecian types and methods of production
+with those of Egypt or Chaldaea, the Hellenic being predominant,* and
+the same combination of heterogeneous elements must have existed in the
+other domains of industrial art---in the dyed and embroidered stuffs,**
+the vases,*** and the furniture.****
+
+     * The ornaments, of which we have now no specimens, but only
+     the original moulds cut in serpentine, betray imitation of
+     Assyria and Chaldaea.
+
+
+     ** The custom of clothing themselves in dyed and embroidered
+     stuffs was one of the effeminate habits with which the poet
+     Xenophanes reproached the Ionians as having been learned
+     from their Lydian neighbours.
+
+     *** M. Perrot points out that one of the vases discovered by
+     G. Dennis at Bintepe is an evident imitation of the Egyptian
+     and Phoenician chevroned glasses. The shape of the vase is
+     one of those found represented, with the same decoration, on
+     Egyptian monuments subsequent to the Middle Empire, where
+     the chevroned lines seem to be derived from the undulations
+     of ribbon-alabaster.
+
+     **** The stone funerary couches which have been discovered
+     in Lydian tombs are evidently copied from pieces of wooden
+     furniture similarly arranged and decorated.
+
+[Illustration: 054a.jpg LYDIAN COIN BEARING A RUNNING FOX]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a specimen in the Cabinet des
+     Medailles: a stater of electrum weighing 14.19 grammes.
+
+     [These illustrations are larger than the original pieces.--Tr.]
+
+[Illustration: 054b.jpg LYDIAN COIN WITH A HARE]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin in the _Cabinet des
+     Medailles._
+
+Lydia, inheriting the traditions of Phrygia, and like that state
+situated on the border of two worlds, allied moreover with Egypt as well
+as Babylon, and in regular communication with the Delta, borrowed from
+each that which fell in with her tastes or seemed likely to be most
+helpful to her in her commercial relations. As the country produced
+gold in considerable quantities, and received still more from extraneous
+sources, the precious metal came soon to be employed as a means of
+exchange under other conditions than those which had hitherto prevailed.
+Besides acting as commission agents and middle-men for the disposal
+of merchandise at Sardes, Ephesus, Miletus, Clazomenaa, and all the
+maritime cities, the Lydians performed at the same time the functions
+of pawnbrokers, money-changers, and bankers, and they were ready to
+make loans to private individuals as well as to kings. Obliged by the
+exigencies of their trade to cut up the large gold ingots into sections
+sufficiently small to represent the smallest values required in daily
+life, they did not at first impress upon these portions any stamp as
+a guarantee of the exact weight or the purity of the metal; they were
+estimated like the _tabonu_ of the Egyptians, by actual weighing on the
+occasion of each business transaction.
+
+[Illustration: 055.jpg LYDIAN COINS WITH A LION AND LION'S HEAD]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin in the Cabinet des
+     Medailles.
+
+The idea at length occurred to them to impress each of these pieces with
+a common stamp, serving, like the trade-marks employed by certain guilds
+of artisans, to testify at once to their genuineness and their exact
+weight: in a word, they were the inventors of money. The most ancient
+coinage of their mint was like a flattened sphere, more or less ovoid,
+in form: it consisted at first of electrum, and afterwards of smelted
+gold, upon which parallel striae or shallow creases were made by a
+hammer. There were two kinds of coinage, differing considerably from
+each other; one consisted of the heavy stater, weighing about 14.20
+grammes, perhaps of Phoenician origin, the other of the light stater, of
+some 10.80 grammes in weight, which doubtless served as money for
+the local needs of Lydia: both forms were subdivided into pieces
+representing respectively the third, the sixth, the twelfth, and the
+twenty-fourth of the value of the original.
+
+[Illustration: 056a.jpg COIN BEARING HEAD OF MOUFLON GOAT]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin in the Cabinet des
+     Medailles.
+
+[Illustration: 056b.jpg MONEY OF CROESUS]
+
+The stamp which came to be impressed upon the money was in relief, and
+varied with the banker; * when political communities began to follow the
+example of individuals, it also bore the name of the city where it was
+minted.
+
+     * [The best English numismatists do not agree with M.
+     Babelon's "banker" theory. Cf. Barclay V. Head, _Historia
+     Nummorum_, p. xxxiv.---Tr.]
+
+The type of impression once selected, was little modified for fear of
+exciting mistrust among the people, but it was more finely executed and
+enlarged so as to cover one of the faces, that which we now call the
+_obverse_. Several subjects entered into the composition of the design,
+each being impressed by a special punch: thus in the central concavity
+we find the figure of a running fox, emblem of Apollo Bassareus, and
+in two similar depressions, one above and the other below the central,
+appear a horse's or stag's head, and a flower with four petals. Later
+on the design was simplified, and contained only one, or at most two
+figures--a hare squatting under a tortuous climbing plant, a roaring
+lion crouching with its head turned to the left, the grinning muzzle of
+a lion, the horned profile of an antelope or mouflon sheep: rosettes and
+flowers, included within a square depression, were then used to replace
+the stria and irregular lines of the reverse. These first efforts were
+without inscriptions; it was not long, however, before there came to be
+used, in addition to the figures, legends, from which we sometimes
+learn the name of the banker; we read, for instance, "I am the mark of
+Phannes," on a stater of electrum struck at Ephesus, with a stag grazing
+on the right. We are ignorant as to which of the Lydian kings first made
+use of the new invention, and so threw into circulation the gold and
+electrum which filled his treasury to overflowing. The ancients say it
+was Gyges, but the Gygads of their time cannot be ascribed to him; they
+were, without any doubt, simply ingots marked with the stamp of the
+banker of the time, and were attributed to Gyges either out of pure
+imagination or by mistake.*
+
+     * The gold of Gyges is known to us through a passage in
+     Pollux. Fr. Lenormant attributed to Gyges the coins which
+     Babelon restores to the banks of Asia Minor. Babelon sees in
+     the Gygads only "ingots of gold, struck _possibly_ in the
+     name of Gyges, capable of being used as coin, doubtless
+     representing a definitely fixed weight, but still lacking
+     that ultimate perfection which characterises the coinage of
+     civilised peoples: from the standpoint of circulation in the
+     market their shape was defective and inconvenient; their
+     subdivision did not extend to such small fractions as to
+     make all payments easy; they were too large and too dear for
+     easy circulation through many hands."
+
+The same must be said of the pieces of money which have been assigned
+to his successors, and, even when we find on them traces of writing, we
+cannot be sure of their identification; one legend which was considered
+to contain the name of Sadyattes has been made out, without producing
+conviction, as involving, instead, that of Clazomenae. There is no
+certainty until after the time of Alyattes, that is, in the reign of
+Croesus. It is, as a fact, to this prince that we owe the fine gold and
+silver coins bearing on the obverse a demi-lion couchant confronting
+a bull treated similarly.* The two creatures appear to threaten one
+another, and the introduction of the lion recalls a tradition regarding
+the city of Sardes; it may represent the actual animal which was alleged
+to have been begotten by King Meles of one of his concubines, and which
+he caused to be carried solemnly round the city walls to render them
+impregnable.
+
+Croesus did not succeed to the throne of his father without trouble. His
+enemies had not laid down their arms after the Carian campaign, and they
+endeavoured to rid themselves of him by all the means in use at Oriental
+courts. The Ionian mother of his rival furnished the slave who kneaded
+the bread with poison, telling her to mix it with the dough, but the
+woman revealed the intended crime to her master, who at once took the
+necessary measures to frustrate the plot; later on in life he dedicated
+in the temple of Delphi a statue of gold representing the faithful
+bread-maker.** The chief of the rival party seems to have been
+Sadyattes, the banker from whom Croesus had endeavoured to borrow money
+at the beginning of his career, but several of the Lydian nobles, whose
+exercise of feudal rights had been restricted by the growing authority
+of the Mermnado, either secretly or openly gave their adhesion to
+Pantaleon, among them being Glaucias of Sidene; the Greek cities, always
+ready to chafe at authority, were naturally inclined to support a
+claimant born of a Greek mother, and Pindarus the tyrant of Ephesus, and
+grandson of the Melas who had married the daughter of Gyges, joined the
+conspirators.
+
+     * Lenormant ascribed an issue of coins without inscriptions
+     to the kings Ardys, Sadyattes, and Alyattes, but this has
+     since been believed not to have been their work.
+
+     ** Herodotus mentions the statue of the bread-maker, giving
+     no reason why Crosus dedicated it. The author quoted by
+     Plutarch would have it that in revenge he made his half-
+     brothers eat the poisoned bread.
+
+[Illustration: 059.jpg VIEW OF THE SITE AND RUINS OF EPHESUS]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph.
+
+As soon as Alyattes was dead, Crosus, who was kept informed by his spies
+of their plans, took action with a rapidity which disconcerted his
+adversaries. It is not known what became of Pantaleon, whether he was
+executed or fled the country, but his friends were tortured to death or
+had to purchase their pardon dearly. Sadyattes was stretched on a rack
+and torn with carding combs.* Glaucias, besieged in his fortress of
+Sidene, opened its gates after a desperate resistance; the king
+demolished the walls, and pronounced a solemn curse on those who should
+thereafter rebuild them. Pindarus, summoned to surrender, refused, but
+as he had not sufficient troops to defend the entire city, he evacuated
+the lower quarters, and concentrated all his forces on the defence of
+the citadel; he refused to open negotiations until after the fall of a
+tower at the moment when a practicable breach had been made, and
+succeeded in obtaining an honourable capitulation for himself and his
+people by a ruse.
+
+     * The history of Sadyattes and of his part in the conspiracy
+     results from points of agreement which have been established
+     between various passages in Herodotus and in Nicolas of
+     Damascus, where the person is sometimes named and sometimes
+     not.
+
+He dedicated the town to Artemis, and by means of a rope connected
+the city walls with the temple, which stood nearly a mile away in
+the suburbs, and then entreated for peace in the name of the goddess.
+Croesus was amused at the artifice, and granted favourable conditions to
+the inhabitants, but insisted on the expulsion of the tyrant. The latter
+bowed before the decree, and confiding the care of his children and
+possessions to his friend Pasicles, left for the Peloponnesus with his
+retinue. Bphesus up to this time had been a kind of allied principality,
+whose chiefs, united to the royal family of Lydia by marriages from
+generation to generation, recognised the nominal suzerainty of the
+reigning king rather than his effective authority. It was in fact
+a species of protectorate, which, while furthering the commercial
+interests of Lydia, satisfied at the same time the passion of the Greek
+cities for autonomy. Croesus, encouraged by his first success, could
+not rest contented with such a compromise. He attacked, successively,
+Miletus and the various Ionian, AEolian, and Dorian communities of
+the littoral, and brought them all under his sway, promising on their
+capitulation that their local constitutions should be respected if they
+became direct dependencies of his empire. He placed garrisons in such
+towns as were strategically important for him to occupy, but everywhere
+else he razed to the ground the fortresses and ramparts which might
+afford protection to his enemies in case of rebellion, compelling the
+inhabitants to take up their abode on the open plain where they could
+not readily defend themselves.* The administration of the affairs of
+each city was entrusted to either a wealthy citizen, or an hereditary
+tyrant, or an elected magistrate, who was held responsible for its
+loyalty; the administrator paid over the tribute to the sovereign's
+treasurers, levied the specified contingent and took command of it in
+time of war, settled any quarrels which might occur, and was empowered,
+when necessary, to exile turbulent and ambitious persons whose words
+or actions appeared to him to be suspicious. Croesus treated with
+generosity those republics which tendered him loyal obedience, and
+affected a special devotion to their gods. He gave a large number of
+ex-voto offerings to the much-revered sanctuary of Bran-chidse, in the
+territory of Miletus; he dedicated some golden heifers at the Artemision
+of Ephesus, and erected the greater number of the columns of that temple
+at his own expense.**
+
+     * He treated thus the Ephesians and the Ilians.
+
+     ** The fragments of columns brought from this temple by Wood
+     and preserved in the British Museum have on one of the bases
+     the remains of an inscription confirming the testimony of
+     Herodotus.
+
+At one time in his career he appears to have contemplated extending his
+dominion over the Greek islands, and planned, as was said, the equipment
+of a fleet, but he soon acknowledged the imprudence of such a project,
+and confined his efforts to strengthening his advantageous position on
+the littoral by contracting alliances with the island populations and
+with the nations of Greece proper.*
+
+     * He seems to have been deterred from his project by a
+     sarcastic remark made, as some say, by Pittakos the
+     Mitylenian, or according to others, by Bias of Priene.
+
+Following the diplomacy of his ancestors, he began by devoting himself
+to the gods of the country, and took every pains to gain the good graces
+of Apollo of Delphi. He dispensed his gifts with such liberality that
+neither his contemporaries nor subsequent generations grew weary
+of admiring it. On one occasion he is said to have sacrificed three
+thousand animals, and burnt, moreover, on the pyre the costly contents
+of a palace--couches covered with silver and gold, coverlets and robes
+of purple, and golden vials. His subjects were commanded to contribute
+to the offering, and he caused one hundred and seventeen hollow
+half-bricks to be cast of the gold which they brought him for this
+purpose. These bricks were placed in regular layers within the treasury
+at Delphi where the gifts of Lydia from the time of Alyattes were
+deposited, and the top of the pile was surmounted by a lion of fine
+gold of such a size that the pedestal and statue together were worth
+L1,200,000 of our present money. These, however, formed only a tithe of
+his gifts; many of the objects dedicated by him were dispersed half a
+century (548 B.C.) later when the temple was burnt, and found their
+way into the treasuries of the Greek states which enjoyed the favour
+of Apollo--among them being an enormous gold cup sent to Clazomeme, and
+four barrels of silver and two bowls, one of silver and one of gold,
+sent to the Corinthians. The people at Delphi, as well as their god,
+participated in the royal largesse, and Croesus distributed to them
+the sum of two staters per head. No doubt their gratitude led them by
+degrees to exaggerate the total of the benefits showered upon them,
+especially as time went on and their recollection of the king became
+fainter; but even when we reduce the number of the many gifts which
+they attributed to him, we are still obliged to acknowledge that they
+surpassed anything hitherto recorded, and that they produced throughout
+the whole of Greece the effect that Croesus had desired. The oracle
+granted to him and to the Lydians the rights of citizenship in
+perpetuity, the privilege of priority in consulting it before all
+comers, precedence for his legates over other foreign embassies, and a
+place of honour at the games and at all religious ceremonies. It was,
+in fact, the admission of Lydia into the Hellenic concert, and the
+offerings which Croesus showered upon the sanctuaries of lesser
+fame--that of Zeus at Dodona, of Amphiaraos at Oropos, of Trophonios at
+Lebadsea, on the oracle of Abee in Phocis, and on the Ismenian Apollo
+at Thebes--secured a general approval of the act. Political alliances
+contracted with the great families of Athens, the Alcmonidae and
+Eupatridae,* with the Cypselidae of, Corinth,** and with the Heraclidae of
+Sparta,*** completed the policy of bribery which Croesus had inaugurated
+in the sacerdotal republics, with the result that, towards 548, being in
+the position of uncontested patron of the Greeks of Asia, he could count
+upon the sympathetic neutrality of the majority of their compatriots in
+Europe, and on the effective support of a smaller number of them in
+the event of his being forced into hostilities with one or other of his
+Asiatic rivals.
+
+     * Traditions as to Crcesus' relations with Alcrnseon are
+     preserved by Herodotus. The king compelled the inhabitants of
+     Lampsacus, his vassals, to release the elder Miltiades, whom
+     they had taken prisoner, and thus earned the gratitude of
+     the Eupatridae.
+
+     ** Alyattes had been the ally of Periander, as is proved by
+     an anecdote in Herodotus. This friendship continued under
+     Crosus, for after the fall of the monarchy, when the special
+     treasuries of Lydia were suppressed, the ex-voto offerings
+     of the Lydian kings were deposited in the treasury of
+     Corinth.
+
+     *** According to Theopompus, the Lacedaemonians, wishing to
+     gild the face of the statue of the Amyclsean, Apollo, and
+     finding no gold in Greece, consulted the Delphian
+     prophetess: by her advice they sent to Lydia to buy the
+     precious metal from Croesus.
+
+This, however, constituted merely one side of his policy, and the
+negotiations which he carried on with his western neighbours were
+conducted simultaneously with his wars against those of the east.
+Alyattes had asserted his supremacy over the whole of the country on the
+western side of the Halys, but it was of a very vague kind, having no
+definite form, and devoid of practical results as far as several of the
+districts in the interior were concerned. Croesus made it a reality, and
+in less than ten years all the peoples contained within it, the Lycians
+excepted--Mysians, Phrygians, Mariandynians, Paphlagonians, Thynians,
+Bithynians, and Pamphylians--had rendered him homage. In its
+constitution his empire in no way differed from those which at that time
+shared the rule of Western Asia; the number of districts administered
+directly by the sovereign were inconsiderable, and most of the states
+comprised in it preserved their autonomy. Phrygia had its own princes,
+who were descendants of Midas,* and in the same way Caria and Mysia
+also retained theirs; but these vassal lords paid tribute and furnished
+contingents to their liege of Sardes, and garrisons lodged in their
+citadels as well as military stations or towns founded in strategic
+positions, such as Prusa** in Bithynia, Cibyra, Hyda, Grimenothyrae, and
+Temenothyrae,*** kept strict watch over them, securing the while free
+circulation for caravans or individual merchants throughout the whole
+country. Croesus had achieved his conquest just as Media was tottering
+to its fall under the attacks of the Persians.
+
+     * This is proved by the history of the Prince Adrastus in
+     Herodotus. Herodotus probably alluded to this colonisation
+     by Crcesus, when he said that the Mysians of Olympus were
+     descendants of Lydian colonists.
+
+     ** Strabo merely says that the Kibyrates were descended from
+     the Lydians who dwelt in Cabalia; since Croesus was, as far
+     as we know, the only Lydian king who ever possessed this
+     part of Asia, Radet, with good reason, concludes that Kibyra
+     was colonised by him.
+
+     *** Radet has given good reasons for believing that at least
+     some of these towns were enlarged and fortified by Croesus.
+
+Their victory placed the Lydian king in a position of great perplexity,
+since it annulled the treaties concluded after the eclipse of 585, and
+by releasing him from the obligations then contracted, afforded him an
+opportunity of extending the limits within which his father had confined
+himself. Now or never was the time for crossing the Halys in order to
+seize those mineral districts with which his subjects had so long had
+commercial relations; on the other hand, the unexpected energy of which
+the Persians had just given proof, their bravery, their desire for
+conquest, and the valour of their leader, all tended to deter him from
+the project: should he be victorious, Cyrus would probably not rest
+contented with tke annexation of a few unimportant districts or the
+imposition of a tribute, but would treat his adversary as he had
+Astyages, and having dethroned him, would divide Lydia into departments
+to be ruled by one or other of his partisans. Warlike ideas,
+nevertheless, prevailed at the court of Sardes, and, taking all into
+consideration, we cannot deny that they had reason on their side. The
+fall of Ecbatana had sealed the fate of Media proper, and its immediate
+dependencies had naturally shared the fortunes of the capital; but the
+more distant provinces still wavered, and they would probably attempt
+to take advantage of the change of rule to regain their liberty. Cyrus,
+obliged to take up arms against them, would no longer have his entire
+forces at his disposal, and by attacking him at that juncture it might
+be possible to check his power before it became irresistible. Having
+sketched out his plan of campaign, Croesus prepared to execute it with
+all possible celerity. Egypt and Chaldaea, like himself, doubtless felt
+themselves menaced; he experienced little difficulty in persuading them
+to act in concert with him in face of the common peril, and he obtained
+from both Amasis and Nabonidus promises of effective co-operation. At
+the same time he had recourse to the Greek oracles, and that of
+Delphi was instrumental in obtaining for him a treaty of alliance and
+friendship with Sparta. Negotiations had been carried on so rapidly,
+that by the end of 548 all was in readiness for a simultaneous movement;
+Sparta was equipping a fleet, and merely awaited the return of the
+favourable season to embark her contingent; Egypt had already despatched
+hers, and her Cypriot vassals were on the point of starting, while bands
+of Thracian infantry were marching to reinforce the Lydian army. These
+various elements represented so considerable a force of men, that, had
+they been ranged on a field of battle, Cyrus would have experienced
+considerable difficulty in overcoming them. An unforeseen act of
+treachery obliged the Lydians to hasten their preparations and commence
+hostilities before the moment agreed on. Eurybatos, an Ephesian, to whom
+the king had entrusted large sums of money for the purpose of raising
+mercenaries in the Peloponnesus, fled with his gold into Persia, and
+betrayed the secret of the coalition. The Achaemenian sovereign did not
+hesitate to forestall the attack, and promptly assumed the offensive.
+The transport of an army from Ecbatana to the middle course of the
+Halys would have been a long and laborious undertaking, even had it kept
+within the territory of the empire; it would have necessitated crossing
+the mountain groups of Armenia at their greatest width, and that at a
+time when the snow was still lying deep upon the ground and the torrents
+were swollen and unfordable. The most direct route, which passed through
+Assyria and the part of Mesopotamia south of the Masios, lay for the
+most part in the hands of the Chaldaeans, but their enfeebled condition
+justified Cyrus's choice of it, and he resolved, in the event of their
+resistance, to cut his way through sword in hand. He therefore bore
+down upon Arbela by the gorges of Rowandiz in the month Nisan, making as
+though he were bound for Karduniash; but before the Babylonians had time
+to recover from their alarm at this movement, he crossed the river not
+far from Nineveh and struck into Mesopotamia. He probably skirted the
+slopes of the Masios, overcoming and killing in the month Iyyar
+some petty king, probably the ruler of Armenia,* and debouched into
+Cappadocia. This province was almost entirely in the power of the enemy;
+Nabonidus had despatched couriers by the shortest route in order to warn
+his ally, and if necessary to claim his promised help.
+
+     * Ploigl, who was the first to refer a certain passage in
+     the _Annals of Nabonidus_ to the expedition against Croesus,
+     restored Is[parda] as the name of the country mentioned, and
+     saw even the capture of Sardes in the events of the month
+     Iyyar, in direct contradiction to the Greek tradition. The
+     connection between the campaign beyond the Tigris and the
+     Lydian war seems to me incontestable, but the Babylonian
+     chronicler has merely recorded the events which affected
+     Babylonia. Cyrus' object was both to intimidate Nabonidus
+     and also to secure possession of the most direct, and at the
+     same time the easiest, route: by cutting across Mesopotamia,
+     he avoided the difficult marches in the mountainous
+     districts of Armenia. Perhaps we should combine, with the
+     information of the _Annals_, the passage of Xenophon, where
+     it is said that the Armenians refused tribute and service to
+     the King of Persia: Cyrus would have punished the rebels on
+     his way, after crossing the Euphrates.
+
+Croesus, when he received them, had with him only the smaller portion of
+his army, the Lydian cavalry, the contingents of his Asiatic subjects,
+and a few Greek veterans, and it would probably have been wiser to defer
+the attack till after the disembarkation of the Lacedaemonians; but
+hesitation at so critical a moment might have discouraged his followers,
+and decided his fate before any action had taken place. He therefore
+collected his troops together, fell upon the right bank of the Halys,*
+devastated the country, occupied Pteria and the neighbouring towns,
+and exiled the inhabitants to a distance. He had just completed the
+subjection of the White Syrians when he was met by an emissary from the
+Persians; Cyrus offered him his life, and confirmed his authority on
+condition of his pleading for mercy and taking the oath of vassalage.**
+Croesus sent a proud refusal, which was followed by a brilliant
+victory, after which a truce of three months was concluded between the
+belligerents.***
+
+     * On this point Herodotus tells a current story of his time:
+     Thaies had a trench dug behind the army, which was probably
+     encamped in one of the bends made by the Halys; he then
+     diverted the stream into this new bed, with the result that
+     the Lydians found themselves on the right bank of the river
+     without having had the trouble of crossing it.
+
+     ** Nicolas of Damascus records that Cyrus, after the capture
+     of Sardes, for a short time contemplated making Croesus a
+     vassal king, or at least a satrap of Lydia.
+
+     *** We have two very different accounts of this campaign,
+     viz. that of Herodotus, and that of Polyonus. According to
+     Herodotus, Croesus gave battle only once in Pteria, with
+     indecisive result, and on the next day quietly retired to
+     his kingdom, thinking that Cyrus would not dare to pursue
+     him. According to Polyonus, Croesus, victorious in a first
+     engagement owing to a more or less plausible military
+     stratagem, consented to a truce, but on the day after was
+     completely defeated, and obliged to return to his kingdom
+     with a routed army. Herodotus' account of the fall of
+     Croesus and of Sardes, borrowed partly from a good written
+     source, Xanthus or Charon of Lampsacus, partly from the
+     tradition of the Harpagidse, seems to have for its object
+     the soothing of the vanity both of the Persians and of the
+     Lydians, since, if the result of the war could not be
+     contested, the issue of the battle was at least left
+     uncertain. If he has given a faithful account, no one can
+     understand why Croesus should have retired and ceded White
+     Syria to a rival who had never conquered him. The account
+     given by Polysenus, in spite of the improbability of some of
+     its details, comes from a well-informed author: the defeat
+     of the Lydians in the second battle explains the retreat of
+     Crcesus, who is without excuse in Herodotus' version of the
+     affair. Pompeius Trogus adopted a version similar to that of
+     Polysenus.
+
+Cyrus employed the respite in attempting to win over the Greek cities
+of the littoral, which he pictured to himself as nursing a bitter
+hatred against the Mermnadae; but it is to be doubted if his emissaries
+succeeded even in wresting a declaration of neutrality from the
+Milesians; the remainder, Ionians and AEolians, all continued faithful
+to their oaths.* On the resumption of hostilities, the tide of fortune
+turned, and the Lydians were crushed by the superior forces of the
+Persians and the Medes; Crcesus retired under cover of night, burning
+the country as he retreated, to prevent the enemy from following him,
+and crossed the Halys with the remains of his battalions. The season was
+already far advanced; he thought that the Persians, threatened in the
+rear by the Babylonian troops, would shrink from the prospect of a
+winter campaign, and he fell back upon Sardes without further lingering
+in Phrygia. But Nabonidus did not feel himself called upon to show the
+same devotion that his ally had evinced towards him, or perhaps the
+priests who governed in his name did not permit him to fulfil his
+engagements.**
+
+     * Herodotus makes the attempted corruption of the Ionians to
+     date from the beginning of the war, even before Cyrus took
+     the field.
+
+     ** The author followed by Pompeius Trogus has alone
+     preserved the record of this treaty. The fact is important
+     as explaining Croesus' behaviour after his defeat, but
+     Schubert goes too far when he re-establishes on this ground
+     an actual campaign of Cyrus against Babylon: Radet has come
+     back to the right view in seeing only a treaty made with
+     Nabonidus.
+
+As soon as peace was proposed, he accepted terms, without once
+considering the danger to which the Lydians were exposed by his
+defection. The Persian king raised his camp as soon as all fear of an
+attack to rearward was removed, and, falling upon defenceless Phrygia,
+pushed forward to Sardes in spite of the inclemency of the season. No
+movement could have been better planned, or have produced such
+startling results. Croesus had disbanded the greater part of his feudal
+contingents, and had kept only his body-guard about him, the remainder
+of his army--natives, mercenaries, and allies--having received orders
+not to reassemble till the following spring. The king hastily called
+together all his available troops, both Lydians and foreigners,
+and confronted his enemies for the second time. Even under these
+unfavourable conditions he hoped to gain the advantage, had his cavalry,
+the finest in the world, been able to take part in the engagement. But
+Cyrus had placed in front of his lines a detachment of camels, and the
+smell of these animals so frightened the Lydian horses that they snorted
+and refused to charge.*
+
+     * Herodotus' mention of the use of camels is confirmed, with
+     various readings, by Xenophon, by Polysenus, and by AElian;
+     their employment does not necessarily belong to a legendary
+     form of the story, especially if we suppose that the camel,
+     unknown before in Asia Minor, was first introduced there by
+     the Persian army. The site of the battle is not precisely
+     known. According to Herodotus, the fight took place in the
+     great plain before Sardes, which is crossed by several small
+     tributaries of the Hermus, amongst others the Hyllus. Radet
+     recognises that the Hyllus of Herodotus is the whole or part
+     of the stream now called the Kusu-tchai, and he places the
+     scene of action near the township of Adala, which would
+     correspond with Xenophon's Thymbrara. This continues to be
+     the most likely hypothesis. After the battle Croesus would
+     have fled along the Hermus towards Sardes. Xenophon's story
+     is a pure romance.
+
+Croesus was again worsted on the confines of the plain of the Hermus,
+and taking refuge in the citadel of Sardes, he despatched couriers to
+his allies in Greece and Egypt to beg for succour without delay. The
+Lacedaemonians hurried on the mobilisation of their troops, and their
+vessels were on the point of weighing anchor, when the news arrived
+that Sardes had fallen in the early days of December, and that Croesus
+himself was a prisoner.* How the town came to be taken, the Greeks
+themselves never knew, and their chroniclers have given several
+different accounts of the event.**
+
+     * Radet gives the date of the capture of Sardes as about
+     November 15, 546; but the number and importance of the
+     events occurring between the retreat of Croesus and the
+     decisive catastrophe--the negotiations with Babylon, the
+     settling into winter quarters, the march of Cyrus across
+     Phrygia--must have required a longer time than Radet allots
+     to them in his hypothesis, and I make the date a month
+     later.
+
+     ** Ctesias and Xenophon seem to depend on Herodotus, the
+     former with additional fabulous details concerning his
+     OEbaras, Cyrus' counsellor, which show the probable origin
+     of his additions. Polysenus had at his disposal a different
+     story, the same probably that he used for his account of the
+     campaign in Cappadocia, for in it can be recognised the wish
+     to satisfy, within possible limits, the pride of the
+     Lydians: here again the decisive success is preceded by a
+     check given to Cyrus and a three months' truce.
+
+The least improbable is that found in Herodotus. The blockade had
+lasted, so he tells us, fourteen days, when Cyrus announced that he
+would richly reward the first man to scale the walls. Many were tempted
+by his promises, but were unsuccessful in their efforts, and their
+failure had discouraged all further attempts, when a Mardian soldier,
+named Hyreades, on duty at the foot of the steep slopes overlooking the
+Tmolus, saw a Lydian descend from rock to rock in search of his helmet
+which he had lost, and regain the city by the same way without any great
+difficulty. He noted carefully the exact spot, and in company with a few
+comrades climbed up till he reached the ramparts; others followed, and
+taking the besieged unawares, they opened the gates to the main body of
+the army.*
+
+     * About three and a half centuries later Sardes was captured
+     in the same way by one of the generals of Antiochus the
+     Great.
+
+Croesus could not bear to survive the downfall of his kingdom: he
+erected a funeral pyre in the courtyard of his palace, and took up his
+position on it, together with his wives, his daughters, and the noblest
+youths of his court, surrounded by his most precious possessions.
+He could cite the example of more than one vanquished monarch of the
+ancient Asiatic world in choosing such an end, and one of the fabulous
+ancestors of his race, Sandon-Herakles, had perished after this fashion
+in the midst of the flames. Was the sacrifice carried out? Everything
+leads us to believe that it was, but popular feeling could not be
+resigned to the idea that a prince who had shown such liberality towards
+the gods in his prosperity should be abandoned by them in the time
+of his direst need. They came to believe that the Lydian monarch had
+expiated by his own defeat the crime by the help of which his ancestor
+Gyges had usurped the throne. Apollo had endeavoured to delay the
+punishment till the next generation, that it might fall on the son of
+his votary, but he had succeeded in obtaining from fate a respite of
+three years only. Even then he had not despaired, and had warned Croesus
+by the voice of the oracles. They had foretold him that, in crossing the
+Halys, the Lydians ^would destroy a great empire, and that their power
+would last till the day when a mule should sit upon the throne of Media.
+Croesus, blinded by fate, could not see that Cyrus, who was of mixed
+race, Persian by his father and Median by his mother, was the predicted
+mule. He therefore crossed the Halys, and a great empire fell, but it
+was his own. At all events, the god might have desired to show that to
+honour his altars and adorn his temple was in itself, after all, the
+best of treasures. "When Sardes, suffering the vengeance of Zeus, was
+conquered by the army of the Persians, the god of the golden sword,
+Apollo, was the guardian of Croesus. When the day of despair arrived,
+the king could not resign himself to tears and servitude; within the
+brazen-walled court he erected a funeral pyre, on which, together with
+his chaste spouse and his bitterly lamenting daughters of beautiful
+locks, he mounted; he raised his hands towards the depths of the ether
+and cried: 'Proud fate, where is the gratitude of the gods, where is the
+prince, the child of Leto? Where is now the house of Alyattes?... The
+ancient citadel of Sardes has fallen, the Pactolus of golden waves
+runs red with blood; ignominiously are the women driven from their
+well-decked chambers! That which was once my hated foe is now my friend,
+and the sweetest thing is to die!' Thus he spoke, and ordered the softly
+moving eunuch* to set fire to the wooden structure.
+
+     * The word translated "softly moving eunuch" is here perhaps
+     a proper name: the slave whose duty it was to kindle the
+     pyre was called Abrobatas in the version of the story chosen
+     by Bacchylides, while that adopted by the potter whose work
+     is reproduced on the opposite page, calls him Euthymos.
+
+The maidens shrieked and threw their arms around their mother, for the
+death before them was that most hated by mortals. But just when the
+sparkling fury of the cruel fire had spread around, Zeus, calling up a
+black-flanked cloud, extinguished the yellow flame.
+
+Nothing is incredible of that which the will of the gods has decreed:
+Apollo of Delos, seizing the old man, bore him, together with his
+daughters of tender feet, into the Hyperborean land as a reward for
+his piety, for no mortal had sent richer offerings to the illustrious
+Pytho!"
+
+[Illustration: 075.jpg CIMESUS ON HIS PYRE]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph of the original in
+     the Museum of the Louvre.
+
+This miraculous ending delighted the poets and inspired many fine
+lines, but history could with difficulty accommodate itself to such a
+materialistic intervention of a divine being, and sought a less
+fabulous solution. The legend which appeared most probable to the worthy
+Herodotus did not even admit that the Lydian king took his own life;
+it was Cyrus who condemned him, either with a view of devoting the
+first-fruits of his victory to the immortals, or to test whether the
+immortals would save the rival whose piety had been so frequently held
+up to his admiration. The edges of the pyre had already taken light,
+when the Lydian king sighed and thrice repeated the name of Solon. It
+was a tardy recollection of a conversation in which the Athenian sage
+had stated, without being believed, that none can be accounted truly
+happy while they still live. Cyrus, applying it to himself, was seized
+with remorse or pity, and commanded the bystanders to quench the fire,
+but their efforts were in vain. Thereupon Croesus implored the pity of
+Apollo, and suddenly the sky, which up till then had been serene and
+clear, became overcast; thick clouds collected, and rain fell so
+heavily that the burning pile was at once extinguished.*
+
+     * The story told by Nicolas of Damascus comes down probably
+     from Xanthus of Lydia, but with many additions borrowed
+     directly from Herodotus and rhetorical developments by the
+     author himself. Most other writers who tell the story depend
+     for their information, either directly or indirectly, on
+     Herodotus: in later times it was supposed that the Lydian
+     king was preserved from the flames by the use of some
+     talisman such as the Ephesian letters.
+
+Well treated by his conqueror, the Lydian king is said to have become
+his friend and most loyal counsellor; he accepted from him the fief of
+Barene in Media, often accompanied him in his campaigns, and on more
+than one occasion was of great service to him by the wise advice which
+he gave.
+
+We may well ask what would have taken place had he gained the decisive
+victory over Cyrus that he hoped. Chaldaea possessed merely the semblance
+of her former greatness and power, and if she still maintained her hold
+over Mesopotamia, Syria, Phoenicia, and parts of Arabia, it was because
+these provinces, impoverished by the Assyrian conquest, and entirely
+laid waste by the Scythians, had lost the most energetic elements
+of their populations, and felt themselves too much enfeebled to
+rise against their suzerain. Egypt, like Chaldaea, was in a state of
+decadence, and even though her Pharaohs attempted to compensate for the
+inferiority of their native troops by employing foreign mercenaries,
+their attempts at Asiatic rule always issued in defeat, and just as the
+Babylonian sovereigns were unable to reduce them to servitude, so they
+on their part were powerless to gain an advantage over the sovereigns of
+Babylon. Hence Lydia, in her youth and vigour, would have found little
+difficulty in gaining the ascendency over her two recent allies, but
+beyond that she could not hope to push her success; her restricted
+territory, sparse population, and outlying position would always have
+debarred her from exercising any durable dominion over them, and though
+absolute mistress of Asia Minor, the countries beyond the Taurus were
+always destined to elude her grasp. If the Achaemenian, therefore, had
+confined himself, at all events for the time being, to the ancient
+limits of his kingdom, Egypt and Chaldaea would have continued to
+vegetate each within their respective area, and the triumph of Croesus
+would, on the whole, have caused but little change in the actual balance
+of power in the East.
+
+The downfall of Croesus, on the contrary, marked a decisive era in the
+world's history. His army was the only one, from the point of numbers
+and organisation, which was a match for that of Cyrus, and from the day
+of its dispersion it was evident that neither Egypt nor Chaldaea had any
+chance of victory on the battle-field. The subjection of Babylon and
+Harran, of Hamath, Damascus, Tyre and Sidon, of Memphis and Thebes, now
+became merely a question of time, and that not far distant; the whole of
+Asia, and that part of Africa which had been the oldest cradle of human
+civilisation, were now to pass into the hands of one man and form a
+single empire, for the benefit of the new race which was issuing forth
+in irresistible strength from the recesses of the Iranian table-land. It
+was destined, from the very outset, to come into conflict with an
+older, but no less vigorous race than itself, that of the Greeks, whose
+colonists, after having swarmed along the coasts of the Mediterranean,
+were now beginning to quit the seaboard and penetrate wherever they
+could into the interior.
+
+[Illustration: 078.jpg A PERSIAN KING FIGHTING WITH GREEKS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from an intaglio reproduced in the
+     _Antiquites du Bosphore cimmerien._
+
+They had been on friendly terms with that dynasty of the Meramadae
+who had shown reverence for the Hellenic gods; they had, as a whole,
+disdained to betray Croesus, or to turn upon him when he was in
+difficulties beyond the Halys; and now that he had succumbed to his
+fate, they considered that the ties which had bound them to Sardes were
+broken, and they were determined to preserve their independence at all
+costs. This spirit of insubordination would have to be promptly dealt
+with and tightly curbed, if perpetual troubles in the future were to
+be avoided. The Asianic peoples soon rallied round their new
+master--Phrygians, Mysians, the inhabitants on the shores of the Black
+Sea, and those of the Pamphylian coast;* even Cilicia, which had held
+its own against Chaldaea, Media, and Lydia, was now brought under the
+rising power, and its kings were henceforward obedient to the Persian
+rule.**
+
+     * None of the documents actually say this, but the general
+     tenor of Herodotus' account seems to show clearly that, with
+     the exception of the Greek cities of the Carians and
+     Lycians, all the peoples who had formed part of the Lydian
+     dominion under Croesus submitted, without any appreciable
+     resistance, after the taking of Sardes.
+
+     ** Herodotus mentions a second Syennesis king of Cilicia
+     forty years later at the time of the Ionian revolt.
+
+The two leagues of the Ionians and AEolians had at first offered to
+recognise Cyrus as their suzerain under the same conditions as those
+with which Croesus had been satisfied; but he had consented to accept
+it only in the case of Miletus, and had demanded from the rest an
+unconditional surrender. This they had refused, and, uniting in a common
+cause perhaps for the first time in their existence, they had resolved
+to take up arms. As the Persians possessed no fleet, the Creeks had
+nothing to fear from the side of the AEgean, and the severity of the
+winter prevented any attack being made from the land side till the
+following spring. They meanwhile sought the aid of their mother-country,
+and despatched an embassy to the Spartans; the latter did not consider
+it prudent to lend them troops, as they would have done in the case of
+Croesus, but they authorised Lakrines, one of their principal citizens,
+to demand of the great king that he should respect the Hellenic cities,
+under pain of incurring their enmity.
+
+[Illustration: 080.jpg THE PRESENT SITE OF MILETUS]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph.
+
+Cyrus was fully occupied with the events then taking place in the
+eastern regions of Iran; Babylon had not ventured upon any move after
+having learned the news of the fall of Sardes, but the Bactrians and the
+Sakae had been in open revolt during the whole of the year that he had
+been detained in the extreme west, and a still longer absence might risk
+the loss of his prestige in Media, and even in Persia itself.*
+
+     * The tradition followed by Ctesias maintained that the
+     submission of the eastern peoples was an accomplished fact
+     when the Lydian war began. That adopted by Herodotus placed
+     this event after the fall of Croesus; at any rate, it showed
+     that fear of the Bactrians and the Sakae, as well as of the
+     Babylonians and Egyptians was the cause that hastened Cyrus'
+     retreat.
+
+The threat of the Lacedaaemonians had little effect upon him; he
+inquired as to what Sparta and Greece were, and having been informed,
+he ironically begged the Lacedaemonian envoy to thank his compatriots for
+the good advice with which they had honoured him; "but," he added, "take
+care that I do not soon cause you to babble, not of the ills of the
+Ionians, but of your own." He confided the government of Sardes to one
+of his officers, named Tabalos, and having entrusted Paktyas, one of the
+Lydians who had embraced his cause, with the removal of the treasures
+of Croesus to Persia, he hastily set out for Ecbatana. He had scarcely
+accomplished half of his journey when a revolt broke out in his rear;
+Paktyas, instead of obeying his instructions, intrigued with the
+Ionians, and, with the mercenaries he had hired from them, besieged
+Tabalos in the citadel of Sardes. If the place capitulated, the entire
+conquest would have to be repeated; fortunately it held out, and
+its resistance gave Cyrus time to send its governor reinforcements,
+commanded by Mazares the Median. As soon as they approached the city,
+Paktyas, conscious that he had lost the day, took refuge at Kyme. Its
+inhabitants, on being summoned to deliver him up, refused, but helped
+him to escape to Mytilene, where the inhabitants of the island attempted
+to sell him to the enemy for a large sum of money. The Kymaeans saved him
+a second time, and conveyed him to the temple of Athene Poliarchos
+at Chios. The citizens, however, dragged him from his retreat, and
+delivered him over to the Median general in exchange for Atarneus, a
+district of Mysia, the possession of which they were disputing with the
+Lesbians.* Paktyas being a prisoner, the Lydians were soon recalled
+to order, and Mazares was able to devote his entire energies to the
+reduction of the Greek cities; but he had accomplished merely the sack
+of Priene,** and the devastation of the suburbs of Magnesia on the
+aeander, when he died from some illness.
+
+     * A passage which has been preserved of Charon of Lampsacus
+     sums up in a few words the account given by Herodotus of the
+     adventures of Paktyas, but without mentioning the treachery
+     of the islanders: he confines himself to saying Cyrus caught
+     the fugitive after the latter had successively left Chios
+     and Mytilene.
+
+     ** Herodotus attributes the taking of this city to the
+     Persian Tabules, who is evidently the Tabalos of Herodotus.
+
+The Median Harpagus, to whom tradition assigns so curious a part as
+regards Astyages and the infant Cyrus, succeeded him as governor of the
+ancient Lydian kingdom, and completed the work which he had begun.
+The first two places to be besieged were Phocaea and Teos, but their
+inhabitants preferred exile to slavery; the Phocaeans sailed away to
+found Marseilles in the western regions of the Mediterranean, and
+the people of Teos settled along the coast of Thracia, near to the
+gold-mines of the Pangseus, and there built Abdera on the site of an
+ancient Clazomenian colony. The other Greek towns were either taken by
+assault or voluntarily opened their gates, so that ere long both Ionians
+and AEolians were, with the exception of the Samians, under Persian rule.
+The very position of the latter rendered them safe from attack; without
+a fleet they could not be approached, and the only people who could have
+furnished Cyrus with vessels were the Phoenicians, who were not as yet
+under his power. The rebellion having been suppressed in this quarter,
+Harpagus made a descent into Caria; the natives hastened to place
+themselves under the Persian yoke, and the Dorian colonies scattered
+along the coast, Halicarnas-sus, Cnidos, and the islands of Cos and
+Rhodes, followed their examples, but Lycia refused to yield without a
+struggle.
+
+[Illustration: 083.jpg A LYCIAN CITY UPON ITS INACCESSIBLE ROCK]
+
+     The rock and tombs of Tlos, drawn by Boudier, from the view
+     in Fellows.
+
+Its steep mountain chains, its sequestered valleys, its towns and
+fortresses perched on inaccessible rocks, all rendered it easy for the
+inhabitants to carry on a successful petty warfare against the enemy.
+The inhabitants of Xanthos, although very inferior in numbers, issued
+down into the plain and disputed the victory with the invaders for a
+considerable time; at length their defeat and the capitulation of their
+town induced the remainder of the Lycians to lay down arms, and brought
+about the final pacification of the peninsula. It was parcelled out into
+several governorships, according to its ethnographical affinities;
+as for instance, the governorship of Lydia, that of Ionia, that of
+Phrygia,* and others whose names are unknown to us. Harpagus appeared
+to have resided at Sardes, and exercised vice-regal functions over the
+various districts, but he obtained from the king an extensive property
+in Lycia and in Caria, which subsequently caused these two provinces to
+be regarded as an appanage of his family.
+
+     * Herodotus calls a certain Mitrobates satrap of Daskylion;
+     he had perhaps been already given this office by Cyrus.
+     Orcetes had been made governor of Ionia and Lydia by Cyrus.
+
+While thus consolidating his first conquest, Cyrus penetrated into the
+unknown regions of the far East. Nothing would have been easier for him
+than to have fallen upon Babylon and overthrown, as it were by the way,
+the decadent rule of Nabonidus; but the formidable aspect which the
+empire still presented, in spite of its enfeebled condition, must have
+deceived him, and he was unwilling to come into conflict with it until
+he had made a final reckoning with the restless and unsettled peoples
+between the Caspian and the slopes on the Indian side of the table-land
+of Iran. As far as we are able to judge, they were for the most part of
+Iranian extraction, and had the same religion, institutions, and customs
+as the Medes and Persians. Tradition had already referred the origin of
+Zoroaster, and the scene of his preaching, to Bactriana, that land of
+heroes whose exploits formed the theme of Persian epic song. It is not
+known, as we have already had occasion to remark, by what ties it was
+bound to the empire of Cyaxares, nor indeed if it ever had been actually
+attached to it. We do not possess, unfortunately, more than almost
+worthless scraps of information on this part of the reign of Cyrus,
+perhaps the most important period of it, since then, for the first
+time, peoples who had been hitherto strangers to the Asiatic world were
+brought within its influence. If Ctesias is to be credited, Bactriana
+was one of the first districts to be conquered. Its inhabitants were
+regarded as being among the bravest of the East, and furnished the best
+soldiers. They at first obtained some successes, but laid down arms on
+hearing that Cyrus had married a daughter of Astyages.* This tradition
+was prevalent at a time when the Achaemenians were putting forward the
+theory that they, and Cyrus before them, were the legitimate successors
+of the old Median sovereigns; they welcomed every legend which tended to
+justify their pretensions, and this particular one was certain to please
+them, since it attributed the submission of Bactriana not to a mere
+display of brute force, but to the recognition of an hereditary right.
+The annexation of this province entailed, as a matter of course, that
+of Margiana, of the Khoramnians,** and of Sogdiana. Cyrus constructed
+fortresses in all these districts, the most celebrated being that
+of Kyropolis, which commanded one of the principal fords of the
+Iaxartes.***
+
+     * This is the campaign which Ctesias places before the
+     Lydian war, but which Herodotus relegates to a date after
+     the capture of Sardes.
+
+     ** Ctesias must have spoken of the submission of these
+     peoples, for a few words of a description which he gave of
+     the Khoramnians have been preserved to us.
+
+     *** Tomaschek identifies Kyra or Kyropolis with the present
+     Ura-Tepe, but distinguishes it from the Kyreskhata of
+     Ptolemy, to which he assigns a site near Usgent.
+
+The steppes of Siberia arrested his course on the north, but to the
+east, in the mountains of Chinese Turkestan, the Sakas, who were
+renowned for their wealth and bravery, did not escape his ambitious
+designs. The account which has come down to us of his campaigns against
+them is a mere romance of love and adventure, in which real history
+plays a very small part. He is said to have attacked and defeated
+them at the first onset, taking their King Amorges prisoner; but this
+capture, which Cyrus considered a decisive advantage, was supposed to
+have turned the tide of fortune against him. Sparethra, the wife of
+Amorges, rallied the fugitives round her, defeated the invaders in
+several engagements, and took so many of their men captive, that they
+were glad to restore her husband to her in exchange for the prisoners
+she had made. The struggle finally ended, however, in the subjection of
+the Sakae; they engaged to pay tribute, and thenceforward constituted
+the advance-guard of the Iranians against the Nomads of the East. Cyrus,
+before quitting their neighbourhood, again ascended the table-land, and
+reduced Ariana, Thatagus, Harauvati, Zaranka, and the country of Cabul;
+and we may well ask if he found leisure to turn southwards beyond Lake
+Hamun and reach the shores of the Indian Ocean. One tradition, of little
+weight, relates that, like Alexander at a later date, he lost his army
+in the arid deserts of Gedrosia; the one fact that remains is that the
+conquest of Gedrosia was achieved, but the details of it are lost. The
+period covered by his campaigns was from five to six years, from 545 to
+539, but Cyrus returned from these expeditions into the unknown only to
+plan fresh undertakings. There remained nothing now to hinder him from
+marching against the Chaldaeans, and the discord prevailing at Babylon
+added to his chance of success. Nabonidus's passion for archaeology
+had in no way lessened since the opening of his reign. The temple
+restorations prompted by it absorbed the bulk of his revenues. He made
+excavations in the sub-structures of the most ancient sanctuaries,
+such as Larsam, Uruk, Uru, Sippar, and Nipur; and when his digging was
+rewarded by the discovery of cylinders placed there by his predecessors,
+his delight knew no bounds. Such finds constituted the great events of
+his life, in comparison with which the political revolutions of Asia
+and Africa diminished in importance day by day. It is difficult to tell
+whether this indifference to the weighty affairs of government was as
+complete as it appears to us at this distance of time. Certain facts
+recorded in the official chronicles of that date go to prove that,
+except in name and external pomp, the king was a nonentity. The real
+power lay in the hands of the nobles and generals, and Bel-sharuzur, the
+king's son, directed affairs for them in his father's name. Nabonidus
+meanwhile resided in a state of inactivity at his palace of Tima, and it
+is possible that his condition may have really been that of a prisoner,
+for he never left Tima to go to Babylon, even on the days of great
+festivals, and his absence prevented the celebration of the higher
+rites of the national religion, with the procession of Bel and its
+accompanying ceremonies, for several consecutive years. The people
+suffered from these quarrels in high places; not only the native
+Babylonians or Kalda, who were thus deprived of their accustomed
+spectacles, and whose piety was scandalised by these dissensions, but
+also the foreign races dispersed over Mesopotamia, from the confluence
+of the Khabur to the mouths of the Euphrates. Too widely scattered or
+too weak to make an open declaration of their independence, their hopes
+and their apprehensions were alternately raised by the various reports
+of hostilities which reached their ears. The news of the first
+victories of the Persians aroused in the exiled Jews the idea of speedy
+deliverance, and Cyrus clearly appeared to them as the hero chosen by
+Jahveh to reinstate them in the country, of their forefathers.
+
+The number of the Jewish exiles, which perhaps at first had not exceeded
+20,000* had largely increased in the half-century of their captivity,
+and even if numerically they were of no great importance, their social
+condition entitled them to be considered as the _elite_ of all Israel.
+
+     * The body of exiles of 597 consisted of ten thousand
+     persons, of whom seven thousand belonged to the wealthy, and
+     one thousand to the artisan class, while the remainder
+     consisted of people attached to the court (2 Kings xxiv. 14-
+     16). In the body of 587 are reckoned three thousand and
+     twenty-three inhabitants of Judah, and eight hundred and
+     thirty-two dwellers in Jerusalem. But the body of exiles of
+     581 numbers only seven hundred and forty-five persons (Jer.
+     lii. 30). These numbers are sufficiently moderate to be
+     possibly exact, but they are far from being certain.
+
+There had at first been the two kings, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah, their
+families, the aristocracy of Judah, the priests and pontiff of the
+temple, the prophets, the most skilled of the artisan class and the
+soldiery. Though distributed over Babylon and the neighbouring cities,
+we know from authentic sources of only one of their settlements, that
+of Tell-Abib on the Chebar* though many of the Jewish colonies which
+flourished thereabouts in Roman times could undoubtedly trace their
+origin to the days of the captivity; one legend found in the Talmud
+affirmed that the synagogue of Shafyathib, near Nehardaa, had been built
+by King Jehoiachin with stones brought from the ruins of the temple at
+Jerusalem. These communities enjoyed a fairly complete autonomy, and
+were free to administer their own affairs as they pleased, provided that
+they paid their tribute or performed their appointed labours without
+complaint. The shekhs, or elders of the family or tribe, who had played
+so important a part in their native land, still held their respective
+positions; the Chaldaeans had permitted them to retain all the
+possessions which they had been able to bring with them into exile, and
+recognised them as the rulers of their people, who were responsible to
+their conquerors for the obedience of those under them, leaving them
+entire liberty to exercise their authority so long as they maintained
+order and tranquillity among their subordinates.**
+
+     * Ezek. iii. 15. The Chebar or Kebar has been erroneously
+     identified with the Khabur; cuneiform documents show that it
+     was one of the canals near Nipur.
+
+     ** Cf. the assemblies of these chiefs at the house of
+     Ezekiel and their action (viii. 1; xiv. 1; xx. 1).
+
+How the latter existed, and what industries they pursued in order to
+earn their daily bread, no writer of the time has left on record. The
+rich plain of the Euphrates differed so widely from the soil to which
+they had been accustomed in the land of Judah, with its bare or sparsely
+wooded hills, slopes cultivated in terraces, narrow and ill-watered
+wadys, and tortuous and parched valleys, that they must have felt
+themselves much out of their element in their Chaldaean surroundings.
+They had all of them, however, whether artisans, labourers, soldiers,
+gold-workers, or merchants, to earn their living, and they succeeded in
+doing so, following meanwhile the advice of Jeremiah, by taking every
+precaution that the seed of Israel should not be diminished.* The
+imagination of pious writers of a later date delighted to represent the
+exiled Jews as giving way to apathy and vain regrets: "By the rivers of
+Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. Upon
+the willows in the midst thereof we hanged up our harps. For there
+they that led us captive required of us songs, and they that wasted
+us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How
+shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?"**
+
+     * Jer. xxix. 1-7.
+
+     ** Ps. cxxxvii. 1-4.
+
+This was true of the priests and scribes only. A blank had been made in
+their existence from the moment when the conqueror had dragged them
+from the routine of daily rites which their duties in the temple service
+entailed upon them. The hours which had been formerly devoted to their
+offices were now expended in bewailing the misfortunes of their nation,
+in accusing themselves and others, and in demanding what crime had
+merited this punishment, and why Jahveh, who had so often shown clemency
+to their forefathers, had not extended His forgiveness to them. It
+was, however, by the long-suffering of God that His prophets, and
+particularly Ezekiel, were allowed to make known to them the true cause
+of their downfall. The more Ezekiel in his retreat meditated upon
+their lot, the more did the past appear to him as a lamentable conflict
+between divine justice and Jewish iniquity. At the time of their sojourn
+in Egypt, Jahveh had taken the house of Jacob under His protection,
+and in consideration of His help had merely demanded of them that they
+should be faithful to Him. "Cast ye away every man the abominations of
+his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am the
+Lord your God." The children of Israel, however, had never observed this
+easy condition, and this was the root of their ills; even before
+they were liberated from the yoke of Pharaoh, they had betrayed their
+Protector, and He had thought to punish them: "But I wrought for My
+name's sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations,
+among whom they were, in whose sight I made myself known unto them....
