the day before, or the present, were preferable. They answered that the difference was great; for on the preceding day they had every hardship, but on the present every thing that was good. Cyrus, therefore, having received this answer, discovered his intentions, and said, "Men of Persia, the case stands thus: if you will hearken to me, you may enjoy these, and numberless other advantages, without any kind of servile labor; but if you will not hearken to me, innumerable hardships like those of yesterday await you. Now, therefore, obey me, and be free; for I am persuaded I am born by divine providence to undertake this work; and I deem you to be men in no way inferior to the Medes, either in other respects or in war: since, then, these things are so, revolt with all speed from Astyages." 127. The Persians then having obtained a leader, gladly asserted their freedom, having for a long time felt indignant at being governed by the Medes. Astyages, being informed of what Cyrus was doing, sent a messenger and summoned him; but Cyrus bade the messenger take back word "that he would come to him sooner than Astyages desired." When Astyages heard this, he armed all the Medes; and, as if the gods had deprived him of understanding, made Harpagus their general, utterly forgetting the outrage he had done him. And when the Medes came to an engagement with the Persians, such of them as knew nothing of the plot, fought; but others went over to the Persians; and the far greater part purposely behaved as cowards and fled. 128. The army of the Medes being thus shamefully dispersed, as soon as the news was brought to Astyages, he exclaimed, threatening Cyrus, "Not even so shall Cyrus have occasion to rejoice." Having so said, he first impaled the Magi, who had interpreted his dream and advised him to let Cyrus go; then he armed all the Medes that were left in the city, both young and old; and leading them out, he engaged the Persians, and was defeated. Astyages himself was made prisoner, and he lost all the Medes whom he had led out. 129. Harpagus, standing by Astyages after he was taken, exulted over him and jeered him; and among other galling words, he asked him also about the supper at which he had feasted him with his son's flesh, and inquired "how he liked slavery in exchange for a kingdom." Astyages, looking steadfastly on Harpagus, asked in return whether he thought himself the author of Cyrus's success. Harpagus said he did, for, as he had written, the achievement was justly due to himself. Astyages thereupon proved him to be "the weakest and most unjust of all men; the weakest, in giving the kingdom to another, which he might have assumed to himself, if indeed he had effected this change; and the most unjust, because he had enslaved the Medes on account of the supper; for if it were absolutely necessary to transfer the kingdom to some one else and not to take it himself, he might, with more justice, have conferred this benefit on some one of the Medes than on a Persian; whereas now the Medes, who were not at all in fault, had become slaves instead of masters, and the Persians, who before were slaves to the Medes, had now become their masters." 7 130. So Astyages, after he had reigned thirty-five years, was thus deposed; and by reason of his cruelty, the Medes bent under the Persian yoke after they had ruled over all Asia beyond the river Halys for the space of one hundred and twenty-eight years, excepting the interval of the Scythian dominion. At a later period, however, they repented of what they had done, and revolted from Darius; but, being conquered in battle, were again subdued; but now, in the time of Astyages, the Persians, under the conduct of Cyrus, having risen against the Medes, have from that time been masters of Asia. As for Astyages, Cyrus kept him with him till he died, without doing him any farther injury. Cyrus therefore, having been thus born and educated, came to the throne; and after these events he conquered Croesus, who gave the first provocation, as I have already related, and having subdued him, he became master of all Asia. 131. The Persians, according to my own knowledge, observe the following customs. It is not their practice to erect statues, or temples, or altars, but they charge those with folly 7 According to Herodotus, Deioces reigned 53 years, If from this number we subtract 28, the time that the Scythians reigned, there remain but 122; so that in all probability a mistake has been made in the text by some copyist.-Larcher. who do so; because, as I conjecture, they do not think the gods have human forms, as the Greeks do. They are accustomed to ascend the highest parts of the mountains, and offer sacrifice to Jupiter, and they call the whole circle of the heavens by the name of Jupiter. They sacrifice to the sun and moon, to the earth, fire, water, and the winds. To these alone they have sacrificed from the earliest times; but they have since learned from the Arabians and Assyrians to sacrifice to Venus Urania, whom the Assyrians call Venus Mylitta, the Arabians, Alitta, and the Persians, Mitra. 132. The following is the established mode of sacrifice to the abovementioned deities: they do not erect altars nor kindle fires when about to sacrifice; they do not use libations, or flutes, or fillets, or cakes; but when any one wishes to offer sacrifice to any one of these deities, he leads the victim to a clean spot, and invokes the god, usually having his tiara decked with myrtle. He that sacrifices is not permitted to pray for blessings for himself alone; but he is obliged to offer prayers for the prosperity of all the Persians, and the king, for he is himself included in the Persians. When he has cut the victim into small pieces, and boiled the flesh, he strews under it a bed of tender grass, generally trefoil, and then lays all the flesh upon it: when he has put every thing in order, one of the Magi standing by sings an ode concerning the original of the gods, which they say is the incantation; and without one of the Magi it is not lawful for them to sacrifice. After having waited a short time, he that has sacrificed carries away the flesh and disposes of it as he thinks fit. 133. It is their custom to honor their birth-day above all other days; and on this day they furnish their table in a more plentiful manner than at other times. The rich then produce an ox, a horse, a camel, and an ass, roasted whole in an oven, but the poor produce smaller cattle. They are moderate at their meals, but eat of many after dishes, and those not served up together. On this account the Persians say "that the Greeks rise hungry from table, because nothing worth mentioning is brought in after dinner, and that if any thing were brought in, they would not leave off eating." The Persians are much addicted to wine; they are not allowed to vomit or make water in presence of another. These customs are observed to this day. They are used to debate the most important affairs when intoxicated; but whatever they of age, a son is not admitted to the presence of his father, but lives entirely with the women: the reason of this custom is, that if he should die in childhood, he may occasion no grief to his father. 137. Now I much approve of the above custom, as also of the following, that not even the king is allowed to put any one to death for a single crime, nor any private Persian exercise extreme severity against any of his domestics for one fault, but if, on examination, he should find that his misdeeds are more numerous and greater than his services, he may, in that case, give vent to his anger. They say that no one ever yet killed his own father or mother, but whenever such things have happened they affirm that, if the matter were thoroughly searched into, they would be found to have been committed by supposititious children, or those born in adultery, for they hold it utterly impossible that a true father should be murdered by his own son. 138. They are not allowed even to mention the things which it is not lawful for them to do. To tell a lie is considered by them the greatest disgrace; next to that, to be in debt, and this for many other reasons, but especially because they think that one who is in debt must of necessity tell lies. Whosoever of the citizens has the leprosy or scrofula, is not permitted to stay within a town, nor to have communication with other Persians; and they say that from having committed some offense against the sun a man is afflicted with these diseases. Every stranger that is seized with these distempers many of them even drive out of the country; and they do the same to white pigeons, making the same charge against them. They neither make water, nor spit, nor wash their hands in a river, nor defile the stream with urine, nor do they allow any one else to do so, but they pay extreme veneration to all rivers. 139. Another circumstance is also peculiar to them, which has escaped the notice of the Persians themselves, but not of us. Their names, which correspond with their personal forms and their rank, all terminate in the same letter which the Dorians call San, and the Ionians Sigma; and if you inquire into this, you will find that all Persian names, without exception, end in the same letter. 140. These things I can with certainty affirm to be true, since I myself know them. But what follows, relating to the dead, is only secretly mentioned, and not openly; viz., that the dead body of a Persian is |