The History of Antiquity Volume V Part 22

THE RISE OF THE PERSIAN KINGDOM.

The Median empire was not of long duration. Little more than a century had pa.s.sed since Phraortes succeeded Deioces in the government of the land of Ecbatana, little more than eighty since Phraortes had united the tribes of the Medes under his leaders.h.i.+p, about sixty since Cyaxares had expelled the Scythians, and not quite fifty since Nineveh had succ.u.mbed to the arms of the Medes and Babylonians.

In the overthrow of so mighty a power, Cyrus had achieved a great, and, so far as we can tell, an unexpected, success. Scanty as our information is, we can still perceive that he used the victory with circ.u.mspection and moderation. Herodotus told us that he did no injury to the captive Astyages, and kept him with him till his death. Ctesias relates that at the command of Cyrus, the heavy chains, which Oebares had put on Astyages, were quickly taken off; that he honoured him as a father; and entrusted him with the government of the Barcanians. According to the statement of Pompeius Trogus, Cyrus allowed him to be viceroy of the Hyrcanians. The same nation may be meant by these two names; in the inscriptions of Darius Hyrcania is called Varkana, in the Avesta Vehrkana.[559] Ctesias further tells us that Cyrus put to death the Mede Spitamas, whom Astyages had married to his daughter Amytis, and then made his successor, and that after treating Amytis for some time as his mother he subsequently made her his wife. No harm was done to Megabernes and Spitaces, the sons of her marriage with Spitamas; on the contrary, the first was placed by the wish of Cyrus in the satrapy of the Barcanians, the second in the satrapy of the Derbiccians.

Cyrus must have made it his object to reconcile the Medes to their defeat and loss of empire. If he could make the house of Astyages his own, and take his daughter to wife, the edge of the change was softened, and the more apparent it was that this marriage had the consent of Astyages, the more legitimate would his rule be in the eyes of the Medes, the less could they regard it as the dominion of a stranger. It was of importance to gain the a.s.sent of the Medes to the new kingdom, and support this if possible on the united power of Medes and Persians.

Moreover, the relations of alliance in which Astyages stood to the princely houses of Lydia and Babylonia made it advisable to deal carefully with Astyages and his kindred. Astyages was still alive in 549 B.C.,[560] according to Herodotus and Ctesias. Whatever may be the case as to the connection of Cyrus with Amytis, his legitimate wife was Ca.s.sandane, the daughter of the Persian Pharnaspes, who according to Herodotus was an Achaemenid, and was in fact one of the six tribal princes. Ca.s.sandane bore Cyrus two sons, Cambyses and Bardiya, whom Herodotus calls Smerdis; Ctesias, Tanyoxarkes; and Xenophon, Tanaoxares.

The death of Ca.s.sandane was a great grief to Cyrus; he caused the whole kingdom to go into mourning for her.[561]

With respect to the position which Cyrus took up in regard to the royal family of Media, and Amytis more especially, Ctesias has preserved a somewhat incredible story. This narrative, which again is obviously taken from a poetical source, ascribes the death of Astyages to Oebares, to whom, according to Trogus, Cyrus had given the government of Persia and his sister in marriage, as a reward for his services, who in the beginning of his reign had been his a.s.sociate in all his dangers, and whom, according to Ctesias, he had afterwards to thank for the capture of Sardis. The motive of this act, according to the drift of these poems, can only have been anxiety on the part of Oebares lest the influence of Astyages and his friends should endanger the succession of the house of Cyrus in the Persian kingdom and the dominion of the Persians. Oebares had previously murdered the Babylonian who possessed the secret which controlled the future of Persia, against the wishes and without the knowledge of Cyrus (p. 347), and he now acts in a similar manner towards Astyages. Cyrus, so we are told in our excerpt,[562]

after the Lydian war sent the eunuch Petesaces to bring Astyages from the Barcanians, as both he and Amytis wished to see him. Oebares advised Petesaces to abandon Astyages on the way in some desert place, to perish by starvation. This was done. The crime was revealed by dreams, and Cyrus, on the repeated entreaty of Amytis, gave Petesaces up to her for punishment. She caused him to be blinded, flayed, and crucified.