+So I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and brought them
+into the wilderness. And I gave them My statutes, and showed them My
+judgments, which if a man do, he shall live in them. Moreover also I
+gave them My sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them... but the house
+of Israel rebelled against Me." As they had acted in Egypt, so they
+acted at the foot of Sinai, and again Jahveh could not bring Himself to
+destroy them; He confined Himself to decreeing that none of those who
+had offended Him should enter the Promised Land, and He extended His
+goodness to their children. But these again showed themselves no
+wiser than their fathers; scarcely had they taken possession of the
+inheritance which had fallen to them, "a land flowing with milk and
+honey... the glory of all lands," than when they beheld "every high hill
+and every thick tree... they offered there their sacrifices, and there
+they presented the provocation of their offering, there also they made
+their sweet savour, and they poured out there their drink offerings."
+Not contented with profaning their altars by impious ceremonies and
+offerings, they further bowed the knee to idols, thinking in their
+hearts, "We will be as the nations, as the families of the countries,
+to serve wood and stone." "As I live, saith the Lord God, surely with a
+mighty hand and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will
+I be King over you."*
+
+     1 Ezek. xx.
+
+However just the punishment, Bzekiel did not believe that it would last
+for ever. The righteousness of God would not permit future generations
+to be held responsible for ever for the sins of generations past and
+present. "What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of
+Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's
+teeth are set on edge? As I live, saith the Lord God, ye shall not have
+occasion to use this proverb any more in Israel! Behold, all souls are
+Mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is Mine;
+the soul that sinneth it shall die. But if a man be just... he shall
+surely live, saith the Lord God." Israel, therefore, was master of his
+own destiny. If he persisted in erring from the right way, the hour
+of salvation was still further removed from him; if he repented and
+observed the law, the Divine anger would be turned away. "Therefore... O
+house of Israel... cast away from you all your transgressions wherein
+ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit; for why
+will ye die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death
+of him that dieth... wherefore turn yourselves and live." 1 There were
+those who objected that it was too late to dream of regeneration and of
+hope in the future: "Our bones are dried up and our hope is lost; we are
+clean cut off." The prophet replied that the Lord had carried him in the
+spirit and set him down in the midst of a plain strewn with bones. "So
+I prophesied... and as I prophesied there was a noise... and the bones
+came together, bone to his bone. And I beheld, and lo, there were sinews
+upon them, and flesh came up and skin covered them above; but there was
+no breath in them. Then said (the Lord) unto me, Prophesy unto the wind,
+prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God: Come
+from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they
+may live. So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into
+them and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great
+army. Then He said unto me... these bones are the whole house of
+Israel.... Behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up
+out of your graves, O my people; and I will bring you into the land of
+Israel.... And I will put My Spirit in you and ye shall live, and I
+will place you in your own land; and ye shall know that I the Lord hath
+spoken it and performed it, saith the Lord."
+
+A people raised from such depths would require a constitution, a new law
+to take the place of the old, from the day when the exile should cease.
+Ezekiel would willingly have dispensed with the monarchy, as it had been
+tried since the time of Samuel with scarcely any good results. For every
+Hezekiah or Josiah, how many kings of the type of Ahaz or Manasseh had
+there been! The Jews were nevertheless still so sincerely attached to
+the house of David, that the prophet judged it inopportune to exclude
+it from his plan for their future government. He resolved to tolerate
+a king, but a king of greater piety and with less liberty than the
+compiler of the Book of Deuteronomy had pictured to himself, a servant
+of the servants of God, whose principal function should be to provide
+the means of worship. Indeed, the Lord Himself was the only Sovereign
+whom the prophet fully accepted, though his concept of Him differed
+greatly from that of his predecessors: from that, for instance, of
+Amos--the Lord God who would do nothing without revealing "His secret
+unto His servants the prophets;" or of Hosea--who desired "mercy, and
+not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings."
+The Jahveh of Ezekiel no longer admitted any intercourse with the
+interpreters of His will. He held "the son of man" at a distance, and
+would consent to communicate with him only by means of angels who were
+His messengers. The love of His people was, indeed, acceptable to
+Him, but He preferred their reverence and fear, and the smell of the
+sacrifice offered according to the law was pleasing to His nostrils. The
+first care of the returning exiles, therefore, would be to build Him
+a house upon the holy mountain. Ezekiel called to mind the temple
+of Solomon, in which the far-off years of his youth were spent, and
+mentally rebuilt it on the same plan, but larger and more beautiful;
+first the outer court, then the inner court and its chambers, and lastly
+the sanctuary, the dimensions of which he calculates with scrupulous
+care: "And the breadth of the entrance was ten cubits; and the sides
+of the entrance were five cubits on the one side and five cubits on the
+other side: and he measured the length thereof, forty cubits; and
+the breadth, twenty cubits"--and so forth, with a wealth of technical
+details often difficult to be understood. And as a building so well
+proportioned should be served by a priesthood worthy of it, the sons
+of Zadok only were to bear the sacerdotal office, for they alone had
+preserved their faith unshaken; the other Levites were to fill merely
+secondary posts, for not only had they shared in the sins of the nation,
+but they had shown a bad example in practising idolatry. The duties and
+prerogatives of each one, the tithes and offerings, the sacrifices, the
+solemn festivals, the preparation of the feasts,--all was foreseen and
+prearranged with scrupulous exactitude. Ezekiel was, as we have seen, a
+priest; the smallest details were as dear to him as the noblest offices
+of his calling, and the minute ceremonial instructions as to the killing
+and cooking of the sacrificial animals appeared to him as necessary to
+the future prosperity of his people as the moral law. Towards the end,
+however, the imagination of the seer soared above the formalism of the
+sacrificing priest; he saw in a vision waters issuing out of the very
+threshold of the divine house, flowing towards the Dead Sea through a
+forest of fruit trees, "whose leaf shall not wither, neither shall the
+fruit thereof fail." The twelve tribes of Israel, alike those of whom
+a remnant still existed as well as those which at different times
+had become extinct, were to divide the regenerated land by lot among
+them--Dan in the extreme north, Reuben and Judah in the south; and they
+would unite to found once more, around Mount Sion, that new Jerusalem
+whose name henceforth was to be Jahveh-shammah, "The Lord is there."*
+
+     * Ezek. xlvii., xlviii. The image of the river seems to be
+     borrowed from the _vessel of water_ of Chaldaean mythology.
+
+The influence of Ezekiel does not seem to have extended beyond a
+restricted circle of admirers. Untouched by his preaching, many of the
+exiles still persisted in their worship of the heathen gods; most of
+these probably became merged in the bulk of the Chaldaean population,
+and were lost, as far as Israel was concerned, as completely as were
+the earlier exiles of Ephraim under Tiglath-pileser III. and Sargon. The
+greater number of the Jews, however, remained faithful to their hopes of
+future greatness, and applied themselves to discerning in passing events
+the premonitory signs of deliverance. "Like as a woman with child, that
+draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her
+pangs; so have we been before Thee, O Lord.... Come, my people, enter
+thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself for
+a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the
+Lord cometh forth out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the
+earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and
+shall no more cover her slain."* The condition of the people improved
+after the death of Nebuchadrezzar. Amil-marduk took Jehoiachin out of
+the prison in which he had languished for thirty years, and treated
+him with honour:** this was not as yet the restoration that had been
+promised, but it was the end of the persecution.
+
+     * An anonymous prophet, about 570, in Isa. xxvi. 17, 20, 21.
+
+     ** 2 Kings xxv. 27-30; cf. Jer. lii. 31-34.
+
+A period of court intrigues followed, during which the sceptre of
+Nebuchadrezzar changed hands four times in less than seven years; then
+came the accession of the peaceful and devout Nabonidus, the fall of
+Astyages, and the first victories of Cyrus. Nothing escaped the vigilant
+eye of the prophets, and they began to proclaim that the time was at
+hand, then to predict the fall of Babylon, and to depict the barbarians
+in revolt against her, and Israel released from the yoke by the
+all-powerful will of the Persians. "Thus saith the Lord to His anointed,
+to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden to subdue nations before him,
+and I will loose the loins of kings; to open the doors before him, and
+the gates shall not be shut; I will go before thee and make the rugged
+places plain: I will break in pieces the doors of brass, rend in sunder
+the bars of iron: and I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and
+hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I am the
+Lord which call thee by thy name, even the God of Israel. For Jacob My
+servant's sake, and Israel My chosen, I have called thee by thy name: I
+have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known Me."* Nothing can stand
+before the victorious prince whom Jahveh leads: "Bel boweth down, Nebo
+stoopeth; their idols are upon the beasts, and upon the cattle: the
+things that ye carried about are made a load, a burden to the weary
+beast. They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the
+burden, but themselves are gone into captivity."** "O virgin daughter
+of Babylon, sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the
+Chaldaeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate. Take
+the millstones and grind meal: remove thy veil, strip off the train,
+uncover the leg, pass through the rivers. They nakedness shall be
+uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen.... Sit thou silent, and get
+thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldaeans: for thou shalt no more
+be called the lady of kingdoms."***
+
+     * Second Isaiah, in Isa. xlv. 1-4.
+
+     ** Second Isaiah, in Isa. xlvi. 1, 2.
+
+     *** Second Isaiah, in Isa. xlvii. 1-5.
+
+The task which Cyrus had undertaken was not so difficult as we might
+imagine. Not only was he hailed with delight by the strangers who
+thronged Babylonia, but the Babylonians themselves were weary of their
+king, and the majority of them were ready to welcome the Persian who
+would rid them of him, as in old days they hailed the Assyrian kings who
+delivered them from their Chaldaean lords. It is possible that towards
+the end of his reign Nabonidus partly resumed the supreme power;* but
+anxious for the future, and depending but little on human help, he had
+sought a more powerful aid at the hands of the gods. He had apparently
+revived some of the old forgotten cults, and had applied to their use
+revenues which impoverished the endowment of the prevalent worship of
+his own time. As he felt the growing danger approach, he remembered
+those towns of secondary grade--Uru, Uruk, Larsam, and Eridu--all
+of which, lying outside Nebuchadrezzar's scheme of defence, would be
+sacrificed in the case of an invasion: he had therefore brought away
+from them the most venerated statues, those in which the spirit of the
+divinity was more particularly pleased to dwell, and had shut them up in
+the capital, within the security of its triple rampart.**
+
+     * This seems to follow from the part which he plays in the
+     final crisis, as told in the _Cylinder of Cyrus_ and in the
+     _Annals_.
+
+     ** The chronicler adds that the gods of Sippar, Kutha, and
+     Borsippa were not taken to Babylon; and indeed, these cities
+     being included within the lines of defence of the great
+     city, their gods were as well defended from the enemy as if
+     they had been in Babylon itself.
+
+This attempt to concentrate the divine powers, accentuating as it did
+the supremacy of Bel-Marduk over his compeers, was doubtless flattering
+to his pride and that of his priests, but was ill received by the rest
+of the sacerdotal class and by the populace. All these divine guests had
+not only to be lodged, but required to be watched over, decked, fed, and
+feted, together with their respective temple retinues; and the prestige
+and honour of the local Bel, as well as his revenues, were likely to
+suffer in consequence. The clamour of the gods in the celestial heights
+soon re-echoed throughout the land; the divinities complained of their
+sojourn at Babylon as of a captivity in E-sagilla; they lamented over
+the suppression of their daily sacrifices, and Marduk at length took
+pity on them. He looked upon the countries of Sumir and Akkad, and saw
+their sanctuaries in ruins and their towns lifeless as corpses; "he cast
+his eyes over the surrounding regions; he searched them with his glance
+and sought out a prince, upright, after his own heart, who should take
+his hands. He proclaimed by name Cyrus, King of Anshan, and he called
+him by his name to universal sovereignty." Alike for the people
+of Babylon and for the exiled Jew, and also doubtless for other
+stranger-colonies, Cyrus appeared as a deliverer chosen by the gods;
+his speedy approach was everywhere expected, if not with the same
+impatience, at least with an almost joyful resignation. His plans were
+carried into action in the early months of 538, and his habitual good
+fortune did not forsake him at this decisive moment of his career. The
+immense citadel raised by Nebuchadrezzar in the midst of his empire, in
+anticipation of an attack by the Medes, was as yet intact, and the walls
+rising one behind another, the moats, and the canals and marshes which
+protected it, had been so well kept up or restored since his time, that
+their security was absolutely complete; a besieging army could do little
+harm--it needed a whole nation in revolt to compass its downfall. A
+whole nation also was required for its defence, but the Babylonians
+were not inclined to second the efforts of their sovereign. Nabonidus
+concentrated his troops at the point most threatened, in the angle
+comprised near Opis between the Medic wall and the bend of the Tigris,
+and waited in inaction the commencement of the attack. It is supposed
+that Cyrus put two bodies of troops in motion: one leaving Susa under
+his own command, took the usual route of all Blamite invasions in the
+direction of the confluence of the Tigris and the Diyala; the other
+commanded by Gobryas, the satrap of Gutium, followed the course of
+the Adhem or the Diyala, and brought the northern contingents to the
+rallying-place. From what we know of the facts as a whole, it would
+appear that the besieging force chose the neighbourhood of the present
+Bagdad to make a breach in the fortifications. Taking advantage of the
+months when the rivers were at their lowest, they drew off the water
+from the Diyala and the Tigris till they so reduced the level that they
+were able to cross on foot; they then cut their way through the ramparts
+on the left bank, and rapidly transported the bulk of their forces
+into the very centre of the enemy's position. The principal body of the
+Chaldaean troops were still at Opis, cut off from the capital; Cyrus
+fell upon them, overcame them on the banks of the Zalzallat in the early
+days of Tammuz, urging forward Gobryas meanwhile upon Babylon itself.*
+On the 14th of Tammuz, Nabonidus evacuated Sippar, which at once fell
+into the hands of the Persian outposts; on the 16th Gobryas entered
+Babylon without striking a blow, and Nabonidus surrendered himself a
+prisoner.**
+
+     * For the strategic interpretation of the events of this
+     campaign I have generally adopted the explanations of
+     Billerbeck. Herodotus' account with regard to the river
+     Gyndes is probably a reminiscence of alterations made in the
+     river-courses at the time of the attack in the direction of
+     Bagdad.
+
+     ** The _Cylinder of Cyrus_, 1. 17, expressly says so:
+     "Without combat or battle did Marduk make him enter
+     Babylon," The _Annals of Nabonidus_ confirm this testimony
+     of the official account.
+
+The victorious army had received orders to avoid all excesses which
+would offend the people; they respected the property of the citizens and
+of the temples, placed a strong detachment around E-sagilla to protect
+it from plunder, and no armed soldier was allowed within the enclosure
+until the king' had determined on the fate of the vanquished. Cyrus
+arrived after a fortnight had elapsed, on the 3rd of March-esvan, and
+his first act was one of clemency. He prohibited all pillage, granted
+mercy to the inhabitants, and entrusted the government of the city to
+Gobryas. Bel-sharuzur, the son of Nabonidus, remained to be dealt
+with, and his energetic nature might have been the cause of serious
+difficulties had he been allowed an opportunity of rallying the last
+partisans of the dynasty around him. Gobryas set out to attack him, and
+on the 11th of March-esvan succeeded in surprising and slaying him. With
+him perished the last hope of the Chaldaeans, and the nobles and towns,
+still hesitating on what course to pursue, now vied with each other in
+their haste to tender submission. The means of securing their good
+will, at all events for the moment, was clearly at hand, and it was used
+without any delay: their gods were at once restored to them. This exodus
+extended over nearly two months, during March-esvan and Adar, and on
+its termination a proclamation of six days of mourning, up to the 3rd of
+Nisan, was made for the death of Bel-sharuzur, and as an atonement for
+the faults of Nabonidus, after which, on the 4th of Nisan, the notables
+of the city were called together in the temple of Nebo to join in the
+last expiatory ceremonies. Cyrus did not hesitate for a moment to act
+as Tiglath-pileser III. and most of the Sargonids had done; he "took the
+hands of Bel," and proclaimed himself king of the country, but in order
+to secure the succession, he associated his son Cambyses with himself
+as King of Babylon. Mesopotamia having been restored to order, the
+provinces in their turn transferred their allegiance to Persia; "the
+kings enthroned in their palaces, from the Upper Sea to the Lower, those
+of Syria and those who dwell in tents, brought their weighty tribute to
+Babylon and kissed the feet of the suzerain." Events had followed one
+another so quickly, and had entailed so little bloodshed, that popular
+imagination was quite disconcerted: it could not conceive that an
+empire of such an extent and of so formidable an appearance should have
+succumbed almost without a battle, and three generations had not elapsed
+before an entire cycle of legends had gathered round the catastrophe.
+They related how Cyrus, having set out to make war, with provisions of
+all kinds for his household, and especially with his usual stores of
+water from the river Choaspes, the only kind of which he deigned to
+drink, had reached the banks of the Gyndes. While seeking for a ford,
+one of the white horses consecrated to the sun sprang into the river,
+and being overturned by the current, was drowned before it could
+be rescued. Cyrus regarded this accident as a personal affront, and
+interrupted his expedition to avenge it. He employed his army during one
+entire summer in digging three hundred and sixty canals, and thus caused
+the principal arm of the stream to run dry, and he did not resume his
+march upon Babylon till the following spring, when the level of the
+water was low enough to permit of a woman crossing from one bank to the
+other without wetting her knees. The Babylonians at first attempted
+to prevent the blockade of the place, but being repulsed in their
+_sorties_, they retired within the walls, much to Cyrus's annoyance, for
+they were provisioned for several years. He therefore undertook to
+turn the course of the Euphrates into the Bahr-i-Nejif, and having
+accomplished it, he crept into the centre of the city by the dry bed of
+the river. If the Babylonians had kept proper guard, the Persians would
+probably have been surrounded and caught like fish in a net; but on that
+particular day they were keeping one of their festivals, and continued
+their dancing and singing till they suddenly found the streets alive
+with the enemy.
+
+Babylon suffered in no way by her servitude, and far from its being a
+source of unhappiness to her, she actually rejoiced in it; she was rid
+of Nabonidus, whose sacrilegious innovations had scandalised her piety,
+and she possessed in Cyrus a legitimate sovereign since he had "taken
+the hands of Bel." It pleased her to believe that she had conquered her
+victor rather than been conquered by him, and she accommodated herself
+to her Persian dynasty after the same fashion that she had in turn
+accustomed herself to Cossaean or Elamite, Ninevite or Chaldaean dynasties
+in days gone by. Nothing in or around the city was changed, and she
+remained what she had been since the fall of Assyria, the real capital
+of the regions situated between the Mediterranean and the Zagros. It
+seems that none of her subjects--whether Syrians, Tyrians, Arabs, or
+Idumaeans--attempted to revolt against their new master, but passively
+accepted him, and the Persian dominion extended uncontested as far as
+the isthmus of Suez; Cyprus even, and such of the Phoenicians as
+were still dependencies of Egypt, did homage to her without further
+hesitation. The Jews alone appeared only half satisfied, for the
+clemency shown by Cyrus to their oppressors disappointed their hopes
+and the predictions of their prophets. They had sung in anticipation of
+children killed before their fathers' eyes, of houses pillaged, of
+women violated, and Babylon, the glory of the empire and the beauty
+of Chaldaean pride, utterly destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrha when
+overthrown by Jahveh. "It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be
+dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch
+tent there; neither shall shepherds make their flocks to lie down there.
+But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be
+full of doleful creatures; and ostriches shall dwell there, and satyrs
+shall dance there. And wolves shall cry in their castles, and jackals in
+the pleasant palaces."*
+
+     * The table of the last kings of Ptolemy and the monuments,
+     is given below:--
+
+[Illustration: 105.jpg TABLE OF THE LAST KINGS OF PTOLEMY]
+
+Cyrus, however, was seated on the throne, and the city of
+Nebuchadrezzar, unlike that of Sargon and Sennacherib, still continued
+to play her part in the world's history. The revenge of Jerusalem had
+not been as complete as that of Samaria, and her sons had to content
+themselves with obtaining the cessation of their exile. It is impossible
+to say whether they had contributed to the downfall of Nabonidus
+otherwise than by the fervency of their prayers, or if they had rendered
+Cyrus some service either in the course of his preparations or during
+his short campaign. They may have contemplated taking up arms in his
+cause, and have been unable to carry the project into execution owing
+to the rapidity with which events took place. However this may be, he
+desired to reward them for their good intentions, and in the same year
+as his victory, he promulgated a solemn edict, in which he granted them
+permission to return to Judah and to rebuild not only their city, but
+the temple of their God. The inhabitants of the places where they were
+living were charged to furnish them with silver, gold, materials, and
+cattle, which would be needed by those among them who should claim the
+benefits of the edict; they even had restored to them, by order of the
+king, what remained in the Babylonian treasury of the vessels of gold
+and silver which had belonged to the sanctuary of Jahveh. The heads
+of the community received the favour granted to them from such high
+quarters, without any enthusiasm. Now that they were free to go, they
+discovered that they were well off at Babylon. They would have to
+give up their houses, their fields, their business, their habits of
+indifference to politics, and brave the dangers of a caravan journey of
+three or four months' duration, finally encamping in the midst of
+ruins in an impoverished country, surrounded by hostile and jealous
+neighbours; such a prospect was not likely to find favour with many, and
+indeed it was only the priests, the Levites, and the more ardent of
+the lower classes who welcomed the idea of the return with a touching
+fervour. The first detachment organised their departure in 536,
+under the auspices of one of the princes of the royal house, named
+Shauash-baluzur (Sheshbazzar), a son of Jehoiachin.* It comprised only a
+small number of families, and contained doubtless a few of the captives
+of Nebuchadrezzar who in their childhood had seen the temple standing
+and had been present at its destruction.
+
+     * The name which is written Sheshbazzar in the Hebrew text
+     of the Book of Ezra (i. 9, 11; v. 14, 16) is rendered
+     Sasabalassaros in Lucian's recension of the Septuagint, and
+     this latter form confirms the hypothesis of Hoonacker, which
+     is now universally accepted, that it corresponds to the
+     Babylonian Shamash-abaluzur. It is known that Shamash
+     becomes Shauash in Babylonian; thus Saosdukhinos comes from
+     Shamash-shumukin: similarly Shamash-abaluzur has become
+     Shauash-abaluzur. Imbert has recognised Sheshbazzar,
+     Shauash-abaluzur in the Shenazzar mentioned in 1 Chron. iii.
+     8, as being one of the sons of Jeconiah, and this
+     identification has been accepted by several recent
+     historians of Israel. It should be remembered that Shauash-
+     abaluzur and Zerubbabel have long been confounded one with
+     the other.
+
+The returning exiles at first settled in the small towns of Judah and
+Benjamin, and it was not until seven months after their arrival that
+they summoned courage to clear the sacred area in order to erect in its
+midst an altar of sacrifice.*
+
+     * The history of this first return from captivity is
+     summarily set forth in Ezra i.; cf. v. 13-17; vi. 3-5, 15.
+     Its authenticity has been denied: with regard to this point
+     and the questions relating to Jewish history after the
+     exile, the modifications which have been imposed on the
+     original plan of this work have obliged me to suppress much
+     detail in the text and the whole of the bibliography in the
+     notes.
+
+They formed there, in the land of their fathers, a little colony, almost
+lost among the heathen nations of former times--Philistines, Idumasans,
+Moabites, Ammonites, and the settlers implanted at various times in what
+had been the kingdom of Israel by the sovereigns of Assyria and Chaldaea.
+Grouped around the Persian governor, who alone was able to protect them
+from the hatred of their rivals, they had no hope of prospering, or even
+of maintaining their position, except by exhibiting an unshaken fidelity
+to their deliverers. It was on this very feeling that Cyrus mainly
+relied when he granted them permission to return to their native
+hills, and he was actuated as much by a far-seeing policy as from the
+promptings of instinctive generosity. It was with satisfaction that he
+saw in that distant province, lying on the frontier of the only enemy
+yet left to him in the old world, a small band, devoted perforce to his
+interests, and whose very existence depended entirely on that of his
+empire. He no doubt extended the same favour to the other exiles in
+Chaldaea who demanded it of him, but we do not know how many of them
+took advantage of the occasion to return to their native countries, and
+this exodus of the Jews still remains, so far as we know, a unique
+fact. The administration continued the same as it had been under the
+Chaldaeans; Aramaean was still the official language in the provincial
+dependencies, and the only change effected was the placing of Persians
+at the head of public offices, as in Asia Minor, and allowing them a
+body of troops to support their authority.*
+
+     * The presence of Persian troops in Asia Minor is proved by
+     the passage in Herodotus where he says that Orotes had with
+     him 1000 Persians as his body-guard.
+
+One great state alone remained of all those who had played a prominent
+part in the history of the East. This was Egypt; and the policy which
+her rulers had pursued since the development of the Iranian power
+apparently rendered a struggle with it inevitable. Amasis had taken part
+in all the coalitions which had as their object the perpetuation of
+the balance of the powers in Western Asia; he had made a treaty with
+Croesus, and it is possible that his contingents had fought in the
+battles before Sardes; Lydia having fallen, he did all in his power to
+encourage Nabonidus in his resistance. As soon as he found himself face
+to face with Cyrus, he understood that a collision was imminent, and
+did his best in preparing to meet it. Even if Cyrus had forgotten the
+support which had been freely given to his rivals, the wealth of Egypt
+was in itself sufficient to attract the Persian hordes to her frontiers.
+
+A century later, the Egyptians, looking back on the past with a
+melancholy retrospection, confessed that "never had the valley been
+more flourishing or happier than under Amasis; never had the river
+shown itself more beneficent to the soil, nor the soil more fertile
+for mankind, and the inhabitated towns might be reckoned at 20,000 in
+number." The widespread activity exhibited under Psammetichus II., and
+Apries, was redoubled under the usurper, and the quarries of Turah,*
+Silsileh,** Assuan, and even those of Hammamat, were worked as in the
+palmy days of the Theban dynasties. The island of Philae, whose position
+just below the cataract attracted to it the attention of the military
+engineers, was carefully fortified and a temple built upon it, the
+materials of which were used later on in the masonry of the sanctuary of
+Ptolemaic times. Thebes exhibited a certain outburst of vitality under
+the impulse given by Ankhnasnofiribri and by Shashonqu, the governor of
+her palace;*** two small chapels, built in the centre of the town, still
+witness to the queen's devotion to Amon, of whom she was the priestess.
+Wealthy private individuals did their best to emulate their sovereign's
+example, and made for themselves at Shekh Abd-el-Gurnah and at Assassif
+those rock-hewn tombs which rival those of the best periods in their
+extent and the beauty of their bas-reliefs.****
+
+     * A stele of his forty-fourth year still exists in the
+     quarries of the Mokattam.
+
+     ** According to Herodotus, it was from the quarries of
+     Elephantine that Amasis caused to be brought the largest
+     blocks which he used in the building of Sais.
+
+     *** Her tomb still exists at Deir el-Medineh, and the
+     sarcophagus, taken from the tomb in 1833, is now in the
+     British Museum.
+
+     **** The most important of these tombs is that of Petenit,
+     the father of Shashonqu, who was associated with
+     Ankhnasnofiribri in the government of Thebes.
+
+Most of the cities of the Said were in such a state of decadence that it
+was no longer possible to restore to them their former prosperity, but
+Abydos occupied too important a place in the beliefs connected with the
+future world, and attracted too many pilgrims, to permit of its being
+neglected. The whole of its ancient necropolis had been rifled by
+thieves during the preceding centuries, and the monuments were nearly as
+much buried by sand as in our own times.
+
+[Illustration: 111.jpg AN OSIRIS STRETCHED FULL LENGTH ON THE GROUND]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, after Mariette. The monument is a
+     statuette measuring only 15 centimetres in length; it has
+     been reproduced to give an idea of the probable form of the
+     statue seen by Herodotus.
+
+The dismantled fortress now known as the Shunet ez-Zebib served as the
+cemetery for the ibises of Thoth, and for the stillborn children of the
+sacred singing-women, while the two Memnonia of Seti and Ramses, now
+abandoned by their priests, had become mere objects of respectful
+curiosity, on which devout Egyptians or passing travellers--Phoenicians,
+Aramaeans, Cypriots, Carians, and Greeks from Ionia and the isles--came
+to carve their names.*
+
+     * The position occupied by the graffiti on certain portions
+     of the walls show that in these places in the temple of Seti
+     there was already a layer of sand varying from one to three
+     metres in depth.
+
+Amasis confided the work of general restoration to one of the principal
+personages of his court, Pefzaaunit, Prince of Sais, who devoted his
+attention chiefly to two buildings--the great sanctuary of Osiris, which
+was put into good condition throughout, and the very ancient necropolis
+of Omm-el-Graab, where lay hidden the _alquhah_, one of the sepulchres
+of the god; he restored the naos, the table of offerings, the barques,
+and the temple furniture, and provided for the sacred patrimony by an
+endowment of fields, vineyards, palm groves, and revenues, so as to
+ensure to the sanctuary offerings in perpetuity. It was a complete
+architectural resurrection. The nomes of Middle Egypt, which had
+suffered considerably during the Ethiopian and Assyrian wars, had
+some chance of prosperity now that their lords were relieved from the
+necessity of constantly fighting for some fresh pretender. Horu, son
+of Psam-metichus, Prince of the Oleander nome, rebuilt the ancient
+sanctuary of Harshafaitu at Heracleopolis, and endowed it with a
+munificence which rivalled that of Pefzaaunifc at Abydos. The king
+himself devoted his resources chiefly to works at Memphis and in the
+Delta. He founded a temple of Isis at Memphis, which Herodotus
+described as extending over an immense area and being well worth seeing;
+unfortunately nothing now remains of it, nor of the recumbent colossus,
+sixty feet in length, which the king placed before the court of Phtah,
+nor of the two gigantic statues which he raised in front of the temple,
+one on each side of the door.
+
+[Illustration: 112.jpg THE TWO GODDESSES OF LAW; ANI ADORING OSIRIS] THE
+TRIAL OF THE CONSCIENCE; TOTH AND THE FEATHER OF THE LAW.
+
+Besides these architectural works, Amasis invested the funerary
+ceremonies of the Apis-bulls with a magnificence rarely seen before
+his time, and the official stelae which he carved to the memory of
+the animals who died in his reign exhibit a perfection of style quite
+unusual. His labours at Memphis, however, were eclipsed by the admirable
+work which he accomplished at Sais. The propylae which he added to the
+temple of Nit "surpassed most other buildings of the same kind, as
+much by their height and extent, as by the size and quality of the
+materials;" he had, moreover, embellished them by a fine colonnade, and
+made an approach to them by an avenue of sphinxes.
+
+[Illustration: 113.jpg AMASIS IN ADORATION BEFORE THE BULL APIS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph taken in the
+     Louvre.
+
+In other parts of the same building were to be seen two superb obelisks,
+a recumbent figure similar to that at Memphis, and a monolithic naos
+of rose granite brought from the quarries of Elephantine. Amasis had a
+special predilection for this kind of monument. That which he erected at
+Thmuis is nearly twenty-three feet in height,* and the Louvre contains
+another example, which though smaller still excites the admiration of
+the modern visitor.**
+
+     * The exact measurements are 23 1/2 ft. in height, 12 ft. 9
+     ins. in width, and 10 ft. 6 ins. in depth. The naos of Saft
+     el-Hinneh must have been smaller, but it is impossible to
+     determine its exact dimensions.
+
+     ** It measures 9 ft. 7 ins. in height, 3 ft. 1 in. in width,
+     and 3 ft. 8 ins.
+
+[Illustration: 114.jpg THE NAOS OF AMASIS AT THMUIS]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the sketch of Burton.
+
+The naos of Sais, which amazed Herodotus, was much larger than either of
+the two already mentioned, or, indeed, than any known example. Tradition
+states that it took two thousand boatmen three years to convey it down
+from the first cataract. It measured nearly thirty feet high in the
+interior, twenty-four feet in depth, and twelve feet in breadth; even
+when hollowed out to contain the emblem of the god, it still weighed
+nearly 500,000 kilograms. It never reached its appointed place in the
+sanctuary. The story goes that "the architect, at the moment when the
+monument had been moved as far as a certain spot in the temple, heaved
+a sigh, oppressed with the thought of the time expended on its transport
+and weary of the arduous work. Amasis overheard the sigh, and taking it
+as an omen, he commanded that the block should be dragged no further.
+Others relate that one of the overseers in charge of the work was
+crushed to death by the monument, and for this reason it was left
+standing on the spot," where for centuries succeeding generations came
+to contemplate it.*
+
+     * The measurements given by Herodotus are so different from
+     those of any naos as yet discovered, that I follow Kenrick
+     in thinking that Herodotus saw the monument of Amasis lying
+     on its side, and that he took for the height what was really
+     the width in depth. It had been erected in the nome of
+     Athribis, and afterwards taken to Alexandria about the
+     Ptolemaic era; it was discovered under water in one of the
+     ports of the town at the beginning of this century, and
+     Drovetti, who recovered it, gave it to the Museum of the
+     Louvre in 1825.
+
+Amasis, in devoting his revenues to such magnificent works, fully shared
+the spirit of the older Pharaohs, and his labours were nattering to
+the national vanity, even though many lives were sacrificed in their
+accomplishment; but the glory which they reflected on Egypt did not
+have the effect of removing the unpopularity in which Tie was personally
+held. The revolution which overthrew Apries had been provoked by the
+hatred of the native party towards the foreigners; he himself had been
+the instrument by which it had been accomplished, and it would have been
+only natural that, having achieved a triumph in spite of the Greeks and
+the mercenaries, he should have wished to be revenged on them, and have
+expelled them from his dominions. But, as a fact, nothing of the kind
+took place, and Amasis, once crowned, forgot the wrongs he had suffered
+as an aspirant to the royal dignity; no sooner was he firmly seated on
+the throne, than he recalled the strangers, and showed that he had only
+friendly intentions with regard to them. His predecessors had received
+them into favour, he, in fact, showed a perfect infatuation for them,
+and became as complete a Greek as it was possible for an Egyptian to be.
+His first care had been to make a treaty with the Dorians of Oyrene, and
+he displayed so much tact in dealing with them, that they forgave him
+for the skirmish of Irasa, and invited him to act as arbitrator in their
+dissensions. A certain Arkesilas II. had recently succeeded the Battos
+who had defeated the Egyptian troops, but his suspicious temper had
+obliged his brothers to separate themselves from him, and they had
+founded further westwards the independent city of Barca. On his
+threatening to evict them, they sent a body of Libyans against him.
+Fighting ensued, and he was beaten close to the town of Leukon. He
+lost 7000 hoplites in the engagement, and the disaster aroused so
+much ill-feeling against him that Laarchos, another of his brothers,
+strangled him. Laarchos succeeded him amid the acclamations of the
+soldiery; but not long after, Eryxo and Polyarchos, the wife and
+brother-in-law of his victim, surprised and assassinated him in his
+turn. The partisans of Laarchos then had recourse to the Pharaoh, who
+showed himself disposed to send them help; but his preparations were
+suspended owing to the death of his mother. Polyarchos repaired to Egypt
+before the royal mourning was ended, and pleaded his cause with such
+urgency that he won over the king to his side; he obtained the royal
+investiture for his sister's child, who was still a minor, Battos III.,
+the lame, and thus placed Oyrene in a sort of vassalage to the Egyptian
+crown.*
+
+     * Herodotus narrates these events without mentioning Amasis,
+     and Nicolas of Damascus adopted Herodotus' account with
+     certain modifications taken from other sources. The
+     intervention of Amasis is mentioned only by Plutarch and by
+     Polyaanus; but the record of it had been handed down to them
+     by some more ancient author--perhaps by Akesandros; or
+     perhaps, in the first instance, by Hellanicos of Lesbos, who
+     gave a somewhat detailed account of certain points in
+     Egyptian history. The passage of Herodotus is also found
+     incorporated in accounts of Cyrenian origin: his informants
+     were interested in recalling deeds which reflected glory on
+     their country, like the defeat of Apries at Irasa, but not
+     in the memory of events so humiliating for them as the
+     sovereign intervention of Pharaoh only a few years after
+     this victory. And besides, the merely pacific success which
+     Amasis achieved was not of a nature to leave a profound mark
+     on the Egyptian mind. It is thus easy to explain how it was
+     that Herodotus makes no allusion to the part played by Egypt
+     in this affair.
+
+The ties which connected the two courts were subsequently drawn closer
+by marriage; partly from policy and partly from a whim, Amasis espoused
+a Cyrenian woman named Ladike, the daughter, according to some, of
+Arkesilas or of Battos, according to others, of a wealthy private
+individual named Kritobulos.* The Greeks of Europe and Asia Minor fared
+no less to their own satisfaction at his hand than their compatriots
+in Africa; following the example of his ally Croesus, he entered
+into relations with their oracles on several occasions, and sent them
+magnificent presents. The temple of Delphi having been burnt down in
+548, the Athenian family of the Alcmaeonides undertook to rebuild it from
+the ground for the sum of three hundred talents, of which one-fourth was
+to be furnished by the Delphians. When these, being too poor to pay
+the sum out of their own resources, made an appeal to the generosity of
+other friendly powers, Amasis graciously offered them a thousand talents
+of Egyptian alum, then esteemed the most precious of all others. Alum
+was employed in dyeing, and was an expensive commodity in the markets of
+Europe; the citizens of Delphi were all the more sensible of Pharaoh's
+generosity, since the united Greeks of the Nile valley contributed only
+twenty _minae_ of the same mineral as their quota. Amasis erected at
+Cyrene a statue of his wife Ladike, and another of the goddess Neit,
+gilded from head to foot, and to these he added his own portrait,
+probably painted on a wooden panel.**
+
+     * The very fact of the marriage is considered by Wiedemann
+     as a pure legend, but there is nothing against its
+     authenticity; the curious story of the relations of the
+     woman with Amasis told by the Cyrenian commentators is the
+     only part which need be rejected.
+
+     ** The text of Herodotus can only mean a painted panel
+     similar to those which have been found on the mummies of the
+     Graeco-Roman era in the Fayum.
+
+He gave to Athene of Lindos two stone statues and a corselet of linen
+of marvellous fineness;* and Hera of Samos received two wooden statues,
+which a century later Herodotus found still intact. The Greeks flocked
+to Egypt from all quarters of the world in such considerable numbers
+that the laws relating to them had to be remodelled in order to avoid
+conflicts with the natives.
+
+     * It seems that one of these statues is that which, after
+     being taken to Constantinople, was destroyed in a fire in
+     476 A.D. Fragments of the corselet still existed in the
+     first century of our era, but inquisitive persons used to
+     tear off pieces to see for themselves whether, as Herodotus
+     assures us, each thread was composed of three hundred and
+     sixty-five strands, every one visible with the naked eye.
+
+The townships founded a century earlier along the Pelusiac arm of the
+Nile had increased still further since the time of Necho, and to their
+activity was attributable the remarkable prosperity of the surrounding
+region. But the position which they occupied on the most exposed side
+of Egypt was regarded as permanently endangering the security of the
+country: her liberty would be imperilled should they revolt during a war
+with the neighbouring empire, and hand over the line of defence which
+was garrisoned by them to the invader. Amasis therefore dispossessed
+their inhabitants, and transferred them to Memphis and its environs.
+The change benefited him in two ways, for, while securing himself from
+possible treason, he gained a faithful guard for himself in the event of
+risings taking place in his turbulent capital. While he thus distributed
+these colonists of ancient standing to his best interests, he placed
+those of quite recent date in the part of the Delta furthest removed
+from Asia, where surveillance was most easy, in the triangle, namely,
+lying to the west of Sais, between the Canopic branch of the Nile, the
+mountains, and the sea-coast. The Milesians had established here some
+time previously, on a canal connected with the main arm of the river,
+the factory of Naucratis, which long remained in obscurity, but suddenly
+developed at the beginning of the XXVIth dynasty, when Sais became the
+favourite residence of the Pharaohs. This town Amasis made over to the
+Greeks so that they might make it the commercial and religious centre of
+their communities in Egypt.
+
+[Illustration: 120.jpg THE PRESENT SITE OF NAUCRATIS]
+
+     Reduced by Faucher-Gudin from the plan published by Petrie.
+     The site of the Hellenion is marked A, the modern Arab
+     village B, the temenos of Hera and Apollo E, that of the
+     Dioskuri F, and that of Aphrodite G.
+
+Temples already existed there, those of Apollo and Aphrodite, together
+with all the political and religious institutions indispensable to the
+constitution of an Hellenic city; but the influx of immigrants was
+so large and rapid, that, after the lapse of a few years, the entire
+internal organism and external aspect of the city were metamorphosed.
+New buildings rose from the ground with incredible speed--the little
+temple of the Dioskuri, the protectors of the sailor, the temple of the
+Samian Hera, that of Zeus of AEgina, and that of Athene;* ere long the
+great temenos, the Hellenion, was erected at the public expense by nine
+AEolian, Ionian, and Dorian towns of Asia Minor, to serve as a place of
+assembly for their countrymen, as a storehouse, as a sanctuary, and,
+if need be, even as a refuge and fortress, so great was its area and so
+thick its walls.**
+
+     * The temple of Athene, the Nit of the Saite nome, is as yet
+     known only by an inscription in Pctrie.
+
+     ** The site has been rediscovered by Petrie at the southern
+     extremity of and almost outside the town; the walls were
+     about 48 feet thick and 39 feet high, and the rectangular
+     area enclosed by them could easily contain fifty thousand
+     men.
+
+It was not possible for the constitution of Naucratis to be very
+homogeneous, when a score of different elements assisted in its
+composition. It appears to have been a compromise between the
+institutions of the Dorians and those of the Ionians. Its supreme
+magistrates were called timuchi, but their length of office and
+functions are alike unknown to us. The inspectors of the emporia and
+markets could be elected only by the citizens of the nine towns, and it
+is certain that the chief authority was not entirely in the hands either
+of the timuchi or the inspectors; perhaps each quarter of the town had
+its council taken from among the oldest residents. A prytanasum was open
+to all comers where assemblies and banquets were held on feast-days;
+here were celebrated at the public expense the festivals of Dionysos
+and Apollo Komasos. Amasis made the city a free port, accessible at all
+times to whoever should present themselves with peaceable intent, and
+the privileges which he granted naturally brought about the closing of
+all the other seaports of Egypt. When a Greek ship, pursued by pirates,
+buffeted by storms, or disabled by an accident at sea, ran ashore at
+some prohibited spot on the coast, the captain had to appear before the
+nearest magistrate, in order to swear that he had not violated the law
+wilfully, but from the force of circumstances. If his excuse appeared
+reasonable, he was permitted to make his way to the mouth of the Canopic
+branch of the Nile; but when the state of the wind or tide did not allow
+of his departure, his cargo was transferred to boats of the locality,
+and sent to the Hellenic settlement by the canals of the Delta. This
+provision of the law brought prosperity to Naucratis; the whole of the
+commerce of Egypt with the Greek world passed through her docks, and
+in a few years she became one of the wealthiest emporia of the
+Mediterranean. The inhabitants soon overflowed the surrounding country,
+and covered it with villas and townships. Such merchants as refused to
+submit to the rule of their own countrymen found a home in some other
+part of the valley which suited them, and even Upper Egypt and the
+Libyan desert were subject to their pacific inroads. The Milesians
+established depots in the ancient city of Abydos;* the Cypriots and
+Lesbians, and the people of Ephesus, Chios, and Samos, were scattered
+over the islands formed by the network of canals and arms of the Nile,
+and delighted in giving them the names of their respective countries;**
+Greeks of diverse origin settled themselves at Neapolis, not far from
+Panopolis; and the Samians belonging to the AEschrionian tribe penetrated
+as far as the Great Oasis; in fact, there was scarcely a village where
+Hellenic traders were not found, like the _bakals_ of to-day, selling
+wine, perfumes, oil, and salted provisions to the natives, practising
+usury in all its forms, and averse from no means of enriching themselves
+as rapidly as possible.
+
+     * In Stephen of Byzantium the name of the town is said to be
+     derived from that of the Milesian Abydos who founded it,
+     probably on the testimony of Aristagoras. Letronne has seen
+     that the historian meant a factory established by the
+     Milesians probably in the reign of Amasis, at the terminus
+     of the route leading to the Great Oasis.
+
+     ** The compiler confines himself to stating that there were
+     in the Nile islands called Ephesus, Chios, Samos, Lesbos,
+     Cyprus, and so on; the explanation I have given in the text
+     accounts for this curious fact quite simply.
+
+Those who returned to their mother-country carried thither
+strange tales, which aroused the curiosity and cupidity of their
+fellow-citizens; and philosophers, merchants, and soldiers alike set out
+for the land of wonders in pursuit of knowledge, wealth, or adventures.
+Amasis, ever alert upon his Asiatic frontier, and always anxious
+to strengthen himself in that quarter against a Chaldaean or Persian
+invasion, welcomed them with open arms: those who remained in the
+country obtained employment about his person, while such as left it not
+to return, carried away with them the memory of his kindly treatment,
+and secured for him in Hellas alliances of which he might one day
+stand in need. The conduct of Amasis was politic, but it aroused the
+ill-feeling of his subjects against him. Like the Jews under Hezekiah,
+the Babylonians under Nabonidus, and all other decadent races threatened
+by ruin, they attributed their decline, not to their own vices, but to
+the machinations of an angry god, and they looked on favours granted to
+strangers as a sacrilege. Had not the Greeks brought their divinities
+with them? Did they not pervert the simple country-folk, so that they
+associated the Greek religion with that of their own country? Money
+was scarce; Amasis had been obliged to debit the rations and pay of
+his mercenaries to the accounts of the most venerated Egyptian
+temples--those of Sais, Heliopolis, Bubastis, and Memphis; and each
+of these institutions had to rebate so much per cent. on their annual
+revenues in favour of the barbarians, and hand over to them considerable
+quantities of corn, cattle, poultry, stuffs, woods, perfumes, and
+objects of all kinds. The priests were loud in their indignation, the
+echo of which still rang in the ears of the faithful some centuries
+later, and the lower classes making common cause with their priests, a
+spirit of hatred was roused among the populace as bitter as that which
+had previously caused the downfall of Apries. As the fear of the army
+prevented this feeling from manifesting itself in a revolt, it found
+expression in the secret calumnies which were circulated against the
+king, and misrepresented the motives of all his actions. Scores of
+malicious stories were repeated vilifying his character. It was stated
+that before his accession he was much addicted to eating and drinking,
+but that, suffering from want of money, he had not hesitated in
+procuring what he wished for by all sorts of means, the most honest of
+which had been secret theft. When made king, he had several times given
+way to intoxication to such an extent as to be incapable of attending to
+public business; his ministers were then obliged to relate moral tales
+to him to bring him to a state of reason. Many persons having taunted
+him with his low extraction, he had caused a statue of a divinity to be
+made out of a gold basin in which he was accustomed to wash his feet,
+and he had exposed it to the adoration of the faithful. When it had been
+worshipped by them for some time, he revealed the origin of the idol,
+and added "that it had been with himself as with the foot-pan.... If he
+were a private person formerly, yet now he had come to be their king,
+and so he bade them honour and reverence him." Towards the middle and
+end of his reign he was as much detested as he had been beloved at the
+outset.
+
+He had, notwithstanding, so effectively armed Egypt that the Persians
+had not ventured to risk a collision with her immediately after their
+conquest of Babylon. Cyrus had spent ten years in compassing the
+downfall of Nabonidus, and, calculating that that of Amasis would
+require no less a period of time, he set methodically to work on the
+organisation of his recently acquired territory; the cities of Phoenicia
+acknowledged him as their suzerain, and furnished him with what had
+hitherto been a coveted acquisition, a fleet. These preliminaries
+had apparently been already accomplished, when the movements of the
+barbarians suddenly made his presence in the far East imperative. He
+hurried thither, and was mysteriously lost to sight (529). Tradition
+accounts for his death in several ways. If Xenophon is to be credited,
+he died peaceably on his bed, surrounded by his children, and edifying
+those present by his wisdom and his almost superhuman resignation.*
+
+     * A similar legend, but later in date, told how Cyrus, when
+     a hundred years old, asked one day to see his friends. He
+     was told that his son had had them all put to death: his
+     grief at the cruelty of Cambyses caused his death in a few
+     days.
+
+Berosus tells us that he was killed in a campaign against the Daliae;
+Ctesias states that, living been wounded in a skirmish with the
+AEerbikes, one of the savage tribes of Bactriana, he succumbed to his
+injuries three days after the engagement. According to the worthy
+Herodotus, he asked the hand of Tomyris, Queen of the Massagetse, in
+marriage, and was refused with disdain. He declared war against her to
+avenge his wounded vanity, set out to fight with her beyond the Araxes,
+in the steppes of Turkestan, defeated the advance-guard of cavalry,
+and took prisoner the heir to the crown, Spargapises, who thereupon ran
+himself through with his sword. "Then Tomyris collected all the forces
+of her kingdom, and gave him (Cyrus) battle." Of all the combats in which
+barbarians have engaged among themselves, I reckon this to have been the
+fiercest. The following, as I understand, was the manner of it:--First,
+the two armies stood apart and shot their arrows at each other; then,
+when their quivers were empty, they closed and fought hand to hand with
+lances and daggers; and thus they continued fighting for a length
+of time, neither choosing to give ground. At length the Massagetse
+prevailed. The greater part of the army of the Persians was destroyed.
+Search was made among the slain by order of the queen for the body of
+Cyrus; and when it was found, she took a skin, and, filling it full of
+human blood, she dipped the head of Cyrus in the gore, saying, as she
+thus insulted the corse, "I live and have conquered thee in fight, and
+yet by thee am I ruined, for thou tookest my son with guile; but thus I
+make good my threat, and give thee thy fill of blood." The engagement
+was not as serious as the legend would have us believe, and the growth
+of the Persian power was in no way affected, by it. It cost Cyrus his
+life, but his army experienced no serious disaster, and his men took
+the king's body and brought it to Pasargadae. He had a palace there, the
+remains of which can still be seen on the plain of Murgab. The edifice
+was unpretentious, built upon a rectangular plan, with two porches of
+four columns on the longer sides, a lateral chamber at each of the four
+angles, and a hypostyle hall in the centre, divided lengthways by two
+rows of columns which supported the roof. The walls were decorated with
+bas-reliefs, and wherever the inscriptions have not been destroyed,
+we can read in cuneiform characters in the three languages which
+thenceforward formed the official means of communication of the
+empire--Persian, Medic, and Chaldaean--the name, title, and family of
+the royal occupant. Cyrus himself is represented in a standing posture
+on the pilasters, wearing a costume in which Egyptian and Assyrian
+features are curiously combined. He is clothed from neck to ankle in the
+close-fitting fringed tunic of the Babylonian and Mnevite sovereigns;
+his feet are covered with laced boots, while four great wings, emblems
+of the supreme power, overshadow his shoulders and loins, two of them
+raised in the air, the others pointing to the earth; he wears on
+his head the Egyptian skull-cap, from which rises one of the most
+complicated head-dresses of the royal wardrobe of the Pharaohs. The
+monarch raises his right hand with the gesture of a man speaking to an
+assembled people, and as if repeating the legend traced above his image:
+"I am Cyrus, the king, the Achaemenian." He was buried not far off, in
+the monumental tomb which he had probably built for himself in a square
+enclosure, having a portico on three of its sides; a small chamber,
+with a ridge roof, rises from a base composed of six receding steps, so
+arranged as to appear of unequal height.
+
+[Illustration: 128.jpg CYRUS THE ACHAEMENIAN]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the photograph by Dieulafoy.
+
+The doorway is narrow, and so low that a man of medium statue finds some
+difficulty in entering. It is surmounted by a hollow moulding, quite
+Egyptian in style, and was closed by a two-leaved stone door. The
+golden coffin rested on a couch of the same metal, covered with precious
+stuffs; and a circular table, laden with drinking-vessels and ornaments
+enriched with precious stones, completed the furniture of the chamber.
+The body of the conqueror remained undisturbed on this spot for two
+centuries under the care of the priests; but while Alexander was waging
+war on the Indian frontier, the Greek officers, to whom he had entrusted
+the government of Persia proper, allowed themselves to be tempted by the
+enormous wealth which the funerary chapel was supposed to contain.
+
+[Illustration: 129.jpg THE TOMB OP CYRUS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the heliogravure of Dieulafoy.
+
+They opened the coffin, broke the couch and the table, and finding them
+too heavy to carry away easily, they contented themselves with stealing
+the drinking-vessels and jewels. Alexander on his return visited the
+place, and caused the entrance to be closed with a slight wall of
+masonry; he intended to restore the monument to its former splendour,
+but he himself perished shortly after, and what remained of the
+contents probably soon disappeared. After the death of Cyrus, popular
+imagination, drawing on the inexhaustible materials furnished by his
+adventurous career, seemed to delight in making him the ideal of all
+a monarch should be; they attributed to him every virtue--gentleness,
+bravery, moderation, justice, and wisdom. There is no reason to doubt
+that he possessed the qualities of a good general--activity, energy, and
+courage, together with the astuteness and the duplicity so necessary to
+success in Asiatic conquest--but he does not appear to have possessed in
+the same degree the gifts of a great administrator. He made no changes
+in the system of government which from the time of Tiglath-pileser III.
+onwards had obtained among all Oriental sovereigns; he placed satraps
+over the towns and countries of recent acquisition, at Sardes and
+Babylon, in Syria and Palestine, but without clearly defining their
+functions or subjecting them to a supervision sufficiently strict to
+ensure the faithful performance of their duties. He believed that he was
+destined to found a single empire in which all the ancient empires were
+to be merged, and he all but carried his task to a successful close:
+Egypt alone remained to be conquered when he passed away.
+
+His wife Kassandane, a daughter of Pharnaspes, and an Achaemenian like
+himself, had borne him five children; two sons, Cambyses* and Smerdis,**
+and three daughters, Atossa, Roxana, and Artystone.***
+
+     * The Persian form of the name rendered Kambyses by the
+     Greeks was Kabuziya or Kambuziya. Herodotus calls him the
+     son of Kassandane, and the tradition which he has preserved
+     is certainly authentic. Ctesias has erroneously stated that
+     his mother was Amytis, the daughter of Astyages, and Dinon,
+     also erroneously, the Egyptian women Nitetis; Diodorus
+     Siculus and Strabo make him the son of Meroe.
+
+     ** The original form was Bardiya or Barziya, "the laudable,"
+     and the first Greek transcript known, in AEschylus, is
+     Mardos, or, in the scholiasts on the passage, Merdias, which
+     has been corrupted into Marphios by Hellanikos and into
+     Merges by Pompeius Trogus. The form Smerdis in Herodotus,
+     and in the historians who follow him, is the result of a
+     mistaken assimilation of the Persian name with the purely
+     Greek one of Smerdis or Smerdies.
+
+     *** Herodotus says that Atossa was the daughter of
+     Kassandane, and the position which she held during three
+     reigns shows that she must have been so; Justi, however,
+     calls her the daughter of Amytis. A second daughter is
+     mentioned by Herodotus, the one whom Cambyses killed in
+     Egypt by a kick; he gives her no name, but she is probably
+     the same as the Roxana who according to Ctesias bore a
+     headless child. The youngest, Artystone, was the favourite
+     wife of Darius. Josephus speaks of a fourth daughter of
+     Cyrus called Meroe, but without saying who was the mother of
+     this princess.
+
+Cambyses was probably born about 558, soon after his father's accession,
+and he was his legitimate successor, according to the Persian custom
+which assigned the crown to the eldest of the sons born in the purple.
+He had been associated, as we have seen, in the Babylonian regal power
+immediately after the victory over Nabonidus, and on the eve of his
+departure for the fatal campaign against the Massagetse his father,
+again in accordance with the Persian law, had appointed him regent. A
+later tradition, preserved by Ctesias, relates that on this occasion the
+territory had been divided between the two sons: Smerdis, here called
+Tanyoxarkes, having received as his share Bactriana, the Khoramnians,
+the Parthians, and the Carmanians, under the suzerainty of his brother.
