How many of our apparently most firmly established historical dates are annihilated by these little clay cylinders! It appears that Cyrus was not a Persian at all, or an adventurer who raised himself to power by a successful revolt, but the legitimate King of Elam, descended from its ancient royal race through an unbroken succession of several generations. He was in fact a later and greater Kudur-Na-hangti, like the early conqueror of that name who founded the first Elamite empire some 1800 years earlier. It may be doubtful whether he was even an Aryan. At any rate this much is certain, that his religion was Babylonian, and that we must dismiss all Jewish myths of him as a Zoroastrian Monotheist, the servant of the most high God, who favoured the chosen race from sympathy with their religion. On his own showing he was as devoted a worshipper of Merodach, Bel, and Nebo, and the whole pantheon of local gods, as Nebuchadnezzar or Tiglath-Pileser.[2] [2] Sayce, in his _Fresh Light from Ancient Monuments_, says, "Both in his cylinder and in the annalistic tablet, Cyrus, hitherto supposed to be a Persian and Zoroastrian Monotheist, appears as an Elamite and a polytheist." It is pretty certain, however, that although descended from Elamite kings, these were kings of Persian race, who, after the destruction of the old monarchy by Asshurbanipal, had established a new dynasty at the city of Anshad or Susa. Cyrus always traces his descent from Achæmenes, the chief of the leading Persian clan of Pasargadæ, and he was buried there in a tomb visited by Alexander. But as regards religion, it is clear that Cyrus professed himself, and was taken by his contemporaries to be, a devoted servant of Merodach, Nebo, and the other Babylonian deities, to whom he prays for protection and thanks for victories, without any mention of the Zoroastrian supreme God, Ahura-Mazda. Zoroastrian Monotheism only came in with Darius Hystaspes, the founder of the purely Persian second dynasty, after that of Cyrus became extinct with his son Cambyses. What a lesson does this teach us as to the untrustworthy nature of the scraps of ancient history which have come down to us from verbal traditions, and are not confirmed by contemporary monuments! Herodotus wrote within a few generations of Cyrus, and the relations of Greece to the Persian Empire had been close and uninterrupted. His account of its founder Cyrus is not in itself improbable, and is full of details which have every appearance of being historical. It is confirmed to a considerable extent by the Old Testament, and by the universal belief of early classical writers, and yet it is shown to be in essential respects legendary and fabulous, by the testimony of Cyrus himself. PHOENICIA.