We must consider that the nuliinited riches which the palaces reveal were not the result of general prosperity, but were derived from the annual tributes of subjugated countries. These treasures were poured only into the coffers of the powerful, and most frequently assumed a visible shape in the splendor of the palaces. Their magnificence can thus be accounted for, and we can also infer, as we have already emphat ically stated (p. 145), that the life of the people lay far beneath the splendor of the court. This was probably even more the case in Persia than in the kingdoms previously mentioned, which, having reached their attain able limits, were enabled to enjoy repose and to further development. In the original countries of the Persian monarchy industry and commerce seem never to have been developed as among their neighbors, and the riches accumulated by tribute could not adequately compensate for this want.
as are the wonders told about the palaces of the kings, we get little information concerning the dwellings of the citi zens. Some have sought to trace the ancient buildings in the wooden structures which at the present time are common in those localities, and with the greater reason as Nature herself supplies the materials. The dwelling consisted of a tent-like hut with a single apartment. As regards house utensils, similarly limited conditions prevailed. According to He rodotus, the Persians were scarcely acquainted with the luxury of a com fortable and richly-furnished dwelling.
Government and ancient writers concur in stating that the Persians were a simple people, who passed from the rude life to which they had been accustomed to one of warlike activity, who maintained their position so long as they did not lose their simple manners, and who seem to have fallen more through a sluggish remissness than through effeminacy and corruption. At all events, the Sassanides found in the people long after the fall of the ancient empire useful material for the foundation of a new sovereignty, and we shall hereafter have occasion to refer to the important part performed by Persia in preserving and trans mitting ancient elements of civilization.
Although the Persians carried on neither trade nor industry, and although, as we may presume, attempts made in that direction received little encouragement from the kings, who wished to keep up the warlike spirit of the mothcr-conntry, we may still assume that the shrewd rulers recognized the requirements of their other provinces and the necessity of promoting their prosperity, if for no other purpose than to increase their own resources. Thus, in contrast with the earlier monarchies, which did nothing but drain the dependent territories and otherwise leave them to themselves, Persia made a great stride forward in organizing a system of provincial administration which laid a foundation for all subsequent ages.
Darius established a kind of mail service between the different cities of his empire, which served at the same time to render travelling more secure. The roads were measured and stations erected; even topograph ical maps were used; and in the Kurdish mountains the stone guide-posts leading from Nineveh to Ecbatana are still visible. The same king advanced the construction of the great canals in Egypt, and promoted mercantile enterprise in the coast-cities and agriculture in the interior. When we are told that he imported gold-dust, ivory, and ebony from India and Ethiopia, we may be certain that it was not for the purpose of storing these raw materials away in his treasury.
The famed liberality and systematic bestowment of favors practised by the Persian kings must be emphasized as a civilizing influence, since they had the effect of diminishing the terror which usually rendered the Asiatic rulers inaccessible to their subjects. The justly-condemned system of satraps became destructive to the country only when these royal officers, freed from the strict control of the central government, acted as inde pendent rulers; and even then they prevented the subjugated provinces from destroying one another in internecine strife. On the whole, the
administrative system of the Persian empire was highly developed; and it must have been a welcome improvement when the original patriarchal system no longer fulfilled the more stringent requirements of government and a different form of rule had not yet taken its place.
Among the numerous officials, besides the councillors and higher dig nitaries, there were fan-, umbrella-, staff-, and chair-bearers to the king; and among the inferior servants physicians, cooks, keepers of the ward robe, carpet-spreaders, sweepers, table-setters, waiters, stable-masters, por ters, etc. Through their close connection with this elaborately organized court the executive officers and administrators of justice were well fitted to spread abroad and carry out the ideas and intentions of the sovereign. For the rest, the government was simply an ancient Oriental monarchy. The weal or woe of each individual was wholly dependent on the grace of the ruler. The magi or priestly class exercised the only counterbalancing power; they regulated the ceremonial functions of royalty and decided questions of law. Though they did not possess the ascendency of the Egyptian priesthood, their intrigues were more than once of momentous effect in Persian history. Etiquette kept the king secluded, but the prac tice of filling the principal offices with members of the royal family and of the nobility made his personal influence widely felt. Ancient usage permitted the wearing of arms at court, but persons admitted to the royal presence had to conceal their hands beneath their garments, and when speaking with the king to cover the month. The king's immediate attendants wore a hood with flaps attached, behind which the lips at any time could be hidden (pl. 15, jigs. 13, 14).
The system of espionage was first developed in Persia, and the effects of polygamy and the employment of eunuchs were too often felt in the conduct of the government. Notwithstanding the seclusion and reserve of the monarch, he still found opportunity to indulge in field sports of various kinds. Darius Hystaspes had inscribed as an epitaph upon his tomb that he had been "the best rider and marksman and the first in the chase." The Persian kings were also wont to occupy them selves with agriculture, though in course of time only as a matter of ceremony. They constructed large parks and zoological gardens; and it is narrated that Xerxes ordered a fine plantain tree which he chanced to see to be decorated with golden ornaments.
The institutions of which we have given an account did not reveal their injurious qualities until the last-named monarch and his successors descended from the saddle to purple conches, locked themselves in their palaces, and learned the condition of their kingdom only through reports. Then effeminacy and cruelty combined, and the vices of the Persians became proverbial.
Other all that has been said we recognize the import ance of many peoples of Western Asia who never or only for a brief time attained independence, and certainly not in the manner or to the extent of the states already considered, but who exerted a lasting influence on the civilization of that distant epoch either by their social superiority or through some other favorable circumstance. We must not omit men tioning that in the North and East there were also large states, such as Baetria, Sogdiana, etc., which had a long duration, and probably a peculiar civilization, of which, however, owing to the absence of monumental or written records, we have no certain knowledge.