Persia was a small, rocky, hilly, arid country about three hundred miles long by two hundred and fifty wide, situated south of Media, having the Persian Gulf as its southern boundary, the Zagros Mountains on the west separating it from Babylonia, and a great and almost impassable desert on the east, so that it was easily defended.  Its population was composed of hardy, warlike, and religious people, condemned to poverty and incessant toil by the difficulty of getting a living on sterile and unproductive hills, except in a few favored localities.  The climate was warm in summer and cold in winter, but on the whole more temperate than might be supposed from a region situated so near the tropics,—­between the twenty-fifth and thirtieth degrees of latitude.  It was an elevated country, more than three thousand feet above the sea, and was favorable to the cultivation of the fruits and flowers that have ever been most prized, those cereals which constitute the ordinary food of man growing in abundance if sufficient labor were spent on their cultivation, reminding us of Switzerland and New England.  But vigilance and incessant toil were necessary, such as are only found among a hardy and courageous peasantry, turning easily from agricultural labors to the fatigues and dangers of war.  The real wealth of the country was in the flocks and herds that browsed in the valleys and plains.  Game of all kinds was abundant, so that the people were unusually fond of the pleasures of the chase; and as they were temperate, inured to exposure, frugal, and adventurous, they made excellent soldiers.  Nor did they ever as a nation lose their warlike qualities,—­it being only the rich and powerful among them who learned the vices of the nations they subdued, and became addicted to luxury, indolence, and self-indulgence.  Before the conquest of Media the whole nation was distinguished for temperance, frugality, and bravery.  According to Herodotus, the Persians were especially instructed in three things,—­“to ride, to draw the bow, and to speak the truth.”  Their moral virtues were as conspicuous as their warlike qualities.  They were so poor that their ordinary dress was of leather.  They could boast of no large city, like the Median Ecbatana, or like Babylon,—­Pasargadae, their ancient capital, being comparatively small and deficient in architectural monuments.  The people lived chiefly in villages and hamlets, and were governed, like the Israelites under the Judges, by independent chieftains, none of whom attained the rank and power of kings until about one hundred years before the birth of Cyrus.  These pastoral and hunting people, frugal from necessity, brave from exposure, industrious from the difficulty of subsisting in a dry and barren country, for the most sort were just such a race as furnished a noble material for the foundation of a great empire.