A Manual of Ancient History Part 11

Description of Zoroaster's legislation, and of the magian national religion, according to the Zend-avesta. How far the dogmas of Zoroaster can be considered as dominant among the Persians?--Proof that they were adopted only by the n.o.bler tribes, more particularly the Pasargadae. Their great and beneficial influence on agriculture.

ANQUETIL DU PERRON, _Zend-avesta, ouvrage de_ ZOROASTRE, _traduit en Francois sur l'original Zend_. Paris, 1771. 4to. This work has been much improved by the critical discussions added to the German translation by J. L. KLEUKER. Compare the dissertations on Zoroaster by MEINERS and TYCHSEN, in _Comment. Soc. Gotting._ and HEEREN, _Ideas_, etc. vol. i.

HYDE, _De Religione veterum Persarum_; Oxon. 1700, 4to. Replete with learned research, and the first work that excited enquiry on the subject.

# J. S. RHODE, _Sacred Traditions of the East_; Breslau, 1821. An excellent work for the study of the Zend-avesta, the magian religion, and the antiquities of the Medes and Persians.

5. First political const.i.tution of the Persian empire under Cyrus. No general new organization; but for the most part the original inst.i.tutions are preserved among the conquered, who are compelled to pay tribute. Royal officers, appointed to collect the tribute, are a.s.sociated with the generals, who with numerous armies keep in subjection the inhabitants of the conquered countries. For the support of the empire large standing armies are kept in pay, besides which, recourse is frequently had to the transplanting of whole nations; while, as was the case with the Jews, some who had been formerly transplanted are restored to their country. With the same view injunctions are issued, as in the case of the Lydians, to effect the enervation of warlike races by a luxurious and effeminate system of education.

6. Cyrus leaves two sons, the elder of whom, Cambyses, succeeds as king; the younger, Smerdis, (the _Tanyoxarces_ of Ctesias,) becomes independent lord of Bactria and the eastern territories; but is soon after murdered by the command of his elder brother.

7. Under Cambyses the conquering arms of the Persians are directed against Africa. Egypt becomes a Persian province, and the neighbouring Libya, together with Cyrene, a.s.sume the yoke of their own accord. But the twofold expedition against the opulent commercial establishments, Ammonium in the west, and Meroe in the south, is wholly unsuccessful; that against Carthage is arrested in its commencement by the refusal of the Tyrians to join the naval armament. A colony of six thousand Egyptians is transplanted into Susiana.

8. The cruelty with which Cambyses is accused of treating the Egyptians was directed rather against the powerful caste of the priests, than against the whole nation; and originated more in political than in religious motives. It must be observed, however, that we ought to be particularly on our guard against all the evil that is related of Cambyses, inasmuch as our information respecting that prince is derived entirely from his enemies, the Egyptian priests.

9. The usurpation of the Pseudo-Smerdis, (or _Tanyoxarces_,) was an attempt of the magi to replace a Median dynasty on the throne, by means of a plot hatched within the seraglio. It was the occasion of an accident which cost Cambyses his life, after a reign of seven years and a half: (or, according to Ctesias, of eighteen.)

10. The Pseudo-Smerdis kept his seat on the throne eight months, during which he attempted to bring over the conquered nations to his interest by a remission of all tribute for three years; but the discovery of his cheat gave rise to a conspiracy of seven of the chief Persians, who could not brook the rule of a Mede, and the usurper lost his life.

11. It could not be expected that the political organization of the kingdom should advance to completion during the reign of Cambyses, who was almost always absent in the prosecution of war; or during the brief rule of the Pseudo-Smerdis. It remained, therefore, in the same state as under Cyrus. But the introduction of the Median court-ceremonial among the ruling tribe of the Persians, and the adoption of fixed dwellings by that tribe, rendered it necessary that royal residences should be erected for the reception of the king's court; among these Persepolis, (see above, p. 20,) probably commenced by Cyrus, was completed under Darius and Xerxes.

The best drawings of the monuments of Persepolis, remarkable alike for their architecture, their sculpture, and their inscriptions in the arrow-headed character, are to be found in the Travels of CHARDIN and NIEBUHR. Ill.u.s.trations:

# HERDER'S _Persepolis_, in the collection of his works, vol. i.

# HEEREN, _Ideas_, etc. Part I. vol. i. Great a.s.sistance in studying the inscriptions, is furnished by

DE SACY, _Memoires sur diverses Antiquites de la Perse_; Paris, 1793, 4to. It must be observed, however, that this work is confined to the ill.u.s.tration of the later monuments, belonging to the _Sa.s.sanidae_. The most successful attempt at deciphering the arrow-headed inscriptions of the old Persic, since TYCHSEN, MUENTER, and LICHTENSTEIN, will be found in

# GROTEFEND, _On the Interpretation of the Arrow-headed Characters, particularly of the Inscriptions at Persepolis_, contained in the appendix to HEEREN, _Ideas_, etc. vol. ii. with an accompanying Zend alphabet.

