the Chaldean, appear to have had their part in the invasions and revolutions of different periods. It is more important to observe, not only the rapidity with which one empire must have risen and fallen, but also the confusion and desolation that must have been of frequent recurrence in a territory of moderate extent compared with the immoderate warfare of which it was the scene. Still less is known concerning the disposition which prevailed amongst each people; nor is it to be regretted, that the king and the priest, who ruled luxuriously and oppressively, are alike forgotten except in names. But whether the great empires of Western Asia be distinguished by their governments, their habits, or their revolutions, they equally appear to have been the preparatives of the still greater empire to which they all submitted, as if it had been taught by them to become their conqueror. The people who dwelt amongst the valleys and along the rivers of Assyria or Babylon seemed asleep in corruption, the very prey to allure a hardier nation; while farther to the south, the mountainous land, called Iran by its inhabitants, but known to us under the name of Persia, had long been nursing its warriors among its flocks and upon its battle-fields. It was a country suited neither to 2 2 Iran" abounded in flocks." Zend-Avesta; of which I have used the translation by Anquetil du Perron. Tom. II. p. 300. So Plato, in his work on Laws (Book III.), describes the Persians VOL. I. 9 as "the pastoral people of a savage country, accustomed to that severe breeding fitted to make them robust herdsmen, sleeping in the open air, bearing fatigues, and speeding on warlike adventures." Un a laborious nor yet to an effeminate people. Its interrupted plains were scarcely broad enough for much cultivation; and its numerous deserts were too intrusive to leave sufficient space for the vigorous beauty which is at once the most desirable and the most irresistible charm in nature. There was no temptation to peaceful toil; neither was there any fascination to steep the senses and the souls of men in lethargy. The Persians were born to arms. satisfied, at length, with the meagre productions and the narrow limits of their mountain land, they were placed exactly where they would be tempted beyond their deserts to the subjugation and the slaughter of the neighbouring races, whose independence and fortitude were sunk in indolence and almost incredible luxury. A new empire soon sprang into being, extending, in process of increase, "from India even into Ethiopia, over an hundred and seven-and-twenty provinces," in which nearly "all the kingdoms of the earth" were soon contained. These extraordinary conquests must be our key to the civilization and the liberty of Persia. We begin with the early Persians only that we may bear in mind the preparatory period through which they had already passed, when their union 3 Ezra, I. 2. Esther, I. 1. See Xenoph., Cyrop., VIII. 6. 21, 22. The reference to Xenophon, like that to the other ancient historians in these notes, may be accompanied by the mention of his life and works. He was an Athenian, who died at a great age, about A. C. 360, and who has left us two histories, the Anabasis and the Hellenica, besides the treatise, Cyropædia, here cited, and various other works, biographical, statistical, and philosophical. 6 4 with other countries was accomplished. The sounds of strife come indistinct through the obscurity in which the race was plunged; yet the history of heroes and princes who went forth and who returned to conquer is not altogether fabulous. The god Mithra, armed with a club, "intelligent, golden, sensitive, abundantly assisting and victoriously striking," was wont, according to the Persian mythology, to traverse earth and sea and sky; and his is the image of any of the early heroes. A caste of warlike families ruled the whole race, though there was a king of their own blood at the head of their government as well as their conquests. The character of the higher Persians was greatly affected by the Medes, whose civilization was much the most ancient, and whose power at one time prevailed over the people of Iran. But Media was in the keeping of a priesthood; while Persia continued to be governed by its warriors, the chief of whom was the prince or the hero. The poem of Ferdousi, the Schah Nameh, or the Book of Kings, is filled with sketches of kingly valor, which appear to have been composed after the legends most accredited in tradition or early song. The same higher class, with 4 Many of the details in the account which Herodotus gives of the Persian character will be found, I think, to refer to these earlier periods of Persian history. 5 Anquetil's Zend-Avesta, II. 222. 6 The Pasargadae, noblest, as Herodotus (I. 125) says, among those 66 on whom the other Persians depend." There were two other "noble "tribes. 7 Ferdousi was a poet of the eleventh century, and his poem was composed at the command of his Mohammedan kings. The lines which follow are from Champion's translation, Vol. I. First, the king was their sovereign, continued far above the main body of the people at the time of the Persian empire. But the powers of the king had then increased so greatly, that he stood almost alone, as upon an eminence in sight of his subjects on the plain. We have no clear account of the change from the heroic to the historical times; but the manner in which the monarchy came to be the very prominent object of the Persian institutions may be illustrated by the story of Dejoces the Mede. 8 He was a Mede; but the connection between the Medes and the Persians entitles us to consider him exactly as if he had been a Persian of the early period. His equity and sagacity so distinguished him, that he was selected, first by his neighbours and then by all his countrymen, to judge the disputes and the crimes which happened amongst them. He had no idea, however, of contributing his time or his knowledge to the good of his more barbarous contemporaries, without obtaining something more than their respect in return. So he retired from their sight, declaring he had affairs of his own which must not be neglected; but when the Medes proposed to make him king, he offered no resistance to "The soldier's glory and the warrior's friend." "The hero now inspects his blest domains, Where villages deserted mouldering lay, p. 123. 8 Herod., I. 96-101. Some allowance, however, must be made, in reading it, for the Greek notions of the Greek historian. the change which would make him less a private man than he was before. Herein, however, Dejoces was only setting an example which has never been lost in ancient or in modern times. The people would have a single ruler, because his wisdom, venerated and undisturbed, could best devise the means and secure the end of order and control;9 but the ruler himself would regard his power, rather than his wisdom, as the benefit his subjects most desired. Dejoces forthwith issued his orders that a palace should be built for him, and that his person should be protected by chosen guards. His zeal for his own greatness carried him so far, that he forbade the people to have access to him at all; as if they who had been his equals should have no opportunity for envying his magnificence, while they who were his inferiors would have no occasion for presenting their claims upon his care. Yet, as the historian says, "all other things were ordered well"; 10 and the Medes obeyed him because they knew not how to govern themselves. It was in some such way that the early Persian monarchy may have been established, when the existence of the people was supposed to depend upon the justice or the prowess of their sovereign. The nation, swarming with warriors, or, at all events, with hardy herdsmen, submitted to the Medes; but their own chieftain was given them in time. Cyrus, 9 See the harangue of the Persian chieftain to his peers, in the appendix to Vol. I. of Malcolm's History of Persia, p. 513. 10 Herod., I. 100. |