media - rawlinson - rawlinson contents ... of which from 1842 to 1846 he was fellow and tutor. ......

Media - Rawlinson

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AUTHOR Canon George Rawlinson (23 Novem-ber 1812 – 7 October 1902) was a 19th-century En-glish scholar, historian, and Christian theologian.He was born at Chadlington, Oxfordshire, and wasthe younger brother of Sir Henry Rawlinson.

Having taken his degree at the University of Ox-ford (from Trinity College) in 1838, he was electedto a fellowship at Exeter College, Oxford, in 1840,of which from 1842 to 1846 he was fellow and tutor.He was ordained in 1841, was Bampton lecturer in1859, and was Camden Professor of Ancient Historyfrom 1861 to 1889.

In his early days at Oxford, he played cricket forthe University, appearing in five matches between1836 and 1839 which have since been considered tohave been first-class.

In 1872 he was appointed canon of Canterbury, andafter 1888 he was rector of All Hallows, LombardStreet. In 1873, he was appointed proctor in Convo-cation for the Chapter of Canterbury. He marriedLouisa, daughter of Sir RA Chermside, in 1846.

His chief publications are his translation of theHistory of Herodotus (in collaboration with SirHenry Rawlinson and Sir John Gardiner Wilkin-son), 1858–60; The Five Great Monarchies of theAncient Eastern World, 1862–67; The Sixth GreatOriental Monarchy (Parthian), 1873; The SeventhGreat Oriental Monarchy (Sassanian), 1875; Man-ual of Ancient History, 1869; Historical Illustra-tions of the Old Testament, 1871; The Origin of Na-tions, 1877; History of Ancient Egypt, 1881; Egyptand Babylon, 1885; History of Phoenicia, 1889;Parthia, 1893; Memoir of Major-General Sir HCRawlinson, 1898. His lectures to an audience atOxford University on the topic of the accuracy ofthe Bible in 1859 were published as the apologeticwork The Historical Evidences of the Truth of the

Scripture Records Stated Anew in later years. Hewas also contributor to the Speaker’s Commentary,the Pulpit Commentary, Smith’s Dictionary of theBible, and various similar publications. He was theauthor of the article “Herodotus” in the 9th editionof the Encyclopædia Britannica.

CHAPTER I. Description of the CountryAlong the eastern flank of the great Mesopotamianlowland, curving round it on the north, and stretch-ing beyond it to the south and the south-east, liesa vast elevated region, or highland, no portion ofwhich appears to be less than 3000 feet above thesea-level. This region may be divided, broadly,into two tracts, one consisting of lofty mountain-ous ridges, which form its outskirts on the northand on the west; the other, in the main a high flattable-land, extending from the foot of the moun-tain chains, southward to the Indian Ocean, andeastward to the country of the Afghans. The west-ern mountain-country consists, as has been alreadyobserved, of six or seven parallel ridges, having adirection nearly from the north-west to the south-east, enclosing between them, valleys of great fertil-ity, and well watered by a large number of plentifuland refreshing streams. This district was known tothe ancients as Zagros, while in modern geographyit bears the names of Kurdistan and Luristan. Ithas always been inhabited by a multitude of warliketribes, and has rarely formed for any long period aportion of any settled monarchy. Full of torrents,of deep ravines, or rocky summits, abrupt and al-most inaccessible; containing but few passes, andthose narrow and easily defensible; secure, more-over, owing to the rigor of its climate, from hos-tile invasion during more than half the year; it hasdefied all attempts to effect its permanent subjuga-tion, whether made by Assyrians, Persians, Greeks,

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Parthians, or Turks, and remains to this day as in-dependent of the great powers in its neighborhoodas it was when the Assyrian armies first penetratedits recesses. Nature seems to have constructedit to be a nursery of hardy and vigorous men, astumbling-block to conquerors, a thorn in the sideof every powerful empire which arises in this partof the great eastern continent.The northern mountain country–known to moderngeographers as Eiburz–is a tract of far less impor-tance. It is not composed, like Zagros, of a numberof parallel chains, but consists of a single lofty ridge,furrowed by ravines and valleys, from which spursare thrown out, running in general at right anglesto its axis. Its width is comparatively slight; andinstead of giving birth to numerous large rivers, itforms only a small number of insignificant streams,often dry in summer, which have short courses, be-ing soon absorbed either by the Caspian or theDesert. Its most striking feature is the snowy peakof Demavend, which impends over Teheran, and ap-pears to be the highest summit in the part of Asiawest of the Himalayas.The elevated plateau which stretches from the footof those two mountain regions to the south and eastis, for the most part, a flat sandy desert, incapableof sustaining more than a sparse and scanty popula-tion. The northern and western portions are, how-ever, less arid than the east and south, being wa-tered to some distance by the streams that descendfrom Zagros and Elburz, and deriving fertility alsofrom the spring rains. Some of the rivers which flowfrom Zagros on this side are large and strong. One,the Kizil-Uzen, reaches the Caspian. Another, theZenderud, fertilizes a large district near Isfahan. Athird, the Bendamir, flows by Persepolis and termi-nates in a sheet of water of some size–lake Bakhti-gan. A tract thus intervenes between the mountainregions and the desert which, though it cannot becalled fertile, is fairly productive, and can supporta large settled population. This forms the chiefportion of the region which the ancients called Me-dia, as being the country inhabited by the race onwhose history we are about to enter.Media, however, included, besides this, anothertract of considerable size and importance. At thenorth-western angle of the region above described,in the corner whence the two great chains branchout to the south and to the east, is a tract composedalmost entirely of mountains, which the Greekscalled Atropatene, and which is now known as Azer-bijan. This district lies further to the north thanthe rest of Media, being in the same parallels with

the lower part of the Caspian Sea. It comprisesthe entire basin of Lake Urumiyeh, together withthe country intervening between that basin and thehigh mountain chain which curves round the south-western corner of the Caspian, It is a region gen-erally somewhat sterile, but containing a certainquantity of very, fertile territory, more particularlyin the Urumiyeh basin, and towards the mouth ofthe river Araxes.

The boundaries of Media are given somewhat differ-ently by different writers, and no doubt they actu-ally varied at different periods; but the variationswere not great, and the natural limits, on threesides at any rate, may be laid down with tolerableprecision. Towards the north the boundary wasat first the mountain chain closing in on that sidethe Urumiyeh basin, after which it seems to havebeen held that the true limit was the Araxes, to itsentrance on the low country, and then the moun-tain chain west and south of the Caspian. West-ward, the line of demarcation may be best regardedas, towards the south, running along the centre ofthe Zagros region; and, above this, as formed bythat continuation of the Zagros chain which sepa-rates the Urumiyeh from the Van basin. Eastward,the boundary was marked by the spur from theElburz, across which lay the pass known as thePylse Caspise, and below this by the great saltdesert, whose western limit is nearly in the samelongitude. Towards the south there was no markedline or natural boundary; and it is difficult to saywith any exactness how much of the great plateaubelonged to Media and how much to Persia. Hav-ing regard, however, to the situation of Hamadan,which, as the capital, should have been tolerablycentral, and to the general account which histori-ans and geographers give of the size of Media, wemay place the southern limit with much probabilityabout the line of the thirty-second parallel, whichis nearly the present boundary between Irak andFars.

The shape of Media has been called a square; butit is rather a long parallelogram, whose two prin-cipal sides face respectively the north-east and thesouth-west, while the ends or shorter sides frontto the south-east and to the northwest. Its lengthin its greater direction is about 600 miles, and itswidth about 250 miles. It must thus contain nearly150,000 square miles, an area considerably largerthan that of Assyria and Chaldaea put together,and quite sufficient to constitute a state of the firstclass, even according to the ideas of modern Eu-rope. It is nearly one-fifth more than the area of


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the British Islands, and half as much again as thatof Prussia, or of peninsular Italy. It equals threefourths of France, or three fifths of Germany. Ithas, moreover, the great advantage of compactness,forming a single solid mass, with no straggling oroutlying portions; and it is strongly defended onalmost every side by natural barriers offering greatdifficulties to an invader.In comparison with the countries which formed theseats of the two monarchies already described, thegeneral character of the Median territory is un-doubtedly one of sterility. The high table-land iseverywhere intersected by rocky ranges, spurs fromZagros, which have a general direction from west toeast, and separate the country into a number of par-allel broad valleys, or long plains, opening out intothe desert. The appearance of these ranges is al-most 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 trees or shrubs, and only occasionallynourishing a dry and scanty herbage. The appear-ance of the plains is little superior; they are flat andwithout undulations, composed in general of gravelor hard clay, and rarely enlivened by any show ofwater; except for two months in the spring, they ex-hibit to the eye a uniform brown expanse, almosttreeless, which impresses the traveller with a feel-ing of sadness and weariness. Even in Azerbijan,which is one of the least arid portions of the terri-tory, vast tracks consist of open undulating downs,desolate and sterile, bearing only a coarse witheredgrass and a few stunted bushes.Still there are considerable exceptions to this gen-eral aspect of desolation. In the worst parts of theregion there is a time after the spring rains whennature puts on a holiday dress, and the country be-comes gay and cheerful. The slopes at the base ofthe rocky ranges are tinged with an emerald green:a richer vegetation springs up over the plains, whichare covered with a fine herbage or with a varietyof crops; the fruit trees which surround the villagesburst out into the most luxuriant blossom; the rosescome into bloom, and their perfume everywherefills the air. For the two months of April and Maythe whole face of the country is changed, and alovely verdure replaces the ordinary dull sterility.In a certain number of more favored spots beautyand fertility are found during nearly the whole ofthe year. All round the shores of Lake Urumiyeh,more especially in the rich plain of Miyandab at itssouthern extremity, along the valleys of the Aras,the Kizil-uzen, and the Jaghetu, in the great val-

ley of Linjan, fertilized by irrigation from the Zen-derud, in the Zagros valleys, and in various otherplaces, there is an excellent soil which producesabundantly with very slight cultivation.

The general sterility of Media arises from the scant-iness of the water supply. It has but few rivers,and the streams that it possesses run for the mostpart in deep and narrow valleys sunk below thegeneral level of the country, so that they cannotbe applied at all widely to purposes of irrigation.Moreover, some of them are, unfortunately, impreg-nated with salt to such an extent that they are alto-gether useless for this purpose; and indeed, insteadof fertilizing, spread around them desolation andbarrenness. The only Median streams which are ofsufficient importance to require description are theAras, the Kizil-Uzen, the Jaghetu, the Aji-Su andthe Zenderud, or river of Isfahan.

The Aras is only very partially a Median stream.It rises from several sources in the mountain tractbetween Kars and Erzeroum, and runs with a gen-erally eastern direction through Armenia to the lon-gitude of Mount Ararat, where it crosses the forti-eth parallel and begins to trend southward, flowingalong the eastern side of Ararat in a south-easterlydirection, nearly to the Julfa ferry on the high roadfrom Erivan to Tabriz. From this point it runs onlya little south of east to long. 46 deg. 30’ E. fromGreenwich, when it makes almost a right angle andruns directly north-east to its junction with the Kurat Djavat. Soon after this it curves to the south,and enters the Caspian by several mouths in lat. 39deg. 10’ nearly. The Aras is a considerable streamalmost from its source. At Hassan-Kaleh, less thantwenty miles from Erzeroum, where the river isforded in several branches, the water reaches tothe saddle-girths. At Keupri-Kieui, not much lower,the stream is crossed by a bridge of seven arches. Atthe Julfa ferry it is fifty yards wide, and runs witha strong current. At Megree, thirty miles furtherdown, its width is eighty yards. In spring and earlysummer the stream receives enormous accessionsfrom the spring rains and the melting of the snows,which produce floods that often cause great damageto the lands and villages along the valley. Hencethe difficulty of maintaining bridges over the Aras,which was noted as early as the time of Augustus,and is attested by the ruins of many such structuresremaining along its course. Still, there are at thepresent day at least three bridges over the stream–one, which has been already mentioned, at Keupri-Kieui, another a little above Nakshivan, and thethird at Khudoperinski, a little below Megree. The


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length of the Aras, including only main windings,is 500 miles.

The Kizil-Uzen, or (as it is called in the lower partof its course) the Sefid-Rud, is a stream of lesssize than the Aras, but more important to Media,within which lies almost the whole of its basin. Itdrains a tract of 180 miles long by 150 broad beforebursting through the Elburz mountain chain, anddescending upon the low country which skirts theCaspian. Rising in Persian Kurdistan almost fromthe foot of Zagros, it runs in a meandering coursewith a general direction of north-east through thatprovince into the district of Khamseh, where it sud-denly sweeps round and flows in a bold curve at thefoot of lofty and precipitous rocks, first northwestand then north, nearly to Miana, when it doublesback upon itself, and turning the flank of the Zen-jan range runs with a course nearly south-east toMenjil, after which it resumes its original directionof north-east, and, rushing down the pass of Bud-bar, crosses Ghilan to the Caspian. Though itssource is in direct distance no more than 320 milesfrom its mouth, its entire length, owing to its nu-merous curves and meanders, is estimated at 490miles. It is a considerable stream, forded with diffi-culty, even in the dry season, as high up as Karagul,and crossed by a bridge of three wide arches beforeits junction with the Garongu river near Miana. Inspring and early summer it is an impetuous torrent,and can only be forded within a short distance ofits source.

The Jaghetu and the Aji-Su are the two chief riversof the Urumiyeh basin. The Jaghetu rises fromthe foot of the Zagros chain, at a very little dis-tance from the source of the Kizil-Uzen. It collectsthe streams from the range of hills which dividesthe Kizil-Uzen basin from that of Lake Urumiyeh,and flows in a tolerably straight course first northand then north-west to the south-eastern shore ofthe lake. Side by side with it for some distanceflows the smaller stream of the Tatau, formed bytorrents from Zagros; and between them, towardstheir mouths, is the rich plain of Miyandab, easilyirrigated from the two streams, the level of whosebeds is above that of the plain, and abundantlyproductive even under the present system of cul-tivation. The Aji-Su reaches the lake from thenorth-east. It rises from Mount Sevilan, withinsixty miles of the Caspian, and flows with a coursewhich is at first nearly due south, then north-west,and finally south-west, past the city of Tabriz, tothe eastern shore of the lake, which it enters inlat. 37 deg. 50’. The waters of the Aji-Su are,

unfortunately, salt, and it is therefore valueless forpurposes of irrigation.

The Zenderud or river of Isfahan rises from the east-ern flank of the Kuh-i-Zerd (Yellow Mountain), aportion of the Bakhti-yari chain, and, receiving anumber of tributaries from the same mountain dis-trict, flows with a course which is generally eastor somewhat north of east, past the great city ofIsfahan–so long the capital of Persia–into the desertcountry beyond, where it is absorbed in irrigation.Its entire course is perhaps not more than 120 or130 miles; but running chiefly through a plain re-gion, and being naturally a stream of large size, itis among the most valuable of the Median rivers,its waters being capable of spreading fertility, bymeans of a proper arrangement of canals, over avast extent of country, and giving to this part ofIran a sylvan character, scarcely found elsewhereon the plateau.

It will be observed that of these streams there isnot one which reaches the ocean. All the riversof the great Iranic plateau terminate in lakes orinland seas, or else lose themselves in the desert.In general the thirsty sand absorbs, within a shortdistance of their source, the various brooks andstreams which flow south and east into the desertfrom the northern and western mountain chains,without allowing them to collect into rivers or tocarry fertility far into the plain region. The theriver of Isfahan forms the only exception to thisrule within the limits of the ancient Media. Allits other important streams, as has been seen, floweither into the Caspian or into the great lake ofUrumiyeh.

That lake itself now requires our attention. It isan oblong basin, stretching in its greater directionfrom N.N.W. to S.S. E., a distance of above eightymiles, with an average width of about twenty-fivemiles. On its eastern side a remarkable peninsula,projecting far into its waters, divides it into two por-tions of very unequal size–a northern and a south-ern.

The southern one, which is the largest of the two, isdiversified towards its centre by a group of islands,some of which are of a considerable size. The lake,like others in this part of Asia, is several thousandfeet above the sea level. Its waters are heavily im-pregnated with salt, resembling those of the DeadSea. No fish can live in them. When a storm sweepsover their surface it only raises the waves a few feet;and no sooner is it passed than they rapidly sub-side again into a deep, heavy, death-like sleep. The


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lake is shallow, nowhere exceeding four fathoms,and averaging about two fathoms–a depth which,however, is rarely attained within two miles of theland. The water is pellucid. To the eye it hasthe deep blue color of some of the northern Italianlakes, whence it was called by the Armenians theKapotan Zow or “Blue Sea.”According to the Armenian geography, Media con-tained eleven districts; Ptolemy makes the numbereight; but the classical geographers in general arecontented with the twofold division already indi-cated, and recognized at the constituent parts ofMedia only Atropatene (now Azerbijan) and Me-dia Magna, a tract which nearly corresponds withthe two provinces of Irak Ajemj and Ardelan. Ofthe minor subdivisions there are but two or threewhich seem to deserve any special notice. One ofthese is Ehagiana, or the tract skirting the ElburzMountains from the vicinity of the Kizil-Uzen (orSefid-Eud) to the Caspian Gates, a long and narrowslip, fairly productive, but excessively hot in sum-mer, which took its name from the important cityof Rhages. Another is Nissea, a name which theMedes seem to have carried with them from theirearly eastern abodes, and to have applied to somehigh upland plains west of the main chain of Zagros,which were peculiarly favorable to the breeding ofhorses. As Alexander visited these pastures on hisway from Susa to Ecbatana, they must necessar-ily have lain to the south of the latter city. Mostprobably they are to be identified with the modernplains of Kbawah and Alishtar, between Behistunand Khorramabad, which are even now consideredto afford the best summer pasturage in Persia.It is uncertain whether any of these divisions wereknown in the time of the great Median Empire.They are not constituted in any case by markednatural lines or features. On the whole it is perhapsmost probable that the main division–that intoMedia Magna and Media Atropatene–was ancient,Astro-patene being the old home of the Medes, andMedia Magna a later conquest; but the early po-litical geography of the country is too obscure tojustify us in laying down even this as certain. Theminor political divisions are still less distinguish-able in the darkness of those ancient times.From the consideration of the districts which com-posed the Median territory, we may pass to thatof their principal cities, some of which deservedlyobtained a very great celebrity. Tho most impor-tant of all were the two Ecbatanas–the northernand the southern–which seem to have stood respec-tively in the position of metropolis to the north-

ern and the southern province. Next to these maybe named Rhages, which was probably from earlytimes a very considerable place; while in the thirdrank may be mentioned Bagistan–rather perhaps apalace than a town–Concobar, Adrapan, Aspadan,Charax, Kudrus, Hyspaostes, Urakagabarna, etc.

The southern Ecbatana or Agbatana–which theMedes and Persians themselves knew as Hagmatan–was situated, as we learn from Polybius andDiodorus, on a plan at the foot of Mont Orontes, alittle to the east of the Zagros range. The noticesof these authors, combined with those of Eratos-thenes, Isidore, Pliny, Arrian, and others, renderit as nearly certain as possible that the site wasthat of the modern town of Hamadan, the name ofwhich is clearly but a slight corruption of the trueancient appellation. Mount Orontes is to be recog-nized in the modern Elwend or Erwend–a word ety-mologically identical with Oront-es–which is a longand lofty mountains standing out like a buttressfrom the Zagros range, with which it is connectedtowards the north-west, while on every other sideit stands isolated, sweeping boldly down upon theflat country at its base. Copious streams descendfrom the mountain on every side, more particularlyto the north-east, where the plain is covered witha carpet of the most luxuriant verdure, diversifiedwith rills, and ornamented with numerous grovesof large and handsome forest trees. It is here, onground sloping slightly away from the roots of themountain, that the modern town, which lies di-rectly at its foot, is built. The ancient city, if wemay believe Diodorus, did not approach the moun-tain within a mile or a mile and a half. At any rate,if it began where Hamadan now stands, it most cer-tainly extended very much further into the plain.We need not suppose indeed that it had the circum-ference, or even half the circumference, which theSicilian romancer assigns to it, since his two hun-dred and fifty stades would give a probable areaof fifty square miles, more than double that of Lon-don! Ecbatana is not likely to have been at its mostflourishing period a larger city than Nineveh; andwe have already seen that Nineveh covered a space,within the walls, of not more than 1800 Englishacres.

The character of the city and of its chief edificeshas, unfortunately, to be gathered almost entirelyfrom unsatisfactory authorities. Hitherto it hasbeen found possible in these volumes to check andcorrect the statements of ancient writers, which arealmost always exaggerated, by an appeal to the in-controvertible evidence of modern surveys and ex-


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plorations. But the Median capital has never yetattracted a scientific expedition. The travellers bywhom it has been visited have reported so unfavor-ably of its character as a field of antiquarian re-search that scarcely a spadeful of soil has been dug,either in the city or in its vicinity, with a view to re-cover traces of the ancient buildings. Scarcely anyremains of antiquity are apparent. As the site hasnever been deserted, and the town has thus beensubjected for nearly twenty-two centuries to the de-structive ravages of foreign conquerors, and the stillmore injurious plunderings of native builders, anx-ious to obtain materials for new edifices at the leastpossible cost and trouble, the ancient structureshave everywhere disappeared from sight, and arenot even indicated by mounds of a sufficient sizeto attract the attention of common observers. Sci-entific explorers have consequently been deterredfrom turning their energies in this direction; morepromising sites have offered and still offer them-selves; and it is as yet uncertain whether the planof the old town might not be traced and the posi-tion of its chief edifices fixed by the means of care-ful researches conducted by fully competent per-sons. In this dearth of modern materials we haveto depend entirely upon the classical writers, whoare rarely trustworthy in their descriptions or mea-surements, and who, in this instance, labor underthe peculiar disadvantage of being mere reportersof the accounts given by others. Ecbatana waschiefly celebrated for the magnificence of its palace,a structure ascribed by Diodorus to Semiramis, butmost probably constructed originally by Cyaxares,and improved, enlarged, and embellished by theAchaemenian monarchs. According to the judiciousand moderate Polybius, who prefaces his accountby a protest against exaggeration and over-coloring,the circumference of the building was seven stades,or 1420 yards, somewhat more than four fifths of anEnglish mile. This size, which a little exceeds thatof the palace mound at Susa, while it is in its turna little exceeded by the palatial platform at Perse-polis, may well be accepted as probably close to thetruth. Judging, however, from the analogy of theabove-mentioned palaces, we must conclude thatthe area thus assigned to the royal residence wasfar from being entirely covered with buildings. Onehalf of the space, perhaps more, would be occupiedby large open courts, paved probably with mar-ble, surrounding the various blocks of buildings andseparating them from one another. The buildingsthemselves may be conjectured to have resembledthose of the Achaemenian monarchs at Susa andPersepolis, with the exception, apparently, that the

pillars, which formed their most striking character-istic, were for the most part of wood rather thanoL stone. Polybius distinguishes the pillars intotwo classes, those of the main buildings, and thosewhich skirted the courts, from which it would ap-pear that at Ecbatana the courts were surroundedby colonnades, as they were commonly in Greekand Roman houses. These wooden pillars, all ei-ther of cedar or of cypress, supported beams of asimilar material, which crossed each other at rightangles, leaving square spaces between, which werethen filled in with woodwork. Above the whole aroof was placed, sloping at an angle, and composed(as we are told) of silver plates in the shape of tiles.The pillars, beams, and the rest of the woodworkwere likewise coated with thin laminse of the pre-cious metals, even gold being used for this purposeto a certain extent.

Such seems to have been the character of the trueancient Median palace, which served probably asa model to Darius and Xerxes when they designedtheir great palatial edifices at the more southerncapitals. In the additions which the palace re-ceived under the Achaemenian kings, stone pillarsmay have been introduced; and hence probably thebroken shafts and bases, so nearly resembling thePersepolitan, one of which Sir E. Ker Porter sawin the immediate neighborhood of Hamadan on hisvisit to that place in 1818. But to judge from thedescription of Polybius, an older and ruder style ofarchitecture prevailed in the main building, whichdepended for its effect not on the beauty of archi-tectural forms, but on the richness and costlinessof the material. A pillar architecture, so far as ap-pears, began in this part of Asia with the Medes,who, however, were content to use the more readilyobtained and more easily worked material of wood;while the Persians afterwards conceived the idea ofsubstituting for these inartificial props the slenderand elegant stone shafts which formed the glory oftheir grand edifices.

At a short distance from the palace was the “Acra,”or citadel, an artificial structure, if we may believePolybius, and a place of very remarkable strength.Here probably was the treasury, from which Dar-ius Codomanus carried off 7000 talents of silver,when he fled towards Bactria for fear of Alexander.And here, too, may have been the Record Office, inwhich were deposited the royal decrees and otherpublic documents under the earlier Persian kings.Some travellers are of opinion that a portion of theancient structure still exists; and there is certainlya ruin on the outskirts of the modern town towards


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the south, which is known to the natives as “theinner fortress,” and which may not improbably oc-cupy some portion of the site whereon the originalcitadel stood. But the remains of building whichnow exist are certainly not of an earlier date thanthe era of Parthian supremacy, and they can there-fore throw no light on the character of the old Me-dian stronghold. It may be thought perhaps thatthe description which Herodotus gives of the build-ing called by him “the palace of Deioces” should behere applied, and that by its means we might obtainan exact notion of the original structure. But theaccount of this author is wholly at variance withthe natural features of the neighborhood, wherethere is no such conical hill as he describes, butonly a plain surrounded by mountains. It seems,therefore, to be certain that either his descriptionis a pure myth, or that it applies to another city,the Ecbatana of the northern province. It is doubt-ful whether the Median capital was at any timesurrounded with walls. Polybius expressly declaresthat it was an unwalled place in his day and thereis some reason to suspect that it had always beenin this condition. The Medes and Persians appearto have been in general content to establish in eachtown a fortified citadel or stronghold, round whichthe houses were clustered, without superadding thefurther defence of a town wall. Ecbatana accord-ingly seems never to have stood a siege. Whenthe nation which held it was defeated in the openfield, the city (unlike Babylon and Nineveh) sub-mitted to the conqueror without a struggle. Thusthe marvellous description in the book of Judith,which is internally very improbable, would appearto be entirely destitute of any, even the slightest,foundation in fact.

The chief city of northern Media, which bore inlater times the names of Gaza, Gazaca, or Canzaca,is thought to have also been called Ecbatana, andto have been occasionally mistaken by the Greeksfor the southern or real capital. The descriptionof Herodotus, which is irreconcilably at variancewith the local features of the Hamadan site, accordssufficiently with the existing remains of a consider-able city in the province of Azerbijan; and it seemscertainly to have been a city in these parts whichwas called by Moses of Chorene “the second Ec-batana, the seven-walled town.” The peculiarity ofthis place was its situation on and about a conicalhill which sloped gently down from its summit toits base, and allowed of the interposition of sevencircuits of wall between the plain and the hill’s crest.At the top of the hill, within the innermost circle

of the defences, were the Royal Palace and the trea-suries; the sides of the hill were occupied solely bythe fortifications; and at the base, outside the cir-cuit of the outermost wall, were the domestic andother buildings which constituted the town. Ac-cording to the information received by Herodotus,the battlements which crowned the walls were vari-ously colored. Those of the outer circle were white,of the next black, of the third scarlet, of the fourthblue, of the fifth orange, of the sixth silver, and ofthe seventh gold. A pleasing or at any rate a strik-ing effect was thus produced–the citadel, whichtowered above the town, presenting to the eye sevendistinct rows of colors.

