THE SEVEN GREAT MONARCHIES

OF THE

ANCIENT EASTERN WORLD;

OR, THE HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, AND ANTIQUITIES OF CHALDAEA, ASSYRIA

BABYLON, MEDIA, PERSIA, PARTHIA, AND SASSANIAN, OR NEW PERSIAN EMPIRE. 

BY

GEORGE RAWLINSON, M. A. , CAMDEN PROFESSOR OF ANCIENT HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

IN THREE VOLUMES. 

VOLUME II. 

WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

THE THIRD MONARCHY. 

MEDIA. 

[Illustration: MAP]

CHAPTER I. DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY. 

Along the eastern flank of the great Mesopotamian lowland, curvinground it on the north, and stretching beyond it to the south and thesouth-east, lies a vast elevated region, or highland, no portion ofwhich appears to be less than 3000 feet above the sea-level. Thisregion may be divided, broadly, into two tracts, one consisting of loftymountainous ridges, which form its outskirts on the north and on thewest; the other, in the main a high flat table-land, extending from thefoot of the mountain chains, southward to the Indian Ocean, and eastwardto the country of the Afghans. The western mountain-country consists, as has been already observed, of six or seven parallel ridges, havinga direction nearly from the north-west to the south-east, enclosingbetween them, valleys of great fertility, and well watered by a largenumber of plentiful and refreshing streams. This district was known tothe ancients as Zagros, while in modern geography it bears the names ofKurdistan and Luristan. It has always been inhabited by a multitude ofwarlike tribes, and has rarely formed for any long period a portionof any settled monarchy. Full of torrents, of deep ravines, or rockysummits, abrupt and almost inaccessible; containing but few passes, andthose narrow and easily defensible; secure, moreover, owing to the rigorof its climate, from hostile invasion during more than half the year;it has defied all attempts to effect its permanent subjugation, whethermade by Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Parthians, or Turks, and remainsto this day as independent of the great powers in its neighborhood as itwas when the Assyrian armies first penetrated its recesses. Nature seemsto have constructed it to be a nursery of hardy and vigorous men, astumbling-block to conquerors, a thorn in the side of every powerfulempire which arises in this part of the great eastern continent. 

The northern mountain country--known to modern geographers as Eiburz--isa tract of far less importance. It is not composed, like Zagros, ofa number of parallel chains, but consists of a single lofty ridge, furrowed by ravines and valleys, from which spurs are thrownout, running in general at right angles to its axis. Its width iscomparatively slight; and instead of giving birth to numerous largerivers, it forms only a small number of insignificant streams, often dryin summer, which have short courses, being soon absorbed either by theCaspian or the Desert. Its most striking feature is the snowy peak ofDemavend, which impends over Teheran, and appears to be the highestsummit in the part of Asia west of the Himalayas. 

The elevated plateau which stretches from the foot of those two mountainregions to the south and east is, for the most part, a flat sandydesert, incapable of sustaining more than a sparse and scantypopulation. The northern and western portions are, however, less aridthan the east and south, being watered to some distance by the streamsthat descend from Zagros and Elburz, and deriving fertility also fromthe spring rains. Some of the rivers which flow from Zagros on this sideare large and strong. One, the Kizil-Uzen, reaches the Caspian. Another, the Zenderud, fertilizes a large district near Isfahan. A third, theBendamir, flows by Persepolis and terminates in a sheet of water ofsome size--lake Bakhtigan. A tract thus intervenes between the mountainregions and the desert which, though it cannot be called fertile, isfairly productive, and can support a large settled population. Thisforms the chief portion of the region which the ancients called Media, as being the country inhabited by the race on whose history we are aboutto enter. 

Media, however, included, besides this, another tract of considerablesize and importance. At the north-western angle of the region abovedescribed, in the corner whence the two great chains branch out tothe south and to the east, is a tract composed almost entirely ofmountains, which the Greeks called Atropatene, and which is now knownas Azerbijan. This district lies further to the north than the rest ofMedia, being in the same parallels with the lower part of the CaspianSea. It comprises the entire basin of Lake Urumiyeh, together with thecountry intervening between that basin and the high mountain chain whichcurves round the south-western corner of the Caspian, It is a regiongenerally somewhat sterile, but containing a certain quantity of very, fertile territory, more particularly in the Urumiyeh basin, and towardsthe mouth of the river Araxes. 

The boundaries of Media are given somewhat differently by differentwriters, and no doubt they actually varied at different periods; but thevariations were not great, and the natural limits, on three sides at anyrate, may be laid down with tolerable precision. Towards the north theboundary was at first the mountain chain closing in on that side theUrumiyeh basin, after which it seems to have been held that the truelimit was the Araxes, to its entrance on the low country, and then themountain chain west and south of the Caspian. Westward, the line ofdemarcation may be best regarded as, towards the south, running alongthe centre of the Zagros region; and, above this, as formed by thatcontinuation of the Zagros chain which separates the Urumiyeh fromthe Van basin. Eastward, the boundary was marked by the spur from theElburz, across which lay the pass known as the Pylse Caspise, and belowthis by the great salt desert, whose western limit is nearly in thesame longitude. Towards the south there was no marked line or naturalboundary; and it is difficult to say with any exactness how much of thegreat plateau belonged to Media and how much to Persia. Having regard, however, to the situation of Hamadan, which, as the capital, should havebeen tolerably central, and to the general account which historians andgeographers give of the size of Media, we may place the southern limitwith much probability about the line of the thirty-second parallel, which is nearly the present boundary between Irak and Fars. 

The shape of Media has been called a square; but it is rather along parallelogram, whose two principal sides face respectively thenorth-east and the south-west, while the ends or shorter sides front tothe south-east and to the northwest. Its length in its greater directionis about 600 miles, and its width about 250 miles. It must thus containnearly 150, 000 square miles, an area considerably larger than that ofAssyria and Chaldaea put together, and quite sufficient to constitute astate of the first class, even according to the ideas of modern Europe. It is nearly one-fifth more than the area of the British Islands, andhalf as much again as that of Prussia, or of peninsular Italy. It equalsthree fourths of France, or three fifths of Germany. It has, moreover, the great advantage of compactness, forming a single solid mass, with nostraggling or outlying portions; and it is strongly defended on almostevery side by natural barriers offering great difficulties to aninvader. 

In comparison with the countries which formed the seats of the twomonarchies already described, the general character of the Medianterritory is undoubtedly one of sterility. The high table-land iseverywhere intersected by rocky ranges, spurs from Zagros, which havea general direction from west to east, and separate the country into anumber of parallel broad valleys, or long plains, opening out into thedesert. The appearance of these ranges is almost everywhere bare, arid, and forbidding. Above, they present to the eye huge masses of gray rockpiled one upon another; below, a slope of detritus, destitute of treesor shrubs, and only occasionally nourishing a dry and scanty herbage. The appearance of the plains is little superior; they are flat andwithout undulations, composed in general of gravel or hard clay, andrarely enlivened by any show of water; except for two months inthe spring, they exhibit to the eye a uniform brown expanse, almosttreeless, which impresses the traveller with a feeling of sadness andweariness. Even in Azerbijan, which is one of the least arid portionsof the territory, vast tracks consist of open undulating downs, desolateand sterile, bearing only a coarse withered grass and a few stuntedbushes. 

Still there are considerable exceptions to this general aspect ofdesolation. In the worst parts of the region there is a time afterthe spring rains when nature puts on a holiday dress, and the countrybecomes gay and cheerful. The slopes at the base of the rocky ranges aretinged with an emerald green: a richer vegetation springs up over theplains, which are covered with a fine herbage or with a variety ofcrops; the fruit trees which surround the villages burst out into themost luxuriant blossom; the roses come into bloom, and their perfumeeverywhere fills the air. For the two months of April and May thewhole face of the country is changed, and a lovely verdure replaces theordinary dull sterility. 

In a certain number of more favored spots beauty and fertility arefound during nearly the whole of the year. All round the shores of LakeUrumiyeh, more especially in the rich plain of Miyandab at its southernextremity, along the valleys of the Aras, the Kizil-uzen, and theJaghetu, in the great valley of Linjan, fertilized by irrigation fromthe Zenderud, in the Zagros valleys, and in various other places, there is an excellent soil which produces abundantly with very slightcultivation. 

The general sterility of Media arises from the scantiness of the watersupply. It has but few rivers, and the streams that it possesses run forthe most part in deep and narrow valleys sunk below the general level ofthe country, so that they cannot be applied at all widely to purposes ofirrigation. Moreover, some of them are, unfortunately, impregnatedwith salt to such an extent that they are altogether useless forthis purpose; and indeed, instead of fertilizing, spread aroundthem desolation and barrenness. The only Median streams which areof sufficient importance to require description are the Aras, theKizil-Uzen, the Jaghetu, the Aji-Su and the Zenderud, or river ofIsfahan. 

The Aras is only very partially a Median stream. It rises from severalsources in the mountain tract between Kars and Erzeroum, and runs witha generally eastern direction through Armenia to the longitude of MountArarat, where it crosses the fortieth parallel and begins to trendsouthward, flowing along the eastern side of Ararat in a south-easterlydirection, nearly to the Julfa ferry on the high road from Erivan toTabriz. From this point it runs only a little south of east to long. 46° 30' E. From Greenwich, when it makes almost a right angle and runsdirectly north-east to its junction with the Kur at Djavat. Soon afterthis it curves to the south, and enters the Caspian by several mouths inlat. 39° 10' nearly. The Aras is a considerable stream almost from itssource. At Hassan-Kaleh, less than twenty miles from Erzeroum, wherethe river is forded in several branches, the water reaches to thesaddle-girths. At Keupri-Kieui, not much lower, the stream is crossedby a bridge of seven arches. At the Julfa ferry it is fifty yards wide, and runs with a strong current. At Megree, thirty miles further down, its width is eighty yards. In spring and early summer the streamreceives enormous accessions from the spring rains and the melting ofthe snows, which produce floods that often cause great damage to thelands and villages along the valley. Hence the difficulty of maintainingbridges over the Aras, which was noted as early as the time of Augustus, and is attested by the ruins of many such structures remaining along itscourse. Still, there are at the present day at least three bridges overthe stream--one, which has been already mentioned, at Keupri-Kieui, another a little above Nakshivan, and the third at Khudoperinski, a little below Megree. The length of the Aras, including only mainwindings, is 500 miles. 

The Kizil-Uzen, or (as it is called in the lower part of its course) theSefid-Rud, is a stream of less size than the Aras, but more importantto Media, within which lies almost the whole of its basin. It drains atract of 180 miles long by 150 broad before bursting through the Elburzmountain chain, and descending upon the low country which skirts theCaspian. Rising in Persian Kurdistan almost from the foot of Zagros, it runs in a meandering course with a general direction of north-eastthrough that province into the district of Khamseh, where it suddenlysweeps round and flows in a bold curve at the foot of lofty andprecipitous rocks, first northwest and then north, nearly to Miana, whenit doubles back upon itself, and turning the flank of the Zenjan rangeruns with a course nearly south-east to Menjil, after which it resumesits original direction of north-east, and, rushing down the pass ofBudbar, crosses Ghilan to the Caspian. Though its source is in directdistance no more than 320 miles from its mouth, its entire length, owingto its numerous curves and meanders, is estimated at 490 miles. It is aconsiderable stream, forded with difficulty, even in the dry season, ashigh up as Karagul, and crossed by a bridge of three wide arches beforeits junction with the Garongu river near Miana. In spring and earlysummer it is an impetuous torrent, and can only be forded within a shortdistance of its source. 

The Jaghetu and the Aji-Su are the two chief rivers of the Urumiyehbasin. The Jaghetu rises from the foot of the Zagros chain, at a verylittle distance from the source of the Kizil-Uzen. It collects thestreams from the range of hills which divides the Kizil-Uzen basin fromthat of Lake Urumiyeh, and flows in a tolerably straight course firstnorth and then north-west to the south-eastern shore of the lake. Sideby side with it for some distance flows the smaller stream of the Tatau, formed by torrents from Zagros; and between them, towards their mouths, is the rich plain of Miyandab, easily irrigated from the two streams, the level of whose beds is above that of the plain, and abundantlyproductive even under the present system of cultivation. The Aji-Sureaches the lake from the north-east. It rises from Mount Sevilan, within sixty miles of the Caspian, and flows with a course which is atfirst nearly due south, then north-west, and finally south-west, pastthe city of Tabriz, to the eastern shore of the lake, which it enters inlat. 37° 50'. The waters of the Aji-Su are, unfortunately, salt, and itis therefore valueless for purposes of irrigation. 

The Zenderud or river of Isfahan rises from the eastern flank of theKuh-i-Zerd (Yellow Mountain), a portion of the Bakhti-yari chain, and, receiving a number of tributaries from the same mountain district, flowswith a course which is generally east or somewhat north of east, pastthe great city of Isfahan--so long the capital of Persia--into thedesert country beyond, where it is absorbed in irrigation. Its entirecourse is perhaps not more than 120 or 130 miles; but running chieflythrough a plain region, and being naturally a stream of large size, it is among the most valuable of the Median rivers, its waters beingcapable of spreading fertility, by means of a proper arrangement ofcanals, over a vast extent of country, and giving to this part of Iran asylvan character, scarcely found elsewhere on the plateau. 

It will be observed that of these streams there is not one which reachesthe ocean. All the rivers of the great Iranic plateau terminate in lakesor inland seas, or else lose themselves in the desert. In general thethirsty sand absorbs, within a short distance of their source, thevarious brooks and streams which flow south and east into the desertfrom the northern and western mountain chains, without allowing them tocollect into rivers or to carry fertility far into the plain region. Thethe river of Isfahan forms the only exception to this rule within thelimits of the ancient Media. All its other important streams, as hasbeen seen, flow either into the Caspian or into the great lake ofUrumiyeh. 

That lake itself now requires our attention. It is an oblong basin, stretching in its greater direction from N. N. W. To S. S. E. , a distanceof above eighty miles, with an average width of about twenty-five miles. On its eastern side a remarkable peninsula, projecting far into itswaters, divides it into two portions of very unequal size--a northernand a southern. 

The southern one, which is the largest of the two, is diversifiedtowards its centre by a group of islands, some of which are of aconsiderable size. The lake, like others in this part of Asia, isseveral thousand feet above the sea level. Its waters are heavilyimpregnated with salt, resembling those of the Dead Sea. No fish canlive in them. When a storm sweeps over their surface it only raises thewaves a few feet; and no sooner is it passed than they rapidly subsideagain into a deep, heavy, death-like sleep. The lake is shallow, nowhereexceeding four fathoms, and averaging about two fathoms--a depth which, however, is rarely attained within two miles of the land. The water ispellucid. To the eye it has the deep blue color of some of the northernItalian lakes, whence it was called by the Armenians the Kapotan Zow or"Blue Sea. "

According to the Armenian geography, Media contained eleven districts;Ptolemy makes the number eight; but the classical geographers ingeneral are contented with the twofold division already indicated, and recognized at the constituent parts of Media only Atropatene (nowAzerbijan) and Media Magna, a tract which nearly corresponds with thetwo provinces of Irak Ajemj and Ardelan. Of the minor subdivisions thereare but two or three which seem to deserve any special notice. One ofthese is Ehagiana, or the tract skirting the Elburz Mountains from thevicinity of the Kizil-Uzen (or Sefid-Eud) to the Caspian Gates, a longand narrow slip, fairly productive, but excessively hot in summer, whichtook its name from the important city of Rhages. Another is Nissea, aname which the Medes seem to have carried with them from their earlyeastern abodes, and to have applied to some high upland plains westof the main chain of Zagros, which were peculiarly favorable to thebreeding of horses. As Alexander visited these pastures on his way fromSusa to Ecbatana, they must necessarily have lain to the south of thelatter city. Most probably they are to be identified with the modernplains of Kbawah and Alishtar, between Behistun and Khorramabad, whichare even now considered to afford the best summer pasturage in Persia. 

It is uncertain whether any of these divisions were known in the time ofthe great Median Empire. They are not constituted in any case by markednatural lines or features. On the whole it is perhaps most probablethat the main division--that into Media Magna and Media Atropatene--wasancient, Astro-patene being the old home of the Medes, and Media Magna alater conquest; but the early political geography of the country is tooobscure to justify us in laying down even this as certain. The minorpolitical divisions are still less distinguishable in the darkness ofthose ancient times. 

From the consideration of the districts which composed the Medianterritory, we may pass to that of their principal cities, some of whichdeservedly obtained a very great celebrity. Tho most important of allwere the two Ecbatanas--the northern and the southern--which seem tohave stood respectively in the position of metropolis to the northernand the southern province. Next to these may be named Rhages, which wasprobably from early times a very considerable place; while in thethird rank may be mentioned Bagistan--rather perhaps a palace thana town--Concobar, Adrapan, Aspadan, Charax, Kudrus, Hyspaostes, Urakagabarna, etc. 

The southern Ecbatana or Agbatana--which the Medes and Persiansthemselves knew as Hagmatan--was situated, as we learn from Polybius andDiodorus, on a plan at the foot of Mont Orontes, a little to the east ofthe Zagros range. The notices of these authors, combined with those ofEratosthenes, Isidore, Pliny, Arrian, and others, render it as nearlycertain as possible that the site was that of the modern town ofHamadan, the name of which is clearly but a slight corruption of thetrue ancient appellation. [PLATE I. , Fig. 2. ] Mount Orontes is tobe recognized in the modern Elwend or Erwend--a word etymologicallyidentical with _Oront-es_--which is a long and lofty mountains standingout like a buttress from the Zagros range, with which it is connectedtowards the north-west, while on every other side it stands isolated, sweeping boldly down upon the flat country at its base. Copious streamsdescend from the mountain on every side, more particularly to thenorth-east, where the plain is covered with a carpet of the mostluxuriant verdure, diversified with rills, and ornamented with numerousgroves of large and handsome forest trees. It is here, on ground slopingslightly away from the roots of the mountain, that the modern town, which lies directly at its foot, is built. The ancient city, if we maybelieve Diodorus, did not approach the mountain within a mile or a mileand a half. At any rate, if it began where Hamadan now stands, it mostcertainly extended very much further into the plain. We need not supposeindeed that it had the circumference, or even half the circumference, which the Sicilian romancer assigns to it, since his two hundred andfifty stades would give a probable area of fifty square miles, more thandouble that of London! Ecbatana is not likely to have been at its mostflourishing period a larger city than Nineveh; and we have already seenthat Nineveh covered a space, within the walls, of not more than 1800English acres. 

[Illustration: PLATE I. ]

The character of the city and of its chief edifices has, unfortunately, to be gathered almost entirely from unsatisfactory authorities. Hithertoit has been found possible in these volumes to check and correct thestatements of ancient writers, which are almost always exaggerated, by an appeal to the incontrovertible evidence of modern surveysand explorations. But the Median capital has never yet attracted ascientific expedition. The travellers by whom it has been visited havereported so unfavorably of its character as a field of antiquarianresearch that scarcely a spadeful of soil has been dug, either in thecity or in its vicinity, with a view to recover traces of the ancientbuildings. Scarcely any remains of antiquity are apparent. As the sitehas never been deserted, and the town has thus been subjected for nearlytwenty-two centuries to the destructive ravages of foreign conquerors, and the still more injurious plunderings of native builders, anxiousto obtain materials for new edifices at the least possible cost andtrouble, the ancient structures have everywhere disappeared from sight, and are not even indicated by mounds of a sufficient size to attract theattention of common observers. Scientific explorers have consequentlybeen deterred from turning their energies in this direction; morepromising sites have offered and still offer themselves; and it is asyet uncertain whether the plan of the old town might not be tracedand the position of its chief edifices fixed by the means of carefulresearches conducted by fully competent persons. In this dearth ofmodern materials we have to depend entirely upon the classical writers, who are rarely trustworthy in their descriptions or measurements, andwho, in this instance, labor under the peculiar disadvantage of beingmere reporters of the accounts given by others. 

Ecbatana was chiefly celebrated for the magnificence of its palace, a structure ascribed by Diodorus to Semiramis, but most probablyconstructed originally by Cyaxares, and improved, enlarged, andembellished by the Achaemenian monarchs. According to the judiciousand moderate Polybius, who prefaces his account by a protest againstexaggeration and over-coloring, the circumference of the buildingwas seven stades, or 1420 yards, somewhat more than four fifths of anEnglish mile. This size, which a little exceeds that of the palacemound at Susa, while it is in its turn a little exceeded by the palatialplatform at Persepolis, may well be accepted as probably close tothe truth. Judging, however, from the analogy of the above-mentionedpalaces, we must conclude that the area thus assigned to the royalresidence was far from being entirely covered with buildings. One halfof the space, perhaps more, would be occupied by large open courts, paved probably with marble, surrounding the various blocks of buildingsand separating them from one another. The buildings themselves may beconjectured to have resembled those of the Achaemenian monarchs at Susaand Persepolis, with the exception, apparently, that the pillars, whichformed their most striking characteristic, were for the most part ofwood rather than oŁ stone. Polybius distinguishes the pillars intotwo classes, those of the main buildings, and those which skirted thecourts, from which it would appear that at Ecbatana the courts weresurrounded by colonnades, as they were commonly in Greek and Romanhouses. These wooden pillars, all either of cedar or of cypress, supported beams of a similar material, which crossed each other at rightangles, leaving square spaces between, which were then filled in withwoodwork. Above the whole a roof was placed, sloping at an angle, andcomposed (as we are told) of silver plates in the shape of tiles. Thepillars, beams, and the rest of the woodwork were likewise coated withthin laminse of the precious metals, even gold being used for thispurpose to a certain extent. 

Such seems to have been the character of the true ancient Median palace, which served probably as a model to Darius and Xerxes when they designedtheir great palatial edifices at the more southern capitals. In theadditions which the palace received under the Achaemenian kings, stonepillars may have been introduced; and hence probably the broken shaftsand bases, so nearly resembling the Persepolitan, one of which Sir E. Ker Porter saw in the immediate neighborhood of Hamadan on his visitto that place in 1818. [PLATE I. , Fig. 1. ] But to judge from thedescription of Polybius, an older and ruder style of architectureprevailed in the main building, which depended for its effect not on thebeauty of architectural forms, but on the richness and costliness of thematerial. A pillar architecture, so far as appears, began in this partof Asia with the Medes, who, however, were content to use the morereadily obtained and more easily worked material of wood; while thePersians afterwards conceived the idea of substituting for theseinartificial props the slender and elegant stone shafts which formed theglory of their grand edifices. 

At a short distance from the palace was the "Acra, " or citadel, anartificial structure, if we may believe Polybius, and a place of veryremarkable strength. Here probably was the treasury, from which DariusCodomanus carried off 7000 talents of silver, when he fled towardsBactria for fear of Alexander. And here, too, may have been the RecordOffice, in which were deposited the royal decrees and other publicdocuments under the earlier Persian kings. Some travellers are ofopinion that a portion of the ancient structure still exists; and thereis certainly a ruin on the outskirts of the modern town towards thesouth, which is known to the natives as "the inner fortress, " and whichmay not improbably occupy some portion of the site whereon the originalcitadel stood. But the remains of building which now exist are certainlynot of an earlier date than the era of Parthian supremacy, and they cantherefore throw no light on the character of the old Median stronghold. It may be thought perhaps that the description which Herodotus givesof the building called by him "the palace of Deioces" should be hereapplied, and that by its means we might obtain an exact notion of theoriginal structure. But the account of this author is wholly at variancewith the natural features of the neighborhood, where there is no suchconical hill as he describes, but only a plain surrounded by mountains. It seems, therefore, to be certain that either his description is a puremyth, or that it applies to another city, the Ecbatana of the northernprovince. It is doubtful whether the Median capital was at any timesurrounded with walls. Polybius expressly declares that it was anunwalled place in his day and there is some reason to suspect that ithad always been in this condition. The Medes and Persians appear to havebeen in general content to establish in each town a fortified citadel orstronghold, round which the houses were clustered, without superaddingthe further defence of a town wall. Ecbatana accordingly seems never tohave stood a siege. When the nation which held it was defeated in theopen field, the city (unlike Babylon and Nineveh) submitted to theconqueror without a struggle. Thus the marvellous description in thebook of Judith, which is internally very improbable, would appear to beentirely destitute of any, even the slightest, foundation in fact. 

The chief city of northern Media, which bore in later times the names ofGaza, Gazaca, or Canzaca, is thought to have also been called Ecbatana, and to have been occasionally mistaken by the Greeks for the southern orreal capital. The description of Herodotus, which is irreconcilablyat variance with the local features of the Hamadan site, accordssufficiently with the existing remains of a considerable city in theprovince of Azerbijan; and it seems certainly to have been a city inthese parts which was called by Moses of Chorene "the second Ecbatana, the seven-walled town. " The peculiarity of this place was its situationon and about a conical hill which sloped gently down from its summitto its base, and allowed of the interposition of seven circuits of wallbetween the plain and the hill's crest. At the top of the hill, withinthe innermost circle of the defences, were the Royal Palace andthe treasuries; the sides of the hill were occupied solely by thefortifications; and at the base, outside the circuit of the outermostwall, were the domestic and other buildings which constituted the town. According to the information received by Herodotus, the battlementswhich crowned the walls were variously colored. Those of the outercircle were white, of the next black, of the third scarlet, of thefourth blue, of the fifth orange, of the sixth silver, and of theseventh gold. A pleasing or at any rate a striking effect was thusproduced--the citadel, which towered above the town, presenting to theeye seven distinct rows of colors. 

If there was really a northern as well as a southern Ecbatana, and ifthe account of Herodotus, which cannot possibly apply to the southerncapital, may be regarded as truly describing the great city of thenorth, we may with much probability fix the site of the northern townat the modern Takht-i-Suleiman, in the upper valley of the Saruk, atributary of the Jaghetu. [PLATE I. , Fig. 3. ] Here alone in northernMedia are there important ruins occupying such a position as that whichHerodotus describes. Near the head of a valley in which runs the mainbranch of the Saruk, at the edge of the hills which skirt it to thenorth, there stands a conical mound projecting into the vale and risingabove its surface to the height of 150 feet. The geological formation ofthe mound is curious in the extreme. It seems to owe its origin entirelyto a small lake, the waters of which are so strongly impregnated withcalcareous matter that wherever they overflow they rapidly form adeposit which is as hard and firm as natural rock. If the lake wasoriginally on a level with the valley, it would soon have formedincrustations round its edge, which every casual or permanent overflowwould have tended to raise; and thus, in the course of ages, the entirehill may have been formed by a mere accumulation of petrefactions. Theformation would progress more or less rapidly according to the tendencyof the lake to overflow its bounds; which tendency must have been stronguntil the water reached its present natural level--the level, probably, of some other sheet of water in the hills, with which it is connectedby an underground siphon. The lake, which is of an irregular shape, is about 300 paces in circumference. Its water, notwithstanding thequantity of mineral matter held in solution, is exquisitely clear, andnot unpleasing to the taste. Formerly it was believed by the natives tobe unfathomable; but experiments made in 1837 showed the depth to be nomore than 156 feet. 

The ruins which at present occupy this remarkable site consist of astrong wall, guarded by numerous bastions and pierced by four gateways, which runs round the brow of the hill in a slightly irregular ellipse, of some interesting remains of buildings within this walled space, andof a few insignificant traces of inferior edifices on the slope betweenthe plain and the summit. As it is not thought that any of these remainsare of a date anterior to the Sassanian kingdom, no description will begiven of them here. We are only concerned with the Median city, and thathas entirely disappeared. Of the seven walls, one alone is to be traced;and even here the Median structure has perished, and been replaced bymasonry of a far later age. Excavations may hereafter bring, to lightsome remnants of the original town, but at present research has done nomore than recover for us a forgotten site. 

The Median city next in importance to the two Ecbatanas was Raga orRhages, near the Caspian Gates, almost at the extreme eastern limits ofthe territory possessed by the Medes. 

The great antiquity of this place is marked by its occurrence in theZendavesta among the primitive settlements of the Arians. Its celebrityduring the time of the Empire is indicated by the position which itoccupies in the romances of Tobit and Judith. It maintained its rankunder the Persians, and is mentioned by Darius Hystaspis as the scene ofthe struggle which terminated the great Median revolt. The last Dariusseems to have sent thither his heavy baggage and the ladies of hiscourt, when he resolved to quit Ecbatana and fly eastward. It has beenalready noticed that Rhages gave name to a district; and this districtmaybe certainly identified with the long narrow tract of fertileterritory intervening between the Elburz mountain-range and the desert, from about Kasvin to Khaar, or from long. 30° to 52° 30'. The exact siteof the city of Rhages within this territory is somewhat doubtful. Allaccounts place it near the eastern extremity; and as there are in thisdirection ruins of a town called Rhei or Rhey, it has been usual toassume that they positively fix the locality. But similarity, or evenidentity, of name is an insufficient proof of a site; and, in thepresent instance, there are grounds for placing Rhages very much nearerto the Caspian Gates than the position of Rhei. Arrian, whose accuracyis notorious, distinctly states that from the Gates to Rhages was only asingle day's march, and that Alexander accomplished the distance in thattime. Now from Rhei to the Girduni Surdurrah pass, which undoubtedlyrepresents the Pylae Cacpise of Arrian, is at least fifty miles, adistance which no army could accomplish in less time than two days. Rhages consequently must have been considerably to the east ofRhei, about half-way between it and the celebrated pass which it wasconsidered to guard. Its probable position is the modern Kaleh Erij, near Veramin, about 23 miles from the commencement of the Surdurrahpass, where there are considerable remains of an ancient town. 

In the same neighborhood with Rhages, but closer to the Straits, perhapson the site now occupied by the ruins known as Uewanukif, or possiblyeven nearer to the foot of the pass, was the Median city of Charax, aplace not to be confounded with the more celebrated city called GharaxSpasini, the birthplace of Dionysius the geographer, which was on thePersian Gulf, at the mouth of the Tigris. 

The other Median cities, whose position can be determined with anapproach to certainty, were in the western portion of the country, inthe range of Zagros, or in the fertile tract between that range and thedesert. The most important of these are Bagistan, Adrapan, Concobar, andAspadan. 

