CHAPTER VI.

THE EMPIRE OF THE MEDES AND PERSIANS

SECTION I.-Geographical Outline.

THE boundaries of Irán, which Europeans call Persia, have under gone many changes in its most prosperous periods, its limits were the Persian gulf and Indian ocean on the south, the rivers Indus and Ûx'us on the east, the Caspian sea and Caucasian mountains on the north, and the Euphrates on the west. The most striking features of this extensive country are numerous chains of mountains, and extensive tracts of desert, interspersed with fertile valleys and rich pasture-lands. The southern coast along the Persian gulf is a sandy plain, desolated by pestilential winds from the desert of Kermán, and scarcely possessing any indentation or navigable river which could serve as a harbor. Thence to the Caspian sea and the Ox'us there is a succession of mountains and valleys of different elevation and extent. Few of the mountains are of extraordinary height, though some of the ranges are capped with perpetual snow. None of the valleys are wide, but some of them extend to the length of one hundred miles.

PERSIA PROPER, the modern province of Phars, contained the sacred metropolis of the empire, known to us only by its Greek name, Persep'olis. This celebrated city was destroyed by Alexander; but its ruins testify that it must have rivalled the most splendid cities of antiquity.

The province of Susiána (Khuzistán) separated Persia Proper from Babylonia; between the two provinces was a range of mountains, inhabited by warlike pastoral tribes, of which the most celebrated were the Ux'ii, who compelled the Persian kings to pay them trioute when they went from Súsa to Persepolis. Susiána was a fertile province, watered by several small streams, that supplied a vast number of canals and water-courses. Súsa, the capital of this district, once the favorite residence of the Persian monarchs, is now a vast desert, where the ruins of a city can with difficulty be traced.

MEDIA was divided into two provinces; Atropaténe or Media Minor (Azerbiján), and Media Major (Irák Ajemí). Ecbatána (Hamʼadan) was the capital of Media, and rivalled Súsa and Persep'olis in magnificence, while it exceeded them in extent and the strength of its fortifications. The eastern districts of Media, named A'ria, formed an extensive steppe, which merged in the desert of Carmánia (Kermán). The capital was named A'ria, and occupied the site of the modern Herát.

North of Media lay Par'thia and Hyrcánia (Taberistán and Mazen derán); mountainous regions, with some fertile valleys. Northeast of these were the sandy deserts now called Khirwán, tenanted by nomade tribes, who then and now practised alternately the arts of merchants, herdsmen, and robbers. East of A'ria was Bactriána, divided by the Ox'us from Sog'diana: its capital city was Bac'tra, which is usually identified with the modern city of Balkh. The metropolis of Sogdiana was Maracan'da, now called Samarcand, one of the most ancient commercial cities in the world.

East of the province of Phars were Carmánia (Kermán) and Gedrosia (Mekrán); flat and sandy, but interspersed with some very fertile tracts. The hills in the interior of Persia are but thinly clad with vegetation, and none but those of Mazenderán and Georgia possess forests; there are but few rivers of sufficient magnitude to be navigable: the most remarkable are the Ulaí or Eulæ'us (Karún), the Ar'ras or Arax'es, and the Etyman'der (Her'mund).

The valleys of the centre of Persia abound in the rarest and most valuable vegetable productions. The orchards produce all the fruits of the temperate zone, and the most beautiful flowers of our gardens grow wild in the fields. The horses and dogs are of uncommon size, strength, and beauty; and no country possesses a more robust, active, and wellshaped race of men. In short, Persia possesses every natural advantage for becoming a powerful and prosperous empire; but from the remotest ages it has been subjected to a blighting despotism, by which its resources have been not merely neglected, but wasted and destroyed.

SECTION II.-The Sources and Extent of our Knowledge respecting the Ancient Persians.

THE Sources of Persian history are either native or foreign; the latter including the accounts both of the Greek historians and the Jewish prophets.

The first native authority is the Zend-a-vesta, a collection of the sacre books of the ancient Persians. In this work are contained the early traditions of the nation, the religious system and moral code ascribed to Zerdúsht, or Zoroas'ter, the great Persian legislator, and the liturgy still used by the "worshippers of fire." Connected with this is the Dabistán, written by a Mohammedan traveller about two centuries ago, in which the author treats very fully of the ancient religion of Persia, professedly deriving his information from original sources. To these must be added some minor Parsí works, collected by oriental ists in India.

