f the kingdom was of a most uncertain kind. So many
changes had passed over the various provinces which made up the great
empire that, for generations, there had been almost a new religion for
every monarch. Cyrus, inclining to the idolatry of the Phoenicians, had
worshipped the sun and moon, and had built temples and done sacrifice to
them and to a multitude of deities. Cambyses had converted the temples
of his father into places of fire-worship, and had burnt thousands of
human victims; rejoicing in the splendour of his ceremonies and in the
fierce love of blood that grew upon him as his vices obtained the
mastery over his better sense. But under both kings the old Aryan
worship of the Magians had existed among the people, and the Magians
themselves had asserted, whenever they dared, their right to be
considered the priestly caste, the children of the Brahmins of the Aryan
house. Gomata--the false Smerdis--was a Brahmin, at least in name, and
probably in descent; and during his brief reign the only decrees he
issued from his retirement in the palace of Shushan, were for the
destruction of the existing temples and the establishment of the Magian
worship throughout the kingdom. When Darius had slain Smerdis, he
naturally proceeded to the destruction of the Magi, and the streets of
Shushan ran with their blood for many days. He then restored the temples
and the worship of Auramazda, as well as he was able; but it soon became
evident that the religion was in a disorganised state and that it would
be no easy matter to enforce a pure monotheism upon a nation of men who,
in their hearts, were Magians, nature-worshippers; and who, through
successive reigns, had been driven by force to the adoration of strange
idols. It followed that the people resisted the change and revolted
whenever they could find a leader. The numerous revolutions, which cost
Darius no less than nineteen battles, were, almost without exception,
brought about in the attempt to restore the Magian worship in various
provinces of the kingdom, and it may well be doubted whether, at any
time in the world's history, an equal amount of blood was ever shed in
so short a period in the defence of religious convictions.

Darius himself was a man who had the strongest belief in the power of
Auramazda, the All-Wise God, and who did not hesitate to attribute all
the evil in the world to Ahriman, the devil. He had a bitter contempt
for all idolatry, nature-worship and sup