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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-mazâ and
his Amêsha-spentas: the Yazatas, the Fravashis--Angrô-mainyus and his
agents, the Daîvas, the Pairîkas, their struggle with Ahura-mazdâ--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 Harrân--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._