The History of Antiquity Volume Vi Part 14

[309] Herod. 5, 11, 23.

[310] Herod. 8, 139; Thuc. 2, 99, 200.

[311] Herod. 5, 19.

[312] Herod. 5, 21; 7, 21; Justin, 7, 3, 4.

[313] Herod. 5, 18, 21; Justin, 7, 3, 4. In the year 512 B.C., in which this incident falls, Alexander must have been very young; Herodotus speaks of him as young and inexperienced. In Justin we are told in reference to the length of his life: "_Senex decessit_." On the reigns of Amyntas and Alexander Philh.e.l.len, I shall treat in my Greek History.

For the present I refer to Droysen, "h.e.l.lenismus," 1^2, 75, and Von Gutschmid, "Ueber die makedonische Anagraphe, Symbol. Philolog." Bonn.

[314] The Ionian revolt liberated Lemnos from the dominion of the Persians; when Miltiades during the revolt subjugated Lemnos and Imbros to Athens, Hermon was at the head of Lemnos.

[315] Herod. 3, 129-138. Athenaeus, p. 522. On the date of the expedition above, p. 270, _n._ That this whole expedition owed its origin to an intrigue of Democedes, is merely a part of Herodotus' love of anecdote. But it is not incredible that Democedes joined it in the hope of returning to Greece.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE STATE OF DARIUS.

The perseverance and vigour of Darius had succeeded in re-establis.h.i.+ng and extending the kingdom of Cyrus. In the west he had reached Mount Olympus and the great Syrtis, in the east the course of the Indus, high up among the Himalayas; in the north the boundaries were the Caucasus and the Jaxartes, in the south the tribes of Arabia and the negroes above Nubia. He set himself to give a regulated administration to this empire, which had been acquired by such vast conquests, and which in its wide extent threw the empire of the a.s.syrians completely into the shade.

He made the first attempt known to history to organize his conquests and govern them on a fixed plan. Thus he became the real founder of the Persian empire. He succeeded so far that an empire, the like of which had not been seen upon earth, which enumerated the most various nations among its subjects, was really governed, and the foundations which he laid were so firm that in spite of many serious rebellions, the empire never fell from internal disorganization.

The chief support of the kingdom lay in the proud feeling of the Persians that they were the ruling nation of Asia, and governed the nations through their king and with their king. They saw with satisfaction how the tribute, the contributions, the prisoners of the subject nations came from the furthest distance to their mountains, how the palaces of their king rose in ever-increasing splendour on their native soil, what brilliance and magnificence surrounded their ruler, the king of kings. From the Persians were chosen the magistrates who governed the provinces, and the generals who commanded their contingents; Persians surrounded the king and were his counsellors and judges. The court, the administration, and the army opened the most brilliant prospect to every Persian who was in a position to distinguish himself in the eyes of the king; and service in war offered acceptable pay to the man of the people. Persian troops, excellently appointed, protected the person of the king; they formed the garrisons of the fortresses, they were the nucleus of the army, and marched before the rest of the troops. In solemn processions and parades, the Persians were always on the right of the king.[316] They were not only free from tax and tribute of every kind, but largesses of money were made whenever the king entered Pasargadae (V. 357). Plato's Laws maintain that Darius established as law the allotments which Cyrus promised the Persians; in this way he had shown his inclination to the Persians and had established a common feeling between the ruler and the nation.[317]

However this may be, every one, even the meanest Persian, felt that he had a share in the government of Asia.

It was a principle of the king of Persia from the time of Cyrus to grant to the leading families of the Persians and the Persian n.o.bility a rich share in the fruits and advantages of the empire, but at the same time to accustom them to dependence and subjection, and to train up in them a vigorous cla.s.s of magistrates and officers. If the wealthy families of Persia remained in their old mode of life in the country, with their flocks, such a position might keep up a feeling of independence and freedom which was hardly compatible with the unlimited power of the king and the interests of the empire. It was desirable to bring them to the court, and keep them under supervision, to make them dependent on the favour of the king, and habituate them to constant service. The Median court had been numerous; the Persian court was even more extensive, not merely for the sake of magnificence, or to display the splendour and greatness of the ruler, and so impose upon the Persians and the subject nations, but also with a view of educating the n.o.bility in court life.

No one could count on advancement who did not show himself at the gate of the king; indeed it was difficult for any one whom the king did not see to obtain a hearing from him. Those whose duty it was to appear at court were urged not to fail in their appearance.[318] In this way they learnt not merely behaviour and conduct, modesty and self-control,[319]

but were accustomed to live in the shadow of the throne, and to seek the sun of royal favour. In the immediate neighbourhood of the king men could look up with obedience and respect to the greatness of the ruler.

