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PART HIA). 5. The Arians ('See also:Ape?oL, Pers. Haraiva), in the vicinity of the See also:river See also:Arius (Heri-rud), which derived its name from them. This name, which survives in the See also:modern See also:Herat, has of course no connexion with that .of the See also:Aryans. 6. The Drangians (Zaranka in See also:Darius, Sarangians in See also:Herod. iii. 93, 117, vii. 67), situated See also:south of the Arians, in the See also:north-See also:west of See also:Afghanistan (Arachosia) by the western affluents of See also:Lake Hamun, and extending to the See also:present See also:Seistan. 7. Arachotians (Pers. Harauvati), in the See also:district of the Helmand and its tributaries, See also:round See also:Kandahar. They are mentioned in the lists of Darius, also by the Greeks after See also: 9. The Sogdians (Pets. Sugudu), in the mountainous district between the Oxus and Jaxartes. to. The Chorasmians (Khwarizmians, Pers. Uvarazmiya), in the See also:great See also:oasis of See also:Khiva, which still bears the name Khwarizm. They stretched far into the midst of the nomadic tribes. 11. The Margians (Pers. Margu), on the river Margus (See also:Murghab); chiefly inhabiting the oasis of See also:Merv, which has preserved their name. Darius mentions the district of Margu but, like Herodotus, omits them from his See also:list of peoples; so that ethnographically they are perhaps to be assigned to the Arians. 12. The Sagartians (Pers. Asagarta) ; according to Herodotus (vii. 85), a nomadic tribe of horsemen; speaking, as he expressly declares, the See also:Persian language. Hence he describes them (i. 125) as a subordinate See also:nomad See also:clan of the Persians. They, with the Drangians, Utians and Myci, formed a single satrapy (Herod. iii. 93). See also:Ptolemy (vi. 2, 6) speaks of Sagartians in the Eastern Zagros in See also:Media. 13. We have already touched on the nomadic peoples (Ddha, Dahans) of Iranian See also:nationality, who occupied the See also:steppes of See also:Turkestan as far as the Sarmatians and Scythians of South See also:Russia. That these were conscious of their See also:Aryan origin is proved by the names Ariantas and Ariapeithes See also:borne by Scythian (Scolot) See also:kings (Herod, iv. 76, 87). Still they were never counted as a portion of See also:Iran or the Iranians. To the settled peasantry, these nomads of the See also:steppe were always " the enemy " (See also:dana, daha, that, Dahae). See also:Side by side with this name we find " Turan " and " Turanian "; a designation applied both by the later Persians and by modern writers to this region. The origin of the word is obscure, derived perhaps from an obsolete tribal name. It has no connexion what-ever with the much later " See also:Turks," who penetrated thither in the 6th See also:century after See also:Christ. Though found neither in the See also:inscriptions of Darius nor in the See also:Greek authors, the name Turan must nevertheless be of great antiquity; for not merely is it repeatedly found in the Avesta, under the See also:form Tura, but it occurs already in a hymn, which, without doubt, originates from Zoroaster himself, and in which " the Turanian Fryana " and his descendants are commemorated as faithful adherents of the See also:prophet (Yasna, 46, 62). The dividing See also:line between Iranian and See also:Indian is See also:drawn by the Hindu Kush and the Soliman mountains of the See also:Indus district. The valley of the See also:Kabul (Cophen) is already occupied by Indian tribes, especially the Gandarians; and the Satagydae (Pers. Thatagu) there See also:resident were presumably also of Indian stock. The non-Aryan See also:population of Iran itself has been discussed above. Of its other neighbours,-we must here mention the Sacae, a warlike equestrian See also:people in the mountains of the pamir See also:plateau and northward; who are probably of Mongol origin. Herodotus relates that the Persians distinguished " all the Scythians all the northern nomads—as Sacae; and this statement is confirmed by the inscriptions of Darius. The Babylonians employ the name Gimiri (i.e. Cimmerians) in the same sense. See also:religion and in many views See also:common to both peoples. A great number of gods—Asura, See also:Mithras, the See also:Dragon-slayer Verethraghna (the See also:Indra of the See also:Indians), the See also:Water-shoot Apam napat (the See also:lightning), &c.—date from this era. So, too, See also:fire-See also:worship, especially of the sacrificial See also:flame; the preparation of the intoxicating See also:soma, which fills See also:man with divine strength and uplifts him to the gods; the See also:injunction to " See also:good thoughts and good See also:works," imposed on the pious by Veda and Avesta alike: the belief in an unwavering See also:order (rta)—a See also:law controlling gods and men and dominating them all; yet with this, a belief in the See also:power of magical formulae (mantra), exclamations and prayers, to whose compulsion not merely demons (the evil See also:spirits of deceptiondruh) but even the gods (daeva) must submit; and, lastly, the institution of a priesthood of fire-kindlers (athravan), who are. at once the repositories of all sacral traditions and the mediators in all intercourse between See also:earth and See also:heaven. The transition, moreover, to settled See also:life and See also:agriculture belongs to the Aryan Aryan Religion. See also:period; and to it may be traced the See also:peculiar sancitity of the evident that before the Achaemenids there were in Bactria only small local principalities of which Vishtaspa's was one: and it is possible that the primeval See also:empire of the See also:Saga is only a reflection of the Achaemenid and See also:Sassanid empires of reality, whose existence See also:legend See also:dates back to the beginning of the See also:world, simply because legend is pervaded by the See also:assumption that the conditions obtaining in the present are the natural conditions, and, as such, valid for all See also:time. Closely connected as are the See also:Mythology and Religion of Indian and Iranian, no less clearly marked is the fundamental difference of intellectual and moral standpoint, Difference which has led the two nations into opposite paths between the of See also:history and culture. The tendency to religious Iranian and thought and to a speculative See also:philosophy, compre- Indian hending the world as a whole, is shared by both and Rettion. is doubtless an See also:inheritance from the Aryan period. But with the Indians this See also:speculation leads to the See also:complete abolition of all barriers between See also:God and man, to a mystic See also:pantheism, and to absorption in the universal Ego, in contrast with which the world becomes an unsubstantial phantasm and sinks into nothingness. For the Iranian, on the contrary, See also:practical life, the real world, and with them the moral commandment, fill the foreground. The new gods created by Iran are ethical See also:powers; those of See also:India, abstractions of worship (See also:brahman) or of philosophy (atman). These fundamental features of Iranian sentiment encounter us not only in the See also:doctrine of Zoroaster and the confessions of Darius, but also in that magnificent product of the See also:Persia of See also:Islam—the Sufi See also:mysticism. This is pantheistic, like the Brahman philosophy. But the pantheism of the Persian is always See also:positive, —affirming the world and life, taking joy in them, and seeking its ideal in See also:union with a creative god: the pantheism of the Indian is negative—denying world and life, and descrying its ideal in the cessation of existence. This contrast in intellectual and religious life must have See also:developed very See also:early. Probably, in the remote past violent religious disputes and feuds See also:broke out: for otherwise it is almost inexplicable that the old Indo-See also:European word, which in India, also, denotes the gods—See also:deva—should be applied by the Iranians to the See also:malignant demons or devils (daeva; mod. div); while they denote the gods by the name bhaga. Conversely the Asuras, whose name in Iran is the See also:title of the supreme god (a/See also:Jura, See also:aura), have in India degenerated to evil spirits. It is of great importance that among the See also:Slavonic peoples the same word bogu distinguishes the deity; since this points to See also:ancient cultural influences on which we have yet no more precise See also:information. Otherwise, the name is only found among the Phrygians, who, according to See also:Hesychius, called the Heaven-god (See also:Zeus) Bagaeus; there, however, it may have been borrowed from the Persians. We possess no other See also:evidence for these events; the only document we possess for the history of Iranian religion is the sacred. See also:writing, containing the doctrines of the prophet who gave that religion a new form. This is the Avesta, the See also:Bible