If there was really a northern as well as a southernEcbatana, and if the account of Herodotus, whichcannot possibly apply to the southern capital, maybe regarded as truly describing the great city ofthe north, we may with much probability fix thesite of the northern town at the modern Takht-i-Suleiman, in the upper valley of the Saruk, a tribu-tary of the Jaghetu. Here alone in northern Mediaare there important ruins occupying such a posi-tion as that which Herodotus describes. Near thehead of a valley in which runs the main branchof the Saruk, at the edge of the hills which skirtit to the north, there stands a conical mound pro-jecting into the vale and rising above its surface tothe height of 150 feet. The geological formationof the mound is curious in the extreme. It seemsto owe its origin entirely to a small lake, the wa-ters of which are so strongly impregnated with cal-careous matter that wherever they overflow theyrapidly form a deposit which is as hard and firmas natural rock. If the lake was originally on alevel with the valley, it would soon have formedincrustations round its edge, which every casualor permanent overflow would have tended to raise;and thus, in the course of ages, the entire hill mayhave been formed by a mere accumulation of pe-trefactions. The formation would progress more orless rapidly according to the tendency of the laketo overflow its bounds; which tendency must havebeen strong until the water reached its present nat-ural level–the level, probably, of some other sheetof water in the hills, with which it is connectedby an underground siphon. The lake, which is ofan irregular shape, is about 300 paces in circum-ference. Its water, notwithstanding the quantity ofmineral matter held in solution, is exquisitely clear,and not unpleasing to the taste. Formerly it wasbelieved by the natives to be unfathomable; but ex-periments made in 1837 showed the depth to be no


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more than 156 feet.The ruins which at present occupy this remarkablesite consist of a strong wall, guarded by numer-ous bastions and pierced by four gateways, whichruns round the brow of the hill in a slightly irregu-lar ellipse, of some interesting remains of buildingswithin this walled space, and of a few insignificanttraces of inferior edifices on the slope between theplain and the summit. As it is not thought thatany of these remains are of a date anterior to theSassanian kingdom, no description will be given ofthem here. We are only concerned with the Me-dian city, and that has entirely disappeared. Ofthe seven walls, one alone is to be traced; and evenhere the Median structure has perished, and beenreplaced by masonry of a far later age. Excavationsmay hereafter bring, to light some remnants of theoriginal town, but at present research has done nomore than recover for us a forgotten site.The Median city next in importance to the twoEcbatanas was Raga or Rhages, near the CaspianGates, almost at the extreme eastern limits of theterritory possessed by the Medes.The great antiquity of this place is marked by itsoccurrence in the Zendavesta among the primitivesettlements of the Arians. Its celebrity during thetime of the Empire is indicated by the positionwhich it occupies in the romances of Tobit and Ju-dith. It maintained its rank under the Persians,and is mentioned by Darius Hystaspis as the sceneof the struggle which terminated the great Medianrevolt. The last Darius seems to have sent thitherhis heavy baggage and the ladies of his court, whenhe resolved to quit Ecbatana and fly eastward. Ithas been already noticed that Rhages gave name toa district; and this district maybe certainly identi-fied with the long narrow tract of fertile territory in-tervening between the Elburz mountain-range andthe desert, from about Kasvin to Khaar, or fromlong. 30 deg. to 52 deg. 30’. The exact site of thecity of Rhages within this territory is somewhatdoubtful. All accounts place it near the eastern ex-tremity; and as there are in this direction ruins ofa town called Rhei or Rhey, it has been usual to as-sume that they positively fix the locality. But sim-ilarity, or even identity, of name is an insufficientproof of a site; and, in the present instance, thereare grounds for placing Rhages very much nearerto the Caspian Gates than the position of Rhei. Ar-rian, whose accuracy is notorious, distinctly statesthat from the Gates to Rhages was only a singleday’s march, and that Alexander accomplished thedistance in that time. Now from Rhei to the Gir-

duni Surdurrah pass, which undoubtedly representsthe Pylae Cacpise of Arrian, is at least fifty miles,a distance which no army could accomplish in lesstime than two days. Rhages consequently musthave been considerably to the east of Rhei, abouthalf-way between it and the celebrated pass whichit was considered to guard. Its probable position isthe modern Kaleh Erij, near Veramin, about 23miles from the commencement of the Surdurrahpass, where there are considerable remains of anancient town.In the same neighborhood with Rhages, but closerto the Straits, perhaps on the site now occupiedby the ruins known as Uewanukif, or possibly evennearer to the foot of the pass, was the Mediancity of Charax, a place not to be confounded withthe more celebrated city called Gharax Spasini, thebirthplace of Dionysius the geographer, which wason the Persian Gulf, at the mouth of the Tigris.The other Median cities, whose position can be de-termined with an approach to certainty, were inthe western portion of the country, in the range ofZagros, or in the fertile tract between that rangeand the desert. The most important of these areBagistan, Adrapan, Concobar, and Aspadan.Bagistan is described by Isidore as a “city situatedon a hill, where there was a pillar and a statueof Semiramis.” Diodorus has an account of the ar-rival of Semiramis at the place, of her establishing aroyal park or paradise in the plain below the moun-tain, which was watered by an abundant spring,of her smoothing the face of the rock where it de-scended precipitously upon the low ground, and ofher carving on the surface thus obtained her owneffigy, with an inscription in Assyrian characters.The position assigned to Bagistan by both writ-ers, and the description of Diodorus, identify theplace beyond a doubt with the now famous Behis-tun, where the plain, the fountain, the precipitousrock, and the scarped surface are still to be seen,through the supposed figure of Semiramis, her pil-lar, and her inscription have disappeared. This re-markable spot, lying on the direct route betweenBabylon and Ecbatana, and presenting the unusualcombination of a copious fountain, a rich plain, anda rock suitable for sculptures, must have early at-tracted the attention of the great monarchs whomarched their armies through the Zagros range,as a place where they might conveniently set upmemorials of their exploits. The works of this kindascribed by the ancient writers to Semiramis wereprobably either Assyrian or Babylonian, and (itis most likely) resembled the ordinary monuments


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which the kings of Babylon and Nineveh delightedto erect in countries newly conquered. The exam-ple set by the Mesopotamians was followed by theirArian neighbors, when the supremacy passed intotheir hands; and the famous mountain, invested bythem with a sacred character, was made to sub-serve and perpetuate their glory by receiving sculp-tures and inscriptions which showed them to havebecome the lords of Asia. The practice did noteven stop here. When the Parthian kingdom of theArsacidee had established itself in these parts atthe expense of the Seleucidse, the rock was oncemore called upon to commemorate the warlike tri-umphs of a new race. Gotarzes, the contemporaryof the Emperor Claudius, after defeating his rivalMeherdates in the plain between Behistun and Ker-manshah, inscribed upon the mountain, which al-ready bore the impress of the great monarchs ofAssyria and Persia, a record of his recent victory.

The name of Adrapan occurs only in Isidore, whoplaces it between Bagistan and Ecbatana, at thedistance of twelve schoeni–36 Roman or 34 Britishmiles from the latter. It was, he says, the siteof an ancient palace belonging to Ecbatana, whichTigranes the Armenian had destroyed. The nameand situation sufficiently identify Adrapan with themodern village of Arteman, which lies on the south-ern face of Elwend near its base, and is well adaptedfor a royal residence. Here, during the severest win-ter, when Hamadan and the surrounding countryare buried in snow, a warm and sunny climate is tobe found; whilst in the summer a thousand rills de-scending from Elwend diffuse around fertility andfragrance. Groves of trees grow up in rich luxu-riance from the well-irrigated soil, whose thick fo-liage affords a welcome shelter from the heat ofthe noonday sun. The climate, the gardens, andthe manifold blessings of the place are proverbialthroughout Persia; and naturally caused the choiceof the site for a retired palace, to which the court ofEcbatana might adjourn when either the summerheat and dust or the winter cold made residence inthe capital irksome.

In the neighborhood of Adrapan, on the road lead-ing to Bagistan, stood Concobar, which is un-doubtedly the modern Kungawar, and perhaps theChavon of Diodorus. Here, according to the Sicil-ian historian, Semiramis built a palace and laid outa paradise; and here, in the time of Isidore, was afamous temple of Artemis. Colossal ruins crownthe summit of the acclivity on which the town ofKungawar stands, which may be the remains of thislatter building; but no trace has been found that

can be regarded as either Median or Assyrian.

The Median town of Aspadan, which is mentionedby no writer but Ptolemy, would scarcely deservenotice here, if it were not for its modern celebrity.Aspadan, corrupted into Isfahan, became the cap-ital of Persia, under the Sen kings, who renderedit one of the most magnificent cities of Asia. It isuncertain whether it existed at all in the time ofthe great Median empire. If so, it was, at best, anoutlying town of little consequence on the extremesouthern confines of the territory, where it abuttedupon Persia proper. The district wherein it lay wasinhabited by the Median tribe of the Parastaceni.

Upon the whole it must be allowed that the townsof Media were few and of no great account. TheMedes did not love to congregate in large cities,but preferred to scatter themselves in villages overtheir broad and varied territory. The protectionof walls, necessary for the inhabitants of the lowMesopotamian regions, was not required by a peo-ple whose country was full of natural fastnesses towhich they could readily remove on the approach ofdanger. Excepting the capital and the two impor-tant cities of Gazaca and Rhages, the Median townswere insignificant. Even those cities themselveswere probably of moderate dimensions, and had lit-tle of the architectural splendor which gives so pecu-liar an interest to the towns of Mesopotamia. Theirprincipal buildings were in a frail and perishablematerial, unsuited to bear the ravages of time; theyhave consequently altogether disappeared, and inthe whole of Media modern researches have failedto bring to light a single edifice which can be as-signed with any show of probability to the periodof the Empire.

The plan adopted in former portions of this workmakes it necessary, before concluding this chap-ter, to glance briefly at the character of the var-ious countries and districts by which Media wasbordered–the Caspian district upon the north, Ar-menia upon the north-west, the Zagros region andAssyria upon the west, Persia proper upon thesouth, and upon the east Sagartia and Parthia.

North and north-east of the mountain range whichunder different names skirts the southern shoresof the Caspian Sea and curves round its south-western corner, lies a narrow but important stripof territory–the modern Ghilan and Mazanderan.This is a most fertile region, well watered and richlywooded, and forms one of the most valuable por-tions of the modern kingdom of Persia. At firstit is a low flat tract of deep alluvial soil, but lit-


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tle raised above the level of the Caspian; gradu-ally however it rises into swelling hills which formthe supports of the high mountains that shut inthis sheltered region, a region only to be reachedby a very few passes over or through them. Themountains are clothed on this side nearly to theirsummit with dwarf oaks, or with shrubs and brush-wood; while, lower down, their flanks are coveredwith forests of elms, cedars, chestnuts, beeches,and cypress trees. The gardens and orchards ofthe natives are of the most superb character; thevegetation is luxuriant; lemons, oranges, peaches,pomegranates, besides other fruits, abound; rice,hemp, sugar-canes, mulberries are cultivated withsuccess; vines grow wild; and the valleys are strewnwith flowers of rare fragrance, among which may benoted the rose, the honeysuckle, and the sweetbrier.Nature, however, with her usual justice, has bal-anced these extraordinary advantages with peculiardrawbacks; the tiger, unknown in any other partof Western Asia, here lurks in the thickets, readyto spring at any moment on the unwary traveller;inundations are frequent, and carry desolation farand wide; the waters, which thus escape from theriver beds, stagnate in marshes, and during thesummer and autumn heats pestilential exhalationsarise, which destroy the stranger, and bring eventhe acclimatized native to the brink of the grave.The Persian monarch chooses the southern ratherthan the northern side of the mountains for thesite of his capital, preferring the keen winter coldand dry summer heat of the high and almost wa-terless plateau to the damp and stifling air of thelow Caspian region.

The narrow tract of which this is a description canat no time have sheltered a very numerous or pow-erful people. During the Median period, and formany ages afterwards, it seems to have been inhab-ited by various petty tribes of predatory habits–Cadusians, Mardi, Tapyri, etc.,–who passed theirtime in petty quarrels among themselves, and inplundering raids upon their great southern neigh-bor. Of these tribes the Cadusians alone enjoyedany considerable reputation. They were celebratedfor their skill with the javelin–a skill probably rep-resented by the modern Persian use of the djereed.According to Diodorus, they were engaged in fre-quent wars with the Median kings, and were ableto bring into the field a force of 200,000 men! Un-der the Persians they seem to have been consideredgood soldiers, and to have sometimes made a strug-gle for independence. But there is no real reasonto believe that they were of such strength as to

have formed at any time a danger to the Mediankingdom, to which it is more probable that theygenerally acknowledged a qualified subjection.The great country of Armenia, which lay north-west and partly north of Media, has been gener-ally described in the first volume; but a few wordswill be here added with respect to the more easternportion, which immediately bordered upon the Me-dian territory. This consisted of two outlying dis-tricts, separated from the rest of the country, thetriangular basin of Lake Van, and the tract betweenthe Kur and Aras rivers–the modern Karabagh andErivan. The basin of Lake Van, surrounded by highranges, and forming the very heart of the mountainsystem of this part of Asia, is an isolated region,a sort of natural citadel, where a strong militarypower would be likely to establish itself. Accord-ingly it is here, and here alone in all Armenia, thatwe find signs of the existence, during the Assyrianand Median periods, of a great organized monar-chy.The Van inscriptions indicate to us a line of kingswho bore sway in the eastern Armenia–the trueArarat–and who were both in civilization and inmilitary strength far in advance of any of the otherprinces who divided among them the Armenian ter-ritory. The Van monarchs may have been at timesformidable enemies of the Medes. They have lefttraces of their dominion, not only on the tops ofthe mountain passes which lead into the basin ofLake Urumiyeh, but even in the comparatively lowplain of Miyandab on the southern shore of thatinland sea. It is probable from this that they wereat one time masters of a large portion of Media At-ropatene, and the very name of Urumiyeh, whichstill attaches to the lake, may have been given toit from one of their tribes. In the tract betweenthe Kur and Aras, on the other hand, there is nosign of the early existence of any formidable power.Here the mountains are comparatively low, the soilis fertile, and the climate temperate. The charac-ter of the region would lead its inhabitants to cul-tivate the arts of peace rather than those of war,and would thus tend to prevent them from beingformidable or troublesome to their neighbors.The Zagros region, which in the more ancient timesseparated between Media and Assyria, being in-habited by a number of independent tribes, butwhich was ultimately absorbed into the more pow-erful country, requires no notice here, having beensufficiently described among the tracts by whichAssyria was bordered. At first a serviceable shieldto the weak Arian tribes which were establishing



themselves along its eastern base upon the highplateau, it gradually passed into their possession asthey increased in strength, and ultimately becamea main nursery of their power, furnishing to theirarmies vast numbers both of men and horses. Thegreat horse pastures, from which the Medes firstand the Persians afterwards, supplied their numer-ous and excellent cavalry, were in this quarter; andthe troops which it furnished–hardy mountaineersaccustomed to brave the severity of a most rigorousclimate–must have been among the most effectiveof the Median forces.

On the south Media was bounded by Persia proper–a tract which corresponded nearly with the modernprovince of Farsistan. The complete description ofthis territory, the original seat of the Persian na-tion, belongs to a future volume of this work, whichwill contain an account of the “Fifth Monarchy.”For the present it is sufficient to observe that thePersian territory was for the most part a highland,very similar to Media, from which it was dividedby no strongly marked line or natural boundary.The Persian mountains are a continuation of theZagros chain, and Northern Persia is a portion–thesouthern portion–of the same great plateau, whosewestern and north-western skirts formed the greatmass of the Median territory. Thus upon this sideMedia was placed in the closest connection with animportant country, a country similar in characterto her own, where a hardy race was likely to growup, with which she might expect to have difficultcontests.

Finally, towards the east lay the great saltdesert, sparsely inhabited by various nomadicraces, among which the most important were theCossseans and the Sagartians. To the latter peo-ple Herodotus seems to assign almost the wholeof the sandy region, since he unites them withthe Sarangians and Thamanseans on the one hand,with the Utians and Mycians upon the other. Theywere a wild race, probably of Arian origin, whohunted with the lasso over the great desert mountedon horses, and could bring into the field a forceof eight or ten thousand men. Their country, awaste of sand and gravel, in parts thickly encrustedwith salt, was impassable to an army, and formed abarrier which effectively protected Media along thegreater portion of her eastern frontier. Towards theextreme north-east the Sagartians were replaced bythe Cossseans and the Parthians, the former prob-ably the people of the Siah-Koh mountain, the lat-ter the inhabitants of the tract known now as theAtak, or “skirt,” which extends along the southern

flank of the Elburz range from the Caspian Gatesnearly to Herat, and is capable of sustaining a veryconsiderable population. The Cossseans were plun-derers, from whose raids Media suffered constantannoyance; but they were at no time of sufficientstrength to cause any serious fear. The Parthians,as we learn from the course of events, had in themthe materials of a mighty people; but the hour fortheir elevation and expansion was not yet come,and the keenest observer of Median times couldscarcely have perceived in them the future lordsof Western Asia. From Parthia, moreover, Mediawas divided by the strong rocky spur which runsout from the Elburz into the desert in long. 52 deg.10’ nearly, over which is the narrow pass alreadymentioned as the Caspian Gates. Thus Media onmost sides was guarded by the strong natural barri-ers of seas, mountains, and deserts lying open onlyon the south, where she adjoined upon a kindredpeople. Her neighbors were for the most part weakin numbers, though warlike. Armenia, however, tothe north-west, Assyria to the west, and Persia tothe south, were all more or less formidable. A pre-scient eye might have foreseen that the great strug-gles of Media would be with these powers, and thatif she attained imperial proportions it must be bytheir subjugation or absorption.

CHAPTER II. Climate and ProductionsMedia, like Assyria, is a country of such extent andvariety that, in order to give a correct description ofits climate, we must divide it into regions. Azerbi-jan, or Atropatene, the most northern portion, hasa climate altogether cooler than the rest of Media;while in the more southern division of the countrythere is a marked difference between the climateof the east and of the west, of the tracts lying onthe high plateau and skirting the Great Salt Desert,and of those contained within or closely abuttingupon the Zagros mountain range. The differencehere is due to the difference of physical conforma-tion, which is as great as possible, the broad moun-tainous plains about Kasvin, Koum, and Kashan,divided from each other by low rocky ridges, offer-ing the strongest conceivable contrast to the per-petual alternations of mountain and valley, precip-itous height and deep wooded glen, which composethe greater part of the Zagros region.

The climate of Azerbijan is temperate and pleas-ant, though perhaps somewhat overwarm, in sum-mer; while in winter it is bitterly severe, colderthan that of almost any other region in the samelatitude. This extreme rigor seems to be mainly ow-



ing to elevation, the very valleys and valley plainsof the tract being at a height of from 4000 to 5000feet above the sea level. Frost commonly sets in to-wards the end of November–or at latest early in De-cember; snow soon covers the ground to the depthof several feet; the thermometer falls below zero;the sun shines brightly except when from time totime fresh deposits of snow occur; but a keen andstrong wind usually prevails, which is representedas “cutting like a sword,” and being a very “assas-sin of life.” Deaths from cold are of daily occur-rence; and it is impossible to travel without thegreatest risk. Whole companies or caravans occa-sionally perish beneath the drift, when the wind isviolent, especially if a heavy fall happen to coincidewith one of the frequent easterly gales. The severeweather commonly continues till March, when trav-elling becomes possible, but the snow remains onmuch of the ground till May, and on the mountainsstill longer. The spring, which begins in April, istemperate and delightful; a sudden burst of veg-etation succeeds to the long winter lethargy; theair is fresh and balmy, the sun pleasantly warm,the sky generally cloudless. In the month of Maythe heat increases–thunder hangs in the air–andthe valleys are often close and sultry. Frequentshowers occur, and the hail-storms are sometimesso violent as to kill the cattle in the fields. As thesummer advances the heats increase, but the ther-mometer rarely reaches 90 deg. in the shade, andexcept in the narrow valleys the air is never op-pressive. The autumn is generally very fine. Foggymornings are common; but they are succeeded bybright pleasant days, without wind or rain. On thewhole the climate is pronounced healthy, thoughsomewhat trying to Europeans, who do not read-ily adapt themselves to a country where the rangeof the thermometer is as much as 90 deg. or 100deg.. In the part of Media situated on the greatplateau–the modern Irak Ajemi–in which are theimportant towns of Teheran, Isfahan, Hamadan,Kashan, Kasvin, and Koum. the climate is alto-gether warmer than in Azerbijan, the summers be-ing hotter, and the winters shorter and much lesscold. Snow indeed covers the ground for aboutthree months, from early in December till March;but the thermometer rarely shows more than ten ortwelve degrees of frost, and death from cold is un-common. The spring sets in about the beginning ofMarch, and is at first somewhat cool, owing to theprevalence of the baude caucasan or north wind,awhich blows from districts where the snow still lies.But after a little time the weather becomes de-licious; the orchards are a mass of blossom; the

rose gardens come into bloom; the cultivated landsare covered with springing crops; the desert itselfwears a light livery of green. Every sense is grat-ified; the nightingale bursts out with a full gushof song; the air plays softly upon the cheek, andcomes loaded with fragrance. Too soon, however,this charming time passes away, and the summerheats begin, in some places as early as June 18The thermometer at midday rises to 90 or 100 de-grees. Hot gusts blow from the desert, sometimeswith great violence. The atmosphere is describedas choking; and in parts of the plateau it is usualfor the inhabitants to quit their towns almost in abody, and retire for several months into the moun-tains. This extreme heat is, however, exceptional;in most parts of the plateau the summer warmthis tempered by cool breezes from the surroundingmountains, on which there is always a good dealof snow. At Hamadan, which, though on the plain,is close to the mountains, the thermometer seemsscarcely ever to rise above 90 deg., and that degreeof heat is attained only for a few hours in the day.The mornings and evenings are cool and refreshing;and altogether the climate quite justifies the choiceof the Persian monarchs, who selected Ecbatana fortheir place of residence during the hottest portionof the year. Even at Isfahan, which is on the edgeof the desert, the heat is neither extreme nor pro-longed. The hot gusts which blow from the eastand from the south raise the temperature at timesnearly to a hundred degrees; but these oppressivewinds alternate with cooler breezes from the west,often accompanied by rain; and the average highesttemperature during the day in the hottest month,which is August, does not exceed 90 deg..

A peculiarity in the climate of the plateau which de-serves to be noticed is the extreme dryness of theatmosphere. In summer the rains which fall areslight, and they are soon absorbed by the thirstysoil. There is a little dew at nights, especially in thevicinity of the few streams; but it disappears withthe first hour of sunshine, and the air is left with-out a particle of moisture. In winter the dryness isequally great; frost taking the place of heat, withthe same effect upon the atmosphere. Unhealthyexhalations are thus avoided, and the salubrity ofthe climate is increased; but the European willsometimes sigh for the soft, balmy airs of his ownland, which have come flying over the sea, and seemto bring their wings still dank with the ocean spray.

Another peculiarity of this region, produced by theunequal rarefaction of the air over its different por-tions, is the occurrence, especially in spring and



summer, of sudden gusts, hot or cold, which blowwith great violence. These gusts are sometimesaccompanied with, whirlwinds, which sweep thecountry in different directions, carrying away withthem leaves, branches, stubble, sand, and otherlight substances, and causing great annoyance tothe traveller. They occur chiefly in connection witha change of wind, and are no doubt consequent onthe meeting of two opposite currents. Their vio-lence, however, is moderate, compared with thatof tropical tornadoes, and it is not often that theydo any considerable damage to the crops over whichthey sweep.

One further characteristic of the flat region maybe noticed. The intense heat of the summer sunstriking on the dry sand or the saline efflorescenceof the desert throws the air over them into such astate of quivering undulation as produces the mostwonderful and varying effects, distorting the formsof objects, and rendering the most familiar strangeand hard to be recognized. A mud bank furrowedby the rain will exhibit the appearance of a magnifi-cent city, with columns, domes, minarets, and pyra-mids; a few stunted bushes will be transformed intoa forest of stately trees; a distant mountain will, inthe space of a minute, assume first the appearanceof a lofty peak, then swell out at the top, and re-semble a mighty mushroom, next split into severalparts, and finally settle down into a flat tableland.Occasionally, though not very often that semblanceof water is produced which Europeans are are aptto suppose the usual effect of mirage. The imagesof objects are reflected at their base in an invertedposition; the desert seems converted into a vastlake; and the thirsty traveller, advancing towardsit, finds himself the victim of an illusion, which isnone the less successful because he has been a thou-sand times forewarned of its deceptive power.

In the mountain range or Zagros and the tracts ad-jacent to it, the climate, owing to the great differ-ences of elevation, is more varied than in the otherparts of the ancient Media. Severe cold prevailsin the higher mountain regions for seven monthsout of the twelve, while during the remaining fivethe heat is never more than moderate. In the lowvalleys, on the contrary, and in other favored sit-uations, the winters are often milder than on theplateau; while in the summers, if the heat is notgreater, at any rate it is more oppressive. Owingto the abundance of the streams and proximity ofthe melting snows, the air is moist; and the dampheat, which stagnates in the valleys, broods feverand ague. Between these extremes of climate and

elevation, every variety is to be found; and, exceptin winter, a few hours’ journey will almost alwaysbring the traveller into a temperate region.In respect of natural productiveness, Media (as al-ready observed) differs exceedingly in different, andeven in adjacent, districts. The rocky ridges of thegreat plateau, destitute of all vegetable mold, arewholly bare and arid, admitting not the slightestdegree of cultivation. Many of the mountains ofAzerbijan, naked, rigid, and furrowed, may com-pare even with these desert ranges for sterility. Thehigher parts of Zagros and Elburz are sometimes ofthe same character; but more often they are thicklyclothed with forests, affording excellent timber andother valuable commodities. In the Elburz pinesare found near the summit, while lower down thereoccur, first the wild almond and the dwarf oak, andthen the usual timber-trees of the country, the Ori-ental plane, the willow, the poplar, and the walnut.The walnut grows to a large size both here and inAzerbijan, but the poplar is the wood most com-monly used for building purposes. In Zagros, be-sides most of these trees, the ash and the terebinthor turpentine-tree are common; the oak bears gall-nuts of a large size; and the gum-tragacanth plantfrequently clothes the mountain-sides. The valleysof this region are full of magnificent orchards, asare the low grounds and more sheltered nooks ofAzerbijan. The fruit-trees comprise, besides vinesand mulberries, the apple, the pear, the quince, theplum, the cherry, the almond, the nut, the chest-nut, the olive, the peach, the nectarine, and theapricot.On the plains of the high plateau there is a greatscarcity of vegetation. Trees of a large size growonly in the few places which are well watered, asin the neighborhood of Hamadan, Isfahan, and in aless degree of Kashan. The principal tree is the Ori-ental plane, which flourishes together with poplarsand willows along the water-courses; cypresses alsogrow freely; elms and cedars are found, and theorchards and gardens contain not only the fruit-trees mentioned above, but also the jujube, thecornel, the filbert, the medlar, the pistachio nut,the pomegranate, and the fig. Away from the im-mediate vicinity of the rivers and the towns, not atree, scarcely a bush, is to be seen. The commonthorn is indeed tolerably abundant in a few places;but elsewhere the tamarisk and a few other saplessshrubs are the only natural products of this bareand arid region.In remarkable contrast with the natural barrennessof this wide tract are certain favored districts in Za-



gros and Azerbijan, where the herbage is constantthroughout the summer, and sometimes only tooluxuriant. Such are the rich and extensive graz-ing grounds of Khawah and Alishtar, near Kerman-shah, the pastures near Ojan and Marand, and thecelebrated Chowal Moghan or plain of Moghan, onthe lower course of the Araxes river, where the grassis said to grow sufficiently high to cover a man onhorseback. These, however, are rare exceptions tothe general character of the country, which is bynature unproductive, and scarcely deserving evenof the qualified encomium of Strabo.

Still Media, though deficient in natural products, isnot ill adapted for cultivation. The Zagros valleysand hillsides produce under a very rude system ofagriculture, besides the fruits already noticed, rice,wheat, barley, millet, sesame, Indian corn, cotton,tobacco, mulberries, cucumbers, melons, pumpkins,and the castor-oilplant. In Azerbijan the soil is al-most all cultivable, and if ploughed and sown willbring good crops of the ordinary kinds of grain.Even on the side of the desert, where Nature hasshown herself most niggardly, and may seem per-haps to deserve the reproach of Cicero, that shebehaves as a step mother to a man rather thanas a mother, a certain amount of care and sci-entific labor may render considerable tracts fairlyproductive. The only want of this region is water;and if the natural deficiency of this necessary fluidcan be anyhow supplied, all parts of the plateauwill bear crops, except those which form the ac-tual Salt Desert. In modern, and still more in an-cient times, this fact has been clearly perceived,and an elaborate system of artifical irrigation, suit-able to the peculiar circumstances of the country,has been very widely established. The system ofkanats, as they are called at the present day, aimsat utilizing to the uttermost all the small streamsand rills which descend towards the desert fromthe surrounding mountains, and at conveying as faras possible into the plain the spring water, whichis the indispensable condition of cultivation in acountry where–except for a few days in the springand autumn–rain scarcely ever falls. As the pre-cious element would rapidly evaporate if exposed tothe rays of the summer sun, the Iranian husband-man carries his conduit underground, laboriouslytunnelling through the stiff argillaceous soil, at adepth of many feet below the surface. The modein which he proceeds is as follows. At intervalsalong the line of his intended conduit he first sinksshafts, which he then connects with one anotherby galleries, seven or eight feet in height, giving

his galleries a slight incline, so that the water mayrun down them freely, and continuing them till hereaches a point where he wishes to bring the waterout upon the surface of the plain. Here and there,at the foot of his shafts, he digs wells, from whichthe fluid can readily be raised by means of a bucketand a windlass; and he thus brings under cultiva-tion a considerable belt of land along the whole lineof the kanat, as well as a large tract at its termi-nation. These conduits, on which the cultivationof the plateau depends, were established at so re-mote a date that they were popularly ascribed tothe mythic Semiramis, the supposed wife of Ninus.It is thought that in ancient times they were longerand more numerous than at present, when they oc-cur only occasionally, and seldom extend more thana few miles from the base of the hills.By help of the irrigation thus contrived, the greatplateau of Iran will produce good crops of grain,rice, wheat, barley, Indian corn, doura, millet, andsesame. It will also bear cotton, tobacco, saffron,rhubarb, madder, poppies which give a good opium,senna, and assafoetida. Its garden vegetables areexcellent, and include potatoes, cabbages, lentils,kidney-beans, peas, turnips, carrots, spinach, beet-root, and cucumbers. The variety of its fruit-treeshas been already noticed. The flavor of their pro-duce is in general good, and in some cases surpass-ingly excellent. No quinces are so fine as those ofIsfahan, and no melons have a more delicate flavor.The grapes of Kasvin are celebrated, and make aremarkably good wine.Among the flowers of the country must be noted,first of all, its roses, which flourish in the mostluxuriant abundance, and are of every variety ofhue. The size to which the tree will grow is ex-traordinary, standards sometimes exceeding theheight of fourteen or fifteen feet. Lilacs, jasmines,and many other flowering shrubs are common inthe gardens, while among wild flowers may be no-ticed hollyhocks, lilies, tulips, crocuses, anemones,lilies of the valley, fritillaries, gentians, primroses,convolvuluses, chrysanthemums, heliotropes, pinks,water-lilies, ranunculuses, jonquils, narcissuses, hy-acinths, mallows, stocks, violets, a fine campanula(Michauxia levigata), a mint (Nepeta longiflora),several sages, salsolas, and fagonias. In manyplaces the wild flowers during the spring monthscover the ground, painting it with a thousand daz-zling or delicate hues.The mineral products of Media are numerous andvaluable. Excellent stone of many kinds aboundsin almost every part of the country, the most im-



portant and valuable being the famous Tabriz mar-ble. This curious substance appears to be a pet-rifaction formed by natural springs, which depositcarbonate of lime in large quantities. It is foundonly in one place, on the flanks of the hills, notfar from the Urumiyeh lake. The slabs are usedfor tombstones, for the skirting of rooms, and forthe pavements of baths and palaces; when cut thinthey often take the place of glass in windows, be-ing semi-transparent. The marble is commonly ofa pale yellow color, but occasionally it is streakedwith red, green, or copper-colored veins.

In metals the country is thought to be rich, butno satisfactory examination of it has been as yetmade. Iron, copper, and native steel are derivedfrom mines actually at work; while Europeans haveobserved indications of lead, arsenic, and antimonyin Azerbijan, in Kurdistan, and in the rocky ridgeswhich intersect the desert. Tradition speaks ofa time when gold and silver were procured frommountains near Takht-i-Suleman, and it is not un-likely that they may exist both there and in theZagros range. Quartz, the well-known matrix ofthe precious metal, abounds in Kurdistan.

Of all the mineral products, none is more abundantthan salt. On the side of the desert, and againnear Tabriz at the mouth of the Aji Su, are vastplains which glisten with the substance, and yieldit readily to all who care to gather it up. Salinesprings and streams are also numerous, from whichsalt can be obtained by evaporation. But, besidesthese sources of supply, rock salt is found in places,and this is largely quarried, and is preferred by thenatives.

Other important products of the earth are saltpe-tre, which is found in the Elburz, and in Azerbijan;sulphur, which abounds in the same regions, andlikewise on the high plateau; alum, which is quar-ried near Tabriz; naphtha and gypsum, which arefound in Kurdistan; and talc, which exists in themountains near Koum, in the vicinity of Tabriz,and probably in other places.

