539 Cyrus starts for Babylon. He is opposed at Upi, but is victorious and moves southward.

538 Babylon opens her gates to Cyrus. Nabonidus flees. The SyrioPhoenician provinces submit. Cyrus gives permission to the Hebrew exiles to return. The new territory is reorganised. 529 Death of Cyrus in battle. Cambyses, the heir apparent, has his brother Smerdis put to death.

526 Warlike preparations for conquest of Egypt begin. Phoenicia furnishes a fleet.

525 Battle of Pelusium. Defeat of Psamthek III. Egypt becomes a Persian province. Polycrates, of Samos, also submits. Cambyses plans attack on Carthage, but his army is lost in the Libyan desert. 524-523 Expedition against Ethiopia, which seems to have overthrown the kingdom of Napata. The army suffers great loss in the return march. Cambyses, enraged by this, outrages the Egyptian gods and the Apis bull.

522 He starts for home, but in Syria is informed that Gaumata, a Magian, has impersonated the murdered Smerdis and seized the throne. Cambyses commits suicide.

521 The Achæmenian, Darius Hystaspes, of Persia, and six other princes form a conspiracy against Gaumata, who is murdered.

SECOND PERIOD - THE PERSIAN DYNASTY (521-331 B.C.) 521 Darius made king. The throne now passes to the "second line" of Teispes II's descendants. Darius marries Atossa, wife of Cambyses, and daughter of Cyrus. The end of the Elamite Dynasty is the signal for revolt in all the provinces. Babylon rebels, and a son of Nabonidus is proclaimed king as Nebuchadrezzar III. Susiana rises. Darius has to begin the re-conquest of Cyrus' empire.

519-518 Babylon besieged, captured, and the usurper put to death. Another usurper is also put to death. The Scythian provinces, Parthia, Hyrcania, Urartu, and Margiana are quieted. Another false Smerdis in Persia is overthrown. Orates, in Sardis, becomes too independent, and is put to death. In Egypt, the governor, Aryandes, proves disloyal, and is executed. Darius shows favour to the Egyptian priests.

515 By this date the empire is thoroughly reorganised, divided into satrapies, and taxes regulated. The Asiatic Greeks intrigue with those of Europe. Expedition of Darius into Scythia. He crosses the Bosporus with 800,000 troops, and his generals reduce towns in Thrace and make the king of Macedonia pay tribute.

512 Darius marches to the Indus, subjugating the tribes on the right bank north of the Kabul. The region is formed into a satrapy.

506 The overthrown Athenian tyrant, Hippias, appeals to Artaphernes, satrap of Sardis, for restoration. The Athenians refuse to comply with a request for restoration.

499 Aristagoras, satrap of Miletus, revolts, and is supported by the Greeks on the Egean Sea. The Persians attack Naxos. The Ionians revolt.

498 Sardis burned by Aristagoras. The Ionian war begins.

494 Ionians defeated off Lade. Fall of Miletus and end of the war.

H. W.-VOL. II. 2 o

492 Mardonius sets out to reconquer Greece. He captures some towns in the archipelago, but his fleet is wrecked off Athos.

491 Persian forces concentrated in Cilicia for the second attack on Greece. 490 Invasion of Greece under Datis and Artaphernes. Naxos and Eretria taken. Defeat at Marathon. Darius begins collection of another army, but his plans are suddenly stopped for

486 Egypt revolts, the Persians are expelled, and Khabbash placed on the

throne.

485 Death of Darius and is succeeded by his son Xerxes I.

484 Defeat of Khabbash in a naval battle. Achæmenes, brother of Xerxes, made satrap of Egypt.

481 Revolt in Babylon crushed; her temples pillaged.

480 Invasion of Greece. The Persians victorious at Thermopylæ and Artemisia.

Athens occupied. Battle of Salamis. Defeat of Persians. Athens evacuated.

479 Invasion of Attica under Mardonius. Defeat of Platæa. Persian fleet also defeated at Mycale.

479-478 Ionia and the islands lost to Persia.

476 Persians expelled from Thrace.

470 Fall of Eion.

465 Cimon's victory over the Persians at the mouth of the Eurymedon. Xerxes is assassinated by Artabanus in league with Artaxerxes, who also puts his elder brother Darius to death.

464 Artaxerxes I takes the throne.

462 A rising in Bactria is quelled after two battles.

460 Rebellion in Egypt under Inarus, king of Libya, assisted by the

Athenians.

459 Victory of Inarus at Papremis. He besieges the Persians in Memphis. 455-454 Megabyzus with a large army finally subdues Egypt at Prosphitis. Thannyras is made king of Libya in his father's place. Some Egyptians proclaim Amyrtæus king in the Said.

449 Persians attempt to recover Cyprus. Cimon of Athens opposes them. Death of Cimon. Persian fleet and army defeated at Salamis in Cyprus. Callias concludes a treaty of peace between Persia and Athens.

448 Megabyzus, governor of Syria, rebels. He is subdued and pardoned. 424 Death of Artaxerxes. His eldest son Xerxes II reigns forty-five days,

and is murdered by Artaxerxes' illegitimate son Sogdianus, who after 423 six months' rule is in turn killed by another bastard son Ochus, who assumes the name of Darius II (Nothus) and marries his aunt Parysatis.

The king's brother Arsites, and Artyphius, son of Megabyzus, rebel.
They are overcome, and Arsites put to death.

418 Revolt of Pissuthenes, satrap of Lydia. It is put down by Tissaphernes. 412 Amorges, son of Pissuthenes, who has continued the revolt in Caria, is finally overcome. Treaty with Sparta recognising Darius' suzerainty over Greek cities in Asia Minor. Cities in Ionia and Caria recovered. The Spartans intrigue with Tissaphernes.