of the modern Parsee, which comprises the See also:revelation of Zoroaster. As to the See also:home and time of Zoroaster, the Parsee tradition yields us no sort of information which could possibly be of See also:historical service. Its contents, even if they go back Zoroaster. to lost parts of the Avesta, are merely a See also:late patch- See also:work, based on the legendary tradition and devoid of historical See also:foundation. The attempts of West (See also:Pahlavi Texts Translated, vol. v.) to turn to historical See also:account the statements of the Bundahish and other Parsee books, which date Zoroaster at 258 years before Alexander, are, in the present writer's See also:opinion, a complete failure. See also:Jackson (Zoroaster, the Prophet of Ancient Iran, 1901) sides with West. The Greek theory, which relegates Zoroaster to the mists of antiquity, or even to the period of the fabulous See also:Ninus and See also:Semiramis, is equally valueless. Even the statement that he came from the north-west of Media (the later Atropatene), and his See also:mother from Rai (Rhagae) in eastern Media, must be considered as problematic in the extreme. Our only trustworthy information is to be gleaned from his own testimony and from the history of his religion. And here we may take it as certain that the See also:scene of his activity was laid in cow in India and Persia. For the cow is the See also:animal which voluntarily yields nourishment to man and See also:aids him in his daily labours, and on it depends the See also:industry of the See also:peasant as contrasted with the See also:wild See also:desert brigand to whom the cow is unknown. Very numerous are the legends common to both nations. These, in part, are rooted in the primeval Indo-European days, though their ultimate form dates only from the Aryan See also:epoch. Foremost among them is the myth See also:relating the See also:battle of a See also:sun-god (Ind. Trita, generally replaced by Indra, Iran. Thraelona) against a fearful See also:serpent (Ind. Ahi, Iran. Azhi; known moreover as Vrtra) : also, the legend of See also:Yama, the first man, son of Vivasvant, who, after a See also:long and blessed life in the happy years of the beginning, was seized by See also:death and now rules in the See also:kingdom of the departed. Then come a See also:host of other tales of old-world heroes; as the " Glorious One (Ind. Sushrava, Pers. Husrava, Chosrau or See also:Chosroes), or the Son who goes on a See also:journey to seek his See also:father, and, unknown, meets his end at his hands. These legends have lived and flourished in Iran at every period of its history; and neither the religion of Zoroaster, nor yet Islam, 'Iranian has availed to suppress them. Zoroastrianism—at saga. least in that form in which it became the dominant creed of the Iranians—legitimized not only the old gods, but the old heroes also; and transformed them into pious helpers and servants of Ahuramazda; while the creator of the great See also:national epic of Persia, Firdousi (A.D. 935-1020), displayed astonishing skill in combining the ancient tradition with Islam. Through his poem, this tradition is perfectly See also:familiar to every Persian at the present day; and the See also:primitive features of tales, whose origin must be dated 4000 years ago, are still preserved with fidelity. This tenacity of the Saga stands in the sharpest contrast with the fact that the historical memory of the Persian is extremely defective. Even the glories of the Achaemenid Empire faded rapidly, and all but completely, from recollection; so also the See also:conquest of Alexander, and the Hellenistic and See also:Parthian eras. In Firdousi, the legendary princes are followed, almost without a break, by See also:Ardashir, the founder of the Sassanid See also:dynasty: the intervening See also:episode of Darius and Alexander is not drawn from native tradition, but borrowed from Greek literature (the Alexander-See also:romance of the Pseudo-See also:Callisthenes) in precisely the same way as among the nations of the See also:Christian See also:East in the See also:middle ages.'
Needless to say, however, this long period saw the Saga much recast and See also:expanded. Many new characters—Siyawush, Rustam, &c.—have swelled the See also:original list: among them is See also: the east of Iran, in Bactria and its neighbouring regions. The contrast there existing between peasant and nomad is of vital consequence for the whole position of his creed. Among the adherents whom he gained was numbered, as already mentioned, a Turanian, one Fryana and his See also:household. The west of Iran is scarcely ever regarded in the Avesta, while the districts and See also:rivers of the east are often named. The language, even, is markedly different from the Persian; and the fire-priests are not styled Magians as in Persia—the word indeed never occurs in the Avesta, except in a single late passage—but athravan, identical with the atharvan of India (rupatboy " fire-kindlers," in See also:Strabo xv. 733). Thus it cannot be doubted that the king Vishtaspa, who received Zoroaster's doctrine and protected him, must have ruled in eastern Iran: though strangely enough scholars can still be found to identify him with the homonymous Persian See also:Hystaspes, the father of Darius. The possibility that Zoroaster himself was not a native of East Iran, but had immigrated thither (from Rhagae?), is of course always to be considered; and this theory has been used to explain the phenomenon that the Gathas, of his own See also:composition, are written in a different See also:dialect from the See also:rest of the Avesta. On this See also:hypothesis, the former would be his mother-See also:tongue: the latter the speech of eastern Iran. This district is again indicated as the starting-point of Zoroastrianism, by the fact that dead bodies are not embalmed and then interred, as was usual, for instance, in Persia, but See also:cast out to the See also:dogs and birds (cf. Herod. i. 14o), a practice, as is well known, strictly enjoined in the Avesta, ruthlessly executed under the Sassanids, and followed to the present day by the See also:Parsees. The See also:motive of this, indeed, is to be found in the sanctity of Earth, which must not be polluted by a See also:corpse; but its origin is evidently to be traced in a barbaric See also:custom of nomadic or semi-nomadic tribes who leave the dead to See also:lie on the steppe; and we know from Greek See also:sources that this custom was widely diffused among the tribes of eastern Iran. The next See also:clue towards determining the period of Zoroaster is, that Darius I. and all his successors, as proved by their inscriptions and by Greek testimony, were zealous adherents of the pure word of Zoroastrianism; which consequently must already have been accepted in the west of Iran. That See also:Cyrus too owned See also:allegiance to the creed, cannot be doubted by an unprejudiced mind, although in the dearth of contemporary monuments we possess no See also:proof at first hand. The See also:Assyrian inscriptions demonstrate, however, that Zoroaster's teaching was dominant in Media two centuries before Cyrus. For in the list of Median princes, to which we have already referred, are two bearing the name of Mazdaka—evidently after the god Mazda. Now this name was the invention of Zoroaster himself; and he who names himself after Mazda thereby makes a See also:confession of faith in the religion of Zoroaster whose followers, as we know, termed themselves Mazdayasna, " worshippers of Mazda." Thus, if the doctrine of Zoroaster predominated in Media in 714 B.C., obviously his See also:appearance in the role of prophet must have been much earlier. A more definite date cannot be deduced from the evidence at our disposal, but his era may safely be placed as far back as l000 B.C. The religion which Zoroaster preached was the creation of. a single man, who, having pondered long and deeply the problems of existence and the world, propounded the See also:solution he found as a divine revelation. Naturally he starts from the old views, and is indebted to them for many of his tenets and ideas; but out of this material he builds a See also:uniform See also:system which bears throughout the impress of his own See also:intellect. In this world, two See also:groups of powers confront each other in a truceless war, the powers of Good, of See also:Light, of creative Strength, of Life and of Truth, and the powers of Evil, of Darkness, Destruction, Death and Deceit. In the See also:van of the first stands the See also:Holy Spirit (spenta mainyu) or the " Great See also:Wisdom " Mazdao. His helpers and vassals are the six powers of Good Thought (vohu See also:manor 'thiav6s), of Right Order (asha, Ind. eta, Pers. See also:aria, " lawfulness "), of the Excellent Kingdom (khshathra vairya), of Holy See also:Character (spenta armaiti), of See also:Health (haurvatat), and of See also:Immortality (ameretat). These are comprised under the general title of "undying holy ones " (amesha spenta, amshaspand) ; and