Bagistan is described by Isidore as a "city situated on a hill, wherethere was a pillar and a statue of Semiramis. " Diodorus has an accountof the arrival of Semiramis at the place, of her establishing a royalpark or paradise in the plain below the mountain, which was wateredby an abundant spring, of her smoothing the face of the rock where itdescended precipitously upon the low ground, and of her carving on thesurface thus obtained her own effigy, with an inscription in Assyriancharacters. The position assigned to Bagistan by both writers, and thedescription of Diodorus, identify the place beyond a doubt with the nowfamous Behistun, where the plain, the fountain, the precipitous rock, and the scarped surface are still to be seen, through the supposedfigure of Semiramis, her pillar, and her inscription have disappeared. [PLATE II. , Fig. 1. ] This remarkable spot, lying on the direct routebetween Babylon and Ecbatana, and presenting the unusual combination ofa copious fountain, a rich plain, and a rock suitable for sculptures, must have early attracted the attention of the great monarchs whomarched their armies through the Zagros range, as a place where theymight conveniently set up memorials of their exploits. The works of thiskind ascribed by the ancient writers to Semiramis were probably eitherAssyrian or Babylonian, and (it is most likely) resembled the ordinarymonuments which the kings of Babylon and Nineveh delighted to erectin countries newly conquered. The example set by the Mesopotamians wasfollowed by their Arian neighbors, when the supremacy passed intotheir hands; and the famous mountain, invested by them with a sacredcharacter, was made to subserve and perpetuate their glory by receivingsculptures and inscriptions which showed them to have become the lordsof Asia. The practice did not even stop here. When the Parthian kingdomof the Arsacidee had established itself in these parts at the expenseof the Seleucidse, the rock was once more called upon to commemoratethe warlike triumphs of a new race. Gotarzes, the contemporary of theEmperor Claudius, after defeating his rival Meherdates in the plainbetween Behistun and Kermanshah, inscribed upon the mountain, whichalready bore the impress of the great monarchs of Assyria and Persia, arecord of his recent victory. 

[Illustration: PLATE II. ]

The name of Adrapan occurs only in Isidore, who places it betweenBagistan and Ecbatana, at the distance of twelve schoeni--36 Roman or 34British miles from the latter. It was, he says, the site of an ancientpalace belonging to Ecbatana, which Tigranes the Armenian had destroyed. The name and situation sufficiently identify Adrapan with the modernvillage of Arteman, which lies on the southern face of Elwend nearits base, and is well adapted for a royal residence. Here, during theseverest winter, when Hamadan and the surrounding country are buried insnow, a warm and sunny climate is to be found; whilst in the summera thousand rills descending from Elwend diffuse around fertilityand fragrance. Groves of trees grow up in rich luxuriance from thewell-irrigated soil, whose thick foliage affords a welcome shelter fromthe heat of the noonday sun. The climate, the gardens, and the manifoldblessings of the place are proverbial throughout Persia; and naturallycaused the choice of the site for a retired palace, to which the courtof Ecbatana might adjourn when either the summer heat and dust or thewinter cold made residence in the capital irksome. 

In the neighborhood of Adrapan, on the road leading to Bagistan, stoodConcobar, which is undoubtedly the modern Kungawar, and perhaps theChavon of Diodorus. Here, according to the Sicilian historian, Semiramisbuilt a palace and laid out a paradise; and here, in the time ofIsidore, was a famous temple of Artemis. Colossal ruins crown the summitof the acclivity on which the town of Kungawar stands, which may be theremains of this latter building; but no trace has been found that can beregarded as either Median or Assyrian. 

The Median town of Aspadan, which is mentioned by no writer but Ptolemy, would scarcely deserve notice here, if it were not for its moderncelebrity. Aspadan, corrupted into Isfahan, became the capital ofPersia, under the Sen kings, who rendered it one of the most magnificentcities of Asia. It is uncertain whether it existed at all in the timeof the great Median empire. If so, it was, at best, an outlying town oflittle consequence on the extreme southern confines of the territory, where it abutted upon Persia proper. The district wherein it lay wasinhabited by the Median tribe of the Parastaceni. 

Upon the whole it must be allowed that the towns of Media were fewand of no great account. The Medes did not love to congregate in largecities, but preferred to scatter themselves in villages over theirbroad and varied territory. The protection of walls, necessary forthe inhabitants of the low Mesopotamian regions, was not required by apeople whose country was full of natural fastnesses to which they couldreadily remove on the approach of danger. Excepting the capital andthe two important cities of Gazaca and Rhages, the Median towns wereinsignificant. Even those cities themselves were probably of moderatedimensions, and had little of the architectural splendor which givesso peculiar an interest to the towns of Mesopotamia. Their principalbuildings were in a frail and perishable material, unsuited to bear theravages of time; they have consequently altogether disappeared, and inthe whole of Media modern researches have failed to bring to light asingle edifice which can be assigned with any show of probability to theperiod of the Empire. 

The plan adopted in former portions of this work makes it necessary, before concluding this chapter, to glance briefly at the character ofthe various countries and districts by which Media was bordered--theCaspian district upon the north, Armenia upon the north-west, the Zagrosregion and Assyria upon the west, Persia proper upon the south, and uponthe east Sagartia and Parthia. 

North and north-east of the mountain range which under different namesskirts the southern shores of the Caspian Sea and curves roundits south-western corner, lies a narrow but important strip ofterritory--the modern Ghilan and Mazanderan. [PLATE II. , Fig. 2. ] Thisis a most fertile region, well watered and richly wooded, and forms oneof the most valuable portions of the modern kingdom of Persia. At firstit is a low flat tract of deep alluvial soil, but little raised abovethe level of the Caspian; gradually however it rises into swellinghills which form the supports of the high mountains that shut in thissheltered region, a region only to be reached by a very few passes overor through them. The mountains are clothed on this side nearly to theirsummit with dwarf oaks, or with shrubs and brushwood; while, lowerdown, their flanks are covered with forests of elms, cedars, chestnuts, beeches, and cypress trees. The gardens and orchards of the nativesare of the most superb character; the vegetation is luxuriant; lemons, oranges, peaches, pomegranates, besides other fruits, abound; rice, hemp, sugar-canes, mulberries are cultivated with success; vines growwild; and the valleys are strewn with flowers of rare fragrance, amongwhich may be noted the rose, the honeysuckle, and the sweetbrier. Nature, however, with her usual justice, has balanced theseextraordinary advantages with peculiar drawbacks; the tiger, unknownin any other part of Western Asia, here lurks in the thickets, ready tospring at any moment on the unwary traveller; inundations are frequent, and carry desolation far and wide; the waters, which thus escape fromthe river beds, stagnate in marshes, and during the summer and autumnheats pestilential exhalations arise, which destroy the stranger, and bring even the acclimatized native to the brink of the grave. ThePersian monarch chooses the southern rather than the northern side ofthe mountains for the site of his capital, preferring the keen wintercold and dry summer heat of the high and almost waterless plateau to thedamp and stifling air of the low Caspian region. 

The narrow tract of which this is a description can at no time havesheltered a very numerous or powerful people. During the Median period, and for many ages afterwards, it seems to have been inhabited by variouspetty tribes of predatory habits--Cadusians, Mardi, Tapyri, etc. , --whopassed their time in petty quarrels among themselves, and in plunderingraids upon their great southern neighbor. Of these tribes the Cadusiansalone enjoyed any considerable reputation. They were celebrated fortheir skill with the javelin--a skill probably represented by the modernPersian use of the _djereed_. According to Diodorus, they were engagedin frequent wars with the Median kings, and were able to bring into thefield a force of 200, 000 men! Under the Persians they seem to have beenconsidered good soldiers, and to have sometimes made a struggle forindependence. But there is no real reason to believe that they wereof such strength as to have formed at any time a danger to the Mediankingdom, to which it is more probable that they generally acknowledged aqualified subjection. 

The great country of Armenia, which lay north-west and partly north ofMedia, has been generally described in the first volume; but a fewwords will be here added with respect to the more eastern portion, whichimmediately bordered upon the Median territory. This consisted oftwo outlying districts, separated from the rest of the country, thetriangular basin of Lake Van, and the tract between the Kur andAras rivers--the modern Karabagh and Erivan. The basin of Lake Van, surrounded by high ranges, and forming the very heart of the mountainsystem of this part of Asia, is an isolated region, a sort of naturalcitadel, where a strong military power would be likely to establishitself. Accordingly it is here, and here alone in all Armenia, that wefind signs of the existence, during the Assyrian and Median periods, ofa great organized monarchy. 

The Van inscriptions indicate to us a line of kings who bore sway in theeastern Armenia--the true Ararat--and who were both in civilizationand in military strength far in advance of any of the other princes whodivided among them the Armenian territory. The Van monarchs may havebeen at times formidable enemies of the Medes. They have left traces oftheir dominion, not only on the tops of the mountain passes which leadinto the basin of Lake Urumiyeh, but even in the comparatively low plainof Miyandab on the southern shore of that inland sea. It is probablefrom this that they were at one time masters of a large portion of MediaAtropatene, and the very name of Urumiyeh, which still attaches to thelake, may have been given to it from one of their tribes. In the tractbetween the Kur and Aras, on the other hand, there is no sign ofthe early existence of any formidable power. Here the mountains arecomparatively low, the soil is fertile, and the climate temperate. Thecharacter of the region would lead its inhabitants to cultivate the artsof peace rather than those of war, and would thus tend to prevent themfrom being formidable or troublesome to their neighbors. 

The Zagros region, which in the more ancient times separated betweenMedia and Assyria, being inhabited by a number of independent tribes, but which was ultimately absorbed into the more powerful country, requires no notice here, having been sufficiently described among thetracts by which Assyria was bordered. At first a serviceable shieldto the weak Arian tribes which were establishing themselves along itseastern base upon the high plateau, it gradually passed into theirpossession as they increased in strength, and ultimately became a mainnursery of their power, furnishing to their armies vast numbers both ofmen and horses. The great horse pastures, from which the Medes first andthe Persians afterwards, supplied their numerous and excellentcavalry, were in this quarter; and the troops which it furnished--hardymountaineers accustomed to brave the severity of a most rigorousclimate--must have been among the most effective of the Median forces. 

On the south Media was bounded by Persia proper--a tract whichcorresponded nearly with the modern province of Farsistan. The completedescription of this territory, the original seat of the Persian nation, belongs to a future volume of this work, which will contain an accountof the "Fifth Monarchy. " For the present it is sufficient to observethat the Persian territory was for the most part a highland, verysimilar to Media, from which it was divided by no strongly marked lineor natural boundary. The Persian mountains are a continuation of theZagros chain, and Northern Persia is a portion--the southern portion--ofthe same great plateau, whose western and north-western skirts formedthe great mass of the Median territory. Thus upon this side Media wasplaced in the closest connection with an important country, a countrysimilar in character to her own, where a hardy race was likely to growup, with which she might expect to have difficult contests. 

Finally, towards the east lay the great salt desert, sparsely inhabitedby various nomadic races, among which the most important were theCossseans and the Sagartians. To the latter people Herodotus seems toassign almost the whole of the sandy region, since he unites them withthe Sarangians and Thamanseans on the one hand, with the Utians andMycians upon the other. They were a wild race, probably of Arian origin, who hunted with the lasso over the great desert mounted on horses, andcould bring into the field a force of eight or ten thousand men. Theircountry, a waste of sand and gravel, in parts thickly encrusted withsalt, was impassable to an army, and formed a barrier which effectivelyprotected Media along the greater portion of her eastern frontier. Towards the extreme north-east the Sagartians were replaced by theCossseans and the Parthians, the former probably the people of theSiah-Koh mountain, the latter the inhabitants of the tract known nowas the Atak, or "skirt, " which extends along the southern flank of theElburz range from the Caspian Gates nearly to Herat, and is capableof sustaining a very considerable population. The Cossseans wereplunderers, from whose raids Media suffered constant annoyance; but theywere at no time of sufficient strength to cause any serious fear. The Parthians, as we learn from the course of events, had in them thematerials of a mighty people; but the hour for their elevation andexpansion was not yet come, and the keenest observer of Median timescould scarcely have perceived in them the future lords of Western Asia. From Parthia, moreover, Media was divided by the strong rocky spur whichruns out from the Elburz into the desert in long. 52° 10' nearly, overwhich is the narrow pass already mentioned as the Caspian Gates. ThusMedia on most sides was guarded by the strong natural barriers of seas, mountains, and deserts lying open only on the south, where she adjoinedupon a kindred people. Her neighbors were for the most part weak innumbers, though warlike. Armenia, however, to the north-west, Assyria tothe west, and Persia to the south, were all more or less formidable. A prescient eye might have foreseen that the great struggles ofMedia would be with these powers, and that if she attained imperialproportions it must be by their subjugation or absorption. 

CHAPTER II. CLIMATE AND PRODUCTIONS. 

Media, like Assyria, is a country of such extent and variety that, inorder to give a correct description of its climate, we must divide itinto regions. Azerbijan, or Atropatene, the most northern portion, hasa climate altogether cooler than the rest of Media; while in the moresouthern division of the country there is a marked difference betweenthe climate of the east and of the west, of the tracts lying on thehigh plateau and skirting the Great Salt Desert, and of those containedwithin or closely abutting upon the Zagros mountain range. Thedifference here is due to the difference of physical conformation, whichis as great as possible, the broad mountainous plains about Kasvin, Koum, and Kashan, divided from each other by low rocky ridges, offeringthe strongest conceivable contrast to the perpetual alternations ofmountain and valley, precipitous height and deep wooded glen, whichcompose the greater part of the Zagros region. 

The climate of Azerbijan is temperate and pleasant, though perhapssomewhat overwarm, in summer; while in winter it is bitterly severe, colder than that of almost any other region in the same latitude. Thisextreme rigor seems to be mainly owing to elevation, the very valleysand valley plains of the tract being at a height of from 4000 to 5000feet above the sea level. Frost commonly sets in towards the end ofNovember--or at latest early in December; snow soon covers the groundto the depth of several feet; the thermometer falls below zero; the sunshines brightly except when from time to time fresh deposits of snowoccur; but a keen and strong wind usually prevails, which is representedas "cutting like a sword, " and being a very "assassin of life. " Deathsfrom cold are of daily occurrence; and it is impossible to travelwithout the greatest risk. Whole companies or caravans occasionallyperish beneath the drift, when the wind is violent, especially if aheavy fall happen to coincide with one of the frequent easterly gales. The severe weather commonly continues till March, when travellingbecomes possible, but the snow remains on much of the ground till May, and on the mountains still longer. The spring, which begins in April, istemperate and delightful; a sudden burst of vegetation succeeds to thelong winter lethargy; the air is fresh and balmy, the sun pleasantlywarm, the sky generally cloudless. In the month of May the heatincreases--thunder hangs in the air--and the valleys are often closeand sultry. Frequent showers occur, and the hail-storms are sometimes soviolent as to kill the cattle in the fields. As the summer advances theheats increase, but the thermometer rarely reaches 90° in the shade, andexcept in the narrow valleys the air is never oppressive. The autumn isgenerally very fine. Foggy mornings are common; but they are succeededby bright pleasant days, without wind or rain. On the whole the climateis pronounced healthy, though somewhat trying to Europeans, who do notreadily adapt themselves to a country where the range of the thermometeris as much as 90° or 100°. In the part of Media situated on the greatplateau--the modern Irak Ajemi--in which are the important towns ofTeheran, Isfahan, Hamadan, Kashan, Kasvin, and Koum. The climate isaltogether warmer than in Azerbijan, the summers being hotter, and thewinters shorter and much less cold. Snow indeed covers the groundfor about three months, from early in December till March; but thethermometer rarely shows more than ten or twelve degrees of frost, anddeath from cold is uncommon. The spring sets in about the beginning ofMarch, and is at first somewhat cool, owing to the prevalence of the_baude caucasan_ or north wind, a which blows from districts where thesnow still lies. But after a little time the weather becomes delicious;the orchards are a mass of blossom; the rose gardens come into bloom;the cultivated lands are covered with springing crops; the desert itselfwears a light livery of green. Every sense is gratified; the nightingalebursts out with a full gush of song; the air plays softly upon thecheek, and comes loaded with fragrance. Too soon, however, this charmingtime passes away, and the summer heats begin, in some places as early asJune 18 The thermometer at midday rises to 90 or 100 degrees. Hot gustsblow from the desert, sometimes with great violence. The atmosphere isdescribed as choking; and in parts of the plateau it is usual for theinhabitants to quit their towns almost in a body, and retire for severalmonths into the mountains. This extreme heat is, however, exceptional;in most parts of the plateau the summer warmth is tempered by coolbreezes from the surrounding mountains, on which there is always a gooddeal of snow. At Hamadan, which, though on the plain, is close to themountains, the thermometer seems scarcely ever to rise above 90°, andthat degree of heat is attained only for a few hours in the day. Themornings and evenings are cool and refreshing; and altogether theclimate quite justifies the choice of the Persian monarchs, who selectedEcbatana for their place of residence during the hottest portion of theyear. Even at Isfahan, which is on the edge of the desert, the heat isneither extreme nor prolonged. The hot gusts which blow from the eastand from the south raise the temperature at times nearly to a hundreddegrees; but these oppressive winds alternate with cooler breezes fromthe west, often accompanied by rain; and the average highest temperatureduring the day in the hottest month, which is August, does not exceed90°. 

A peculiarity in the climate of the plateau which deserves to be noticedis the extreme dryness of the atmosphere. In summer the rains which fallare slight, and they are soon absorbed by the thirsty soil. There is alittle dew at nights, especially in the vicinity of the few streams;but it disappears with the first hour of sunshine, and the air is leftwithout a particle of moisture. In winter the dryness is equallygreat; frost taking the place of heat, with the same effect upon theatmosphere. Unhealthy exhalations are thus avoided, and the salubrity ofthe climate is increased; but the European will sometimes sigh for thesoft, balmy airs of his own land, which have come flying over the sea, and seem to bring their wings still dank with the ocean spray. 

Another peculiarity of this region, produced by the unequal rarefactionof the air over its different portions, is the occurrence, especially inspring and summer, of sudden gusts, hot or cold, which blow with greatviolence. These gusts are sometimes accompanied with, whirlwinds, whichsweep the country in different directions, carrying away with themleaves, branches, stubble, sand, and other light substances, and causinggreat annoyance to the traveller. They occur chiefly in connection witha change of wind, and are no doubt consequent on the meeting of twoopposite currents. Their violence, however, is moderate, comparedwith that of tropical tornadoes, and it is not often that they do anyconsiderable damage to the crops over which they sweep. 

One further characteristic of the flat region may be noticed. Theintense heat of the summer sun striking on the dry sand or the salineefflorescence of the desert throws the air over them into such a stateof quivering undulation as produces the most wonderful and varyingeffects, distorting the forms of objects, and rendering the mostfamiliar strange and hard to be recognized. A mud bank furrowed by therain will exhibit the appearance of a magnificent city, with columns, domes, minarets, and pyramids; a few stunted bushes will be transformedinto a forest of stately trees; a distant mountain will, in the space ofa minute, assume first the appearance of a lofty peak, then swell out atthe top, and resemble a mighty mushroom, next split into several parts, and finally settle down into a flat tableland. Occasionally, though notvery often that semblance of water is produced which Europeans are areapt to suppose the usual effect of mirage. The images of objects arereflected at their base in an inverted position; the desert seemsconverted into a vast lake; and the thirsty traveller, advancing towardsit, finds himself the victim of an illusion, which is none the lesssuccessful because he has been a thousand times forewarned of itsdeceptive power. 

In the mountain range or Zagros and the tracts adjacent to it, theclimate, owing to the great differences of elevation, is more variedthan in the other parts of the ancient Media. Severe cold prevails inthe higher mountain regions for seven months out of the twelve, whileduring the remaining five the heat is never more than moderate. Inthe low valleys, on the contrary, and in other favored situations, thewinters are often milder than on the plateau; while in the summers, ifthe heat is not greater, at any rate it is more oppressive. Owing to theabundance of the streams and proximity of the melting snows, the air ismoist; and the damp heat, which stagnates in the valleys, broods feverand ague. Between these extremes of climate and elevation, every varietyis to be found; and, except in winter, a few hours' journey will almostalways bring the traveller into a temperate region. 

In respect of natural productiveness, Media (as already observed)differs exceedingly in different, and even in adjacent, districts. Therocky ridges of the great plateau, destitute of all vegetable mold, arewholly bare and arid, admitting not the slightest degree of cultivation. Many of the mountains of Azerbijan, naked, rigid, and furrowed, maycompare even with these desert ranges for sterility. The higher partsof Zagros and Elburz are sometimes of the same character; but more oftenthey are thickly clothed with forests, affording excellent timber andother valuable commodities. In the Elburz pines are found near thesummit, while lower down there occur, first the wild almond and thedwarf oak, and then the usual timber-trees of the country, the Orientalplane, the willow, the poplar, and the walnut. The walnut grows to alarge size both here and in Azerbijan, but the poplar is the wood mostcommonly used for building purposes. In Zagros, besides most of thesetrees, the ash and the terebinth or turpentine-tree are common; the oakbears gall-nuts of a large size; and the gum-tragacanth plant frequentlyclothes the mountain-sides. The valleys of this region are full ofmagnificent orchards, as are the low grounds and more sheltered nooks ofAzerbijan. The fruit-trees comprise, besides vines and mulberries, theapple, the pear, the quince, the plum, the cherry, the almond, the nut, the chestnut, the olive, the peach, the nectarine, and the apricot. 

On the plains of the high plateau there is a great scarcity ofvegetation. Trees of a large size grow only in the few places which arewell watered, as in the neighborhood of Hamadan, Isfahan, and in aless degree of Kashan. The principal tree is the Oriental plane, whichflourishes together with poplars and willows along the water-courses;cypresses also grow freely; elms and cedars are found, and the orchardsand gardens contain not only the fruit-trees mentioned above, but alsothe jujube, the cornel, the filbert, the medlar, the pistachio nut, thepomegranate, and the fig. Away from the immediate vicinity of the riversand the towns, not a tree, scarcely a bush, is to be seen. The commonthorn is indeed tolerably abundant in a few places; but elsewhere thetamarisk and a few other sapless shrubs are the only natural products ofthis bare and arid region. 

In remarkable contrast with the natural barrenness of this wide tractare certain favored districts in Zagros and Azerbijan, where the herbageis constant throughout the summer, and sometimes only too luxuriant. Such are the rich and extensive grazing grounds of Khawah and Alishtar, near Kermanshah, the pastures near Ojan and Marand, and the celebratedChowal Moghan or plain of Moghan, on the lower course of the Araxesriver, where the grass is said to grow sufficiently high to cover aman on horseback. These, however, are rare exceptions to the generalcharacter of the country, which is by nature unproductive, and scarcelydeserving even of the qualified encomium of Strabo. 

Still Media, though deficient in natural products, is not ill adaptedfor cultivation. The Zagros valleys and hillsides produce under a veryrude system of agriculture, besides the fruits already noticed, rice, wheat, barley, millet, sesame, Indian corn, cotton, tobacco, mulberries, cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, and the castor-oilplant. In Azerbijan thesoil is almost all cultivable, and if ploughed and sown will bring goodcrops of the ordinary kinds of grain. Even on the side of the desert, where Nature has shown herself most niggardly, and may seem perhaps todeserve the reproach of Cicero, that she behaves as a step mother toa man rather than as a mother, a certain amount of care and scientificlabor may render considerable tracts fairly productive. The only wantof this region is water; and if the natural deficiency of this necessaryfluid can be anyhow supplied, all parts of the plateau will bear crops, except those which form the actual Salt Desert. In modern, and stillmore in ancient times, this fact has been clearly perceived, and anelaborate system of artifical irrigation, suitable to the peculiarcircumstances of the country, has been very widely established. Thesystem of _kanats_, as they are called at the present day, aims atutilizing to the uttermost all the small streams and rills which descendtowards the desert from the surrounding mountains, and at conveyingas far as possible into the plain the spring water, which is theindispensable condition of cultivation in a country where--except fora few days in the spring and autumn--rain scarcely ever falls. As theprecious element would rapidly evaporate if exposed to the rays of thesummer sun, the Iranian husbandman carries his conduit underground, laboriously tunnelling through the stiff argillaceous soil, at a depthof many feet below the surface. The mode in which he proceeds is asfollows. At intervals along the line of his intended conduit he firstsinks shafts, which he then connects with one another by galleries, seven or eight feet in height, giving his galleries a slight incline, so that the water may run down them freely, and continuing them till hereaches a point where he wishes to bring the water out upon the surfaceof the plain. Here and there, at the foot of his shafts, he digs wells, from which the fluid can readily be raised by means of a bucket and awindlass; and he thus brings under cultivation a considerable belt ofland along the whole line of the _kanat_, as well as a large tract atits termination. These conduits, on which the cultivation of the plateaudepends, were established at so remote a date that they were popularlyascribed to the mythic Semiramis, the supposed wife of Ninus. It isthought that in ancient times they were longer and more numerous than atpresent, when they occur only occasionally, and seldom extend more thana few miles from the base of the hills. 

By help of the irrigation thus contrived, the great plateau of Iran willproduce good crops of grain, rice, wheat, barley, Indian corn, doura, millet, and sesame. It will also bear cotton, tobacco, saffron, rhubarb, madder, poppies which give a good opium, senna, and assafoetida. Its garden vegetables are excellent, and include potatoes, cabbages, lentils, kidney-beans, peas, turnips, carrots, spinach, beetroot, andcucumbers. The variety of its fruit-trees has been already noticed. The flavor of their produce is in general good, and in some casessurpassingly excellent. No quinces are so fine as those of Isfahan, and no melons have a more delicate flavor. The grapes of Kasvin arecelebrated, and make a remarkably good wine. 

Among the flowers of the country must be noted, first of all, its roses, which flourish in the most luxuriant abundance, and are of every varietyof hue. The size to which the tree will grow is extraordinary, standardssometimes exceeding the height of fourteen or fifteen feet. Lilacs, jasmines, and many other flowering shrubs are common in the gardens, while among wild flowers may be noticed hollyhocks, lilies, tulips, crocuses, anemones, lilies of the valley, fritillaries, gentians, primroses, convolvuluses, chrysanthemums, heliotropes, pinks, water-lilies, ranunculuses, jonquils, narcissuses, hyacinths, mallows, stocks, violets, a fine campanula (Michauxia levigata), a mint (Nepetalongiflora), several sages, salsolas, and fagonias. In many places thewild flowers during the spring months cover the ground, painting it witha thousand dazzling or delicate hues. 

The mineral products of Media are numerous and valuable. Excellent stoneof many kinds abounds in almost every part of the country, the mostimportant and valuable being the famous Tabriz marble. This curioussubstance appears to be a petrifaction formed by natural springs, whichdeposit carbonate of lime in large quantities. It is found only in oneplace, on the flanks of the hills, not far from the Urumiyeh lake. Theslabs are used for tombstones, for the skirting of rooms, and for thepavements of baths and palaces; when cut thin they often take the placeof glass in windows, being semi-transparent. The marble is commonly ofa pale yellow color, but occasionally it is streaked with red, green, orcopper-colored veins. 

In metals the country is thought to be rich, but no satisfactoryexamination of it has been as yet made. Iron, copper, and native steelare derived from mines actually at work; while Europeans have observedindications of lead, arsenic, and antimony in Azerbijan, in Kurdistan, and in the rocky ridges which intersect the desert. Tradition speaksof a time when gold and silver were procured from mountains nearTakht-i-Suleman, and it is not unlikely that they may exist both thereand in the Zagros range. Quartz, the well-known matrix of the preciousmetal, abounds in Kurdistan. 

Of all the mineral products, none is more abundant than salt. On theside of the desert, and again near Tabriz at the mouth of the Aji Su, are vast plains which glisten with the substance, and yield it readilyto all who care to gather it up. Saline springs and streams are alsonumerous, from which salt can be obtained by evaporation. But, besidesthese sources of supply, rock salt is found in places, and this islargely quarried, and is preferred by the natives. 

Other important products of the earth are saltpetre, which is foundin the Elburz, and in Azerbijan; sulphur, which abounds in the sameregions, and likewise on the high plateau; alum, which is quarried nearTabriz; naphtha and gypsum, which are found in Kurdistan; and talc, which exists in the mountains near Koum, in the vicinity of Tabriz, andprobably in other places. 

The chief wild animals which have been observed within the limits ofthe ancient Media are the lion, the tiger, the leopard, the bear, thebeaver, the jackal, the wolf, the wild ass, the ibex or wild goat, thewild sheep, the stag, the antelope, the wild boar, the fox, the hare, the rabbit, the ferret, the rat, the jerboa, the porcupine, the mole, and the marmot. The lion and tiger are exceedingly rare; they seem tobe found only in Azerbijan, and we may perhaps best account for theirpresence there by considering that a few of these animals occasionallystray out of Mazanderan, which is their only proper locality in thispart of Asia. Of all the beasts, the most abundant are the stag and thewild goat, which are numerous in the Elburz, and in parts of Azerbijan, the wild boar, which abounds both in Azerbijan, and in the country aboutHamadan, and the jackal, which is found everywhere. Bears flourish inZagros, antelopes in Azerbijan, in the Elburz, and on the plains nearSultaniyeh. The wild ass is found only in the desert parts of the highplateau; the beaver only in Lake Zeribar, near Sulefmaniyeh. 

The Iranian wild ass differs in some respects from the Mesopotamian. Hisskin is smooth, like that of a deer, and of a reddish color, the bellyand hinder parts partaking of a silvery gray; his head and ears arelarge and somewhat clumsy; but his neck is fine, and his legs arebeautifully slender. His mane is short and black, and he has a blacktuft at the end of his tail, but no dark line runs along his back orcrosses his shoulders. The Persians call him the _gur-khur_, and chasehim with occasional success, regarding his flesh as a great delicacy. He appears to be the _Asinus onager_ of naturalists, a distinct speciesfrom the _Asinus hemippus_ of Mesopotamia, and the _Asinus hemionus_ ofThibet and Tartary. 

