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It then changes its course as abruptly to the N.W. again for 3 or 4 miles, once more turns to the S.W., and, as a much coarser chasm, maintains this direction for about 20 miles, till it reaches the S.E. edge of a great mountain plateau N. of Aristarchus, when it swerves slightly towards the S., becoming wider and wider, up to a place a few miles N. of Herodotus, where it expands into a broad valley; and then, somewhat suddenly contracting in width, and becoming less coarse, enters the ring-plain through a gap in the N. wall, as before mentioned.
It was in the form of a square, on both banks of the Euphrates, forty-eight miles in circuit, according to Herodotus, with an area of two hundred square miles—large enough to support a considerable population by agriculture alone.
His own people called Cambyses a "despot" or "master," in contrast with Cyrus, whom they regarded as a "father," because, as Herodotus says, he was "harsh and reckless," whereas his father was mild and beneficent. Further, there was the religious aspect of the revolution, which had taken place, in the background.
But we do not here write a history of the language; we speak only of those who wrote immortal works in the various departments of learning. As Herodotus did not arise until the Greek language had been already formed by the poets, so no great prose writer appeared among the Romans for a considerable time after Plautus, Terence, Ennius, and Lucretius flourished.
On rushed the victorious Spartans to the Persian camp, which they at once assailed. Here they had no success till the Athenians came to their aid, when the walls were stormed and the defenders slain in such hosts that, if we can believe Herodotus, only three thousand out of the three hundred thousand of the army of Mardonius remained alive.
Solomon sings, "As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons." And again, "Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples." The noblest part of man's noblest feature is named from this fruit, "the apple of the eye." The apple-tree is also mentioned by Homer and Herodotus.
Herodotus has been my guide too in the leading features of Cambyses' character; indeed as he was born only forty or fifty years after the events related, his history forms the basis of my romance.
Produce a volume of Plato or of Shakespeare, he says somewhere, or 'only remind us of their names, and instantly we come into a feeling of longevity. That is the scholar's speech. Opening a single essay at random, we find in it citations from Montesquieu, Schiller, Milton, Herodotus, Shelley, Plutarch, Franklin, Bacon, Van Helmont, Goethe.
And La Mothe le Vayer gives expression to similar doubts with reference to other nations. There is no agreement as to the antiquity of the Chaldeans, the age of Homer, the existence of Zoroaster, the two empires of Assyria. Quintus Curtius has manufactured fables. Plutarch gives the lie to Herodotus. We should have a different idea of Cæsar if Vercingetorix had written his Commentaries.
Another deity, practically perhaps as much worshipped as Ormazd and Mithra, was Anaitis or Anahit. Anaiitis was originally an Assyrian and Babylonian, not a Zoroastrian goddess; but her worship spread to the Persians at a date anterior to Herodotus, and became in a short time exceedingly popular. Anaitis was the Babylonian Venus; and her rites at Babylon were undoubtedly of a revolting character.
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