+Cambyses, it is clear, inherited the whole empire, but intrigues
+gathered round Smerdis, and revolts broke out in the provinces, incited,
+so it was said, whether rightly or wrongly, by his partisans.* The new
+king was possessed of a violent, merciless temper, and the Persians
+subsequently emphasised the fact by saying that Cyrus had been a
+father to them, Cambyses a master. The rebellions were repressed with a
+vigorous hand, and finally Smerdis disappeared by royal order, and the
+secret of his fate was so well kept, that it was believed, even by his
+mother and sisters, that he was merely imprisoned in some obscure Median
+fortress.**
+
+     * Herodotus speaks of peoples subdued by Cambyses in Asia,
+     and this allusion can only refer to a revolt occurring after
+     the death of Cyrus, before the Egyptian expedition; these
+     troubles are explicitly recorded in Xenophon.
+
+     ** The inscription of Behistun says distinctly that Cambyses
+     had his brother Bardiya put to death before the Egyptian
+     expedition; on the other hand, Herodotus makes the murder
+     occur during the Egyptian expedition and Ctesias after this
+     expedition. Ctesias' version of the affair adds that
+     Cambyses, the better to dissimulate his crime, ordered the
+     murderer Sphendadates to pass himself off as Tanyoxarkes, as
+     there was a great resemblance between the two: Sphendadates
+     --the historian goes on to say--was exiled to Bactriana,
+     and it was not until five years afterwards that the mother
+     of the two princes heard of the murder and of the
+     substitution. These additions to the story are subsequent
+     developments suggested by the traditional account of the
+     Pseudo-Smerdis. In recent times several authorities have
+     expressed the opinion that all that is told us of the murder
+     of Smerdis and about the Pseudo-Smerdis is merely a legend,
+     invented by Darius or those about him in order to justify
+     his usurpation in the eyes of the people: the Pseudo-Smerdis
+     would be Smerdis himself, who revolted against Cambyses, and
+     was then, after he had reigned a few months, assassinated by
+     Darius. Winckler acknowledges "that certainty is impossible
+     in such a case;" and, in reality, all ancient tradition is
+     against his hypothesis, and it is best to accept Herodotus'
+     account, with all its contradictions, until contemporaneous
+     documents enable us to decide what to accept and what to
+     reject in it.
+
+The ground being cleared of his rival, and affairs on the Scythian
+frontier reduced to order, Cambyses took up the projects against Egypt
+at the exact point at which his predecessor had left them. Amasis, who
+for ten years had been expecting an attack, had taken every precaution
+in his power against it, and had once more patiently begun to make
+overtures of alliance with the Hellenic cities; those on the European
+continent did not feel themselves so seriously menaced as to consider it
+to their interest to furnish him with any assistance, but the Greeks of
+the independent islands, with their chief, Poly crates, tyrant of Samos,
+received his advances with alacrity. Polycrates had at his disposal
+a considerable fleet, the finest hitherto seen in the waters of the
+AEgean, and this, combined with the Egyptian navy, was not any too large
+a force to protect the coasts of the Delta, now that the Persians had at
+their disposition not only the vessels of the AEolian and Ionian cities,
+but those of Phoenicia and Cyprus. A treaty was concluded, bringing
+about an exchange of presents and amenities between the two princes
+which lasted as long as peace prevailed, but was ruptured at the
+critical moment by the action of Polycrates, though not actually through
+his own fault. The aristocratic party, whose chiefs were always secretly
+plotting his overthrow, had given their adherence to the Persians,
+and their conduct became so threatening about the time of the death of
+Cyras, that Polycrates had to break his engagements with Egypt in order
+to avert a catastrophe.*
+
+     * Herodotus laid the blame for the breach of the treaty to
+     the King of Egypt, and attributed to his fear of the
+     constant good fortune of Polycrates. The lattor's accession
+     to power is fixed at about the year 540 by some, by others
+     in the year 537, or in the year 533-2; his negotiations with
+     Amasis must be placed somewhere during the last fifteen
+     years of the Pharaoh.
+
+He made a treaty with the Persian king, and sent a squadron of forty
+galleys to join the fleet then being equipped in the Phoenician ports.*
+
+     * Herodotus records two opposing traditions: one that the
+     Samians joined in the Egyptian campaign, the other that they
+     went only as far as the neighbourhood of Karpathos.
+
+Amasis, therefore, when war at last broke out, found himself left
+to face the enemy alone. The struggle was inevitable, and all the
+inhabitants of the eastern coasts of the Mediterranean had long foreseen
+its coming. Without taking into consideration the danger to which the
+Persian empire and its Syrian provinces were exposed by the proximity of
+a strong and able power such as Egypt, the hardy and warlike character
+of Cambyses would naturally have prompted him to make an attempt to
+achieve what his predecessors, the warrior-kings of Nineveh and Babylon,
+had always failed to accomplish successfully. Policy ruled his line of
+action, and was sufficient to explain it, but popular imagination sought
+other than the very natural causes which had brought the most ancient
+and most recent of the great empires of the world into opposition;
+romantic reasons were therefore invented to account for the great drama
+which was being enacted, and the details supplied varied considerably,
+according as the tradition was current in Asia or Africa. It was said
+that a physician lent to Cyrus by Amasis, to treat him for an affection
+of the eyes, was the cause of all the evil. The unfortunate man,
+detained at Susa and chafing at his exile, was said to have advised
+Cambyses to ask for the daughter of Pharaoh in marriage, hoping either
+that Amasis would grant the request, and be dishonoured in the eyes
+of his subjects for having degraded the solar race by a union with a
+barbarian, or that he would boldly refuse, and thus arouse the hatred
+of the Persians against himself. Amasis, after a slight hesitation,
+substituted Nitetis, a daughter of Apries, for his own child. It
+happened that one day in sport Cambyses addressed the princess by the
+name of her supposed father, whereupon she said, "I perceive, O king,
+that you have no suspicion of the way in which you have been deceived by
+Amasis; he took me, and having dressed me up as his own daughter, sent
+me to you. In reality I am the daughter of Apries, who was his lord and
+master until the day that he revolted, and, in concert with the rest of
+the Egyptians, put his sovereign to death." The deceit which Cambyses
+thus discovered had been put upon him irritated him so greatly as to
+induce him to turn his arms against Egypt. So ran the Persian account of
+the tale, but on the banks of the Nile matters were explained otherwise.
+Here it was said that it was to Cyrus himself that Nitetis had been
+married, and that she had borne Cambyses to him; the conquest had thus
+been merely a revenge of the legitimate heirs of Psammetichus upon the
+usurper, and Cambyses had ascended the throne less as a conqueror than
+as a Pharaoh of the line of Apries. It was by this childish fiction that
+the Egyptians in their decadence consoled themselves before the stranger
+for their loss of power. Always proud of their ancient prowess, but
+incapable of imitating the deeds of their forefathers, they none the
+less pretended that they could neither be vanquished nor ruled except
+by one of themselves, and the story of Nitetis afforded complete
+satisfaction to their vanity. If Cambyses were born of a solar princess,
+Persia could not be said to have imposed a barbarian king upon Egypt,
+but, on the contrary, that Egypt had cleverly foisted her Pharaoh upon
+Persia, and through Persia upon half the universe.
+
+One obstacle still separated the two foes--the desert and the marshes
+of the Delta. The distance between the outposts of Pelusium and the
+fortress of AEnysos* on the Syrian frontier was scarcely fifty-six miles,
+and could be crossed by an army in less than ten days.** Formerly the
+width of this strip of desert had been less, but the Assyrians, and
+after them the Chaldaeans, had vied with each other in laying waste the
+country, and the absence of any settled population now rendered the
+transit difficult. Cambyses had his head-quarters at Gaza, at the
+extreme limit of his own dominions,*** but he was at a loss how to face
+this solitary region without incurring the risk of seeing half his men
+buried beneath its sands, and his uncertainty was delaying his departure
+when a stroke of fortune relieved him from his difficulty.
+
+     * The AEnysos of Herodotus is now Khan Yunes.
+
+     ** In 1799, Napoleon's army left Kattiyeh on the 18th of
+     Pluviose, and was at Gaza on the 7th of Ventose, after
+     remaining from the 21st to the 30th of Pluviose before El-
+     Arish besieging that place.
+
+     *** This seems to follow from the tradition, according to
+     which Cambyses left his treasures at Gaza during the
+     Egyptian campaign, and the town was thence called _Gaza_,
+     "the treasury." The etymology is false, but the fact that
+     suggested it is probably correct, considering the situation
+     of Gaza and the part it must necessarily play in an invasion
+     of Egypt.
+
+Phanes of Halicarnassus, one of the mercenaries in the service of Egypt,
+a man of shrewd judgment and an able soldier, fell out with Amasis for
+some unknown reason, and left him to offer his services to his rival.
+This was a serious loss for Egypt, since Phanes possessed considerable
+authority over the mercenaries, and was better versed in Egyptian
+affairs than any other person. He was pursued and taken within sight of
+the Lycian coast, but he treated his captors to wine and escaped from
+them while they were intoxicated. He placed Cambyses in communication
+with the shekh of the scattered tribes between Syria and the Delta. The
+Arab undertook to furnish the Persian king with guides, as one of his
+predecessors had done in years gone by for Esar-haddon, and to station
+relays of camels laden with water along the route that the invading army
+was to follow. Having taken these precautions, Cambyses entrusted the
+cares of government and the regulation of his household to Oropastes,*
+one of the Persian magi, and gave the order to march forward.
+
+     * Herodotus calls this individual Patizeithes, and Dionysius
+     of Miletus, who lived a little before Herodotus, gives
+     Panzythes as a variant of this name: the variant passed into
+     the Syncellus as Pauzythes, but the original form
+     Patikhshayathiya is a title signifying _viceroy, regent, or
+     minister_, answering to the modern Persian _Padishah_:
+     Herodotus, or the author he quotes, has taken the name of
+     the office for that of the individual. On the other hand,
+     Pompeius Trogus, who drew his information from good sources,
+     mentions, side by side with Cometes or Gaumata, his brother
+     Oropastes, whose name Ahura-upashta is quite correct, and
+     may mean, _Him whom Ahura helps_. It is generally admitted
+     that Pompeius Trogus, or rather Justin, has inverted the
+     parts they played, and that his Cometes is the Pseudo-
+     Smerdis, and not, as he says, Oropastes; it was, then, the
+     latter who was the usurper's brother, and it is his name of
+     Oropastes which should be substituted for that of the
+     Patizeithes of Herodotus.
+
+[Illustration: 138.jpg Psammetichus III. ]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph of the original in the
+     Louvre.
+
+On arriving at Pelusium, he learned that his adversary no longer
+existed. Amasis had died after a short illness, and was succeeded by his
+son Psammetichus III.
+
+This change of command, at the most critical moment, was almost in
+itself, a disaster. Amasis, with his consummate experience of men and
+things, his intimate knowledge of the resources of Egypt, his talents as
+a soldier and a general, his personal prestige, his Hellenic leanings,
+commanded the confidence of his own men and the respect of foreigners;
+but what could be expected of his unknown successor, and who could say
+whether he were equal to the heavy task which fate had assigned to him?
+The whole of the Nile valley was a prey to gloomy presentiment.*
+
+     * Psammetichus III. has left us very few monuments, which is
+     accounted for by the extreme shortness of his reign. For the
+     same reason doubtless several writers of classical times
+     have ignored his existence, and have made the conquest of
+     Egypt take place under Amasis. Ctesias calls the Pharaoh
+     Amyrtseus, and gives the same name to those who rebelled
+     against the Persians in his own time, and he had an account
+     of the history of the conquest entirely different from that
+     of Herodotus.
+
+Egypt was threatened not only, as in the previous century, by the
+nations of the Tigris and Euphrates, but all Asia, from the Indus to the
+Hellespont, was about to fall on her to crush her. She was destitute
+of all human help and allies, and the gods themselves appeared to have
+forsaken her. The fellahin, inspired with vague alarm, recognised evil
+omens in all around them. Rain is rare in the Thebaid, and storms occur
+there only twice or three times in a century: but a few days after the
+accession of Psammetichus, a shower of fine rain fell at Thebes, an
+event, so it was stated with the exaggeration characteristic of the
+bearers of ill news, which had never before occurred.*
+
+     * The inhabitants of the Said have, up to our own time,
+     always considered rain in the valley as an ill-omened event.
+     They used to say in the beginning of the nineteenth century,
+     when speaking of Napoleon's expedition, "We knew that
+     misfortune threatened us, because it rained at Luxor shortly
+     before the French came." Wilkinson assures us that rain is
+     not so rare at Thebes as Herodotus thought: he speaks of
+     five or six showers a year, and of a great storm on an
+     average every ten years. But even he admits that it is
+     confined to the mountain district, and does not reach the
+     plain: I never heard of rain at Luxor during the six winters
+     that I spent in Upper Egypt.
+
+Pharaoh hastened to meet the invader with all the men, chariots, and
+native bowmen at his disposal, together with his Libyan and Cyrenoan
+auxiliaries, and the Ionians, Carians, and Greeks of the isles and
+mainland. The battle took place before Pelusium, and was fought on
+both sides with brave desperation, since defeat meant servitude for the
+Egyptians, and for the Persians, cut off by the desert from possible
+retreat, captivity or annihilation. Phanes had been obliged to leave his
+children behind him, and Pharaoh included them in his suite, to serve,
+if needful, as hostages. The Carians and Ionians, who felt themselves
+disgraced by the defection of their captain, called loudly for them just
+before the commencement of the action. They were killed immediately in
+front of the lines, their father being a powerless onlooker; their blood
+was thrown into a cask half full of wine, and the horrible mixture
+was drunk by the soldiers, who then furiously charged the enemy's
+battalions. The issue of the struggle was for a long time doubtful, but
+the Egyptians were inferior in numbers; towards evening their lines gave
+way and the flight began.* All was not, however, lost, if Psammetichus
+had but followed the example of Taharqa, and defended the passage of the
+various canals and arms of the river, disputing the ground inch by inch
+with the Persians, and gaining time meanwhile to collect a fresh army.
+The king lost his presence of mind, and without attempting to rally what
+remained of his regiments, he hastened to take refuge within the White
+Wall. Cambyses halted a few days to reduce Pelusium,** and in the mean
+time sent a vessel of Mitylene to summon Memphis to capitulate: the
+infuriated populace, as soon as they got wind of the message, massacred
+the herald and the crew, and dragged their bleeding limbs through the
+streets.
+
+     * According to Herodotus, eighty years later the battle-
+     field used to be shown covered with bones, and it was said
+     that the Egyptians could be distinguished from the Persians
+     by the relative hardness of their skulls.
+
+     ** Polysenus hands down a story that Cambyses, in order to
+     paralyse the resistance of the besieged, caused cats, dogs,
+     ibises, and other sacred animals to march at the head of his
+     attacking columns: the Egyptians would not venture to use
+     their arms for fear of wounding or killing some of their
+     gods.
+
+The city held out for a considerable time; when at length she opened
+her gates, the remaining inhabitants of the Said who had hesitated up to
+then, hastened to make their submission, and the whole of Egypt as far
+as Philae became at one stroke a Persian province. The Libyans did not
+wait to be summoned to bring their tribute; Cyrene and Barca followed
+their example, but their offerings were so small that the conqueror's
+irritation was aroused, and deeming himself mocked, he gave way to his
+anger, and instead of accepting them, he threw them to his soldiers with
+his own hand (B.C. 525).*
+
+     * The question as to the year in which Egypt was subdued by
+     Cambyses has long divided historians: I still agree with
+     those who place the conquest in the spring of 525.
+
+This sudden collapse of a power whose exalted position had defied all
+attacks for centuries, and the tragic fate of the king who had received
+his crown merely to lose it, filled contemporary beholders with
+astonishment and pity. It was said that, ten days after the capitulation
+of Memphis, the victorious king desired out of sport to test the
+endurance of his prisoner. Psammetichus beheld his daughter and the
+daughters of his nobles pass before him, half naked, with jars on their
+shoulders, and go down to the Nile to fetch water from the river like
+common slaves; his son and two thousand young men of the same age, in
+chains and with ropes round their necks, also defiled before him on
+their way to die as a revenge for the murder of the Mitylenians; yet he
+never for a moment lost his royal imperturbability. But when one of
+his former companions in pleasure chanced to pass, begging for alms
+and clothed in rags, Psammetichus suddenly broke out into weeping, and
+lacerated his face in despair. Cambyses, surprised at this excessive
+grief in a man who up till then had exhibited such fortitude, demanded
+the reason of his conduct. "Son of Cyrus," he replied, "the misfortunes
+of my house are too unparalleled to weep over, but not the affliction of
+my friend. When a man, on the verge of old age, falls from luxury and
+abundance into extreme poverty, one may well lament his fate." When the
+speech was reported to Cambyses, he fully recognised the truth of it.
+Croesus, who was also present, shed tears, and the Persians round him
+were moved with pity. Cambyses, likewise touched, commanded that the
+son of the Pharaoh should be saved, but the remission of the sentence
+arrived too late. He at all events treated Pharaoh himself with
+consideration, and it is possible that he might have replaced him on
+the throne, under an oath of vassalage, had he not surprised him in
+a conspiracy against his own life. He thereupon obliged him to poison
+himself by drinking bulls' blood, and he confided the government of the
+Nile valley to a Persian named Aryandes.
+
+No part of the ancient world now remained unconquered except the
+semi-fabulous kingdom of Ethiopia in the far-off south. Cities and
+monarchies, all the great actors of early times, had been laid in
+the dust one after another--Tyre, Damascus, Carchemish, Urartu, Elam,
+Assyria, Jerusalem, Media, the Lydians, Babylon, and finally Egypt; and
+the prey they had fought over so fiercely and for so many centuries,
+now belonged in its entirety to one master for the first time as far
+as memory could reach back into the past. Cambyses, following in the
+footsteps of Cyrus, had pursued his victorious way successfully, but
+it was another matter to consolidate his conquests and to succeed
+in governing within the limits of one empire so many incongruous
+elements--the people of the Caucasus and those of the Nile valley, the
+Greeks of the AEgean and the Iranians, the Scythians from beyond the Oxus
+and the Semites of the banks of the Euphrates or of the Mediterranean
+coast; and time alone would show whether this heritage would not fall to
+pieces as quickly as it had been built up. The Asiatic elements of the
+empire appeared, at all events for the moment, content with their lot,
+and Babylon showed herself more than usually resigned; but Egypt
+had never accepted the yoke of the stranger willingly, and the most
+fortunate of her Assyrian conquerors had never exercised more than a
+passing supremacy over her. Cambyses realised that he would never master
+her except by governing her himself for a period of several years, and
+by making himself as Egyptian as a Persian could be without offending
+his own subjects at home. He adopted the titles of the Pharaohs, their
+double cartouche, their royal costume, and their solar filiation; as
+much to satisfy his own personal animosity as to conciliate the Egyptian
+priests, he repaired to Sais, violated the tomb of Amasis, and burnt the
+mummy after offering it every insult.*
+
+     * Herodotus gives also a second account, which declares that
+     Cambyses thus treated the body, not of Amasis, but of some
+     unknown person whom he took for Amasis. The truth of the
+     story is generally contested, for the deed would have been,
+     as Herodotus himself remarks, contrary to Persian ideas
+     about the sanctity of fire. I think that by his cruel
+     treatment of the mummy, Cambyses wished to satisfy the
+     hatred of the natives against the Greek-loving king, and so
+     render himself more acceptable to them. The destruction of
+     the mummy entailing that of the soul, his act gave the
+     Saitic population a satisfaction similar to that experienced
+     by the refined cruelty of those who, a few centuries ago,
+     killed their enemies when in a state of deadly sin, and so
+     ensure not only their dismissal from this world, but also
+     their condemnation in the next.
+
+[Illustration: 145.jpg THE NAOPHOROS STATUETTE OF THE VATICAN]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph: the head and
+     hands are a restoration of the eighteenth century, in the
+     most inappropriate Graeco-Roman style.
+
+He removed his troops from the temple of Nit, which they had turned into
+a barrack to the horror of the faithful, and restored at his own expense
+the damage they had done to the building. He condescended so far as
+to receive instruction in the local religion, and was initiated in the
+worship of the goddess by the priest Uzaharrisniti. This was, after
+all, a pursuance of the policy employed by his father towards the
+Babylonians, and the projects which he had in view necessitated his
+gaining the confidence of the people at all costs. Asia having no more
+to offer him, two almost untried fields lay open to his ambition--Africa
+and Europe--the Greek world and what lay beyond it, the Carthaginian
+world and Ethiopia. The necessity of making a final reckoning with Egypt
+had at the outset summoned him to Africa, and it was therefore in that
+continent that he determined to carry on his conquests. Memphis was
+necessarily the base of his operations, the only point from which
+he could direct the march of his armies in a westerly or southerly
+direction, and at the same time keep in touch with the rest of his
+empire, and he would indeed have been imprudent had he neglected
+anything which could make him acceptable to its inhabitants. As soon as
+he felt he had gained their sympathies, he despatched two expeditions,
+one to Carthage and one to Ethiopia. Cyrene had spontaneously offered
+him her homage; he now further secured it by sending thither with all
+honour Ladike, the widow of Amasis, and he apparently contemplated
+taking advantage of the good will of the Cyrenians to approach Carthage
+by sea. The combined fleets of Ionia and Phonicia were without doubt
+numerically sufficient for this undertaking, but the Tyrians refused to
+serve against their own colonies, and he did not venture to employ the
+Greeks alone in waters which were unfamiliar to them. Besides this, the
+information which he obtained from those about him convinced him that
+the overland route would enable him to reach his destination more surely
+if more slowly; it would lead him from the banks of the Nile to the
+Oases of the Theban desert, from there to the Ammonians, and thence by
+way of the Libyans bordering on the Syrtes and the Liby-phoenicians. He
+despatched an advance-guard of fifty thousand men from Thebes to occupy
+the Oasis of Ammon and to prepare the various halting-places for
+the bulk of the troops. The fate of these men has never been clearly
+ascertained. They crossed the Oasis of El-Khargeh and proceeded to
+the north-west in the direction of the oracle. The natives afterwards
+related that when they had arrived halfway, a sudden storm of wind fell
+upon them, and the entire force was buried under mounds of sand during
+a halt. Cambyses was forced to take their word; in spite of all his
+endeavours, no further news of his troops was forthcoming, except that
+they never reached the temple, and that none of the generals or soldiers
+ever again saw Egypt (524). The expedition to Ethiopia was not more
+successful. Since the retreat of Tanuatamanu, the Pharaohs of Napata had
+severed all direct relations with Asia; but on being interfered with
+by Psammetichus I. and II., they had repulsed the invaders, and had
+maintained their frontier almost within sight of Philae.* In Nubia proper
+they had merely a few outposts stationed in the ruins of the towns of
+the Theban period--at Derr, at Pnubsu, at Wady-Halfa, and at Semneh;
+the population again becoming dense and the valley fertile to the
+south of this spot. Kush, like Egypt, was divided into two regions
+--To-Qonusit, with its cities of Danguru,** Napata, Asta-muras, and
+Barua; and Alo,*** which extended along the White and the Blue Nile
+in the plain of Sennaar: the Asmakh, the descendants of the Mashauasha
+emigrants of the time of Psammetichus I., dwelt on the southern border
+of Alo.
+
+     * The northern boundary of Ethiopia is given us
+     approximately by the lists of temples in the inscriptions of
+     Harsiatef and of Nastosenen: Pnubsu is mentioned several
+     times as receiving gifts from the king, which carries the
+     permanent dominion of the Ethiopian kings as far as the
+     second cataract.
+
+     ** Now Old Dongola.
+
+     *** Berua is the Meroe of Strabo, Astaboras the modern Ed-
+     Dameir, and Alo the kingdom of Aloah of the mediaeval Arab
+     geographers.
+
+[Illustration: 147.jpg ETHIOPIAN GKOUP]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the photograph by Berghoff.
+
+A number of half-savage tribes, Maditi and Bohrehsa, were settled to
+the right and to the left of the territory watered by the Nile, between
+Darfur, the mountains of Abyssinia, and the Red Sea; and the
+warlike disposition of the Ethiopian kings found in these tribes an
+inexhaustible field for obtaining easy victories and abundant spoil.
+Many of these sovereigns--Pionkhi, Alaru, Harsiatef, Nastosenen--whose
+respective positions in the royal line are still undetermined, specially
+distinguished themselves in these struggles, but the few monuments
+they have left, though bearing witness to their military enterprise and
+ability, betray their utter decadence in everything connected with art,
+language, and religion. The ancient Egyptian syllabary, adapted to
+the needs of a barbarous tongue, had ended by losing its elegance;
+architecture was degenerating, and sculpture slowly growing more and
+more clumsy in appearance. Some of the work, however, is not wanting in
+a certain rude nobility--as, for instance, the god and goddess carved
+side by side in a block of grey granite. Ethiopian worship had become
+permeated with strange superstitions, and its creed was degraded,
+in spite of the strictness with which the priests supervised
+its application and kept watch against every attempt to introduce
+innovations. Towards the end of the seventh century some of the families
+attached to the temple of Am on at Napata had endeavoured to bring about
+a kind of religious reform; among other innovations they adopted the
+practice of substituting for the ordinary sacrifice, new rites, the
+chief feature of which was the offering of the flesh of the victim raw,
+instead of roasted with fire. This custom, which was doubtless borrowed
+from the negroes of the Upper Nile, was looked upon as a shameful heresy
+by the orthodox. The king repaired in state to the temple of Anion,
+seized the priests who professed these seditious beliefs, and burnt them
+alive.
+
+[Illustration: 148.jpg Encampment de Bacharis]
+
+The use of raw meat, nevertheless, was not discontinued, and it gained
+such ground in the course of ages that even Christianity was unable to
+suppress it; up to the present time, the _brinde_, or piece of beef cut
+from the living animal and eaten raw, is considered a delicacy by the
+Abyssinians.
+
+The isolation of the Ethiopians had rather increased than lowered their
+reputation among other nations. Their transitory appearance on the
+battle-fields of Asia had left a deep impression on the memories of
+their opponents. The tenacity they had displayed during their conflict
+with Assyria had effaced the remembrance of their defeat. Popular fancy
+delighted to extol the wisdom of Sabaco,* and exalted Taharqa to the
+first rank among the conquerors of the old world; now that Kush once
+more came within the range of vision, it was invested with a share of
+all these virtues, and the inquiries Cambyses made concerning it were
+calculated to make him believe that he was about to enter on a struggle
+with a nation of demigods rather than of men. He was informed that they
+were taller, more beautiful, and more vigorous than all other mortals,
+that their age was prolonged to one hundred and twenty years and more,
+and that they possessed a marvellous fountain whose waters imparted
+perpetual youth to then-bodies. There existed near their capital a
+meadow, perpetually furnishing an inexhaustible supply of food and
+drink; whoever would might partake of this "Table of the Sun," and eat
+to his fill.**
+
+     * The eulogy bestowed on him by Herodotus shows the esteem
+     in which he was held even in the Saite period; later on he
+     seems to have become two persons, and so to have given birth
+     to the good Ethiopian king Aktisanes.
+
+     ** Pausanias treats it as a traveller's tale. Heeren thought
+     that he saw in Herodotus' account a reference to intercourse
+     by signs, so frequent in Africa. The "Table of the Sun"
+     would thus have been a kind of market, whither the natives
+     would come for their provisions, using exchange to procure
+     them. I am inclined rather to believe the story to be a
+     recollection, partly of the actual custom of placing meats,
+     which the first comer might take, on the tombs in the
+     necropolis, partly of the mythical "Meadow of Offerings"
+     mentioned in the funerary texts, to which the souls of the
+     dead and the gods alike had access. This divine region would
+     have transferred to our earth by some folk-tale, like the
+     judgment of the dead, the entrance into the solar bark, and
+     other similar beliefs.
+
+Gold was so abundant that it was used for common purposes, even for the
+chains of their prisoners; but, on the other hand, copper was rare
+and much prized. Canibyses despatched some spies chosen from among the
+Ichthyophagi of the Bed Sea to explore this region, and acting on the
+report they brought back, he left Memphis at the head of an army and
+a fleet.* The expedition was partly a success and partly a failure. It
+followed the Nile valley as far as Korosko, and then struck across the
+desert in the direction of Napata;** but provisions ran short before a
+quarter of the march had been achieved, and famine obliged the invaders
+to retrace their steps after having endured terrible sufferings.***
+
+     * Herodotus' text speaks of an army only, but the accounts
+     of the wars between Ethiopia and Egypt show that the army
+     was always accompanied by the necessary fleet.
+
+     ** It is usually thought that the expedition marched by the
+     side of the Nile as far as Napata; to support this theory
+     the name of a place mentioned in Pliny is quoted, Cambusis
+     at the third cataract, which is supposed to contain the name
+     of the conqueror. This town, which is sometimes mentioned by
+     the classical geographers, is called Kambiusit in the
+     Ethiopie texts, and the form of the name makes its
+     connection with the history of Cambyses easy. I think it
+     follows, from the text of Herodotus, that the Persians left
+     the grassy land, the river-valley, at a given moment, to
+     enter the sand, i.e. the desert. Now this is done to-day at
+     two points--near Korosko to rejoin the Nile at Abu-Hammed,
+     and near Wady-Halfah to avoid the part of the Nile called
+     the "Stony belly," Batn el-Hagar. The Korosko route, being
+     the only one suitable for the transit of a body of troops,
+     and also the only route known to Herodotus, seems, I think,
+     likely to be the one which was followed in the present
+     instance; at all events, it fits in best with the fact that
+     Cambyses was obliged to retrace his steps hurriedly, when he
+     had accomplished hardly a fifth of the journey.
+
+     *** Many modern historians are inclined to assume that
+     Cambyses' expedition was completely successful, and that its
+     result was the overthrow of the ancient kingdom of Nepata
+     and the foundation of that of Meroe. Cambyses would have
+     given the new town which he built there the name of his
+     sister Meroe. The traditions concerning Cambusis and Meroe
+     belong to the Alexandrine era, and rest only on chance
+     similarities of sound. With regard to the Ethiopian province
+     of the Persian empire and to the Ethiopian neighbours of
+     Egypt whom Cambyses subdued, the latter are not necessarily
+     Ethiopians of Napata. Herodotus himself says that the
+     Ethiopians dwelt in the country above Elephantine, and that
+     half of what he calls the island of Takhompso was inhabited
+     by Ethiopians: the subjugated Ethiopians and their country
+     plainly correspond with the Dodekaschenos of the Graeco-Roman
+     era.
+
+Cambyses had to rest content with the acquisition of those portions of
+Nubia adjoining the first cataract--the same, in fact, that had been
+annexed to Egypt by Psammetichus I. and II. (523). The failure of this
+expedition to the south, following so closely on the disaster which
+befell that of the west, had a deplorable effect on the mind of
+Cambyses. He had been subject, from childhood, to attacks of epilepsy,
+during which he became a maniac and had no control over his actions.
+These reverses of fortune aggravated the disease, and increased the
+frequency and length of the attacks.*
+
+     * Recent historians admit neither the reality of the illness
+     of Cambyses nor the madness resulting from it, but consider
+     them Egyptian fables, invented out of spite towards the king
+     who had conquered and persecuted them.
+
+The bull Apis had died shortly before the close of the Ethiopian
+campaign, and the Egyptians, after mourning for him during the
+prescribed number of weeks, were bringing his successor with rejoicings
+into the temple of Phtah, when the remains of the army re-entered
+Memphis. Cambyses, finding the city holiday-making, imagined that it was
+rejoicing over his misfortunes. He summoned the magistrates before him,
+and gave them over to the executioner without deigning to listen to
+their explanations. He next caused the priests to be brought to him, and
+when they had paraded the Apis before him, he plunged his dagger into
+its flank with derisive laughter: "Ah, evil people! So you make for
+yourselves divinities of flesh and blood which fear the sword! It is
+indeed a fine god that you Egyptians have here; I will have you to know,
+however, that you shall not rejoice overmuch at having deceived me!" The
+priests were beaten as impostors, and the bull languished from its wound
+and died in a few days*1 its priests buried it, and chose another in its
+place without the usual ceremonies, so as not to exasperate the anger
+of the tyrant,** but the horror evoked by this double sacrilege raised
+passions against Cambyses which the ruin of the country had failed to
+excite.
+
+     * Later historians improved upon the account of Herodotus,
+     and it is said in the _De Iside_, that Cambyses killed the
+     Apis and threw him to the dogs. Here there is probably a
+     confusion between the conduct of Cambyses and that
+     attributed to the eunuch Bagoas nearly two centuries later,
+     at the time of the second conquest of Egypt by Ochus.
+
+     ** Mariette discovered in the Serapseum and sent to the
+     Louvre fragments of the epitaph of an Apis buried in Epiphi
+     in the sixth year of Cambyses, which had therefore died a
+     few months previously. This fact contradicts the inference
+     from the epitaph of the Apis that died in the fourth year of
+     Darius, which would have been born in the fifth year of
+     Cambyses, if we allow that there could not have been two
+     Apises in Egypt at once. This was, indeed, the usual rule,
+     but a comparison of the two dates shows that here it was not
+     followed, and it is therefore simplest, until we have
+     further evidence, to conclude that at all events in cases of
+     violence, such as sacrilegious murder, there could have been
+     two Apises at once, one discharging his functions, and the
+     other unknown, living still in the midst of the herds.
+
+The manifestations of this antipathy irritated him to such an extent
+that he completely changed his policy, and set himself from that time
+forward to act counter to the customs and prejudices of the Egyptians.
+They consequently regarded his memory with a vindictive hatred. The
+people related that the gods had struck him with madness to avenge the
+murder of the Apis, and they attributed to him numberless traits of
+senseless cruelty, in which we can scarcely distinguish truth from
+fiction. It was said that, having entered the temple of Phtah, he had
+ridiculed the grotesque figure under which the god was represented,
+and had commanded the statues to be burnt. On another occasion he had
+ordered the ancient sepulchres to be opened, that he might see what was
+the appearance of the mummies. The most faithful members of his family
+and household, it was said, did not escape his fury. He killed his own
+sister Roxana, whom he had married, by a kick in the abdomen; he slew
+the son of Prexaspes with an arrow; he buried alive twelve influential
+Persians; he condemned Croesus to death, and then repented, but punished
+the officers who had failed to execute the sentence pronounced against
+the Lydian king.*
+
+     * The whole of this story of Croesus is entirely fabulous.
+
+He had no longer any reason for remaining in Egypt, since he had failed
+in his undertakings; yet he did not quit the country, and through
+repeated delays his departure was retarded a whole year. Meanwhile his
+long sojourn in Africa, the report of his failures, and perhaps whispers
+of his insanity, had sown the seeds of discontent in Asia; and as Darius
+said in after-years, when recounting these events, "untruth had spread
+all over the country, not only in Persia and Media, but in other
+provinces." Cambyses himself felt that a longer absence would be
+injurious to his interests; he therefore crossed the isthmus in the
+spring of 521, and was making his way through Northern Syria, perhaps
+in the neighbourhood of Hamath,* when he learned that a revolution had
+broken out, and that its rapid progress threatened the safety of his
+throne and life.
+
+     * Herodotus calls the place where Cambyses died Agbatana
+     (Ecbatana). Pliny says that the town of Carmel was thus
+     named at first; but the place here mentioned cannot well
+     have been in that direction. It has been identified with
+     Batansea in the country between the Orontes and the
+     Euphrates, but the most likely theory is the one suggested
+     by a passage in Stephen of Byzantium, that the place in
+     question is the large Syrian city of Hamath. Josephus makes
+     him die at Damascus.
+
+Tradition asserted that a herald appeared before him and proclaimed
+aloud, in the hearing of the whole army, that Cambyses, son of Cyrus,
+had ceased to reign, and summoned whoever had till that day obeyed him
+to acknowledge henceforth Smerdis, son of Cyrus, as their lord. Cambyses
+at first believed that his brother had been spared by the assassins, and
+now, after years of concealment, had at length declared himself; but he
+soon received proofs that his orders had been faithfully accomplished,
+and it is said that he wept at the remembrance of the fruitless crime.
+The usurper was Gaumata, one of the Persian Magi, whose resemblance
+to Smerdis was so remarkable that even those who were cognisant of it
+invariably mistook the one for the other,* and he was brother to that
+Oropastes to whom Cambyses had entrusted the administration of his
+household before setting out for Egypt.**
+
+     * Greek tradition is unanimous on this point, but the
+     inscription of Behistun does not mention it.
+
+     ** The inscription of Behistun informs us that the usurper's
+     name was Gaumata. Pompeius Trogus alone, probably following
+     some author who made use of Charon of Lampsacus, handed down
+     this name in the form Cometes or Gometes, which his
+     abbreviator Justin carelessly applied to the second brother.
+     Ctesias gives the Mage the name Sphendadates, which answers
+     to the Old Persian Spentodata, "he who is given by the Holy
+     One," i.e. by Ahura-mazda. The supporters of the Mage gave
+     him this name, as an heroic champion of the Mazdoan faith
+     who had destroyed such sanctuaries as were illegal, and
+     identified him with Spentodata, son of Wistaspa.
+
+Both of them were aware of the fate of Smerdis; they also knew that the
+Persians were ignorant of it, and that every one at court, including
+the mother and sisters of the prince, believed that he was still alive.
+Gaumata headed a revolt in the little town of Pasyauvada on the 14th
+of Viyakhna, in the early days of March, 521, and he was hailed by the
+common people from the moment of his appearance. Persia, Media, and the
+Iranian provinces pronounced in his favour, and solemnly enthroned him
+three months later, on the 9th of Garmapada; Babylon next accepted him,
+followed by Elam and the regions of the Tigris. Though astounded at
+first by such a widespread defection, Cambyses soon recovered his
+presence of mind, and was about to march forward at the head of the
+troops who were still loyal to him, when he mysteriously disappeared.
+Whether he was the victim of a plot set on foot by those about him, is
+not known. The official version of the story given by Darius states
+that he died by his own hand, and it seems to insinuate that it was
+a voluntary act, but another account affirms that he succumbed to an
+accident;* while mounting his horse, the point of his dagger pierced
+his thigh in the same spot in which he had stabbed the Apis of the
+Egyptians. Feeling himself seriously wounded, he suddenly asked the
+name of the place where he was lying, and was told it was "Agbatana"
+(Ecbatana). "Now, long before this, the oracle of Buto had predicted
+that he should end his days in Agbatana, and he, believing it to be the
+Agbatana in Media where were his treasures, understood that he should
+die there in his old age; whereas the oracle meant Agbatana in Syria.
+When he heard the name, he perceived his error. He understood what the
+god intended, and cried, 'It is here, then, that Cambyses, son of Cyrus,
+must perish!'" He expired about three weeks after, leaving no posterity
+and having appointed no successor.**
+
+     * It has been pointed out, for the purpose of harmonising
+     the testimony of Herodotus with that of the inscription of
+     Behistun, that although the latter speaks of the death of
+     Cambyses by his own hand, it does not say whether that death
+     was voluntary or accidental.
+
+     ** The story of a person whose death has been predicted to
+     take place in some well-known place, and who has died in
+     some obscure spot of the same name, occurs several times in
+     different historians, e.g. in the account of the Emperor
+     Julian, and in that of Henry III. of England, who had been
+     told that he would die in Jerusalem, and whose death took
+     place in the Jerusalem Chamber at Westminster. Ctesias has
+     preserved an altogether different tradition--that Cambyses
+     on his return from Babylon wounded himself while carving a
+     piece of wood for his amusement, and died eleven days after
+     the accident.
+
+What took place in the ensuing months still remains an enigma to us.
+The episode of Gaumata has often been looked on as a national movement,
+which momentarily restored to the Medes the supremacy of which Cyrus had
+robbed them; but it was nothing of the sort. Gaumata was not a Mede by
+birth: he was a Persian, born in Persia, in the township of Pisyauvada,
+at the foot of Mount Ara-kadrish, and the Persians recognised and
+supported him as much as did the Medes. It has also been thought that
+he had attempted to foment a religious revolution,* and, as a matter of
+fact, he destroyed several temples in a few months.
+
+     * Most of the ancient writers shared this opinion, and have
+     been followed therein by many modern writers. Rawlinson was
+     the first to show that Gaumata's movement was not Median,
+     and that he did not in the least alter the position of the
+     Persians in the empire: but he allows the Magian usurpation
+     to have been the prelude to a sort of religious reform.
+
+Here, however, the reform touched less upon a question of belief than on
+one of fact. The unity of the empire presupposed the unity of the royal
+fire, and where-ever that fire was burning another could not be lighted
+without sacrilege in the eyes of the faithful. The pyres that Gaumata
+desired to extinguish were, no doubt, those which the feudal families
+had maintained for their separate use in defiance of the law, and the
+measure which abolished them had a political as well as a religious
+side. The little we can glean of the line of action adopted by Smerdis
+does not warrant the attribution to him of the vast projects which
+some modern writers credit him with. He naturally sought to strengthen
+himself on the throne, which by a stroke of good fortune he had
+ascended, and whatever he did tended solely to this end. The name and
+the character that he had assumed secured him the respect and fidelity
+of the Iranians: "there was not one, either among the Medes or the
+Persians, nor among the members of the Achaemenian race, who dreamed of
+disputing his power" in the early days of his reign. The important thing
+in his eyes was, therefore, to maintain among his subjects as long as
+possible the error as to his identity. He put to death all, whether
+small or great, who had been in any way implicated in the affairs of the
+real Smerdis, or whom he suspected of any knowledge of the murder. He
+withdrew from public life as far as practicable, and rarely allowed
+himself to be seen. Having inherited the harem of his predecessors,
+together with their crown, he even went so far as to condemn his wives
+to a complete seclusion. He did not venture to hope, nor did those in
+his confidence, that the truth would not one day be known, but he hoped
+to gain, without loss of time, sufficient popularity to prevent the
+revelation of the imposture from damaging his prospects. The seven great
+houses which he had dispossessed would, in such a case, refuse to
+rally round him, and it was doubtless to lessen their prestige that he
+extinguished their pyres; but the people did not trouble themselves as
+to the origin of their sovereign, if he showed them his favour and took
+proper precautions to secure their good will. He therefore exempted the
+provinces from taxes and military service for a period of three years.
+He had not time to pursue this policy, and if we may believe tradition,
+the very precautions which he took to conceal his identity became the
+cause of his misfortunes. In the royal harem there were, together with
+the daughters of Cyrus, relatives of all the Persian nobility, and the
+order issued to stop all their communications with the outer world had
+excited suspicion: the avowals which had escaped Cambyses before the
+catastrophe were now called to mind, and it was not long before those
+in high places became convinced that they had been the dupes of an
+audacious imposture. A conspiracy broke out, under the leadership of the
+chiefs of the seven clans, among whom was numbered Darius, the son of
+Hystaspes, who was connected, according to a genealogy more or less
+authentic, with the family of the Achaemenides:* the conspirators
+surprised Gaumata in his palace of Sikayauvatish, which was situated in
+the district of Nisaya, not far from Ecbatana, and assassinated him on
+the 10th of Bagayadish, 521 B.C.
+
+     * The passage in the Behistun inscription, in which Darius
+     sets forth his own genealogy, has received various
+     interpretations. That of Oppert seems still the most
+     probable, that the text indicates two parallel branches of
+     Achaemenides, which nourished side by side until Cambyses
+     died and Darius ascended the throne. Such a genealogy,
+     however, appears to be fictitious, invented solely for the
+     purpose of connecting Darius with the ancient royal line,
+     with which in reality he could claim no kinship, or only a
+     very distant connection.
+
+[Illustration: 159.jpg DARIUS, SON OF HYSTASPES]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from M. Dieulafoy.
+
+The exact particulars of this scene were never known, but popular
+imagination soon supplied the defect, furnishing a full and complete
+account of all that took place. In the first place, Phaedime, daughter
+of Otanes, one of the seven, furnished an authentic proof of the fraud
+which had been perpetrated. Her father had opportunely recalled the
+marvellous resemblance between Smerdis and the Magian, and remembered
+at the same time that the latter had been deprived of his ears in
+punishment for some misdeed: he therefore sent certain instructions to
+Phffidime, who, when she made the discovery, at the peril of her life,
+that her husband had no ears, communicated the information to the
+disaffected nobles. The conspirators thereupon resolved to act without
+delay; but when they arrived at the palace, they were greeted with an
+extraordinary piece of intelligence. The Magi, disquieted by some vague
+rumours which were being circulated against them, had besought Prexaspes
+to proclaim to the people that the reigning monarch was indeed Smerdis
+himself. But Prexaspes, instead of making the desired declaration,
+informed the multitude that the son of Cyrus was indeed dead, for he
+himself had murdered him at the bidding of Cambyses, and, having
+made this confession, he put himself to death, in order to escape
+the vengeance of the Magi. This act of Prexaspes was an additional
+inducement to the conspirators to execute their purpose. The guard
+stationed at the gates of the palace dared not refuse admission to so
+noble a company, and when the throne-room was reached and the eunuchs
+forbade further advance, the seven boldly drew their swords and forced
+their way to the apartment occupied by the two Magi. The usurpers
+defended themselves with bravery, but succumbed at length to the
+superior number of their opponents, after having wounded two of the
+conspirators. Gobryas pinioned Gaumata with his arms, and in such a way
+that Darius hesitated to make the fatal thrust for fear of wounding
+his comrade; but the latter bade him strike at all hazards, and by good
+fortune the sword did not even graze him. The crime accomplished, the
+seven conspirators agreed to choose as king that member of their company
+whose horse should first neigh after sunrise: a stratagem of his groom
+caused the election to fall on Darius. As soon as he was duly enthroned,
+he instituted a festival called the "magophonia," or "massacre of the
+Magi," in commemoration of the murder which had given him the crown.
+
+His first care was to recompense the nobles to whom he owed his position
+by restoring to them the privileges of which they had been deprived by
+the pseudo-Smerdis, namely, the right of free access to the king, as
+well as the right of each individual to a funeral pyre; but the usurper
+had won the affection of the people, and even the inhabitants of those
+countries which had been longest subject to the Persian sway did not
+receive the new sovereign favourably. Darius found himself, therefore,
+under the necessity of conquering his dominions one after the other.*
+
+     * The history of the early part of the reign of Darius is
+     recorded in the great inscription which the king caused to
+     be cut in three languages on the rocks of Behistun. The
+     order of the events recorded in it is not always easy to
+     determine. I have finally adopted, with some modifications,
+     the arrangement of Marquart, which seems to me to give the
+     clearest "conspectus" of these confused wars.
+
+The Persian empire, like those of the Chaldaeans and Medes, had consisted
+hitherto of nothing but a fortuitous collection of provinces under
+military rule, of vassal kingdoms, and of semi-independent cities and
+tribes; there was no fixed division of authority, and no regular system
+of government for the outlying provinces. The governors assigned by
+Cyrus and Cambyses to rule the various provinces acquired by conquest,
+were actual viceroys, possessing full control of an army, and in some
+cases of a fleet as well, having at their disposal considerable revenues
+both in money and in kind, and habituated, owing to their distance from
+the capital, to settle pressing questions on their own responsibility,
+subject only to the necessity of making a report to the sovereign when
+the affair was concluded, or when the local resources were insufficient
+to bring it to a successful issue. For such free administrators the
+temptation must have been irresistible to break the last slender ties
+which bound them to the empire, and to set themselves up as independent
+monarchs. The two successive revolutions which had taken place in less
+than a year, convinced such governors, and the nations over which they
+bore rule, that the stately edifice erected by Cyrus and Cambyses was
+crumbling to pieces, and that the moment was propitious for each of them
+to carve out of its ruins a kingdom for himself; the news of the murder,
+rapidly propagated, sowed the seeds of revolt in its course--in Susiana,
+at Babylon, in Media, in Parthia, in Margiana, among the Sattagydes,
+in Asia Minor, and even in Egypt itself*--which showed itself in
+some places in an open and undisguised form, while in others it was
+contemptuously veiled under the appearance of neutrality, or the
+pretence of waiting to see the issue of events.
+
+     * In the _Behistun Inscription_, it is stated that
+     insurrections broke out in all these countries while Darius
+     was at Babylon; that is to say, while he was occupied in
+     besieging that city, as is evident from the order of the
+     events narrated.
+
+The first to break out into open rebellion were the neighbouring
+countries of Elam and Chaldaea: the death of Smerdis took place towards
+the end of September, and a fortnight later saw two rebel chiefs
+enthroned--a certain Athrina at Susa, and a Nadinta-bel at Babylon.*
+Athrina, the son of Umbadaranma, was a scion of the dynasty dispossessed
+by the successors of Sargon in the preceding century, but nevertheless
+he met with but lukewarm assistance from his own countrymen;** he was
+taken prisoner before a month had passed, and sent to Darius, who slew
+him with his own hand.
+
+     * The latest known document of the pseudo-Smerdis is dated
+     the 1st of Tisri at Babylon, and the first of Nebuchadrezzar
+     III. are dated the 17th and 20th of the same month. The
+     revolt of Babylon, then, must be placed between the 1st and
+     17th of Tisri; that is, either at the end of September or
+     the beginning of October, 521 B.C.
+
+     ** The revolt cannot have lasted much more than six weeks,
+     for on the 26th of Athriyadiya following, that is to say, at
+     the beginning of December, Darius had already joined issue
+     with the Babylonians on the banks of the Tigris.
+
+Babylon was not so easily mastered. Her chosen sovereign claimed to
+be the son of Nabonidus, and had, on ascending the throne, assumed the
+illustrious name of Nebuchadrezzar; he was not supported, moreover, by
+only a few busybodies, but carried the whole population with him. The
+Babylonians, who had at first welcomed Cyrus so warmly, and had fondly
+imagined that they had made him one of themselves, as they had made
+so many of their conquerors for centuries past, soon realised their
+mistake. The differences of language, manners, spirit, and religion
+between themselves and the Persians were too fundamental to allow of
+the naturalisation of the new sovereign, and of the acceptance by
+the Achaemenides of that fiction of a double personality to which
+Tiglath-pileser III., Shalmaneser, and even Assur-bani-pal had
+submitted. Popular fancy grew weary of Cyrus, as it had already grown
+weary in turn of all the foreigners it had at first acclaimed--whether
+Elamite, Kalda, or Assyrian--and by a national reaction the self-styled
+son of Nabonidus enjoyed the benefit of a devotion proportionately as
+great as the hatred which had been felt twenty years before for his
+pretended sire. The situation might become serious if he were given time
+to consolidate his power, for the loyalty of the ancient provinces of
+the Chaldaean empire was wavering, and there was no security that they
+would not feel inclined to follow the example of the capital as soon
+as they should receive news of the sedition. Darius, therefore, led
+the bulk of his forces to Babylon without a day's more delay than was
+absolutely necessary, and the event proved that he had good reason for
+such haste. Nebuchadrezzar III. had taken advantage of the few weeks
+which had elapsed since his accession, to garrison the same positions
+on the right bank of the Tigris, as Nabonidus had endeavoured to defend
+against Cyrus at the northern end of the fortifications erected by his
+ancestor. A well-equipped flotilla patrolled the river, and his lines
+presented so formidable a front that Darius could not venture on a
+direct attack. He arranged his troops in two divisions, which he mounted
+partly on horses, partly on camels, and eluding the vigilance of his
+adversary by attacking him simultaneously on many sides, succeeded in
+gaining the opposite bank of the river. The Chaldaeans, striving in vain
+to drive him back into the stream, were at length defeated on the 27th
+of Athriyadiya, and they retired in good order on Babylon. Six days
+later, on the 2nd of Anamaka, they fought a second battle at Zazanu,
+on the bank of the Euphrates, and were again totally defeated.
+Nebuchadrezzar escaped with a handful of cavalry, and hastened to shut
+himself up in his city. Darius soon followed him, but if he cherished a
+hope that the Babylonians would open their gates to him without further
+resistance, as they had done to Cyrus, he met with a disappointment,
+for he was compelled to commence a regular siege and suspend all other
+operations, and that, too, at a moment when the provinces were breaking
+out into open insurrection on every hand.*
+
+     * The account given by Darius seems to imply that no
+     interval of time elapsed between the second defeat of
+     Nebuchadrezzar III. and the taking of Babylon, so that
+     several modern historians have rejected the idea of an
+     obstinate resistance. Herodotus, however, speaks of the long
+     siege the city sustained, and the discovery of tablets dated
+     in the first and even the second year of Nebuchadrezzar III.
+     shows that the siege was prolonged into the second year of
+     this usurper, at least until the month of Nisan (March-
+     April), 520 B.C. No evidence can be drawn from the tablets
+     dated in the reign of Darius, for the oldest yet discovered,
+     which is dated in the month Sebat (Jan.-Feb.), in the year
+     of his accession, and consequently prior to the second year
+     of Nebuchadrezzar, comes from Abu-habba. On the other hand,
+     the statement that all the revolts broke out while Darius
+     was "at Babylon" does not allow of the supposition that all
+     the events recorded before his departure for Media could
+     have been compressed into the space of three or four months.
+     It seems, therefore, more probable that the siege lasted
+     till 519 B.C., as it can well have done if credit be given
+     to the mention of "twenty-one months at least" by Herodotus;
+     perhaps the siege was brought to an end in the May of that
+     year, as calculated by Marquart.
+
+[Illustration: 166.jpg DARIUS PIERCING A REBEL WITH HIS LANCE BEFORE A
+GROUP OF FOUR PRISONERS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the impression of an intaglio
+     at St. Petersburg.
+
+The attempt of the Persian adventurer Martiya to stir up the Susians to
+revolt in his rear failed, thanks to the favourable disposition of the
+natives, who refused to recognise in him Ummanish, the heir of
+their national princes. Media, however, yielded unfortunately to the
+solicitations of a certain Fravartish, who had assumed the personality
+of Khshatrita of the race of Cyaxares, and its revolt marked almost the
+beginning of a total break-up of the empire. The memory of Astyages and
+Cyaxares had not yet faded so completely as to cause the Median nobles
+to relinquish the hope of reasserting the supremacy of Media; the
+opportunity for accomplishing this aim now seemed all the more
+favourable, from the fact that Darius had been obliged to leave this
+province almost immediately after the assassination of the Usurper, and
+to take from it all the troops that he could muster for the siege of
+Babylon. Several of the nomadic tribes still remained faithful to him,
+but all the settled inhabitants of Media ranged themselves under the
+banner of the pretender, and the spirit of insurrection spread thereupon
+into Armenia and Assyria. For one moment there was a fear lest it should
+extend to Asia Minor also, where Orcetes, accustomed, in the absence of
+Cambyses, to act as an autonomous sovereign, displayed little zeal in
+accommodating himself to the new order of things. There was so much
+uncertainty as to the leanings of the Persian guard of Orcetes, that
+Darius did not venture to degrade the satrap officially, but despatched
+Bagseus to Sardes with precise instructions, which enabled him to
+accomplish his mission by degrees, so as not to risk a Lydian revolt.
+His first act was to show the guard a rescript by which they were
+relieved from attendance on Orcetes, and "thereupon they immediately
+laid down their spears." Emboldened by their ready obedience, Bagseus
+presented to the secretary a second letter, which contained his
+instructions: "The great king commands those Persians who are in Sardes
+to kill Orestes." "Whereupon," it is recorded, "they drew their swords
+and slew him."*
+
+     * The context of Herodotus indicates that the events
+     narrated took place shortly after the accession of Darius.
+     Further on Herodotus mentions, as contemporaneous with the
+     siege of Babylon, events which took place after the death of
+     Orcetes; it is probable, therefore, that the scene described
+     by Herodotus occurred in 520 B.C. at the latest.
+
+A revolt in Asia Minor was thus averted, at a time when civil war
+continued to rage in the centre of Iran. The situation, however,
+continued critical. Darius could not think of abandoning the siege of
+Babylon, and of thus both losing the fruits of his victories and seeing
+Nebuchadrezzar reappear in Assyria or Susiana. On the other hand, his
+army was a small one, and he would incur great risks in detaching any of
+his military chiefs for a campaign against the Mede with an insufficient
+force. He decided, however, to adopt the latter course, and while he
+himself presided over the blockade, he simultaneously despatched two
+columns--one to Media, under the command of the Persian Vidarna, one of
+the seven; the other to Armenia, under the Armenian Dadarshish. Vidarna,
+encountered Khshatrita near Marush, in the mountainous region of the
+old Namri, on the 27th of Anamaka, and gave him battle; but though he
+claimed the victory, the result was so indecisive that he halted in
+Kambadene, at the entrance to the gorges of the Zagros mountains, and
+was there obliged to await reinforcements before advancing further.
