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The Ancient Empires of the East, Herodotus I

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436 APPENDIX V.<br />

V.<br />

THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.<br />

Persia proper, roughly corresponding to <strong>the</strong> modern province <strong>of</strong><br />

Farsistan, was comparatively a small district, about 450 miles in length<br />

by 250 in breadth. <strong>East</strong>ward it touched on Kerman or Karamania,<br />

AvestAvard it was bounded by Susiana, southward by <strong>the</strong> Persian Gulf.<br />

Its inhabitants were Aryans, whose immigration into <strong>the</strong> country called<br />

after <strong>the</strong>ir name was hardly earlier than <strong>the</strong> period <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> fall <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

Assyrian empire. <strong>The</strong> Assyrian inscrijjtions know nothing <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>m.<br />

Under leaders termed Akhsernenians (from Hakhdmanish, "<strong>the</strong> friendly")<br />

<strong>the</strong> tribe <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Persians pushed its way into <strong>the</strong> old kingdom <strong>of</strong><br />

Anzan, or Sou<strong>the</strong>rn Elam, Avhich had been destroyed and desolated by<br />

<strong>the</strong> armies <strong>of</strong> Assur-bani-pal, and subsequently left a prey to <strong>the</strong> first<br />

invader by <strong>the</strong> deca}^ <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Assyrian power. <strong>The</strong> tribe was but one<br />

out <strong>of</strong> many which had long been steadily advancing westward from<br />

<strong>the</strong> regions <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Hindu Kush. <strong>The</strong> first great wave <strong>of</strong> Aryan emigra-<br />

tion, which had resulted in <strong>the</strong> establishment <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> European nations,<br />

had been followed by ano<strong>the</strong>r wave which first carried <strong>the</strong> Hindus into<br />

<strong>the</strong> Punjab, and <strong>the</strong>n <strong>the</strong> Iranian populations into <strong>the</strong> vast districts <strong>of</strong><br />

Baktria and Ai'iana. Mountains and deserts checked for a time <strong>the</strong>ir<br />

fur<strong>the</strong>r progress, but at length a number <strong>of</strong> tribes, each under its own<br />

chiefs, crept along <strong>the</strong> sou<strong>the</strong>rn shores <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Caspian or <strong>the</strong> nor<strong>the</strong>rn<br />

coast <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Persian Gulf, <strong>The</strong>se tribes were known in later history as<br />

<strong>the</strong> Aryan Medes and Persians.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Medes are first mentioned on <strong>the</strong> Assyrian monuments by<br />

Shalmaneser II. (B.C. 840) under <strong>the</strong> double name <strong>of</strong> Amadai and<br />

Matai, and placed in Matiene. Between <strong>the</strong>m and <strong>the</strong> Zimri <strong>of</strong><br />

Kurdistan intervened <strong>the</strong> people <strong>of</strong> Par'suas, with <strong>the</strong>ir twenty-seven<br />

kings, who occupied <strong>the</strong> south-western shore <strong>of</strong> Lake Urumiyeh, But<br />

it is doubtful whe<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong>se Matai were really <strong>the</strong> Aryan Medes and<br />

not ra<strong>the</strong>r "Protomedes," allied in race and language to <strong>the</strong> Kossseans<br />

and Elamites, and more distantly to <strong>the</strong> Accadians <strong>of</strong> primaeval Baby-<br />

lonia. At any rate <strong>the</strong> name seems derived from <strong>the</strong> Accadian mada,<br />

"country," a title appropriately given to <strong>the</strong> country Avhere <strong>the</strong><br />

"mountain <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> world" Avas situated, and Avhich Avas held to be <strong>the</strong><br />

cradle <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Accadian race ; Avhile <strong>the</strong> name <strong>of</strong> Khanatsiruka, who<br />

ruled over <strong>the</strong> Matai in B.C. 820, certainly has not an Aryan sound.

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