Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/206

 188 HISTORY OF GREECE. more southerly province called Persis proper (Farsistan) consist* also in part of mountain land interspersed with valley arid plain, abundantly watered, and ample in pasture, sloping gradually down to low grounds on the sea-coast which are hot and dry. The care bestowed, both by Medes and Persians, on the breed- ing of their horses, was remarkable. 1 There were doubtless material differences between different parts of the population of this vast plateau of Iran. Yet it seems that, along with their common language and religion, they had also something of a common character, which contrasted with the Indian population east of the Indus, the Assyrians west of Mount Zagros, and the Massagetae and other Nomads of the Caspian and the sea of Aral, less brutish, restless, and bloodthirsty, than the latter, more fierce, contemptuous, and extortionate, and less capable of sus- tained industry, than the two former. There can be little doubt, at the time of which we are now speaking, when the wealth and cultivation of Assyria were at their maximum, that Iran also was far better peopled than ever it has been since European ob- servers have been able to survey it ; especially the northeastern portion, Baktria and Sogdiana : so that the invasions of the no- mads from Turkestan and Tartary, which have been so destruc- tive at various intervals since the Mohammedan conquest, were before that period successfully kept back. The general analogy among the population of Iran probably enabled the Persian conqueror with comparative ease to extend his empire to the east, after the conquest of Ekbatana, and to become the full heir of the Median kings. And if we may believe Ktesias, even the distant province of Baktria had been before subject to those kings : it at first resisted Cyrus, but find ing that he had become son-in-law of Astyages as well as master of his person, it speedily acknowledged his authority. 5 According to the representation of Herodotus, the war between Cyrus and Croesus of Lydia began shortly after the capture of Astyages, and before the conquest of Baktria. 3 Crcesus was 1 About the province of Persis, see Strabo, xv, p. 727 ; Diodor. xix, 21 ; Qnintus Curtius, v, 13, 14, pp. 432-434, with the valuable explanatory notea of Miitzell (Berlin, 1841). Compare, also, Moriers Second Journey in Persia, pp. 49-120, and Ritter, Erdkunde, "West Asien, pp. 712-738. ' Ktesias. Persica. c. 2. 3 Herodot i, 153.