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[Illustration:  001.jpg Frontispiece] Howling Dervish

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THE IRANIAN CONQUEST

THE IRANIAN RELIGIONS—­CYRUS IN LYDIA AND AT BABYLON; CAMBYSES IN EGYPT—­DARIUS AND THE ORGANISATION OF THE EMPIRE.

The constitution of the Median empire borrowed from the ancient peoples of the Euphrates:  its religion only is peculiar to itself—­Legends concerning Zoroaster, his laws; the Avesta and its history—­Elements contained in it of primitive religion—­The supreme god Ahura-maza and his Amesha-spentas:  the Yazatas, the Fravashis—­Angro-mainyus and his agents, the Daivas, the Pairikas, their struggle with Ahura-mazda—­The duties of man here below, funerals, his fate after death—–­Worship and temples:  fire-altars, sacrifices, the Magi.

Cyrus and the legends concerning his origin:  his revolt against Astyages and the fall of the Median empire—­The early years of the reign of Nabonidus:  revolutions in Tyre, the taking of Harran—­The end of the reign of Alyattes, Lydian art and its earliest coinage—­Croesus, his relations with continental Greece, his conquests, his alliances with Babylon and Egypt—­The war between Lydia and Persia:  the defeat of the Lydians, the taking of Sardes, the death of Croesus and subsequent legends relating to it—­The submission of the cities of the Asiatic littoral.

Cyrus in Bactriana and in the eastern regions of the Iranian table-land —­The impression produced on the Chaldaean by his victories; the Jewish exiles, Ezekiel and his dreams of restoration, the new temple, the prophecies against Babylon; general discontent with Nabonidus—­The attach of Cyrus and the battle of Zalzallat, the taking of Babylon and the fall of Nabonidus:  the end of the Chaldaean empire and the deliverance of the Jews.

Egypt under Amasis:  building works, support given to the Greeks; Naukratis, its temples, its constitution, and its prosperity—­Preparations for defence and the unpopularity of Amasis with the native Egyptians—­The death of Cyrus and legends relating to it:  his palace at Pasargadae and his tomb—­Cambyses and Smerdis—­The legendary causes of the war with Egypt—­Psammetichus III., the battle of Pelusium; Egypt reduced to a Persian province.

Cambyses’ plans for conquest; the abortive expeditions to the oceans of Amnion and Carthage—­The kingdom of Ethiopia, its kings, its customs:  the Persians fail to reach Napata, the madness of Cambyses—­The fraud of Gaumata, the death of Cambyses and the reign of the pseudo-Smerdis, the accession of Darius—­The revolution in Susiana, Chaldaea, and Media:  Nebuchadrezzar III. and the fall of Babylon, the death of Oraetes, the defeat of Khshatrita, restoration of peace throughout Asia, Egyptian affairs and the re-establishment of the royal power.