tract which they had overrun and subjugated; and, consequently,
there was not much contact between them and the peoples whom they had
conquered. Such contact as there was must no doubt have been galling and
oppressive. The right of free pasture in the lands of others is always
irksome to those who have to endure it, and, even where it is exercised
with strict fairness, naturally leads to quarrels. The barbarous
Scythians are not likely to have cared very much about fairness. They
would press heavily upon the more fertile tracts, paying over-frequent
visits to such spots, and remaining in them till the region was
exhausted. The chiefs would not be able to restrain their followers
from acts of pillage; redress would be obtained with difficulty; and
sometimes even the chiefs themselves may have been sharers in the
injuries committed. The insolence, moreover, of a dominant race so
coarse and rude as the Scyths must have been very hard to bear; and we
can well understand that the various nations which had to endure the
yoke must have looked anxiously for an opportunity of shaking it off,
and recovering their independence.

Among these various nations, there was probably none that fretted and
winced under its subjection more than the Medes. Naturally brave and
high-spirited, with the love of independence inherent in mountaineers,
and with a well-grounded pride in their recent great successes, they
must have chafed daily and hourly at the ignominy of their position,
the postponement of their hopes, and the wrongs which they continually
suffered. At first it seemed necessary to endure. They had tried the
chances of a battle, and had been defeated in fair fight--what reason
was there to hope that, if they drew the sword again, they would be more
successful? Accordingly they remained quiet but, as time went on, and
the Scythians dispersed themselves continually over a wider and a
wider space, invading Assyria, Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, and again
Armenia and Cappadocia, everywhere plundering and marauding, conducting
sieges, fighting battles, losing men from the sword, from sickness, from
excesses, becoming weaker instead of stronger, as each year went by,
owing to the drain of constant wars--the Medes by degrees took heart.
Not trusting, however, entirely to the strength of their right arms, a
trust which had failed them once, they resolved to prepare the way for
an outbreak by a stratagem which they regarded as justifiable.