CHAPTER I--THE IRANIAN CONQUEST

Produced by David Widger

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HISTORY OF EGYPT CHALDEA, SYRIA, BABYLONIA, AND ASSYRIA

By G. MASPERO, Honorable Doctor of Civil Laws, and Fellow of Queen’s

College, Oxford; Member of the Institute and Professor at the College of

France

Edited by A. H. SAYCE, Professor of Assyriology, Oxford

Translated by M. L. McCLURE, Member of the Committee of the Egypt

Exploration Fund

CONTAINING OVER TWELVE HUNDRED COLORED PLATES AND ILLUSTRATIONS

Volume IX.

LONDON

THE GROLIER SOCIETY

PUBLISHERS

[Illustration: 001.jpg Frontispiece] Howling Dervish

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_THE IRANIAN CONQUEST_

_THE IRANIAN RELIGIONS--CYRUS IN LYDIA AND AT BABYLON; CAMBYSES IN

EGYPT--DARIUS AND THE ORGANISATION OF THE EMPIRE._

_The constitution of the Median empire borrowed from the ancient peoples

of the Euphrates: its religion only is peculiar to itself--Legends

concerning Zoroaster, his laws; the Avesta and its history--Elements

contained in it of primitive religion--The supreme god Ahura-mazâ and

his Amêsha-spentas: the Yazatas, the Fravashis--Angrô-mainyus and his

agents, the Daîvas, the Pairîkas, their struggle with Ahura-mazdâ--The

duties of man here below, funerals, his fate after death---Worship and

temples: fire-altars, sacrifices, the Magi_.

_Cyrus and the legends concerning his origin: his revolt against

Astyages and the fall of the Median empire--The early years of the reign

of Nabonidus: revolutions in Tyre, the taking of Harrân--The end of

the reign of Alyattes, Lydian art and its earliest coinage--Croesus,

his relations with continental Greece, his conquests, his alliances with

Babylon and Egypt--The war between Lydia and Persia: the defeat of

the Lydians, the taking of Sardes, the death of Croesus and subsequent

legends relating to it--The submission of the cities of the Asiatic

littoral._

_Cyrus in Bactriana and in the eastern regions of the Iranian table-land

--The impression produced on the Chaldæan by his victories; the Jewish

exiles, Ezekiel and his dreams of restoration, the new temple, the

prophecies against Babylon; general discontent with Nabonidus--The

attach of Cyrus and the battle of Zalzallat, the taking of Babylon

and the fall of Nabonidus: the end of the Chaldæan empire and the

deliverance of the Jews._

_Egypt under Amasis: building works, support given to the

Greeks; Naukratis, its temples, its constitution, and its

prosperity--Preparations for defence and the unpopularity of Amasis with

the native Egyptians--The death of Cyrus and legends relating to it: his

palace at Pasargadæ and his tomb--Cambyses and Smerdis--The legendary

causes of the war with Egypt--Psammetichus III., the battle of Pelusium;

Egypt reduced to a Persian province._

_Cambyses’ plans for conquest; the abortive expeditions to the oceans of

Amnion and Carthage--The kingdom of Ethiopia, its kings, its customs:

the Persians fail to reach Napata, the madness of Cambyses--The fraud of

Gaumâta, the death of Cambyses and the reign of the pseudo-Smerdis,

the accession of Darius--The revolution in Susiana, Chaldæa, and Media:

Nebuchadrezzar III. and the fall of Babylon, the death of Orætes, the

defeat of Khshatrita, restoration of peace throughout Asia, Egyptian

affairs and the re-establishment of the royal power._

_The organisation of the country and its division into satrapies: the

satrap, the military commander, the royal secretary; couriers, main

roads, the Eyes and Ears of the king--The financial system and the

provincial taxes: the daric--Advantages and drawbacks of the system of

division into satrapies; the royal guard and the military organisation

of the empire--The conquest of the Hapta-Hindu and the prospect of war

with Greece._

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CHAPTER I--THE IRANIAN CONQUEST

Drawn by Boudier, from the engraving in Coste and Flandin.

The vignette, drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a statuette in

terra-cotta, found in Southern Russia, represents a young

Scythian.

_The Iranian religions--Cyrus in Lydia and at Babylon: Cambyses in Egypt

--Darius and the organisation of the empire._

The Median empire is the least known of all those which held sway for a

time over the destinies of a portion of Western Asia. The reason of this

is not to be ascribed to the shortness of its duration: the Chaldæan

empire of Nebuchadrezzar lasted for a period quite as brief, and yet the

main outlines of its history can be established with some certainty in

spite of large blanks and much obscurity. Whereas at Babylon, moreover,

original documents abound, enabling us to put together, feature by

feature, the picture of its ancient civilisation and of the chronology

of its kings, we possess no contemporary monuments of Ecbatana to

furnish direct information as to its history. To form any idea of

the Median kings or their people, we are reduced to haphazard notices

gleaned from the chroniclers of other lands, retailing a few isolated

facts, anecdotes, legends, and conjectures, and, as these materials

reach us through the medium of the Babylonians or the Greeks of the

fifth or sixth century B.C., the picture which we endeavour to compose

from them is always imperfect or out of perspective. We seemingly

catch glimpses of ostentatious luxury, of a political and military

organisation, and a method of government analogous to that which

prevailed at later periods among the Persians, but more imperfect,

ruder, and nearer to barbarism--a Persia, in fact, in the rudimentary

stage, with its ruling spirit and essential characteristics as yet

undeveloped. The machinery of state had doubtless been adopted almost

in its entirety from the political organisations which obtained in the

kingdoms of Assyria, Elam, and Chaldæa, with which sovereignties the

founders of the Median empire had held in turns relations as vassals,

enemies, and allies; but once we penetrate this veneer of Mesopotamian

civilisation and reach the inner life of the people, we find in the

religion they profess--mingled with some borrowed traits--a world of

unfamiliar myths and dogmas of native origin.

The main outlines of this religion were already fixed when the

Medes rose in rebellion against Assur-bani-pal; and the very name of

_Confessor_--Fravartîsh--applied to the chief of that day, proves that

it was the faith of the royal family. It was a religion common to all

the Iranians, the Persians as well as the Medes, and legend honoured as

its first lawgiver and expounder an ancient prophet named Zarathustra,

known to us as Zoroaster.* Most classical writers relegated Zoroaster

to some remote age of antiquity--thus he is variously said to have lived

six thousand years before the death of Plato,** five thousand before the

Trojan war,*** one thousand before Moses, and six hundred before Xerxes’

campaign against Athens; while some few only affirmed that he had lived

at a comparatively recent period, and made him out a disciple of the

philosopher Pythagoras, who flourished about the middle of the fifth

century B.C.

* The name Zarathustra has been interpreted in a score of

different ways. The Greeks sometimes attributed to it the

meaning “worshipper of the stars,” probably by reason of the

similarity in sound of the termination “-astres” of

Zoroaster with the word “astron.” Among modern writers, H.

Rawlinson derived it from the Assyrian Zîru-Ishtar, “the

seed of Ishtar,” but the etymology now most generally

accepted is that of Burnouf, according to which it would

signify “the man with gold-coloured camels,” the “possessor

of tawny camels.” The ordinary Greek form Zoroaster seems to

be derived from some name quite distinct from Zarathustra.

** This was, as Pliny records, the opinion of Eudoxus; not

Eudoxus of Cnidus, pupil of Plato, as is usually stated, but

a more obscure personage, Eudoxus of Rhodes.

*** This was the statement of Hermodorus.

According to the most ancient national traditions, he was born in the

Aryanem-vaêjô, or, in other words, in the region between the Araxes and

the Kur, to the west of the Caspian Sea. Later tradition asserted

that his conception was attended by supernatural circumstances, and

the miracles which accompanied his birth announced the advent of a saint

destined to regenerate the world by the revelation of the True Law. In

the belief of an Iranian, every man, every living creature now existing

or henceforth to exist, not excluding the gods themselves, possesses a

Frôhar, or guardian spirit, who is assigned to him at his entrance into

the world, and who is thenceforth devoted entirely to watching over

his material and moral well-being,* About the time appointed for the

appearance of the prophet, his Frôhar was, by divine grace, imprisoned

in the heart of a Haoma,** and was absorbed, along with the juice of

the plant, by the priest Purushâspa,*** during a sacrifice, a ray of

heavenly glory descending at the same time into the bosom of a maiden of

noble race, named Dughdôva, whom Purushâspa shortly afterwards espoused.

* The Fravashi (for _fravarti_, from _fra-var_, “to support,

nourish”), or the _frôhar (feruer)_, is, properly speaking,

the nurse, the genius who nurtures. Many of the practices

relating to the conception and cult of the Fravashis seem to

me to go back to the primitive period of the Iranian

religions.

** The haoma is an _Asclepias Sarcostema Viminalis_.

*** The name signifies “He who has many horses.”

Zoroaster was engendered from the mingling of the Frôhar with the

celestial ray. The evil spirit, whose supremacy he threatened,

endeavoured to destroy him as soon as he saw the light, and despatched

one of his agents, named Bôuiti, from the country of the far north to

oppose him; but the infant prophet immediately pronounced the formula

with which the psalm for the offering of the waters opens: “The will of

the Lord is the rule of good!” and proceeded to pour libations in honour

of the river Darêja, on the banks of which he had been born a moment

before, reciting at the same time the “profession of faith which puts

evil spirits to flight.” Bôuiti fled aghast, but his master set to work

upon some fresh device. Zoroaster allowed him, however, no time to

complete his plans: he rose up, and undismayed by the malicious riddles

propounded to him by his adversary, advanced against him with his hands

full of stones--stones as large as a house--with which the good deity

supplied him. The mere sight of him dispersed the demons, and they

regained the gates of their hell in headlong flight, shrieking out, “How

shall we succeed in destroying him? For he is the weapon which strikes

down evil beings; he is the scourge of evil beings.” His infancy

and youth were spent in constant disputation with evil spirits: ever

assailed, he ever came out victorious, and issued more perfect from each

attack. When he was thirty years old, one of the good spirits, Vôhumanô,

appeared to him, and conducted him into the presence of Ahura-mazdâ,

the Supreme Being. When invited to question the deity, Zoroaster asked,

“Which is the best of the creatures which are upon the earth?” The

answer was, that the man whose heart is pure, he excels among his

fellows. He next desired to know the names and functions of the angels,

and the nature and attributes of evil. His instruction ended, he crossed

a mountain of flames, and underwent a terrible ordeal of purification,

during which his breast was pierced with a sword, and melted lead poured

into his entrails without his suffering any pain: only after this ordeal

did he receive from the hands of Ahura-mazdâ the Book of the Law, the

Avesta, was then sent back to his native land bearing his precious

burden. At that time, Vîshtâspa, son of Aurvatâspa, was reigning over

Bactria. For ten years Zoroaster had only one disciple, his cousin

Maidhyoi-Mâonha, but after that he succeeded in converting, one

after the other, the two sons of Hvôgva, the grand vizir Jâmâspa, who

afterwards married the prophet’s daughter, and Frashaoshtra, whose

daughter Hvôgvi he himself espoused; the queen, Hutaosa, was the next

convert, and afterwards, through her persuasions, the king Vîshtâspa

himself became a disciple. The triumph of the good cause was hastened by

the result of a formal disputation between the prophet and the wise men

of the court: for three days they essayed to bewilder him with their

captious objections and their magic arts, thirty standing on his right

hand and thirty on his left, but he baffled their wiles, aided by grace

from above, and having forced them to avow themselves at the end of

their resources, he completed his victory by reciting the Avesta before

them. The legend adds, that after rallying the majority of the people

round him, he lived to a good old age, honoured of all men for his

saintly life. According to some accounts, he was stricken dead by

lightning,* while others say he was killed by a Turanian soldier,

Brâtrôk-rêsh, in a war against the Hyaonas.

