Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/74

 General History oj Europe the kingdom of Lydia. He captured its capital, Sardis, and took prisoner its king, the wealthy and powerful Croesus (546 B.C.). Within five years the power of the little Persian kingdom had __ thus swept across Asia f'" ,1 II r Minor to the Mediterra- nean and had become the leading state in the orien- tal world. Turning back eastward Cyrus had no trouble in defeating the Chaldean army led by the young crown prince Bel- shazzar, whose name in the Book of Daniel (see Dan. v) is a well-known word throughout the Christian world. In spite of the vast walls erected by Nebuchadnezzar to protect Babylon, the Per- sians entered the great city in 539 B.C. seemingly without resistance. Thus the Semitic East completely collapsed be- fore the advance of the Indo-European power, only sixty-seven years after the Chaldean con- quest of Nineveh (47). All Western Asia was now subject to the Persian kings. In 525 B.C., only three years after the death of Cyrus, his son Cambyses conquered Egypt. This conquest of the only remain- ing ancient oriental power rounded out the Persian Empire to include the whole civilized Orient from the Nile delta around the entire eastern end of the Mediterranean to the ^Egean Sea and RELIEF SHOWING PERSIAN SOLDIERS IN BABYLONIAN GARMENTS Although carrying spears when doing duty as palace guards, these men were chiefly archers, as is shown by the size of the large cases, or quivers, on their backs for con- taining the supply of arrows. The bow hangs on the left shoulder