Next in importance to these ranks the Sháh Námeh, or Book of Kings, an immense epic poem, written by Ferdousí, the greatest poct of Persia, about the middle of the tenth century. This historical poem was compiled from vague traditions, and from the few fragments of ancient Persian literature that survived the political destruction of national records by the Greeks and Parthians, and the fanaticism of the first Mohammedan conquerors; and, consequently, facts are so disguised by a multitude of fictions, that it is always difficult, and frequently impossible, to arrive at the truth of 1 is representations. Mirkhond and his son Khon

demír both wrote histories of Persia, about the close of the fifteenth century; they have, however, in general followed the narrative of Ferdousí; but in some places Mirkhond undoubtedly has used the same authorities as the compiler of the Dabistán.

Herodotus, Xen'ophon, and the fragments of Ctésias, are the principal Greek authorities for the history of ancient Persia: of these the first is by far the most valuable, and his account of the Persian wars with Greece is entitled to our confidence. It must also be added, that many parts of his narrative are singularly confirmed by the legends preserved in the works of Mirkhond and Ferdousí.

In the Bible, the Book of Est'her is altogether a Persian history, and much important information is given incidentally in the Books of Dan'iel, Ez'ra, and Nehemiah.

Finally, much light has been thrown on ancient Persian history by the writings of modern oriental scholars; especially the philological researches of Eupp, Burnouf, and Schlegel, which have shown how closely allied the ruling people of Hindústan was with the ruling nation of Irán, by pointing out the close resemblance between the original languages of both, the Sanscrit and the Zend.

SECTION III.-Social and Political Condition of Ancient Persta.

CENTRAL ASIA, from the most remote ages, has been exposed to the invasions of nomad hordes from the north and east, most of which, according to their native legends, descended from the mountainous tracts extending from the great Altaian chain to the borders of India. Recent investigations have rendered it probable that this was also the native country of the Brahmins and Hindus, at least of the higher castes; but it is impossible to discover at what period migrations commenced to the south and west. The colonists who came into Media called themselves A'rii, manifestly the same word as the Sanscrit Ar'ya, which signifies pure men, in opposition to the Mlêchas, or barbarians. They were a mixed priestly and warrior caste, who treated their subjects as beings of an inferior nature. Their early success was chiefly owing to their skill in horsemanship; if not the first nation of the East that employed cavalry, they were the first to make that military body the main strength of their army. A cognate race, the Persians, having nearly the same institutions proceeded further to the southwest, and formed a nation of herdsmen and shepherds. A monarch named Jemshíd, the Achæ'menes of the Greeks, first instructed his subjects in agriculture, and they gratefully made royalty the inheritance of his family. The Medes, having long held dominion as he ruling caste, were overthrown in an insurrection of the agricultural and shepherd tribes: this political revolution was effected by Cy'rus; and it was followed necessarily by a religious change, consequent on the altered position of the priestly

caste.

Under the Medes, or rather the Mági, as their priests were called, a species of the Sabian superstition seems to have prevailed: the sun, moon, and planets, received divine worship, while the more ancient belief in one supreme God though obscured, was not wholly lost. When the Persians triumphed, the priestly caste lost much of its influence,

and seems to have been regarded as naturally hostile to the new dynasty: hence we find the Persian monarchs bitter persecutors of the priests wherever they established their sway, destroying the Chaldeans in Babylon, and the sacerdotal caste in Egypt. The nature of the religious changes made by Cy'rus can not now be determined; but the revolution was completed by Zoroaster, whose system is the most perfect devised by unassisted human reason. God, he taught, existed from all eternity, and was like infinity of time and space. There were, he averred, two principles in the universe-good and evil: the one was named Hormuzd, the other Ahrimán. Each of these had the power of creation, but that power was exercised with opposite designs; and it was from their co-action that an admixture of good and evil was found in every created thing. But the source of good alone, the great Hormuzd, was eternal, and must therefore ultimately prevail.*

With these speculative tenets was combined a system of castes, which are described by Ferdousí, who attributes their introduction to Jemshid.