It is doubtful whether some kind of wild cattle does not still inhabitthe more remote tracts of Kurdistan. The natives mention among theanimals of their country "the mountain ox;" and though it has beensuggested that the beast intended is the elk, it is perhaps as likelyto be the Aurochs, which seems certainly to have been a native of theadjacent country of Mesopotamia in ancient times. At any rate, untilZagros has been thoroughly explored by Europeans, it must remainuncertain what animal is meant. Meanwhile we may be tolerably sure that, besides the species enumerated, Mount Zagros contains within its foldssome large and rare ruminant. 

Among the birds the most remarkable are the eagle, the bustard, thepelican, the stork, the pheasant, several kinds of partridges, thequail, the woodpecker, the bee-eater, the hoopoe, and the nightingale. Besides these, doves and pigeons, both wild and tame, are common; as areswallows, goldfinches, sparrows, larks, blackbirds, thrushes, linnets, magpies, crows, hawks, falcons, teal, snipe, wild ducks, and many otherkinds of waterfowl. The most common partridge is a red-legged species(_Caccabis chukar_ of naturalists), which is unable to fly far, and ishunted until it drops. Another kind, common both in Azerbijan and inthe Elburz, is the black-breasted partridge (_Perdix nigra_)--a bird notknown in many countries. Besides these, there is a small gray partridgein the Zagros range, which the Kurds call seslca. The bee-eater (_MeropsPersicus_) is rare. It is a bird of passage, and only visits Mediain the autumn, preparatory to retreating into the warm district ofMazandoran for the winter months. The hoopoe (_Upupa_) is probably stillrarer, since very few travellers mention it. The woodpecker is found inZagros, and is a beautiful bird, red and gray in color. 

Media is, on the whole, but scantily provided with fish. Lake Urumiyehproduces none, as its waters are so salt that they even destroy all theriver-fish which enter them. Salt streams, like the Aji Su, are equallyunproductive, and the fresh-water rivers of the plateau fall so lowin summer that fish cannot become numerous in them. Thus it is only inZagros, in Azerbijan, and in the Elburz, that the streams furnish anyconsiderable quantity. The kinds most common are barbel, carp, dace, bleak, and gudgeon. In a comparatively few streams, more especiallythose of Zagros, trout are found, which are handsome and of excellentquality. The river of Isfahan produces a kind of crayfish, which istaken in the bushes along its banks, and is very delicate eating. 

It is remarkable that fish are caught not only in the open streams ofMedia, but also in the _kanats_ or underground conduits, from whichthe light of day is very nearly excluded. They appear to be of one sortonly, viz. , barbel, but are abundant, and often grow to a considerablesize. Chardin supposed them to be unfit for food; but a later observerdeclares that, though of no great delicacy, they are "perfectly sweetand wholesome. "

Of reptiles, the most common are snakes, lizards, and tortoises. In thelong grass of the Moghan district, on the lower course of the Araxes, the snakes are so numerous and venomous that many parts of the plain arethereby rendered impassable in the summer-time. A similar abundanceof this reptile near the western entrance of the Girduni Siyaluk passinduces the natives to abstain from using it except in winter. Lizardsof many forms and hues disport themselves about the rocks and stones, some quite small, others two feet or more in length. They are quiteharmless, and appear to be in general very tame. Land tortoises are alsocommon in the sandy regions. In Kurdistan there is a remarkable frog, with a smooth skin and of an apple-green color, which lives chiefly intrees, roosting in them at night, and during the day employing itself incatching flies and locusts, which it strikes with its fore paw, as a catstrikes a bird or a mouse. 

Among insects, travellers chiefly notice the mosquito, which is in manyplaces a cruel torment; the centipede, which grows to an unusual size;the locust, of which there is more than one variety; and the scorpion, whose sting is sometimes fatal. 

The destructive locust (the _Acridium peregrinum_, probably) comessuddenly into Kurdistan and southern Media in clouds that obscure theair, moving with a slow and steady flight and with a sound like thatof heavy rain, and settling in myriads on the fields, the gardens, thetrees, the terraces of the houses, and even the streets, which theysometimes cover completely. Where they fall, vegetation presentlydisappears; the leaves, and even the stems of the plants, are devoured;the labors of the husbandman through many a weary month perish in a day;and the curse of famine is brought upon the land which but now enjoyedthe prospect of an abundant harvest. It is true that the devourers arethemselves devoured to some extent by the poorer sort of people; but thecompensation is slight and temporary; in a few days, when all verdure isgone, either the swarms move to fresh pastures, or they perish and coverthe fields with their dead bodies, while the desolation which they havecreated continues. [PLATE III. , Fig. 2. ]

[Illustration: PLATE III. ]

Another kind of locust, observed by Mr. Rich in Kurdistan, is called bythe natives _shira-kulla_, a name seemingly identical with the_chargol_ of the Jews, and perhaps the best clue which we possess tothe identification of that species. Mr. Rich describes it as "a largeinsect, about four inches long, with no wings, but a kind of swordprojecting from the tail. It bites, " he says, "pretty severely, butdoes no harm to the cultivation. " We may recognize in this descriptiona variety of the great green grasshopper (_Locusta viridissima_), manyspecies of which are destitute of wings, or have wing-covers only, andthose of a very small size. 

The scorpion of the country (_Scorpio crassicauda_) has been representedas peculiarly venomous, more especially that which abounds in the cityand neighborhood of Kashan; but the most judicious observers deny thatthere is any difference between the Kashan scorpion and that of otherparts of the plateau, while at the same time they maintain that if thesting be properly treated, no danger need be apprehended from it. Thescorpion infests houses, hiding itself under cushions and coverlets, andstings the moment it is pressed upon; some caution is thus requisitein avoiding it; but it hurts no one unless molested, and many Europeanshave resided for years in the country without having ever been stung byit. [PLATE III. , Fig. 3. ]

The domestic animals existing at present within the limits of theancient Media are the camel, the horse, the mule, the ass, the cow, thegoat, the sheep, the dog, the cat, and the buffalo. The camel is theordinary beast of burden in the flat country, and can carry an enormousweight. Three kinds are employed--the Bactrian or two-humped camel, which is coarse and low; the taller and lighter Arabian breed; and across between the two, which is called _ner_, and is valued veryhighly. The ordinary burden of the Arabian camel is from seven to eighthundredweight; while the Bactrian variety is said to be capable ofbearing a load nearly twice as heavy. 

Next to the camel, as a beast of burden, must be placed the mule themules of the country are small, but finely proportioned, and carry aconsiderable weight. They travel thirty miles a day with ease, and arepreferred for journeys on which it is necessary to cross the mountains. The ass is very inferior, and is only used by the poorer classes. 

Two distinct breeds of horses are now found in Media, both of which seemto be foreign--the Turkoman and the Arabian. The Turkoman is a large, powerful, enduring animal, with long legs, a light body, and a bighead. The Arab is much smaller, but perfectly shaped, and sometimesnot greatly inferior to the very best produce of Nejd. A third breed isobtained by an intermixture of those two, which is called the _bid-pai_, or "wind footed, " and is the most prized of all. 

The dogs are of various breeds, but the most esteemed is a large kind ofgray hound, which some suppose to have been introduced into this part ofAsia by the Macedonians, and which is chiefly employed in the chase ofthe antelope. The animal is about the height of a full sized Englishgrayhound, but rather stouter; he is deep-chested, has long, smoothhair, and the tail considerably feathered. His pace is inferior to thatof our grayhounds, but in strength and sagacity he far surpasses them. 

We do not find many of the products of Media celebrated by ancientwriters. Of its animals, those which had the highest reputation were itshorses, distinguished into two breeds, an ordinary kind, of whichMedia produced annually many thousands, and a kind of rare size andexcellence, known under the name of Nisaean. These last are celebratedby Herodotus, Strabo, Arrian, Ammianus Marcellinus, Suidas, and others. They are said to have been of a peculiar shape; and they were equallyfamous for size, speed, and stoutness. Strabo remarks that they resemblethe horses known in his own time as Parthian; and this observation seemsdistinctly to connect them with the Turkoman breed mentioned above, which is derived exactly from the old Parthian country. In color theywere often, if not always, white. We have no representation on themonuments which we can regard as certainly intended for a Nissean horse, but perhaps the figure from Persepolis may be a Persian sketch of theanimal. [PLATE III. , Fig. 4. ]

The mules and small cattle (sheep and goats) were in sufficient reputeto be required, together with horses, in the annual tribute paid to thePersian king. 

Of vegetable products assigned to Media by ancient writers, the mostremarkable is the "Median apple, " or citron. Pliny says it was the soletree for which Media was famous, and that it would only grow thereand in Persia. Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Virgil, and other writers, celebrate its wonderful qualities, distinctly assigning it to the sameregion. The citron, however, will not grow in the country which has beenhere termed Media. It flourishes only in the warm tract between Shirazand the Persian Gulf, and in the low sheltered region, south of theCaspian, the modern Ghilan and Mazanderan. No doubt it was the inclusionof this latter region within the limits of Media by many of thelater geographers that gave to this product of the Caspian country anappellation which is really a misnomer. 

Another product whereto Media gave name, and probably with more reason, was a kind of clover or lucerne, which was said to have been introducedinto Greece by the Persians in the reign of Darius, and which wasafterwards cultivated largely in Italy. Strabo considers this plant tohave been the chief food of the Median horses, while Dioscorides assignsit certain medicinal qualities. Clover is still cultivated, in theElburz region, but horses are now fed almost entirely on straw andbarley. 

Media was also famous for its silphium, or assafoetida, a plant whichthe country still produces, though not in any large quantity. No drugwas in higher repute with the ancients for medicinal purposes; andthough the Median variety was a coarse kind, inferior in repute, notonly to the Cyrenaic, but also to the Parthian and the Syrian, it seemsto have been exported both to Greece and Borne, and to have been largelyused by druggists, however little esteemed by physicians. 

The other vegetable products which Media furnished, or was believed tofurnish, to the ancient world, were bdellium, amomum, cardamomum, gumtragacanth, wild-vine oil, and sagaponum, or the _Ferula persica_. Ofthese, gum tragacanth is still largely produced, and is an importantarticle of commerce. Wild vines abound in Zagros and Elburz, but no oilis at present made from them. Bdellium, if it is benzoin, amomum, andcardamomum were perhaps rather imported through Media than the actualproduce of the country, which is too cold in the winter to grow any goodspices. 

The mineral products of Media noted by the ancient writers are nitre, salt, and certain gems, as emeralds, lapis lazuli, and the followingobscurer kinds, the zathene, the gassinades, and the narcissitis. Thenitre of Media is noticed by Pliny, who says it was procured insmall quantities, and was called "halmyraga. " It was found in certaindry-looking glens, where the ground was white with it, and was obtainedthere purer than in other places. Saltpetre is still derived from theElburz range, and also from Azerbijan. 

The salt of Lake Urumiyeh is mentioned by Strabo, who says that itforms naturally on the surface, which would imply a far more completesaturation of the water than at present exists, even in the driestseasons. The gems above mentioned are assigned to Media chiefly byPliny. The Median emeralds, according to him, were of the largest size;they varied considerably, sometimes approaching to the character of thesapphire, in which case they were apt to be veiny, and to have flawsin them. They were far less esteemed than the emeralds of many othercountries. The Median lapis lazuli, on the other hand, was the best ofits kind. It was of three colors--light blue, dark blue, and purple. The golden specks, however, with which it was sprinkled--really spotsof yellow pyrites--rendered it useless to the gem-engravers of Pliny'stime. The zathene, the gassinades, and the narcissitis were gems ofinferior value. As they have not yet been identified with any knownspecies, it will be unnecessary to prolong the present chapter by aconsideration of them. 

CHAPTER III. CHARACTER, MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, ARTS, ETC. , OF THE PEOPLE. 

"Pugnatrix natio et formidanda. "--Amm. Marc, xxiii. 6. 

The ethnic character of the Median people is at the present day scarcelya matter of doubt. The close connection which all history, sacred andprofane, establishes between them and the Persians, the evidence oftheir proper names and of their language, so far as it is known to us, together with the express statements of Herodotus and Strabo, combine toprove that they belonged to that branch of the human family known to usas the Arian or Iranic, a leading subdivision of the great Indo-Europeanrace. The tie of a common language, common manners and customs, and toa great extent a common belief, united in ancient times all the dominanttribes of the great plateau, extending even beyond the plateau inone direction to the Jaxartes (Syhun) and in another to the Hyphasis(Sutlej). Persians, Medes, Sagartians, Chorasmians, Bactrians, Sogdians, Hyrcanians, Sarangians, Gandarians, and Sanskritic Indians belonged allto a single stock, differing from one another probably not much morethan now differ the various subdivisions of the Teutonic or the Slavonicrace. Between the tribes at the two extremities of the Arian territorythe divergence was no doubt considerable; but between any twoneighboring tribes the difference was probably in most cases exceedinglyslight. At any rate this was the case towards the west, where the Medesand Persians, the two principal sections of the Arian body in thatquarter, are scarcely distinguishable from one another in any of thefeatures which constitute ethnic type. 

The general physical character of the ancient Arian race is bestgathered from the sculptures of the Achsemenian kings, which exhibit tous a very noble variety of the human species--a form tall, graceful, andstately; a physiognomy handsome and pleasing, often somewhat resemblingthe Greek; the forehead high and straight, the nose nearly in the sameline, long and well formed, sometimes markedly aquiline, the upper lipshort, commonly shaded by a moustache, the chin rounded and generallycovered with a curly beard. The hair evidently grew in great plenty, andthe race was proud of it. On the top of the head it was worn smooth, but it was drawn back from the forehead and twisted into a row or two ofcrisp curls, while at the same time it was arranged into a large mass ofsimilar small close ringlets at the back of the head and over the ears. [PLATE IV. , Fig. 1. ]

[Illustration: PLATE IV. ]

Of the Median women we have no representations upon the sculptures; butwe are informed by Xenophon that they were remarkable for their statureand their beauty. The same qualities were observable in the women ofPersia, as we learn from Plutarch, Ammianus Marcellinus, and others. The Arian races seem in old times to have treated women with a certainchivalry, which allowed the full development of their physical powers, and rendered them specially attractive alike to their own husbands andto the men of other nations. 

The modern Persian is a very degenerate representative of the ancientArian stock. Slight and supple in person, with quick, glancing eyes, delicate features, and a vivacious manner, he lacks the dignity andstrength, the calm repose and simple grace of the race from which heis sprung, Fourteen centuries of subjection to despotic sway have lefttheir stamp upon his countenance and his frame, which, though stillretaining some traces of the original type, have been sadly weakened andlowered by so long a term of subservience. Probably the wild Kurd or Lurof the present day more nearly corresponds in physique to the ancientMede than do the softer inhabitants of the great plateau. 

Among the moral characteristics of the Medes the one most obviousis their bravery. "_Pugnatrix natio et formidanda_, " says AmmianusMarcellinus in the fourth century of our era, summing up in a few wordsthe general judgment of Antiquity. Originally equal, if not superior, totheir close kindred, the Persians, they were throughout the wholeperiod of Persian supremacy only second to them in courage and warlikequalities. Mardonius, when allowed to take his choice out of the entirehost of Xerxes, selected the Median troops in immediate succession tothe Persians. Similarly, when the time for battle came he kept the Medesnear himself, giving them their place in the line close to that ofthe Persian contingent. It was no doubt on account of their valor, asDiodorus suggests, that the Medes were chosen to make the first attackupon the Greek position at Thermopylae, where, though unsuccessful, theyevidently showed abundant courage. In the earlier times, before richesand luxury had eaten out the strength of the race, their valor andmilitary prowess must have been even more conspicuous. It was thenespecially that Media deserved to be called, as she is in Scripture, "the mighty one of the heathen"--"the terrible of the nations. "

Her valor, undoubtedly, was of the merciless kind. There was notenderness, no hesitancy about it. Not only did her armies "dashto pieces" the fighting men of the nations opposed to her, allowingapparently no quarter, but the women and the children sufferedindignities and cruelties at the hands of her savage warriors, which thepen unwillingly records. The Median conquests were accompanied by theworst atrocities which lust and hate combined are wont to commit whenthey obtain their full swing. Neither the virtue of women nor theinnocence of children were a protection to them. The infant was slainbefore the very eye of the parent. The sanctity of the hearth wasinvaded, and the matron ravished beneath her own roof-tree. Spoil, itwould seem, was disregarded in comparison with insult and vengeance;and the brutal soldiery cared little either for silver or gold, providedthey could indulge freely in that thirst for blood which man shares withthe hyena and the tiger. 

The habits of the Medes in the early part of their career wereundoubtedly simple and manly. It has been observed with justice that thesame general features have at all times distinguished the rise and fallof Oriental kingdoms and dynasties. A brave and adventurous prince, atthe head of a population at once poor, warlike, and greedy, overrunsa vast tract, and acquires extensive dominion, while his successors, abandoning themselves to sensuality and sloth, probably also tooppressive and irascible dispositions, become in process of time victimsto those same qualities in another prince and people which had enabledtheir own predecessor to establish their power. It was as being braver, simpler, and so stronger than the Assyrians that the Medes were able todispossess them of their sovereignty over western Asia. But in this, as in most other cases of conquest throughout the East, success wasfollowed almost immediately by degeneracy. As captive Greece capturedher fierce conqueror, so the subdued Assyrians began at once to corrupttheir subduers. Without condescending to a close imitation of Assyrianmanners and customs, the Medes proceeded directly after their conquestto relax the severity of their old habits and to indulge in the delightsof soft and luxurious living. The historical romance of Xenophonpresents us probably with a true picture when it describes the strongcontrast which existed towards the close of the Median period betweenthe luxury and magnificence which prevailed at Ecbatana, and theprimitive simplicity of Persia Proper, where the old Arian habits, whichhad once been common to the two races, were still maintained in alltheir original severity. Xenophon's authority in this work is, it mustbe admitted, weak, and little trust can be placed in the historicalaccuracy of his details; but his general statement is both in itselfprobable, and is also borne out to a considerable extent by otherauthors. Herodotus and Strabo note the luxury of the Median dress, while the latter author goes so far as to derive the whole of the laterPersian splendor from an imitation of Median practices. We must holdthen that towards the latter part of their empire the Medes became acomparatively luxurious people, not indeed laying aside altogether theirmanly habits, nor ceasing to be both brave men and good soldiers, but adopting an amount of pomp and magnificence to which they werepreviously strangers, affecting splendor in their dress and apparel, grandeur and rich ornament in their buildings, variety in theirbanquets, and attaining on the whole a degree of civilization not verygreatly inferior to that of the Assyrians. In taste and real refinementthey seem indeed to have fallen considerably below their teachers. Abarbaric magnificence predominated in their ornamentation over artisticeffort, richness in the material being preferred to skill in themanipulation. Literature, and even letters, were very sparinglycultivated. But little originality was developed. A stately dress, anda new style of architecture, are almost the only inventions to which theMedes can lay claim. They were brave, energetic, enterprising, fondof display, capable of appreciating to some extent the advantages ofcivilized life; but they had little genius, and the world is scarcelyindebted to them for a single important addition to the general stock ofits ideas. 

Of the Median customs in war we know but little. Herodotus tells usthat in the army of Xerxes the Medes were armed exactly as the Persians, carrying on their heads a soft felt cap, on their bodies a sleevedtunic, and on their legs trousers. Their offensive arms, he says, werethe spear, the bow, and the dagger. They had large wicker shields, andbore their quivers suspended at their backs. Sometimes their tunicwas made into a coat of mail by the addition to it on the outside of anumber of small iron plates arranged so as to overlap each other, likethe scales of a fish. They served both on horseback and on foot, withthe same equipment in both cases. 

There is no reason to doubt the correctness of this description of theMedian military dress under the early Persian kings. The only questionis how far the equipment was really the ancient warlike custom of thepeople. It seems in some respects too elaborate to be the armature of asimple and primitive race. We may reasonably suppose that at least thescale armor and the unwieldy wicker shields (yeppa), which required tobe rested on the ground, were adopted at a somewhat late date from theAssyrians. At any rate the original character of the Median armies, as set before us in Scripture, and as indicated both by Strabo andXenophon, is simpler than the Herodotean description. The primitiveModes seem to have been a nation of horse-archers. Trained from theirearly boyhood to a variety of equestrian exercises, and well practisedin the use of the bow, they appear to have proceeded against theirenemies with clouds of horse, almost in Scythian fashion, and to havegained their victories chiefly by the skill with which they shot theirarrows as they advanced, retreated, or manoeuvred about their foe. Nodoubt they also used the sword and the spear. The employment of theseweapons has been almost universal throughout the East from a very remoteantiquity, and there is some mention of them in connection with theMedes and their kindred, the Persians, in Scripture; but it is evidentthat the terror which the Medes inspired arose mainly from theirdexterity as archers. 

No representation of weapons which can be distinctly recognized asMedian has come down to us. The general character of the military dressand of the arms appears, probably in the Persepolitan sculptures; butas these reliefs are in most cases representations, not of Medes, but ofPersians, and as they must be hereafter adduced in illustration of themilitary customs of the latter people, only a very sparing use of themcan be made in the present chapter. It would seem that the bow employedwas short, and very much curved, and that, like the Assyrian it wasusually carried in a bow-case, which might either be slung at the back, or hung from the girdle. [PLATE V. , Fig. 1. ] The arrows, which wereborne in a quiver slung behind the right shoulder, must have been short, certainly not exceeding the length of three feet. The quiver appears tohave been round; it was covered at the top, and was fastened by means ofa flap and strap, which last passed over, a button. [PLATE V. Fig. 1. ]The Median spear or lance was from six to seven feet in length. Its headwas lozenge-shaped and flattish, but strengthened by a bar or line downthe middle. It is uncertain whether the head was inserted into the topof the shaft, or whether it did not rather terminate in a ring or socketinto which the upper end of the shaft was itself inserted. The shafttapered gradually from bottom to top, and terminated below in a knob orball, which was perhaps sometimes carved into the shape of some naturalobject. [PLATE IV. , Fig. 2. ]

[Illustration: PLATE V. 

The sword was short, being in fact little more than a dagger. Itdepended at the right thigh from a belt which encircled the waist, andwas further secured by a strap attached to the bottom of the sheath, andpassing round the soldier's right leg a little above the knee. 

Median shields were probably either round or oval. The oval specimensbore a resemblance to the shield of the Boeotians, having a small ovalaperture at either side, apparently for the sake of greater lightness. They were strengthened at the centre by a circular boss or disk, ornamented with knobs or circles. They would seem to have been madeeither of metal or wood. [PLATE IV. , Fig. 3. ]

The favorite dress of the Medes in peace is well known to us from thesculptures; there can be no reasonable doubt that the long flowing robeso remarkable for its graceful folds, which is the garb of the kings, the chief nobles, and the officers of the court in all the Persianbas-reliefs, and which is seen also upon the darics and the gems, is thefamous "Median garment" of Herodotus, Xenophon, and Strabo. [PLATE V. , Fig. 2. ] This garment fits the chest and shoulders closely, but fallsover the arms in two large loose sleeves, open at the bottom. At thewaist it is confined by a cincture. Below it is remarkably full andample, drooping in two clusters of perpendicular folds at the two sides, and between these hanging in festoons like a curtain. It extends downto the ankles, where it is met by a high shoe or low boot, opening infront, and secured by buttons. [PLATE IV. , Fig. 4. ]

These Median robes were of many colors. Sometimes they were purple, sometimes scarlet, occasionally a dark gray, or a deep crimson. Procopius says that they were made of silk, and this statement isconfirmed to some extent by Justin, who speaks of their transparency. It may be doubted, however, whether the material was always the same;probably it varied with the season, and also with the wealth of thewearer. 

Besides this upper robe, which is the only garment shown in thesculptures, the Medes wore as under garments a sleeved shirt or tunicof a purple color, and embroidered drawers or trousers. They covered thehead, not only out of doors, but in their houses, wearing either feltcaps like the Persians, or a head-dress of a more elaborate character, which bore the name of _tiara_ or _cidaris_. This appears to have been, not a turban, but rather a kind of high-crowned hat, either stiff orflexible, made probably of felt or cloth, and dyed of different hues, according to the fancy of the owner. [PLATE VI. , Fig. 1. ]

The Medes took a particular delight in the ornamentation of theirpersons. According to Xenophon, they were acquainted with most of theexpedients by the help of which vanity attempts to conceal the ravagesof time and to create an artificial beauty. They employed cosmetics, which they rubbed into the skin, for the sake of improving thecomplexion. They made use of an abundance of false hair. Like many otherOriental nations, both ancient and modern, they applied dyes to enhancethe brilliancy of the eyes, and give them a greater apparent size andsoftness. They were also fond of wearing golden ornaments. Chains orcollars of gold usually adorned their nocks, bracelets of the sameprecious metal encircled their wrists, and earrings were inserted intotheir ears. [PLATE VI. , Fig. 2. ] Gold was also used in the caparisons oftheir horses, the bit and other parts of the harness being often of thisvaluable material. 

We are told that the Medes were very luxurious at their banquets. Besides plain meat and game of different kinds, with the ordinaryaccompaniments of wine and bread, they were accustomed to place beforetheir guests a vast number of side-dishes, together with a great varietyof sauces. They ate with the hand, as is still the fashion in the East, and were sufficiently refined to make use of napkins. Each guest had hisown dishes, and it was a mark of special honor to augment their number. Wine was drunk both at the meal and afterwards, often in an unduequantity; and the close of the feast was apt to be a scene of generalturmoil and confusion. At the Court it was customary for the king toreceive his wine at the hands of a cupbearer, who first tasted thedraught, that the king might be sure that it was not poisoned, and thenpresented it to his master with much pomp and ceremony. 

The whole ceremonial of the court seems to have been imposing. Underordinary circumstances the monarch kept himself secluded, and no onecould obtain admission to him unless he formally requested an audience, and was introduced into the royal presence by the proper officer. On hisadmission he prostrated himself upon the ground with the same signs ofadoration which were made on entering a temple. The king, surrounded byhis attendants, eunuchs, and others, maintained a haughty reserve, andthe stranger only beheld him from a distance. Business was transactedin a great measure by writing. The monarch rarely quitted his palace, contenting himself with such reports of the state of his empire as weretransmitted to him from time to time by his officers. 

The chief amusement of the court, in which however the king rarelypartook, was hunting. Media always abounded in beasts of chase; andlions, bears, leopards, wild boars, stags, gazelles, wild sheep, andwild asses are mentioned among the animals hunted by the Median nobles. Of these the first four were reckoned dangerous, the others harmless. Itwas customary to pursue these animals on horseback, and to aim at themwith the bow or the javelin. We may gather a lively idea of some ofthese hunts from the sculptures of the Parthians, who some centurieslater inhabited the same region. We see in these the rush of greattroops of boars through marshes dense with water-plants, the bands ofbeaters urging them on, the sportsmen aiming at them with their bows, and the game falling transfixed with two or three well-aimed shafts. Again we see herds of deer driven within enclosures, and there slain byarchers who shoot from horseback, the monarch under his parasol lookingon the while, pleased with the dexterity of his servants. It is thusexactly that Xenophon portrays Astyages as contemplating the sportof his courtiers, complacently viewing their enjoyment, but taking noactive part in the work himself. 

Like other Oriental sovereigns, the Median monarch maintained a seraglioof wives and concubines; and polygamy was commonly practised among themore wealthy classes. Strabo speaks of a strange law as obtaining withsome of the Median tribes--a law which required that no man should becontent with fewer wives than five. It is very unlikely that such aburden was really made obligatory on any: most probably five legitimatewives, and no more, were allowed by the law referred to, just as fourwives, and no more, are lawful for Mohammedans. Polygamy, as usual, brought in its train the cruel practice of castration; and the courtswarmed with eunuchs, chiefly foreigners purchased in their infancy. Towards the close of the Empire this despicable class appears to havebeen all-powerful with the monarch. 

Thus the tide of corruption gradually advanced; and there is reason tobelieve that both court and people had in a great measure laid asidethe hardy and simple customs of their forefathers, and become enervatedthrough luxury, when the revolt of the Persians came to test the qualityof their courage, and their ability to maintain their empire. It wouldbe improper in this place to anticipate the account of this struggle, which must be reserved for the historical chapter; but the well-knownresult--the speedy and complete success of the Persians--must be adducedamong the proofs of a rapid deterioration in the Median characterbetween the accession of Cyaxares and the capture--less than a centurylater--of Astyages. 

We have but little information with respect to the state of the artsamong the Medes. A barbaric magnificence characterized, as has beenalready observed, their architecture, which differed from the Assyrianin being dependent for its effect on groups of pillars rather than onpainting or sculpture. Still sculpture was, it is probable, practised tosome extent by the Medes, who, it is almost certain, conveyed on to thePersians those modifications of Assyrian types which meet us everywherein the remains of the Achsemenian monarch? The carving of winged genii, of massive forms of bulls and lions, of various grotesque monsters, and of certain clumsy representations of actual life, imitated fromthe bas-reliefs of the Assyrians, may be safely ascribed to the Medes;since, had they not carried on the traditions of their predecessors, Persian art could not have borne the resemblance that it does toAssyrian. But these first mimetic efforts of the Arian race have almostwholly perished, and there scarcely seems to remain more than a singlefragment which can be assigned on even plausible grounds to the Medianperiod. A portion of a colossal lion, greatly injured by time, is stillto be seen at Hamadan, the site of the great Median capital, which thebest judges regard as anterior to the Persian period, and as thereforemost probably Median. It consists of the head and body of the animal, from which the four legs and the tail have been broken off, and measuresbetween eleven and twelve feet from the crown of the head to the pointfrom which the tail sprang. By the position of the head and whatremains of the shoulders and thighs, it is evident that the animal wasrepresented in a sitting posture, with the fore legs straight and thehind legs gathered up under it. To judge of the feeling and generalcharacter of the sculpture is difficult, owing to the worn and mutilatedcondition of the work; but we seem to trace in it the same air of calmand serene majesty that characterizes the colossal bulls and lions ofAssyria, together with somewhat more of expression and of softness thanare seen in the productions of that people. Its posture, which is unlikethat of any Assyrian specimen, indicates a certain amount of originalityas belonging to the Median artists, while its colossal size seems toshow that the effect on the spectator was still to be produced, not somuch by expression, finish, or truth to nature, as by mere grandeur ofdimension. [PLATE VI. , Fig. 3. ]

CHAPTER IV. RELIGION. 