* This is, under very diverse forms, the version preferred

by Western historians of the post-classical period.

The question has often been asked whether Zoroaster belongs to

the domain of legend or of history. The only certain thing we know

concerning him is his name; all the rest is mythical, poetic, or

religious fiction. Classical writers attributed to him the composition

or editing of all the writings comprised in Persian literature: the

whole consisted, they said, of two hundred thousand verses which had

been expounded and analysed by Hermippus in his commentaries on the

secret doctrines of the Magi. The Iranians themselves averred that he

had given the world twenty-one volumes--the twenty-one _Nasks_ of the

Avesta,* which the Supreme Deity had created from the twenty-one words

of the Magian profession of faith, the _Ahuna Vairya_. King Vîshtâspa is

said to have caused two authentic copies of the Avesta--which contained

in all ten or twelve hundred chapters**--to be made, one of which

was consigned to the archives of the empire, the other laid up in

the treasury of a fortress, either Shapîgân, Shîzîgân, Samarcand, or

Persepolis.***

* The word _Avesta_, in Pehlevi _Apastâk_, whence come the

Persian forms _âvasta, ôstâ_, is derived from the

Achæmenian word _Abasta_, which signifies _law_ in the

inscriptions of Darius. The term Zend-Avesta, commonly used

to designate the sacred book of the Persians, is incorrectly

derived from the expression _Apastâc u Zend_, which in

Pehlevi designates first the law itself, and then the

translation and commentary in more modern language which

conduces to a _knowledge (Zend)_ of the law. The customary

application, therefore, of the name Zend to the language of

the Avesta is incorrect.

** The Dinkart fixes the number of chapters at 1000, and the

Shâh-Nâmak at 1200, written on plates of gold. According to

Masudi, the book itself and the two commentaries formed

12,000 volumes, written in letters of gold, the twenty-one

Nasks each contained 200 pages, and the whole of these

writings had been inscribed on 12,000 cow-hides.

*** The site of Shapîgân or Shaspîgân is unknown. J.

Darmesteter suggests that it ought to be read as _Shizîgân_,

which would permit of the identification of the place with

Shîz, one of the ancient religious centres of Iran, whose

temple was visited by the Sassanids on their accession to

the throne. According to the Ardâ-Vîrâf the law was

preserved at Istakhr, or Persepolis, according to the Shâh-

Nâmak at Samarcand in the temple of the Fire-god.

Alexander is said to have burnt the former copy: the latter, stolen by

the Greeks, is reported to have been translated into their language and

to have furnished them with all their scientific knowledge. One of the

Arsacids, Vologesus I., caused a search to be made for all the fragments

which existed either in writing or in the memory of the faithful,* and

this collection, added to in the reign of the Sassanid king, Ardashîr

Bâbagan, by the high priest Tansar, and fixed in its present form under

Sapor I., was recognised as the religious code of the empire in the time

of Sapor II., about the fourth century of the Christian era.*** The text

is composed, as may be seen, of three distinct strata, which are by no

means equally ancient;*** one can, nevertheless, make out from it with

sufficient certainty the principal features of the religion and cult of

Iran, such as they were under the Achæmenids, and perhaps even under the

hegemony of the Medes.

* Tradition speaks simply of a King Valkash, without

specifying which of the four kings named Vologesus is

intended. James Darmesteter has given good reasons for

believing that this Valkash is Vologesus I. (50-75 A.D.),

the contemporary of Nero.

** This is the tradition reproduced in two versions of the

Dinkart.

*** Darmesteter declares that ancient Zoroastrianism is, in

its main lines, the religion of the Median Magi, even though

he assigns the latest possible date to the composition of

the Avesta as now existing, and thinks he can discern in it

Greek, Jewish, and Christian elements.

It is a complicated system of religion, and presupposes a long period of

development. The doctrines are subtle; the ceremonial order of worship,

loaded with strict observances, is interrupted at every moment by laws

prescribing minute details of ritual,* which were only put in practice

by priests and strict devotees, and were unknown to the mass of the

faithful.

* Renan defined the Avesta as “the Code of a very small

religious sect; it is a Talmud, a book of casuistry and

strict observance. I have difficulty in believing that the

great Persian empire, which, at least in religious matters,

professed a certain breadth of ideas, could have had a law

so strict. I think, that had the Persians possessed a sacred

book of this description, the Greeks must have mentioned

it.”

The primitive, base of this religion is difficult to discern clearly:

but we may recognise in it most of those beings or personifications of

natural phenomena which were the chief objects of worship among all the

ancient nations of Western Asia--the stars, Sirius, the moon, the sun,

water and fire, plants, animals beneficial to mankind, such as the cow

and the dog, good and evil spirits everywhere present, and beneficent

or malevolent souls of mortal men, but all systematised, graduated, and

reduced to sacerdotal principles, according to the prescriptions of a

powerful priesthood. Families consecrated to the service of the altar

had ended, as among the Hebrews, by separating themselves from the rest

of the nation and forming a special tribe, that of the Magi, which was

the last to enter into the composition of the nation in historic times.

All the Magi were not necessarily devoted to the service of religion,

but all who did so devote themselves sprang from the Magian tribe; the

Avesta, in its oldest form, was the sacred book of the Magi, as well as

that of the priests who handed down their religious tradition under the

various dynasties, native or foreign, who bore rule over Iran.

The Creator was described as “the whole circle of the heavens,” “the

most steadfast among the gods,” for “he clothes himself with the solid

vault of the firmament as his raiment,” “the most beautiful, the most

intelligent, he whose members are most harmoniously proportioned; his

body was the light and the sovereign glory, the sun and the moon were

his eyes.” The theologians had gradually spiritualised the conception

of this deity without absolutely disconnecting him from the material

universe.

[Illustration: 012.jpg THE AHURA-MAZDÂ OF THE BAS-RELIEFS OF PERSEPOLIS]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Flandin and Coste.

He remained under ordinary circumstances invisible to mortal eyes,

and he could conceal his identity even from the highest gods, but he

occasionally manifested himself in human form. He borrowed in such case

from Assyria the symbol of Assur, and the sculptors depict him with the

upper part of his body rising above that winged disk which is carved in

a hovering attitude on the pediments of Assyrian monuments or stelæ.

[Illustration: 012b.jpg HYPOSTYLE OF HALL OF XERXES: DETAIL OF

ENTABLATURE]

In later days he was portrayed under the form of a king of imposing

stature and majestic mien, who revealed himself from time to time to the

princes of Iran.*

* In a passage of Philo of Byblos the god is described as

having the head of a falcon or an eagle, perhaps by

confusion with one of the genii represented on the walls of

the palaces.

[Illustration: 013.jpg AN IRANIAN GENIUS IN FORM OF A WINGED BULL]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph.

He was named Ahurô-mazdâo or Ahura-mazdâ, the omniscient lord,*

_Spento-mainyus_, the spirit of good, _Mainyus-spenishtô_** the most

beneficent of spirits.

* _Ahura_ is derived from _Ahu_ = _Lord_: Mazdâo can be

analysed into the component parts, _maz = great_, and _dâo

= he who knows_. At first the two terms were

interchangeable, and even in the Gâthas the form Mazda Ahura

is employed much more often than the form Ahura Mazda. In

the Achsemenian inscriptions, Auramazdâ is only found as a

single word, except in an inscription of Xerxes, where the

two terms are in one passage separated and declined _Aurahya

mazdâha_. The form Ormuzd, Ormazd, usually employed by

Europeans, is that assumed by the name in modern Persian.

** These two names are given to him more especially in

connection with his antagonism to Angrômainyus.

Himself uncreated, he is the creator of all things, but he is assisted

in the administration of the universe by legions of beings, who are all

subject to him.*

* Darius styles Ahura-mazdâ, _mathishta bagânâm_, the

greatest of the gods, and Xerxes invokes the protection of

Ahura-mazdâ along with that of the gods. The classical

writers also mention gods alongside of Ahura-mazdâ as

recognised not only among the Achæmenian Persians, but also

among the Parthians. Darmesteter considers that the earliest

Achæmenids worshipped Ahura-mazdâ alone, “placing the other

gods together in a subordinate and anonymous group: May

Ahura-mazdâ and the other gods protect me.”

[Illustration: 014.jpg AHURA-MAZDÂ BESTOWING THE TOKENS OF ROYALTY ON AN

IRANIAN KING]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Dieulafoy.

The most powerful among his ministers were originally nature-gods, such

as the sun, the moon, the earth, the winds, and the waters. The sunny

plains of Persia and Media afforded abundant witnesses of their power,

as did the snow-clad peaks, the deep gorges through which rushed roaring

torrents, and the mountain ranges of Ararat or Taurus, where the

force of the subterranean fires was manifested by so many startling

exhibitions of spontaneous conflagration.* The same spiritualising

tendency which had already considerably modified the essential concept

of Ahura-mazdâ, affected also that of the inferior deities, and tended

to tone down in them the grosser traits of their character. It had

already placed at their head six genii of a superior order, six

ever-active energies, who, after assisting their master at the creation

of the universe, now presided under his guidance over the kingdoms and

forces of nature.**

* All these inferior deities, heroes, and genii who presided

over Persia, the royal family, and the different parts of

the empire, are often mentioned in the most ancient

classical authors that have come down to us.

** The six Amesha-spentas, with their several

characteristics, are enumerated in a passage of the _De

Iside_. This exposition of Persian doctrine is usually

attributed to Theopompus, from which we may deduce the

existence of a belief in the Amesha-spentas in the

Achsemenian period. J. Darmesteter affirms, on the contrary,

that “the author describes the Zoro-astrianism of his own

times (the second century A.D.), and quotes Theopompus for a

special doctrine, that of the periods of the world’s life.”

Although this last point is correct, the first part of

Darmesteter’s theory does not seem to me justified by

investigation. The whole passage of Plutarch is a well-

arranged composition of uniform style, which may be regarded

as an exposition of the system described by Theopompus,

probably in the eighth of his Philippics.

[Illustration: 016a.jpg THE MOON-GOD]

[Illustration: 016b.jpg GOD OF THE WIND]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin of King Kanishka,

published by Percy Gardner.

These benevolent and immortal beings--_Amesha-spentas_--were, in the

order of precedence, Vohu-manô (good thought), Asha-vahista (perfect

holiness), Khshathra-vairya (good government), Spenta-armaiti (meek

piety), Haurvatât (health), Ameretât (immortality). Each of them had

a special domain assigned to him in which to display his energy

untrammelled: Vohu-manô had charge of cattle, Asha-vahista of fire,

Khshathra-vairya of metals, Spenta-armaiti of the earth, Haurvatât and

Ameretât of vegetation and of water. They were represented in human

form, either masculine as Vohu-manô and Asha-vahista,* or feminine as

Spenta-armaiti, the daughter and spouse of Ahura-mazdâ, who became

the mother of the first man, Gayomaretan, and, through Gayomaretan,

ancestress of the whole human race.

* The image of Asha-vahista is known to us from coins of the

Indo-Scythian kings of Bactriana. Vohu-manô is described as

a young man.

