s and
warlike spirit, the Persians were not a whit behind the Greeks,"
and that their defeat was "wholly owing to the inferiority of their
equipment and training." Without proper shields, with little defensive
armor, wielding only short swords and lances that were scarcely more
than javelins, they dashed themselves upon the serried ranks of the
Spartans, seizing the huge spear-shafts of these latter with their
hands, striving to break them, and to force a way in. No conduct could
have been braver than this, which the modern historian well compares
with brilliant actions of the Romans and the Swiss. The Persians
thoroughly deserved to be termed (as they are termed by AEschylus), a
"valiant-minded people;" they had boldness, elan, dash, and considerable
tenacity and stubbornness; no nation of Asia or Africa was able to stand
against them; if they found their masters in the Greeks, it was owing,
as the Greeks themselves tell us, to the superiority of Hellenic arms,
equipment, and, above all, of Hellenic discipline, which together
rendered the most desperate valor unavailing, when it lacked the support
of scientific organization and united simultaneous movement.

The energy of the Persians during the earlier years of their ascendancy
is no less remarkable than their courage. AEschylus speaks of a
mysterious fate which forced them to engage continually in a long series
of wars, to take delight in combats of horse, and in the siege and
overthrow of cities. Herodotus, in a tone that is not very different,
makes Xerxes, soon after his accession, represent himself as bound by
the examples of his forefathers to engage his country in some great
enterprise, and not suffer the military spirit of his people to decay
through want of employment. We shall find, when we come to consider the
history of the Empire, that, for eighty years, under four sovereigns,
the course indicated by these two writers was in fact pursued--that
war followed on war, expedition on expedition--the active energy of
sovereign and people carrying them on, without rest or pause, in a
career of conquest that has few parallels in the history of Oriental
nations. In the subsequent period, this spirit is less marked; but,
at all times, a certain vigor and activity has characterized the race,
distinguishing it in a very marked way from the dreamy and listless
Hindus upon the one hand, and the apathetic Turks upon the other.

The Persian love of truth was a favorite t