The chief wild animals which have been observedwithin the limits of the ancient Media are the lion,the tiger, the leopard, the bear, the beaver, thejackal, the wolf, the wild ass, the ibex or wild goat,the wild sheep, the stag, the antelope, the wildboar, the fox, the hare, the rabbit, the ferret, therat, the jerboa, the porcupine, the mole, and themarmot. The lion and tiger are exceedingly rare;they seem to be found only in Azerbijan, and wemay perhaps best account for their presence there

by considering that a few of these animals occa-sionally stray out of Mazanderan, which is theironly proper locality in this part of Asia. Of allthe beasts, the most abundant are the stag andthe wild goat, which are numerous in the Elburz,and in parts of Azerbijan, the wild boar, whichabounds both in Azerbijan, and in the countryabout Hamadan, and the jackal, which is foundeverywhere. Bears flourish in Zagros, antelopes inAzerbijan, in the Elburz, and on the plains near Sul-taniyeh. The wild ass is found only in the desertparts of the high plateau; the beaver only in LakeZeribar, near Sulefmaniyeh.The Iranian wild ass differs in some respects fromthe Mesopotamian. His skin is smooth, like that ofa deer, and of a reddish color, the belly and hin-der parts partaking of a silvery gray; his head andears are large and somewhat clumsy; but his neck isfine, and his legs are beautifully slender. His maneis short and black, and he has a black tuft at theend of his tail, but no dark line runs along his backor crosses his shoulders. The Persians call him thegur-khur, and chase him with occasional success,regarding his flesh as a great delicacy. He appearsto be the Asinus onager of naturalists, a distinctspecies from the Asinus hemippus of Mesopotamia,and the Asinus hemionus of Thibet and Tartary.It is doubtful whether some kind of wild cattle doesnot still inhabit the more remote tracts of Kurdis-tan. The natives mention among the animals oftheir country “the mountain ox;” and though ithas been suggested that the beast intended is theelk, it is perhaps as likely to be the Aurochs, whichseems certainly to have been a native of the adja-cent country of Mesopotamia in ancient times. Atany rate, until Zagros has been thoroughly exploredby Europeans, it must remain uncertain what ani-mal is meant. Meanwhile we may be tolerably surethat, besides the species enumerated, Mount Za-gros contains within its folds some large and rareruminant.Among the birds the most remarkable are the ea-gle, the bustard, the pelican, the stork, the pheas-ant, several kinds of partridges, the quail, thewoodpecker, the bee-eater, the hoopoe, and thenightingale. Besides these, doves and pigeons,both wild and tame, are common; as are swallows,goldfinches, sparrows, larks, blackbirds, thrushes,linnets, magpies, crows, hawks, falcons, teal, snipe,wild ducks, and many other kinds of waterfowl.The most common partridge is a red-legged species(Caccabis chukar of naturalists), which is unable tofly far, and is hunted until it drops. Another kind,



common both in Azerbijan and in the Elburz, is theblack-breasted partridge (Perdix nigra)–a bird notknown in many countries. Besides these, there is asmall gray partridge in the Zagros range, which theKurds call seslca. The bee-eater (Merops Persicus)is rare. It is a bird of passage, and only visits Mediain the autumn, preparatory to retreating into thewarm district of Mazandoran for the winter months.The hoopoe (Upupa) is probably still rarer, sincevery few travellers mention it. The woodpecker isfound in Zagros, and is a beautiful bird, red andgray in color.Media is, on the whole, but scantily provided withfish. Lake Urumiyeh produces none, as its watersare so salt that they even destroy all the river-fish which enter them. Salt streams, like the AjiSu, are equally unproductive, and the fresh-waterrivers of the plateau fall so low in summer thatfish cannot become numerous in them. Thus it isonly in Zagros, in Azerbijan, and in the Elburz,that the streams furnish any considerable quan-tity. The kinds most common are barbel, carp,dace, bleak, and gudgeon. In a comparatively fewstreams, more especially those of Zagros, trout arefound, which are handsome and of excellent qual-ity. The river of Isfahan produces a kind of crayfish,which is taken in the bushes along its banks, andis very delicate eating.It is remarkable that fish are caught not only in theopen streams of Media, but also in the kanats or un-derground conduits, from which the light of day isvery nearly excluded. They appear to be of onesort only, viz., barbel, but are abundant, and of-ten grow to a considerable size. Chardin supposedthem to be unfit for food; but a later observer de-clares that, though of no great delicacy, they are“perfectly sweet and wholesome.”Of reptiles, the most common are snakes, lizards,and tortoises. In the long grass of the Moghandistrict, on the lower course of the Araxes, thesnakes are so numerous and venomous that manyparts of the plain are thereby rendered impassablein the summer-time. A similar abundance of thisreptile near the western entrance of the GirduniSiyaluk pass induces the natives to abstain fromusing it except in winter. Lizards of many formsand hues disport themselves about the rocks andstones, some quite small, others two feet or morein length. They are quite harmless, and appear tobe in general very tame. Land tortoises are alsocommon in the sandy regions. In Kurdistan thereis a remarkable frog, with a smooth skin and of anapple-green color, which lives chiefly in trees, roost-

ing in them at night, and during the day employingitself in catching flies and locusts, which it strikeswith its fore paw, as a cat strikes a bird or a mouse.

Among insects, travellers chiefly notice themosquito, which is in many places a cruel torment;the centipede, which grows to an unusual size; thelocust, of which there is more than one variety; andthe scorpion, whose sting is sometimes fatal.

The destructive locust (the Acridium peregrinum,probably) comes suddenly into Kurdistan andsouthern Media in clouds that obscure the air, mov-ing with a slow and steady flight and with a soundlike that of heavy rain, and settling in myriads onthe fields, the gardens, the trees, the terraces ofthe houses, and even the streets, which they some-times cover completely. Where they fall, vegeta-tion presently disappears; the leaves, and even thestems of the plants, are devoured; the labors of thehusbandman through many a weary month perishin a day; and the curse of famine is brought uponthe land which but now enjoyed the prospect of anabundant harvest. It is true that the devourers arethemselves devoured to some extent by the poorersort of people; but the compensation is slight andtemporary; in a few days, when all verdure is gone,either the swarms move to fresh pastures, or theyperish and cover the fields with their dead bodies,while the desolation which they have created con-tinues.

Another kind of locust, observed by Mr. Rich inKurdistan, is called by the natives shira-kulla, aname seemingly identical with the chargol of theJews, and perhaps the best clue which we possessto the identification of that species. Mr. Rich de-scribes it as “a large insect, about four inches long,with no wings, but a kind of sword projecting fromthe tail. It bites,” he says, “pretty severely, butdoes no harm to the cultivation.” We may recog-nize in this description a variety of the great greengrasshopper (Locusta viridissima), many species ofwhich are destitute of wings, or have wing-coversonly, and those of a very small size.

The scorpion of the country (Scorpio crassicauda)has been represented as peculiarly venomous, moreespecially that which abounds in the city and neigh-borhood of Kashan; but the most judicious ob-servers deny that there is any difference betweenthe Kashan scorpion and that of other parts ofthe plateau, while at the same time they main-tain that if the sting be properly treated, no dangerneed be apprehended from it. The scorpion infestshouses, hiding itself under cushions and coverlets,



and stings the moment it is pressed upon; somecaution is thus requisite in avoiding it; but it hurtsno one unless molested, and many Europeans haveresided for years in the country without having everbeen stung by it.The domestic animals existing at present within thelimits of the ancient Media are the camel, the horse,the mule, the ass, the cow, the goat, the sheep,the dog, the cat, and the buffalo. The camel isthe ordinary beast of burden in the flat country,and can carry an enormous weight. Three kindsare employed–the Bactrian or two-humped camel,which is coarse and low; the taller and lighter Ara-bian breed; and a cross between the two, which iscalled ner, and is valued very highly. The ordinaryburden of the Arabian camel is from seven to eighthundredweight; while the Bactrian variety is said tobe capable of bearing a load nearly twice as heavy.Next to the camel, as a beast of burden, must beplaced the mule the mules of the country are small,but finely proportioned, and carry a considerableweight. They travel thirty miles a day with ease,and are preferred for journeys on which it is neces-sary to cross the mountains. The ass is very infe-rior, and is only used by the poorer classes.Two distinct breeds of horses are now found in Me-dia, both of which seem to be foreign–the Turko-man and the Arabian. The Turkoman is a large,powerful, enduring animal, with long legs, a lightbody, and a big head. The Arab is much smaller,but perfectly shaped, and sometimes not greatlyinferior to the very best produce of Nejd. A thirdbreed is obtained by an intermixture of those two,which is called the bid-pai, or “wind footed,” andis the most prized of all.The dogs are of various breeds, but the most es-teemed is a large kind of gray hound, which somesuppose to have been introduced into this part ofAsia by the Macedonians, and which is chiefly em-ployed in the chase of the antelope. The animal isabout the height of a full sized English grayhound,but rather stouter; he is deep-chested, has long,smooth hair, and the tail considerably feathered.His pace is inferior to that of our grayhounds, butin strength and sagacity he far surpasses them.We do not find many of the products of Media cel-ebrated by ancient writers. Of its animals, thosewhich had the highest reputation were its horses,distinguished into two breeds, an ordinary kind, ofwhich Media produced annually many thousands,and a kind of rare size and excellence, known un-der the name of Nisaean. These last are celebrated

by Herodotus, Strabo, Arrian, Ammianus Marcelli-nus, Suidas, and others. They are said to have beenof a peculiar shape; and they were equally famousfor size, speed, and stoutness. Strabo remarks thatthey resemble the horses known in his own timeas Parthian; and this observation seems distinctlyto connect them with the Turkoman breed men-tioned above, which is derived exactly from the oldParthian country. In color they were often, if notalways, white. We have no representation on themonuments which we can regard as certainly in-tended for a Nissean horse, but perhaps the figurefrom Persepolis may be a Persian sketch of the an-imal.

The mules and small cattle (sheep and goats) werein sufficient repute to be required, together withhorses, in the annual tribute paid to the Persianking.

Of vegetable products assigned to Media by ancientwriters, the most remarkable is the “Median apple,”or citron. Pliny says it was the sole tree for whichMedia was famous, and that it would only growthere and in Persia. Theophrastus, Dioscorides,Virgil, and other writers, celebrate its wonderfulqualities, distinctly assigning it to the same region.The citron, however, will not grow in the countrywhich has been here termed Media. It flourishesonly in the warm tract between Shiraz and the Per-sian Gulf, and in the low sheltered region, south ofthe Caspian, the modern Ghilan and Mazanderan.No doubt it was the inclusion of this latter regionwithin the limits of Media by many of the later ge-ographers that gave to this product of the Caspiancountry an appellation which is really a misnomer.

Another product whereto Media gave name, andprobably with more reason, was a kind of cloveror lucerne, which was said to have been introducedinto Greece by the Persians in the reign of Dar-ius, and which was afterwards cultivated largely inItaly. Strabo considers this plant to have been thechief food of the Median horses, while Dioscoridesassigns it certain medicinal qualities. Clover is stillcultivated, in the Elburz region, but horses are nowfed almost entirely on straw and barley.

Media was also famous for its silphium, or as-safoetida, a plant which the country still produces,though not in any large quantity. No drug was inhigher repute with the ancients for medicinal pur-poses; and though the Median variety was a coarsekind, inferior in repute, not only 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 largely used by druggists, howeverlittle esteemed by physicians.

The other vegetable products which Media fur-nished, or was believed to furnish, to the ancientworld, were bdellium, amomum, cardamomum,gum tragacanth, wild-vine oil, and sagaponum, orthe Ferula persica. Of these, gum tragacanth isstill largely produced, and is an important articleof commerce. Wild vines abound in Zagros andElburz, but no oil is at present made from them.Bdellium, if it is benzoin, amomum, and cardamo-mum were perhaps rather imported through Mediathan the actual produce of the country, which is toocold in the winter to grow any good spices.

The mineral products of Media noted by the an-cient writers are nitre, salt, and certain gems, asemeralds, lapis lazuli, and the following obscurerkinds, the zathene, the gassinades, and the narcis-sitis. The nitre of Media is noticed by Pliny, whosays it was procured in small quantities, and wascalled “halmyraga.” It was found in certain dry-looking glens, where the ground was white with it,and was obtained there purer than in other places.Saltpetre is still derived from the Elburz range, andalso from Azerbijan.

The salt of Lake Urumiyeh is mentioned by Strabo,who says that it forms naturally on the surface,which would imply a far more complete saturationof the water than at present exists, even in thedriest seasons. The gems above mentioned are as-signed to Media chiefly by Pliny. The Median emer-alds, according to him, were of the largest size;they varied considerably, sometimes approachingto the character of the sapphire, in which case theywere apt to be veiny, and to have flaws in them.They were far less esteemed than the emeralds ofmany other countries. The Median lapis lazuli,on the other hand, was the best of its kind. Itwas of three colors–light blue, dark blue, and pur-ple. The golden specks, however, with which it wassprinkled–really spots of yellow pyrites–rendered ituseless to the gem-engravers of Pliny’s time. Thezathene, the gassinades, and the narcissitis weregems of inferior value. As they have not yet beenidentified with any known species, it will be unnec-essary to prolong the present chapter by a consid-eration of them.

CHAPTER III. Character, Manners, Cus-toms, Arts “Pugnatrix natio et formidanda.”–Amm. Marc, xxiii. 6.

The ethnic character of the Median people is atthe present day scarcely a matter of doubt. Theclose connection which all history, sacred and pro-fane, establishes between them and the Persians,the evidence of their proper names and of their lan-guage, so far as it is known to us, together with theexpress statements of Herodotus and Strabo, com-bine to prove that they belonged to that branchof the human family known to us as the Arianor Iranic, a leading subdivision of the great Indo-European race. The tie of a common language,common manners and customs, and to a great ex-tent a common belief, united in ancient times allthe dominant tribes of the great plateau, extend-ing even beyond the plateau in one direction to theJaxartes (Syhun) and in another to the Hyphasis(Sutlej). Persians, Medes, Sagartians, Chorasmi-ans, Bactrians, Sogdians, Hyrcanians, Sarangians,Gandarians, and Sanskritic Indians belonged all toa single stock, differing from one another probablynot much more than now differ the various subdivi-sions of the Teutonic or the Slavonic race. Betweenthe tribes at the two extremities of the Arian terri-tory the divergence was no doubt considerable; butbetween any two neighboring tribes the differencewas probably in most cases exceedingly slight. Atany rate this was the case towards the west, wherethe Medes and Persians, the two principal sectionsof the Arian body in that quarter, are scarcely dis-tinguishable from one another in any of the featureswhich constitute ethnic type.

The general physical character of the ancient Ar-ian race is best gathered from the sculptures of theAchsemenian kings, which exhibit to us a very no-ble variety of the human species–a form tall, grace-ful, and stately; a physiognomy handsome andpleasing, often somewhat resembling the Greek;the forehead high and straight, the nose nearly inthe same line, long and well formed, sometimesmarkedly aquiline, the upper lip short, commonlyshaded by a moustache, the chin rounded and gen-erally covered with a curly beard. The hair ev-idently grew in great plenty, and the race wasproud of it. On the top of the head it was wornsmooth, but it was drawn back from the foreheadand twisted into a row or two of crisp curls, while atthe same time it was arranged into a large mass ofsimilar small close ringlets at the back of the headand over the ears.

Of the Median women we have no representa-tions upon the sculptures; but we are informedby Xenophon that they were remarkable for theirstature and their beauty. The same qualities were



observable in the women of Persia, as we learnfrom Plutarch, Ammianus Marcellinus, and others.The Arian races seem in old times to have treatedwomen with a certain chivalry, which allowed thefull development of their physical powers, and ren-dered them specially attractive alike to their ownhusbands and to the men of other nations.The modern Persian is a very degenerate represen-tative of the ancient Arian stock. Slight and sup-ple in person, with quick, glancing eyes, delicatefeatures, and a vivacious manner, he lacks the dig-nity and strength, the calm repose and simple graceof the race from which he is sprung, Fourteen cen-turies of subjection to despotic sway have left theirstamp upon his countenance and his frame, which,though still retaining some traces of the originaltype, have been sadly weakened and lowered byso long a term of subservience. Probably the wildKurd or Lur of the present day more nearly cor-responds in physique to the ancient Mede than dothe softer inhabitants of the great plateau.Among the moral characteristics of the Medes theone most obvious is their bravery. “Pugnatrix na-tio et formidanda,” says Ammianus Marcellinus inthe fourth century of our era, summing up in a fewwords the general judgment of Antiquity. Origi-nally equal, if not superior, to their close kindred,the Persians, they were throughout the whole pe-riod of Persian supremacy only second to them incourage and warlike qualities. Mardonius, whenallowed to take his choice out of the entire hostof Xerxes, selected the Median troops in immedi-ate succession to the Persians. Similarly, when thetime for battle came he kept the Medes near him-self, giving them their place in the line close tothat of the Persian contingent. It was no doubt onaccount of their valor, as Diodorus suggests, thatthe Medes were chosen to make the first attackupon the Greek position at Thermopylae, where,though unsuccessful, they evidently showed abun-dant courage. In the earlier times, before richesand luxury had eaten out the strength of the race,their valor and military prowess must have beeneven more conspicuous. It was then especially thatMedia deserved to be called, as she is in Scripture,“the mighty one of the heathen”–“the terrible of thenations.”Her valor, undoubtedly, was of the merciless kind.There was no tenderness, no hesitancy about it.Not only did her armies “dash to pieces” the fight-ing men of the nations opposed to her, allowingapparently no quarter, but the women and the chil-dren suffered indignities and cruelties at the hands

of her savage warriors, which the pen unwillinglyrecords. The Median conquests were accompaniedby the worst atrocities which lust and hate com-bined are wont to commit when they obtain theirfull swing. Neither the virtue of women nor the in-nocence of children were a protection to them. Theinfant was slain before the very eye of the parent.The sanctity of the hearth was invaded, and thematron ravished beneath her own roof-tree. Spoil,it would seem, was disregarded in comparison withinsult and vengeance; and the brutal soldiery caredlittle either for silver or gold, provided they couldindulge freely in that thirst for blood which manshares with the hyena and the tiger.

The habits of the Medes in the early part of theircareer were undoubtedly simple and manly. It hasbeen observed with justice that the same generalfeatures have at all times distinguished the rise andfall of Oriental kingdoms and dynasties. A braveand adventurous prince, at the head of a popula-tion at once poor, warlike, and greedy, overruns avast tract, and acquires extensive dominion, whilehis successors, abandoning themselves to sensual-ity and sloth, probably also to oppressive and iras-cible dispositions, become in process of time vic-tims to those same qualities in another prince andpeople which had enabled their own predecessorto establish their power. It was as being braver,simpler, and so stronger than the Assyrians thatthe Medes were able to dispossess them of theirsovereignty over western Asia. But in this, as inmost other cases of conquest throughout the East,success was followed almost immediately by degen-eracy. As captive Greece captured her fierce con-queror, so the subdued Assyrians began at once tocorrupt their subduers. Without condescending toa close imitation of Assyrian manners and customs,the Medes proceeded directly after their conquestto relax the severity of their old habits and to in-dulge in the delights of soft and luxurious living.The historical romance of Xenophon presents usprobably with a true picture when it describes thestrong contrast which existed towards the close ofthe Median period between the luxury and magnif-icence which prevailed at Ecbatana, and the prim-itive simplicity of Persia Proper, where the old Ar-ian habits, which had once been common to thetwo races, were still maintained in all their orig-inal severity. Xenophon’s authority in this workis, it must be admitted, weak, and little trust canbe placed in the historical accuracy of his details;but his general statement is both in itself proba-ble, and is also borne out to a considerable extent



by other authors. Herodotus and Strabo note theluxury of the Median dress, while the latter au-thor goes so far as to derive the whole of the laterPersian splendor from an imitation of Median prac-tices. We must hold then that towards the latterpart of their empire the Medes became a compar-atively luxurious people, not indeed laying asidealtogether their manly habits, nor ceasing to beboth brave men and good soldiers, but adoptingan amount of pomp and magnificence to whichthey were previously strangers, affecting splendorin their dress and apparel, grandeur and rich orna-ment in their buildings, variety in their banquets,and attaining on the whole a degree of civilizationnot very greatly inferior to that of the Assyrians.In taste and real refinement they seem indeed tohave fallen considerably below their teachers. Abarbaric magnificence predominated in their orna-mentation over artistic effort, richness in the ma-terial being preferred to skill in the manipulation.Literature, and even letters, were very sparinglycultivated. But little originality was developed. Astately dress, and a new style of architecture, arealmost the only inventions to which the Medes canlay claim. They were brave, energetic, enterprising,fond of display, capable of appreciating to some ex-tent the advantages of civilized life; but they hadlittle genius, and the world is scarcely indebted tothem for a single important addition to the generalstock of its ideas.

Of the Median customs in war we know but little.Herodotus tells us that in the army of Xerxes theMedes were armed exactly as the Persians, carry-ing on their heads a soft felt cap, on their bodies asleeved tunic, and on their legs trousers. Their of-fensive arms, he says, were the spear, the bow, andthe dagger. They had large wicker shields, and boretheir quivers suspended at their backs. Sometimestheir tunic was made into a coat of mail by the ad-dition to it on the outside of a number of small ironplates arranged so as to overlap each other, like thescales of a fish. They served both on horseback andon foot, with the same equipment in both cases.

There is no reason to doubt the correctness of thisdescription of the Median military dress under theearly Persian kings. The only question is how farthe equipment was really the ancient warlike cus-tom of the people. It seems in some respects tooelaborate to be the armature of a simple and primi-tive race. We may reasonably suppose that at leastthe scale armor and the unwieldy wicker shields(yeppa), which required to be rested on the ground,were adopted at a somewhat late date from the As-

syrians. At any rate the original character of theMedian armies, as set before us in Scripture, andas indicated both by Strabo and Xenophon, is sim-pler than the Herodotean description. The prim-itive Modes seem to have been a nation of horse-archers. Trained from their early boyhood to avariety of equestrian exercises, and well practisedin the use of the bow, they appear to have pro-ceeded against their enemies with clouds of horse,almost in Scythian fashion, and to have gainedtheir victories chiefly by the skill with which theyshot their arrows as they advanced, retreated, ormanoeuvred about their foe. No doubt they alsoused the sword and the spear. The employment ofthese weapons has been almost universal through-out the East from a very remote antiquity, andthere is some mention of them in connection withthe Medes and their kindred, the Persians, in Scrip-ture; but it is evident that the terror which theMedes inspired arose mainly from their dexterityas archers.

No representation of weapons which can be dis-tinctly recognized as Median has come down tous. The general character of the military dress andof the arms appears, probably in the Persepolitansculptures; but as these reliefs are in most casesrepresentations, not of Medes, but of Persians, andas they must be hereafter adduced in illustrationof the military customs of the latter people, only avery sparing use of them can be made in the presentchapter. It would seem that the bow employed wasshort, and very much curved, and that, like the As-syrian it was usually carried in a bow-case, whichmight either be slung at the back, or hung from thegirdle. The arrows, which were borne in a quiverslung behind the right shoulder, must have beenshort, certainly not exceeding the length of threefeet. The quiver appears to have been round; itwas covered at the top, and was fastened by meansof a flap and strap, which last passed over, a but-ton. The Median spear or lance was from six toseven feet in length. Its head was lozenge-shapedand flattish, but strengthened by a bar or line downthe middle. It is uncertain whether the head wasinserted into the top of the shaft, or whether itdid not rather terminate in a ring or socket intowhich the upper end of the shaft was itself inserted.The shaft tapered gradually from bottom to top,and terminated below in a knob or ball, which wasperhaps sometimes carved into the shape of somenatural object.

The sword was short, being in fact little more thana dagger. It depended at the right thigh from a belt



which encircled the waist, and was further securedby a strap attached to the bottom of the sheath,and passing round the soldier’s right leg a littleabove the knee.Median shields were probably either round or oval.The oval specimens bore a resemblance to theshield of the Boeotians, having a small oval aper-ture at either side, apparently for the sake ofgreater lightness. They were strengthened at thecentre by a circular boss or disk, ornamented withknobs or circles. They would seem to have beenmade either of metal or wood.The favorite dress of the Medes in peace is wellknown to us from the sculptures; there can be noreasonable doubt that the long flowing robe so re-markable for its graceful folds, which is the garbof the kings, the chief nobles, and the officers ofthe court in all the Persian bas-reliefs, and whichis seen also upon the darics and the gems, is the fa-mous “Median garment” of Herodotus, Xenophon,and Strabo. This garment fits the chest and shoul-ders closely, but falls over the arms in two largeloose sleeves, open at the bottom. At the waist itis confined by a cincture. Below it is remarkablyfull and ample, drooping in two clusters of perpen-dicular folds at the two sides, and between thesehanging in festoons like a curtain. It extends downto the ankles, where it is met by a high shoe or lowboot, opening in front, and secured by buttons.These Median robes were of many colors. Some-times they were purple, sometimes scarlet, occa-sionally a dark gray, or a deep crimson. Procopiussays that they were made of silk, and this statementis confirmed to some extent by Justin, who speaksof their transparency. It may be doubted, however,whether the material was always the same; prob-ably it varied with the season, and also with thewealth of the wearer.Besides this upper robe, which is the only garmentshown in the sculptures, the Medes wore as undergarments a sleeved shirt or tunic of a purple color,and embroidered drawers or trousers. They cov-ered the head, not only out of doors, but in theirhouses, wearing either felt caps like the Persians, ora head-dress of a more elaborate character, whichbore the name of tiara or cidaris. This appears tohave been, not a turban, but rather a kind of high-crowned hat, either stiff or flexible, made probablyof felt or cloth, and dyed of different hues, accord-ing to the fancy of the owner.The Medes took a particular delight in the or-namentation of their persons. According to

Xenophon, they were acquainted with most of theexpedients by the help of which vanity attempts toconceal the ravages of time and to create an artifi-cial beauty. They employed cosmetics, which theyrubbed into the skin, for the sake of improving thecomplexion. They made use of an abundance offalse hair. Like many other Oriental nations, bothancient and modern, they applied dyes to enhancethe brilliancy of the eyes, and give them a greaterapparent size and softness. They were also fondof wearing golden ornaments. Chains or collars ofgold usually adorned their nocks, bracelets of thesame precious metal encircled their wrists, and ear-rings were inserted into their ears. Gold was alsoused in the caparisons of their horses, the bit andother parts of the harness being often of this valu-able material.We are told that the Medes were very luxurious attheir banquets. Besides plain meat and game ofdifferent kinds, with the ordinary accompanimentsof wine and bread, they were accustomed to placebefore their guests a vast number of side-dishes, to-gether with a great variety of sauces. They atewith the hand, as is still the fashion in the East,and were sufficiently refined to make use of nap-kins. Each guest had his own dishes, and it wasa mark of special honor to augment their number.Wine was drunk both at the meal and afterwards,often in an undue quantity; and the close of thefeast was apt to be a scene of general turmoil andconfusion. At the Court it was customary for theking to receive his wine at the hands of a cupbearer,who first tasted the draught, that the king might besure that it was not poisoned, and then presentedit to his master with much pomp and ceremony.The whole ceremonial of the court seems to havebeen imposing. Under ordinary circumstances themonarch kept himself secluded, and no one couldobtain admission to him unless he formally re-quested an audience, and was introduced into theroyal presence by the proper officer. On his admis-sion he prostrated himself upon the ground withthe same signs of adoration which were made on en-tering a temple. The king, surrounded by his atten-dants, eunuchs, and others, maintained a haughtyreserve, and the stranger only beheld him from adistance. Business was transacted in a great mea-sure by writing. The monarch rarely quitted hispalace, contenting himself with such reports of thestate of his empire as were transmitted to him fromtime to time by his officers.The chief amusement of the court, in which howeverthe king rarely partook, was hunting. Media always



abounded in beasts of chase; and lions, bears, leop-ards, wild boars, stags, gazelles, wild sheep, andwild asses are mentioned among the animals huntedby the Median nobles. Of these the first four werereckoned dangerous, the others harmless. It wascustomary to pursue these animals on horseback,and to aim at them with the bow or the javelin. Wemay gather a lively idea of some of these hunts fromthe sculptures of the Parthians, who some centurieslater inhabited the same region. We see in thesethe rush of great troops of boars through marshesdense with water-plants, the bands of beaters urg-ing them on, the sportsmen aiming at them withtheir bows, and the game falling transfixed withtwo or three well-aimed shafts. Again we see herdsof deer driven within enclosures, and there slain byarchers who shoot from horseback, the monarch un-der his parasol looking on the while, pleased withthe dexterity of his servants. It is thus exactly thatXenophon portrays Astyages as contemplating thesport of his courtiers, complacently viewing theirenjoyment, but taking no active part in the workhimself.

Like other Oriental sovereigns, the Medianmonarch maintained a seraglio of wives and con-cubines; and polygamy was commonly practisedamong the more wealthy classes. Strabo speaksof a strange law as obtaining with some of theMedian tribes–a law which required that no manshould be content with fewer wives than five. It isvery unlikely that such a burden was really madeobligatory on any: most probably five legitimatewives, and no more, were allowed by the law re-ferred to, just as four wives, and no more, are lawfulfor Mohammedans. Polygamy, as usual, broughtin its train the cruel practice of castration; and thecourt swarmed with eunuchs, chiefly foreigners pur-chased in their infancy. Towards the close of theEmpire this despicable class appears to have beenall-powerful with the monarch.

Thus the tide of corruption gradually advanced;and there is reason to believe that both court andpeople had in a great measure laid aside the hardyand simple customs of their forefathers, and be-come enervated through luxury, when the revoltof the Persians came to test the quality of theircourage, and their ability to maintain their empire.It would be improper in this place to anticipate theaccount of this struggle, which must be reserved forthe historical chapter; but the well-known result–the speedy and complete success of the Persians–must be adduced among the proofs of a rapid dete-rioration in the Median character between the ac-

cession of Cyaxares and the capture–less than acentury later–of Astyages.