+Dadarshish, on his side, gained three victories over the Armenians--one
+near Zuzza on the 8th of Thuravahara, another at Tigra ten days later,
+and the third on the 2nd of Thaigarshish, at a place not far from
+Uhyama--but he also was compelled to suspend operations and remain
+inactive pending the arrival of fresh troops. Half the year was spent in
+inaction on either side, for the rebels had not suffered less than their
+opponents, and, while endeavouring to reorganise their forces, they
+opened negotiations with the provinces of the north-east with the view
+of prevailing on them to join their cause. Darius, still detained before
+Babylon, was unable to recommence hostilities until the end of 520
+B.C. He sent Vaumisa to replace Dadarshish as the head of the army in
+Armenia, and the new general distinguished himself at the outset by
+winning a decisive victory on the 15th of Anamaka, near Izitush in
+Assyria; but the effect which he hoped to secure from this success was
+neutralised almost immediately by grievous defections. Sagartia, in the
+first place, rose in rebellion at the call of a pretended descendant
+of Oyaxares, named Chitrantakhma; Hyrcania, the province governed by
+Hystaspes, the father of Darius, followed suit and took up the cause
+of Khshatrita, and soon after Margiana broke out into revolt at the
+instigation of a certain Frada. Even Persia itself deserted Darius, and
+chose another king instead of a sovereign whom no one seemed willing to
+acknowledge. Many of the mountain tribes could not yet resign themselves
+to the belief that the male line of Cyrus had become extinct with the
+death of Cambyses. The usurpation of Gaumata and the accession of Darius
+had not quenched their faith in the existence of Smerdis: if the Magian
+were an impostor, it did not necessarily follow that Smerdis had been
+assassinated, and when a certain Vahyazdata rose up in the town of
+Tarava in the district of Yautiya, and announced himself as the younger
+son of Cyrus, they received him with enthusiastic acclamations. A
+preliminary success gained by Hystaspes at Vispauzatish, in Parthia, on
+the 22nd of Viyakhna, 519 B.C., prevented the guerilla bands of Hyrcania
+from joining forces with the Medes, and some days later the fall of
+Babylon at length set Darius free to utilise his resources to the
+utmost. The long resistance of Nebuchadrezzar furnished a fruitful theme
+for legend: a fanciful story was soon substituted for the true account
+of the memorable siege he had sustained. Half a century later, when
+his very name was forgotten, the heroism of his people continued to
+be extolled beyond measure. When Darius arrived before the ramparts he
+found the country a desert, the banks of the canals cut through, and the
+gardens and pleasure-houses destroyed. The crops had been gathered and
+the herds driven within the walls of the city, while the garrison had
+reduced by a massacre the number of non-combatants, the women having all
+been strangled, with the exception of those who were needed to bake the
+bread. At the end of twenty months the siege seemed no nearer to its
+close than at the outset, and the besiegers were on the point of losing
+heart, when at length Zopyrus, one of the seven, sacrificed himself
+for the success of the blockading army. Slitting his nose and ears, and
+lacerating his back with the lash of a whip, he made his way into the
+city as a deserter, and persuaded the garrison to assign him a post of
+danger under pretence of avenging the ill-treatment he had received
+from his former master. He directed some successful sallies on points
+previously agreed upon, and having thus lulled to rest any remaining
+feelings of distrust on the part of the garrison, he treacherously
+opened to the Persians the two gates of which he was in charge; three
+thousand Babylonians were impaled, the walls were razed to the ground,
+and the survivors of the struggle were exiled and replaced by strange
+colonists.* The only authentic fact about this story is the length of
+the siege. Nebuchadrezzar was put to death, and Darius, at length
+free to act, hastened to despatch one of his lieutenants, the Persian
+Artavardiya, against Vahyazdata, while he himself marched upon the Medes
+with the main body of the royal army.**
+
+     * Ctesias places the siege of Babylon forty years later,
+     under Xerxes I.; according to him, it was Megabysus, son of
+     Zopyrus, who betrayed the city. Polysenus asserts that the
+     stratagem of Zopyrus was adopted in imitation of a Sakian
+     who dwelt beyond the Oxus. Latin writers transferred the
+     story to Italy, and localised it at Gabii: but the Roman
+     hero, Sextus Tarquinius, did not carry his devotion to the
+     point of mutilating himself.
+
+     ** _Beldstun Inscr_.: "Then I sent the army of the Persians
+     and Medes which was with me. One named Artavardiya, a
+     Persian, my servant, I made their general; the rest of the
+     Persian army went to Media with me."
+
+The rebels had hitherto been confronted by the local militia, brave
+but inexperienced troops, with whom they had been able to contend on a
+fairly equal footing: the entry into the field of the veteran regiments
+of Cyrus and Cambyses changed the aspect of affairs, and promptly
+brought the campaign to a successful issue. Darius entered Media by
+the defiles of Kerend, reinforced Vidarna in Kambadcne, and crushed the
+enemy near the town of Kundurush, on the 20th of Adukanish, 519 B.C.
+Khshatrita fled towards the north with some few horsemen, doubtless
+hoping to reach the recesses of Mount Elburz, and to continue there
+the struggle; but he was captured at Baga and carried to Ecbatana. His
+horrible punishment was proportionate to the fear he had inspired: his
+nose, ears, and tongue were cut off, and his eyes gouged out, and in
+this mutilated condition he was placed in chains at the gate of the
+palace, to demonstrate to his former subjects how the Achaemenian'
+king could punish an impostor. When the people had laid this lesson
+sufficiently to heart, Khshatrita was impaled; many of his principal
+adherents were ranged around him and suffered the same fate, while
+the rest were decapitated as an example. Babylon and Media being thus
+successfully vanquished, the possession of the empire was assured to
+Darius, whatever might happen in other parts of his territory, and
+henceforth the process of repressing disaffection went on unchecked.
+Immediately after the decisive battle of Kundurush, Vaumisa accomplished
+the pacification of Armenia by a victory won near Autiyara, and
+Artavardiya defeated Vahyazdata for the first time at Eakha in Persia.
+Vahyazdata had committed the mistake of dividing his forces and sending
+a portion of them to Arachosia. Vivana, the governor of this province,
+twice crushed the invaders, and almost at the same time the Persian
+Dadardish of Bactriana was triumphing over Frada and winning Margiana
+back to allegiance. For a moment it seemed as if the decisive issue of
+the struggle might be prolonged for months, since it was announced that
+the appearance of a new pseudo-Smerdis on the scene had been followed
+by the advent of a second pseudo-Nebuchadrezzar in Chaldaea. Darius left
+only a weak garrison at Babylon when he started to attack Khshatrita:
+a certain Arakha, an Armenian by birth, presenting himself to the
+Babylonian people as the son of Nabonidus, caused himself to be
+proclaimed king in December, 519 B.C.; but the city was still suffering
+so severely from the miseries of the long siege, that it was easy for
+the Mede Vindafra to reduce it promptly to submission after a month or
+six weeks of semi-independence. This was the last attempt at revolt.
+Chitran-takhma expiated his crimes by being impaled, and Hystaspes
+routed the Hyrcanian battalions at Patigrabana in Parthia: Artavardiya
+having defeated Vahyazdata, near Mount Paraga, on the 6th of Garmapada,
+618 B.C., besieged him in his fortress of Uvadeshaya, and was not long
+in effecting his capture. The civil war came thus to an end.
+
+It had been severe, but it had brought into such prominence the
+qualities of the sovereign that no one henceforth dared to dispute his
+possession of the crown. A man of less energetic character and calm
+judgment would have lost his head at the beginning of the struggle, when
+almost every successive week brought him news of a fresh rebellion--in
+Susiana, Babylon, Media, Armenia, Assyria, Margiana, Hyrcania, and even
+Persia itself, not to speak of the intrigues in Asia Minor and Egypt;
+he would have scattered his forces to meet the dangers on all sides
+at once, and would assuredly have either succumbed in the struggle, or
+succeeded only by chance after his fate had trembled in the balance for
+years. Darius, however, from the very beginning knew how to single out
+the important points upon which to deal such vigorous blows as would
+ensure him the victory with the least possible delay. He saw that
+Babylon, with its numerous population, its immense wealth and prestige,
+and its memory of recent supremacy, was the real danger to his empire,
+and he never relaxed his hold on it until it was subdued, leaving
+his generals to deal with the other nations, the Medes included, and
+satisfied if each of them could but hold his adversary in check
+without gaining any decided advantage over him. The event justified his
+decision. When once Babylon had fallen, the remaining rebels were
+no longer a source of fear; to defeat Khshatrita was the work of a
+few weeks only, and the submission of the other provinces followed as a
+natural consequence on the ruin of Media.*
+
+     * Mention of some new wars is made towards the end of the
+     inscription, but the text here is so mutilated that the
+     sense can no longer be easily determined.
+
+[Illustration: 174.jpg REBELS BROUGHT TO DARIUS BY AHURA-MAZD] This is
+the scene depicted on the rock of Behistun.
+
+After consummating his victories, Darius caused an inscription in
+commemoration of them to be carved on the rocks in the pass of Bagistana
+[Behistun], one of the most frequented routes leading from the basin of
+the Tigris to the tableland of Iran.
+
+[Illustration: 175.jpg THE ROCKS OF BEHISTUN]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from Flandin and Coste.
+
+There his figure is still to be seen standing, with his foot resting on
+the prostrate body of an enemy, and his hand raised in the attitude of
+one addressing an audience, while nine figures march in file to meet
+him, their arms tied behind their backs, and cords round their
+necks, representing all the pretenders whom he had fought and put
+to death--Athrina, Nadinta-bel, Khshatrita, Vahyazdata, Arakha, and
+Chitrantakhma; an inscription, written in the three official languages
+of the court, recounts at full length his mighty deeds. The drama did
+not, however, come to a close with the punishment of Vahyazdata, for
+though no tribe or chieftain remained now in open revolt, many of those
+who had taken no active share in the rebellion had, by their conduct
+during the crisis, laid themselves open to grave suspicions, and it
+seemed but prudent to place them under strict surveillance or to remove
+them from office altogether. Orotes had been summarily despatched, and
+his execution did not disturb the peace of Asia Minor; but Aryandes, to
+whose rule Cambyses had entrusted the valley of the Nile, displayed no
+less marked symptoms of disaffection, and deserved the same fate. Though
+he had not ventured to usurp openly the title of king, he had arrogated
+to himself all the functions and rights of royalty, and had manifested
+as great an independence in his government as if he had been an actual
+Pharaoh. The inhabitants of Gyrene did not approve of the eagerness
+displayed by their tyrant Arkesilas III. to place himself under the
+Persian yoke: after first expelling and then recalling him, they drove
+him away a second time, and at length murdered him at Barca, whither
+he had fled for refuge. Pheretimo came to Egypt to seek the help of
+Aryandes, just as Laarchos had formerly implored the assistance of
+Amasis, and represented to him that her son had fallen a victim to his
+devotion to his suzerain. It was a good opportunity to put to ransom
+one of the wealthiest countries of Africa; so the governor sent to the
+Cyrenaica all the men and vessels at his disposal. Barca was the only
+city to offer any resistance, and the Persian troops were detained
+for nine months motionless before its walls, and the city then only
+succumbed through treachery. Some detachments forced their way as far
+as the distant town of Euesperides,* and it is possible that Aryandes
+dreamt for a moment of realising the designs which Cambyses had formed
+against Carthage. Insufficiency of supplies stayed the advance of his
+generals; but the riches of their ally, Cyrene, offered them a strong
+temptation, and they were deliberating how they might make this wealth
+their own before returning to Memphis, and were, perhaps, on the point
+of risking the attempt, when they received orders to withdraw. The march
+across the desert proved almost fatal to them. The Libyans of Marmarica,
+attracted by the spoils with which the Persian troops were laden,
+harassed them incessantly, and inflicted on them serious losses; they
+succeeded, however, in arriving safely with their prisoners, among whom
+were the survivors of the inhabitants of Barca. At this time the tide of
+fortune was setting strongly in favour of Darius: Aryandes, anxious to
+propitiate that monarch, despatched these wretched captives to Persia as
+a trophy of his success, and Darius sent them into Bactriana, where they
+founded a new Barca.**
+
+     * This is the town which later on under the Lagidae received
+     the name of Berenice, and which is now called Benghazi.
+
+     ** It is doubtless to these acts of personal authority on
+     the part of Aryandes that Darius alludes in the Behistun
+     Inscription, when he says, "While I was before Babylon, the
+     following provinces revolted against me--Persia and Susiana,
+     the Medes and Assyria, and the Egyptians..."
+
+But this tardy homage availed him nothing. Darius himself visited Egypt
+and disembarrassed himself of 'his troublesome subject by his summary
+execution, inflicted, some said, because he had issued coins of a
+superior fineness to those of the royal mint,* while, according to
+others, it was because he had plundered Egypt and so ill-treated the
+Egyptians as to incite them to rebellion.
+
+     * It is not certain that Aryandes did actually strike any
+     coinage in his own name, and perhaps Herodotus has only
+     repeated a popular story current in Egypt in his days. If
+     this money actually existed, its coinage was but a pretext
+     employed by Darius; the true motive of the condemnation of
+     Aryandes was certainly an armed revolt, or a serious
+     presumption of revolutionary intentions.
+
+After the suppression of this rival, Darius set himself to win the
+affection of his Egyptian province, or, at least, to render its
+servitude bearable. With a country so devout and so impressed with its
+own superiority over all other nations, the best means of accomplishing
+his object was to show profound respect for its national gods and
+its past glory. Darius, therefore, proceeded to shower favours on the
+priests, who had been subject to persecution ever since the disastrous
+campaign in Ethiopia. Cambyses had sent into exile in Elam the chief
+priest of Sais--that Uza-harrisniti who had initiated him into the
+sacred rites; Darius gave permission to this important personage to
+return to his native land, and commissioned him to repair the damage
+inflicted by the madness of the son of Cyrus. Uzaharrisniti, escorted
+back with honour to his native city, re-established there the colleges
+of sacred scribes, and restored to the temple of Nit the lands and
+revenues which had been confiscated. Greek tradition soon improved upon
+the national account of this episode, and asserted that Darius took an
+interest in the mysteries of Egyptian theology, and studied the sacred
+books, and that on his arrival at Memphis in 517 B.C., immediately after
+the death of an Apis, he took part publicly in the general mourning,
+and promised a reward of a hundred talents of gold to whosoever should
+discover the successor of the bull. According to a popular story still
+current when Herodotus travelled in Egypt, the king visited the temple
+of Pthah before leaving Memphis, and ordered his statue to be erected
+there beside that of Sesostris. The priests refused to obey this
+command, for, said they, "Darius has not equalled the deeds of
+Sesostris: he has not conquered the Scythians, whom Sesostris overcame."
+Darius replied that "he hoped to accomplish as much as Sesostris
+had done, if he lived as long as Sesostris," and so conciliated
+the patriotic pride of the priests. The Egyptians, grateful for his
+moderation, numbered him among the legislators whose memory they
+revered, by the side of Menes, Asykhis, Bocchoris, and Sabaco.
+
+The whole empire was now obedient to the will of one man, but the ordeal
+from which it had recently escaped showed how loosely the elements of it
+were bound together, and with what facility they could be disintegrated.
+The system of government in force hitherto was that introduced
+into Assyria by Tiglath-pileser III., which had proved so eminently
+successful in the time of Sargon and his descendants; Babylon and
+Ecbatana had inherited it from Nineveh, and Persepolis had in turn
+adopted it from Ecbatana and Babylon. It had always been open to
+objections, of which by no means the least was the great amount of power
+and independence accorded by it to the provincial governors; but this
+inconvenience had been little felt when the empire was of moderate
+dimensions, and when no province permanently annexed to the empire lay
+at any very great distance from the capital for the time being. But this
+was no longer the case, now that Persian rule extended over nearly the
+whole of Asia, from the Indus to the Thracian Bosphorus, and over a
+portion of Africa also. It must have seemed far from prudent to set
+governors invested with almost regal powers over countries so distant
+that a decree despatched from the palace might take several weeks
+to reach its destination. The heterogeneity of the elements in each
+province was a guarantee of peace in the eyes of the sovereign, and
+Darius carefully abstained from any attempt at unification: not only did
+he allow vassal republics, and tributary kingdoms and nations to subsist
+side by side, but he took care that each should preserve its own local
+dynasty, language, writing, customs, religion, and peculiar legislation,
+besides the right to coin money stamped with the name of its chief or
+its civic symbol. The Greek cities of the coast maintained their own
+peculiar constitutions which they had enjoyed under the Mernmadas;
+Darius merely required that the chief authority among them should rest
+in the hands of the aristocratic party, or in those of an elective or
+hereditary tyrant whose personal interest secured his fidelity. The
+Carians,* Lycians,** Pamphylians, and Cilicians*** continued under the
+rule of their native princes, subject only to the usual obligations.
+of the _corvee_, taxation, and military service as in past days; the
+majority of the barbarous tribes which inhabited the Taurus and the
+mountainous regions in the centre of Asia Minor were even exempted from
+all definite taxes, and were merely required to respect the couriers,
+caravans, and armies which passed through their territory.
+
+     * Herodotus cites among the commanders of the Persian fleet
+     three Carian dynasts, Histiseus, Pigres, and Damasithymus,
+     besides the famous Artemisia of Halicarnassus.
+
+     ** In Herodotus where a dynast named Kyberniskos, son of
+     Sika, is mentioned among the commanders of the fleet. The
+     received text of Herodotus needs correction, and we should
+     read Kybernis, son of Kossika, some of whose coins are still
+     in existence.
+
+     *** The Cilician contingent in the fleet of Xerxes at
+     Salamis was commanded by Syennesis himself, and Cilicia
+     never had a satrap until the time of Cyrus the younger.
+
+[Illustration: 181.jpg MAP OF THE ARCHAEMENIAN STRAPIES]
+
+Native magistrates and kings still bore sway in Phoenicia* and Cyprus,
+and the shekhs of the desert preserved their authority over the
+marauding and semi-nomadic tribes of Idumasa, Nabatsea, Moab, and Ammon,
+and the wandering Bedawin on the Euphrates and the Khabur. Egypt,
+under Darius, remained what she had been under the Saitic and Ethiopian
+dynasties, a feudal state governed by a Pharaoh, who, though a
+foreigner, was yet reputed to be of the solar race; the land continued
+to be divided unequally into diverse principalities, Thebes still
+preserving its character as a theocracy under the guidance of the
+pallacide of Amon and her priestly counsellors, while the other
+districts subsisted under military chieftains. Our information
+concerning the organisation of the central and eastern provinces is
+incomplete, but it is certain that here also the same system prevailed.
+In the years of peace which succeeded the troubled opening of his reign,
+that is, from 519 to 515 B.C.,** Darius divided the whole empire into
+satrapies, whose number varied at different periods of his reign from
+twenty to twenty-three, and even twenty-eight.***
+
+     * Three kings, viz. the kings of Sidon, Tyre, and Arvad,
+     bore commands in the Phoenician fleet of Xerxes.
+
+     ** Herodotus states that this dividing of the empire into
+     provinces took place immediately after the accession of
+     Darius, and this mistake is explained by the fact that he
+     ignores almost entirely the civil wars which filled the
+     earliest years of the reign. His enumeration of twenty
+     satrapies comprises India and omits Thrace, which enables us
+     to refer the drawing up of his list to a period before the
+     Scythian campaign, viz. before 514 B.C. Herodotus very
+     probably copied it from the work of Hecatseus of Miletus,
+     and consequently it reproduces a document contemporary with
+     Darius himself.
+
+     *** The number twenty is, as has been remarked, that given
+     by Herodotus, and probably by Hecataeus of Miletus. The great
+     Behistun Inscription enumerates twenty-three countries, and
+     the Inscription of Nakhsh-i-Rustem gives twenty-eight.
+
+Persia proper was not included among these, for she had been the cradle
+of the reigning house, and the instrument of conquest.*
+
+     * In the great Behistun Inscription Darius mentions Persia
+     first of all the countries in his possession. In the
+     Inscription E of Persepolis he omits it entirely, and in
+     that of Nakhsh-i-Rustem he does not include it in the
+     general catalogue.
+
+The Iranian table-land, and the parts of India or regions
+beyond the Oxus which bordered on it, formed twelve important
+vice-royalties--Media, Hyrcania, Parthia, Zaranka, Aria, Khorasmia,
+Bactriana, Sogdiana, Gandaria, and the country of the Sakae--reaching
+from the plains of Tartary almost to the borders of China, the country
+of the Thatagus in the upper basin of the Elmend, Arachosia, and the
+land of Maka on the shores of the Indian Ocean. Ten satrapies were
+reckoned in the west--Uvaya, Elam, in which lay Susa, one of the
+favourite residences of Darius; Babirus (Babylon) and Chaldaea; Athura,
+the ancient kingdom of Assyria; Arabaya, stretching from the Khabur to
+the Litany, the Jordan, and the Orontes; Egypt, the peoples of the sea,
+among whom were reckoned the Phoenicians, Cilicians, and Cypriots, and
+the islanders of the AEgean; Yauna, which comprised Lycia, Caria, and the
+Greek colonies along the coast; Sparda, with Phrygia and Mysia; Armenia;
+and lastly, Katpatuka or Cappadocia, which lay on both sides of the
+Halys from the Taurus to the Black Sea. If each of these provinces had
+been governed, as formerly, by a single individual, who thus became king
+in all but name and descent, the empire would have run great risk of a
+speedy dissolution. Darius therefore avoided concentrating the civil and
+military powers in the same hands. In each province he installed three
+officials independent of each other, but each in direct communication
+with himself--a satrap, a general, and a secretary of state. The satraps
+were chosen from any class in the nation, from among the poor as well as
+from among the wealthy, from foreigners as well as from Persians;* but
+the most important satrapies were bestowed only on persons allied by
+birth** or marriage with the Achaemenids,*** and, by preference, on the
+legitimate descendants of the six noble houses. They were not appointed
+for any prescribed period, but continued in office during the king's
+pleasure. They exercised absolute authority in all civil matters, and
+maintained a court, a body-guard,**** palaces and extensive parks, or
+_paradises_, where they indulged in the pleasures of the chase; they
+controlled the incidence of taxation,^ administered justice, and
+possessed the power of life and death.
+
+     * Herodotus mentions a satrap chosen from among the Lydians,
+     Pactyas, and another satrap of Greek extraction, Xenagoras
+     of Halicarnassus.
+
+     ** The most characteristic instance is that of Hystaspes,
+     who was satrap of Persia under Oambyses, and of Parthia and
+     Hyrcania under his own son. One of the brothers of Darius,
+     Artaphernes, was satrap of Sardes, and three of the king's
+     sons, Achemenes, Ariabignes, and Masistes, were satraps of
+     Egypt, Ionia, and Bactriana respectively.
+
+     *** To understand how well established was the custom of
+     bestowing satrapies on those only who were allied by
+     marriage to the royal house, it is sufficient to recall the
+     fact that, later on, under Xerxes I., when Pausanias, King
+     of Sparta, had thoughts of obtaining the position of satrap
+     in Greece, he asked for the hand of an Achaemenian princess.
+
+     **** We know, for example, that Orcotes, satrap of Sardes
+     under Cyrus, Cambyses, and Darius, had a body-guard of 1000
+     Persians.
+
+     ^ Thus, Artaphernes, satrap of Sardes, had a cadastral
+     survey made of the territory of the Ionians, and by the
+     results of this survey he regulated the imposition of taxes,
+     "which from that time up to the present day are exacted
+     according to his ordinance."
+
+Attached to each satrap was a secretary of state, who ostensibly acted
+as his chancellor, but whose real function was to exercise a secret
+supervision over his conduct and report upon it to the imperial
+ministers.* The Persian troops, native militia and auxiliary forces
+quartered in the province, were placed under the orders, moreover, of
+a general, who was usually hostile to the satrap and the secretary.**
+These three officials counterbalanced each other, and held each other
+mutually in check, so that a revolt was rendered very difficult, if not
+impossible. All three were kept in constant communication with the
+court by relays of regular couriers, who carried their despatches on
+horseback or on camels, from one end of Asia to the other, in the space
+of a few weeks.***
+
+     * The role played by the secretary is clearly indicated by
+     the history of Orotes, satrap of Sardes.
+
+     ** While Darius appoints his brother Artaphernes satrap of
+     Lydia, he entrusts the command of the army and the fleet to
+     Otanes, son of Sisamnes. Similarly several generals are met
+     with at the side of Artaphernes in the Ionic revolt.
+
+     *** Xenophon compares their speed in travelling to the
+     flight of birds. A good example of the use of the camel for
+     the postal service is cited by Strabo, on the occasion of
+     the death of Philotas and the execution of Parmenion under
+     Alexander.
+
+The most celebrated of the post-roads was that which ran from Sardes
+to Susa through Lydia and Phrygia, crossing the Halys, traversing
+Cappadocia and Cilicia, and passing through Armenia and across the
+Euphrates, until at length, after passing through Matiene and the
+country of the Cossaeans, it reached Elam. This main route was divided
+into one hundred and eleven stages, which were performed by couriers on
+horseback and partly in ferry-boats, in eighty-four days. Other routes,
+of which we have no particular information, led to Egypt, Media,
+Bactria, and India,* and by their means the imperial officials in the
+capital were kept fully informed of all that took place in the most
+distant parts of the empire. As an extra precaution, the king sent
+out annually certain officers, called his "eyes" or his "ears,"** who
+appeared on the scene when they were least expected, and investigated
+the financial or political situation, reformed abuses in the
+administration, and reprimanded or even suspended the government
+officials; they were accompanied by a body of troops to support their
+decisions, whose presence invested their counsels with the strongest
+sanction.*** An unfavourable report, a slight irregularity, a mere
+suspicion, even, was sufficient to disqualify a satrap. Sometimes he
+was deposed, often secretly condemned to death without a trial, and the
+execution of the judgment was committed even to his own servants.
+
+     * Ctesias at the end of his work describes the route leading
+     from Ephesus to Bactriana and India. It is probable that the
+     route described by Isidorus of Charax in his _Stathma
+     Parthica_ already existed in the times of the Achaemenids,
+     and was traversed by their postal couriers.
+
+     ** Mention of the _Eye of the king_ occurs in Herodotus, in
+     AEschylus, and in Plutarch, of the _Ear_ in Xenophon; cf.
+     the Persian proverb, according to which "The king has many
+     eyes and many ears."
+
+     *** Xenophon affirms that these inspections were still held
+     in his day.
+
+[Illustration: 186.jpg Street Vender of Curios] After the Painting by
+Gerome.
+
+A messenger would arrive unexpectedly, and remit to the guards an order
+charging them to put their chief to death--an order which was promptly
+executed at the mere sight of the royal decree.
+
+This reform in the method of government was displeasing to the Persian
+nobles, whose liberty of action it was designed to curtail, and they
+took their revenge in sneering at the obedience they could not refuse
+to render. Cyrus, they said, had been a father, Cambyses a master,
+but Darius was only a pedler greedy of gain. The chief reason for this
+division of the empire into provinces was, indeed, fiscal rather than
+political: to arrange the incidence of taxation in his province, to
+collect the revenue in due time and forward the total amount to the
+imperial treasury, formed the fundamental duty of a satrap, to which all
+others had to yield. Persia proper was exempt from the payment of any
+fixed sum, its inhabitants being merely required to offer presents
+to the king whenever he passed through their districts. These
+semi-compulsory gifts were proportioned to the fortunes of the
+individual contributors; they might consist merely of an ox or a
+sheep, a little milk or cheese, some dates, a handful of flour, or some
+vegetables. The other provinces, after being subjected to a careful
+survey, were assessed partly in money, partly in kind, according to
+their natural capacity or wealth. The smallest amount of revenue
+raised in any province amounted to 170 talents of silver--the sum, for
+instance, collected from Arachosia with its dependencies Gedrosia and
+Grandara; while Egypt yielded a revenue of 700 talents, and the amount
+furnished by Babylon, the wealthiest province of all, amounted to
+1000 talents. The total revenue of the empire reached the enormous sum
+of.L3,311,997, estimated by weight of silver, which is equivalent to
+over L26,000,000 of modern English money, if the greater value of silver
+in antiquity is taken into consideration. In order to facilitate the
+collection of the revenue, Darius issued the gold and silver coins which
+are named after him. On the obverse side these darics are stamped with a
+figure of the sovereign, armed with the bow or javelin. They were coined
+on the scale of 3000 gold darics to one talent, each daric weighing
+normally.2788 oz. troy, and being worth exactly 20 silver drachmae
+or Medic shekels; so that the relative value of the two metals was
+approximately 1 to 13 1/2|.
+
+[Illustration: 188.jpg daric of darius, SON OF HYSTASPES]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a specimen in the Bibliotheque
+     Nationale.
+
+The most ancient type of daric was thick and irregular in shape, and
+rudely stamped, but of remarkable fineness, the amount of alloy being
+never more than three per cent. The use of this coinage was nowhere
+obligatory, and it only became general in the countries bordering on the
+Mediterranean, where it met the requirements of international traffic
+and political relations, and in the payment of the army and the navy.
+In the interior, the medium of exchange used in wholesale and retail
+commercial transactions continued to be metals estimated by weight, and
+the kings of Persia themselves preferred to store their revenues in the
+shape of bullion; as the metal was received at the royal treasury it
+was melted and poured into clay moulds, and was minted into money only
+gradually, according to the whim or necessity of the moment.*
+
+     * Arrian relates that Alexander found 50,000 talents' weight
+     of silver in the treasury at Susa; other hoards quite as
+     rich were contained in the palaces of Persepolis and
+     Pasargadae.
+
+Taxes in kind were levied even more largely than in money, but the exact
+form they assumed in the different regions of the empire has not yet
+been ascertained. The whole empire was divided into districts, which
+were charged with the victualling of the army and the court, and Babylon
+alone bore a third of the charges under this head. We learn elsewhere
+that Egypt was bound to furnish corn for the 120,000 men of the army
+of occupation, and that the fisheries of the Fayum yielded the king a
+yearly revenue of 240 talents. The Medes furnished similarly 100,000
+sheep, 4000 mules, and 3000 horses; the Armenians, 30,000 foals;
+the Cilicians, 365 white horses, one for each day in the year; the
+Babylonians, 500 youthful eunuchs; and any city or town which produced
+or manufactured any valuable commodity was bound to furnish a regular
+supply to the sovereign. Thus, Chalybon provided wine; Libya and the
+Oases, salt; India, dogs, with whose support four large villages in
+Babylonia were charged; the AEolian Assos, cheese; and other places, in
+like manner, wool, wines, dyes, medicines, and chemicals. These imperial
+taxes, though they seem to us somewhat heavy, were not excessive, but
+taken by themselves they give us no idea of the burdens which each
+province had to resign itself to bear. The state provided no income for
+the satraps; their maintenance and that of their suite were charged on
+the province, and they made ample exactions on the natives. The province
+of Babylon was required to furnish its satrap daily with an _ardeb_ of
+silver; Egypt, India, Media, and Syria each provided a no less generous
+allowance for its governor, and the poorest provinces were not less
+heavily burdened. The satraps required almost as much to satisfy their
+requirements as did the king; but for the most part they fairly earned
+their income, and saved more to their subjects than they extorted
+from them. They repressed brigandage, piracy, competition between the
+various cities, and local wars; while quarrels, which formerly would
+have been settled by an appeal to arms, were now composed before their
+judgment-seats, and in case of need the rival factions were forcibly
+compelled to submit to their decisions. They kept up the roads,
+and afforded complete security to travellers by night and day; they
+protected industries and agriculture, and, in accordance with the
+precepts of their religious code, they accounted it an honourable task
+to break up waste land or replant deserted sites. Darius himself did
+not disdain to send congratulations to a satrap who had planted trees
+in Asia Minor, and laid out one of those wooded parks in which the king
+delighted to refresh himself after the fatigues of government, by the
+exercise of walking or in the pleasures of the chase. In spite of its
+defects, the system of government inaugurated by Darius secured real
+prosperity to his subjects, and to himself a power far greater than that
+enjoyed by any of his predecessors. It rendered revolts on the part of
+the provincial governors extremely difficult, and enabled the court to
+draw up a regular budget and provide for its expenses without any undue
+pressure on its subjects; in one point only was it defective, but that
+point was a cardinal one, namely, in the military organisation. Darius
+himself maintained, for his personal protection, a bodyguard recruited
+from the Persians and the Medes. It was divided into three corps,
+consisting respectively of 2000 cavalry, 2000 infantry of noble birth,
+armed with lances whose shafts were ornamented below with apples of gold
+or silver--whence their name of _melophori_--and under them the 10,000
+"immortals," in ten battalions, the first of which had its lances
+ornamented with golden pomegranates. This guard formed the nucleus of
+the standing army, which could be reinforced by the first and second
+grades of Persian and Median feudal nobility at the first summons.
+Forces of varying strength garrisoned the most important fortresses of
+the empire, such as Sardes, Memphis, Elephantine, Daphnae, Babylon, and
+many others, to hold the restless natives in check. These were, indeed,
+the only regular troops on which the king could always rely. Whenever
+a war broke out which demanded no special effort, the satraps of the
+provinces directly involved summoned the military contingents of the
+cities and vassal states under their control, and by concerted action
+endeavoured to bring the affair to a successful issue without the
+necessity of an appeal to the central authority. If, on the contrary,
+troubles arose which threatened the welfare of the whole empire, and the
+sovereign felt called upon to conduct the campaign in person, he would
+mobilise his guard, and summon the reserves from several provinces or
+even from all of them. Veritable hordes of recruits then poured in, but
+these masses of troops, differing from each other in their equipment and
+methods of fighting, in disposition and in language, formed a herd
+of men rather than an army. They had no cohesion or confidence in
+themselves, and their leaders, unaccustomed to command such enormous
+numbers, suffered themselves to be led rather than exercise authority
+as guides. Any good qualities the troops may have possessed were
+neutralised by lack of unity in their methods of action, and their
+actual faults exaggerated this defect, so that, in spite of their
+splendid powers of endurance and their courage under every ordeal, they
+ran the risk of finding themselves in a state of hopeless inferiority
+when called upon to meet armies very much smaller, but composed of
+homogenous elements, all animated with the same spirit and drilled in
+the same school.
+
+By continual conquests, the Persians were now reduced to only two
+outlets for their energies, in two opposite directions--in the east
+towards India, in the west towards Greece. Everywhere else their advance
+was arrested by the sea or other obstacles almost as impassable to their
+heavily armed battalions: to the north the empire was bounded by the
+Black Sea, the Caucasus, the Caspian Sea, and the Siberian steppes; to
+the south, by the Indian Ocean, the sandy table-land of Arabia, and the
+African deserts. At one moment, about 512 B.C., it is possible that they
+pushed forward towards the east.*
+
+     * India is not referred to in the Behistun Inscription, but
+     is mentioned in one of the Inscriptions of Persepolis, and
+     in that of Nakhsh-i-Rustem. The campaign in which it was
+     subjugated must be placed about 512 B.C.
+
+[Illustration: 192.jpg FUNERAL OFFERINGS.]
+
+From the Iranian plateau they beheld from afar the immense plain of the
+Hapta Hindu (or the Punjab). Darius invaded this territory, and made
+himself master of extensive districts which he formed into a new
+satrapy, that of India, but subsequently, renouncing all idea of
+pushing eastward as far as the Granges, he turned his steps towards the
+southeast. A fleet, constructed at Peukela and placed under the command
+of a Greek admiral, Scylax of Caryanda, descended the Indus by order
+of the king;* subjugating the tribes who dwelt along the banks as he
+advanced, Scylax at length reached the ocean, on which he ventured
+forth, undismayed by the tides, and proceeded in a westerly direction,
+exploring, in less than thirty months, the shores of Gedrosia and
+Arabia.
+
+     * Scylax published an account of his voyage which was still
+     extant in the time of Aristotle. Hugo Berger questions the
+     authenticity of the circumnavigation of Arabia, as that of
+     the circumnavigation of Africa under Necho.
+
+Once on the threshold of India, the Persians saw open before them a
+brilliant and lucrative career: the circumstances which prevented them
+from following up this preliminary success are unknown--perhaps the
+first developments of nascent Buddhism deterred them--but certain it
+is that they arrested their steps when they had touched merely the
+outskirts of the basin of the Indus, and retreated at once towards the
+west. The conquest of Lydia, and subsequently of the Greek cities and
+islands along the coast of the AEgean, had doubtless enriched the empire
+by the acquisition of active subject populations, whose extraordinary
+aptitude in the arts of peace as well as of war might offer incalculable
+resources to a sovereign who should know how to render them tractable
+and rule them wisely. Not only did they possess the elements of a navy
+as enterprising and efficacious as that of the Phoenicians, but the
+perfection of their equipment and their discipline on land rendered them
+always superior to any Asiatic army, in whatever circumstances, unless
+they were crushed by overwhelming numbers. Inquisitive, bold, and
+restless, greedy of gain, and inured to the fatigues and dangers of
+travel, the Greeks were to be encountered everywhere--in Asia Minor,
+Egypt, Syria, Babylon, and even Persia itself; and it was a Greek, we
+must remember, whom the great king commissioned to navigate the course
+of the Indus and the waters of the Indian Ocean. At the same time, the
+very ardour of their temperament, and their consequent pride, their
+impatience of all regular control, their habitual proneness to
+civic strife, and to sanguinary quarrels with the inhabitants of
+the neighbouring cities, rendered them the most dangerous subjects
+imaginable to govern, and their loyalty very uncertain. Moreover,
+their admission as vassals of the Persian empire had not altered their
+relations with European Greece, and commercial transactions between the
+opposite shores of the AEgean, inter-marriages, the travels of voyagers,
+movements of mercenaries, and political combinations, went on as freely
+and frequently under the satraps of Sardes as under the Mermnadas. It
+was to Corinth, Sparta, and Athens that the families banished by Cyrus
+after his conquest fled for refuge, and every time a change of party
+raised a new tyrant to power in one of the AEolian, Ionian, or Doric
+communities, the adherents of the deposed ruler rushed in similar manner
+to seek shelter among their friends across the sea, sure to repay their
+hospitality should occasion ever require it. Plots and counterplots were
+formed between the two shores, without any one paying much heed to the
+imperial authority of Persia, and the constant support which the subject
+Greeks found among their free brethren was bound before long to rouse
+the anger of the court at Susa. When Polycrates, foreseeing the fall of
+Amasis, placed himself under the suzerainty of Cambyses, the Corinthians
+and Spartans came to besiege him in Samos without manifesting any
+respect for the great king. They failed in this particular enterprise,*
+but later on, after Oroetes had been seized and put to death, it was to
+the Spartans that the successor of Polycrates, Maaandrios, applied
+for help to assert his claim to the possession of the tyranny against
+Syloson, brother of Polycrates and a personal friend of Darius.**
+
+     * The date of the death of Polycrates must be placed between
+     that of the conquest of Egypt and that of the revolt of
+     Gaumata, either in 524 or 523 B.C.
+
+     ** The reinstatement of Syloson may be placed in 516 B.C.,
+     about the time when Darius was completing the reorganisation
+     of the empire and preparing to attack Greece.
+
+This constant intervention of the foreigner was in evident contradiction
+to the spirit which had inspired the reorganisation of the empire. Just
+when efforts were being made to strengthen the imperial power and ensure
+more effective obedience from the provincials by the institution of
+satrapies, it was impossible to put up with acts of unwarrantable
+interference, which would endanger the prestige of the sovereign and the
+authority of his officers. Conquest presented the one and only natural
+means of escape from the difficulties of the present situation and of
+preventing their recurrence; when satraps should rule over the European
+as well as over the Asiatic coasts of the AEgean, all these turbulent
+Greeks would be forced to live at peace with one another and in awe of
+the sovereign, as far as their fickle nature would allow. It was not
+then, as is still asserted, the mere caprice of a despot which brought
+upon the Greek world the scourge of the Persian wars, but the imperious
+necessity of security, which obliges well-organised empires to subjugate
+in turn all the tribes and cities which cause constant trouble on its
+frontiers. Darius, who was already ruler of a good third of the Hellenic
+world, from Trebizond to Barca, saw no other means of keeping what he
+already possessed, and of putting a stop to the incessant fomentation of
+rebellion in his own territories, than to conquer the mother-country as
+he had conquered the colonies, and to reduce to subjection the whole of
+European Hellas.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II--THE LAST DAYS OF THE OLD EASTERN WORLD
+
+
+_THE MEDIAN WAR--THE LAST NATIVE DYNASTIES OF EGYPT--THE EASTERN WORLD
+ON THE EVE OP THE MACEDONIAN CONQUEST._
+
+_The Persians in 512 B.C.--European Greece and the dangers which its
+independence presented to the safety of the empire--The preliminaries
+of the Median wars: the Scythian expedition, the conquest of Thrace and
+Macedonia--The Ionic revolt, the intervention of Athens and the taking
+of Sardes; the battle of Lade--Mardonius in Thrace and in Macedonia._
+
+_The Median wars--The expedition of Datis and Artaphernes: the taking
+of Eretria, the battle of Marathon (490)--The revolt of Egypt under
+Khabbisha; the death of Darius and the accession of Xerxes I.--The
+revolt of Babylon under Shamasherib--The invasion of Greece: Artemision,
+Thermopylae, the taking of Athens, Salamis--Platsae and the final retreat
+of the Persians: Mycale--The war carried on by the Athenians and the
+league of Delos: Inaros, the campaigns in Cyprus and Egypt, the peace of
+Oallias--The death of Xerxes._
+
+_Artaxerxes I. (465-424): the revolt of Megabyzos--The palaces of
+Pasargadae. Persepolis, and Susa; Persian architecture and sculpture;
+court life, the king and his harem--Revolutions in the palace--Xerxes
+I., Sekudianos, Darius II.--Intervention in Greek affairs and the
+convention of Miletus; the end of the peace of Gallias--Artaxerxes II.
+(404-359) and Gyrus the Younger: the battle of Kunaxa and the retreat of
+the ten thousand (401)._
+
+_Troubles in Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt--Amyrtxus and the XXVIIIth
+Saite dynasty--The XXIXth Sebennytic dynasty--Nephorites I, Hakoris,
+Psammutis, their alliances with Evagoras and with the states of
+Continental Greece--The XXXth Mendesian dynasty--Nectanebo I, Tachos
+and the invasion of Syria, the revolt of Nectanebo II.--The death of
+Artaxerxes II.--The accession of Ochus (359 B.C.), his unfortunate wars
+in the Delta, the conquest of Egypt (342) and the reconstitution of the
+empire._
+
+_The Eastern world: Elam, Urartu, the Syrian kingdoms, the ancient
+Semitic states decayed and decaying--Babylon in its decline--The Jewish
+state and its miseries--Nehemiah, Ezra--Egypt in the eyes of the Greeks:
+Sais, the Delta, the inhabitants of the marshes--Memphis, its monuments,
+its population--Travels in Upper Egypt: the Fayum, Khemmis, Thebes,
+Elephantine--The apparent vigour and actual feebleness of Egypt._
+
+_Persia and its powerlessness to resist attack: the rise of Macedonia,
+Philippi --Arses (337) and Darius Codomannos (336)--Alexander the
+Great--The invasion of Asia--The battle of Granicus and the conquest
+of the Asianic peninsula--Issus, the siege of Tyre and of Gaza, the
+conquest of Egypt, the foundation of Alexandria--Arbela: the conquest
+of Babylon, Susa, and Ecbatana--The death of Darius and the last days of
+the old Eastern world._
+
+[Illustration: 199.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
+
+[Page 200 and 201 need to be rescanned]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II--THE LAST DAYS OF THE OLD EASTERN WORLD
+
+
+_The Median wars--The last native dynasties of Egypt--The Eastern world
+on the eve of the Macedonian conquest._
+
+     [Drawn by Boudier, from one of the sarcophagi of Sidon, now
+     in the Museum of St. Irene. The vignette, which is by
+     Faucher-Gudin, represents the sitting cyno-cephalus of
+     Nectanebo I., now in the Egyptian Museum at the Vatican.]
+
+Darius appears to have formed this project of conquest immediately after
+his first victories, when his initial attempts to institute satrapies
+had taught him not only the condition and needs of Asia Minor, but of
+the teaching the Scythians such a lesson as would prevent them from
+bearing down upon his right flank during his march, or upon his rear
+while engaged in a crucial struggle in the Hellenic peninsula. On the
+other hand, the geographical information possessed by the Persians with
+regard to the Danubian regions was of so vague a character, that Darius
+must have believed the Scythians to have been nearer to his line of
+operations, and their country less desolate than was really the case.* A
+flotilla, commanded by Ariaramnes, satrap of Cappadocia, ventured across
+the Black Sea in 515,** landed a few thousand men upon the opposite
+shore, and brought back prisoners who furnished those in command with
+the information they required.***
+
+     * The motives imputed to Darius by the ancients for making
+     this expedition are the desire of avenging the disasters of
+     the Scythian invasion, or of performing an exploit which
+     should render him as famous as his predecessors in the eyes
+     of posterity.
+
+     ** The reconnaissance of Ariaramnes is intimately connected
+     with the expedition itself in Ctesias, and could have
+     preceded it by a few months only. If we take for the date of
+     the latter the year 514-513, the date given in the Table of
+     the Capitol, that of the former cannot be earlier than 515.
+     Ariaramnes was not satrap of Cappadocia, for Cappadocia
+     belonged then to the satrapy of Daskylion.
+
+     *** The supplementary paragraphs of the Inscription of
+     Behistun speak of an expedition of Darius against the Sako,
+     which is supposed to have had as its objective either the
+     sea of Aral or the Tigris. Would it not be possible to
+     suppose that the sea mentioned is the Pontus Euxinus, and to
+     take the mutilated text of Behistun to be a description
+     either of the campaign beyond the Danube, or rather of the
+     preliminary _reconnaissance_ of Ariaramnes a year before the
+     expedition itself?
+
+Darius, having learned what he could from these poor wretches, crossed
+the Bosphorus in 514, with a body of troops which tradition computed
+at 800,000, conquered the eastern coast of Thrace, and won his way in
+a series of conflicts as far as the Ister. The Ionian sailors built for
+him a bridge of boats, which he entrusted to their care, and he then
+started forward into the steppes in search of the enemy. The Scythians
+refused a pitched battle, but they burnt the pastures before him on
+every side, filled up the wells, carried off the cattle, and then slowly
+retreated into the interior, leaving Darius to face the vast extent of
+the steppes and the terrors of famine. Later tradition stated that he
+wandered for two months in these solitudes between the Ister and the
+Tanais; he had constructed on the banks of this latter river a series
+of earthworks, the remains of which were shown in the time of Herodotus,
+and had at length returned to his point of departure with merely the
+loss of a few sick men. The barbarians stole a march upon him, and
+advised the Greeks to destroy the bridge, retire within their cities,
+and abandon the Persians to their fate. The tyrant of the Ohersonnesus,
+Miltiades the Athenian, was inclined to follow their advice; but
+Histiasus, the governor of Miletus, opposed it, and eventually carried
+his point. Darius reached the southern bank without difficulty, and
+returned to Asia.*
+
+     * Ctesias limits the campaign beyond the Danube to a fifteen
+     days' march; and Strabo places the crossing of the Danube
+     near the mouth of that river, at the island of Peuke, and
+     makes the expedition stop at the Dniester. Neither the line
+     of direction of the Persian advance nor their farthest point
+     reached is known. The eight forts which they were said to
+     have built, the ruins of which were shown on the banks of
+     the Oaros as late as the time of Herodotus, were probably
+     tumuli similar to those now met with on the Russian steppes,
+     the origin of which is ascribed by the people to persons
+     celebrated in their history or traditions.
+
+The Greek towns of Thrace thought themselves rid of him, and rose in
+revolt; but he left 80,000 men in Europe who, at first under Megabyzos,
+and then under Otanes, reduced them to subjection one after another, and
+even obliged Amyntas I., the King of Macedonia, to become a tributary of
+the empire. The expedition had not only failed to secure the submission
+of the Scythians, but apparently provoked reprisals on their part, and
+several of their bands penetrated ere long into the Chersonnesus. It
+nevertheless was not without solid result, for it showed that Darius,
+even if he could not succeed in subjugating the savage Danubian tribes,
+had but little to fear from them; it also secured for him a fresh
+province, that of Thrace, and, by the possession of Macedonia, brought
+his frontier into contact with Northern Greece. The overland route, in
+any case the more satisfactory of the two, was now in the hands of the
+invader.
+
+Revolutions at Athens prevented him from setting out on his expedition
+as soon as he had anticipated. Hippias had been overthrown in 510, and
+having taken refuge at Sigoum, was seeking on all sides for some one
+to avenge him against his fellow-citizens. The satrap of Sardes,
+Arta-phernes, declined at first to listen to him, for he hoped that the
+Athenians themselves would appeal to him, without his being obliged to
+have recourse to their former tyrant. As a matter of fact, they sent him
+an embassy, and begged his help against the Spartans. He promised it
+on condition that they would yield the traditional homage of earth and
+water, and their delegates complied with his demand, though on their
+return to Athens they were disowned by the citizens (508). Artaphernes,
+disappointed in this direction, now entered into communications with
+Hippias, and such close relations soon existed between the two that
+the Athenians showed signs of uneasiness. Two years later they again
+despatched fresh deputies to Sardes to beg the satrap not to espouse
+the cause of their former ruler. For a reply the satrap summoned them
+to recall the exiles, and, on their refusing (506),* their city became
+thenceforward the ostensible objective of the Persian army and fleet.
+The partisans of Hippias within the town were both numerous and active;
+it was expected that they would rise and hand over the city as soon as
+their chief should land on a point of territory with a force sufficient
+to intimidate the opposing faction. Athens in the hands of Hippias,
+would mean Athens in the hands of the Persians, and Greece accessible to
+the Persian hordes at all times by the shortest route. Darius therefore
+prepared to make the attempt, and in order to guard against any mishap,
+he caused all the countries that he was about to attack to be explored
+beforehand. Spies attached to his service were sent to scour the coasts
+of the Peloponnesus and take note of all its features, the state of
+its ports, the position of the islands and the fortresses; and they
+penetrated as far as Italy, if we may believe the story subsequently
+told to Herodotus.**
+
+     * Herodotus fixes the date at the time when the Athenians
+     first ostracised the principal partisans of the
+     Pisistratids, and amongst others Hipparchus, son of Charmes,
+     i.e. in 507-6.
+
+     ** Herodotus said that Darius sent spies with the physician
+     Democedes of Crotona shortly before the Scythian expedition.
+
+While he thus studied the territory from a distance, he did not neglect
+precautions nearer to hand, but ordered the Milesians to occupy in
+his name the principal stations of the AEgean between Ionia and Attica.
+Histiasus, whose loyalty had stood Darius in such good stead at the
+bridge over the Danube, did not, however, appear to him equal to so
+delicate a task: the king summoned him to Susa on some slight pretext,
+loaded him with honours, and replaced him by his nephew Aristagoras.
+Aristagoras at once attempted to justify the confidence placed in him by
+taking possession of Naxos; but the surprise that he had prepared ended
+in failure, discontent crept in among his men, and after a fruitless
+siege of four months he was obliged to withdraw (499).* His failure
+changed the tide of affairs. He was afraid that the Persians would
+regard it as a crime, and this fear prompted him to risk everything to
+save his fortune and his life. He retired from his office as tyrant,
+exhorted the Milesians, who were henceforth free to do so, to make war
+on the barbarians, and seduced from their allegiance the crews of the
+vessels just returned from Naxos, and still lying in the mouths of the
+Meander; the tyrants who commanded them were seized, some exiled,
+and some put to death. The AEolians soon made common cause with their
+neighbours the Ionians, and by the last days of autumn the whole of the
+AEgean littoral was under arms (499).**
+
+     * Herodotus attributes an unlikely act of treachery to
+     Megabates the Persian, who was commanding the Iranian
+     contingent attached to the Ionian troops.
+
+     ** The Dorian cities took no part in the revolt--at least
+     Herodotus never mentions them among the confederates. The
+     three Ionian cities of Ephesus, Kolophon, and Lebedos also
+     seem to have remained aloof, and we know that the Ephesians
+     were not present at the battle of Lade.
+
+From the outset Aristagoras realised that they would be promptly
+overcome if Asiatic Hellas were not supported by Hellas in Europe.
+While the Lydian satrap was demanding reinforcements from his sovereign,
+Aristagoras therefore repaired to the Peloponnesus as a suppliant for
+help. Sparta, embroiled in one of her periodical quarrels with Argos,
+gave him an insolent refusal;* even Athens, where the revolution had
+for the moment relieved her from the fear of the Pisistratidaa and
+the terrors of a barbarian invasion, granted him merely twenty
+triremes--enough to draw down reprisals on her immediately after their
+defeat, without sensibly augmenting the rebels' chances of success; to
+the Athenian contingent Bretria added five vessels, and this comprised
+his whole force. The leaders of the movement did not hesitate to assume
+the offensive with these slender resources. As early as the spring
+of 498, before Artaphernes had received reinforcements, they marched
+suddenly on Sardes. They burnt the lower town, but, as on many previous
+occasions, the citadel held out; after having encamped for several
+days at the foot of its rock, they returned to Ephesus laden with the
+spoil.**
+
+     * Aristagoras had with him a map of the world engraved on a
+     bronze plate, which was probably a copy of the chart drawn
+     up by Hecatseus of Miletus.
+
+     ** Herodotus says that the Ionians on their return suffered
+     a serious reverse near Ephesus. The author seems to have
+     adopted some Lydian or Persian tradition hostile to the
+     Ionians, for Charon of Lampsacus, who lived nearer to the
+     time of these events, mentions only the retreat, and hints
+     at no defeat. If the expedition had really ended in this
+     disaster, it is not at all likely that the revolt would have
+     attained the dimensions it did immediately afterwards.
+
+This indeed was a check to their hostilities, and such an abortive
+attempt was calculated to convince them of their powerlessness against
+the foreign rule. None the less, however, when it was generally known
+that they had burnt the capital of Asia Minor, and had with impunity
+made the representative of the great king feel in his palace the smoke
+of the conflagration, the impression was such as actual victory could
+have produced. The cities which had hitherto hesitated to join them, now
+espoused their cause--the ports of the Troad and the Hellespont, Lycia,
+the Carians, and Cyprus--and their triumph would possibly have been
+secured had Greece beyond the AEgean followed the general movement and
+joined the coalition. Sparta, however, persisted in her indifference,
+and Athens took the opportunity of withdrawing from the struggle. The
+Asiatic Greeks made as good a defence as they could, but their resources
+fell far short of those of the enemy, and they could do no more than
+delay the catastrophe and save their honour by their bravery. Cyprus
+was the first to yield during the winter of 498-497. Its vessels,
+in conjunction with those of the Ionians, dispersed the fleet of the
+Phoenicians off Salamis, but the troops of their princes, still imbued
+with the old system of military tactics, could not sustain the charge
+of the Persian battalions; they gave way under the walls of Salamis, and
+their chief, Onesilus, was killed in a final charge of his chariotry.*
+
+     * The movement in Cyprus must have begun in the winter of
+     499-498, for Onesilus was already in the field when Darius
+     heard of the burning of Sardes; and as it lasted for a year,
+     it must have been quelled in the winter of 498-497.
+
+His death effected the ruin of the Ionian cause in Cyprus, which on the
+continent suffered at the same time no less serious reverses. The towns
+of the Hellespont and of AEolia succumbed one after another; Kyme and
+Clazomenae next opened their gates; the Carians were twice beaten, once
+near the White Columns, and again near Labranda, and their victory at
+Pedasos suspended merely for an instant the progress of the Persian
+arms, so that towards the close of 497 the struggle was almost entirely
+concentrated round Miletus. Aristagoras, seeing that his cause was
+now desperate, agreed with his partisans that they should expatriate
+themselves. He fell fighting against the Edonians of Thrace, attempting
+to force the important town of Enneahodoi, near the mouth of the Strymon
+(496);* but his defection had not discouraged any one, and Histiseus,
+who had been sent to Sardes by the great king to negotiate the
+submission of the rebels, failed in his errand. Even when blockaded on
+the land side, Miletus could defy an attack so long as communication
+with the sea was not cut off.
