The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [107]
5. And, as if he had lost his senses, appointed Harpagus as their general, forgetting how greatly he had injured him.
6. So when the two armies met, only a few of the Medes fought; others deserted openly to the Persians; while the greater number counterfeited fear, and fled.
7. Astyages, on learning the shameful flight and dispersion of his army, broke out into threats against Cyrus,
8. And directly armed all the Medes who had remained in the city, both young and old;
9. And leading them against the Persians, fought a battle, in which he was utterly defeated, his army destroyed, and he himself captured.
10. Harpagus then, seeing him a prisoner, came near, and exulted over him with jeers.
11. Among other cutting speeches he made, he alluded to the supper where the flesh of his son was given him to eat,
12. And asked Astyages to answer him now, how he enjoyed being a slave instead of a king?
13. Astyages looked in his face, and asked him in return, why he claimed as his own the achievements of Cyrus?
14. ‘Because,’ said Harpagus, ‘it was my letter which made him revolt, and so I am entitled to the credit of the enterprise.’
15. Then Astyages declared that in that case he was at once the silliest and the most unjust of men:
16. The silliest, if when it was in his power to put the crown on his own head, he had placed it on the head of another;
17. The most unjust, if on account of that supper he had brought slavery on his own people, the Medes.
18. For, supposing that he was obliged to invest another with the kingly power, and not retain it himself, yet justice required that a Mede, rather than a Persian, should receive the dignity.
19. Now, however, the Medes, who had been no parties to the wrong of which he complained, were made slaves instead of lords,
20. And slaves moreover of those who till recently had been their subjects.
21. Thus after a reign of thirty-five years, Astyages lost his crown, and the Medes, in consequence of his cruelty, were brought under the rule of the Persians.
22. The Medes’ empire over the parts of Asia beyond the Halys had lasted one hundred and twenty-eight years, except during the time when the Scythians had the dominion.
23. Cyrus kept Astyages at his court during the remainder of his life, without doing him any further injury, because he was his grandfather.
24. Such were the circumstances of the birth and upbringing of Cyrus, and such were the steps by which he mounted the throne.
25. It was at a later date that he was attacked by Croesus, and overthrew him, as related in an earlier portion of this history.
26. Cyrus’ overthrow of Croesus made him master of the whole of Asia.
Chapter 14
1. After the conquest of Lydia by the Persians, the Ionian and Aeolian Greeks sent ambassadors to Cyrus at Sardis, and prayed to become his tributaries as they had been to Croesus.
2. Cyrus listened attentively to their proposals, and answered them by a fable.
3. ‘There was a certain piper,’ he said, ‘who was walking one day by the seaside, when he espied some fish;
4. ‘So he began to pipe to them, imagining they would come out to him on the land.
5. ‘But when he found that his hope was vain, he took a net, and enclosing a great number of them, drew them ashore.
6. ‘The fish then began to leap and dance; but the piper said, “Cease your dancing now, as you did not choose to dance when I piped to you.”’
7. Cyrus gave this answer because, when he urged the Ionians and Aeolians to revolt from Croesus, they refused;
8. But now, when his work was done, they offered allegiance. It was in anger, therefore, that he made this reply.
9. The Ionians, on hearing it, set to work to fortify their towns, and held meetings at the Panionium,
10. Which were attended by all excepting the Milesians, with whom Cyrus had concluded a separate treaty, allowing them the terms they formerly had with Croesus.
11. The other Ionians resolved, with one accord, to send ambassadors to Sparta to beg assistance.
12. Now the Ionian Greeks of Asia, who meet at the Panionium, have built