The Good Book (37 page)

14. Their leading men therefore convened in assembly, and debated among themselves what to do.

15. ‘We cannot possibly live in this country if matters continue as now,’ they said. ‘Let us therefore set a king over us, that the land may be well governed,

16. ‘And we ourselves may be able to attend to our own affairs, and not be forced to quit our country because of anarchy.’

17. The assembly agreed; and when they began to discuss whom to appoint, every mouth was filled with the name of Deioces.

18. They built him a palace, appointed a guard to serve him, and obeyed his injunction to quit their villages and gather together to build a great city.

19. Thus arose Ecbatana, whose walls are of great strength, rising in circles one within the other.

20. The innermost walls encircled the treasury and citadel; the outermost had nearly the extent of the walls of Athens in its greatest period.

21. Of the outermost wall the battlements were white, of the next circle of wall they were black, of the next scarlet, of the fourth blue, of the fifth orange; all these colours were of paint.

22. But the battlements of the two innermost walls were respectively coated with silver and gold.

23. Moreover Deioces instituted ceremonial proceedings, of which the key was that his subjects never met him directly, but communicated through messengers only.

24. This he did because he reasoned that his peers, being no less well born and having the same or greater qualities,

25. Might from too much observance of him come to regret electing him king, and be pained at the sight of his lordship over them;

26. Whereas if they did not see him they would come to think of him as quite a different man from themselves, and hold him in awe.

Chapter 8

  1. Thus Deioces collected the Medes into a nation, and ruled over them with strict justice.

  2. Now these are the tribes of which they consisted: the Busae, the Paretaceni, the Struchates, the Arizanti, the Budii and the Magi.

  3. Having reigned fifty-three years, Deioces was succeeded by his son Phraortes.

  4. This prince, not satisfied with a dominion which did not extend beyond the single nation of the Medes, began by attacking the Persians;

  5. And marching an army into their country, brought them under the Median yoke before any other people.

  6. After this success, being now at the head of two nations, both powerful, he proceeded to conquer Asia, overrunning province after province.

  7. At last he engaged in war with the Assyrians to whom Nineveh belonged, who were formerly the lords of Asia.

  8. At present they stood alone because their allies had deserted to the Medes, yet still their internal condition was as flourishing as ever.

  9. On the death of Phraortes his son Cyaxares ascended the throne. He was still more warlike than his ancestors, and first gave organisation to an Asiatic army,

10. Dividing the troops into companies, and forming distinct bodies of spearmen, archers and cavalry, who before his time had been mingled in one mass, and confused together.

11. He it was who fought the Lydians on the occasion when an eclipse of the sun turned day into night, and who brought under his dominion the whole of Asia east of the Halys.

12. This prince, collecting together all the nations which recognised his sway, marched against Nineveh, resolved to avenge his father.

13. A battle was fought, in which the Assyrians suffered defeat; and Cyaxares had already begun the siege of the place,

14. When a numerous horde of Scythians, under their king Madyes, son of Protohyes, burst into Asia in pursuit of the Cimmerians whom they had driven out of Europe; and entered the Median territory.

15. The Scythians surprised the Medes by taking an indirect route into Media, marching to the north with the Caucasus on their right;

16. And from here they invaded the land of the Medes, and conquered it in a single battle. By this means the Scythians became masters of Asia.

17. After this they marched forward with the design of invading Egypt. But when they reached Palestine, Psammetichus the Egyptian king met them with gifts, and prevailed on them to advance no further.

18. So they returned, for the most part neither pillaging nor doing damage to the lands they passed through, save for some incidents in the city of Ascalon in Syria.

19. The Scythians kept their dominion over Asia for twenty-eight years, during which time their insolence and oppression spread ruin on every side.

20. For besides the regular tribute, they exacted arbitrary additional imposts from the neighbouring peoples, increasing resentment among them; and they plundered whomever they could.

21. At length Cyaxares and the Medes invited the greater part of the Scythians to a banquet and made them drunk with wine,

22. After which they massacred them, and freed the Medians from their yoke.

23. Thus the Medes regained their empire, and conquered Nineveh, and all Assyria except for Babylon.

Chapter 9

  1. Cyaxares reigned over the Medes forty years, and was succeeded by his son Astyages.

  2. This king had a daughter, Mandane, whom he married to a Persian of good family and quiet demeanour,

  3. Not wishing any Mede to marry his daughter lest such a son-in-law should become ambitious of usurping his throne.

  4. All Persians regarded Medes as inferior in rank to themselves, and Cyaxares thought that by marrying Mandane to a Persian he would be safe from the ambition of usurpers.

  5. Now this Persian was called Cambyses, and he took Mandane to his home.

  6. But Cyaxares was of a suspicious and anxious temper, and he soon began to think that from the womb of his daughter would flow a line of sons,

  7. Who, because of their royal connection, would think that Persians had a right to the throne, and would become dangerous.

  8. So he sought to recall Mandane, and when he learned that she was with child he determined to destroy the baby when it was born.

  9. He called a loyal and favourite servant named Harpagus to him, and instructed him as follows:

10. ‘Harpagus, I beseech you not to neglect the business I am going to charge you with.

11. ‘For your king’s sake you must take the child born of Mandane my daughter, and carry it to your home, and there slay it and bury it.’

12. Harpagus replied, ‘O king, never have I disobliged you in anything, and be sure that in all future time I never will.