+
+     * In Herodotus the town is not named, but a passage in
+     Thucydides shows that it was Enneahodoi, afterwards
+     Amphipolis, and that the death of Aristagoras took place
+     thirty-two years before the Athenian defeat at Drabeskos,
+     i.e. probably in 496.
+
+[Illustration: 209.jpg A CYPRIOT CHARIOT]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the terra-cotta group in the
+     New York Museum.
+
+Darius therefore brought up the Phoenician fleet, reinforced it with
+the Cypriot contingents, and despatched the united squadrons to the
+Archipelago during the summer of 494. The confederates, even after the
+disasters of the preceding years, still possessed 353 vessels, most of
+them of 30 to 50 oars; they were, however, completely defeated near the
+small island of Lade, in the latter part of the summer, and Miletus,
+from that moment cut off from the rest of the world, capitulated a few
+weeks later. A small proportion of its inhabitants continued to dwell
+in the ruined city, but the greater number were carried away to Ampe, at
+the mouth of the Tigris, in the marshes of the Nar-Marratum.*
+
+     * The year 497, i.e. three years before the capture of the
+     town, appears to be an unlikely date for the battle of Lade:
+     Miletus must have fallen in the autumn or winter months
+     following the defeat.
+
+Caria was reconquered during the winter of 494-493, and by the early
+part of 493, Chios, Lesbos, Tenedos, the cities of the Chersonnesus
+and of Propontis--in short, all which yet held out--were reduced to
+obedience. Artaphernes reorganised his vanquished states entirely in the
+interest of Persia. He did not interfere with the constitutions of
+the several republics, but he reinstated the tyrants. He regulated and
+augmented the various tributes, prohibited private wars, and gave to the
+satrap the right of disposing of all quarrels at his own tribunal. The
+measures which he adopted had long after his day the force of law among
+the Asiatic Greeks, and it was by them they regulated their relations
+with the representatives of the great king.
+
+If Darius had ever entertained doubts as to the necessity for occupying
+European Greece to ensure the preservation of peace in her Asiatic
+sister-country, the revolt of Ionia must have completely dissipated
+them. It was a question whether the cities which had so obstinately
+defied him for six long years, would ever resign themselves to servitude
+as long as they saw the peoples of their race maintaining their
+independence on the opposite shores of the AEgean, and while the misdeeds
+of which the contingents of Eretria and Athens had been guilty during
+the rebellion remained unpunished. A tradition, which sprang up soon
+after the event, related that on hearing of the burning of Sardes,
+Darius had bent his bow and let fly an arrow towards the sky, praying
+Zeus to avenge him on the Athenians: and at the same time he had
+commanded one of his slaves to repeat three times a day before him, at
+every meal, "Sire, remember the Athenians!"*
+
+     * The legend is clearly older than the time of Herodotus,
+     for in the _Persae_ of Eschylus the shade of Darius, when
+     coming out of his tomb, cries to the old men, "Remember
+     Athens and Greece!"
+
+As a matter of fact, the intermeddling of these strangers between
+the sovereign and his subjects was at once a serious insult to the
+Achaemenids and a cause of anxiety to the empire; to leave it unpunished
+would have been an avowal of weakness or timidity, which would not fail
+to be quickly punished in Syria, Egypt, Babylon, and on the Scythian
+frontiers, and would ere long give rise to similar acts of revolt and
+interference. Darius, therefore, resumed his projects, but with greater
+activity than before, and with a resolute purpose to make a final
+reckoning with the Greeks, whatever it might cost him. The influence of
+his nephew Mardonius at first inclined him to adopt the overland route,
+and he sent him into Thrace with a force of men and a fleet of galleys
+sufficient to overcome all obstacles. Mardonius marched against the
+Greek colonies and native tribes which had throw off the yoke during the
+Ionian war, and reduced those who had still managed to preserve their
+independence. The Bryges opposed him with such determination, that
+summer was drawing to its close before he was able to continue his
+march. He succeeded, however, in laying hands on Macedonia, and obliged
+its king, Alexander, to submit to the conditions accepted by his father
+Amyntas; but at this juncture half of his fleet was destroyed by a
+tempest in the vicinity of Mount Athos, and the disaster, which
+took place just as winter was approaching, caused him to suspend his
+operations (492). He was recalled on account of his failure, and
+the command was transferred to Datis the Mede and to the Persian
+Artaphernes. Darius, however, while tentatively using the land routes
+through Greece for his expeditions, had left no stone unturned to secure
+for himself that much-coveted sea-way which would carry him straight
+into the heart of the enemy's position, and he had opened negotiations
+with the republics of Greece proper. Several of them had consented to
+tender him earth and water, among them being AEgina,* and besides this,
+the state of the various factions in Athens was such, that he had every
+reason to believe that he could count on the support of a large section
+of the population when the day came for him to disembark his force on
+the shores of Attica.
+
+     * Herodotus states that _all_ the island-dwelling Greeks
+     submitted to the great king. But Herodotus himself says
+     later on that the people of Naxos, at all events, proved
+     refractory.
+
+[Illustration: 212a.jpg ALEXANDER I. OF MACEDON]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin in the _Cabinet des
+     Medailles_.
+
+[Illustration: 212b.jpg A PHOENICIAN GALLEY]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin of Byblos in the
+     _Cabinet des Medailles_.
+
+He therefore decided to direct his next expedition against Athens
+itself, and he employed the year 491 in concentrating his troops and
+triremes in Cilicia, at a sufficient distance from the European coast
+to ensure their safety from any sudden attack. In the spring of 490 the
+army recruited from among the most warlike nations of the empire--the
+Persians, Medes, and Sakse--went aboard the Phoenician fleet, while
+galleys built on a special model were used as transports for the
+cavalry. The entire convoy sailed safely out of the mouth of the Pyramos
+to the port of Samos, coasting the shores of Asia Minor, and then
+passing through the Cyclades, from Samos to Naxos, where they met
+with no opposition from the inhabitants, headed for Delos, where Datis
+offered a sacrifice to Apollo, whom he confounded with his god
+Mithra; finally they reached Eubaea, where Eretria and Carystos vainly
+endeavoured to hold their own against them. Eretria was reduced to
+ashes, as Sardes had been, and such of its citizens as had not fled into
+the mountains at the enemy's approach were sent into exile among the
+Kissians in the township of Arderikka. Hippias meanwhile had joined the
+Persians and had been taken into their confidence. While awaiting the
+result of the intrigues of his partisans in Athens, he had advised
+Datis to land on the eastern coast of Attica, in the neighbourhood of
+Marathon, at the very place from whence his father Pisistratus had set
+out forty years before to return to his country after his first exile.
+The position was well chosen for the expected engagement.
+
+[Illustration: 214.jpg MAP OF MARATHON]
+
+The bay and the strand which bordered it afforded an excellent station
+for the fleet, and the plain, in spite of its marshes and brushwood, was
+one of those rare spots where cavalry might be called into play without
+serious drawbacks. A few hours on foot would bring the bulk of the
+infantry up to the Acropolis by a fairly good road, while by the same
+time the fleet would be able to reach the roadstead of Phalerum. All had
+been arranged beforehand for concerted action when the expected rising
+should take place; but it never did take place, and instead of the
+friends whom the Persians expected, an armed force presented itself,
+commanded by the polemarch Callimachus and the ten strategi, among whom
+figured the famous Miltiades. At the first news of the disembarkation
+of the enemy, the republic had despatched the messenger Phidippides to
+Sparta to beg for immediate assistance, and in the mean time had sent
+forward all her able-bodied troops to meet the invaders. They comprised
+about 10,000 hoplites, accompanied, as was customary, by nearly as many
+more light infantry, who were shortly reinforced by 1000 Plataeans. They
+encamped in the valley of Avlona, around a small temple of Heracles, in
+a position commanding the roads into the interior, and from whence
+they could watch the enemy without exposing themselves to an unexpected
+attack.
+
+[Illustration: 215.jpg THE BATTLE-FIELD OF MARATHON]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. Amedee Hauvette.
+
+The two armies watched each other for a fortnight, Datis expecting a
+popular outbreak which would render an engagement unnecessary, Miltiades
+waiting patiently till the Lacedaemonians had come up, or till some
+false move on the part of his opponent gave him the opportunity of
+risking a decisive action. What took place at the end of this time is
+uncertain. Whether Datis grew tired of inaction, or whether he suddenly
+resolved to send part of his forces by sea, so as to land on the
+neighbouring shore of Athens, and Miltiades fell upon his rear when
+only half his men had got on board the fleet, is not known. At any rate,
+Miltiades, with the Plataeans on his left, set his battalions in movement
+without warning, and charged the enemy with a rush. The Persians and
+the Sakae broke the centre of the line, but the two wings, after having
+dispersed the assailants on their front, wheeled round upon them and
+overcame them: 6000 barbarians were left dead upon the field as against
+some 200 Athenians and Plataeans, but by dint of their valiant efforts
+the remainder managed to save the fleet with a loss of only seven
+galleys. Datis anchored that evening off the island of AEgilia, and at
+the same moment the victorious army perceived a signal hoisted on the
+heights of Pentelicus apparently to attract his attention; when he set
+sail the next morning and, instead of turning eastwards, proceeded to
+double Cape Sunion, Miltiades had no longer any doubt that treachery was
+at work, and returned to Athens by forced marches. Datis, on entering
+the roads of Phalerum, found the shore defended, and the army that he
+had left at Marathon encamped upon the Cynosarge. He cruised about for
+a few hours in sight of the shore, and finding no movement made to
+encourage him to land, he turned his vessels about and set sail for
+Ionia.
+
+The material loss to the Persians was inconsiderable, for even the
+Cyclades remained under their authority; Miltiades, who endeavoured
+to retake them, met with a reverse before Paros, and the Athenians,
+disappointed by his unsuccessful attempt, made no further efforts to
+regain them. The moral effect of the victory on Greece and the empire
+was extraordinary. Up till then the Median soldiers had been believed
+to be the only invincible troops in the world; the sight of them
+alone excited dread in the bravest hearts, and their name was received
+everywhere with reverential awe. But now a handful of hoplites from one
+of the towns of the continent, and that not the most renowned for its
+prowess, without cavalry or bowmen, had rushed upon and overthrown the
+most terrible of all Oriental battalions, the Persians and the Sakae.
+Darius could not put up with such an affront without incurring the risk
+of losing his prestige with the people of Asia and Europe, who up till
+then had believed him all-powerful, and of thus exposing himself to the
+possibility of revolutions in recently subdued countries, such as Egypt,
+which had always retained the memory of her past greatness. In the
+interest of his own power, as well as to soothe his wounded pride, a
+renewed attack was imperative, and this time it must be launched with
+such dash and vigour that all resistance would be at once swept before
+it. Events had shown him that the influence of the Pisistratidae had not
+been strong enough to secure for him the opening of the gates of Athens,
+and that the sea route did not permit of his concentrating an adequate
+force of cavalry and infantry on the field of battle; he therefore
+reverted to the project of an expedition by the overland route, skirting
+the coasts of Thrace and Macedonia. During three years he collected
+arms, provisions, horses, men, and vessels, and was ready to commence
+hostilities in the spring of 487, when affairs in Egypt prevented him.
+This country had undeniably prospered under his suzerainty. It formed,
+with Cyrene and the coast of Libya, the sixth of his satrapies, to which
+were attached the neighbouring Nubian tribes of the southern frontier.*
+The Persian satrap, installed at the White Wall in the ancient palace of
+the Pharaohs, was supported by an army of 120,000 men, who occupied the
+three entrenched camps of the Saites--Daphnae and Marea on the confines
+of the Delta, and Elephantine in the south.** Outside these military
+stations, where the authority of the great king was exercised in a
+direct manner, the ancient feudal organisation existed intact. The
+temples retained their possessions and their vassals, and the nobles
+within their principalities were as independent and as inclined to
+insurrection as in past times. The annual tribute, the heaviest paid by
+any province with the exception of Cossaea and Assyria, amounted only
+to 700 talents of silver. To this sum must be added the farming of the
+fishing in Lake Moeris, which, according to Herodotus,*** brought in one
+talent a day during the six months of the high Nile, but, according to
+Diodorus,**** during the whole year, as well as the 120,000 medimni of
+wheat required for the army of occupation, and the obligation to furnish
+the court of Susa with Libyan nitre and Nile water; the total of these
+impositions was far from constituting a burden disproportionate to the
+wealth of the Nile valley.
+
+     * The Nubian tribes, who are called Ethiopians by Herodotus
+     and the cuneiform inscriptions, paid no regular tribute, but
+     were obliged to send annually two chaenikes of pure gold, two
+     hundred pieces of ebony, twenty elephants' tusks, and five
+     young slaves, all under the name of a free gift.
+
+     ** Herodotus states that in his own time the Persians, like
+     the Saite Pharaohs, still had garrisons at Daphnae and at
+     Elephantine.
+
+     *** Herodotus says that the produce sank to the value of a
+     third of a talent a day during the six other months.
+
+     **** Diodorus Siculus says that the revenue produced by the
+     fisheries in the Lake had been handed over by Moris to his
+     wife for the expenses of her toilet.
+
+[Illustration: 219.jpg DARIUS ON THE STELE OF THE ISTHMUS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the _Description de l'Egypte_.
+
+Commerce brought in to it, in fact, at least as much money as the
+tribute took out of it. Incorporated with an empire which extended over
+three continents, Egypt had access to regions whither the products of
+her industry and her soil had never yet been carried. The produce of
+Ethiopia and the Sudan passed through her emporia on its way to attract
+customers in the markets of Tyre, Sidon, Babylon, and Susa, and the
+isthmus of Suez and Kosseir were the nearest ports through which Arabia
+and India could reach the Mediterranean. Darius therefore resumed the
+work of Necho, and beginning simultaneously at both extremities, he cut
+afresh the canal between the Nile and the Gulf of Suez. Trilingual
+stelae in Egyptian, Persian, and Medic were placed at intervals along its
+banks, and set forth to all comers the method of procedure by which the
+sovereign had brought his work to a successful end. In a similar manner
+he utilised the Wadys which wind between Koptos and the Red Sea, and
+by their means placed the cities of the Said in communication with the
+"Ladders of Incense," Punt and the Sabaeans.*
+
+     * Several of the inscriptions engraved on the rocks of the
+     Wady Hammamat show to what an extent the route was
+     frequented at certain times during the reign. They bear the
+     dates of the 26th, 27th, 28th, 30th, and 36th years of
+     Darius. The country of Saba (Sheba) is mentioned on one of
+     the stelae of the isthmus.
+
+He extended his favour equally to the commerce which they carried on
+with the interior of Africa; indeed, in order to ensure the safety of
+the caravans in the desert regions nearest to the Nile, he skilfully
+fortified the Great Oasis. He erected at Habit, Kushit, and other
+places, several of those rectangular citadels with massive walls of
+unburnt brick, which resisted every effort of the nomad tribes to break
+through them; and as the temple at Habit, raised in former times by the
+Theban Pharaohs, had become ruinous, he rebuilt it from its foundations.
+
+[Illustration: 220.jpg WALLS OF THE FORTRESS OF DITSH-EL-QALAA]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the engraving by Cailliaud. Dush is
+     the Kushit of the hieroglyphs, the Kysis of Graeco-Roman
+     times, and is situated on the southern border of the Great
+     Oasis, about the latitude of Assuan.
+
+He was generous in his gifts to the gods, and even towns as obscure as
+Edfu was then received from him grants of money and lands. The Egyptians
+at first were full of gratitude for the favours shown them, but the news
+of the defeat at Marathon, and the taxes with which the Susian court
+burdened them in order to make provision for the new war with Greece,
+aroused a deep-seated discontent, at all events amongst those who,
+living in the Delta, had had their patriotism or their interests most
+affected by the downfall of the Saite dynasty. It would appear that the
+priests of Buto, whose oracles exercised an indisputable influence alike
+over Greeks and natives, had energetically incited the people to revolt.
+The storm broke in 486, and a certain Khabbisha, who perhaps belonged
+to the family of Psammetichus, proclaimed himself king both at Sais and
+Memphis.*
+
+     * Herodotus does not give the name of the leader of the
+     rebellion, but says that it took place in the fourth year
+     after Marathon. A demotic contract in the Turin Museum bears
+     the date of the third month of the second season of the
+     thirty-fifth year of Darius I.: Khabbisha's rebellion
+     therefore broke out between June and September, 486. Stern
+     makes this prince to have been of Libyan origin. From the
+     form of his name, Revillout has supposed that he was an
+     Arab, and Birch was inclined to think that he was a Persian
+     satrap who made a similar attempt to that of Aryandes. But
+     nothing is really known of him or of his family previous to
+     his insurrection against Darius.
+
+[Illustration: 221.jpg THE GREAT TEMPLE OF DARIUS AT HABIT]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the engraving by Cailliaud.
+
+Darius did not believe the revolt to be of sufficient gravity to delay
+his plans for any length of time. He hastily assembled a second
+army, and was about to commence hostilities on the banks of the Nile
+simultaneously with those on the Hellespont, when he died in 485, in the
+thirty-sixth year of his reign. He was one of the great sovereigns of
+the ancient world--the greatest without exception of those who had ruled
+over Persia. Cyrus and Cambyses had been formidable warriors, and the
+kingdoms of the Bast had fallen before their arms, but they were purely
+military sovereigns, and if their successor had not possessed other
+abilities than theirs, their empire would have shared the fate of that
+of the Medes and the Chaldaeans; it would have sunk to its former level
+as rapidly as it had risen, and the splendour of its opening years
+would have soon faded from remembrance. Darius was no less a general
+by instinct and training than they, as is proved by the campaigns which
+procured him his crown; but, after having conquered, he knew how to
+organise and build up a solid fabric out of the materials which his
+predecessors had left in a state of chaos; if Persia maintained her rule
+over the East for two entire centuries, it was due to him and to him
+alone. The question of the succession, with its almost inevitable
+popular outbreaks, had at once to be dealt with. Darius had had several
+wives, and among them, the daughter of Gobryas, who had borne him
+three children: Artabazanes, the eldest, had long been regarded as the
+heir-presumptive, and had probably filled the office of regent during
+the expedition in Scythia. But Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus, who had
+already been queen under Cambyses and Gaumata, was indignant at the
+thought of her sons bowing down before the child of a woman who was not
+of Achaemenian race, and at the moment when affairs in Egypt augured
+ill for the future, and when the old king, according to custom, had
+to appoint his successor, she intreated him to choose Khshayarsha, the
+eldest of her children, who had been borne to the purple, and in whose
+veins flowed the blood of Cyrus. Darius acceded to her request, and
+on his death, a few months after, Khshayarsha ascended the throne. His
+brothers offered no opposition, and the Persian nobles did homage to
+their new king. Khshayarsha, whom the Greeks called Xerxes, was at that
+time thirty-four years of age. He was tall, vigorous, of an imposing
+figure and noble countenance, and he had the reputation of being the
+handsomest man of his time, but neither his intelligence nor disposition
+corresponded to his outward appearance; he was at once violent and
+feeble, indolent, narrow-minded, and sensual, and was easily swayed by
+his courtiers and mistresses. The idea of a war had no attractions for
+him, and he was inclined to shirk it. His uncle Artabanus exhorted him
+to follow his inclination for peace, and he lent a favourable ear to his
+advice until his cousin Mardonius remonstrated with him, and begged him
+not to leave the disgrace of Marathon unpunished, or he would lower the
+respect attached to the name of Persia throughout the world. He wished,
+at all events, to bring Egyptian affairs to an issue before involving
+himself in a serious European war. Khabbisha had done his best to
+prepare a stormy reception for him. During a period of two years
+Khabbisha had worked at the extension of the entrenchments along the
+coast and at the mouths of the Nile, in order to repulse the attack that
+he foresaw would take place simultaneously with that on land, but his
+precautions proved fruitless when the decisive moment arrived, and he
+was completely crushed by the superior numbers of Xerxes.
+
+[Illustration: 224.jpg Xerxes]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a daric in the _Cabinet des
+     Medailles_.
+
+The nomes of the Delta which had taken a foremost part in the rising
+were ruthlessly raided, the priests heavily fined, and the oracle of
+Buto deprived of its possessions as a punishment for the encouragement
+freely given to the rebels. Khabbisha disappeared, and his fate is
+unknown. Achaemenes, one of the king's brothers, was made satrap, but,
+as on previous occasions, the constitution of the country underwent
+no modification. The temples retained their inherited domains, and the
+nomes continued in the hands of their hereditary princes, without a
+suspicion crossing the mind of Xerxes that his tolerance of the priestly
+institutions and the local dynasties was responsible for the maintenance
+of a body of chiefs ever in readiness for future insurrection (483).*
+
+     * The only detailed information on this revolt furnished by
+     the Egyptian monuments is given in the Stele of Ptolemy, the
+     son of Lagos. An Apis, whose sarcophagus still exists, was
+     buried by Khabbisha in the Serapoum in the second year of
+     his reign, which proves that he was in possession of
+     Memphis: the White Wall had perhaps been deprived of its
+     garrison in order to reinforce the army prepared against
+     Greece, and it was possibly thus that it fell into the hands
+     of Khabbisha.
+
+Order was once more restored, but he was not yet entirely at liberty to
+pursue his own plan of action. Classical tradition tells us, that on
+the occasion of his first visit to Babylon he had offended the religious
+prejudices of the Chaldaeans by a sacrilegious curiosity. He had, in
+spite of the entreaties of the priests, forced an entrance into the
+ancient burial-place of Bel-Etana, and had beheld the body of the old
+hero preserved in oil in a glass sarcophagus, which, however, was not
+quite full of the liquid. A notice posted up beside it, threatened the
+king who should violate the secret of the tomb with a cruel fate, unless
+he filled the sarcophagus to the brim, and Xerxes had attempted to
+accomplish this mysterious injunction, but all his efforts had failed.
+The example set by Egypt and the change of sovereign are sufficient to
+account for the behaviour of the Babylonians; they believed that the
+accession of a comparatively young monarch, and the difficulties of the
+campaign on the banks of the Nile, afforded them a favourable occasion
+for throwing off the yoke. They elected as king a certain Shamasherib,
+whose antecedents are unknown; but their independence was of short
+duration,* for Megabyzos, son of Zopyrus, who governed the province by
+hereditary right, forced them to disarm after a siege of a few months.
+
+     * This Shamasherib is mentioned only on a contract dated
+     from his accession, which is preserved in the British
+     Museum.
+
+It would appear that Xerxes treated them with the greatest severity: he
+pillaged the treasury and temple of Bel, appropriated the golden statue
+which decorated the great inner hall of the ziggurat, and carried away
+many of the people into captivity (581). Babylon never recovered this
+final blow: the quarters of the town that had been pillaged remained
+uninhabited and fell into ruins; commerce dwindled and industry flagged.
+The counsellors of Xerxes had, no doubt, wished to give an object-lesson
+to the province by their treatment of Babylon, and thus prevent the
+possibility of a revolution taking place in Asia while its ruler was
+fully engaged in a struggle with the Greeks. Meanwhile all preparations
+were completed, and the contingents of the eastern and southern
+provinces concentrated at Kritalla, in Cappadocia, merely awaited the
+signal to set out. Xerxes gave the order to advance in the autumn of
+481, crossed the Halys and took up his quarters at Sardes, while his
+fleet prepared to winter in the neighbouring ports of Phocae and Kyme.*
+
+     * Diodorus, who probably follows Ephorus, is the only writer
+     who informs us of the place where the fleet was assembled.
+
+Gathered together in that little corner of the world, were forces such
+as no king had ever before united under his command; they comprised 1200
+vessels of various build, and probably 120,000 combatants, besides the
+rabble of servants, hucksters, and women which followed all the armies
+of that period. The Greeks exaggerated the number of the force beyond
+all probability. They estimated it variously at 800,000, at 3,000,000,
+and at 5,283,220 men; 1,700,000 of whom were able-bodied foot-soldiers,
+and 80,000 of them horsemen.*
+
+     * Herodotus records the epigram to the effect that 3,000,000
+     men attacked Thermopylae. Ctesias and Ephorus adopt the same
+     figures; Iso-crates is contented with 700,000 combatants and
+     5,000,000 men in all.
+
+[Illustration: 227.jpg A TRIREME IN MOTION]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin: the left portion is a free
+     reproduction of a photograph of the bas-relief of the
+     Acropolis; the right, of the picture of Pozzo. The two
+     partly overlap one another, and give both together the idea
+     of a trireme going at full speed.
+
+The troops which they could bring up to oppose these hordes were,
+indeed, so slender in number, when reckoned severally, that all hope
+of success seemed impossible. Xerxes once more summoned the Greeks to
+submit, and most of the republics appeared inclined to comply; Athens
+and Sparta alone refused, but from different motives. Athens knew that,
+after the burning of Sardes and the victory of Marathon, they could hope
+for no pity, and she was well aware that Persia had decreed her complete
+destruction; the Athenians were familiar with the idea of a struggle in
+which their very existence was at stake, and they counted on the navy
+with which Themistocles had just provided them to enable them to emerge
+from the affair with honour. Sparta was not threatened with the same
+fate, but she was at that time the first military state in Greece, and
+the whole of the Peloponnesus acknowledged her sway; in the event of her
+recognising the suzerainty of the barbarians, the latter would not fail
+to require of her the renunciation of her hegemony, and she would then
+be reduced to the same rank as her former rivals, Tegea and Argos.
+Athens and Sparta therefore united to repulse the common enemy, and the
+advantage that this alliance afforded them was so patent that none of
+the other states ventured to declare openly for the great king. Argos
+and Crete, the boldest of them, announced that they would observe
+neutrality; the remainder, Thessalians, Boeotians, and people
+of Corcyra, gave their support to the national cause, but did so
+unwillingly.
+
+Xerxes crossed the Hellespont in the spring of 480, by two bridges of
+boats thrown across it between Abydos and Sestos; he then formed his
+force into three columns, and made his way slowly along the coast,
+protected on the left by the whole of his fleet from any possible attack
+by the squadrons of the enemy. The Greeks had three lines of defence
+which they could hold against him, the natural strength of which nearly
+compensated them for the inferiority of their forces; these were Mount
+Olympus, Mount OEta, and the isthmus of Corinth. The first, however, was
+untenable, owing to the ill will of the Thessalians; as a precautionary
+measure 10,000 hoplites were encamped upon it, but they evacuated the
+position as soon as the enemy's advance-guard came into sight. The
+natural barrier of OEta, less formidable than that of Olympus, was
+flanked by the Euboean straits on the extreme right, but the range
+was of such extent that it did not require to be guarded with equal
+vigilance along its whole length. The Spartans did not at first occupy
+it, for they intended to accumulate all the Greek forces, both troops
+and vessels, around the isthmus. At that point the neck of land was so
+narrow, and the sea so shut in, that the numbers of the invading force
+proved a drawback to them, and the advantage almost of necessity lay
+with that of the two adversaries who should be best armed and best
+officered. This plan of the Spartans was a wise one, but Athens, which
+was thereby sacrificed to the general good, refused to adopt it, and
+as she alone furnished almost half the total number of vessels, her
+decision had to be deferred to. A body of about 10,000 hoplites
+was therefore posted in the pass of Thermopylae under the command of
+Leonidas, while a squadron of 271 vessels disposed themselves near the
+promontory of Artemision, off the Euripus, and protected the right flank
+of the pass against a diversion from the fleet. Meanwhile Xerxes had
+been reinforced in the course of his march by the contingents from
+Macedonia, and had received the homage of the cities of Thessaly; having
+reached the defiles of the OEta and the Euboea, he began by attacking
+the Creeks directly in front, both fleets and armies facing one another.
+Leonidas succeeded in withstanding the assault on two successive days,
+and then the inevitable took place. A detachment of Persians, guided
+by the natives of the country, emerged by a path which had been left
+unguarded, and bore down upon the Greeks in the rear; a certain number
+managed to escape, but the bulk of the force, along with the 300
+Spartans and their king, succumbed after a desperate resistance. As for
+the fleet, it had borne itself bravely, and had retained the ascendency
+throughout, in spite of the superiority of the enemy's numbers; on
+hearing the news of the glorious death of Leonidas, they believed their
+task ended for the time being, and retired with the Athenians in their
+wake, ready to sustain the attack should they come again to close
+quarters. The victorious side had suffered considerable losses in men
+and vessels, but they had forced the passage, and Central Greece now
+lay at their mercy. Xerxes received the submission of the Thebans, the
+Phocaeans, the Locrians, the Dorians, and of all who appealed to his
+clemency; then, having razed to the ground Plataea and Thespisae, the only
+two towns which refused to come to terms with him, he penetrated into
+Attica by the gorges of the Cithssron. The population had taken refuge
+in Salamis, AEgina, and Troezen. The few fanatics who refused to desist
+in their defence of the Acropolis, soon perished behind their ramparts;
+Xerxes destroyed the temple of Pallas by fire to avenge the burning of
+Sardes, and then entrenched his troops on the approaches to the isthmus,
+stationing his squadrons in the ports of Munychia, Phalerum, and the
+Piraeus, and suspended all hostilities while waiting to see what policy
+the Greeks would pursue. It is possible that he hoped that a certain
+number of them would intreat for mercy, and others being encouraged
+by their example to submit, no further serious battle would have to be
+fought. When he found that no such request was proffered, he determined
+to take advantage of the superiority of his numbers, and, if possible,
+destroy at one blow the whole of the Greek naval reserve; he therefore
+gave orders to his admirals to assume the offensive. The Greek fleet lay
+at anchor across the bay of Salamis. The left squadron of the Persians,
+leaving Munychia in the middle of the night, made for the promontory of
+Cynosura, landing some troops as it passed on the island of Psyttalia,
+on which it was proposed to fall back in case of accident, while
+the right division, sailing close to the coast of Attica, closed
+the entrance to the straits in the direction of Eleusis; this double
+movement was all but completed, when the Greeks were informed by
+fugitives of what was taking place, and the engagement was inevitable.
+They accepted it fearlessly. Xerxes, enthroned with his Immortals on the
+slopes of AEgialeos, could, from his exalted position, see the Athenians
+attack his left squadron: the rest of the allies followed them, and
+from afar these words were borne upon the breeze: "Go, sons of Greece,
+deliver your country, deliver your children, your wives, and the temples
+of the gods of your fathers and the tombs of your ancestors. A single
+battle will decide the fate of all you possess." The Persians fought
+with their accustomed bravery, "but before long their numberless
+vessels, packed closely together in a restricted space, begin to hamper
+each other's movements, and their rams of brass collide; whole rows of
+oars are broken." The Greek vessels, lighter and easier to manoeuvre
+than those of the Phoenicians, surround the latter and disable them in
+detail. "The surface of the sea is hidden with floating wreckage and
+corpses; the shore and the rocks are covered with the dead." At length,
+towards evening, the energy of the barbarians beginning to flag, they
+slowly fell back upon the Piraeus, closely followed by their adversaries,
+while Aristides bore down upon Psyttalia with a handful of Athenians.
+"Like tunnies, like fish just caught in a net, with blows from broken
+oars, with fragments of spars, they fall upon the Persians, they tear
+them to pieces. The sea resounds from afar with groans and cries of
+lamentation. Night at length unveils her sombre face" and separates the
+combatants.*
+
+     * AEschylus gives the only contemporaneous account of the
+     battle, and the one which Herodotus and all the historians
+     after him have paraphrased, while they also added to it oral
+     traditions.
+
+[Illustration: 233.jpg PART OF THE BATTLEFIELD OF SALAMIS]
+
+The advantage lay that day with the Greeks, but hostilities might
+be resumed on the morrow, and the resources of the Persians were so
+considerable that their chances of victory were not yet exhausted.
+Xerxes at first showed signs of wishing to continue the struggle; he
+repaired the injured vessels and ordered a dyke to be constructed,
+which, by uniting Salamis to the mainland, would enable him to oust the
+Athenians from their last retreat. But he had never exhibited much zest
+for the war; the inevitable fatigues and dangers of a campaign were
+irksome to his indolent nature, and winter was approaching, which he
+would be obliged to spend far from Susa, in the midst of a country
+wasted and trampled underfoot by two great armies. Mardonius, guessing
+what was passing in his sovereign's mind, advised him to take advantage
+of the fine autumn weather to return to Sardes; he proposed to take over
+from Xerxes the command of the army in Greece, and to set to work to
+complete the conquest of the Peloponnesus. He was probably glad to
+be rid of a sovereign whose luxurious habits were a hindrance to his
+movements. Xerxes accepted his proposal with evident satisfaction,
+and summarily despatching his vessels to the Hellespont to guard the
+bridges, he set out on his return journey by the overland route.
+
+At the time of his departure the issue of the struggle was as yet
+unforeseen. Mardonius evacuated Attica, which was too poor and desolate
+a country to support so large an army, and occupied comfortable winter
+quarters in the rich plains of Thessaly, where he recruited his strength
+for a supreme effort in the spring. He had with him about 60,000 men,
+picked troops from all parts of Asia--Medes, Sakae, Bactrians, and
+Indians, besides the regiment of the Immortals and the Egyptian veterans
+who had distinguished themselves by their bravery at Salamis; the heavy
+hoplites of Thebes and of the Boeotian towns, the Thessalian cavalry,
+and the battalions of Macedonia were also in readiness to join him as
+soon as called on. The whole of these troops, relieved from the presence
+of the useless multitude which had impeded its movements under Xerxes,
+and commanded by a bold and active general, were anxious to distinguish
+themselves, and the probabilities of their final success were great. The
+confederates were aware of the fact, and although resolved to persevere
+to the end, their maoeuvres betrayed an unfortunate indecision. Their
+fleet followed the Persian squadron bound for the Hellespont for several
+days, but on realising that the enemy were not planning a diversion
+against the Peloponnesus, they put about and returned to their various
+ports. The winter was passed in preparations on both sides. Xerxes, on
+his return to Sardes, had got together a fleet of 200 triremes and an
+army of 60,000 men, and had stationed them at Cape Mycale, opposite
+Samos, to be ready in case of an Ionian revolt, or perhaps to bear down
+upon any given point in the Peloponnesus when Mardonius had gained
+some initial advantage. The Lacaedemonians, on their part, seem to have
+endeavoured to assume the defensive both by land and sea; while their
+foot-soldiers were assembling in the neighbourhood of Corinth, their
+fleet sailed as far as Delos and there anchored, as reluctant to venture
+beyond as if it had been a question of proceeding to the Pillars of
+Hercules. Athens, which ran the risk of falling into the enemy's hands
+for the second time through these hesitations, evinced such marked
+displeasure that Mardonius momentarily attempted to take advantage of
+it. He submitted to the citizens, through Alexander, King of Macedon,
+certain conditions, the leniency of which gave uneasiness to the
+Spartans; the latter at once promised Athens all she wanted, and on the
+strength of their oaths she at once broke off the negotiations with the
+Persians. Mardonius immediately resolved on action: he left his quarters
+in Thessaly in the early days of May, reached Attica by a few
+quick marches, and spread his troops over the country before the
+Peloponnesians were prepared to resist. The people again took refuge in
+Salamis; the Persians occupied Athens afresh, and once more had recourse
+to diplomacy. This time the Spartans were alarmed to good purpose; they
+set out to the help of their ally, and from that moment Mardonius showed
+no further consideration in his dealing with Athens. He devastated the
+surrounding country, razed the city walls to the ground, and demolished
+and burnt the remaining houses and temples; he then returned to Boeotia,
+the plains of which were more suited to the movements of his squadrons,
+and took up a position in an entrenched camp on the right bank of the
+Asopos. The Greek army, under the command of Pausanias, King of Sparta,
+subsequently followed him there, and at first stationed themselves on
+the lower slopes of Mount Cithseron. Their force was composed of about
+25,000 hoplites, and about as many more light troops, and was scarcely
+inferior in numbers to the enemy, but it had no cavalry of any kind.
+Several days passed in skirmishing without definite results, Mardonius
+fearing to let his Asiatic troops attack the heights held by the heavy
+Greek infantry, and Pausanias alarmed lest his men should be crushed by
+the Thessalian and Persian horse if he ventured down into the plains.
+Want of water at length obliged the Greeks to move slightly westwards,
+their right wing descending as far as the spring of Gargaphia, and their
+left to the bank of the Asopos. But this position facing east, exposed
+them so seriously to the attacks of the light Asiatic horse, that after
+enduring it for ten days they raised their camp and fell back in the
+night on Plataea. Unaccustomed to manouvre together, they were unable
+to preserve their distances; when day dawned, their lines, instead
+of presenting a continuous front, were distributed into three unequal
+bodies occupying various parts of the plain. Mardonius unhesitatingly
+seized his opportunity. He crossed the Asopos, ordered the Thebans to
+attack the Athenians, and with the bulk of his Asiatic troops charged
+the Spartan contingents. Here, as at Marathon, the superiority of
+equipment soon gave the Greeks the advantage: Mardonius was killed while
+leading the charge of the Persian guard, and, as is almost always the
+case among Orientals, his death decided the issue of the battle. The
+Immortals were cut to pieces round his dead body, while the rest took
+flight and sought refuge in their camp.
+
+[Illustration: 238.jpg MAP]
+
+[Illustration: 239.jpg THE BATTLE-FIELD OF PLATAEA]
+
+Almost simultaneously the Athenians succeeded in routing the Boeotians.
+They took the entrenchments by assault, gained possession of an immense
+quantity of spoil, and massacred many of the defenders, but they could
+not prevent Artabazus from retiring in perfect order with 40,000 of
+his best troops protected by his cavalry. He retired successively from
+Thessaly, Macedonia, and Thrace, reached Asia after suffering severe
+losses, and European Greece was freed for ever from the presence of the
+barbarians. While her fate was being decided at Platsae, that of Asiatic
+Greece was being fought out on the coast of Ionia. The entreaties of the
+Samians had at length encouraged Leotychidas and Xanthippus to take the
+initiative. The Persian generals, who were not expecting this aggressive
+movement, had distributed the greater part of their vessels throughout
+the Ionian ports, and had merely a small squadron left at their disposal
+at Mycale. Surprised by the unexpected appearance of the enemy, they
+were compelled to land, were routed, and their vessels burnt (479). This
+constituted the signal for a general revolt: Samos, Chios, and Lesbos
+affiliated themselves to the Hellenic confederation, and the cities of
+the littoral, which Sparta would have been powerless to protect for want
+of a fleet, concluded an alliance with Athens, whose naval superiority
+had been demonstrated by recent events. The towns of the Hellespont
+threw off the yoke as soon as the triremes of the confederates appeared
+within their waters, and Sestos, the only one of them prevented by its
+Persian garrison from yielding to the Athenians, succumbed, after a long
+siege, during the winter of 479-478. The campaign of 478 completed the
+deliverance of the Greeks. A squadron commanded by Pausanias roused the
+islands of the Carian coast and Cyprus itself, without encountering
+any opposition, and then steering northwards drove the Persians from
+Byzantium. The following winter the conduct of operations passed out of
+the hands of Sparta into those of Athens--from the greatest military to
+the greatest naval power in Greece; and the latter, on assuming command,
+at once took steps to procure the means which would enable her to carry,
+out her task thoroughly. She brought about the formation of a permanent
+league between the Asiatic Greeks and those of the islands. Each city
+joining it preserved a complete autonomy as far as its internal affairs
+were concerned, but pledged itself to abide by the advice of Athens
+in everything connected with the war against the Persian empire, and
+contributed a certain quota of vessels, men, and money, calculated
+according to its resources, for the furtherance of the national cause.
+The centre of the confederation was fixed at Delos; the treasure held
+in common was there deposited under the guardianship of the god, and the
+delegates from the confederate states met there every year at the solemn
+festivals, Athens to audit the accounts of her administration, and
+the allies to discuss the interests of the league and to decide on the
+measures to be taken against the common enemy.
+
+Oriental empires maintain their existence only on condition of being
+always on the alert and always victorious. They can neither restrict
+themselves within definite limits nor remain upon the defensive, for
+from the day when they desist from extending their area their ruin
+becomes inevitable; they must maintain their career of conquest, or they
+must cease to exist. This very activity which saves them from downfall
+depends, like the control of affairs, entirely on the ruling sovereign;
+when he chances to be too indolent or too incapable of government, he
+retards progress by his inertness or misdirects it through his want of
+skill, and the fate of the people is made thus to depend entirely on the
+natural disposition of the prince, since none of his subjects possesses
+sufficient authority to correct the mistakes of his master. Having
+conquered Asia, the Persian race, finding itself hemmed in by
+insurmountable obstacles--the sea, the African and Arabian deserts, the
+mountains of Turkestan and the Caucasus, and the steppes of Siberia--had
+only two outlets for its energy, Greece and India. Darius had led
+his army against the Greeks, and, in spite of the resistance he had
+encountered from them, he had gained ground, and was on the point of
+striking a crucial blow, when death cut short his career. The impetus
+that he had given to the militant policy was so great that Xerxes was
+at first carried away by it; but he was naturally averse to war, without
+individual energy and destitute of military genius, so that he allowed
+himself to be beaten where, had he possessed anything of the instincts
+of a commander, he would have been able to crush his adversary with the
+sheer weight of his ships and battalions. Even after Salamis, even after
+Plataea and Mycale, the resources of Hellas, split up as it was into
+fifty different republics, could hardly bear comparison with those
+of all Asia concentrated in the hands of one man: Xerxes must have
+triumphed in the end had he persevered in his undertaking, and utilised
+the inexhaustible amount of fresh material with which his empire could
+have furnished him. But to do that he would have had to take a serious
+view of his duties as a sovereign, as Cyrus and Darius had done, whereas
+he appears to have made use of his power merely for the satisfaction of
+his luxurious tastes and his capricious affections. During the winter
+following his return, and while he was reposing at Sardes after the
+fatigues of his campaign in Greece, he fell in love with the wife of
+Masistes, one of his brothers, and as she refused to entertain his suit,
+he endeavoured to win her by marrying his son Darius to her daughter
+Artayntas. He was still amusing himself with this ignoble intrigue
+during the year which witnessed the disasters of Plataea and Mycale, when
+he was vaguely entertaining the idea of personally conducting a fresh
+army beyond the AEgean: but the marriage of his son having taken place,
+he returned to Susa in the autumn, accompanied by the entire court, and
+from thenceforward he remained shut up in the heart of his empire. After
+his departure the war lost its general character, and deteriorated into
+a series of local skirmishes between the satraps in the vicinity of the
+Mediterranean and the members of the league of Delos. The Phoenician
+fleet played the principal part in the naval operations, but the
+central and eastern Asiatics--Bactrians, Indians, Parthians, Arians,
+Arachosians, Armenians, and the people from Susa and Babylon--scarcely
+took any part in the struggle. The Athenians at the outset assumed the
+offensive under the intelligent direction of Cimon. They expelled the
+Persian garrisons from Eion and Thrace in 476. They placed successively
+under their own hegemony all the Greek communities of the Asianic
+littoral. Towards 466, they destroyed a fleet anchored within the Gulf
+of Pamphylia, close to the mouth of the Eurymedon, and, as at Mycale,
+they landed and dispersed the force destined to act in concert with
+the squadron. Sailing from thence to Cyprus, they destroyed a second
+Phoenician fleet of eighty vessels, and returned to the Piraeus laden
+with booty. Such exploits were not devoid of glory and profit for
+the time being, but they had no permanent results. All these naval
+expeditions were indeed successful, and the islands and towns of the
+AEgean, and even those of the Black Sea and the southern coasts of Asia
+Minor, succeeded without difficulty in freeing themselves from the
+Persian yoke under the protection of the Athenian triremes; but their
+influence did not penetrate further inland than a few miles from the
+shore, beyond which distance they ran the risk of being cut off from
+their vessels, and the barbarians of the interior--Lydians, Phrygians,
+Mysians, Pamphylians, and even most of the Lycians and Carians--remained
+subject to the rule of the satraps. The territory thus liberated formed
+but a narrow border along the coast of the peninsula; a border rent and
+interrupted at intervals, constantly in peril of seizure by the enemy,
+and demanding considerable efforts every year for its defence. Athens
+was in danger of exhausting her resources in the performance of this
+ungrateful task, unless she could succeed in fomenting some revolution
+in the vast possessions of her adversary which should endanger the
+existence of his empire, or which, at any rate, should occupy the
+Persian soldiery in constantly recurring hostilities against the
+rebellious provinces. If none of the countries in the centre of Asia
+Minor would respond to their call, and if the interests of their
+commercial rivals, the Phoenicians, were so far opposed to their own as
+to compel them to maintain the conflict to the very end, Egypt, at any
+rate, always proud of her past glory and impatient of servitude,
+was ever seeking to rid herself of the foreign yoke and recover her
+independent existence under, the authority of her Pharaohs. It was not
+easy to come to terms with her and give her efficient help from Athens
+itself; but Cyprus, with its semi-Greek population hostile to the
+Achaemenids, could, if they were to take possession of it, form an
+admirable base of operations in that corner of the Mediterranean. The
+Athenians were aware of this from the outset, and, after their victory
+at the mouth of the Eurymedon, a year never elapsed without their
+despatching a more or less numerous fleet into Cypriot waters; by so
+doing they protected the AEgean from the piracy of the Phoenicians, and
+at the same time, in the event of any movement arising on the banks of
+the Nile, they were close enough to the Delta to be promptly informed
+of it, and to interfere to their own advantage before any repressive
+measures could be taken.
+
+The field of hostilities having shifted, and Greece having now set
+herself to attempt the dismemberment of the Persian empire, we may well
+ask what has become of Xerxes. The little energy and intelligence he
+had possessed at the outset were absorbed by a life of luxury and
+debauchery. Weary of his hopeless pursuit of the wife of Masistes,
+he transferred his attentions to the Artayntas whom he had given in
+marriage to his son Darius, and succeeded in seducing her. The vanity
+of this unfortunate woman at length excited the jealously of the queen.
+Amestris believed herself threatened by the ascendency of this mistress;
+she therefore sent for the girl's mother, whom she believed guilty of
+instigating the intrigue, and, having cut off her breasts, ears, nose,
+lips, and torn out her tongue, she sent her back, thus mutilated, to her
+family. Masistes, wishing to avenge her, set out for Bactriana, of which
+district he was satrap: he could easily have incited the province to
+rebel, for its losses in troops during the wars in Europe had been
+severe, and a secret discontent was widespread; but Xerxes, warned in
+time, despatched horsemen in pursuit, who overtook and killed him. The
+incapacity of the king, and the slackness with which he held the reins
+of government', were soon so apparent as to produce intrigues at court:
+Artabanus, the chief captain of the guards, was emboldened by the
+state of affairs to attempt to substitute his own rule for that of
+the Achaemenids, and one night he assassinated Xerxes. His method of
+procedure was never exactly known, and several accounts of it were soon
+afterwards current. One of them related that he had as his accomplice
+the eunuch Aspamithres. Having committed the crime, both of them rushed
+to the chamber of Artaxerxes,* one of the sons of the sovereign, but
+still a child; they accused Darius, the heir to the throne, of the
+murder, and having obtained an order to seize him, they dragged him
+before his brother and stabbed him, while he loudly protested his
+innocence.
+
+     * Artaxerxes is the form commonly adopted by the Greek
+     historians and by the moderns who follow them, but Ctcsias
+     and others after him prefer Artoxerxes. The original form of
+     the Persian name was Artakhshathra.
+
+[Illustration: 247.jpg Artaxerxes]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a daric in the _Cabinet des
+     Medailles_.
+
+Other tales related that Artabanus had taken advantage of the free
+access to the palace which his position allowed him, to conceal himself
+one night within it, in company with his seven sons. Having murdered
+Xerxes, he convinced Artaxerxes of the guilt of his brother, and
+conducting him to the latter's chamber, where he was found asleep,
+Artabanus stabbed him on the spot, on the pretence that he was only
+feigning slumber.*
+
+     * Of the two principal accounts, the first is as old as
+     Ctesias, who was followed in general outline by Ephorus, of
+     whose account Diodorus Siculus preserves a summary
+     compilation; the second was circulated by Dinon, and has
+     come down to us through the abbreviation of Pompeius Trogus.
+     The remains of a third account are met with in Aristotle.
+     AElian knew a fourth in which the murder was ascribed to the
+     son of Xerxes himself.
+
+The murderer at first became the virtual sovereign, and he exercised his
+authority so openly that later chronographers inserted his name in the
+list of the Achaemenids, between that of his victim and his _protege_;
+but at the end of six months, when he was planning the murder of the
+young prince, he was betrayed by Megabyzos and slain, together with his
+accomplices. His sons, fearing a similar fate, escaped into the country
+with some of the troops. They perished in a skirmish, sword in hand; but
+their prompt defeat, though it helped to establish the new king upon his
+throne, did not ensure peace, for the most turbulent provinces at the
+two extremes of the empire, Bactriana on the northeast and Egypt in the
+south-west, at once rose in arms. The Bactrians were led by Hystaspes,
+one of the sons of Xerxes, who, being older than Artaxerxes, claimed
+the throne; his pretensions were not supported by the neighbouring
+provinces, and two bloody battles soon sealed his fate (462).* The
+chastisement of Egypt proved a harder task. Since the downfall of the
+Saites, the eastern nomes of the Delta had always constituted a single
+fief, which the Greeks called the kingdom of Libya. Lords of Marea and
+of the fertile districts extending between the Canopic arm of the Nile,
+the mountains, and the sea, its princes probably exercised suzerainty
+over several of the Libyan tribes of Marmarica. Inaros, son of
+Psammetichus,** who was then the ruling sovereign, defied the Persians
+openly. The inhabitants of the Delta, oppressed by the tax-gatherers of
+Achaemenes,*** welcomed him with open arms, and he took possession of
+the country between the two branches of the Nile, probably aided by the
+Cyrenians; the Nile valley itself and Memphis, closely guarded by the
+Persian garrisons, did not, however, range themselves on his side.
+
+     * The date 462 is approximate, and is inferred from the fact
+     that the war in Bactriana is mentioned in Ctesias between
+     the war against the sons of Artabanus which must have
+     occupied a part of 463, and the Egyptian rebellion which
+     broke out about 462, as Diodorus Siculus points out,
+     doubtless following Ephorus.
+
+     ** The name of the father of Inaros is given us by the
+     contemporary testimony of Thucydides.
+
+     *** Achomenes is the form given by Herodotus and by Diodorus
+     Siculus, who make him the son of Darius I., appointed
+     governor of Egypt after the repression of the revolt of
+     Khabbisha. Ctesias calls him Achaemenides, and says that he
+     was the son of Xerxes.
+
+Meanwhile the satrap, fearing that the troops at his disposal were
+insufficient, had gone to beg assistance of his nephew. Artaxerxes had
+assembled an army and a fleet, and, in the first moment of enthusiasm,
+had intended to assume the command in person; but, by the advice of his
+counsellors, he was with little difficulty dissuaded from carrying this
+whim into effect, and he delegated the conduct of affairs to Achaemenes.
+The latter at first repulsed the Libyans (460), and would probably
+have soon driven them back into their deserts, had not the Athenians
+interfered in the fray. They gave orders to their fleet at Cyprus
+to support the insurgents by every means in their power, and their
+appearance on the scene about the autumn of 469 changed the course
+of affairs. Achaemenes was overcome at Papremis, and his army almost
+completely exterminated. Inaros struck him down with his own hand in the
+struggle; but the same evening he caused the body to be recovered, and
+sent it to the court of Susa, though whether out of bravado, or from
+respect to the Achaemenian race, it is impossible to say.*
+
+     * Diodorus Siculus says in so many words that the Athenians
+     took part in the battle of Papremis; Thucydides and
+     Herodotus do not speak of their being there, and several
+     modern historians take this silence as a proof that their
+     squadron arrived after the battle had been fought.
+
+His good fortune did not yet forsake him. Some days afterwards, the
+Athenian squadron of Charitimides came up by chance with the Phoenician
+fleet, which was sailing to the help of the Persians, and had not yet
+received the news of the disaster which had befallen them at Papremis.
+The Greeks sunk thirty of the enemy's vessels and took twenty more, and,
+after this success, the allies believed that they had merely to show
+themselves to bring about a general rising of the fellahin, and effect
+the expulsion of the Persians from the whole of Egypt. They sailed up
+the river and forced Memphis after a few days' siege; but the garrison
+of the White Wall refused to surrender, and the allies were obliged to
+lay siege to it in the ordinary manner (459):* in the issue this proved
+their ruin. Artaxerxes raised a fresh force in Cilicia, and while
+completing his preparations, attempted to bring about a diversion in
+Greece. The strength of Pharaoh did not so much depend on his Libyan and
+Egyptian hordes, as on the little body of hoplites and the crews of
+the Athenian squadron; and if the withdrawal of the latter could be
+effected, the repulse of the others would be a certainty. Persian agents
+were therefore employed to beg the Spartans to invade Attica; but the
+remembrance of Salamis and Plataea was as yet too fresh to permit of the
+Lacedaemonians allying themselves with the common enemy, and their virtue
+on this occasion was proof against the darics of the Orientals.** The
+Egyptian army was placed in the field early in the year 456, under the
+leadership of Megabyzos, the satrap of Syria: it numbered, so it was
+said, some 300,000 men, and it was supported by 300 Phoenician vessels
+commanded by Artabazos.***
+
+     * The date of 459-8 for the arrival of the Athenians is
+     concluded from the passage of Thucydides, who gives an
+     account of the end of the war after the cruise of Tolmides
+     in 455, in the sixth year of its course.
+
+     ** Megabyzos opened these negotiations, and his presence at
+     Sparta during the winter of 457-6 is noticed.
+
+     *** Ctesias here introduces the Persian admiral Horiscos,
+     but Diodorus places Artabazos and Megabyzos side by side, as
+     was the case later on in the war in Cyprus, one at the head
+     of the fleet, the other of the army; it is probable that the
+     historian from whom Diodorus copied, viz. Ephorus,
+     recognised the same division of leadership in the Egyptian
+     campaign.
+
+The allies raised the blockade of the White Wall as soon as he
+entered the Delta, and hastened to attack him; but they had lost their
+opportunity. Defeated in a desperate encounter, in which Charitimides
+was killed and Inaros wounded in the thigh, they barricaded themselves
+within the large island of Prosopitis, about the first fortnight in
+January of the year 455, and there sustained a regular siege for the
+space of eighteen months. At the end of that time Megabyzos succeeded in
+turning an arm of the river, which left their fleet high and dry, and,
+rather than allow it to fall into his hands, they burned their vessels,
+whereupon he gave orders to make the final assault. The bulk of the
+Athenian auxiliaries perished in that day's attack, the remainder
+withdrew with Inaros into the fortified town of Byblos, where Megabyzos,
+unwilling to prolong a struggle with a desperate enemy, permitted them
+to capitulate on honourable terms. Some of them escaped and returned to
+Cyrene, from whence they took ship to their own country; but the main
+body, to the number of 6000, were carried away to Susa by Megabyzos in
+order to receive the confirmation of the treaty which he had concluded.
+As a crowning stroke of misfortune, a reinforcement of fifty Athenian
+triremes, which at this juncture entered the Mendesian mouth of the
+Nile, was surrounded by the Phoenician fleet, and more than half of them
+destroyed. The fall of Prosopitis brought the rebellion to an end.*
+
+     * The accounts of these events given by Ctesias and
+     Thucydides are complementary, and, in spite of their
+     brevity, together form a whole which must be sufficiently
+     near the truth. That of Ephorus, preserved in Diodorus, is
+     derived from an author who shows partiality to the
+     Athenians, and who passes by everything not to their honour,
+     while he seeks to throw the blame for the final disaster on
+     the cowardice of the Egyptians. The summary of Aristodemus
+     comes directly from that of Thucydides.
+
+The nomes of the Delta were restored to order, and, as was often
+customary in Oriental kingdoms, the vanquished petty princes or their
+children were reinvested in their hereditary fiefs; even Libya was not
+taken from the family of Inaros, but was given to his son Thannyras and
+a certain Psammetichus. A few bands of fugitives, however, took refuge
+in the marshes of the littoral, in the place where the Saites in former
+times had sought a safe retreat, and they there proclaimed king a
+certain Amyrtgeus, who was possibly connected with the line of Amasis,
+and successfully defied the repeated attempts of the Persians to
+dislodge them.
