Page:History of Early Iran.pdf/242

226 mighty victory on the second. Astyages still re­mained on the offensive until a third battle resulted in another complete victory for Cyrus. Astyages then fled with a remnant of his army but was captured after a slight struggle.

The second Greek account is by Herodotus, whose veracity we are seldom able to question. The Father of History knew of only two battles. In the first, at which Astyages was not present, his field commander Harpagus (from whose descendants Herodotus de­rived much information concerning early Media), together with a great part of the army, deserted to Cyrus. In a second battle the aged Astyages himself led the Medes and was taken prisoner.

The sober Babylonian chronicle agrees with this story of Herodotus. Astyages, we are told, collected his army and marched against Cyrus, the king of Anshan. The Median army revolted and handed its sovereign over to Cyrus, who at once proceeded to Ecbatana, the capital of the Median realm, and loot­ed its treasure.

Thus ended the empire of the Medes, and thus be­gan the sovereignty of the Persians. Elam, once great

38 Nicolaus of Damascus in frag. 66; cf. F. Jacoby, Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, II A (Berlin, 1926), 365-70.

39 Strabo Geogr. xv. 3. 8.

40 Herodotus i. 127 f.

41 Sidney Smith, Babylonian Historical Texts, pp. 110 ff. (col. ii,