Persia from the Earliest Period to the Arab

HISTORY OF PERSIA. 37
Ecbatana, with his head, and caused a general assassina-
tion of all the Magi that could be found, an event
subsequently recorded by an annual festival called the
" " "
Magophonia or Slaughter of the Magi." In the
more essential parts of this story, Herodotus agrees
with Darius's own narrative on his inscription, and
where he varies from it, this variation is probably
due to the uncertainty of oral testimony. Eighty
years after the events, when the Greek historian
wrote, there would have been but few persons able to
correctly interpret the Cuneiform records ; while we
do not know that he was ever himself in Persia, or
saw any of the monuments himself. It has been
supposed that after the Magophonia, the principal
chieftains who had joined with Darius, remained about
the throne, and that thus a sort of hereditary nobility
grew up, the king being no longer the sole fountain or
dispenser of honour. But this, I f.mcy, is rather a
Western interpretation of a course of action,
means uncommon in Oriental history.
by no
Darius ascended the throne on January i, B.C. 521,
at first, as it would seem, with little opposition from
the provinces immediately around him, but this period
of repose was of brief duration, and he soon encoun-
tered a series of formidable rebellions in many parts
of his extensive dominions, and was in fact occupied
fully six years in gradually stamping out their ashes.
Some of these, though not all, were doubtless con-
nected with the overthrow of Magism ;
but those of
the greatest importance, such as the first revolt of
Babylon, and those of Assyria and Egypt, had probably
little or nothing to do with religious matters