he great Oriental monarchies, having begun and
ended within the narrow space of three score and ten years--the natural
lifetime of an individual.

Astyages, who succeeded to the Median throne about B.C. 593, had neither
his father's enterprise nor his ability. Born to an empire, and bred
up in all the luxury of an Oriental Court, he seems to have been quite
content with the lot which fortune appeared to have assigned him, and to
have coveted no grander position. Tradition says that he was remarkably
handsome, cautious, and of an easy and generous temper. Although
the anecdotes related of his mode of life at Ecbatana by Herodotus,
Xenophon, and Nicolas of Damascus, seem to be for the most part
apocryphal, and at any rate come to us upon authority too weak to
entitle them to a place in history, we may perhaps gather from the
concurrent, descriptions of these three writers something of the general
character of the Court over which he presided. Its leading features do
not seem to have differed greatly from those of the Court of Assyria.
The monarch lived secluded, and could only be seen by those who asked
and obtained an audience. He was surrounded by guards and eunuchs, the
latter of whom held most of the offices near the royal person. The Court
was magnificent in its apparel, in its banquets, and in the number and
organization of its attendants. The courtiers wore long flowing robes
of many different colors, amongst which red and purple predominated,
and adorned their necks with chains or collars of gold, and their wrists
with bracelets of the same precious metal. Even the horses on which
they rode had sometimes golden bits to their bridles. One officer of the
Court was especially called "the King's Eye;" another had the privilege
of introducing strangers to him; a third was his cupbearer; a fourth his
messenger. Guards torch-bearers, serving-men, ushers, and sweepers, were
among the orders into which the lower sort of attendants were divided;
while among the courtiers of the highest rank was a privileged class
known as "the King's table-companions". The chief pastime in which
the Court indulged was hunting. Generally this took place in a park or
"paradise" near the capital; but sometimes the King and Court went out
on a grand hunt into the open country, where lions, leopards, bears,
wild boars, wild asses, antelopes, stags, and wild sheep abounded,
and, when the beasts had been driven by beaters into a confined space,
de