If in this way the n.o.bility were linked round the court, and instructed to strive for the favour of the king as the highest honour, if the strict ceremonial of the court reduced them to constant obedience, the king on the other hand had opportunity to select, from personal knowledge and confidence, the magistrates to whom important posts might be entrusted.[320]

The officers round the person of the king, and employed in the service of the state and court, were numerous. Next to the throne came the six tribal princes, who wore the upright kidaris, the sign of royalty, and to them, as we often find, the most difficult duties in war, and the most important expeditions and provinces were entrusted. Next to the tribal princes were the seven supreme judges of the kingdom, who watched over the hereditary customs, and the controller of the empire, "the king's eye." Less influential, but nevertheless important owing to their personal relation to the king, were the "quiver-bearer" and the "lance-bearer"; we find the persons who filled these offices at the time depicted on the relief at Behistun beside the king. The office of "bearer of the king's footstool" is also mentioned. The great court-offices, of the "chief staff-bearer," "messenger," "announcer,"

"chief butler," "master of the horse," and "master of the chase,"

together with various other honourable offices, and many subordinate places, gave an opportunity of uniting a large number of Persians closely with the court life, and employing as viceroys and generals those whom the king had found to be excellent servants.[321] But Medes were employed in the service of the kingdom as well as Persians. If Media was treated in other respects like the rest of the provinces (it had to pay yearly 450 talents of tax, and furnish 100,000 sheep for the court), the system of Cyrus, who by entrusting important commissions to eminent Medes, had attempted to reconcile Media to the new position of affairs, was followed by Darius in spite of the rebellion. From other nations only those who had been specially tested were in rare cases entrusted with high offices.

Cyrus had introduced the custom of rewarding loyalty and devotion to the king and service to the kingdom by distinctions, marks of honour, and gifts conferred in the most marked and distinctive manner,--of exciting ambition and emulation by favour and liberality. Who makes such presents, said Xenophon, as the king of the Persians?--armlets, chains, and horses with golden bridles; no one could possess such things unless they were presented to him by the king.[322] Who could compare with the decorated friends of the king of Persia?--he alone appeared in more splendid array. The sending of a portion from the royal table was no slight honour.[323] The present of the kaftan (kandys) was a common distinction; more important were the golden armlets, the golden chain, the golden crown, the golden wreath, the golden sabre, the horse with golden harness. Other presents were also made, as plane-trees and vines of gold, golden millstones more than 300 pounds in weight.[324] There were also gifts of property, and allocations of the produce of certain cities and districts. Pre-eminent services were rewarded by the t.i.tle "Benefactor"; we remember that the Avesta requires the good thought, the good word, and the good act. Besides these distinctions, advancement to the upper cla.s.ses of the kingdom counted as the highest honour. The "table companions" of the king, and above them "the kinsmen" of the king had the first portion in the kingdom after the tribal princes and the great officers. The bestowal of the rank of the table companion conferred the right to eat at or near the table of the king, and occasionally to make merry with him. The elevation to be a "kinsman of the king" conferred the rank of an Achaemenid, a prince of the house.

Like the king, the kinsmen wore a pale blue band round the tiara, and had the right to kiss the king, a custom which was usual in Persia among persons of equal rank.[325]

According to the statements of Herodotus, the boys of the Persians were instructed from their fifth to their twentieth year (Xenophon and Strabo a.s.sert till their twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth year) in riding, shooting with the bow, and speaking the truth.[326] In the Laws we are told that the boys of the Medes were entrusted to the women, and those of the Persians to free men. According to the a.s.sertion of Nicolaus of Damascus, Cyrus was already instructed in the philosophy of the Magians, in justice and truthfulness, as the hereditary laws prescribed for the leading Persians.[327] Plato tells us that the sons of the kings of the Persians were attended by eunuchs till their seventh year; from that time till the fourteenth year they learned to ride, shoot, and hunt.

Then they received distinguished teachers, of whom the first instructed them in the wisdom of Zoroaster, and the business of the crown, the second in the duty of truthfulness, the third in temperance, the fourth in courage and bravery.[328] Plutarch observes that a Magian presided over the education of the princes and instructed them even in magic.[329] Xenophon narrates that the princes and the children of the leading Persians were brought up "at the gate" of the king, where they learned temperance and prudence and saw nothing unbecoming. They observed what men were honoured by the king and whom he punished, and thus learned even in their boyhood to command and obey. Modesty and obedience were counted as a distinction among these boys. In this way they learned to be excellent riders, to throw the javelin, and use the bow. At a later time they became so skilful in hunting that they ventured to encounter a bear.[330] Even now, he says in another pa.s.sage, it is the custom to educate children at the court, but the exercise in riding has fallen into disuse, because they no longer go where they could gain reputation by skill in the art; and if in former days they seemed to learn justice when they listened to just sentences, they now see that he obtains justice who gives most. And if they formerly learned the nature of all plants in order to avoid what was noxious, they now seem to have acquired this knowledge in order to do as much mischief as possible.[331] In Strabo's account the education seems arranged even more systematically. He tells us that the Persian boys were brought up, fifty together, with one of the sons of the king, or with the sons of the satraps. Intelligent men were appointed to teach them, who instructed them in the legends of the G.o.ds, sometimes with and sometimes without song, and also recounted to them the n.o.blest deeds of men, besides those of G.o.ds.[332] At the same time the boys and young men were rendered hardy. They were aroused early in the morning by the sound of a gong, and for food commonly received barley or wheaten bread, and water to drink; when hunting or keeping the flocks, they were compelled to live on wild fruits, acorns, and forest berries, and to pa.s.s the night in the open air. They had also to learn to distinguish wholesome and noxious herbs, to plant trees, and prepare hunting nets.[333]

