Chapter XI: Book II (1)

THE PERSIAN EMPIRE FROM THE RISE OF CYRUS TO THE FALL OF DARIUS.

B. C. 558-330.

=1.= About 650 B. C., a warlike people, from the highlands east of the Caspian, took possession of the hilly country north of the Persian Gulf. They belonged, like the Medes, to the Aryan or Indo-Germanic family, and were distinguished by a more hardy, simple, and virtuous character, and a purer faith, from the luxurious inhabitants of the Babylonian plains. The nation, as it soon became constituted, consisted of ten tribes, of whom four continued nomadic, three settled to the cultivation of the soil, and three bore arms for the general defense. Of these the Pasar´gadæ were preëminent, and formed the nobility of Persia, holding all high offices in the army and about the court.

=2.= The first king, Achæ´menes, was a Pasargadian, and from him all subsequent Persian kings were descended. For the first hundred years of its history, Persia was dependent upon the neighboring kingdom of Media. But a little after the middle of the sixth century before Christ, a revolution under Cy´rus reversed the relations of the Medo-Persian monarchy, and prepared the foundations of a great empire which was to reach beyond the Nile and the Hellespont on the west, and the Indus on the east.

=3.= Cyrus spent many of his early years at the court of Asty´ages, his maternal grandfather, in the seven-walled city of Ecbat´ana.[21] The brave, athletic youth, accustomed to hardy sports and simple fare, despised the wine and dainty food, the painted faces and silken garments of the Median nobles. He saw that their strength was wasted by luxury, and that in case of a collision they would be no match for his warlike countrymen. At the same time, a party of the younger Medes gathered around Cyrus, preferring his manly virtues to the effeminate pomp and cruel tyranny of their king, and impatient for the time when he should be their ruler.

[Sidenote: B. C. 558.]

=4.= When all was ready, the Persian prince rallied his countrymen and persuaded them to become independent of the Medes. Astyages raised an army to quell the revolt, but when the two forces met at Pasar´gadæ, the greater part of the Medes went over to the Persian side. In a second battle Astyages was made prisoner, and the sovereignty of Media remained to the conqueror.

[Sidenote: B. C. 546.]

=5.= The reign of Cyrus was full of warlike enterprises. By the time he had subdued the Median cities, Crœsus,[22] king of Lydia, had become alarmed by his rapidly increasing power, and had stirred up Egypt, Babylon, and the Greeks to oppose it. He crossed the Ha´lys, and encountered the army of Cyrus near Sino´pe, in Cappado´cia. Neither party gained a victory; but Crœsus, finding his numbers inferior, drew back toward his capital, thinking to spend the winter in renewed preparations. Cyrus pursued him to the gates of Sardis, and defeated him in a decisive battle. The city was taken, and Crœsus owed his life to the mercy of his conqueror. His kingdom, which comprised all Asia Minor west of the Halys, was added to the Persian Empire.

=6.= The monarchs of Asia had three methods of maintaining their dominion over the countries they had conquered: 1. A large standing army was kept upon the soil, at the cost of the vanquished. 2. In case of revolt, whole nations were sometimes transported over a distance of thousands of miles, usually to the islands of the Persian Gulf or the Indian Ocean, while their places were filled by emigrants whose loyalty was assured. 3. A more injurious, though apparently more indulgent policy, compelled a warlike people to adopt luxurious and effeminate manners. Such was the treatment of the Lydians, by the advice of their captive king. Crœsus was now the trusted counselor of Cyrus. With a view to save his people from the miseries of transportation, he suggested that they should be deprived of their arms, compelled to clothe themselves in soft apparel, and to train their youth in habits of gaming and drinking, thus rendering them forever incapable of disturbing the dominion of their conquerors. From a brave, warlike, and industrious race, the Lydians were transformed into indolent pleasure-seekers, and their country remained a submissive province of the empire of Cyrus.

=7.= CAPTURE OF BABYLON. Leaving Harpagus to complete the conquest of the Asiatic Greeks, Cyrus turned to the east, where he aimed at the greater glory of subduing Assyria. Nabonadius,[23] the Babylonian king, believed that the walls of his capital were proof against assault; but he was defeated, and the great city became the prey of the conqueror. The writings of Daniel, who was resident at the court of Nabonadius, and a witness of the overthrow of his kingdom, inform us that Dari´us the Median took Babylon, being about sixty-two years old. It is probable that Darius was another name of Astyages himself, who, being deprived of his own kingdom, was compensated by the government of the most magnificent city of the East. His arbitrary decrees concerning Daniel and his accusers accord well with the character of Astyages.

=8.= RETURN OF THE JEWS. It will be remembered that the Jews were now captives in Babylonia, where they had remained seventy years, since the destruction of their Holy City by Nebuchadnez´zar. Cyrus, who, like the Hebrews, was a believer in One God, found their pure religion an agreeable contrast to the corrupt and degrading rites of the Babylonians. He may have been moved by the prophecies of Isaiah, uttered nearly two centuries before, and those of Jeremiah at the time of the Captivity. (Isaiah xliv: 28, and xlv: 1-5; Jeremiah xxv: 12, and xxviii: 11.) He may also have had more selfish motives for favoring the Jews, in his designs upon Egypt, thinking it an advantage to have a friendly people established in the fortresses of Judah. In any case, he fulfilled the prophecies by giving orders for the return of the Israelites to their own land, and for the rebuilding of the Temple at Jerusalem. The 5,400 golden and silver vessels of the House of the Lord were brought forth from the Babylonian treasury and delivered to the prince of Judah, who received the Persian title Sheshbaz´zar, corresponding to the modern Pasha´. Few of the original captives had survived, like Daniel, to witness the return; but a company of fifty thousand, men, women, and children, were soon collected from their settlements on the Euphrates and the Persian Gulf, and moving toward their own land. (Read Ezra i, and ii: 1, 64, 65, 68-70.) On their arrival, the altar was immediately set up, the great festivals reëstablished, a grant of cedars from the forests of Lebanon obtained, and preparations made for rebuilding the Temple.

