255 : 13. Zendic or the Medic language. See Zaborowski, 1, chap. VI. According to the Census of India, vol. I, pp. 291 seq., both Persian and Medic tongues belong to the Aryan stock. They are divided in the following table:
Zaborowski, 1, p. 146, positively identifies Medic as agglutinative, in which he agrees with Oppert. See chaps. V and VI, especially part II and p. 125. For early data on the Medes see the Herodotus references given under Persia. Zaborowski says, p. 121, that Medic was spoken until 600 B. C.
255 : 15. Kurdish. Von Luschan, p. 229: “The Kurds speak an Aryan language.... The eastern Kurds are little known.... They speak a different dialect from the western tribes, but both divisions are Aryan.” On the Kurds as a people, see the notes to p. 225 : 20.
255 : 20. Zaborowski, 1, p. 216–217.
255 : 23. Von Luschan, p. 234, and the note to p. 225 : 19 of this book.
255 : 26–256 : 10. See Plutarch’s Life of Alexander; Historia Alexandri Magni de præliis; Zaborowski, 1, p. 171.
256 : 3. Alexander the Great and the Persians. Plutarch, Life of Alexander: “After this he accommodated himself more than ever to the manners of the Asiatics, and at the same time persuaded them to adopt some of the Macedonian fashions, for by a mixture of both he thought a union might be promoted much better than by force, and his authority maintained when he was at a distance. For the same reason he selected 30,000 boys and gave them masters to instruct them in the Grecian literature as well as to train them to arms in the Macedonian manner. As for his marriage with Roxana, it was entirely the effect of love.... Nor was the match unsuitable to the situation of his affairs. The barbarians placed greater confidence in him on account of that alliance.... Hephæstion and Craternus were his two favorites. The former praised the Persian fashions and dressed as he did; the latter adhered to the fashions of his own country. He therefore employed Hephæstion in his transactions with the barbarians and Craternus to signify his pleasure to the Greeks and Macedonians.”
256 : 11 seq. Armenians. Ridgeway, 1, p. 396, speaking of language, says: “That the Armenians were an offshoot of the Phrygians as mentioned in Herodotus VII, 73, is proved by the most modern linguistic results, which show that Armenian comes closer to Greek than to the Iranian tongues.” Cf. also Hall, Ancient History of the Near East, p. 475. This need not imply racial affinity, however. The following notes on Armenian were contributed by Mr. Leon Dominian: “The proof of Aryan affinities in the Hittite language has not yet been established. The great difficulty in establishing the pre-Aryan relation of Armenian is due to the fact that the earliest text dates only from the fifth century A. D.
“The Cimmerians and Scythians, coming from southern Europe by way of the Caucasus (Herodotus, IV, 11, 12), reached Armenia about 720 B. C. (see Garstang, The Land of the Hittites, p. 62). The old Vannic language antedating this invasion resembles the Georgian of the Caucasus, according to Sayce (Jour. Roy. As. Soc., XIV, p. 410), who has studied the local inscriptions. On p. 409 he infers that the Aryan occupation of Armenia was coeval with the victory of Aryanism in Persia at the end of the sixth century, B. C.