Page:Herodotus and the Empires of the East.djvu/75

Rh rebellious to me. It went over to that Fravartish; he became king in Media." (Behistan, II., 5.) Winckler argues that if the father of Cyaxares (Uvakhshtra) was really called Phraortes, as Herodotus says, and if that pretender of whom Darius speaks had originally the name Fravartish (Phraortes), then we cannot explain his desire to change this name, since he already bore that of one of the early kings of Media, a circumstance most surely in his favor. We may reply that the pretender had to take the name of a wellknown descendant, a grandson or great-grandson of Cyaxares. Doubtless a grandson of this king was called Khshathrita, and this name was taken by Fravartish. He was presumably a member of the early Median royal house, and the Phraortes of Herodotus was one of his ancestors, for it was the custom to give the children the name of a grandfather or great-grandfather. The Behistan inscription does not deny, but rather confirms, the correctness of the statement of our historian.

It is a significant fact that the usurper, Fravartish, calls himself a descendant of Cyaxares. Consequently Cyaxares must have been the last representative of the national kingdom of Media. For if Astyages, who was conquered and dethroned by Cyrus, had been the sen of Cyaxares, the pretender would have called himself the son of Astyages. Therefore we must believe that Astyages was not the last legitimate king of Media, but belonged to that people who had conquered it —i. e., the Umman-manda (Scythians). Furthermore the cuneiform inscriptions call Astyages, "King of the Scythians"—i. e., Šar $amêl$ umman-manda (compare the great Nabû-na'id cylinder of Abû-habba, Col. I., 32).