12. After a very remarkable debate held by the seven conspirators, concerning the form of of government which should be established, Darius, the son of Hystaspes, one of the family of the Achaemenides, was raised to the throne by an oracle; this king endeavoured to strengthen his right to the sceptre by marrying two of Cyrus's daughters.

13. The reign of Darius I. which lasted thirty-six years, (according to Ctesias 31,) is remarkable for the improvements made both in the external and internal administration of the Persian empire. In the former, by the great expeditions and conquests, which extended the Persian realm to its utmost limits; in the latter, by several important inst.i.tutions, established for the internal organization of the state.

14. The expeditions of the Persians under Cyrus were directed against the countries of Asia; those of Cambyses against Africa. But those undertaken by Darius I. were directed against Europe, though the Persian territory was at the same time extended in the two other quarters of the world. In the reign of this king likewise commenced those wars with the Greeks, so fatal to the Persians; constantly fomented and supported by emigrant or exile Greeks, who found an asylum in the Persian court, and there contrived to raise a party.--First example of the kind exhibited shortly after the accession of Darius, in the case of Syloson, brother to Polycrates, who had been tyrant of Samos: at his request the island was taken possession of by the Persians, and delivered up to him after the almost total destruction of the male population.

15. Great revolt in Babylon, which would not submit tamely to a foreign yoke. After a siege of twenty-one months, Darius by stratagem regains possession of the city. The power of Babylon and the importance of its situation increased the jealousy with which it was guarded by the Persian kings; so much so, that they were wont to reside there a certain portion of the year.

16. First great expedition of Darius undertaken against the Scythians inhabiting the lands north of the Black sea: the former irruption of the Scythians into Asia afforded a pretext for the war, which, therefore, was considered as a general national undertaking. Unsuccessful as the Persian arms were in this vast expedition against the Scythians, and disgraceful as was the retreat from the barren steppes of the Ukrain, yet the power of Darius was established in Thrace and Macedonia, and the Persians obtained firm footing in Europe.

Concerning the peculiar character of the Persian national wars, or great campaigns, in which all the conquered nations were obliged to partic.i.p.ate, contrasted with the other wars waged by Persian troops alone.

17. The next expedition made by Darius was more successful. It was carried on along the banks of the Indus, down which river Scylax, a Greek, had previously sailed on a voyage of discovery. The highlands north of the Indus were then subjected to the Persian dominion, and the Indus became the boundary of the kingdom. About the same time that Darius was engaged on the Danube and the Indus, Aryandes, his viceroy in Egypt, led an expedition against Barca, to avenge the murder of king Arcesilaus; a war which terminated in the destruction of the city, and the transplantation of its inhabitants into Asia.

18. However trifling the first occurrence which gave rise to the revolt of the Asiatic Greeks, it was much more important in its consequences.

It was set on foot by Aristagoras, lieutenant-governor of Miletus, who was secretly supported by his relation, the offended Histiaeus, then resident at the Persian court. The share taken by the Athenians in this rebellion, which led to the burning of Sardes, was the origin of the national hatred between Persia and European Greece, and of the long series of wars that ensued. The confederates were this time defeated; but the naval battle off the island of Lada, could hardly have had such a fatal result, had not the league been previously corrupted by the craft and gold of Persia. Be that as it may, this war ended in the reduction of the Ionians, and the destruction of Miletus, their flourishing capital; a city which in those days, together with Tyre and Carthage, engrossed the trade of the world.

19. First attack upon Greece, particularly Athens. Darius, already enraged against the Athenians by the firing of Sardes, is still further instigated by the suggestions of the banished tyrant of Athens, Hippias, the son of Pisistratus. This prince, who had fled to the Persian court, was evidently the animating spirit of the whole undertaking. Although the first attempt, made under the command of Mardonius, was thwarted by a tempest, yet the mighty expedition which afterwards followed, was undertaken with so much more prudence, and conducted with so much knowledge of the country, that no one can fail to recognize the guiding hand of Hippias. Even the battle of Marathon, which seems to have been but a diversion on the side of the Persians, would not have decided the war, had not the activity of Miltiades defeated the princ.i.p.al design of the enemy upon Athens.

20. It may be said that Darius, by these foreign wars, debilitated the kingdom which he endeavoured to extend; this circ.u.mstance, however, it cannot be denied, increases the merit which he has of perfecting the internal organization of the empire. His reign const.i.tutes precisely that period which must enter into the history of every nomad race that has attained to power, and is advancing towards political civilization; a period at which it becomes visible that the nation is endeavouring to obtain a const.i.tution, however gradual the progress towards it.

