in towered above, lofty and
precipitous. The pass was guarded by ten thousand Persians. Recognizing
the impossibility of forcing it, Astyages again detached a body of
troops, who marched along the foot of the range till they found a place
where it could be ascended, when they climbed it and seized the heights
directly over the defile. The Persians upon this had to evacuate their
strong position, and to retire to a lower range of hills very near to
Pasargadge. Here again there was a two days' fight. On the first day
all the efforts of the Medes to ascend the range (which, though low,
was steep, and covered with thickets of wild olive) were fruitless. Their
enemy met them, not merely with the ordinary weapons, but with great
masses of stone, which they hurled down with crushing force upon their
ascending columns. On the second day, however, the resistance was weaker
or less effective Astyages had placed at the foot of the range, below
his attacking columns, a body of troops with orders to kill all who
refused to ascend, or who, having ascended, attempted to quit the
heights and return to the valley. Thus compelled to advance, his men
fought with desperation, and drove the Persians before them up the
slopes of the hill to its very summit, where the women and children
had been placed for the sake of security. There, however, the tide of
success turned. The taunts and upbraidings of their mothers and wives
restored the courage of the Persians; and, turning upon their foe, they
made a sudden furious charge. The Medes, astonished and overborne, were
driven headlong down the hill, and fell into such confusion that the
Persians slew sixty thousand of them. Still Astyages did not desist from
his attack. The authority whom we have been following here to a great
extent fails us, and we have only a few scattered notices from which to
reconstruct the closing scenes of the war. It would seem from these
that Astyages still maintained the offensive, and that there was a
fifth battle in the immediate neighborhood of Pasargadse, wherein he was
completely defeated by Cyrus, who routed the Median army, and pressing
upon them in their flight, took their camp. All the insignia of Median
royalty fell into his hands; and, amid the acclamations of his army,
he assumed them, and was saluted by his soldiers "King of Media and
Persia." Meanwhile Astyages had sought for safety in flight; the greater
part of his army had dispersed, and he was left with