4 HisTOKY OF Art in Antiquity. states, industrial and commercial centres, have never ceased to exist The owners of the lowlands, the sovereigns of Chald^ta, notably of Assyria, were betimes tempted to scale the brim of the lofty rampart which hemmed in their domains to the east, so as to ascertain whether, beyond those snowy peaks and interminable ridges, they should not perchance come upon fat lands to pillage, slaves and herds the} mi^ht drive away, pupulations upon whom they could levy tribute. By ramps winding round precipices, paths requiring a steady head, but over which have passed and still pass, for lack of any other, caravans and armies, they ascended from stage to stage up to the high tableland, pushing their incursions far and wide, finally annexing to the Ninevite empire the whole tract towards the Caspian, which is known as Media. Opened by con- quest, these routes have been ever since the beaten track for the peaceful exchange of ideas and commodities; except that there came a time when the parts were reversed ; namely, when the might of Assyria began to give signs of decay, sappcti by the combined efforts of the sturdy tribes of Iran she had so wantonly trampled upon and crushed, but which now descended from their heights into the Tigris valley, and powerfully contributed to her downfall. Following up this brilliant military exploit, the Medes crossed the Euphrates and pushed on to Asia Minor as far as the Halys. The Persians, their heirs and kinsmen, advanced much further '^est, but their successes provoked reprisals on the part of the Greeks, who, with Alexander, ascended the colossal grade of the plateau, with as much case as formerly the hosts of Ramannirari III. and of Tigiath-Phalasar.* Hence from the ninth century b.c. Mesopotamia and the border provinces of Iran adjoining it were in constant communication ; whilst to the last days of antiquity, the populations of the Tigris and Euphrates obeyed, with scarcely a break, rulers of Persian birth and language. The Persians, as we have said, followed the Medes, and after the Achaemenidae and the short interlude of the Macedonian empire, the reins of Meso- potamia were taken up in turn by the Arsacidse and Sassanidae, whom the might of Rome could not displace. In that long period, during which hostilities were necessarily interrupted by short > As far as is knowa the earliest mention of the Medes occurs in documents belonging to the reign of Ramanniraii IIL, somewhere between 8io and 781 b.c From that date forward, Media is repeatedly specified, with more or less vagueness, as among the provinces dependent upon the Assyrian empire. Digitized by Google