[Illustration: 017a.jpg ATAR THE GOD OF FIRE]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin of King Kanishka,

published by Percy Gardner.

[Illustration: 017b.jpg AURVATASPA]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from coin published by Percy

Gardner.

[Illustration: 017c.jpg MITHRA]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin of King Huvishka,

published by Percy Gardner.

Sometimes Ahura-mazdâ is himself included among the Amesha-spentas, thus

bringing their number up to seven; sometimes his place is taken by a

certain Sraôsha (obedience to the law), the first who offered sacrifice

and recited the prayers of the ritual. Subordinate to these great

spirits were the Yazatas, scattered by thousands over creation,

presiding over the machinery of nature and maintaining it in working

order. Most of them received no special names, but many exercised wide

authority, and several were accredited by the people with an influence

not less than that of the greater deities themselves. Such Were the

regent of the stars--Tishtrya, the bull with golden horns, Sirius, the

sparkling one; Mâo, the moon-god; the wind, Vâto; the atmosphere, Vayu,

the strongest of the strong, the warrior with golden armour, who gathers

the storm and hurls it against the demon; Atar, fire under its principal

forms, divine fire, sacred fire, and earthly fire; Vere-thraghna, the

author of war and giver of victory; Aurva-taspa, the son of the waters,

the lightning born among the clouds; and lastly, the spirit of the dawn,

the watchful Mithra, “who, first of the celestial Yazatas, soars above

Mount Hara,* before the immortal sun with his swift steeds, who, first

in golden splendour, passes over the beautiful mountains and casts his

glance benign on the dwellings of the Aryans.” **

* Hara is Haroberezaiti, or Elburz, the mountain over which

the sun rises, “around which many a star revolves, where

there is neither night nor darkness, no wind of cold or

heat, no sickness leading to a thousand kinds of death, nor

infection caused by the Daôvas, and whose summit is never

reached by the clouds.”

** This is the Mithra whose religion became so powerful in

Alexandrian and Roman times. His sphere of action is defined

in the Bundehesh.

Mithra was a charming youth of beautiful countenance, his head

surrounded with a radiant halo. The nymph Anâhita was adored under the

form of one of the incarnations of the Babylonian goddess Mylitta, a

youthful and slender female, with well-developed breasts and broad hips,

sometimes represented clothed in furs and sometimes nude.* Like the

foreign goddess to whom she was assimilated, she was the dispenser of

fertility and of love; the heroes of antiquity, and even Ahura-mazdâ

himself, had vied with one another in their worship of her, and she had

lavished her favours freely on all.**

* The popularity of these two deities was already well

established at the period we are dealing with, for Herodotus

mentions Mithra and confuses him with Anâhita.

** Her name Ardvî-Sûra Anâhita seems to signify _the lofty

and immaculate power_.

The less important Yazatas were hardly to be distinguished from the

innumerable multitude of Fravashis. The Fravasliis are the divine types

of all intelligent beings. They were originally brought into being by

Ahura-mazdâ as a distinct species from the human, but they had allowed

themselves to be entangled in matter, and to be fettered in the bodies

of men, in order to hasten the final destruction of the demons and the

advent of the reign of good.*

* The legend of the descent of the Fravashis to dwell among

men is narrated in the Bundehesh.

[Illustration: 018.jpg MYLITTA-ANÂHITA]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Loftus

[Illustration: 018a.jpg NANA-ANÂHITA]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin of King Huvishka,

published by Percy Gardner.

Once incarnate, a Fravasliis devotes himself to the well-being of the

mortal with whom he is associated; and when once more released from

the flesh, he continues the struggle against evil with an energy whose

efficacy is proportionate to the virtue and purity displayed in life by

the mortal to whom he has been temporarily joined. The last six days

of the year are dedicated to the Fravashis. They leave their heavenly

abodes at this time to visit the spots which were their earthly

dwelling-places, and they wander through the villages inquiring, “Who

wishes to hire us? Who will offer us a sacrifice? Who will make us their

own, welcome us, and receive us with plenteous offerings of food and

raiment, with a prayer which bestows sanctity on him who offers it?” And

if they find a man to hearken to their request, they bless him: “May his

house be blessed with herds of oxen and troops of men, a swift horse

and a strongly built chariot, a man who knoweth how to pray to God, a

chieftain in the council who may ever offer us sacrifices with a hand

filled with food and raiment, with a prayer which bestows sanctity on

him who offers it!” Ahura-mazdâ created the universe, not by the work

of his hands, but by the magic of his word, and he desired to create it

entirely free from defects. His creation, however, can only exist by

the free play and equilibrium of opposing forces, to which he gives

activity: the incompatibility of tendency displayed by these forces, and

their alternations of growth and decay, inspired the Iranians with the

idea that they were the result of two contradictory principles, the one

beneficent and good, the other adverse to everything emanating from the

former.*

* Spiegel, who at first considered that the Iranian dualism

was derived from polytheism, and was a preliminary stage in

the development of monotheism, held afterwards that a rigid

monotheism had preceded this dualism. The classical writers,

who knew Zoroastrianism at the height of its glory, never

suggested that the two principles might be derived from a

superior principle, nor that they were subject to such a

principle. The Iranian books themselves nowhere definitely

affirm that there existed a single principle distinct from

the two opposing principles.

In opposition to the god of light, they necessarily formed the idea of

a god of darkness, the god of the underworld, who presides over death,

Angrô-mainyus. The two opposing principles reigned at first, each in his

own domain, as rivals, but not as irreconcilable adversaries: they were

considered as in fixed opposition to each other, and as having coexisted

for ages without coming into actual conflict, separated as they were by

the intervening void. As long as the principle of good was content

to remain shut up inactive in his barren glory, the principle of evil

slumbered unconscious in a darkness that knew no beginning; but when

at last “the spirit who giveth increase”--Spentô-mainyus--determined to

manifest himself, the first throes of his vivifying activity roused from

inertia the spirit of destruction and of pain, Angrô-mainyus. The heaven

was not yet in existence, nor the waters, nor the earth, nor ox, nor

fire, nor man, nor demons, nor brute beasts, nor any living thing, when

the evil spirit hurled himself upon the light to quench it for ever,

but Ahura-mazdâ had already called forth the ministers of his

will--Amêsha-spentas, Yazatas, Fravashis--and he recited the prayer of

twenty-one words in which all the elements of morality are summed up,

the Ahuna-vairya: “The will of the Lord is the rule of good. Let the

gifts of Vohu-manô be bestowed on the works accomplished, at this

moment, for Mazda. He makes Ahura to reign, he who protects the poor.”

The effect of this prayer was irresistible: “When Ahura had pronounced

the first part of the formula, Zânak Mînoî, the spirit of destruction,

bowed himself with terror; at the second part he fell upon his knees;

and at the third and last he felt himself powerless to hurt the

creatures of Ahura-mazdâ.” *

* Theopompus was already aware of this alternation of good

and bad periods. According to the tradition enshrined in the

first chapter of the Bundehesh, it was the result of a sort

of compact agreed upon at the beginning by Ahura-mazdâ and

Angrô-mainyus. Ahura-mazdâ, rearing to be overcome if he

entered upon the struggle immediately, but sure of final

victory if he could gain time, proposed to his adversary a

truce of nine thousand years, at the expiration of which the

battle should begin. As soon as the compact was made, Angrô-

mainyus realised that he had been tricked into taking a

false step, but it was not till after three thousand years

that he decided to break the truce and open the conflict.

The strife, kindled at the beginning of time between the two gods, has

gone on ever since with alternations of success and defeat; each in turn

has the victory for a regular period of three thousand years; but when

these periods are ended, at the expiration of twelve thousand years,

evil will be finally and for ever defeated. While awaiting this blessed

fulness of time, as Spentô-mainyus shows himself in all that is good

and beautiful, in light, virtue, and justice, so Angrô-mainyus is to be

perceived in all that is hateful and ugly, in darkness, sin, and crime.

Against the six Amesha-spentas he sets in array six spirits of

equal power--Akem-manô, evil thought; Andra, the devouring fire, who

introduces discontent and sin wherever he penetrates; Sauru, the flaming

arrow of death, who inspires bloodthirsty tyrants, who incites men to

theft and murder; Nâongaithya, arrogance and pride; Tauru, thirst; and

Zairi, hunger.*

* The last five of these spirits are enumerated in the

_Vendidad_, and the first, Akem-manô, is there replaced by

Nasu, the chief spirit of evil.

To the Yazatas he opposed the Daêvas, who never cease to torment

mankind, and so through all the ranks of nature he set over against each

good and useful creation a counter-creation of rival tendency. “‘Like

a fly he crept into’ and infected ‘the whole universe.’ He rendered the

world as dark at full noonday as in the darkest night. He covered the

soil with vermin, with his creatures of venomous bite and poisonous

sting, with serpents, scorpions, and frogs, so that there was not a

space as small as a needle’s point but swarmed with his vermin. He smote

vegetation, and of a sudden the plants withered.... He attacked the

flames, and mingled them with smoke and dimness. The planets, with their

thousands of demons, dashed against the vault of heaven and waged war on

the stars, and the universe became darkened like a space which the fire

blackens with its smoke.” And the conflict grew ever keener over the

world and over man, of whom the evil one was jealous, and whom he sought

to humiliate.

[Illustration: 022.jpg ONE OF THE BAD GENII, SUBJECT TO ANGRÔ-MAINYUS]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph taken from the

original bas-relief in glazed tiles in the Louvre.

[Illustration: 023.jpg THE KING STRUGGLING AGAINST AN EVIL GENIUS]

Drawn by Boudier, from the photograph in Marcel Dieulafoy.

The children of Angrô-mainyus disguised themselves under those monstrous

forms in which the imagination of the Chaldæans had clothed the allies

of Mummu-Tiamât, such as lions with bulls’ heads, and the wings and

claws of eagles, which the Achæmenian king combats on behalf of his

subjects, boldly thrusting them through with his short sword. Aêshma of

the blood-stained lance, terrible in wrath, is the most trusted leader

of these dread bands,* the chief of twenty other Daêvas of repulsive

aspect--Astô-vîdhôtu, the demon of death, who would devote to

destruction the estimable Fravashis;** Apaosha, the enemy of Tishtrya

the wicked black horse, the bringer of drought, who interferes with the

distribution of the fertilising waters; and Bûiti, who essayed to kill

Zoroaster at his birth.***

* The name Aêshma means _anger_. He is the Asmodeus, Aêshmo-

daevô, of Rabbinic legends.

** The name of this demon signifies _He who separates the

bones_.

*** The Greater Bundehesh connects the demon Bûiti with the

Indian Buddha, and J. Darmestefer seems inclined to accept

this interpretation. In this case we must either admit that

the demon Bûiti is of relatively late origin, or that he

has, in the legend of Zoroaster, taken the place of a demon

whose name resembled his own closely enough to admit of the

assimilation.

The female demons, the Bruges, the Incubi (Yâtus), the Succubi

(Pairîka), the Peris of our fairy tales, mingled familiarly with mankind

before the time of the prophet, and contracted with them fruitful

alliances, but Zoroaster broke up their ranks, and prohibited them

from becoming incarnate in any form but that of beasts; their hatred,

however, is still unquenched, and their power will only be effectually

overthrown at the consummation of time. It is a matter of uncertainty

whether the Medes already admitted the possibility of a fresh

revelation, preparing the latest generations of mankind for the advent

of the reign of good. The traditions enshrined in the sacred books

of Iran announce the coming of three prophets, sons of Zoroaster

--Ukhshyatereta, Ukhshyatnemô, and Saoshyant* --who shall bring about

universal salvation.

