The Historians' History of the World 02

All the other circumstances of the king’s private life bore traces of the original condition of the race, and presented the picture of a nomad state of existence carried to the highest excess of luxury. Even after these monarchs had occupied permanent residences, the signs of this did not altogether disappear, especially in their annual migrations from one abode to another, at fixed seasons of the year. Like the chiefs of nomad hordes, the kings of Persia removed with their household at certain seasons, from one chief city of their empire to another. The three capitals, of Susa, Babylon, and Ecbatana, each enjoyed every year the privilege of being for a certain period the residence of the monarch. The spring was spent at Ecbatana, the three summer months at Susa, the autumn and winter in Babylon. The great diversity of climate in so extensive an empire (a diversity which for several reasons is still more perceptible in Asia than in Europe) was the source of enjoyments, which, in our quarter of the globe, we can scarcely appreciate. These removals took place with such a multitude of followers, that the suite of the court resembled an army, and for this reason the poorer provinces were spared a visitation, which would have exposed them to the horrors of famine. A numerous attendance of armed followers constitutes at the present day a permanent part of the household of the great men of the East; and in the cases of their kings these amounted to the numbers of a regular army. The same system is retained unaltered by the rulers of modern Asia, and the accounts of travellers respecting this particular can hardly be read without astonishment.

The traces of the same nomad mode of life may also be detected in the arrangement of the king’s palaces and pleasure-houses. These were universally surrounded with spacious parks, or, as the Persians denominated them, paradises, forming domains sufficiently extensive to allow armies to be reviewed in them, or to assemble for the pursuit of game, of which great numbers and in every variety were collected. Such establishments existed, not only in the three capitals already named, but in several other countries of Asia, in which the king was accustomed to spend a part of his time, or in which his satraps resided.

The king’s palace was styled among the ancient Persians also, as in modern Constantinople, the Porte. Agreeably to the customs of other despots of the East, the kings of Persia resided in the interior of their palaces, seldom appearing in public, and guarding all means of access to their persons. The crowd of ministers and courtiers were consequently obliged to take their stations, according to their degrees of rank, in the court without, or before the gate or porte of the palace; and respect for the monarch prescribed, especially in his actual presence, a rigid system of etiquette, the discipline of which commenced with the early youth of those who were compelled to observe it. The number of courtiers, masters of ceremonies, guards, and others was endless. It was through them alone that access could be gained to the monarch; and they were consequently invested with titles which betokened their relation to him, being styled the king’s ears, the king’s eyes, etc., because no one without permission, or without their intervention, could approach his presence.

The king’s table also was regulated by a system of etiquette no less absolute, which, while it aimed at securing the highest enjoyment, necessarily became in the end more burdensome to the despot himself than to his guests.

As lord and owner of the whole empire, it was thought unworthy of him to taste any but the best and most costly productions of his dominions; no water was fit to be drunk by him but that of the Choaspes, which accordingly was conveyed in silver vessels on a multitude of wagons wherever he might journey. His very salt was brought from the neighbourhood of the temple of Jupiter Ammon in the centre of the African desert; his wine from Chalybon in Syria; the wheat, of which his bread was made, from Æolia, and so forth. Hence arose the custom, that on his journeys the best of the fruits of each country should be presented to the monarch; and according to the testimony of Xenophon there were bodies of men destined to the sole purpose of searching through his spacious dominions for whatever might add to the luxury of the royal table.