avellers,
just as they attracted the Great King in ancient times during the hot
months. The more southerly province called Persis proper (Faristan)
consists also in part of mountain land interspersed with valley and
plain, abundantly watered, and ample in pasture, sloping gradually down
to low grounds on the sea-coast which are hot and dry: the care bestowed
both by Medes and Persians on the breeding of their horses was
remarkable. There were doubtless material differences between different
parts of the population of this vast plateau of Iran. Yet it seems that,
along with their common language and religion, they had also something
of a common character, which contrasted with the Indian population east
of the Indus, the Assyrians west of Mount Zagros, and the Massagetae and
other Nomads of the Caspian and the Sea of Aral--less brutish, restless
and blood-thirsty than the latter--more fierce, contemptuous and
extortionate, and less capable of sustained industry, than the two
former. There can be little doubt, at the time of which we are now
speaking, when the wealth and cultivation of Assyria were at their
maximum, that Iran also was far better peopled than ever it has been
since European observers have been able to survey it--especially the
north-eastern portion, Bactria and Sogdiana--so that the invasions of
the Nomads from Turkestan and Tartary, which have been so destructive at
various intervals since the Mohammedan conquest, were before that period
successfully kept back.

The general analogy among the population of Iran probably enabled the
Persian conqueror with comparative ease to extend his empire to the
east, after the conquest of Ekbatana, and to become the full heir of the
Median kings. If we may believe Ctesias, even the distant province of
Bactria had been before subject to those kings. At first it resisted
Cyrus, but finding that he had become son-in-law of Astyages, as well as
master of his person, it speedily acknowledged his authority.

According to the representation of Herodotus, the war between Cyrus and
Croesus of Lydia began shortly after the capture of Astyages, and before
the conquest of Bactria. Croesus was the assailant, wishing to avenge
his brother-in-law, to arrest the growth of the Persian conqueror, and
to increase his own dominions. His more prudent counsellors in vain
represented to him that he had little to gain, and much to lose, by war
with a nation alike hardy and poor. He is repres