* The legend ran that they had been conceived in the waters

of the lake Kansu. The name Saoshyant signifies _the useful

one, the saviour_; Ukshyate-reta, _he who malces the good

increase_; Ukshyatnemô, _he who makes prayer increase_.

Saoshyant, assisted by fifteen men and fifteen pure women, who have

already lived on earth, and are awaiting their final destiny in a magic

slumber, shall offer the final sacrifice, the virtue of which shall

bring about the resurrection of the dead. “The sovereign light shall

accompany him and his friends, when he shall revivify the world and

ransom it from old age and death, from corruption and decay, and shall

render it eternally living, eternally growing, and master of itself.”

The fatal conflict shall be protracted, but the champions of Saoshyant

shall at length obtain the victory. “Before them shall bow Aêshma of the

blood-stained lance and of ominous renown, and Saoshyant shall strike

down the she-demon of the unholy light, the daughter of darkness.

Akem-manô strikes, but Vohu-manô shall strike him in his turn; the lying

word shall strike, but the word of truth shall strike him in his turn;

Haurvatât and Ameretâfc shall strike down hunger and thirst; Haurvatât

and Ameretât shall strike down terrible hunger and terrible thirst.”

Angrô-mainyus himself shall be paralysed with terror, and shall be

forced to confess the supremacy of good: he shall withdraw into the

depths of hell, whence he shall never again issue forth, and all the

reanimated beings devoted to the Mazdean law shall live an eternity of

peace and contentment.

Man, therefore, incessantly distracted between the two principles, laid

wait for by the Baêvas, defended by the Yazatas, must endeavour to act

according to law and justice in the condition in which fate has placed

him. He has been raised up here on earth to contribute as far as in him

lies to the increase of life and of good, and in proportion as he works

for this end or against it, is he the _ashavan_, the pure, the faithful

one on earth and the blessed one in heaven, or the _anashavan_, the

lawless miscreant who counteracts purity. The highest grade in the

hierarchy of men belongs of right to the Mage or the _âthravan_, to the

priest whose voice inspires the demons with fear, or the soldier whose

club despatches the impious, but a place of honour at their side is

assigned to the peasant, who reclaims from the power of Angrô-mainyus the

dry and sterile fields. Among the places where the earth thrives most

joyously is reckoned that “where a worshipper of Ahura-mazdâ builds a

house, with a chaplain, with cattle, with a wife, with sons, with a fair

flock; where man grows the most corn, herbage, and fruit trees; where he

spreads water on a soil without water, and drains off water where

there is too much of it.” He who sows corn, sows good, and promotes the

Mazdean faith; “he nourishes the Mazdean religion as fifty men would do

rocking a child in the cradle, five hundred women giving it suck from

their breasts.* When the corn was created the Daêvas leaped, when it

sprouted the Daêvas lost courage, when the stem set the Daêvas wept,

when the ear swelled the Daêvas fled. In the house where corn is

mouldering the Daêvas lodge, but when the corn sprouts, one might say

that a hot iron is being turned round in their mouths.” And the reason

of their horror is easily divined: “Whoso eats not, has no power either

to accomplish a valiant work of religion, or to labour with valour,

or yet to beget children valiantly; it is by eating that the universe

lives, and it dies from not eating.” The faithful follower of Zoroaster

owes no obligation towards the impious man or towards a stranger,** but

is ever bound to render help to his coreligionist.

* The original text says in a more enigmatical fashion, “he

nourishes the religion of Mazdâ as a hundred feet of men and

a thousand breasts of women might do.”

** Charity is called in Parsee language, _ashô-dâd_ the

_gift to a pious man_, or the _gift of piety_, and the pious

man, the _ashavan_, is by definition the worshipper of

Ahura-mazdâ alone.

He will give a garment to the naked, and by so doing will wound Zemaka,

the demon of winter. He will never refuse food to the hungry labourer,

under pain of eternal torments, and his charity will extend even to

the brute beasts, provided that they belong to the species created by

Ahura-mazdâ: he has duties towards them, and their complaints, heard

in heaven, shall be fatal to him later on if he has provoked them.

Asha-vahista will condemn to hell the cruel man who has ill-treated the

ox, or allowed his flocks to suffer; and the killing of a hedgehog is

no less severely punished--for does not a hedgehog devour the ants

who steal the grain? The dog is in every case an especially sacred

animal--the shepherd’s dog, the watchdog, the hunting-dog, even the

prowling dog. It is not lawful to give any dog a blow which renders him

impotent, or to slit his ears, or to cut his foot, without incurring

grave responsibilities in this world and in the next; it is necessary to

feed the dog well, and not to throw bones to him which are too hard, nor

have his food served hot enough to burn his tongue or his throat. For

the rest, the faithful Zoroastrian was bound to believe in his god, to

offer to him the orthodox prayers and sacrifices, to be simple in heart,

truthful, the slave of his pledged word, loyal in his very smallest

acts. If he had once departed from the right way, he could only return

to it by repentance and by purification, accompanied by pious deeds:

to exterminate noxious animals, the creatures of Angrô-mainyus and the

abode of his demons, such as the frog, the scorpion, the serpent or

the ant, to clear the sterile tracts, to restore impoverished land,

to construct bridges over running water, to distribute implements of

husbandry to pions men, or to build them a house, to give a pure and

healthy maiden in marriage to a just man,--these were so many means of

expiation appointed by the prophet.* Marriage was strictly obligatory,**

and seemed more praiseworthy in proportion as the kinship existing

between the married pair was the closer: not only was the sister united

in marriage to her brother, as in Egypt, but the father to his daughter,

and the mother to her son, at least among the Magi.

* A passage in the _Vendidad_ even enumerates how many

noisome beasts must be slain to accomplish one full work of

expiation--“to kill 1000 serpents of those who drag

themselves upon the belly, and 2000 of the other species,

1000 land frogs or 2000 water frogs, 1000 ants who steal the

grain,” and so on.

** The _Vendidad_ says, “And I tell thee, O Spitama

Zarathustra, the man who has a wife is above him who lives

in continency;” and, as we have seen in the text, one of

these forms of expiation consisted in “marrying to a worthy

man a young girl who has never known a man” (_Vendidad_, 14,

§ 15). Herodotus of old remarked that one of the chief

merits in an Iranian was to have many children: the King of

Persia encouraged fecundity in his realm, and awarded a

prize each year to that one of his subjects who could boast

the most numerous progeny.

Polygamy was also encouraged and widely practised: the code imposed no

limit on the number of wives and concubines, and custom was in favour of

a man’s having as many wives as his fortune permitted him to maintain.

On the occasion of a death, it was forbidden to burn the corpse, to bury

it, or to cast it into a river, as it would have polluted the fire,

the earth, or the water--an unpardonable offence. The corpse could be

disposed of in different ways. The Persians were accustomed to cover it

with a thick layer of wax, and then to bury it in the ground: the wax

coating obviated the pollution which direct contact would have brought

upon the soil. The Magi, and probably also strict devotees, following

their example, exposed the corpse in the open air, abandoning it to the

birds or beasts of prey. It was considered a great misfortune if these

respected the body, for it was an almost certain indication of the wrath

of Ahura-mazdâ, and it was thought that the defunct had led an evil

life. When the bones had been sufficiently stripped of flesh, they were

collected together, and deposited either in an earthenware urn or in a

stone ossuary with a cover, or in a monumental tomb either hollowed out

in the heart of the mountain or in the living rock, or raised up

above the level of the ground. Meanwhile the soul remained in the

neighbourhood for three days, hovering near the head of the corpse, and

by the recitation of prayers it experienced, according to its condition

of purity or impurity, as much of joy or sadness as the whole world

experiences. When the third night was past, the just soul set forth

across luminous plains, refreshed by a perfumed breeze, and its good

thoughts and words and deeds took shape before it “under the guise of a

young maiden, radiant and strong, with well-developed bust, noble mien,

and glorious face, about fifteen years of age, and as beautiful as the

most beautiful;” the unrighteous soul, on the contrary, directed its

course towards the north, through a tainted land, amid the squalls of a

pestilential hurricane, and there encountered its past ill deeds, under

the form of an ugly and wicked young woman, the ugliest and most wicked

it had ever seen. The genius Rashnu Razishta, the essentially truthful,

weighed its virtues or vices in an unerring balance, and acquitted or

Condemned it on the impartial testimony of its past life. On issuing

from the judgment-hall, the soul arrived at the approach to the bridge

Cinvaut, which, thrown across the abyss of hell, led to paradise. The

soul, if impious, was unable to cross this bridge, but was hurled down

into the abyss, where it became the slave of Angrô-mainyus. If pure, it

crossed the bridge without difficulty by the help of the angel Sraôsha,

and was welcomed by Vohu-manô, who conducted it before the throne of

Ahura-mazdâ, in the same way as he had led Zoroaster, and assigned to it

the post which it should occupy until the day of the resurrection of the

body.*

* All this picture of the fate of the soul is taken from the

_Vendidad_, where the fate of the just is described, and in

the _Yasht_, where the condition of faithful and impious

souls respectively is set forth on parallel lines. The

classical authors teach us nothing on this subject, and the

little they actually say only proves that the Persians

believed in the immortality of the soul. The main outlines

of the picture here set forth go back to the times of the

Achæmenids and the Medes, except the abstract conception of

the goddess who leads the soul of the dead as an incarnation

of his good or evil deeds.

The religious observances enjoined on the members of the priestly caste

were innumerable and minute. Ahura-mazdâ and his colleagues had not,

as was the fashion among the Assyrians and Egyptians, either temples or

tabernacles, and though they were represented sometimes under human or

animal forms, and even in some cases on bas-reliefs, yet no one ever

ventured to set up in their sanctuaries those so-called animated or

prophetic statues to which the majority of the nations had rendered or

were rendering their solicitous homage. Altars, however, were erected

on the tops of hills, in palaces, or in the centre of cities, on which

fires were kindled in honour of the inferior deities or of the supreme

god himself.

[Illustration: 031.jpg THE TWO IRANIAN ALTAKRAT NAKHSH-Î-RUSTEM]

Drawn by Boudier, from a heliogravure in Marcel Dieulafoy.

Two altars were usually set up together, and they are thus found here

and there among the ruins, as at Nakhsh-î-Kustem, the necropolis of

Persepolis, where a pair of such altars exist; these are cut, each out

of a single block, in a rocky mass which rises some thirteen feet above

the level of the surrounding plain. They are of cubic form and

squat appearance, looking like towers flanked at the four corners by

supporting columns which are connected by circular arches; above a

narrow moulding rises a crest of somewhat triangular projections; the

hearth is hollowed out on the summit of each altar.*

* According to Perrot and Chipiez, “it is not impossible

that these altars were older than the great buildings of

Persepolis, and that they were erected for the old Persian

town which Darius raised to the position of capital.”

At Meshed-î-Murgâb, on the site of the ancient Pasargadas, the altars

have disappeared, but the basements on which they were erected are

still visible, as also the flight of eight steps by which they were

approached. Those altars on which burned, a perpetual fire were not

left exposed to the open air: they would have run too great a risk

of contracting impurities, such as dust borne by the wind, flights of

birds, dew, rain, or snow. They were enclosed in slight structures, well

protected by walls, and attaining in some cases considerable dimensions,

or in pavilion-shaped edifices of stone adorned with columns.

