CHAPTER IV. THE MEDIAN EMPIRE. SECTION I.-GEOGRAPHY OF MEDIA. EDIA occupied an extensive region south and south-west of the Caspian Sea, east of Armenia and Assyria, north of Persia proper, and west of the great salt desert and Parthia. It was about six hundred miles in extent from north to south, and about two hundred and fifty miles from east to west; thus having an area of nearly one hundred and fifty thousand square miles, a greater extent than Assyria and Chaldæa combined. It occupied a tract in one solid mass, "with no straggling or outlying portions; and it is strongly defended on almost every side by natural barriers offering great difficulties to an invader.” The Median territory comprises two regions the northern and western portion being a mountain district embracing a series of lofty ridges; and the southern and eastern section forming a part of the great plateau of Iran, extending southward to the Indian Ocean, embracing all of ancient Persia and Carmania, the latter being the modern Kerman, while eastward this extensive table-land is bounded by the modern Afghanistan. The average elevation of the territory occupied by ancient Media is about three thousand feet above the level of the sea. owing to the rigor of its climate, from hostile invasion for more than half the year, it has defied all attempts to effect its permanent subjugation, whether made by the Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Parthians, or Turks, and remains to this day as independent of the great powers in its neighborhood, as it was when the Assyrian armies first penetrated its recesses. Nature seems to have constructed it to be a nursery of hardy and vigorous men, a stumbling-block to conquerors, a thorn in the side of every powerful empire which arises in this part of the great Eastern continent." The northern part of the mountain region is called Elburz, and contains the lofty, snow-covered peak of Demavend, which overlooks Teheran, the present capital of Persia, and is the highest portion of Asia west of the great Himalaya mountain chain. The Elburz region is not as well watered as the Zagros district, its streams being small, frequently dry in summer, and absorbed by the Caspian Sea, which bounds the region on the forth. "The elevated plateau which stretches from the foot of these two mountain regions to the south and east, is for the most part a flat, sandy desert, incapable of sustaining more than a sparse and scanty population. The northern and western portions are, however, less arid than the east and south, being watered for some distance by the streams that descend from Zagros and Elburz, and deriving fertility also from the spring rains. Some of the rivers which flow from Zagros on this side are large and strong. Kizil-Uzen, reaches the Caspian. ( 231 ) The western part of the mountain region of Media was anciently called the Zagros, and is part of the modern Kurdistan and Luristan. It is thus spoken of: "Full of torrents, of deep ravines, of rocky summits, abrupt and almost inaccessible; containing but few passes, and those narrow and easily defensible; secure, moreover, One, the Another, the Zenderud, fertilizes a large district near Isfahan. A third, the Bendamir, flows by Persepolis and terminates in a sheet of water of some size-Lake Bakhtigan. A tract thus intervenes between the mountain regions and the desert, which, though it cannot be called fertile, is fairly productive, and can support a large settled population. This forms the chief portion of the region which the ancients called Media." Media was mainly a sterile country, and had an attractive appearance only in spring. In the mountain region the climate is severe. On the plateau it is more temperate, but the thermometer does not often reach ninety degrees in the shade. All in all, the climate is considered healthy. With the aid of irrigation the great table-land yields "good crops of grain, rice, wheat, barley, Indian corn, doura, millet and sesame. It will likewise produce cotton, tobacco, saffron, rhubarb, madder, poppies which give a good opium, senna and asafoetida. Its garden vegetables are excellent, and include potatoes, cabbages, lentils, kidney-beans, peas, turnips, carrots, spinnach, beet-root and cucumbers." Media produced various valuable minerals. Many different kinds of stone are yet found throughout the country, chief of which is the beautiful Tabriz marble. Iron, copper and native steel are still mined. Gold and silver were found in the mountains in ancient times. Sulphur, alum and gypsum are found in different portions of the country, and salt likewise exists in abundant quantities. The wild animals of Media were the lion, the tiger, the leopard, the bear, the beaver, the jackal, the wolf, the