The History of Antiquity Volume Vi Part 17

[394] Plut. "Alcib." 24.

[395] "Oecon." 4, 20-24; Aelian, "Hist. Anim." 1, 59.

[396] Herod. 4, 39.

[397] Herod. 4, 41.

[398] Herod. 2, 158.

[399] Herod. 4, 44. On the monuments of Darius, see Lepsius, "Chronol."

s. 354, and "Monatsberichte B. A." 1866, s. 288; Oppert, "Memoires prs.

a l'Acad. des Inscrip." 1, 8 (1869), p. 646 ff. In opposition to the definite and detailed a.s.sertion of Herodotus, given in the text, the a.s.sertion in Strabo (p. 804) and Diodorus (1, 33) that Darius nearly finished the ca.n.a.l but did not quite finish it, cannot be accepted.

Herodotus was in Egypt not much more than 30 years after the death of Darius (about 450 B.C.). Diodorus and Strabo accept the tradition of the times of the Ptolemies, which sought to claim for them the glory of completing the work, though they did no more than reopen the ca.n.a.l which had become silted up. To support this tradition Oppert has supplemented the decisive word of which no more than the syllable _ta_ remains, according to his transcription, in such a way that the meaning extracted is that Darius filled up his own ca.n.a.l. I do not see why this _ta_ should not be a part of _uctaka_, _i.e._ to excavate, as well as of _vikata_, _i.e._ to make level. We cannot a.s.sume without further evidence that Darius set up a monument over the failure of his undertaking or its destruction. The Turanian version, which Oppert has since published ("Peuple des Medes," p. 214) does not help us to a decision, for it is only preserved as far as the place in question.

[400] Xenoph. "Cyri Inst." 7, 5, 66.

[401] Xenoph. "Cyri Inst." 8, 8, 20-22.

[402] Herod. 3, 127; 5, 102; Xenoph. "Anab." 1, 2; Diod. 11, 34; Arrian, "Anab." 1, 29.

[403] Herod. 2, 30.

[404] Xenoph. "Oecon." 4, 5.

[405] Xenoph. "Cyri Inst." 6, 2, 11.

[406] "Oecon." 4, 5.

[407] Herod. 7, 40, 41, 83; 8, 113; Heraclid. c.u.man. fragm. 1, ed.

Muller; Xenoph. "Cyri Inst." 7, 5, 68.

[408] Curtius, 3, 3, 13; Xenoph. _loc. cit._

[409] It is true that the population between the Euphrates and the Indus is now rated at 18,000,000 only. Kenneir, "Geograph. Memoir of Persia,"

p. 44-47. But the numbers of the prisoners and the slain in the inscriptions of Behistun allow us to conclude that the population of Iran was far greater. Under the Ptolemies Egypt, consisting of about 30,000 communities, counted 7,000,000 inhabitants; Diod. 1, 31. That Asia Minor was not less populous is proved, for certain districts, by the statements of Xenophon; the budget of Darius, the numbers of his army, and more especially of the army of Xerxes, the ma.s.s of troops which the younger Cyrus collects in Asia Minor and Artaxerxes in the Eastern provinces, are evidence of a tolerably dense population.

[410] "Pers.," 239, 926.

[411] Herod. 7, 61.

[412] Herod. 7, 85; 8, 113; Xenoph. "Anab." 1, 8, 7; "Cyri Inst." 8, 8, 22; Arrian, "Anab." 3, 13.

[413] Herod. 5, 49; 9, 62; Strabo, p. 734.

[414] Herod. 9, 20, 22, 63, 80; Plut. "Artax." 9; Aeschyl. "Pers."

26-28.

[415] Herod. 1, 134; Polyaen. "Strat." 7, 11. According to Herodotus the Sacae were in the centre at Marathon. Mardonius retains them in Thessaly with the Bactrians and Indians: Herod. 8, 113; 9, 31. In the battle at Arbela they were among the bravest: Arrian, "Anab." 3, 13.

[416] Herod. 7, 64 ff.

[417] Herod. 7, 82, 83; Xenoph. "Cyri Inst." 8, 1, 14.

[418] Herod. 7, 81.

[419] Herod. 7, 96.

[420] Herod. 7, 100; Xenoph. "Cyri Inst." 8, 5, 1-16.

[421] Herod. 9, 15.

[422] Xenoph. "Anab." 3, 4, 35.

[423] Curtius, 3, 3, 8.

[424] Brisson, _loc. cit._ 3, c. 89.

[425] Curtius, 3, 3, 14, 15; Xenoph. "Anab." 1, 9, 31.

