who had been subjects of the Medes, among the earliest achievements of Cyrus; he tells the story in his own manner, and places after this the subjection of the neighbours on the south, the Chaldæans (Gordyæans) who dwelt in the mountains which separate the table-land of Armenia from the hilly country of Assyria. The legends of the Cappadocians conceal their subjugation to Cyrus under supposed links of alliance; Cambyses, the father of Cyrus, had given his own sister Atossa in marriage to Pharnaces, the king of the Cappadocians.[569] The extension of the Persian dominion to the east over Parthia and Hyrcania, the subjugation of the Drangians, Gedrosians, and Arachoti, must, in consideration of the observation of Herodotus, that in 548 B.C. Cyrus was intent on military preparations against the Bactrians and Sacæ, and the urgent difficulties which at that time summoned him to the east, be placed in the later years of his reign; in fact, they cannot come earlier than the second decade; which does not, however, make it impossible that Cyrus should have fought against the Bactrians and Sacæ in the first decade.[570] Cyrus must have arranged his court and state after the pattern of Media, which in its turn was a copy of the court of the kings of Asshur and Babylon. Ctesias asserts that Petesaces, the eunuch, and after his death Bagapates, another eunuch, had great influence with Cyrus.[571] The abode of Achæmenes, Teispes, and Carabyses, the ancient place of assembly and metropolis of the tribe of the Pasargadæ, was changed by Cyrus into a city and fortress; there he built his palace, in which he deposited the spoil of his wars, and collected his treasures.[572] The new kingdom rested on the power of the Persians; they alone had to pay no tribute to the king; they formed the nucleus of the army; the leaders and satraps were mainly chosen from them. But Cyrus was obviously anxious to reconcile the Medes, next to the Persians, with the change in affairs, and win their aid. This design lay at the base of his treatment of Astyages and the marriage with his daughter, and scarcely ten years after the fall of the Median kingdom, we find Medes at the head of the army of Cyrus. The clemency of Cyrus towards the other subject nations is also extolled. Herodotus vouches for the fact that he laid no fixed tribute upon them, but left it to themselves to fix the amount of their yearly contributions. Of all men, Xenophon says, Cyrus made the largest presents, and exhibited the greatest liberality towards those who had done him good service, and in this the subsequent kings of Persia followed his example.