Oebares, fearing that a similar lot was in store for him, though Cyrus a.s.sured him that he should not permit anything of the kind, refused all nourishment for ten days, and so put an end to his life. The corpse of Astyages received a splendid burial. Lions had guarded it in the desert place in which it had been abandoned, until Petesaces returned and carried it away. In the poem in which the singing woman warns Astyages against Cyrus he is compared to a lion (p. 349). Whether the lions performed this service to the corpse of Astyages in the source from which Ctesias copied--it could scarcely by such an incident exhibit him as a man favoured by heaven--or whether the lions dealt with the corpse in a manner more in accordance with the views of Eastern Iran, we must leave out of the question. What is more certain is, that the most zealous Persian could have no real reason for putting Astyages to death, for after the Lydian war he would be in his eightieth year. The importance ascribed to Amytis points to a Median version; the death of Oebares is accounted for in a manner suitable to his life and his fidelity.

In Herodotus the Persians, on the instigation of Artembares, one of their tribesmen, say to Cyrus: "Since Zeus gives the sovereignty to the Persians, and above all to thee, Cyrus, who hast overthrown Astyages, so let it be thy care that we leave our land and obtain a better, for our country is small and wild. Many better regions are close at hand, many at a distance, and if we gain one of them, we shall be more admired in the eyes of men. To do this is proper for men who possess the dominion, and when can it be done better than now, when we have so many men, and rule over all Asia?" When Cyrus heard this he expressed no astonishment, but said simply: they might do so, but they must be prepared to be rulers no longer, but subjects; the same land could not produce the n.o.blest fruits and warlike men. The Persians saw that Cyrus' view was the better, and chose to inhabit and rule over a scanty land, rather than be the slaves of others.[563] The distinct opposition of Cyrus and Artembares seems to carry us back to Persian poems, otherwise the narrative is less likely to belong to the tradition of Persia than to arise out of the necessity which the Greeks felt for explaining how the Persians succeeded in founding so mighty an empire from a mountain country so moderate in extent.

In any case the Persians, after the overthrow of Media, were far from possessing the dominion over Asia. In Nicolaus, it is true, when the news is spread abroad that Astyages has retired from Persia and has fled before Cyrus in the first battle in Media, the chief of the Hyrcanians comes with 50,000 men, to pay homage to Cyrus as king; he is followed by the chiefs of the Parthians, Sacae, and Bactrians, and then by the remaining nations. But as a fact the course of things seems to have been different. If the princes and natives who were subject to the Medes were ready to throw off their dominion as soon as they were defeated by the Persians, they were hardly inclined to recognise Cyrus as sovereign in the room of Astyages. Herodotus tells us that Cyrus subjugated the Bactrians and Sacae, and Upper Asia, one nation after the other, and puts these conquests after the Lydian war.[564] Xenophon represents the Hyrcanians as joining Cyrus at an early date, and the Cadusians follow their example, which harmonises with the view taken in the Persian poems of the hatred of the Cadusians to the Medes. In Xenophon and Ctesias the Sacae are the allies of Cyrus as early as 549 B.C.[565] If Astyages receives the satrapy of the Hyrcanians in Justin, this nation and the Parthians, who were still nearer neighbours of Media, must have been among those who were subject to Cyrus.

In Ctesias, Cyrus after the conquest of Astyages marches against the Bactrians; the battle was undecided. But when they found that Astyages was the father and Amytis the wife of Cyrus, the Bactrians voluntarily submitted to Amytis and Cyrus. Then Cyrus conquered the Sacae, and took their king Amorges captive. We remember that, according to Herodotus'

statement, the proper name of the Sacae was Amyrgians, and in the inscriptions of Darius we found the caka Humavarka. The name Amorges seems to be borrowed from the Amyrgians. When Amorges had been defeated and taken captive by Cyrus, his wife Sparethra, as she is called in Ctesias, collected the Sacae and took the field with them. Zarinaea, a princess of the Sacae, had previously fought with great bravery against the Medes, but her achievements are far surpa.s.sed by those of Sparethra.

With 300,000 men and 200,000 armed women, she went against the Persians, and defeated Cyrus, taking many captives, among whom were Medes of distinction. As a ransom for these Amorges was restored to Sparethra, and there was friends.h.i.+p between Cyrus and the king of the Sacae, and the latter marched with him to the war against the Lydians. Strabo also speaks of a battle in which Cyrus was defeated by the Sacae. Being hard pressed on his retreat he abandoned his camp with large stores of every kind, especially of wine. When the Sacae had enjoyed their spoil, Cyrus fell upon them and ma.s.sacred nearly all.[566]

