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not particularly fertile. There are several exceptions,however,
such as Persia itself, and especially the north-eastern provinces,
Bactria and Sogdiana, where theclimate is mild and the soil rich.
It is remarkable that
just those two important satrapies did not rise againstDarius,
whilst rebellion everywhere prevailed. In generalit may be said,
that IrHn was a country well fitted tofoster an industrious, proud,
manly, and warlike race, andto be for some centuries the centre of
a mighty empire.
It is quite certain that the founders of this empire,the
Medo-Persians, were not the original inhabitants ofthe country.
They belonged to the Aryan stock. Whenthe Assyrians, as they often
did, directed their expeditionsto Media, and even built there some
strong places tomaintain their supremacy, the kings they fought did
notbear Aryan names, which become more frequent only inthe time of
the Sargonids. Aryan tribes, coming fromthe NW. or the N. , and
spreading first in the easternpart of the land , seem to have
conquered the westernregions little by little, and to have settled
there in smallindependent kingdoms, before the Median monarchy
wasestablished. If there is any truth in what BErBssos tellsabout a
Median dynasty reigning over Babylon in theremotest times, this
dynasty has nothing in commonwith the Aryan Medes, but probably was
of the sa meorigin as the Kassites, Elamites, and other
easternneighbours of Babylonia.
A complete ethnology and glossology of the Iranianpeoples would
be out of place here, as our scope is4. Language. limited to the
two nations with whomTh e
Old Persian language we know from the inscriptions ofthe Hebrews
came into contact.
the Achaxnenidsand from the proper names and sundrywords
recorded by the ancients. It is closely allied tothe Avestan
language (the two dialects of which seem tohave been spoken in the
eastern and northern parts ofthe empire), and more remotely to the
Vedic and Sanskritlanguages. About the language of the Medes we
knowvery little. Judging from the Median names that weknow, and
from the fact that Darius used the sameAryan language for the great
Behistun inscription inMedia as he did for those he had incised in
Persia, wemay assume that the Old Median language differed
onlydialectically from the Old Persian. Still, the inscriptionsof
the younger Achanenids show that the Old Persianwas then already in
decline, and perhaps supplantedby a younger dialect or by the
widespread Aramaic.
Some scholars call the second of the three languagesused in the
Achremeniau inscriptions Median. If so,it would not be the language
of the rulers, who werecertainly Aryans, but the idiom of the
conquered race,who may have constituted the majority of the
population.In all probability the second language is better
calledSusian or Neo-Susian, as the idiom of the provincewhere the
Persian kings had their principal residencecould hardly be wanting
in their inscriptions.
The system of writing used for the Persian text of
theAchremenian inscriptions is one of those commonly called5.
System cuneiform. It has been taken for grantedthat it was taken by
the Persians either
Of writing' from the Babylonian or Assyrian, or assome think,
from the Susian, cuneiform. An accuratecomparative study of the
three systems, however, showsclearly that this is not the case. Th
e Susians reduced themany hundreds of Babylonian signs to some
hundredand twelve, but retained the syllabic character of
thewriting, the same signs for the same or cognate sounds,
and the use of determinative signs with the same signi-fication.
Not so the Persians. All they took from their
predecessors was the wedge in three shapes- 7 , -,and
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saw :it once why his father, though victorious in his13.
Cyaxares, struggle with the rude and semi-barbarous tribes of Iran,
was over-come by the veteran-warriors of such a
24-686.military state as Assyria. His army was, in fact,
deficientin training and organisation. Wishing to avenge hisfather,
Cyaxares set himself to work, divided his troopsinto lancers,
archers, and horsemen, and fortified hiscapital Ecbatana
(Hagmatana, the place of gathering ).Then, feeling stronger, he
renewed his attack, defeatedthe Assyrians in a pitched battle, and
invested Nineveh.Soon, however, he had to raise the siege. A
wildhorde of those northern nomads, included by the Greeksunder the
common name of Scythians and called bythe Persians Saka, had
invaded Media, and Cyaxareshad to hurry home.
Whether this invasion was connected with that othermore terrible
irruption of Scythians by which westernAsia was devastated, is not
certain. Th e Scythianswith whom Cyaxares had to deal probably came
fromthe NE. of the Caspian Sea, and , though of the samekin as the
Iranians, were savage or at least barbarousnomads. They did not
reign in Media, for Cyaxareswas neither dethroned nor banished by
them. Theyseem, however, to have domineered over the
peacefulhouseholders, and asa kind of Janissaries or Mamelukesto
have even held the court in check. It is said that
the king got rid of them by killing their chiefs at abanquet,
after having made them drunk. It is an oldand very common
folk-tale, and is only the popularsubsti tute for the historical
fact that such a gang ofbarbarians, rendered careless by an easy
victory, andenervated by indulging too freely in all the
unwontedluxuries of civilised life, could not but be overpoweredat
last by the shrewd policy and the superior tacticsof a real king.
It seems that Cyaxares did notchase the Saka, but that they
submitted to him and
joined his army. In a few years this result wasobtained. Th e
whole drama was played between thefirst and second expeditions to
Assyria. Th e secondended in the fall of Nineveh (607 or 606 B.c.).
thefirst, preceded by the military reform, cannot havehappened much
earlier than 620 B.c. , 625 or 624 beingthe year of the accession
ofCyaxares. If Herodotus isright in stating that the Scythians
ruled Asia for twenty-eight years, this cannot refer to Media,
where they didnot even rule.