The earliest form of the Median religion is to be found in thosesections of the Zendavesta which have been pronounced on internalevidence to be the most ancient portions of that venerable compilation;as, for instance, the first Fargard of the Vendidad, and the Gathas, or"Songs, " which occur here and there in the Yacna, or Book on Sacrifice. In the Gathas, which belong to a very remote era indeed, we seem to havethe first beginnings of the Religion. We may indeed go back by their aidto a time anterior to themselves--a time when the Arian race was not yetseparated into two branches, and the Easterns and Westerns, theIndians and Iranians, had not yet adopted the conflicting creeds ofZoroastrianism and Brahminism. At that remote period we seem to seeprevailing a polytheistic nature-worship--a recognition of variousdivine beings, called indifferently Asuras (Ahuras) or Devas, eachindependent of the rest, and all seemingly nature-powers ratherthan persons, whereof the chief are Indra, Storm or Thunder; Mithra, Sunlight; Aramati (Armaiti), Earth; Vayu, Wind; Agni, Fire; and Soma(Homa), Intoxication. Worship is conducted by priests, who are called_kavi_, "seers;" _karapani_, "sacriflcers, " or _ricikhs_, "wise men. " Itconsists of hymns in honor of the gods; sacrifices, bloody and unbloody, some' portion of which is burnt upon an altar; and a peculiar ceremony, called that of Soma, in which an intoxicating liquor is offered to thegods, and then consumed by the priests, who drink till they are drunken. 

Such, in outline, is the earliest phase of Arian religion, and it iscommon to both branches of the stock, and anterior to the rise of theIranic, Median, or Persian system. That system is a revolt from thissensuous and superficial nature-worship. It begins with a distinctrecognition of spiritual intelligences--real persons--with whomalone, and not with powers, religion is concerned. It divides theseintelligences into good and bad, pure and impure, benignant andmalevolent. To the former it applies the term _Asuras_ (_Ahuras_), "living" or "spiritual beings, " in a good sense; to the latter, the term_Devas_, in a bad one. It regards the "powers" hitherto worshipped aschiefly _Devas_; but it excepts from this unfavorable view a certainnumber, and, recognizing them as _Asuras_, places them above the_Izeds_, or "angels. " Thus far it has made two advances, each of greatimportance, the substitution of real "persons" for "powers, " as objectsof the religious faculty, and the separation of the persons into goodand bad, pure and impure, righteous and wicked. But it does not stophere. It proceeds to assert, in a certain sense, monotheism againstpolytheism. It boldly declares that, at the head of the goodintelligences, is a single great Intelligence, Ahuro-Mazdao, the highestobject of adoration, the true Creator, Preserver, and Governor of theuniverse. This is its great glory. It sets before the soul a singleBeing as the source of all good and the proper object of the highestworship. Ahuro-Mazdao is "the creator of life, the earthly and thespiritual;" "he has made the celestial bodies, earth, water, and trees, all good creatures, " and "all good, true, holy, pure, things. " He is"the Holy God, the Holiest, the essence of truth, the father of alltruth, the best being of all, the master of purity. " He is supremely"happy, " possessing every blessing, "health, wealth, virtue, wisdom, immortality. " From him comes all good to man; on the pious and therighteous he bestows not only earthly advantages, but precious spiritualgifts, truth, devotion, "the good mind, " and everlasting happiness; andas he rewards the good, so he punishes the bad, though this is an aspectin which he is but seldom represented. 

It has been said that this conception of Ahura-mazda as the SupremeBeing is "_perfectly identical_ with the notion of Elohim, or Jehovah, which we find in the books of the Old Testament. " This is, no doubt, an over-statement. Ahura-mazda is less spiritual and less awful thanJehovah. He is less remote from the nature of man. The very ascriptionto him of health (_haurvat_) is an indication that he is conceived ofas possessing a sort of physical nature. Lucidity and brilliancy areassigned to him, not (as it would seem) in a mere metaphorical sense. Again, he is so predominantly the author of good things, the source ofblessing and prosperity, that he could scarcely inspire his votarieswith any feeling of fear. Still, considering the general failure ofunassisted reason to mount up to the true notion of a spiritualGod, this doctrine of the early Arians is very remarkable; and itsapproximation to the truth sufficiently explains at once the favorablelight in which its professors are viewed by the Jewish prophets, and thefavorable opinion which they form of the Jewish system. Evidently, the Jews and Arians, when they became known to one another, recognizedmutually the fact that they were worshippers of the same great Being. Hence the favor of the Persians towards the Jews, and the fidelity ofthe Jews towards the Persians. The Lord God of the Jews being recognizedas identical with Ormazd, a sympathetic feeling united the peoples. TheJews, so impatient generally of a foreign yoke, never revolted fromthe Persians; and the Persians, so intolerant, for the most part, ofreligions other than their own, respected and protected Judaism. 

The sympathy was increased by the fact that the religion of Ormazd wasanti-idolatrous. In the early nature-worship idolatry had been allowed;but the Iranic system pronounced against it from the first. No imagesof Ahura-mazda, or of the Izeds, profaned the severe simplicity ofan Iranic temple. It was only after a long lapse of ages that, in connection with a foreign worship, idolatry crept in. The oldZoroastrianism was in this respect as pure as the religion of the Jews, and thus a double bond of religious sympathy united the Hebrews and theArians. 

Under the supreme God, Ahura-mazda or Ormazd, the ancient Iranic systemplaced (as has been already observed) a number of angels. Some of these, as _Vohu-mano_, "the Good Mind;" _Mazda_, "the Wise" (?); and _Asha_, "the True, " are scarcely distinguishable from attributes of theDivinity. Armaiti, however, the genius of the Earth, and Sraosha orSerosh, an angel, are very clearly and distinctly personified. Sraoshais Ormazd's messenger. He delivers revelations, shows men the paths ofhappiness, and brings them the blessings which Ormazd has assigned totheir share. Another of his functions is to protect the true faith. He is called, in a very special sense, "the friend of Ormazd, " and isemployed by Ormazd not only to distribute his gifts, but also to conductto him the souls of the faithful, when this life is over, and they enteron the celestial scene. 

Armaiti is at once the genius of the Earth, and the goddess of Piety. The early Ormazd worshippers were agriculturists, and viewed thecultivation of the soil as a religious duty enjoined upon them by God. Hence they connected the notion of piety with earth culture; and it wasbut a step from this to make a single goddess preside over the two. Itis as the angel of Earth that Armaiti has most distinctly a personalcharacter. She is regarded as wandering from spot to spot, and laboringto convert deserts and wildernesses into fruitful fields and gardens. She has the agriculturist under her immediate protection, while sheendeavors to persuade the shepherd, who persists in the nomadic life, togive up his old habits and commence the cultivation of the soil. She isof course the giver of fertility, and rewards her votaries by bestowingupon them abundant harvests. She alone causes all growth. In a certaincense she pervades the whole material creation, mankind included, inwhom she is even sometimes said to "reside. "

Armaiti, further "tells men the everlasting laws, which no one mayabolish"--laws which she has learnt from converse with Ahura-mazdahimself. She is thus naturally the second object of worship to the oldZoroastrian; and converts to the religion were required to profess theirfaith in her in direct succession to Ahura-mazda. 

From Armaiti must be carefully distinguished the _geus urva_, or "soulof the earth"--a being who nearly resembles the "anima mundi" of theGreek and Roman philosophers. This spirit dwells in the earth itself, animating it as a man's soul animates his body. In old times, when manfirst began to plough the soil, _geus urva_ cried aloud, thinking thathis life was threatened, and implored the assistance of the archangels. They however were deaf to his entreaties (since Ormazd had decreed thatthere should be cultivation), and left him to bear his pains as he bestcould. It is to be hoped that in course of time he became callous tothem, and made the discovery that mere scratches, though they may bepainful, are not dangerous. 

It is uncertain whether in the most ancient form of the Iranic worshipthe cult of Mithra was included or no. On the one hand, the fact thatMithra is common to both forms of the Arian creed--the Indian andIranic--would induce the belief that his worship was adopted from thefirst by the Zoroastrians; on the other, the entire absence of allmention of Mithra from the Gathas would lead us to the conclusion thatin the time when they were composed his cult had not yet begun. Perhapswe may distinguish between two forms of early Iranic worship--one thatof the more intelligent and spiritual--the leaders of the secession--inwhose creed Mithra had no place; the other that of the great mass offollowers, a coarser and more material system, in which many pointsof the old religion were retained, and among them the worship of theSun-god. This lower and more materialistic school of thought probablyconveyed on into the Iranic system other points also common to theZendavosta with the Vedas, as the recognition of Airyaman (Aryaman) asa genius presiding over marriages, of Vitraha as a very high angel, andthe like. 

Vayu, "the Wind, " seems to have been regarded as a god from the first. He appears, not only in the later portions of the Zenda vesta, likeMithra and Aryaman, but in the Gathas themselves. His name is clearlyidentical with that of the Vedic Wind-god, Vayu, and is apparently asister form to the ventus, or wind, of the more western Arians. The rootis probably vi, "to go, " which may be traced in vis, via, vado, venio, etc. 

The ancient Iranians did not adopt into their system either Agni, "Fire"(Lat. _ignis_), or Soma (Homa), "Intoxication. " Fire was indeed retainedfor sacrifice; but it was regarded as a mere material agent, and not asa mysterious Power, the proper object of prayer and worship. The Somaworship, which formed a main element of the old religion, and which wasretained in Brahminism, was at the first altogether discarded by theZoroastrians; indeed, it seems to have been one of the main causes ofthat disgust which split the Arian body in two, and gave rise to the newreligion. A ceremony in which it was implied that the intoxication oftheir worshippers was pleasing to the gods, and not obscurely hintedthat they themselves indulged in similar excesses, was revolting to thereligious temper of those who made the Zoaroastrian reformation; and itis plain from the Gathas that the new system was intended at first tobe entirely free from the pollution of so disgusting a practice. Butthe zeal of religious reformers outgoes in most cases the strength andpatience of their people, whose spirit is too gross and earthly to keeppace with the more lofty flights of the purer and higher intelligence. The Iranian section of the Arians could not be weaned wholly from theirbeloved Soma feasts; and the leaders of the movement were obliged tobe content ultimately with so far reforming and refining the ancientceremony as to render it comparatively innocuous. The portion of therite which implied that the gods themselves indulged in intoxicationwas omitted; and for the intoxication of the priests was substituteda moderate use of the liquor, which, instead of giving a religioussanction to drunkenness, merely implied that the Soma juice was a goodgift of God, one of the many blessings for which men had to be thankful. 

With respect to the evil spirits or intelligences, which, in theZoroastrian system, stood over against the good ones, the teaching ofthe early reformers seems to have been less clear. The old divinities, except where adopted into the new creed, were in a general way calledDevas, "fiends" or "devils, " in contrast with the Ahuras, or "gods. "These devas were represented as many in number, as artful, malicious, deceivers and injurers of mankind, more especially of the Zoroastriansor Ormazd-worshippers, as inventors of spells and lovers of theintoxicating Soma draught. Their leading characteristics were"destroying" and "lying. " They were seldom or never called by distinctnames. No account was given of their creation, nor of the origin oftheir wickedness. No single superior intelligence, no great Principle ofEvil, was placed at their head. Ahriman (Angro-mainyus) does notoccur in the Gathas as a proper name. Far less is there any graduatedhierarchy of evil, surrounding a Prince of Darkness, with a sort ofcourt, antagonistic to the angelic host of Ormazd, as in the latterportions of the Zendavesta and in the modern Parsee system. 

Thus Dualism proper, or a belief in two uncreated and independentprinciples, one a principle of good and the other a principal of evil, was no part of the original Zoroastrianism. At the same time we find, even in the Gathas, the earliest portions of the Zondavesta, the germout of which Dualism sprung. The contrast between good and evil isstrongly and sharply marked in the Gathas; the writers continually harpupon it, their minds are evidently struck with this sad antithesis whichcolors the whole moral world to them; they see everywhere a strugglebetween right and wrong, truth and falsehood, purity and impurity;apparently they are blind to the evidence of harmony and agreementin the universe, discerning nothing anywhere but strife, conflict, antagonism. Nor is this all. They go a step further, and personify thetwo parties to the struggle. One is a "white" or holy "Spirit" (_cpentomainyus_), and the other a "dark spirit" (_angro mainyus_). But thispersonification is merely poetical or metaphorical, not real. The "whitespirit" is not Ahura-mazda, and the "dark spirit" is not a hostileintelligence. Both resolve themselves on examination into mere figuresof speech--phantoms of poetic imagery--abstract notions, clothed bylanguage with an apparent, not a real, personality. 

It was natural that, as time went on, Dualism should develop itselfout of the primitive Zoroastrianism. Language exercises a tyrannyover thought, and abstractions in the ancient world were ever becomingpersons. The Iranian mind, moreover, had been strack, when it firstturned to contemplate the world, with a certain antagonism; and, havingonce entered this track, it would be compelled to go on, and seek todiscover the origin of the antagonism, the cause (or causes) to whichit was to be ascribed. Evil seemed most easily accounted for by thesupposition of an evil Person; and the continuance of an equal struggle, without advantage to either side, which was what the Iranians thoughtthey beheld in the world that lay around them, appeared to them toimply the equality of that evil Person with the Being whom they rightlyregarded as the author of all good. Thus Dualism had its birth. TheIranians came to believe in the existence of two co-eternal and co-equalPersons, one good and the other evil, between whom there had been fromall eternity a perpetual and never-ceasing conflict, and between whomthe same conflict would continue to rage through all coming time. 

It is impossible to say how this development took place. We haveevidence, however, that at a period considerably anterior to thecommencement of the Median Empire, Dualism, not perhaps in its ultimateextravagant form, but certainly in a very decided and positive shape, had already been thought out and become the recognized creed of theIranians. In the first Fargard, or chapter, of the Vendidad--thehistorical chapter, in which are traced the only movements of the Iranicpeoples, and which from the geographical point whereat it stops mustbelong to a time when the Arians had not yet reached Media Magna---theDualistic belief clearly shows itself. The term Angro-mainyus hasnow become a proper name, and designates the great spirit of evil asdefinitely and determinately as Ahura-mazda designates the good spirit. The antagonism between Ahura-mazda and Angro-mainyus is depicted in thestrongest colors; it is direct, constant and successful. Whatever goodwork Ahura-mazda in his benevolence creates, Angro-mainyus steps forwardto mar and blast it. If Ahura-mazda forms a "delicious spot" in a worldpreviously desert and uninhabitable to become the first home of hisfavorites, the Arians, Angro-mainyus ruins it by sending into it apoisonous serpent, and at the same time rendering the climate one ofthe bitterest severity. If Ahura-mazda provides, instead of this blastedregion, another charming habitation, "the second best of regions andcountries, " Angro-mainyus sends there the curse of murrain, fatal toall cattle. To every land which Ahura-mazda creates for his worshippers, Angro-mainyus immediately assigns some plague or other. War, ravages, sickness, fever, poverty, hail, earthquakes, buzzing insects, poisonousplants, unbelief, witchcraft, and other inexpiable sins, are introducedby him into the various happy regions created without any such drawbacksby the good spirit; and a world, which should have been "very good, " isby these means converted into a scene of trial and suffering. 

The Dualistic principle being thus fully adopted, and the world lookedon as the battle-ground between two independent and equal powers engagedin perpetual strife, it was natural that the imagination should completethe picture by ascribing to those superhuman rivals the circumstantialsthat accompany a great struggle between human adversaries. The twokings required, in the first place, to have their councils, whichwere accordingly assigned them, and were respectively composed of sixcouncillors. The councillors of Ahura-mazda--called Amesha Spentas, or "Immortal Saints, " afterwards corrupted into Amshashpands--woreVohu-mano (Bahman), Asha-va-hista (Ardibehesht), Khshathra-vairya(Shahravar), Qpenta-Armaiti (Isfand-armat), Haurvatat (Khordad), andAmeretat (Amerdat). Those of Angro-mainyus were Ako-mano, Indra, Qaurva, Naonhaitya, and two others whose names are interpreted as "Darkness" and"Poison. "

Vohu-mano (Bahman) means "the Good Mind. " Originally a mere attribute ofAhura-mazda, Vohu-mano came to be considered, first as one of thehigh angels attendant on him, and then formally as one of-his sixcouncillors. He had a distinct sphere or province assigned to him inAhura-mazda's kingdom, which was the maintenance of life in animals andof goodness in man. 

Asha-vahista (Ardibehesht) means "the Highest Truth"--"Voritas optima, "or rather perhaps "Veritas lucidissima. " He was the "Light" of theuniverse, subtle, all-pervading, omnipresent. His special businesswas to maintain the splendor of the various luminaries, and thereby topreserve all those things whose existence and growth depend on light. 

Khshathra-vairya (Shahravar), whose name means simply "possessions, ""wealth, " was regarded as presiding over metals and as the dispenser ofriches. 

Qoonta-Armaiti (Isfand-armat)--the "white or holy Ar-maiti, " representedthe Earth. She had from the first, as we have already seen, a distinctposition in the system of the Zoroastrians, where she was at once theEarth goddess and the genius of piety. 

Haurvatat (Khordad) means "health"--"sanitas"--and was originally oneof the great and precious gifts which Ahura-mazda possessed himself andkindly bestowed on his creatures. When personification, and the needsof the theology, had made Haurvatat an archangel, he, together withAmeretat (Amerdat), "Immortality, " took the presidency of the vegetableworld, which it was the business of the pair to keep in good condition. 

In the council of Angro-mainyus, Ako-mano stands in direct antithesis toVohu-mano, as "the bad mind, " or more literally, "the naught mind"--forthe Zoroastrians, like Plato, regarded good and evil as identical withreality and unreality. Ako-mano's special sphere is the mind of man, where he suggests evil thoughts and prompts to bad words and wickeddeeds. He holds the first place in the infernal council, as Vohu-manodoes in the heavenly one. 

Indra, who holds the second place in the infernal council, is evidentlythe Vedic god whom the Zoroastrians regarded as a powerful demon, andtherefore made one of Angro-mainyus's chief councillors. He probablyretained his character as the god of the storm and of war, the destroyerof crops and cities, the inspirer of armies and the wielder ofthe thunder-bolt. The Zoroastrians, however, ascribed to him onlydestructive actions; while the more logical Hindoos, observing that thesame storm which hurt the crops and struck down trees and buildings wasalso the means of fertilizing the lands and purifying the air, viewedhim under a double aspect, as at once terrible in his wrath and thebestower of numerous blessings. 

Qaurva, who stands next to Indra, is thought to be the Hindoo Shiva, whohas the epithet qarva in one of the Vedas. But the late appearance ofShiva in the Hindoo system makes this highly uncertain. 

Naonhaitya, the fourth member of the infernal council, correspondsapparently to the Vedic Nasatyas, a collective name given to the twoAswins, the Dioscuri of Indian mythology. These were favorite gods ofthe early Hindoos, to whose protection they very mainly ascribed theirprosperity. It was natural that the Iranians, in their aversion totheir Indian brethren, should give the Aswins a seat at Angro-mainyus'scouncil-table; but it is curious that they should represent the twindeities by only a single councillor. 

Taric and Zaric, "Darkness" and "Poison, " the occupants of the fifth andsixth places, are evidently personifications made for the occasion, tocomplete the infernal council to its full complement of six members. 

As the two Principles of Good and Evil have their respective councils, so have they likewise their armies. The Good Spirit has createdthousands of angelic beings, who everywhere perform his will and fighton his side against the Evil One; and the Evil One has equally onhis part called into being thousands of malignant spirits who are hisemissaries in the world, doing his work continually, and fightinghis battles. These are the Devas or Dives, so famous in Persian fairymythology. They are "wicked, bad, false, untrue, the originators ofmischief, most baneful, destructive, the basest of all beings. " Thewhole universe is full of them. They aim primarily at destroying allthe good creations of Ahura-mazda; but if unable to destroy they contentthemselves with perverting and corrupting. They dog the steps of men, tempting them to sin; and, as soon as sin, obtaining a fearful powerover them. 

At the head of Ahura-mazda's army is the angel Sraosha (Serosh). Seroshis "the sincere, the beautiful, the victorious, the true, the masterof truth. " He protects the territories of the Iranians, wounds, andsometimes even slays the demons, and is engaged in a perpetual struggleagainst them, never slumbering night or day, but guarding the world withhis drawn sword, more particularly after sunset, when the demons havethe greatest power. 

Angro-mainyus appears not to possess any such general-in-chief. Besidesthe six councillors above mentioned, there are indeed various demonsof importance, as Drukhs, "destruction;" Aeshemo, "rapine;" Daivis, "deceit;" Driwis, "poverty, " etc. ; but no one of these seems to occupya parallel place in the evil world to that which is assigned toSerosh in the good. Perhaps we have here a recognition of the anarchiccharacter of evil, whose attacks are like those of a huge undisciplinedhost--casual, fitful, irregular--destitute wholly of that principle oflaw and order which gives to the resisting power of good a great portionof its efficacy. 

To the belief in a spiritual world composed of all these variousintelligences--one half of whom were good, and the other half evil--theearly Zoroastrians added notions with respect to human duties and humanprospects far more enlightened than those which have usually prevailedamong heathen nations. In their system truth, purity, piety, andindustry were the virtues chiefly valued and inculcated. Evil was tracedup to its root in the heart of man; and it was distinctly taught thatno virtue deserved the name but such as was co-extensive with the wholesphere of human activity, including the thought, as well as the word anddeed. The purity required was inward as well as outward, mental aswell as bodily. The industry was to be of a peculiar character. Man wasplaced upon the earth to preserve the good creation; and this could onlybe done by careful tilling of the soil, eradication of thorns and weeds, and reclamation of the tracts over which Angro-mainyus had spread thecurse of barrenness. To cultivate the soil was thus a religious duty;the whole community was required to be agricultural; and either asproprietor, as farmer, or as laboring man, each Zoroastrian must"further the works of life" by advancing tillage. Piety consisted in theacknowledgment of the One True God, Ahura-mazda, and of his holy angels, the Amesha Spentas or Amshashpands, in the frequent offering of prayers, praises, and thanksgivings, in the recitation of hymns, the performanceof the reformed Soma ceremony, and the occasional sacrifice of animals. Of the hymns we have abundant examples in the Gathas of the Zendavesta, and in the Yagna haptanhaiti, or "Yaana of seven chapters, " whichbelongs to the second period of the religion. A specimen from the lattersource is subjoined below. The Soma or Homa ceremony consisted in theextraction of the juice of the Homa plant by the priests during therecitation of prayers, the formal presentation of the liquid extractedto the sacrificial fire, the consumption of a small portion of it by oneof the officiating priests, and the division of the remainder among theworshippers. As the juice was drunk immediately after extraction andbefore fermentation had set in, it was not intoxicating. The ceremonyseems to have been regarded, in part, as having a mystic force, securingthe favor of heaven; in part, as exerting a beneficial influence uponthe body of the worshipper through the curative power inherent in theHoma plant. 

The sacrifices of the Zoroastrians were never human. The ordinary victimwas the horse; and we hear of occasions on which a single individualsacrificed as many as ten of these animals. Mares seem to have beenregarded as the most pleasing offerings, probably on account of theirsuperior value; and if it was desired to draw down the special favor ofthe Deity, those mares were selected which were already heavy in foal. Oxen, sheep, and goats were probably also used as victims. A priestalways performed the sacrifice, slaying the animal, and showing theflesh to the sacred fire by way of consecration, after which it waseaten at a solemn feast by the priest and worshippers. 

The Zoroastrians were devout believers in the immortality of the souland a conscious future existence. They taught that immediately afterdeath the souls of men, both good and bad, proceeded together along anappointed path to "the bridge of the gatherer" (chinvatperetu). This wasa narrow road conducting to heaven or paradise, over which the souls ofthe pious alone could pass, while the wicked fell from it into the gulfbelow, where they found themselves in the place of punishment. The goodsoul was assisted across the bridge by the angel Serosh--"the happy, well-formed, swift, tall Serosh"--who met the weary wayfarer andsustained his steps as he effected the difficult passage. The prayersof his friends in this world were of much avail to the deceased, and greatly, helped him on his journey. As he entered, the archangelVohu-mano or Bahman rose from his throne and greeted him with the words, "How happy art thou who hast come here to us from the mortality to theimmortality!" Then the pious soul went joyfully onward to Ahura-mazda, to the immortal saints, to the golden throne, to Paradise. As for thewicked, when they fell into the gulf, they found themselves in outerdarkness, in the kingdom of Angro-mainyus, where they were forced toremain and to feed upon poisoned banquets. 

It is believed by some that the doctrine of the resurrection of thebody was also part of the Zoroastrian creed. Theopompus assigned thisdoctrine to the Magi; and there is no reason to doubt that it washeld by the priestly caste of the Arian nations in his day. We find itplainly stated in portions of the Zendavesta, which, if not among theearliest, are at any rate of very considerable antiquity, as in theeighteenth chapter of the Vendidad. It is argued that even in theGathas there is an expression used which shows the doctrine to havebeen already held when they were composed; but the phrase adduced is soobscure that its true meaning must be pronounced in the highest degreeuncertain. The absence of any plain allusion to the resurrection fromthe earlier portions of the sacred volume is a strong argument againstits having formed any part of the original Arian creed--an argumentwhich is far from outweighed by the occurrence of a more possiblereference to it in a single ambiguous passage. 

Around and about this nucleus of religious belief there grew up incourse of time a number of legends, some of which possess considerableinterest. Like other thoughtful races, the Iranians speculated upon theearly condition of mankind, and conceived a golden age, and a kingthen reigning over a perfectly happy people, whom they called KingYima--Yima-khshaeta--the modern Persian Jemshid. Yima, according to thelegend, had dwelt originally in Aryanem vaejo--the primitive seat of theArians--and had there reigned gloriously and peacefully for awhile; butthe evils of winter having come upon his country, he had removed from itwith his subjects, and had retired to a secluded spot where he andhis people enjoyed uninterrupted happiness. In this place was "neitheroverbearing nor mean-spiritedness, neither stupidity nor violence, neither poverty nor deceit, neither puniness nor deformity, neither hugeteeth nor bodies beyond the usual meassure. " The inhabitants suffered nodefilement from the evil spirit. They dwelt amid odoriferous trees andgolden pillars; their cattle were the largest, best, and most beautifulon the earth; they were themselves a tall and beautiful race; their foodwas ambrosial, and never failed them. No wonder that time sped fast withthem, and that they, not noting its night, thought often that what wasreally a year had been no more than a single day. Yima was the greathero of the early Iranians. His titles, besides "the king" (khshaeta), are "the brilliant, " "the happy, " "the greatly wealthy, " "the leaderof the peoples, " "the renowned in Aryanem vaejo. " He is most probablyidentical with the Yama of the Vedas, who was originally the first man, the progenitor of mankind and the ruler of the blessed in Paradise, butwho was afterwards transformed into "the god of death, the inexorablejudge of men's doings, and the punisher of the wicked. "

Next in importance to Yima among the heroes is Thraetona--the modernPersian Feridun. He was born in Varena--which is perhaps Atropatene, orAzerbijan--and was the son of a distinguished father, Athwyo. His chiefexploit was the destruction of Ajis-dahaka (Zohak), who is sometimesrepresented as a cruel tyrant, the bitter enemy of the Iranian race, sometimes as a monstrous dragon, with three mouths, three tails, sixeyes, and a thousand scaly rings, who threatened to ruin the whole ofthe good creation. The traditional scene of the destruction was themountain of Demavend, the highest peak of the Elburz range south of theCaspian. Thraetona, like Yima, appears to be also a Vedic hero. He maybe recognized in Traitana, who is said in the Rig-Veda to have slain amighty giant by severing his head from his shoulders. 

A third heroic personage known in the early times was Keresaspa, of thenoble Sama family. He was the son of Thrita--a distinct personage fromThraetona--and brother of Urvakh-shaya the Just and was bred up in thearid country of Veh-keret (Khorassan). The "glory" which had rested uponYima so many years became his in his day. He was the mightiest amongthe mighty, and was guarded from all danger by the fairy (pairika)Enathaiti, who followed him whithersoever he went. He slew Qravara, thequeen and venomous serpent, who swallowed up men and horses. He killedGandarewa with the golden heel, and also Cnavidhaka, who had boastedthat, when he grew up, he would make the earth his wheel and heavenhis chariot, that he would carry off Ahura-mazda from heaven andAngro-mainyus from hell, and yoke them both as horses to his car. Keresaspa appears as Gershasp in the modern Persian legends, where, however, but little is said of his exploits. In the Hindoo books heappears as Krigagva, the son of Samyama, and is called king of Vaigali, or Bengal!