=9.= Cyrus never accomplished in person his designs upon Egypt. He extended his conquests westward to the borders of Macedonia, and eastward to the Indus. Some of the conquered countries were left under the control of their native kings; some received Persian rulers. All were made tributary, but the proportion of their tribute was not fixed. The organization of this vast dominion was left to the successors of Cyrus.

[Sidenote: B. C. 529.]

=10.= His last expedition was against the Massa´getæ, a tribe which dwelt east of the Sea of Aral. The barbarians who roamed over these great northern plains had become formidable foes to the civilized empires of the south, but they were so thoroughly subdued by Cyrus that they troubled Persia no more for two hundred years. The victor, however, lost his life in a battle with Tom´yris, their queen, and the government and extension of his empire were left to the care of his son Camby´ses.

=11.= In departing for his Scythian campaign, Cyrus had left his young cousin Dari´us in Persia, the satrapy of his father, Hystas´pes. The night after crossing the Arax´es, he dreamed that he saw Darius with wings on his shoulders, the one overshadowing Asia, and the other Europe. The time and the region were fruitful in dreams, and this had a remarkable fulfillment.

=12.= REIGN OF CAMBYSES. B. C. 529-522. Without the ability of his father, Cambyses inherited his warlike ambition, and soon proceeded to execute the plans of African conquest long cherished by Cyrus. He was a man of violent passions, which his unlimited power left without their just restraint, and many of his acts are more like those of a willful and ignorant child than of a reasonable man.

=13.= Egypt, now governed by Ama´sis, was the only part of the Babylonian dominion which had not yielded to Cyrus. Amasis had begun his reign as viceroy of Nebuchadnezzar, but during the decline of the empire he had become independent. Cambyses prepared for his Egyptian campaign by the conquest of Phœnicia and Cyprus, the two naval powers of western Asia. He then marched into Egypt with a great force of Persians and Greeks. Amasis had recently died, but his son Psammen´itus awaited the invader near the Pelusiac mouth of the Nile. A single battle decided the fate of Egypt. Psammenitus was defeated, and with his surviving followers shut himself up in Memphis. The siege was short, and at its termination all Egypt submitted to Cambyses, who assumed the full dignity of the Pharaohs as “Lord of the Upper and Lower Countries.” The neighboring Libyans and the two Greek cities, Cyre´ne and Barca, also sent in their submission and offered gifts.

=14.= Cambyses now meditated three expeditions: one by sea against the great commercial empire of Carthage; one against the Ammonians of the desert; and a third against the long-lived Ethiopians,[24] whose country was reputed to be rich in gold. The first was abandoned, because the Phœnicians refused to serve against one of their own colonies. To the last-named people Cambyses sent an embassy of the Ich´thyoph´agi, who lived upon the borders of the Red Sea and understood their language. These were charged to carry presents to the Macrobian king, and assure him that the Persian monarch desired his friendship. The Ethiopian replied in plain terms: “Neither has the king of Persia sent you because he valued my alliance, nor do you speak the truth, for you are come as spies of my kingdom. Nor is he a just man; for if he were just, he would not desire any land but his own, nor would he reduce people to servitude who have done him no harm. However, give him this bow, and say these words to him: The king of the Ethiopians advises the king of the Persians, when his Persians can thus easily draw a bow of this size, then to make war upon the long-lived Ethiopians with a more numerous army; but until that time let him thank the gods, who have not inspired the sons of the Ethiopians with a desire of adding another land to their own.”

=15.= When Cambyses heard the reply of the Ethiopian he was enraged, and without the usual military forethought to provide magazines of food, he instantly put his army in motion. Arriving at Thebes, he sent off a detachment of 50,000 men to destroy the temple and oracle of Amun[25] in the Oasis. This army was buried in the sands of the desert, without even beholding Ammo´nium. The main army of Cambyses was almost equally unfortunate. Before a fifth part of its journey was completed its provisions were spent. The beasts of burden were then eaten, and life was supported a little longer by herbs gathered from the soil. But when they reached the desert, both food and water failed, and the wretched men were reduced to eating certain of their comrades chosen by lot. By this time even the rage of the king was exhausted, and he consented to turn back; but he arrived at Memphis with a small portion of the host which had gone forth with him upon this ill-concerted enterprise.

=16.= He found the Memphians keeping a joyous festival in honor of the god Apis, who had just reappeared.[26] The Persian was in ill humor from his recent disasters, and chose to believe that the Egyptians were rejoicing in his misfortunes. He ordered the new Apis to be brought into his presence. When the animal appeared, he drew his dagger and pierced it in the thigh; then, laughing loudly, exclaimed: “Ye blockheads, are there such gods as this, consisting of blood and flesh, and sensible of steel? This, truly, is a god worthy of the Egyptians!” He commanded his officers to scourge the priests and kill all the people who were found feasting. The Egyptians believed that Cambyses was instantly smitten with insanity as a punishment for this sacrilege. A reason may be found for his contemptuous treatment of Apis in that Persian hatred of idolatry which led him to shatter even the colossal images of the kings before many temples, and caused him to be regarded by ancient travelers as the great iconoclast of Egypt.