We have but little information with respect to thestate of the arts among the Medes. A barbaricmagnificence characterized, as has been alreadyobserved, their architecture, which differed fromthe Assyrian in being dependent for its effect ongroups of pillars rather than on painting or sculp-ture. Still sculpture was, it is probable, practisedto some extent by the Medes, who, it is almost cer-tain, conveyed on to the Persians those modifica-tions of Assyrian types which meet us everywherein the remains of the Achsemenian monarch? Thecarving of winged genii, of massive forms of bullsand lions, of various grotesque monsters, and ofcertain clumsy representations of actual life, imi-tated from the bas-reliefs of the Assyrians, may besafely ascribed to the Medes; since, had they notcarried on the traditions of their predecessors, Per-sian art could not have borne the resemblance thatit does to Assyrian. But these first mimetic effortsof the Arian race have almost wholly perished, andthere scarcely seems to remain more than a sin-gle fragment which can be assigned on even plau-sible grounds to the Median period. A portion ofa colossal lion, greatly injured by time, is still tobe seen at Hamadan, the site of the great Mediancapital, which the best judges regard as anteriorto the Persian period, and as therefore most prob-ably Median. It consists of the head and body ofthe animal, from which the four legs and the tailhave been broken off, and measures between elevenand twelve feet from the crown of the head to thepoint from which the tail sprang. By the positionof the head and what remains of the shoulders andthighs, it is evident that the animal was representedin a sitting posture, with the fore legs straight andthe hind legs gathered up under it. To judge ofthe feeling and general character of the sculptureis difficult, owing to the worn and mutilated con-dition of the work; but we seem to trace in it thesame air of calm and serene majesty that character-izes the colossal bulls and lions of Assyria, togetherwith somewhat more of expression and of softnessthan are seen in the productions of that people. Itsposture, which is unlike that of any Assyrian spec-imen, indicates a certain amount of originality asbelonging to the Median artists, while its colossalsize seems to show that the effect on the spectatorwas still to be produced, not so much by expression,finish, or truth to nature, as by mere grandeur ofdimension.



CHAPTER IV. Religion The earliest form ofthe Median religion is to be found in those sectionsof the Zendavesta which have been pronounced oninternal evidence to be the most ancient portionsof that venerable compilation; as, for instance, thefirst 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 belongto a very remote era indeed, we seem to have thefirst beginnings of the Religion. We may indeed goback by their aid to a time anterior to themselves–a time when the Arian race was not yet separatedinto two branches, and the Easterns and Westerns,the Indians and Iranians, had not yet adopted theconflicting creeds of Zoroastrianism and Brahmin-ism. At that remote period we seem to see pre-vailing a polytheistic nature-worship–a recognitionof various divine beings, called indifferently Asuras(Ahuras) or Devas, each independent of the rest,and all seemingly nature-powers rather than per-sons, whereof the chief are Indra, Storm or Thun-der; Mithra, Sunlight; Aramati (Armaiti), Earth;Vayu, Wind; Agni, Fire; and Soma (Homa), Intox-ication. Worship is conducted by priests, who arecalled kavi, “seers;” karapani, “sacriflcers,” or ri-cikhs, “wise men.” It consists of hymns in honorof the gods; sacrifices, bloody and unbloody, some’portion of which is burnt upon an altar; and a pe-culiar ceremony, called that of Soma, in which anintoxicating liquor is offered to the gods, and thenconsumed by the priests, who drink till they aredrunken.

Such, in outline, is the earliest phase of Arian re-ligion, and it is common to both branches of thestock, and anterior to the rise of the Iranic, Median,or Persian system. That system is a revolt from thissensuous and superficial nature-worship. It beginswith a distinct recognition of spiritual intelligences–real persons–with whom alone, and not with pow-ers, religion is concerned. It divides these intelli-gences into good and bad, pure and impure, be-nignant and malevolent. To the former it appliesthe term Asuras (Ahuras), “living” or “spiritual be-ings,” in a good sense; to the latter, the term Devas,in a bad one. It regards the “powers” hitherto wor-shipped as chiefly Devas; but it excepts from thisunfavorable view a certain number, and, recogniz-ing them as Asuras, places them above the Izeds,or “angels.” Thus far it has made two advances,each of great importance, the substitution of real“persons” for “powers,” as objects of the religiousfaculty, and the separation of the persons into goodand bad, pure and impure, righteous and wicked.

But it does not stop here. It proceeds to assert,in a certain sense, monotheism against polytheism.It boldly declares that, at the head of the goodintelligences, is a single great Intelligence, Ahuro-Mazdao, the highest object of adoration, the trueCreator, Preserver, and Governor of the universe.This is its great glory. It sets before the soul a sin-gle Being as the source of all good and the properobject of the highest worship. Ahuro-Mazdao is“the creator of life, the earthly and the spiritual;”“he has made the celestial bodies, earth, water, andtrees, all good creatures,” and “all good, true, holy,pure, things.” He is “the Holy God, the Holiest, theessence of truth, the father of all truth, the best be-ing of all, the master of purity.” He is supremely“happy,” possessing every blessing, “health, wealth,virtue, wisdom, immortality.” From him comes allgood to man; on the pious and the righteous hebestows not only earthly advantages, but preciousspiritual gifts, truth, devotion, “the good mind,”and everlasting happiness; and as he rewards thegood, so he punishes the bad, though this is an as-pect in which he is but seldom represented. It hasbeen said that this conception of Ahura-mazda asthe Supreme Being is “perfectly identical with thenotion of Elohim, or Jehovah, which we find in thebooks of the Old Testament.” This is, no doubt,an over-statement. Ahura-mazda is less spiritualand less awful than Jehovah. He is less remotefrom the nature of man. The very ascription tohim of health (haurvat) is an indication that he isconceived of as possessing a sort of physical nature.Lucidity and brilliancy are assigned to him, not(as it would seem) in a mere metaphorical sense.Again, he is so predominantly the author of goodthings, the source of blessing and prosperity, thathe could scarcely inspire his votaries with any feel-ing of fear. Still, considering the general failure ofunassisted reason to mount up to the true notionof a spiritual God, this doctrine of the early Ar-ians is very remarkable; and its approximation tothe truth sufficiently explains at once the favorablelight in which its professors are viewed by the Jew-ish prophets, and the favorable opinion which theyform of the Jewish system. Evidently, the Jewsand Arians, when they became known to one an-other, recognized mutually the fact that they wereworshippers of the same great Being. Hence thefavor of the Persians towards the Jews, and the fi-delity of the Jews towards the Persians. The LordGod of the Jews being recognized as identical withOrmazd, a sympathetic feeling united the peoples.The Jews, so impatient generally of a foreign yoke,never revolted from the Persians; and the Persians,



so intolerant, for the most part, of religions otherthan their own, respected and protected Judaism.The sympathy was increased by the fact that thereligion of Ormazd was anti-idolatrous. In the earlynature-worship idolatry had been allowed; but theIranic system pronounced against it from the first.No images of Ahura-mazda, or of the Izeds, pro-faned the severe simplicity of an Iranic temple. Itwas only after a long lapse of ages that, in connec-tion with a foreign worship, idolatry crept in. Theold Zoroastrianism was in this respect as pure asthe religion of the Jews, and thus a double bondof religious sympathy united the Hebrews and theArians.Under the supreme God, Ahura-mazda or Ormazd,the ancient Iranic system placed (as has been al-ready observed) a number of angels. Some of these,as Vohu-mano, “the Good Mind;” Mazda, “theWise” (?); and Asha, “the True,” are scarcely distin-guishable from attributes of the Divinity. Armaiti,however, the genius of the Earth, and Sraosha orSerosh, an angel, are very clearly and distinctly per-sonified. Sraosha is Ormazd’s messenger. He deliv-ers revelations, shows men the paths of happiness,and brings them the blessings which Ormazd hasassigned to their share. Another of his functionsis to protect the true faith. He is called, in a veryspecial sense, “the friend of Ormazd,” and is em-ployed by Ormazd not only to distribute his gifts,but also to conduct to him the souls of the faithful,when this life is over, and they enter on the celestialscene.Armaiti is at once the genius of the Earth, andthe goddess of Piety. The early Ormazd worship-pers were agriculturists, and viewed the cultivationof the soil as a religious duty enjoined upon themby God. Hence they connected the notion of pietywith earth culture; and it was but a step from thisto make a single goddess preside over the two. Itis as the angel of Earth that Armaiti has most dis-tinctly a personal character. She is regarded aswandering from spot to spot, and laboring to con-vert deserts and wildernesses into fruitful fields andgardens. She has the agriculturist under her imme-diate protection, while she endeavors to persuadethe shepherd, who persists in the nomadic life, togive up his old habits and commence the cultiva-tion of the soil. She is of course the giver of fertility,and rewards her votaries by bestowing upon themabundant harvests. She alone causes all growth.In a certain cense she pervades the whole materialcreation, mankind included, in whom she is evensometimes said to “reside.”

Armaiti, further “tells men the everlasting laws,which no one may abolish”–laws which she haslearnt from converse with Ahura-mazda himself.She is thus naturally the second object of worshipto the old Zoroastrian; and converts to the religionwere required to profess their faith in her in directsuccession to Ahura-mazda.From Armaiti must be carefully distinguished thegeus urva, or “soul of the earth”–a being who nearlyresembles the “anima mundi” of the Greek and Ro-man philosophers. This spirit dwells in the earthitself, animating it as a man’s soul animates hisbody. In old times, when man first began to ploughthe soil, geus urva cried aloud, thinking that hislife was threatened, and implored the assistanceof the archangels. They however were deaf to hisentreaties (since Ormazd had decreed that thereshould be cultivation), and left him to bear hispains as he best could. It is to be hoped that incourse of time he became callous to them, and madethe discovery that mere scratches, though they maybe painful, are not dangerous.It is uncertain whether in the most ancient formof the Iranic worship the cult of Mithra was in-cluded or no. On the one hand, the fact thatMithra is common to both forms of the Ariancreed–the Indian and Iranic–would induce the be-lief that his worship was adopted from the first bythe Zoroastrians; on the other, the entire absenceof all mention of Mithra from the Gathas wouldlead us to the conclusion that in the time whenthey were composed his cult had not yet begun.Perhaps we may distinguish between two forms ofearly Iranic worship–one that of the more intelli-gent and spiritual–the leaders of the secession–inwhose creed Mithra had no place; the other thatof the great mass of followers, a coarser and morematerial system, in which many points of the oldreligion were retained, and among them the wor-ship of the Sun-god. This lower and more mate-rialistic school of thought probably conveyed oninto the Iranic system other points also commonto the Zendavosta with the Vedas, as the recogni-tion of Airyaman (Aryaman) as a genius presidingover marriages, of Vitraha as a very high angel, andthe like.Vayu, “the Wind,” seems to have been regarded asa god from the first. He appears, not only in thelater portions of the Zenda vesta, like Mithra andAryaman, but in the Gathas themselves. His nameis clearly identical with that of the Vedic Wind-god,Vayu, and is apparently a sister form to the ventus,or wind, of the more western Arians. The root is



probably vi, “to go,” which may be traced in vis,via, vado, venio, etc.

The ancient Iranians did not adopt into their sys-tem either Agni, “Fire” (Lat. ignis), or Soma(Homa), “Intoxication.” Fire was indeed retainedfor sacrifice; but it was regarded as a mere materialagent, and not as a mysterious Power, the properobject of prayer and worship. The Soma worship,which formed a main element of the old religion,and which was retained in Brahminism, was at thefirst altogether discarded by the Zoroastrians; in-deed, it seems to have been one of the main causesof that disgust which split the Arian body in two,and gave rise to the new religion. A ceremony inwhich it was implied that the intoxication of theirworshippers was pleasing to the gods, and not ob-scurely hinted that they themselves indulged in sim-ilar excesses, was revolting to the religious temperof those who made the Zoaroastrian reformation;and it is plain from the Gathas that the new sys-tem was intended at first to be entirely free fromthe pollution of so disgusting a practice. But thezeal of religious reformers outgoes in most casesthe strength and patience of their people, whosespirit is too gross and earthly to keep pace withthe more lofty flights of the purer and higher intel-ligence. The Iranian section of the Arians could notbe weaned wholly from their beloved Soma feasts;and the leaders of the movement were obliged tobe content ultimately with so far reforming and re-fining the ancient ceremony as to render it compar-atively innocuous. The portion of the rite whichimplied that the gods themselves indulged in in-toxication was omitted; and for the intoxication ofthe priests was substituted a moderate use of theliquor, which, instead of giving a religious sanctionto drunkenness, merely implied that the Soma juicewas a good gift of God, one of the many blessingsfor which men had to be thankful.

With respect to the evil spirits or intelligences,which, in the Zoroastrian system, stood overagainst the good ones, the teaching of the earlyreformers seems to have been less clear. The old di-vinities, except where adopted into the new creed,were in a general way called Devas, “fiends” or “dev-ils,” in contrast with the Ahuras, or “gods.” Thesedevas were represented as many in number, as art-ful, malicious, deceivers and injurers of mankind,more especially of the Zoroastrians or Ormazd-worshippers, as inventors of spells and lovers of theintoxicating Soma draught. Their leading charac-teristics were “destroying” and “lying.” They wereseldom or never called by distinct names. No ac-

count was given of their creation, nor of the originof their wickedness. No single superior intelligence,no great Principle of Evil, was placed at their head.Ahriman (Angro-mainyus) does not occur in theGathas as a proper name. Far less is there anygraduated hierarchy of evil, surrounding a Princeof Darkness, with a sort of court, antagonistic tothe angelic host of Ormazd, as in the latter por-tions of the Zendavesta and in the modern Parseesystem.

Thus Dualism proper, or a belief in two uncre-ated and independent principles, one a principleof good and the other a principal of evil, was nopart of the original Zoroastrianism. At the sametime we find, even in the Gathas, the earliest por-tions of the Zondavesta, the germ out of whichDualism sprung. The contrast between good andevil is strongly and sharply marked in the Gathas;the writers continually harp upon it, their mindsare evidently struck with this sad antithesis whichcolors the whole moral world to them; they seeeverywhere a struggle between right and wrong,truth and falsehood, purity and impurity; appar-ently they are blind to the evidence of harmonyand agreement in the universe, discerning nothinganywhere but strife, conflict, antagonism. Nor isthis all. They go a step further, and personify thetwo parties to the struggle. One is a “white” orholy “Spirit” (cpento mainyus), and the other a“dark spirit” (angro mainyus). But this personifi-cation is merely poetical or metaphorical, not real.The “white spirit” is not Ahura-mazda, and the“dark spirit” is not a hostile intelligence. Both re-solve themselves on examination into mere figuresof speech–phantoms of poetic imagery–abstract no-tions, clothed by language with an apparent, not areal, personality.

It was natural that, as time went on, Dualismshould develop itself out of the primitive Zoroastri-anism. Language exercises a tyranny over thought,and abstractions in the ancient world were ever be-coming persons. The Iranian mind, moreover, hadbeen strack, when it first turned to contemplate theworld, with a certain antagonism; and, having onceentered this track, it would be compelled to go on,and seek to discover the origin of the antagonism,the cause (or causes) to which it was to be ascribed.Evil seemed most easily accounted for by the sup-position of an evil Person; and the continuance ofan equal struggle, without advantage to either side,which was what the Iranians thought they beheldin the world that lay around them, appeared tothem to imply the equality of that evil Person with



the Being whom they rightly regarded as the au-thor of all good. Thus Dualism had its birth. TheIranians came to believe in the existence of twoco-eternal and co-equal Persons, one good and theother evil, between whom there had been from alleternity a perpetual and never-ceasing conflict, andbetween whom the same conflict would continue torage through all coming time.

It is impossible to say how this development tookplace. We have evidence, however, that at a pe-riod considerably anterior to the commencementof the Median Empire, Dualism, not perhaps inits ultimate extravagant form, but certainly in avery decided and positive shape, had already beenthought out and become the recognized creed ofthe Iranians. In the first Fargard, or chapter, ofthe Vendidad–the historical chapter, in which aretraced the only movements of the Iranic peoples,and which from the geographical point whereatit stops must belong to a time when the Arianshad not yet reached Media Magna—the Dualis-tic belief clearly shows itself. The term Angro-mainyus has now become a proper name, and des-ignates the great spirit of evil as definitely and de-terminately as Ahura-mazda designates the goodspirit. The antagonism between Ahura-mazda andAngro-mainyus is depicted in the strongest col-ors; it is direct, constant and successful. What-ever good work Ahura-mazda in his benevolencecreates, Angro-mainyus steps forward to mar andblast it. If Ahura-mazda forms a “delicious spot”in a world previously desert and uninhabitable tobecome the first home of his favorites, the Arians,Angro-mainyus ruins it by sending into it a poi-sonous serpent, and at the same time renderingthe climate one of the bitterest severity. If Ahura-mazda provides, instead of this blasted region, an-other charming habitation, “the second best of re-gions and countries,” Angro-mainyus sends therethe curse of murrain, fatal to all cattle. To ev-ery land which Ahura-mazda creates for his wor-shippers, Angro-mainyus immediately assigns someplague or other. War, ravages, sickness, fever,poverty, hail, earthquakes, buzzing insects, poi-sonous plants, unbelief, witchcraft, and other inex-piable sins, are introduced by him into the varioushappy regions created without any such drawbacksby the good spirit; and a world, which should havebeen “very good,” is by these means converted intoa scene of trial and suffering.

The Dualistic principle being thus fully adopted,and the world looked on as the battle-ground be-tween two independent and equal powers engaged

in perpetual strife, it was natural that the imagi-nation should complete the picture by ascribing tothose superhuman rivals the circumstantials thataccompany a great struggle between human adver-saries. The two kings required, in the first place,to have their councils, which were accordingly as-signed them, and were respectively composed of sixcouncillors. The councillors of Ahura-mazda–calledAmesha Spentas, or “Immortal Saints,” after-wards corrupted into Amshashpands–wore Vohu-mano (Bahman), Asha-va-hista (Ardibehesht),Khshathra-vairya (Shahravar), Qpenta-Armaiti(Isfand-armat), Haurvatat (Khordad), and Amere-tat (Amerdat). Those of Angro-mainyus were Ako-mano, Indra, Qaurva, Naonhaitya, and two otherswhose names are interpreted as “Darkness” and“Poison.”

Vohu-mano (Bahman) means “the Good Mind.”Originally a mere attribute of Ahura-mazda, Vohu-mano came to be considered, first as one of the highangels attendant on him, and then formally as oneof-his six councillors. He had a distinct sphere orprovince assigned to him in Ahura-mazda’s king-dom, which was the maintenance of life in animalsand of goodness in man.

Asha-vahista (Ardibehesht) means “the HighestTruth”–“Voritas optima,” or rather perhaps “Veri-tas lucidissima.” He was the “Light” of the universe,subtle, all-pervading, omnipresent. His specialbusiness was to maintain the splendor of the var-ious luminaries, and thereby to preserve all thosethings whose existence and growth depend on light.

Khshathra-vairya (Shahravar), whose name meanssimply “possessions,” “wealth,” was regarded aspresiding over metals and as the dispenser of riches.

Qoonta-Armaiti (Isfand-armat)–the “white or holyAr-maiti,” represented the Earth. She had fromthe first, as we have already seen, a distinct posi-tion in the system of the Zoroastrians, where shewas at once the Earth goddess and the genius ofpiety.

Haurvatat (Khordad) means “health”–“sanitas”–and was originally one of the great and preciousgifts which Ahura-mazda possessed himself andkindly bestowed on his creatures. When personi-fication, and the needs of the theology, had madeHaurvatat an archangel, he, together with Amere-tat (Amerdat), “Immortality,” took the presidencyof the vegetable world, which it was the business ofthe pair to keep in good condition.

In the council of Angro-mainyus, Ako-mano stands



in direct antithesis to Vohu-mano, as “the badmind,” or more literally, “the naught mind”–for theZoroastrians, like Plato, regarded good and evil asidentical with reality and unreality. Ako-mano’sspecial sphere is the mind of man, where he sug-gests evil thoughts and prompts to bad words andwicked deeds. He holds the first place in the in-fernal council, as Vohu-mano does in the heavenlyone.Indra, who holds the second place in the infer-nal council, is evidently the Vedic god whom theZoroastrians regarded as a powerful demon, andtherefore made one of Angro-mainyus’s chief coun-cillors. He probably retained his character as thegod of the storm and of war, the destroyer of cropsand cities, the inspirer of armies and the wielderof the thunder-bolt. The Zoroastrians, however,ascribed to him only destructive actions; whilethe more logical Hindoos, observing that the samestorm which hurt the crops and struck down treesand buildings was also the means of fertilizing thelands and purifying the air, viewed him under adouble aspect, as at once terrible in his wrath andthe bestower of numerous blessings.Qaurva, who stands next to Indra, is thought to bethe Hindoo Shiva, who has the epithet qarva in oneof the Vedas. But the late appearance of Shiva inthe Hindoo system makes this highly uncertain.Naonhaitya, the fourth member of the infer-nal council, corresponds apparently to the VedicNasatyas, a collective name given to the twoAswins, the Dioscuri of Indian mythology. Thesewere favorite gods of the early Hindoos, to whoseprotection they very mainly ascribed their pros-perity. It was natural that the Iranians, in theiraversion to their Indian brethren, should give theAswins a seat at Angro-mainyus’s council-table;but it is curious that they should represent the twindeities by only a single councillor.Taric and Zaric, “Darkness” and “Poison,” the oc-cupants of the fifth and sixth places, are evidentlypersonifications made for the occasion, to completethe infernal council to its full complement of sixmembers.As the two Principles of Good and Evil have theirrespective councils, so have they likewise theirarmies. The Good Spirit has created thousandsof angelic beings, who everywhere perform his willand fight on his side against the Evil One; and theEvil One has equally on his part called into beingthousands of malignant spirits who are his emis-saries in the world, doing his work continually, and

fighting his battles. These are the Devas or Dives,so famous in Persian fairy mythology. They are“wicked, bad, false, untrue, the originators of mis-chief, most baneful, destructive, the basest of all be-ings.” The whole universe is full of them. They aimprimarily at destroying all the good creations ofAhura-mazda; but if unable to destroy they contentthemselves with perverting and corrupting. Theydog the steps of men, tempting them to sin; and,as soon as sin, obtaining a fearful power over them.At the head of Ahura-mazda’s army is the angelSraosha (Serosh). Serosh is “the sincere, the beau-tiful, the victorious, the true, the master of truth.”He protects the territories of the Iranians, wounds,and sometimes even slays the demons, and is en-gaged in a perpetual struggle against them, neverslumbering night or day, but guarding the worldwith his drawn sword, more particularly after sun-set, when the demons have the greatest power.Angro-mainyus appears not to possess any suchgeneral-in-chief. Besides the six councillors abovementioned, there are indeed various demons of im-portance, as Drukhs, “destruction;” Aeshemo, “rap-ine;” Daivis, “deceit;” Driwis, “poverty,” etc.; butno one of these seems to occupy a parallel place inthe evil world to that which is assigned to Seroshin the good. Perhaps we have here a recognitionof the anarchic character of evil, whose attacks arelike those of a huge undisciplined host–casual, fit-ful, irregular–destitute wholly of that principle oflaw and order which gives to the resisting power ofgood a great portion of its efficacy.To the belief in a spiritual world composed of allthese various intelligences–one half of whom weregood, and the other half evil–the early Zoroastri-ans added notions with respect to human dutiesand human prospects far more enlightened thanthose which have usually prevailed among heathennations. In their system truth, purity, piety, andindustry were the virtues chiefly valued and incul-cated. Evil was traced up to its root in the heart ofman; and it was distinctly taught that no virtue de-served the name but such as was co-extensive withthe whole sphere of human activity, including thethought, as well as the word and deed. The purityrequired was inward as well as outward, mental aswell as bodily. The industry was to be of a pe-culiar character. Man was placed upon the earthto preserve the good creation; and this could onlybe done by careful tilling of the soil, eradicationof thorns and weeds, and reclamation of the tractsover which Angro-mainyus had spread the curse ofbarrenness. To cultivate the soil was thus a reli-



gious duty; the whole community was required tobe agricultural; and either as proprietor, as farmer,or as laboring man, each Zoroastrian must “furtherthe works of life” by advancing tillage. Piety con-sisted in the acknowledgment of the One True God,Ahura-mazda, and of his holy angels, the AmeshaSpentas or Amshashpands, in the frequent offeringof prayers, praises, and thanksgivings, in the recita-tion of hymns, the performance of the reformedSoma ceremony, and the occasional sacrifice of an-imals. Of the hymns we have abundant examplesin the Gathas of the Zendavesta, and in the Yagnahaptanhaiti, or “Yaana of seven chapters,” whichbelongs to the second period of the religion. A spec-imen from the latter source is subjoined below. TheSoma or Homa ceremony consisted in the extrac-tion of the juice of the Homa plant by the priestsduring the recitation of prayers, the formal presen-tation of the liquid extracted to the sacrificial fire,the consumption of a small portion of it by one ofthe officiating priests, and the division of the re-mainder among the worshippers. As the juice wasdrunk immediately after extraction and before fer-mentation had set in, it was not intoxicating. Theceremony seems to have been regarded, in part, ashaving a mystic force, securing the favor of heaven;in part, as exerting a beneficial influence upon thebody of the worshipper through the curative powerinherent in the Homa plant.

The sacrifices of the Zoroastrians were never hu-man. The ordinary victim was the horse; and wehear of occasions on which a single individual sacri-ficed as many as ten of these animals. Mares seemto have been regarded as the most pleasing offer-ings, probably on account of their superior value;and if it was desired to draw down the special fa-vor of the Deity, those mares were selected whichwere already heavy in foal. Oxen, sheep, and goatswere probably also used as victims. A priest al-ways performed the sacrifice, slaying the animal,and showing the flesh to the sacred fire by way ofconsecration, after which it was eaten at a solemnfeast by the priest and worshippers.

The Zoroastrians were devout believers in the im-mortality of the soul and a conscious future exis-tence. They taught that immediately after deaththe souls of men, both good and bad, proceededtogether along an appointed path to “the bridgeof the gatherer” (chinvatperetu). This was a nar-row road conducting to heaven or paradise, overwhich the souls of the pious alone could pass, whilethe wicked fell from it into the gulf below, wherethey found themselves in the place of punishment.

The good soul was assisted across the bridge by theangel Serosh–“the happy, well-formed, swift, tallSerosh”–who met the weary wayfarer and sustainedhis steps as he effected the difficult passage. Theprayers of his friends in this world were of muchavail to the deceased, and greatly, helped him onhis journey. As he entered, the archangel Vohu-mano or Bahman rose from his throne and greetedhim with the words, “How happy art thou who hastcome here to us from the mortality to the immortal-ity!” Then the pious soul went joyfully onward toAhura-mazda, to the immortal saints, to the goldenthrone, to Paradise. As for the wicked, when theyfell into the gulf, they found themselves in outerdarkness, in the kingdom of Angro-mainyus, wherethey were forced to remain and to feed upon poi-soned banquets.

It is believed by some that the doctrine of the resur-rection of the body was also part of the Zoroastriancreed. Theopompus assigned this doctrine to theMagi; and there is no reason to doubt that it washeld by the priestly caste of the Arian nations inhis day. We find it plainly stated in portions ofthe Zendavesta, which, if not among the earliest,are at any rate of very considerable antiquity, asin the eighteenth chapter of the Vendidad. It is ar-gued that even in the Gathas there is an expressionused which shows the doctrine to have been alreadyheld when they were composed; but the phrase ad-duced is so obscure that its true meaning must bepronounced in the highest degree uncertain. Theabsence of any plain allusion to the resurrectionfrom the earlier portions of the sacred volume is astrong argument against its having formed any partof the original Arian creed–an argument which isfar from outweighed by the occurrence of a morepossible reference to it in a single ambiguous pas-sage.

Around and about this nucleus of religious beliefthere grew up in course of time a number of leg-ends, some of which possess considerable interest.Like other thoughtful races, the Iranians specu-lated upon the early condition of mankind, andconceived a golden age, and a king then reign-ing over a perfectly happy people, whom theycalled King Yima–Yima-khshaeta–the modern Per-sian Jemshid. Yima, according to the legend, haddwelt originally in Aryanem vaejo–the primitiveseat of the Arians–and had there reigned gloriouslyand peacefully for awhile; but the evils of winterhaving come upon his country, he had removedfrom it with his subjects, and had retired to a se-cluded spot where he and his people enjoyed un-



interrupted happiness. In this place was “neitheroverbearing nor mean-spiritedness, neither stupid-ity nor violence, neither poverty nor deceit, neitherpuniness nor deformity, neither huge teeth nor bod-ies beyond the usual meassure.” The inhabitantssuffered no defilement from the evil spirit. Theydwelt amid odoriferous trees and golden pillars;their cattle were the largest, best, and most beau-tiful on the earth; they were themselves a tall andbeautiful race; their food was ambrosial, and neverfailed them. No wonder that time sped fast withthem, and that they, not noting its night, thoughtoften that what was really a year had been no morethan a single day. Yima was the great hero ofthe early Iranians. His titles, besides “the king”(khshaeta), are “the brilliant,” “the happy,” “thegreatly wealthy,” “the leader of the peoples,” “therenowned in Aryanem vaejo.” He is most probablyidentical with the Yama of the Vedas, who was orig-inally the first man, the progenitor of mankind andthe ruler of the blessed in Paradise, but who wasafterwards transformed into “the god of death, theinexorable judge of men’s doings, and the punisherof the wicked.”

Next in importance to Yima among the heroes isThraetona–the modern Persian Feridun. He wasborn in Varena–which is perhaps Atropatene, orAzerbijan–and was the son of a distinguished fa-ther, Athwyo. His chief exploit was the destructionof Ajis-dahaka (Zohak), who is sometimes repre-sented as a cruel tyrant, the bitter enemy of the Ira-nian race, sometimes as a monstrous dragon, withthree mouths, three tails, six eyes, and a thousandscaly rings, who threatened to ruin the whole ofthe good creation. The traditional scene of the de-struction was the mountain of Demavend, the high-est peak of the Elburz range south of the Caspian.Thraetona, like Yima, appears to be also a Vedichero. He may be recognized in Traitana, who issaid in the Rig-Veda to have slain a mighty giantby severing his head from his shoulders.

A third heroic personage known in the early timeswas Keresaspa, of the noble Sama family. Hewas the son of Thrita–a distinct personage fromThraetona–and brother of Urvakh-shaya the Justand was bred up in the arid country of Veh-keret(Khorassan). The “glory” which had rested uponYima so many years became his in his day. He wasthe mightiest among the mighty, and was guardedfrom all danger by the fairy (pairika) Enathaiti,who followed him whithersoever he went. He slewQravara, the queen and venomous serpent, whoswallowed up men and horses. He killed Gan-

darewa with the golden heel, and also Cnavidhaka,who had boasted that, when he grew up, he wouldmake the earth his wheel and heaven his chariot,that he would carry off Ahura-mazda from heavenand Angro-mainyus from hell, and yoke them bothas horses to his car. Keresaspa appears as Gershaspin the modern Persian legends, where, however, butlittle is said of his exploits. In the Hindoo bookshe appears as Krigagva, the son of Samyama, andis called king of Vaigali, or Bengal!