Putting this evidence together, and remembering that even in the fourth century the kings and their retinue undertook long hunting expeditions on horseback, without permitting themselves to be checked by weariness, heat or cold, hunger or thirst,[334] there seems to be no doubt that the Persian kings introduced a system of education for the officers on the basis of the old mode of life and the customs of the nation, and in this system their own sons, so far as seemed good, had a part. Riding and shooting were national exercises among the Persians; hunting was necessary for the protection of the flocks, and was therefore carried on as a religious duty no less than as a pleasure; from all antiquity the keeping of flocks and the protection of them against beasts of prey was a.s.signed to the youth. If these exercises were systematized, and regard was paid to the prospect of military service in some official capacity, if the young men were also accustomed to unhesitating obedience, such a school might be expected to supply capable and active officers and good generals. A hardy and vigorous life was the more necessary for the sons of the Persians as luxury began to spread among the higher cla.s.ses after the successes of Cyrus. We may believe the accounts of the Greeks that instruction in religion formed a part of the system; the Avesta requires such instruction, and it is usual among the Pa.r.s.ees at the present day (V. 196, 202). But the Greeks are wrong in supposing that these cadet schools were the general mode of education among the Persians, and maintaining that the Persian boys received a training like those of the Spartans. It was only for political reasons that a number of young men from the eminent families were educated to be generals and viceroys. Xenophon has perceived that the education was limited to the higher cla.s.ses, and states this distinctly in the "Anabasis." This education went on partly under the eyes of the king at court, partly at the courts of the satraps, which were arranged on the pattern of the royal household.[335] Even under the Sa.s.sanids the sons of the n.o.bles were educated at court; we have special mention of the teachers of the hors.e.m.e.n.[336]

It was not the intention of Cyrus or Darius to interfere with the life and habits of the subject nations more than was necessary in order to maintain their supremacy and to secure obedience. The ancient dynasties in Babylon and Egypt were removed; Cyrus, Cambyses, Darius, and Xerxes are called kings of Babylon in numerous inscriptions;[337] in Egypt, as the native inscriptions have shown us, they received the style and t.i.tle of the Pharaohs. In both countries they take the place of the native monarchs, and not in name only, for at the same time they undertake the protection of the national religion and law. The peculiar ordinances and the law, the political and administrative arrangements of the subject lands, are said to have continued under the Persian empire to the widest possible extent. In some cases, indeed, old native families remained at the head of affairs, as in Cilicia, the Phenician and Cyprian cities; in Bactria native princes governed the districts (V. 236); in the cities of the Greeks and the subjugated islands of the aegean Sea, the Persian kings had set up princes from the native population. The nomad tribes of the empire could only be ruled by keeping up relations with their chiefs. But in whatever way the various parts of the subject territory were arranged, whether there were princes or a more popular administration, their communities, their lands and cities, were left to govern themselves in their hereditary manner, according to their own customs, laws, and rules, provided that they paid tribute and furnished a contingent in war. Darius appears even to have taken upon himself the development of the national law; we have seen that the Egyptians called him their sixth law-giver (p. 300).

The G.o.ds, the modes of religion and wors.h.i.+p, were interfered with even less than the custom and law of the subject nations, notwithstanding that Cyrus and Darius with the Persians and Arians of Iran may have been convinced that there could be none but lying G.o.ds and false wors.h.i.+p beside Auramazda and Mithra, and the G.o.ds of the Arians. The kings of the Persians were not even content with this liberal tolerance which forms the chief glory of their rule; they promoted the wors.h.i.+p of the subject nations. The inscription on the brick at Senkereh,[338]

mentions Cyrus as the restorer of the great temple of Merodach at Babylon (the tower of Belus), and of the temple of Nebo at Borsippa (Bit-Zida); we found Cambyses with the Egyptian t.i.tle of the new sun-G.o.d, and celebrated as the restorer of the wors.h.i.+p of Neith at Sais; he is also represented in adoration before the Apis which died in his reign. And in this matter Darius did not remain behind his predecessors.

We have already heard from the Egyptian Uzahorsun that he was sent to Egypt soon after the accession of Darius, in order to take care of the habitations of the G.o.ds and their festivals, _i.e._ to support and maintain the religious wors.h.i.+p. In his temple at the Oasis of El Charigeh, Darius, adorned with the t.i.tle "rival of the sun," offers prayer to Ammon with the ram's head. Darius caused the Apis which died in the fourth year of his reign to be buried (p. 301), and in spite of a recent rebellion, a sepulchre was built, "to endure for ever," for the Apis which appeared in the thirty-first year of his reign, _i.e._ in 491 B.C.; to make room for this the gallery of Psammetichus was extended.

