books of Ezra,
Nehemiah, and Esther, a friendly intimacy which caused the Jews to
continue faithful to Persia to the last, and to brave the conqueror
of Issus rather than desert masters who had shown them kindness and
sympathy.

The first trace that we have of a corrupting influence being brought
to bear on the Persian religion is connected with the history of the
pseudo-Smerdis. According to Herodotus, Cambyses, when he set out on
his Egyptian expedition, left a Magus, Patizeithes, at the capital, as
comptroller of the royal household. The conferring of an office of such
importance on the priest of an alien religion is the earliest indication
which we have of a diminution of zeal for their ancestral creed on the
part of the Achaemenian kings, and the earliest historical proof of the
existence of Magism beyond the limits of Media. Magism was really, it
is probable, an older creed than Zoroastrianism in the country where the
Persians were settled; but it now, for the first time since the Persian
conquest, began to show itself, to thrust itself into high places, and
to attract general notice. From being the religion of the old Scythic
tribes whom the Persians had conquered and whom they held in subjection,
it had passed into being the religion of great numbers of the Persians
themselves. The same causes which had corrupted Zoroastrianism in Media
soon after the establishment of the Empire, worked also, though more
slowly, in Persia, and a large section of the nation was probably weaned
from its own belief, and won over to Magism, before Cambyses went
into Egypt. His prolonged absence in that country brought matters to
a crisis. The Magi took advantage of it to attempt a substitution
of Magism for Zoroastrianism as the religion of the state. When
this attempt failed, there was no doubt a reaction for a time, and
Zoroastrianism thought itself triumphant. But a foe is generally most
dangerous when he is despised. Magism, repulsed in its attempt to oust
the rival religion, derived wisdom from the lesson, and thenceforth set
itself to sap the fortress which it could not storm. Little by little
it crept into favor, mingling itself with the old Arian creed, not
displacing it, but only adding to it. In the later Persian system the
Dualism of Zoroaster and the Magian elemental worship were jointly
professed--the Magi were accepted as the national priests--the rights
and ceremonies of the two religions were united--a syncretism not