submit to the conqueror, after having in vain solicited the aid of their brethren the European Greeks. The Lacedæmonians indeed sent an embassy into Asia Minor; and one of their ambassadors had a conference with Cyrus at Sardis, where he warned him 'not to lay hands on any of the Greek towns, for the Lacedæmonians would not permit it.' 'Who are the Lacedæmonians?' said the astonished warrior. Having been informed that the Lacedæmonians were a Greek people, who had a capital called Sparta, where there was a regular market, 'I have never yet,' said he, 'been afraid of this kind of men, who have a set place in the middle of their city where they meet to cheat one another and tell lies. If I live, they shall have troubles of their own to talk about.' To save themselves from the Persians, the Ionian portion of the Asiatic Greeks proposed a universal emigration to the island of Sardinia—a striking design, which, however, was not carried into execution. All Asia Minor ultimately yielded to Cyrus.
The Persian Empire. Having subdued Asia Minor, Cyrus next turned
his arms against the Assyrians of Babylon. His siege and capture of
Babylon (B. C. 538), when he effected his entrance by diverting the course
of the Euphrates, form one of the most romantic incidents in history; an
incident connected with Scriptural narrative through its result—the emancipation
of the Jews from their captivity. Along with Babylon, its dependencies,
Ph[oe]nicia and Palestine, came under the Persians.
Cyrus, one of the most remarkable men of the ancient world, having perished in an invasion of Scythia (B. C. 529), was succeeded by his son Cambyses, who annexed Egypt to the Persian empire (B. C. 525), having defeated Psammanitus, the son of the Pharaoh Amasis. Foiled in his intention of penetrating Libya and Ethiopia, Cambyses was dethroned by a Magian impostor, who called himself Smerdis, pretending that he was the younger brother of Cambyses, although this brother had been put to death by the order of Cambyses during a fit of madness. A conspiracy of seven great nobles having been formed against the false Smerdis, he was put to death. He was succeeded by one of the conspiring chiefs called Darius Hystaspes, who reigned—over the immense Persian empire, extending from the Nile to the Indus, and beyond it—from B. C. 531 to B. C. 485. 'The reign of Darius,' says Mr. Grote, 'was one of organization, different from that of his predecessor—a difference which the Persians well understood and noted, calling Cyrus "the father," Cambyses "the master," and Darius "the retail trader or huckster." In the mouth of the Persians this last epithet must be construed as no insignificant compliment, since it intimates that he was the first to introduce some methodical order into the imperial administration and finances. Under the two former kings there was no definite amount of tribute levied upon the subject provinces. But Darius probably felt it expedient to relieve the provinces from the burden of undefined exactions. He distributed the whole empire into twenty departments (called Satrapies), imposing upon each a fixed annual tax. This, however, did not prevent each satrap (the Persian governor appointed by the king) in his own province from indefinite requisitions. The satrap was a little king, who acted nearly as he pleased in the internal administration of his province, subject only to the necessity of sending up the imperial tribute to the king at Susa, the capital of the Persian empire;
