Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/205

 FKRSTAN TRIBES. - PASARGADJE. j 37 Greeks on the eastern side of the Tigris, gives us to understand that the conquest of Media by the Persians was reported to him as having been an obstinate and protracted struggle. However this may be, the preponderance of the Persians was at last com- plete : though the Medes always continued to be the second nation in the empire, after the Persians, properly so called ; and by early Greek writers the great enemy in the East is often called " the Mede, 1 " as well as " the Persian." Ekbatana always continued to be one of the capital cities, and the usual summer residence, of the kings of Persia ; Susa on the Choaspes, on the Kissian plain farther southward, and east of the Tigri?, being their winter abode. The vast space of country comprised between the Indus on the east, the Oxus and Caspian sea to the north, the Persian gulf and Indian ocean to the south, and the line of Mount Zagros to the west, appears to have been occupied in these times by a great variety of different tribes and people, but all or most of them belonging to the religion of Zoroaster, and speaking dialects of the Zend language. 2 It was known amongst its inhabitants by the common name of Iran, or Aria : it is, in its central parts at least, a high, cold plateau, totally destitute of wood and scantily supplied with water ; much of it, indeed, is a salt and sandy desert, unsusceptible of culture. Parts of it are eminently fer- tile, where water can be procured and irrigation applied ; and scattered masses of tolerably dense population thus grew up. But continuity of cultivation is not practicable, and in ancient times, as at present, a large proportion of the population of Iran seems to have consisted of wandering or nomadic tribes, with their tents and cattle. The rich pastures, and the freshness of the summer climate, in the region of mountain and valley near Ekbatana, are extolled by modern travellers, just as they attracted the Great King in ancient times, during the hot months. The 1 Xenophanes, Fragm. p. 39, ap. Schneidewin, Delectus Poett. Elegiac. Grose. II^Ai/cof ^<r$' 3i9-' 6 M^dof ufyiKETo ; compare Thcognis, v, 775, and Herodot. i, 163. a Strabo. xv, p. 724. 6/wyilwrrot irapa [titcpov. See Hceren, Ueber den Verkehr der Alten Welt, part i, book i, pp. 320-340, and Bitter, Erdkund& West Asicn, b. Hi. Abtheil. ii, sects. 1 and 2, pp. 17-84-