=17.= The mad career of Cambyses was near its end. Before leaving Persia, he had caused the secret assassination of his younger brother, Bar´des, or, as the Greek historians called him, Smerdis, to whom their father had left the government of several provinces. He was about to leave Egypt, when a report arrived that Smerdis had revolted against him. The king now suspected that he had been betrayed by the too faithful messenger whom he had sent to kill his brother. The leader of the revolt, however, was neither of royal nor Persian blood. Goma´tes, a Magian, had been left by Cambyses steward of his palace at Susa. This man conspired with his order throughout the empire for a rising of the Medes against the Persians, and for the suppression of the reformed religion which the latter had brought in. Happening to resemble the younger son of Cyrus, he boldly announced to the people that Smerdis, brother of Cambyses, claimed their obedience. The story appeared credible, for the death of the prince had purposely been kept secret, so that nearly all the world, except Praxas´pes and his master, supposed him to be still alive.

=18.= Cambyses was already in Syria when he received a herald who demanded the obedience of the army to Smerdis, son of Cyrus. Caught in his own toils, the king lamented in vain that for foolish jealousy he had murdered the only man who could have exposed the fraud, and who might have been the best support and defender of his throne. Overcome with grief and shame, he sprang on horseback to begin his journey to Persia, but in the act his sword was unsheathed and entered his side, inflicting a mortal wound. He lingered three weeks, during which time he showed more reason than in all his life before. He confessed and bewailed the murder of his brother, and besought the Persian nobles to conquer the deceitful Magus and bestow the kingdom on one more worthy. He had neither son nor brother to succeed him. He had reigned seven years and five months.

=19.= REIGN OF THE PSEUDO-SMERDIS. B. C. 522-521. As it is the just punishment of liars not to be believed even when they speak the truth, Cambyses’ last confession was commonly supposed to be the most artful transaction of his life. The nobles, who had no knowledge of the death of Smerdis, believed that it was he indeed who was reigning at Susa, and that his brother had invented the story of the Magus to make his dethronement more certain. The pretended king lived in great seclusion, never quitting his palace, and permitting the various members of his household no intercourse with their relations. All orders were issued by his prime minister. He closed the Zoroastrian temples, restored the Magian priesthood, and ordered the discontinuance of the rebuilding at Jerusalem. (Read Ezra iv: 17-24.) These religious changes, such as no Achæmenian prince could have favored, began to awaken suspicions. Seven great princes of the royal race, having learned by a spy within the palace that the pretended monarch was only a Magian whom Cyrus had deprived of his ears, formed a league to dethrone him. Their bold attack was successful; the Magus was pursued into Media, and slain after a reign of eight months; and Dar´ius Hystas´pes,[27] one of the seven conspirators, was eventually chosen to be king.

=20.= REIGN OF DARIUS I. B. C. 521-486. The first years of Darius were disturbed by rebellions which shook his throne to its foundation. No fewer than eleven satrapies were successively in revolt. The most important was that of Babylon, which for twenty months defied all the efforts of the great king to reduce it. At length Zop´yrus, son of one of the conspirators who had raised Darius to the throne, invented an ingenious though revolting scheme. He cut off his own nose and ears, applied the scourge to his shoulders until they were stained with blood, and having agreed with the king upon his further conduct, deserted to the Babylonians. To them he represented that the king had treated him with such cruel indignity that he burned for revenge. His wounds added plausibility to his story; he was received into the confidence of the rebels, and on the tenth day he was intrusted with the command of a sallying party which was to repulse an attack of the Persians.

Darius had been advised to send to the Semi´ramis Gate a body of those troops whom he could best spare: a thousand of them were cut to pieces. In a second sortie led by Zopyrus, two thousand Persians were slain; in a third, four thousand. This slaughter of seven thousand of his countrymen removed from the minds of the Babylonians all doubt of the truth of Zopyrus. The keys of the city were committed to his care, and the preparation for his treachery was now complete. During a concerted assault by the Persians, he opened the gates to Darius, who proceeded to take signal vengeance for the long defiance of his power. The reckless sacrifice of human life in this transaction shows how the habit of unlimited power had impaired the disposition of Darius, which was naturally merciful.

=21.= To guard against future disturbances, Darius now endeavored to give a more thorough and efficient organization to the great empire, which Cyrus and Cambyses had built up. He divided the whole territory into twenty satrapies, or provinces, and imposed upon each a tribute according to its wealth. The native kings whom Cyrus had left upon their thrones were all swept away, and a Persian governor, usually connected by blood or marriage with the great king, was placed over each province. Order within and safety from without were secured by standing armies of Medes or Persians, posted at convenient stations throughout the empire. Royal roads were constructed and a system of couriers arranged, by which the court received constant and swift intelligence of all that occurred in the provinces.

=22.= To prevent revolt, an elaborate system of checks was instituted, which left the satrap little power of independent action. In this earlier and stronger period of the consolidated empire, the satrap exercised only the civil government, the military being wielded by generals and commandants of garrisons, while, in Persia at least, the judicial power resided in judges appointed directly by the king. Beside these constitutional checks upon the satrap, there were in every province the “king’s eyes” and the “king’s ears,” in the persons of royal secretaries attached to his court, whose duty it was to communicate secretly and constantly with the sovereign, and to keep him informed of every occurrence within their respective districts.

