tians. Yet it seems that all troubles were not even yet at an end in Asia. The last column of the Behistûn inscription, though injured beyond all hope of decipherment, allows a glimpse of a third, though short-lived, rising in Elam and a war in the far east, against a Scythian people distingushed from other tribes by the name "Saki of the pointed caps." We can just make out that their chief, SAKUNKA, was taken prisoner, and probably put to death. Fortunately for Dareios, Asia Minor, the Phoenician cities, and the Ionian Greeks had not broken the peace through all these eventful years. The only attempt at rebellion was made by the Persian Satrap at Sardis, who tried to set up an independent principality for himself by uniting Lydia and Phrygia under his rule and refusing allegiance. This attempt is not mentioned in the great inscription, probably because it was not put down by force of arms, but by the assassination of the culprit, who was put to death by his own guard in obedience to a written order from the king.

12. It is the story of the almost superhuman struggle of these first years of his reign that Dareios confided to the great rock at Bagistana. The sculptured panel at the top of the inscription is a forcible illustration of the narrative. (See ill. 39.) It represents the king, protected as usual by the hovering emblem of Ahura-Mazda, and attended by two dig nitaries, one of whom is Gobryas, his father-in-law, in an impetuous attitude, one foot firmly planted on the prostrate form of a man who stretches out his hands as though imploring mercy, while a proces

sion of prisoners approaches, tied together, neckand-neck, by one rope, and with hands bound behind their backs. These are the nine principal rebels and impostors whom it took over six years and nineteen pitched battles to overcome. They were all cap

tured alive. The last of the band is noticeable for his pointed cap; it is the Scythian Sakunka. Short inscriptions placed above the head of each leave us no doubt about their identity. Attached to the prostrate figure is the following declaration: "This Magian, Gaumata, lied; he spoke thus: 'I am Bardiya, the son of Kurush. I am the king.'" Above the first standing figure we read: “This Atrina lied ; he spoke thus: 'I am king of Susiana!' and so on

for every one.

13. In the introduction to this matchless piece of history, Dareios gives a list of the countries of which, by the grace of Ahura-Mazda, he had become king. There are twenty names. The number increases to

thirty in the last of his inscriptions, that on his tomb, and includes such remote provinces towards the four quarters of the world as, in the east several districts of India (Hindush), in the west "the Ionians beyond the sea" (the people of the Greek islands, perhaps even of the Greek continent), the "Scythians beyond the sea" in the north (the people of Southern Russia), the Libyans and Kyrênians in the southwest. It stands to reason that many of these countries, situated on the extremest verge of the empire, even though visited and more or less. conquered by Dareios, and by him incorporated in the list of "Satrapies," i. e. provinces governed by

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Satraps, did not really consider themselves his obedient subjects, scarcely his vassals; but they had all felt the great king's arm, and their name must needs grace the list of "the countries that belonged to him." In his tomb-inscription there is the following effective address to his successor or any one who may behold the monument: 'If thou thinkest thus; 'how many were the lands which King Darayavush ruled?'-then look on this effigy: they bear my throne, that thou mayest know them. [See ill. 39 and 54. Then shalt thou know that the Persian man's spear reaches far, that the Persian man has fought battles far away from Persia."

сосуд

1. Six years had been absorbed by the civil wars; all the provinces needed rest, and Dareios adjourned the plans of conquest which his ambitious spirit was maturing until the wounds of the state should be healed and the growing generation should have reached manhood. For seven years he devoted himself to works of peace, and showed a genius for administration and statesmanship, such as has never since been surpassed and seldom equalled by the greatest organizers and founders of states. His system was based on the simplest principle: the greatest possible prosperity of the subject, as conducive to the greatest possible power and wealth of the state, represented by a vigilant, active, and absolute central government. The means which he used, the institutions which he created in order to achieve this great result, are startlingly modern in spirit, and even in the technical details of execution. In the first place he divided the empire into twenty provinces or "satrapies;" for, in the words of an eminent modern historian," the insurrections which had marred the beginning of his reign had shown him how apt a bun*Justi, "Geschichte des alten Persiens."

dle of countries with such utterly divergent nationalities and interests is to fall apart, and that the huge empire could be held together only by the uniform rule of a class of devoted officials, controlled and directed in all their actions by the king and his councillors." Such a class was formed of the Satraps and their subordinate officers. The king appointed them from the highest nobility of Persia, whose young sons were carefully educated for this special purpose under the king's own eyes. The power entrusted to the Satraps was very great, and an extraordinary latitude of action was very wisely allowed to those of the remote provinces, who could at any moment be called upon to face some unexpected emergency, when the delay of communication with the central authority could have dangerous and even fatal consequences. Yet they were never suffered to forget the duty that bound them on one side to the sovereign whom they represented, and on the other to the people whose welfare was given into their care. Thus a Satrap of Egypt was put to death by order of Dareios because he had presumed to coin money in his own name. The king, too, frequently undertook tours of inspection through the empire; and woe to the Satrap whose province was found in a poor condition, the people needy, oppressed, and despoiled, the fields neglected, the plantations uncared for, the villages and buildings in bad repair, while favors and honors were liberally bestowed on those who could show the master a prosperous land and contented population. As the language, religion, and national peculiarities of each country were scru