7. The Achaemenians

While the Medea were thus founding a widespread empire, another branch of the Indo-European wanderers was slowly preparing for even greater dominion. The kings who were to lead the new movement are called the Achaemenians or Acbaemenides, and three lists of the chief members of this great family have come down, one upon the cylinder of Cyrus, a second upon the great inscription of Darius at Behistun, and the third in Herodotus (vii. 11). The combination of these three sources is by no means easy, but a fair agreement among modern scholars has been achieved, and the following may be regarded as representing the facts as well as they can be made out at present.

Hakhamanish (Achaemenes) ~ishl rah (Teispes) n usiya (Cambyees) rash (( s i pish Kurash (Cyrus) Ariyiamna (Ariaramnee) Kambiya (Cambysee) Arehama (Areames) Kurlaeh (Cyrus the Great) Vishti hpa (Hystaepea) Kambl rya (Cambyses) Darayavash (Darius)

8. Cyrus

historical basis is found. When he first appears he is king of Anshan, and his capital was probably Susa. He is also called king of Persia, but the title was not a great one until he made it great, and both as king of Anshan and as king of Persia he was at first more or less subject to the greater kingdom of Media. There was no possibility that a man of his capacity could continue to be a "petty vassal." In 549 B.C. he conquered Astyages, and at one stroke made himself king of the Median empire. The concentration into the hands of one powerful man of three kingdoms, Anshan, Persia, and Media, was a menace to all western Asia, and there was soon a combination arranged in defense. The alliance was formed of Craesus, king of Lydia, Nabonidus, king of Babylonia, and Amasis, king of Egypt. It must have seemed formidable, but it afforded in reality no defense against Cyrus. He completed the reduction of the whole Median empire and pushed at once into Asia Minor. Crcesus was taken in the autumn of 546, and before the end of 545 the peninsula of Asia Minor had become a part of the new Persian empire and was divided into satrapies and ruled by a strong hand. Cyrus turned next to Babylonia. Nabonidus was busy with temples and restorations, and his son Belshazzar, set to defend the country, went down to defeat before Cyrus at Opis, and Sippar fell without fighting. Gobryas (Gubaru, Ugbaru) entered Babylon without a struggle and on the 3d of Marcheswan (October) 539 Cyrus entered Babylon and was received as a deliverer.

9. Old-Testament Allusions

It was no wonder that such a career should have captivated the minds of the Hebrews. In Isa. gl.-xlviii. Cyrus is Yahweh's anointed and to him the exiles were looking for the deliver- ante from Babylonia. In 538 he Testament issued the decree that set the Jews Allusions. free from their trammels and permit- ted the beginning of the rebuilding of national and religious life in Jerusalem.

Cyrus built his capital at PasargadEe, and there also was set his tomb, and in the year 529 his reign, glorious not only in war, but also in peace came to an end, and Cambysea II. (529-521 B.C.) reigned in his stead.

Cambyses began his reign by putting to death his brother Smerdis, and a despotic and mad though brief career began. Though far inferior to