of Arrapkha or of Kharkhar had
extorted tribute to the utmost as often as occasion offered. According
to one tradition, it had only three kings in an entire century: Deiokes
up till 655 B.C., Phraortes from 655 to 633, and after the latter year
Cyaxares, the hero of his race.* Another tradition claimed an earlier
foundation for the monarchy, and doubled both the number of the kings
and the age of the kingdom.**

* This is the tradition gleaned by Herodotus, probably at
Sardes, from the mouths of Persians residing in that city.

** This is the tradition derived from the court of
Artaxerxes by Ctesias of Cnidus. Volney discovered the
principle upon which the chronology of his Median dynasty
was based by Ctesias. If we place his list side by side with
that of Herodotus--

[Illustration: 268.jpg and 269.jpg TABLE OF MEDIAN DYNASTY]

We see that, while rejecting the names given by Herodotus,
Ctesias repeats twice over the number of years assigned by
the latter to the reigns of his kings, at least for the four
last generations--

At the beginning Herodotus gives before Deiokes an
interregnum of uncertain duration. Ctesias substituted the
round number of fifty years for the fifty-three assigned to
Deiokes, and replaced the interregnum by a reign which he
estimated at the mean duration of a human generation, thirty
years; he then applied to this new pair of numbers the
process of doubling he had employed for the couple mentioned
above--

The number twenty-eight has been attributed to the reign of
Arbakes, instead of the number thirty, to give an air of
truthfulness to the whole catalogue.

This tradition ignored the monarchs who had rendered the second
Assyrian empire illustrious, and substituted for them a line of inactive
sovereigns, reputed to be the descendants of Ninus and Semiramis. The
last of them, Sardanapalus, had, according to this account, lived a life
of self-indulgence in his harem, surrounded by women, dressing himself
in their garb, and adopting feminine occupations and amusements. The
satrap of Media, Arbakes, saw him at his toilet, and his heart turned
against yielding obedience to such a painted doll: he rebelled in
concert with Belesys the Babylonian. The imminence of the danger thus
occasioned roused Sardanapalus from his torpor, and revived in him the
warlike qualities of his ancestors; h