From these specimens the general character of the early Iranic legendsappears sufficiently. Without affording any very close resemblances inparticular cases, they present certain general features which are commonto the legendary lore of all the Western Arians. They are romantictales, not allegories; they relate with exaggerations the deeds of men, not the processes of nature. Combining some beauty with a good dealthat is bizarre and grotesque, they are lively and graphic, but somewhatchildish, having in no case any deep meaning, and rarely teaching amoral lesson. In their earliest shape they appear, so far as we canjudge, to have been brief, disconnected, and fragmentary. They owe thefull and closely interconnected form which they assume in the Shahna-mehand other modern Persian writings, partly to a gradual accretion duringthe course of centuries, partly to the inventive genius of Firdausi, whowove the various and often isolated legends into a pseudo-history, and amplified them at his own pleasure. How much of the substance ofFirdausi's poems belongs to really primitive myth is uncertain. Wefind in the Zend texts the names of Gayo-marathan, who corresponds toKaiomars; of Haoshyanha, or Hosheng; of Yima-shaeta, or Jemshid; ofAjisdahaka, or Zohak; of Athwya, or Abtin; of Thraetona, or Feridun; ofKeresaspa, or Gershasp; of Kava Uq, or Kai Kavus; of Kava Hucrava, orKai Khosroo; and of Kava Vistaspa, or Gushtasp. But we have no mentionof Tahomars; of Gava (or Gau) the blacksmith; of Feridua's sons, Selm, Tur, and Irij; of Zal, or Mino'chihr, or Eustem; of Afrasiab, or KaiKobad; of Sohrab, or Isfendiar. And of the heroic names which actuallyoccur in the Zendavesta, several, as Gayo-marathan, Haoshyariha, KavaUc, and Kava Hugrava, are met with only in the later portions, whichbelong probably to about the fourth century before our era. The onlylegends which we know to be primitive are those above related, which arefound in portions of the Zendavesta, whereto the best critics ascribe ahigh antiquity. The negative argument is not, however, conclusive; andit is quite possible that a very large proportion of Firdausi's tale mayconsist of ancient legends dressed up in a garb comparatively modern. 

Two phases of the early Iranic religion have been now briefly described;the first a simple and highly spiritual creed, remarkable for itsdistinct assertion of monotheism, its hatred of idolatry, and thestrongly marked antithesis which it maintained between good and evil;the second, a natural corruption of the first, Dualistic, complicatedby the importance which it ascribed to angelic beings verging uponpolytheism. It remains to give an account of a third phase into whichthe religion passed in consequence of an influence exercised upon itfrom without by an alien system. 

When the Iranic nations, cramped for space in the countries east andsouth of the Caspian, began to push themselves further to the west, andthen to the south, they were brought into contact with various Scythictribes inhabiting the mountain regions of Armenia, Azerbijan, Kurdistan, and Luristan, whose religion appears to have been Magism. It was here, in these elevated tracts, where the mountains almost seem to reach theskies, that the most venerated and ancient of the fire-temples wereestablished, some of which remain, seemingly in their primitivecondition, at the present day. [PLATE VI. , Fig. 4. ] Here traditionplaced the original seat of the fire-worship; and from hence many taughtthat Zoroaster, whom they regarded as the founder of Magism, had sprung. Magism was, essentially, the worship of the elements, the recognitionof fire, air, earth, and water as the only proper objects of humanreverence. The Magi held no personal gods, and therefore naturallyrejected temples, shrines, and images, as tending to encourage thenotion that gods existed of a like nature with man, i. E. , possessingpersonality--living and intelligent beings. Theirs was a nature worship, but a nature worship of a very peculiar kind. They did not place godsover the different parts of nature, like the Greeks; they did noteven personify the powers of nature, like the Hindoos; they paid theirdevotion to the actual material things themselves. Fire, as the mostsubtle and ethereal principle, and again as the most powerful agent, attracted their highest regards; and on their fire-altars the sacredflame, generally said to have been kindled from heaven, was kept burninguninterruptedly from year to year and from age to age by bands ofpriests, whose special duty it was to see that the sacred spark wasnever extinguished. To defile the altar by blowing the flame with one'sbreath was a capital offence; and to burn a corpse was regarded as anact equally odious. When victims were offered to fire, nothing but asmall portion of the fat was consumed in the flame. Next to fire, waterwas reverenced. Sacrifice was offered to rivers, lakes, and fountains, the victim being brought near to them and then slain, while great carewas taken that no drop of their blood should touch the water and polluteit. No refuse was allowed to be cast into a river, nor was it evenlawful to wash one's hands in one. Reverence for earth was shown bysacrifice, and by abstention from the usual mode of burying the dead. 

[Illustration: PLATE VI. ]

The Magian religion was of a highly sacerdotal type. No worshipper couldperform any religious act except by the intervention of a priest, orMagus, who stood between him and the divinity as a Mediator. The Magusprepared the victim and slew it, chanted the mystic strain which gavethe sacrifice all its force, poured on the ground the propitiatorylibation of oil, milk, and honey, held the bundle of thin tamarisktwigs--the Zendic barsom (baregma)--the employment of which wasessential to every sacrificial ceremony. The Magi were a priest-caste, apparently holding their office by hereditary succession. They claimedto possess, not only a sacred and mediatorial character, but alsosupernatural prophetic powers. They explained omens, expounded dreams, and by means of a certain mysterious manipulation of the barsom, orbundle of twigs, arrived at a knowledge of future events, which theycommunicated to the pious inquirer. 

With such pretensions it was natural that the caste should assume alofty air, a stately dress, and an entourage of ceremonial magnificence. Clad in white robes, and bearing Upon their heads tall felt caps, withlong lappets at the sides, which concealed the jaw and even the lips, each with his barsom in his hand, they marched in procession to theirpynetheia, or fire altars, and standing around them performed for anhour at a time their magical incantations. The credulous multitude, impressed by sights of this kind, and imposed on by the claims tosupernatural power which the Magi advanced, paid them a willing homage;the kings and chiefs consulted them; and when the Arian tribes, pressingwestward, came into contact with the races professing the Magianreligion, they found a sacerdotal caste all-powerful in most of theScythic nations. 

The original spirit of Zoroastrianism was fierce and exclusive. Theearly Iranians looked with contempt and hatred on the creed of theirIndian brethren; they abhorred idolatry; and were disinclined totolerate any religion except that which they had themselves worked out. But with the lapse of ages this spirit became softened. Polytheisticcreeds are far less jealous than monotheism; and the development ofZoroastrianism had been in a polytheistic direction. By the time thatthe Zoroastrians were brought into contact with Magism, the first fervorof their religious zeal had abated, and they were in that intermediatecondition of religious faith which at once impresses and is impressed, acts upon other systems, and allows itself to be acted upon in return. The result which supervened upon contact with Magism seems to have beena fusion, an absorption into Zoroastrianism of all the chief points ofthe Magian belief, and all the more remarkable of the Magian religioususages. This absorption appears to have taken place in Media. It wasthere that the Arian tribes first associated with themselves, andformally adopted into their body, the priest-caste of the Magi, whichthenceforth was recognized as one of the six Median tribes. It is therethat Magi are first found acting in the capacity of Arian priests. According to all the accounts which have come down to us, they soonacquired a predominating influence, which they no doubt used to impresstheir own religious doctrines more and more upon the nation at large, and to thrust into the background, so far as they dared, the peculiarfeatures of the old Arian belief. It is not necessary to suppose thatthe Medes ever apostatized altogether from the worship of Ormazd, orformally surrendered their Dualistic faith. But, practically, the Magiandoctrines and the Magian usages--elemental worship, divination withthe sacred rods, dream expounding, incantations at the fire-altars, sacrifices whereat a Magus officiated--seem to have prevailed; thenew predominated over the old; backed by the power of an organizedhierarchy, Magism over-laid the primitive Arian creed, and, as time wenton, tended more and more to become the real religion of the nation. 

Among the religious customs introduced by the Magi into Media there areone or two which seem to require especial notice. The attribution of asacred character to the four so-called elements--earth, air, fire andwater--renders it extremely difficult to know what is to be done withthe dead. They cannot be burnt, for that is a pollution of fire; orburied, for that is a pollution of earth; or thrown into a river, forthat is a defilement of water. If they are deposited in sarcophagi, orexposed, they really pollute the air; but in this case the guilt of thepollution, it may be argued, does not rest on man, since the dead bodyis merely left in the element in which nature placed it. The only modeof disposal which completely avoids the defilement of every elementis consumption of the dead by living beings; and the worship of theelements leads on naturally to this treatment of corpses. At present theGuebres, or Fire-worshippers, the descendants of the ancient Persians, expose all their dead, with the intention that they shall be devouredby birds of prey. In ancient times, it appears certain that the Magiadopted this practice with respect to their own dead; but, apparently, they did not insist upon having their example followed universally bythe laity. Probably a natural instinct made the Arians averse to thiscoarse and revolting custom; and their spiritual guides, compassionatingtheir weakness, or fearful of losing their own influence over them ifthey were too stiff in enforcing compliance, winked at the employment bythe people of an entirely different practice. The dead bodies were firstcovered completely with a coating of wax, and were then deposited inthe ground. It was held, probably, that the coating of wax prevented thepollution which would have necessarily resulted had the earth come intodirect contact with the corpse. 

The custom of divining by means of a number of rods appears to havebeen purely Magian. There is no trace of it in the Gathas, in the Yagnahaptanhaiti, or in the older portions of the Vendidad. It was a Scythicpractice; and probably the best extant account of it is that whichHerodotus gives of the mode wherein it was managed by the Scyths ofEurope. "Scythia, " he says, "has an abundance of soothsayers, whoforetell the future by means of a number of willow wands. A large bundleof these rods is brought and laid on the ground. The soothsayer untiesthe bundle, and places each wand by itself, at the same time utteringhis prophecy: then, while he is still speaking, he gathers the rodstogether again, and makes them up once more into a bundle. " A divinepower seems to have been regarded as resting in the wands; and they weresupposed to be "consulted" on the matter in hand, both severally andcollectively. The bundle of wands thus imbued with supernatural wisdombecame naturally part of the regular priestly costume, and was carriedby the Magi on all occasions of ceremony. The wands were of differentlengths; and the number of wands in the bundle varied. Sometimes therewere three, sometimes five, sometimes as many as seven or nine; but inevery case, as it would seem, an odd number. 

Another implement which the priests commonly bore must be regarded, notas Magian, but as Zoroastrian. This is the khrafgthraghna, or instrumentfor killing bad animals, frogs, toads, snakes, mice, lizards, flies, etc. , which belonged to the bad creation, or that which derived itsorigin from Angro-mainyus. These it was the general duty of all men, and the more especial duty of the Zoroastrian priests, to put to death, whenever they had the opportunity. The Magi, it appears, adopted thisArian usage, added the khrafgthraghna to the barsom, and were so zealousin their performance of the cruel work expected from them as to excitethe attention, and even draw upon themselves the rebuke, of foreigners. 

A practice is assigned to the Magi by many classical and ecclesiasticalwriters, which, if it were truly charged on them, would leave a verydark stain on the character of their ethical system. It is said thatthey allowed and even practised incest of the most horrible kind--suchincest as we are accustomed to associate with the names of Lot, OEdipus, and Herod Agrippa. The charge seems to have been first made either byXanthus the Lydian, or by Ctesias. It was accepted, probably withoutmuch inquiry, by the Greeks generally, and then by the Romans, wasrepeated by writer after writer as a certain fact, and became finally astock topic with the early Christian apologists. Whether it had any realfoundation in fact is very uncertain. Herodotus, who collects with somuch pains the strange and unusual customs of the various nations whomhe visits, is evidently quite ignorant of any such monstrous practice. He regards the Magian religion as established in Persia, yet he holdsthe incestuous marriage of Cambyses with his sister to have beencontrary to existing Persian laws. At the still worst forms of incestof which the Magi and those under their influence are accused, Herodotusdoes not even glance. No doubt, if Xanthus Lydus really made thestatement which Clemens of Alexandria assigns to him, it is an importantpiece of evidence, though scarcely sufficient to prove the Magi guilty. Xanthus was a man of little judgment, apt to relate extravagant tales;and, as a Lydian, he may have been disinclined to cast an aspersionon the religion of his country's oppressors. The passage in question, however, probably did not come from Xanthus Lydus, but from a much laterwriter who assumed his name, as has been well shown by a living critic. The true original author of the accusation against the Magi and theirco-religionists seems to have been Ctesias, whose authority is fartoo weak to establish a charge intrinsically so improbable. Its onlyhistorical foundation seems to have been the fact that incestuousmarriages were occasionally contracted by the Persian kings; not, however, in consequence of any law, or religious usage, but because inthe plenitude of their power they could set all law at defiance, andtrample upon the most sacred principles of morality and religion. 

A minor charge preferred against the Magian morality by Xanthus, orrather by the pseudo-Xanthus, has possibly a more solid foundation. "The Magi, " this writer said, "hold their wives in common: at leastthey often marry the wives of others with the free consent of theirhusbands. " This is really to say that among the Magians divorce wasover-facile; that wives were often put away, merely with a view to theirforming a fresh marriage, by husbands who understood and approved of thetransaction. Judging by the existing practice of the Persians, we mustadmit that such laxity is in accordance with Iranic notions on thesubject of marriage--notions far less strict than those which havecommonly prevailed among civilized nations. There is, however, no otherevidence, besides this, that divorce was very common where the Magiansystem prevailed; and the mere assertion of the writer who personatedXanthus Lydus will scarcely justify us in affixing even this stigma onthe religion. 

Upon the whole, Magism, though less elevated and less pure than theold Zoroastrian creed, must be pronounced to have possessed a certainloftiness and picturesqueness which suited it to become the religionof a great and splendid monarchy. The mysterious fire-altars onthe mountain-tops, with their prestige of a remote antiquity--theever-burning flame believed to have been kindled from on high--theworship in the open air under the blue canopy of heaven--the long troopsof Magians in their white robes, with their strange caps, and theirmystic wands--the frequent prayers--the abundant sacrifices--the longincantations--the supposed prophetic powers of the priest-caste--allthis together constituted an imposing whole at once to the eye and tothe mind, and was calculated to give additional grandeur to the civilsystem that should be allied with it. Pure Zoroastrianism was toospiritual to coalesce readily with Oriental luxury and magnificence, or to lend strength to a government based on the ordinary principles ofAsiatic despotism. Magism furnished a hierarchy to support the throne, and add splendor and dignity to the court, while they overawed thesubject-class by their supposed possession of supernatural powers, and of the right of mediating between heaven and man. It supplied apicturesque worship which at once gratified the senses and excitedthe fancy It gave scope to man's passion for the marvellous byits incantations, its divining-rods, its omen-reading, and itsdream-expounding. It gratified the religious scrupulosity which findsa pleasure in making to itself difficulties, by the disallowance ofa thousand natural acts, and the imposition of numberless rulesfor external purity. At the same time it gave no offence to theanti-idolatrous spirit in which the Arians had hitherto gloried, butrather encouraged the iconoclasm which they always upheld and practised. It thus blended easily with the previous creed of the people, awaking noprejudices, clashing with no interests; winning its way by an apparentmeekness and unpresumingness, while it was quite prepared, when thefitting time came, to be as fierce and exclusive as if it had never wornthe mask of humility and moderation. 

CHAPTER V. LANGUAGE AND WRITING. 

On the language of the ancient Medes a very few observations will behere made. It has been noticed already that the Median form of speechwas closely allied to that of the Persians. The remark of Strabo quotedabove, and another remark which he cites from Nearchus, imply at oncethis fact, and also the further fact of a dialectic difference betweenthe two tongues. Did we possess, as some imagine that we do, materialsfor tracing out this diversity, it would be proper in the present placeto enter fully on the subject, and instead of contenting ourselves withasserting, or even proving, the substantial oneness of the languages, it would be our duty to proceed to the far more difficult and morecomplicated task of comparing together the sister dialects, and notingtheir various differences. The supposition that there exist means forsuch a comparison is based upon a theory that in the language of theZendavesta we have the true speech of the ancient people of Media, whilein the cuneiform inscriptions of the Achasmenian kings it is beyondcontroversy that we possess the ancient language of Persia. It becomesnecessary, therefore, to examine this theory, in order to justify ourabstention from an inquiry on which, if the theory were sound, we shouldbe now called upon to enter. 

The notion that the Zend language was the idiom of ancient Mediaoriginated with Anquetil du Perron. He looked on Zoroaster as a nativeof Azerbijan, contemporary with Darius Hystaspis. His opinion wasembraced by Kleuker, Herder, and Eask; and again, with certainmodifications, by Tychsen and Heeren. These latter writers even gave amore completely Median character to the Zendavesta, by regarding it ascomposed in Media Magna, during the reign of the great Cyaxares. Themain foundation of these views was the identification of Zoroastrianismwith the Magian fire-worship, which was really ancient in Azerbijan, and flourished in Media under the great Median monarch. But we have seenthat Magianism and Zoroastrianism were originally entirely distinct, andthat the Zendavesta in all its earlier portions belongs wholly to thelatter system. Nothing therefore is proved concerning the Zend dialectby establishing a connection between the Medes and Magism, which wasa corrupting influence thrown in upon Zoroastrianism long after thecomposition of the great bulk of the sacred writings. 

These writings themselves sufficiently indicate the place of theircomposition. It was not Media, but Bactria, or at any rate thenorth-eastern Iranic country, between the Bolor range and the Caspian. This conclusion, which follows from a consideration of the variousgeographical notices contained in the Zend books, had been accepted oflate years by all the more profound Zend scholars. Originated by Rhode, it has also in its favor the names of Burnouf, Lassen, Westergaard, andHaug. If then the Zend is to be regarded as really a local dialect, theidiom of a particular branch of the Iranic people, there is far morereason for considering it to be the ancient speech of Bactria than ofany other Arian country. Possibly the view is correct which recognizestwo nearly-allied dialects as existing side by side in Iran during itsflourishing period--one prevailing towards the west, the other towardsthe east--one Medo-Persic, the other Sogdo-Bactrian--the formerrepresented to us by the cuneiform inscriptions, the latter by the Zendtexts. Or it may be closer to the truth to recognize in the Zendic andAchsemenian forms of speech, not so much two contemporary idioms, as twostages of one and the same language, which seems to be at present theopinion of the best comparative philologists. In either case Media canclaim no special interest in Zend, which, if local, is Sogdo-Bactrian, and if not local is no more closely connected with Media than withPersia. 

It appears then that we do not at present possess any means ofdistinguishing the shades of difference which separated the. Median fromthe Persian speech. We have in fact no specimens of the former beyond acertain number of words, and those chiefly proper names, whereas we knowthe latter tolerably completely from the inscriptions. It is proposedunder the head of the "Fifth Monarchy" to consider at some length thegeneral character of the Persian language as exhibited to us in thesedocuments. From the discussion then to be raised may be gathered thegeneral character of the speech of the Medes. In the present place allthat will be attempted is to show how far the remnants left us of Medianspeech bear out the statement that, substantially, one and the sametongue was spoken by both peoples. 

Many Median names are absolutely identical with Persian; e. G. , Ariobarzanes, Artabazus, Artaeus, Artembares, Harpagus, Arbaces, Tiridates, etc. Others which are not absolutely identical approachto the Persian form so closely as to be plainly mere variants, likeTheodoras and Theodosius, Adelbert and Ethelbert, Miriam, Mariam, andMariamne. Of this kind are Intaphres, another form of Intaphernes, Artynes, another form of Artanes, Parmises, another form of Parmys, andthe like. A third class, neither identical with any known Persian names, nor so nearly approaching to them as to be properly considered merevariants, are made up of known Persian roots, and may be explainedon exactly the same principles as Persian names. Such are Ophernes, Sitraphernes, Mitraphernes, Megabernes, Aspadas, Mazares, Tachmaspates, Xathrites, Spitaces, Spitamas, Ehambacas, and others. In Ophernes, Sitra-phernes, Mitra-phernes, and Mega-bernes, the second elementis manifestly the pharna or frana which is found in Arta-phernes andInta-phernes (Vida-frana), an active participial form from pri, toprotect. The initial element in O-phernes represents the Zend hu, Sans, su, Greek ev, as the same letter does in O-manes, O-martes, etc. TheSitra of Sitra-phernes has been explained as probably Ichshatra, "thecrown, " which is similarly represented in the Safro-pates of Curtius, aname standing to Sitra-phernes exactly as Arta-patas to Arta-phernes. InMega-bernes the first element is the well-known baga, "God, " underthe form commonly preferred by the Greeks; and the name is exactlyequivalent to Curtius's Bagfo-phanes, which only differs from it bytaking the participle of pa, "to protect, " instead of the participleof pri, which has the same meaning. In Aspa-das it is easy to recognizeaspa, "horse" (a common root in Persian names, ) e. G. , Aspa-thines, Aspa-mitras, Prex-aspes, and the like, followed by the same elementwhich terminates the name of Oromaz-des, and which means either"knowing" or "giving. " Ma-zares presents us with the root meh, "much" or"great, " which is found in the name of the ilf-aspii, or "Big Horses, "a Persian tribe, followed by zara, "gold, " which appears in Ctesias's"Arto-awes, " and perhaps also in Zoro-aster. In Tachmaspates, thefirst element is takhma, "strong, " a root found in the Persian namesAr-tochmes and Tritan-taechmes, while the second is the frequentlyused pati, "lord, " which occurs as the initial element in Pak-zeithes, "Pafa-ramphes, etc. , and as the terminal in Pharna-jjates, Avio-peithes, and the like. In Xathrites we have clearly khshatra (Zend khshathra), "crown" or "king, " with a participial suffix -ita, corresponding to theSanscrit participle in -it. Spita-ces and Spita-mas contain the rootspita, equivalent to spenta, "holy, " which is found in Spitho-hates, Spita-mens, Spita-des, etc. This, in Spita-ces, is followed by aguttural ending, which is either a diminutive corresponding to themodern Persian -efc, or perhaps a suffixed article. In Spit-amas, thesuffix -mas is the common form of the superlative, and may be comparedwith the Latin -mus in optimus, intimus, supremus, and the like. Ehambacas contains the root rafno, "joy, pleasure, " which we find inPati-ramphies, followed by the guttural suffix. 

There remains, finally, a class of Median names, containing roots notfound in any known names of Persians, but easily explicable from Zend, Sanscrit, or other cognate tongues, and therefore not antagonistic tothe view that Median and Persian were two closely connected dialects. Such, for instance, are the royal names mentioned by Herodotus, Deioces, Phraortes, Astyages, and Cyaxares; and such also are the following, which come to us from various sources; Amytis, Astibaras, Armamithres orHarmamithres, Mandauces, Parsondas, Eama-tes, Susiscanes, Tithaous, andZanasanes. 

In Deioces, or (as the Latins write it) Dejoces, there can be littledoubt that we have the name given as Djohak or Zohak in the Shahnamehand other modern Persian writings, which is itself an abbreviation ofthe Ajis-dahaka of the Zendavesta. Dahaka means in Zend "biting, " or"the biter, " and is etymo-logically connected with the Greek. 

Phraortes, which in old Persian was Fravartish, seems to be a merevariant of the word which appears in the Zendavesta as fravashi, anddesignates each man's tutelary genius. The derivation is certainly fromfra, and probably from a root akin to the German wahren, French garder, English "ward, watch, " etc. The meaning is "a protector. "

Cyaxares, the Persian form of which was "Uvakhshatara, " seems to beformed from the two elements it or hu, "well, good, " and akhsha (Zendarsnd), "the eye, " which is the final element of the name Cyavarswa inthe Zendavesta. Cyavarsna is "dark-eyed;" Uvakhsha (= Zend Huvarsna)would be "beautiful-eyed. " Uvakhshatara appears to be the comparativeof this adjective, and would mean "more beautiful-eyed (than others). "

Astyages, which, according to Moses of Chorene, meant "a dragon" or"serpent, " is almost certainly Ajis-dahaka, the full name whereofDojoces (or Zohak) is the abbreviation. It means "the biting snake, "from aji or azi, "a snake" or "serpent, " and dahaka, "biting. "

Amytis is probably ama, "active, great, " with the ordinary femininesuffix -iti, found in Armaiti, Khnathaiti, and the like. Astibarasis perhaps "great of bone, " from Zend agta (Sans, asthi), "bone, " andbereza, "tall, great. " Harmamithres, if that is the true reading, would be "mountain-lover" (monticolus), from hardam, ace. Of hara, "amountain, " and mithra or mitra, "fond of. " If, however, the name shouldbe read as Armamithres, the probable derivation will be from rama, ace. Of raman, "pleasure, " which is also the root of Rama-tea. Armamithresmay then be compared with Rheomithres, Siromitras, and Sysimithres, which are respectively "fond of splendor, " "fond of beauty, " and "fondof light. " Mandauces is perhaps "biting spirit--esprit mordant, " frommand, "coeur, esprit, " and dahaka, "biting. " M Parsondas can scarcelybe the original form, from the occurrence in it of the nasal before thedental. In the original it must have been Parsodas, which would mean"liberal, much giving, " from pourus, "much, " and da, "to give. " Ramates, as already observed, is from rama, "pleasure. " It is an adjectival form, like Datis, and means probably "pleasant, agreeable. " Susiscanes may beexplained as "splendidus juvenis, " from quc, "splendere, " pres. Part, cao-cat, and kainin, "adolescens, juvenis. " Tithaeus is probably forTathaeus, which would be readily formed from tatka, "one who makes. "Finally, Zanasanes may be referred to the root zan or jan, "to kill, "which is perhaps simply followed by the common appellative suffix -ana. 

From these names of persons we may pass to those of places in Media, which equally admit of explanation from roots known to have existedeither in Zend or in old Persian. Of these, Ecbatana, Bagistana, andAspadana may be taken as convenient specimens. Ecbatana (or Agbatana), according to the orthography of the older Greeks was in the nativedialect Hagmatana, as appears from the Behistun inscription. This form, Hagmatana, is in all probability derived from the three words ham, "with" (Sans, sam, Latin cum), gam, "to go" (Zend gd, Sans, 'gam), andctana (Mod. Pers. -stan) "a place. " The initial ham has dropped them and become ha, and cum becomes co- in Latin; gam has become gmaby metathesis; and gtan has passed into -tan by phonetic corruption. Ha-gma-tana would be "the place for assembly, " or for "coming together"(Lat. Comitium); the place, i. E. , where the tribes met, and where, consequently, the capital grew up. 

Bagistan, which was "a hill sacred to Jupiter" according to Diodorus, is clearly a name corresponding to the Beth-el of the Hebrews and theAllahabad of the Mahometans. It is simply "the house, or place, ofGod"--from baga, "God, " and gtana, "place, abode, " the common modernPersian terminal (compare Farsi-stan, Khuzi-stan, Afghani-stan, Belochi-stan, Hindu-stan, etc. ), which has here not suffered anycorruption. 

Aspadana contains certainly as its first element the root acpa, "horse. "The suffix dan may perhaps be a corruption of ctana, analogous to thatwhich has produced Hama-dan from Hagma-ctan; or it may be a contractedform of danhu, or dairihu, "a-province, " Aspadana having been originallythe name of a district where horses were bred, and having thence becomethe name of its chief town. 

The Median words known to us, other than names of persons or places, areconfined to some three or four. Herodotus tells us that the Median wordfor "dog" was spaka; Xenophon implies, if he does not expressly state, that the native name for the famous Median robe was candys; Nicolas ofDamascus informs us that the Median couriers were called Angari; andHesychius says that the artabe was a Median measure. The last-namedwriter also states that artades and devas were Magian words, whichperhaps implies that they were common to the Medes with the Persians. Here, again, the evidence, such as it is, favors a close connectionbetween the languages of Media and Persia. 

That artabe and angarus were Persian words no less than Median, we havethe evidence of Herodotus. Artades, "just men" (according to Hesychhis), is probably akin to ars, "true, just, " and may represent the ars-data, "made just, " of the Zendavesta. Devas (Seven), which Hesychiustranslates "the evil gods" is clearly the Zendic daiva, Mod. Pers. Div. (Sans, deva, Lat. Divus). In candys we have most probably a formationfrom qan, "to dress, to adorn. " Spaka is the Zendic cpa, with theScythic guttural suffix, of which the Medes were so fond, cpa itselfbeing akin to the Sanscrit cvan, and so to hvoov and canis. Thus we mayconnect all the few words which are known as Median with forms containedin the Zend, which was either the mother or the elder sister of theancient Persian. 

That the Medes were acquainted with the art of writing, and practisedit--at least from the time that they succeeded to the dominion of theAssyrians--scarcely admits of a doubt. An illiterate nation, whichconquers one in possession of a literature, however it may despiselearning and look down upon the mere literary life, is almost sure toadopt writing to some extent on account of its practical utility. Itis true the Medes have left us no written monuments; and we may fairlyconclude from that fact that they used writing sparingly; but besidesthe antecedent probability, there is respectable evidence that letterswere known to them, and that, at any rate, their upper classes couldboth read and write their native tongue. The story of the letter sentby Harpagus the Mede to Cyrus in the belly of a hare, though probablyapocryphal, is important as showing the belief of Herodotus on thesubject. The still more doubtful story of a despatch written onparchment by a Median king, Artseus, and sent to Nanarus, a provincialgovernor, related by Nicolas of Damascus, has a value, as indicatingthat writer's conviction that the Median monarchs habitually conveyedtheir commands to their subordinates in a written form. With thesestatements of profane writers agree certain notices which we find inScripture. Darius the Mode, shortly after the destruction of the Medianempire, "signs" a decree, which his chief nobles have presented to himin writing. He also himself "writes" another decree addressed to hissubjects generally. In later times we find that there existed at thePersian court a "book of the chronicles of the kings of Media andPersia, " in which was probably a work begun under the Median andcontinued under the Persian sovereigns. 

If then writing was practised by the Medes, it becomes interesting toconsider whence they obtained their knowledge of it, and what was thesystem which they employed. Did they bring an alphabet with them fromthe far East, or did they derive their first knowledge of lettersfrom the nations with whom they came into contact after their greatmigration? In the latter case, did they adopt, with or withoutmodifications, a foreign system, or did they merely borrow the idea ofwritten symbols from their new neighbors, and set to work to invent forthemselves an alphabet suited to the genius of their own tongue? Theseare some of the questions which present themselves to the mind asdeserving of attention, when this subject is brought before it. Unfortunately we possess but very scanty data for determining, and cando little more than conjecture, the proper answers to be given to them. 

