Page:History of Early Iran.pdf/241

Rh himself began to collect troops from Gaza on the border of Egypt to the Sealands along the Persian Gulf.

By 553 B.C. the plan of Cyrus was evident, and Astyages summoned him to court. Cyrus' refusal to attend constituted active rebellion and was perhaps the prearranged signal for Nabu-naid to proceed against Syria. Harran was wrested from the Median garrison in this year, to the great joy of the Babyloni­an sovereign; but Astyages was not thus diverted and ordered an army sent against his disobedient subject.

Concerning the subsequent warfare we have two variant reports by Greek historians and a dry narra­tive in a Babylonian chronicle. One Greek account, found in the writings of Nicolaus of Damascus, who derived his information from Ctesias, relates a story with a great deal of oriental coloring. The first battle, we read, lasted for two days and was a great victory for Astyages. Fought near the Medo-Persian frontier, the Persians, by whom we would understand the peo­ple of Parsa, fled to Pasargadae. A second battle, near this city, was also of two days' duration; although the Medes gained the advantage on the first day, the Persians, urged on by their womenfolk, obtained a