21. Division of the empire into twenty _satrapies_, and the imposition of a regular tribute on each. This division at first depended solely on that of the various tributary races, but from it gradually arose a geographic division, in which the ancient distinction of countries was for the most part preserved.

Proofs that the division into satrapies was originally a mere arrangement for the civil government and collection of taxes, distinct from military power. Duties of the satraps. The attention they were to pay to the cultivation and improvement of the land; to the collection of the imposts; to the execution of the royal commands relating to provincial affairs. An abuse of this inst.i.tution, at a later period, placed in the hands of these satraps the command also of the troops.--Various means of keeping the satraps in a state of dependence: royal secretaries appointed for each, who were to be the first to receive the king's commands.--Periodical visits paid to the provinces by commissioners under the direct appointment of the king, or by the king himself accompanied with an army.--Establishment of couriers in every part of the empire, for the purpose of securing a safe and rapid communication with the provinces, as was the case also in the Mongol countries; (not a regular post, however, the inst.i.tution here alluded to being intended only for the court.)

22. The Persian finance continues to preserve those peculiarities which naturally result from the formation of an empire by a nomad race of conquerors, desirous of living at the expense of the conquered, and under a despotic form of government.

Collection of tribute, mostly in kind, for the support of the court and the armies; and in precious metals, not coined, but in their raw state. Application of the treasure thus collected towards const.i.tuting a private chest for the king. Various other royal imposts.--Mode of providing for the public expenditure by a.s.signments on the revenues of one or several places.

23. Organization of the military system, conformably to the primitive state of the nation, and the necessity now felt of keeping the conquered countries in subjection by means of standing armies.

Military organization of the Persian nations, by means of a decimal division pervading the whole.--Royal troops cantoned in the open field, according to a certain division of the empire, or stationed as garrisons in the cities, and distinct from the encampments.--Manner in which the troops were supported at the cost and by the taxes of the provinces.--Introduction of mercenaries and Greeks, more particularly among the Persians, and fatal consequences of that measure. Military household of the satraps and grandees.--Inst.i.tution of a general conscription in national wars.

Formation of the Persian navy, consisting of the Phoenician, and not unfrequently of the Asiatic Greek fleets.

24. From the time of Darius, the court of the kings of Persia attained its complete form, and the government soon after was wholly concentrated in the seraglio. Yet the mode of life which the kings led, surrounded by a court, taken princ.i.p.ally if not wholly from the tribe of the Pasargadae, and changing their residence according to the revolutions of the seasons, still preserved the traces of nomad origin.

Babylon, Susa, and Ecbatana, the usual residences; Persepolis now used as a royal cemetery. The court supported by the most costly productions of each province; hence arose the rigid ceremonial observed at the royal table.--Internal organization of the seraglio.--Influence of the eunuchs and queen-mothers on the government.

25. Already had Darius commenced preparations to wreak his vengeance on Athens, when a revolution broke out in Egypt, and hindered him from prosecuting his design. He died after nominating for his successor Xerxes I. grandson of Cyrus, and his eldest son by a second wife, Atossa, whose influence over her husband was boundless.

26. Xerxes I. A prince educated in the seraglio, who knew nothing beyond the art of representing the pomp of royalty. Subjection of Egypt, and severe treatment of that country under the satrap Achaemenes, brother to Xerxes.

27. Xerxes' famous expedition against Greece was again the result of the cabals and intrigues of the Greek exiles, the Pisistratidae, the soothsayer Onomacritus, the Thessalian princes or Aleuadae, who contrived to exert their influence on the king's mind, and to raise a party in their favour among the grandees. But the progress of the campaign showed that no Hippias was at the head of the invading army, although the Persian king did certainly succeed in his avowed object, the capture and destruction of Athens.

Critique on the detailed account given by Herodotus of this expedition, as a national undertaking in which all the subjugated nations were obliged to take a share.--Preparations which last for three years in the Persian empire; league framed with Carthage for the subjection of the Sicilian Greeks, 483-481. The expedition itself in 480; over Asia Minor and the h.e.l.lespont, through Thrace and Macedonia.--Muster of the army and division of the troops according to nations at Doriscus; the detailed description of which found in Herodotus, was most probably borrowed from some Persian doc.u.ment.--The pa.s.s of Thermopylae taken by treachery; on the same day a naval engagement off Artemisium.--Athens captured and burnt.