Trogus following Deinon tells us that the nations who were subject to the Medes did not submit to Cyrus. Hence arose many wars. The greater part of these nations he had already overpowered, before he marched against the Lydians, _i.e._ in the first eight years after the overthrow of Astyages. We may a.s.sume that Cyrus, immediately after the dethronement of Astyages, was occupied with bringing the neighbours of Media on the east, north, and west into obedience to the new kingdom. So long as the Parthians, Hyrcanians, Armenians, were independent or in arms against Cyrus, the Medes must be strongly tempted to recover their lost dominion. The Cadusians in Ghilan were subjects of Cyrus; at any rate the name of the city Cyropolis on the Caspian Sea, on the coast of the Cadusians, is a proof that Cyrus placed a fortress there, in order to keep them or their neighbours in check; and under the successors of Cyrus the Cadusians are always mentioned as subjects.[567] Then he took the same line towards the west, on which Cyaxares of Media had advanced sixty years previously after driving out the Scythians; he gained Armenia and Cappadocia, and made the Halys the border of his kingdom towards Lydia. In his narrative of the events of the year 549 B.C., Herodotus remarks that the Cappadocians were subject to Cyrus, having previously been subjects of the Medes. It is clear from repeated statements that at this time the Halys was the western border of the empire of Cyrus.[568] Xenophon reckons the subjugation of the Armenians, who had been subjects of the Medes, among the earliest achievements of Cyrus; he tells the story in his own manner, and places after this the subjection of the neighbours on the south, the Chaldaeans (Gordyaeans) who dwelt in the mountains which separate the table-land of Armenia from the hilly country of a.s.syria. The legends of the Cappadocians conceal their subjugation to Cyrus under supposed links of alliance; Cambyses, the father of Cyrus, had given his own sister Atossa in marriage to Pharnaces, the king of the Cappadocians.[569] The extension of the Persian dominion to the east over Parthia and Hyrcania, the subjugation of the Drangians, Gedrosians, and Arachoti, must, in consideration of the observation of Herodotus, that in 548 B.C. Cyrus was intent on military preparations against the Bactrians and Sacae, and the urgent difficulties which at that time summoned him to the east, be placed in the later years of his reign; in fact, they cannot come earlier than the second decade; which does not, however, make it impossible that Cyrus should have fought against the Bactrians and Sacae in the first decade.[570]

Cyrus must have arranged his court and state after the pattern of Media, which in its turn was a copy of the court of the kings of a.s.shur and Babylon. Ctesias a.s.serts that Petesaces, the eunuch, and after his death Bagapates, another eunuch, had great influence with Cyrus.[571] The abode of Achaemenes, Teispes, and Carabyses, the ancient place of a.s.sembly and metropolis of the tribe of the Pasargadae, was changed by Cyrus into a city and fortress; there he built his palace, in which he deposited the spoil of his wars, and collected his treasures.[572] The new kingdom rested on the power of the Persians; they alone had to pay no tribute to the king; they formed the nucleus of the army; the leaders and satraps were mainly chosen from them. But Cyrus was obviously anxious to reconcile the Medes, next to the Persians, with the change in affairs, and win their aid. This design lay at the base of his treatment of Astyages and the marriage with his daughter, and scarcely ten years after the fall of the Median kingdom, we find Medes at the head of the army of Cyrus. The clemency of Cyrus towards the other subject nations is also extolled. Herodotus vouches for the fact that he laid no fixed tribute upon them, but left it to themselves to fix the amount of their yearly contributions. Of all men, Xenophon says, Cyrus made the largest presents, and exhibited the greatest liberality towards those who had done him good service, and in this the subsequent kings of Persia followed his example.

According to Xenophon's description, Cyrus was of a kindly disposition, eager to instruct himself, and so ambitious that he shrank from no effort and no danger.[573] With the Greeks he pa.s.ses not only for the founder of the dominion of the Persians, but for the author of excellent arrangements in the kingdom. From this point of view Xenophon wrote his treatise on Cyrus. By his example he wished to prove to the Greeks how the empire over nations could be gained, how a great kingdom could be founded and maintained, how a ruler could command obedience even among those who had never seen him and were separated by great distances. It is a historical romance which he has written on Cyrus; but he knew the Persian empire, and could not advance anything absolutely in contradiction to the current opinion of the Greeks about Cyrus.

According to him the relation of Cyrus to the Persians rested on a kind of compact. When his son had subjugated the nations far and wide, Cambyses collected the elders of the Persians and the officers who held the highest places, and told them the Persians had elected Cyrus to be their general, and given him the army; Cyrus had extended their power over Asia, and gained glory among all men; he had made the bravest men in the army rich, and found pay and food for all the soldiers. If this relation were maintained it would be for the advantage of both parties; if, on the other hand, Cyrus sought to rule over the Persians with the same caprice as over other nations, or the Persians should attempt to take the command from him, each would do the greatest harm to the other.