Darius, it is said, proposed a prize of 100 talents of gold for the discovery of this new Apis.[339]

Nor was it Egypt only which experienced the care of Darius for the national wors.h.i.+p of the subject nations. The Samaritans had hindered the restoration of the temple and walls of Jerusalem, which the exiles from Babylonia had taken in hand, by threats and by warnings to the court of Cyrus (p. 99). When Darius ascended the throne, the prophets Haggai and Zechariah called upon their countrymen to finish the restoration of the temple. Haggai reproved the indifference to solemn duties and the selfishness which allowed panelled houses to rise for men, while the house of G.o.d was desolate: "therefore the heavens restrained their dew, and the earth her increase." He reminded them of the punishments which had come upon their fathers for neglecting the will of Jehovah: he demanded vigorous action from Zerubbabel and the high priest Joshua; he p.r.o.nounced the blessing of Jehovah, if the temple were finished and proclaimed to Zerubbabel the son of Salathiel, to whom, eighteen years before (p. 93), Cyrus had entrusted the leaders.h.i.+p of the "sons of captivity," that Jehovah would keep him as his seal-ring if the work were finished. To Joshua Zechariah promises royal splendour and long posterity in return for the building of the temple.[340] When the temple is restored, the scattered remnants of Israel would return, and if the walls of Jerusalem were not restored, Jehovah would be a wall of fire to his city. "Many people and mighty nations will come to seek Jehovah at Jerusalem, and make supplication in the presence of the Lord."[341] The exhortations of the prophets had such effect that the building of the temple and the city-walls was taken up again in the second year of Darius (520 B.C.). When the satrap of Syria, who is called Thathnai in the book of Ezra, and his subordinates raised the question--who had given permission for the building--the Jews fell back on the written permission of Cyrus. The satrap referred the matter to the king.

According to the narrative of the Jews Darius caused a search to be made for this doc.u.ment in Babylon and Ecbatana, and when it was found in the archives at Ecbatana, he sanctioned the building by a new royal rescript. The work was carried on under repeated exhortations of the two prophets, and after four years and five months it was completed. In the sixth year of Darius (516 B.C.), seventy years after Nebuchadnezzar had pulled it down, the temple was rebuilt. The dedication was made by a sin-offering of twelve goats from the twelve tribes of Israel, and a thank-offering of 100 bulls, 200 rams, and 400 lambs.[342] The walls of the city and the ancient citadel of David by degrees rose once more.[343]

In the place of the governors.h.i.+ps which Cyrus and Cambyses had established as the need arose, Darius introduced fixed departments.

About the year 515 B.C. the kingdom was divided into twenty satrapies.

Asia Minor was broken up into four satrapies. The first included the west coast of Asia Minor; it was the narrow strip of coast in which lay the Greek cities from the Sigean promontory as far as Caria; the territory of the Carians also, and that of the Lycians, the Solymi, and Pamphylians, under the Taurus on the south coast, were attached to this satrapy. The second satrapy, of which the metropolis was Sardis, comprised Mysia and Lydia, together with the southern strip of Phrygia.

To the third satrapy, the satraps of which resided at Dascyleum on the h.e.l.lespont, the Greek cities on the h.e.l.lespont, the Propontis, and the Bosphorus were allotted; the Thracians in Asia, _i.e._ the Bithynians, the Paphlagonians, the Phrygians as far as the Halys, and the Cappadocians beyond the Halys as far as the border of Armenia. Cilicia with its metropolis of Tarsus was the fourth satrapy. Between Asia Minor and the highlands of Iran there were six satrapies. The Tibarenes, Mosynoeci, Macrones, and Moschians on the Pontus, formed the first (the eighteenth in Herodotus' reckoning); the nations who dwelt to the east of them in the valley of the Araxes, the Saspeires and Alarodians, along with the western part of Armenia, formed the second (the eleventh); the rest of Armenia the third (the thirteenth); Syria and Phoenicia and the island of Cyprus the fourth (the fifth);[344] a.s.syria and Babylonia, with the metropolis, Babylon, the fifth (the ninth); the land of the Cissians (Susiana) on the left bank of the Tigris the sixth (the eighth). Egypt with Cyrene and Barca, the subject tribes in Ethiopia and Libya, formed a separate satrapy (the sixth); the satrap resided at Memphis. The table-land of Iran was broken up into nine satrapies. These were the satrapy of Media (the tenth); the satrapy of the Caspians, which comprised the lands to the north of the Medes on the Caspian Sea, the valley of the Cyrus, and the lands of the Cardusians, the Mardians, the Tapurians and Hyrcanians (the nineteenth); the satrapy of the Parthians, Arians, Chorasmians, and Sogdians (the sixteenth); the satrapy of the Sacae (the fifteenth); the satrapy of the Bactrians, to which the Margians also seem to have belonged (the twelfth);[345] the satrapy of the Sattagydae (Thataghus) and the Gandarians, _i.e._ of the Gedrosians, the Arachoti, and the Gandharas, on the south bank of the Cabul (the seventh);[346] the satrapy of the Sagartians and Sarangians, which extended in the east of Persia as far to the south as the Persian Gulf, and included the islands belonging to it (the fourteenth); the satrapy of the Paricanians and Ethiopians in Asia; _i.e._ the inhabitants of the southern edge of the table-land on the east, including the black tribes in the delta of the Indus (the seventeenth); and finally the satrapy of the Indians, which included all the tribes on the right bank of the Indus, from the summits of the Himalayas to the junction of the Cabul and the Indus (the twentieth).[347]