Cyaxares now felt able to renew his attack onAssyria, which,
though no more than a shadow ofwhat it was before, still hindered
the Medes in extendingtheir empire to the NW. This time he was
successfuland destroyed Nineveh about 607-606 B.C. For itwas to
Cyaxares, not to Astyages, as Berossos andthose who depend on him
have it, that the fallof the old imperial city was due. It is
difficult todecide whether Nabopolassar and his Babylonians
joined the Medes as allies against the common foe.Both Ctesias
and Berossos tell us so, and even withouttheir testimony we should
expect it. Allies they were,and the prince royal of Babylon was
married toCyaxares daughter. Th e rising power of the Chaldeanswas
not to be neglected, and on the other side it wastheir interest to
take an active part in the proceedingsagainst a dynasty which,
though paralysed, alwaysclaimed the suzerainty over Babylonia. If
Herodotusdoes not mention the Chaldeans, he may have followeda
one-sided Medo-Persian tradition. Lastly, it may be
doubted whether Media would have left the Chaldeansin
undistiirbed possession of all the southern and south-western
provinces of the Assyrian monarchy, whichNabopolassars great son
not only maintained, hutextended, if they had remained inactive in
this finalstruggle for the hegemony of Western Asia. At anyrate,
Media played the principal part, and it wouldnow direct its
victorious arms against Armenia, Cappa-docia, and the rich and
mighty kingdom of the Lydians.
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The Lydian frontier, however, was destined to be thelimit of the
Median conquests. After five years offighting the war was still
undecided, and both partiesseem to have been rather tired of it. At
least, when,on 28th May 585, a great battle, probably near
theHalys, was interrupted by a total eclipse of the sun-the same
that Thales the Milesian is said to have pre-dicted-they accepted
it as a divine warning and ceasedall hostilities. Syennesis of
Cilicia, probably chosenby Lydia. and Nebuchadrezzar, erroneously
calledLabynetus by Herodotus, chosen by Media, acted asarbiters,
and peace was concluded by their mediation.Astyages, who seems in
the meantime to have ascendedthe throne, since Phraortes is said to
have died in theyear of the battle, married the daughter of
Alyattes, theking of Lydia.
Astyages (Istuvegu in the Nab. Cyr. Annals, cpCtesias Astvicras)
is called hv the Greeks (Herod..
I -&ch. Pers. 76if . ) a son of Phraortes;14 *styage Since,
however, he is.called by the Baby-lonians kine of the
Ummanmanda-
84-660Y
which, whatever it may mean, cannot have indicated th eMedes,
but r ather (probably) the Scythians, as Cyrus issaid to have slain
the numerous Ummanmanda with hisfew troops-since moreover the
rebels, who, in t he reignof Darius, rose in Media and Sagartia do
not call them-selves sons of Astyages, but pretend to belong to
the
family of Cyaxares, Winckler (Unters. z. a&. Gesch.124f.)
suggests, that Astyages was neither the sonnor the lawful successor
of Phraortes, but revived theScythian supremacy in Media. It cannot
be denied thatthis hypothesis is very alluring. T o the arguments
ofWinckler may he added, that Cyrus himself, in hiscylinder,
glories in having defeated the Guti, thenomads of Mesopotamia, and
the widespread Umman-manda. the nomads ofIran, so that he himself
seemsto have regarded his conquest of Media as the liberationof
that country from the yoke of a usurper. Th e manwho delivered the
greater part of the army of Astyagesinto the hands of Cyrus,
Harpagus , belonged to theroyal family. Finally, the name of
Astyages has noIranian sound, and is altogether unlike those of
hispredecessors. Be this as it may, Astyages reign seemsnot to have
been a glorious one. Th e only thing weknow of it is, that he
encroached on the dominions ofBabylonia, then weakened by internal
troubles and bythe government of a mere antiquary, and placed a
garrison in Harran, which the Chaldean kings regardedas
belonging to their empire . As soon, however, as thePersians under
Cyrns revolted, the Ummanmanda fromall parts of the empire were
ordered home to reinforcethe army. Astyages may at the outset have
defeatedthe Persians, and even have chased them as far asPasargadze
; we could believe it, if it were not Ctesiaswho told it. It is
certain, however, that Astyages owntroops gave him up to the enemy,
and that the man whobetrayed him was Harpagus, whom Cyrus
afterwardsrewarded by bestowing on him an all but royal dignityin
Asia Minor. In this the Babylonian account andHerodotus agree :
they are mutually complementary.
Th e history of the Median empire, very little ofwhich
unfortunately is known, is interesting as the16.significance first
attempt of an Aryan or Indo-
European people to found a greatOfe and conquering monarchy. But
it
was not much more than an attempt.In itself, the Median empire
had no such great import-
ance. Compared with the Assyrian empire whichpreceded, or with
the Persian which followed it, it seemsrather insignificant. It did
not supplant the Assyrians,for this had been done already by the
Chaldeans.All it could do , and this only after having failed at
firstand with the aid of the king of Babylon, was, to givethe
death-blow to the dying capital of the old empire,and to
appropriate a part of the booty It was un-able to conquer Lydia and
felt ob1ged to respect the
W l l p I O .
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