wild ass, the ibex, or wild goat, the wild sheep, the stag, the antelope, the wild boar, the fox, the hare, the rabbit, the ferret, the rat, the jerboa, the porcupine, the mole and the marmot. The domestic animals were the camel, the horse, the mule, the ass, the cow, the goat, the sheep, the buffalo, the dog and the cat. The southern part of Media, or Media proper, was called Media Magna; while the northern, or mountainous, portion was known as Media Atropatêné. The capital and metropolis of each of these divisions was a city called Ecbatana. Next to the two Ecbatanas were Rhages, Bagistan, Adrapan, Aspadan and a few other cities. The southern Ecbatana, or Agbatanathe capital and metropolis of Media Magnawas called Hagmatán by the Medes and Persians themselves; and, according to Polyhistor and Diodorus, was situated on a plain at the foot of Mount Orontes, a little west of the Zagros range. The notices of these writers and those of Eratosthenes, Isidore, Pliny, Arrian and others, would imply that the site of this famous city was that of the modern town of Hamadan, the name of which is a slight corruption of the ancient name as known by the Medes and Persians. Mount Orontes has been identified as the modern Elwend, or Erwend, a long and lofty mountain connected with the Zagros range, and surrounded with fertile plains famed for their rich and abundant vegetation and their dense groves of forest trees with their luxuriant foliage. Hamadan lies at the foot of this mountain. Ecbatana was mainly renowned for its magnificent royal palace, which Diodorus ascribed to Semiramis. Polybius assigned the edifice a circumference of seven stadia, or 1420 yards, a little over four-fifths of an English mile. The latter writer also spoke of two classes of pillars, those of the main buildings and those which skirted the courts, thus implying that the courts were surrounded with colonnades. These wooden pillars, either of cedar or cypress, supported beams of the same wood crossing each other at right angles, leaving square spaces between, which were then filled in with woodwork. Above the whole was a roof sloping at an angle and composed of silver plates in the shape of tiles. The pillars, beams and the other wood-work were also lined with a thin coating of gold and other precious metals. Herodotus described an edifice which he called "the palace of Deïoces," but this is believed to apply to the northern Ecbatana. Polybius says that Ecbatana was an unwalled city in his time, which was in the second century before Christ. The Medes and Persians did not generally surround their cities with walls, being satisfied with establishing in each town a fortified citadel or stronghold, around which the houses were clustered. Ecbatana therefore never withstood a siege, and always submitted to a conquering foe without resistance. The description in the Apocryphal Book of Judith-which, contradicted by every other evidence, is purely mythical-represents Ecbatana as having walls of hewn stone nine feet long and four and a half feet wide; the walls being one hundred and five feet high and seventy-five feet wide, the gates of the same altitude, and the towers over the gates one hundred and fifty feet high. The chief city of Media Atropatêné was the northern Ecbatana, which the Greeks sometimes mistook for the southern metropolis and the real capital of Media, and which in later times was known as Gaza, Gazaca, Canzaca, or Vera. The description of Ecbatana accords with the remains of a city in Azerbijan, and not with the local features of the site of Hamadan; and a city in this region was called by Moses of Chorêné "the second Ecbatana, the seven-walled town." This city was located on and about a conical hill sloping gently down from its summit to its base, interposed by seven circuits of wall between the plain and the crest of the hill. The royal palace and the treasuries were at the top of the hill, within the innermost circle of the defenses; while the fortifications were on the sides, and the dwellings and other edifices of the city were at the base of the hill, outside the circuit of the outermost wall. Herodotus states that the battlements crowning the walls were differently colored; those of the outer being white, the next black, the third scarlet, the fourth blue, the fifth orange, the sixth silver, and the seventh gold. This gave the citadel towering above the town seven distinct rows of colors. The city thus described by Herodotus coincides with the ruins at the modern town of Takht-i-Suleïman, in the upper valley of the Saruk, a tributary of the Jaghetu; and this is believed 1-15.