The viceroys whom Darius placed over these districts had to keep the aggregate of the various political bodies, of which the satrapies consisted, in obedience to the empire and in peace towards each other; to collect the taxes and tribute, to summon and organize the military levies. The satrap was the highest authority in his province--the supreme appeal in law, administration, and military affairs. The king alone was superior. He was the judge before whom could be laid appeals from the judgment of the princes and local boards, if the claimant had not preferred to go to him in the first instance; he was the only judge between the princes, the districts, the tribes and cities of his province. His arrangements must be obeyed. He was to take measures for the advancement of cultivation and the increase of the population in his province, both as fullfilling the rules of the Avesta, and in the interest of the kingdom. He kept watch over trade and currency, over the military roads, the stations, the harbours, the ca.n.a.ls and dams; he had the right to strike silver coins for his province. He had charge of the military affairs of the province; and was responsible for the weapons and s.h.i.+ps when required for the levy. The apportionment of the taxes and tributes to the districts and communities of the province, the collection of these, and the despatch of the proper revenues to the king were among his duties. He had royal scribes to a.s.sist him in these matters, who read to him the commands of the king and drew up his reports to the king. It was not likely to escape Darius that the great powers in the hands of the satrap would lead him to use his delegated power independently and even against his chief. The attempt of Oroetes to found an independent monarchy in Asia Minor, had caused him great anxiety in a time of difficulty. He could not always expect that such tendencies in distant provinces could be known in time, or that rebellions on the part of satraps could be prevented. The king withdrew from them the nomination of the commanders of the castles, which controlled the main roads of the provinces, the more important fortresses and citadels of the provinces, _e.g._ the citadels at Ecbatana, Babylon, and Memphis, that, as Xenophon says, "a satrap who trusting to his power and the number of his subjects should refuse obedience, might find opponents in his province"; and he even nominated the commanders of the Persian battalions, which formed the garrisons of the fortresses,[348] but limitations of this kind were insufficient against the power which their office gave to the satrap, if the royal power was unable to make itself felt with force and rapidity. The central power must be in vigorous operation against the satraps, if the feeling of dependence and responsibility were to be kept alive among them. Appeals from the jurisdiction of the satraps to the king were possible for the adjacent provinces and did occur, but for the inhabitants of more distant provinces they were extremely difficult; yet these were the provinces chiefly in point. If months elapsed before an order of the kings reached Memphis or Sardis, the Indus or the Caucasus, or the satraps of these provinces received an answer to their questions, the necessary result would be that these men would regard themselves as independent, withdrawn from all authority and obedience. And the distant provinces, no less than the satraps, had to be kept in order. If reinforcements were to be sent to them the march must not be too long; if the borders were to be defended at the right time, the advance of the army from the inner provinces must not occupy too much time. The larger the empire the more urgently were rapid communications required to give reality to the operation of the central force and secure the kingdom within and without. The distance from the Strymon to the Indus was enormous; from Ephesus to the Hindu Kush was 3000 miles, and from Memphis to Sogdiana 2500 miles.