Battle of Salamis, Sept. 23, 480. Retreat of Xerxes; an army of picked men left behind, under the command of Mardonius.--Fruitless negotiations with the Athenians.--Second campaign of Mardonius: he is routed at Plataeae, Sept. 25, 479; and that event puts an end for ever to the Persian irruptions into Greece: on the same day the Persian army is defeated, and their fleet burnt at Mycale in Asia Minor.

28. The consequences of these repeated and unsuccessful expeditions, in which almost the whole population was engaged, must be self-evident. The empire was weakened and depopulated. The defensive war which the Persians for thirty years were obliged to maintain against the Greeks, who aimed at establishing the independence of their Asiatic countrymen, completely destroyed the balance of their power, by compelling them to transfer their forces to Asia Minor, the most distant western province of the empire.

29. Little as the Greeks had to fear from the Persian arms, the danger with which they were now threatened was much more formidable, when the enemy began to adopt the system of bribing the chieftains of Greece; a system which succeeded beyond expectation in the first trial made of it with Pausanias, and perhaps was not wholly unsuccessful with Themistocles himself.--But the Persians soon found in Cimon an adversary who deprived them of the sovereignty of the sea; who in one day destroyed both their fleet and their army on the Eurymedon; and by the conquest of the Thracian Chersonese, wrested from them the key of Europe.

30. What little we know further concerning the reign of Xerxes, consists in the intrigues of the seraglio, which now, through the machinations of queen Amestris, became the theatre of all those horrors which are wont to be exhibited in such places, and to which Xerxes himself at last fell a victim, in consequence of the conspiracy of Artabanes and the eunuch Spamitres.

Was Xerxes the Ahasuerus of the Jews?--On the difference between the names of the Persian kings in Persian and Chaldee; not to be wondered at when we consider that they were mere t.i.tles or surnames, a.s.sumed by the sovereigns after their accession.

31. Artaxerxes I. surnamed Longima.n.u.s. In consequence of the murder of his father and his elder brother, in the conspiracy of Artabanes, this prince ascended the throne, but was unable to keep possession of the sceptre without a.s.sa.s.sinating, in his turn, Artabanes. His reign, which lasted forty years, exhibits the first symptoms of the decline of the empire, which this king, although possessed of many good qualities, had not the talent or spirit to arrest.

32. At the very commencement of his reign rebellions are excited in the provinces; in the mean while the war with Athens continues. Two battles are required to repress the insurrection of his brother Hystaspes in Bactria.

33. Second revolt of Egypt, excited by the Libyan king, Inarus of Marea, in conjunction with the Egyptian, Amyrtaeus, and supported by an Athenian fleet. Although the confederates did not make themselves masters of Memphis, they defeated the Persian army, commanded by the king's brother, Achaemenes, who lost his life in the battle; they were at last overpowered by Megabyzus, satrap of Syria, and shut up together with Inarus in the town of Byblus. Inarus and his party were admitted to capitulation; but Amyrtaeus, having taken refuge in the mora.s.ses, continued to make head against the Persians.

34. The Grecian war takes, once more, an unfavourable turn for the Persians: Cimon defeats the enemy's fleet and army near Cyprus. The fear of losing the whole of the island accordingly compels Artaxerxes I. to sign a treaty of peace with Athens, in which he recognizes the independence of the Asiatic Greeks, and agrees that his fleet shall not navigate the aegaean sea, nor his troops approach within three days' march of the coast.

35. But the haughty and powerful Megabyzus, enraged at the execution of Inarus, in violation of the promise made by him to that prince, excites a rebellion in Syria; repeatedly defeats the royal armies, and prescribes himself the conditions upon which he will be reconciled to his sovereign. This was the first great example of a successful insurrection excited by one of the Persian satraps; and chequered as were the subsequent fortunes of Megabyzus, his party continued to subsist after his death in the persons of his sons. He possessed in the centre of the court a support in the dowager queen Amestris, and the reigning queen Amytis; (both notorious for their excesses;) who kept Artaxerxes I. in a constant state of tutelage to the hour of his death.

36. Revolutions in the government now succeed each other with rapidity and violence. Xerxes II. the only legitimate son and successor of Artaxerxes, is slain, after forty-five days' reign, by his b.a.s.t.a.r.d brother Sogdia.n.u.s; the latter, in his turn, after a reign of six months, is deposed by another b.a.s.t.a.r.d brother, Ochus, who ascends the throne, and a.s.sumes the name of Darius II.

37. Darius II. surnamed the b.a.s.t.a.r.d, or Nothus. He reigns nineteen years under the tutelage of his wife, Parysatis, and of three eunuchs, one of whom, Artoxares, even attempts to open a way to the throne, but is put to death. In this period the decline of the state advances with hurried steps; partly by reason of the extinction of the legitimate royal line, partly by the increased practice of placing more than one province, together with the military command, in the hands of the same satrap.