Note 52 — Chapter II · THE CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS.

The newly acquired evidence of the tablets seems to indicate that Gobyras, who commanded the armies of Cyrus, was Darius the Median, who acted as the viceroy of Cyrus on the throne of Babylon. Gobyras, the Ugbaru of the inscriptions, being formerly prefect of Gutium, or Kurdistan, was ruler of a district which embraced Ecbatana, the Median capital, and the province of the Medes, and was also, as his name indicates, a Proto-Mede, or Kassite, by birth. Xenophon states that the capture of Babylon was effected by Gobyras, and that his division was the first to reach the palace. Cyrus himself did not enter Babylon until later in the year, namely, on the third day of Marchesvan, four months after, when he “proclaimed peace, to all Babylon, and Gobyras his governor, and governors, he appointed.”