+
+The Greek league had risked the best of its forces in this rash
+undertaking, and had failed in its enterprise. It had cost the allies so
+dearly in men and galleys, that if the Persians had at once assumed the
+offensive, most of the Asiatic cities would have found themselves in a
+most critical situation; and Athens, then launched in a quarrel with
+the states of the Peloponnesus, would have experienced the greatest
+difficulty in succouring them. The feebleness of Artaxerxes, however,
+and possibly the intrigues at court and troubles in various other parts
+of the empire, prevented the satraps from pursuing their advantage, and
+when at length they meditated taking action, the opportunity had gone
+by. They nevertheless attempted to regain the ascendency over Cyprus;
+Artabazos with a Sidonian fleet cruised about the island, Megabyzos
+assembled troops in Cilicia, and the petty kings of Greek origin raised
+a cry of alarm. Athens, which had just concluded a truce with the
+Peloponnesians, at once sent two hundred vessels to their assistance
+under the command of Oimon (449). Cimon acted as though he were about
+to reopen the campaign in Egypt and despatched sixty of his triremes to
+King Amyrtceus, while he himself took Marion and blockaded Kition with
+the rest of his forces. The siege dragged on; he was perhaps about to
+abandon it, when he took to his bed and died. Those who succeeded him in
+the command were obliged to raise the blockade for want of provisions,
+but as they returned and were passing Salamis, they fell in with the
+Phoenician vessels which had just been landing the Cilician troops, and
+defeated them; they then disembarked, and, as at Mycale and Eurymedon,
+they gained a second victory in the open field, after which they joined
+the squadron which had been sent to Egypt, and sailed for Athens with
+the dead body of their chief. They had once more averted the danger of
+an attack on the AEgean, but that was all. The Athenian statesmen had
+for some time past realised that it was impossible for them to sustain
+a double conflict, and fight the battles of Greece against the common
+enemy, while half of the cities whose safety was secured by their heroic
+devotion were harassing them on the continent, but the influence of
+Cimon had up till now encouraged them to persist; on the death of Cimon,
+they gave up the attempt, and Callias, one of their leaders, repaired in
+state to Susa for the purpose of opening negotiations. The peace which
+was concluded on the occasion of this embassy might at first sight
+appear advantageous to their side. The Persian king, without actually
+admitting his reverses, accepted their immediate consequences. He
+recognised the independence of the Asiatic Creeks, of those at least who
+belonged to the league of Delos, and he promised that his armies on
+land should never advance further than three days' march from the AEgean
+littoral. On the seas, he forbade his squadrons to enter Hellenic waters
+from the Chelidonian to the Cyanaean rocks--that is, from the eastern
+point of Lycia to the opening of the Black Sea: this prohibition did
+not apply to the merchant vessels of the contracting parties, and
+they received permission to traffic freely in each other's waters--the
+Phoenicians in Greece, and the Greeks in Phonicia, Cilicia, and Egypt.
+And yet, when we consider the matter, Athens and Hellas were, of the
+two, the greater losers by this convention, which appeared to imply
+their superiority. Not only did they acknowledge indirectly that they
+felt themselves unequal to the task of overthrowing the empire, but
+they laid down their arms before they had accomplished the comparatively
+restricted task which they had set themselves to perform, that of
+freeing all the Greeks from the Iranian yoke: their Egyptian compatriots
+still remained Persian tributaries, in company with the cities of
+Cyrenaica, Pamphylia, and Cilicia, and, above all, that island of
+Cyprus in which they had gained some of their most signal triumphs.
+The Persians, relieved from a war which for a quarter of a century had
+consumed their battalions and squadrons, drained their finances, and
+excited their subjects to revolt, were now free to regain their former
+wealth and perhaps their vigour, could they only find generals to
+command their troops and guide their politics. Artaxerxes was incapable
+of directing this revival, and his inveterate weakness exposed him
+perpetually to the plotting of his satraps or to the intrigues of
+the women of his harem. The example of Artabanus, followed by that of
+Hystaspes, had shown how easy it was for an ambitious man to get rid
+secretly of a monarch or a prince and seriously endanger the crown. The
+members of the families who had placed Darius on the throne, possessed
+by hereditary right, or something little short of it, the wealthiest
+and most populous provinces--Babylonia, Syria, Lydia, Phrygia, and the
+countries of the Halys--and they were practically kings in all but name,
+in spite of the _surveillance_ which the general and the secretary were
+supposed to exercise over their actions. Besides this, the indifference
+and incapacity of the ruling sovereigns had already tended to destroy
+the order of the administrative system so ably devised by Darius: the
+satrap had, as a rule, absorbed the functions of a general within his
+own province, and the secretary was too insignificant a personage
+to retain authority and independence unless he received the constant
+support of the sovereign. The latter, a tool in the hands of women and
+eunuchs, usually felt himself powerless to deal with his great vassals.
+His toleration went to all lengths if he could thereby avoid a revolt;
+when this was inevitable, and the rebels were vanquished, he still
+continued to conciliate them, and in most cases their fiefs and rights
+were preserved or restored to them, the monarch knowing that he could
+rid himself of them treacherously by poison or the dagger in the case
+of their proving themselves too troublesome. Megabyzos by his turbulence
+was a thorn in the side of Artaxerxes during the half of his reign. He
+had ended his campaign in Egypt by engaging to preserve the lives of
+Inaros and the 6000 Greeks who had capitulated at Byblos, and, in spite
+of the anger of the king, he succeeded in keeping his word for five
+years, but at the end of that time the demands of Amestris prevailed.
+She succeeded in obtaining from him some fifty Greeks whom she beheaded,
+besides Inaros himself, whom she impaled to avenge Achaemenes. Megabyzos,
+who had not recovered from the losses he had sustained in his last
+campaign against Cimon, at first concealed his anger, but he asked
+permission to visit his Syrian province, and no sooner did he reach it,
+than he resorted to hostilities. He defeated in succession Usiris and
+Menostates, the two generals despatched against him, and when force
+failed to overcome his obstinate resistance, the government condescended
+to treat with him, and swore to forget the past if he would consent
+to lay down arms. To this he agreed, and reappeared at court; but once
+there, his confidence nearly proved fatal to him. Having been invited to
+take part in a hunt, he pierced with his javelin a lion which threatened
+to attack the king: Artaxerxes called to mind an ancient law which
+punished by death any intervention of that kind, and he ordered that
+the culprit should be beheaded. Megabyzos with difficulty escaped this
+punishment through the entreaties of Amestris and of his wife Amytis;
+but he was deprived of his fiefs, and sent to Kyrta, on the shores of
+the Persian Gulf. After five years this exile became unbearable; he
+therefore spread the report that he was attacked by leprosy, and he
+returned home without any one venturing to hinder him, from fear of
+defiling themselves by contact with his person. Amestris and Amytis
+brought about his reconciliation with his sovereign; and thenceforward
+he regulated his conduct so successfully that the past was completely
+forgotten, and when he died, at the age of seventy-six years, Artaxerxes
+deeply regretted his loss.*
+
+     * These events are known to us only through Ctesias. Their
+     date is uncertain, but there is no doubt that they occurred
+     after Cimon's campaign in Cyprus and the conclusion of the
+     peace of Callias.
+
+Peace having been signed with Athens, and the revolt of Megabyzos being
+at an end, Artaxerxes was free to enjoy himself without further care
+for the future, and to pass his time between his various capitals and
+palaces.
+
+[Illustration: 258.jpg VIEW OF THE ACHAEMENIAN RUINS OF ISTAKHR]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the engraving of Flandin and Coste.
+
+His choice lay between Susa and Persepolis, between Ecbatana and
+Babylon, according as the heat of the summer or the cold of the winter
+induced him to pass from the plains to the mountains, or from the latter
+to the plains. During his visits to Babylon he occupied one of the
+old Chaldaean palaces, but at Ecbatana he possessed merely the ancient
+residence of the Median kings, and the seraglio built or restored by
+Xerxes in the fashion of the times: at Susa and in Persia proper, the
+royal buildings were entirely the work of the Achaemenids, mostly that
+of Darius and Xerxes. The memory of Cyrus and of the kings to whom
+primitive Persia owed her organisation in the obscure century preceding
+her career of conquest, was piously preserved in the rude buildings of
+Pasargadae, which was regarded as a sacred city, whither the sovereigns
+repaired for coronation as soon as their predecessors had expired.
+But its lonely position and simple appointments no longer suited their
+luxurious and effeminate habits, and Darius had in consequence fixed
+his residence a few miles to the south of it, near to the village, which
+after its development became the immense royal city of Persepolis. He
+there erected buildings more suited to the splendour of his court, and
+found the place so much to his taste during his lifetime, that he was
+unwilling to leave it after death. He therefore caused his tomb to be
+cut in the steep limestone cliff which borders the plain about half a
+mile to the north-west of the town. It is an opening in the form of a
+Greek cross, the upper part of which contains a bas-relief in which the
+king, standing in front of the altar, implores the help of Ahura-mazda
+poised with extended wings above him; the platform on which the king
+stands is supported by two rows of caryatides in low relief, whose
+features and dress are characteristic of Persian vassals, while other
+personages, in groups of three on either side, are shown in the attitude
+of prayer. Below, in the transverse arms of the cross, is carved a flat
+portico with four columns, in the centre of which is the entrance to
+the funeral vault. Within the latter, in receptacles hollowed out of the
+rock, Darius and eight of his family were successively laid.
+
+Xerxes caused a tomb in every way similar to be cut for himself near
+that of Darius, and in the course of years others were added close by.*
+
+     * The tomb of Darius alone bears an inscription. Darius III.
+     was also buried there by command of Alexander.
+
+
+[Illustration: 260.jpg THE TOMB OF DARIUS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the heliogravure by Marcel
+     Dieulafoy.
+
+Both the tombs and the palace are built in that eclectic style which
+characterises the Achaemenian period of Iranian art. The main features
+are borrowed from the architecture of those nations which were vassals
+or neighbours of the empire--Babylonia, Egypt, and Greece; but these
+various elements have been combined and modified in such a manner as to
+form a rich and harmonious whole.
+
+[Illustration: 261.jpg THE HILL OF THE ROYAL ACHAEMENIAN TOMBS AT
+NAKUSH-I-RUSTEM]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the engraving of Flandin and Coste.
+
+The core of the walls was of burnt bricks, similar to those employed in
+the Euphrates valley, but these were covered with a facing of enamelled
+tiles, disposed as a skirting or a frieze, on which figured those
+wonderful processions of archers, and the lions which now adorn the
+Louvre, while the pilasters at the angles, the columns, pillars,
+window-frames, and staircases were of fine white limestone or of hard
+bluish-grey marble.
+
+[Illustration: 262.jpg ONE OF THE CAPITALS FROM SUSA]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph taken in the Louvre by
+     Faucher-Gudin.
+
+[Illustration: 262b.jpg FREIZE OF ARCHERS AT SUZA]
+
+[Illustration: 263.jpg GENERAL RUINS OF PERSIPOLIS]
+
+The doorways are high and narrow; the moulding which frames them
+is formed of three Ionic fillets, each projecting beyond the other,
+surmounted by a coved Egyptian lintel springing from a row of alternate
+eggs and disks. The framing of the doors is bare, but the embrasures are
+covered with bas-reliefs representing various scenes in which the king
+is portrayed fulfilling his royal functions--engaged in struggles with
+evil genii which have the form of lions or fabulous animals, occupied in
+hunting, granting audiences, or making an entrance in state, shaded by
+an umbrella which is borne by a eunuch behind him. The columns employed
+in this style of architecture constitute its most original feature.
+The base of them usually consists of two mouldings, resting either on
+a square pedestal or on a cylindrical drum, widening out below into a
+bell-like curve, and sometimes ornamented with several rows of inverted
+leaves. The shafts, which have forty-eight perpendicular ribs cut on
+their outer surface, are perhaps rather tall in proportion to their
+thickness. They terminate in a group of large leaves, an evident
+imitation of the Egyptian palm-leaf capital, from which spring a sort of
+rectangular fluted die or abacus, flanked on either side with four rows
+of volutes curved in opposite directions, generally two at the base and
+two at the summit. The heads and shoulders of two bulls, placed back to
+back, project above the volutes, and take the place of the usual abacus
+of the capital. The dimensions of these columns, their gracefulness, and
+the distance at which they were placed from one another, prove that they
+supported not a stone architrave, but enormous beams of wood, which
+were inserted between the napes of the bulls' necks, and upon which the
+joists of the roof were superimposed. The palace of Persepolis, built by
+Darius after he had crushed the revolts which took place at the outset
+of his reign, was situated at the foot of a chain of rugged mountains
+which skirt the plain on its eastern side, and was raised on an
+irregularly shaped platform or terrace, which was terminated by a wall
+of enormous polygonal blocks of masonry. The terrace was reached by
+a double flight of steps, the lateral walls of which are covered
+with bas-reliefs, representing processions of satellites, slaves, and
+tributaries, hunting scenes, fantastic episodes of battle, and lions
+fighting with and devouring bulls. The area of the raised platform was
+not of uniform level, and was laid out in gardens, in the midst of which
+rose the pavilions that served as dwelling-places. The reception-rooms
+were placed near the top of the flight of steps, and the more important
+of them had been built under the two preceding kings. Those nearest to
+the edge of the platform were the propylae of Xerxes--gigantic entrances
+whose gateways were guarded on either side by winged bulls of Assyrian
+type; beyond these was the _apadana_, or hall of honour, where the
+sovereign presided in state at the ordinary court ceremonies. To the
+east of the _apadana_, and almost in the centre of the raised terrace,
+rose the Hall of a Hundred Columns, erected by Darius, and used only
+on special occasions. Artaxerxes I. seems to have had a particular
+affection for Susa. It had found favour with his predecessors, and they
+had so frequently resided there, even after the building of Persepolis,
+that it had continued to be regarded as the real capital of the empire
+by other nations, whereas the Persian sovereigns themselves had sought
+to make it rather an impregnable retreat than a luxurious residence.
+Artaxerxes built there an _apadana_ on a vaster scale than any hitherto
+designed.
+
+[Illustration: 267.jpg THE PROPYLAEA OF XERXES I. AT PERSEPOLIS]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the heliogravure of Marcel Dieulafoy.
+
+It comprised three colonnades, which, taken together, formed a rectangle
+measuring 300 feet by 250 feet on the two sides, the area being
+approximately that of the courtyard of the Louvre. The central
+colonnade, which was the largest of the three, was enclosed by walls on
+three sides, but was open to the south. Immense festoons of drapery hung
+from the wooden entablature, and curtains, suspended from rods between
+the first row of columns, afforded protection from the sun and from the
+curiosity of the vulgar.
+
+[Illustration: 268.jpg BAS-RELIEF OF THE STAIRCASE LEADING TO THE
+APADANA OF XERXES]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Marcel Dieulafoy.
+
+At the hour appointed for the ceremonies, the great king took his seat
+in solitary grandeur on the gilded throne of the Achaemenids; at the
+extreme end of the colonnade his eunuchs, nobles, and guards ranged
+themselves in silence on either side, each in the place which etiquette
+assigned to him. Meanwhile the foreign ambassadors who had been honoured
+by an invitation to the audience--Greeks from Thebes, Sparta, or Athens;
+Sakae from the regions of the north; Indians, Arabs, nomad chiefs from
+mysterious Ethiopia-ascended in procession the flights of steps which
+led from the town to the palace, bearing the presents destined for its
+royal master.
+
+[Illustration: 269.jpg THE KING ON HIS THRONE]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Plandin and Coste.
+
+Having reached the terrace, the curtains of the _apadana_ were suddenly
+parted, and in the distance, through a vista of columns, they perceived
+a motionless figure, resplendent with gold and purple, before whom
+they fell prostrate with their faces to the earth. The heralds were
+the bearers of their greetings, and brought back to them a gracious or
+haughty reply, as the case may be. When they rose from the ground, the
+curtains had closed, the kingly vision was eclipsed, and the escort
+which had accompanied them into the palace conducted them back to the
+town, dazzled with the momentary glimpse of the spectacle vouchsafed to
+them.
+
+[Illustration: 270.jpg A VIEW OF THE APADANA OF SUSA, RESTORED]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the restoration by Marcel Dieulafoy.
+
+The Achaeemenian monarchs were not regarded as gods or as sons of gods,
+like the Egyptian Pharaohs, and the Persian religion forbade their
+ever becoming so, but the person of the king was hedged round with such
+ceremonial respect as in other Oriental nations was paid only to the
+gods: this was but natural, for was he not a despot, who with a word
+or gesture could abase the noblest of his subjects, and determine the
+well-being or misery of his people? His dress differed from that of his
+nobles only by the purple dye of its material and the richness of the
+gold embroideries with which it was adorned, but he was distinguished
+from all others by the peculiar felt cap, or _kidaris_, which he wore,
+and the blue-and-white band which encircled it like a crown; the king
+is never represented without his long sceptre with pommelled handle,
+whether he be sitting or standing, and wherever he went he was attended
+by his umbrella- and fan-bearers. The prescriptions of court etiquette
+were such as to convince his subjects and persuade himself that he was
+sprung from a nobler race than that of any of his magnates, and that he
+was outside the pale of ordinary humanity. The greater part of his
+time was passed in privacy, where he was attended only by the eunuchs
+appointed to receive his orders; and these orders, once issued, were
+irrevocable, as was also the king's word, however much he might desire
+to recall a promise once made. His meals were, as a rule, served to him
+alone; he might not walk on foot beyond the precincts of the palace, and
+he never showed himself in public except on horseback or in his chariot,
+surrounded by his servants and his guards. The male members of the royal
+family and those belonging to the six noble houses enjoyed the privilege
+of approaching the king at any hour of the day or night, provided he was
+not in the company of one of his wives. These privileged persons formed
+his council, which he convoked on important occasions, but all ordinary
+business was transacted by means of the scribes and inferior officials,
+on whom devolved the charge of the various departments of the
+government. A vigorous ruler, such as Darius had proved himself,
+certainly trusted no one but himself to read the reports sent in by the
+satraps, the secretaries, and the generals, or to dictate the answers
+required by each; but Xerxes and Artaxerxes delegated the heaviest part
+of such business to their ministers, and they themselves only fulfilled
+such state functions as it was impossible to shirk--the public
+administration of justice, receptions of ambassadors or victorious
+generals, distributions of awards, annual sacrifices, and state
+banquets: they were even obliged, in accordance with an ancient and
+inviolable tradition, once a year to set aside their usual sober habits
+and drink to excess on the day of the feast of Mithra. Occasionally they
+would break through their normal routine of life to conduct in person
+some expedition of small importance, directed against one of the
+semi-independent tribes of Iran, such as the Cadusians, but their
+most glorious and frequent exploits were confined to the chase. They
+delighted to hunt the bull, the wild boar, the deer, the wild ass, and
+the hare, as the Pharaohs or Assyrian kings of old had done; and they
+would track the lion to his lair and engage him single-handed; in fact,
+they held a strict monopoly in such conflicts, a law which punished with
+death any huntsman who had the impertinence to interpose between the
+monarch and his prey being only abolished by Artaxerxes. A crowd of
+menials, slaves, great nobles, and priests filled the palace; grooms,
+stool-bearers, umbrella- and fan-carriers, _havasses_, "Immortals,"
+bakers, perfumers, soldiers, and artisans formed a retinue so numerous
+as to require a thousand bullocks, asses, and stags to be butchered
+every day for its maintenance; and when the king made a journey in full
+state, this enormous train looked like an army on the march. The women
+of the royal harem lived in seclusion in a separate wing of the palace,
+or in isolated buildings erected in the centre of the gardens. The
+legitimate wives of the sovereign were selected from the ladies of
+the royal house, the sisters or cousins of the king, and from the six
+princely Persian families; but their number were never very large,
+usually three or four at most.*
+
+     * Cambyses had had three wives, including his two sisters
+     Atossa and Roxana. Darius had four wives--two daughters of
+     Cyrus, Atossa and Artystone, Parmys daughter of Srnerdis,
+     and a daughter of Otanes.
+
+The concubines, on the other hand, were chosen from all classes of
+society, and were counted by hundreds.
+
+[Illustration: 273.jpg PROCESSIONAL DISPLAY OF TRIBUTE BROUGHT TO THE
+KING OF PERSIA]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from plates in Flandin and Coste.
+
+They sang or played on musical instruments at the state banquets of the
+court, they accompanied their master to the battle-field or the chase,
+and probably performed the various inferior domestic duties in the
+interior of the harem, such as spinning, weaving, making perfumes, and
+attending to the confectionery and cooking. Each of the king's wives
+had her own separate suite of apartments and special attendants, and
+occupied a much higher position than a mere concubine; but only one was
+actually queen and had the right to wear the crown, and this position
+belonged of right to a princess of Achae-menian race. Thus Atossa,
+daughter of Cyrus, was queen successively to Cambyses, Gaumata, and
+Darius; Amestris to Xerxes; and Damaspia to Artaxerxes. Besides the
+influence naturally exerted by the queen over the mind of her husband,
+she often acquired boundless authority in the empire, in spite of her
+secluded life.*
+
+     * Thus Atossa induced Darius to designate Xerxes as his
+     heir-apparent.
+
+Her power was still further increased when she became a widow, if the
+new king happened to be one of her own sons. In such circumstances she
+retained the external attributes of royalty, sitting at the royal
+table whenever the king deigned to dine in the women's apartments, and
+everywhere taking precedence of the young queen; she was attended by her
+own body of eunuchs, of whom, as well as of her private revenues,
+she had absolute control. Those whom the queen-mother took under her
+protection escaped punishment, even though they richly deserved it,
+but the object of her hatred was doomed to perish in the end, either by
+poison treacherously administered, or by some horrible form of torture,
+being impaled, suffocated in ashes, tortured in the trough, or flayed
+alive. Artaxerxes reigned for forty-two years, spending his time between
+the pleasures of the chase and the harem; no serious trouble disturbed
+his repose after his suppression of the revolt under Megabyzos, but on
+his death in 424 B.C. there was a renewal of the intrigues and ambitious
+passions which had stained with bloodshed the opening years of his
+reign. The legitimate heir, Xerxes II., was assassinated, after a reign
+of forty-five days, by Secudianus (Sogdianus), one of his illegitimate
+brothers, and the _cortege_ which was escorting the bodies of his
+parents conveyed his also to the royal burying-place at Persepolis.
+Meanwhile Secudianus became suspicious of another of his brothers,
+named Ochus, whom Artaxerxes had caused to marry Parysatis, one of the
+daughters of Xerxes, and whom he had set over the important province of
+Hyrcania. Ochus received repeated summonses to appear in his brother's
+presence to pay him homage, and at last obeyed the mandate, but arrived
+at the head of an army. The Persian nobility rose at his approach, and
+one by one the chief persons of the state declared themselves in his
+favour: first Arbarius, commander of the cavalry; then Arxanes, the
+satrap of Egypt; and lastly, the eunuch Artoxares, the ruler of
+Armenia. These three all combined in urging Ochus to assume the _Edaris_
+publicly, which he, with feigned reluctance, consented to do, and
+proceeded, at the suggestion of Parysatis, to open negotiations with
+Secudianus, offering to divide the regal power with him. Secudianus
+accepted the offer, against the advice of his minister Menostanes, and
+gave himself up into the hands of the rebels. He was immediately seized
+and cast into the ashes, where he perished miserably, after a reign of
+six months and fifteen days.
+
+On ascending the throne, Ochus assumed the name of Darius. His
+confidential advisers were three eunuchs, who ruled the empire in his
+name--Artoxares, who had taken such a prominent part in the campaign
+which won him the crown, Artibarzanes, and Athoos; but the guiding
+spirit of his government was, in reality, his wife, the detestable
+Parysatis. She had already borne him two children before she became
+queen; a daughter, Amestris, and a son, Arsaces, who afterwards became
+king under the name of Artaxerxes. Soon after the accession of her
+husband, she bore him a second son, whom she named Cyrus, in memory
+of the founder of the empire, and a daughter, Artoste; several other
+children were born subsequently, making thirteen in all, but these all
+died in childhood, except one named Oxendras. Violent, false, jealous,
+and passionately fond of the exercise of power, Parysatis hesitated at
+no crime to rid herself of those who thwarted her schemes, even though
+they might be members of her own family; and, not content with putting
+them out of the way, she delighted in making them taste her hatred to
+the full, by subjecting them to the most skilfully graduated refinements
+of torture; she deservedly left behind her the reputation of being one
+of the most cruel of all the cruel queens, whose memory was a terror not
+only to the harems of Persia, but to the whole of the Eastern world.
+The numerous revolts which broke out soon after her husband's accession,
+furnished occasions for the revelation of her perfidious cleverness.
+All the malcontents of the reign of Artaxerxes, those who had
+been implicated in the murder of Xerxes II., or who had sided with
+Secudianus, had rallied round a younger brother of Darius, named
+Arsites, and one of them, Artyphios, son of Megabyzos, took the field in
+Asia Minor. Being supported by a large contingent of Greek mercenaries,
+he won two successive victories at the opening of the campaign, but was
+subsequently defeated, though his forces still remained formidable. But
+Persian gold accomplished what Persian bravery had failed to achieve,
+and prevailed over the mercenaries so successfully that all deserted him
+with the exception of three Milesians.
+
+[Illustration: 276.jpg Darius II.]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the coins in the
+     _Cabinet des Medailles._
+
+Artyphios and Arsites, thus discouraged, committed the imprudence of
+capitulating on condition of receiving a promise that their lives should
+be spared, and that they should be well treated; but Parysatis persuaded
+her husband to break his plighted word, and they perished in the ashes.
+Their miserable fate did not discourage the satrap of Lydia, Pissuthnes,
+who was of Achaemenian race: he entered the lists in 418 B.C., with the
+help of the Athenians. The relations between the Persian empire and
+Greece had continued fairly satisfactory since the peace of 449
+B.C., and the few outbreaks which had taken place had not led to any
+widespread disturbance. The Athenians, absorbed in their quarrel with
+Sparta, preferred to close their eyes to all side issues, lest the
+Persians should declare war against them, and the satraps of Asia Minor,
+fully alive to the situation, did not hesitate to take advantage of any
+pretext for recovering a part of the territory they coveted: it was thus
+that they had seized Colophon about 430 B.C., and so secured once more a
+port on the AEgean. Darius despatched to oppose Pissuthnes a man of noble
+birth, named Tissaphernes, giving him plenary power throughout the whole
+of the peninsula, and Tissaphernes endeavoured to obtain by treachery
+the success he would with difficulty have won on the field of battle: he
+corrupted by his darics Lycon, the commander of the Athenian contingent,
+and Pissuthnes, suddenly abandoned by his best auxiliaries, was forced
+to surrender at discretion. He also was suffocated in the ashes, and
+Darius bestowed his office on Tissaphernes.
+
+But the punishment of Pissuthnes did not put an end to the troubles:
+his son Amorges roused Caria to revolt, and with the title of king
+maintained his independence for some years longer. While these incidents
+were taking place, the news of the disasters in Sicily reached the East:
+as soon as it was known in Susa that Athens had lost at Syracuse the
+best part of her fleet and the choicest of her citizens, the moment was
+deemed favourable to violate the treaty and regain control of the whole
+of Asia Minor. Two noteworthy men were at that time set over the
+western satrapies, Tissaphernes ruling at Sardes, and Tiribazus over
+Hellespontine Phrygia. These satraps opened negotiations with Sparta
+at the beginning of 412 B.C., and concluded a treaty with her at
+Miletus itself, by the terms of which the Peloponnesians recognised the
+suzerainty of Darius over all the territory once held by his ancestors
+in Asia, including the cities since incorporated into the Athenian
+league. They hoped shortly to be strong enough to snatch from him what
+they now ceded, and to set free once more the Greeks whom they thus
+condemned to servitude after half a century of independence, but their
+expectations were frustrated. The towns along the coast fell one after
+another into the power of Tissaphernes, Amorges was taken prisoner in
+lassos, and at the beginning of 411 B.C. there remained to the Athenians
+in Ionia and Caria merely the two ports of Halicarnassus and Notium, and
+the three islands of Cos, Samos, and Lesbos: from that time the power of
+the great king increased from year to year, and weighed heavily on the
+destinies of Greece. Meanwhile Darius II. was growing old, and intrigues
+with regard to the succession were set on foot. Two of his sons put
+forward claims to the throne: Arsaces had seniority in his favour, but
+had been born when his father was still a mere satrap; Cyrus, on the
+contrary, had been born in the purple, and his mother Parysatis
+was passionately devoted to him.* Thanks to her manouvres, he was
+practically created viceroy of Asia Minor in 407 B.C., with such
+abundant resources of men and money at his disposal, that he was
+virtually an independent sovereign. While he was consolidating his
+power in the west, his mother endeavoured to secure his accession to the
+throne by intriguing at the court of the aged king; if her plans failed,
+Cyrus was prepared to risk everything by an appeal to arms.
+
+     * Cyrus was certainly not more than seventeen years old in
+     407 B.C., evening admitting that he was born immediately
+     after his father's accession in 424-3 B.C.
+
+[Illustration: 279.jpg CYRUS THE YOUNGER]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the coins in the
+     _Cabinet des Medailles_.
+
+He realised that the Greeks would prove powerful auxiliaries in such
+a contingency; and as soon as he had set up his court at Sardes, he
+planned how best to conciliate their favour, or at least to win over
+those whose support was likely to be most valuable. Athens, as a
+maritime power, was not in a position to support him in an enterprise
+which especially required the co-operation of a considerable force of
+heavily armed infantry. He therefore deliberately espoused the cause
+of the Peloponnesians, and the support he gave them was not without its
+influence on the issue of the struggle: the terrible day of AEgos Potamos
+was a day of triumph for him as much as for the Lacedaemonians (405
+B.C.).
+
+His intimacy with Lysander, however, his constant enlistments of
+mercenary troops, and his secret dealings with the neighbouring
+provinces, had already aroused suspicion, and the satraps placed under
+his orders, especially Tissaphernes, accused him to the king of treason.
+Darius summoned him to Susa to explain his conduct (405 B.C.), and he
+arrived just in time to be present at his father's death (404), but
+too late to obtain his designation as heir to the throne through the
+intervention of his mother, Parysatis; Arsaces inherited the crown, and
+assumed the name of Artaxerxes.
+
+[Illustration: 280.jpg ARTAXERXES MNEMON]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin in the Cabinet des
+     Medailles. This coin, which was struck at Mallos, in
+     Cilicia, bears as a counter-mark the figure of a bull and
+     the name of the city of Issus.
+
+Cyrus entered the temple of Pasargadae surreptitiously during the
+coronation ceremony, with the intention of killing his brother at the
+foot of the altar; but Tissaphernes, warned by one of the priests,
+denounced him, and he would have been put to death on the spot, had not
+his mother thrown her arms around him and prevented the executioner from
+fulfilling his office. Having with difficulty obtained pardon and been
+sent back to his province, he collected thirty thousand Greeks and a
+hundred thousand native troops, and, hastily leaving Sardes (401 B.C.),
+he crossed Asia Minor, Northern Syria, and Mesopotamia, encountered the
+royal army at Cunaxa, to the north of Babylon, and rashly met his end
+at the very moment of victory. He was a brave, active, and generous
+prince, endowed with all the virtues requisite to make a good Oriental
+monarch, and he had, moreover, learnt, through contact with the Greeks,
+to recognise the weak points of his own nation, and was fully determined
+to remedy them: his death, perhaps, was an irreparable misfortune for
+his country. Had he survived and supplanted the feeble Artaxerxes, it is
+quite possible that he might have confirmed and strengthened the power
+of Persia, or, at least, temporarily have arrested its decline. Having
+lost their leader, his Asiatic followers at once dispersed; but the
+mercenaries did not lose heart, and, crossing Asia and Armenia, gained
+at length the shores of the Black Sea. Up to that time the Greeks had
+looked upon Persia as a compact state, which they were sufficiently
+powerful to conquer by sea and hold in check by land, but which
+they could not, without imprudence, venture to attack within its own
+frontiers. The experience of the Ten Thousand was a proof to them that
+a handful of men, deprived of their proper generals, without guides,
+money, or provisions, might successfully oppose the overwhelming forces
+of the great king, and escape from his clutches without any serious
+difficulty. National discords prevented them from at once utilising
+the experience they thus acquired, but the lesson was not lost upon
+the court of Susa. The success of Lysander had been ensured by Persian
+subsidies, and now Sparta hesitated to fulfil the conditions of the
+treaty of Miletus; the Lacedaemonians demanded liberty once more for the
+former allies of Athens, fostered the war in Asia in order to enforce
+their claims, and their king Agesilaus, penetrating to the very heart of
+Phrygia, would have pressed still further forward in the tracks of the
+Ten Thousand, had not an opportune diversion been created in his rear by
+the bribery of the Persians. Athens once more flew to arms: her fleet,
+in conjunction with the Phoenicians, took possession of Cythera; the
+Long Walls were rebuilt at the expense of the great king, and Sparta,
+recalled by these reverses to a realisation of her position, wisely
+abandoned her inclination for distant enterprises. Asia Minor was
+reconquered, and Persia passed from the position of a national enemy
+to that of the friend and arbiter of Greece; but she did so by force of
+circumstances only, and not from having merited in any way the supremacy
+she attained. Her military energy, indeed, was far from being exhausted;
+but poor Artaxerxes, bewildered by the rivalries between his mother and
+his wives, did not know how to make the most of the immense resources
+still at his disposal, and he met with repeated checks as soon as he
+came face to face with a nation and leaders who refused to stoop to
+treachery. He had no sooner recovered possession of the AEgean littoral
+than Egypt was snatched from his grasp by a new Pharaoh who had arisen
+in the Nile valley. The peace had not been seriously disturbed in Egypt
+during the forty years which had elapsed since the defeat of Inarus.
+Satrap had peaceably succeeded satrap in the fortress of Memphis;
+the exhaustion of Libya had pre-vented any movement on the part of
+Thannyras; the aged Amyrtaeus had passed from the scene, and his son,
+Pausiris, bent his neck submissively to the Persian yoke. More than
+once, however, unexpected outbursts had shown that the fires of
+rebellion were still smouldering. A Psammetichus, who reigned about 445
+B.C. in a corner of the Delta, had dared to send corn and presents to
+the Athenians, then at war with Artaxerxes I., and the second year of
+Darius II. had been troubled by a sanguinary sedition, which, however,
+was easily suppressed by the governor then in power; finally, about
+410 B.C., a king of Egypt had, not without some show of evidence,
+laid himself open to the charge of sending a piratical expedition into
+Phoenician waters, an Arab king having contributed to the enterprise.*
+
+     * The revolt mentioned by Ctesias has nothing to do with the
+     insurrection of the satrap of Egypt which is here referred
+     to, the date of which is furnished by the Syncellus.
+
+It was easy to see, moreover, from periodical revolts--such as that of
+Megabyzos in Syria, those of Artyphios and Arsites, of Pissuthnes and
+Amorges in Asia Minor--with what impunity the wrath of the great king
+could be defied: it was not to be wondered at, therefore, that, about
+405 B.C., an enemy should appear in the heart of the Delta in the person
+of a grandson and namesake of Amyrtaeus. He did not at first rouse the
+whole country to revolt, for Egyptian troops were still numbered in the
+army of Artaxerxes at the battle of Cunaxa in 401 B.C.; but he succeeded
+in establishing a regular native government, and struggled so resolutely
+against the foreign domination that the historians of the sacred
+colleges inscribed his name on the list of the Pharaohs. He is there
+made to represent a whole dynasty, the XXVIIIth which lasted six years,
+coincident with the six years of his reign. It was due to a Mendesian
+dynasty, however, whose founder was Nephorites, that Egypt obtained its
+entire freedom, and was raised once more to the rank of a nation. This
+dynasty from the very outset adopted the policy which had proved so
+successful in the case of the Saites three centuries previously, and
+employed it with similar success. Egypt had always been in the position
+of a besieged fortress, which needed, for its complete security, that
+its first lines of defence should be well in advance of its citadel: she
+must either possess Syria or win her as an ally, if she desired to be
+protected against all chance of sudden invasion. Nephorites and his
+successors, therefore, formed alliances beyond the isthmus, and even on
+the other side of the Mediterranean, with Cyprus, Caria, and Greece, in
+one case to purchase support, and in another to re-establish the ancient
+supremacy exercised by the Theban Pharaohs.*
+
+     * This is, at any rate, the idea given of him by Egyptian
+     tradition in the time of the Ptolemies, as results from a
+     passage in the _Demotic Rhapsody_, where his reign is
+     mentioned.
+
+Every revolt against the Persians, every quarrel among the satraps,
+helped forward their cause, since they compelled the great king to
+suspend his attacks against Egypt altogether or to prosecute them at
+wide intervals: the Egyptians therefore fomented such quarrels, or even,
+at need, provoked them, and played their game so well that for a long
+time they had to oppose only a fraction of the Persian forces. Like the
+Saite Pharaohs before them, they were aware how little reliance could
+be placed on native troops, and they recruited their armies at great
+expense from the European Greeks. This occurred at the time when
+mercenary forces were taking the place of native levies throughout
+Hellas, and war was developing into a lucrative trade for those who
+understood how to conduct it: adventurers, greedy for booty, flocked
+to the standards of the generals who enjoyed the best reputation for
+kindness or ability, and the generals themselves sold their services
+to the highest bidder. The Persian kings took large advantage of this
+arrangement to procure troops: the Pharaohs imitated their example, and
+in the years which followed, the most experienced captains, Iphicrates,
+Chabrias, and Timotheus, passed from one camp to another, as often
+against the will as with the consent of their fatherland. The power of
+Sparta was at her zenith when Nephorites ascended the throne, and she
+was just preparing for her expedition to Phrygia. The Pharaoh concluded
+an alliance with the Lacedomonians, and in 396 B.C. sent to Agesilaus
+a fleet laden with arms, corn, and supplies, which, however, was
+intercepted by Conon, who was at that moment cruising in the direction
+of Rhodes in command of the Persian squadron. This misadventure and the
+abrupt retreat of the Spartans from Asia Minor cooled the good will of
+the Egyptian king towards his allies. Thinking that they had abandoned
+him, and that he was threatened with an imminent attack on the shore
+of the Delta, he assembled, probably at Pelusium, the forces he had
+apparently intended for a distant enterprise.
+
+Matters took longer to come to a crisis than he had expected. The
+retreat of Agesilaus had not pacified the AEgean satrapies; after the
+disturbance created by Cyrus the Younger, the greater number of the
+native tribes--Mysians, Pisidians, people of Pontus and Paphlagonia--had
+shaken off the Persian yoke, and it was a matter of no small difficulty
+to reduce them once more to subjection. Their incessant turbulence gave
+Egypt time to breathe and to organise new combinations. Cyprus entered
+readily into her designs. Since the subjugation of that island in 445
+B.C., the Greek cities had suffered terrible oppression at the hands of
+the great king. Artaxerxes I., despairing of reducing them to obedience,
+depended exclusively for support on the Phoenician inhabitants of the
+island, who, through his favour, regained so much vigour that in the
+space of less than two generations they had recovered most of the ground
+lost during the preceding centuries: Semitic rulers replaced the Achaean
+tyrants at Salamis, and in most of the other cities, and Citium became
+what it had been before the rise of Salamis, the principal commercial
+centre in the island. Evagoras, a descendant of the ancient kings,
+endeavoured to retrieve the Grecian cause: after driving out of Salamis
+Abdemon, its Tyrian ruler, he took possession of all the other towns
+except Citium and Amathus. This is not the place to recount the
+brilliant part played by Evagoras, in conjunction with Conon, during the
+campaigns against the Spartans in the Peloponnesian war. The activity he
+then displayed and the ambitious designs he revealed soon drew upon him
+the dislike of the Persian governors and their sovereign; and from
+391 B.C. he was at open war with Persia. He would have been unable,
+single-handed, to maintain the struggle for any length of time, but
+Egypt and Greece were at his back, ready to support him with money or
+arms. Hakoris had succeeded Nephorites I. in 393 B.C.,* and had repulsed
+an attack of Artaxerxes between 390 and 386.**
+
+     * The length of the reign of Nephorites I. is fixed at six
+     years by the lists of Manetho; the last-known date of his
+     reign is that of his fourth year, on a mummy-bandage
+     preserved in the Louvre.
+
+     ** This war is alluded to by several ancient authors in
+     passages which have been brought together and explained by
+     Judeah; but unfortunately the detailed history of the
+     events is not known.
+
+He was not unduly exalted by his success, and had immediately taken wise
+precautions in view of a second invasion. After safeguarding his western
+frontier by concluding a treaty with the Libyans of Barca, he entered
+into an alliance with Evagoras and the Athenians.
+
+[Illustration: 287.jpg HAKORIS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Lepsius.
+
+He sent lavish gifts of corn to the Cypriots, as well as munitions of
+war, ships, and money while Athens sent them several thousand men under
+the command of Chabrias; not only did an expedition despatched
+against them under Autophradates fail miserably, but Evagoras seized
+successively Citium and Amathus, and, actually venturing across the sea,
+took Tyre by assault and devastated Phoenicia and Cilicia. The princes
+of Asia Minor were already preparing for revolt, and one of them,
+Hecatomnus of Caria, had openly joined the allies, when Sparta suddenly
+opened negotiations with Persia: Antalcidas presented himself at Susa
+to pay homage before the throne of the great king. The treaty of Miletus
+had brought the efforts of Athens to naught, and sold the Asiatic
+Greeks to their oppressors: the peace obtained by Antalcidas effaced the
+results of Salamis and Platsae, and laid European Greece prostrate at
+the feet of her previously vanquished foes. An order issuing from the
+centre of Persia commanded the cities of Greece to suspend hostilities
+and respect each other's liberties; the issuing of such an order was
+equivalent to treating them as vassals whose quarrels it is the function
+of the suzerain to repress, but they nevertheless complied with the
+command (387 B.C.), Artaxerxes, relieved from anxiety for the moment,
+as to affairs on the AEgean, was now free to send his best generals into
+the rebel countries, and such was the course his ministers recommended.
+Evagoras was naturally the first to be attacked. Cyprus was, in fact, an
+outpost of Egypt; commanding as she did the approach by sea, she was in
+a position to cut the communications of any army, which, issuing from
+Palestine, should march upon the Delta. Artaxerxes assembled three
+hundred thousand foot-soldiers and three hundred triremes under the
+command of Tiribazus, and directed the whole force against the island.
+At first the Cypriot cruisers intercepted the convoys which were
+bringing provisions for this large force, and by so doing reduced the
+invaders to such straits that sedition broke out in their camp; but
+Evagoras was defeated at sea off the promontory of Citium, and
+his squadron destroyed. He was not in any way discouraged by this
+misfortune, but leaving his son, Pnytagoras, to hold the barbarian
+forces in check, he hastened to implore the help of the Pharaoh (385
+B.C.). But Hakoris was too much occupied with securing his own immediate
+safety to risk anything in so desperate an enterprise. Evagoras was
+able to bring back merely an insufficient subsidy; he shut himself up
+in Salamis, and there maintained the conflict for some years longer.
+Meanwhile Hakoris, realising that the submission of Cyprus would oppose
+his flank to attack, tried to effect a diversion in Asia Minor, and by
+entering into alliance with the Pisidians, then in open insurrection, he
+procured for it a respite, of which he himself took advantage to prepare
+for the decisive struggle. The peace effected by Antalcidas had left
+most of the mercenary soldiers of Greece without employment. Hakoris
+hired twenty thousand of them, and the Phoenician admirals, still
+occupied in blockading the ports of Cyprus, failed to intercept the
+vessels which brought him these reinforcements. It was fortunate for
+Egypt that they did so, for the Pharaoh died in 381 B.C., and his
+successors, Psamuthis IL, Mutis, and Nephorites IL, each occupied the
+throne for a very short time, and the whole country was in confusion for
+rather more than two years (381-379 B.c.) during the settlement of the
+succession.*
+
+     * Hakoris reigned thirteen years, from 393 to 381 B.C. The
+     reigns of the three succeeding kings occupied only two years
+     and four months between them, from the end of 381 to the
+     beginning of 378. Muthes or Mutis, who is not mentioned in
+     all the lists of Manetho, seems to have his counterpart in
+     the _Demotic Rhapsody_. Wiedemann has inverted the order
+     usually adopted, and proposed the following series:
+     Nephorites I., Muthes, Psamuthis, Hakoris, Nephorites II.
+     The discovery at Karnak of a small temple where Psamuthis
+     mentions Hakoris as his predecessor shows that on this point
+     at least Manetho was well informed.
+
+The turbulent disposition of the great feudatory nobles, which had so
+frequently brought trouble upon previous Pharaohs during the
+Assyrian wars, was no less dangerous in this last century of Egyptian
+independence; it caused the fall of the Mendesian dynasty in the very
+face of the enemy, and the prince of Sebennytos, Nakht-har-habit,
+Nectanebo I., was raised to the throne by the military faction.
+According to a tradition current in Ptolemaic times, this sovereign was
+a son of Nephorites I., who had been kept out of his heritage by the
+jealousy of the gods; whatever his origin, the people had no cause
+to repent of having accepted him as their king. He began his reign
+by suppressing the slender subsidies which Evagoras had continued to
+receive from his predecessors, and this measure, if not generous, was
+at least politic. For Cyprus was now virtually in the power of the
+Persians, and the blockade of a few thousand men in Salamis did not
+draught away a sufficiently large proportion of their effective force to
+be of any service to Egypt: the money which had hitherto been devoted to
+the Cypriots was henceforth reserved for the direct defence of the Nile
+valley. Evagoras obtained unexpectedly favourable conditions: Artaxerxes
+conceded to him his title of king and the possession of his city (383
+B.C.), and turned his whole attention to Nectanebo, the last of his
+enemies who still held out.
+
+Nectanebo had spared no pains in preparing effectively to receive his
+foe. He chose as his coadjutor the Athenian Chabrias, whose capacity as
+a general had been manifested by recent events, and the latter accepted
+this office although he had received no instructions from his government
+to do so, and had transformed the Delta into an entrenched camp. He had
+fortified the most vulnerable points along the coast, had built towers
+at each of the mouths of the river to guard the entrance, and had
+selected the sites for his garrison fortresses so judiciously that they
+were kept up long after his time to protect the country. Two of them are
+mentioned by name: one, situated below Pelusium, called the Castle of
+Chabrias; the other, not far from Lake Mareotis, which was known as his
+township.*
+
+     * Both are mentioned by Strabo; the exact sites of these two
+     places are not yet identified. Diodorus Siculus, describing
+     the defensive preparations of Egypt, does not state
+     expressly that they were the work of Chabrias, but this fact
+     seems to result from a general consideration of the context.
+
+[Illustration: 291.jpg PHARNABAZUS]
+
+     Drawn by faucher-Gudin, from a coin in the _Cabinet des
+     Medailles_.
+
+The Persian generals endeavoured to make their means of attack
+proportionate to the defences of the enemy. Acre was the only port in
+Southern Syria large enough to form the rendezvous for a fleet, where it
+might be secure from storms and surprises of the enemy. This was chosen
+as the Persian headquarters, and formed the base of their operations.
+During three years they there accumulated supplies of food and military
+stores, Phoenician and Creek vessels, and both foreign and native
+troops. The rivalries between the military commanders, Tithraustes,
+Datames, and Abrocomas, and the intrigues of the court, had on several
+occasions threatened the ruin of the enterprise, but Pharnabazus, who
+from the outset had held supreme command, succeeded in ridding himself
+of his rivals, and in the spring of 374 B.C. was at length ready for
+the advance. The expedition consisted of two hundred thousand Asiatic
+troops, and twenty thousand Greeks, three hundred triremes, two hundred
+galleys of thirty oars, and numerous transports. Superiority of numbers
+was on the side of the Persians, and that just at the moment when
+Nectanebo lost his most experienced general. Artaxerxes had remonstrated
+with the Athenians for permitting one of their generals to serve in
+Egypt, in spite of their professed friendship for himself, and, besides
+insisting on his recall, had requested for himself the services of the
+celebrated Iphicrates. The Athenians complied with his demand, and while
+summoning Chabrias to return to Athens, despatched Iphicrates to Syria,
+where he was placed in command of the mercenary troops. Pharnabazus
+ordered a general advance in May, 374 B.C.,* but when he arrived before
+Pelusium, he perceived that he was not in a position to take the town
+by storm; not only had the fortifications been doubled, but the banks of
+the canals had been cut and the approaches inundated. Iphicrates advised
+him not to persevere in attempting a regular siege: he contended that it
+would be more profitable to detach an expeditionary force towards some
+less well-protected point on the coast, and there to make a breach in
+the system of defence which protected the enemies' front.
+
+     * As Kenrick justly observes, "the Persian and Athenian
+     generals committed the same mistake which led to the defeat
+     of Saint Louis and the capture of his army in 1249 A.D., and
+     which Bonaparte avoided in his campaign of 1798." Anyhow, it
+     seems that the fault must be laid on Pharnabazus alone, and
+     that Iphicrates was entirely blameless.
+
+Three thousand men were despatched with all secrecy to the mouth of the
+Mendesian branch of the Nile, and there disembarked unexpectedly before
+the forts which guarded the entrance. The garrison, having imprudently
+made a sortie in face of the enemy, was put to rout, and pursued so
+hotly that victors and vanquished entered pell-mell within the walls.
+
+[Illustration: 293.jpg ARTAXERXES II.]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a silver stater in the _Cabinet
+     des Medailles_.
+
+After this success victory was certain, if the Persians pursued their
+advantage promptly and pushed forward straight into the heart of the
+Delta; the moment was the more propitious for such a movement, since
+Nectanebo had drained Memphis of troops to protect his frontier.
+Iphicrates, having obtained this information from one of the prisoners,
+advised Pharnabazus to proceed up the Nile with the fleet, and take
+the capital by storm before the enemy should have time to garrison it
+afresh; the Persian general, however, considered the plan too hazardous,
+and preferred to wait until the entire army should have joined him.
+Iphicrates offered to risk the adventure with his body of auxiliary
+troops only, but was suspected of harbouring some ambitious design, and
+was refused permission to advance. Meanwhile these delays had given the
+Egyptians time to recover from their first alarm; they boldly took
+the offensive, surrounded the position held by Pharnabazus, and were
+victorious in several skirmishes. Summer advanced, the Nile rose more
+rapidly than usual, and soon the water encroached upon the land; the
+invaders were obliged to beat a retreat before it, and fall back towards
+Syria. Iphicrates, disgusted at the ineptitude and suspicion of his
+Asiatic colleagues, returned secretly to Greece: the remains of the
+army were soon after disbanded, and Egypt once more breathed freely.
+The check received by the Persian arms, however, was not sufficiently
+notorious to shake that species of supremacy which Artaxerxes had
+exercised in Greece since the peace of 387. Sparta, Thebes, and Athens
+vied with each other in obtaining an alliance with him as keenly as if
+he had been successful before Pelusium. Antalcidas reappeared at Susa in
+372 B.C. to procure a fresh act of intervention; Pelopidas and Ismenias,
+in 367, begged for a rescript similar to that of Antalcidas; and finally
+Athens sent a solemn embassy to entreat for a subsidy. It seemed as if
+the great king had become a kind of supreme arbiter for Greece, and that
+all the states hitherto leagued against him now came in turn to submit
+their mutual differences for his decision. But this arbiter who thus
+imposed his will on states beyond the borders of his empire was never
+fully master within his own domains. Of gentle nature and pliant
+disposition, inclined to clemency rather than to severity, and,
+moreover, so lacking in judgment as a general that he had almost
+succumbed to an attack by the Cadusians on the only occasion that he
+had, in a whim of the moment, undertaken the command of an army in
+person, Artaxerxes busied himself with greater zeal in religious reforms
+than in military projects. He introduced the rites of Mithra and Anahita
+into the established religion of the state, but he had not the energy
+necessary to curb the ambitions of his provincial governors. Asia Minor,
+whose revolts followed closely on those of Egypt, rose in rebellion
+against him immediately after the campaign on the Nile, Ariobarzanes
+heading the rebellion in Phrygia, Datames and Aspis that in Cilicia and
+Cappadocia, and both defying his power for several years. When at length
+they succumbed through treachery, the satraps of the Mediterranean
+district, from the Hellespont to the isthmus of Suez, formed a coalition
+and simultaneously took the field: the break-up of the empire would have
+been complete had not Persian darics been lavishly employed once more in
+the affair. Meanwhile Nectanebo had died in 361,* and had been succeeded
+by Tachos.**
+
+     * The lists of Manetho assign ten or eighteen years to his
+     reign. A sarcophagus in Vienna bears the date of his
+     fifteenth year, and the great inscription of Edfu speaks of
+     gifts he made to the temple in this town in the eighteenth
+     year of his reign. The reading eighteen is therefore
+     preferable to the reading ten in the lists of Manetho; if
+     the very obscure text of the _Demotic Rhapsody_ really
+     applies the number nine or ten to the length of the reign,
+     this reckoning must be explained by some mystic calculations
+     of the priests of the Ptolemaic epoch.
+
+     ** The name of this king, written by the Greeks Teos or
+     Tachos, in accordance with the pronunciation of different
+     Egyptian dialects, has been discovered in hieroglyphic
+     writing on the external wall of the temple of Khonsu at
+     Karnak.
+
+The new Pharaoh deemed the occasion opportune to make a diversion
+against Persia and to further secure his own safety: he therefore
+offered his support to the satraps, who sent Eheomitres as a delegate
+to discuss the terms of an offensive and defensive alliance. Having
+inherited from Nectanebo a large fleet and a full treasury, Tachos
+entrusted to the ambassador 500 talents of silver, and gave him fifty
+ships, with which he cruised along the coast of Asia Minor towards
+Leuke. His accomplices were awaiting him there, rejoicing at the success
+of his mission, but he himself had no confidence in the final issue of
+the struggle, and merely sought how he might enter once more into favour
+with the Persian court; he therefore secured his safety by betraying his
+associates. He handed over the subsidies and the Egyptian squadron to
+Orontes, the satrap of Daskylium, and then seizing the insurgent
+chiefs sent them in chains to Susa. These acts of treachery changed
+the complexion of affairs; the league suddenly dissolved after the
+imprisonment of its leaders, and Arta-xerxes re-established his
+authority over Asia Minor.
+
+[Illustration: 296.jpg DATAMES III.]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin in the _Cabinet des
+     Medailles_.
+
+Egypt became once more the principal object of attack, and by the
+irony of fate Pharaoh had himself contributed to enrich the coffers and
+reinforce the fleet of his foes. In spite of this mischance, however,
+circumstances were so much in his favour that he ventured to consider
+whether it would not be more advantageous to forestall the foe by
+attacking him, rather than passively to await an onslaught behind his
+own lines. He had sought the friendship of Athens,* and, though it had
+not been granted in explicit terms, the republic had, nevertheless,
+permitted Ghabrias to resume his former post at his side.
+
+     * The memory of this embassy has been preserved for us by a
+     decree of the Athenian assembly, unfortunately much
+     mutilated, which has been assigned to various dates between
+     362 and 358 B.C. M. Paul Foucart has shown that the date of
+     the decree must be referred to one of three archon-ships--
+     the archonship of Callimedes, 360-59; that of Eucharistus,
+     359-8; or that of Cephisodotus, 358-7^ Without entering into
+     a discussion of the other evidence on the subject, it seems
+     to me probable that the embassy may be most conveniently
+     assigned to the archonship of Callimedes, towards the end of
+     360 B.C., at the moment when Chabrias had just arrived in
+     Egypt, and was certain to endeavour to secure the help of
+     Athens for the king he served.