The early composition of certain portions of the Zendavesta, which hasbeen asserted in this work, may seem at first sight to imply the useof a written character in Bactria and the adjacent countries at a veryremote era. But such a conclusion is not necessary. Nations have oftenhad an oral literature, existing only in the memories of men, and havehanded down such a literature from generation to generation, througha long succession of ages. The sacred lore of Zoroaster may have beenbrought by the Modes from the East-Caspian country in an unwrittenshape, and may not have been reduced to writing till many centurieslater. On the whole it is perhaps most probable that the Medes wereunacquainted with letters when they made their great migration, and thatthey acquired their first knowledge of them from the races with whomthey came into collision when they settled along the Zagros chain. Inthese regions they were brought into contact with at least two forms ofwritten speech, one that of the old Armenians, a Turanian dialect, theother that of the Assyrians, a language of the Semitic type. These twonations used the same alphabetic system, though their languages wereutterly unlike; and it would apparently have been the easiest planfor the new comers to have adopted the established forms, and to haveapplied them, so far as was possible, to the representation of their ownspeech. But the extreme complication of a system which employed betweenthree and four hundred written signs, and composed signs sometimes offourteen or fifteen wedges, seems to have shocked the simplicity of theMedes, who recognized the fact that the varieties of their articulationsfell far short of this excessive luxuriance. The Arian races, so faras appears, declined to follow the example set them by the Turanians ofArmenia, who had adopted the Assyrian alphabet, and preferred to inventa new system for themselves, which they determined to make far moresimple. It is possible that they found an example already set them. In Achaemenian times we observe two alphabets used through Media andPersia, both of which are simpler than the Assyrian: one is employed toexpress the Turanian dialect of the people whom the Arians conquered anddispossessed; the other, to express the tongue of the conquerors. Itis possible--though we have no direct evidence of the fact--thatthe Turanians of Zagros and the neighborhood had already formed forthemselves the alphabet which is found in the second columns of theAchaemenian tablets, when the Arian invaders conquered them. Thisalphabet, which in respect of complexity holds an intermediate positionbetween the luxuriance of the Assyrian and the simplicity of theMedo-Persic system, would seem in all probability to have intervenedin order of time between the two. It consists of no more than about ahundred characters, and these are for the most part far less complicatedthan those of Assyria. If the Medes found this form of writing alreadyexisting in Zagros when they arrived, it may have assisted to give themthe idea of making for themselves an alphabet so far on the old modelthat the wedge should be the sole element used in the formation, ofletters, but otherwise wholly new, and much more simple than thosepreviously in use. 

Discarding then the Assyrian notion of a syllabarium, with the enormouscomplication which it involves, the Medes strove to reduce sounds totheir ultimate elements, and to represent these last alone by symbols. Contenting themselves with the three main vowel sounds, a, i, and u, andwith one breathing, a simple h, they recognized twenty consonants, which were the following, b, d, f, g, j, k, kh, m, n, n (sound doubtful), p, r, s, sh, t, v, y, z, ch (as in much), and tr, an unnecessary compound. Hadthey stopped here, their characters should have been but twenty-four, the number which is found in Greek. To their ears, however, it wouldseem, each consonant appeared to carry with it a short a, and as this, occurring before i and u, produced the diphthongs ai and au, soundednearly as e and o, it seemed necessary, where a consonant was to bedirectly followed by the sounds i or u, to have special forms to whichthe sound of a should not attach. This system, carried out completely, would have raised the forms of consonants to sixty, a multiplicationthat was feared as inconvenient. In order to keep down the number, it seems to have been resolved, that one form should suffice for theaspirated letters and the sibilants (viz. , h, kh; ch, ph or f, s, sh, andz), and also for b, y, and tr; that two forms should suffice for thetenues, k, p, t, for the liquids n and r, and for v; and consequently thatthe full number of three forms should be limited to some three orfour letters, as d, m, j, and perhaps g. The result is that the knownalphabet of the Persians, which is assumed here to have been theinvention of the Medes, consists of some thirty-six or thirty-sevenforms, which are really representative of no more than twenty-threedistinct sounds. 

It appears then that, compared with the phonetic systems in vogue amongtheir neighbors, the alphabet of the Medes and Persians was marked bya great simplicity. The forms of the letters were also very muchsimplified. Instead of conglomerations of fifteen or sixteen wedges ina single character, we have in the Medo-Persic letters a maximum of fivewedges. The most ordinary number is four, which is sometimes reducedto three or even two. The direction of the wedges is uniformly eitherperpendicular or horizontal, except of course in the case of the doublewedge or arrow-head, where the component elements are placed obliquely. The arrow-head has but one position, the perpendicular, with the anglefacing towards the left hand. The only diagonal sign used is a simplewedge, placed obliquely with the point towards the right, which is amere mark of separation between the words. 

The direction of the writing was, as with the Arian nations generally, from left to right. Words were frequently divided, and part carried onto the next line. The characters were inscribed between straight linesdrawn from end to end of the tablet on which they were written. Like theHebrew, they often closely resembled one another, and a slight defect inthe stone will cause one to be mistaken for another. The resemblance isnot between letters of the same class or kind; on the contrary, itis often between those which are most remote from one another. Thus gnearly resembles u; ch is like d; tr like p; and so on: while k and kh, s and sh, p and ph (or J) are forms quite dissimilar. 

It is supposed that a cuneiform alphabet can never have been employedfor ordinary writing purposes, but must have been confined to documentsof some importance, which it was desirable to preserve, and whichwere therefore either inscribed on stone, or impressed on moist clayafterwards baked. A cursive character, it is therefore imagined, mustalways have been in use, parallel with a cuneiform one; and as theBabylonians and Assyrians are known to have used a character of thiskind from a very high antiquity, synchronously with their lapidarycuneiform, so it is supposed that the Arian races must have possessed, besides the method which has been described as a cursive system ofwriting. Of this, however, there is at present no direct evidence. Nocursive writing of the Arian nations at this time, either Median orPersian, has been found; and it is therefore uncertain what form ofcharacter they employed on common occasions. 

The material used for ordinary purposes, according to Nicolas ofDamascus and Ctesias, was parchment. On this the kings wrote thedespatches which conveyed their orders to the officers who administeredthe government of provinces; and on this were inscribed the memorialswhich each monarch was careful to have composed giving an account of thechief events of his reign. The cost of land carriage probably preventedpapyrus from superseding this material in Western Asia, as it did inGreece at a tolerably early date. Clay, so much used for writing on bothin Babylonia and Assyria, appears never to have approved itself as aconvenient substance to the Iranians. For public documents the chiseland the rock, for private the pen and the prepared skin, seem to havebeen preferred by them; and in the earlier times, at any rate, theyemployed no other materials. 

CHAPTER VI. CHRONOLOGY AND HISTORY. 

Media . . . Quam ante regnum Cyri superlovis et incrementa Persidoslegimus Asiae reginam totius. --Amm. Marc, xxiii. 6. 

The origin of the Median nation is wrapt in a profound obscurity. Following the traces which the Zendavesta offers, taking intoconsideration its minute account of the earlier Arian migrations, itsentire omission of any mention of the Medes, and the undoubted fact thatit was nevertheless by the Medes and Persians that the document itselfwas preserved and transmitted to us, we should be naturally led tosuppose that the race was one which in the earlier times of Ariandevelopment was weak and insignificant, and that it first pushed itselfinto notice after the ethnological portions of the Zendavesta werecomposed, which is thought to have been about B. C. 1000. Quite inaccordance with this view is the further fact that in the nativeAssyrian annals, so far as they have been, recovered, the Medes do notmake their appearance till the middle of the ninth century B. C. , andwhen they appear are weak and unimportant, only capable of opposing avery slight resistance to the attacks of the Ninevite kings. The naturalconclusion from these data would appear to be that until about B. C. 850the Median name was unknown in the world, and that previously, if Medesexisted at all, it was either as a sub-tribe of some other Arian race, or at any rate as a tribe too petty and insignificant to obtain mentioneither on the part of native or of foreign historians. Such earlyinsignificance and late development of what ultimately becomes thedominant tribe of a race is no strange or unprecedented phenomenon tothe historical inquirer; on the contrary, it is among the facts withwhich he is most familiar, and would admit of ample illustration, werethe point worth pursuing, alike from the history of the ancient and themodern world. 

But, against the conclusion to which we could not fail to be led bythe Arian and Assyrian records, which agree together so remarkably, twostartling notices in works of great authority but of a widely differentcharacter have to be set. In the Toldoth Beni Noah, or "Book of theGeneration of the Sons of Noah, " which forms the tenth chapter ofGenesis, and which, if the work of Moses, was probably composed atleast as early as B. C. 1500, we find the Madai--a word elsewhere alwayssignifying "the Medes"--in the genealogy of the sons of Japhet. The wordis there conjoined with several other important ethnic titles, as Gomer, Magog, Javan, Tubal, and Meshech; and there can be no reasonable doubtthat it is intended to designate the Median people. If so, the peoplemust have had already a separate and independent existence in thefifteenth century B. C. , and not only so, but they must have by that timeattained so much distinction as to be thought worthy of mention bya writer who was only bent on affiliating the more important of thenations known to him. 

The other notice is furnished by Berosus. That remarkable historian, in his account of the early dynasties of his native Chaldaea, declaredthat, at a date anterior to B. C. 2000, the Medes had conquered Babylonby a sudden inroad, had established a monarchy there, and had heldpossession of the city and neighboring territory for a period of 224years. Eight kings of their race had during that interval occupied theBabylonian throne, It has been already observed that this narrative mustrepresent a fact. Berosus would not have gratuitously invented a foreignconquest of his native land; nor would the earlier Babylonians, fromwhom he derived his materials, have forged a tale which was so littleflattering to their national vanity. Some foreign conquest of Babylonmust have taken place about the period named; and it is certainly a mostimportant fact that Berosus should call the conquerors Medes. He may nodoubt have been mistaken about an event so ancient; he may have misreadhis authorities, or he may have described as Medes a people of which hereally knew nothing except that they had issued from the tract whichin his own time bore the name of Media. But, while these axe merepossibilities, hypotheses to which the mind resorts in order to escapea difficulty, the hard fact remains that he has used the word; and thisfact, coupled with the mention of the Medes in the book of Genesis, doescertainly raise a presumption of no inconsiderable strength against, the view which it would be natural to take if the Zendavesta and theAssyrian annals were our solo authorities on the subject. It lends asubstantial basis to the theories of those who regard the Medes as oneof the principal primeval races; who believe that they were well knownto the Semitic inhabitants of the Mesopotamian valley as early as thetwenty-third century before Christ--long ere Abraham left Ur for Harran;and that they actually formed the dominant power in Western Asiafor more than two centuries, prior to the establishment of the firstChaldaean kingdom. 

And if there are thus distinct historical grounds for the notion of anearly Median development, there are not wanting these obscurer but tomany minds more satisfactory proofs wherewith comparative philologyand ethnology are wont to illustrate and confirm the darker passages ofancient history. Recent linguistic research has clearly traced among theArba Lisun, or, "Four Tongues" of ancient Chaldaea, which are so oftenmentioned on the ancient monuments, an Arian formation, such as wouldnaturally have been left in the country, if it had been occupied forsome considerable period by a dominant Arian power. The early Chaldaeanideographs have often several distinct values; and when this is thecase, one of the powers is almost always an Arian name of the objectrepresented. Words like nir, "man", ar, "river, " (compare the namesAras, Araxes, Endanus, Rha, Rhodanus, etc. , the Slavonic rika, "river, "etc. ), san, "sun, " (compare German Sonne, Slavonic solnce, English"sun, " Dutch zon, etc. ), are seemingly Arian roots; and the veryterm "Arian" (Ariya, "noble") is perhaps contained in the name of aprimitive Chaldaean monarch, "Arioch, king of Ellasar. " There isnothing perhaps in these scattered traces of Arian influence in in LowerMesopotamia at a remote era that points very particularly to the Medes;but at any rate they harmonize with the historical account that hasreached us of early Arian power in these parts, and it is important thatthey should not be ignored when we are engaged in considering the degreeof credence that is to be awarded to the account in question. 

Again, there are traces of a vast expansion, apparently at a very earlydate, of the Median race, such as seems to imply that they must havebeen a great nation in Western Asia long previously to the time of theIranic movements in Bactria and the adjoining regions. In the Matieniof Zagros and Cappadocia, in the Sauro-matae (or Northern Medes) of thecountry between the Palus Maeotis and the Caspian, in the Maetae orMaeotae of the tract about the mouth of the Don, and in the Maedi ofThrace, we have seemingly remnants of a great migratory host which, starting from the mountains that overhang Mesopotamia, spread itselfinto the regions of the north and the north-west at a time whichdoes not admit of being definitely stated, but which is clearlyanti-historic. Whether these races generally retained any tradition oftheir origin, we do not know; but a tribe which in the time of Herodotusdwelt still further to the west than even the Maedi--to wit, theSigynnae, who occupied the tract between the Adriatic and theDanube--had a very distinct belief in their Median descent, a beliefconfirmed by the resemblance which their national dress bore to that ofthe Medes. Herodotus, who relates these facts concerning them, appendsan expression of his astonishment at the circumstance that emigrantsfrom Media should have proceeded to such a distance from their originalhome; how it had been brought about he could not conceive. "Still, " hesagaciously remarks, "nothing is impossible in the long lapse of ages. "

A further argument in favor of the early development of Median power, and the great importance of the nation in Western Asia at a periodanterior to the ninth century, is derivable from the ancient legendsof the Greeks, which seem to have designated the Medes under the twoeponyms of Medea and Andromeda. These legends indeed do not admit ofbeing dated with any accuracy; but as they are of a primitive type, andprobably older than Homer, we cannot well assign them to an age laterthan b. C. 1000. Now they connect the Median name with the two countriesof Syria and Colchis, countries remote from each other, and neither ofthem sufficiently near the true Median territory to be held from it, unless at a time when the Medes were in possession of something likean empire. And, even apart from any inferences to be drawn from thelocalties which the Greek Myths connect with the Medes, the very factthat the race was known to the Greeks at this early date--long beforethe movements which brought them into contact with the Assyrians--wouldseem to show that there was some remote period--prior to the Assyriandomination--when the fame of the Medes was great in the part of Asiaknown to the Hellenes, and that they did not first attract Hellenicnotice (as, but for the Myths, we might have imagined) by the conquestsof Cyaxarea. Thus, on the whole it would appear that we must acknowledgetwo periods of Median prosperity, separated from each other by a lengthyinterval, one anterior to the rise of the Cushite empire in LowerBabylonia, the other parallel with the decline and subsequently to thefall of Assyria. 

Of the first period it cannot be said that we possess any distincthistorical knowledge. The Median dynasty of Berosus at Babylon appears, by recent discoveries, to have represented those Susianian monarchs whobore sway there from B. C. 2286 to 2052. The early Median preponderancein Western Asia, if it is a fact, must have been anterior to this, andis an event which has only left traces in ethnological names and inmythological speculations. 

Our historical knowledge of the Medes as a nation commences inthe latter half of the ninth century before our era. ShalmaneserII. --probably the "Shalman" of Hosea, --who reigned from B. C. 859 to B. C. 824--relates that in his twenty-fourth year (B. C. 885), after havingreduced to subjection the Zimri, who held the Zagros mountain rangeimmediately to the east of Assyria, and received tribute from thePersians, he led an expedition into Media and Arazias, where he took anddestroyed a number of the towns, slaying the men, and carrying off thespoil. He does not mention any pitched battle; and indeed it would seemthat he met with no serious resistance. The Medes whom he attacksare evidently a weak and insignificant people, whom he holds in smallesteem, and regards as only deserving of a hurried mention. They seemto occupy the tract now known as Ardelan--a varied region containingseveral lofty ridges, with broad plains lying between them. 

It is remarkable that the time of this first contact of Media withAssyria--a contact taking place when Assyria was in her prime, and Mediawas only just emerging from a long period of weakness and obscurity--isalmost exactly that which Ctesias selects as a day of the greatrevolution whereby the Empire of the East passed from the hands of theShemites into those of the Arians. The long residence of Otesias amongthe Persians, gave him a bias toward that people, which even extended totheir close kin, the Medes. Bent on glorifying these two Arian races, he determined to throw back the commencement of their empire to a periodlong anterior to the true date; and, feeling specially anxious to coverup their early humiliation, he assigned their most glorious conqueststo the very century, and almost to the very time, when they were in factsuffering reverses at the hands of the people over whom he representedthem as triumphant. There was a boldness in the notion of thus invertinghistory which almost deserved, and to a considerable extent obtained, success. The "long chronology" of Ctesias kept its ground untilrecently, not indeed meeting with universal acceptance, but on the wholepredominating over the "short chronology" of Herodotus; and it may bedoubted whether anything less than the discovery that the native recordsof Assyria entirely contradicted Ctesias would have sufficed to drivefrom the field his figment of early Median dominion. 

The second occasion upon which we hear of the Medes in the Assyrianannals is in the reign of Shalmanoser's son and successor, Shamas-Vul. Here again, as on the former occasion, the Assyrians were theaggressors. Shamas-Vul invaded Media and Arazias in his third year, andcommitted ravages similar to those of his father, wasting the countrywith fire and sword, but not (it would seem) reducing the Medes tosubjection, or even attempting to occupy their territory. Again theattack is a mere raid, which produces no permanent impression. 

It is in the reign of the son and successor of Shamas-Vul that the Medesappear for the first time to have made their submission and acceptedthe position of Assyrian tributaries. A people which was unable to offereffectual resistance when the Assyrian levies invaded their country, andwhich had no means of retaliating upon their foe or making him sufferthe evils that he inflicted, was naturally tempted to save itself frommolestation by the payment of an annual tribute, so purchasing quiet atthe expense of honor and independence. Towards the close of the ninthcentury B. C. The Medes seem to have followed the example set them verymuch earlier by their kindred and neighbors, the Persians, and tohave made arrangements for an annual payment which should exempt theirterritory from ravage. It is doubtful whether the arrangement was madeby the whole people. The Median tribes at this time hung so looselytogether that a policy adopted by one portion of them might be entirelyrepudiated by another. Most probably the tribute was paid by thosetribes only which boarded on Zagros, and not by those further to theeast or to the north, into whose territories the Assyrian arms has notyet penetrated. 

No further change in the condition of the Medes is known to haveoccurred until about a hundred years later, when the Assyrians ceasedto be content with the semi-independent position which had been hithertoallowed them, and determined on their more complete subjugation. Thegreat Sargon, the assailant of Egypt and conqueror of Babylon, towardsthe middle of his reign, invaded Media with a large army, and havingrapidly overrun the country, seized several of the towns, and "annexedthem to Assyria, " while at the same time he also established in newsituations a number of fortified posts. The object was evidently toincorporate Media into the empire; and the posts wore stations in whicha standing army was placed, to overawe the natives and prevent them fromoffering an effectual resistance. With the same view deportation of thepeople on a large scale seems to have been practised and the gapsthus made in the population were filled up--wholly or in part--by thesettlement in the Median cities of Samaritan captives. On the countrythus re-organized and re-arranged a tribute of a new character was laid. In lieu of the money payment hitherto exacted, the Medes were requiredto furnish annually to the royal stud a number of horses. It is probablethat Media was already famous for the remarkable breed which is socelebrated in later times; and that the horses now required of her bythe Assyrians were to be of the large and highly valued kind known as"Nisaean. "

The date of this subjugation is about B. C. 710. And here, if we comparethe Greek accounts of Median history with those far more authentic oneswhich have reached us through the Assyrian contemporary records, we arestruck by a repetition of the same device which came under our noticemore than a century earlier--the device of covering up the nation'sdisgraces at a particular period by assigning to that very date certaingreat and striking successes. As Ctesias's revolt of the Medes underArbaces and conquest of Nineveh synchronizes nearly with the first knownravages of Assyria within the territories of the Medes, so Herodotus'srevolt of the same people and commencement of their monarchy underDeioces falls almost exactly at the date when they entirely lose theirindependence. As there is no reason to suspect Herodotus either ofpartiality toward the Medes or of any wilful departure from the truth, we must regard him as imposed upon by his informants, who were probablyeither Medes or Persians. These mendacious patriots found littledifficulty in palming their false tale upon the simple Halicarnassian, thereby at once extending the antiquity of their empire and concealingits shame behind a halo of fictitious glory. 

After their subjugation by Sargon the Medes of Media Magna appear tohave remained the faithful subjects of Assyria for sixty or seventyyears. During this period we find no notices of the great mass of thenation in the Assyrian records: only here and there indications occurthat Assyria is stretching out her arms towards the more distant andoutlying tribes, especially those of Azerbijan, and compelling them toacknowledge her as mistress. Sennacherib boasts that early in hisreign, about B. C. 702, he received an embassy from the remoter parts ofMedia--"parts of which the kings his fathers had not even heard"--whichbrought him presents in sign of submission, and patiently accepted hisyoke. His son, Esar-haddon, relates that, about his tenth year (B. C. 671) he invaded Bikni or Bikan, a distant province of Media, "whereofthe kings his fathers had never heard the name;" and, attacking thecities of the region one after another, forced them to acknowledge hisauthority. The country was held by a number of independent chiefs, eachbearing sway in his own city and adjacent territory. These chiefs haveunmistakably Arian names, as Sitriparna or Sitraphernes, Eparna orOrphernes, Zanasana or Zanasanes, and Eamatiya or Ramates. Esar-haddonsays that, having entered the country with his army, he seized two ofthe chiefs and carried them off to Assyria, together with a vast spoiland numerous other captives. Hereupon the remaining chiefs, alarmedfor their safety, made their submission, consenting to pay an annualtribute, and admitting Assyrian officers into their territories, whowatched, if they did not even control, the government. 

We are now approaching the time when Media seems to have been firstconsolidated into a monarchy by the genius of an individual. Soberhistory is forced to discard the shadowy forms of kings with which Greekwriters of more fancy than judgment have peopled the darkness that restsupon the "origines" of the Medes. Arbaces, Maudaces, Sosarmus, Artycas, Arbianes, Artseus, Deioces--Median monarchs, according to Ctesias orHerodotus, during the space of time comprised within the years B. C. 875and 655--have to be dismissed by the modern writer without a word, since there is reason to believe that they are mere creatures of theimagination, inventions of unscrupulous romancers, not men who oncewalked the earth. The list of Median kings in Ctesias, so far as itdiffers from the list in Herodotus, seems to be a pure forgery--anextension of the period of the monarchy by the conscious use of a systemof duplication. Each king, or period, in Herodotus occurs in the listof Ctesias twice--a transparent device, clumsily cloaked by the cheapexpedient of a liberal invention of names. Even the list of Herodotusrequires curtailment. His Deioces, whose whole history reads more likeromance than truth--the organizer of a powerful monarchy in Media justat the time when Sargon was building his fortified posts in thecountry and peopling with his Israelite captives the old "cities of theMedes"--the prince who reigned for above half a century in perfectpeace with his neighbors, and who, although contemporary with Sargon, Sennacherib, Esar-haddon, and As-shur-bani-pal--all kings more or lessconnected with Media--is never heard of in any of their annals, mustbe relegated to the historical limbo in which repose so many "shades ofmighty names;" and the Herodotean list of Median kings must at anyrate, be thus far reduced. Nothing is more evident than that during theflourishing period of Assyria under the great Sargonidae above namedthere was no grand Median kingdom upon the eastern flank of the empire. Such a kingdom had certainly not been formed up to B. C. 671, whenEsar-haddon reduced the more distant Medes, finding them still under thegovernment of a number of petty chiefs. The earliest time at which wecan imagine the consolidation to have taken place consistently with whatwe know of Assyria is about B. C. 760, or nearly half a century laterthan the date given by Herodotus. 

The cause of the sudden growth of Media in power about this period, andof the consolidation which followed rapidly upon that growth, is tobe sought, apparently, in fresh migratory movements from the Arianhead-quarters, the countries east and south-east of the Caspian. TheCyaxares who about the year B. C. 632 led an invading host of Medesagainst Nineveh, was so well known to the Arian tribes of the north-eastthat, when in the reign of Darius Hystaspis a Sagartian raised thestandard of revolt in that region he stated the ground of his claim tothe Sagartian throne to be descent from Cyaxares. This great chief, it is probable, either alone, or in conjunction with his father (whomHerodotus calls Phraortes), led a fresh emigration of Arians from theBacterian and Sagartian country to the regions directly east of theZagros mountain chain; and having thus vastly increased the strength ofthe Arian race in that quarter, set himself to consolidate a mountainkingdom capable of resisting the great monarchy of the plain. Accepted, it would seem, as chief by the former Arian inhabitants of the tract, heproceeded to reduce the scattered Scythic tribes which had hitherto heldpossession of the high mountain region. The Zimri, Minni, Hupuska, etc. , who divided among them the country lying between Media Proper andAssyria, were attacked and subdued without any great difficulty; and theconqueror, finding himself thus at the head of a considerable kingdom, and no longer in any danger of subjugation at the hands of Assyria, began to contemplate the audacious enterprise of himself attackingthe Great Power which had been for so many hundred years the terror ofWestern Asia. The supineness of Asshur-bani-pal, the Assyrian king, who must at this time have been advanced in years, encouraged hisaspirations; and about B. C. 634, when that monarch had held the thronefor thirty-four years, suddenly, without warning, the Median troopsdebouched from the passes of Zagros, and spread themselves over the richcountry at its base, Alarmed by the nearness and greatness of the peril, the Assyrian king aroused himself, and putting himself at the head ofhis troops, marched out to confront the invader. A great battlewas fought, probably somewhere in Adiabene, in which the Medes werecompletely defeated: their whole army was cut to pieces; and the fatherof Cyaxares was among the slain. Such was the result of the first Medianexpedition against Nineveh. The assailants had miscalculated theirstrength. In their own mountain country, and so long as they shouldbe called upon to act only on the defensive, they might be rightin regarding themselves as a match for the Assyrians; but when theydescended into the plain, and allowed their enemy the opportunityof manoeuvering and of using his war chariots, their inferiority wasmarked. Cyaxares, now, if not previously, actual king, withdrew awhilefrom the war, and, convinced that all the valor of his Medes would beunavailing without discipline, set himself to organize the army on anew system, taking a pattern from the enemy, who had long possessed someknowledge of tactics. Hitherto, it would seem, each Median chief hadbrought into the field his band of followers, some mounted, some onfoot, foot and horse alike armed variously as their means allowed them, some with bows and arrows, some with spears, some perhaps with slings ordarts; and the army had been composed of a number of such bodies, eachchief keeping his band close about him. Cyaxares broke up these bands, and formed the soldiers who composed them into distinct corps, accordingas they were horsemen or footmen, archers, slingers, or lancers. Hethen, having completed his arrangements at his ease, without disturbance(so far as appears) from the Assyrians, felt himself strong enough torenew the war with a good prospect of success. Collecting as largean army as he could, both from his Arian and his Scythic subjects, hemarched into Assyria, met the troops of Asshur-bani-pal in the field, defeated them signally, and forced them to take refuge behind the strongworks which defended their capital. He even ventured to follow up theflying foe and commence the siege of the capital itself; but at thispoint he was suddenly checked in his career of victory, and forced toassume a defensive attitude, by a danger of a novel kind, which recalledhim from Nineveh to his own country. 

The vast tracts, chiefly consisting of grassy plains, which lie north ofthe Black Sea, the Caucasus, the Caspian, and the Jaxartes Syhun river, were inhabited in ancient times by a race or races known to the Asiaticsas Saka, "Scythians. " These people appear to have been allied ethnicallywith many of the more southern races, as with the Parthians, theIberians, the Alarodians, the tribes of the Zagros chain, theSusianians, and others. It is just possible that they may have takenan interest in the warfare of their southern brethren, and that, whenCyaxares brought the tribes of Zagros under his yoke, the Scyths of thenorth may have felt resentment, or compassion, If this view seem tooimprobable, considering the distance, the physical obstacles, and thelittle communication that there was between nations in those earlytimes, we must suppose that by a mere coincidence it happened that thesubjugation of the southern Scyths by Cyaxares was followed within a fewyears by a great irruption of Scyths from the trans-Caucasian region. Inthat case we shall have to regard the invasion as a mere example of thatever-recurring law by which the poor and hardy races of Upper Asia orEurope are from time to time directed upon the effete kingdoms of thesouth, to shake, ravage, or overturn them, as the case may be, andprevent them from stagnating into corruption. 

The character of the Scythians, and the general nature of their ravages, have been described in a former portion of this work. If they enteredSouthern Asia, as seems probable, by the Daghestan route, they wouldthen have been able to pass on without much difficulty, through Georgiainto Azerbijan, and from Azerbijan into Media Magna, where the Medes hadnow established their southern capital. Four roads lead from Azerbijanto Hamadan or the Greater Ecbatana, one through Menjil and Kasvin, andacross the Caraghan Hills; a second through Miana, Zenjan, and theprovince of Khamseh; a third by the valley of the Jaghetu, throughChukli and Tikan-Teppeh; and a fourth through Sefer-Khaneh and Sennah. We cannot say which of the four the invaders selected; but, as they werepassing southwards, they met the army of Cyaxares, which had quittedNineveh on the first news of their invasion, and had marched in hothaste to meet and engage them. The two enemies were not ill-matched. Both were hardy and warlike, both active and full of energy; with boththe cavalry was the chief arm, and the bow the weapon on which theydepended mainly for victory. The Medes were no doubt the betterdisciplined; they had a greater variety of weapons and of soldiers; andindividually they were probably more powerful men than the Scythians;but these last had the advantage of numbers, of reckless daring, and oftactics that it was difficult to encounter. Moreover, the necessity oftheir situation in the midst of an enemy's country made it imperative onthem to succeed, while their adversaries might be defeated without anyvery grievous consequences. The Scytho had not come into Asia to conquerso much as to ravage; defeat at their hands involved damage rather thandestruction; and the Medes must have felt that, if they lost the battle, they might still hope to maintain a stout defence behind the strongwalls of some of their towns. The result was such as might have beenexpected under these circumstances. Madyes, the Scythian leader, obtained the victory, Cyaxares was defeated, and compelled to make termswith the invader. Retaining his royal name, and the actual government ofhis country, he admitted the suzerainty of the Scyths, and agreed to paythem an annual tribute. Whether Media suffered very seriously from theirravages, we cannot say. Neither its wealth nor its fertility was suchas to tempt marauders to remain in it very long. The main complaintmade against the Scythian conquerors is that, not content with thefixed tribute which they had agreed to receive, and which was paid themregularly, they levied contributions at their pleasure on the variousstates under their sway, which were oppressed by repeated exactions. Theinjuries suffered from their marauding habits form only a subordinatecharge against them, as though it had not been practically felt to beso great a grievance. We can well imagine that the bulk of the invaderswould prefer the warmer and richer lands of Assyria, Mesopotamia, andSyria; and that, pouring into them, they would leave the colder and lesswealthy Media comparatively free from ravage. 

