131 



We may^ therefore, conclude that contracts were not dated 

 in the reign of Cyrus until after the third or eleventh of 

 Marchesvan, the days of the entry of Cyrus into Babylon, and 

 the death of Nabonidus. There is, therefore, no space for the 

 rule of Darius the Mede as an independent king-, and no tablet 

 has been found bearing his name. 



Numerous theories have been proposed for the explanation 

 of this diflSculty, and will continue to be propounded as long 

 as no monument of his reign, if such there was, is found. 



The most prominent may be noted : — 



I. That of the late Mr. J. W. Bosanquet, expounded very 

 fully in the Journals of the Society of Biblical Archeeology, 

 that Darius Hystaspes and Darius the Mede were one and the 

 same. 



This system would, however, necessitate a complete dis- 

 arrangement of the chronology of both Oriental and Western 

 history, and is quite opposed to monumental evidence. 



II. That Darius the Mede was Astyages, whom Cyrus had 

 deprived of the Median throne in B.C. 550. 



This is the theory most favoured by the writer of the 

 Speaker's Commentary on the Booh of Daniel. 



III. That Darius the Mede was Gobyras acting as viceroy 

 of Cyrus. 



IV. That Darius the Mede was Cambyses, ruling partly in 

 conjunction with his father. 



With the newly-acquired evidence of the inscriptions of 

 Cyrus and Darius before us, the two last seem to be the most 

 tenable, especially that in favour of Gobyras. 



The points most in favour of this theory seem to be that 

 Gobyras, the Ugharu of the inscriptions, being formerly prefect 

 of Gutium, or Kui'distau, was ruler of a district which 

 embraced Ecbatana, the Median capital, and " the province 

 of the Modes ""^ (Ezra vi. 2), and was, moreover, as his name 

 indicates, a Proto-Mede, or Kassite by birth.* 



That Cambyses was associated with his father is shown by 



* I am inclined to think that the name Ugbaru of the Babylonians, and 

 Gorbyras or Gobares of the Greek writers, is a corruption of the Kassite name 

 1 »"y<I ^Y >^^ir IT "^ Knu-BUR-YAS, which would have been pronounced 

 as GU-BURYAS, the Assyrian trauslatioa of which, according to the bilingual 

 tablets {Proc. Soc. Bib. Archa;., vol. iii., 38, and Dilitsch, Die Sprache der 

 Kossder, p. 25, No. .34) would be Aril bel Matidi, " i\Tan of the lord of the 

 land." 



