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 Makers of History

 Darius the Great

 BY

 JACOB ABBOTT

 WITH ENGRAVINGS

 NEW YORK AND LONDON

 HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS

 1904




 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand
 eight hundred and fifty, by

 HARPER & BROTHERS,

 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District
 of New York.

 Copyright, 1878, by JACOB ABBOTT.




[Illustration: DARIUS CROSSING THE BOSPORUS.]




PREFACE.


In describing the character and the action of the personages whose
histories form the subjects of this series, the writer makes no
attempt to darken the colors in which he depicts their deeds of
violence and wrong, or to increase, by indignant denunciations, the
obloquy which heroes and conquerors have so often brought upon
themselves, in the estimation of mankind, by their ambition, their
tyranny, or their desperate and reckless crimes. In fact, it seems
desirable to diminish, rather than to increase, the spirit of
censoriousness which often leads men so harshly to condemn the errors
and sins of others, committed in circumstances of temptation to which
they themselves were never exposed. Besides, to denounce or vituperate
guilt, in a narrative of the transactions in which it was displayed,
has little influence in awakening a healthy sensitiveness in the
conscience of the reader. We observe, accordingly, that in the
narratives of the sacred Scriptures, such denunciations are seldom
found. The story of Absalom's undutifulness and rebellion, of David's
adultery and murder, of Herod's tyranny, and all other narratives of
crime, are related in a calm, simple, impartial, and forbearing
spirit, which leads us to condemn the sins, but not to feel a
pharisaical resentment and wrath against the sinner.

This example, so obviously proper and right, the writer of this series
has made it his endeavor in all respects to follow.




CONTENTS.


 Chapter                                                    Page

    I. CAMBYSES                                              13

   II. THE END OF CAMBYSES                                   38

  III. SMERDIS THE MAGIAN                                    59

   IV. THE ACCESSION OF DARIUS                               82

    V. THE PROVINCES                                         99

   VI. THE RECONNOITERING OF GREECE                         123

  VII. THE REVOLT OF BABYLON                                144

 VIII. THE INVASION OF SCYTHIA                              167

   IX. THE RETREAT FROM SCYTHIA                             189

    X. THE STORY OF HISTIAEUS                                210

   XI. THE INVASION OF GREECE                               233

  XII. THE DEATH OF DARIUS                                  264




ENGRAVINGS.


                                                            Page

 MAP OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.

 DARIUS CROSSING THE BOSPORUS                    _Frontispiece._

 THE ARMY OF CAMBYSES OVERWHELMED IN THE DESERT              35

 PHAEDYMA FEELING FOR SMERDIS'S EARS                          69

 THE INDIAN GOLD HUNTERS                                    121

 THE BABYLONIANS DERIDING DARIUS FROM THE WALL              156

 MAP OF GREECE                                              232

 THE INVASION OF GREECE                                     256




[Illustration: MAP OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.]




DARIUS THE GREAT




CHAPTER I.

CAMBYSES.

B.C. 530-524

Cyrus the Great.--His extended conquests.--Cambyses and
Smerdis.--Hystaspes and Darius.--Dream of Cyrus.--His anxiety and
fears.--Accession of Cambyses.--War with Egypt.--Origin of the war
with Egypt.--Ophthalmia.--The Egyptian physician.--His plan of
revenge.--Demand of Cyrus.--Stratagem of the King of Egypt.--Resentment
of Cassandane.--Threats of Cambyses.--Future conquests.--Temperament
and character of Cambyses.--Impetuosity of Cambyses.--Preparations for
the Egyptian war.--Desertion of Phanes.--His narrow escape.--Information
given by Phanes.--Treaty with the Arabian king.--Plan for providing
water.--Account of Herodotus.--A great battle.--Defeat of the
Egyptians.--Inhuman conduct of Cambyses.--His treatment of
Psammenitus.--The train of captive maidens.--The young men.--Scenes
of distress and suffering.--Composure of Psammenitus.--Feelings of the
father.--His explanation of them.--Cambyses relents.--His treatment of
the body of Amasis.--Cambyses's desecrations.--The sacred bull
Apis.--Cambyses stabs the sacred bull.--His mad expeditions.--The sand
storm.--Cambyses a wine-bibber.--Brutal act of Cambyses.--He is deemed
insane.


About five or six hundred years before Christ, almost the whole of the
interior of Asia was united in one vast empire. The founder of this
empire was Cyrus the Great. He was originally a Persian; and the whole
empire is often called the Persian monarchy, taking its name from its
founder's native land.

Cyrus was not contented with having annexed to his dominion all the
civilized states of Asia. In the latter part of his life, he conceived
the idea that there might possibly be some additional glory and power
to be acquired in subduing certain half-savage regions in the north,
beyond the Araxes. He accordingly raised an army, and set off on an
expedition for this purpose, against a country which was governed by a
barbarian queen named Tomyris