From these specimens the general character of theearly Iranic legends appears sufficiently. With-out affording any very close resemblances in par-ticular cases, they present certain general featureswhich are common to the legendary lore of all theWestern Arians. They are romantic tales, not al-legories; they relate with exaggerations the deedsof men, not the processes of nature. Combiningsome beauty with a good deal that is bizarre andgrotesque, they are lively and graphic, but some-what childish, having in no case any deep meaning,and rarely teaching a moral lesson. In their earliestshape they appear, so far as we can judge, to havebeen brief, disconnected, and fragmentary. Theyowe the full and closely interconnected form whichthey assume in the Shahna-meh and other mod-ern Persian writings, partly to a gradual accretionduring the course of centuries, partly to the inven-tive genius of Firdausi, who wove the various andoften isolated legends into a pseudo-history, andamplified them at his own pleasure. How muchof the substance of Firdausi’s poems belongs to re-ally primitive myth is uncertain. We find in theZend texts the names of Gayo-marathan, who cor-responds to Kaiomars; of Haoshyanha, or Hosheng;of Yima-shaeta, or Jemshid; of Ajisdahaka, or Zo-hak; of Athwya, or Abtin; of Thraetona, or Feridun;of Keresaspa, or Gershasp; of Kava Uq, or KaiKavus; of Kava Hucrava, or Kai Khosroo; and ofKava Vistaspa, or Gushtasp. But we have no men-tion of Tahomars; of Gava (or Gau) the blacksmith;of Feridua’s sons, Selm, Tur, and Irij; of Zal, orMino’chihr, or Eustem; of Afrasiab, or Kai Kobad;of Sohrab, or Isfendiar. And of the heroic nameswhich actually occur in the Zendavesta, several, asGayo-marathan, Haoshyariha, Kava Uc, and KavaHugrava, are met with only in the later portions,which belong probably to about the fourth centurybefore our era. The only legends which we knowto be primitive are those above related, which arefound in portions of the Zendavesta, whereto thebest critics ascribe a high antiquity. The negativeargument is not, however, conclusive; and it is quite



possible that a very large proportion of Firdausi’stale may consist of ancient legends dressed up in agarb comparatively modern.

Two phases of the early Iranic religion have beennow briefly described; the first a simple and highlyspiritual creed, remarkable for its distinct asser-tion of monotheism, its hatred of idolatry, and thestrongly marked antithesis which it maintained be-tween good and evil; the second, a natural corrup-tion of the first, Dualistic, complicated by the im-portance which it ascribed to angelic beings verg-ing upon polytheism. It remains to give an accountof a third phase into which the religion passed inconsequence of an influence exercised upon it fromwithout by an alien system.

When the Iranic nations, cramped for space in thecountries east and south of the Caspian, began topush themselves further to the west, and then tothe south, they were brought into contact with vari-ous Scythic tribes inhabiting the mountain regionsof Armenia, Azerbijan, Kurdistan, and Luristan,whose religion appears to have been Magism. Itwas here, in these elevated tracts, where the moun-tains almost seem to reach the skies, that the mostvenerated and ancient of the fire-temples were es-tablished, some of which remain, seemingly in theirprimitive condition, at the present day. Here tradi-tion placed the original seat of the fire-worship; andfrom hence many taught that Zoroaster, whom theyregarded as the founder of Magism, had sprung.Magism was, essentially, the worship of the ele-ments, the recognition of fire, air, earth, and wateras the only proper objects of human reverence. TheMagi held no personal gods, and therefore naturallyrejected temples, shrines, and images, as tending toencourage the notion that gods existed of a like na-ture with man, i.e., possessing personality–livingand intelligent beings. Theirs was a nature wor-ship, but a nature worship of a very peculiar kind.They did not place gods over the different partsof nature, like the Greeks; they did not even per-sonify the powers of nature, like the Hindoos; theypaid their devotion to the actual material thingsthemselves. Fire, as the most subtle and etherealprinciple, and again as the most powerful agent,attracted their highest regards; and on their fire-altars the sacred flame, generally said to have beenkindled from heaven, was kept burning uninterrupt-edly from year to year and from age to age by bandsof priests, whose special duty it was to see that thesacred spark was never extinguished. To defile thealtar by blowing the flame with one’s breath was acapital offence; and to burn a corpse was regarded

as an act equally odious. When victims were of-fered to fire, nothing but a small portion of thefat was consumed in the flame. Next to fire, wa-ter was reverenced. Sacrifice was offered to rivers,lakes, and fountains, the victim being brought nearto them and then slain, while great care was takenthat no drop of their blood should touch the waterand pollute it. No refuse was allowed to be castinto a river, nor was it even lawful to wash one’shands in one. Reverence for earth was shown bysacrifice, and by abstention from the usual modeof burying the dead.The Magian religion was of a highly sacerdotaltype. No worshipper could perform any religiousact except by the intervention of a priest, or Ma-gus, who stood between him and the divinity asa Mediator. The Magus prepared the victim andslew it, chanted the mystic strain which gave thesacrifice all its force, poured on the ground thepropitiatory libation of oil, milk, and honey, heldthe bundle of thin tamarisk twigs–the Zendic bar-som (baregma)–the employment of which was es-sential to every sacrificial ceremony. The Magiwere a priest-caste, apparently holding their officeby hereditary succession. They claimed to pos-sess, not only a sacred and mediatorial character,but also supernatural prophetic powers. They ex-plained omens, expounded dreams, and by meansof a certain mysterious manipulation of the barsom,or bundle of twigs, arrived at a knowledge of futureevents, which they communicated to the pious in-quirer.With such pretensions it was natural that the casteshould assume a lofty air, a stately dress, and an en-tourage of ceremonial magnificence. Clad in whiterobes, and bearing Upon their heads tall felt caps,with long lappets at the sides, which concealedthe jaw and even the lips, each with his barsomin his hand, they marched in procession to theirpynetheia, or fire altars, and standing around themperformed for an hour at a time their magical in-cantations. The credulous multitude, impressed bysights of this kind, and imposed on by the claimsto supernatural power which the Magi advanced,paid them a willing homage; the kings and chiefsconsulted them; and when the Arian tribes, press-ing westward, came into contact with the races pro-fessing the Magian religion, they found a sacerdotalcaste all-powerful in most of the Scythic nations.The original spirit of Zoroastrianism was fierce andexclusive. The early Iranians looked with contemptand hatred on the creed of their Indian brethren;they abhorred idolatry; and were disinclined to tol-



erate any religion except that which they had them-selves worked out. But with the lapse of ages thisspirit became softened. Polytheistic creeds are farless jealous than monotheism; and the developmentof Zoroastrianism had been in a polytheistic di-rection. By the time that the Zoroastrians werebrought into contact with Magism, the first fervorof their religious zeal had abated, and they were inthat intermediate condition of religious faith whichat once impresses and is impressed, acts upon othersystems, and allows itself to be acted upon in re-turn. The result which supervened upon contactwith Magism seems to have been a fusion, an ab-sorption into Zoroastrianism of all the chief pointsof the Magian belief, and all the more remarkableof the Magian religious usages. This absorption ap-pears to have taken place in Media. It was therethat the Arian tribes first associated with them-selves, and formally adopted into their body, thepriest-caste of the Magi, which thenceforth was rec-ognized as one of the six Median tribes. It is therethat Magi are first found acting in the capacity ofArian priests. According to all the accounts whichhave come down to us, they soon acquired a pre-dominating influence, which they no doubt usedto impress their own religious doctrines more andmore upon the nation at large, and to thrust intothe background, so far as they dared, the peculiarfeatures of the old Arian belief. It is not necessaryto suppose that the Medes ever apostatized alto-gether from the worship of Ormazd, or formally sur-rendered their Dualistic faith. But, practically, theMagian doctrines and the Magian usages–elementalworship, divination with the sacred rods, dream ex-pounding, incantations at the fire-altars, sacrificeswhereat a Magus officiated–seem to have prevailed;the new predominated over the old; backed by thepower of an organized hierarchy, Magism over-laidthe primitive Arian creed, and, as time went on,tended more and more to become the real religionof the nation.

Among the religious customs introduced by theMagi into Media there are one or two which seemto require especial notice. The attribution of a sa-cred character to the four so-called elements–earth,air, fire and water–renders it extremely difficult toknow what is to be done with the dead. Theycannot be burnt, for that is a pollution of fire; orburied, for that is a pollution of earth; or throwninto a river, for that is a defilement of water. Ifthey are deposited in sarcophagi, or exposed, theyreally pollute the air; but in this case the guilt ofthe pollution, it may be argued, does not rest on

man, since the dead body is merely left in the ele-ment in which nature placed it. The only mode ofdisposal which completely avoids the defilement ofevery element is consumption of the dead by livingbeings; and the worship of the elements leads onnaturally to this treatment of corpses. At presentthe Guebres, or Fire-worshippers, the descendantsof the ancient Persians, expose all their dead, withthe intention that they shall be devoured by birdsof prey. In ancient times, it appears certain thatthe Magi adopted this practice with respect to theirown dead; but, apparently, they did not insist uponhaving their example followed universally by thelaity. Probably a natural instinct made the Ari-ans averse to this coarse and revolting custom; andtheir spiritual guides, compassionating their weak-ness, or fearful of losing their own influence overthem if they were too stiff in enforcing compliance,winked at the employment by the people of an en-tirely different practice. The dead bodies were firstcovered completely with a coating of wax, and werethen deposited in the ground. It was held, proba-bly, that the coating of wax prevented the pollutionwhich would have necessarily resulted had the earthcome into direct contact with the corpse.

The custom of divining by means of a number ofrods appears to have been purely Magian. Thereis no trace of it in the Gathas, in the Yagna hap-tanhaiti, or in the older portions of the Vendidad.It was a Scythic practice; and probably the bestextant account of it is that which Herodotus givesof the mode wherein it was managed by the Scythsof Europe. “Scythia,” he says, “has an abundanceof soothsayers, who foretell the future by means ofa number of willow wands. A large bundle of theserods is brought and laid on the ground. The sooth-sayer unties the bundle, and places each wand byitself, at the same time uttering his prophecy: then,while he is still speaking, he gathers the rods to-gether again, and makes them up once more intoa bundle.” A divine power seems to have been re-garded as resting in the wands; and they were sup-posed to be “consulted” on the matter in hand,both severally and collectively. The bundle ofwands thus imbued with supernatural wisdom be-came naturally part of the regular priestly costume,and was carried by the Magi on all occasions of cer-emony. The wands were of different lengths; andthe number of wands in the bundle varied. Some-times there were three, sometimes five, sometimesas many as seven or nine; but in every case, as itwould seem, an odd number.

Another implement which the priests commonly



bore must be regarded, not as Magian, but asZoroastrian. This is the khrafgthraghna, or instru-ment for killing bad animals, frogs, toads, snakes,mice, lizards, flies, etc., which belonged to thebad creation, or that which derived its origin fromAngro-mainyus. These it was the general duty ofall men, and the more especial duty of the Zoroas-trian priests, to put to death, whenever they hadthe opportunity. The Magi, it appears, adoptedthis Arian usage, added the khrafgthraghna to thebarsom, and were so zealous in their performanceof the cruel work expected from them as to excitethe attention, and even draw upon themselves therebuke, of foreigners.

A practice is assigned to the Magi by many clas-sical and ecclesiastical writers, which, if it weretruly charged on them, would leave a very darkstain on the character of their ethical system. Itis said that they allowed and even practised in-cest of the most horrible kind–such incest as weare accustomed to associate with the names of Lot,OEdipus, and Herod Agrippa. The charge seems tohave been first made either by Xanthus the Lydian,or by Ctesias. It was accepted, probably withoutmuch inquiry, by the Greeks generally, and thenby the Romans, was repeated by writer after writeras a certain fact, and became finally a stock topicwith the early Christian apologists. Whether ithad any real foundation in fact is very uncertain.Herodotus, who collects with so much pains thestrange and unusual customs of the various nationswhom he visits, is evidently quite ignorant of anysuch monstrous practice. He regards the Magianreligion as established in Persia, yet he holds theincestuous marriage of Cambyses with his sister tohave been contrary to existing Persian laws. At thestill worst forms of incest of which the Magi andthose under their influence are accused, Herodotusdoes not even glance. No doubt, if Xanthus Ly-dus really made the statement which Clemens ofAlexandria assigns to him, it is an important pieceof evidence, though scarcely sufficient to prove theMagi 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 pas-sage in question, however, probably did not comefrom Xanthus Lydus, but from a much later writerwho assumed his name, as has been well shown bya living critic. The true original author of the ac-cusation against the Magi and their co-religionistsseems to have been Ctesias, whose authority is fartoo weak to establish a charge intrinsically so im-

probable. Its only historical foundation seems tohave been the fact that incestuous marriages wereoccasionally contracted by the Persian kings; not,however, in consequence of any law, or religioususage, but because in the plenitude of their powerthey could set all law at defiance, and trample uponthe most sacred principles of morality and religion.

A minor charge preferred against the Magian moral-ity by Xanthus, or rather by the pseudo-Xanthus,has possibly a more solid foundation. “The Magi,”this writer said, “hold their wives in common: atleast they often marry the wives of others with thefree consent of their husbands.” This is really tosay that among the Magians divorce was over-facile;that wives were often put away, merely with a viewto their forming a fresh marriage, by husbands whounderstood and approved of the transaction. Judg-ing by the existing practice of the Persians, we mustadmit that such laxity is in accordance with Iranicnotions on the subject of marriage–notions far lessstrict than those which have commonly prevailedamong civilized nations. There is, however, noother evidence, besides this, that divorce was verycommon where the Magian system prevailed; andthe mere assertion of the writer who personatedXanthus Lydus will scarcely justify us in affixingeven this stigma on the religion.

Upon the whole, Magism, though less elevated andless pure than the old Zoroastrian creed, mustbe pronounced to have possessed a certain lofti-ness and picturesqueness which suited it to be-come the religion of a great and splendid monar-chy. The mysterious fire-altars on the mountain-tops, with their prestige of a remote antiquity–theever-burning flame believed to have been kindledfrom on high–the worship in the open air underthe blue canopy of heaven–the long troops of Ma-gians in their white robes, with their strange caps,and their mystic wands–the frequent prayers–theabundant sacrifices–the long incantations–the sup-posed prophetic powers of the priest-caste–all thistogether constituted an imposing whole at once tothe eye and to the mind, and was calculated togive additional grandeur to the civil system thatshould be allied with it. Pure Zoroastrianism wastoo spiritual to coalesce readily with Oriental lux-ury and magnificence, or to lend strength to a gov-ernment based on the ordinary principles of Asiaticdespotism. Magism furnished a hierarchy to sup-port the throne, and add splendor and dignity tothe court, while they overawed the subject-class bytheir supposed possession of supernatural powers,and of the right of mediating between heaven and



man. It supplied a picturesque worship which atonce gratified the senses and excited the fancy Itgave scope to man’s passion for the marvellous byits incantations, its divining-rods, its omen-reading,and its dream-expounding. It gratified the reli-gious scrupulosity which finds a pleasure in mak-ing to itself difficulties, by the disallowance of athousand natural acts, and the imposition of num-berless rules for external purity. At the same timeit gave no offence to the anti-idolatrous spirit inwhich the Arians had hitherto gloried, but ratherencouraged the iconoclasm which they always up-held and practised. It thus blended easily with theprevious creed of the people, awaking no prejudices,clashing with no interests; winning its way by anapparent meekness and unpresumingness, while itwas quite prepared, when the fitting time came, tobe as fierce and exclusive as if it had never wornthe mask of humility and moderation.

CHAPTER V. Language and Writing Onthe language of the ancient Medes a very few ob-servations will be here made. It has been noticedalready that the Median form of speech was closelyallied to that of the Persians. The remark of Straboquoted above, and another remark which he citesfrom Nearchus, imply at once this fact, and also thefurther fact of a dialectic difference between the twotongues. Did we possess, as some imagine that wedo, materials for tracing out this diversity, it wouldbe proper in the present place to enter fully on thesubject, and instead of contenting ourselves withasserting, or even proving, the substantial onenessof the languages, it would be our duty to proceedto the far more difficult and more complicated taskof comparing together the sister dialects, and not-ing their various differences. The supposition thatthere exist means for such a comparison is basedupon a theory that in the language of the Zendav-esta we have the true speech of the ancient peopleof Media, while in the cuneiform inscriptions of theAchasmenian kings it is beyond controversy thatwe possess the ancient language of Persia. It be-comes necessary, therefore, to examine this theory,in order to justify our abstention from an inquiryon which, if the theory were sound, we should benow called upon to enter.

The notion that the Zend language was the idiom ofancient Media originated with Anquetil du Perron.He looked on Zoroaster as a native of Azerbijan,contemporary with Darius Hystaspis. His opinionwas embraced by Kleuker, Herder, and Eask; andagain, with certain modifications, by Tychsen and

Heeren. These latter writers even gave a more com-pletely Median character to the Zendavesta, by re-garding it as composed in Media Magna, during thereign of the great Cyaxares. The main foundationof these views was the identification of Zoroastrian-ism with the Magian fire-worship, which was reallyancient in Azerbijan, and flourished in Media un-der the great Median monarch. But we have seenthat Magianism and Zoroastrianism were originallyentirely distinct, and that the Zendavesta in all itsearlier portions belongs wholly to the latter sys-tem. Nothing therefore is proved concerning theZend dialect by establishing a connection betweenthe Medes and Magism, which was a corruptinginfluence thrown in upon Zoroastrianism long af-ter the composition of the great bulk of the sacredwritings.

These writings themselves sufficiently indicate theplace of their composition. It was not Media, butBactria, or at any rate the north-eastern Iraniccountry, between the Bolor range and the Caspian.This conclusion, which follows from a considerationof the various geographical notices contained in theZend books, had been accepted of late years by allthe more profound Zend scholars. Originated byRhode, it has also in its favor the names of Burnouf,Lassen, Westergaard, and Haug. If then the Zendis to be regarded as really a local dialect, the idiomof a particular branch of the Iranic people, there isfar more reason for considering it to be the ancientspeech of Bactria than of any other Arian coun-try. Possibly the view is correct which recognizestwo nearly-allied dialects as existing side by sidein Iran during its flourishing period–one prevailingtowards the west, the other towards the east–oneMedo-Persic, the other Sogdo-Bactrian–the formerrepresented to us by the cuneiform inscriptions, thelatter by the Zend texts. Or it may be closer to thetruth to recognize in the Zendic and Achsemenianforms of speech, not so much two contemporary id-ioms, as two stages of one and the same language,which seems to be at present the opinion of the bestcomparative philologists. In either case Media canclaim no special interest in Zend, which, if local, isSogdo-Bactrian, and if not local is no more closelyconnected with Media than with Persia.

It appears then that we do not at present possessany means of distinguishing the shades of differ-ence which separated the. Median from the Persianspeech. We have in fact no specimens of the for-mer beyond a certain number of words, and thosechiefly proper names, whereas we know the lattertolerably completely from the inscriptions. It is



proposed under the head of the “Fifth Monarchy”to consider at some length the general characterof the Persian language as exhibited to us in thesedocuments. From the discussion then to be raisedmay be gathered the general character of the speechof the Medes. In the present place all that will beattempted is to show how far the remnants left usof Median speech bear out the statement that, sub-stantially, one and the same tongue was spoken byboth peoples.

Many Median names are absolutely identical withPersian; 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 merevariants, like Theodoras and Theodosius, Adel-bert and Ethelbert, Miriam, Mariam, and Mari-amne. Of this kind are Intaphres, another formof Intaphernes, Artynes, another form of Artanes,Parmises, another form of Parmys, and the like. Athird class, neither identical with any known Per-sian names, nor so nearly approaching to themas to be properly considered mere variants, aremade up of known Persian roots, and may be ex-plained on exactly the same principles as Persiannames. Such are Ophernes, Sitraphernes, Mitra-phernes, Megabernes, Aspadas, Mazares, Tachmas-pates, Xathrites, Spitaces, Spitamas, Ehambacas,and others. In Ophernes, Sitra-phernes, Mitra-phernes, and Mega-bernes, the second element ismanifestly the pharna or frana which is found inArta-phernes and Inta-phernes (Vida-frana), an ac-tive participial form from pri, to protect. Theinitial element in O-phernes represents the Zendhu, Sans, su, Greek ev, as the same letter doesin O-manes, O-martes, etc. The Sitra of Sitra-phernes has been explained as probably Ichshatra,“the crown,” which is similarly represented in theSafro-pates of Curtius, a name standing to Sitra-phernes exactly as Arta-patas to Arta-phernes. InMega-bernes the first element is the well-knownbaga, “God,” under the form commonly preferredby the Greeks; and the name is exactly equiva-lent to Curtius’s Bagfo-phanes, which only differsfrom it by taking the participle of pa, “to pro-tect,” instead of the participle of pri, which has thesame 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 thelike, followed by the same element which terminatesthe name of Oromaz-des, and which means either“knowing” or “giving.” Ma-zares presents us withthe root meh, “much” or “great,” which is found

in the name of the ilf-aspii, or “Big Horses,” aPersian tribe, followed by zara, “gold,” which ap-pears in Ctesias’s “Arto-awes,” and perhaps alsoin Zoro-aster. In Tachmaspates, the first elementis takhma, “strong,” a root found in the Persiannames Ar-tochmes and Tritan-taechmes, while thesecond is the frequently used pati, “lord,” whichoccurs as the initial element in Pak-zeithes,” Pafa-ramphes, etc., and as the terminal in Pharna-jjates, Avio-peithes, and the like. In Xathrites wehave clearly khshatra (Zend khshathra), “crown” or“king,” with a participial suffix -ita, correspondingto the Sanscrit participle in -it. Spita-ces and Spita-mas contain the root spita, 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 cor-responding to the modern Persian -efc, or perhapsa suffixed article. In Spit-amas, the suffix -mas isthe common form of the superlative, and may becompared with the Latin -mus in optimus, intimus,supremus, and the like. Ehambacas contains theroot rafno, “joy, pleasure,” which we find in Pati-ramphies, followed by the guttural suffix.

There remains, finally, a class of Median names,containing roots not found in any known names ofPersians, but easily explicable from Zend, Sanscrit,or other cognate tongues, and therefore not antag-onistic to the view that Median and Persian weretwo closely connected dialects. Such, for instance,are the royal names mentioned by Herodotus, Deio-ces, Phraortes, Astyages, and Cyaxares; and suchalso are the following, which come to us from var-ious sources; Amytis, Astibaras, Armamithres orHarmamithres, Mandauces, Parsondas, Eama-tes,Susiscanes, Tithaous, and Zanasanes.

In Deioces, or (as the Latins write it) Dejoces, therecan be little doubt that we have the name givenas Djohak or Zohak in the Shahnameh and othermodern Persian writings, which is itself an abbre-viation of the Ajis-dahaka of the Zendavesta. Da-haka means in Zend “biting,” or “the biter,” and isetymo-logically connected with the Greek.

Phraortes, which in old Persian was Fravartish,seems to be a mere variant of the word which ap-pears in the Zendavesta as fravashi, and designateseach man’s tutelary genius. The derivation is cer-tainly from fra, and probably from a root akin tothe German wahren, French garder, English “ward,watch,” etc. The meaning is “a protector.”

Cyaxares, the Persian form of which was“Uvakhshatara,” seems to be formed from the two



elements it or hu, “well, good,” and akhsha (Zendarsnd), “the eye,” which is the final element of thename Cyavarswa in the Zendavesta. Cyavarsna is“dark-eyed;” Uvakhsha (= Zend Huvarsna) wouldbe “beautiful-eyed.” Uvakhshatara appears to bethe comparative of this adjective, and would mean“more beautiful-eyed (than others).”Astyages, which, according to Moses of Chorene,meant “a dragon” or “serpent,” is almost certainlyAjis-dahaka, the full name whereof Dojoces (or Zo-hak) is the abbreviation. It means “the bitingsnake,” from aji or azi, “a snake” or “serpent,” anddahaka, “biting.”Amytis is probably ama, “active, great,” with theordinary feminine suffix -iti, found in Armaiti,Khnathaiti, and the like. Astibaras is perhaps“great of bone,” from Zend agta (Sans, asthi),“bone,” and bereza, “tall, great.” Harmamithres,if that is the true reading, would be “mountain-lover” (monticolus), from hardam, ace. of hara,“a mountain,” and mithra or mitra, “fond of.” If,however, the name should be read as Armamithres,the probable derivation will be from rama, ace.of raman, “pleasure,” which is also the root ofRama-tea. Armamithres may then be comparedwith Rheomithres, Siromitras, and Sysimithres,which are respectively “fond of splendor,” “fond ofbeauty,” and “fond of light.” Mandauces is perhaps“biting spirit–esprit mordant,” from mand, “coeur,esprit,” and dahaka, “biting.” M Parsondas canscarcely be the original form, from the occurrencein it of the nasal before the dental. In the origi-nal it must have been Parsodas, which would mean“liberal, much giving,” from pourus, “much,” andda, “to give.” Ramates, as already observed, isfrom rama, “pleasure.” It is an adjectival form,like Datis, and means probably “pleasant, agree-able.” Susiscanes may be explained as “splendidusjuvenis,” from quc, “splendere,” pres. part, cao-cat,and kainin, “adolescens, juvenis.” Tithaeus is prob-ably for Tathaeus, which would be readily formedfrom tatka, “one who makes.” Finally, Zanasanesmay be referred to the root zan or jan, “to kill,”which is perhaps simply followed by the commonappellative suffix -ana.From these names of persons we may pass to thoseof places in Media, which equally admit of expla-nation from roots known to have existed either inZend or in old Persian. Of these, Ecbatana, Bag-istana, and Aspadana may be taken as convenientspecimens. Ecbatana (or Agbatana), according tothe orthography of the older Greeks was in the na-tive dialect Hagmatana, as appears from the Be-

histun inscription. This form, Hagmatana, is inall probability derived from the three words ham,“with” (Sans, sam, Latin cum), gam, “to go” (Zendgd, Sans, ’gam), and ctana (Mod. Pers. -stan) “aplace.” The initial ham has dropped the m and be-come ha, and cum becomes co- in Latin; gam hasbecome gma by metathesis; and gtan has passedinto -tan by phonetic corruption. Ha-gma-tanawould be “the place for assembly,” or for “comingtogether” (Lat. comitium); the place, i.e., wherethe tribes met, and where, consequently, the capi-tal grew up.

Bagistan, which was “a hill sacred to Jupiter” ac-cording to Diodorus, is clearly a name correspond-ing to the Beth-el of the Hebrews and the Alla-habad of the Mahometans. It is simply “the house,or place, of God”–from baga, “God,” and gtana,“place, abode,” the common modern Persian termi-nal (compare Farsi-stan, Khuzi-stan, Afghani-stan,Belochi-stan, Hindu-stan, etc.), which has here notsuffered any corruption.

Aspadana contains certainly as its first element theroot acpa, “horse.” The suffix dan may perhapsbe a corruption of ctana, analogous to that whichhas produced Hama-dan from Hagma-ctan; or itmay be a contracted form of danhu, or dairihu,“a-province,” Aspadana having been originally thename of a district where horses were bred, and hav-ing thence become the name of its chief town.

The Median words known to us, other than namesof persons or places, are confined to some threeor four. Herodotus tells us that the Median wordfor “dog” was spaka; Xenophon implies, if he doesnot expressly state, that the native name for thefamous Median robe was candys; Nicolas of Dam-ascus informs us that the Median couriers werecalled Angari; and Hesychius says that the artabewas a Median measure. The last-named writer alsostates that artades and devas were Magian words,which perhaps implies that they were common tothe Medes with the Persians. Here, again, the ev-idence, such as it is, favors a close connection be-tween the languages of Media and Persia.

That artabe and angarus were Persian words no lessthan Median, we have the evidence of Herodotus.Artades, “just men” (according to Hesychhis), isprobably akin to ars, “true, just,” and may repre-sent the ars-data, “made just,” of the Zendavesta.Devas (Seven), which Hesychius translates “the evilgods” is clearly the Zendic daiva, Mod. Pers. div.(Sans, deva, Lat. divus). In candys we have mostprobably a formation from qan, “to dress, to adorn.”



Spaka is the Zendic cpa, with the Scythic gutturalsuffix, of which the Medes were so fond, cpa itselfbeing akin to the Sanscrit cvan, and so to hvoovand canis. Thus we may connect all the few wordswhich are known as Median with forms containedin the Zend, which was either the mother or theelder sister of the ancient Persian.

That the Medes were acquainted with the art ofwriting, and practised it–at least from the time thatthey succeeded to the dominion of the Assyrians–scarcely admits of a doubt. An illiterate nation,which conquers one in possession of a literature,however it may despise learning and look downupon the mere literary life, is almost sure to adoptwriting to some extent on account of its practicalutility. It is true the Medes have left us no writtenmonuments; and we may fairly conclude from thatfact that they used writing sparingly; but besidesthe antecedent probability, there is respectable ev-idence that letters were known to them, and that,at any rate, their upper classes could both readand write their native tongue. The story of theletter sent by Harpagus the Mede to Cyrus in thebelly of a hare, though probably apocryphal, is im-portant as showing the belief of Herodotus on thesubject. The still more doubtful story of a despatchwritten on parchment by a Median king, Artseus,and sent to Nanarus, a provincial governor, relatedby Nicolas of Damascus, has a value, as indicatingthat writer’s conviction that the Median monarchshabitually conveyed their commands to their subor-dinates in a written form. With these statementsof profane writers agree certain notices which wefind in Scripture. Darius the Mode, shortly afterthe destruction of the Median empire, “signs” a de-cree, which his chief nobles have presented to himin writing. He also himself “writes” another decreeaddressed to his subjects generally. In later timeswe find that there existed at the Persian court a“book of the chronicles of the kings of Media andPersia,” in which was probably a work begun un-der the Median and continued under the Persiansovereigns.

If then writing was practised by the Medes, it be-comes interesting to consider whence they obtainedtheir knowledge of it, and what was the systemwhich they employed. Did they bring an alpha-bet with them from the far East, or did they de-rive their first knowledge of letters from the na-tions with whom they came into contact after theirgreat migration? In the latter case, did they adopt,with or without modifications, a foreign system, ordid they merely borrow the idea of written symbols

from their new neighbors, and set to work to inventfor themselves an alphabet suited to the genius oftheir own tongue? These are some of the questionswhich present themselves to the mind as deservingof attention, when this subject is brought beforeit. Unfortunately we possess but very scanty datafor determining, and can do little more than con-jecture, the proper answers to be given to them.