a host of subordinate angels (yazata) are ranked with them. The powers of evil are in all points the opposite of the good; at their See also:head being the Evil Spirit (See also:angra mainyu, See also:Ahriman). These evil demons are identical with the old gods of the popular faith—the devas (div)—while Mazdao bears the name Ahura, above discussed; whence Ahuramazda (Ormuzd). From this it will be See also:manifest that the figures of Zoroaster's religion are purely abstractions; the See also:concrete gods of vulgar belief being set aside. All those who do not belong to the devils (devas), might be recognized as inferior servants of Ahuramazda: See also:chief among them being the Sun-god Mithras (see MITHRAS) ; the goddess of vegetation and fertility, especially of the Oxus-stream, Anahita Ardvisura (Anaitis) ; and the Dragon-slayer Verethraghna (Gr. Artagnes), with the god of the intoxicating Haoma (the Indian Soma). In the religion of the people, these divinities always survived; and the popularity of Mithras is evinced by the numerous Aryan proper names thence derived (See also:Mithradates; &c.). The educated community who had embraced the pure doctrine in its completeness scarcely recognized them, and the inscriptions of Darius ignore them. Only once he speaks of " the gods of the clans," and once of " the other gods which there are." Not till the time of See also:Artaxerxes II. were Mithra and Anaitis received into the See also:official religion of the Persian kings. But they always played a leading part in the propaganda of the Persian cults in the West. Only one See also:element in the old Aryan belief was preserved by Zoroaster in all its sanctity: that of Fire—the purest manifestation of Ahuramazda and the powers of Good. Thus fire-altars were every. where erected ; and, to the prophet also, the Fire-kindlers (athravan) were the ministers and priests of the true religion and the intermediaries between God and man; at last in the popular mind, Zoroastrianism was identified with Fire-worship pure and See also:simple, —inadequate though the See also:term in reality is, as a description of its essentials. Midway in this opposition of the powers of Good and Evil, man is placed. He has to choose on which side he will stand: he is called to serve the powers of Good: his See also:duty lies in speaking the truth and combating the lie. And this is fulfilled when he obeys the commands of law and the true order; when he tends his See also:cattle and See also:fields, in contrast with the lawless and predatory nomad (Dahae) ; when he See also:wars on all harmful and evil creatures, and on the See also:devil-worshippers; when he keeps See also:free from pollution the pure creations of Ahuramazda—fire foremost, but also earth and water; and, above all, when he practises the Good and True in thought, word and work. And as his deeds are, so shall be his See also:fate and his future See also:lot on the Day of See also:Judgment; when he must See also:cross the See also:Bridge Gillett', which, according to his works, will either See also:guide him to the See also:Paradise of Ahuramazda or precipitate him to the See also:Hell of Ahriman. Obviously, it was through this See also:preaching of a judgment to come and a See also:direct moral responsibility of the individual man, that, like See also:Mahomet among the See also:Arabs, Zoroaster and his disciples gained their adherents and exercised their greatest See also:influence. In this creed of Zoroastrianism three important points are especially to be emphasized: for on them depend its peculiar characteristics and historical significance 1. The abstractions which it preaches are not products of See also:meta-See also:physical speculation, as in India, but rather the ethical forces which dominate human life. They impose a duty upon man, and enjoin on him a positive line of See also:action—a definite activity in the world. And this world he is not to eschew, like the Brahman and the Buddhist, but to work in it, enjoying existence and life to the full. Thus a man's birthday is counted the highest festival (Herod. I. 133) ; and thus the joie de vivre, See also:rich banquets and carousals are not rejected by the Persian as godless and worldly, but are even prescribed by his religion. To create offspring and people the world with servants of Ahuramazda is the duty of every true believer.' 2. This religion See also:grew up in the midst of a settled peasant population, whose mode of life and views it regards as the natural disposition of things. Consequently, it is at once a product of, and a See also:main See also:factor in civilization; and is thereby sharply differentiated from the Israelite religion, with whose moral precepts it otherwise coincides so frequently. 3. The preaching of Zoroaster is directed to each individual man, and requires of him that he shall choose his position with regard to the fundamental problems of life and religion. Thus, even though it arose from national views, in its essence it is not national (as, for instance, the Israelite creed), but individualistic, and at the same time universal. From the first, it aims at propaganda; and the nationality of the convert is a See also:matter of indifference. So Zoroaster himself converted the Turanian Fryana with his kindred (see above) ; and the same tendency to proselytize See also:alien peoples survived in his religion. Zoroastrianism, in fact, is the first creed to work by See also:missions or to See also:lay claim to universality of See also:acceptance. It was, however, only natural that its adherents should be won, first and chiefly, among the countrymen of the prophet, and its further success in gaining over all the Iranian tribes gave it a national See also:stamp. So the Susan See also:translation of Darius' See also:Behistun inscription i These ideas are strongly exposed in a polemic against the Christians contained in an official See also:edict of the Persian creed to the Armenians by Mihr Narseh, the See also:vizier of Yazdeggerd II- (about A.D. 450), preserved by the Armenian historian, Elishe. terms Ahuramazda " the god of the Aryans." Thus the creed and from a few allusions in the Old Testament. Of the Median became a powerful factor in the development of an See also:united Iranian nationality, That a. religion, which See also:lays its chief stress upon moral precepts, may readily develop into See also:casuistry and See also:external formalism, with an infinity of See also:minute prescriptions, injunctions on purity and the like, is well known. In the Avesta all these recur ad nauseam, so much so that the primitive spirit of the religion is stifled beneath them, as the doctrine of the ancient prophets was stifled in Judaism and the See also:Talmud. The Sasse nid Empire, indeed, is completely dominated by this formalism and ritualism; but the earlier testimony of Darius in his inscriptions and the statements in Herodotus enable us still to recognize the original healthy life of a religion capable of awakening the enthusiastic devotion of the inner man. Its formal character naturally germinated in the priesthood (Herod. i. 140; cf. Strabo xv. 733, &c.). The priests diligently practise all the precepts of their See also:ritual—e.g. the extermination of noxious animals, and the exposure of corpses to the dogs and birds, that earth may not be polluted by their presence. They have See also:advice for every contingency in life, and can say with precision when a man has been defiled, and how he may be cleansed again; they possess an endless stock of formulae for See also:prayer, and of sentences which serve for See also:protection against evil spirits and may be turned to purposes of magic. How the doctrine overspread the whole of Iran, we do not know. In the West, among the Medes and Persians, the guardianship The and See also:ministry of Zoroastrianism is vested in an exclusive Maglaas. priesthood—the Magians. Whence this name—unknown as already mentioned, to the Avesta—took its rise, we have no knowledge. Herodotus (i. tot) includes the Magians in his list of Median tribes; and it is probable that they and their teaching reached the Persians from Media. At all events, they See also:play here not merely the role of the " Fire-kindlers (athravan) in the Avesta, but are become an hereditary sacerdotal See also:caste, acting an important part in the See also:state-advisers and spiritual guides to the king, and so forth. With them the ritualism and magical character, above mentioned, are fully developed. In the narrations of Herodotus, they interpret dreams and predict the future; and in See also:Greece, from the time of Herodotus and See also:Sophocles (Oed. See also:Tyr. 387) onward, the word Magian connotes a magician-See also:priest. See further, ZOROASTER and works there quoted. IV. Beginnings of History.