and further their undertaking by gifts and active assistance. In the preamble to this proclamation he speaks like a follower of Yahveh, saying that "the God of Heaven has charged him to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah," exactly as he calls himself a worshipper of Marduk, and states that "Marduk the great Lord" ordered him to repair his shrine. It does not follow that he ever professed either the Babylonian or Jewish religion, or was any thing but a Mazdayasnian himself. But the political principle on which he consistently acted was to gain his subjects' confidence and affections, and, to this end, it was absolutely necessary that he should outwardly conform to their modes of religious speech and worship when he was among them.

27. Early in the spring of the following year (537 B.C.),—at least we seem to gather as much from the mutilated end of the "Annals,"-Kyros departed from Babylon, leaving there his eldest son Kambyses as his viceroy. We have no information as to how exactly he occupied the next eight years. Some part of the time he must have spent at home, and we know that he deposited in his new palace at Pasargadæ most of the untold wealth which the treasuries of Sardis, Agbatana, and Babylon had yielded him. Ancient historians are not unanimous on the manner of his death, which took place in 329 B.C. It seems probable that he perished in an expedition against the MASSAGETÆ, a distant and very barbarous nomadic tribe, whose range lay in the far northeast beyond the Sea of Aral. That is the version which Herodotus gives, but, as usual, so obscured with

fables and incongruities that the narrative will not bear close inspection. No amount of fact or details, however, did we possess them, could materially add to the respect and admiration with which this most majestic and gracious figure inspired both the contemporary world and remote posterity. It is not only that he was, in the highest sense, a good king, but that he was the first good king we know of. He is, moreover, the first historically approved great and good man of our own race, the Aryan or IndoEuropean. The grandeur of his character is well rendered in that brief and unassuming inscription of his, more eloquent and proud in its lofty simplicity than all the Assyrian self-extolling, bragging annals: "I AM KURUSH THE KING, THE AKHÆMENIAN."

NOTE. The unexpected discovery of the Anshan royalty, as was natural, produced a great commotion and led to some hasty and immature conclusions, which, on closer investigation, have proved unnecessary. Thus Kyros was turned into an Elamite of Turanian or Cossaan (Kasshite) stock, a polytheist and idolater too. And it was contended that his very name, with its ending in ush or ash, was unaryan, nay distinctively Cossaan. The same was asserted of the monumental name of his son, KAMBUJIYA. Yet, now that his Aryan Akhæmenian genealogy is established beyond dispute, sound policy and a wise tolerance account for his concessions to the religious feelings of conquered nations; and as to the two names, there are not many of more undoubted and ancient Aryan origin; they both occur in the oldest Hindu epic literature. The "KURUS " were Aryan people in Northern India, also a famous heroic race of kings; and there was another Aryan people in the northwest corner of India, that was known under the name of KAMBOJA." The name has survived even yet in that of a country bordering on Siam. (See principally de Harlez, Muséon," I., 4; Spiegel, Die Altpersischen Keilinschriften," 2d ed., p. 86; and H, Zimmer," Alt-indisches Leben, pp. 102 ff.)

"

OF all historical diggings in Western Asia, those of Susa had, next to Hamadân (Agbatana), yielded the fewest and poorest results up to 1885. Neither Mr. Loftus nor other explorers, although they knew well enough where the palaces of the Akhæmenian kings were situated, had succeeded in bringing to light any important relic, owing to the obdurate stupidity and malevolent fanaticism of the Mussulman authorities at DIZFÛL, a city built near the site of the ancient capital of Elam. Early in March, 1885, a French expedition, conducted by Mr. E. DIEULAFOY and his learned and courageous wife, arrived at the ruins, determined to attempt the impossible rather than go home disappointed; and, though they had to contend at first with the same difficulties, they were successful in the end. They were rewarded by a series of "finds" of exceptional value, which are, at this moment, being ordered and placed in the Louvre Museum, where they will form a worthy counterpart to the Sarzec collection.*

The place was easy to identify by various unmistakable landmarks. "The city of Susa," writes Mr. *See "Story of Chaldea," p. 92.

Dieulafoy, "was cut in two by a wide river, known at present under the name of AB-KARKHA (ancient Choaspes). On the right bank were the populous quarters; on the left-temples, or at least a Ziggurat, the royal city, the citadel, and the palace, the ruins of which, entombed in an immense earthmound, rise in the midst of the other, lesser mounds, like a steep islet from the sea; along the Karkha a few trees are growing, the last descendants of the sacred groves that were desecrated by Asshurbanipal's generals."* It is known that Dareios, son of Hystaspes (the second successor of Kyros), had Susa rebuilt and ornamented, and it was his palace for which search was made first. But it was found that this palace had been destroyed by fire, and that on top of its remains had been erected another and more sumptuous one, by his grandson, Artaxerxes, as proved by a long cuneiform inscription, containing that king's name and parentage, which ran along a magnificent frieze of painted and glazed tiles, representing striding lions (see ill. 44), and which formed the decoration of the pillared porticos. Of course the frieze was not found in its place or entire, but had to be patiently pieced together of fragments. These, however, turned up in such quantities as to allow the restoration of the frieze in a state very near completeA procession was thus obtained of nine of these superb animals, a work of art which was pronounced in no way inferior to the Babylonian models from which it is imitated.

ness.

In the same manner, out of fragments carefully *See "Story of Assyria, pp. 399, 400.