st store of treasure became the prey of the conqueror. The fall of
Sardis and the Lydian monarchy was followed by the subjection of the
Greek cities of Asia Minor, a task which Cyrus left to the hands of
Harpagus, while he himself turned eastward to pursue his conquests in
Upper Asia and in Assyria. His greatest achievement in this quarter
was the taking of Babylon. This he accomplished in the reign of
Belshazzar, one of the successors of Nebuchadnezzar, perhaps his son,
by turning the Euphrates, which ran through the middle of the city,
out of its course; and when its bed was dry he entered the city by
this road and captured it with little resistance.

Cyrus was now the sole master of the vast Assyrian Kingdom, once more
in his hands brought back to something like the unity it had before
the great Median revolt. But he was not content, nor was it perhaps
possible for him to rest in the enjoyment of power and possessions
extorted by force, and dependent on force to hold. The new empire,
like the old one, was destined to break in pieces by its own weight.
Cyrus was kept in constant activity by the necessity of resisting the
inroads on his empire of the tribes in the north and farther east; and
it was in endeavoring to repel invasion and to maintain order in the
regions he had already conquered, that he met his death. After a reign
of thirty years he was slain, in 529 B.C., in battle with the
Massagetae, a tribe of Central Asia. He left his kingdom to his son
Cambyses.

[Signature of the author.]

ALEXANDER THE GREAT

(356-323 B.C.)

[Illustration: Alexander.]

Alexander the Great, son of Philip of Macedon and Olympias, daughter
of Neoptolemus of Epirus, was born at Pella, 356 B.C. His mind was
formed chiefly by Aristotle, who instructed him in every branch of
human learning, especially in the art of government. Alexander was
sixteen years of age when his father marched against Byzantium, and
left the government in his hands during his absence. Two years
afterward, he displayed singular courage at the battle of Chaeronea
(338 B.C.), where he overthrew the Sacred Band of the Thebans. "My
son," said Philip, as he embraced him after the conflict, "seek for
thyself another kingdom, for that which I leave is too small for
thee." The father and son quarrelled, however, when the former
divorced Olympias. Alexander took part with his mother, and fled to
Epirus, to escape his father's vengeance; but receiving his p