—A connected See also:chain of historical evidence begins with the time when under See also:Shalmaneser (Sal-Assyrian manassar II.), the Assyrians in 836 B.C. began for Conquest the first time to penetrate farther into the mounof media. tains of the east; and there, in addition to several non-Iranian peoples, subdued a few Median tribes. These wars were continued under successive kings, till the Assyrian power in these regions attained its See also:zenith under See also:Sargon (q.v.), who (715 B.c.) led into See also:exile the Median chief Dayuku (see See also:DEIOCES), a See also:vassal of the Minni (Mannaeans), with all his See also:family, and subjected the princes of Media as far as the See also:mountain of Bikni (See also:Elburz) and the border of the great desert. At that time twenty-eight Median "See also:town-lords" paid See also:tribute to See also:Nineveh; two years later, (713 B.C.) no fewer than See also:forty-six. Sargon's successors, down to See also:Assur-bani-See also:pal (668–626 B.c.), maintained and even augmented their See also:suzerainty over Media, in spite of repeated attempts to throw off the yoke in See also:conjunction with the Mannaeans, the Saparda, the Cimmerians—who had penetrated into the Armenian mountains—and others. Not till the last years of Assur-bani-pal, on which the extant Assyrian See also:annals are silent, can an See also:independent Median Empire have arisen. As to the history of this empire, we have an ancient account in Herodotus, which, with a large admixture of the legendary, The still contains numerous historical elements, and a Median completely fanciful account from See also:Ctesias, preserved Bemire. in Diodorus (ii. 32 sqq.) and much used by later writers. In the latter Nineveh is destroyed by the Mede See also:Arbaces and the Babylonian Belesys about 88o B.C., a period when the Assyrians were just beginning to lay the See also:foundations of their power. Arbaces is then followed by a long list of Median kings, all of them fabulous. On the other hand, according to Herodotus the Medes revolt from See also:Assyria about 710 B.C., that is to say, at the exact time when they were subdued by Sargon. Deioces founds the See also:monarchy; his son See also:Phraortes begins the work of conquest; and his son See also:Cyaxares is first overwhelmed by the Scythians, then captures Nineveh, and raises Media .to a great power. A little supplementary information may be gleaned from the inscriptions of King Nabonidus of Babylon (555–539) Empire itself we do not possess a single See also:monument. Consequently its history still lies in complete obscurity (cf. MEDIA; DEIOCES; PHRAORTES; CYAXARES). The beginnings of the Median monarchy can scarcely go farther back than 64o B.C. To all appearance, the insurrection against Assyria must have proceeded from the desert tribe of the Manda, mentioned by Sargon: for Nabonidus invariably de-See also:scribes the Median kings as " kings of the Manda." According to the account of Herodotus, the dynasty was derived from Deioces, the See also:captive of Sargon, whose descendants may have found See also:refuge in the desert. The first historical king would seem to have been Phraortes, who probably succeeded in subduing the small local princes of Media and in rendering himself independent of Assyria. Further development was arrested by the Scythian invasion described by Herodotus. We know from See also:Zephaniah and See also:Jeremiah that these northern barbarians, in 626 B.C., overran and harried See also:Syria and See also:Palestine (cf. CYAXARES; See also:JEws). With these inroads of the Cimmerians and Scythians (see See also:SCYTHIA), we must doubtless connect the great ethnographical revolution in the north of anterior See also:Asia; the Indo-European Armenians (See also:Haik), displacing the old Alarodians (Urartu, See also:Ararat), in the See also:country which has since borne their name; and the entry of the Cappadocians—first mentioned in the Persian period—into the east of Asia See also:Minor. The Scythian invasion evidently contributed largely to the enfeeblement of the Assyrian Empire: for in the same See also:year the Chaldaean Nabopolassar founded the New-Babylonian empire; and in 6o6 B.C. Cyaxares captured and destroyed Nineveh and the other Assyrian cities. Syria and the south he abandoned to Nabopolassar and his son See also:Nebuchadrezzar; while, on the other hand, Assyria proper, east of the See also:Tigris, the north of See also:Mesopotamia with the town of See also:Harran (Carrhae) and the mountains of See also:Armenia were annexed by the Medes. See also:Cappadocia also See also:fell before Cyaxares; in a war with the Lydian Empire the decisive battle was broken off by the celebrated See also:eclipse of the sun on the. 28th of May 585 B.C., foretold by Thales (Herod. i. 74). After this a See also:peace was arranged by Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon and Syennesis of See also:Cilicia, recognizing the Halys as the borderline. To the east, the Median Empire extended far over Iran, even the Persians owning its sway. See also:Ecbatana (q.v.) became the capital. Of the states which arose out of the shattered Assyrian Empire (Media, Babylon, See also:Egypt, Cilicia and See also:Lydia), Media was by far the strongest. In Babylon the kings feared, and the exiled Jews hoped, an attack from the Medes (cf. Isa. xiii., xiv., xxi.; Jer. 1., Ii.); and Nebuchadrezzar sought by every means—great fortifications, canals and so forth—to secure his empire against the menace from the north. He succeeded in maintaining the status quo practically unimpaired, additional See also:security being found in intermarriage between the two dynasties. In this state of See also:equilibrium the great powers of Anterior Asia remained during the first See also:half of the 6th century. V. The Persian Empire of the Achaemenids.—The See also:balance, however, was disturbed in 553 B.C., when the Persian Cyrus, king of Anshan in See also:Elam (Susiana), revolted against Conquests his suzerain See also:Astyages, the son of Cyaxares, and of Cyrus three years later defeated him at See also:Pasargadae (q.v.)). and Shortly afterwards Astyages was taken prisoner, See also:cambyses. Ecbatana reduced, and the Median Empire replaced by the Persian. The Persian tribes were welded by Cyrus into a single nation, and now became the foremost people in the world (see See also:PERSIS and CYRUS). At first Nabonidus of Babylon hailed the fall of the Medes with delight and utilized the opportunity by occupying Harran (Carrhae). But before long he recognized the danger threatened from that See also:quarter. Cyrus and his Persians paid little heed to the See also:treaties which the Median king had concluded with the other powers; and the result was a great See also:coalition against him, embracing Nabonidus of Babylon, See also:Amasis of Egypt, See also:Croesus of Lydia, and the Spartans, whose highly efficient See also:army seemed to the See also:Oriental states of great value. In the See also:spring of 546 B.C., Croesus opened the attack. Cyrus I See further, BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA: § v. History. flung himself upon him, See also:beat him at See also:Pteria in Cappadocia and pursued him to Lydia. A second victory followed on the See also:banks of the Pactolus; by the autumn of 546 See also:Sardis had already fallen and the Persian power advanced at a See also:bound to the Mediterranean. In the course of the next few years the Greek littoral towns were reduced, as also the Carians and Lycians. The king of Cilicia (Syennesis) voluntarily acknowledged the Persian suzerainty. In 539 Nabonidus was defeated and Babylon occupied, while, with the Chaldean Empire, Syria and See also:Pales-tine also became Persian (see JEws). The east of Iran was further subdued, and, after Cyrus met his end (528 B.C.) in a war against the eastern Nomads (Dahae, See also:Massagetae), his son Cambyses conquered Egypt (525 B.C.). See also:Cyprus and the Greek islands on the See also:coast of Asia Minor also submitted, See also:Samos being taken by Darius. On the other hand, an expedition by Cambyses against the Ethiopian kingdom of Napata and Meroe came to grief in See also:Nubia. The usurpation of See also:Smerdis (522–521 B.C.) and his death at the hands of Darius was the See also:signal for numerous insurrections in Babylon, Susiana, Persis, Media, Armenia and many of the Eastern provinces. But, within two years (521-519), they were all crushed by Darius and his generals. The causes of this astonishing success, which, in the brief space of a single See also:generation, raised a previously obscure and secluded Arens and tribe to the mastery of the whole Orient, can only be See also:Armour. partially discerned from the evidence at our disposal. The decisive factor was of course their military superiority. The chief weapon of the Persians, as of all Iranians, was the See also:bow, which accordingly the king himself holds in his portraits, e.g. on the Behistun See also:rock and the coins (darics). In addition to the bow, the Persians carried See also:short lances and short daggers. But it was not by these weapons, nor by, hand to hand fighting, that the Persian victories were won. hey overwhelmed their enemy under a See also:hail of arrows, and never allowed him to come to close