* Herodotus asserts that the child’s foster-mother was
called in Greek Kynô, in Median Spalcô, which comes to
the same thing, for spaha means bitch in Median. Further
on he asserts that the parents of the child heard of the
name of his nurse with joy, as being of good augury; “and,
in order that the Persians might think that Cyrus had been
preserved alive by divine agency, they spread abroad the
report that Cyrus had been suckled by a bitch. And thus
arose the fable commonly accepted.” Trogus Pompeius received
the original story probably through Dinon, and inserted it
in his book.
Cyrus grew to boyhood, and being accepted by Mandanê as her son, returned to the court; his grandfather consented to spare his life, but, to avenge himself on Harpagus, he caused the limbs of the nobleman’s own son to be served up to him at a feast. Thenceforth Harpagus had but one idea, to overthrow the tyrant and transfer the crown to the young prince: his project succeeded, and Cyrus, having overcome Astyages, was proclaimed king by the Medes as well as by the Persians. The real history of Cyrus, as far as we can ascertain it, was less romantic. We gather that Kurush, known to us as Cyrus, succeeded his father Cambyses as ruler of Anshân about 559 or 558 B.C.,* and that he revolted against Astyages in 553 or 552 B.C.,** and defeated him. The Median army thereupon seizing its own leader, delivered him into the hands of the conqueror: Ecbatana was taken and sacked, and the empire fell at one blow, or, more properly speaking, underwent a transformation (550 B.C.). The transformation was, in fact, an internal revolution in which the two peoples of the same race changed places. The name of the Medes lost nothing of the prestige which it enjoyed in foreign lands, but that of the Persians was henceforth united with it, and shared its renown: like Astyages and his predecessors, Cyrus and his successors reigned equally over the two leading branches of the ancient Iranian stock, but whereas the former had been kings of the Medes and Persians, the latter became henceforth kings of the Persians and Medes.***
* The length of Cyrus’ reign is fixed at thirty years by
Ctesias, followed by Dinon and Trogus Pompeius, but at
twenty-nine years by Herodotus, whose computation I here
follow. Hitherto the beginning of his reign has been made to
coincide with the fall of Astyages, which was consequently
placed in 569 or 568 B.C., but the discovery of the Annals
of Nabonidus obliges us to place the taking of Ecbatana in
the sixth year of the Babylonian king, which corresponds to
the year 550 B.C., and consequently to hold that Cyrus
reckoned his twenty-nine years from the moment when he
succeeded his father Cambyses.
** The inscription on the Rassam Cylinder of Abu-Habba,
seems to make the fall of the Median king, who was suzerain
of the Scythians of Harrân, coincide with the third year of
Nabonidus, or the year 553-2 B.C. But it is only the date of
the commencement of hostilities between Cyrus and Astyages
which is here furnished, and this manner of interpreting the
text agrees with the statement of the Median traditions
handed down by the classical authors, that three combats
took place between Astyages and Cyrus before the final
victory of the Persians.
*** This equality of the two peoples is indicated by the
very terms employed by Darius, whom he speaks of them, in
the Great Inscription of Behistun. He says, for example,
in connection with the revolt of the false Smerdis, that
“the deception prevailed greatly in the land, in Persia and
Media as well as in the other provinces,” and further on,
that “the whole people rose, and passed over from Cambyses
to him, Persia and Media as well as the other countries.” In
the same way he mentions “the army of Persians and Medes
which was with him,” and one sees that he considered Medes
and Persians to be on exactly the same footing.
The change effected was so natural that their nearest neighbours, the Chaldæans, showed no signs of uneasiness at the outset. They confined themselves to the bare registration of the fact in their annals at the appointed date, without comment, and Nabonidus in no way deviated from the pious routine which it had hitherto pleased him to follow. Under a sovereign so good-natured there was little likelihood of war, at all events with external foes, but insurrections were always breaking out in different parts of his territory, and we read of difficulties in Khumê in the first year of his reign, in Hamath in his second year, and troubles in Plionicia in the third year, which afforded an opportunity for settling the Tyrian question. Tyre had led a far from peaceful existence ever since the day when, from sheer apathy, she had accepted the supremacy of Nebuchadrezzar.*
* All these events are known through the excerpt from
Menander preserved to us by Josephus in his treatise
Against Apion.