-U. H. to be the site of the ancient northern Ecbatana, though only one wall can now be traced. Rhages, the Median city next in importance to the two Ecbatanas, was situated near the Caspian Gates, near the eastern extremity of the Median territory. It is mentioned in the Zend-Avesta among the primitive Aryan settlements, and in the Books of Tobit and Judith. In the Behistun Inscription, Darius Hystaspes, the great Persian king, mentioned it as the scene of the closing struggle of the great Median revolt. Darius Codomannus, the last Persian king, sent thither his heavy baggage and the ladies of his court when he determined to leave Ecbatana and flee eastward after his final defeat by Alexander the Great. The site of this ancient city has sometimes been identified with the ruins of a town called Rhei, or Rhey, though this is uncertain. In the same vicinity, perhaps on the site of the present ruins known as Uewanukif, was the Median city of Charax. The cities of Bagistan, Adrapan, Concobar and Aspadan, were in the western part of Media. Bagistan is described by Isidore as "a city situated on a hill, where there was a pillar and a statue of Semiramis." Diodorus gives an account of the arrival of Semiramis at the place; of a royal park being established by her in the plain below the mountain, which was watered by an abundant spring; of the face of the rock of the lofty precipice on the side of the mountain, and of her carving her own effigy on the surface of this rock with an Assyrian cuneiform inscription. This ancient city has been identified with the celebrated Behistun, where the plain, the fountain, the precipitous rock and the scraped surface are yet to be seen; though the supposed figure of Semiramis, her pillar and her inscription are not visible. The Assyrian, Persian and Parthian monarchs made this rock renowned by giving it the sculptures and inscriptions which showed them to have been the successive lords of Western Asia during a period of a thousand years. The great inscription of Darius. Hystaspes at this place has already been al luded to. The Parthian Gotarzes inscribed on this famous rock a record of his victory over his rival Meherdates. Adrapan was mentioned by Isidore as being situated between Bagistan and Ecbatana, at the distance of twelve schoeni-thirtysix Roman, or thirty-four English milesfrom the latter city. He described it as the site of an ancient city destroyed by Tigranes the Armenian. This place has been identified with the modern village of Arteman, on the southern face of Elwend, near its base. Sir Henry Rawlinson says of this place that "during the severest winter, when Hamadan and the surrounding country are buried in snow, a warm and sunny climate is to be found; whilst in the summer a thousand rills descending from Elwend diffuse around fertility and fragrance." Professor George Rawlinson, in describing the same place, says: "Groves of trees grow up in rich luxuriance from the well-irrigated soil, whose thick foliage affords a welcome shelter from the heat of the noonday sun. The climate, the gardens, and the manifold blessings of the place are proverbial throughout Persia, and naturally caused the choice of the site for a retired palace, to which the court of Ecbatana might adjourn when either the summer heat and dust, or the winter cold, made residence in the capital irksome." Concobar was in the vicinity of Adrapan, on the road leading to Bagistan, and is believed to be the modern Kungawar. It is also supposed to be the place called Chavon by Diodorus, where he says that Semiramis built a palace and laid out a paradise. Isidore says that a famous temple to Artemis was at this place. Colossal ruins crown the summit of the acclivity on which Kungawar is situated. The Median town of Aspadan-mentioned by Ptolemy-has been identified as the famous modern Persian city of Isfahan, the great capital of the Suffee Kings of Persia several centuries ago. SECTION II.-POLITICAL HISTORY. HE origin of the Medes is in- | torily shown that the Arba Lisun, or "Four volved in impenetrable obscurity. They were of Aryan descent, and were a kindred people with their southern neighbors, the Persians, from whom they differed but little in race, language, institutions and religion. From the little that we know of their primitive history it appears that they were an important tribe in very early times. The Book of Genesis mentions them under the name of Madai, and Berosus states that they furnished a dynasty to Babylon at a period anterior to B. C. 2000. These circumstances would seem to show that the Medes were a powerful primeval race, and actually constituted a ruling power in Western Asia as early as the twenty-third century before Christ-long before Abraham migrated from Ur to Harran. Recent linguistic research has satisfac Tongues," of ancient Chaldæa, so frequently mentioned on the