quarters. While the See also:infantry kneeled to shoot, the See also:cavalry swarmed round the hostile squadrons, threw their lines into See also:con-See also:fusion, and completed their discomfiture by a vigorous pursuit. In a See also:charge the infantry also might employ See also:lance and See also:dagger; but the essential point was that the archers should be See also:mobile and their use of the bow unhampered. Consequently, only a few distinguished warriors wore shirts of See also:mail. For purposes of See also:defence the See also:rank and See also:file merely carried a light hide-covered See also:shield; which the infantry, in See also:shooting, planted before them as a sort of barrier against the enemy's missiles. Thus the Persian army was lost, if heavy-armed hoplites succeeded in gaining their lines. In spite of all their bravery, they succumbed to the Greek See also:phalanx, when once the generalship of a See also:Miltiades or a See also:Pausanias had brought matters to a hand to hand conflict ; and it was with See also:justice that the Greeks—See also:Aeschylus, for instance—viewed their battles against the Persian as a contest between See also:spear and bow. None the less, till See also:Marathon the Persians were successful in discomfiting every enemy before he could close, whether that enemy consisted of similarly accoutred bowmen (as the Medes), of cavalry armed with the lance (as the Lydians), or of heavily armoured warriors (as the Babylonians, Egyptians and Greeks). To all this should be added the superiority of their leaders; Cyrus especially must have been an exceedingly able general. Obviously, also, he must have understood the See also:art of organizing his people and arousing the feeling of nationality and the courage of self-See also:sacrifice. In his time the Persians were a strong manly peasantry, domiciled in a healthy See also:climate and habituated to all hardships—a point repeatedly emphasized, in the tales preserved by Herodotus, as the cause of their successes (e.g. Herod. ix. 122). Herodotus, however, also records (i. 135) that the Persians were " of all mankind the readiest to adopt See also:foreign customs, good or See also:bad," a See also:sentence which is equally applicable to the See also:Romans, and which in the See also:case of both nations goes far to explain, not merely their successes, but also the character of their empires. The fundamental features of the imperial organization must have been due to Cyrus himself. Darius followed in his steps organize- and completed the vast structure. His role, indeed, See also:Lion of was peculiarly that of supplementing and perfecting Darius. the work of his great predecessor. The organization of the empire is planned throughout on broad, free lines; there is nothing mean and timorous in it. The great god Ahuramazda, whom king and people alike acknowledge, has given them dominion "over this earth afar, over many peoples and See also:tongues;" and the consciousness is strong in them that they are masters of the world. Thus their See also:sovereign styles himself " the ,king of kings " and " the king of the lands " —that is to say, of the whole civilized world. For the provinces remaining unsubdued on the extreme frontiers to the west, the north and the. east are in their view almost negligible quantities. And far removed as the Persians are from disavowing their proud sense of nationality (" a Persian, the son of a Persian, an Aryan of Aryan stock " says Darius of himself in the inscription on his See also:tomb)—yet equally vivid is the feeling that they See also:rule the whole civilized world, that their task is to reduce it to unity, and that by the will of Ahuramazda they are pledged to govern it aright. This is most clearly seen in the treatment of the subject races. In contrast with the Assyrians and the Romans the Persians invariably conducted their wars with great subject humanity. The vanquished kings were honourably Nations. dealt with, the enemy's towns were spared, except when See also:grave offences and insurrections, as at See also:Miletus and See also:Athens, rendered See also:punishment imperative; and their inhabitants were treated with mildness. Like Cyrus, all his successors welcomed members of the conquered nationalities to their service, employed them as administrators or generals and made them grants of See also:land: and this not only in the case of Medes, but also of Armenians, Lydians, Jews and Greeks. The whole population of the empire was alike bound to military service. The subject-contingents stood side by side with the native Persian troops; and the garrisons—in Egypt, for instance—were composed of the most varied nationalities. Among the subject races the Medes particularly stood high in favour. Darius in his inscriptions always names them immediately after the Persians. They were the predecessors of the Persians in the empire and the more civilized people. Their institutions, See also:court ceremonial and See also:dress were all adopted by the Achaemenids. Thus the tribal distinctions began to recede, and the ground was prepared for that amalgamation of the Iranians into a single, uniform nation, which under the Sassanids was completely perfected—at least for west of Iran. The lion's See also:share, indeed, falls to the dominant See also:race itself. The inhabitants of Persis proper—from which the eastern tribes of Carmanians, Utians, &c., were excluded and The formed into a See also:separate satrapy—pay no taxes. Persians. Instead, they bring the best of their possessions (e.g. a particularly See also:fine See also:fruit) as a See also:gift to their king on festival days; peasants See also:meeting him on his excursions do the same (Plut. Artax. 4. 5; Dinon ap. See also:Aelian. See also:var. hist. i. 31; Xen. Cyr. viii. 5, 21. 7, I). In recompense for this, he distributes on his return rich presents to every Persian man and woman—the See also:women of Pasargadae, who are members of Cyrus's tribe, each receiving a piece of See also:gold (Nic. See also:Dam. fr. 66. Plut. Alex. 69). In relation to his Persians, he is always the people's king. At his See also:accession he is consecrated in the See also:temple of a See also:warrior-goddess (Anaitis ?) at Pasargadae, and partakes of the simple See also:meal of the old peasant days—a See also:mess of See also:figs, terebinths and sour See also:milk (Plut. Artax. 3). The Persians swear allegiance to him and pray to Ahuramazda for his life and the welfare of the people, while he vows to protect them against every attack, and to See also:judge and govern them as did his fathers before him (Herod. i. 132; Xen. Cyr. xviii. 5, 25, 27). For helpers he has at his side the " law-bearers " (databara See also:Dan. iii. 2, and in Babyl. documents; cf. Herod. iii. 31, V. 25, vii. 194; See also:Esther i. 13, &c.). These—the Persian See also:judges—are nominated by the king for life, and generally bequeath their See also:office to their sons. The royal decision is based on consultation with the great ones of his people: and such is the case with his officials and See also:governors everywhere (cf. the See also:Book of See also:Ezra). Every Persian able to See also:bear arms is bound to serve the king —the great landowners on horseback, the commonalty on foot. The See also:noble and well-to-do, who need not till their fields in See also:person, are pledged to appear at court as frequently as possible. Their See also:children are brought up in See also:company with the princes " at the See also:gates of the king," instructed in the handling of arms, in See also:riding and See also:hunting, and introduced to the service of the state and the knowledge of the law, as well as the commandments of religion. Then such as prove their See also:worth are called to high office and rewarded, generally with grants of land. The highest rank was held by the descendants of the six great families, whose heads stood by Darius at the killing of the Magian. The Greeks class them and the king together., under the name of " the seven Persians." These enjoyed the right of entering the presence unannounced, and possessed princely estates in the provinces. Besides these, however, See also:numbers of other Persians were despatched to the provinces, settled there, and endowed with lands. There existed, in fact, under the Achaemenids a strong colonizing See also:movement, diffused through the whole empire; traces of this policy occur more especially in Armenia, Cappadocia and See also:Lycia, but also in the rest of Asia Minor, and not rarely in Syria and Egypt. These colonists formed the See also:nucleus of the provincial military See also:levy, and were a See also:tower of strength to the Persian dominion. They composed, moreover, the Persian See also:council, and See also:vice-See also:regal household of the Satraps, exactly as the Persians of the home-country composed that of the king. Though the world-empire of Persia was thus deeply impressed by a national character, care was nevertheless exercised that the general duties and interests of the subject races