The early composition of certain portions of theZendavesta, which has been asserted in this work,may seem at first sight to imply the use of a writtencharacter in Bactria and the adjacent countries ata very remote era. But such a conclusion is not nec-essary. Nations have often had an oral literature,existing only in the memories of men, and havehanded down such a literature from generation togeneration, through a long succession of ages. Thesacred lore of Zoroaster may have been brought bythe Modes from the East-Caspian country in anunwritten shape, and may not have been reducedto writing till many centuries later. On the wholeit is perhaps most probable that the Medes wereunacquainted with letters when they made theirgreat migration, and that they acquired their firstknowledge of them from the races with whom theycame into collision when they settled along the Za-gros chain. In these regions they were brought intocontact with at least two forms of written speech,one that of the old Armenians, a Turanian dialect,the other that of the Assyrians, a language of theSemitic type. These two nations used the samealphabetic system, though their languages were ut-terly unlike; and it would apparently have been theeasiest plan for the new comers to have adopted theestablished forms, and to have applied them, so faras was possible, to the representation of their ownspeech. But the extreme complication of a systemwhich employed between three and four hundredwritten signs, and composed signs sometimes offourteen or fifteen wedges, seems to have shockedthe simplicity of the Medes, who recognized thefact that the varieties of their articulations fell farshort of this excessive luxuriance. The Arian races,so far as appears, declined to follow the exampleset them by the Turanians of Armenia, who hadadopted the Assyrian alphabet, and preferred toinvent a new system for themselves, which they de-termined to make far more simple. It is possiblethat they found an example already set them. InAchaemenian times we observe two alphabets usedthrough Media and Persia, both of which are sim-pler than the Assyrian: one is employed to expressthe Turanian dialect of the people whom the Ari-



ans conquered and dispossessed; the other, to ex-press the tongue of the conquerors. It is possible–though we have no direct evidence of the fact–thatthe Turanians of Zagros and the neighborhood hadalready formed for themselves the alphabet whichis found in the second columns of the Achaeme-nian tablets, when the Arian invaders conqueredthem. This alphabet, which in respect of complex-ity holds an intermediate position between the lux-uriance of the Assyrian and the simplicity of theMedo-Persic system, would seem in all probabilityto have intervened in order of time between thetwo. It consists of no more than about a hundredcharacters, and these are for the most part far lesscomplicated than those of Assyria. If the Medesfound this form of writing already existing in Za-gros when they arrived, it may have assisted to givethem the idea of making for themselves an alphabetso far on the old model that the wedge should bethe sole element used in the formation, of letters,but otherwise wholly new, and much more simplethan those previously in use.

Discarding then the Assyrian notion of a syl-labarium, with the enormous complication whichit involves, the Medes strove to reduce soundsto their ultimate elements, and to representthese last alone by symbols. Contenting them-selves with the three main vowel sounds, a,i,and u, and with one breathing, a simple h,they recognized twenty consonants, which werethe 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 unnec-essary compound. Had they stopped here, theircharacters should have been but twenty-four, thenumber which is found in Greek. To their ears,however, it would seem, each consonant appearedto carry with it a short a, and as this, occurringbefore i and u, produced the diphthongs ai andau, sounded nearly as e and o, it seemed necessary,where a consonant was to be directly followed bythe sounds i or u, to have special forms to whichthe sound of a should not attach. This system, car-ried out completely, would have raised the formsof consonants to sixty, a multiplication that wasfeared as inconvenient. In order to keep down thenumber, it seems to have been resolved, that oneform should suffice for the aspirated letters and thesibilants (viz., h,kh; ch,ph or f,s,sh, and z), and alsofor b,y, and tr; that two forms should suffice for thetenues, k,p,t, for the liquids n and r, and for v; andconsequently that the full number of three formsshould be limited to some three or four letters, asd, m, j, and perhaps g. The result is that the known

alphabet of the Persians, which is assumed here tohave been the invention of the Medes, consists ofsome thirty-six or thirty-seven forms, which are re-ally representative of no more than twenty-threedistinct sounds.It appears then that, compared with the phoneticsystems in vogue among their neighbors, the alpha-bet of the Medes and Persians was marked by agreat simplicity. The forms of the letters were alsovery much simplified. Instead of conglomerationsof fifteen or sixteen wedges in a single character, wehave in the Medo-Persic letters a maximum of fivewedges. The most ordinary number is four, whichis sometimes reduced to three or even two. Thedirection of the wedges is uniformly either perpen-dicular or horizontal, except of course in the caseof the double wedge or arrow-head, where the com-ponent elements are placed obliquely. The arrow-head has but one position, the perpendicular, withthe angle facing towards the left hand. The only di-agonal sign used is a simple wedge, placed obliquelywith the point towards the right, which is a meremark of separation between the words.The direction of the writing was, as with the Ar-ian nations generally, from left to right. Wordswere frequently divided, and part carried on to thenext line. The characters were inscribed betweenstraight lines drawn from end to end of the tableton which they were written. Like the Hebrew, theyoften closely resembled one another, and a slightdefect in the stone will cause one to be mistakenfor another. The resemblance is not between let-ters of the same class or kind; on the contrary, itis often between those which are most remote fromone another. Thus g nearly resembles u; ch is liked; tr like p; and so on: while k and kh, s and sh, pand ph (or J) are forms quite dissimilar.It is supposed that a cuneiform alphabet can neverhave been employed for ordinary writing purposes,but must have been confined to documents of someimportance, which it was desirable to preserve, andwhich were therefore either inscribed on stone, orimpressed on moist clay afterwards baked. A cur-sive character, it is therefore imagined, must alwayshave been in use, parallel with a cuneiform one;and as the Babylonians and Assyrians are knownto have used a character of this kind from a veryhigh antiquity, synchronously with their lapidarycuneiform, so it is supposed that the Arian racesmust have possessed, besides the method which hasbeen described as a cursive system of writing. Ofthis, however, there is at present no direct evidence.No cursive writing of the Arian nations at this time,



either Median or Persian, has been found; and itis therefore uncertain what form of character theyemployed on common occasions.

The material used for ordinary purposes, accord-ing to Nicolas of Damascus and Ctesias, was parch-ment. On this the kings wrote the despatches whichconveyed their orders to the officers who adminis-tered the government of provinces; and on this wereinscribed the memorials which each monarch wascareful to have composed giving an account of thechief events of his reign. The cost of land carriageprobably prevented papyrus from superseding thismaterial in Western Asia, as it did in Greece at atolerably early date. Clay, so much used for writingon both in Babylonia and Assyria, appears never tohave approved itself as a convenient substance tothe Iranians. For public documents the chisel andthe rock, for private the pen and the prepared skin,seem to have been preferred by them; and in theearlier times, at any rate, they employed no othermaterials.

CHAPTER VI. Chronology and HistoryMedia . . . quam ante regnum Cyri superlovis etincrementa Persidos legimus Asiae reginam totius.–Amm. Marc, xxiii. 6.

The origin of the Median nation is wrapt in aprofound obscurity. Following the traces whichthe Zendavesta offers, taking into consideration itsminute account of the earlier Arian migrations, itsentire omission of any mention of the Medes, andthe undoubted fact that it was nevertheless by theMedes and Persians that the document itself waspreserved and transmitted to us, we should be nat-urally led to suppose that the race was one whichin the earlier times of Arian development was weakand insignificant, and that it first pushed itself intonotice after the ethnological portions of the Zendav-esta were composed, which is thought to have beenabout B.C. 1000. Quite in accordance with thisview is the further fact that in the native Assyr-ian annals, so far as they have been, recovered, theMedes do not make their appearance till the middleof the ninth century B.C., and when they appearare weak and unimportant, only capable of oppos-ing a very slight resistance to the attacks of theNinevite kings. The natural conclusion from thesedata would appear to be that until about B.C. 850the Median name was unknown in the world, andthat previously, if Medes existed at all, it was ei-ther as a sub-tribe of some other Arian race, orat any rate as a tribe too petty and insignificant

to obtain mention either on the part of native orof foreign historians. Such early insignificance andlate development of what ultimately becomes thedominant tribe of a race is no strange or unprece-dented phenomenon to the historical inquirer; onthe contrary, it is among the facts with which he ismost familiar, and would admit of ample illustra-tion, were the point worth pursuing, alike from thehistory of the ancient and the modern world.

But, against the conclusion to which we could notfail to be led by the Arian and Assyrian records,which agree together so remarkably, two startlingnotices in works of great authority but of a widelydifferent character have to be set. In the ToldothBeni Noah, or “Book of the Generation of the Sonsof Noah,” which forms the tenth chapter of Gene-sis, and which, if the work of Moses, was probablycomposed at least as early as B.C. 1500, we findthe Madai–a word elsewhere always signifying “theMedes”–in the genealogy of the sons of Japhet. Theword is there conjoined with several other impor-tant 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 people must have had already a separateand independent existence in the fifteenth centuryB.C., and not only so, but they must have by thattime attained so much distinction as to be thoughtworthy of mention by a writer who was only bent onaffiliating the more important of the nations knownto him.

The other notice is furnished by Berosus. Thatremarkable historian, in his account of the earlydynasties of his native Chaldaea, declared that,at a date anterior to B.C. 2000, the Medes hadconquered Babylon by a sudden inroad, had estab-lished a monarchy there, and had held possessionof the city and neighboring territory for a periodof 224 years. Eight kings of their race had dur-ing that interval occupied the Babylonian throne,It has been already observed that this narrativemust represent a fact. Berosus would not havegratuitously invented a foreign conquest of his na-tive land; nor would the earlier Babylonians, fromwhom he derived his materials, have forged a talewhich was so little flattering to their national van-ity. Some foreign conquest of Babylon must havetaken place about the period named; and it is cer-tainly a most important fact that Berosus shouldcall the conquerors Medes. He may no doubt havebeen mistaken about an event so ancient; he mayhave misread his authorities, or he may have de-scribed as Medes a people of which he really knew



nothing except that they had issued from the tractwhich in his own time bore the name of Media. But,while these axe mere possibilities, hypotheses towhich the mind resorts in order to escape a diffi-culty, the hard fact remains that he has used theword; and this fact, coupled with the mention ofthe Medes in the book of Genesis, does certainlyraise a presumption of no inconsiderable strengthagainst, the view which it would be natural to takeif the Zendavesta and the Assyrian annals were oursolo authorities on the subject. It lends a substan-tial basis to the theories of those who regard theMedes as one of the principal primeval races; whobelieve that they were well known to the Semiticinhabitants of the Mesopotamian valley as earlyas the twenty-third century before Christ–long ereAbraham left Ur for Harran; and that they actu-ally formed the dominant power in Western Asiafor more than two centuries, prior to the establish-ment of the first Chaldaean kingdom.

And if there are thus distinct historical groundsfor the notion of an early Median development,there are not wanting these obscurer but to manyminds more satisfactory proofs wherewith compar-ative philology and ethnology are wont to illus-trate and confirm the darker passages of ancient his-tory. Recent linguistic research has clearly tracedamong the Arba Lisun, or, “Four Tongues” of an-cient Chaldaea, which are so often mentioned onthe ancient monuments, an Arian formation, suchas would naturally have been left in the country,if it had been occupied for some considerable pe-riod by a dominant Arian power. The early Chal-daean ideographs have often several distinct val-ues; and when this is the case, one of the powersis almost always an Arian name of the object rep-resented. Words like nir, “man”, ar, “river,” (com-pare the names Aras, Araxes, Endanus, Rha, Rho-danus, etc., the Slavonic rika, “river,” etc.), san,“sun,” (compare German Sonne, Slavonic solnce,English “sun,” Dutch zon, etc.), are seemingly Ar-ian roots; and the very term “Arian” (Ariya, “no-ble”) is perhaps contained in the name of a primi-tive Chaldaean monarch, “Arioch, king of Ellasar.”There is nothing perhaps in these scattered tracesof Arian influence in in Lower Mesopotamia at a re-mote era that points very particularly to the Medes;but at any rate they harmonize with the historicalaccount that has reached us of early Arian powerin these parts, and it is important that they shouldnot be ignored when we are engaged in consideringthe degree of credence that is to be awarded to theaccount in question.

Again, there are traces of a vast expansion, appar-ently at a very early date, of the Median race, suchas seems to imply that they must have been a greatnation in Western Asia long previously to the timeof the Iranic movements in Bactria and the adjoin-ing regions. In the Matieni of Zagros and Cap-padocia, in the Sauro-matae (or Northern Medes)of the country between the Palus Maeotis and theCaspian, in the Maetae or Maeotae of the tractabout the mouth of the Don, and in the Maedi ofThrace, we have seemingly remnants of a great mi-gratory host which, starting from the mountainsthat overhang Mesopotamia, spread itself into theregions of the north and the north-west at a timewhich does not admit of being definitely stated, butwhich is clearly anti-historic. Whether these racesgenerally retained any tradition of their origin, wedo not know; but a tribe which in the time ofHerodotus dwelt still further to the west than eventhe Maedi–to wit, the Sigynnae, who occupied thetract between the Adriatic and the Danube–had avery distinct belief in their Median descent, a beliefconfirmed by the resemblance which their nationaldress bore to that of the Medes. Herodotus, whorelates these facts concerning them, appends an ex-pression of his astonishment at the circumstancethat emigrants from Media should have proceededto such a distance from their original home; howit had been brought about he could not conceive.“Still,” he sagaciously remarks, “nothing is impos-sible in the long lapse of ages.”

A further argument in favor of the early develop-ment of Median power, and the great importanceof the nation in Western Asia at a period anterior tothe ninth century, is derivable from the ancient leg-ends of the Greeks, which seem to have designatedthe Medes under the two eponyms of Medea andAndromeda. These legends indeed do not admit ofbeing dated with any accuracy; but as they are ofa primitive type, and probably older than Homer,we cannot well assign them to an age later than b.c.1000. Now they connect the Median name withthe two countries of Syria and Colchis, countriesremote from each other, and neither of them suf-ficiently near the true Median territory to be heldfrom it, unless at a time when the Medes were inpossession of something like an empire. And, evenapart from any inferences to be drawn from thelocalties which the Greek Myths connect with theMedes, the very fact that the race was known tothe Greeks at this early date–long before the move-ments which brought them into contact with theAssyrians–would seem to show that there was some



remote period–prior to the Assyrian domination–when the fame of the Medes was great in the partof Asia known to the Hellenes, and that they didnot first attract Hellenic notice (as, but for theMyths, we might have imagined) by the conquestsof Cyaxarea. Thus, on the whole it would appearthat we must acknowledge two periods of Medianprosperity, separated from each other by a lengthyinterval, one anterior to the rise of the Cushite em-pire in Lower Babylonia, the other parallel with thedecline and subsequently to the fall of Assyria.Of the first period it cannot be said that we pos-sess any distinct historical knowledge. The Me-dian dynasty of Berosus at Babylon appears, byrecent discoveries, to have represented those Susia-nian monarchs who bore sway there from B.C. 2286to 2052. The early Median preponderance in West-ern Asia, if it is a fact, must have been anteriorto this, and is an event which has only left tracesin ethnological names and in mythological specula-tions.Our historical knowledge of the Medes as a na-tion commences in the latter half of the ninth cen-tury before our era. Shalmaneser II.–probably the“Shalman” of Hosea,–who reigned from B.C. 859to B.C. 824–relates that in his twenty-fourth year(B.C. 885), after having reduced to subjection theZimri, who held the Zagros mountain range imme-diately to the east of Assyria, and received tributefrom the Persians, he led an expedition into Mediaand Arazias, where he took and destroyed a num-ber of the towns, slaying the men, and carrying offthe spoil. He does not mention any pitched battle;and indeed it would seem that he met with no se-rious resistance. The Medes whom he attacks areevidently a weak and insignificant people, whom heholds in small esteem, and regards as only deserv-ing of a hurried mention. They seem to occupy thetract now known as Ardelan–a varied region con-taining several lofty ridges, with broad plains lyingbetween them.It is remarkable that the time of this first con-tact of Media with Assyria–a contact taking placewhen Assyria was in her prime, and Media was onlyjust emerging from a long period of weakness andobscurity–is almost exactly that which Ctesias se-lects as a day of the great revolution whereby theEmpire of the East passed from the hands of theShemites into those of the Arians. The long resi-dence of Otesias among the Persians, gave him abias toward that people, which even extended totheir close kin, the Medes. Bent on glorifying thesetwo Arian races, he determined to throw back the

commencement of their empire to a period long an-terior to the true date; and, feeling specially anx-ious to cover up their early humiliation, he assignedtheir most glorious conquests to the very century,and almost to the very time, when they were in factsuffering reverses at the hands of the people overwhom he represented them as triumphant. Therewas a boldness in the notion of thus inverting his-tory which almost deserved, and to a considerableextent obtained, success. The “long chronology”of Ctesias kept its ground until recently, not in-deed meeting with universal acceptance, but on thewhole predominating over the “short chronology”of Herodotus; and it may be doubted whether any-thing less than the discovery that the native recordsof Assyria entirely contradicted Ctesias would havesufficed to drive from the field his figment of earlyMedian dominion.

The second occasion upon which we hear of theMedes in the Assyrian annals is in the reign of Shal-manoser’s son and successor, Shamas-Vul. Hereagain, as on the former occasion, the Assyrianswere the aggressors. Shamas-Vul invaded Mediaand Arazias in his third year, and committed rav-ages similar to those of his father, wasting the coun-try with fire and sword, but not (it would seem)reducing the Medes to subjection, or even attempt-ing to occupy their territory. Again the attack isa mere raid, which produces no permanent impres-sion.

It is in the reign of the son and successor of Shamas-Vul that the Medes appear for the first time to havemade their submission and accepted the position ofAssyrian tributaries. A people which was unable tooffer effectual resistance when the Assyrian leviesinvaded their country, and which had no means ofretaliating upon their foe or making him suffer theevils that he inflicted, was naturally tempted tosave itself from molestation by the payment of anannual tribute, so purchasing quiet at the expenseof honor and independence. Towards the close ofthe ninth century B.C. the Medes seem to havefollowed the example set them very much earlierby their kindred and neighbors, the Persians, andto have made arrangements for an annual paymentwhich should exempt their territory from ravage. Itis doubtful whether the arrangement was made bythe whole people. The Median tribes at this timehung so loosely together that a policy adopted byone portion of them might be entirely repudiatedby another. Most probably the tribute was paidby those tribes only which boarded on Zagros, andnot by those further to the east or to the north,



into whose territories the Assyrian arms has notyet penetrated.

No further change in the condition of the Medesis known to have occurred until about a hundredyears later, when the Assyrians ceased to be con-tent with the semi-independent position which hadbeen hitherto allowed them, and determined ontheir more complete subjugation. The great Sar-gon, the assailant of Egypt and conqueror of Baby-lon, towards the middle of his reign, invaded Mediawith a large army, and having rapidly overrun thecountry, seized several of the towns, and “annexedthem to Assyria,” while at the same time he alsoestablished in new situations a number of fortifiedposts. The object was evidently to incorporate Me-dia into the empire; and the posts wore stationsin which a standing army was placed, to overawethe natives and prevent them from offering an ef-fectual resistance. With the same view deportationof the people on a large scale seems to have beenpractised and the gaps thus made in the popula-tion were filled up–wholly or in part–by the settle-ment in the Median cities of Samaritan captives.On the country thus re-organized and re-arrangeda tribute of a new character was laid. In lieu ofthe money payment hitherto exacted, the Medeswere required to furnish annually to the royal studa number of horses. It is probable that Media wasalready famous for the remarkable breed which is socelebrated in later times; and that the horses nowrequired of her by the Assyrians were to be of thelarge and highly valued kind known as “Nisaean.”

The date of this subjugation is about B.C. 710.And here, if we compare the Greek accounts ofMedian history with those far more authentic oneswhich have reached us through the Assyrian con-temporary records, we are struck by a repetition ofthe same device which came under our notice morethan a century earlier–the device of covering up thenation’s disgraces at a particular period by assign-ing to that very date certain great and striking suc-cesses. As Ctesias’s revolt of the Medes under Ar-baces and conquest of Nineveh synchronizes nearlywith the first known ravages of Assyria within theterritories of the Medes, so Herodotus’s revolt ofthe same people and commencement of their monar-chy under Deioces falls almost exactly at the datewhen they entirely lose their independence. Asthere is no reason to suspect Herodotus either ofpartiality toward the Medes or of any wilful depar-ture from the truth, we must regard him as im-posed upon by his informants, who were probablyeither Medes or Persians. These mendacious patri-

ots found little difficulty in palming their false taleupon the simple Halicarnassian, thereby at onceextending the antiquity of their empire and con-cealing its shame behind a halo of fictitious glory.

After their subjugation by Sargon the Medes of Me-dia Magna appear to have remained the faithfulsubjects of Assyria for sixty or seventy years. Dur-ing this period we find no notices of the great massof the nation in the Assyrian records: only hereand there indications occur that Assyria is stretch-ing out her arms towards the more distant andoutlying tribes, especially those of Azerbijan, andcompelling them to acknowledge her as mistress.Sennacherib boasts that early in his reign, aboutB.C. 702, he received an embassy from the remoterparts of Media–“parts of which the kings his fathershad not even heard”–which brought him presentsin sign of submission, and patiently accepted hisyoke. His son, Esar-haddon, relates that, about histenth year (B.C. 671) he invaded Bikni or Bikan, adistant province of Media, “whereof the kings hisfathers had never heard the name;” and, attackingthe cities of the region one after another, forcedthem to acknowledge his authority. The countrywas held by a number of independent chiefs, eachbearing sway in his own city and adjacent territory.These chiefs have unmistakably Arian names, asSitriparna or Sitraphernes, Eparna or Orphernes,Zanasana or Zanasanes, and Eamatiya or Ramates.Esar-haddon says that, having entered the coun-try with his army, he seized two of the chiefs andcarried them off to Assyria, together with a vastspoil and numerous other captives. Hereupon theremaining chiefs, alarmed for their safety, madetheir submission, consenting to pay an annual trib-ute, and admitting Assyrian officers into their ter-ritories, who watched, if they did not even control,the government.

We are now approaching the time when Mediaseems to have been first consolidated into a monar-chy by the genius of an individual. Sober historyis forced to discard the shadowy forms of kingswith which Greek writers of more fancy than judg-ment have peopled the darkness that rests upon the“origines” of the Medes. Arbaces, Maudaces, Sosar-mus, Artycas, Arbianes, Artseus, Deioces–Medianmonarchs, according to Ctesias or Herodotus, dur-ing the space of time comprised within the yearsB.C. 875 and 655–have to be dismissed by the mod-ern writer without a word, since there is reason tobelieve that they are mere creatures of the imagi-nation, inventions of unscrupulous romancers, notmen who once walked the earth. The list of Median



kings in Ctesias, so far as it differs from the list inHerodotus, seems to be a pure forgery–an extensionof the period of the monarchy by the conscious useof a system of duplication. Each king, or period,in Herodotus occurs in the list of Ctesias twice–atransparent device, clumsily cloaked by the cheapexpedient of a liberal invention of names. Even thelist of Herodotus requires curtailment. His Deio-ces, whose whole history reads more like romancethan truth–the organizer of a powerful monarchyin Media just at the time when Sargon was build-ing his fortified posts in the country and peoplingwith his Israelite captives the old “cities of theMedes”–the prince who reigned for above half a cen-tury in perfect peace with his neighbors, and who,although contemporary with Sargon, Sennacherib,Esar-haddon, and As-shur-bani-pal–all kings moreor less connected with Media–is never heard of inany of their annals, must be relegated to the his-torical limbo in which repose so many “shades ofmighty names;” and the Herodotean list of Mediankings must at any rate, be thus far reduced. Noth-ing is more evident than that during the flourishingperiod of Assyria under the great Sargonidae abovenamed there was no grand Median kingdom uponthe eastern flank of the empire. Such a kingdomhad certainly not been formed up to B.C. 671, whenEsar-haddon reduced the more distant Medes, find-ing them still under the government of a numberof petty chiefs. The earliest time at which we canimagine the consolidation to have taken place con-sistently with what we know of Assyria is aboutB.C. 760, or nearly half a century later than thedate given by Herodotus.

The cause of the sudden growth of Media in powerabout this period, and of the consolidation whichfollowed rapidly upon that growth, is to be sought,apparently, in fresh migratory movements from theArian head-quarters, the countries east and south-east of the Caspian. The Cyaxares who about theyear B.C. 632 led an invading host of Medes againstNineveh, was so well known to the Arian tribes ofthe north-east that, when in the reign of DariusHystaspis a Sagartian raised the standard of revoltin 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 inconjunction with his father (whom Herodotus callsPhraortes), led a fresh emigration of Arians fromthe Bacterian and Sagartian country to the regionsdirectly east of the Zagros mountain chain; and hav-ing thus vastly increased the strength of the Arianrace in that quarter, set himself to consolidate a

mountain kingdom capable of resisting the greatmonarchy of the plain. Accepted, it would seem,as chief by the former Arian inhabitants of thetract, he proceeded to reduce the scattered Scythictribes which had hitherto held possession of thehigh mountain region. The Zimri, Minni, Hupuska,etc., who divided among them the country lyingbetween Media Proper and Assyria, were attackedand subdued without any great difficulty; and theconqueror, finding himself thus at the head of aconsiderable kingdom, and no longer in any dan-ger of subjugation at the hands of Assyria, beganto contemplate the audacious enterprise of himselfattacking the Great Power which had been for somany hundred years the terror of Western Asia.The supineness of Asshur-bani-pal, the Assyrianking, who must at this time have been advanced inyears, encouraged his aspirations; and about B.C.634, when that monarch had held the throne forthirty-four years, suddenly, without warning, theMedian troops debouched from the passes of Za-gros, and spread themselves over the rich countryat its base, Alarmed by the nearness and greatnessof the peril, the Assyrian king aroused himself, andputting himself at the head of his troops, marchedout to confront the invader. A great battle wasfought, probably somewhere in Adiabene, in whichthe Medes were completely defeated: their wholearmy was cut to pieces; and the father of Cyaxareswas among the slain. Such was the result of thefirst Median expedition against Nineveh. The as-sailants had miscalculated their strength. In theirown mountain country, and so long as they shouldbe called upon to act only on the defensive, theymight be right in regarding themselves as a matchfor the Assyrians; but when they descended intothe plain, and allowed their enemy the opportu-nity of manoeuvering and of using his war chariots,their inferiority was marked. Cyaxares, now, if notpreviously, actual king, withdrew awhile from thewar, and, convinced that all the valor of his Medeswould be unavailing without discipline, set himselfto organize the army on a new system, taking apattern from the enemy, who had long possessedsome knowledge of tactics. Hitherto, it would seem,each Median chief had brought into the field hisband of followers, some mounted, some on foot,foot and horse alike armed variously as their meansallowed them, some with bows and arrows, somewith spears, some perhaps with slings or darts; andthe army had been composed of a number of suchbodies, each chief keeping his band close about him.Cyaxares broke up these bands, and formed the sol-diers who composed them into distinct corps, ac-



cording as they were horsemen or footmen, archers,slingers, or lancers. He then, having completedhis arrangements at his ease, without disturbance(so far as appears) from the Assyrians, felt him-self strong enough to renew the war with a goodprospect of success. Collecting as large an armyas he could, both from his Arian and his Scythicsubjects, he marched into Assyria, met the troopsof Asshur-bani-pal in the field, defeated them sig-nally, and forced them to take refuge behind thestrong works which defended their capital. He evenventured to follow up the flying foe and commencethe siege of the capital itself; but at this point hewas suddenly checked in his career of victory, andforced to assume a defensive attitude, by a dangerof a novel kind, which recalled him from Ninevehto his own country.

The vast tracts, chiefly consisting of grassy plains,which lie north of the Black Sea, the Caucasus, theCaspian, and the Jaxartes Syhun river, were inhab-ited in ancient times by a race or races known tothe Asiatics as Saka, “Scythians.” These peopleappear to have been allied ethnically with manyof the more southern races, as with the Parthians,the Iberians, the Alarodians, the tribes of the Za-gros chain, the Susianians, and others. It is justpossible that they may have taken an interest inthe warfare of their southern brethren, and that,when Cyaxares brought the tribes of Zagros un-der his yoke, the Scyths of the north may havefelt resentment, or compassion, If this view seemtoo improbable, considering the distance, the phys-ical obstacles, and the little communication thatthere was between nations in those early times, wemust suppose that by a mere coincidence it hap-pened that the subjugation of the southern Scythsby Cyaxares was followed within a few years by agreat irruption of Scyths from the trans-Caucasianregion. In that case we shall have to regard the in-vasion as a mere example of that ever-recurring lawby which the poor and hardy races of Upper Asiaor Europe are from time to time directed upon theeffete kingdoms of the south, to shake, ravage, oroverturn them, as the case may be, and preventthem from stagnating into corruption.

The character of the Scythians, and the general na-ture of their ravages, have been described in a for-mer portion of this work. If they entered SouthernAsia, as seems probable, by the Daghestan route,they would then have been able to pass on withoutmuch difficulty, through Georgia into Azerbijan,and from Azerbijan into Media Magna, where theMedes had now established their southern capital.

Four roads lead from Azerbijan to Hamadan or theGreater Ecbatana, one through Menjil and Kasvin,and across the Caraghan Hills; a second throughMiana, Zenjan, and the province of Khamseh; athird by the valley of the Jaghetu, through Chukliand Tikan-Teppeh; and a fourth through Sefer-Khaneh and Sennah. We cannot say which of thefour the invaders selected; but, as they were pass-ing southwards, they met the army of Cyaxares,which had quitted Nineveh on the first news oftheir invasion, and had marched in hot haste tomeet and engage them. The two enemies were notill-matched. Both were hardy and warlike, both ac-tive and full of energy; with both the cavalry wasthe chief arm, and the bow the weapon on whichthey depended mainly for victory. The Medes wereno doubt the better disciplined; they had a greatervariety of weapons and of soldiers; and individu-ally they were probably more powerful men thanthe Scythians; but these last had the advantageof numbers, of reckless daring, and of tactics thatit was difficult to encounter. Moreover, the neces-sity of their situation in the midst of an enemy’scountry made it imperative on them to succeed,while their adversaries might be defeated withoutany very grievous consequences. The Scytho hadnot come into Asia to conquer so much as to ravage;defeat at their hands involved damage rather thandestruction; and the Medes must have felt that, ifthey lost the battle, they might still hope to main-tain a stout defence behind the strong walls of someof their towns. The result was such as might havebeen expected under these circumstances. Madyes,the Scythian leader, obtained the victory, Cyaxareswas defeated, and compelled to make terms withthe invader. Retaining his royal name, and the ac-tual government of his country, he admitted thesuzerainty of the Scyths, and agreed to pay theman annual tribute. Whether Media suffered very se-riously from their ravages, we cannot say. Neitherits wealth nor its fertility was such as to temptmarauders to remain in it very long. The maincomplaint made against the Scythian conquerors isthat, not content with the fixed tribute which theyhad agreed to receive, and which was paid themregularly, they levied contributions at their plea-sure on the various states under their sway, whichwere oppressed by repeated exactions. The injuriessuffered from their marauding habits form only asubordinate charge against them, as though it hadnot been practically felt to be so great a grievance.We can well imagine that the bulk of the invaderswould prefer the warmer and richer lands of As-syria, Mesopotamia, and Syria; and that, pouring



into them, they would leave the colder and lesswealthy Media comparatively free from ravage.

