(The Palace of Vul-nirari, King of Nations, son of Budil,[683] Sar (king) of Assyria, son of Bel-nirari, Sar of Assyria, and—) [Illustration: FIG. 221.—BRONZE SWORD BEARING THE NAME OF VUL-NIRARI I., FOUND NEAR DIARBEKR.] [Heading: _THE SWORD IN PERSIA._] And now, proceeding east, we may note that the Persepolis sculptures distinctly show, as we might expect, Assyrian and Babylonian derivation. The Persians are, despite their prodigious pretensions, a comparatively modern people,[684] and they were rude enough when armed only with sling, lasso, and knife. The date of Hakhámanish (Achæmenes), the _hero eponymus_ of the ruling family, can hardly be made to precede B.C. 700. This was about the time (B.C. 721–706) when Sargon II. first mentions the Greeks as the Yaha of Yatnan (Yunan = Ionia), who sent him tribute from Cyprus and beyond. The Medes, before the reign of Cyaxares had conducted the Persians from the Caspian regions into Media Magna, were mere barbarians, like the Iliyát or Iranian nomades of the present day, who number from a quarter to a half of the population. But in starting into life Persia succeeded to a rich inheritance—Babylon. To this conquest (B.C. 538) she was led by her hero king, Cyrus the Great, or rather Kurush[685] the elder, son of Cambyses (Xenophon), not father of Cambyses (Herodotus), and a contemporary of Darius the Mede.[686] Their courage and conduct, their loyalty and simplicity, their wise laws, their generosity and their love of truth,[687] now unhappily extinct, raised them in Herodotus’ day to the proud position of ‘Lords of Asia.’ [Illustration: FIG. 222.—PERSIAN ARCHER. From a bas-relief of Persepolis, the ancient capital of Persia (B.C. 560). The long coat, probably of leather, descends to the ankle. The headdress has nothing of the helmet, but nevertheless indicates workmanship in metal.] [Illustration: FIG. 223.—PERSIAN WARRIOR. From a bas-relief of Persepolis; a cast is in the British Museum. The shield, high enough to rest on, is almost hemispherical; the helmet, with ear and neck coverings in one single piece, differs from the Assyrian.] [Illustration: FIG. 224.—THE PERSIAN CIDARIS, OR TIARA.] Between the bas-reliefs of Khorsabad and those of Persepolis there is the same difference as between the early Egyptian sculptures and the degenerate days of what Macrobius calls the ‘tyranny’ of the Ptolemies.[688] The drawing is less pure, the forms are heavier, the anatomical details are wanting or badly indicated—they are, in fact, clumsy imitations of far higher models.