PERSIA
713
PERSIA
Smerdis to death. In 525 Cambyses, aided by a
Pha?nieian fleet, conquered Egypt and advanced
against tiie Sudan, but was compelled to return to
Egypt. On his way home, and while in Syria, being
informed that Gaumata, a Magian, pretending to be
the murdered Smerdis, had seized the throne, Camby-
ses committed suicide (522) and was succeeded, in 521,
by Darius Hystaspes, who, with six other princes, suc-
ceeded in overthrowing the usurper Gaumata.
With the accession of Darius, the throne passed to the second line of descendants of Teispes II, and thus the Elamite dynasty came to an end. This was soon fol- lowed by a general revolt in all the provinces, including Babylon, where a son of Nabonidus was proclaimed king. Susiana also rose up in arms, and Darius was confronted with the task of reconquering the empire founded by Cyrus. In 519 Babylon was conquered, all the other pro\dnces, mcluding Egypt, were pacified and the wliole empire reorganized and divided into satrapies with fixed administration and taxes. In 515 the Asiatic Greeks began to rebel, but were crushed by Darius. Thence he marched to the Indus and subju- gated the country along its banks. In 499 the lonians revolted, but were defeated and the city of Miletus destroyed (494 b. c). In 492 Mardonius, one of Da- rius's generals, set out to reconquer Greece, concen- trating all his forces in Cilicia; but the Persians were defeated at Marathon (490 B. c). In 485 Darius was succeeded by his son, Xerxes I, who immediately set out to reconquer Egypt and Babylon, and renewed the war against Greece. After the indecisive battles of Thermopyla; and Artemisium, he was defeated by Themistocles at Salamis near Athens (480). During the years 479-465, Xerxes met with constant reverses; he gradually lost Attica, Ionia, the Arcliipelago, and Thrace, and at last was assassinated by Artabanus and Artaxerxes. The latter, becoming king as Arta- xerxes I, in 464 quelled revolts in Bactria and Egypt in the year 454. In 449, the Persian fleet and army having been again defeated near Salamis, in Cyprus, a treaty of peace was made between Persia and Athens. Artaxerxes died in 424 and was succeeded by his eldest son, Xerxes II, who reigned but forty-five days and was murdered by his half-brother Sogdianus. Sog- dianus reigned six months and was murdered by Ochus, who ascended the throne in 423 as Dariua II Nothus (the Bastard).
In 412, Darius II compelled Sparta to recognize Persian suzerainty over the Greek cities of Asia Minor, and reconquered the cities of Ionia and Caria. On his death, in 404, Arsaees, his eldest son, ascended the throne as Artaxerxes II, and quelled revolts in Cy- prus, Asia Minor, and Egypt. But in the last seven years of his reign, Egypt and Asia Minor became once more independent. He died in 359 and was succeeded by his son Ochus, known as Artaxerxes III. In this same year, the Persians were defeated in Egypt and lost Phoenicia and Cyprus (352) ; but in 345-340, Arta- xerxes succeeded in conquering and crushing Sidon, Cyprus, and Egypt. In 338 he was murdered and was succeeded by his youngest son. Arses, who was in his turn put to death by the eunuch Bagoas (335), and was succeeded by Codomannus, great-grandson of Darius II, who assumed the name of Darius III. In 334 Alexander, the son of Philip of Macedon, began his career of conquest by subduing all Asia Minor and Northern Syria. After conquering Tyre, Phoenicia, Judea, and Egypt in 332, he invaded Assyria, and at Arbela,in 331, defeated Darius and his vast army, thus putting an end to the .\cha;menian dynasty. Darius III fled to Media, where he was seized and murdered by Bessus, Satrap of Bactria (330), while Alexander entered Babylon and Susa, and subdued the provinces of Elam, Persia, and Media. Bessus, the murderer of Darius, who had proclaimed himself King of Persia under the name of Artaxerxes IV. fell into Alexander's hands and was put to death (330 B. c).
B. The Greek, or Seleucian, Dynasty (331-250 B. c).
— ^^"ith Alexander's signal victory over Darius
III at Arbela (Guagamela), in 331, the Acha-menian
Kingdom of Persia came to an end. Alexander
founded more than seventy cities in which he planted
Greek and Macedonian colonies. But the great con-
queror, greedy for sensual pleasures, plunged into a
course of dissipation which ended in his death, 13
June, 323. Dissension and civil wars broke out at
once in every quarter of the vast empire, from India
to the Nile, and lasted for nearly forty-two years.
Perdiccas, the regent of Babylon during the minority
of Alexander's son, was soon assassinated, and his
power claimed by Pitho, Satrap of Media; but Pitho
was displaced by a conspiracy of the other satraps,
who, in 316, chose Eumenes to occupy the throne of
Alexander. Eumenes was betrayed into the hands
of Antigonus, another great Macedonian general, who
again was obliged, in 312, to yield to Seleucus, one
of the Alexandrian generals, founder of the Seleucid
djTiasty. He built the city of Seleucia, on the Tigris,
making it the capital of the Persian, or rather Grajco-
Persian, Empire. The great disturbing element during
the Seleucian period was the rivalry between Greeks
and Macedonians, as well as between cavalry and
infantry. The Greek colonists in Bactria revolted
against Macedonian arrogance and were with diffi-
culty pacified by Seleucus Nicator. But the dissat-
isfaction continued, and, in the reign of Antiochus
II, about 240 b. c, Diodotus, Satrap of Bactria,
revolted and founded a separate Greek state in the
heart of Central Asia. This Kingdom of Bactria pre-
sents one of the most singular episodes in history.
A small colony of foreigners, many hundred miles from
the sea, entirely isolated, and numbering probably
not over thirty-five thousand, not only maintained
their independence for about one hundred years in a
strange land, but extended their conquests to the
Ganges, and included several hundred populous cities
in their dominions.
The reign of Seleucus Nicator lasted from 312 to 280 B. c. His first care was to reorganize his empire and satrapies (seventy-two in number), which yielded him an annual revenue equivalent to about twenty million dollars. In 289 he removed the seat of gov- ernment from Seleucia to Antioch, in Syria. But, as it was impossible to govern properly so extensive an empire from so distant a capital, he found it advisable to make over the upper satrapies to Antiochus, his son, giving him Seleucia as his capital (293 B. c). In 280, however, Seleucus was assassinated and was succeeded by his son, Antiochus I (called Soter), whose reign of twenty-one years was devoid of in- terest. His second son, Antiochus II (called Theos), succeeded him in 261, a drunken and dissolute prince, who neglected his realm for the society of unworthy favourites. During his reign, north-eastern Persia was lost to the empire, and some Bactrians, embold- ened by the weakness and effeminacy of Antiochus, and led by the brothers, Arsaees and Tiridates, moved west into Seleucid territory, near Parthia. Pherecles, the Seleucid satrap, having insulted Tiridates, was slain, and Parthia freed from the Macedonians. Ar- saees, the brother of Tiridates, was proclaimed first King of Parthia in 250 B. c, and the Seleucid dynasty fell into decay.
C. The Arsacid, or Parthian Dynasty (250 B. c. -A. D. 216). — The founding of the Parthian monarchy marks the opening of a glorious era in the history of Persia. The Parthians, though inferior in refinement, habits, .and civilization to the Persians proper, form, nevertheless, a branch of \\w same stock. They were originally a nom.adic tribe and, Wkv. the Persians, followers of Zoroaster. They had their own custorns, and were famovis for their horsemanship, their armies being entirely composed of cavalry, completely clad in chain armour and riding-wit hout saddles. They left
