fighting a tribe of Scythians at the
east of the Caspian Sea, B.C. 529, He was the greatest general that the
Oriental world ever produced, and well may rank with Alexander himself.
His reign of twenty-nine years was one constant succession of wars, in
which he was uniformly successful, and in which success was only equaled
by his magnanimity. His empire extended from the Indus to the Hellespont
and the Syrian coast, far greater than that of either Assyria or
Babylonia.

(M190) The result of the Persian conquest on the conquerors themselves was
to produce habits of excessive luxury, a wide and vast departure from
their original mode of life, which enfeebled the empire, and prepared the
way for a rapid decline.

(M191) Cambyses, however, the son and successor of Cyrus, carried out his
policy and conquests. He was, unlike his father, a tyrant and a
sensualist, but possessed considerable military genius. He conquered
Phoenicia, and thus became master of the sea as well as of the land. He
then quarreled with Amasis, the king of Egypt, and subdued his kingdom.

(M192) Like an eastern despot, he had, while in Egypt, in an hour of
madness and caprice, killed his brother, Smerdis. It happened there was a
Magian who bore a striking resemblance to the murdered prince. With the
help of his brother, whom the king had left governor of his household,
this Magian usurped the throne of Persia, while Cambyses was absent, the
death of the true Smerdis having been carefully concealed.

(M193) The news of the usurpation reached Cambyses while returning from an
expedition to Syria. An accidental wound from the point of his sword
proved mortal, B.C. 522. But Cambyses, about to die, called his nobles
around him, and revealed the murder of his brother, and exhorted them to
prevent the kingdom falling into the hands of the Medes. He left no
children.

(M194) The usurper proved a tyrant. A conspiracy of Persians followed,
headed by the descendants of Cyrus; and Darius, the chief of these--the son
of Hystaspes, became king of Persia, after Smerdis had reigned seven
months. But this reign, brief as it was, had restored the old Magian
priests to power, who had, by their magical arts, great popularity with
the people, not only Medes, but Persians.

(M195) Darius restored the temples and the worship which the Magian
priests had overthrown, and established the religion of Zoroaster. The
early years of his reign were disturbed by rebellions in Bab