HISTORY.--The first authentic notice that we have of the MEDES shows them under Assyrian power. This is in the time of _Shalmaneser II._, 840 B.C. Their rise is coincident with the fall of Assyria. _Phraortes_ (647-625 B.C.) began the Median struggle for independence; although the name of _Deioces_ is given by _Herodotus_ as a previous king, and the builder of _Ecbatana_ the capital. It was reserved for _Cyaxares_ (625-585 B.C.), having delivered his land from the Scythian marauders (p. 47), to complete, in conjunction with the Babylonian king, _Nabopolassar_, the work of breaking down the Assyrian empire (p. 48). He brought under his rule the _Bactrians_, and the _Persians_ about _Pasargadæ_ and _Persepolis_, and made the _Halys_, dividing Asia Minor, the limit of his kingdom. His effeminate son, _Astyages_, lost what his father had won. The Persian branch of the Iranians gained the supremacy. _Cyrus_, the leader of the Persian revolt, by whom _Astyages_ was defeated, is described as related to him; but this story, as well as the account of his being rescued from death and brought up among shepherds, is probably a fiction. CYRUS.--In the sixth century B.C., this famous ruler and conqueror became the founder of an empire which comprised nearly all the civilized nations of Asia. During his reign of thirty years (559-530 B.C.), he annexed to his kingdom the two principal states, LYDIA and BABYLON. The king of Lydia was _Croesus_, whose story, embellished with romantic details, was long familiar as a signal example of the mutations of fortune. Doomed to be burned after the capture of _Sardis_, his capital, he was heard, just when the fire was to be kindled, to say something about _Solon_. In answer to the inquiry of Cyrus, whose curiosity was excited, he related how that Grecian sage, after beholding his treasures, had refused to call him the most fortunate of men, on the ground that "no man can be called happy before his death," because none can tell what disasters may befall him. Cyrus, according to the narrative, touched by the tale, delivered Croesus from death, and thereafter bestowed on him honor and confidence. There is another form of the tradition, which is deemed by some more probable. Croesus is said to have stood on a pyre, intending to offer himself in the flames, to propitiate the god _Sandon_, that his people might be saved from destruction; but he was prevented, it is said, by unfavorable auguries.