The Historians' History of the World 02

Among the pleasures of the court was accounted the chase, which was not only esteemed the highest of all amusements, but a suitable preparation for the toils of war. In the end whole armies were devoted to the pursuit, and such expeditions resembled those occasionally adopted by the monarchs of continental Europe. The Persians were originally a race of hunters as well as shepherds, and one entire tribe among them, the Sagartians, who adhered to their pastoral habits in the time of Herodotus, practised in war the arts of hunting, casting a lasso round the neck of a flying enemy, as of an animal of the chase. In their more advanced stage of civilisation the Persians are still characterised by their fondness for the same pursuits, and the manner in which of old they prosecuted this amusement precisely resembled that adopted by the Mongol princes. A distinction was made between the chase as carried on in the park, and which constituted the favourite recreation of the monarchs and grandees of Persia, and in the open country, which was a nobler species of amusement, and usually pursued in the districts abounding with game of northern Media and Hyrcania.

ADMINISTRATION OF THE PROVINCES; FINANCIAL SYSTEM; SATRAPS

If we reflect upon the original circumstances of the Persians, we must acknowledge that their ideas on the subjects of administration and finance could not have been very refined; and the primitive condition of the race continued to give a tinge to their institutions, notwithstanding their gradual refinement and the development of their first constitution. The forms of European government and finance could have no place in an empire founded by a nomad people; notwithstanding the difficulty which many authors, of great pretensions to an intimate knowledge of the East, have shown in liberating themselves from their European preconceptions.

“The Persians,” says Herodotus, “look upon all Asia as theirs, and as the property of each successive king of Persia.” These few words contain the leading idea, on which all the following discussion must be grounded.

A rude people of conquerors naturally look upon the conquered countries, with all they contain, as their own; and Asiatic history presents several instances of such nations, in order to their own peaceable occupation, entirely depopulating their conquered possessions. The Persians did not fail to adopt the same plan, when no other appeared likely to answer the purpose of repressing their vassals; but when their conquests became very extensive, this was impracticable, and they were compelled to devise other means of securing their dominion.

We have already explained how and when these institutions were first adopted. The conquered nations were compelled to pay a tribute, at first arbitrarily imposed, but under Darius reduced to an annual and regular tax, of which Herodotus has given us a full statement.

Important as this document is, it has nevertheless given occasion to many misapprehensions. The tribute in money has been treated as the only, or, at all events, the principal revenue which the monarch derived from his empire; and, with the customs of Europe before their eyes, authors have imagined the existence of a public exchequer, out of which the expenses of the state were paid, the armies maintained, and the public officers remunerated, etc. Such a mode of proceeding was, however, utterly unknown in the East. The Persian public officers received no appointments in the European sense of the word; the tribute in question furnished nothing more than the private revenue of the king, and, besides his own expenses, was applied to no public purposes whatever, unless, perhaps, to that of conferring presents.

As the end of a financial system adopted by a nation of conquerors must be different from that of all others, so also must the internal regulations belonging to such a system.

The end in question is no other than that of obliging the conquered nations, whose land is esteemed the property of the conquerors, to pay for everything, and provide for the maintenance of the king, the court, and, in some sense, of all the nation.