slaughter of the general of the hostile army with his own hand in two different battles, is likewise incredible. The opima spolia occur only thrice in the entire Roman history.

§ 11 The reigns of Cyrus, king of Persia, Croesus, king of Lydia, and Amasis, king of Egypt, as well as the rule of Pisistratus, fall within the period which we are now examining.(102) They are nearly coincident in time, and the principal events of them, so far as they came under the personal knowledge of the Greeks, may be considered as having descended, in an unfalsified state, to the age of Herodotus. During this period, the Greek cities of Asia Minor, having previously been independent, were subjugated by the kings of Lydia and Persia; a change which was likely to leave a deep impression on the memory of the next generations. The kings of Lydia, beginning with Gyges, about 700 B.C., made war upon Miletus and other of the Ionic cities, but the last king, Croesus, completed the conquest of the Asiatic Greeks. After the capture of Sardis, and the dethronement of Croesus by Cyrus in 546 B.C., the Ionians were reduced by the officers of Cyrus, and became Persian instead of Lydian subjects. The reluctant submission of the Asiatic Greeks, to the Persian dominion, combined with the occasional assistance which they received from their brethren in Europe, gave rise to the Persian invasion of Greece; out of the Persian war sprang the Athenian maritime empire, and protectorate of the insular Greeks, and the Athenian empire gave rise to the Peloponnesian

(102) The reigns of these three princes were as follows:

The dominion of Pisistratus extended (with certain intervals) from 560 to 527 B.C. Cyrus, Amasis, and Pisistratus died within three years of each other. Croesus was dethroned by Cyrus in 546 B.C., but he lived into the reign of Cambyses (Herod. iii. 14, 34, 36) and probably died only a few years later than the others, as he was born in 595 B.C. The accounts in Herodotus of presents made by Amasis to Greeks appear to be historical. Thus his present of a thorax to the Spartans, iii. 47; gifts to Cyrene, Lindos, and Samos, ii. 182; a gift of 1000 talents' weight of alum, as a subscription to the rebuilding of the temple of Delphi, ii. 180. Ladice, the Greek wife of Amasis, gave a statue of herself to Cyrene, which Herodotus saw, ib. 181.

war. 'It is thus (Mr. Grote remarks) that most of the splendid phænomena of Grecian history grew, directly or indirectly, out of the reluctant dependence in which the Asiatic Greeks were held by the inland barbaric powers, beginning with Croesus.'(10)

Two wise counsels are recorded by Herodotus as having been given to the Ionians at this period, which were doubtless preserved in the native traditions. One was given before the ruin of Ionia, the other after its second subjugation by Cyrus. The former was the advice of Thales of Miletus, that they should form a federal council, and act together in self-defence: the other was that of Bias of Priene, that they should migrate in a body to Sardinia, and colonize that island. (104)

No reasonable doubt can exist as to the alliance between Croesus and the Lacedæmonians in the reigns of Anaxandrides and Aristo, or as to his subsequent demand for assistance when he was engaged in war with Cyrus, or as to their preparation to send troops, when they received the intelligence that Sardis had been taken. (105) His communications with Delphi and other Greek prophetic shrines are likewise to be considered historical, though the oracular responses recited by Herodotus bear for the most part indubitable marks of subsequent fabrication.

§ 12 The life of Cyrus, the founder of the Persian monarchy, (106) was used by Xenophon as the means of embody

(103) Vol. iii. p. 351.

(104) Herod. i. 170. Thales is stated to have been born in 639 B.C., and his advice must therefore have been given when he was very old, as the reign of Croesus only began in 560 B.C. The advice of Bias must have been given soon after 546 B.C. The justice of Bias is praised by Hipponax (fragm. 51, Schneidewin), who flourished about 546-539 B.C.; See Clinton, ad ann. Bias composed a poem on the political state of Ionia in 2000 hexameter verses: Εποίησε δὲ περὶ Ἰωνίας, τίνα μάλιστα ἂν τρόπον εὐδαιμοvoin, eis iπn dioxilia. Diog. Laert. i. 85. Mr. Grote, vol. iv. p. 126, note, thinks that Herodotus may have become acquainted with the counsel of Bias through this poem.

(105) Herod. i. 69, 70, 77, 83.

(106) Eschylus, who was born in the reign of Cambyses, does not recognise Cyrus as founder of the Persian monarchy. He makes Medus the first in the line of Persian kings-a mere personification of the nation, like Hellen or Danaus. After Medus follows his son, whose name is not mentioned. Cyrus is the third in the line of succession; he is described

ing the idea of a perfect ruler, which he had imbibed from the discourses of Socrates. His work-written nearly two centuries after the time of Cyrus-was regarded by the ancients themselves as a political romance, and not as a history :(107) but the plan upon which parts of it are composed, has caused many modern writers to mistake it for a history of real events. There were certain political institutions, certain usages, or local peculiarities which he found existing in the Persian empire in his own day; and to which his attention had doubtless been partly directed during his march into Babylonia with the ten thousand Greeks. These he interwove into his fiction, either by tracing them to imaginary incidents in the life of Cyrus, or by assigning the reasons for them, in the form of motives which had actuated him in their establishment. Thus Larissa and Cyllene near Cyme, still called the cities of the Egyptians, are stated to have been given to the Egyptian troops by Cyrus as a reward for their fidelity at the battle of Thymbrara before Sardis. (108) The armour of the Persian horsemen is said to be still the same as it was organized by Cyrus for the same battle, in which they greatly distinguished themselves. (109) The scythebearing chariots, also devised by him, were very effective in the same battle, and

not as a founder, but merely as the conqueror of Lydia, Phrygia, and Ionia :

:

Although Eschylus does not represent Cyrus as the founder of the monarchy, yet his two predecessors are an eponymous king, and a king without a name. According to Strabo, xi. 13, § 10, Medus, king of the Medes, is the son of Medea, who had been queen of the country. This is a mere etymological fiction. A similar statement occurs in Cephalion, Fragm. Hist. Gr. vol, iii. p. 626. Thucydides states that Cyrus was the first king of the Persians; and also that he defeated Croesus and reduced the lonians of the mainland; i. 13, 16.