The condition of Media and the adjacent countries under the Scythiansmust have nearly resembled that of almost the same regions underthe Seljukian Turks during the early times of their domination. Theconquerors made no fixed settlements, but pitched their tents in anyportion of the territory that they chose. Their horses and cattlewere free to pasture on all lands equally. They were recognized as thedominant race, were feared and shunned, but did not greatly interferewith the bulk of their subjects. It was impossible that they shouldoccupy at any given time more than a comparatively few spots in the widetract which they had overrun and subjugated; and, consequently, there was not much contact between them and the peoples whom they hadconquered. Such contact as there was must no doubt have been galling andoppressive. The right of free pasture in the lands of others is alwaysirksome to those who have to endure it, and, even where it is exercisedwith strict fairness, naturally leads to quarrels. The barbarousScythians are not likely to have cared very much about fairness. Theywould press heavily upon the more fertile tracts, paying over-frequentvisits to such spots, and remaining in them till the region wasexhausted. The chiefs would not be able to restrain their followersfrom acts of pillage; redress would be obtained with difficulty; andsometimes even the chiefs themselves may have been sharers in theinjuries committed. The insolence, moreover, of a dominant race socoarse and rude as the Scyths must have been very hard to bear; and wecan well understand that the various nations which had to endure theyoke must have looked anxiously for an opportunity of shaking it off, and recovering their independence. 

Among these various nations, there was probably none that fretted andwinced under its subjection more than the Medes. Naturally brave andhigh-spirited, with the love of independence inherent in mountaineers, and with a well-grounded pride in their recent great successes, theymust have chafed daily and hourly at the ignominy of their position, the postponement of their hopes, and the wrongs which they continuallysuffered. At first it seemed necessary to endure. They had tried thechances of a battle, and had been defeated in fair fight--what reasonwas there to hope that, if they drew the sword again, they would be moresuccessful? Accordingly they remained quiet but, as time went on, andthe Scythians dispersed themselves continually over a wider and awider space, invading Assyria, Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, and againArmenia and Cappadocia, everywhere plundering and marauding, conductingsieges, fighting battles, losing men from the sword, from sickness, fromexcesses, becoming weaker instead of stronger, as each year went by, owing to the drain of constant wars--the Medes by degrees took heart. Not trusting, however, entirely to the strength of their right arms, atrust which had failed them once, they resolved to prepare the way foran outbreak by a stratagem which they regarded as justifiable. Cyaxaresand his court invited a number of the Scythian chiefs to a grandbanquet, and, having induced them to drink till they were completelydrunk, set upon them when they were in this helpless condition, andremorselessly slew them all. 

This deed was the signal for a general revolt of the nation. The Medeseverywhere took arms, and, turning upon their conquerors, assailed themwith a fury the more terrible because it had been for years repressed. A war followed, the duration and circumstances of which are unknown; forthe stories with which Ctesias enlivened this portion of his history canscarcely be accepted as having any foundation in fact. According to him, the Parthians made common cause with the Scythians on the occasion, andthe war lasted many years; numerous battles were fought with great lossto both sides; and peace was finally concluded without either partyhaving gained the upper hand. The Scyths were commanded by a queen, Zarina or Zarinsea, woman of rare beauty, and as brave as she wasfair; who won the hearts, when she could not resist the swords, of heradversaries. A strangely romantic love-tale is told of this beauteousAmazon. It is not at all clear what region Ctesias supposes her togovern. It has a capital city, called Koxanace (a name entirely unknownto any other historian or geographer), and it contains many other townsof which Zarina was the foundress. Its chief architectural monument wasthe tomb of Zarina, a triangular pyramid, six hundred feet high, andmore than a mile round the base, crowned by a colossal figure of thequeen made of solid gold. But--to leave these fables and return tofact--we can only say with certainty that the result of the war was thecomplete defeat of the Scythians, who not only lost their position ofpre-eminence in Media and the adjacent countries, but were driven acrossthe Caucasus into their own proper territory. Their expulsion wasso complete that they scarcely left a trace of their power or theirpresence in the geography or ethnography of the country. One Palestinecity only, as already observed, and one Armenian province retained intheir names a lingering memory of the great inroad which but for themwould have passed away without making any more permanent mark on theregion than a hurricane or a snowstorm. How long the dominion of theScyths endured is a matter of great uncertainty. It was no doubtthe belief of Herodotus that from their defeat of Cyaxares to histreacherous murder of their chiefs was a period of exactly twenty-eightyears. During the whole of this space he regarded them as the undisputedlords of Asia. It was not till the twenty-eight years were over thatthe Medes were able, according to him, to renew their attacks on theAssyrians, and once more to besiege Nineveh. But this chronology is opento great objections. There is strong reason for believing that Ninevehfell about B. C. 625 or 624; but according to the numbers of Herodotusthe fall would, at the earliest, have taken place in B. C. 602. There isgreat unlikelihood that the Scyths, if they had maintained their rulefor a generation, should not have attracted some distinct notice fromthe Jewish writers. Again, if twenty-eight out of the forty yearsassigned to Cyaxares are to be regarded as years of inaction, all hisgreat exploits, his two sieges of Nineveh, his capture of that capital, his conquest of the countries north and west of Media as far as theHalys, his six years' war in Asia Minor beyond that river, and his jointexpedition with Nebuchadnezzar into Syria, will have to be crowded mostimprobably into the space of twelve years, two or three preceding andten or nine following the Scythian domination. These and other reasonslead to the conclusion, which has the support of Eusebius, thatthe Scythian domination was of much shorter duration than Herodotusimagined. It may have been twenty-eight years from the original attackon Media to the final expulsion of the last of the invaders fromAsia--and this may have been what the informants of Herodotus reallyintended--but it cannot have been very long after the first attackbefore the Medes began to recover themselves, to shake off the fearwhich had possessed them and clear their territories of the invaders. Ifthe invasion really took place in the reign of Cyaxares, and not in thelifetime of his father, where Eusebius places it, we must suppose thatwithin eight years of its occurrence Cyaxares found himself sufficientlystrong, and his hands sufficiently free, to resume his old projects, andfor the second time to march an army into Assyria. 

The weakness of Assyria was such as to offer strong temptations to aninvader. As the famous inroad of the Gauls into Italy in the year ofRome 365 paved the way for the Roman conquests in the peninsula bybreaking the power of the Etruscans, the Umbrians, and various otherraces, so the Scythic incursion may have, really benefited, rather thaninjured, Media, by weakening the great power to whose empire sheaspired to succeed. The exhaustion of Assyria's resources at the time isremarkably illustrated by the poverty and meanness of the palace whichthe last king, Saracus, built for himself at Calah. She lay, apparently, at the mercy of the first bold assailant, her prestige lost, her armydispirited or disorganized, her defences injured, her high spirit brokenand subdued. 

Cyaxaros, ere proceeding to the attack, sent, it is probable, to makean alliance with the Susianians and Chaldaeans. Susiana was the lastcountry which Assyria had conquered, and could remember the pleasures ofindependence. Chaldaea, though it had been now for above half a centuryan Assyrian fief, and had borne the yoke with scarcely a murmur duringthat period, could never wholly forget its old glories, or the longresistance which it had made before submitting to its northern neighbor. The overtures of the Median monarch seem to have been favorablyreceived; and it was agreed that an army from the south should march upthe Tigris and threaten Assyria from that quarter, while Cyaxaresled his Medes from the east, through the passes of Zagros against thecapital. Rumor soon conveyed the tidings of his enemies' intentions tothe Assyrian monarch, who immediately made such a disposition of theforces at his command as seemed best calculated to meet the doubledanger which threatened him. Selecting from among his generals theone in whom he placed most confidence--a man named Nabopolassar, mostprobably an Assyrian--he put him at the head of a portion of his troops, and sent him to Babylon to resist the enemy who was advancing from thesea. The command of his main army he reserved for himself, intending toundertake in person the defence of his territory against the Medes. Thisplan of campaign was not badly conceived; but it was frustrated by anunexpected calamity, Nabopolassar, seeing his sovereign's danger, andcalculating astutely that he might gain more by an opportune defectionfrom a falling cause than he could look to receive as the reward offidelity, resolved to turn traitor and join the enemies of Assyria. Accordingly he sent an embassy to Cyaxares, with proposals for a closealliance to be cemented by a marriage. If the Median monarch wouldgive his daughter Amuhia (or Amyitis) to be the wife of his sonNebuchadnezzar, the forces under his command should march againstNineveh and assist Cyaxares to capture it. Such a proposition arrivingat such a time was not likely to meet with a refusal. Cyaxares gladlycame into the terms; the marriage took place; and Nabopolassar, who hadnow practically assumed the sovereignty of Babylon, either led or sent aBabylonian contingent to the aid of the Medes. 

The siege of Nineveh by the combined Medes and Babylonians was narratedby Ctesias at some length. He called the Assyrian king Sardanapalus, the Median commander Arbaces, the Babylonian Belesis. Though he thusdisguised the real names, and threw back the event to a period a centuryand a half earlier than its true date, there can be no doubt that heintended to relate the last siege of the city, that which immediatelypreceded its complete destruction. He told how the combined army, consisting of Persians and Arabs as well as of Medes and Babylonians, and amounting to four hundred thousand men, was twice defeated withgreat loss by the Assyrian monarch, and compelled to take refuge inthe Zagros chain--how after losing a third battle it retreated toBabylonia--how it was there joined by strong reinforcements fromBactria, surprised the Assyrian camp by night, and drove the whole hostin confusion to Nineveh--how then, after two more victories, it advancedand invested the city, which was well provisioned for a siege andstrongly fortified. The siege, Ctesias said, had lasted two full years, and the third year had commenced--success seemed still far off--whenan unusually rainy season so swelled the waters of the Tigris that theyburst into the city, sweeping away more than two miles of the wall. This vast breach it was impossible to repair; and the Assyrian monarch, seeing that further resistance was vain, brought the struggle to an endby burning himself, with his concubines and eunuchs and all his chiefwealth, in his palace. 

Such, in outline, was the story of Ctesias. If we except the extentof the breach which the river is declared to have made, it contains noglaring improbabilities. On the contrary, it is a narrative that hangswell together, and that suits both the relations of the parties andthe localities. Moreover, it is confirmed in one or two points byauthorities of the highest order. Still, as Ctesias is a writer whodelights in fiction, and as it seems very unlikely that he would find adetailed account of the siege, such as he has given us, in the Persianarchives, from whence he professed to derive his history, no confidencecan be placed in those points of his narrative which have not anyfurther sanction. All that we know on the subject of the last siegeof Nineveh is that it was conducted by a combined army of Medesand Babylonians, the former commanded by Cyaxares, the latter byNabopolassar or Nebuchadnezzar, and that it was terminated, whenall hope was lost, by the suicide of the Assyrian monarch. Theself-immolation of Saracus is related by Abydenus, who almost certainlyfollows Berosus in this part of his history. We may therefore acceptit as a fact about which there ought to be no question. Actuated bya feeling which has more than once caused a vanquished monarch to dierather than fall into the power of his enemies, Saracus made a funeralpyre of his ancestral palace, and lighted it with his own hand. 

One further point in the narrative of Ctesias we may suspect to containa true representation. Ctesias declared the cause of the capture tohave been the destruction of the city wall by an unexpected rise of theriver. Now, the prophet Nahum, in his announcement of the fate coming onNineveh, has a very remarkable expression, which seems most naturally topoint to some destruction of a portion of the fortifications by means ofwater. After relating the steps that would be taken for the defence ofthe place, he turns to remark on their fruitlessness, and says: "Thegates of the rivers are opened, and the palace is dissolved; and Huzzabis led away captive; she is led up, with her maidens, sighing as withthe voice of doves, smiting upon their breasts. " Now, we have alreadyseen that at the northwest angle of Nineveh there was a sluice orfloodgate, intended mainly to keep the water of the Khosrsu, whichordinarily filled the city moat, from flowing off too rapidly into theTigris, but probably intended also to keep back the water of the Tigris, when that stream rose above its common level. A sudden and great riseof the Tigris would necessarily endanger this gate, and if it gave waybeneath the pressure, a vast torrent of water would rush up the moatalong and against the northern wall, which may have been undermined byits force, and have fallen in. The stream would then pour into the city;and it may perhaps have reached the palace platform, which being madeof sun-dried bricks, and probably not cased with stone inside thecity, would begin to be "dissolved. " Such seems the simplest and bestinterpretation of this passage, which, though it is not historical, butonly prophetical, must be regarded as giving an importance that it wouldnot otherwise have possessed to the statement of Ctesias with regard tothe part played by the Tigris in the destruction of Nineveh. 

The fall of the city was followed by a division of the spoil between thetwo principal conquerors. While Cyaxares took to his own share the landof the conquered people, Assyria Proper, and the countries dependent onAssyria towards the north and north-west, Nabopolassar was allowed, notmerely Babylonia, Chaldaea, and Susiana, but the valley of the Euphratesand the countries to which that valley conducted. Thus two considerableempires arose at the same time cut of the ashes of Assyria--theBabylonian towards the south and the south-west, stretching fromLuristan to the borders of Egypt, the Median towards the north, reachingfrom the salt desert of Iran to Amanus and the Upper Euphrates. These empires were established by mutual consent; they were connectedtogether, not merely by treaties, but by the ties of affinity whichunited their rulers; and, instead of cherishing, as might have beenexpected, a mutual suspicion and distrust, they seem to have reallyentertained the most friendly feelings towards one another, and to havebeen ready on all emergencies to lend each other important assistance. For once in the history of the world two powerful monarchies were seento stand side by side, not only without collision, but without jealousyor rancor. Babylonia and Media were content to share between them theempire of Western Asia: the world was, they thought, wide enough forboth; and so, though they could not but have had in some respectsconflicting interests, they remained close friends and allies for morethan half a century. 

To the Median monarch the conquest of Assyria did not bring a timeof repose. Wandering bands of Scythians were still, it is probable, committing ravages in many parts of Western Asia. The subjects ofAssyria, set free by her downfall, were likely to use the occasion forthe assertion of their independence, if they were not immediately shownthat a power of at least equal strength had taken her place, and wasprepared to claim her inheritance. War begets war; and the successes ofCyaxares up to the present point in his career did but whet his appetitefor power, and stimulate him to attempt further conquests. In brief butpregnant words Herodotus informs us that Cyaxares "subdued to himselfall Asia above the Halys. " How much he may include in this expression, it is impossible to determine; but, _prime facie_, it would seem atleast to imply that he engaged in a series of wars with the varioustribes and nations which intervened between Media and Assyria on the oneside and the river Halys on the other, and that he succeeded in bringingthem under his dominion. The most important countries in this directionwere Armenia and Cappadocia. Armenia, strong in its lofty mountains, its deep gorges, and its numerous rapid rivers--the head-streams ofthe Tigris, Euphrates, Kur, and Aras--had for centuries resisted withunconquered spirit the perpetual efforts of the Assyrian kings to bringit under their yoke, and had only at last consented under the latestking but one to a mere nominal allegiance. Cappadocia had not even beenbrought to this degree of dependence. It had lain beyond the furthestlimit whereto the Assyrian arms had ever reached, and had not as yetcome into collision with any of the great powers of Asia. Other minortribes in this region, neighbors of the Armenians and Cappadocians, butmore remote from Media, were the Ibenans, the Colchians, the Moschi, theTibareni, the Mares the Macrones, and the Mosynoeci. Herodotus appearsto have been of opinion that all these tribes, or at any rate all butthe Colchians, were at this time brought under by Cyaxares who thusextended his dominions to the Caucasus and the Black Sea upon the north, and upon the east to the Kizil Irmak or Halys. 

It is possible that the reduction of these countries under the Medianyoke was not so much a conquest as a voluntary submission of theinhabitants to the power which alone seemed strong enough to save themfrom the hated domination of the Scyths. According to Strabo, Armeniaand Cappadocia were the regions where the Scythic ravages had been mostseverely felt. Cappadocia had been devastated from the mountains downto the coast; and in Armenia the most fertile portion of the wholeterritory had been seized and occupied by the invaders, from whom itthenceforth took the name of Sacassene, the Armenians and Cappadociansmay have found the yoke of the Scyths so intolerable as to have gladlyexchanged it for dependence on a comparatively civilized people. Inthe neighboring territory of Asia Minor a similar cause had recentlyexercised a unifying influence, the necessity of combining to resistCimmerian immigrants having tended to establish a hegemony of Lydia overthe various tribes which divided among them the tract west of the Halys. It is evidently not improbable that the sufferings endured at the handsof the Scyths may have disposed the nations east of the river to adoptthe same remedy and that, so soon as Media had proved her strength, first by shaking herself free of the Scythic invaders and thenconquering Assyria. The tribes of these parts accepted her as at oncetheir mistress and their deliverer. 

Another quite distinct cause may also have helped to bring about theresult above indicated. Parallel with the great Median migration fromthe East under Cyaxares, or Phraortes (?), his father, an Arian influxhad taken place into the countries between the Caspian and the Halys. In Armenia and Cappadocia during the flourishing period of Assyria, Turanian tribes had been predominant. Between the middle and the end ofthe seventh century these tribes appear to have yielded the supremacy toArians. In Armenia, the present language which is predominantlyArian, ousted the former Turaman tongue which appears in the cuneiforminscriptions of Van and the adjacent regions. In Cappadocia, the Moschiand Tibareni had to yield their seats to a new race--the Katapatuka, whowere not only Arian but distinctly Medo-Persic, as is plain from theirproper names, and from the close connection of their royal housewith that of the kings of Persia. This spread of the Arians into thecountries lying between the Caspian and the Halys must have done much topave the way for Median supremacy over those regions. The weaker Ariantribes of the north would have been proud of their southern brethren, towhose arms the queen of Western Asia had been forced to yield, andwould have felt comparatively little repugnance in surrendering theirindependence into the hands of a friendly and kindred people. 

Thus Cyaxares, in his triumphant progress to the north and thenorth-west, made war, it is probable, chiefly upon the Scyths, or uponthem and the old Turanian inhabitants of the countries, while bythe Arians he was welcomed as a champion come to deliver them froma grievous oppression. Ranging themselves under his standard, theyprobably helped him to expel from Asia the barbarian hordes which hadnow for many years tyrannized over them; and when the expulsion wascompleted, gratitude or habit made them willing to continue in thesubject position which they had assumed in order to effect it. Cyaxareswithin less than ten years from his capture of Nineveh had added to hisempire the fertile and valuable tracts of Armenia and Cappadocia--neverreally subject to Assyria--and may perhaps have further mastered theentire region between Armenia and the Caucasus and Euxine. 

The advance of their western frontier to the river Halys, which wasinvolved in the absorption of Cappadocia into the Empire, brought theMedes into contact with a new power--a power which, like Media, had beenrecently increasing in greatness, and which was not likely to submit toa foreign yoke without a struggle. The Lydian kingdom was one of greatantiquity in this part of Asia. According to traditions current amongits people, it had been established more than seven hundred years at thetime when Cyaxares pushed his conquests to its borders. Three dynastiesof native kings--Atyadse, Heraclidse, and Mermnadae--had successivelyheld the throne during that period. The Lydians could repeat the namesof at least thirty monarchs who had borne sway in Sardis, their capitalcity, since its foundation. They had never been conquered. In the oldtimes, indeed, Lydus, the son of Atys, had changed the name of thepeople inhabiting the country from Maeonians to Lydians--a change whichto the keen sense of an historical critic implies a conquest of one raceby another. But to the people themselves this tradition conveyed no suchmeaning; or, if it did to any, their self-complacency was not disturbedthereby, since they would hug the notion that they belonged not to theconquered race but to the conquerors. If a Ramcsos or a Sesostris hadever penetrated to their country, he had met with a brave resistance, and had left monuments indicating his respect for their courage. Neither Babylon nor Assyria had ever given a king to the Lydians--on thecontrary, the Lydian tradition was, that they had themselves sent forthBelus and Ninus from their own country to found dynasties and cities inMesopotamia. In a still more remote age they had seen their colonistsembark upon the western waters, and start for the distant Hesperia, where they had arrived in safety, and had founded the great Etruscannation. On another occasion they had carried their arms beyond thelimits of Asia Minor, and had marched southward to the very extremityof: Syria, where their general, Ascalus, had founded a great city andcalled it after his name. 

Such were the Lydian traditions with respect to the more remote times. Of their real history they seem to have known but little, and thatlittle did not extend further back than about two hundred years beforeCyaxares. Within this space it was certain that they had had a changeof dynasty, a change preceded by a long feud between their two greatesthouses, which were perhaps really two branches of the royal family. TheHeraclidae had grown jealous of the Mermnadae, and had treated them withinjustice; the Mormnadae had at first sought their safety in flight, and afterwards, when they felt themselves strong enough, had returned, murdered the Heraclide monarch, and placed their chief, Gyges, uponthe throne. With Gyges, who had commenced his reign about B. C. 700, theprosperity of the Lydians had greatly increased, and they had begun toassume an aggressive attitude towards their neighbors. Gyges' revenuewas so great that his wealth became proverbial, and he could afford tospread his fame by sending from his superfluity to the distant templeof Delphi presents of such magnificence that they were the admirationof later ages. The relations of his predecessors with the Greeks ofthe Asiatic coast had been friendly, Gyges changed this policy, and, desirous of enlarging his seaboard, made war upon the Greek maritimetowns, attacking Miletus and Smyrna without result, but succeeding incapturing the Ionic city of Colophon. He also picked a quarrel withthe inland town of Magnesia, and after many invasions of its territorycompelled it to submission. According to some, he made himself masterof the whole territory of the Troad, and the Milesians had to obtain hispermission before they could establish their colony of Abydos upon theHellespont. At any rate he was a rich and puissant monarch in theeyes of the Greeks of Asia and the islands, who were never tired ofcelebrating his wealth, his wars, and his romantic history. 

The shadow of calamity had, however, fallen upon Lydia towards the closeof Gyges' long reign. About thirty years before the Scythians fromthe Steppe country crossed the Caucasus and fell upon Media, the samebarrier was passed by another groat horde of nomads. The Cimmerians, probably a Celtic people, who had dwelt hitherto in the TauricChersonese and the country adjoining upon it, pressed on by Scythicinvaders from the East, had sought a vent in this direction. Passingthe great mountain barrier either by the route of Mozdok--the PylasCaucasiae--or by some still more difficult track towards the Euxine, they had entered Asia Minor by way of Cappadocia and had spread terrorand devastation in every direction. Gyges, alarmed at their advance, hadplaced himself under the protection of Assyria, and had then confidentlygiven them battle, defeated them, and captured several of their chiefs. It is uncertain whether the Assyrians gave him any material aid, butevident that he ascribed his success to his alliance with them. In hisgratitude he sent an embassy to Asshur-bani-pal, king of Assyria, andcourted his favor by presents and by sending him his Cimmerian captives. Later in his reign, however, he changed his policy, and, breaking withAssyria, gave aid to the Egyptian rebel, Psammetichus, and helped himto establish his independence. The result followed which was to beexpected. Assyria withdrew her protection; and Lydia was left to fighther own battles when the great crisis came. Carrying all before them, the fierce hordes swarmed in full force into the more western districtsof Asia Minor; Paphlagonia, Phrygia, Bithynia, Lydia, and Ionia wereoverrun; Gyges, venturing on an engagement, perished; the frightenedinhabitants generally shut themselves up in their walled towns, andhoped that the tide of invasion might sweep by them quickly and rollelsewhere; but the Cimmerians, impatient and undisciplined as theymight be, could sometimes bring themselves to endure the weary work of asiege, and they saw in the Lydian capital a prize well worth an effort. The hordes besieged Sardis, and took it, except the citadel, which wascommandingly placed and defied all their attempts. A terrible scene ofcarnage must have followed. How Lydia withstood the blow, and rapidlyrecovered from it, is hard to understand; but it seems certain thatwithin a generation she was so far restored to vigor as to ventureon resuming her attacks upon the Greeks of the coast, which had beensuspended during her period of prostration. Sadyattes, the son ofArdys, and grandson of Gyges, following the example of his father andgrandfather, made war upon Miletus; and Alyattes, his son and successor, pursued the same policy of aggression. Besides pressing Miletus, hebesieged and took Smyrna, and ravaged the territory of Clazomenae. 

But the great work of Alyattes' reign, and the one which seems to havehad the most important consequences for Lydia, was the war which heundertook for the purpose of expelling the Cimmerians from Asia Minor. The hordes had been greatly weakened by time, by their losses in war, and, probably by their excesses; they had long ceased to be formidable;but they were still strong enough to be an annoyance. Alyattes is saidto have "driven them out of Asia, " by which we can scarcely understandless than that he expelled them from his own dominions and those of hisneighbors--or, in other words, from the countries which had been thescenes of their chief ravages--Paphlagonia, Bithynia, Lydia, Phrygia, and Cilicia. But, to do this, he must have entered into a league withhis neighbors, who must have consented to act under him for the purposesof war, if they did not even admit the permanent hegemony of hiscountry. Alyattes' success appears to have been complete, or nearly so;he cleared Asia Minor of the Cimmerians; and having thus conferred abenefit on all the nations of the region and exhibited before theireyes his great military capacity, if he had not actually constructed anempire, he had at any rate done much to pave the way for one. 

Such was the political position in the regions west and south of theHalys, when Cyaxares completed his absorption of Cappadocia, and lookingacross the river that divided the Cappadocians from the Phrygians, sawstretched before him a region of great fertile plains, which seemed toinvite an invader. A pretext for an attack was all that he wanted, and this was soon forthcoming. A body of the nomad Scyths--probablybelonging to the great invasion, though Herodotus thought otherwise--hadtaken service under Cyaxares, and for some time served him faithfully, being employed chiefly as hunters. A cause of quarrel, however, aroseafter a while; and the Scyths, disliking their position or distrustingthe intentions of their lords towards them, quitted the Medianterritory, and, marching through a great part of Asia Minor, sought andfound a refuge with Alyattes, the Lydian king. Cyaxares, upon learningtheir flight, sent an embassy to the court of Sardis to demand thesurrender of the fugitives; but the Lydian monarch met the demand with arefusal, and, fully understanding the probable consequences, immediatelyprepared for war. 

Though Lydia, compared to Media, was but a small state, yet herresources were by no means inconsiderable. In fertility she surpassedalmost every other country of Asia Minor, which is altogether one ofthe richest regions in the world. At this time she was producing largequantities of gold, which was found in great abundance in the Pactolus, and probably in the other small streams that flowed down on all sidesfrom the Tmolus mountain-chain. Her people were at once warlike andingenious. They had invented the art of coining money, and showedconsiderable taste in their devices. [PLATE VII. , Fig. 1], They claimedalso to have been the inventors of a number of games, which were commonto them with the Greeks. According to Herodotus, they were the firstwho made a livelihood by shop-keeping. They were skilful in the use ofmusical instruments, and had their own peculiar musical mode or style, which was in much favor among the Greeks, though condemned as effeminateby some of the philosophers. At the same time the Lydians were notwanting in courage or manliness. They fought chiefly on horseback, andwere excellent riders, carrying long spears, which they managed withgreat skill. Nicolas of Damascus tells us that even under the Heraclidokings, they could muster for service cavalry to the number of 30, 000. Inpeace they pursued with ardor the sports of the field, and found in thechase of the wild boar a pastime which called forth and exercised everymanly quality. Thus Lydia, even by herself, was no contemptible enemy;though it can hardly be supposed that, without help from others, shewould have proved a match for the Great Median Empire. 

[Illustration: PLATE VII. ]

But such help as she needed was not wanting to her. The rapid strideswith which Media had advanced towards the west had no doubt alarmed thenumerous princes of Asia Minor, who must have felt that they had a powerto deal with as full of schemes of conquest as Assyria, and more capableof carrying her designs into execution. It has been already observedthat the long course of Assyrian aggressions developed gradually amongthe Asiatic tribes a tendency to unite in leagues for purposes ofresistance. The circumstances of the time called now imperativelyfor such a league to be formed, unless the princes of Asia Minor werecontent to have their several territories absorbed one after anotherinto the growing Median Empire. These princes appear to have seen theirdanger. Cyaxares may perhaps have, declared war specially against theLydians, and have crossed the Halys professedly in order to chastisethem; but he could only reach Lydia through the territories of othernations, which he was evidently intending to conquer on his way; andit was thus apparent that he was activated, not by anger against aparticular power, but by a general design of extending his dominions inthis direction. A league seems therefore to have been determined on. Wehave not indeed any positive evidence of its existence till the close ofthe war; but the probabilities are wholly in favor of its having takeneffect from the first. Prudence would have dictated such a course; andit seems almost implied in the fact that a successful resistance wasmade to the Median attack from the very commencement. We may concludetherefore that the princes of Asia Minor, having either met in conclaveor communicated by embassies, resolved to make common cause, if theMedes crossed the Halys; and that, having already acted under Lydia inthe expulsion of the Cimmerians from their territories, they naturallyplaced her at their head when they coalesced for the second time. 

