Persia from the Earliest Period to the Arab
Persia from the Earliest Period to the Arab
Persia from the Earliest Period to the Arab
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3 HISTORY OF PERSIA.<br />
In most cases, personation was <strong>the</strong> ordinary practice,<br />
<strong>the</strong> rebel asserting that he was <strong>the</strong> son, grandson, or<br />
lineal descendant of some previously famous monarch.<br />
Against <strong>the</strong> Babylonians Darius marched in person, and,<br />
after two great battles, captured <strong>the</strong> city of Babylon;<br />
in most o<strong>the</strong>r cases, he was content <strong>to</strong> send one or<br />
o<strong>the</strong>r of <strong>the</strong> six chiefs, as Hydarnes and Gobryas, &c.<br />
It would also appear that against <strong>the</strong> mountain tribes<br />
<strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> north Darius found it necessary <strong>to</strong> march him-<br />
self, as, though a series of vic<strong>to</strong>ries had been duly<br />
claimed by his generals, it is clear that <strong>the</strong>se had<br />
been temporary if not nominal. In <strong>the</strong> course of this<br />
war, <strong>the</strong> Ecbatana of Upper Media (Takt-i-Suleimdn)<br />
fell in<strong>to</strong> his hands ; while <strong>the</strong> rebellion in Parthia and<br />
Hyrcania was crushed by an advance upon Rhages.<br />
Professor Rawlinson has pointed out that, so far as<br />
<strong>the</strong>re is any his<strong>to</strong>rical substratum <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> book of<br />
Judith, <strong>the</strong> events <strong>the</strong>re related belong <strong>to</strong> this period,<br />
as <strong>the</strong> s<strong>to</strong>ry given in that apocryphal book agrees fairly<br />
with what we can ga<strong>the</strong>r <strong>from</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r sources. The<br />
Arphaxad taken prisoner at Rhages must, on this<br />
supposition, be <strong>the</strong> rebel Xathrites, and Nebuchadonosor<br />
Darius himself. The Behista"n inscription,<br />
is believed <strong>to</strong> have been executed about B.C. 516-515,<br />
and, if so, must have have been carved during <strong>the</strong><br />
period of repose which followed <strong>the</strong> suppression of<br />
<strong>the</strong> first great rebellions, or in <strong>the</strong> fifth or sixth years<br />
of Darius.<br />
Having reduced <strong>the</strong> various revolts that had so long<br />
O o<br />
troubled his empire, Darius divided his vast dominions<br />
in<strong>to</strong> a series of local governments, called " satrapies V'<br />
1 This word is of <strong>Persia</strong>n origin, and <strong>the</strong> office was common <strong>to</strong>