should receive due See also:consideration. We find their representatives, side by side with the Persians, occupying every sort of position in the regal and vice-regal courts. They take their part in the See also:councils of the satraps, precisely as they do in military service (cf. the evidence of Ezra); and they, too, are rewarded by bounties and estates. To wield a peaceful authority over all the subjects of the empire, to See also:reward merit, and to punish transgression—such is the highest task of king and officials. On his native See also:soil Cyrus built himself a town, with a See also:palace and a tomb, in the district of Pasargadae (now the ruins of Murghab). This Darius replaced by a new capital, Resid Rays/encesdeeper in the centre of the country, which See also:bore the . name " Persian " (Pdrsa), the See also:Persepolis (q.v.) of the later Greeks. But the district of Persis was too remote to be the administrative centre of a world-empire. The natural centre lay, rather, in the ancient fertile See also:tract on the See also:lower Tigris and See also:Euphrates. The actual capital of the empire was therefore See also:Susa, where Darius I. and Artaxerxes II. erected their magnificent palaces. The See also:winter months the kings chiefly spent in Babylon: the hot summer, in the cooler situation of Ecbatana, where Darius and See also:Xerxes built a See also:residence on Mt Elvend, south of the See also:city. From a palace of Artaxerxes II. in Ecbatana itself, the fragments of a few inscribed columns (now in the See also:possession of Mr See also:Lindo See also:Myers and published by Evetts in the Zeitschr. f. See also:Ass yr. V.) have been preserved. To Persis and Persepolis the kings paid only occasional visits especially at their coronations. Within the empire, the two great civilized states incorporated by Cyrus and Cambyses, Babylon and Egypt, occupied a position of their own. After his defeat of Nabonidus, Cyrus and Pt. proclaimed himself " King of See also:Babel "; and the same title was See also:born by Cambyses, Smerdis and Darius. So, in Egypt, Cambyses adopted in full the titles of the Pharaohs. In this we may trace a See also:desire to conciliate the native population, with the See also:object of maintaining the fiction that the old state still continued. Darius went still farther. He encouraged the efforts of the See also:Egyptian priesthood in every way, built temples, and enacted new See also:laws in continuance of the old order. In Babylon his See also:procedure was presumably similar, though here we possess no local evidence. But he lived to see that his policy had missed its See also:goal. In 486 B.C. Egypt revolted and was only reduced by Xerxes in 484. It was this, probably, that induced him in 484 to renounce his title of " king of Babel," and to remove from its temple the See also:golden statue of See also:Bel-See also:Marduk (Merodach), whose hands the king was bound to clasp on the first day of each year. This proceeding led to two insurrections in Babylon (probably in 484 and 479 B.C.), which were speedily repressed. After that the " kingship of Babel " was definitely abolished. In Egypt the Persian kings still retained the See also:style of the Pharaohs; but we hear no more of concessions to the priesthood or to the old institutions, and, apart from the great oasis of el-See also:Kharga, no more temples were erected (see EGYPT: History). At the head of the court and the imperial See also:administration stands the commandant of the See also:body-guard—the ten thousand " Immortals," often depicted in the sculptures of The vizier Persepolis with lances surmounted by golden apples. and other This See also:grandee, whom the Greeks termed " Chiliarch," Officials. corresponds to the modern vizier. In addition to him, we find seven councillors (Ezra vii. 14; cf. Esther i. 14). Among the other officials, the " See also:Eye of the King " is frequently mentioned. To him was entrusted the See also:control of the whole empire and the superintendence of all officials.
The orders of the court were issued in a very simple form of the See also:cuneiform script, probably invented by the Medes. This comprised 36 signs, almost all of which denote single sounds. In Otfkiai the royal inscriptions, a translation into Susan (Elam-See also:Languages. itic) and Babylonian was always appended to the
Persian See also:text. In Egypt one in See also:hieroglyphics was added, as in the inscriptions of the See also:Suez See also:canal; in the Grecian provinces, another in Greek (e.g. the inscription of Darius on the See also:Bosporus, Herod. iv. 37, cf. iv. 91). The cuneiform script could only be written on See also: Thus there has been discovered in Babylon a copy of the Behistun (q.v.) inscription preserved on a See also:block of See also:dolerite (Weissbach, Babylonische Miscellen. p. 24). For administrative purposes, however, it would seem that this inconvenient material was not employed ; its place being taken by skins (buihipat, See also:parchment), the use of which was adopted from the western peoples of the empire. On these were further written the See also:journals and records kept at the court (cf. Diod. ii. 22, 32; Ezra iv. I$, v. 17, vi. 2; Esther vi. 1, ii. 23). With such materials the cuneiform script could not be used; instead, the Persian language was written in Aramaic characters, a method which later led to the so-called Pahlavi, i.e. Parthian script. This mode of writing was obviously alone employed in the state-services since Darius I.; and so may be explained the fact that, under the Achaemenids, the Persian language rapidly declined, and, in the inscriptions of Artaxerxes III., only appears in an extremely
neglected See also:guise (see CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS, See also:ALPHABET).
Side by side with the Persian, the Aramaic, which had long been widely diffused as +{•s speech of See also:commerce, enjoyed currency in all the western See also: 89 sqq.); but the boun- satrapies. daries were frequently changed. Each satrapy was again subdivided into several minor governorships. The satrap is the head of the whole administration of his See also:province. He levies the taxes, controls the legal procedure, is responsible for the security of roads and See also:property, and superintends the subordinate districts. The heads of the great military centres of the empire and the commandants of the royal fortresses are outside his See also:jurisdiction: yet the satraps are entitled to a body of troops of their own, a See also:privilege which they used to the full, especially in later periods. The satrap is held in his position as a subject by the controlling machinery of the empire, especially the " Eye of the King "; by the council of Persians in his province with For the See also:editions of the Persian inscriptions see BEHISTUN. For the Persian documents, Ed. See also:Meyer Entstehung See also:des Judentums, 19 sqq. The hieroglyphic inscriptions of the Suez Canal are pub-fished In the Recueil de trail. d'egyptol. et d'assyriol. vols. vii. ix. xi. xiii; the private documents from Babylonia and See also:Nippur, by Strassmaier, Babyl. Urkunden, and Hilprecht and Clay, Babyl. Exped. of Univ. of ennsylvania, vols. ix. x. Numerous Jewish documents in Aramaic have been found at Elephantine (Sayce and Cowley, Aramaic Papyri discovered at Assuan, 1906), among them an official complaint of the Jewish See also:colony settled at Elephantine, addressed to the Persian satrap of See also:Judaea, in 408 B.C., which throws a new light on many passages in Ezra and See also:Nehemiah, published by Sachan in Abhandlungen der berl. Akademie, 1907. whom he is bound to debate all matters of importance; and by the state, or an autonomous community—had developed since the the army: while in the hands of the messengers (Pers. &trr&vSat or 6yyapot—a Babylonian word: see See also:ANGARIA) the See also:government despatches travel " swifter than the See also:crane " along the great imperial highways, which are all provided with See also:regular postal stations (cf. the description of the route from Susa to Sardis in Herod. v. 52). Within the satrapies the subject races " and communities occupied a tolerably independent position; for instance, the subject Jews, under their elders and priests, who were even Commuai- able to convene a popular See also:assembly in See also:Jerusalem ties. (cf. the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah). Obviously• also, they enjoyed, as a rule, the privilege of deciding law-suits among themselves; their general situation being similar to that of the Christian nationalities under the Ottomans, or to that of many tribes in the See also:Russian Empire at the present day. The pressure of despotism was manifest, not so much in that the king and his officials consistently interfered in individual cases, but that they did so on isolated and arbitrary occasions, and then swept aside the privileges of the subject, who was impotent to resist. For the rest, the subject population falls into a number of distinct groups. In the