the sixth year of the Babylonian king, which corresponds to
the year 550 B.C., and consequently to hold that Cyrus
reckoned his twenty-nine years from the moment when he
succeeded his father Cambyses.

** The inscription on the _Rassam Cylinder of Abu-Habba_,
seems to make the fall of the Median king, who was suzerain
of the Scythians of Harrân, coincide with the third year of
Nabonidus, or the year 553-2 B.C. But it is only the date of
the commencement of hostilities between Cyrus and Astyages
which is here furnished, and this manner of interpreting the
text agrees with the statement of the Median traditions
handed down by the classical authors, that three combats
took place between Astyages and Cyrus before the final
victory of the Persians.

*** This equality of the two peoples is indicated by the
very terms employed by Darius, whom he speaks of them, in
the _Great Inscription of Behistun_. He says, for example,
in connection with the revolt of the false Smerdis, that
"the deception prevailed greatly in the land, in Persia and
Media as well as in the other provinces," and further on,
that "the whole people rose, and passed over from Cambyses
to him, Persia and Media as well as the other countries." In
the same way he mentions "the army of Persians and Medes
which was with him," and one sees that he considered Medes
and Persians to be on exactly the same footing.

The change effected was so natural that their nearest neighbours, the
Chaldæans, showed no signs of uneasiness at the outset. They confined