[813] The name for Persia and the Persians in the Hebrew Bible, is Paras. Cyrus is called Koresh (the sun) in Hebrew; in the cuneiform inscriptions the name is Khurush. Cambyses is called Ahasuerus in Ezra iv. 6; and Smerdis the Magian is the Artaxerxes who was induced by the Samaritans to forbid the further building of the temple (Ezra iv. 7-24). The Ahasuerus of the Book of Esther is probably Xerxes. Artaxerxes the Long-handed was the patron of Ezra and Nehemiah (Ezra vii. 11-28; Neh. ii. 1-9, etc). “Darius the Persian,” mentioned in Neh. xii. 22, was probably Darius Codomannus, who was conquered by Alexander. The province of Susiana, previously called Elymais, appears in the Hebrew under the name of Eilam or Elam. Persis is still called Fars.
[814] B.C. 325.
[815] Aria. See chap. 27 supra.
[816] Curtius (x. 4) says Orxines was descended from Cyrus.
[817] See iii. 25 supra.
[818] Cf. Strabo, xv. 3, where a description of this tomb is given, derived from Onesicritus, the pilot of Alexander. See Dean Blakesley’s note on Herodotus i. 214.
[819] Just a few lines above, Arrian says that the couch was by the side of the coffin.
[820] Cf. Ammianus, xxiii. 6, 32, 33. The Magi were the priests of the religion of Zoroaster, which was professed by the Medes and Persians. Their Bible was the Avesta, originally consisting of twenty-one books, only one of which, the twentieth (Vendidad), is still extant.
[821] See iii. 18 supra.
[822] According to Curtius (x. 4, 5) Orxines was not only innocent, but was very devoted and attached to Alexander. The favourite eunuch, Bagoas, poisoned the king’s mind against him, and suborned other accusers against him. He was condemned unheard.