HISTORY OF ARMENIA. Page 38
the latter and Tigranes, than he was seized with terror, and abandoned all hopes of future success in the war which he was then prosecuting. One evil, it is said, is only the harbinger of another; for shortly after, Abasuerus received information that Nebuchadnezzar the great king of Babylon, had joined the alliance between Cyrus and Tigranes.
While the king of Media was under the influence of the fears which the coalition of three such powerful states had induced, he had a dream full of dreadful portents. In it, he beheld a mountain in labour, which, in the end, produced three warriors. One of these appeared seated on the back of a furious lion, which he guided toward the west. The second rode on a leopard, and took a northerly direction. The third, more dreadful than the other two in his aspect, was sustained by a dragon, which forthwith appeared to enter and desolate the whole face of the country of Media. The king thought that he endeavoured to stop the progress of the hero with the dragon, but was wounded and killed by him.
On his awaking from this horrible dream, he commanded his wise men to interpret to him the meaning of the objects his fancy had conjured up during his sleep. He was informed that the first was Cyrus; the second Nebuchad-
