n the highest degree probable. If it
be accepted, we must regard them as in race closely allied to the vast
hordes which from a remote antiquity have roamed over the steppe region
of upper Asia, from time to time bursting upon the south, and harassing
or subjugating the comparatively unwarlike inhabitants of the warmer
countries. We must view them as the congeners of the Huns, Bulgarians,
and Comans of the ancient world; of the Kalmucks, Ouigurs, Usbegs,
Eleuts, etc., of the present day. Perhaps their nearest representatives
will be, if we look to their primitive condition at the founding
of their empire, the modern Turkomans, who occupy nearly the same
districts; if we regard them in the period of their great prosperity,
the Osmanli Turks. Like the Turks, they combined great military prowess
and vigor with a capacity for organization and government not very usual
among Asiatics. Like them, they remained at heart barbarians, though
they put on an external appearance of civilization and refinement. Like
them, they never to any extent amalgamated with the conquered races,
but continued for centuries an exclusive dominant race, encamped in the
countries which they had overrun.

The circumstances under which the Parthians became subjects of the
Persian empire may readily be conjectured, but cannot be laid down
positively. According to Diodorus, who probably followed Ctesias, they
passed from the dominion of the Assyrians to that of the Medes, and from
dependence upon the Medes to a similar position under the Persians. But
the balance of evidence is against these views. It is, on the whole,
most probable that neither the Assyrian nor the Median empire extended
so far eastward as the country of the Parthians. The Parthians probably
maintained their independence from the time of their settlement in
the district called after their name until the sudden arrival in their
country of the great Persian conqueror, Cyrus. This prince, as Herodotus
tells us, subdued the whole of Western Asia, proceeding from nation
to nation, and subjugating one people after another. The order of his
conquests is not traceable; but it is clear that after his conquest
of the Lydian empire (about B.C. 554) he proceeded eastward, with the
special object of subduing Bactria.43 To reach Bactria, he would have
to pass through, or close by, Parthia. Since, as Herodotus says, "he
conquered the whole way, as he went," we may fairly conclude that on
his road to