Page:Herodotus and the Empires of the East.djvu/87

Rh thou speakest, his land and the kings, his helpers, are no more. In the third year they destroyed him in war, and Cyrus, the king of Ansan (=Anshan), his small vassal, scattered with his few troops the extended hosts of the Scythians. Astyages, the king of the Scythians, he seized and brought bound to his own land." From this account we conclude that Cyrus did not march as a conqueror against the Medes, but to free the Medes and Persians from a foreign power. The national Median troops of Astyages went over in the battle to this king, who was hailed with joy by the Median population. Cyrus therefore had no occasion, after he had taken Astyages prisoner, to conquer the Median kingdom further, for it became his through the fortunes of war. He marched to Ecbatana, took away all the treasures that had been seized by the Scythians, and brought them to his native city, Anshan. From that time on he adds to his other titles not that of king of Media, but styles himself king of Persia. By doing this he emphasizes his national descent.

The increasing power of Cyrus roused the distrust of the Babylonian kings; Lydia and Egypt also appreciated the danger which threatened them from Persia. In consequence of this feeling, as Herodotus (I., 77) states, the Lydians, Babylonians, Egyptians, and the Lacedæmonians, entered into an alliance. Cyrus resolved to strike his adversaries individually; consequently he planned to attack Croesus, the king of the