In Herodotus the Persians, on the instigation of Artembares, one of their tribesmen, say to Cyrus: "Since Zeus gives the sovereignty to the Persians, and above all to thee, Cyrus, who hast overthrown Astyages, so let it be thy care that we leave our land and obtain a better, for our country is small and wild. Many better regions are close at hand, many at a distance, and if we gain one of them, we shall be more admired in the eyes of men. To do this is proper for men who possess the dominion, and when can it be done better than now, when we have so many men, and rule over all Asia?" When Cyrus heard this he expressed no astonishment, but said simply: they might do so, but they must be prepared to be rulers no longer, but subjects; the same land could not produce the noblest fruits and warlike men. The Persians saw that Cyrus' view was the better, and chose to inhabit and rule over a scanty land, rather than be the slaves of others.[563] The distinct opposition of Cyrus and Artembares seems to carry us back to Persian poems, otherwise the narrative is less likely to belong to the tradition of Persia than to arise out of the necessity which the Greeks felt for explaining how the Persians succeeded in founding so mighty an empire from a mountain country so moderate in extent. In any case the Persians, after the overthrow of Media, were far from possessing the dominion over Asia. In Nicolaus, it is true, when the news is spread abroad that Astyages has retired from Persia and has fled before Cyrus in the first battle in Media, the chief of the Hyrcanians comes with 50,000 men, to pay homage to Cyrus as king; he is followed by the chiefs of the Parthians, Sacæ, and Bactrians, and then by the remaining nations. But as a fact the course of things seems to have been different. If the princes and natives who were subject to the Medes were ready to throw off their dominion as soon as they were defeated by the Persians, they were hardly inclined to recognise Cyrus as sovereign in the room of Astyages. Herodotus tells us that Cyrus subjugated the Bactrians and Sacæ, and Upper Asia, one nation after the other, and puts these conquests after the Lydian war.[564] Xenophon represents the Hyrcanians as joining Cyrus at an early date, and the Cadusians follow their example, which harmonises with the view taken in the Persian poems of the hatred of the Cadusians to the Medes. In Xenophon and Ctesias the Sacæ are the allies of Cyrus as early as 549 B.C.[565] If Astyages receives the satrapy of the Hyrcanians in Justin, this nation and the Parthians, who were still nearer neighbours of Media, must have been among those who were subject to Cyrus.