indications of remarkable military
talent. Artaxerxes, having taken the measure of his antagonist during
the course of the Roman war, having estimated his resources and formed
a decided opinion on the relative strength of Persia and Parthia,
deliberately resolved, a few years after the Roman war had come to an
end, to revolt and accept the consequences. He was no doubt convinced
that his nation would throw itself enthusiastically into the struggle,
and he believed that he could conduct it to a successful issue. He felt
himself the champion of a depressed, if not an oppressed, nationality,
and had faith in his power to raise it into a lofty position. Iran,
at any rate, should no longer, he resolved, submit patiently to be the
slave of Turan; the keen, intelligent, art-loving Aryan people should no
longer bear submissively the yoke of the rude, coarse, clumsy Scyths. An
effort after freedom should be made. He had little doubt of the result.
The Persians, by the strength of their own right arms and the blessing
of Ahuramazda, the "All-bounteous," would triumph over their impious
masters, and become once more a great and independent people. At the
worst, if he had miscalculated, there would be the alternative of
a glorious death upon the battle-field in one of the noblest of all
causes, the assertion of a nation's freedom.

CHAPTER II.

_Situation and Size of Persia. General Character of the Country and
Climate. Chief Products. Characteristics of the Persian People, physical
and moral. Differences observable in the Race at different periods._

Persia Proper was a tract of country lying on the Gulf to which it has
given name, and extending about 450 miles from north-west to south-east,
with an average breadth of about 250 miles. Its entire area may be
estimated at about a hundred thousand square miles. It was thus larger
than Great Britain, about the size of Italy, and rather less than half
the size of France. The boundaries were, on the west, Elymais or Susiana
(which, however, was sometimes reckoned a part of Persia); on the north,
Media; on the east, Carmania; and on the south, the sea. It is nearly
represented in modern times by the two Persian provinces of Farsistan
and Laristan, the former of which retains, but slightly changed, the
ancient appellation. The Hindyan or Tab (ancient Oroatis) seems towards
its mouth to have formed the western limit. Eastward, Persia extended
to about the site of the modern Bun