The slightest suspicion of revolt communicated to the king by these spies, was sufficient to bring an order for the death of the satrap. This order was addressed to his guards, who instantly executed it by hewing him down with their sabers. Each province, moreover, was liable every moment to a sudden visit from the king or his commissioner, who examined the satrap’s accounts, heard the grievances of his subjects, and either deprived an unjust ruler of his place, or noted a wise, upright, and beneficent one for promotion to greater honor. The satrap, on a smaller scale, affected the same magnificence of living as the great king himself. Each had his “paradises,” or pleasure-gardens, attached to numerous palaces. The satrap of Babylon had a daily revenue of nearly two bushels of coined silver; his stables contained nearly seventeen thousand steeds, and the income from four towns barely sufficed for the maintenance of his dogs.

=23.= The court of Susa surpassed all this display of wealth as much as the sun surpasses the planets. Fifteen thousand persons fed daily at the king’s tables. The royal journeys were of necessity confined to the wealthier portion of the empire, for in the poorer provinces such a visitation would have produced a famine. The king seldom appeared in public, and the approach to his presence was guarded by long lines of officers, each of whom had his appointed station, from the ministers of highest rank who stood in the audience-chamber, to the humblest attendant who waited at the gate.

=24.= The royal retinue included a numerous army, divided according to its nationalities into corps of 10,000 each. Of these the most celebrated were the Persian “Immortals,” so called because their number was always exactly maintained. If an “Immortal” died, a well-trained member of a reserve-corps was ready to take his place. They were chosen from all the nation for their strength, stature, and fine personal appearance. Their armor was resplendent with silver and gold, and on the march or in battle they were always near the person of the king. The royal secretaries, or scribes, formed another important part of the retinue of the court. They wrote down every word that fell from the monarch’s lips, especially his commands, which, once uttered, could never be recalled. (Esther viii: 8; Daniel vi: 8, 12, 15.)

RECAPITULATION.

Persia, having been for a century subject to the Medes,
became independent under Cyrus, who also conquered Lydia and
Babylonia, liberated the Jews, and founded a great empire
reaching from Macedonia to India. He died in war with the
Scythians, and the African expedition was left to Cambyses,
his son. This king conquered Egypt, but his attempts against
Ethiopia and the temple of Amun resulted only in disaster. His
contempt for Egyptian idolatry was, according to the priests,
punished with madness. A revolt in the name of Smerdis, whom
he had murdered, placed a Magian upon the throne, and effected
a reaction against the Persian reformation. The Magian was
dethroned by Darius Hystaspes, who became the great organizer
of the empire of Cyrus. Twenty satrapies took the place of the
conquered kingdoms. A system of royal roads, couriers, and
spies kept the whole dominion within the reach and beneath the
eye of the king, who was surrounded by a multitude of officials
and protected by a numerous army, the Persian Immortals having
precedence in rank.

PERSIAN RELIGION.

=25.= The Persians held the reformed religion taught by Zo´roas´ter, a great law-giver and prophet, who appeared in the Medo-Bactrian kingdom long before[28] the birth of Cyrus. In every part of the East, the belief in One God, and the pure and simple worship which the human family had learned in its original home, had become overlaid by false mythologies and superstitious rites. The teachings of Zoroaster divided the Aryan family into its two Asiatic branches, which have ever since remained distinct. The Hindus retained their sensuous Nature-worship, of which In´dra (storm and thunder), Mith´ra (sunlight), Va´yu (wind), Agni (fire), Arama´ti (earth), and Soma (the intoxicating principle in liquids), were the chief objects. Zoroaster was led, either by reason or divine revelation, to a purer faith. He taught the supremacy of a Living Creator, a person, and not merely a power, whom he called Ahu´rô-Mazdâo, or Or´mazd. The name has been differently rendered, the Divine Much-Giving, the Creator of Life, or the Living Creator of All. Ormazd was believed to bestow not merely earthly good, but the most precious spiritual gifts—truth, devotion, the “good mind,” and everlasting joy.

=26.= It has been seen that Cyrus regarded the God of the Hebrews as the object of his own worship (Ezra i: 1-4); and the Jewish prophets recognize the same identity in their description of Cyrus (Isaiah xlv: 1-5). Both nations had a profound hatred of idolatry. No image of any kind was seen in the Persian temples. Both believed in the ministration of angels. The throne of Ormazd was surrounded by six princes of light, and beneath them were innumerable hosts of warriors and messengers, who passed to and fro defending the right and exterminating wrong. Chief of these was Serosh, or Srao´sha, “the serene, the strong,” general-in-chief of the armies of Ormazd. He never slept, but continually guarded the earth with his drawn sword, especially after sunset, when demons had greatest power. At their death, he conducted the souls of the just to the presence of Ormazd, assisting them to pass the narrow bridge, from which the wicked fell into the abyss below.

=27.= A later development of the doctrines of Zoroaster was that dualism which divided the universe into a Kingdom of Light and a Kingdom of Darkness. The latter was ruled by Ahriman´, the source of all impurity and pain, assisted by his seven superior _devas_, or princes of evil; and the whole world was a battle-ground between the two armies of spirits, good and bad. If Ormazd created a paradise, Ahriman sent into it a venomous serpent. All poisonous plants, reptiles, and insects, all sickness, poverty, plague, war, famine, and earthquakes, all unbelief, witchcraft, and deadly sins were the work of Ahriman; and the world, which should have been “very good,” was thus made the scene of suffering. Every object, living or inanimate, belonged to one or the other kingdom; and it was the duty of the servant of Ormazd to foster every thing holy and destroy every thing evil and impure. Agriculture was especially favored by Zoroaster, as promoting beautiful and healthful growths, and conquering blight, mildew, famine, and all destructive influences. It was the firm belief of all devout Zoroastrians that the Kingdom of Darkness would at length be overthrown, and the Kingdom of Light fill the universe.