Darius perceived that the kingdom could not be governed or maintained without good communications. When the western border of the empire touched the h.e.l.lespont, the palaces in Persia were too far to the east; and the difficulty was increased when Africa, as far as the greater Syrtis, and the Thracian coast and Macedonia in Europe had been conquered. Reasons of this kind must have induced Darius to place the centre of administration as nearly as possible in the centre of the kingdom; yet he dared not venture to move too far from Persia. He did not hesitate to move his residence further to the west out of the native territory into Susiana, a region occupied by subjects of alien race and language, and make Susa the centre and metropolis of the kingdom. Strabo tells us that Cyrus and the Persians saw that, after the subjugation of the Medes, their land lay at the remote edge, while Susiana was more in the centre, and nearer the Babylonians and the other nations. For this reason they transferred the seat of the monarchy there, availing themselves of the proximity of the land and the fame of the city. The change was the more desirable because Susiana had never pursued an ambitious course of policy, but had always been part of a larger state, except perhaps in the times of the heroes.[349] It is a mistake in Strabo, which however Herodotus and Aeschylus had already made, to say that Cyrus transferred the residence from Persia to Susa. Aeschylus speaks of Darius as the Susa-born G.o.d of Persia; and Herodotus places the palace and government of the Pseudo-Smerdis at Susa; it is from the tower of the walls of the citadel of Susa that Prexaspes throws himself; there the Magian is a.s.sa.s.sinated, Darius is raised to the throne, and resides from the very beginning of his reign. But this is an antic.i.p.ation of the residence which was erected here by Darius with the intention that it should be the fixed abode of himself and his successors, the centre of the kingdom and the government. Pliny and Aelian tell us definitely that Darius built Susa the royal citadel of the Persians, and the inscriptions confirm this statement.[350] Not less incorrect is the remark of Strabo, that Susiana had always formed part of a larger kingdom, and had never pursued an ambitious policy. On the contrary we saw how Elam, after an independence of 1500 years, became subject first to a.s.syria for a few decades, and then to Media and Persia. And the Elamites had so little forgotten their ancient days that they rose three times against Darius.[351]

The intention to keep the Semitic lands in check, to be nearer Babylon, without giving up the communication with the native land, must have contributed to the resolution of Darius to transfer the residence to Susa. If Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had carried a road from his metropolis in a slanting direction through the desert to Syria (III.

365), works of this kind were far more urgently needed for the immensely greater extent of the Persian empire. Great roads must be made from Susa in all directions to the borders of the empire, and maintained. Though Cyrus and Cambyses may have made some steps in this direction, it was Darius who carried out the plan and founded the great system of roads which traversed Persia in all directions, and were now carried from Susa. "Who," asks Xenophon, "could so quickly strike down opponents, separated from him by a road of many months, as the king of the Persians?"[352] At the close of his "Persian History" Ctesias gave a sketch of the Persian roads, which led from Ephesus to Bactria and India, with an account of the stations, days'-journey, and parasangs.

This is lost. We know but one member of the system, the road which led from Susa, past Sardis, to Ephesus. Of this road, which interested the Greeks most, Herodotus gives the following account: "From the Greek sea to Susa is a distance of 14,040 stades (1755 miles). From Ephesus to Sardis is a distance of 540 stades (67-1/2 miles), which can be traversed in three days. From this point there are royal stations and the most excellent inns: the whole road pa.s.ses through inhabited lands and is secure. First, it pa.s.ses through the region of the Lydians, who inhabit a fruitful land and are rich in silver; then through the region of the Phrygians, who are rich in cattle and fruits of the field; these make up 20 stations, 94-1/2 parasangs. Then the Halys has to be crossed; there are gates here through which you must pa.s.s in order to go over the river, and a strong guard-house. Beyond the river you are in Cappadocia, and to the borders of Cilicia is a distance of 28 stations and 104 parasangs. On the borders of Cappadocia and Cilicia are two gates and two guard-houses: pa.s.sing through Cilicia in three stations, a distance of 15 parasangs, you reach the border of Armenia which is formed by the Euphrates. The Euphrates is crossed by a ferry. In Armenia, which possesses much cattle, there are 15 stations provided with guard-houses, and 56-1/2 parasangs. Then follows the Tigris, and two other rivers bearing the same name (the Greater and the Lesser Zab); and finally the Gyndes, which Cyrus diverted from its channel: these have to be crossed in boats. From Armenia you pa.s.s to the Matieni, the neighbours of the Armenians; here there are 34 stations and 137 parasangs to be traversed; from the borders of the Matieni and the Cissians (_i.e._ the Susiani) to the Choaspes, where Susa is built upon it (this river has also to be crossed by a ferry), are 11 stations and 42-1/2 parasangs, making a total of 111 stations and 450 parasangs, or 13,500 stades (1687-1/2 miles). Hence if the royal road has been rightly measured, and a traveller makes 150 stades (five parasangs, 19 miles) a day, he goes from Sardis to Susa in 90 days, and to Ephesus (if we add in the distance from Ephesus to Sardis) in 93 days."

From this description we see that the road has been accurately measured, well-kept, guarded, and provided with stations about every 15 miles, in which the travellers could find shelter. As Herodotus calls these inns very beautiful, we must a.s.sume that after the Persian fas.h.i.+on they were provided with plantations, and this is confirmed by other evidence. We are told that a station on the royal road in Cadusia, in a wholly bare and treeless region, was surrounded by a park of high pines and cypresses. The Indians also were accustomed to plant their roads and provide them with shady resting-places. The road from Sardis to Susa did not take the shortest route; the object was to escape the Syrian and Phrygian desert, and carry the road through regions which could support the army on the march. Hence it ran from Susa in the valley of the Tigris on the left bank of the river through Susiana and the native land of the a.s.syrians, for 600 miles in a north-westerly direction, to the mountains of Armenia. The region between the Tigris and the Zagrus to the north of the satrapy of Cissia (Susiana) is called by Herodotus the land of the Matieni, and he extends this name, which is elsewhere used only for the tribes dwelling round the Lake of Urumiah, to the Tigris.

