t of Nakhsh-i-Rustem. The campaign in which it was
subjugated must be placed about 512 B.C.

[Illustration: 192.jpg FUNERAL OFFERINGS.]

From the Iranian plateau they beheld from afar the immense plain of the
Hapta Hindu (or the Punjab). Darius invaded this territory, and made
himself master of extensive districts which he formed into a new
satrapy, that of India, but subsequently, renouncing all idea of
pushing eastward as far as the Granges, he turned his steps towards the
southeast. A fleet, constructed at Peukela and placed under the command
of a Greek admiral, Scylax of Caryanda, descended the Indus by order
of the king;* subjugating the tribes who dwelt along the banks as he
advanced, Scylax at length reached the ocean, on which he ventured
forth, undismayed by the tides, and proceeded in a westerly direction,
exploring, in less than thirty months, the shores of Gedrosia and
Arabia.

* Scylax published an account of his voyage which was still
extant in the time of Aristotle. Hugo Berger questions the
authenticity of the circumnavigation of Arabia, as that of
the circumnavigation of Africa under Necho.

Once on the threshold of India, the Persians saw open before them a
brilliant and lucrative career: the circumstances which prevented them
from following up this preliminary success are unknown--perhaps the
first developments of nascent Buddhism deterred them--but certain it
is that they arrested their steps when they had touched merely the
outskirts of the basin of the Indus, and retreated at once towards the
west. The conquest of Lydia, and subsequently of the Greek cities and
islands along the coast of the AEgean, had doubtless enriched the empire
by the acquisition of active subject populations, whose extraordinary
aptitude in the arts of peace as well as of war might offer incalculable
resources to a sovereign who should know how to render them tractable
and rule them wisely. Not only did they possess the elements of a navy
as enterprising and efficacious as that of the Phoenicians, but the
perfection of their equipment and their discipline on land rendered them
always superior to any Asiatic army, in whatever circumstances, unless
they were crushed by overwhelming numbers. Inquisitive, bold, and
restless, greedy of gain, and inured to the fatigues and dangers of
travel, the Greeks were to be encountered everywhere--in Asia Minor,
Egypt, Syria, Babylon, and even Persia itself; and i