BABYLON AND PERSIA

MEDIA AND THE RISE OF PERSIA. 279times among its allies, and' at others included in thetitle of the kings of Elam.14. The beginnings of Persia as a nation were notdifferent from those of Media, or, indeed, any othernation. The process is always the same. It is thegathering of the separate and in a great measure in¬dependent clans or tribes under the leadership ofone more numerous, m'ore powerful, more giftedthan the others. That such a movement can beeffected only through the agency and authority ofone master-spirit stands to reason, and the successfulchieftain naturally becomes the king of the state hehas created. Such was the origin of the Persianhereditary monarchy, the founder pf which is known,from testimony too public and solemn to be dis¬puted, to have been Hakhamanish (more familiarunder the Greek form of the name as Akh^menes),a prince of the clan of the Pasargada:;, which was al¬ways held to be the noblest of the three rulingtribes. (See p. 278.) He must have been a con¬temporary of Asshurbanipal, and was succeeded by along line of kings, famous under the name of Ak-H^EMENID/E or Akhsemenian dynasty, the lastscion of which lost his crown and life in the strug¬gle with the young Greek conqueror, Alexander ofMacedon (331 B.C.). The tribal city of the clan, alsocalled Pasargada;, became the royal capital of theunited nation. It was regarded with great reverenceever after as the cradle of the monarchy, and whenthat monarchy extended into the mightiest empirethat the world had yet seen, and its kings had thechoice of four great capitals for their residence, the