Armenia proper was then crossed by the road in a straight line from east to west, from the upper Tigris to the upper Euphrates. Of Cilicia it touched merely the north-east corner, and then cut through Cappadocia in a north-westerly direction to the Halys. It crossed the river in the neighbourhood of Pteria, pa.s.sed in a south-westerly direction through Phrygia, leaving the desert to the south, and Lydia to Sardis.[353] From this great road to the west then branched off between the Gyndes (Diala) and the Physcus (Adhem) the road to Babylon, and at Physcus the road to Ecbatana.

The royal roads through the kingdom secured before all things the rapid operation of the central power and the king on the representatives of his power in the provinces. The stations were used for a postal arrangement, the duty of which it was to carry the commands of the king and the reports and questions of the satraps. Thanks to this post the king was in the possession of a means of communication far superior to that within the reach of any of his subjects. At the stations on all the roads of the kingdom, at intervals of 15 miles or a little more, horses and riders (Astandae, Angari) were placed, whose sole business it was to carry the royal messages and errands. One of these postmen must always be in attendance, in order to carry a letter as soon as it arrived, at the full speed of his horse, by day or by night, in heat or in snow, to the next station. Among the Greeks it was said that the Persian couriers travelled swifter than cranes; Herodotus also a.s.sures us that nothing in the world was more rapid than these hors.e.m.e.n.[354] Thus the king's commands travelled on well-built and carefully-guarded roads by this post in the shortest s.p.a.ce of time to the most remote provinces. They were brought from Susa to Sardis in five or six days and nights. The commands of the king to the satraps were always given in writing, and accredited by the impression of the king's seal.[355] This seal presents to us king Darius with the covered tiara on his head standing on the chariot behind the charioteer; a lion, struck by his arrow, lies beneath the hoofs of the horses which are leaping forward. The king is about to shoot a third arrow at a second huge lion, which has reared himself up in self-defence, and has already received two arrows from the king. At the side a date palm is visible; over the king hovers Auramazda. The inscription, which is in three languages, says: "I am Darius, the great king."[356] The rapidity with which the king's commands reached even the satraps of the most distant lands, kept the authority of the king before them. The fortresses and guard-posts on the roads not only served to maintain security on and near them, and to make commerce safe; they were also used to control trade, and travelling, and any correspondence among the subjects. The fortresses were placed at points which could not be avoided, in narrow pa.s.ses, or on the bridges of great rivers. Those in command dared not allow any one to pa.s.s who did not establish his right, as above suspicion. The scribes a.s.signed to the commanders looked over all the letters, which were carried through by messengers.[357] As the fortresses in which these guard-posts lay were placed in the most important divisions of the country, the roads could be closed by the posts. If a rebellion arose in this or that quarter, the effect on the neighbouring province was checked by closing the roads by means of the forts, or the road was defended from post to post. And if an enemy invaded from outside he found in them points of resistance, and the Persians points of support.

The guidance and control of the viceroys was not confined to the rapid and lively communications between them and the king. The Greeks tell us that the king travelled every year to this or that province in order to review the troops, and examine the cultivation of the soil. Where the king did not make a visitation in person, he did so by confidential ministers. We are further informed that these visitations were entrusted to the princes of the royal house.[358] Where the king found that the land was populous and well cultivated, the forests in good order, and the fields full of the fruits which the land produced, he distinguished the governor by gifts and honours. But where he found the land thinly populated and badly cultivated, whether it was owing to the severity, the neglect, or the extortion of the satrap, the satrap was punished and removed from his place.[359] The charge of the whole country lay on the chief overseer, the high official who bore the t.i.tle of the "king's eye." In the Persians of Aeschylus, the chorus inquire of Xerxes, "Where his faithful eye has remained?" Herodotus notices as an arrangement of the Median kingdom, that the king named a man especially devoted to him, his "Eye." We see that unexpected inspections were made by the "Eye" of the Persian king, and that his subordinates, who were not known to be such, carried on a minute superintendence over the conduct of the satraps, the other officers, and the subject people.[360]

Still more mysterious was the work of the officers who were known as the king's "Ears." They cannot have been far removed from spies. We saw to what an extent the princes of India carried on the system of secret espionage. Herodotus told us in regard to Deioces that his spies and informers were in every land, and a Persian proverb said, "The king has many eyes and ears." The Greeks declare that the Persian spies did not always content themselves with relating what they had heard, but told much besides in order to show their zeal. Accusation was received with favour by the king and rewarded by distinctions and presents.[361] We saw what control was exercised on the great roads, the arteries of communication. Owing to the number of guard-houses in each road, which repeated the inquiries of the first, any one at the court was in a position to compare the accounts of the commanders, and to control them.