desert (as among the Arabian and Turanian nomads), in wild and sequestered mountains (as in Zagros in north Media, and See also:Mysia, See also:Pisidia, See also:Paphlagonia and See also:Bithynia in Asia Minor), and also in many Iranian tribes, the old tribal constitution, with the chieftain as its head, was See also:left intact even under the imperial suzerainty. The great See also:majority of the civilized provinces were subdivided into local administrative districts governed by officials of the king and his satraps. These the Greeks named ZOvrt, " peoples." Within these, again, there might lie large town settlements whose See also:internal affairs were controlled by the elders or the officials of the community: as, for instance, Babylon, Jerusalem, the Egyptian cities, See also:Tarsus, Sardis and others. On the same footing were the spiritual principalities, with their great temple-property; as Bambyce in Syria, the two Comanas in Cappadocia, and so forth. Besides these, however, vast districts were either converted into royal domains (Irap&Setvot) with great' parks and hunting grounds under royal supervision, or else bestowed by the king on Persians or deserving members of the subject-races (the " benefactors ") as their See also:personal property. Many of these estates formed respectable principalities: e.g. those of the See also:house of Otanes in Cappadocia, of Hydarnes in Armenia, See also:Pharnabazus in See also:Phrygia, See also:Demaratus in Teuthrania, See also:Themistocles in Magnesia and See also:Lampsacus. They were See also:absolute private property, handed down from father to son for centuries, and in the Hellenistic period not rarely became independent kingdoms. These potentates were styled by the Greeks &uv&vrat or µovapXot. The last class, quite distinct from all these organizations, was formed by the city-states (See also:watts) with an independent The City constitution—whether a monarchy (as in See also:Phoenicia), States. an See also:aristocracy (as in Lycia), or a See also:republic with council and popular assembly (as in the Greek towns). The essential point was that they enjoyed a separate legalized organization (See also:autonomy). This was only to be seen in the extreme western provinces of the empire among the Phoenicians, Greeks and Lycians, whose cities were essentially distinct from those of the east; which, indeed, to Greek eyes, were only great villages (Kwµmr6Xets). It is readily intelligible that their character should have proved practically incomprehensible to the Persians, with whom they came into perpetual collision. These sought, as a rule, to See also:cope with the difficulty by transferring the government to individual persons who enjoyed their confidence: the " tyrants " of the Greek towns. Mardonius, alone, after his suppression of the Ionic revolt—which had originated with these very tyrants—made an attempt to govern them by the assistance of the See also:democracy (492 B.C.). The provinces of the Persian Empire differed as materially in See also:economy as in organization. In the extreme west, a See also:money currency in its most highly developed form—that of coinage minted by
7th century among the Lydians and Greeks. In the commerce main portion, however, of the Oriental world—Egypt, and See also:Finance. Syria, Phoenicia and Babylonia—the old mode
of commerce was still in See also:vogue, conducted by means of gold and See also:silver bars, weighed at each transaction. Indeed, a money currency only began to make headway in these districts in the 4th century B.C. In the eastern provinces, on the other hand, the primitive method of See also:exchange by See also:barter still held the See also: 145 B, &c.) and were rewarded by gifts and assignments of land. The Greek mercenaries, on the contrary, had to be. paid in currency; nor could the satraps of the west dispense with hard See also:cash. The king, again, needed the See also:precious metals, not merely for bounties and rewards, but for important enterprises in which money payment was imperative. Consequently, the royal revenues and taxes were paid partly in the precious metals, partly in natural produce—horses and cattle, See also:grain, clothing and its materials, See also:furniture and all articles of industry (cf. Theopomp. fr. 124, 125, &c.). The satraps, also, in addition to money payments, levied contributions " for their table," at which the officials See also:ate (Nehem. v. 14). The precious metals brought in by the tribute were collected in the great treasure-houses at Susa, Persepolis, Pasargadae and Ecbatana, where gigantic masses of silver and, more mono' ,and especially,' of gold, were stored in See also:bullion or partially Coinage. wrought into vessels (Herod. iii. 96; Strabo xv. 731, 735; See also:Arrian iii. 16, &c.) ; exactly as is the case to-day in the shah's treasure-chamber (Curzon, Persia, ii. 484). It is also observable that the conjunction of payments in kind and money taxes still exists. The province of See also:Khorasan, for instance, with some half million inhabitants, paid in 1885 ,154,000 in gold, and in addition natural produce to the value of f43,000 (Curzon, op. cit. i. 181, ii. 38o). When the king required money he minted as much as was necessary. A reform in the coinage was effected by Darius, who struck the Daric (Pers. Zariq, i.e. "piece of gold "; the word has nothing to do with the name of Darius), a gold piece of 130 grains (value about 23s.) ; this being See also:equivalent to 20 silver pieces (" Median shekels," at-yaoc) of 86.5 grains (value according to the then See also:rate of silver-13, silver to i gold—about is. 2d.). The coining of gold was the exclusive See also:prerogative of the king; silver could be coined by the satraps, generals, independent communities and dynasts. The extent of the Persian Empire was, in essentials, defined by the great conquests of Cyrus and Cambyses. Darius was
no more a conquistador than See also:Augustus. Rather, rmperlar the task he set himself was to round off the empire• poky. and secure its See also:borders: and for this purpose in Asia
Minor and Armenia he subdued the mountain-tribes and advanced the frontier as far as the See also:Caucasus; See also:Colchis alone remaining an independent kingdom under the imperial suzerainty. So, too, he annexed the Indus valley and the auriferous See also: DARIUS). Side by side, however, with these wars, we can read, even in the scanty tradition at our disposal, a consistent effort to further the great civilizing See also:mission imposed. on the empire. In the district of Herat, Darius established a great water-See also:basin, designed to facilitate the cultivation of the steppe (Herod. iii. 117). He had the course of the Indus explored by the Carian See also:captain Scylax (q.v.) of Caryanda, who then navigated the Indian Ocean back to Suez (Herod. iv. 44) and wrote an account of his voyage in Greek. The desire to create a direct communication between the seclusion of Persis and the commerce of the world is evident in his foundation of several harbours, described by See also:Nearchus, on the Persian coast. But this See also:design is still more patent in his completion of a great canal, already begun by Necho, from the See also:Nile to Suez, along which several monuments of Darius have been preserved. Thus it was possible, as says the remnant of an hieroglyphic inscription there discovered, " for See also:ships to See also:sail direct from the Nile to Persia, over Saba." In the time of Herodotus the canal was in See also:constant use (ii. 158, iv. 39): afterwards, when Egypt regained her See also:independence, it decayed, till restored by the second Ptolemy. Even the circumnavigation of See also:Africa was attempted under Xerxes (Herod. iv. 43). It has already been mentioned, that, in his efforts to conciliate the Egyptians, Darius placed his chief reliance on the priest-See also:hood: and the same tendency runs throughout the imperial policy toward the conquered races. Thus Cyrus himself gave the exiled Jews in Babylon permission to return and rebuild Jerusalem. Darius allowed the restoration of the Temple; and Artaxerxes I., by the protection accorded to Ezra and Nehemiah, made the foundation of Judaism possible (see JEws: §§ 19 sqq.). Analogously in an edict, of which a later copy is preserved in an inscription (see above), Darius commands Gadatas, the See also:governor of a domain (irapaSecvot) in Magnesia on the Maeander, to observe scrupulously the privileges of the See also:Apollo-See also:sanctuary. With all the Greek oracles—even those in the mother-countrythe Persians were on the best of terms. And since these might reasonably expect an enormous See also:extension of their influence from the See also:establishment of a Persian dominion, we find them all zealously medizing during the expedition of Xerxes. For the development of the See also:Asiatic religions, the Persian Empire was of See also:prime importance. The definite erection of a single, vast, Religion . world-empire cost them their original connexion with the state, and compelled them in future