Persia from the Earliest Period to the Arab

3 HISTORY OF PERSIA.
In most cases, personation was the ordinary practice,
the rebel asserting that he was the son, grandson, or
lineal descendant of some previously famous monarch.
Against the Babylonians Darius marched in person, and,
after two great battles, captured the city of Babylon;
in most other cases, he was content to send one or
other of the six chiefs, as Hydarnes and Gobryas, &c.
It would also appear that against the mountain tribes
to the north Darius found it necessary to march him-
self, as, though a series of victories had been duly
claimed by his generals, it is clear that these had
been temporary if not nominal. In the course of this
war, the Ecbatana of Upper Media (Takt-i-Suleimdn)
fell into his hands ; while the rebellion in Parthia and
Hyrcania was crushed by an advance upon Rhages.
Professor Rawlinson has pointed out that, so far as
there is any historical substratum to the book of
Judith, the events there related belong to this period,
as the story given in that apocryphal book agrees fairly
with what we can gather from other sources. The
Arphaxad taken prisoner at Rhages must, on this
supposition, be the rebel Xathrites, and Nebuchadonosor
Darius himself. The Behista"n inscription,
is believed to have been executed about B.C. 516-515,
and, if so, must have have been carved during the
period of repose which followed the suppression of
the first great rebellions, or in the fifth or sixth years
of Darius.
Having reduced the various revolts that had so long
O o
troubled his empire, Darius divided his vast dominions
into a series of local governments, called " satrapies V'
1 This word is of Persian origin, and the office was common to