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REV. ANDREW CRAIG ROBINSON, M.A., ON DARIUS 



' Have I not shot twice in succession, and each time have brought 

 down a beast ? ' Upon which the King no longer able to control 

 his jealous fury, seizing a dagger from one of those who followed, 

 struck it into the breast of my dear son and killed him." 

 And so he had come to entreat Cyrus to be his avenger. And 

 Cyrus graciously replied, " On the understanding that these are 

 true professions, I give thee my right hand, and I take thine." 

 Subsequently, on the invitation of Gobryas, Cyrus, accompanied 

 by an adequate escort of his own cavalry, paid a visit to his 

 territory and fortress and soon after took him into his army, 

 and he and Gadatas — another chief, who at this time also came 

 over to Cyrus, owing to the cruelty of the Babylonian king — 

 became his most trusted officers ; and they are continually 

 mentioned as such in the Cyropaedia ; and, accordingly, it was 

 to these two leaders that Cyrus entrusted the command of those 

 troops, who on the momentous night that Babylon was taken, 

 entered the city by the river gates, penetrated to the palace 

 banqueting hall, and slew the Babylonian king — Belshazzar, 

 no doubt — in the midst of his sacrilegious revel. 



In the account which Xenophon here gives of this incident of 

 Gobryas there can be no doubt but that the old king is NabonTdus 

 and the young king Belshazzar. Xenophon is, of course, mistaken 

 in supposing that Nabonldus at this time had died : the Inscrip- 

 tions make it certain that he was alive even at the time of the 

 Fall of Babylon. Nevertheless, Xenophon has told a great 

 deal about Gobryas, and is thus in close touch with the real 

 history. It is probable that at this time, although Nabomdus 

 was alive, he had fallen a good deal into the background in 

 .comparison wdth his son Belshazzar. Herodotus seems never 

 to have heard of this Gobryas at all. 



The next great period in the career of Cyrus is his campaign 

 against Croesus, King of Lydia, and his allies, and the great 

 battle fought before Sardis — one of the decisive battles of the 

 world. While in Babylonia intelhgence reached Cyrus that the 

 King of Babylon had gone off to Lydia to join a confederation 

 there, of which Croesus was the head ; and later, news was brought 

 that the King of Lydia had been appointed commander-in-chief 

 of the confederate forces. Cyrus immediately set out on the 

 march to Lydia. The battle before Sardis was a very hard-fought 

 one, owing chiefly to the valiant resistance made by the Egyptian 

 phalanx in the confederate army ; and Cyrus had a narrow 

 escape of losing his life in the encounter in this part of the field. 



