Persia from the Earliest Period to the Arab

26 HISTORY OF PERSIA.
another son, the great-grandfather of Darius, received
Persia. At all events we learn from the Annalistic
Tablet that Cyrus II did not become king of Persia
until between the years B.C. 550 and B.C. 547. In
B.C. 550 he is still "king of Ansan," in B.C. 547 he
has for the first time become "king of Persia."
Another fact which the newly-discovered inscriptions
have brought to light is that Babylon was taken with-
out a siege and even "without fighting."
The same
fact is evidenced by the contract-tablets, which show
that there was no cessation of business transactions in
Babylon during the period that elapsed
between the
overthrow of Nabonidos and the entrance of Cyrus
into the city, and that the trading community at once
transferred its allegiance from the one ruler to the
other. As soon as the army of Nabonidos was de-
feated near Sippara, all resistance to the invader was
at an end. He had a strong party in his favour in
Babylonia itself, and he was welcomed there as a
deliverer from the tyranny of Nabonidos. Nabonidos
had been a usurper, unrelated to the family of
Nebuchadrezzar, and he had bitterly offended what
maybe called "the country-party'' by endeavouring
to destroy the local cults, and centralize the religion of
Babylonia, and therewith the political life of the
country, in the capital. All who had been interested
in the worship of the local deities naturally resented
the attempt of the king.
Cyrus showed his political wisdom by undoing this
centralizing work of his predecessor as soon as Babylonia
was in his hands. The images of the gods were
restored to their old seats, and the populations who