[426] Xenoph. "Anab." 1, 8; Arrian, "Anab." 3, 11.

[427] Artaxerxes is on horseback in the battle of Cunaxa; Plutarch, "Artax." 10, 11, but the general custom is given in c. 6.

[428] Xenoph. "Anab." 1, 10, 12. Vol. V. 172.

[429] Xenoph. "Anab." 1, 8.

[430] Herod. 7, 218, 226; Xenoph. "Cyri Inst." 8, 8, 22, 23.

[431] Herod. 9, 20, 23, 49.

[432] Above, p. 303. Herod. 1, 162, 168; 4, 200; 5, 115; Polyaen.

"Strateg." 7, 2, 5.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE COURT OF DARIUS.

Along with the new arrangement of the administration of the empire Darius had transferred the centre of it into a province, which had thrice rebelled against him, to Susa,[433] the ancient metropolis of Elam, which a.s.surbanipal had conquered, plundered, and destroyed 130 years previously. Since that time the city had risen from its ruins. We have seen what motives determined Darius to take this step. The position of the city, which was not far removed from his native territory, and at the same time brought the stubborn resistance of the Babylonians under the close pressure of the royal residence, offered the requisite security. Out of Media, from the southern foot of the Mount Elvend (Orontes), the Kerkha, or Choaspes, flows down the heights which bound Iran on the west, towards the south-west; and then breaks through them in order to fall into the Tigris. Further to the east is the Dizful.

Rising more to the south than the Kerkha it reaches the plains of Elam in a course parallel to that stream and then falls also into the Tigris.

Between these two rivers there rises in the mountain edge the Shapur, a river of a short and narrow course, but with a deep channel. For a time it flows in the same direction with the others, then it turns to the east, and falls into the Dizful, or rather into the Karun, as the Dizful is now called in its lower course, after the affluent which falls into it from the east. At the point where the Kerkha and Dizful approach within two or three leagues of each other,--though lower down they separate more and more widely,--about half a league from the east bank of the Kerkha, and on the eastern side of the Shapur, is the city of Susa. The approach from the west was barred by the Kerkha, and from the east by the Dizful and its affluents. If an enemy came from the west or the east, he had to cross considerable rivers. The great road which ran from the west from Sardis to Susa, came to an end opposite Susa on the west bank of the Kerkha. According to Herodotus the city could only be reached by a ferry across the river. This was no doubt an arrangement for security. An approaching enemy was not to find bridges either on the Kerkha or the Dizful.[434] Thus irrigated by three rivers, the land round the city was extraordinarily fruitful and blooming.

The Greeks were right in calling Susa "the ancient great city." Though it was not, as they imagined, at one time the abode of Memnon, the son of the morning, who had come to the help of the Trojans, we have made acquaintance with the ancient kingdom of Elam, the beginnings of which we had to place about the year 2500 B.C. We saw that the princes of this kingdom could make war upon Babylonia, and reduce it to dependence in the last centuries of the third millennium B.C., and that its armies must have reached Syria. Then Elam had withstood the a.s.syrians for a long time with very great stubbornness, until at length after brave struggles it succ.u.mbed to the arms of a.s.surbanipal. A relief in the palace of a.s.surbanipal exhibited Susa before its capture, in the year 645 B.C., stretching along between two rivers (the Shapur and the Dizful), and surrounded by high walls and numerous towers. The new Susa also, the Susa of Darius and his successors, extended, according to the evidence of Strabo, between the two rivers; according to his statement the city had a circuit of 120 stades, and according to Diodorus of 200 stades, _i.e._ of 15 or 20 miles--an extent which does not leave it far behind the fallen cities of the a.s.syrians, and Babylon.[435] But Susa, which in spite of its numerous population was inhabited only to a small extent by Persians, required to be fortified even less than Ecbatana.

The royal citadel must keep the city in check, and afford the most complete security to the palace. We are expressly told that this citadel was protected by strong works, which would indeed be necessary for the position of affairs and the object of Darius.[436] According to the statement of Pliny, the citadel was surrounded by the Eulaeus, the name which he gives to the Choaspes; the Book of Daniel also represents the Ulai as flowing round the castle of Susa.[437] The ruins prove that the palace lay on the Shapur. Within the protecting walls of the fortress was the "golden dwelling," "the gold-adorned chambers of Darius" as Aeschylus calls them,[438] the "far-famed palace" in the language of Diodorus. According to Aelian Darius took a pride in the buildings which he had erected at Susa; it was he who had erected the famous works there.[439]