[536] Strabo, p. 727, 730. Steph. Byzant. Πασσαργάδαι.
[537] "De mulier. virtute," 5.
[538] Diod. "Ex. de virt. et vit." p. 552, 553 (= 9, 24); cf. 4, 30.
[539] Moses Choren. 1, 24-30, and appendix to the first book, according to Le Vaillant's translation.
[540] The form and explanation of the legend of Asdahag in Moses, as well as the mention of Rustem Sakjig, who has the strength of ten elephants (2, 8), i. e. of Rustem of Sejestan, prove that the East-Iranian legend, as we find it in Firdusi, must have been current in Western Iran in the fourth century at the latest, if it came into Armenia in the fifth century. I do not think it probable that Moses took the legend of Tigran from Xenophon's narrative. The vision in a dream and the duel point to Armenian tradition.
[541] 1, 95.
[542] "Cyri Instit." 1, 2, 1.
[543] J. Mohl, "Livre des rois," Introd. p. 29.
[544] It has been objected to this analysis that the marriage with the heiress may not have conveyed the throne ipso facto to the husband; it may have been open to the chieftains to elect a king out of the members of the royal family. This may be correct for the election of the Afghan chiefs at the present day by the heads of the families. How the succession to the throne was arranged among the Medes we do not know in any detail, or whether their chiefs had any importance at all; but we do see that the crown went from father to son from Deioces downwards. In any case, even under that hypothesis, the husband of the heiress had a nearer claim.
[545] Herod. 3, 2. So Deinon and Lyceas of Naucratis in Athenaeus, p. 560.