The Historians' History of the World 02

The free-will offerings, however, as they were styled, which were presented to the king, were probably still more considerable. It was the universal custom of the East for none to present himself before a superior, more especially the king, without a present. The grandees of the court, the satraps for instance, sought in this manner to purchase or retain the king’s favour, but on certain solemnities, particularly on the king’s birthday, such offerings flowed in from all parts of the empire. These consisted not so much in money, as in rarities and valuables of every description, such as are delineated on the ruins of Persepolis. What treasures must on such an occasion have been accumulated out of the immense empire of Persia!

Such an arrangement with respect to the public revenue shows at the outset that the expenditure also must have been no less peculiar.

We have already remarked, that we must dismiss the idea of anything like a public treasury, out of which the servants of the state were regularly paid, an arrangement equally unknown in ancient as in modern Persia.

All the expenses which could be characterized as public, such as the maintenance of armies, etc., are not met by the resources of the king’s exchequer, but previously provided for in the provinces. The king’s treasure remains a private chest for his personal use, from which he takes what he wants for the purpose of making presents, not in coin, but in ingots, or in vessels of gold, even the expenses of the court and household not being provided for out of it, but defrayed in the two following ways.

All the inferior attendants in the court, including the bodyguard, which in Europe would receive pay, were not paid in specie at the court of Persia, but in produce; and to this purpose were devoted the provisions of which such abundance was transmitted from the different provinces, and which more than sufficed for the consumption of the court.

On the other hand, all of a more elevated rank, the great officers of the court, the friends or kinsmen of the king, who on account of their birth or offices might aspire to favours or pensions, did not receive anything in money, but were rather in assignments of towns or cities, which the king disposed of at his pleasure, in virtue of his title as sole proprietor of the chattels and lives of his subjects; as the autocrat of all the Russias was in the habit of making a present of some thousands of serfs. The individual to whom such an assignment was made received the revenue of the place in question, and the king possessed accurate accounts of their value, so as to regulate the distribution of his favours. Nevertheless the person thus favoured appears to have been obliged to make over a part of his income to the king in the way of tribute. With individuals of the highest rank, the mother or consort of the monarch, luxury had attained such an excess, that a variety of places were assigned them to provide severally for even the most insignificant of their wants. In this manner a fruitful district, a day’s journey in length, was allotted to furnish the queen’s zone; and thus Themistocles received the city of Magnesia, producing a revenue of fifty talents, to supply him with bread, Lampsacus to furnish wine, and Myus the side dishes of his table.

Besides these allotments of villages and cities, it was usual also to assign, in like manner, houses and lands in the provinces; and donations of this kind were usually coupled with offices at the court, an institution ascribed to Cyrus himself, and which descended to after ages.

Those possessed of such assignments enjoyed them for their lives; on their decease their places and possessions reverted to the king, to dispose of according to his pleasure. Without such an arrangement it would have been impossible for the boundless empire of Persia itself to have sufficed to supply the liberality of the monarch, exercised as it was towards so large a number, and compelled also to provide for many expenses. Nevertheless the possessions attached to places at court became, according to Xenophon, hereditary, and constituted the patrimony of those whose ancestors had been first appointed to the same by Cyrus. Among a people whose constitution, like that of the Persians, was entirely dependent on descent and distinctions of tribe, it was natural that offices should become hereditary, and an immediate consequence that the revenues attached to them should follow the same rule.

These preliminary observations will help us to comprehend the internal administration of the provinces. As the very division into provinces was for the purpose of collecting with greater accuracy the tribute, the political administration of the satrapies connected therewith was not matured at once, but gradually developed. As the age of Xenophon may be considered on the whole the most flourishing period of Persian history, we shall be less likely to err if we confine ourselves to the evidence which he has afforded.