=28.= RELIGION OF THE MEDES. The Magianism of the Medes, at the time of their conquest by Cyrus, was a third form of Aryan belief, modified by contact with the barbarous Scythians. It was a peculiar form of Nature-worship, of which the four physical elements (so regarded), fire, air, earth, and water, were the objects. Fire, as the most energetic, was the chief. This system was wholly dependent on priest-craft; the Magi, or priestly caste, one of the seven Median tribes, were alone permitted to offer prayers and sacrifices. The Zoroastrians abhorred this doctrine as the work of devas, to supplant the pure principles which the race had received, in the beginning, from Ormazd himself. Darius in his inscriptions describes the usurpation of Goma´tes the Magian as the period when “the lie” prevailed. During the Magophonia, or yearly festival, which celebrated the suppression of this revolt, no Magian dared stir abroad for fear of death.

But with increased power and luxury came a change in the national religion. The showy ceremonies of Magianism were better suited to the pomp of an Eastern court than the simple and spiritual worship of the Zoroastrians. A reconciliation was probably begun in the reign of Darius, and completed in that of Artaxerx´es Longim´anus. The Magians accepted the essential doctrines of Zoroaster, and were permitted, in turn, to introduce a part of their own symbolism and priestly rites into the national worship. They kept the sacred fire in the temples, fed it with costly woods, and never suffered it to be blown with human breath. At the rising of the sun they chanted sacred hymns to the Lord and Giver of Light. One of them waked the king each morning with the words, “Rise, sire, and think upon the duties which Ormazd has commanded you to perform.” The whole religious ceremonial of the court was committed to their care. They alone possessed the sacred liturgies by which Ormazd was to be addressed; and it was believed that through them God revealed his will, either in the interpretation of dreams or by the motion of the stars.

=29.= Except that of the Hebrews, the Persian faith was the purest monotheism of the East. But its benefits were chiefly confined to the princely and noble caste, while with them its influence was neutralized in a great measure by the corruptions of the court. Polygamy was the fatal weakness of the Persian as of all other Eastern monarchies. The furious enmities of rival princesses filled the palace with discord, and often stained it with the darkest crimes. The hardy Persian mountaineers who had won the victories of Cyrus, whose simple but noble education taught them only “to ride the horse, to draw the bow, and to speak the truth,” adopted the slavish manners of the races they had conquered, learned to dissemble and prostrate themselves before the face of a mortal, and became the splendid but often useless ornaments of an extravagant court.

=30.= INDIAN CONQUESTS. The first great expedition of Darius was against the Punjab´, or Five Rivers of Western India. The imperial revenues were increased one-third by the acquisition of this rich gold-tract, and a lucrative commerce now sprang up between the banks of the Indus and the shores of the Persian Gulf.

=31.= SCYTHIAN CAMPAIGN. The next enterprise of Darius was against the Scythians of Central Europe, between the Don and the Danube. His design was to avenge the Scythian devastations of Media and Upper Asia a century before, and to terrify the barbarians into future good behavior by a display of his power; perhaps also to open a way into Greece by the conquest of the Thracian tribes. The whole army and navy of the empire, consisting of not less than 700,000 land soldiers and 600 ships, assembled at the Thracian Bosphorus, which they crossed by a bridge of boats constructed by Ionian engineers. The naval force was furnished wholly by the Greeks of the Ægean.

=32.= Sending his fleet through the Euxine Sea into the Danube, with orders to make a bridge of boats two days’ journey from its mouth, Darius marched through Thrace, receiving or compelling the submission of its tribes, and adding their young men to his army. Arriving at the Danube, he crossed the bridge and gave orders to the Greeks to remain and guard it sixty days; if in that time he did not return, they might conclude that he had gone to Media by another route. The details of the great king’s operations north of the Danube are unknown to history. There were no great cities to take; the wandering Scythians destroyed their scanty harvests, stopped their wells, removed their families northward to places of security, and drew the invader after them into the depths of their forests or uninhabited deserts.

Unable to bring his enemy to battle, and seeing his army reduced to great distress for want of food and water, Darius was compelled to retreat by the way he had come. The sixty days were more than elapsed when a Scythian force, which had been watching his movements, hastened to the Danube by a shorter route, urging the Ionians, who were still on guard, to destroy the bridge and leave Darius to perish, like Cyrus, in the northern deserts. The Greeks of Asia might thus have gained their freedom without a blow; but the tyrants who commanded the fleet had interests of their own quite separate from those of their people. Histiæ´us of Mile´tus urged upon his fellow-despots that their power must fall with that of Darius, being sustained by him against the popular will. His arguments prevailed, and the great king, arriving in the darkness of midnight, closely pursued by the Scythians, was able to repass the river in safety.

=33.= Histiæus was rewarded by a grant of land on the river Stry´mon, including the town of Myrci´nus, for the site of a colony. With its fertile soil, ample forests, convenience for commerce, and neighboring mines of gold and silver, this new domain immediately attracted settlers and became an important maritime station. Its rapid growth, indeed, excited the fears of Darius, lest its owner might become too powerful for a vassal, and interpose a barrier between himself and the Greeks. He sent for Histiæus, whom he treated with every mark of respect, and pretending that he could not do without his valuable counsels, kept him constantly within reach at the court of Susa. Histiæus, resolved to break his golden chains at any cost, sent a singular epistle to his cousin, Aristag´oras, whom he had left as his lieutenant at Miletus, commanding him to stir up a revolt among the Asiatic Greeks.