ancient monuments, included an Aryan formation, thus confirming Berosus's account of an Aryan conquest of Chaldæa B. C. 2286. There are other evidences of the early spread of the Median race, thus implying that they were a great nation in Western Asia long prior to the date of the Aryan, or Iranic, movements in Bactria and adjacent regions. Scattered remnants of a great migratory host, which issued from the mountains east of the Tigris and dispersed itself over the regions to the north and north-west in prehistoric times, are plainly visible in such races as the Matieni of Zagros and Cappadocia, the Sauromatæ (or Northern Medes) of the country between the Palus Mæotis and the Caspian Sea, the Mætæor Mæotæ of the tract about the mouth of the Don, and the Mædi of Thrace. A tribe mentioned by Herodotusthe Sigynnæ in the region between the Danube and the Adriatic-claimed to be of Median descent, and this claim was substantiated by the resemblance of their national dress to that of the Medes. Herodotus, in relating these facts, remarks that "nothing is impossible in the long lapse of ages." Two Greek legends designated the Medes under the two eponyms of Media and Andromeda, and refer to a period anterior to the age of Homer-no later than B. C. 1000. These legends connect the Medes with Syria and Colchis-two countries remote from each other thus showing that the fame of the Medes was great in that part of Asia known to the Greeks. From these observations it would seem that the Medes must have been as great and powerful a people in primitive times as they became in the period of the decline and fall of Assyria. We possess no distinct historical knowledge of the first period of Median greatness, the only traces of early Median preponderance being found in ethnological names and mythological speculations. Recent discoveries show that the Median dynasty which governed Chaldæa from B. C. 2286 to B. C. 2052 was a Susianian, or Elamite, race of kings. The history of the Medes as a nation begins in the latter half of the ninth century before Christ. The Assyrian monarch, Shalmaneser II., the Black Obelisk king, states that in the twenty-fourth year of his reign, B. C. 835, after conquering the Zimri of the Zagros mountain region and reducing the Persians to tribute, he invaded Media Magna, which he plundered after ravaging the country with fire and sword. The Medes were then divided into many tribes ruled by petty chieftains, and were thus a weak and insignificant people. The time of this first Assyrian attack on Media, when Assyria was in her prime, and Media was only emerging from weakness and obscurity, was the period which Ctesias assigned to the fall of Assyria and the rise of Media. The account of Ctesias regarding this fact was accepted until the recent discoveries of the native Assyrian records showed the untrustworthiness of his chronology. The Assyrian king, Shamas-Vul II., the son and successor of Shalmaneser II., also invaded Media and devastated the country with fire and sword. Shamas-Vul's son and successor, Vul-lush III., reduced the Medes to tribute. Towards the end of the ninth century before Christ the Medes agreed to pay an annual tribute to exempt their country from ravage. A century later, about B. C. 710, the great Assyrian king, Sargon, invaded Media with a large army, overran the country, seized several towns and "annexed them to Assyria," and also established a number of fortified posts in portions of the country. A standing army was stationed in these posts to overawe the inhabitants and to prevent them from making an effectual resistance to the arms of the Assyrians. the same end in view wholesale deportations were resorted to, many of the Medes being colonized in other portions of the Assyrian Empire, while Samaritan captives were settled in the Median cities. By way of tribute the Medes were required to furnish annually a number of horses to the Assyrian royal stud. With As Ctesias's account of the Median revolt under Arbaces and the conquest of Nineveh synchronizes almost with the first known Assyrian ravages in Media, so Herodotus's account of the revolt of the Medes under Deïoces corresponds with the date assigned by the Assyrian records for the complete Assyrian subjugation of Media. After Sargon's conquest of Media Magna the Medes of that region quietly submitted to Assyrian domination for almost three-fourths of a century. During this period the Assyrian supremacy was extended over the more remote Median tribes, particularly those of Azerbijan. Sennacherib boasted that in the beginning of his reign (B. C. 702) he received an embassy from the more distant portions of Media-"parts of which the kings his fathers had not even heard"-which brought him presents in |