[Illustration: 032.jpg THE TWO IRANIAN ALTARS OF MURGAB]

Drawn by Boudier, from Plandin and Coste.

The sacrificial rites were of long duration, and frequent, and were

rendered very complex by interminable manual acts, ceremonial gestures,

and incantations.

[Illustration: 032b.jpg THE OCCUPATIONS OF ANI IN THE ELYSIAN FIELDS]

In cases where the altar was not devoted to maintaining a perpetual

fire, it was kindled when necessary with small twigs previously barked

and purified, and was subsequently fed with precious woods, preferably

cypress or laurel;* care was taken not to quicken the flame by blowing,

for the human breath would have desecrated the fire by merely passing

over it; death was the punishment for any one who voluntarily committed

such a heinous sacrilege. The recognised offering consisted of flowers,

bread, fruit, and perfumes, but these were often accompanied, as in all

ancient religions, by a bloody sacrifice; the sacrifice of a horse was

considered the most efficacious, but an ox, a cow, a sheep, a camel,

an ass, or a stag was frequently offered: in certain circumstances,

especially when it was desired to conciliate the favour of the god of

the underworld, a human victim, probably as a survival of very ancient

rites was preferred.**

* Pausanias, who witnessed the cult as practised at

Hierocæsarsea, remarked the curious colour of the ashes

heaped upon the altar.

* Most modern writers deny the authenticity of Herodotus’

account, because a sacrifice of this kind is opposed to the

spirit of the Magian religion, which is undoubtedly the

case, as far as the latest form of the religion is

concerned; but the testimony of Herodotus is so plain that

the fact itself must be considered as indisputable. We may

note that the passage refers to the foundation of a city;

and if we remember how persistent was the custom of human

sacrifice among ancient races at the foundation of

buildings, we shall be led to the conclusion that the

ceremony described by the Greek historian was a survival of

a very ancient usage, which had not yet fallen entirely into

desuetude at the Achæmenian epoch.

[Illustration: 033.jpg THE SACRED FIRE BURNING ON THE ALTAR]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the impression of a Persian

intaglio.

The king, whose royal position made him the representative of

Ahura-mazdâ on earth, was, in fact, a high priest, and was himself

able to officiate at the altar, but no one else could dispense with the

mediation of the Magi. The worshippers proceeded in solemn procession

to the spot where the ceremony was to take place, and there the priest,

wearing the tiara on his head, recited an invocation in a slow and

mysterious voice, and implored the blessings of heaven on the king

and nation. He then slaughtered the victim by a blow on the head, and

divided it into portions, which he gave back to the offerer without

reserving any of them, for Ahura-mazdâ required nothing but the soul;

in certain cases, the victim was entirely consumed by fire, but more

frequently nothing but a little of the fat and some of the entrails

were taken to feed and maintain the flame, and sometimes even this was

omitted.* Sacrifices were of frequent occurrence. Without mentioning

the extraordinary occasions on which a king would have a thousand bulls

slain at one time,** the Achæmenian kings killed each day a thousand

bullocks, asses, and stags: sacrifice under such circumstances was

another name for butchery, the object of which was to furnish the court

with a sufficient supply of pure meat. The ceremonial bore resemblance

in many ways to that still employed by the modern Zoroastrians of Persia

and India.

* A relic of this custom may be discerned in the expiatory

sacrifice decreed in the _Vendidad_: “He shall sacrifice a

thousand head of small cattle, and he shall place their

entrails devoutly on the fire, with libations.”

** The number 1000 seems to have had some ritualistic

significance, for it often recurs in the penances imposed on

the faithful as expiation for their sins: thus it was

enjoined to slay 1000 serpents, 1000 frogs, 1000 ants who

steal the grain, 1000 head of small cattle, 1000 swift

horses, 1000 camels, 1000 brown oxen.

The officiating priest covered his mouth with the bands which fell from

his mitre, to prevent the god from being polluted by his breath; he held

in his hand the baresman, or sacred bunch of tamarisk, and prepared the

mysterious liquor from the haoma plant.* He was accustomed each morning

to celebrate divine service before the sacred fire, not to speak of the

periodic festivals in which he shared the offices with all the members

of his tribe, such as the feast of Mithra, the feast of the Fravashis,**

the feast commemorating the rout of Angrô-mainyus,*** the feast of the

Saksea, during which the slaves were masters of the house.****

* The drink mentioned by the author of the _De Iside_, which

was extracted from the plant Omômi, and which the Magi

offered to the god of the underworld, is certainly the

haoma. The rite mentioned by the Greek author, which appears

to be an incantation against Ahriman, required, it seems, a

potion in which the blood of a wolf was a necessary

ingredient: this questionable draught was then carried to a

place where the sun’s rays never shone, and was there

sprinkled on the ground as a libation.

** Menander speaks of this festival as conducted in his own

times, and tells us that it was called Eurdigan; modern

authorities usually admit that it goes back to the times of

the Achæmenids or even beyond.

*** Agathias says that every worshipper of Ahura-mazdâ is

enjoined to kill the greatest possible number of animals

created by Angrô-mainyus, and bring to the Magi the fruits

of his hunting. Herodotus had already spoken of this

destruction of life as one of the duties incumbent on every

Persian, and this gives probability to the view of modern

writers that the festival went back to the Achæmenian epoch.

**** The festival of the Sakoa is mentioned by Ctesias. It

was also a Babylonian festival, and most modern authorities

conclude from this double use of the name that the festival

was borrowed from the Babylonians by the Persians, but this

point is not so certain as it is made out to be, and at any

rate the borrowing must have taken place very early, for the

festival was already well established in the Achæmenian

period.

All the Magi were not necessarily devoted to the priesthood; but

those only became apt in the execution of their functions who had been

dedicated to them from infancy, and who, having received the necessary

instruction, were duly consecrated. These adepts were divided into

several classes, of which three at least were never confounded in their

functions--the sorcerers, the interpreters of dreams, and the most

venerated sages--and from these three classes were chosen the ruling

body of the order and its supreme head. Their rule of life was

strict and austere, and was encumbered with a thousand observances

indispensable to the preservation of perfect purity in their persons,

their altars, their victims, and their sacrificial vessels and

implements. The Magi of highest rank abstained from every form of

living thing as food, and the rest only partook of meat under certain

restrictions. Their dress was unpretentious, they wore no jewels, and

observed strict fidelity to the marriage vow;* and the virtues with

which they were accredited obtained for them, from very early times,

unbounded influence over the minds of the common people as well as over

those of the nobles: the king himself boasted of being their pupil, and

took no serious step in state affairs without consulting Ahura-mazdâ or

the other gods by their mediation. The classical writers maintain that

the Magi often cloaked monstrous vices under their apparent strictness,

and it is possible that this was the case in later days, but even then

moral depravity was probably rather the exception than the rule among

them:*** the majority of the Magi faithfully observed the rules of

honest living and ceremonial purity enjoined on them in the books handed

down by their ancestors.

* Clement of Alexandria assures us that they were strictly

celibate, but besides the fact that married Magi are

mentioned several times, celibacy is still considered by

Zoroastrians an inferior state to that of marriage.

** In the Greek period, a spurious epitaph of Darius, son of

Hystaspes, was quoted, in which the king says of himself, “I

was the pupil of the Magi.”

*** These accusations are nearly all directed against their

incestuous marriages: it seems that the classical writers

took for a refinement of debauchery what really was before

all things a religious practice.

There is reason to believe that the Magi were all-powerful among the

Medes, and that the reign of Astyages was virtually the reign of the

priestly caste; but all the Iranian states did not submit so patiently

to their authority, and the Persians at last proved openly refractory.

Their kings, lords of Susa as well as of Pasargadse, wielded all the

resources of Elam, and their military power must have equalled, if it

did not already surpass, that of their suzerain lords. Their tribes,

less devoted to the manner of living of the Assyrians and Chaldæans,

had preserved a vigour and power of endurance which the Medes no longer

possessed; and they needed but an ambitious and capable leader, to rise

rapidly from the rank of subjects to that of rulers of Iran, and to

become in a short time masters of Asia. Such a chief they found in

Cyrus,* son of Cambyses; but although no more illustrious name than his

occurs in the list of the founders of mighty empires, the history of no

other has suffered more disfigurement from the imagination of his own

subjects or from the rancour of the nations he had conquered.**

* The original form of the name is Kûru, Kûrush, with a long

_o_, which forces us to reject the proposed connection with

the name of the Indian hero Kuru, in which the _u_ is short.

Numerous etymologies of the name Cyrus have been proposed.

The Persians themselves attributed to it the sense of _the

Sun_.

** We possess two entirely different versions of the history

of the origin of Cyrus, but one, that of Herodotus, has

reached us intact, while that of Ctesias is only known to us

in fragments from extracts made by Nicolas of Damascus, and

by Photius. Spiegel and Duncker thought to recognise in the

tradition followed by Ctesias one of the Persian accounts of

the history of Cyrus, but Bauer refuses to admit this

hypothesis, and prefers to consider it as a romance put

together by the author, according to the taste of his own

times, from facts partly different from those utilised by

Herodotus, and partly borrowed from Herodotus himself: but

it should very probably be regarded as an account of Median

origin, in which the founder of the Persian empire is

portrayed in the most unfavourable light. Or perhaps it may

be regarded as the form of the legend current among the

Pharnaspids who established themselves as satraps of

Dascylium in the time of the Achæmenids, and to whom the

royal house of Cappadocia traced its origin. It is almost

certain that the account given by Herodotus represents a

Median version of the legend, and, considering the important

part played in it by Harpagus, probably that version which

was current among the descendants of that nobleman. The

historian Dinon, as far as we can judge from the extant

fragments of his work, and from the abridgment made by

Trogus Pompeius, adopted the narrative of Ctesias, mingling

with it, however, some details taken from Herodotus and the

romance of Xenophon, the Cyropodia.

The Medes, who could not forgive him for having made them subject to

their ancient vassals, took delight in holding him up to scorn, and not

being able to deny the fact of his triumph, explained it by the adoption

of tortuous and despicable methods. They would not even allow that he

was of royal birth, but asserted that he was of ignoble origin, the son

of a female goatherd and a certain Atradates,* who, belonging to

the savage clan of the Mardians, lived by brigandage. Cyrus himself,

according to this account, spent his infancy and early youth in a

condition not far short of slavery, employed at first in sweeping out

the exterior portions of the palace, performing afterwards the same

office in the private apartments, subsequently promoted to the charge of

the lamps and torches, and finally admitted to the number of the royal

cupbearers who filled the king’s goblet at table.

* According to one of the historians consulted by Strabo,

Cyrus himself, and not his father, was called Atradates.

[Illustration: 039.jpg A ROYAL HUNTING-PARTY IN HUN]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the silver vase in the Museum

of the Hermitage.

When he was at length enrolled in the bodyguard,* he won distinction by

his skill in all military exercises, and having risen from rank to rank,

received command of an expedition against the Cadusians.

* The tradition reproduced by Dinon narrated that Cyrus had

begun by serving among the Kavasses, the three hundred

staff-bearers who accompanied the sovereign when he appeared

in public, and that he passed next into the royal body-

guard, and that once having attained this rank, he passed

rapidly through all the superior grades of the military

profession.

On the march he fell in with a Persian groom named OEbaras,* who

had been cruelly scourged for some misdeed, and was occupied in the

transportation of manure in a boat: in obedience to an oracle the two

united their fortunes, and together devised a vast scheme for liberating

their compatriots from the Median yoke.