to address themselves, not to the community at large, but to individuals, to promise, not See also:political success nor the independence of the people, but the welfare of the man. Thus they became at once universal and capable of extension by propaganda ; and, with this, of entering into keen competition one with the other. These traits are most clearly marked in Judaism; but, after the Achaemenid period, they are common to all Oriental See also:creeds, though our information as to most is scanty in the extreme. In this competition of religions that of Iran played a most spirited part. The Persian kings—none more so than Darius, whose religious convictions are enshrined in his inscriptions—and, with the kings, their people, were ardent professors of the pure doctrine of Zoroaster; and the Persians settled in the provinces diffused his creed throughout the whole empire. Thus a strong Persian propagandism arose especially in Armenia and Cappadocia, where the religion took deep See also:root among the people, but also in Lydia and Lycia. In the See also:process, however, important modifications were introduced. In contrast with Judaism, Zoroastrianism did not enter the lists against all gods See also:save its own, but found no difficulty in recognizing them as subordinate powers—helpers and servants of Ahuramazda. Consequently, the foreign creeds often reacted upon the Persian. In Cappadocia, Aramaic inscriptions have been discovered (19oo), in which the indigenous god, there termed Bel the king, recognizes the " Mazdayasnian Religion " (Din Mazdayasnish)—i.e. the religion of Ahuramazda personified as a woman—as his See also:sister and wife (Lidzbarski, Ephem. f. semit. Epigr. i. 59 sqq.). The gorgeous cult of the gods of civilization (especially of Babylon), with their host of temples, images and festivals, exercised a corresponding influence on the mother-country. Moreover, the unadulterated doctrine of Zoroaster could no more become a permanent popular religion than can See also:Christianity. For the masses can make little of abstractions and an omnipotent, omnipresent deity; they need concrete divine powers, See also:standing nearer to them-selves and their lot. Thus the old figures of the Aryan folk-religion return to the foreground, there to be amalgamated with the Babylonian divinities. The goddess of springs and streams (of the Oxus in particular) and of all fertility—Ardvisura Anahsta, Anaitisis endowed with the form of the Babylonian See also:Ishtar and Befit. She is now depicted as a beautiful and strong woman, with prominent breasts, a golden See also:crown of stars and golden raiment. She is worshipped as the goddess of generation and all sexual life (cf. Herod. i. 131, where the names of Mithras and Anaitis are interchanged) ; and religious See also:prostitution is transferred to her service (Strabo xi. 532, xii. 559). At her side stands the sun-god Mithras, who is re-presented as a See also:young and victorious See also:hero. Both deities occupy the very first rank in the popular creed; while to the theologian they are the most potent of the good powers—Mithras being the See also:herald and propagator of the service of Light and the mediator betwixt man and Ahuramazda, who now fades more into the background. Thus, in the subsequent period, the Persian religionappears purely as the religion of Mithras. The festival of Mithras is the chief festival of the empire, at which the king drinks and is drunken, and dances the national See also:dance (Ctes. fr. 55; See also:Duris fr. 13). This development culminated under Artaxerxes II., who, according to See also:Berossus (fr. 16 ap. Clem. Alex. prat. i. 5, 65), first erected statues to Anaitis in Persepolis, Ecbatana, Bactria, Susa, Babylon, See also:Damascus and Sardis. The truth of this account is proved by the fact that Artaxerxes II. and Artaxerxes III. are the only Achaemenids who, in' their inscriptions, invoke Anaitis and Mithra side by side with Ahuramazda. Other gods, who come into prominence, are the dragon-slayer Verethraghna (Artagnes) and the Good Thought (Vohumano, Omanos) ; and even the Sacaean festival is adopted from Babylon (Berossus fr. 3; Ctes., fr. 16; Strabo xi. 512, &c.). The chief centres of the Persian cults in the west were the district of Acilisene in Armenia (Strabo xi. 532, &c.), the town of Zela in Cappadocia (Strabo xii. 559), and several cities in Lydia. The position of the Persian monarchy as a world-empire is characteristically emphasized in the buildings of Darius and Xerxes in Persepolis and Susa. The peculiarly national basis, still recognizable in Cyrus's See also:architecture at Pasargadae, `fin recedes into insignificance. The royal edifices and sculptures are dependent, mainly, on Babylonian See also:models, but, at the same time, we can trace in them the influence of Greece, Egypt and Asia Minor ; the last in the rock-sepulchres. All these elements are combined into an organic unity, which achieved the greatest creations that Oriental architecture has found possible. Nevertheless, the result is not a national art, but the art of a world-empire; and it is obvious that foreign craftsmen must have been active in the royal services—among them, the Greek sculptor Telephanes of See also:Phocaea (See also:Pliny xxxiv. 68). So, with the collapse of the empire, the imperial art vanishes also: and when, some 500 years later, a new art arose under the Sassanids, whose achievements stand to those of Achaemenid art in much the same relation as the achievements of the two dynasties to each other, we discover only isolated reminiscences of its predecessor. For the organization and character of the Persian Empire, see See also:Barnabas See also:Brisson, De regio Persarum principatu libri iii. (1590); See also:Heeren, Ideen fiber Politik, See also:Handel and Verkehr der alien Welt, i. ; G. See also:Rawlinson, History of Herodotus, ii. 555 sqq. ; Five Eastern Monarchies, iii. ; Eduard Meyer, Geschichte des Altertunts, iii. On the Satrapies, cf. Krumbholz, De Asiae minoris satrapiis persicis (1883). See also MITHRAS. 3. History of the Achaemenian Empire.—The history of the Persian Empire was often written by the Greeks. The most ancient work preserved is that of Herodotus (q.v.), who supplies rich and valuable materials for the period ending in 479 B.C. These materials are drawn partly from See also:sound tradition, partly from original knowledge—as in the account of the satrapies and their See also:distribution, the royal See also:highway, the nations in Xerxes' army and their equipment. They also contain much that is admittedly fabulous: for instance, the stories of Cyrus and Croesus, the conquest of Babylon, &c. Forty years later (c. 390 B.C.), the physician Ctesias of See also:Cnidus, who for 17 years (414–398 B.C.) remained in the service of the Great King, composed a great work on the Persian history, known to us from an See also:extract in See also:Photius and numerous fragments. Ctesias (q.v.) possesses a more precise acquaintance with Persian views and institutions than Herodotus; and, where he deals with matters that came under his own cognisance, he gives much useful information. For the early period, on the other hand, he only proves how rapidly the tradition had degenerated since Herodotus; and here his narrations can only be utilized in isolated cases, and that with the greatest caution. Of more value was the great work of Dinon of See also:Colophon (c. 340), which we know from numerous excellent fragments; and on the same level may be placed a few statements from Heraclides of Cyme, which afford specially important evidence on Persian institutions. To these must be added the testimony of the other Greek historians (See also:Thucydides, See also:Ephorus, See also:Theopompus, &c., with the histories of Alexander), and, before all, that of See also:Xenophon in the See also:Anabasis and Hellenica. The Cyropaedia is a didactic romance, written with a view to Greek institutions and rarely preserving genuine information on the Persian Empire. Of Oriental sources, only the contemporary books of Ezra and Nehemiah are of much importance: also, a few statements in the much later Esther romance. Berossus's history of Babylon contained much valuable and See also:trust-worthy information, but next to nothing has survived. That the native tradition almost entirely forgot the Achaemenid Empire, has been mentioned above. For a more detailed account of these sources see separate articles on HERODOTUS, &c.; EZRA; and NEHEMIAH. Of modern accounts see especially Th. See also:Noldeke, Aufsatze zur persischen Geschichte (1887). The works of Marquart, Untersuchungen zur Geschichte von Eran (2 pts., 1896-1905), abound in daring theories and must be used with caution. On the See also:chronology, cf. Eduard Meyer, Forschungen zur alien Geschichte, ii. The external history of the empire is treated under the List of the individual kings (see also history sections of Kings. articles GREECE; EGYPT; &c.). Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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