56 THE EMPIRE. 



the world had ever seen. The Persians used to boast 

 that they ruled from the land of uninhabitable heat to 

 the land of uninhabitable cold ; that their dominion 

 began in regions where the sun frizzled the hair and 

 blackened the faces of the natives, and ended in a land 

 where the air was filled with snow like feathers, and 

 the earth was hard as stone. The Persian empire was 

 in reality bounded by the deserts which divided Egypt 

 from Ethiopia on the south, and from Carthage on the 

 west ; by the desert which divided the Punjaub from 

 Bengal ; by the steppes which lay on the other side of 

 the Jaxartes ; by the Mediterranean, the Caspian, and 

 the Black Sea. 



Darius, the third emperor, invented a system of 

 provincial government which, though imperfect when 

 viewed by the wisdom of modern times, was far 

 superior to any that had preceded it in Asia. He 

 appointed satraps or pachas to administer the con- 

 quered provinces. Each of these viceroys received 

 with his commission a map of his province engraved 

 on brass. He was at once the civil governor and 

 commander of the troops ; but his power was checked 

 and supervised by a secretary or clerk of the accounts ; 

 and the province was visited by Royal Commissioners 

 once a year. The troops in each province were of two 

 kinds ; some garrisoned the cities ; others, for the most 

 part cavalry, lived, like the Roman legions, always in a 

 camp : it was their office to keep down brigands, and 

 to convoy the royal treasure from place to place. The 

 troops were subsisted by the conquered people : this 

 formed part of the tribute, and was collected at the 

 point of the sword. There was also a fixed tax in 

 money and in kind, which was received by the clerk of 

 the accounts, and despatched to the capital every year. 



