m to join their cause. Darius, still detained before
Babylon, was unable to recommence hostilities until the end of 520
B.C. He sent Vaumisa to replace Dadarshish as the head of the army in
Armenia, and the new general distinguished himself at the outset by
winning a decisive victory on the 15th of Anamaka, near Izitush in
Assyria; but the effect which he hoped to secure from this success was
neutralised almost immediately by grievous defections. Sagartia, in the
first place, rose in rebellion at the call of a pretended descendant
of Oyaxares, named Chitrantakhma; Hyrcania, the province governed by
Hystaspes, the father of Darius, followed suit and took up the cause
of Khshatrita, and soon after Margiana broke out into revolt at the
instigation of a certain Frada. Even Persia itself deserted Darius, and
chose another king instead of a sovereign whom no one seemed willing to
acknowledge. Many of the mountain tribes could not yet resign themselves
to the belief that the male line of Cyrus had become extinct with the
death of Cambyses. The usurpation of Gaumata and the accession of Darius
had not quenched their faith in the existence of Smerdis: if the Magian
were an impostor, it did not necessarily follow that Smerdis had been
assassinated, and when a certain Vahyazdata rose up in the town of
Tarava in the district of Yautiya, and announced himself as the younger
son of Cyrus, they received him with enthusiastic acclamations. A
preliminary success gained by Hystaspes at Vispauzatish, in Parthia, on
the 22nd of Viyakhna, 519 B.C., prevented the guerilla bands of Hyrcania
from joining forces with the Medes, and some days later the fall of
Babylon at length set Darius free to utilise his resources to the
utmost. The long resistance of Nebuchadrezzar furnished a fruitful theme
for legend: a fanciful story was soon substituted for the true account
of the memorable siege he had sustained. Half a century later, when
his very name was forgotten, the heroism of his people continued to
be extolled beyond measure. When Darius arrived before the ramparts he
found the country a desert, the banks of the canals cut through, and the
gardens and pleasure-houses destroyed. The crops had been gathered and
the herds driven within the walls of the city, while the garrison had
reduced by a massacre the number of non-combatants, the women having all
been strangled, with the exception of those who were needed to bake the
bread. At the end of twent