The conservation of the ordinances that regulated public morals was intrusted to the Mági, who were, as we have said, originally a caste or tribe of the Medes. Zoroas'ter reformed the institutions of this body, and appears to have opened the priestly dignity to persons of every caste, though few entered on the functions of public worship who were not of the Magian descent. Thus the sacerdotal rank in Persia partook of the nature both of a caste and an order. It was high in power: the court was principally composed of sages and soothsayers. The priests also were judges in civil cases, because religion was the basis of their legislation; but they were strictly bound by the ancient code. No circumstances were deemed sufficiently strong to warrant a departure from ancient usages; and hence "the laws of the Medes and Persians" were proverbial for their strictness of execution.

The king was as much bound by the national code as his meanest subject; but in every other respect his power was without control; and the satraps, or provincial governors under him, were equally despotic in their respective provinces. The court scarcely differed in any material point from the oriental courts of the present day. It was a heavy tax on the national resources to support the barbarous splendor with which the kings and satraps deemed it necessary to surround their dignity; and the exactions wrung from the cultivators of the soil always made the Persian peasantry the most miserable even in Asia. The army was another source of wretchedness to the country: a vast amount of standing forces was always maintained, and hordes of the wandering tribes on the borders of Persia kept in pay: beside this, in case of any emergency, every man capable of bearing arms was enrolled in his own district, and forced to become a soldier on the first summons. This constitution enabled the Persians to make rapid conquests, but it prevented their empire from becoming permanent: the soldiers fought for pay or plunder, and were held together by no common principle, save attachment to their leader; hence the fall or flight of the commander-in-chief instantly decided the fate of a Persian army

* Sir JOHN MALCOLM's Persia, vol. i., p. 194. The Jews have a tradition that Zoroaster was instructed in the true religion by one of the prophets.

however great its numbers; and when the army was defeated, the kingdom was subdued. The great oriental monarchies were liable to vicissitudes scarcely known in European states. There was no patriotic spirit in the people, no love of independence in the nation; if the invader prevailed in the battle-field, he had no further enemies to dread; the mass of the population cared little for a change of rule, which left unaltered the miseries of their situation.

SECTION IV. History of the Medes and Persians under the Kaianian

Dynasty.

FROM B. C. 710 To B. C. 522.

MEDIA and Persia were provinces of the great Assyrian empire; and their native legends preserve the memory of the cruelty with which they were treated by the monarchs of Nineveh. When that empire was broken to pieces after the death of Sardanapálus, Media fell into a state of anarchy, from which it was delivered by Deióces (B. C. 710), the Kai-Kóbad of oriental writers: he built the city of Ecbatána, and greatly strengthened his new kingdom by inducing his subjects to form permanent settlements; but in the midst of his useful career, he was summoned to check the rising power of the Babylonians and fell in battle. The Median power was restored by Phraor'tes, who succeeded his father; but it attained its highest glory under Cyax'ares, the third monarch of this dynasty.

In the early part of his reign, Cyax'ares had to encounter many formidable difficulties. While he was engaged besieging Nineveh, the Scythian hordes from the north entered Media, and overran the greater part of central and western Asia. Their ravages were continued for twenty-eight years, and they had compelled the Medes to give them free admittance to their houses, when they were simultaneously destroyed by a conspiracy of their hosts, which Cyax'ares had organized. A party that had escaped the general massacre entered into the service of the Median monarch; but finding reason to dread the fate of their countrymen, they transferred their allegiance to the king of Lydia, and thus caused a war between the two monarchs. The most memorable event of this war, which lasted five years, was the total eclipse of the sun, that took place in the midst of a battle, and so alarmed the contending parties, that both the Medes and Lydians fled in confusion from the field. A peace was soon after concluded between the two crowns, and Cyax'ares renewed his war against the Assyrians. Aided by the king of Babylon, he besieged and took Nineveh, and totally destroyed that ancient city (B. c. 601). The allies next attacked the districts that the Egyptians possessed in Syria, defeated Pharaoh-Nécho at Car'chemish, and subdued the principal part of western Asia. It seems probable that the supremacy of the Medes over the Persian principalities was first established during the reign of Cyax'ares, who is generally identified with the Kai Káoos of Mirkhond and Ferdousí. Asty'ages, called in the book of Daniel Ahasuérus,* that is, "the nighty hero" (Achash Zwerosh), an epithet given .o several oriental

• Daniel ix. 1.