=34.= The Ionian cities, extending ninety miles along the coast in an almost unbroken line of magnificent quays, warehouses, and dwellings, were so important to the empire, on account of the fleets which they could furnish, that they had been left in greater freedom than any other conquered territory. Instead of satraps, they were governed by their own magistrates—either a single tyrant in each city or a council of nobles, called an oligarchy—but always in the Persian interest. The European Greeks were stirred by a desire to liberate their brethren in Asia, and this afforded a constant pretext for a Persian war. The forces of Athens and Ere´tria were now added to those of Aristagoras, who had, moreover, strengthened his cause by abdicating his tyranny, and aiding the other cities to assume the same free and popular government which he established at Miletus. The tyrants were every-where expelled, and the people sprang to arms.

From Eph´esus the united forces marched up the valley of the Cay´ster, and swiftly crossing the mountains, took Sardis by surprise. The city was easily captured, but Ar´tapher´nes, the satrap, retired with a strong garrison to the castle, which, from its inaccessible rock, defied assault. A spark falling on the light reeds which formed the roofs of Sardis set fire to the town, and the invaders were compelled to retire. They were pursued and defeated with great loss by Artaphernes, in the battle of Ephesus. The Athenians now withdrew, but the war went on with undiminished spirit. The inhabitants of Cyprus, the Carians and Caunians of the south-western corner of the peninsula made common cause with the Ionian, Æo´lian, and Hellespontine Greeks; Byzantium was taken, and the whole coast from the Thracian Bosphorus to the Gulf of Issus was for the moment free from Persian dominion. The brave Carians, though twice defeated with great loss, were victorious in a third battle, where a son-in-law of Darius was slain. But the power of the great king was at length triumphant. The fleet of the Ionians was defeated near Miletus, and the vengeance of the Persians was concentrated on this devoted city, the leader of the rebellion. After a long blockade, it was taken by storm in the sixth year of the revolt.

=35.= The honor of the great king was now engaged to the punishment of those European Greeks who had intermeddled between himself and his subjects. It was the first time that the Athenians had come to the notice of Darius. He inquired who and what sort of men they were, and being told, he seized his bow and shot an arrow into the air, crying aloud, “O Supreme God, grant that I may avenge myself on the Athenians!” From that time a servant was instructed to say to him three times every day as he sat at table, “Sire, remember the Athenians!”

=36.= In the spring of 492 B. C., a great force was intrusted for this purpose to Mardo´nius, son-in-law of Darius. Its immediate design failed, for the fleet was shattered at Mount Athos, and the army nearly destroyed by the Brygians, a Thracian tribe. Thasos, however, was captured, and Macedonia was subjected to Persia.

=37.= B. C. 490. A second great expedition, two years later, was conducted by Datis, accompanied by Artaphernes, son of the former satrap of that name, and nephew of the king. Having passed the sea, they fell first upon Eretria, which was taken by treachery, its temples burnt, and its inhabitants bound in chains for transportation to Asia. The first decisive trial of strength between Persia and the western Greeks took place at Mar´athon, in Attica. The Persians numbered 100,000 men, the Greeks but little more than 10,000. The Medo-Persian troops had hitherto been considered invincible; but that magnificent soldiery was now, to a certain extent, replaced by unwilling conscripts from conquered tribes, who marched, dug, or fought under the lash of overseers. Miltiades, who, as prince of the Chersonesus, had served in the Persian armies, well knew this element of weakness, and it was with just confidence in the superiority of his free Athenians that he gave orders for the battle.

=38.= In the center, where the native Persians fought, they gained the advantage, and pursued the Athenians up one or two of the valleys which surround the base of Mount Kotro´ni; but, at the same time, both the right and left of the Asiatics were defeated by the Greeks, who, instead of pursuing, united their forces on the field to the relief of their center, and thus gained a complete victory. The Persians fled to their ships, now fiercely followed by the Greeks, and a still more furious contest ensued at the water’s edge. The Athenians sought to fire the fleet, but seven galleys only were destroyed; the rest, with the shattered remains of the army, made good their escape.

=39.= The Persian commander did not lose his spirit in defeat. Encouraged by a preconcerted signal of the partisans of Hip´pias, he sailed immediately around Attica, hoping to surprise Athens in the absence of its defenders. But Miltiades, too, had seen the glittering shield raised upon a mountain-top, and guessed its meaning. Leaving Aristi´des with one tribe to guard the spoils of the battle-field, he led his army by a rapid night-march across the country to Athens. When Datis, the next morning, having doubled the point of Su´nium, sailed up the Athenian harbor, he saw upon the heights above the city the same victorious troops from whom his men had fled the evening before. He made no attempt to land, but sailed away with his Eretrian prisoners to the coasts of Asia.

=40.= Rather angered than dismayed by these failures, Darius prepared to lead in person a still greater expedition against the Greeks. But a revolt in Egypt first diverted his attention, and his death, in the following year, gave the free states of Europe time to complete their preparations for defense. B. C. 486.

=41.= Many works and trophies of Darius remain in various parts of his empire. He was the first king who coined money in Persia. The golden and silver _darics_ circulated not only throughout the empire but in Greece. The most interesting memorials are the two records in his own words of the events of his reign, engraven upon his tomb at Nakshi-rus´tam, and upon the great rock-tablet of Behistûn´. The latter is of the greater length; it consists of five columns, each containing from sixteen to nineteen paragraphs, written in three languages, Persian, Babylonian, and Scythic, or Tartar. These trilingual inscriptions, embracing the three great families of human speech, Aryan, Semitic, and Turanian, almost justify the claim made by Darius to universal empire.