The condition of Media and the adjacent coun-tries under the Scythians must have nearly resem-bled that of almost the same regions under theSeljukian Turks during the early times of their dom-ination. The conquerors made no fixed settlements,but pitched their tents in any portion of the ter-ritory that they chose. Their horses and cattlewere free to pasture on all lands equally. Theywere recognized as the dominant race, were fearedand shunned, but did not greatly interfere with thebulk of their subjects. It was impossible that theyshould occupy at any given time more than a com-paratively few spots in the wide tract which theyhad overrun and subjugated; and, consequently,there was not much contact between them and thepeoples whom they had conquered. Such contactas there was must no doubt have been galling andoppressive. The right of free pasture in the lands ofothers is always irksome to those who have to en-dure it, and, even where it is exercised with strictfairness, naturally leads to quarrels. The barbarousScythians are not likely to have cared very muchabout fairness. They would press heavily upon themore fertile tracts, paying over-frequent visits tosuch spots, and remaining in them till the regionwas exhausted. The chiefs would not be able torestrain their followers from acts of pillage; redresswould be obtained with difficulty; and sometimeseven the chiefs themselves may have been sharersin the injuries committed. The insolence, moreover,of a dominant race so coarse and rude as the Scythsmust have been very hard to bear; and we can wellunderstand that the various nations which had toendure the yoke must have looked anxiously for anopportunity of shaking it off, and recovering theirindependence.

Among these various nations, there was probablynone that fretted and winced under its subjectionmore than the Medes. Naturally brave and high-spirited, with the love of independence inherent inmountaineers, and with a well-grounded pride intheir recent great successes, they must have chafeddaily and hourly at the ignominy of their position,the postponement of their hopes, and the wrongswhich they continually suffered. At first it seemednecessary to endure. They had tried the chances ofa battle, and had been defeated in fair fight–whatreason was there to hope that, if they drew thesword again, they would be more successful? Ac-cordingly they remained quiet but, as time went on,and the Scythians dispersed themselves continually

over a wider and a wider space, invading Assyria,Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, and again Armeniaand Cappadocia, everywhere plundering and ma-rauding, conducting sieges, fighting battles, losingmen from the sword, from sickness, from excesses,becoming weaker instead of stronger, as each yearwent by, owing to the drain of constant wars–theMedes by degrees took heart. Not trusting, how-ever, entirely to the strength of their right arms,a trust which had failed them once, they resolvedto prepare the way for an outbreak by a stratagemwhich they regarded as justifiable. Cyaxares andhis court invited a number of the Scythian chiefsto a grand banquet, and, having induced them todrink till they were completely drunk, set uponthem when they were in this helpless condition, andremorselessly slew them all.

This deed was the signal for a general revolt ofthe nation. The Medes everywhere took arms, and,turning upon their conquerors, assailed them witha fury the more terrible because it had been foryears repressed. A war followed, the duration andcircumstances of which are unknown; for the storieswith which Ctesias enlivened this portion of his his-tory can scarcely be accepted as having any founda-tion in fact. According to him, the Parthians madecommon cause with the Scythians on the occasion,and the war lasted many years; numerous battleswere fought with great loss to both sides; and peacewas finally concluded without either party havinggained the upper hand. The Scyths were com-manded by a queen, Zarina or Zarinsea, woman ofrare beauty, and as brave as she was fair; who wonthe hearts, when she could not resist the swords, ofher adversaries. A strangely romantic love-tale istold of this beauteous Amazon. It is not at all clearwhat region Ctesias supposes her to govern. It hasa capital city, called Koxanace (a name entirely un-known to any other historian or geographer), andit contains many other towns of which Zarina wasthe foundress. Its chief architectural monumentwas the tomb of Zarina, a triangular pyramid, sixhundred feet high, and more than a mile roundthe base, crowned by a colossal figure of the queenmade of solid gold. But–to leave these fables andreturn to fact–we can only say with certainty thatthe result of the war was the complete defeat ofthe Scythians, who not only lost their position ofpre-eminence in Media and the adjacent countries,but were driven across the Caucasus into their ownproper territory. Their expulsion was so completethat they scarcely left a trace of their power ortheir presence in the geography or ethnography of



the country. One Palestine city only, as alreadyobserved, and one Armenian province retained intheir names a lingering memory of the great inroadwhich but for them would have passed away with-out making any more permanent mark on the re-gion than a hurricane or a snowstorm. How longthe dominion of the Scyths endured is a matter ofgreat uncertainty. It was no doubt the belief ofHerodotus that from their defeat of Cyaxares tohis treacherous murder of their chiefs was a periodof exactly twenty-eight years. During the whole ofthis space he regarded them as the undisputed lordsof Asia. It was not till the twenty-eight years wereover that the Medes were able, according to him,to renew their attacks on the Assyrians, and oncemore to besiege Nineveh. But this chronology isopen to great objections. There is strong reason forbelieving that Nineveh fell about B.C. 625 or 624;but according to the numbers of Herodotus the fallwould, at the earliest, have taken place in B.C. 602.There is great unlikelihood that the Scyths, if theyhad maintained their rule for a generation, shouldnot have attracted some distinct notice from theJewish writers. Again, if twenty-eight out of theforty years assigned to Cyaxares are to be regardedas years of inaction, all his great exploits, his twosieges of Nineveh, his capture of that capital, hisconquest of the countries north and west of Me-dia as far as the Halys, his six years’ war in AsiaMinor beyond that river, and his joint expeditionwith Nebuchadnezzar into Syria, will have to becrowded most improbably into the space of twelveyears, two or three preceding and ten or nine fol-lowing the Scythian domination. These and otherreasons lead to the conclusion, which has the sup-port of Eusebius, that the Scythian domination wasof much shorter duration than Herodotus imagined.It may have been twenty-eight years from the origi-nal attack on Media to the final expulsion of the lastof the invaders from Asia–and this may have beenwhat the informants of Herodotus really intended–but it cannot have been very long after the first at-tack before the Medes began to recover themselves,to shake off the fear which had possessed them andclear their territories of the invaders. If the in-vasion really took place in the reign of Cyaxares,and not in the lifetime of his father, where Euse-bius places it, we must suppose that within eightyears of its occurrence Cyaxares found himself suf-ficiently strong, and his hands sufficiently free, toresume his old projects, and for the second time tomarch an army into Assyria.

The weakness of Assyria was such as to offer strong

temptations to an invader. As the famous inroad ofthe Gauls into Italy in the year of Rome 365 pavedthe way for the Roman conquests in the penin-sula by breaking the power of the Etruscans, theUmbrians, and various other races, so the Scythicincursion may have, really benefited, rather thaninjured, Media, by weakening the great power towhose empire she aspired to succeed. The exhaus-tion of Assyria’s resources at the time is remark-ably illustrated by the poverty and meanness of thepalace which the last king, Saracus, built for him-self at Calah. She lay, apparently, at the mercy ofthe first bold assailant, her prestige lost, her armydispirited or disorganized, her defences injured, herhigh spirit broken and subdued.

Cyaxaros, ere proceeding to the attack, sent, itis probable, to make an alliance with the Susiani-ans and Chaldaeans. Susiana was the last countrywhich Assyria had conquered, and could rememberthe pleasures of independence. Chaldaea, though ithad been now for above half a century an Assyrianfief, and had borne the yoke with scarcely a murmurduring that period, could never wholly forget its oldglories, or the long resistance which it had made be-fore submitting to its northern neighbor. The over-tures of the Median monarch seem to have beenfavorably received; and it was agreed that an armyfrom the south should march up the Tigris andthreaten Assyria from that quarter, while Cyaxaresled his Medes from the east, through the passes ofZagros against the capital. Rumor soon conveyedthe tidings of his enemies’ intentions to the Assyr-ian monarch, who immediately made such a dis-position of the forces at his command as seemedbest calculated to meet the double danger whichthreatened him. Selecting from among his generalsthe one in whom he placed most confidence–a mannamed Nabopolassar, most probably an Assyrian–he put him at the head of a portion of his troops,and sent him to Babylon to resist the enemy whowas advancing from the sea. The command ofhis main army he reserved for himself, intendingto undertake in person the defence of his terri-tory against the Medes. This plan of campaignwas not badly conceived; but it was frustrated byan unexpected calamity, Nabopolassar, seeing hissovereign’s danger, and calculating astutely that hemight gain more by an opportune defection from afalling cause than he could look to receive as thereward of fidelity, resolved to turn traitor and jointhe enemies of Assyria. Accordingly he sent anembassy to Cyaxares, with proposals for a closealliance to be cemented by a marriage. If the Me-



dian monarch would give his daughter Amuhia (orAmyitis) to be the wife of his son Nebuchadnezzar,the forces under his command should march againstNineveh and assist Cyaxares to capture it. Such aproposition arriving at such a time was not likely tomeet with a refusal. Cyaxares gladly came into theterms; the marriage took place; and Nabopolassar,who had now practically assumed the sovereigntyof Babylon, either led or sent a Babylonian contin-gent to the aid of the Medes.

The siege of Nineveh by the combined Medesand Babylonians was narrated by Ctesias at somelength. He called the Assyrian king Sardanapalus,the Median commander Arbaces, the BabylonianBelesis. Though he thus disguised the real names,and threw back the event to a period a centuryand a half earlier than its true date, there can beno doubt that he intended to relate the last siegeof the city, that which immediately preceded itscomplete destruction. He told how the combinedarmy, consisting of Persians and Arabs as well asof Medes and Babylonians, and amounting to fourhundred thousand men, was twice defeated withgreat loss by the Assyrian monarch, and compelledto take refuge in the Zagros chain–how after los-ing a third battle it retreated to Babylonia–howit was there joined by strong reinforcements fromBactria, surprised the Assyrian camp by night, anddrove the whole host in confusion to Nineveh–howthen, after two more victories, it advanced andinvested the city, which was well provisioned fora siege and strongly fortified. The siege, Ctesiassaid, had lasted two full years, and the third yearhad commenced–success seemed still far off–whenan unusually rainy season so swelled the waters ofthe Tigris that they burst into the city, sweepingaway more than two miles of the wall. This vastbreach it was impossible to repair; and the Assyrianmonarch, seeing that further resistance was vain,brought the struggle to an end by burning himself,with his concubines and eunuchs and all his chiefwealth, in his palace.

Such, in outline, was the story of Ctesias. If weexcept the extent of the breach which the river isdeclared to have made, it contains no glaring im-probabilities. On the contrary, it is a narrative thathangs well together, and that suits both the rela-tions of the parties and the localities. Moreover, itis confirmed in one or two points by authorities ofthe highest order. Still, as Ctesias is a writer whodelights in fiction, and as it seems very unlikely thathe would find a detailed account of the siege, suchas he has given us, in the Persian archives, from

whence he professed to derive his history, no confi-dence can be placed in those points of his narrativewhich have not any further sanction. All that weknow on the subject of the last siege of Ninevehis that it was conducted by a combined army ofMedes and Babylonians, the former commanded byCyaxares, the latter by Nabopolassar or Nebuchad-nezzar, and that it was terminated, when all hopewas lost, by the suicide of the Assyrian monarch.The self-immolation of Saracus is related by Aby-denus, who almost certainly follows Berosus in thispart of his history. We may therefore accept it asa fact about which there ought to be no question.Actuated by a feeling which has more than oncecaused a vanquished monarch to die rather thanfall into the power of his enemies, Saracus made afuneral pyre of his ancestral palace, and lighted itwith his own hand.

One further point in the narrative of Ctesias wemay suspect to contain a true representation. Cte-sias declared the cause of the capture to have beenthe destruction of the city wall by an unexpectedrise of the river. Now, the prophet Nahum, in hisannouncement of the fate coming on Nineveh, has avery remarkable expression, which seems most nat-urally to point to some destruction of a portion ofthe fortifications by means of water. After relatingthe steps that would be taken for the defence of theplace, he turns to remark on their fruitlessness, andsays: “The gates of the rivers are opened, and thepalace is dissolved; and Huzzab is led away captive;she is led up, with her maidens, sighing as with thevoice of doves, smiting upon their breasts.” Now,we have already seen that at the northwest angle ofNineveh there was a sluice or floodgate, intendedmainly to keep the water of the Khosrsu, which or-dinarily filled the city moat, from flowing off toorapidly into the Tigris, but probably intended alsoto keep back the water of the Tigris, when thatstream rose above its common level. A sudden andgreat rise of the Tigris would necessarily endangerthis gate, and if it gave way beneath the pressure,a vast torrent of water would rush up the moatalong and against the northern wall, which mayhave been undermined by its force, and have fallenin. The stream would then pour into the city; andit may perhaps have reached the palace platform,which being made of sun-dried bricks, and proba-bly not cased with stone inside the city, would be-gin to be “dissolved.” Such seems the simplest andbest interpretation of this passage, which, thoughit is not historical, but only prophetical, must beregarded as giving an importance that it would not



otherwise have possessed to the statement of Cte-sias with regard to the part played by the Tigris inthe destruction of Nineveh.

The fall of the city was followed by a division of thespoil between the two principal conquerors. WhileCyaxares took to his own share the land of the con-quered people, Assyria Proper, and the countriesdependent on Assyria towards the north and north-west, Nabopolassar was allowed, not merely Baby-lonia, Chaldaea, and Susiana, but the valley of theEuphrates and the countries to which that valleyconducted. Thus two considerable empires aroseat the same time cut of the ashes of Assyria–theBabylonian towards the south and the south-west,stretching from Luristan to the borders of Egypt,the Median towards the north, reaching from thesalt desert of Iran to Amanus and the Upper Eu-phrates. These empires were established by mutualconsent; they were connected together, not merelyby treaties, but by the ties of affinity which unitedtheir rulers; and, instead of cherishing, as mighthave been expected, a mutual suspicion and dis-trust, they seem to have really entertained the mostfriendly feelings towards one another, and to havebeen ready on all emergencies to lend each otherimportant assistance. For once in the history ofthe world two powerful monarchies were seen tostand side by side, not only without collision, butwithout jealousy or rancor. Babylonia and Mediawere content to share between them the empire ofWestern Asia: the world was, they thought, wideenough for both; and so, though they could notbut have had in some respects conflicting interests,they remained close friends and allies for more thanhalf a century.

To the Median monarch the conquest of Assyriadid not bring a time of repose. Wandering bandsof Scythians were still, it is probable, committingravages in many parts of Western Asia. The sub-jects of Assyria, set free by her downfall, were likelyto use the occasion for the assertion of their inde-pendence, if they were not immediately shown thata power of at least equal strength had taken herplace, and was prepared to claim her inheritance.War begets war; and the successes of Cyaxares upto the present point in his career did but whet hisappetite for power, and stimulate him to attemptfurther conquests. In brief but pregnant wordsHerodotus informs us that Cyaxares “subdued tohimself all Asia above the Halys.” How much hemay include in this expression, it is impossible todetermine; but, prime facie, it would seem at leastto imply that he engaged in a series of wars with

the various tribes and nations which intervened be-tween Media and Assyria on the one side and theriver Halys on the other, and that he succeededin bringing them under his dominion. The mostimportant countries in this direction were Arme-nia and Cappadocia. Armenia, strong in its loftymountains, its deep gorges, and its numerous rapidrivers–the head-streams of the Tigris, Euphrates,Kur, and Aras–had for centuries resisted with un-conquered spirit the perpetual efforts of the Assyr-ian kings to bring it under their yoke, and had onlyat last consented under the latest king but one toa mere nominal allegiance. Cappadocia had noteven been brought to this degree of dependence. Ithad lain beyond the furthest limit whereto the As-syrian arms had ever reached, and had not as yetcome into collision with any of the great powers ofAsia. Other minor tribes in this region, neighborsof the Armenians and Cappadocians, but more re-mote from Media, were the Ibenans, the Colchians,the Moschi, the Tibareni, the Mares the Macrones,and the Mosynoeci. Herodotus appears to havebeen of opinion that all these tribes, or at any rateall but the Colchians, were at this time brought un-der by Cyaxares who thus extended his dominionsto 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 countriesunder the Median yoke was not so much a conquestas a voluntary submission of the inhabitants to thepower which alone seemed strong enough to savethem from the hated domination of the Scyths. Ac-cording to Strabo, Armenia and Cappadocia werethe regions where the Scythic ravages had beenmost severely felt. Cappadocia had been devas-tated from the mountains down to the coast; andin Armenia the most fertile portion of the wholeterritory had been seized and occupied by the in-vaders, from whom it thenceforth took the name ofSacassene, the Armenians and Cappadocians mayhave found the yoke of the Scyths so intolerableas to have gladly exchanged it for dependence ona comparatively civilized people. In the neighbor-ing territory of Asia Minor a similar cause had re-cently exercised a unifying influence, the necessityof combining to resist Cimmerian immigrants hav-ing tended to establish a hegemony of Lydia overthe various tribes which divided among them thetract west of the Halys. It is evidently not improb-able that the sufferings endured at the hands of theScyths may have disposed the nations east of theriver to adopt the same remedy and that, so soonas Media had proved her strength, first by shaking



herself free of the Scythic invaders and then con-quering Assyria. the tribes of these parts acceptedher as at once their mistress and their deliverer.Another quite distinct cause may also have helpedto bring about the result above indicated. Parallelwith the great Median migration from the East un-der Cyaxares, or Phraortes (?), his father, an Arianinflux had taken place into the countries betweenthe Caspian and the Halys. In Armenia and Cap-padocia during the flourishing period of Assyria,Turanian tribes had been predominant. Betweenthe middle and the end of the seventh century thesetribes appear to have yielded the supremacy to Ar-ians. In Armenia, the present language which ispredominantly Arian, ousted the former Turamantongue which appears in the cuneiform inscriptionsof Van and the adjacent regions. In Cappadocia,the Moschi and Tibareni had to yield their seatsto a new race–the Katapatuka, who were not onlyArian but distinctly Medo-Persic, as is plain fromtheir proper names, and from the close connectionof their royal house with that of the kings of Per-sia. This spread of the Arians into the countries ly-ing between the Caspian and the Halys must havedone much to pave the way for Median supremacyover those regions. The weaker Arian tribes ofthe north would have been proud of their southernbrethren, to whose arms the queen of Western Asiahad been forced to yield, and would have felt com-paratively little repugnance in surrendering theirindependence into the hands of a friendly and kin-dred people.Thus Cyaxares, in his triumphant progress to thenorth and the north-west, made war, it is proba-ble, chiefly upon the Scyths, or upon them and theold Turanian inhabitants of the countries, whileby the Arians he was welcomed as a championcome to deliver them from a grievous oppression.Ranging themselves under his standard, they prob-ably helped him to expel from Asia the barbarianhordes which had now for many years tyrannizedover them; and when the expulsion was completed,gratitude or habit made them willing to continuein the subject position which they had assumed inorder to effect it. Cyaxares within less than tenyears from his capture of Nineveh had added to hisempire the fertile and valuable tracts of Armeniaand Cappadocia–never really subject to Assyria–and may perhaps have further mastered the entireregion between Armenia and the Caucasus and Eu-xine.The advance of their western frontier to the riverHalys, which was involved in the absorption of Cap-

padocia into the Empire, brought the Medes intocontact with a new power–a power which, like Me-dia, had been recently increasing in greatness, andwhich was not likely to submit to a foreign yokewithout a struggle. The Lydian kingdom was oneof great antiquity in this part of Asia. Accordingto traditions current among its people, it had beenestablished more than seven hundred years at thetime when Cyaxares pushed his conquests to itsborders. Three dynasties of native kings–Atyadse,Heraclidse, and Mermnadae–had successively heldthe throne during that period. The Lydians couldrepeat the names of at least thirty monarchs whohad borne sway in Sardis, their capital city, sinceits foundation. They had never been conquered.In the old times, indeed, Lydus, the son of Atys,had changed the name of the people inhabitingthe country from Maeonians to Lydians–a changewhich to the keen sense of an historical critic im-plies a conquest of one race by another. But to thepeople themselves this tradition conveyed no suchmeaning; or, if it did to any, their self-complacencywas not disturbed thereby, since they would hugthe notion that they belonged not to the conqueredrace but to the conquerors. If a Ramcsos or aSesostris had ever penetrated to their country, hehad met with a brave resistance, and had left monu-ments indicating his respect for their courage. Nei-ther Babylon nor Assyria had ever given a king tothe Lydians–on the contrary, the Lydian traditionwas, that they had themselves sent forth Belus andNinus from their own country to found dynastiesand cities in Mesopotamia. In a still more remoteage they had seen their colonists embark upon thewestern waters, and start for the distant Hesperia,where they had arrived in safety, and had foundedthe great Etruscan nation. On another occasionthey had carried their arms beyond the limits ofAsia Minor, and had marched southward to thevery extremity of: Syria, where their general, As-calus, had founded a great city and called it afterhis name.

Such were the Lydian traditions with respect tothe more remote times. Of their real history theyseem to have known but little, and that little didnot extend further back than about two hundredyears before Cyaxares. Within this space it wascertain that they had had a change of dynasty,a change preceded by a long feud between theirtwo greatest houses, which were perhaps really twobranches of the royal family. The Heraclidae hadgrown jealous of the Mermnadae, and had treatedthem with injustice; the Mormnadae had at first



sought their safety in flight, and afterwards, whenthey felt themselves strong enough, had returned,murdered the Heraclide monarch, and placed theirchief, Gyges, upon the throne. With Gyges, whohad commenced his reign about B.C. 700, the pros-perity of the Lydians had greatly increased, andthey had begun to assume an aggressive attitudetowards their neighbors. Gyges’ revenue was sogreat that his wealth became proverbial, and hecould afford to spread his fame by sending from hissuperfluity to the distant temple of Delphi presentsof such magnificence that they were the admirationof later ages. The relations of his predecessors withthe Greeks of the Asiatic coast had been friendly,Gyges changed this policy, and, desirous of enlarg-ing his seaboard, made war upon the Greek mar-itime towns, attacking Miletus and Smyrna withoutresult, but succeeding in capturing the Ionic city ofColophon. He also picked a quarrel with the in-land town of Magnesia, and after many invasionsof its territory compelled it to submission. Accord-ing to some, he made himself master of the wholeterritory of the Troad, and the Milesians had to ob-tain his permission before they could establish theircolony of Abydos upon the Hellespont. At any ratehe was a rich and puissant monarch in the eyes ofthe Greeks of Asia and the islands, who were nevertired of celebrating his wealth, his wars, and hisromantic history.

The shadow of calamity had, however, fallen uponLydia towards the close of Gyges’ long reign.About thirty years before the Scythians from theSteppe country crossed the Caucasus and fell uponMedia, the same barrier was passed by anothergroat horde of nomads. The Cimmerians, probablya Celtic people, who had dwelt hitherto in the Tau-ric Chersonese and the country adjoining upon it,pressed on by Scythic invaders from the East, hadsought a vent in this direction. Passing the greatmountain barrier either by the route of Mozdok–the Pylas Caucasiae–or by some still more difficulttrack towards the Euxine, they had entered AsiaMinor by way of Cappadocia and had spread terrorand devastation in every direction. Gyges, alarmedat their advance, had placed himself under the pro-tection of Assyria, and had then confidently giventhem battle, defeated them, and captured several oftheir chiefs. It is uncertain whether the Assyriansgave him any material aid, but evident that he as-cribed his success to his alliance with them. In hisgratitude he sent an embassy to Asshur-bani-pal,king of Assyria, and courted his favor by presentsand by sending him his Cimmerian captives. Later

in his reign, however, he changed his policy, and,breaking with Assyria, gave aid to the Egyptianrebel, Psammetichus, and helped him to establishhis independence. The result followed which wasto be expected. Assyria withdrew her protection;and Lydia was left to fight her own battles whenthe great crisis came. Carrying all before them,the fierce hordes swarmed in full force into themore western districts of Asia Minor; Paphlagonia,Phrygia, Bithynia, Lydia, and Ionia were overrun;Gyges, venturing on an engagement, perished; thefrightened inhabitants generally shut themselves upin their walled towns, and hoped that the tide ofinvasion might sweep by them quickly and roll else-where; but the Cimmerians, impatient and undis-ciplined as they might be, could sometimes bringthemselves to endure the weary work of a siege, andthey saw in the Lydian capital a prize well worthan effort. The hordes besieged Sardis, and took it,except the citadel, which was commandingly placedand defied all their attempts. A terrible scene ofcarnage must have followed. How Lydia withstoodthe blow, and rapidly recovered from it, is hardto understand; but it seems certain that within ageneration she was so far restored to vigor as toventure on resuming her attacks upon the Greeksof the coast, which had been suspended during herperiod of prostration. Sadyattes, the son of Ardys,and grandson of Gyges, following the example ofhis father and grandfather, made war upon Miletus;and Alyattes, his son and successor, pursued thesame policy of aggression. Besides pressing Mile-tus, he besieged and took Smyrna, and ravaged theterritory of Clazomenae.

But the great work of Alyattes’ reign, and the onewhich seems to have had the most important conse-quences for Lydia, was the war which he undertookfor the purpose of expelling the Cimmerians fromAsia Minor. The hordes had been greatly weak-ened by time, by their losses in war, and, proba-bly by their excesses; they had long ceased to beformidable; but they were still strong enough tobe an annoyance. Alyattes is said to have “driventhem out of Asia,” by which we can scarcely un-derstand less than that he expelled them from hisown dominions and those of his neighbors–or, inother words, from the countries which had been thescenes of their chief ravages–Paphlagonia, Bithynia,Lydia, Phrygia, and Cilicia. But, to do this, hemust have entered into a league with his neighbors,who must have consented to act under him for thepurposes of war, if they did not even admit thepermanent hegemony of his country. Alyattes’ suc-



cess appears to have been complete, or nearly so;he cleared Asia Minor of the Cimmerians; and hav-ing thus conferred a benefit on all the nations of theregion and exhibited before their eyes his great mil-itary capacity, if he had not actually constructedan empire, he had at any rate done much to pavethe way for one.

Such was the political position in the regions westand south of the Halys, when Cyaxares completedhis absorption of Cappadocia, and looking acrossthe river that divided the Cappadocians from thePhrygians, saw stretched before him a region ofgreat fertile plains, which seemed to invite an in-vader. A pretext for an attack was all that hewanted, and this was soon forthcoming. A body ofthe nomad Scyths–probably belonging to the greatinvasion, though Herodotus thought otherwise–hadtaken service under Cyaxares, and for some timeserved him faithfully, being employed chiefly ashunters. A cause of quarrel, however, arose af-ter a while; and the Scyths, disliking their positionor distrusting the intentions of their lords towardsthem, quitted the Median territory, and, march-ing through a great part of Asia Minor, soughtand found a refuge with Alyattes, the Lydian king.Cyaxares, upon learning their flight, sent an em-bassy to the court of Sardis to demand the sur-render of the fugitives; but the Lydian monarchmet the demand with a refusal, and, fully under-standing the probable consequences, immediatelyprepared for war.

Though Lydia, compared to Media, was but a smallstate, yet her resources were by no means inconsid-erable. In fertility she surpassed almost every othercountry of Asia Minor, which is altogether one ofthe richest regions in the world. At this time shewas producing large quantities of gold, which wasfound in great abundance in the Pactolus, and prob-ably in the other small streams that flowed down onall sides from the Tmolus mountain-chain. Her peo-ple were at once warlike and ingenious. They hadinvented the art of coining money, and showed con-siderable taste in their devices. , They claimed alsoto have been the inventors of a number of games,which were common to them with the Greeks. Ac-cording to Herodotus, they were the first who madea livelihood by shop-keeping. They were skilful inthe use of musical instruments, and had their ownpeculiar musical mode or style, which was in muchfavor among the Greeks, though condemned as ef-feminate by some of the philosophers. At the sametime the Lydians were not wanting in courage ormanliness. They fought chiefly on horseback, and

were excellent riders, carrying long spears, whichthey managed with great skill. Nicolas of Damas-cus tells us that even under the Heraclido kings,they could muster for service cavalry to the num-ber of 30,000. In peace they pursued with ardorthe sports of the field, and found in the chase ofthe wild boar a pastime which called forth and ex-ercised every manly quality. Thus Lydia, even byherself, was no contemptible enemy; though it canhardly be supposed that, without help from oth-ers, she would have proved a match for the GreatMedian Empire.

But such help as she needed was not wanting to her.The rapid strides with which Media had advancedtowards the west had no doubt alarmed the numer-ous princes of Asia Minor, who must have felt thatthey had a power to deal with as full of schemes ofconquest as Assyria, and more capable of carryingher designs into execution. It has been already ob-served that the long course of Assyrian aggressionsdeveloped gradually among the Asiatic tribes a ten-dency to unite in leagues for purposes of resistance.The circumstances of the time called now impera-tively for such a league to be formed, unless theprinces of Asia Minor were content to have theirseveral territories absorbed one after another intothe growing Median Empire. These princes appearto have seen their danger. Cyaxares may perhapshave, declared war specially against the Lydians,and have crossed the Halys professedly in orderto chastise them; but he could only reach Lydiathrough the territories of other nations, which hewas evidently intending to conquer on his way; andit was thus apparent that he was activated, not byanger against a particular power, but by a generaldesign of extending his dominions in this direction.A league seems therefore to have been determinedon. We have not indeed any positive evidence of itsexistence till the close of the war; but the probabil-ities are wholly in favor of its having taken effectfrom the first. Prudence would have dictated sucha course; and it seems almost implied in the factthat a successful resistance was made to the Me-dian attack from the very commencement. We mayconclude therefore that the princes of Asia Minor,having either met in conclave or communicated byembassies, resolved to make common cause, if theMedes crossed the Halys; and that, having alreadyacted under Lydia in the expulsion of the Cimme-rians from their territories, they naturally placedher at their head when they coalesced for the sec-ond time.