Baal II. had peacefully reigned there for ten years (574-564), but after his death the people had overthrown the monarchy, and various suffetes had followed one another rapidly—Eknibaal ruled two months, Khelbes ten months, the high priest Abbar three months, the two brothers Mutton and Gerastratus six years, all of them no doubt in the midst of endless disturbances; whereupon a certain Baalezor restored the royal dignity, but only to enjoy it for the space of one year. On his death, the inhabitants begged the Chaldæans to send them, as a successor to the crown, one of those princes whom, according to custom, Baal had not long previously given over as hostages for a guarantee of his loyalty, and Nergal-sharuzur for this purpose selected from their number Mahar-baal, who was probably a son of Ithobaal (558-557).* When, at the end of four years, the death of Mahar-baal left the throne vacant (554-553), the Tyrians petitioned for his brother Hirôm, and Nabonidus, who was then engaged in Syria, came south as far as Phoenicia and installed the prince.**
* The fragment of Menander does not give the Babylonian
king’s name, but a simple chronological calculation proves
him to have been Nergal-sharuzur.
** Annals of Nabonidus, where mention is made of a certain
Nabu-makhdan-uzur—but the reading of the name is uncertain
—who seems to be in revolt against the Chaldæans. Floigl has
very ingeniously harmonised the dates of the Annals with
those obtained from the fragment of Menander, and has thence
concluded that the object of the expedition of the third
year was the enthroning of Hirôm which is mentioned in the
fragment, and during whose fourteenth year Cyrus became King
of Babylon.
This took place at the very moment when Cyrus was preparing his expedition against Astyages; and the Babylonian monarch took advantage of the agitation into which the Medes were thrown by this invasion, to carry into execution a project which he had been planning ever since his accession. Shortly after that event he had had a dream, in which Marduk, the great lord, and Sin, the light of heaven and earth, had appeared on either side of his couch, the former addressing him in the following words: “Nabonidus, King of Babylon, with the horses of thy chariot bring brick, rebuild E-khul-khul, the temple of Harrân, that Sin, the great lord, may take up his abode therein.” Nabonidus had respectfully pointed out that the town was in the hands of the Scythians, who were subjects of the Medes, but the god had replied: “The Scythian of whom thou speakest, he, his country and the kings his protectors, are no more.” Cyrus was the instrument of the fulfilment of the prophecy. Nabonidus took possession of Harrân without difficulty, and immediately put the necessary work in hand. This was, indeed, the sole benefit that he derived from the changes which were taking place, and it is probable that his inaction was the result of the enfeebled condition of the empire. The country over which he ruled, exhausted by the Assyrian conquest, and depopulated by the Scythian invasions, had not had time to recover its forces since it had passed into the hands of the Chaldæans; and the wars which Nebuchadrezzar had been obliged to undertake for the purpose of strengthening his own power, though few in number and not fraught with danger, had tended to prolong the state of weakness into which it had sunk. If the hero of the dynasty who had conquered Egypt had not ventured to measure his strength with the Median princes, and if he had courted the friendship not only of the warlike Cyaxares but of the effeminate Astyages, it would not be prudent for Nabonidus to come into collision with the victorious new-comers from the heart of Iran. Chaldsea doubtless was right in avoiding hostilities, at all events so long as she had to bear the brunt of them alone, but other nations had not the same motives for exercising prudence, and Lydia was fully assured that the moment had come for her to again take up the ambitious designs which the treaty of 585 had forced her to renounce. Alyattes, relieved from anxiety with regard to the Medes, had confined his energies to establishing firmly his kingdom in the regions of Asia Minor extending westwards from the Halys and the Anti-Taurus. The acquisition of Colophon, the destruction of Smyrna, the alliance with the towns of the littoral, had ensured him undisputed possession of the valleys of the Caicus and the Hermus, but the plains of the Maeander in the south, and the mountainous districts of Mysia in the north, were not yet fully brought under his sway. He completed the occupation of the Troad and Mysia about 584, and afterwards made of the entire province an appanage for Adramyttios, who was either his son or his brother.*
* The doings of Alyattes in Troas and in Mysia are vouched
for by the anecdote related by Plutarch concerning this
king’s relations with Pittakos. The founding of Adramyttium
is attributed to him by Stephen of Byzantium, after
Aristotle, who made Adramyttios the brother of Croesus.
Radat gives good reasons for believing that Adramyttios was
brother to Alyattes and uncle to Crosus, and the same person
as Adramys, the son of Sadyattes, according to Xanthus of
Lydia. Radet gives the year 584 for the date of these
events.