NOTE.—A specimen of the style of the great king may be of
interest to the scholar. It should be stated that the Behistûn
cliff forms part of the Zagros mountain range between Babylon
and Ecbatana. This great natural table of stone, which seems to
have been expressly fitted for enduring records, is 1,700 feet
in perpendicular height, and bears four sets of sculptures, one
of which is ascribed to Semiramis. The inscription of Darius
is most important. It has been deciphered within a few years,
with wonderful learning, industry, and patience, by Col. Sir
Henry Rawlinson, of the British army. For many years after its
existence was known, it was considered inaccessible, as it
was 300 feet from the foot of the perpendicular wall, and it
was necessary for the explorer to be drawn up with ropes by a
windlass placed at the summit. Even when a copy was thus made,
with great risk and inconvenience, the work was only begun, for
the arrow-headed (cuneiform) characters in which the Persian
language was written were as yet but partly understood. These
difficulties have now been surmounted, and the common student
can read the words of “Darius the King.” The whole inscription,
in Persian and English, may be found in Rawlinson’s Herodotus,
Vol. II, Appendix. A few of the shorter paragraphs are here
subjoined:

I. 8. “Says Darius the King: Within these countries the man who
was good, him have I right well cherished. Whoever was evil,
him have I utterly rooted out. By the grace of Ormazd, these
are the countries by which my laws have been observed.”…

I. 11. “Says Darius the King: Afterward there was a man, a
Magian, named Gomates.… He thus lied to the state: ‘I am
Bardes, the son of Cyrus, the brother of Cambyses.’ Then the
whole state became rebellious.… He seized the empire. Afterward
Cambyses, unable to endure, died.”

I. 13. “Says Darius the King: There was not a man, neither
Persian nor Median, nor any one of our family, who would
dispossess that Gomates the Magian of the crown. The state
feared him exceedingly. He slew many people who had known the
old Bardes; for that reason he slew them, ‘lest they should
recognize me that I am not Bardes, the son of Cyrus.’ No one
dared say any thing concerning Gomates the Magian until I
arrived. Then I prayed to Ormazd; Ormazd brought help to me.
On the 10th day of the month Bagayadish, then it was, with
the help of my faithful men, that I slew that Gomates the
Magian and those who were his chief followers. The fort named
Sictachotes, in the district of Media called Nisæa, there I
slew him. I dispossessed him of the empire; I became king.
Ormazd granted me the scepter.”

I. 14. “Says Darius the King: The empire which had been taken
away from our family, that I recovered. I established it in
its place. As it was before, so I made it. The temples which
Gomates the Magian had destroyed I rebuilt. The sacred offices
of the state, both the religious chants and the worship, I
restored to the people, which Gomates the Magian had deprived
them of.… By the grace of Ormazd I did this.”

RECAPITULATION.

Persian monotheism differed essentially from the Nature-worship
of the Hindus and the element-worship of the Medes; but under
Darius and his successors the Magi gained exclusive control of
religious rites, and luxury destroyed the manly virtues of the
people. Darius conquered western India, and invaded European
Scythia, but without result. His detention of Histiæus led to
a six years’ revolt of all the Greeks of Asia Minor, aided by
the Athenians and Eretrians. He failed in his first retaliatory
enterprise against the European Greeks; and, in the second, the
great decisive battle of Marathon ended in the overthrow of the
Persians. The death of Darius postponed the Grecian wars.

REIGN OF XERXES I.

[Sidenote: B. C. 486-465.]

=42.= Xer´xes, the Ahasue´rus of the Book of Esther, succeeded to his father’s dominions, instead of Artabaza´nes, his elder brother, who had been born before Darius’s accession to the throne. His first care was the crushing of the Egyptian revolt. This was accomplished in the second year of his reign; a severer servitude was imposed, and his brother Achæ´menes remained as his viceroy in the Valley of the Nile. The Babylonians attempted an insurrection, but dearly paid for their rashness with all the treasure of their temples.

=43.= In the third year of his reign,[29] the king convened his satraps and generals, “the nobles and princes of the provinces,” at Susa, to deliberate concerning the invasion of Greece. In their presence he detailed the motives of ambition and revenge which urged him against a people which had dared to defy his power, and declared his intention to march through Europe, from one end to the other, and make of all its lands one country. He believed that, the Greeks once conquered, no people in the world could stand against him, and thus the sun would no longer shine upon any land beyond his own. He concluded by commanding each general to make ready his forces, assuring them that he who appeared upon the appointed day with the most effective troop should receive the rewards most precious to every Persian.

=44.= During four years all Asia, from the docks of Sidon and Tyre to the banks of the Indus, rang with notes of preparation. All races and tribes of the vast empire sent men and material. The maritime nations furnished the largest fleet which the Mediterranean had yet seen. The Phœnicians and Egyptians were charged with the construction of a double bridge of boats over the Hellespont, from Aby´dus, on the Asiatic, to a point between Sestus and Mad´ytus, on the European side of the strait. After this work was completed, a violent storm broke it to pieces and threw the shattered fragments upon the shore. The king, unused to being thwarted in any of his designs, caused the engineers to be beheaded, the sea scourged, and a pair of fetters, as a hint of the required submission, thrown into the offending waters. A new bridge, or, rather, pair of bridges, was now formed with still greater care. Two lines of ships, anchored at stem and stern, were united each by six great cables, which reached from shore to shore. They supported a platform of wood, which was covered with earth and protected by a balustrade.

=45.= Another body of men, working under the lash of Persian overseers, were employed three years in cutting a canal from the Strymonic to the Singitic Bay, to sever Mount Athos from the mainland, and thus enable the fleet to avoid the strong and shifting currents and high seas which prevailed around the peninsula. Immense stores of provisions, collected from all parts of the empire, were deposited at suitable intervals along the line of march.

