into
several governorships, according to its ethnographical affinities;
as for instance, the governorship of Lydia, that of Ionia, that of
Phrygia,* and others whose names are unknown to us. Harpagus appeared
to have resided at Sardes, and exercised vice-regal functions over the
various districts, but he obtained from the king an extensive property
in Lycia and in Caria, which subsequently caused these two provinces to
be regarded as an appanage of his family.

* Herodotus calls a certain Mitrobates satrap of Daskylion;
he had perhaps been already given this office by Cyrus.
Orcetes had been made governor of Ionia and Lydia by Cyrus.

While thus consolidating his first conquest, Cyrus penetrated into the
unknown regions of the far East. Nothing would have been easier for him
than to have fallen upon Babylon and overthrown, as it were by the way,
the decadent rule of Nabonidus; but the formidable aspect which the
empire still presented, in spite of its enfeebled condition, must have
deceived him, and he was unwilling to come into conflict with it until
he had made a final reckoning with the restless and unsettled peoples
between the Caspian and the slopes on the Indian side of the table-land
of Iran. As far as we are able to judge, they were for the most part of
Iranian extraction, and had the same religion, institutions, and customs
as the Medes and Persians. Tradition had already referred the origin of
Zoroaster, and the scene of his preaching, to Bactriana, that land of
heroes whose exploits formed the theme of Persian epic song. It is not
known, as we have already had occasion to remark, by what ties it was
bound to the empire of Cyaxares, nor indeed if it ever had been actually
attached to it. We do not possess, unfortunately, more than almost
worthless scraps of information on this part of the reign of Cyrus,
perhaps the most important period of it, since then, for the first
time, peoples who had been hitherto strangers to the Asiatic world were
brought within its influence. If Ctesias is to be credited, Bactriana
was one of the first districts to be conquered. Its inhabitants were
regarded as being among the bravest of the East, and furnished the best
soldiers. They at first obtained some successes, but laid down arms on
hearing that Cyrus had married a daughter of Astyages.* This tradition
was prevalent at a time when the Achaemenians were putting forward the
theory that they, and Cyrus before th