Let Cyrus, therefore, undertake to protect Persia and uphold the Persian laws, and the Persians to render Cyrus any service that he needed against rebellion and enemies. "After me," Cambyses concludes, "Cyrus will be king, and whenever he comes to Persia he will offer for you the sacrifice which I am offering now. If he is in a foreign land, it will be best for the n.o.blest of our family to offer sacrifices to the G.o.ds."

"What Cambyses proposed was approved by Cyrus and the Persians with invocations to the G.o.ds, and the arrangement is still observed on both sides."[574] Plato even puts Cyrus on the same level as Lycurgus, the founder of the const.i.tution of Sparta. He gives Dion the choice of rivalling the ancient Lycurgus or Cyrus, or any one else who may be distinguished by moral excellence and political wisdom.[575] According to the Laws, Cyrus, brought up from his youth in the camp and surrounded by danger, became a skilful general, and as a ruler kept before his eyes the prosperity of the state. In the same book we are told that the monarchical form of government attained its most complete state among the Persians, and the democratic among the Athenians. But as the Persian state pursued absolute dominion, and the Attic uncontrolled freedom, neither discovered the correct limit; though in ancient times they had observed due moderation. At the time of Cyrus the Persians were midway between slavery and freedom. At first they were free, then they became the lords of others. But while ruling they had given the subjects a share in freedom, and treated them on an equal footing. For this reason the warriors were devoted to their general and ready to plunge into danger. And if an intelligent man appeared, who could give wise counsel, Cyrus gave him liberty to speak; and as he honoured those who knew how to give advise, every opinion was made use of for the common good, and the Persians of that day succeeded in everything by freedom, concord, and common deliberation.[576]

FOOTNOTES:

[559] Ctes. "Pers. Ecl." 5; Tzetz. "Chil." 1, 1, 83; Justin, 1, 6. Yet Diodorus mentions the Barcanians together with the Hyrcanians (2, 2); Curtius (3, 2) represents the Barcanians as providing 12,000 men for the last Darius; Stepha.n.u.s of Byzantium ([Greek: Barkanioi]) puts them beside the Hyrcanians. Yet all these statements may rest on the same misconception.

[560] Herod. 1, 73; above, p. 378, _note_.

[561] Herod. 2, 1; 3, 2; 7, 11.

[562] Ctesias, "Pers." 8. The narrative of the death of Astyages follows the narrative of the wars against the Bactrians and Sacae, and against Croesus, and precedes the wars against the Derbiccians.

[563] Herod. 9, 122.

[564] Herod. 1, 177.

[565] "Cyri inst.i.t." 5, 3, 22.

[566] Strabo, p. 512.

[567] Ptolem. 6, 2; Ammian, 23, 6. The rebellion of the Cadusians at a later time was mentioned by Xenoph. "h.e.l.len." 2, 1, 13; Plut.

"Artaxerx." 24; Diod. 15, 8; Justin, 10, 3. They fought with the last Darius at Arbela; Arrian, "Anab." 3, 11.

[568] Croesus, when he has crossed the Halys, is at once in Persian territory; Herod. 1, 72, 73.

[569] Xenoph. "Cyri inst.i.t." 3, 1; 3, 2, 1, 2; 7, 2, 5; Diod. 31, 19.

[570] The serious difficulty of Cyrus is shown by his rapid march back from Sardis with much the larger part of his army before the Greek cities, the Lycians and Carians were reduced. Cp. Vol. VI. chapters 8 and 9.

[571] "Persic." 9.

[572] Strabo, p. 730; Curt. 5, 6, 10; Arrian, "Anab." 3, 16, 18. The observation in Xenophon ("Cyri inst.i.t." 5, 2, 1), that Cyrus whenever he trod the soil of Persia gave a piece of gold to each Persian man and woman, may have arisen from the presents to the women of Pasargadae.

[573] "Cyri inst.i.t." 1, 2, 1.

[574] "Cyri inst.i.t." 8, 5, 21 ff.

[575] Plato, "Epp." 4, p. 320. Cf. "Menexen." p. 239.

[576] "Legg." p. 693, 694. Cicero, ("de Republ." 1, 27, 28), calls Cyrus the most just, wise, and amiable of rulers.

END OF VOL. V.