and alone, he tried what stratagem might do to bring
about his aim, which was no less than the overthrow of Astyages by
means of the tyrant's grandson, Cyrus. He did not take open measures
until he knew he had allies enough at his back, and could strike with
a sure aim. He worked with the great Median chiefs in private,
stirring them up against Astyages by appeals of all sorts: to their
ambition, their greed, their discontent, their private wrongs; and
when he had secured the consent of enough nobles to his plans, he
called upon Cyrus, as one who had chiefly suffered from the tyranny
and cruelty of the king, to lead the proposed revolt in person. He
knew that Cyrus had been gradually strengthening his own kingdom of
Persia in preparation for the ambitious schemes of conquest he was
nursing, but there was danger in correspondence with one who stood to
Astyages in the double relation of a feared and hated grandson, and
the chief of a rival people; and if we may believe Herodotus, Harpagus
had recourse to a strange expedient to communicate his design to
Cyrus. Disembowelling a dead hare, he inserted a letter in the cavity,
and sent the animal to Cyrus as a present. When the letter came to the
hands of Cyrus he eagerly accepted the offers it contained of
leadership in the proposed revolt, and joined his forces with those of
the disaffected Medes. Astyages was overthrown and his kingdom taken
possession of by Cyrus. Herodotus draws a striking picture of the
exultation of Harpagus over the success of his revengeful projects,
and of the disdain with which Astyages reproached him for having
called on another to do what, trusted and confided in as he was by his
monarch, he might have accomplished for himself, and reaped the
harvest which he had surrendered to another. Cyrus had the wisdom to
spare the life of Astyages, and to attach him to his person as
councillor and friend. Harpagus he made his lieutenant, and much of
his success was owing to this man's wisdom and bravery. After the
defeat of Astyages, Cyrus advanced against the lesser tribes that had
owed allegiance to the Median king, and having reduced them one by one
to submission, the power of the once mighty empire of the Medians
passed to the inheritance of the Persians in the year 559 B.C.

When Croesus heard of the overthrow of his brother-in-law by the hands
of Cyrus, and of the setting up a great new monarchy on the ruins of
the fallen kingdom, his own ambitious pr