408 Cyrus, the king's son, made satrap of Lydia, Phrygia, and Cappadocia. Tissaphernes retains the coast cities only. Cyrus burns for revenge on the Athenians.

405 Cyrus allies himself with the Spartans and is accused of treason. He aims to procure the throne for himself.

Amyrtæus (Amen-Rut) proclaims the independence of Egypt. 404 Death of Darius. Cyrus attempts to kill Arsaces, the eldest son and heir, but fails. Arsaces ascends the throne as Artaxerxes II.

401 Cyrus sets out for Persia with an army, but is met and defeated at Cunaxa by the imperial forces. Cyrus dies in the battle. Retreat of the ten thousand Greeks, his mercenaries.

Alliance of Persia and Athens against Sparta.

399 Amyrtæus (Amen-Rut) in Egypt succeeded by Niafaarut I. Egypt recovers her old-time activity; she intrigues with Syria and Cyprus against Persia.

Artaxerxes is compelled to send an army raised for the suppression of
Egypt into Asia Minor.

394 Conon at the head of the Persian fleet defeats the Spartans at Cnidus. 391 Artaxerxes and Evagoras of Cyprus at open war.

387 Peace of Antalcidas. The Asiatic Greeks are given back to the Per

sian power.

386-385 War between Cyprus and Persia. Defeat of Evagoras. Haker of Egypt allies himself with the Pisidians. Artaxerxes' campaign against the Cadusians.

383 Surrender of Evagoras to Persia.

378 Nectanebo I ascends throne of Egypt. Chabrias, the Athenian, reorganises the Egyptian army.

374 Failure through mutiny of the mercenaries of the Persian expedition against Nectanebo.

370-365 The satraps of Asia Minor break out in revolt. This weakens the empire greatly.

364 Tachus succeeds Nectanebo I in Egypt.

361 Tachus invades Syria.

359 His nephew Nectanebo II seizes the Egyptian throne and Tachus is obliged to take refuge with the Persians.

358 Death of Artaxerxes II. His son Ochus murders all possible claimants, and takes the throne with the name of Artaxerxes III. Defeat of the Persians in Egypt.

352 Revolt of Tennes of Sidon against Persia. Cyprus joins him.

347 Isocrates exhorts Philip of Macedon to attack Persia.

345 Tennes betrays Sidon to Artaxerxes III. The city is cruelly punished. Cyprus subdued.

340 Conquest of Egypt by Artaxerxes.

338 Murder of Artaxerxes by the prime minister, the eunuch Bagoas. Arses, the king's youngest son, placed on the throne.

336 The Macedonian army crosses into Asia. Death of Philip. 335 Bagoas puts Arses and his children to death. Codomannus, greatgrandson of Darius II, placed on the throne as Darius III. Bagoas put to death.

He has

334 Alexander crosses the Hellespont. Battle of the Granicus. Mysia, Lydia, Caria, and Lycia submit to the Greeks.

333 Battles of Issus and Amanus. Phrygia, Cappadocia, and Cilicia submit to the Greeks; also the whole of northern Syria.

332 Alexander captures Tyre,-Phoenicia, Judea, and Samaria submit. Egypt goes over to the Greeks. Darius' attempt to recover Asia

Minor is frustrated.

331 Alexander invades Assyria. Battle of Arbela which overthrows the Achæmenian Dynasty. Darius flees into Media. Fall of Babylon and Susa. Pasagarda and Persepolis captured.

330 Bessus, satrap of Bactria, seizes Darius and murders him. He calls himself Artaxerxes IV, but finally falls into Alexander's hands and is put to death.

FROM THE CAPITAL AT SUSA
(Now in the Louvre)

THE Persians were the first Aryans to achieve a great world empire within historic times. With them the Aryan race became dominant in the Western world, and it has so continued to the present time. The Persians themselves maintained first place among the nations only for about two centuries, or from the time of Cyrus until the Asiatic conquests of Alexander the Great. And the sceptre which they laid down was taken up by Western nations akin to them in speech, and passed on from one to another people of the same great Indo-Germanic race throughout the two and a half millenniums which separate the time of Cyrus from our own. But it is not only because of their kinship with European nations that the Persians are of interest. Their history has intrinsic importance. Theirs was unquestionably the mightiest empire the world had seen since secure history began. It extended from India on the east, to the extreme confines of Asia on the west and the northwest, and beyond them to include Egypt. It even threatened at one time, through the subjugation of Greece, to invade Europe as well, and numberless writers have moralised on the great change of destiny that would have fallen to the lot of Western civilisation, had this threat been made effective. All such moralising of course is but guess-work, and it may be questioned whether most of it has any validity whatever. For the truth seems to be that the Persians were much more nearly akin to the European intellect than a study of their descendants of recent generations would lead one to suppose. It is everywhere conceded that they sprang from the same stock, and their most fundamental traits show many points of close resemblance. Thus it is matter of record that the Persians differed widely from the Hamitic or Semitic conquerors, both in their methods of warfare and in their treatment of conquered enemies. The Semites, in particular, were notoriously cruel and unimaginative in their treatment of fallen foes. The word "unimaginative" is here used advisedly, for it would seem as if nothing but curiously defective imagination could permit one human being to treat another in the atrocious manner which characterised the conquerors of the Semitic race-not merely the Babylonians and Assyrians, but the Hebrews as well, as the history of David only too amply illustrates.

The paragraph in which David's treatment of the people of the conquered city of Rabbah, as recorded, is a fair sample of the usual fortunes of war that fell to the lot of the victims of a Semitic nation.