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 Western Asia : TJie Me do-Persian Empire 9^ In the west these wanderers from the northern grasslands had already crossed the Danube and were far down in the Balkan peninsula by 2000 B.C. Some of them had doubtless already en- tered Italy by this time. These western tribes were, of course, the ancestors of the Greeks and Romans. We shall yet join them and follow them in their conquest of the Mediterranean (pp. 1 23 ff .). Before doing so, however, we have to watch the eastern wing of the vast Indo-European line as it swings southward and comes into collision with the right wing of the Semitic line. Section 17. The Aryan Peoples and the Iranian Prophet Zoroaster It is now an established fact that the easternmost tribes of The Aryans-, -r 1 -r-. T 1 1 J i- • the advance the Indo-European hne were by 2000 B.C. already pastunng of the east- their herds in the great steppe on the east of the Caspian, ^j^" 7nd?-°^ Here they formed a people properly called the Aryans^ (see European Fig. 49) and here they made their home for some time. The Aryan people had no writing, and they have left no monuments. Nevertheless the beliefs of their descendants show that the Religion Aryan tribes already possessed a high form of religion, which summed up conduct as " good thoughts, good deeds." Fire occupied an important place in this faith, and they had a group of priests whom they called " fire-kindlers." When the Aryans broke up, perhaps about 1800 B.C., they Aryans sepa- ,^, .,, 1 , rate into two separated into two parts. The eastern tribes wandered south- groups eastward and eventually arrived in India. In their sacred books, 1 The Indo-European parent people apparently had no common name appli- cable to all their tribes as a great group. The term " Aryan " is. often popularly applied to the parent people, but this custom is incorrect. Aryan (from which Iran and Iranian are later derivatives) designated a group of tribes, a fragment of the parent people, which detached itself and found a home for some centuries just east of the Caspian Sea. When we hear the term " Aryan " applied to the Indo- European peoples of Europe, or when it is said that we ourselves are descended from the Aryans, we must remember that this use of the word is historically in- correct, though ver>' common. The Aryans, then, were eastern descendants of the Indo-European parent people as we are western descendants of the parent people. The Aryans are our distant cousins but not our ancestors.