Page:Herodotus and the Empires of the East.djvu/81

Rh of his family were kings, and he himself was the ninth, but mentions (Bh., I., 2; Bh., a) only five of his ancestors. The three omitted ancestors could not precede Achasmenes, since he was the founder of the race, but must be inserted between Achasmenes and Teïspes. Here Herodotus helps us in supplying after Achæmenes, Teïspes I., Cambyses, and Cyrus, and enumerates the ancestors mentioned in the Behistan inscription as Teïspes II., Ariaramnes, Arsames, Hystaspes.

We turn now to the testimony of the Cyrus cylinder. Here Cyrus the Great (20 fg.) gives his genealogy thus: " I am Cyrus, the king of all things, the great king, the powerful king, the king of Babylon, the king of Shumer and Akkad, the king of the four quarters of heaven; son of Cambyses, the great king, the king of Anshan; grandson of Cyrus, the great king, the king of Anshan; descendant of Teïspes, the great king, the king of Anshan, of the ancient royal blood." Moreover in this document (1. 14) Cyrus the Great is himself called king of Anshan.

Now Darius after the death of Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, claimed the throne in virtue of nearest kinship to the royal race; hence those eight kings, which he speaks of in the Behistan inscription, were doubtless the ancestors of his predecessor. Cyrus was the first to establish the glory of the race of the Achaemenidae. To him and to his ancestors, the kings of Anshan, and to his son Cambyses, Darius could refer, if he wished to extol the glory of his family. He was warranted in doing this because the ancestors of Cyrus were in part his own ancestors; for if Darius was the nearest relative of Cambyses, there must have been to