Cyaxares on his part, was not content to bring



against the confederates merely the power of Media.He requested and obtained a contingent from theBabylonian monarch, Nabopolassar, and may notimprobably have had the assistance of other alliesalso. With a vast army drawn from various parts ofinner Asia, he invaded the territory of the WesternPowers, and began his attempt at subjugation. Wehave no detailed account of the war; but we learnfrom the general expressions of Herodotus that theMedian monarch met with a most stubborn re-sistance; numerous engagements were fought withvaried results; sometimes the Medes succeeded indefeating their adversaries in pitched battles; butsometimes, and apparently as often, the Lydiansand their allies gained decided victories over theMedes. It is noted that one of the engagementstook place by night, a rare occurrence in ancient(as in modern) times. The war had continued sixyears, and the Medes had evidently made no seri-ous impression, when a remarkable circumstancebrought it suddenly to a termination. The twoarmies had once more met and were engaged in con-flict, when, in the midst of the struggle, an ominousdarkness fell upon the combatants and filled themwith superstitious awe. The sun was eclipsed, ei-ther totally or at any rate considerably, so that theattention of the two armies was attracted to it; and,discontinuing the fight, they stood to gaze at thephenomenon. In most parts of the East such an oc-currence is even now seen with dread–the ignorantmass believe that the orb of day is actually being de-voured or destroyed, and that the end of all thingsis at hand–even the chiefs, who may have some no-tion that the phenomenon is a recurrent one, do notunderstand its cause, and participate in the alarmof their followers. On the present occasion it is saidthat, amid the general fear, a desire for reconcilia-tion seized both armies. Of this spontaneous move-ment two chiefs, the foremost of the allies on eitherside, took advantage. Syennesis, king of Cilicia, thefirst known monarch of his name, on the part of Ly-dia, and a prince whom Herodotus calls “Labyne-tus of Babylon”–probably either Nabopolassar orNebuchadnezzar–on the part of Media, came for-ward to propose an immediate armistice; and, whenthe proposal was accepted on either side, proceededto the more difficult task of arranging terms ofpeace between the contending parties. Since noth-ing is said of the Scythians, who had been put for-ward as the ostensible grounds of quarrel, we maypresume that Alyattes retained them. It is furtherclear that both he and his allies preserved undimin-ished both their territories and their independence.The territorial basis of the treaty was thus what

in modern diplomatic language is called the statusquo; matters, in other words, returned to the posi-tion in which they had stood before the war brokeout. The only difference was that Cyaxares gaineda friend and an ally where he had previously hada jealous enemy; since it was agreed that the twokings of Media and Lydia should swear a friendship,and that, to cement the alliance, Alyattes shouldgive his daughter Aryenis in marriage to Astyages,the son of Cyaxares. The marriage thus arrangedtook place soon afterwards, while the oath of friend-ship was sworn at once. According to the barbaroususages of the time and place, the two monarchs,having met and repeated the words of the formula,punctured their own arms, and then sealed theircontract by each sucking from the wound a portionof the other’s blood.

By this peace the three great monarchies of thetime–the Median, the Lydian, and the Babylonian–were placed on terms, not only of amity, but ofintimacy and (if the word may be used) of bloodrelationship. The Crown Princes of the three king-doms had become brothers. From the shores of theAegean to those of the Persian Gulf, Western Asiawas now ruled by interconnected dynasties, boundby treaties to respect each other’s rights, and per-haps to lend each other aid in important conjunc-tures, and animated, it would seem, by a real spiritof mutual friendliness and attachment. After morethan five centuries of almost constant war and rav-age, after fifty years of fearful strife and convulsion,during which the old monarchy of Assyria had gonedown and a new Empire–the Median–had risen upin its place, this part of Asia entered upon a periodof repose which stands out in strong contrast withthe long term of struggle. From the date of thepeace between Alyattes and Cyaxares (probablyB.C. 610), for nearly half a century, the three king-doms of Media, Lydia, and Babylonia remainedfast friends, pursuing their separate courses with-out quarrel or collision, and thus giving to the na-tions within their borders a rest and a refreshmentwhich they must have greatly needed and desired.

In one quarter only was this rest for a short time dis-turbed. During the troublous period the neighbor-ing country of Egypt, which had recovered its free-dom, and witnessed a revival of its ancient prosper-ity, under the Psamatik family, began once moreto aspire to the possession of those provinces which,being divided off from the rest of the Asiatic conti-nent by the impassable Syrian desert, seems politi-cally to belong to Africa almost more than to Asia.Psamatik I., the Psammetichus of Herodotus, had



commenced an aggressive war in this quarter, prob-ably about the time that Assyria was suffering fromthe Median and then from the Scythian inroads. Hehad besieged for several years the strong Philistinetown of Ashdod, which commands the coast-routefrom Egypt to Palestine, and was at this time amost important city. Despite a resistance whichwould have wearied out any less pertinacious as-sailant, he had persevered in his attempt, and hadfinally succeeded in taking the place. He had thusobtained a firm footing in Syria; and his succes-sor was, able, starting from this vantage-ground,to overrun and conquer the whole territory. Aboutthe year B.C. 608, Neco, son of Psamatik I., hav-ing recently ascended the throne, invaded Pales-tine with a large army, met and defeated Josiah,king of Judah, near Megiddo in the great plainof Esdraelon, and, pressing forward through Syriato the Euphrates, attacked and took Carchemish,the strong city which guarded the ordinary pas-sage of the river. Idumea, Palestine, Phoenicia, andSyria submitted to him, and for three years he re-mained in undisturbed possession of his conquest.Then, however, the Babylonians, who had receivedthese provinces at the division of the Assyrian Em-pire, began to bestir themselves. Nebuchadnezzarmarched to Carchemish, defeated the army of Neco,recovered all the territory to the border of Egypt,and even ravaged a portion of that country. It isprobable that in this expedition he was assisted bythe Medes. At any rate, seven or eight years after-wards, when the intrigues of Egypt had again cre-ated disturbances in this quarter, and Jehoiakim,the Jewish king, broke into open insurrection, theMedian monarch sent a contingent, which accom-panied Nebuchadnezzar into Judaea, and assistedhim to establish his power firmly in South-WesternAsia.

This is the last act that we can ascribe to the greatMedian king. He can scarcely have been much lessthan seventy years old at this time; and his life wasprolonged at the utmost three years longer. Accord-ing to Herodotus, he died B.C. 593, after a reignof exactly forty years, leaving his crown to his sonAstyages, whose marriage with a Lydian princesswas above related.

We have no sufficient materials from which to drawout a complete character of Cyaxares. He appearsto have possessed great ambition, considerable mil-itary ability, and a rare tenacity of purpose, whichgained him his chief successes. At the same timehe was not wanting in good sense, and could bringhimself to withdraw from an enterprise, when he

had misjudged the fitting time for it, or greatlymiscalculated its difficulties. He was faithful to hisfriends, but thought treachery allowable towardshis enemies. He knew how to conquer, but not howto organize, an empire; and, if we except his estab-lishment of Magism, as the religion of the state, wemay say that he did nothing to give permanencyto the monarchy which he founded. He was a con-queror altogether after the Asiatic model, able towield the sword, but not to guide the pen, to sub-due his contemporaries to his will by his personalascendency over them, but not to influence poster-ity by the establishment of a kingdom, or of institu-tions, on deep and stable foundations. The Empire,which owed to him its foundation, was the mostshortlived of all the great Oriental monarchies, hav-ing begun and ended within the narrow space ofthree score and ten years–the natural lifetime of anindividual.

Astyages, who succeeded to the Median throneabout B.C. 593, had neither his father’s enterprisenor his ability. Born to an empire, and bred upin all the luxury of an Oriental Court, he seemsto have been quite content with the lot which for-tune appeared to have assigned him, and to havecoveted no grander position. Tradition says that hewas remarkably handsome, cautious, and of an easyand generous temper. Although the anecdotes re-lated of his mode of life at Ecbatana by Herodotus,Xenophon, and Nicolas of Damascus, seem to befor the most part apocryphal, and at any rate cometo us upon authority too weak to entitle them toa place in history, we may perhaps gather fromthe concurrent, descriptions of these three writerssomething of the general character of the Courtover which he presided. Its leading features donot seem to have differed greatly from those of theCourt of Assyria. The monarch lived secluded, andcould only be seen by those who asked and obtainedan audience. He was surrounded by guards and eu-nuchs, the latter of whom held most of the officesnear the royal person. The Court was magnificentin its apparel, in its banquets, and in the numberand organization of its attendants. The courtierswore long flowing robes of many different colors,amongst which red and purple predominated, andadorned their necks with chains or collars of gold,and their wrists with bracelets of the same preciousmetal. Even the horses on which they rode hadsometimes golden bits to their bridles. One officerof the Court was especially called “the King’s Eye;”another had the privilege of introducing strangersto him; a third was his cupbearer; a fourth his mes-



senger. Guards torch-bearers, serving-men, ushers,and sweepers, were among the orders into whichthe lower sort of attendants were divided; whileamong the courtiers of the highest rank was a privi-leged class known as “the King’s table-companions”.The chief pastime in which the Court indulgedwas hunting. Generally this took place in a parkor “paradise” near the capital; but sometimes theKing and Court went out on a grand hunt into theopen country, where lions, leopards, bears, wildboars, wild asses, antelopes, stags, and wild sheepabounded, and, when the beasts had been drivenby beaters into a confined space, despatched themwith arrows and javelins.

Prominent at the Court, according to Herodotus,was the priestly caste of the Magi. Held in thehighest honor by both King and people, they werein constant attendance, ready to expound omensor dreams, and to give their advice on all mattersof state policy. The religious ceremonial was, asa matter of course, under their charge; and it isprobable that high state offices were often conferredupon them. Of all classes of the people they werethe only one that could feel they had a real influ-ence over the monarch, and might claim to sharein his sovereignty.

The long reign of Astyages seems to have been al-most undisturbed, until just before its close, bywars or rebellions. Eusebius indeed relates that he,and not Cyaxares, carried on the great Lydian con-test; and Moses of Chorene declares that he wasengaged in a long struggle with Tigranes, an Ar-menian king. But little credit can be attached tothese statements, the former of which contradictsHerodotus, while the latter is wholly unsupportedby any other writer. The character which Cyaxaresbore among the Greeks was evidently that of an un-warlike king. If he had really carried his arms intothe heart of Asia Minor, and threatened the wholeof that extensive region with subjugation, we canscarcely suppose that he would have been consid-ered so peaceful a ruler. Neither is it easy to imag-ine that in that case no classical writer–not evenCtesias–would have taxed Herodotus with an errorthat must have been so flagrant. With respect tothe war with Tigranes, it is just possible that itmay have a basis of truth; there may have been arevolt of Armenia from Astyages under a certainTigranes, followed by an attempt at subjugation.But the slender authority of Moses is insufficientto establish the truth of his story, which is inter-nally improbable and quite incompatible with thenarrative of Herodotus.

There are some grounds for believing that in onedirection Astyages succeeded in slightly extendingthe limits of his empire. But he owed his success toprudent management, and not to courage or mili-tary skill. On the north-eastern frontier, occupyingthe low country now known as Talish and Ghilan,was a powerful tribe called Cadusians, probably ofArian origin, which had hitherto maintained its in-dependence. This would not be surprising, if wecould accept the statement of Diodorus that theywere able to bring into the field 200,000 men. Butthis account, which probably came from Ctesias,and is wholly without corroboration from otherwriters, has the air of a gross exaggeration; andwe may conclude from the general tenor of ancienthistory that the Cadusians were more indebted tothe strength of their country, than to either theirnumbers or their prowess, for the freedom and inde-pendence which they were still enjoying. It seemsthat they were at this time under the governmentof a certain king, or chief, named Aphernes, or Ona-phernes. This ruler was, it appears, doubtful of hisposition, and, thinking it could not be long main-tained, made overtures of surrender to Astyages,which were gladly entertained by that monarch. Asecret treaty was concluded to the satisfaction ofboth parties; and the Cadusians, it would seem,passed under the Medes by this arrangement, with-out any hostile struggle, though armed resistanceon the part of the people, who were ignorant ofthe intentions of their chieftain, was for some timeapprehended.

The domestic relations of Astyages seem to havebeen unhappy. His “marriage de convenance” withthe Lydian princess Aryenis, if not wholly unfruit-ful, at any rate brought him no son; and, as hegrew to old age, the absence of such support to thethrone must have been felt very sensibly, and havecaused great uneasiness. The want of an heir per-haps led him to contract those other marriages ofwhich we hear in the Armenian History of Moses–one with a certain Anusia, of whom nothing moreis known; and another with an Armenian princess,the loveliest of her sex, Tigrania, sister of the Arme-nian king, Tigranes. The blessing of male offspringwas still, however, denied him; and it is even doubt-ful whether he was really the father of any daughteror daughters. Herodotus, and Xenophon, indeedgive him a daughter Mandane, whom they makethe mother of Cyrus; and Ctesias, who denied inthe most positive terms the truth of this statement,gave him a daughter, Amytis, whom he made thewife, first of Spitaces the Mede, and afterwards of



Cyrus the Persian. But these stories, which seemintended to gratify the vanity of the Persians bytracing the descent of their kings to the great Me-dian conqueror, while at the same time they flat-tered the Medes by showing them that the issueof their old monarchs was still seated on the Arianthrone, are entitled to little more credit than thenarrative of the Shahnameh, which declares thatIskander (Alexander) was the son of Darab (Darius)and of a daughter of Failakus (Philip of Macedon).When an oriental crown passes from one dynastyto another, however foreign and unconnected, thenatives are wont to invent a relationship betweenthe two houses, which both parties are commonlyquite ready to accept; as it suits the rising houseto be provided with a royal ancestry, and it pleasesthe fallen one and its partisans to see in the occu-pants of the throne a branch of the ancient stock–acontinuation of the legitimate family. Tales there-fore of the above-mentioned kind are, historicallyspeaking, valueless; and it must remain uncertainwhether the second Median monarch had any childat all, either male or female.

Old age was now creeping upon the sonless king. Ifhe was sixteen or seventeen years old at the timeof his contract of marriage with Aryenis, he musthave been nearly seventy in B.C. 558, when the re-volt occurred which terminated both his reign andhis kingdom. It appears that the Persian branchof the Arian race, which had made itself a homein the country lying south and south-east of Me-dia, between the 32nd parallel and the Persian gulf,had acknowledged some subjection to the Mediankings during the time of their greatness. Dwellingin their rugged mountains and high upland plains,they had however maintained the simplicity of theirprimitive manners, and had mixed but little withthe Medes, being governed by their own nativeprinces of the Achasmenian house, the descendants,real or supposed, of a certain Achajmenes. Theseprinces were connected by marriage with the Cap-padocian kings; and their house was regarded asone of the noblest in Western Asia. What the ex-act terms were upon which they stood with theMedian monarch is uncertain. Herodotus regardsPersia as absorbed into Media at this time, andthe Achsemenidse as merely a good Persian fam-ily. Nicolas of Damascus makes Persia a Mediansatrapy, of which Atradates, the father of Cyrus, issatrap, Xenophon, on the contrary, not only givesthe Achajmenidae their royal rank, but seems toconsider Persia as completely independent of Me-dia; Moses of Chorene takes the same view, regard-

ing Cyrus as a great and powerful sovereign dur-ing the reign of Astyages. The native records leantowards the view of Xenophon and Moses. Dar-ius declares that eight of his race had been kingsbefore himself, and makes no difference betweenhis own royalty and theirs. Cyrus calls himself inone inscription “the son of Cambyses, the powerfulking.” It is certain therefore that Persia continuedto be ruled by her own native monarchs during thewhole of the Median period, and that Cyrus led theattack upon Astyages as hereditary Persian king.The Persian records seem rather to imply actual in-dependence of Media; but as national vanity wouldprompt to dissimulation in such a case, we mayperhaps accord so much weight to the statementof Herodotus, and to the general tradition on thesubject, as to believe that there was some kind of ac-knowledgment of Median supremacy on the part ofthe Persian kings anterior to Cyrus, though the ac-knowledgment may have been not much more thana formality and have imposed no onerous obliga-tions. The residence of Cyrus at the Median Court,which is asserted in almost every narrative of his lifebefore he became king, inexplicable if Persia was in-dependent, becomes thoroughly intelligible on thesupposition that she was a great Median feudatory.In such cases the residence of the Crown Prince atthe capital of the suzerain is constantly desired, oreven required by the superior Power, which sees inthe presence of the son and heir the best securityagainst disaffection or rebellion on the part of thefather.

It appears that Cyrus, while at the Median Court,observing the unwarlike temper of the existing gen-eration of the Medes, who had not seen any ac-tual service, and despising the personal characterof the monarch, who led a luxurious life, chiefly atEcbatana, amid eunuchs, concubines, and dancing-girls, resolved on raising the standard of rebellion,and seeking at any rate to free his own country. Itmay be suspected that the Persian prince was notactuated solely by political motives. To earnestZoroastrians, such as the Achgemenians are shownto have been by their inscriptions, the yoke of aPower which had so greatly corrupted, if it hadnot wholly laid aside, the worship of Ormazd, musthave been extremely distasteful; and Cyrus mayhave wished by his rebellion as much to vindicatethe honor of his religion–as to obtain a loftier po-sition for his nation. If the Magi occupied reallythe position at the Median Court which Herodotusassigns to them–if they “were held in high honorby the king, and shared in his sovereignty”–if the



priest-ridden monarch was perpetually dreamingand perpetually referring his dreams to the Ma-gian seers for exposition, and then guiding his ac-tions by the advice they tendered him, the religiouszeal of the young Zoroastrian may very naturallyhave been aroused, and the contest into which heplunged may have been, in his eyes, not so much anational struggle as a crusade against the infidels.It will be found hereafter that religious fervor ani-mated the Persians in most of those wars by whichthey spread their dominion. We may suspect, there-fore, though it must be admitted we cannot prove,that a religious motive was among those which ledthem to make their first efforts after independence.

According to the account of the struggle which ismost circumstantial, and on the whole most prob-able, the first difficulty which the would-be rebelhad to meet and vanquish was that of quitting theCourt. Alleging that his father was in weak health,and required his care, he requested leave of absencefor a short time; but his petition was refused onthe flattering ground that the Great King was toomuch attached to him to lose sight of him even for aday. A second application, however, made througha favorite eunuch after a certain interval of time,was more successful; Cyrus received permission toabsent himself from Court for the next five months;whereupon, with a few attendants, he left Ecbatanaby night, and took the road leading to his nativecountry.

The next evening Astyages, enjoying himself asusual over his wine, surrounded by a crowd of hisconcubines, singing-girls, and dancing-girls, calledon one of them for a song. The girl took her lyreand sang as follows: “The lion had the wild boar inhis power, but let him depart to his own lair; in hislair he will wax in strength, and will cause the liona world of toil; till at length, although the weaker,he will overcome the stronger.” The words of thesong greatly disquieted the king, who had been al-ready made aware that a Chaldaean prophecy des-ignated Cyrus as future king of the Persians. Re-penting of the indulgence which he had grantedhim, Astyages forthwith summoned an officer intohis presence, and ordered him to take a body ofhorsemen, pursue the Persian prince, and bring himback, either alive or dead. The officer obeyed, over-took Cyrus, and announced his errand; upon whichCyrus expressed his perfect willingness to return,but proposed, that, as it was late, they should de-fer their start till the next day. The Medes consent-ing, Cyrus feasted them, and succeeded in makingthem all drunk; then mounting his horse, he rode

off at full speed with his attendants, and reacheda Persian outpost, where he had arranged with hisfather that he should find a body of Persian troops.When the Medes had slept off their drunkenness,and found their prisoner gone, they pursued, andagain overtaking Cyrus, who was now at the headof an armed force, engaged him. They were, how-ever, defeated with great loss, and forced to retreat,while Cyrus, having beaten them off, made good hisescape into Persia.

When Astyages heard what had happened, he wasgreatly vexed; and, smiting his thigh, he exclaimed,“Ah! fool, thou knewest well that it boots not toheap favors on the vile; yet didst thou suffer thy-self to be gulled by smooth words; and so thouhast brought upon thyself this mischief. But evennow he shall not get off scot-free.” And instantlyhe sent for his generals, and commanded them tocollect his host, and proceed to reduce Persia toobedience. Three thousand chariots, two hundredthousand horse, and a million footmen (!) weresoon brought together; and with these Astyages inperson invaded the revolted province, and engagedthe army which Cyrus and his father Cambyses hadcollected for defence. This consisted of a hundredchariots, fifty thousand horsemen, and three hun-dred thousand light-armed foot, who were drawnup in in front of a fortified town near the fron-tier. The first day’s battle was long and bloody,terminating without any decisive advantage to ei-ther side; but on the second day Astyages, makingskilful use of his superior numbers, gained a greatvictory. Having detached one hundred thousandmen with orders to make a circuit and get into therear of the town, he renewed the attack; and whenthe Persians were all intent on the battle in theirfront, the troops detached fell on the city and tookit, almost before its defenders were aware. Cam-byses, who commanded in the town, was mortallywounded and fell into the enemy’s hands. The armyin the field, finding itself between two fires, brokeand fled towards the interior, bent on defendingPasargadse, the capital. Meanwhile Astyages, hav-ing given Cambyses honorable burial, pressed on inpursuit.

The country had now become rugged and diffi-cult. Between Pasargadse and the place wherethe two days’ battle was fought lay a barrier oflofty hills, only penetrated by a single narrow pass.On either side were two smooth surfaces of rock,while the mountain towered above, lofty and pre-cipitous. The pass was guarded by ten thousandPersians. Recognizing the impossibility of forcing



it, Astyages again detached a body of troops, whomarched along the foot of the range till they founda place where it could be ascended, when theyclimbed it and seized the heights directly over thedefile. The Persians upon this had to evacuate theirstrong position, and to retire to a lower range ofhills very near to Pasargadge. Here again there wasa two days’ fight. On the first day all the efforts ofthe Medes to ascend the range (which, though low,was steep, and covered with thickets of wild olive)were fruitless. Their enemy met them, not merelywith the ordinary weapons, but with great massesof stone, which they hurled down with crushingforce upon their ascending columns. On the secondday, however, the resistance was weaker or less ef-fective Astyages had placed at the foot of the range,below his attacking columns, a body of troops withorders to kill all who refused to ascend, or who, hav-ing ascended, attempted to quit the heights and re-turn to the valley. Thus compelled to advance, hismen fought with desperation, and drove the Per-sians before them up the slopes of the hill to its verysummit, where the women and children had beenplaced for the sake of security. There, however, thetide of success turned. The taunts and upbraidingsof their mothers and wives restored the courageof the Persians; and, turning upon their foe, theymade a sudden furious charge. The Medes, aston-ished and overborne, were driven headlong downthe hill, and fell into such confusion that the Per-sians slew sixty thousand of them. Still Astyagesdid not desist from his attack. The authority whomwe have been following here to a great extent failsus, and we have only a few scattered notices fromwhich to reconstruct the closing scenes of the war.It would seem from these that Astyages still main-tained the offensive, and that there was a fifth bat-tle in the immediate neighborhood of Pasargadse,wherein he was completely defeated by Cyrus, whorouted the Median army, and pressing upon themin their flight, took their camp. All the insignia ofMedian royalty fell into his hands; and, amid the ac-clamations of his army, he assumed them, and wassaluted by his soldiers “King of Media and Persia.”Meanwhile Astyages had sought for safety in flight;the greater part of his army had dispersed, and hewas left with only a few friends, who still adheredto his fortunes. Could he have reached Ecbatana,he might have greatly prolonged the struggle; buthis enemy pressed him close; and, being compelledto an engagement, he not only suffered a completedefeat, but was made prisoner by his fortunate ad-versary. By this capture the Median monarchy wasbrought abruptly to an end. Astyages had no son

to take his place and continue the struggle. Evenhad it been otherwise, the capture of the monarchwould probably have involved his people’s submis-sion. In the East the king is so identified with hiskingdom that the possession of the royal personis regarded as conveying to the possessor all regalrights. Cyrus, apparently, had no need even to be-siege Ecbatana; the whole Median state, togetherwith its dependencies, at once submitted to him,on learning what had happened. This ready sub-mission was no doubt partly owing to the generalrecognition of a close connection between Mediaand Persia, which made the transfer of empire fromthe one to the other but slightly galling to the sub-jected power, and a matter of complete indifferenceto the dependent countries. Except in so far as re-ligion was concerned, the change from one Iranicrace to the other would make scarcely a perceptibledifference to the subjects of either kingdom. Thelaw of the state would still be “the law of the Medesand Persians.” Official employments would be opento the people of both countries. Even the fame andglory of empire would attain, in the minds of men,almost as much to the one nation as the other. IfMedia descended from her preeminent rank, it wasto occupy a station only a little below the highest,and one which left her a very distinct superiorityover all the subject races.

If it be asked how Media, in her hour of peril, cameto receive no assistance from the great Powers withwhich she had made such close alliances–Babyloniaand Lydia–the answer would seem to be that Lydiawas too remote from the scene of strife to lend hereffective aid, while circumstances had occurred inBabylonia to detach that state from her and ren-der it unfriendly. The great king, Nebuchadnezzar,had he been on the throne, would undoubtedly havecome to the assistance of his brother-in-law, whenthe fortune of war changed, and it became evidentthat his crown was in danger. But Nebuchadnez-zar had died in B.V. 561, three years before thePersian revolt broke out. His son, Evil-Merodach,who would probably have maintained his father’salliances, had survived him but two years: hehad been murdered in B.C. 559 by a brother-in-law, Nergalsharezer or Neriglissar, who ascendedthe throne in that year and reigned till B.C. 555.This prince was consequently on the throne at thetime of Astyages’ need. As he had supplanted thehouse of Nebuchadnezzar, he would naturally beon bad terms with that monarch’s Median connec-tions; and we may suppose that he saw with plea-sure the fall of a power to which pretenders from



the Nebuchadnezzar family would have looked forsupport and countenance.

In conclusion, a few words may be said on thegeneral character of the Median Empire, and thecauses of its early extinction.

The Median Empire was in extent and fertility ofterritory-equal if not superior to the Assyrian. Itstretched from Rhages and the Carmanian deserton the east to the river Halys upon the west, adistance of above twenty degrees, or about 1,300miles. From north to south it was comparativelynarrow, being confined between the Black Sea, theCaucasus, and the Caspian, on the one side, andthe Euphrates and Persian Gulf on the other. Itsgreatest width, which was towards the east, wasabout nine, and its least, which was towards thewest, was about four degrees. Its area was proba-bly not much short of 500,000 square miles. Thusit was as large as Great Britain, France, Spain, andPortugal put together.

In fertility its various parts were very unequal. Por-tions of both Medias, of Persia, of Armenia, Iberia,and Cappadocia, were rich and productive; but inall these countries there was a large quantity ofbarren mountain, and in Media Magna and Per-sia there were tracts of desert. If we estimatethe resources of Media from the data furnished byHerodotus in his account of the Persian revenue,and compare them with those of the Assyrian Em-pire, as indicated by the same document, we shallfind reason to conclude, that except during the fewyears when Egypt was a province of Assyria, the re-sources of the Third exceeded those of the SecondMonarchy.

The weakness of the Empire arose chiefly from itswant of organization. Nicolas of Damascus, in-deed, in the long passage from which our accountof the struggle between Cyrus and Astyages hasbeen taken, represents the Median Empire as di-vided, like the Persian, into a number of satrapiesbut there is no real ground for believing that anysuch organization was practised in Median times,or to doubt that Darius Hystaspis was the origi-nator of the satrapial system. The Median Empire,like the Assyrian, was a congeries of kingdoms, eachruled by its own native prince, as is evident fromthe case of Persia, where Cambyses was not satrap,but monarch. Such organization as was attemptedappears to have been clumsy in the extreme. TheMedes (we are told) only claimed direct suzeraintyover the nations immediately upon their borders;remoter tribes they placed under these, and looked

to them to collect and remit the tribute of the out-lying countries. It is doubtful if they called on thesubject nations for any contingents of troops. Wenever hear of their doing so. Probably, like theAssyrians, they made their conquests with armiescomposed entirely of native soldiers, or of thosecombined with such forces as were sent to their aidby princes in alliance with them.

The weakness arising from this lack of organizationwas increased by a corruption of manners, whichcaused the Medes speedily to decline in energy andwarlike spirit. The conquest of a great and luxuri-ous empire by a hardy and simple race is followed,almost of necessity, by a deterioration in the charac-ter of the conquerors, who lose the warlike virtues,and too often do not replace them by the less splen-did virtues of peace. This tendency, which is fixedin the nature of things, admits of being checkedfor a while, or rapidly developed, according to thepolicy and character of the monarchs who happento occupy the throne. If the original conqueror issucceeded, by two or three ambitious and energeticprinces, who engage in important wars and laborto extend their dominions at the expense of theirneighbors, it will be some time before the degen-eracy becomes marked. If, on the other hand, aprince of a quiet temper, self-indulgent, and stu-dious of ease, come to the throne within a shorttime of the original conquests, the deteriorationwill be very rapid. In the present instance it hap-pened that the immediate successor of the first con-queror was of a peaceful disposition, unambitious,and luxurious in his habits. During a reign whichlasted at least thirty-five years he abstained almostwholly from military enterprises; and thus an en-tire generation of Medes grew up without seeingactual service, which alone makes the soldier. Atthe same time there was a general softening of man-ners. The luxury of the Court corrupted the nobles,who from hardy mountain chieftains, simple if noteven savage in their dress and mode of life, becamepolite courtiers, magnificent in their apparel, choicein their diet, and averse to all unnecessary 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 hisold daring and savagery; from disuse he became in-expert in the management of arms; and he was thusno longer greatly to be dreaded as a soldier. Buthe was really not very much less brave, nor lesscapable of bearing hardships, than before; and itonly required a few years of training to enable himto recover himself and to be once more as good a



soldier as any in Asia.But in the affairs of nations, as in those of men, neg-ligence often proves fatal before it can be repaired.Cyrus saw his opportunity, pressed his advantage,and established the supremacy of his nation, beforethe unhappy effects of Astyages’ peace policy couldbe removed. He knew that his own Persians pos-sessed the military spirit in its fullest vigor; he feltthat he himself had all the qualities of a successfulloader; he may have had faith in his cause, which,he would view as the cause of Ormazd against Ahri-man, of pure Religion against a corrupt and debas-ing nature-worship. His revolt was sudden, unex-pected, and well-timed. He waited till Astyages wasadvanced in years, and so disqualified for command;till the veterans of Cyaxares were almost all in theirgraves; and till the Babylonian throne was occupiedby a king who was not likely to afford Astyages anyaid. Ho may not at first have aspired to do more

than establish the independence of his own country.But when the opportunity of effecting a transfer ofempire offered itself, he seized it promptly; rapidlyrepeating his blows, and allowing his enemy no timeto recover and renew the struggle. The substitutionof Persia for Media as the ruling power in WesternAsia was due less to general causes than to the per-sonal character of two men. Had Astyages been aprince of ordinary vigor, the military training of theMedes would have been kept up; and in that casethey might easily have hold their own against allcomers. Had their training been kept up, or hadCyrus possessed no more than ordinary ambitionand ability, either he would not have thought ofrevolting, or he would have revolted unsuccessfully.The fall of the Median Empire was due immediatelyto the genius of the Persian Prince; but its ruin wasprepared, and its destruction was really caused, bythe shortsightedness of the Median monarch.


media - rawlinson - rawlinson contents ... of which from 1842 to 1846 he was fellow and tutor. ......

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