13. ‘If this is your will, it is for me to serve with diligence.’ So he went and fetched the child, which was dressed in the garb of death, and weeping for its hard fate he hastened back to his home.

14. There he found his wife and told her what Astyages had commanded him. And she said, ‘Will you do it?’

15. ‘No,’ replied Harpagus, ‘I cannot. First, this child is my own kin. Second, the king is old, and when he dies his daughter Mandane will succeed him;

16. ‘And if I slay her child I shall be in fearful danger. But yet, if the child continues to live, I shall be in danger also: from the king.’

17. Said his wife, ‘Alas, what is to be done?’ And he replied, ‘The child must die; but not by my hand or the hand of our kin; it must be killed by someone belonging to Astyages.’

18. So saying he sent a messenger to fetch a certain Mitradates, a herdsman in the employment of Astyages, who tended flocks in the fastness of mountains far from the city;

19. A fit place for the child to be disposed of, being remote and full of wild beasts. These mountains lie north of Ecbatana, towards the Euxine, and are covered in forests.

20. When Mitradates came to Harpagus’ house, the latter instructed him, saying, ‘The king requires you to take this baby and expose it in the wildest part of the mountains, there to be consumed by the wild beasts.

21. ‘If you do not do this the king will subject you to the most painful of deaths.’ Mitradates saw the child lying amidst the fearful and weeping inhabitants of Harpagus’ house,

22. Swaddled in gold and wrappings of beautiful colours, itself panting and whimpering because untended and unfed.

23. Trembling under this dreadful instruction, Mitradates took the child and returned to the mountains,

24. Where his wife, Spaco, one of the king’s female slaves, was just then daily expecting a child of her own.

25. Discussing the burden imposed on them by Harpagus, they became yet more troubled and afraid on their own account;

26. And the anxieties made Spaco fall into labour, and because she was fearful and wretched, the baby she delivered was stillborn.

27. ‘Wife,’ said Mitradates, ‘when I left Harpagus’ house with this child in my arms, a servant accompanied me for part of the way, and told me all:

28. ‘That this is the offspring of Mandane, the king’s daughter, and Cambyses the Persian, and the king wishes it to be killed for fear that it or its father will usurp his throne.’

29. So saying he unswaddled the whimpering baby, which he and his wife saw was fine and beautiful;

30. And Spaco burst into tears, and clasped her husband’s knees, beseeching him on no account to expose the child to so cruel a death.

31. ‘Take the body of our own child, stillborn but now, and lay it in the mountains,’ she implored him, ‘and let us bring up this child as our own.

32. ‘When we show the remains of our dead child, it will be thought the other;

33. ‘And so you will not be charged with disobedience to the will of the king. Our own child will have a royal funeral, and this beautiful baby will live.’

34. So Mitradates and Spaco dressed the corpse of their own baby in the gold and royal cloths, and Mitradates took it to the wildest places;

35. And after three days he fetched it again, mauled by the beasts, and carried it to the city to show Harpagus.

36. The latter was satisfied, and had the child buried with royal pomp at his own bidding.

Chapter 10

  1. Now the child brought up as the herdsman’s son they named Cyrus.

  2. He grew strong and noble, and as early as the age of ten displayed great command and intelligence.

  3. He took charge of his playmates, who elected him their king,

  4. And he ordered them, and arranged them in troops and led them into pretend battles.

  5. One of his playmates was the son of a noble Mede of distinction, and this boy refused to obey Cyrus’ boyish commands,

  6. Not only because of his supposed lowly rank as a herdsman’s son, but because he was a Persian.

  7. Angered by the Median youth’s refusal to obey, Cyrus took a whip and chastised him.

  8. Outraged, the boy complained to his father, who as a high courtier went to King Astyages to complain.

  9. The king wished to please his noble courtier, and summoned the herdsman and his supposed son Cyrus to answer for the latter’s behaviour.

10. When they came to the palace Astyages said to Cyrus, ‘Have you, the son of so mean a fellow, dared to behave rudely to the son of a noble of my court?’

11. To which Cyrus replied, ‘My lord, I only treated him as he deserved.

12. ‘I was chosen king in play by the boys of our village, because they thought me the best for it. He himself was one of those who chose me.

13. ‘All the others did my bidding; but he refused, and made light of them,

14. ‘Until at last he got his due reward. If for this I deserve punishment, here I am ready to submit to it.’

15. While the boy was speaking Astyages was struck with a suspicion who he was.

16. He thought he saw something in the character of his face like his own, and there was a nobleness about the answer he made;

17. Besides which his age seemed to tally with the time when his grandchild was exposed.

18. Astonished at all this, Astyages could not speak for a while. At last, recovering himself with difficulty,

19. And wishing to be quit of the noble Mede who had complained, that he might examine the herdsman alone,

20. He said to the Mede, ‘I promise to settle this business that neither you nor your son shall have any cause to complain.’

21. The courtier left the presence chamber, and the king’s attendants took Cyrus to an inner room, leaving Astyages and the herdsman alone.

Chapter 11

  1. Astyages then enquired about the boy, and Mitradates at first insisted that he and his wife Spaco were the true parents.

  2. But when Astyages ordered him to be tortured for the truth, Mitradates broke down in terror and told Astyages everything,

  3. Ending with supplications and tears to be forgiven for what he had done.

  4. Astyages was very little concerned with the herdsman, but was outraged at the disloyalty of Harpagus, whom he summoned immediately.