(107) Cyrus ille a Xenophonte, non ad historiæ fidem scriptus, sed ad effigiem justi imperii; Cic. ad Quint. Frat. i. 1, § 8.

(108) Cyrop. vii. 1, § 45.

(109) Ib. § 46; cf. viii. 5, § 23.

the king of Persia still uses this sort of chariot.(110) The fidelity of the Cilicians and Cyprians to Cyrus, is given as a reason why they were not governed by a satrap, but retained their own kings. (1) Cyrus established a garrison in Babylon, and required the inhabitants to furnish their pay; with the view of impoverishing the city, and thus making it weak and tractable. This institution subsists up to the present day. (112) The institution of eunuchs, as guards of the Persian king's person, is referred to Cyrus, and his reasons for the institution are stated at length.(113) This is certainly an ancient Oriental practice—as we learn from the sculptures on the Nineveh marbles-anterior to Cyrus, and not peculiar to Persia.(114)

A similar remark applies to some of the other customs whose origin is similarly traced to Cyrus. The origin of the custom for the Persian grandees to stand about the doors of the king's palace, in order to pay their court to him, and guard him by their presence, is dramatized by Xenophon, and the reasons for establishing it are assigned. It is stated to be the constant practice of the court.(115) Cyrus established the practice, which still continues, for certain magi to be appointed to preside over the court-worship: the king sings a hymn to the gods at daybreak, and sacrifices to the gods whom the magi point out.(116) A great procession of Cyrus is described as actually taking place; and this procession is declared to be the model of the existing processions of the Persian kings; only the victims do not form part of it, when the king does not sacrifice. (117) The

(110) Ib. § 47; vi. 1, § 30. battle of Cunaxa; Anab. i. 8, § 10. of the king of Persia; ib. i. 7, § 11. wards used at the battle of Arbela. (111) vii. 4, § 2.

(113) vii. 5, § 60-65.

Xenophon had seen these chariots at the
There were said to be 200 in the army
Chariots of the same sort were after-
(112) vii. 5, § 70.

(114) Josephus describes Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, as selecting the noblest Jewish youths, defraying the costs of their education, and causing some of them to be made eunuchs; Ant. Jud. x. 10, § 1. The reign of Nebuchadnezzar is placed at 604-561 B.C., and therefore precedes that of Cyrus.

(115) viii. 1, § 6, 7. The custom of the Persian nobles sitting at the king's gate is alluded to by Herod. iii. 120. (117) viii. 3, § 34.

(116) viii. 1, § 24.

subsisting practice for the king and his companions to hunt, in order to harden and exercise the body, is attributed to Cyrus.(118) Certain contrivances to which the Persian rulers resorted, in order to conceal their bodily defects or smallness of stature, and to render themselves objects of greater awe in the eyes of the people, are said to have been devised by Cyrus. (119) The use of the Median dress by the Persians is derived from an act of Cyrus.(120) Certain rules about the precedence of sitting at the king's table, still observed at the Persian court, are traced to Cyrus. His reasons for establishing them are stated in detail.(121) The custom of sending presents of food from the king's table to certain persons, as a mark of honour, is stated to have originated with Cyrus. The rationale of this custom is given at length.(122) The origin of the practice of the Persian kings to make numerous honorary gifts is referred to Cyrus ;(123) especially of their practice to make presents to the Persians of both sexes, on entering Persia Proper.(124) The privileges of Persia Proper as compared with the other provinces, and its greater attachment to the king, are represented under the form of a compact between Cyrus and the Persians, suggested by Cambyses his supposed father, and confirmed by common sacrifices. (125) The institution of satraps, and other peculiarities of provincial government in the Persian empire, are traced to Cyrus; all of which are declared to be still in existence. The maintenance of garrisons in the fortresses, with commanders independent of the satraps; an itinerant inspector, with an army, to curb the powerful, and assist the weak satraps; and an establishment of

(118) viii. 1, § 36.

(119) viii. 1, § 40-2; cf. viii. 8, § 8.

(120) viii. 3, § 1; cf. viii. 1, § 40. Strabo says that the Persians derived their dress, their attention to archery and horsemanship, the state of the king, and the court ceremonial, from the Medes, without any mention of Cyrus; xi. 13, § 9. On the other hand, Arrian, following the example of Xenophon, traces the practice of prostration before the oriental kings to Cyrus; Anab. iv. 11.

(121) viii. 4, § 5.

(122) viii. 2, § 4. Timagoras, the Athenian, is stated to have received some presents from the king's table; Athen. ii. p. 48 E.

(123) viii. 2, § 8.

(124) viii. 5, § 21.

(125) viii. 5, § 27.