+
+Chabrias exhorted him to execute his project, and as he had not
+sufficient money to defray the expenses of a long campaign outside his
+own borders, the Athenian general instructed him how he might procure
+the necessary funds. He suggested to him that, as the Egyptian priests
+were wealthy, the sums of money annually assigned to them for the
+sacrifices and maintenance of the temples would be better employed
+in the service of the state, and counselled him to reduce or even to
+suppress most of the sacerdotal colleges. The priests secured their own
+safety by abandoning their personal property, and the king graciously
+deigned to accept their gifts, and then declared to them that in future,
+as long as the struggle against Persia continued, he should exact from
+them nine-tenths of their sacred revenues. This tax would have sufficed
+for all requirements if it had been possible to collect it in full, but
+there is no doubt that very soon the priests must have discovered means
+of avoiding part of the payment, for it was necessary to resort to other
+expedients. Chabrias advised that the poll and house taxes should be
+increased; that one obol should be exacted for each "ardeb" of corn
+sold, and a tithe levied on the produce of all ship-building yards,
+manufactories, and manual industries. Money now poured into the
+treasury, but a difficulty arose which demanded immediate solution.
+Egypt possessed very little specie, and the natives still employed
+barter in the ordinary transactions of life, while the foreign
+mercenaries refused to accept payment in kind or uncoined metal; they
+demanded good money as the price of their services. Orders were issued
+to the natives to hand over to the royal exchequer all the gold and
+silver in their possession, whether wrought or in ingots, the state
+guaranteeing gradual repayment through the nomarchs from the future
+product of the poll-tax, and the bullion so obtained was converted into
+specie for the payment of the auxiliary troops. These measures, though
+winning some unpopularity for Tachos, enabled him to raise eighty
+thousand native troops and ten thousand Greeks, to equip a fleet of
+two hundred vessels, and to engage the best generals of the period. His
+eagerness to secure the latter, however, was injurious to his cause.
+Having already engaged Chabrias and obtained the good will of Athens, he
+desired also to gain the help of Agesilaus and the favourable opinion
+of the Lacedaemonians. Though now eighty years old, Agesilaus was still
+under the influence of cupidity and vanity; the promise of being placed
+in supreme command enticed him, and he set sail with one thousand
+hoplites. A disappointment awaited him at the moment of his
+disembarkation: Tachos gave him command of the mercenary troops only,
+reserving for himself the general direction of operations, and placing
+the whole fleet under the orders of Chabrias. The aged hero, having
+vented his indignation by indulging a more than ordinary display of
+Spartan rudeness, allowed himself to be appeased by abundant presents,
+and assumed the post assigned to him. But soon after a more serious
+subject of disagreement arose between him and his ally; Agesilaus was
+disposed to think that Tachos should remain quietly on the banks of the
+Nile, and leave to his generals the task of conducting the campaign.
+The ease with which mercenary leaders passed from one camp to the other,
+according to the fancy of the moment, was not calculated to inspire the
+Egyptian Pharaoh with confidence: he refused to comply with the wishes
+of Agesilaus, and, entrusting the regency to one of his relatives,
+proceeded to invade Syria. He found the Persians unprepared: they shut
+themselves up in their strongholds, and the Pharaoh confided to his
+cousin Nectanebo, son of the regent, the task of dislodging them. The
+war dragged on for some time; discontent crept in among the native
+levies, and brought treachery in its train. The fiscal measures which
+had been adopted had exasperated the priests and the common people;
+complaints, at first only muttered in fear, found bold expression as
+soon as the expeditionary force had crossed the frontier.
+
+[Illustration: 299.jpb NECTANEBO I]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Lepsius.
+
+The regent secretly encouraged the malcontents, and wrote to his son
+warning him of what was going on, and advised him to seize the crown.
+Nectanebo could easily have won over the Egyptian troops to his cause,
+but their support would have proved useless as long as the Greeks did
+not pronounce in his favour, and Chabrias refused to break his oaths.
+Agesilaus, however, was not troubled by the same scruples. His vanity
+had been sorely wounded by the Pharaoh: after being denied the position
+which was, he fancied, his by right, his short stature, his ill-health,
+and native coarseness had exposed him to the unseemly mockery of the
+courtiers. Tachos, considering his ability had been over-estimated,
+applied to him, it is said, the fable of the mountain bringing forth a
+mouse; to which he had replied, "When opportunity offers, I will prove
+to him that I am the lion." When Tachos requested him to bring the
+rebels to order, he answered ironically that he was there to help the
+Egyptians, not to attack them; and before giving his support to either
+of the rival claimants, he should consult the Ephors. The Ephors
+enjoined him to act in accordance with the welfare of his country, and
+he thereupon took the side of Nectanebo, despite the remonstrances of
+Chabrias. Tachos, deserted by his veterans, fled to Sidon, and thence to
+Susa, where Artaxerxes received him hospitably and without reproaching
+him (359 B.C.); but the news of his fall was not received on the banks
+of the Nile with as much rejoicing as he had anticipated. The people had
+no faith in any revolution in which the Greeks whom they detested took
+the chief part, and the feudal lords refused to acknowledge a sovereign
+whom they had not themselves chosen; they elected one of their
+number--the prince of Mendes--to oppose Nectanebo. The latter was
+obliged to abandon the possessions won by his predecessor, and return
+with his army to Egypt: he there encountered the forces of his enemy,
+which, though as yet undisciplined, were both numerous and courageous.
+Agesilaus counselled an immediate attack before these troops had time to
+become experienced in tactics, but he no longer stood well at court;
+the prince of Mendes had endeavoured to corrupt him, and, though he had
+shown unexpected loyalty, many, nevertheless, suspected his good
+faith. Nectanebo set up his headquarters at Tanis, where he was shortly
+blockaded by his adversary. It is well known how skilfully the Egyptians
+handled the pick-axe, and how rapidly they could construct walls of
+great strength; the circle of entrenchments was already near completion,
+and provisions were beginning to fail, when Agesilaus received
+permission to attempt a sortie. He broke through the besieging lines
+under cover of the night, and some days later won a decisive victory
+(359 B.C.). Nectanebo would now have gladly kept the Spartan general at
+his side, for he was expecting a Persian attack; but Agesilaus, who had
+had enough of Egypt and its intrigues, deserted his cause, and shortly
+afterwards died of exhaustion on the coast near Cyrene. The anticipated
+Persian invasion followed shortly after, but it was conducted without
+energy or decision. Artaxerxes had entrusted the conduct of the
+expedition to Tachos, doubtless promising to reinstate him in his former
+power as satrap or vassal king of Egypt, but Tachos died before he could
+even assume his post,* and the discords which rent the family of the
+Persian king prevented the generals who replaced him from taking any
+effective action.
+
+     * AElian narrates, probably following Dinon, that Tachos died
+     of dysentery due to over-indulgence at dinner.
+
+The aged Artaxerxes had had, it was reported, one hundred and fifteen
+sons by the different women in his harem, but only three of those by his
+queen Statira were now living--Darius, Ariaspes, and Ochus. Darius,
+the eldest of the three, had been formally recognised as
+heir-apparent--perhaps at the time of the disastrous war against the
+Cadusians* --but the younger brother, Ochus, who secretly aspired to
+the throne, had managed to inspire him with anxiety with regard to
+the succession, and incited him to put the aged king out of the way.
+Contemporary historians, ill informed as to the intrigues in the
+palace, whose effects they noted without any attempt to explore their
+intricacies, invented several stories to account for the conduct of the
+young prince. Some assigned as the reason of his conspiracy a romantic
+love-affair. They said that Cyrus the Younger had had an Ionian mistress
+named Aspasia, who, after the fatal battle of Cunaxa, had been taken
+into the harem of the conqueror, and had captivated him by her beauty.
+Darius conceived a violent passion for this damsel, and his father was
+at first inclined to give her up to him, but afterwards, repenting of
+his complaisance, consecrated her to the service of Mithra, a cult which
+imposed on her the obligation of perpetual chastity. Darius, exasperated
+by this treatment, began to contemplate measures of vengeance, but,
+being betrayed by his brother Ochus, was put to death with his whole
+family.**
+
+     * Pompeius Trogus asserts that such co-regencies were
+     contrary to Persian law; we have seen above that, on the
+     contrary, they were obligatory when the sovereign was
+     setting out on a campaign.
+
+     ** This is the version of the story given by Dinon and
+     accepted by Pompoius Trogus. A chronological calculation
+     easily demonstrates its unlikelihood. It follows from the
+     evidence given by Justin himself that Artaxerxes died of
+     grief soon after the execution of his son; but, on the other
+     hand, that the battle of Cunaxa took place in 400 B.C.:
+     Aspasia must then have been fifty or sixty years old when
+     Darius fell in love with her.
+
+By the removal of this first obstacle the crafty prince found himself
+only one step nearer success, for his brother Ariaspes was acknowledged
+as heir-apparent: Ochus therefore persuaded him that their father,
+convinced of the complicity of Ariaspes in the plot imputed to Darius,
+intended to put him to an ignominious death, and so worked upon him that
+he committed suicide to escape the executioner. A bastard named Arsames,
+who might possibly have aspired to the crown, was assassinated by Ochus.
+This last blow was too much for Artaxerxes, and he died of grief after a
+reign of forty-six years (358 B.C.).* Ochus, who immediately assumed the
+name of Artaxerxes, began his reign by the customary massacre: he put to
+death all the princes of the royal family,** and having thus rid
+himself of all the rival claimants to the supreme power, he hastened on
+preparations for the war with Egypt which had been interrupted by his
+father's death and his own accession.
+
+     * This is the length attributed by Plutarch to this reign,
+     and which is generally accepted. It was narrated in after-
+     days that the king kept the fact of his father's death
+     hidden for ten months, but it is impossible to tell how much
+     truth there is in this statement, which was accepted by
+     Dinon.
+
+     ** According to the author followed by Pompeius Trogus, the
+     princesses themselves were involved in this massacre. This
+     is certainly an exaggeration, for we shall shortly see that
+     Darius III., the last king of Persia, was accounted to be
+     the grandson of Darius II.; the massacre can only have
+     involved the direct heirs of Artaxerxes.
+
+The necessity for restoring Persian dominion on the banks of the Nile
+was then more urgent than at any previous time. During the half-century
+which had elapsed since the recovery of her independence, Egypt had
+been a perpetual source of serious embarrassment to the great king. The
+contemporaries of Amyrtseus, whether Greeks or barbarians, had at first
+thought that his revolt was nothing more than a local rising, like many
+a previous one which had lasted but a short time and had been promptly
+suppressed. But when it was perceived that the native dynasties had
+taken a hold upon the country, and had carried on a successful contest
+with Persia, in spite of the immense disproportion in their respective
+resources; when not only the bravest soldiers of Asia, but the best
+generals of Greece, had miserably failed in their attacks on the
+frontier of the Delta, Phoenicia and Syria began to think whether what
+was possible in Africa might not also be possible in Asia. From that
+time forward, whenever a satrap or vassal prince meditated revolt, it
+was to Egypt that he turned as a natural ally, and from Egypt he sought
+the means to carry out his project; however needy the Pharaoh of that
+day might be, he was always able to procure for such a suitor sufficient
+money, munitions of war, ships, and men to enable him to make war
+against the empire. The attempt made by Ochus failed, as all previous
+attempts had done: the two adventurers who commanded the forces of
+Nectanebo, the Athenian Diophantes and Lamius of Sparta, inflicted a
+disastrous defeat on the imperial troops, and forced them to beat a
+hasty retreat. This defeat was all the more serious in its consequences
+because of the magnitude of the efforts which had been made: the king
+himself was in command of the troops, and had been obliged to turn his
+back precipitately on the foe. The Syrian provinces, which had been in
+an unsettled condition ever since the invasion under Tachos, flew to
+arms; nine petty kings of Cyprus, including Evagoras II., nephew of the
+famous prince of that name, refused to pay tribute, and Artabazus
+roused Asia Minor to rebellion. The Phoenicians still hesitated; but
+the insolence of their satrap, the rapacity of the generals who had
+been repulsed from Egypt, and the lack of discipline in the Persian
+army forced them to a decision. In a convention summoned at Tripoli, the
+representatives of the Phoenician cities conferred on Tennes, King
+of Sidon, the perilous honour of conducting the operations of the
+confederate army, and his first act was to destroy the royal villa
+in the Lebanon, and his next to burn the provisions which had been
+accumulated in various ports in view of the Egyptian war (351-350 B.C.).
+
+[Illustration: 305.jpg evagoras ii. of salamis]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin in the _Cabinet des
+     Medailles_.
+
+Ochus imagined at the outset that his generals would soon suppress these
+rebellions, and, in fact, Idrieus, tyrant of Caria, supported by eight
+thousand mercenaries under the Athenian Phocion, overcame the petty
+tyrants of Cyprus without much difficulty; but in Asia Minor, Artabazus,
+supported by Athens and Thebes, held at bay the generals sent to oppose
+him, and Tennes won a signal victory in Syria. He turned for support
+to Egypt, and Nectanebo, as might be expected, put Greek troops at his
+disposal to the number of four thousand, commanded by one of his best
+generals, Mentor of Ehodes: Belesys, the satrap of Syria, and Mazseus,
+satrap of Cilicia, suffered a total defeat. Ochus, exasperated at their
+want of success, called out every available soldier, three hundred
+thousand Asiatics and ten thousand Greeks; the Sidonians, on their side,
+dug a triple trench round their city, raised their ramparts, and set
+fire to their ships, to demonstrate their intention of holding out
+to the end. Unfortunately, their king, Tennes, was not a man of firm
+resolution. Hitherto he had lived a life of self-indulgence, surrounded
+by the women of his harem, whom he had purchased at great cost in Ionia
+and Greece, and had made it the chief object of his ambition to surpass
+in magnificence the most ostentatious princes of Cyprus, especially
+Nicocles of Salamis, son of Evagoras. The approach of Ochus confused
+his scanty wits; he endeavoured to wipe out his treachery towards his
+suzerain by the betrayal of his own subjects. He secretly despatched
+his confidential minister, a certain Thessalion, to the Persian camp,
+promising to betray Sidon to the Persian king, and to act as his guide
+into Egypt on condition of having his life preserved and his royal rank
+guaranteed to him. Ochus had already agreed to these conditions, when
+an impulse of vanity on his part nearly ruined the whole arrangement.
+Thessalion, not unreasonably doubting the king's good faith, had
+demanded that he should swear by his right hand to fulfil to the letter
+all the clauses of the treaty; whereupon Ochus, whose dignity was
+offended by this insistence, gave orders for the execution of the
+ambassador. But as the latter was being dragged away, he cried out that
+the king could do as he liked, but that if he disdained the help of
+Tennes, he would fail in his attacks both upon Phonicia and Egypt. These
+words produced a sudden reaction, and Thessalion obtained all that he
+demanded. When the Persians had arrived within a few days' march of
+Sidon, Tennes proclaimed that a general assembly of the Phoenician
+deputies was to be held, and under pretext of escorting the hundred
+leading men of his city to the appointed place of meeting, led them into
+the enemy's camp, where they were promptly despatched by the javelins of
+the soldiery. The Sidonians, deserted by their king, were determined
+to carry on the struggle, in the expectation of receiving succour from
+Egypt; but the Persian darics had already found their way into the hands
+of the mercenary troops, and the general whom Nectanebo had lent them,
+declared that his men considered the position desperate, and that he
+should surrender the city at the first summons. The Sidonians thereupon
+found themselves reduced to the necessity of imploring the mercy of the
+conqueror, and five hundred of them set out to meet him as suppliants,
+carrying olive branches in their hands. Bub Ochus was the most cruel
+monarch who had ever reigned in Persia--the only one, perhaps, who was
+really bloodthirsty by nature; he refused to listen to the entreaties of
+the suppliants, and, like the preceding hundred delegates, they were all
+slain. The remaining citizens, perceiving that they could not hope for
+pardon, barricaded themselves in their houses, to which they set fire
+with their own hands; forty thousand persons perished in the flames, and
+so great was the luxury in the appointments of the private houses,
+that large sums were paid for the right to dig for the gold and silver
+ornaments buried in the ruins. The destruction of the city was almost as
+complete as in the days of Esarhaddon. When Sidon had thus met her fate,
+the Persians had no further reason for sparing its king, Tennes, and he
+was delivered to the executioner; whereupon the other Phoenician kings,
+terrified by his fate, opened their gates without a struggle.
+
+Once more the treachery of a few traitors had disconcerted the plans of
+the Pharaoh, and delivered the outposts of Egypt into the hands of the
+enemy: but Ochus renewed his preparations with marvellous tenacity, and
+resolved to neglect nothing which might contribute to his final success.
+His victories had confirmed the cities of the empire in their loyalty,
+and they vied with one another in endeavouring to win oblivion for their
+former hesitation by their present zeal: "What city, or what nation of
+Asia did not send embassies to the sovereign? what wealth did they not
+lavish on him, whether the natural products of the soil, or the rare and
+precious productions of art? Did he not receive a quantity of tapestry
+and woven hangings, some of purple, some of diverse colours, others of
+pure white? many gilded pavilions, completely furnished, and containing
+an abundant supply of linen and sumptuous beds? chased silver, wrought
+gold, cups and bowls, enriched with precious stones, or valuable for the
+perfection and richness of their work? He also received untold supplies
+of barbarian and Grecian weapons, and still larger numbers of draught
+cattle and of sacrificial victims, bushels of preserved fruits, bales
+and sacks full of parchments or books, and all kinds of useful articles?
+So great was the quantity of salted meats which poured in from all
+sides, that from a distance the piles might readily be mistaken for
+rows of hillocks or high mounds." The land-force was divided into three
+corps, each under a barbarian and a Greek general. It advanced along
+the sea coast, following the ancient route pursued by the armies of the
+Pharaohs, and as it skirted the marshes of Sirbonis, some detachments,
+having imprudently ventured over the treacherous soil, perished to a
+man. When the main force arrived in safety before Pelusium, it found
+Nectanebo awaiting it behind his ramparts and marshes. He had fewer men
+than his adversary, his force numbering only six thousand Egyptians,
+twenty thousand Libyans, and the same number of Greeks; but the
+remembrance of the successes won by himself and his predecessors with
+inferior numbers inspired him with confidence in the issue of the
+struggle. His fleet could not have ventured to meet in battle the
+combined squadrons of Cyprus and Phoenicia, but, on the other hand, he
+had a sufficient number of flat-bottomed boats to prevent any adversary
+from entering the mouths of the Nile. The weak points along his
+Mediterranean seaboard and eastern frontier were covered by strongholds,
+fortifications, and entrenched camps: in short, his plans were
+sufficiently well laid to ensure success in a defensive war, if the
+rash ardour of his Greek mercenaries had not defeated his plans. Five
+thousand of these troops were in occupation of Pelusium, under command
+of Philophron. Some companies of Thebans, who were serving under
+Lacrates in the Persian army, crossed a deep canal which separated them
+from the city, and provoked the garrison to risk an encounter in
+the open field. Philophron, instead of treating their challenge with
+indifference, accepted it, and engaged in a combat which lasted till
+nightfall. On the following day, Lacrates, having drawn off the waters
+of the canal and thrown a dyke across it, led his entire force up to the
+glacis of the fortifications, dug some trenches, and brought up a
+line of battering-rams. He would soon have effected a breach, but the
+Egyptians understood how to use the spade as well as the lance, and
+while the outer wall was crumbling, they improvised behind it a second
+wall, crowned with wooden turrets. Nectanebo, who had come up with
+thirty thousand native, five thousand Greek troops, and half the
+Libyan contingent, observed the vicissitudes of the siege from a short
+distance, and by his presence alone opposed the advance of the bulk
+of the Persian army. Weeks passed by, the time of the inundation was
+approaching, and it seemed as if this policy of delay would have its
+accustomed success, when an unforeseen incident decided in a moment the
+fate of Egypt. Among the officers of Ochus was a certain Nicostratus of
+Argos, who on account of his prodigious strength was often compared to
+Heracles, and who out of vanity dressed himself up in the traditional
+costume of that hero, the lion's skin and the club. Having imbibed,
+doubtless, the ideas formerly propounded by Iphicrates, Nicostratus
+forced some peasants, whose wives and children he had seized as
+hostages, to act as his guides, and made his way up one of the canals
+which traverse the marshes of Menzaleh: there he disembarked his men in
+the rear of Nectanebo, and took up a very strong position on the
+border of the cultivated land. This enterprise, undertaken with a very
+insufficient force, was an extremely rash one; if the Egyptian generals
+had contented themselves with harassing Nicostratus without venturing on
+engaging him in a pitched battle, they would speedily have forced him to
+re-embark or to lay down his arms. Unfortunately, however, five thousand
+mercenaries, who formed the garrison of one of the neighbouring towns,
+hastened to attack him under the command of Clinias of Cos, and suffered
+a severe defeat. As a result, the gates of the town were thrown open
+to the enemy, and if the Persians, encouraged by the success of this
+forlorn hope, had followed it up boldly, Nectanebo would have run the
+risk of being cut off from his troops which were around Pelusium, and of
+being subsequently crushed. He thought it wiser to retreat towards the
+apex of the Delta, but this very act of prudence exposed him to one of
+those accidental misfortunes which are wont to occur in armies formed
+of very diverse elements. While he was concentrating his reserves at
+Memphis, the troops of the first line thought that, by leaving
+them exposed to the assaults of the great king, he was deliberately
+sacrificing them. Pelusium capitulated to Lacrates; Mentor of Ehodes
+pushed forward and seized Bubastis, and the other cities in the eastern
+portion of the Delta, fearing to bring upon themselves the fate
+of Sidon, opened their gates to the Persians after a mere show of
+resistance. The forces which had collected at Memphis thereupon
+disbanded, and Nectanebo, ruined by these successive disasters,
+collected his treasures and fled to Ethiopia. The successful issue of
+the rash enterprise of Nicostratus had overthrown the empire of the
+Pharaohs, and re-established the Persian empire in its integrity (342
+B.C.).*
+
+     * The complete history of this war is related by Diodorus
+     Siculus, who generally follows the narrative of Theopompus.
+     The chronology is still sufficiently uncertain to leave some
+     doubt as to the exact date of each event; I have followed
+     that arrangement which seems to accord best with the general
+     history of the period. The following table may be drawn up
+     of the last Egyptian dynasties as far as they can be
+     restored at present:--
+
+[Illustration: 312.jpg TABLE OF THE LAST EGYPTIAN DYNASTIES]
+
+Egypt had prospered under the strong rule of its last native Pharaohs.
+Every one of them, from Amyrtous down to Nectanebo, had done his best
+to efface all traces of the Persian invasions and restore to the country
+the appearance which it had presented before the days of its servitude;
+even kings like Psamutis and Tachos, whose reign had been of the
+briefest, had, like those who ruled for longer periods, constructed or
+beautified the monuments of the country. The Thebaid was in this respect
+a special field of their labours. The island of Philae, exposed to the
+ceaseless attacks of the Ethiopians, had been reduced to little more
+than a pile of ruins.
+
+[Illustration: 313.jpg SMALL TEMPLE OF NECTANEBO, AT THE SOUTHERN
+EXTREMITY OF PHILAE]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Beato.
+
+Nectanebo II. erected a magnificent gate there, afterwards incorporated
+into the first pylon of the temple built by the Ptolemies, and one
+at least of the buildings that still remain, the charming rectangular
+kiosk, the pillars of which, with their Hathor capitals, rise above
+the southern extremity of the island and mark the spot at which the
+Ethiopian pilgrims first set foot on the sacred territory of the
+bountiful Isis. Nectanebo I. restored the sanctuaries of Nekhabit at
+El-Kab, and of Horus at Edfu, in which latter place he has left an
+admirable naos which delights the modern traveller by its severe
+proportions and simplicity of ornament, while Nectanebo II. repaired the
+ancient temple of Minu at Coptos; in short, without giving a detailed
+list of what was accomplished by each of these later Pharaohs, it may be
+said that there are few important sites in the valley of the Nile where
+some striking evidence of their activity may not still be discovered
+even after the lapse of so many centuries.
+
+[Illustration: 314.jpg NAOS OF NECTANEBO IN THE TEMPLE AT EDFU]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Beato.
+
+It will be sufficient to mention Thebes, Memphis, Sebennytos, Bubastis,
+Pahabit, Patumu, and Tanis. Nor did the Theban oases, including that of
+Amon himself, escape their zeal, for the few Europeans who have visited
+them in modern times have observed their cartouches there.
+
+[Illustration: 315.jpg GREAT GATE OF NECTANEBO AT KARNAK]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Beato.
+
+Moreover, in spite of the brief space of time within which they were
+carried out, the majority of these works betray no signs of haste
+or slipshod execution; the craftsmen employed on them seem to have
+preserved in their full integrity all the artistic traditions of earlier
+times, and were capable of producing masterpieces which will bear
+comparison with those of the golden age. The Eastern gate, erected at
+Karnak in the time of Nectanebo II., is in no way inferior either in
+purity of proportion or in the beauty of its carvings to what remains of
+the gates of Amenothes III.
+
+[Illustration: 316.jpg fragment of a Naos of THE time of nectanebo II.
+in the Bologna Museum]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Flinders Petrie.
+
+The sarcophagus of Nectanebo I. is carved and decorated with a
+perfection of skill which had never been surpassed in any age, and
+elsewhere, on all the monuments which bear the name of this monarch the
+hieroglyphics have been designed and carved with as much care as though
+each one of them had been a precious cameo.*
+
+     * The sarcophagus was for a long time preserved near the
+     mosque of Ibn-Tulun, and was credited with peculiar virtues
+     by the superstitious inhabitants of Cairo.
+
+The basalt torso of Nectanebo II., which attracts so much admiration
+in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris for accuracy of proportion and
+delicacy of modelling, deserves to rank with the finest statues of the
+ancient empire. The men's heads are veritable portraits, in which such
+details as a peculiar conformation of the skull, prominent cheekbones,
+deep-set eyes, sunken cheeks, or the modelling of the chin, have all
+been observed and reproduced with a fidelity and keenness of observation
+which we fail to find in such works of the earlier artists as have come
+down to us. These later sculptors display the same regard for truth in
+their treatment of animals, and their dog-headed divinities; their dogs,
+lions, and sphinxes will safely bear comparison with the most lifelike
+presentments of these creatures to be found among the remains of the
+Memphite or Theban eras. Egypt was thus in the full tide of material
+prosperity when it again fell under the Persian yoke, and might have
+become a source of inexhaustible wealth to Ochus had he known how to
+secure acceptance of his rule, as Darius, son of Hystaspes, had done in
+the days of Amasis.
+
+[Illustration: 317.jpg ONE OF THE LIONS IN THE VATICAN]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Flinders Petrie.
+
+The violence of his temperament, however, impelled him to a course of
+pitiless oppression, and his favourite minister, the eunuch Bagoas,
+seems to have done his best to stimulate his master's natural cruelty.
+In the days when they felt themselves securely protected from his anger
+by their Libyan and Greek troops, the fellahin had freely indulged in
+lampoons at the expense of their Persian suzerain; they had compared him
+to Typhon on account of his barbarity, and had nicknamed him "the Ass,"
+this animal being in their eyes a type of everything that is vile.
+On his arrival at Memphis, Ochus gave orders that an ass should be
+installed in the temple of Phtah, and have divine honours paid to it; he
+next had the bull Apis slaughtered and served up at a set banquet which
+he gave to his friends on taking possession of the White Wall. The
+sacred goat of Mendes suffered the same fate as the Apis, and doubtless
+none of the other sacred animals were spared. Bagoas looted the temples
+in the most systematic way, despatched the sacred books to Persia, razed
+the walls of the cities to the ground, and put every avowed partisan of
+the native dynasty to the sword. After these punitive measures had been
+carried out, Ochus disbanded his mercenaries and returned to Babylon,
+leaving Pherendates in charge of the reconquered province.*
+
+     * It seems that a part of the atrocities committed by Ochus
+     and Bagoas soon came to be referred to the time of the
+     "Impure" and to that of Cambyses.
+
+The downfall of Egypt struck terror into the rebellious satraps who were
+in arms elsewhere. Artabazus, who had kept Asia Minor in a ferment ever
+since the time of Artaxerxes II., gave up the struggle of his own accord
+and took refuge in Macedonia. The petty kings of the cities on the
+shores of the Hellespont and the AEgean submitted themselves in order to
+regain favour, or if, like Hermias of Atarnasa, the friend of Aristotle,
+they still resisted, they were taken prisoners and condemned to death.
+The success of Ochus was a reality, but there was still much to be done
+before things were restored to the footing they had occupied before the
+crisis. We know enough of the course of events in the western provinces
+to realise the pitch of weakness to which the imbecility of Darius II.
+and his son Artaxerxes II. had reduced the empire of Darius and
+Xerxes, but it is quite certain that the disastrous effects of their
+misgovernment were not confined to the shores of the Mediterranean,
+but were felt no less acutely in the eastern and central regions of the
+empire. There, as on the Greek frontiers, the system built up at the
+cost of so much ingenuity by Darius was gradually being broken down with
+each year that passed, and the central government could no longer
+make its power felt at the extremities of the empire save at irregular
+intervals, when its mandates were not intercepted or nullified in
+transmission. The functions of the "Eyes" and "Ears" of the king had
+degenerated into a mere meaningless formality, and were, more often
+than not, dispensed with altogether. The line of demarcation between
+the military and civil power had been obliterated: not only had the
+originally independent offices of satrap, general, and secretary ceased
+to exist in each separate province, but, in many instances, the satrap,
+after usurping the functions of his two colleagues, contrived to extend
+his jurisdiction till it included several provinces, thus establishing
+himself as a kind of viceroy. Absorbed in disputes among themselves, or
+in conspiracies against the Achsemenian dynasty, these officials had no
+time to look after the well-being of the districts under their control,
+and the various tribes and cities took advantage of this to break the
+ties of vassalage. To take Asia Minor alone, some of the petty kings
+of Bithynia, Paphlagonia, and certain districts of Cappadocia or the
+mountainous parts of Phrygia still paid their tribute intermittently,
+and only when compelled to do so; others, however, such as the
+Pisidians, Lycaonians, a part of the Lycians, and some races of Mount
+Taurus, no longer dreamed of doing so. The three satrapies on the shores
+of the Caspian, which a hundred years before had wedged themselves in
+between that sea and the Euxine, were now dissolved, all trace of them
+being lost in a confused medley of kingdoms and small states, some of
+which were ready enough to acknowledge the supremacy of Persia, while
+others, such as the Gordiseans, Taochi, Chalybes, Colchi, Mosynoki, and
+Tibarenians, obeyed no rule but their own.
+
+[Illustration: 321.jpg MAP OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE]
+
+All along the Caspian, the Cadusians and Amardians, on either side of
+the chain of mountains bordering the Iranian plateau, defied all the
+efforts made to subdue them.* India and the Sakse had developed from
+the condition of subjects into that of friendly allies, and the
+savage hordes of Gedrosia and the Paropamisus refused to recognise any
+authority at all.**
+
+     * They appear in the history of every epoch as the
+     irreconcilable foes of the great king, enemies against whom
+     even the most peacefully disposed sovereigns were compelled
+     to take the field in person.
+
+     ** The Sakae fought at Arbela, but only as allies of the
+     Persians. The Indians who are mentioned with them came from
+     the neighbourhood of Cabul; most of the races who had
+     formerly figured in Darius' satrapy of India had become
+     independent by the time Alexander penetrated into the basin
+     of the Indus.
+
+The whole empire needed to be reconquered and reorganised bit by bit if
+it was to exercise that influence in the world to which its immense size
+entitled it, and the question arose whether the elements of which it
+consisted would lend themselves to any permanent reorganisation or
+readjustment.
+
+The races of the ancient Eastern world, or, at any rate, that portion of
+them which helped to make its history, either existed no longer or had
+sunk into their dotage. They had worn each other out in the centuries
+of their prime, Chaldaeans and Assyrians fighting against Cossaeans or
+Elamites, Egyptians against Ethiopians and against Hittites, Urartians,
+Armaeans, the peoples of Lebanon and of Damascus, the Phoenicians,
+Canaanites and Jews, until at last, with impoverished blood and flagging
+energies, they were thrown into conflict with younger and more vigorous
+nations. The Medes had swept away all that still remained of Assyria
+and Urartu; the Persians had overthrown the Medes, the Lydians, and the
+Chaldaeans, till Egypt alone remained and was struck down by them in her
+turn. What had become of these conquered nations during the period
+of nearly two hundred years that the Achaemenians had ruled over them?
+First, as regards Elam, one of the oldest and formerly the most powerful
+of them all. She had been rent into two halves, each of them destined
+to have a different fate. In the mountains, the Uxians, Mardians,
+Elymasans, and Cossaeans--tribes who had formerly been the backbone of
+the nation--had relapsed into a semi-barbarous condition, or rather,
+while the rest of the world had progressed in civilization and
+refinement, they had remained in a state of stagnation, adhering
+obstinately to the customs of their palmy days: just as they had harried
+the Chaldaeans or Assyrians in the olden times, so now they harried the
+Persians; then, taking refuge in their rocky fastnesses, they lived on
+the proceeds of their forays, successfully resisting all attempts made
+to dislodge them. The people of the plains, on the other hand, kept in
+check from the outset by the presence of the court at Susa, not only
+promptly resigned themselves to their fate, but even took pleasure in
+it, and came to look upon themselves as in some sort the masters of
+Asia. Was it not to their country, to the very spot occupied by the
+palace of their king, that, for nearly two hundred years, satraps,
+vassal kings, the legates of foreign races, ambassadors of Greek
+republics--in a word, all the great ones of this world--came every year
+to render homage, and had not the treasures which these visitors brought
+with them been expended, in part at any rate, on their country? The
+memory of their former prosperity paled before the splendours of their
+new destiny, and the glory of their ancestors suffered eclipse. The
+names of the national kings, the story of their Chaldaean and Syrian
+conquests, the trophies of their victories over the great generals
+of Nineveh, the horrors of their latest discords and of the final
+catastrophe were all forgotten; even the documents which might have
+helped to recall them lay buried in the heart of the mound which served
+as a foundation for the palace of the Achgernenides. Beyond the vague
+consciousness of a splendid past, the memory of the common people was
+a blank, and when questioned by strangers they could tell them nothing
+save legends of the gods or the exploits of mythical heroes; and from
+them the Greeks borrowed their Memnon, that son of Tithonus and Eos
+who rushed to the aid of Priam with his band of Ethiopians, and whose
+prowess had failed to retard by a single day the downfall of Troy.
+Further northwards, the Urartians and peoples of ancient Nairi, less
+favoured by fortune, lost ground with each successive generation,
+yielding to the steady pressure of the Armenians. In the time of
+Herodotus they were still in possession of the upper basins of the
+Euphrates and Araxus, and, in conjunction with the Matieni and Saspires,
+formed a satrapy--the eighteenth--the boundaries of which coincided
+pretty closely with those of the kingdom ruled over by the last kings
+of Van in the days of Assur-bani-pal; the Armenians, on their side,
+constituted the thirteenth satrapy, between Mount Taurus and the Lower
+Arsanias.
+
+[Illustration: 325.jpg COINS OF THE SATRAPS WITH ARAMAEAN INSCRIPTIONS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from coins in the _Cabinet des
+     Medailles_
+
+The whole face of their country had undergone a profound change since
+that time: the Urartians, driven northwards, became intermingled with
+the tribes on the slopes of the Caucasus, while the Armenians, carried
+along towards the east, as though by some resistless current, were
+now scaling the mountainous bulwark of Ararat, and slowly but surely
+encroaching on the lower plains of the Araxes. These political
+changes had been almost completed by the time of Ochus, and Urartu had
+disappeared from the scene, but an Armenia now flourished in the very
+region where Urartu had once ruled, and its princes, who were related
+to the family of the Achaemenides, wielded an authority little short of
+regal under the modest name of satraps. Thanks to their influence, the
+religions and customs of Iran were introduced into the eastern borders
+of Asia Minor. They made their way into the valleys of the Iris and the
+Halys, into Cappadocia and the country round Mount Taurus, and thither
+they brought with them the official script of the empire, the Persian
+and Aramaean cuneiform which was employed in public documents, in
+inscriptions, and on coins. The centre of the peninsula remained very
+much the same as it had been in the period of the Phrygian supremacy,
+but further westward Hellenic influences gradually made themselves felt.
+
+[Illustration: 326.jpg A LYCIAN TOMB]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a woodcut in Bonndorff.
+
+The arts of Greece, its manners, religious ideals, and modes of thought,
+were slowly displacing civilisations of the Asianic type, and even in
+places like Lycia, where the language successfully withstood the Greek
+invasion, the life of the nations, and especially of their rulers,
+became so deeply impregnated with Hellenism as to differ but little from
+that in the cities on the Ionic, AEolian, or Doric seaboard. The Lycians
+still adhered to the ancient forms which characterised their funerary
+architecture, but it was to Greek sculptors, or pupils from the Grecian
+schools, that they entrusted the decoration of the sides of their
+sarcophagi and of their tombs.
+
+[Illustration: 327b.jpg STATUE OF MAUSOLUS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph of the original in
+     the British Museum.
+
+[Illustration: 327a.jpg COIN OF A LYCIAN KING]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a silver stater in the _Cabinet
+     des Medailles._ The king in question was named Deneveles,
+     and is only known by the coins bearing his superscription.
+     He flourished about 395 B.C.
+
+Their kings minted coins many of which are reckoned among the
+masterpieces of antique engraving; and if we pass from Lycia to the
+petty states of Caria, we come upon one of the greatest triumphs of
+Greek art--that huge mausoleum in which the inconsolable Artemisia
+enclosed the ashes and erected the statue of her husband. The Asia Minor
+of Egyptian times, with its old-world dynasties, its old-world names,
+and old-world races, had come to be nothing more than an historic
+memory; even that martial world, in which the Assyrian conquerors fought
+so many battles from the Euphrates to the Black Sea, was now no more,
+and its neighbours and enemies of former days had, for the most part,
+disappeared from the land of the living.
+
+[Illustration: 328.jpg LYCIAN SARCOPHAGUS DECORATED WITH GREEK CARVINGS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photogravure published by
+     Hamdy-Beg and Th. Reinach.
+
+The Lotanu were gone, the Khati were gone, and gone, too, were
+Carchemish, Arpad, and Qodshu, much of thSec.ir domain having been
+swallowed up again by the desert for want of hands to water and till it;
+even Assyria itself seemed but a shadow half shrouded in the mists of
+oblivion. Sangara, Nisibis, Resaina, and Edessa still showed some signs
+of vigour, but on quitting the slopes of the Masios and proceeding
+southwards, piles of ruins alone marked the sites of those wealthy
+cities through which the Ninevite monarchs had passed in their
+journeyings towards Syria. Here wide tracts of arid and treeless
+country were now to be seen covered with aromatic herbage, where the
+Scenite Arabs were wont to pursue the lion, wild ass, ostrich, bustard,
+antelope, and gazelle; a few abandoned forts, such as Korsorte, Anatho,
+and Is (Hit) marked the halting-places of armies on the banks of the
+Euphrates. In the region of the Tigris, the descendants of Assyrian
+captives who, like the Jews, had been set free by Cyrus, had rebuilt
+Assur, and had there grown wealthy by husbandry and commerce,* but in
+the district of the Zab solitude reigned supreme.** Calah and Nineveh
+were alike deserted, and though their ruins still littered the sites
+where they had stood, their names were unknown in the neighbouring
+villages. Xenophon, relying on his guides, calls the former place
+Larissa, the second Mespila.***
+
+     * This seems to be indicated by a mutilated passage in the
+     _Cylinder of Gyrus_, where Assur is mentioned in the list of
+     towns and countries whose inhabitants were sent back to
+     their homes by Cyrus after the capture of Babylon. Xenophon
+     calls it Esense, this being, possibly, a translation of the
+     name given to it by its inhabitants. Nothing could be more
+     natural than for exiles to call the villages founded by them
+     on their return "new." The town seems to have been a large
+     and wealthy one.
+
+     ** Xenophon calls this country Media, a desert region which
+     the Ten Thousand took six days to cross.
+
+     *** The name Larissa is, possibly, a corruption of some name
+     similar to that of the city of Larsam in Chaldaea; Mespila
+     may be a generic term. [Mespila is Muspula, "the low ground"
+     at the foot of Kouyunjik; Larissa probably Al Resen or
+     Res-eni, between Kouyunjik and Nebi Yunus.--Ed.]
+
+Already there were historians who took the ziggurat at Nineveh to be
+the burial-place of Sardanapalus. They declared that Cyrus had pulled it
+down in order to strengthen his camp during the siege of the town, and
+that formerly it had borne an epitaph afterwards put into verse by the
+poet Choerilus of Iassus: "I reigned, and so long as I beheld the light
+of the sun, I ate, I drank, I loved, well knowing how brief is the
+life of man, and to how many vicissitudes it is liable." Many writers,
+remembering the Assyrian monument at Anchiale in Cilicia, were inclined
+to place the king's tomb there. It was surmounted by the statue of a
+man--according to one account, with his hands crossed upon his breast,
+according to another, in the act of snapping his fingers--and bore the
+following inscription in Chaldaic letters: "I, Sardanapalus, son of
+Anakyndaraxes, founded Anchiale and Tarsus in one day, but now am dead."
+Thus ten centuries of conquests and massacre had passed away like a
+vapour, leaving nothing but a meagre residue of old men's tales and
+moral axioms.
+
+In one respect only does the civilisation of the Euphrates seem to have
+fairly held its own. Cossaea, though it had lost its independence, had
+lost but little of its wealth; its former rebellions had done it no
+great injury, and its ancient cities were still left standing, though
+shorn of their early splendour. Uru, it is true, numbered but few
+citizens round its tottering sanctuaries, but Uruk maintained a school
+of theologians and astronomers no less famous throughout the East than
+those of Borsippa. The swamps, however, which surrounded it possessed
+few attractions, and Greek travellers rarely ventured thither. They
+generally stopped at Babylon, or if they ventured off the beaten track,
+it was only to visit the monuments of Nebuchadrezzar, or the tombs of
+the early kings in its immediate neighbourhood. Babylon was, indeed, one
+of the capitals of the empire--nay, for more than half a century, during
+the closing years of Artaxerxes I., in the reign of Darius II., and
+in the early days of Artaxerxes IL, it had been the real capital; even
+under Ochus, the court spent the winter months there, and resorted
+thither in quest of those resources of industry and commerce which Susa
+lacked. The material benefits due to the presence of the sovereign seem
+to have reconciled the city to its subject condition; there had been no
+seditious movement there since the ill-starred rising of Shamasherib,
+which Xerxes had quelled with ruthless severity. The Greek mercenaries
+or traders who visited it, though prepared for its huge size by general
+report, could not repress a feeling of astonishment as they approached
+it. First of all there was the triple wall of Nebuchadrezzar, with its
+moats, its rows of towers, and its colossal gateways. Unlike the Greek
+cities, it had been laid out according to a regular plan, and formed a
+perfect square, inside which the streets crossed one another at right
+angles, some parallel to the Euphrates, others at right angles to it;
+every one of the latter terminated in a brazen gate opening through the
+masonry of the quay, and giving access to the river. The passengers who
+crowded the streets included representatives of all the Asiatic races,
+the native Babylonians being recognisable by their graceful dress,
+consisting of a linen tunic falling to the feet, a fringed shawl, round
+cap, and heavy staff terminating in a knob. From this ever-changing
+background stood out many novel features calculated to stimulate Greek
+curiosity, such as the sick persons exposed at street-corners in
+order that they might beg the passers-by to prescribe for them, the
+prostitution of her votaries within the courts of the goddess Mylitta,
+and the disposal of marriageable girls by auction: Herodotus, however,
+regretted that this latter custom had fallen into abeyance. And yet to
+the attentive eye of a close observer even Babylon must have furnished
+many unmistakable symptoms of decay. The huge boundary wall enclosed
+too large an area for the population sheltered behind it; whole quarters
+were crumbling into heaps of ruins, and the flower and vegetable gardens
+were steadily encroaching on spaces formerly covered with houses. Public
+buildings had suffered quite as much as private dwellings from the
+Persian wars. Xerxes had despoiled the temples, and no restoration
+had been attempted since his time. The ziggurat of Bel lay half buried
+already beneath piles of rubbish; the golden statues which had once
+stood within its chambers had disappeared, and the priests no longer
+carried on their astronomical observations on its platform.*
+
+     * Herodotus merely mentions that Xerxes had despoiled the
+     temple; Strabo tells us that Alexander wished to restore it,
+     but that it was in such a state of dilapidation that it
+     would have taken ten thousand men two months merely to
+     remove the rubbish.
+
+The palaces of the ancient kings were falling to pieces from lack of
+repairs, though the famous hanging gardens in the citadel were still
+shown to strangers. The guides, of course, gave them out to be a device
+of Semiramis, but the well-informed knew that they had been constructed
+by Nebuchadrezzar for one of his wives the daughter of Oyaxares, who
+pined for the verdure of her native mountains. "They were square in
+shape, each side being four hundred feet long; one approached them by
+steps leading to terraces placed one above the other, the arrangement
+of the whole, resembling that of an amphitheatre. Each terrace rested on
+pillars which, gradually increasing in size, supported the weight of
+the soil and its produce. The loftiest pillar attained a height of fifty
+feet; it reached to the upper part of the garden, its capital being on
+a level with the balustrades of the boundary wall. The terraces were
+covered with a layer of soil of sufficient depth for the roots of the
+largest trees; plants of all kinds that delight the eye by their shape
+or beauty were grown there. One of the columns was hollowed from top
+to bottom; it contained hydraulic engines which pumped up quantities of
+water, no part of the mechanism being visible from the outside."
+Many travellers were content to note down only such marvels as they
+considered likely to make their narratives more amusing, but others took
+pains to collect information of a more solid character, and before
+they had carried their researches very far, were at once astounded and
+delighted with the glimpses they obtained of Chaldaean genius. No doubt,
+they exaggerated when they went so far as to maintain that all their
+learning came to them originally from Babylon, and that the most famous
+scholars of Greece, Pherecydes of Scyros, Democritus of Abdera, and
+Pythagoras,* owed the rudiments of philosophy, mathematics, physics, and
+astrology to the school of the _Magi_.
+
+     * The story which asserts that Pythagoras served under
+     Nergilos, King of Assyria, is probably based on some
+     similarity of names: thus among the Greek kings of Cyprus,
+     and in the time of Assur-bani-pal, we find one whose name
+     would recall that of Pythagoras, if the accuracy of the
+     reading were beyond question.
+
+Yet it is not surprising that they should have believed this to be the
+case, when increasing familiarity with the priestly seminaries revealed
+to them the existence of those libraries of clay tablets in which, side
+by side with theoretic treatises dating from two thousand years back
+and more, were to be found examples of applied mechanics, observations,
+reckonings, and novel solutions of problems, which generations
+of scribes had accumulated in the course of centuries. The Greek
+astronomers took full advantage of these documents, but it was their
+astrologers and soothsayers who were specially indebted to them. The
+latter acknowledged their own inferiority the moment they came into
+contact with their Euphratean colleagues, and endeavoured to make good
+their deficiencies by taking lessons from the latter or persuading them
+to migrate to Greece. A hundred years later saw the Babylonian Berosus
+opening at Cos a public school of divination by the stars. From
+thenceforward "Chaldaean" came to be synonymous with "astrologer" or
+"sorcerer," and Chaldaean magic became supreme throughout the world at
+the very moment when Chaldaea itself was in its death-throes.
+
+Nor was its unquestioned supremacy in the black art the sole legacy that
+Chaldaea bequeathed to the coming generations: its language survived, and
+reigned for centuries afterwards in the regions subjugated by its arms.
+The cultivated tongue employed by the scribes of Nineve and Babylon
+in the palmy days of their race, had long become a sort of literary
+dialect, used in writings of a lofty character and understood by a
+select few, but unintelligible to the common people. The populace in
+town or country talked an Aramaic jargon, clumsier and more prolix
+than Assyrian, but easier to understand. We know how successfully the
+Aramaeans had managed to push their way along the Euphrates and into
+Syria towards the close of the Hittite supremacy: their successive
+encroachments had been favoured, first by the Assyrian, later by the
+Chaldaean conquests, and now they had become sole possessors of the
+ancient Naharaina, the plains of Cilicia, the basin of the Orontes, and
+the country round Damascus; but the true home of the Aramaeans was in
+Syria rather than in the districts of the Lower Euphrates. Even in the
+time of the Sargonids their alphabet had made so much headway that at
+Nineveh itself and at Calah it had come into everyday use; when Chaldaean
+supremacy gave way to that of the Persians, its triumph--in the western
+provinces, at any rate--was complete, and it became the recognised
+vehicle of the royal decrees: we come upon it in every direction, on
+the coins issued by the satraps of Asia Minor, on the seals of local
+governors or dynasts, on inscriptions or stelae in Egypt, in the letters
+of the scribes, and in the rescripts of the great king. From Nisib
+to Baphia, between the Tigris and the Mediterranean, it gradually
+supplanted most of the other dialects--Semitic or otherwise--which had
+hitherto prevailed. Phoenician held its ground in the seaports, but
+Hebrew gave way before it, and ended by being restricted to religious
+purposes, as a literary and liturgical language. It was in the
+neighbourhood of Babylon itself that the Judaean exiles had, during the
+Captivity, adopted the Aramaic language, and their return to Canaan
+failed to restore either the purity of their own language or the dignity
+and independence of their religious life. Their colony at Jerusalem
+possessed few resources; the wealthier Hebrews had, for the most part,
+remained in Chaldaea, leaving the privilege of repopulating the holy city
+to those of their brethren who were less plenteously endowed with this
+world's goods. These latter soon learned to their cost that Zion was not
+the ideal city whose "gates shall be open continually; they shall not
+be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the wealth of
+the nations;" far from "sucking the milk of nations and the breast of
+kings,"* their fields produced barely sufficient to satisfy the more
+pressing needs of daily life. "Ye have sown much, and bring in little,"
+as Jahveh declared to them "ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink,
+but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none
+warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with
+holes."**
+
+     * An anonymous prophet in Isa. lx. 11-16.
+
+     ** Hagg. i. 6.
+
+They quickly relinquished the work of restoration, finding themselves
+forgotten by all--their Babylonian brethren included--in the midst of
+the great events which were then agitating the world, the preparations
+for the conquest of Egypt, the usurpation of the pseudo-Smerdis, the
+accession of Darius, the Babylonian and Median insurrections. Possibly
+they believed that the Achaemenides had had their day, and that a new
+Chaldaean empire, with a second Nebuchadrezzar at its head, was about to
+regain the ascendency. It would seem that the downfall of Nadintav-bel
+inspired them with new faith in the future and encouraged them to
+complete their task: in the second year of Darius, two prophets, Haggai
+and Zechariah, arose in their midst and lifted up their voices.
+
+[Illustration: 337.jpg CHALDEAN SEAL WITH ARAMAIC INSCRIPTION]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photogravure published in
+     Menant.
+
+Zerubbabel, a prince of the royal line, governed Judah in the Persian
+interest, and with him was associated the high priest Joshua, who looked
+after the spiritual interests of the community: the reproaches of the
+two prophets aroused the people from their inaction, and induced them to
+resume their interrupted building operations. Darius, duly informed of
+what was going on by the governor of Syria, gave orders that they were
+not to be interfered with, and four years later the building of the
+temple was completed.*
+
+     * Ezra iv.-vi.; the account given by Josephus of the two
+     expeditions of Zerubbabel seems to have been borrowed partly
+     from the canonical book, partly from the Apocryphal writing
+     known as the _1st Book of Esdras_.
+
+For nearly a century after this the little Jewish republic remained
+quiescent. It had slowly developed until it had gradually won back
+a portion of the former territories of Benjamin and Judah, but its
+expansion southwards was checked by the Idumaeans, to whom Nebuchadrezzar
+had years before handed over Hebron and Acrabattene (Akrabbim) as a
+reward for the services they had rendered.
+
+On the north its neighbours were the descendants of those Aramaean
+exiles whom Sargon, Sennacherib, and Esar-haddon, kings of Assyria,
+had, on various occasions, installed around Samaria in Mount Ephraim. At
+first these people paid no reverence to the "God of the land," so that
+Jahveh, in order to punish them, sent lions, which spread carnage in
+their ranks. Then the King of Assyria allotted them an Israelitish
+priest from among his prisoners, who taught them "the law" of Jahveh,
+and appointed other priests chosen from the people, and showed them how
+to offer up sacrifices on the ancient high places.*
+
+     * Kings xvii. 24-40. There do not seem to have been the
+     continual disputes between the inhabitants of Judaea and
+     Samaria before the return of Nehemiah, which the compilers
+     of the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah seem to have believed.
+
+Thus another Israel began to rise up again, and, at first, the new
+Judah seems to have been on tolerably friendly terms with it: the two
+communities traded and intermarried with one another, the Samaritans
+took part in the religious ceremonies, and certain of their leaders
+occupied a court in the temple at Jerusalem. The alliance, however,
+proved dangerous to the purity of the faith, for the proselytes, while
+they adopted Jahveh and gave Him that supreme place in their devotions
+which was due to "the God of the land," had by no means entirely
+forsworn their national superstitions, and Adrammelek, Nergal, Tartak,
+Anammelek, and other deities still found worshippers among them. Judah,
+which in the days of its independence had so often turned aside after
+the gods of Canaan and Moab, was in danger of being led away by the
+idolatrous practices of its new neighbours; intermarriage with the
+daughters of Moab and Ammon, of Philistia and Samaria, was producing
+a gradual degeneracy: the national language was giving way before the
+Aramaean; unless some one could be found to stem the tide of decadence
+and help the people to remount the slope which they were descending,
+the fate of Judah was certain. A prophet--the last of those whose
+predictions have survived to our time--stood forth amid the general
+laxity and called the people to account for their transgressions, in
+the name of the Eternal, but his single voice, which seemed but a
+feeble echo of the great prophets of former ages, did not meet with
+a favourable hearing. Salvation came at length from the Jews outside
+Judah, the naturalised citizens of Babylon, a well-informed and wealthy
+body, occupying high places in the administration of the empire, and
+sometimes in the favour of the sovereign also, yet possessed by an
+ardent zeal for the religion of their fathers and a steadfast faith
+in the vitality of their race. One of these, a certain Nehemiah, was
+employed as cupbearer to Artaxerxes II. He was visited at Susa by some
+men of Judah whose business had brought them to that city and inquired
+of them how matters fared in Jerusalem. Hanani, one of his visitors,
+replied that "the remnant that are left of the captivity there in the
+province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem
+also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire."
+Nehemiah took advantage of a moment when the king seemed in a jovial
+mood to describe the wretched state of his native land in moving terms:
+he obtained leave to quit Susa and authority to administer the city in
+which his fathers had dwelt.*
+
+     * Nehemiah i., ii.
+
+This took place in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, about 385 B.C.
+Nehemiah at once made his way to Jerusalem with such escort as
+befitted his dignity, and the news of his mission, and, apparently,
+the sentiments of rigid orthodoxy professed by him from the beginning,
+provoked the resentment of the neighbouring potentates against him:
+Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite, chief of the Samaritans,
+and Geshem the Bedawin did their best to thwart him in the execution of
+his plans. He baffled their intrigues by his promptitude in rebuilding
+the walls, and when once he had rendered himself safe from any sudden
+attack, he proceeded with the reforms which he deemed urgent. His tenure
+of office lasted twelve years--from 384 to 373 B.C.--and during the
+whole of that time he refused to accept any of the dues to which he was
+entitled, and which his predecessors had received without scruple. Ever
+since their return from exile, the common people had been impoverished
+and paralysed by usury. The poor had been compelled to mortgage their
+fields and their vineyards in order to pay the king's taxes; then, when
+their land was gone, they had pledged their sons and their daughters;
+the moneyed classes of the new Israel thus absorbed the property of
+their poorer brethren, and reduced the latter to slavery. Nehemiah
+called the usurers before him and severely rebuking them for their
+covetousness, bade them surrender the interest and capital of existing
+debts, and restore the properties which had fallen into their hands
+owing to their shameful abuse of wealth, and release all those of their
+co-religionists whom they had enslaved in default of payment of their
+debts.* His high place in the royal favour doubtless had its effect
+on those whose cupidity suffered from his zeal, and prevented external
+enemies from too openly interfering in the affairs of the community:
+by the time he returned to the court, in 372 B.C., after an absence of
+twelve years, Jerusalem and its environs had to some extent regained
+the material prosperity of former days. The part played by Nehemiah was,
+however, mainly political, and the religious problem remained in very
+much the same state as before. The high priests, who alone possessed the
+power of solving it, had fallen in with the current that was carrying
+away the people, and--latterly, at any rate--had become disqualified
+through intermarriage with aliens: what was wanted was a scribe deeply
+versed in sacred things to direct them in the right way, and such a man
+could be found only in Babylonia, the one country in which the study of
+the ancient traditions still flourished. A certain Ezra, son of Seraiah,
+presented himself in 369 B.C., and, as he was a man of some standing,
+Artaxerxes not only authorised him to go himself, but to take with him
+a whole company of priests and Levites and families formerly attached to
+the service of the temple.** The books containing the Law of God and
+the history of His people had, since the beginning of the captivity,
+undergone alterations which had profoundly modified their text and
+changed their spirit.