* This OEbaras whom Ctesias makes the accomplice of Cyrus,

seems to be an antedated forestallment of theoebaras whom

the tradition followed by Herodotus knows as master of the

horse under Darius, and to whom that king owed his elevation

to the throne.

How Atradates secretly prepared the revolt of the Mardians; how Cyrus

left his camp to return to the court at Ecbatana, and obtained from

Astyages permission to repair to his native country under pretext of

offering sacrifices, but in reality to place himself at the head of the

conspirators; how, finally, the indiscretion of a woman revealed the

whole plot to a eunuch of the harem, and how he warned Astyages in the

middle of his evening banquet by means of a musician or singing-girl,

was frequently narrated by the Median bards in their epic poems, and

hence the story spread until it reached in later times even as far as

the Greeks.*

* According to Ctesias, it was a singing-girl who revealed

the existence of the plot to Astyages; according to Dinon,

it was the bard Angarês. Windischmann has compared this name

with that of the Vedic guild of singers, the Angira.

Astyages, roused to action by the danger, abandons the pleasures of the

chase in which his activity had hitherto found vent, sets out on the

track of the rebel, wins a preliminary victory on the Hyrba, and kills

the father of Cyrus: some days after, he again overtakes the rebels, at

the entrance to the defiles leading to Pasargadse, and for the second

time fortune is on the point of declaring in his favour, when the

Persian women, bringing back their husbands and sons to the conflict,

urge them on to victory. The fame of their triumph having spread abroad,

the satraps and provinces successfully declared for the conqueror;

Hyrcania, first, followed by the Parthians, the Sakae, and the

Bactrians: Astyages was left almost alone, save for a few faithful

followers, in the palace at Ecbatana. His daughter Amytis and his

son-in-law Spitamas concealed him so successfully on the top of the

palace, that he escaped discovery up to the moment when Cyrus was on

the point of torturing his grandchildren to force them to reveal his

hiding-place: thereupon he gave himself up to his enemies, but was at

length, after being subjected to harsh treatment for a time, set at

liberty and entrusted with the government of a mountain tribe dwelling

to the south-east of the Caspian Sea, that of the Barcanians. Later on

he perished through the treachery of OEbaras, and his corpse was left

unburied in the desert, but by divine interposition relays of lions were

sent to guard it from the attacks of beasts of prey: Cyrus, acquainted

with this miraculous circumstance, went in search of the body and gave

it a magnificent burial.* Another legend asserted, on the contrary,

that Cyrus was closely connected with the royal line of Cyaxares; this

tradition was originally circulated among the great Median families who

attached themselves to the Achaemenian dynasty.**

* The passage in Herodotus leads Marquart to believe that

the murder of Astyages formed part of the primitive legend,

but was possibly attributed to Cambysos, son of Cyrus,

rather than to OEbaras, the companion of the conqueror’s

early years.

** This is the legend as told to Herodotus in Asia Minor,

probably by the members of the family of Harpagus, which the

Greek historian tried to render credible by interpreting the

miraculous incidents in a rationalising manner.

[Illustration: 042.jpg REMAINS OF THE PALACE OF ECBATANA]

Drawn by Boudier, from Coste and Flandin.

According to this legend Astyages had no male heirs, and the sceptre

would have naturally descended from him to his daughter Mandanê and

her sons. Astyages was much alarmed by a certain dream concerning his

daughter: he dreamt that water gushed forth so copiously from her

womb as to flood not only Ecbatana, but the whole of Asia, and the

interpreters, as much terrified as himself, counselled him not to give

Mandanê in marriage to a Persian noble of the race of the Achæmenids,

named Cambyses; but a second dream soon troubled the security into which

this union had lulled him: he saw issuing from his daughter’s womb a

vine whose branches overshadowed Asia, and the interpreters, being once

more consulted, predicted that a grandson was about to be born to him

whose ambition would cost him his crown. He therefore bade a certain

nobleman of his court, named Harpagus--he whose descendants preserved

this version of the story of Cyrus--to seize the infant and put it to

death as soon as its mother should give it birth; but the man, touched

with pity, caused the child to be exposed in the woods by one of the

royal shepherds. A bitch gave suck to the tiny creature, who, however,

would soon have succumbed to the inclemency of the weather, had not the

shepherd’s wife, being lately delivered of a still-born son, persuaded

her husband to rescue the infant, whom she nursed with the same

tenderness as if he had been her own child. The dog was, as we know, a

sacred animal among the Iranians: the incident of the bitch seems, then,

to have been regarded by them as an indication of divine intervention,

but the Greeks were shocked by the idea, and invented an explanation

consonant with their own customs. They supposed that the woman had borne

the name of Spakô: Spakô signifying _bitch_ in the language of Media.*

* Herodotus asserts that the child’s foster-mother was

called in Greek _Kynô_, in Median _Spalcô_, which comes to

the same thing, for _spaha_ means _bitch_ in Median. Further

on he asserts that the parents of the child heard of the

name of his nurse with joy, as being of good augury; “and,

in order that the Persians might think that Cyrus had been

preserved alive by divine agency, _they spread abroad the

report that Cyrus had been suckled by a bitch_. And thus

arose the fable commonly accepted.” Trogus Pompeius received

the original story probably through Dinon, and inserted it

in his book.

Cyrus grew to boyhood, and being accepted by Mandanê as her son,

returned to the court; his grandfather consented to spare his life, but,

to avenge himself on Harpagus, he caused the limbs of the nobleman’s own

son to be served up to him at a feast. Thenceforth Harpagus had but

one idea, to overthrow the tyrant and transfer the crown to the young

prince: his project succeeded, and Cyrus, having overcome Astyages,

was proclaimed king by the Medes as well as by the Persians. The real

history of Cyrus, as far as we can ascertain it, was less romantic. We

gather that Kurush, known to us as Cyrus, succeeded his father Cambyses

as ruler of Anshân about 559 or 558 B.C.,* and that he revolted against

Astyages in 553 or 552 B.C.,** and defeated him. The Median army

thereupon seizing its own leader, delivered him into the hands of the

conqueror: Ecbatana was taken and sacked, and the empire fell at one

blow, or, more properly speaking, underwent a transformation (550 B.C.).

The transformation was, in fact, an internal revolution in which the

two peoples of the same race changed places. The name of the Medes lost

nothing of the prestige which it enjoyed in foreign lands, but that of

the Persians was henceforth united with it, and shared its renown: like

Astyages and his predecessors, Cyrus and his successors reigned equally

over the two leading branches of the ancient Iranian stock, but whereas

the former had been kings of the Medes and Persians, the latter became

henceforth kings of the Persians and Medes.***

* The length of Cyrus’ reign is fixed at thirty years by

Ctesias, followed by Dinon and Trogus Pompeius, but at

twenty-nine years by Herodotus, whose computation I here

follow. Hitherto the beginning of his reign has been made to

coincide with the fall of Astyages, which was consequently

placed in 569 or 568 B.C., but the discovery of the _Annals

of Nabonidus_ obliges us to place the taking of Ecbatana in

the sixth year of the Babylonian king, which corresponds to

the year 550 B.C., and consequently to hold that Cyrus

reckoned his twenty-nine years from the moment when he

succeeded his father Cambyses.

** The inscription on the _Rassam Cylinder of Abu-Habba_,

seems to make the fall of the Median king, who was suzerain

of the Scythians of Harrân, coincide with the third year of

Nabonidus, or the year 553-2 B.C. But it is only the date of

the commencement of hostilities between Cyrus and Astyages

which is here furnished, and this manner of interpreting the

text agrees with the statement of the Median traditions

handed down by the classical authors, that three combats

took place between Astyages and Cyrus before the final

victory of the Persians.

*** This equality of the two peoples is indicated by the

very terms employed by Darius, whom he speaks of them, in

the _Great Inscription of Behistun_. He says, for example,

in connection with the revolt of the false Smerdis, that

“the deception prevailed greatly in the land, in Persia and

Media as well as in the other provinces,” and further on,

that “the whole people rose, and passed over from Cambyses

to him, Persia and Media as well as the other countries.” In

the same way he mentions “the army of Persians and Medes

which was with him,” and one sees that he considered Medes

and Persians to be on exactly the same footing.

The change effected was so natural that their nearest neighbours, the

Chaldæans, showed no signs of uneasiness at the outset. They confined

themselves to the bare registration of the fact in their annals at the

appointed date, without comment, and Nabonidus in no way deviated from

the pious routine which it had hitherto pleased him to follow. Under

a sovereign so good-natured there was little likelihood of war, at all

events with external foes, but insurrections were always breaking out in

different parts of his territory, and we read of difficulties in Khumê

in the first year of his reign, in Hamath in his second year, and

troubles in Plionicia in the third year, which afforded an opportunity

for settling the Tyrian question. Tyre had led a far from peaceful

existence ever since the day when, from sheer apathy, she had accepted

the supremacy of Nebuchadrezzar.*

* All these events are known through the excerpt from

Menander preserved to us by Josephus in his treatise

_Against Apion_.

Baal II. had peacefully reigned there for ten years (574-564), but after

his death the people had overthrown the monarchy, and various _suffetes_

had followed one another rapidly--Eknibaal ruled two months, Khelbes ten

months, the high priest Abbar three months, the two brothers Mutton

and Gerastratus six years, all of them no doubt in the midst of endless

disturbances; whereupon a certain Baalezor restored the royal dignity,

but only to enjoy it for the space of one year. On his death, the

inhabitants begged the Chaldæans to send them, as a successor to the

crown, one of those princes whom, according to custom, Baal had not long

previously given over as hostages for a guarantee of his loyalty, and

Nergal-sharuzur for this purpose selected from their number Mahar-baal,

who was probably a son of Ithobaal (558-557).* When, at the end of four

years, the death of Mahar-baal left the throne vacant (554-553), the

Tyrians petitioned for his brother Hirôm, and Nabonidus, who was then

engaged in Syria, came south as far as Phoenicia and installed the

prince.**

* The fragment of Menander does not give the Babylonian

king’s name, but a simple chronological calculation proves

him to have been Nergal-sharuzur.

** _Annals of Nabonidus_, where mention is made of a certain

Nabu-makhdan-uzur--but the reading of the name is uncertain

--who seems to be in revolt against the Chaldæans. Floigl has

very ingeniously harmonised the dates of the Annals with

those obtained from the fragment of Menander, and has thence

concluded that the object of the expedition of the third

year was the enthroning of Hirôm which is mentioned in the

fragment, and during whose fourteenth year Cyrus became King

of Babylon.

This took place at the very moment when Cyrus was preparing his

expedition against Astyages; and the Babylonian monarch took advantage

of the agitation into which the Medes were thrown by this invasion, to

carry into execution a project which he had been planning ever since his

accession. Shortly after that event he had had a dream, in which Marduk,

the great lord, and Sin, the light of heaven and earth, had appeared

on either side of his couch, the former addressing him in the following

words: “Nabonidus, King of Babylon, with the horses of thy chariot bring

brick, rebuild E-khul-khul, the temple of Harrân, that Sin, the great

lord, may take up his abode therein.” Nabonidus had respectfully pointed

out that the town was in the hands of the Scythians, who were subjects

of the Medes, but the god had replied: “The Scythian of whom thou

speakest, he, his country and the kings his protectors, are no more.”