Cyaxares on his part, was not content to bring against the confederatesmerely the power of Media. He requested and obtained a contingent fromthe Babylonian monarch, Nabopolassar, and may not improbably have hadthe assistance of other allies also. With a vast army drawn from variousparts of inner Asia, he invaded the territory of the Western Powers, and began his attempt at subjugation. We have no detailed account ofthe war; but we learn from the general expressions of Herodotus that theMedian monarch met with a most stubborn resistance; numerous engagementswere fought with varied results; sometimes the Medes succeeded indefeating their adversaries in pitched battles; but sometimes, andapparently as often, the Lydians and their allies gained decidedvictories over the Medes. It is noted that one of the engagements tookplace by night, a rare occurrence in ancient (as in modern) times. Thewar had continued six years, and the Medes had evidently made no seriousimpression, when a remarkable circumstance brought it suddenly toa termination. The two armies had once more met and were engaged inconflict, when, in the midst of the struggle, an ominous darkness fellupon the combatants and filled them with superstitious awe. The sunwas eclipsed, either totally or at any rate considerably, so that theattention of the two armies was attracted to it; and, discontinuing thefight, they stood to gaze at the phenomenon. In most parts of theEast such an occurrence is even now seen with dread--the ignorant massbelieve that the orb of day is actually being devoured or destroyed, and that the end of all things is at hand--even the chiefs, who may havesome notion that the phenomenon is a recurrent one, do not understandits cause, and participate in the alarm of their followers. On thepresent occasion it is said that, amid the general fear, a desire forreconciliation seized both armies. Of this spontaneous movement twochiefs, the foremost of the allies on either side, took advantage. Syennesis, king of Cilicia, the first known monarch of his name, onthe part of Lydia, and a prince whom Herodotus calls "Labynetus ofBabylon"--probably either Nabopolassar or Nebuchadnezzar--on the partof Media, came forward to propose an immediate armistice; and, when theproposal was accepted on either side, proceeded to the more difficulttask of arranging terms of peace between the contending parties. Sincenothing is said of the Scythians, who had been put forward as theostensible grounds of quarrel, we may presume that Alyattes retainedthem. It is further clear that both he and his allies preservedundiminished both their territories and their independence. Theterritorial basis of the treaty was thus what in modern diplomaticlanguage is called the status quo; matters, in other words, returned tothe position in which they had stood before the war broke out. The onlydifference was that Cyaxares gained a friend and an ally where he hadpreviously had a jealous enemy; since it was agreed that the two kingsof Media and Lydia should swear a friendship, and that, to cement thealliance, Alyattes should give his daughter Aryenis in marriage toAstyages, the son of Cyaxares. The marriage thus arranged took placesoon afterwards, while the oath of friendship was sworn at once. According to the barbarous usages of the time and place, the twomonarchs, having met and repeated the words of the formula, puncturedtheir own arms, and then sealed their contract by each sucking from thewound a portion of the other's blood. 

By this peace the three great monarchies of the time--the Median, theLydian, and the Babylonian--were placed on terms, not only of amity, but of intimacy and (if the word may be used) of blood relationship. TheCrown Princes of the three kingdoms had become brothers. From the shoresof the Aegean to those of the Persian Gulf, Western Asia was now ruledby interconnected dynasties, bound by treaties to respect each other'srights, and perhaps to lend each other aid in important conjunctures, and animated, it would seem, by a real spirit of mutual friendliness andattachment. After more than five centuries of almost constant war andravage, after fifty years of fearful strife and convulsion, duringwhich the old monarchy of Assyria had gone down and a new Empire--theMedian--had risen up in its place, this part of Asia entered upon aperiod of repose which stands out in strong contrast with the long termof struggle. From the date of the peace between Alyattes and Cyaxares(probably B. C. 610), for nearly half a century, the three kingdomsof Media, Lydia, and Babylonia remained fast friends, pursuing theirseparate courses without quarrel or collision, and thus giving to thenations within their borders a rest and a refreshment which they musthave greatly needed and desired. 

In one quarter only was this rest for a short time disturbed. During thetroublous period the neighboring country of Egypt, which had recoveredits freedom, and witnessed a revival of its ancient prosperity, underthe Psamatik family, began once more to aspire to the possession ofthose provinces which, being divided off from the rest of the Asiaticcontinent by the impassable Syrian desert, seems politically to belongto Africa almost more than to Asia. Psamatik I. , the Psammetichus ofHerodotus, had commenced an aggressive war in this quarter, probablyabout the time that Assyria was suffering from the Median and thenfrom the Scythian inroads. He had besieged for several years the strongPhilistine town of Ashdod, which commands the coast-route from Egyptto Palestine, and was at this time a most important city. Despite aresistance which would have wearied out any less pertinacious assailant, he had persevered in his attempt, and had finally succeeded in takingthe place. He had thus obtained a firm footing in Syria; and hissuccessor was, able, starting from this vantage-ground, to overrunand conquer the whole territory. About the year B. C. 608, Neco, son ofPsamatik I. , having recently ascended the throne, invaded Palestine witha large army, met and defeated Josiah, king of Judah, near Megiddo inthe great plain of Esdraelon, and, pressing forward through Syria to theEuphrates, attacked and took Carchemish, the strong city which guardedthe ordinary passage of the river. Idumea, Palestine, Phoenicia, andSyria submitted to him, and for three years he remained in undisturbedpossession of his conquest. Then, however, the Babylonians, who hadreceived these provinces at the division of the Assyrian Empire, beganto bestir themselves. Nebuchadnezzar marched to Carchemish, defeated thearmy of Neco, recovered all the territory to the border of Egypt, andeven ravaged a portion of that country. It is probable that in thisexpedition he was assisted by the Medes. At any rate, seven or eightyears afterwards, when the intrigues of Egypt had again createddisturbances in this quarter, and Jehoiakim, the Jewish king, brokeinto open insurrection, the Median monarch sent a contingent, whichaccompanied Nebuchadnezzar into Judaea, and assisted him to establishhis power firmly in South-Western Asia. 

This is the last act that we can ascribe to the great Median king. Hecan scarcely have been much less than seventy years old at this time;and his life was prolonged at the utmost three years longer. Accordingto Herodotus, he died B. C. 593, after a reign of exactly forty years, leaving his crown to his son Astyages, whose marriage with a Lydianprincess was above related. 

We have no sufficient materials from which to draw out a completecharacter of Cyaxares. He appears to have possessed great ambition, considerable military ability, and a rare tenacity of purpose, whichgained him his chief successes. At the same time he was not wanting ingood sense, and could bring himself to withdraw from an enterprise, whenhe had misjudged the fitting time for it, or greatly miscalculated itsdifficulties. He was faithful to his friends, but thought treacheryallowable towards his enemies. He knew how to conquer, but not how toorganize, an empire; and, if we except his establishment of Magism, as the religion of the state, we may say that he did nothing togive permanency to the monarchy which he founded. He was a conqueroraltogether after the Asiatic model, able to wield the sword, but not toguide the pen, to subdue his contemporaries to his will by hispersonal ascendency over them, but not to influence posterity by theestablishment of a kingdom, or of institutions, on deep and stablefoundations. The Empire, which owed to him its foundation, was the mostshortlived of all the great Oriental monarchies, having begun andended within the narrow space of three score and ten years--the naturallifetime of an individual. 

Astyages, who succeeded to the Median throne about B. C. 593, had neitherhis father's enterprise nor his ability. Born to an empire, and bredup in all the luxury of an Oriental Court, he seems to have been quitecontent with the lot which fortune appeared to have assigned him, and tohave coveted no grander position. Tradition says that he was remarkablyhandsome, cautious, and of an easy and generous temper. Althoughthe anecdotes related of his mode of life at Ecbatana by Herodotus, Xenophon, and Nicolas of Damascus, seem to be for the most partapocryphal, and at any rate come to us upon authority too weak toentitle them to a place in history, we may perhaps gather from theconcurrent, descriptions of these three writers something of the generalcharacter of the Court over which he presided. Its leading features donot seem to have differed greatly from those of the Court of Assyria. The monarch lived secluded, and could only be seen by those who askedand obtained an audience. He was surrounded by guards and eunuchs, thelatter of whom held most of the offices near the royal person. The Courtwas magnificent in its apparel, in its banquets, and in the number andorganization of its attendants. The courtiers wore long flowing robesof many different colors, amongst which red and purple predominated, and adorned their necks with chains or collars of gold, and their wristswith bracelets of the same precious metal. Even the horses on whichthey rode had sometimes golden bits to their bridles. One officer of theCourt was especially called "the King's Eye;" another had the privilegeof introducing strangers to him; a third was his cupbearer; a fourth hismessenger. Guards torch-bearers, serving-men, ushers, and sweepers, wereamong the orders into which the lower sort of attendants were divided;while among the courtiers of the highest rank was a privileged classknown as "the King's table-companions". The chief pastime in whichthe Court indulged was hunting. Generally this took place in a park or"paradise" near the capital; but sometimes the King and Court went outon a grand hunt into the open country, where lions, leopards, bears, wild boars, wild asses, antelopes, stags, and wild sheep abounded, and, when the beasts had been driven by beaters into a confined space, despatched them with arrows and javelins. 

Prominent at the Court, according to Herodotus, was the priestly casteof the Magi. Held in the highest honor by both King and people, theywere in constant attendance, ready to expound omens or dreams, andto give their advice on all matters of state policy. The religiousceremonial was, as a matter of course, under their charge; and it isprobable that high state offices were often conferred upon them. Of allclasses of the people they were the only one that could feel they hada real influence over the monarch, and might claim to share in hissovereignty. 

The long reign of Astyages seems to have been almost undisturbed, untiljust before its close, by wars or rebellions. Eusebius indeed relatesthat he, and not Cyaxares, carried on the great Lydian contest; andMoses of Chorene declares that he was engaged in a long struggle withTigranes, an Armenian king. But little credit can be attached to thesestatements, the former of which contradicts Herodotus, while the latteris wholly unsupported by any other writer. The character which Cyaxaresbore among the Greeks was evidently that of an unwarlike king. If he hadreally carried his arms into the heart of Asia Minor, and threatened thewhole of that extensive region with subjugation, we can scarcely supposethat he would have been considered so peaceful a ruler. Neither isit easy to imagine that in that case no classical writer--not evenCtesias--would have taxed Herodotus with an error that must have beenso flagrant. With respect to the war with Tigranes, it is just possiblethat it may have a basis of truth; there may have been a revolt ofArmenia from Astyages under a certain Tigranes, followed by an attemptat subjugation. But the slender authority of Moses is insufficient toestablish the truth of his story, which is internally improbable andquite incompatible with the narrative of Herodotus. 

There are some grounds for believing that in one direction Astyagessucceeded in slightly extending the limits of his empire. But he owedhis success to prudent management, and not to courage or military skill. On the north-eastern frontier, occupying the low country now known asTalish and Ghilan, was a powerful tribe called Cadusians, probably ofArian origin, which had hitherto maintained its independence. This wouldnot be surprising, if we could accept the statement of Diodorus thatthey were able to bring into the field 200, 000 men. But this account, which probably came from Ctesias, and is wholly without corroborationfrom other writers, has the air of a gross exaggeration; and we mayconclude from the general tenor of ancient history that the Cadusianswere more indebted to the strength of their country, than to eithertheir numbers or their prowess, for the freedom and independence whichthey were still enjoying. It seems that they were at this time under thegovernment of a certain king, or chief, named Aphernes, or Onaphernes. This ruler was, it appears, doubtful of his position, and, thinking itcould not be long maintained, made overtures of surrender to Astyages, which were gladly entertained by that monarch. A secret treaty wasconcluded to the satisfaction of both parties; and the Cadusians, itwould seem, passed under the Medes by this arrangement, without anyhostile struggle, though armed resistance on the part of the people, whowere ignorant of the intentions of their chieftain, was for some timeapprehended. 

The domestic relations of Astyages seem to have been unhappy. His"marriage de convenance" with the Lydian princess Aryenis, if not whollyunfruitful, at any rate brought him no son; and, as he grew to oldage, the absence of such support to the throne must have been felt verysensibly, and have caused great uneasiness. The want of an heir perhapsled him to contract those other marriages of which we hear in theArmenian History of Moses--one with a certain Anusia, of whom nothingmore is known; and another with an Armenian princess, the loveliest ofher sex, Tigrania, sister of the Armenian king, Tigranes. The blessingof male offspring was still, however, denied him; and it is evendoubtful whether he was really the father of any daughter or daughters. Herodotus, and Xenophon, indeed give him a daughter Mandane, whom theymake the mother of Cyrus; and Ctesias, who denied in the most positiveterms the truth of this statement, gave him a daughter, Amytis, whom hemade the wife, first of Spitaces the Mede, and afterwards of Cyrus thePersian. But these stories, which seem intended to gratify the vanity ofthe Persians by tracing the descent of their kings to the great Medianconqueror, while at the same time they flattered the Medes by showingthem that the issue of their old monarchs was still seated on the Arianthrone, are entitled to little more credit than the narrative of theShahnameh, which declares that Iskander (Alexander) was the son of Darab(Darius) and of a daughter of Failakus (Philip of Macedon). When anoriental crown passes from one dynasty to another, however foreign andunconnected, the natives are wont to invent a relationship between thetwo houses, which both parties are commonly quite ready to accept; asit suits the rising house to be provided with a royal ancestry, and itpleases the fallen one and its partisans to see in the occupants of thethrone a branch of the ancient stock--a continuation of the legitimatefamily. Tales therefore of the above-mentioned kind are, historicallyspeaking, valueless; and it must remain uncertain whether the secondMedian monarch had any child at all, either male or female. 

Old age was now creeping upon the sonless king. If he was sixteenor seventeen years old at the time of his contract of marriage withAryenis, he must have been nearly seventy in B. C. 558, when the revoltoccurred which terminated both his reign and his kingdom. It appearsthat the Persian branch of the Arian race, which had made itself a homein the country lying south and south-east of Media, between the 32ndparallel and the Persian gulf, had acknowledged some subjection tothe Median kings during the time of their greatness. Dwelling in theirrugged mountains and high upland plains, they had however maintained thesimplicity of their primitive manners, and had mixed but little withthe Medes, being governed by their own native princes of the Achasmenianhouse, the descendants, real or supposed, of a certain Achajmenes. Theseprinces were connected by marriage with the Cappadocian kings; and theirhouse was regarded as one of the noblest in Western Asia. What the exactterms were upon which they stood with the Median monarch is uncertain. Herodotus regards Persia as absorbed into Media at this time, and theAchsemenidse as merely a good Persian family. Nicolas of Damascus makesPersia a Median satrapy, of which Atradates, the father of Cyrus, issatrap, Xenophon, on the contrary, not only gives the Achajmenidae theirroyal rank, but seems to consider Persia as completely independent ofMedia; Moses of Chorene takes the same view, regarding Cyrus as a greatand powerful sovereign during the reign of Astyages. The native recordslean towards the view of Xenophon and Moses. Darius declares that eightof his race had been kings before himself, and makes no differencebetween his own royalty and theirs. Cyrus calls himself in oneinscription "the son of Cambyses, the powerful king. " It is certaintherefore that Persia continued to be ruled by her own native monarchsduring the whole of the Median period, and that Cyrus led the attackupon Astyages as hereditary Persian king. The Persian records seemrather to imply actual independence of Media; but as national vanitywould prompt to dissimulation in such a case, we may perhaps accord somuch weight to the statement of Herodotus, and to the general traditionon the subject, as to believe that there was some kind of acknowledgmentof Median supremacy on the part of the Persian kings anterior to Cyrus, though the acknowledgment may have been not much more than a formalityand have imposed no onerous obligations. The residence of Cyrus at theMedian Court, which is asserted in almost every narrative of his lifebefore he became king, inexplicable if Persia was independent, becomesthoroughly intelligible on the supposition that she was a great Medianfeudatory. In such cases the residence of the Crown Prince at thecapital of the suzerain is constantly desired, or even required by thesuperior Power, which sees in the presence of the son and heir the bestsecurity against disaffection or rebellion on the part of the father. 

It appears that Cyrus, while at the Median Court, observing theunwarlike temper of the existing generation of the Medes, who had notseen any actual service, and despising the personal character of themonarch, who led a luxurious life, chiefly at Ecbatana, amid eunuchs, concubines, and dancing-girls, resolved on raising the standard ofrebellion, and seeking at any rate to free his own country. It may besuspected that the Persian prince was not actuated solely by politicalmotives. To earnest Zoroastrians, such as the Achgemenians are shownto have been by their inscriptions, the yoke of a Power which had sogreatly corrupted, if it had not wholly laid aside, the worship ofOrmazd, must have been extremely distasteful; and Cyrus may have wishedby his rebellion as much to vindicate the honor of his religion--as toobtain a loftier position for his nation. If the Magi occupied reallythe position at the Median Court which Herodotus assigns to them--ifthey "were held in high honor by the king, and shared in hissovereignty"--if the priest-ridden monarch was perpetually dreaming andperpetually referring his dreams to the Magian seers for exposition, andthen guiding his actions by the advice they tendered him, the religiouszeal of the young Zoroastrian may very naturally have been aroused, andthe contest into which he plunged may have been, in his eyes, not somuch a national struggle as a crusade against the infidels. It will befound hereafter that religious fervor animated the Persians in mostof those wars by which they spread their dominion. We may suspect, therefore, though it must be admitted we cannot prove, that a religiousmotive was among those which led them to make their first efforts afterindependence. 

According to the account of the struggle which is most circumstantial, and on the whole most probable, the first difficulty which the would-berebel had to meet and vanquish was that of quitting the Court. Allegingthat his father was in weak health, and required his care, he requestedleave of absence for a short time; but his petition was refused on theflattering ground that the Great King was too much attached to him tolose sight of him even for a day. A second application, however, madethrough a favorite eunuch after a certain interval of time, was moresuccessful; Cyrus received permission to absent himself from Court forthe next five months; whereupon, with a few attendants, he left Ecbatanaby night, and took the road leading to his native country. 

The next evening Astyages, enjoying himself as usual over hiswine, surrounded by a crowd of his concubines, singing-girls, anddancing-girls, called on one of them for a song. The girl took her lyreand sang as follows: "The lion had the wild boar in his power, but lethim depart to his own lair; in his lair he will wax in strength, andwill cause the lion a world of toil; till at length, although theweaker, he will overcome the stronger. " The words of the song greatlydisquieted the king, who had been already made aware that a Chaldaeanprophecy designated Cyrus as future king of the Persians. Repenting ofthe indulgence which he had granted him, Astyages forthwith summoned anofficer into his presence, and ordered him to take a body of horsemen, pursue the Persian prince, and bring him back, either alive or dead. The officer obeyed, overtook Cyrus, and announced his errand; upon whichCyrus expressed his perfect willingness to return, but proposed, that, as it was late, they should defer their start till the next day. TheMedes consenting, Cyrus feasted them, and succeeded in making themall drunk; then mounting his horse, he rode off at full speed with hisattendants, and reached a Persian outpost, where he had arranged withhis father that he should find a body of Persian troops. When the Medeshad slept off their drunkenness, and found their prisoner gone, theypursued, and again overtaking Cyrus, who was now at the head of an armedforce, engaged him. They were, however, defeated with great loss, andforced to retreat, while Cyrus, having beaten them off, made good hisescape into Persia. 

When Astyages heard what had happened, he was greatly vexed; and, smiting his thigh, he exclaimed, "Ah! fool, thou knewest well that itboots not to heap favors on the vile; yet didst thou suffer thyself tobe gulled by smooth words; and so thou hast brought upon thyself thismischief. But even now he shall not get off scot-free. " And instantlyhe sent for his generals, and commanded them to collect his host, andproceed to reduce Persia to obedience. Three thousand chariots, twohundred thousand horse, and a million footmen (!) were soon broughttogether; and with these Astyages in person invaded the revoltedprovince, and engaged the army which Cyrus and his father Cambyseshad collected for defence. This consisted of a hundred chariots, fiftythousand horsemen, and three hundred thousand light-armed foot, who weredrawn up in in front of a fortified town near the frontier. The firstday's battle was long and bloody, terminating without any decisiveadvantage to either side; but on the second day Astyages, making skilfuluse of his superior numbers, gained a great victory. Having detached onehundred thousand men with orders to make a circuit and get into therear of the town, he renewed the attack; and when the Persians were allintent on the battle in their front, the troops detached fell on thecity and took it, almost before its defenders were aware. Cambyses, whocommanded in the town, was mortally wounded and fell into the enemy'shands. The army in the field, finding itself between two fires, brokeand fled towards the interior, bent on defending Pasargadse, thecapital. Meanwhile Astyages, having given Cambyses honorable burial, pressed on in pursuit. 

The country had now become rugged and difficult. Between Pasargadse andthe place where the two days' battle was fought lay a barrier of loftyhills, only penetrated by a single narrow pass. On either side were twosmooth surfaces of rock, while the mountain towered above, lofty andprecipitous. The pass was guarded by ten thousand Persians. Recognizingthe impossibility of forcing it, Astyages again detached a body oftroops, who marched along the foot of the range till they found a placewhere it could be ascended, when they climbed it and seized the heightsdirectly over the defile. The Persians upon this had to evacuate theirstrong position, and to retire to a lower range of hills very near toPasargadge. Here again there was a two days' fight. On the first dayall the efforts of the Medes to ascend the range (which, though low, was steep, and covered with thickets of wild olive) were fruitless. Theirenemy met them, not merely with the ordinary weapons, but with greatmasses of stone, which they hurled down with crushing force upon theirascending columns. On the second day, however, the resistance was weakeror less effective Astyages had placed at the foot of the range, belowhis attacking columns, a body of troops with orders to kill all whorefused to ascend, or who, having ascended, attempted to quit theheights and return to the valley. Thus compelled to advance, his menfought with desperation, and drove the Persians before them up theslopes of the hill to its very summit, where the women and childrenhad been placed for the sake of security. There, however, the tide ofsuccess turned. The taunts and upbraidings of their mothers and wivesrestored the courage of the Persians; and, turning upon their foe, theymade a sudden furious charge. The Medes, astonished and overborne, weredriven headlong down the hill, and fell into such confusion that thePersians slew sixty thousand of them. Still Astyages did not desist fromhis attack. The authority whom we have been following here to a greatextent fails us, and we have only a few scattered notices from which toreconstruct the closing scenes of the war. It would seem from thesethat Astyages still maintained the offensive, and that there was afifth battle in the immediate neighborhood of Pasargadse, wherein he wascompletely defeated by Cyrus, who routed the Median army, and pressingupon them in their flight, took their camp. All the insignia of Medianroyalty fell into his hands; and, amid the acclamations of his army, he assumed them, and was saluted by his soldiers "King of Media andPersia. " Meanwhile Astyages had sought for safety in flight; the greaterpart of his army had dispersed, and he was left with only a few friends, who still adhered to his fortunes. Could he have reached Ecbatana, hemight have greatly prolonged the struggle; but his enemy pressed himclose; and, being compelled to an engagement, he not only suffered acomplete defeat, but was made prisoner by his fortunate adversary. By this capture the Median monarchy was brought abruptly to an end. Astyages had no son to take his place and continue the struggle. Evenhad it been otherwise, the capture of the monarch would probably haveinvolved his people's submission. In the East the king is so identifiedwith his kingdom that the possession of the royal person is regarded asconveying to the possessor all regal rights. Cyrus, apparently, had noneed even to besiege Ecbatana; the whole Median state, together with itsdependencies, at once submitted to him, on learning what had happened. This ready submission was no doubt partly owing to the generalrecognition of a close connection between Media and Persia, which madethe transfer of empire from the one to the other but slightly gallingto the subjected power, and a matter of complete indifference to thedependent countries. Except in so far as religion was concerned, the change from one Iranic race to the other would make scarcely aperceptible difference to the subjects of either kingdom. The law ofthe state would still be "the law of the Medes and Persians. " Officialemployments would be open to the people of both countries. Even the fameand glory of empire would attain, in the minds of men, almost as muchto the one nation as the other. If Media descended from her preeminentrank, it was to occupy a station only a little below the highest, andone which left her a very distinct superiority over all the subjectraces. 

If it be asked how Media, in her hour of peril, came to receive noassistance from the great Powers with which she had made such closealliances--Babylonia and Lydia--the answer would seem to be that Lydiawas too remote from the scene of strife to lend her effective aid, whilecircumstances had occurred in Babylonia to detach that state from herand render it unfriendly. The great king, Nebuchadnezzar, had he beenon the throne, would undoubtedly have come to the assistance of hisbrother-in-law, when the fortune of war changed, and it became evidentthat his crown was in danger. But Nebuchadnezzar had died in B. V. 561, three years before the Persian revolt broke out. His son, Evil-Merodach, who would probably have maintained his father's alliances, had survivedhim but two years: he had been murdered in B. C. 559 by a brother-in-law, Nergalsharezer or Neriglissar, who ascended the throne in that year andreigned till B. C. 555. This prince was consequently on the throne atthe time of Astyages' need. As he had supplanted the house ofNebuchadnezzar, he would naturally be on bad terms with that monarch'sMedian connections; and we may suppose that he saw with pleasure thefall of a power to which pretenders from the Nebuchadnezzar family wouldhave looked for support and countenance. 

In conclusion, a few words may be said on the general character of theMedian Empire, and the causes of its early extinction. 

The Median Empire was in extent and fertility of territory-equal if notsuperior to the Assyrian. It stretched from Rhages and the Carmaniandesert on the east to the river Halys upon the west, a distance ofabove twenty degrees, or about 1, 300 miles. From north to south itwas comparatively narrow, being confined between the Black Sea, theCaucasus, and the Caspian, on the one side, and the Euphrates andPersian Gulf on the other. Its greatest width, which was towards theeast, was about nine, and its least, which was towards the west, wasabout four degrees. Its area was probably not much short of 500, 000square miles. Thus it was as large as Great Britain, France, Spain, andPortugal put together. 

In fertility its various parts were very unequal. Portions of bothMedias, of Persia, of Armenia, Iberia, and Cappadocia, were rich andproductive; but in all these countries there was a large quantity ofbarren mountain, and in Media Magna and Persia there were tracts ofdesert. If we estimate the resources of Media from the data furnished byHerodotus in his account of the Persian revenue, and compare them withthose of the Assyrian Empire, as indicated by the same document, weshall find reason to conclude, that except during the few years whenEgypt was a province of Assyria, the resources of the Third exceededthose of the Second Monarchy. 

The weakness of the Empire arose chiefly from its want of organization. Nicolas of Damascus, indeed, in the long passage from which our accountof the struggle between Cyrus and Astyages has been taken, representsthe Median Empire as divided, like the Persian, into a number ofsatrapies but there is no real ground for believing that any suchorganization was practised in Median times, or to doubt that DariusHystaspis was the originator of the satrapial system. The Median Empire, like the Assyrian, was a congeries of kingdoms, each ruled by its ownnative prince, as is evident from the case of Persia, where Cambyses wasnot satrap, but monarch. Such organization as was attempted appears tohave been clumsy in the extreme. The Medes (we are told) only claimeddirect suzerainty over the nations immediately upon their borders;remoter tribes they placed under these, and looked to them to collectand remit the tribute of the outlying countries. It is doubtful if theycalled on the subject nations for any contingents of troops. We neverhear of their doing so. Probably, like the Assyrians, they made theirconquests with armies composed entirely of native soldiers, or ofthose combined with such forces as were sent to their aid by princes inalliance with them. 

The weakness arising from this lack of organization was increased by acorruption of manners, which caused the Medes speedily to decline inenergy and warlike spirit. The conquest of a great and luxurious empireby a hardy and simple race is followed, almost of necessity, by adeterioration in the character of the conquerors, who lose the warlikevirtues, and too often do not replace them by the less splendid virtuesof peace. This tendency, which is fixed in the nature of things, admitsof being checked for a while, or rapidly developed, according to thepolicy and character of the monarchs who happen to occupy the throne. If the original conqueror is succeeded, by two or three ambitious andenergetic princes, who engage in important wars and labor to extendtheir dominions at the expense of their neighbors, it will be some timebefore the degeneracy becomes marked. If, on the other hand, a prince ofa quiet temper, self-indulgent, and studious of ease, come to the thronewithin a short time of the original conquests, the deterioration willbe very rapid. In the present instance it happened that the immediatesuccessor of the first conqueror was of a peaceful disposition, unambitious, and luxurious in his habits. During a reign which lastedat least thirty-five years he abstained almost wholly from militaryenterprises; and thus an entire generation of Medes grew up withoutseeing actual service, which alone makes the soldier. At the sametime there was a general softening of manners. The luxury of the Courtcorrupted the nobles, who from hardy mountain chieftains, simple if noteven savage in their dress and mode of life, became polite courtiers, magnificent in their apparel, choice in their diet, and averse to allunnecessary exertion. The example of the upper classes would tell on thelower, though not perhaps to any very large extent. The ordinary Mede, no doubt, lost something of his old daring and savagery; from disusehe became inexpert in the management of arms; and he was thus no longergreatly to be dreaded as a soldier. But he was really not very much lessbrave, nor less capable of bearing hardships, than before; and it onlyrequired a few years of training to enable him to recover himself and tobe once more as good a soldier as any in Asia. 

But in the affairs of nations, as in those of men, negligence oftenproves fatal before it can be repaired. Cyrus saw his opportunity, pressed his advantage, and established the supremacy of his nation, before the unhappy effects of Astyages' peace policy could be removed. He knew that his own Persians possessed the military spirit in itsfullest vigor; he felt that he himself had all the qualities of asuccessful loader; he may have had faith in his cause, which, he wouldview as the cause of Ormazd against Ahriman, of pure Religion against acorrupt and debasing nature-worship. His revolt was sudden, unexpected, and well-timed. He waited till Astyages was advanced in years, and sodisqualified for command; till the veterans of Cyaxares were almost allin their graves; and till the Babylonian throne was occupied by a kingwho was not likely to afford Astyages any aid. Ho may not at first haveaspired to do more than establish the independence of his own country. But when the opportunity of effecting a transfer of empire offereditself, he seized it promptly; rapidly repeating his blows, and allowinghis enemy no time to recover and renew the struggle. The substitutionof Persia for Media as the ruling power in Western Asia was due less togeneral causes than to the personal character of two men. Had Astyagesbeen a prince of ordinary vigor, the military training of the Medeswould have been kept up; and in that case they might easily have holdtheir own against all comers. Had their training been kept up, or hadCyrus possessed no more than ordinary ambition and ability, eitherhe would not have thought of revolting, or he would have revoltedunsuccessfully. The fall of the Median Empire was due immediately tothe genius of the Persian Prince; but its ruin was prepared, and itsdestruction was really caused, by the shortsightedness of the Medianmonarch.