ylonia and
Media, but these were suppressed, and Darius prosecuted the conquests
which Cyrus had begun. He invaded both India and Scythia, while his
general, Megabazus, subdued Thrace and the Greek cities of the Hellespont.

(M196) The king of Macedonia acknowledged the supremacy of the great
monarch of Asia, and gave the customary present of earth and water. Darius
returned at length to Susa to enjoy the fruit of his victories, and the
pleasures which his great empire afforded. For twenty years his glories
were unparalleled in the East, and his life was tranquil.

(M197) But in the year B.C. 500, a great revolt of the Ionian cities took
place. It was suppressed, at first, but the Atticans, at Marathon,
defeated the Persian warriors, B.C. 490, and the great victory changed the
whole course of Asiatic conquest. Darius made vast preparations for a new
invasion of Greece, but died before they were completed, after a reign of
thirty-six years, B.C. 485, leaving a name greater than that of any
Oriental sovereign, except Cyrus.

(M198) Unfortunately for him and his dynasty, he challenged the spirit of
western liberty, then at its height among the cities of Greece. His
successor, Xerxes, inherited his power, but not his genius, and rashly
provoked Europe by new invasions, while he lived ingloriously in his
seraglio. He was murdered in his palace, the fate of the great tyrants of
eastern monarchies, for in no other way than by the assassin's dagger
could a change of administration take place--a poor remedy, perhaps, but
not worse than the disease itself. This tyrant was the Ahasuerus of the
Scriptures.

(M199) We need not follow the fortunes of the imbecile princes who
succeeded Xerxes, for the Persian monarchy was now degenerate and
weakened, and easily fell under the dominion of Alexander, who finally
overthrew the power of Persia, B.C. 330.

(M200) And this was well. The Persian monarchy was an absolute despotism,
like that of Turkey, and the monarch not only controlled the actions of
his subjects, but was the owner even of their soil. He delegated his power
to satraps, who ruled during his pleasure, but whose rule was disgraced by
every form of extortion--sometimes punished, however, when it became
outrageous and notorious. The satraps, like pashas, were virtually
independent princes, and exercised all the rights of sovereigns so long as
they secured the confidence of the supreme monarch, and regularly remitted
to him