Cyrus was the instrument of the fulfilment of the prophecy. Nabonidus

took possession of Harrân without difficulty, and immediately put the

necessary work in hand. This was, indeed, the sole benefit that he

derived from the changes which were taking place, and it is probable

that his inaction was the result of the enfeebled condition of the

empire. The country over which he ruled, exhausted by the Assyrian

conquest, and depopulated by the Scythian invasions, had not had time to

recover its forces since it had passed into the hands of the Chaldæans;

and the wars which Nebuchadrezzar had been obliged to undertake for the

purpose of strengthening his own power, though few in number and not

fraught with danger, had tended to prolong the state of weakness into

which it had sunk. If the hero of the dynasty who had conquered Egypt

had not ventured to measure his strength with the Median princes, and

if he had courted the friendship not only of the warlike Cyaxares but of

the effeminate Astyages, it would not be prudent for Nabonidus to come

into collision with the victorious new-comers from the heart of Iran.

Chaldsea doubtless was right in avoiding hostilities, at all events so

long as she had to bear the brunt of them alone, but other nations

had not the same motives for exercising prudence, and Lydia was fully

assured that the moment had come for her to again take up the ambitious

designs which the treaty of 585 had forced her to renounce. Alyattes,

relieved from anxiety with regard to the Medes, had confined his

energies to establishing firmly his kingdom in the regions of Asia Minor

extending westwards from the Halys and the Anti-Taurus. The acquisition

of Colophon, the destruction of Smyrna, the alliance with the towns of

the littoral, had ensured him undisputed possession of the valleys of

the Caicus and the Hermus, but the plains of the Maeander in the south,

and the mountainous districts of Mysia in the north, were not yet fully

brought under his sway. He completed the occupation of the Troad and

Mysia about 584, and afterwards made of the entire province an appanage

for Adramyttios, who was either his son or his brother.*

* The doings of Alyattes in Troas and in Mysia are vouched

for by the anecdote related by Plutarch concerning this

king’s relations with Pittakos. The founding of Adramyttium

is attributed to him by Stephen of Byzantium, after

Aristotle, who made Adramyttios the brother of Croesus.

Radat gives good reasons for believing that Adramyttios was

brother to Alyattes and uncle to Crosus, and the same person

as Adramys, the son of Sadyattes, according to Xanthus of

Lydia. Radet gives the year 584 for the date of these

events.

He even carried his arms into Bithynia, where, to enforce his rule, he

built several strongholds, one of which, called Alyatta, commanded

the main road leading from the basin of the Rhyndacus to that of

the Sangarius, skirting the spurs of Olympus.* He experienced some

difficulty in reducing Caria, and did not finally succeed in his efforts

till nearly the close of his reign in 566. Adramyttios was then dead,

and his fief had devolved on his eldest surviving brother or nephew,

Crosus, whose mother was by birth a Carian. This prince had incurred

his father’s displeasure by his prodigality, and an influential party

desired that he should be set aside in favour of his brother Pantaleon,

the son of Alyattes by an Ionian. Croesus, having sown his wild oats,

was anxious to regain his father’s favour, and his only chance of so

doing was by distinguishing himself in the coming war, if only money

could be found for paying his mercenaries. Sadyattes, the richest banker

in Lydia, who had already had dealings with all the members of the royal

family, refused to make him a loan, but Theokharides of Priênê advanced

him a thousand gold staters, which enabled Crosus to enroll his

contingent at Bphesus, and to be the first to present himself at the

rallying-place for the troops.**

* Radet places the operations in Bithynia before the Median

war, towards 594 at the latest. I think that they are more

probably connected with those in Mysia, and that they form

part of the various measures taken after the Median war to

achieve the occupation of the regions west of the Halys.

** A mutilated extract from Xanthus of Lydia in Suidas seems

to carry these events back to the time of the war against

Priênê, towards the beginning of the reign. The united

evidence of the accompanying circumstances proves that they

belong to the time of the old age of Alyattes, and makes it

very likely that they occurred in 566, the date proposed by

Radet for the Carian campaign.

Caria was annexed to the kingdom, but the conditions under which the

annexation took place are not known to us;* and Croesus contributed so

considerably to the success of the campaign, that he was reinstated in

popular favour. Alyattes, however, was advancing in years, and was soon

about to rejoin his adversaries Cyaxares and Nebuchadrezzar in Hades.

Like the Pharaohs, the kings of Lydia were accustomed to construct

during their lifetime the monuments in which they were to repose after

death. Their necropolis was situated not far from Sardes, on the shores

of the little lake Gygaea; it was here, close to the resting-place of

his ancestors and their wives, that Alyattes chose the spot for his

tomb,** and his subjects did not lose the opportunity of proving to what

extent he had gained their affections.

* The fragment of Nicolas of Damascus does not speak of the

result of the war, but it was certainly favourable, for

Herodotus counts the Carians among Croesus’ subjects.

** The only one of these monuments, besides that of

Alyattes, which is mentioned by the ancients, belonged to

one of the favourites of Gyges, and was called _the Tomb of

the Courtesan_. Strabo, by a manifest error, has applied

this name _to_ the tomb of Alyattes.

[Illustration: 050.jpg THE TUMULUS OF ALYATTES AND THE ENTRANCE TO THE

PASSAGE]

Drawn by Boudier, from the sketch by Spiegolthal.

His predecessors had been obliged to finish their work at their own

expense and by forced labour;* but in the case of Alyattes the three

wealthiest classes of the population, the merchants, the craftsmen, and

the courtesans, all united to erect for him an enormous tumulus, the

remains of which still rise 220 feet above the plains of the Hermus.

* This, at least, seems to be the import of the passage in Clearchus of

Soli, where that historian gives an account of the erection of the _Tomb

of the Courtesan_.

[Illustration: 051.jpg ONE OF THE LYDIAN ORNAMENTS IN THE LOUVRE]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph.

The sub-structure consisted of a circular wall of great blocks of

limestone resting on the solid rock, and it contained in the centre

a vault of grey marble which was reached by a vaulted passage. A huge

mound of red clay and yellowish earth was raised above the chamber,

surmounted by a small column representing a phallus, and by four stelæ

covered with inscriptions, erected at the four cardinal points. It

follows the traditional type of burial-places in use among the old

Asianic races, but it is constructed with greater regularity than most

of them; Alyattes was laid within it in 561, after a glorious reign of

forty-nine years.*

* Herodotus gave fifty-seven years’ length of reign to

Alyattes, whilst the chronographers, who go back as far as

Xanthus of Lydia, through Julius Africanus, attribute to him

only forty-nine; historians now prefer the latter figures,

at least as representing the maximum length of reign.

[Illustration: 052.jpg MOULD FOR JEWELLERY OF LYDIAN ORIGIN]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph.

It was wholly due to him that Lydia was for the moment raised to the

level of the most powerful states which then existed on the eastern

shores of the Mediterranean. He was by nature of a violent and

uncontrolled temper, and during his earlier years he gave way to fits of

anger, in which he would rend the clothes of those who came in his way

or would spit in their faces, but with advancing years his character

became more softened, and he finally earned the reputation of being a

just and moderate sovereign. The little that we know of his life reveals

an energy and steadfastness of purpose quite unusual; he proceeded

slowly but surely in his undertakings, and if he did not succeed in

extending his domains as far as he had hoped at the beginning of his

campaigns against the Medes, he at all events never lost any of the

provinces he had acquired. Under his auspices agriculture flourished,

and manufactures attained a degree of perfection hitherto unknown.

[Illustration: 053.jpg A LYDIAN FUNERY COUCH]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Choisy.

None of the vases in gold, silver, or wrought-iron, which he dedicated

and placed among the treasures of the Greek temples, has come down to

us, but at rare intervals ornaments of admirable workmanship are found

in the Lydian tombs. Those now in the Louvre exhibit, in addition to

human figures somewhat awkwardly treated, heads of rams, bulls, and

griffins of a singular delicacy and faithfulness to nature. These

examples reveal a blending of Grecian types and methods of production

with those of Egypt or Chaldæa, the Hellenic being predominant,* and

the same combination of heterogeneous elements must have existed in the

other domains of industrial art---in the dyed and embroidered stuffs,**

the vases,*** and the furniture.****

* The ornaments, of which we have now no specimens, but only

the original moulds cut in serpentine, betray imitation of

Assyria and Chaldæa.

** The custom of clothing themselves in dyed and embroidered

stuffs was one of the effeminate habits with which the poet

Xenophanes reproached the Ionians as having been learned

from their Lydian neighbours.

*** M. Perrot points out that one of the vases discovered by

G. Dennis at Bintépé is an evident imitation of the Egyptian

and Phoenician chevroned glasses. The shape of the vase is

one of those found represented, with the same decoration, on

Egyptian monuments subsequent to the Middle Empire, where

the chevroned lines seem to be derived from the undulations

of ribbon-alabaster.

**** The stone funerary couches which have been discovered

in Lydian tombs are evidently copied from pieces of wooden

furniture similarly arranged and decorated.

[Illustration: 054a.jpg LYDIAN COIN BEARING A RUNNING FOX]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a specimen in the Cabinet des

Médailles: a stater of electrum weighing 14.19 grammes.

[These illustrations are larger than the original pieces.--Tr.]

[Illustration: 054b.jpg LYDIAN COIN WITH A HARE]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin in the _Cabinet des

Médailles._

Lydia, inheriting the traditions of Phrygia, and like that state

situated on the border of two worlds, allied moreover with Egypt as well

as Babylon, and in regular communication with the Delta, borrowed from

each that which fell in with her tastes or seemed likely to be most

helpful to her in her commercial relations. As the country produced

gold in considerable quantities, and received still more from extraneous

sources, the precious metal came soon to be employed as a means of

exchange under other conditions than those which had hitherto prevailed.

Besides acting as commission agents and middle-men for the disposal

of merchandise at Sardes, Ephesus, Miletus, Clazomenaa, and all the

maritime cities, the Lydians performed at the same time the functions

of pawnbrokers, money-changers, and bankers, and they were ready to

make loans to private individuals as well as to kings. Obliged by the

exigencies of their trade to cut up the large gold ingots into sections

sufficiently small to represent the smallest values required in daily

life, they did not at first impress upon these portions any stamp as

a guarantee of the exact weight or the purity of the metal; they were

estimated like the _tabonu_ of the Egyptians, by actual weighing on the

occasion of each business transaction.

[Illustration: 055.jpg LYDIAN COINS WITH A LION AND LION’S HEAD]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin in the Cabinet des

Médailles.

The idea at length occurred to them to impress each of these pieces with

a common stamp, serving, like the trade-marks employed by certain guilds

of artisans, to testify at once to their genuineness and their exact

weight: in a word, they were the inventors of money. The most ancient

coinage of their mint was like a flattened sphere, more or less ovoid,

in form: it consisted at first of electrum, and afterwards of smelted

gold, upon which parallel striae or shallow creases were made by a

hammer. There were two kinds of coinage, differing considerably from

each other; one consisted of the heavy stater, weighing about 14.20

grammes, perhaps of Phoenician origin, the other of the light stater, of

some 10.80 grammes in weight, which doubtless served as money for

the local needs of Lydia: both forms were subdivided into pieces

representing respectively the third, the sixth, the twelfth, and the

twenty-fourth of the value of the original.

[Illustration: 056a.jpg COIN BEARING HEAD OF MOUFLON GOAT]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin in the Cabinet des

Médailles.

[Illustration: 056b.jpg MONEY OF CROESUS]

The stamp which came to be impressed upon the money was in relief, and

varied with the banker; * when political communities began to follow the

example of individuals, it also bore the name of the city where it was

minted.

* [The best English numismatists do not agree with M.

