BABYLON AND PERSIA

382 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSLA.sion of prisoners approaches, tied together, neckand-neck,by one rope, and with hands bound behindtheir backs. These are the nine principal rebels andimpostors whom it took over six years and nineteenpitched battles to overcome. They were all cap¬tured alive. The last of the band is noticeable forhis pointed cap ; it is the Scythian Sakunka. Shortinscriptions placed above the head of each leave usno doubt about their identity. Attached to -theprostrate figure is the following declaration : " ThisMagian, Gaumata, lied; he spoke thus: 'I am Bar¬diya, the son of Kurush. I am the king.' " Abovethe first standing figure we read : " This Atrina lied ;he spoke thus : ' I am king of Susiana I ' " and so onfor every one.13. In the introduction to this matchless piece ofhistory, Dareios gives a list of the countries of which,by the grace of Ahura-Mazda, he had become king.There are twenty names. The number increases tothirty in the last of his inscriptions, that on histomb, and includes such remote provinces towardsthe four quarters of the worid as, in the east severaldistricts of India (Hindush), in the west "thelonians beyond the sea " (the people of the Greekislands, perhaps even of the Greek continent), the" Scythians beyond the sea " in the north (the peo¬ple of Southern Russizi), the Libyans and Kyreniansin the southwest. It stands to reason that many ofthese countries, situated on the extremest verge ofthe empire, even though visited and more or lessconquered by Dareios, and by him' incorporated inthe list of " Satrapies," 2. ^. provinces governed by