No one pa.s.sed even the borders of Babylonia without proving who he was, and of what city, and why he was travelling.[362] In this way every suspicious circ.u.mstance was brought to light, and it was certain that no conspiracy or rebellion could be contrived without some indications being received at the court of the king.

What could not be prevented by the control of the higher and lower officers, and the police supervision of the subjects, was suppressed by the severe exercise of punishment, which was intended to strike fear into magistrate and subject alike by the force of terrible examples. The terrorist use of punishment which the Brahmans on the Ganges knew how to prove to be a divine right, and a duty of the royal office, was in Persia regarded as an indispensable means for supporting the state. And as a fact obedience to the absolute ruler rested, in the magistrates and the ruling tribe, more decidedly on the apprehension of punishment than on any personal interest or common share in the maintenance of the kingdom; and in the subject nations it rested on the fear of the ruler and the interests which the Persian kings gained in those districts.

Those entrusted with the power of office must also be the most obedient and submiss. Above all, the feeling must be kept alive in the satraps of the provinces that the enormous powers delegated to them were given on the condition of absolute obedience. The severe penalties which overtook any resistance, or the careless execution of a royal command, were only the reverse of the favours which fell to their lot in other circ.u.mstances. However earnestly the religion of Zarathrustra preached the regard for life, the rules of religion were compelled, even in Persia, to give way to reasons of state. We find Darius no less than Cambyses inflicting severe penalties for trifling offences. If the satraps gave any grounds for suspicion, they were either secretly or openly removed out of the way.[363] But even in the judges and on those who were not officers every transgression and act of disobedience to the wish of the king was cruelly punished. Darius, who was not considered a harsh ruler, did not content himself with the execution of Intaphernes; he caused nearly all the males of the house to be put to death, though Intaphernes had taken such a prominent part in the a.s.sa.s.sination of the Magian. The leaders of the rebellions in the provinces were punished by crucifixion or hanging. Khsathrita, who caused the Medes to revolt, and Chitratakhma, the leader of the Sagartians, had their noses and ears cut off before execution, and in this state were exposed to public view.[364] When Darius marched against the Scythians, Oeobazus, a distinguished Persian, entreated that one of his three sons might remain behind. The king considered that this wish was not in harmony with the devotion which every Persian owed to the kingdom; he replied that all his sons should remain, and at once ordered them to be executed.

Sandoces, one of the royal judges, had been bribed to give a false judgment; Darius caused him to be crucified; he was already placed on the cross when the king remembered that he had done more good than evil to the royal house, and ordered him to be taken down again. He lived, and remained in the service, but not in the highest court of the kingdom.[365] One of the mildest forms of punishment was banishment to the islands of the Persian Gulf. Common punishments were the loss of eyes, nose, ears, tongue; the cutting off of hands, arms, and feet; scourgings were frequent, and they were inflicted even by the satraps.[366] The king p.r.o.nounced the sentence of death by touching the girdle of the accused, or occasionally allowed it to be p.r.o.nounced in his presence by the seven judges. The sentence was then carried out by crucifixion or decapitation.[367] In later times we hear of grinding between stones, incisions in the body while alive, and painful imprisonment in troughs; Xenophon indeed tells us that one of those who took part in the rebellion of the younger Cyrus was tortured for a whole year.[368]

If we compare the practice of the princes of Persia with the conduct of the a.s.syrian kings, and the later rulers of the East, we cannot fail to recognize that the officers under the Achaemenids were in a better position and more richly paid, but also better controlled and kept in greater dependence than was the case afterwards. The subjects, in spite of acts of cruel caprice which affected certain persons, were incomparably better off than those of the a.s.syrians, or of the dynasties which afterwards ruled the East. They were governed with more intelligence and clemency than the subjects of the Porte, or the Khedive, or the Shah of Persia, or the Emirs of Cabul and Herat. It was no small thing that the Persian kings established peace in all Asia from the sh.o.r.es of the h.e.l.lespont to the Belurdagh, and maintained order and security from the Nile to the Himalayas. Moreover, the religion and wors.h.i.+p of the subject nations, of whatever kind they might be, were not injured, but rather protected and held in honour. Law, justice, and manners remained the same, and the subjects preserved their local self-government. Agriculture in the provinces received attention, trade and commerce went on along the roads and rivers of the vast empire, and was not only unmolested but protected.

FOOTNOTES:

[316] Herod. 7, 55; 8, 113; 9, 31. Xenoph. "Cyri Inst.i.t." 8, 3, 10, 25.

[317] "Laws," p. 695. Vol. V. 390 _n._ 2.

[318] Xenoph. "Cyri Inst.i.t." 8, 1, 5, 6, 17-20.

[319] Xenoph. "Cyri Inst.i.t." 8, 1, 33.

[320] Xenoph. "Cyri Inst.i.t." 8, 1, 11.

[321] Xenoph. "Cyri Inst.i.t." 8, 1, 9.

[322] Xenoph. "Cyri Inst.i.t." 8, 1, 40; 8, 2, 7-9.