Babelon’s “banker” theory. Cf. Barclay V. Head, _Historia

Nummorum_, p. xxxiv.---Tr.]

The type of impression once selected, was little modified for fear of

exciting mistrust among the people, but it was more finely executed and

enlarged so as to cover one of the faces, that which we now call the

_obverse_. Several subjects entered into the composition of the design,

each being impressed by a special punch: thus in the central concavity

we find the figure of a running fox, emblem of Apollo Bassareus, and

in two similar depressions, one above and the other below the central,

appear a horse’s or stag’s head, and a flower with four petals. Later

on the design was simplified, and contained only one, or at most two

figures--a hare squatting under a tortuous climbing plant, a roaring

lion crouching with its head turned to the left, the grinning muzzle of

a lion, the horned profile of an antelope or mouflon sheep: rosettes and

flowers, included within a square depression, were then used to replace

the stria and irregular lines of the reverse. These first efforts were

without inscriptions; it was not long, however, before there came to be

used, in addition to the figures, legends, from which we sometimes

learn the name of the banker; we read, for instance, “I am the mark of

Phannes,” on a stater of electrum struck at Ephesus, with a stag grazing

on the right. We are ignorant as to which of the Lydian kings first made

use of the new invention, and so threw into circulation the gold and

electrum which filled his treasury to overflowing. The ancients say it

was Gyges, but the Gygads of their time cannot be ascribed to him; they

were, without any doubt, simply ingots marked with the stamp of the

banker of the time, and were attributed to Gyges either out of pure

imagination or by mistake.*

* The gold of Gyges is known to us through a passage in

Pollux. Fr. Lenormant attributed to Gyges the coins which

Babelon restores to the banks of Asia Minor. Babelon sees in

the Gygads only “ingots of gold, struck _possibly_ in the

name of Gyges, capable of being used as coin, doubtless

representing a definitely fixed weight, but still lacking

that ultimate perfection which characterises the coinage of

civilised peoples: from the standpoint of circulation in the

market their shape was defective and inconvenient; their

subdivision did not extend to such small fractions as to

make all payments easy; they were too large and too dear for

easy circulation through many hands.”

The same must be said of the pieces of money which have been assigned

to his successors, and, even when we find on them traces of writing, we

cannot be sure of their identification; one legend which was considered

to contain the name of Sadyattes has been made out, without producing

conviction, as involving, instead, that of Clazomenæ. There is no

certainty until after the time of Alyattes, that is, in the reign of

Croesus. It is, as a fact, to this prince that we owe the fine gold and

silver coins bearing on the obverse a demi-lion couchant confronting

a bull treated similarly.* The two creatures appear to threaten one

another, and the introduction of the lion recalls a tradition regarding

the city of Sardes; it may represent the actual animal which was alleged

to have been begotten by King Meles of one of his concubines, and which

he caused to be carried solemnly round the city walls to render them

impregnable.

Croesus did not succeed to the throne of his father without trouble. His

enemies had not laid down their arms after the Carian campaign, and they

endeavoured to rid themselves of him by all the means in use at Oriental

courts. The Ionian mother of his rival furnished the slave who kneaded

the bread with poison, telling her to mix it with the dough, but the

woman revealed the intended crime to her master, who at once took the

necessary measures to frustrate the plot; later on in life he dedicated

in the temple of Delphi a statue of gold representing the faithful

bread-maker.** The chief of the rival party seems to have been

Sadyattes, the banker from whom Croesus had endeavoured to borrow money

at the beginning of his career, but several of the Lydian nobles, whose

exercise of feudal rights had been restricted by the growing authority

of the Mermnado, either secretly or openly gave their adhesion to

Pantaleon, among them being Glaucias of Sidênê; the Greek cities, always

ready to chafe at authority, were naturally inclined to support a

claimant born of a Greek mother, and Pindarus the tyrant of Ephesus, and

grandson of the Melas who had married the daughter of Gyges, joined the

conspirators.

* Lenormant ascribed an issue of coins without inscriptions

to the kings Ardys, Sadyattes, and Alyattes, but this has

since been believed not to have been their work.

** Herodotus mentions the statue of the bread-maker, giving

no reason why Crosus dedicated it. The author quoted by

Plutarch would have it that in revenge he made his half-

brothers eat the poisoned bread.

[Illustration: 059.jpg VIEW OF THE SITE AND RUINS OF EPHESUS]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph.

As soon as Alyattes was dead, Crosus, who was kept informed by his spies

of their plans, took action with a rapidity which disconcerted his

adversaries. It is not known what became of Pantaleon, whether he was

executed or fled the country, but his friends were tortured to death or

had to purchase their pardon dearly. Sadyattes was stretched on a rack

and torn with carding combs.* Glaucias, besieged in his fortress of

Sidênê, opened its gates after a desperate resistance; the king

demolished the walls, and pronounced a solemn curse on those who should

thereafter rebuild them. Pindarus, summoned to surrender, refused, but

as he had not sufficient troops to defend the entire city, he evacuated

the lower quarters, and concentrated all his forces on the defence of

the citadel; he refused to open negotiations until after the fall of a

tower at the moment when a practicable breach had been made, and

succeeded in obtaining an honourable capitulation for himself and his

people by a ruse.

* The history of Sadyattes and of his part in the conspiracy

results from points of agreement which have been established

between various passages in Herodotus and in Nicolas of

Damascus, where the person is sometimes named and sometimes

not.

He dedicated the town to Artemis, and by means of a rope connected

the city walls with the temple, which stood nearly a mile away in

the suburbs, and then entreated for peace in the name of the goddess.

Croesus was amused at the artifice, and granted favourable conditions to

the inhabitants, but insisted on the expulsion of the tyrant. The latter

bowed before the decree, and confiding the care of his children and

possessions to his friend Pasicles, left for the Peloponnesus with his

retinue. Bphesus up to this time had been a kind of allied principality,

whose chiefs, united to the royal family of Lydia by marriages from

generation to generation, recognised the nominal suzerainty of the

reigning king rather than his effective authority. It was in fact

a species of protectorate, which, while furthering the commercial

interests of Lydia, satisfied at the same time the passion of the Greek

cities for autonomy. Croesus, encouraged by his first success, could

not rest contented with such a compromise. He attacked, successively,

Miletus and the various Ionian, Æolian, and Dorian communities of

the littoral, and brought them all under his sway, promising on their

capitulation that their local constitutions should be respected if they

became direct dependencies of his empire. He placed garrisons in such

towns as were strategically important for him to occupy, but everywhere

else he razed to the ground the fortresses and ramparts which might

afford protection to his enemies in case of rebellion, compelling the

inhabitants to take up their abode on the open plain where they could

not readily defend themselves.* The administration of the affairs of

each city was entrusted to either a wealthy citizen, or an hereditary

tyrant, or an elected magistrate, who was held responsible for its

loyalty; the administrator paid over the tribute to the sovereign’s

treasurers, levied the specified contingent and took command of it in

time of war, settled any quarrels which might occur, and was empowered,

when necessary, to exile turbulent and ambitious persons whose words

or actions appeared to him to be suspicious. Croesus treated with

generosity those republics which tendered him loyal obedience, and

affected a special devotion to their gods. He gave a large number of

ex-voto offerings to the much-revered sanctuary of Bran-chidse, in the

territory of Miletus; he dedicated some golden heifers at the Artemision

of Ephesus, and erected the greater number of the columns of that temple

at his own expense.**

* He treated thus the Ephesians and the Ilians.

** The fragments of columns brought from this temple by Wood

and preserved in the British Museum have on one of the bases

the remains of an inscription confirming the testimony of

Herodotus.

At one time in his career he appears to have contemplated extending his

dominion over the Greek islands, and planned, as was said, the equipment

of a fleet, but he soon acknowledged the imprudence of such a project,

and confined his efforts to strengthening his advantageous position on

the littoral by contracting alliances with the island populations and

with the nations of Greece proper.*

* He seems to have been deterred from his project by a

sarcastic remark made, as some say, by Pittakos the

Mitylenian, or according to others, by Bias of Priênê.

Following the diplomacy of his ancestors, he began by devoting himself

to the gods of the country, and took every pains to gain the good graces

of Apollo of Delphi. He dispensed his gifts with such liberality that

neither his contemporaries nor subsequent generations grew weary

of admiring it. On one occasion he is said to have sacrificed three

thousand animals, and burnt, moreover, on the pyre the costly contents

of a palace--couches covered with silver and gold, coverlets and robes

of purple, and golden vials. His subjects were commanded to contribute

to the offering, and he caused one hundred and seventeen hollow

half-bricks to be cast of the gold which they brought him for this

purpose. These bricks were placed in regular layers within the treasury

at Delphi where the gifts of Lydia from the time of Alyattes were

deposited, and the top of the pile was surmounted by a lion of fine

gold of such a size that the pedestal and statue together were worth

£1,200,000 of our present money. These, however, formed only a tithe of

his gifts; many of the objects dedicated by him were dispersed half a

century (548 B.C.) later when the temple was burnt, and found their

way into the treasuries of the Greek states which enjoyed the favour

of Apollo--among them being an enormous gold cup sent to Clazomeme, and

four barrels of silver and two bowls, one of silver and one of gold,

sent to the Corinthians. The people at Delphi, as well as their god,

participated in the royal largesse, and Croesus distributed to them

the sum of two staters per head. No doubt their gratitude led them by

degrees to exaggerate the total of the benefits showered upon them,

especially as time went on and their recollection of the king became

fainter; but even when we reduce the number of the many gifts which

they attributed to him, we are still obliged to acknowledge that they

surpassed anything hitherto recorded, and that they produced throughout

the whole of Greece the effect that Croesus had desired. The oracle

granted to him and to the Lydians the rights of citizenship in

perpetuity, the privilege of priority in consulting it before all

comers, precedence for his legates over other foreign embassies, and a

place of honour at the games and at all religious ceremonies. It was,

in fact, the admission of Lydia into the Hellenic concert, and the

offerings which Croesus showered upon the sanctuaries of lesser

fame--that of Zeus at Dodona, of Amphiaraos at Oropos, of Trophonios at

Lebadsea, on the oracle of Abee in Phocis, and on the Ismenian Apollo

at Thebes--secured a general approval of the act. Political alliances

contracted with the great families of Athens, the Alcmonidæ and

Eupatridæ,* with the Cypselidæ of, Corinth,** and with the Heraclidæ of

Sparta,*** completed the policy of bribery which Croesus had inaugurated

in the sacerdotal republics, with the result that, towards 548, being in

the position of uncontested patron of the Greeks of Asia, he could count

upon the sympathetic neutrality of the majority of their compatriots in

Europe, and on the effective support of a smaller number of them in

the event of his being forced into hostilities with one or other of his

Asiatic rivals.

* Traditions as to Crcesus’ relations with Alcrnseon are

preserved by Herodotus. The king compelled the inhabitants of

Lampsacus, his vassals, to release the elder Miltiades, whom

they had taken prisoner, and thus earned the gratitude of

the Eupatridæ.

** Alyattes had been the ally of Periander, as is proved by

an anecdote in Herodotus. This friendship continued under

Crosus, for after the fall of the monarchy, when the special

treasuries of Lydia were suppressed, the ex-voto offerings

of the Lydian kings were deposited in the treasury of

Corinth.

*** According to Theopompus, the Lacedaemonians, wishing to

gild the face of the statue of the Amyclsean, Apollo, and

finding no gold in Greece, consulted the Delphian

prophetess: by her advice they sent to Lydia to buy the

precious metal from Croesus.