+
+     * Neh. v.
+
+     ** Neh. xiii. 6: "in the two and thirtieth year of
+     Artaxerxes, King of Babylon, I went unto the king."
+
+This work of revision, begun under the influence of Ezekiel, and perhaps
+by his own followers, had, since his time, been carried on without
+interruption, and by mingling the juridical texts with narratives of
+the early ages collected from different sources, a lengthy work had been
+produced, very similar in composition and wording to the five Books
+of Moses and the Book of Joshua as we now possess them.* It was this
+version of the Revelation of Jahveh that Ezra brought with him from
+Babylon in order to instruct the people of Judah, and the first
+impressions received by him at the end of his journey convinced him that
+his task would be no light one, for the number of mixed marriages had
+been so great as to demoralise not only the common people, but even
+the priests and leading nobles as well. Nevertheless, at a general
+assembly** of the people he succeeded in persuading them to consent to
+the repudiation of alien wives.
+
+     * This is the priestly revision presupposed by recent
+     critics; here again, in order to keep within the prescribed
+     limits of space, I have been compelled to omit much that I
+     should have liked to add in regard to the nature of this
+     work and the spirit in which it was carried out.
+
+     ** Ezra, vii.-xi., where the dates given do not form part of
+     the work as written by Ezra, but have been introduced later
+     by the editor of the book as it now stands.
+
+But this preliminary success would have led to nothing unless he
+could secure formal recognition of the rigorous code of which he had
+constituted himself the champion, and protracted negotiations were
+necessary before he could claim a victory on this point as well as
+on the other. At length, about 367 B.C., more than a year after his
+arrival, he gained his point, and the covenant between Jahveh and His
+people was sealed with ceremonies modelled on those which had attended
+the promulgation of Deuteronomy in the time of Josiah. On the first day
+of the seventh month, a little before the autumn festival, the people
+assembled at Jerusalem in "the broad place which was before the water
+gate." Ezra mounted a wooden pulpit, and the chief among the priests sat
+beside him. He "opened the book in the sight of all the people... and...
+all the people stood up: and Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God.
+And all the people answered 'Amen, amen!' with the lifting up of their
+hands; and they bowed their heads and worshipped the Lord with their
+faces to the ground." Then began the reading of the sacred text. As each
+clause was read, the Levites stationed here and there among the people
+interpreted and explained its provisions in the vulgar tongue, so as
+to make their meaning clear to all. The prolix enumeration of sins and
+their expiation, and threats expressed in certain chapters, produced
+among the crowd the same effect of nervous terror as had once before
+been called forth by the precepts and maledictions of Deuteronomy. The
+people burst into tears, and so vehement were their manifestations of
+despair, that all the efforts of Ezra and his colleagues were needed to
+calm them. Ezra took advantage of this state of fervour to demand the
+immediate application of the divine ordinances. And first of all, it was
+"found written in the law, how that the Lord had commanded by Moses
+that the children of Israel should dwell in booths." For, seven days
+Jerusalem was decked with leaves; tabernacles of olive, myrtle, and palm
+branches rose up on all sides, on the roofs of houses, in courtyards,
+in the courts of the temple, at the gates of the city. Then, on the 27th
+day of the same month, the people put on mourning in order to confess
+their own sins and the sins of their fathers. Finally, to crown the
+whole, Ezra and his followers required the assembly to swear a solemn
+oath that they would respect "the law of Moses," and regulate their
+conduct by it.* After the first enthusiasm was passed, a reaction
+speedily set in. Many even among the priests thought that Ezra had gone
+too far in forbidding marriage with strangers, and that the increase of
+the tithes and sacrifices would lay too heavy a burden on the nation.
+The Gentile women reappeared, the Sabbath was no longer observed either
+by the Israelites or aliens; Eliashib, son of the high priest Joiakim,
+did not even deprive Tobiah the Ammonite of the chamber in the
+temple which he had formerly prepared for him, and things were
+almost imperceptibly drifting back into the same state as before the
+reformation, when Nehemiah returned from Susa towards the close of the
+reign of Artaxerxes. He lost no time in re-establishing respect for the
+law, and from henceforward opposition, if it did not entirely die out,
+ceased to manifest itself in Jerusalem.**
+
+     * Neh. viii., ix., with an interpolation in ver. 9 of chap,
+     viii., inserted in order to identify Nehemiah with the
+     representative of the Persian government.
+
+     ** Neh. xiii.
+
+Elsewhere, however, among the Samaritans, Indumaeans, and Philistines, it
+continued as keen as ever, and the Jews themselves were imprudent enough
+to take part in the political revolutions that were happening around
+them in their corner of the empire. Their traditions tell how they
+were mixed up in the rising of the Phoenician cities against Ochus, and
+suffered the penalty; when Sidon capitulated, they were punished with
+the other rebels, the more recalcitrant among them being deported into
+Hyrcania.
+
+Assyria was nothing more than a name, Babylon and Phoenicia were growing
+weaker every day; the Jews, absorbed in questions of religious ethics,
+were deficient in material power, and had not as yet attained sufficient
+moral authority to exercise an influence over the eastern world: the
+Egypt indestructible had alone escaped the general shipwreck, and
+seemed fated to survive her rivals for a long time. Of all these ancient
+nations it was she who appealed most strongly to the imagination of the
+Greeks: Greek traders, mercenaries, scholars, and even tourists wandered
+freely within her borders, and accounts of the strange and marvellous
+things to be found there were published far and wide in the writings
+of Hecataeus of Miletus, Herodotus of Halicarnassus, and Hellanicus of
+Lesbos. As a rule, they entered the country from the west, as European
+tourists and merchants still do; but Eakotis, the first port at which
+they touched, was a mere village, and its rocky Pharos had no claim to
+distinction beyond the fact that it had been mentioned by Homer.
+From hence they followed the channel of the Canopic arm, and as
+they gradually ascended, they had pointed out to them Anthylla,
+Arkandrupolis, and Gyna> copolis, townships dependent on Naucratis,
+lying along the banks, or situated some distance off on one of the minor
+canals; then Naucratis itself, still a flourishing place, in spite
+of the rebellions in the Delta and the suppressive measures of the
+Persians. All this region seemed to them to be merely an extension of
+Greece under the African sky: to their minds the real Egypt began at
+Sais, a few miles further eastwards. Sais was full in memories of the
+XXVIth dynasty; there they had pointed out to them the tombs of
+the Pharaohs in the enclosure of Nit, the audience hall in which
+Psammetichus II. received the deputation of the Eleians, the prison
+where the unfortunate Apries had languished after his defeat. The
+gateways of the temple of Nit seemed colossal to eyes accustomed to the
+modest dimensions of most Greek sanctuaries; these were, moreover, the
+first great monuments that the strangers had seen since they landed, and
+the novelty of their appearance had a good deal to do with the keenness
+of the impression produced. The goddess showed herself in hospitable
+guise to the visitors; she welcomed them all, Greek or Persian, at her
+festivals, and initiated them into several of her minor rites, without
+demanding from them anything beyond tolerance on certain points of
+doctrine.
+
+[Illustration: 346.jpg FOUNTAIN AND SCHOOL OF THE MOTHER OF LITTLE
+MOHAMAD]
+
+Her dual attributes as wielder of the bow and shuttle had inspired the
+Greeks with the belief that she was identical with that one of their own
+goddesses who most nearly combined in her person this complex mingling
+of war and industry: in her they Fountain and School of the Mother of
+Little Mohammed worshipped the prototype of their own Pallas. On the
+evening of the 17th day of Thoth, Herodotus saw the natives, rich and
+poor, placing on the fronts of their dwellings large flat lamps filled
+with a mixture of salt and oil which they kept alight all night in
+honour of Osiris and of the dead.*
+
+     * In my opinion it is not the festivals of Athyr that are
+     here referred to, but those of the month of Thoth, when, as
+     the inscriptions show, it was the practice to _light the new
+     fire_, according to the ritual, after first extinguishing
+     the fire of the previous year, not only in the temple of the
+     god, but in all the houses of the city.
+
+He made his way into the dwelling of the ineffable god, and there,
+unobserved among the crowd, he witnessed scenes from the divine life
+represented by the priests on the lake by the light of torches, episodes
+of his passion, mourning, and resurrection. The priests did not disclose
+their subtler mysteries before barbarian eyes, nor did they teach the
+inner meaning of their dogmas, but the little they did allow him
+to discern filled the traveller with respect and wonder, recalling
+sometimes by their resemblance to them the mysteries in which he was
+accustomed to take part in his own country. Then, as now, but little
+attention was paid to the towns in the centre and east of the Delta;
+travellers endeavoured to visit one or two of them as types, and
+collected as much information as they could about the remainder.
+Herodotus and his rivals attached little importance to those details of
+landscape which possess so much attraction for the modern tourist. They
+bestowed no more than a careless glance on the chapels scattered up and
+down the country like the Mohammedan shrines at the present day, and the
+waters extending on all sides beneath the acacias and palm trees during
+the inundation, or the fellahin trotting along on their little asses
+beside the pools, did not strike them as being of sufficient interest to
+deserve passing mention in an account of their travels.
+
+[Illustration: 348.jpg MODERN MOHAMMEDAN SHEKHS TOMBS]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Gautier.
+
+They passed by the most picturesque villages with indifference, and
+it was only when they reached some great city, or came upon some
+exceptionally fine temple or eccentric deity, that their curiosity was
+aroused. Mendes worshipped its patron god in the form of a live ram,*
+and bestowed on all members of the same species some share of the
+veneration it lavished on the divine animal. The inhabitants of
+Atarbekhis,** on the island of Prosopitis, gave themselves up to the
+worship of the bull.
+
+     * Herodotus says that both the goats and the god were named
+     Mendes in Egyptian, but he is here confusing ordinary goats
+     with the special goat which was supposed to contain the soul
+     of Osiris. It was the latter that the Egyptians named after
+     the god himself, Bainibdiduit, i.e. _the soul of the master
+     of the city of Diduit_.
+
+     ** The old explanation of this name as the _City of Hathor_
+     has been rightly rejected as inconsistent with one of the
+     elementary rules of hieroglyphic grammar. The name, when
+     properly divided into its three constituent parts, means
+     literally _the Castle of horus the Sparrow-hawk, or Hat-har-
+     baki_
+
+When one of these animals died in the neighbourhood they buried it,
+leaving one horn above the earth in order to mark the spot, and once
+every year the boats of Atarbekhis made a tour round the island to
+collect the skeletons or decaying bodies, in order that they might be
+interred in a common burying-place.
+
+[Illustration: 349.jpg PART OF THE INUNDATION IN A PALM GROVE]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Gautier.
+
+The people of Busiris patronised a savage type of religion. During the
+festival of Isis they gave themselves up to fierce conflicts, their
+fanatical fury even infecting strangers who chanced to be present. The
+Carians also had hit upon a means of outdoing the extravagance of the
+natives themselves: like the Shiite Mohammedans of the present day
+at the festival of the Hassanen, they slashed their faces with knives
+amidst shrieks and yells. At Papremis a pitched battle formed part of
+the religious observances: it took place, however, under certain special
+conditions. On the evening of the festival of Anhurit, as the sun went
+down, a number of priests performed a hasty sacrifice in the temple,
+while the remainder of the local priesthood stationed themselves at
+the gate armed with heavy cudgels. When the ceremony was over, the
+celebrants placed the statue of the god on a four-wheeled car as though
+about to take it away to some other locality, but their colleagues
+at the gate opposed its departure and barred the way. It was at this
+juncture that the faithful intervened; they burst in the door and set
+upon the priests with staves, the latter offering a stout resistance.
+The cudgels were heavy, the arms that wielded them lusty, and the fight
+lasted a long time, yet no one was ever killed in the fray--at least,
+so the priests averred--and I am at a loss to understand why Herodotus,
+who was not a native of Papremis, should have been so unkind as to doubt
+their testimony.*
+
+     * The god whom the Greeks identified with their Ares was
+     Anhurit, as is proved by one of the Leyden Papyri. So, too,
+     in modern times at Cairo, it used to be affirmed that no
+     Mohammedan who submitted to the doseh was ever seriously
+     injured by the hoofs of the horse which trampled over the
+     bodies extended on the ground.
+
+[Illustration: 350.jpg EPHEMERAL HOVELS OF CLAY OR DRIED BRICKS]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Haussoullier.
+
+It is nearly always in connection with some temple or religious festival
+that he refers to the towns of the Delta, and, indeed, in most of the
+minor cities of Egypt, just as in those of modern Italy there is little
+to interest visitors except the religious monuments or ceremonies.
+Herodotus went to Tanis or Mendes as we go to Orvieto or Loretto, to
+admire the buildings or pay our devotions at a famous shrine. More
+often than not the place was nothing in itself, consisting merely of a
+fortified enclosure, a few commonplace houses occupied by the wealthy
+inhabitants or by government officials, and on mounds of ancient
+_debris_, the accumulation of centuries, a number of ephemeral hovels
+built of clay, or dried bricks, divided into irregular blocks by winding
+alleys. The whole local interest was centred in the sanctuary and its
+inmates, human and divine. The traveller made his way in as best he
+could, went into ecstasies over the objects that were shown to him, and
+as soon as he had duly gone the rounds, set out for the next place on
+his list, deeming himself lucky if he happened to arrive during one
+of the annual fairs, such as that of Bubastis, for instance. Bands
+of pilgrims flocked in from all parts of Egypt; the river craft were
+overflowing with men and women, who converted the journey into one long
+carnival. Every time the vessel put in to land, the women rushed on
+shore, amid the din of castanets and flutes, and ran hither and thither
+challenging the women of the place with abuse to dance against them with
+uplifted garments. To the foreigners there was little to distinguish the
+festival of Bastit from many other Egyptian ceremonies of the kind; it
+consisted of a solemn procession, accompanied by the singing of hymns
+and playing of harps, dancing and sacrifices, but for weeks before and
+after it the town was transformed into one vast pleasure-ground. The
+people of Bubastis took a certain pride in declaring that more wine was
+drunk in it during a single day than during the rest of the whole year.
+Buto enjoyed exceptional popularity among the Greeks in Egypt. Its
+patron goddess, the Isis who took refuge amid the pools in a moving
+thicket of reeds and lotus, in order that she might protect her son
+Horus from the jealousy of Typhon, reminded them of the story of Latona
+and the cycle of the Delian legends; they, visited her in crowds,
+and her oracle became to most of them what that of Delos was to their
+brethren in Europe. At Buto they found a great temple, similar to all
+Egyptian temples, a shrine in which the statues of the goddess continued
+her mysterious existence, and, in the midst of the sacred lake, the
+little island of Khemmis, which was said to float hither and thither
+upon the waters. Herodotus did not venture to deny this absolutely,
+but states that he had never seen it change its position or even stir:
+perhaps his incredulity may have been quickened by the fact that this
+miracle had already been inquired into by Hecatasus of Miletus, an
+author who was his pet aversion. The priests of Buto declared that their
+prophets had foretold everything that had happened for a long time past,
+and for each event they had a version which redounded to the credit of
+their goddess: she had shown Pheron how he might recover his sight,
+had foretold how long the reign of Mykerinos would last, had informed
+Psammetichus that he would be saved by men of brass rising out of the
+sea, and had revealed to Cambyses that he should die in a town named
+Ecbatana. Her priests had taken an active part in the revolt of
+Khabbisha against Darius, and had lost a goodly portion of their
+treasure and endowments for their pains. They still retained their
+prestige, however, in spite of the underhand rivalry of the oracle
+of Zeus Ammon. The notaries of the Libyan deity could bring forward
+miracles even more marvellous than those credited to the Egyptian
+Latona, and in the case of many of the revolutions which had taken place
+on the banks of the Nile, a version of the legend in his honour was
+circulated side by side with the legends of Buto. The latter city lay
+on the very outskirts of one of those regions which excited the greatest
+curiosity among travellers, the almost inaccessible Bucolicum, where,
+it was said, no rebel ever failed to find a safe refuge from his alien
+pursuers. The Egyptians of the marshes were a very courageous race,
+but savage, poor, and ill fed. They drank nothing but beer, and obtained
+their oil not from the olive, but from the castor-oil plant,* and having
+no corn, lived on the seeds or roots of the lotus, or even on the stalks
+of the papyrus, which they roasted or boiled.
+
+     * It seems, moreover, that this custom was not confined to
+     the Delta; Herodotus, in contrasting the custom of Bucolicum
+     with that of the rest of Egypt, was evidently thinking of
+     Sais, Memphis, and other great cities in which he had
+     resided, where foreign olive oil obtained from Greece or
+     Syria was generally used.
+
+Fish was their staple article of food, and this they obtained in
+considerable quantity from Lake Menzaleh, the lagoons along the coast,
+and the canals or pools left by the inundation. But little was known
+of their villages or monuments, and probably they were not worth the
+trouble of a visit after those of the cities of the plain: endless
+stories were told of feats of brigandage and of the mysterious
+hiding-places which these localities offered to every outlaw, one of the
+most celebrated being the isle of Elbo, where the blind Anysis defied
+the power of Ethiopia for thirty years, and in which the first Amyrtasus
+found refuge. With the exception of a few merchants or adventurers
+who visited them with an eye to gain, most travellers coming from or
+returning to Asia avoided their territory, and followed the military
+road along the Pelusiac arm of the Nile from Pehisium to Daphno or Zalu,
+and from Daphnae or Zalu to Bubastis. A little below Kerkasoron, near
+the apex of the Delta, the pyramids stood out on the horizon, looking
+insignificant at first, but afterwards so lofty that, during the period
+of inundation, when the whole valley, from the mountains of Arabia to
+those of Libya, was nothing but one vast river, a vessel seemed to
+sail in their shadow for a long time before it reached their base. The
+traveller passed Heliopolis on his left with its temple of the Sun,
+next the supposed sources of the Northern Nile, the quarries of the Red
+Mountain, and then entering at length the Nile itself, after a journey
+of some hours, came to anchor by the quays of Memphis.
+
+To the Greeks of that time, Memphis was very much what Cairo is to
+us, viz. the typical Oriental city, the quintessence and chief
+representative of ancient Egypt. In spite of the disasters which had
+overwhelmed it during the last few centuries, it was still a very
+beautiful city, ranking with Babylon as one of the largest in the world.
+Its religious festivals, especially those in honour of Apis, attracted
+numberless pilgrims to it at certain seasons of the year, and hosts of
+foreigners, recruited from every imaginable race of the old continent,
+resorted to it for purposes of trade. Most of the nationalities who
+frequented it had a special quarter, which was named after them; the
+Phoenicians occupied the _Tyrian Camp_, the Greeks and Carians the
+_Hellenic Wall and Carian Wall_, and there were Oaromemphites or
+Hellenomemphites side by side with the native inhabitants. A Persian
+garrison was stationed within the White Wall, ready to execute the
+satrap's orders in the event of rebellion, and could have held out for
+a long time even after the rest of the country had fallen into the hands
+of the insurgents. Animals which one would scarcely have expected
+to find in the streets of a capital, such as cows, sheep, and goats,
+wandered about unheeded in the most crowded thoroughfares; for the
+common people, instead of living apart from their beasts, as the Greeks
+did, stabled them in their own houses. Nor was this the only custom
+which must have seemed strange in the eyes of a newly arrived visitor,
+for the Egyptians might almost have been said to make a point of doing
+everything differently from other nation's. The baker, seen at the
+kneading-trough inside his shop, worked the dough with his foot; on the
+other hand, the mason used no trowel in applying his mortar, and the
+poorer classes scraped up handfuls of mud mixed with dung when they had
+occasion to repair the walls of their hovels. In Greece, even the very
+poorest retired to their houses and ate with closed doors; the Egyptians
+felt no repugnance at eating and drinking in the open air, declaring
+that unbecoming and improper acts should be performed in secret, but
+seemly acts in public. The first blind alley they came to, a recess
+between two hovels, the doorstep of a house or temple, any of these
+seemed to them a perfectly natural place to dine in. Their bill of
+fare was not a sumptuous one. A sort of flat pancake somewhat bitter in
+taste, and made--not of corn or barley--but of spelt, a little oil, an
+onion or a leek, with an occasional scrap of meat or poultry, washed
+down by a jug of beer or wine; there was nothing here to tempt the
+foreigner, and, besides, it would not have been thought right for him
+to invite himself. A Greek who lived on the flesh of the cow was looked
+upon as unclean in the highest degree; no Egyptian would have thought of
+using the same pot or knife with him, or of kissing him on the mouth by
+way of greeting. Moreover, Egyptian etiquette did not tolerate the same
+familiarities as the Greek: two friends on catching sight of one another
+paused before they met, bowed, then clasped one another round the knees
+or pretended to do so. Young people gave way to an old man, or, if
+seated, rose to let him pass. The traveller recalled the fact that the
+Spartans behaved in the same way, and approved this mark of deference;
+but nothing in his home-life had prepared him for the sight of
+respectable women coming and going as they pleased, without escort and
+unveiled, carrying burdens on their shoulders (whereas the men carried
+them on their heads), going to market, keeping stalls or shops, while
+their husbands or fathers stayed comfortably at home, wove cloth,
+kneaded the potter's clay or turned the wheel, and worked at their
+trades; no wonder that they were ready to believe that the man was the
+slave, and the wife the mistress of the family. Some historians traced
+the origin of these customs back to Osiris, others only as far as
+Sesostris: Sesostris was the last resource of Greek historians when they
+got into difficulties. The city was crowded with monuments; there was
+the temple of the Phoenician Astarte, in which priests of Syrian descent
+had celebrated the mysteries of the great goddess ever since the days
+of the XVIIIth dynasty; then there was the temple of Ra, the temple of
+Amon, the temple of Tamu, the temple of Bastit, and the temple of Isis.*
+
+     * This list is taken mainly from one of the mutilated
+     letters found on the back of the _Sallier Papyrus_. The
+     Phoenician Astarte, called a foreign Aphrodite by Herodotus,
+     was regarded by the Egyptians as a counterpart of Bastit,
+     lady of Onkhtoui.
+
+The temple of Phtah, as yet intact, provided the visitor with a
+spectacle scarcely less admirable than that offered by the temple of the
+Theban Amon at Karnak. The kings had modified the original plan as each
+thought best, one adding obelisks or colossal statues, another a pylon,
+a third a pillared hall. Completed in this way by the labours of a score
+of dynasties, it formed, as it were, a microcosm of Egyptian history, in
+which each image, inscription and statue, aroused the attention of the
+curious. They naturally desired to learn who were the strangely dressed
+races shown struggling in a battle scene, the name of the king who had
+conquered them, and the reasons which had led him to construct this or
+that part of a monument, and there were plenty of busybodies ready to
+satisfy, as far as they could, the curiosity of visitors. Interpreters
+were at hand who bartered such information as they possessed, and
+the modern traveller who has had occasion to employ the services of a
+dragoman will have no difficulty in estimating the value of intelligence
+thus hawked about in ancient times. Priests of the lower class,
+doorkeepers and sacristans were trained to act as _ciceroni_, and knew
+the main outlines of the history of the temple in which they lived.
+Menes planned it, Moeris added the northern propylae, Ehampsinitus those
+on the west, Psammetichus the south, Asychis those on the east, the most
+noteworthy of them all. A native of Memphis, born at the foot of the
+pyramids, had been familiar with the names of Menes and Cheops from
+childhood; he was consequently apt to attribute to them everything of
+importance achieved by the Pharaohs of the old days. Menes had built the
+temple, Menes had founded the city, Menes had created the soil on
+which the city stood, and preserved it from floods by his dykes. The
+thoughtful traveller would assent, for had he not himself observed the
+action of the mud; a day's journey from the coast one could not let down
+a plummet without drawing it up covered with a blackish slime, a clear
+proof that the Nile continued to gain upon the sea. Menes, at all
+events, had really existed; but as to Asychis, Moris, Proteus, Pheron,
+and most of the characters glibly enumerated by Herodotus, it would be
+labour lost to search for their names among the inscriptions; they are
+mere puppets of popular romance, some of their names, such as Piraui or
+Pruti, being nothing more than epithets employed by the story-tellers to
+indicate in general terms the heroes of their tales. We can understand
+how strangers, placed at the mercy of their dragoman, were misled by
+this, and tempted to transform each title into a man, taking Pruti and
+Piraui to be Pharaoh Proteus and Pharaoh Pheron, each of them celebrated
+for his fabulous exploits. The guides told Herodotus, and Herodotus
+retails to us, as sober historical facts, the remedy employed by this
+unhistorical Pheron in order to recover his sight; the adventures of
+Paris and Helen at the court of Proteus,* and the droll tricks played by
+a thief at the expense of the simple Ehampsinitus.
+
+     * Some dragomans identified the Helen of the Homeric legend
+     with the "foreign Aphrodite" who had a temple in the Tyrian
+     quarter at Memphis, and who was really a Semitic divinity.
+
+[Illustration: 359.jpg THE STEP PYRAMID SEEN FROM THE GROVE OP PALM
+TREES TO THE NORTH OF SAQQARAH]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Haussoullier.
+
+The excursions made by the Greek traveller in the environs of Memphis
+were very similar to those taken by modern visitors to Cairo: on the
+opposite bank of the Nile there was Heliopolis with its temple of Ra,
+then there were the quarries of Turah, which had been worked from time
+immemorial, yet never exhausted, and from which the monuments he had
+been admiring, and the very Pyramids themselves had been taken stone by
+stone.*
+
+     * These are "the quarries in the Arabian Mountain,"
+     mentioned by Herodotus without indication of the local name.
+
+The Sphinx probably lay hidden beneath the sand, and the nearest
+Pyramids, those at Saqqarah, were held in small esteem by visitors;*
+they were told as they passed by that the step Pyramid was the most
+ancient of all, having been erected by Uenephes, one of the kings of the
+first dynasty, and they asked no further questions.
+
+     * Herodotus does not mention it, nor does any other writer
+     of the Greek period.
+
+Their whole curiosity was reserved for the three giants at Gizeh and
+their inmates, Cheops, Chephren, Mykerinos, and the fair Nitokris with
+the rosy cheeks. Through all the country round, at Heliopolis, and even
+in the Fayum itself, they heard the same names that had been dinned into
+their ears at Memphis; the whole of the monuments were made to fit into
+a single cycle of popular history, and what they learned at one place
+completed, or seemed to complete, what they had learned at another.
+
+I cannot tell whether many of them cared to stray much beyond Lake
+Moris: the repressive measures of Ochus had, as it would appear,
+interrupted for a time the regular trade which, ever since the Saite
+kings of the XXVIth dynasty, had been carried on by the Greeks with the
+Oases, by way of Abydos. A stranger who ventured as far as the Thebaid
+would have found himself in the same plight as a European of the last
+century who undertook to reach the first cataract. Their point
+of departure--Memphis or Cairo--was very much the same; their
+destinations--Elephantine and Assuan--differed but little. They employed
+the same means of transport, for, excepting the cut of the sails, the
+modern dahabeah is an exact counterpart of the pleasure and passenger
+boats shown on the monuments. Lastly, they set out at the same time of
+year, in November or December, after the floods had subsided. The same
+length of time was required for the trip; it took a month to reach
+Assuan from Cairo if the wind-were favourable, and if only such
+stoppages were made as were strictly necessary for taking in fresh
+provisions. Pococke, having left Cairo on the 6th of December, 1737,
+about midday, was at Akhmim by the 17th. He set sail again on the 18th,
+stayed at Thebes from the 13th of January, 1738, till the 17th, and
+finally moored at Assuan on the evening of January 20th, making in
+all forty-five days, fourteen of which were spent at various
+stopping-places. If the diary of a Greek excursionist or tourist had
+come down to us, we should probably find in it entries of a very similar
+kind.* The departure from Memphis would take place in November or
+December; ten or twelve days later the traveller would find himself
+at Panopolis;** from Panopolis to Elephantine, stopping at Coptos and
+Thebes, would take about a month, allowing time for a stay at Thebes,
+and returning to Memphis in February or March.
+
+     * Herodotus fixes twenty days for the voyage from Sais to
+     Elephantine. This period of time must be probably correct,
+     since at the present day dahabeahs constantly run from Cairo
+     to the second cataract and back in two months, including
+     stoppages of ten days to a fortnight for seeing the
+     monuments. The twenty days of Herodotus represent the
+     minimum duration of the voyage, without taking into account
+     the stoppages and accidents which often delay sailing
+     vessels on the Nile. Nine days, which Herodotus gives as the
+     time for reaching Thebes, is not sufficient, if the voyage
+     is undertaken in the usual way, stopping every evening for
+     the night; but it would be possible if the navigation were
+     uninterrupted day and night. This is now rarely done, but it
+     might have been frequent in ancient times, especially in the
+     service of the State.
+
+     ** It would seem clear that Herodotus stopped at Panopolis
+     and had communications with the people of the town.
+     [Panopolis or Khemmis is the present Ekhmim.--Tr.]
+
+[Illustration: 362a.jpg LONG STRINGS OF LADEN VESSELS]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Gautier.
+
+The greater part of the time was employed in getting from one point to
+another, and the necessity of taking advantage of a favourable wind in
+going up the river, often obliged the travellers to neglect more than
+one interesting locality.
+
+[Illustration: 302b.jpg THE VAST SHEET OF WATER IN THE MIDDAY HEAT]
+
+The Greek was not so keenly alive to the picturesqueness of the scenes
+through which he passed as the modern visitor, and in the account of
+his travels he took no note of the long lines of laden boats going up or
+down stream, nor of the vast sheet of water glowing in the midday sun,
+nor of the mountains honeycombed with tombs and quarries, at the foot of
+which he would be sailing day after day. What interested him above all
+things was information with regard to the sources of the immense river
+itself, and the reasons for its periodic inundation, and, according to
+the mental attitude impressed on him by his education, he accepted the
+mythological solution offered by the natives, or he sought for a more
+natural one in the physical lore of his own _savants_: thus he was told
+that the Nile took its rise at Elephantine, between the two rocks called
+Krophi and Mophi, and in showing them to him his informant would add
+that Psammetichus I. had attempted to sound the depth of the river at
+this point, but had failed to fathom it. At the few places where the
+pilot of the barque put in to port, the population showed themselves
+unfriendly, and refused to hold any communication with the Greeks.
+
+[Illustration: 363.jpg the mountains honeycombed with tombs AND
+Quarries]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Gautier.
+
+The interpreters, who were almost all natives of the Delta, were not
+always familiar with the people and customs of the Said, and felt almost
+as completely foreign at Thebes as did their employers. Their office
+was confined to translating the information furnished by the inhabitants
+when the latter were sufficiently civilised to hold communication with
+the travellers. What most astonished Herodotus at Panopolis was the
+temple and the games held in honour, so he believed, of Perseus, the son
+of Danae. These exercises terminated in an attempt to climb a regular
+"greasy pole" fixed in the ground, and strengthened right and left by
+three rows of stays attached to the mast at different heights; as for
+Perseus, he was the ithyphallic god of the locality, Minu himself, one
+of whose epithets--Pehresu, the runner--was confounded by the Greek ear
+with the name of the hero. The dragomans, enlarging on this mistaken
+identity, imagined that the town was the birthplace of Danaos and
+Lyncseus; that Perseus, returning from Libya with the head of Medusa,
+had gone out of his way to visit the cradle of his family, and that he
+had instituted the games in remembrance of his stay there. Thebes had
+become the ghost of its former self; the Persian governors had neglected
+the city, and its princesses and their ministers were so impoverished
+that they were unable to keep up its temples and palaces. Herodotus
+scarcely mentions it, and we can hardly wonder at it: he had visited
+the still flourishing Memphis, where the temples were cared for and
+were filled with worshippers. What had Thebes to show him in the way of
+marvels which he had not already seen, and that, too, in a better state
+of preservation? His Theban ciceroni also told him the same stories that
+he had heard in Lower Egypt, and he states that their information agreed
+in the main with that which he had received at Memphis and Heliopolis,
+which made it unnecessary to repeat it at length. Two or three things
+only appeared to him worthy of mention. His admiration was first roused
+by the 360 statues of the high priests of Amon which had already excited
+the wonder of his rival Hecataeus; he noted that all these personages
+were, without exception, represented as mere men, each the son of
+another man, and he took the opportunity of ridiculing the vanity of his
+compatriots, who did not hesitate to inscribe the name of a god at the
+head of their genealogies, removed by some score of generations only
+from their own. On the other hand, the temple servitors related to him
+how two Theban priestesses, carried off by the Phoenicians and sold, one
+in Libya and the other in Greece, had set up the first oracles known
+in those two countries: Herodotus thereupon remembered the story he had
+heard in Epirus of two black doves which had flown away from Thebes, one
+towards the Oasis of Ammon, the other in the direction of Dodona; the
+latter had alighted on an old beech tree, and in a human voice had
+requested that a temple consecrated to Zeus should be founded on the
+spot.*
+
+     * This indicates a confusion in the minds of the Egyptian
+     dragomans with the two brooding birds of Osiris, Isis and
+     Nephthys, considered as _Zarait_, that is to say, as two
+     birds of a different species, according to the different
+     traditions either vultures, rooks, or doves.
+
+Herodotus is quite overcome with joy at the thought that Greek
+divination could thus be directly traced to that of Egypt, for like most
+of his contemporaries, he felt that the Hellenic cult was ennobled by
+the fact of its being derived from the Egyptian. The traveller on the
+Nile had to turn homewards on reaching Elephantine, as that was the
+station of the last Persian garrison. Nubia lay immediately beyond the
+cataract, and the Ethiopians at times crossed the frontier and carried
+their raids as far as Thebes. Elephantine, like Assuan at the present
+day, was the centre of a flourishing trade. Here might be seen
+Kushites from Napata or Meroe, negroes from the Upper Nile and the Bahr
+el-Ghazal, and Ammonians, from all of whom the curious visitor might
+glean information while frequenting the bazaars. The cataract was
+navigable all the year round, and the natives in its vicinity enjoyed
+the privilege of piloting freight boats through its difficult channel.
+It took four days to pass through it, instead of the three, or even
+two, which suffice at the present day. Above it, the Nile spread out
+and resembled a lake dotted over with islands, several of which, such
+as Phike and Biggeh, contained celebrated temples, which were as much
+frequented by the Ethiopians as by the Egyptians.
+
+Correctly speaking, it was not Egypt herself that the Greeks saw,
+but her external artistic aspect and the outward setting of Egyptian
+civilisation. The vastness of her monuments, the splendour of her tombs,
+the pomp of her ceremonies, the dignity and variety of her religious
+formulas, attracted their curiosity and commanded their respect: the
+wisdom of the Egyptians had passed into a proverb with them, as it had
+with the Hebrews. But if they had penetrated behind the scenes, they
+would have been obliged to acknowledge that beneath this attractive
+exterior there was hopeless decay. As with all creatures when they have
+passed their prime, Egypt had begun to grow old, and was daily losing
+her elasticity and energy. Her spirit had sunk into a torpor, she
+had become unresponsive to her environment, and could no longer adapt
+herself to the form she had so easily acquired in her youth: it was as
+much as she could do to occupy fully the narrower limits to which she
+had been reduced, and to maintain those limits unbroken. The instinct
+which made her shrink from the intrusion of foreign customs and ideas,
+or even mere contact with nations of recent growth, was not the mere
+outcome of vanity. She realised that she maintained her integrity only
+by relying on the residue of her former solidarity and on the force of
+custom. The slightest disturbance of the equilibrium established among
+her members, instead of strengthening her, would have robbed her of the
+vigour she still possessed, and brought about her dissolution.
+
+[Illustration: 367.jpg DARIUS III.]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin in the Cabinet des
+     Medailles.
+
+She owed whatever activity she possessed to impulses imparted to her by
+the play of her ancient mechanism--a mechanism so stable in its action,
+and so ingeniously constructed, that it had still a reserve of power
+within it sufficient to keep the whole in motion for centuries, provided
+there was no attempt to introduce new wheels among the old. She had
+never been singularly distinguished for her military qualities; not that
+she was cowardly, and shrank from facing death, but because she lacked
+energy and enthusiasm for warlike enterprise. The tactics and armaments
+by which she had won her victories up to her prime, had at length become
+fetters which she was no longer inclined to shake off, and even if she
+was still able to breed a military caste, she was no longer able to
+produce armies fit to win battles without the aid of mercenaries. In
+order to be successful in the field, she had to associate with her own
+troops recruits from other countries--Libyans, Asiatics, and Greeks, who
+served to turn the scale. The Egyptians themselves formed a compact body
+in this case, and bearing down upon the enemy already engaged by the
+mercenaries, broke through his ranks by their sheer weight, or, if they
+could not accomplish this, they stood their ground bravely, taking to
+flight only when the vacancies in their ranks showed them that further
+resistance was impossible. The machinery of government, like the
+organisation of their armies, had become antiquated and degenerate.
+
+[Illustration: 368.jpg AN ELEPHANT ARMED FOR WAR]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a little terra-cotta group from
+     Myrrhina now in the Louvre. This object dates from the time
+     of the kings of Pergamos, and the soldier round whom the
+     elephant winds his trunk in order to dash him to the ground
+     is a Gaul of Asia Minor.
+
+The nobility were as turbulent as in former times, and the royal
+authority was as powerless now as of old to assert itself in the absence
+of external help, or when treason was afoot among the troops. Religion
+alone maintained its ascendency, and began to assume to itself
+the loyalty once given to the Pharaoh, and the devotion previously
+consecrated to the fatherland. The fellahin had never fully realised the
+degradation involved in serving a stranger, and what they detested in
+the Persian king was not exactly the fact that he was a Persian. Their
+national pride, indeed, always prompted them to devise some means
+of connecting the foreign monarch with their own solar line, and to
+transform an Achaemenian king into a legitimate Pharaoh. That which was
+especially odious to them in a Cambyses or an Ochus was the disdain
+which such sovereigns displayed for their religion, and the persecution
+to which they subjected the immortals. They accustomed themselves
+without serious repining to have no longer one of their own race upon
+the throne, and to behold their cities administered by Asiatics, but
+they could not understand why the foreigner preferred his own gods,
+and would not admit Amon, Phtah, Horus, and Ra to the rank of supreme
+deities. Ochus had, by his treatment of the Apis and the other divine
+animals, put it out of his power ever to win their good will. His
+brutality had made an irreconcilable enemy of that state which alone
+gave signs of vitality among the nations of the decaying East. This was
+all the more to be regretted, since the Persian empire, in spite of the
+accession of power which it had just manifested, was far from having
+regained the energy which had animated it, not perhaps in the time
+of Darius, but at all events under the first Xerxes. The army and the
+wealth of the country were doubtless still intact--an army and a revenue
+which, in spite of all losses, were still the largest in the world--but
+the valour of the troops was not proportionate to their number. The
+former prowess of the Persians, Medians, Bactrians, and other tribes of
+Iran showed no degeneracy: these nations still produced the same race
+of brave and hardy foot-soldiers, the same active and intrepid horsemen;
+but for a century past there had not been the improvements either in
+the armament of the troops or in the tactics of the generals which were
+necessary to bring them up to the standard of excellence of the Greek
+army. The Persian king placed great faith in extraordinary military
+machines. He believed in the efficacy of chariots armed with scythes;
+besides this, his relations with India had shown him what use his
+Oriental neighbours made of elephants, and having determined to employ
+these animals, he had collected a whole corps of them, from which he.
+hoped great things. In spite of the addition of these novel recruits, it
+was not on the Asiatic contingents that he chiefly relied in the event
+of war, but on the mercenaries who' were hired at great expense, and who
+formed the chief support of his power. From the time of Artaxerxes II.
+onwards, it was the Greek hoplites and peltasts who had always decided
+the issue of the Persian battles. The expeditions both by land and
+sea had been under the conduct of Athenian or Spartan generals--Conon,
+Chabrias, Iphi-crates, Agesilas, Timotheus, and their pupils; and again
+also it was to the Greeks--to the Rhodian Mentor and to, Memnon--that
+Ochus had owed his successes. The older nations--Egypt, Syria, Chaldaea,
+and Elam--had all had their day of supremacy; they had declined in the
+course of centuries, and Assyria had for a short time united them under
+her rule. On the downfall of Assyria, the Iranians had succeeded to
+her heritage, and they had built up a single empire comprising all the
+states which had preceded them in Western Asia; but decadence had fallen
+upon them also, and when they had been masters for scarcely two short
+centuries, they were in their turn threatened with destruction. Their
+rule continued to be universal, not by reason of its inherent vigour,
+but on account of the weakness of their subjects and neighbours, and a
+determined attack on any of the frontiers of the empire would doubtless
+have resulted in its overthrow.
+
+Greece herself was too demoralised to cause Darius any grave anxiety.
+Not only had she renounced all intention of attacking the great king in
+his own domain, as in the days of the Athenian hegemony, when she could
+impose her own conditions of peace, but her perpetual discords had
+yielded her an easy prey to Persia, and were likely to do so more and
+more. The Greek cities chose the great king as the arbiter in their
+quarrels; they vied with each other in obtaining his good will, his
+subsidies in men and vessels, and his darics: they armed or disarmed at
+his command, and the day seemed at hand when they would become a normal
+dependency of Persia, little short of a regular satrapy like Asiatic
+Hellas. One chance of escape from such a fate remained to them--if one
+or other of them, or some neighbouring state, could acquire such an
+ascendency as to make it possible to unite what forces remained to them
+under one rule. Macedonia in particular, having hitherto kept aloof from
+the general stream of politics, had at this juncture begun to shake
+off its lethargy, and had entered with energy into the Hellenic concert
+under the auspices of its king, Philip. Bagoas recognised the danger
+which threatened his people in the person of this ambitious sovereign,
+and did not hesitate to give substantial support to the adversaries of
+the Macedonian prince; Chersobleptes of Thrace and the town of Perinthus
+receiving from him such succour as enabled them to repulse Philip
+successfully (340). Unfortunately, while Bagoas was endeavouring
+to avert danger in this quarter, his rivals at court endeavoured to
+prejudice the mind of the king against him, and their intrigues were so
+successful that he found himself ere long condemned to the alternative
+of murdering his sovereign or perishing himself. He therefore poisoned
+Ochus, to avoid being assassinated or put to the torture, and placed on
+the throne Arses, the youngest of the king's sons, while he caused the
+remaining royal children to be put to death (336).* Egypt hailed
+this tragic end as a mark of the vengeance of the gods whom Ochus had
+outraged. A report was spread that the eunuch was an Egyptian, that he
+had taken part in the murder of the Apis under fear of death, but that
+when he was sure of his own safety he had avenged the sacrilege. As soon
+as the poison had taken effect, it was said he ate a portion of the dead
+body and threw the remainder to the cats: he then collected the bones
+and made them into whistles and knife-handles.**
+
+     * Plutarch calls the successor of Ochus Oarses, which
+     recalls the name which Dinon gives to Artaxerxes II.
+     Diodorus says that Bagoas destroyed the whole family of
+     Ochus, but he is mistaken. Arrian mentions a son of Ochus
+     about 330, and several other members of the royal Achaemenian
+     race are known to have been living in the time of Alexander.
+
+     ** The body of the enemy thrown to the cats to be devoured
+     is a detail added by the popular imagination, which crops up
+     again in the Tale of Satni Khamois.
+
+Ochus had astonished his contemporaries by the rapidity with which he
+had re-established the integrity of the empire; they were pleased to
+compare him with the heroes of his race, with Cyrus, Cambyses, and
+Darius. But to exalt him to such a level said little for their moral or
+intellectual perceptions, since in spite of his victories he was merely
+a despot of the ordinary type; his tenacity degenerated into brutal
+obstinacy, his severity into cruelty, and if he obtained successes,
+they were due rather to his generals and his ministers than to his own
+ability. His son Arses was at first content to be a docile instrument
+in the hands of Bagoas; but when the desire for independence came to him
+with the habitual exercise of power, and he began to chafe at his bonds,
+the eunuch sacrificed him to his own personal safety, and took his life
+as he had done that of his father in the preceding year (336). So
+many murders following each other in rapid succession had considerably
+reduced the Achsemenian family, and Bagoas for a moment was puzzled
+where to find a king: he at length decided in favour of Codomannos, who
+according to some was a great-grandson of Darius II., but according to
+others was not of the royal line, but had in his youth been employed as
+a courier. He had distinguished himself in the hostilities against the
+Casduians, and had been nominated satrap of Armenia by Ochus as a reward
+for his bravery. He assumed at his accession the name of Darius; brave,
+generous, clement, and possessed with an ardent desire to do right,
+he was in every way the superior of his immediate predecessors, and he
+deserved to have reigned at a time when the empire was less threatened.
+Bagoas soon perceived that his new protege, whose conduct he had
+reckoned on directing as he pleased, intended to govern for himself, and
+he therefore attempted to get rid of him; Bagoas was, however, betrayed
+by his accomplices, and compelled to drink the poison which he had
+prepared for Darius. These revolutions had distracted the attention of
+the court of Susa from the events which were taking place on the shores
+of the AEgean, and Philip had taken advantage of them to carry into
+effect the designs against Persia which he had been long meditating.
+After having been victorious against the Greeks, he had despatched an
+army of ten thousand men into Asia under the command of Parmenion and
+Attains (336). We may ask if it were not he who formed the project of
+universal conquest which was so soon to be associated with the name of
+his son Alexander. He was for the moment content to excite revolt among
+the cities of the AEgean littoral, and restore to them that liberty of
+which they had been deprived for nearly a century. He himself followed
+as soon as these lost children of Greece had established themselves
+firmly in Asia. The story of his assassination on the eve of his
+departure is well known (336), and of the difficulties which compelled
+Alexander to suspend the execution of the plans which his father had
+made. Darius attempted to make use of the respite thus afforded him by
+fortune; he adopted the usual policy of liberally bribing one part of
+Greece to take up arms against Macedonia--a method which was at first
+successful. While Alexander was occupied in the destruction of Thebes,
+the Rhodian general Memnon, to whom had been entrusted the defence of
+Asia Minor, forced the invaders to entrench themselves in the Troad. If
+the Persian fleet had made its appearance in good time, and had kept
+an active watch over the straits, the advance-guard of the Macedonians
+would have succumbed to the enemy before the main body of the troops
+had succeeded in joining them in Asia, and it was easy to foretell
+what would have been the fate of an enterprise inaugurated by such
+a disaster. Persia, however, had not yet learnt to seize the crucial
+moment for action: her vessels were still arming when the enemy made
+their appearance on the European shore of Hellespont, and Alexander had
+ample time to embark and disembark the whole of his army without having
+to draw his sword from the scabbard. He was accompanied by about thirty
+thousand foot soldiers and four thousand five hundred horse; the finest
+troops commanded by the best generals of the time--Parmenion, his two
+sons Nikanor and Philotas, Crater, Clitos, Antigonus, and others
+whose names are familiar to us all; a larger force than Memnon and his
+subordinates were able to bring up to oppose him, at all events at
+the opening of the campaign, during the preliminary operations which
+determined the success of the enterprise.
+
+The first years of the campaign seem like a review of the countries
+and nations which in bygone times had played the chief part in Oriental
+history. An engagement at the fords of the Granicus, only a few days
+after the crossing of the Hellespont, placed Asia Minor at the mercy
+of the invader (334). Mysia, Lydia, Caria, and Lycia tendered their
+submission, Miletus and Halicarnassus being the only towns to offer any
+resistance. In the spring of 333, Phrygia followed the general movement,
+in company with Cappadocia and Cilicia; these represented the Hittite
+and Asianic world, the last representatives of which thus escaped from
+the influences of the East and passed under the Hellenic supremacy.
+
+[Illustration: 376.jpg THE BATTLEFIELD OF ISSUS]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Lortet.
+
+At the foot of the Amanus, Alexander came into conflict not only with
+the generals of Darius, but with the great king himself. The Amanus, and
+the part of the Taurus which borders on the Euphrates valley, had always
+constituted the line of demarcation between the domain of the races of
+the Asianic peninsula and that of the Semitic peoples.
+
+[Illustration: 377.jpg A BAS-RELIEF ON A SIDONIAN SARCOPHAGUS]
+
+A second battle near the Issus, at the entrance to the Cilician gates,
+cleared the ground, and gave the conqueror time to receive the homage of
+the maritime provinces. Both Northern and Coele-Syria submitted to him
+from Samosata to Damascus.
+
+[Illustration: 379.jpg THE ISTHMUS OF TYRE AT THE PRESENT DAY]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a sketch by Lortet.
+
+The less important towns of Phonicia, such as Arvad, Byblos, Sidon, and
+those of Cyprus, followed their example; but Tyre closed its gates,
+and trusted to its insular position for the preservation of its
+independence, as it had done of old in the time of Sennacherib and of
+Nebuchadrezzar. It was not so much a scrupulous feeling of loyalty which
+emboldened her to take this step, as a keen realisation of what her
+conquest by the Macedonian would entail. It was entirely-owing to Persia
+that she had not succumbed in all parts of the Eastern Mediterranean in
+that struggle with Greece which had now lasted for centuries: Persia had
+not only arrested the progress of Hellenic colonisation in Cyprus, but
+had given a fresh impulse to that of Tyre, and Phoenician influence
+had regained its ascendency over a considerable part of the island. The
+surrender of Tyre, therefore, would be equivalent to a Greek victory,
+and would bring about the decay of the city; hence its inhabitants
+preferred hostilities, and they were prolonged in desperation over a
+period of seven months. At the end of that time Alexander succeeded in
+reducing the place by constructing a dyke or causeway, by means of
+which he brought his machines of war up to the foot of the ramparts, and
+filled in the channel which separated the town from the mainland; the
+island thus became a peninsula, and Tyre henceforth was reduced to
+the rank of an ordinary town, still able to maintain her commercial
+activity, but having lost her power as an independent state (332).
+Phoenicia being thus brought into subjection, Judaea and Samaria yielded
+to the conqueror without striking a blow, though the fortress of Gaza
+followed the example set by Tyre, and for the space of two months
+blocked the way to the Delta. Egypt revolted at the approach of her
+liberator, and the rising was so unanimous as to dismay the satrap
+Mazakes, who capitulated at the first summons. Alexander passed the
+winter on the banks of the Nile. Finding that the ancient capitals of
+the country--Thebes, Sais, and even Memphis itself--occupied positions
+which were no longer suited to the exigencies of the times, he founded
+opposite to the island of Pharos, in the township of Eakotis, a city
+to which he gave his own name. The rapid growth of the prosperity of
+Alexandria showed how happy the founder had been in the choice of its
+site: in less than half a century from the date of its foundation, it
+had eclipsed all the other capitals of the Eastern Mediterranean, and
+had become the centre of African Hellenism. While its construction
+was in progress, Alexander, having had opportunities of studying the
+peculiarities and characteristics of the Egyptians, had decided to
+perform the one act which would conciliate the good feeling of the
+natives, and secure for him their fidelity during his wars in the East:
+he selected from among their gods the one who was also revered by the
+Greeks, Zeus-Amnion, and repaired to the Oasis that he might be adopted
+by the deity. As a son of the god, he became a legitimate Pharaoh,
+an Egyptian like themselves, and on returning to Memphis he no longer
+hesitated to adopt the _pschent_ crown with the accompanying ancient
+rites. He returned to Asia early in the year 331, and crossed the
+Euphrates. Darius had attempted to wrest Asia Minor from his grasp, but
+Antigonus, the governor of Phrygia, had dispersed the troops despatched
+for this purpose in 332, and Alexander was able to push forward
+fearlessly into those regions beyond the Euphrates, where the Ten
+Thousand had pursued their victorious march before him. He crossed the
+Tigris about the 20th of September, and a week later fell in with
+his rival in the very heart of Assyria, not far from, the village
+of Gaugamela, where he took up a position which had been previously
+studied, and was particularly suited for the evolutions of cavalry.
+
+[Illustration: 382.jpg THE BATTLE OF ARBELA, FROM THE MOSAIC OF
+HERCULANUM]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph.
+
+At the Granicus and near Issus, the Greek element had played an
+important part among the forces which contested the field; on this
+occasion, however, the great king was accompanied by merely two or three
+thousand mercenaries, while, on the other hand, the whole of Asia seemed
+to have roused herself for a last effort, and brought forward her most
+valiant troops to oppose the disciplined ranks of the Macedonians.
+Persians, Susians, Medes, Armenians, Iranians from Bactriana, Sakae, and
+Indians were all in readiness to do their best, and were accompanied
+by every instrument of military warfare employed in Oriental tactics;
+chariots armed with scythes, the last descendants of the chariotry which
+had dominated all the battle-fields from the time of the XVIIIth Theban
+dynasty down to the latest Sargonids, and, employed side by side with
+these relics of a bygone day, were Indian elephants, now for the first
+time brought into use against European battalions. These picked troops
+sold their lives dearly, but the perfection of the Macedonian arms, and,
+above all, the superiority of the tactics employed by their generals,
+carried the day; the evening of the 30th of September found Darius in
+flight, and the Achaemenian empire crushed by the furious charges of
+Alexander's squadrons. Babylon fell into their hands a few days later,
+followed by Susa, and in the spring of 330, Ecbatana; and shortly after
+Darius met his end on the way to Media, assassinated by the last of his
+generals.
+
+With his death, Persia sank back into the obscurity from which Cyrus had
+raised her rather more than two centuries previously. With the exception
+of the Medes, none of the nations which had exercised the hegemony of
+the East before her time, not even Assyria, had had at their disposal
+such a wealth of resources and had left behind them so few traces of
+their power. A dozen or so of palaces, as many tombs, a few scattered
+altars and stelae, remains of epics preserved by the Greeks, fragments of
+religious books, often remodelled, and issuing in the Avesta--when
+we have reckoned up all that remains to us of her, what do we find
+to compare in interest and in extent with the monuments and wealth of
+writings bequeathed to us by Egypt and Chaldaea? The Iranians received
+Oriental civilisation at a time when the latter was in its decline, and
+caught the spirit of decadence in their contact with it. In succeeding
+to the patrimony of the nations they conquered, they also inherited
+their weakness; in a few years they had lost all the vigour of their
+youth, and were barely able to maintain the integrity of the empire
+they had founded. Moreover, the great peoples to whom they succeeded,
+although lacking the vigour necessary for the continuance of their
+independent existence, had not yet sunk so low as to acquiesce in their
+own decay, and resign themselves to allowing their national life to be
+absorbed is that of another power: they believed that they would emerge
+from the crisis, as they had done from so many others, with fresh
+strength, and, as soon as an occasion presented itself, they renewed the
+war against their Iranian suzerain. Prom, the first to the latest of the
+sovereigns bearing the name of Darius, the history of the Achaemenids in
+an almost uninterrupted series of internal wars and provincial revolts.
+The Greeks of Ionia, the Egyptians, Chaldaeans, Syrians, and the tribes
+of Asia Minor, all rose one after another, sometimes alone, sometimes
+in concert; some carrying on hostilities for not more than two or
+three years; others, like Egypt, maintaining them for more than half a
+century. They were not discouraged by the reprisals which followed each
+of these rebellions; they again had recourse to arms as soon as there
+seemed the least chance of success, and they renewed the struggle till
+from sheer exhaustion the sword fell from their hand. Persia was worn
+out by this perpetual warfare, in which at the same time each of her
+rivals expended the last relics of their vitality, and when Macedonia
+entered on the scene, both lords and vassals were reduced to such a
+state of prostration, that it was easy to foretell their approaching
+end. The old Oriental world was in its death-throes; but before it
+passed away, the successful audacity of Alexander had summoned Greece to
+succeed to its inheritance.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria,
+Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 9 (of 12), by G. Maspero
+
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