ds some
difficulty in entering. It is surmounted by a hollow moulding, quite
Egyptian in style, and was closed by a two-leaved stone door. The
golden coffin rested on a couch of the same metal, covered with precious
stuffs; and a circular table, laden with drinking-vessels and ornaments
enriched with precious stones, completed the furniture of the chamber.
The body of the conqueror remained undisturbed on this spot for two
centuries under the care of the priests; but while Alexander was waging
war on the Indian frontier, the Greek officers, to whom he had entrusted
the government of Persia proper, allowed themselves to be tempted by the
enormous wealth which the funerary chapel was supposed to contain.

[Illustration: 129.jpg THE TOMB OP CYRUS]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the heliogravure of Dieulafoy.

They opened the coffin, broke the couch and the table, and finding them
too heavy to carry away easily, they contented themselves with stealing
the drinking-vessels and jewels. Alexander on his return visited the
place, and caused the entrance to be closed with a slight wall of
masonry; he intended to restore the monument to its former splendour,
but he himself perished shortly after, and what remained of the
contents probably soon disappeared. After the death of Cyrus, popular
imagination, drawing on the inexhaustible materials furnished by his
adventurous career, seemed to delight in making him the ideal of all
a monarch should be; they attributed to him every virtue--gentleness,
bravery, moderation, justice, and wisdom. There is no reason to doubt
that he possessed the qualities of a good general--activity, energy, and
courage, together with the astuteness and the duplicity so necessary to
success in Asiatic conquest--but he does not appear to have possessed in
the same degree the gifts of a great administrator. He made no changes
in the system of government which from the time of Tiglath-pileser III.
onwards had obtained among all Oriental sovereigns; he placed satraps
over the towns and countries of recent acquisition, at Sardes and
Babylon, in Syria and Palestine, but without clearly defining their
functions or subjecting them to a supervision sufficiently strict to
ensure the faithful performance of their duties. He believed that he was
destined to found a single empire in which all the ancient empires were
to be merged, and he all but carried his task to a successful close:
Egypt alone remained to be con