historian Dinon, as far as we can judge from the extant
fragments of his work, and from the abridgment made by
Trogus Pompeius, adopted the narrative of Ctesias, mingling
with it, however, some details taken from Herodotus and the
romance of Xenophon, the Cyropodia.

The Medes, who could not forgive him for having made them subject to
their ancient vassals, took delight in holding him up to scorn, and not
being able to deny the fact of his triumph, explained it by the adoption
of tortuous and despicable methods. They would not even allow that he
was of royal birth, but asserted that he was of ignoble origin, the son
of a female goatherd and a certain Atradates,* who, belonging to
the savage clan of the Mardians, lived by brigandage. Cyrus himself,
according to this account, spent his infancy and early youth in a
condition not far short of slavery, employed at first in sweeping out
the exterior portions of the palace, performing afterwards the same
office in the private apartments, subsequently promoted to the charge of
the lamps and torches, and finally admitted to the number of the royal
cupbearers who filled the king's goblet at table.

* According to one of the historians consulted by Strabo,
Cyrus himself, and not his father, was called Atradates.

[Illustration: 039.jpg A ROYAL HUNTING-PARTY IN HUN]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the silver vase in the Museum
of the Hermitage.

When he was at length enrolled in the bodyguard,* he won distinction by
his skill in all military exercises, and having risen from rank to rank,