suffer
the evils that he inflicted, was naturally tempted to save itself from
molestation by the payment of an annual tribute, so purchasing quiet at
the expense of honor and independence. Towards the close of the ninth
century B.C. the Medes seem to have followed the example set them very
much earlier by their kindred and neighbors, the Persians, and to
have made arrangements for an annual payment which should exempt their
territory from ravage. It is doubtful whether the arrangement was made
by the whole people. The Median tribes at this time hung so loosely
together that a policy adopted by one portion of them might be entirely
repudiated by another. Most probably the tribute was paid by those
tribes only which boarded on Zagros, and not by those further to the
east or to the north, into whose territories the Assyrian arms has not
yet penetrated.

No further change in the condition of the Medes is known to have
occurred until about a hundred years later, when the Assyrians ceased
to be content with the semi-independent position which had been hitherto
allowed them, and determined on their more complete subjugation. The
great Sargon, the assailant of Egypt and conqueror of Babylon, towards
the middle of his reign, invaded Media with a large army, and having
rapidly overrun the country, seized several of the towns, and "annexed
them to Assyria," while at the same time he also established in new
situations a number of fortified posts. The object was evidently to
incorporate Media into the empire; and the posts wore stations in which
a standing army was placed, to overawe the natives and prevent them from
offering an effectual resistance. With the same view deportation of the
people on a large scale seems to have been practised and the gaps
thus made in the population were filled up--wholly or in part--by the
settlement in the Median cities of Samaritan captives. On the country
thus re-organized and re-arranged a tribute of a new character was laid.
In lieu of the money payment hitherto exacted, the Medes were required
to furnish annually to the royal stud a number of horses. It is probable
that Media was already famous for the remarkable breed which is so
celebrated in later times; and that the horses now required of her by
the Assyrians were to be of the large and highly valued kind known as
"Nisaean."

The date of this subjugation is about B.C. 710. And here, if we compare
the Greek accounts of Median history with t