CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



the Lydian monarch derived from the subject 

 states ; hence the proverb, ' as rich as Crcesus.' 



Separated from the Median kingdom only by 

 the river Halys, the Lydian dominion naturally 

 became an object of desire to Cyrus, after he had 

 acquired the sovereignty of Media. Accordingly 

 (546 B.C.), provoked by an invasion of Crcesus, 

 who had received from the Delphic oracle the 

 equivocal assurance, that ' if he attacked the Per- 

 sians he would subvert a mighty monarchy,' Cyrus 

 crossed the Halys, advanced into Lydia, took 

 Sardis, and made Croesus prisoner. It was in- 

 tended by the conqueror that the Lydian king 

 should be burned alive it is even said that the 

 fire was kindled for the purpose ; Cyrus, however, 

 spared his life, and Crcesus became his friend and 

 confidential adviser. On the subversion of the 

 Lydian monarchy, its subjects, the Greeks of Asia 

 Minor, were obliged to submit to the conqueror, 

 after having in vain solicited the aid of their 

 brethren the European Greeks. The Lacedaemo- 

 nians, indeed, sent an embassy into Asia Minor ; 

 and one of their ambassadors had a conference 

 with Cyrus at Sardis, where he warned him ' not 

 to lay hands on any of the Greek towns, for the 

 Lacedaemonians would not permit it.' ' Who are 

 the Lacedaemonians ?' said the astonished war- 

 rior. Having been informed that the Lacedaemo- 

 nians were a Greek people, who had a capital 

 called Sparta, where there was a regular market 

 ' I have never yet,' said he, ' been afraid of this 

 kind of men, who have a set place in the middle 

 of their city where they meet to cheat one another 

 and tell lies. If I live, they shall have troubles 

 of their own to talk about.' To save themselves 

 from the Persians, the Ionian portion of the 

 Asiatic Greeks proposed a universal emigration 

 to the island of Sardinia a striking design, which, 

 however, was not carried into execution. All Asia 

 Minor ultimately yielded to Cyrus. 



The Persian Empire. 



Having subdued Asia Minor, Cyrus next turned 

 his arms against the Assyrians of Babylon. His 

 siege and capture of Babylon (538 B.C.), when he 

 effected his entrance by diverting the course of 

 the Euphrates, form one of the most romantic 

 incidents in history ; an incident connected with 

 Scriptural narrative through its result the eman- 

 cipation of the Jews from their captivity. Along 

 with Babylon, its dependencies, Phoenicia and 

 Palestine, came under the Persians. 



Cyrus, one of the most remarkable men of the 

 ancient wprld, having perished in an invasion of 

 Scythia (529 B.C.), was succeeded by his son 

 Cambyses, who annexed Egypt to the Persian 

 empire (525 B.C.), having defeated Psammenitus, 

 the son of the Pharaoh Amasis. Foiled in his 

 intention of penetrating Libya and Ethiopia, Cam- 

 byses was dethroned by a Magian impostor, who 

 called himself Smerdis, pretending that he was 

 the younger brother of Cambyses, although this 

 brother had been put to death by the order of 

 Cambyses during a fit of madness. A conspiracy 

 of seven great nobles having been formed against 

 the false Smerdis, he was put to death. He was 



80 



succeeded by one of the conspiring chiefs, called" 

 Darius Hystaspes, who reigned over the immense 

 Persian empire, extending from the Nile to the 

 Indus, and beyond it, from 521 B.C. to 485 B.C. 

 ' The reign of Darius,' says Mr Grote, ' was one of 

 organisation, different from that of his predecessor 

 a difference which the Persians well understood 

 and noted, calling Cyrus, "the father;" Cambyses, 

 "the master;" and Darius, "the retail trader or 

 huckster." In the mouth of the Persians, this last 

 epithet must be construed as no insignificant com- 

 pliment, since it intimates that he was the first to 

 introduce some methodical order into the imperial 

 administration and finances. Under the two for- 

 mer kings, there was no definite amount of tribute 

 levied upon the subject provinces. But Darius 

 probably felt it expedient to relieve the provinces 

 from the burden of undefined exactions. He dis- 

 tributed the whole empire into twenty departments. 

 called satrapies imposing upon each a fixed 

 annual tax. This, however, did not prevent each 

 satrap the Persian governor appointed by the 

 king in his own province from indefinite requisi- 

 tions. The satrap was a little king, who acted 

 nearly as he pleased in the internal administration 

 of his province, subject only to the necessity of 

 sending up the imperial tribute to the king at 

 Susa, the capital of the Persian empire ; of keep- 

 ing off foreign enemies ; and of furnishing an ade- 

 quate military contingent for the foreign enter- 

 prises of the Great King. To every satrap was 

 attached a royal secretary or comptroller of the 

 revenue, who probably managed the imperial 

 finances in the province, and to whom the court 

 of Susa might perhaps look as a watch upon the 

 satrap himself. The satrap or the secretary 

 apportioned the sum payable by the satrapy in 

 the aggregate among the various component dis- 

 tricts, towns, or provinces, leaving to the local 

 authorities in each of these latter the task of assess- 

 ing it upon individual inhabitants. From neces- 

 sity, therefore, as well as from indolence of temper 

 and political incompetence, the Persians were 

 compelled to respect the authorities which they 

 found standing both in town and country, and to 

 leave in their hands a large measure of genuine 

 influence. Often even the petty kings who had 

 governed separate districts during their state of 

 independence, prior to the Persian conquest, re- 

 tained their title and dignity as tributaries to the 

 court of Susa. The empire of the Great King was 

 thus an aggregate of heterogeneous elements, con- 

 nected together by no tie except that of common 

 fear and subjection noway coherent nor self-sup- 

 porting, nor pervaded by any common system or 

 spirit of nationality.' 



Continuation through Greek and Roman History. 



The conquering spirit of Darius soon brought 

 him into conflict with the Greeks of Europe (490 

 B.C.), and from that time the main interest of the 

 world's history is bound up with the career of that 

 remarkable people, and subsequently with that of 

 the kindred nation of the Romans. The further 

 progress of the race, then, will be continued in the 

 two succeeding numbers, under the Histories of 

 Greece and of Rome. 