=46.= The rendezvous of the troops was at Crital´la, in Cappadocia, whence they were moved forward to Sardis. In the autumn of 481 B. C., Xerxes arrived at the latter capital, and early in the following spring set his vast army in motion toward the Hellespont. Near the person of the king were the ten thousand Immortals, whose entire armor glittered with gold. He was preceded by the Chariot of the Sun, in which no mortal dared seat himself, drawn by eight snow-white horses.

=47.= At Abydus the king surveyed, from his throne of white marble elevated upon a hill, the countless multitudes which thronged the plain, and the myriads of sails that studded the Hellespont. The momentary pride that swelled his breast, with the consciousness that he was supreme lord of all that host, gave way to a more worthy emotion as he reflected that the whole life of those myriads upon earth was almost as transitory as their passage of the bridge, which lay before him, connecting the known with the unknown continent. Early the next morning perfumes were burnt and myrtle boughs strewn upon the bridges, while the army awaited in silence the rising of the sun. When it appeared, Xerxes, with head uncovered—excelling, not only in rank, but in strength, stature, and beauty, all his host—poured a libation into the sea, praying, meanwhile, with his face toward the rising orb, that no disaster might befall his arms until he had penetrated to the uttermost boundaries of Europe. Haying prayed, he cast the golden cup and a Persian cimeter into the sea, and gave a signal for the army to march.

=48.= So numerous was the host that, marching day and night without intermission, and goaded by the whip, it occupied seven days in crossing the straits by the two bridges. On the Thracian plain of Doris´cus, near the sea, the army was drawn up for a final review. The land force consisted of forty-six nations. According to Herodotus, who gathered his information by most careful inquiry of persons who were present, the foot soldiers numbered 1,700,000; the war-chariots and camels, 20,000; the horse, 80,000. The fleet consisted of 1,207 triremes, and 3,000 smaller vessels, carrying in all 517,610 men. Beside this actual fighting force, we must suppose an equal number of slaves, attendants, and the crews of provision ships, making a total of more than five millions of human beings.

=49.= Several rivers were dried in giving drink to this multitude, while their food, even the scanty allowance of Asiatic slaves, amounted to 662,000 bushels of flour each day; but the excellent commissariat of Xerxes, which had been organizing for seven years, was not at fault. On the march from Doriscus toward Greece, the king, still within his own empire, received further accessions from Thracian, Macedonian, and other European tribes, so that his fighting force at Thermop´ylæ amounted to 2,640,000 men. Various cities along the route had been commanded to furnish each one meal for the army; and although they had spent years in preparation, some were ruined by the expense.[30]

=50.= Meanwhile the Greeks had not been idle. The ten years since the battle of Marathon had been employed in active drilling of forces, by sea and land. Each state furnished its quota; and though but a handful compared with the myriads of invaders, they had the strength, derived from patriotism and high discipline, to oppose the mere material mass and weight of the Persian host. It was mind against matter.

[Sidenote: B. C. 480.]

=51.= Abandoning the defense of Thessaly, which was open by too many avenues to the Persians, the little army of Leon´idas, king of Sparta, had made a resolute stand at Thermopylæ, a narrow pass between Mount Œta and the sea. The whole force amounted to only 6,000 men, of whom but 300 were Spartans. Xerxes waited several days upon the Trachinian plain, expecting that this little band would melt away from mere terror at the sight of his vast numbers. At length he sent the Median cavalry to force a passage. They were repulsed with loss. The Immortals made the same attempt with no better success. At this point, Ephial´tes, a Malian, offered for a large reward to show the invaders a mountain-path by which they could reach the rear of the Spartan camp. The Phocian guards of this path were overpowered. Leonidas learned that he was betrayed, and declaring that he and his Spartans must remain at their post, dismissed all the rest of his army except the Thespians and Thebans. Then, before the body of Persians who were crossing the mountain, under lead of the traitor, could attack him from behind, he threw himself upon the enemy in front, resolving to exact as dear a vengeance as possible. Many of the Persian host fell beneath the Spartan swords, many were trodden to death by their own multitudes, and many were forced into the sea. Leonidas soon fell, and the contest for his body inspired his men with new fury. Having recovered it, they placed their backs against a wall of stone and fought until every man was slain.

=52.= During the same days several battles were fought at sea between the Greek and Persian fleets. No decisive advantage was gained by either side, but the result was most disheartening to the Persians, who had been most confident of success. The elements, too, had neither been scourged nor scolded into good behavior; a terrible hurricane raged three days and nights upon the coast of Thessaly, tearing the ships from their moorings and dashing them against the cliffs. At least four hundred ships of war were thus destroyed, beside a countless number of transports with their stores and treasures. Another squadron of two hundred vessels, which had been sent around Eubœa to cut off the retreat of the Greeks, perished, in a sudden tempest, upon the rocks. The Grecian commanders were unable to profit by these advantages, for the defeat at Thermopylæ compelled them to withdraw from Artemis´ium to provide for the safety of Attica and the Peloponnesus.

=53.= By the death of the Spartan three hundred, the gates of Greece were thrown open, and the hosts of Asia poured through, wasting the country with fire and sword. At Pano´peus a detachment was sent to plunder the temple of Apollo at Delphi, while Xerxes led his main army through Bœo´tia. On the march he received the submission of all the people except the Platæans and Thespians, who, rather than yield to an invader, abandoned their cities to be burnt. Before his arrival at Athens, the chief object of his revenge, the king heard of the total defeat of his Delphian expedition. According to Greek tradition, no mortal hand turned back the invaders, but Apollo himself hurled down great rocks and crags upon their heads, in the dark ravines of Parnassus, and thus defended his sanctuary.

[Sidenote: B. C. 480.]