Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/50

 38 EARLY PEOPLES AND EMPIRES the younger son of Cyrus, who had in fact been murdered. The false Smerdis was really a Babylonian, who intended to re- store the Babylonian supremacy in the new empire. But the imposture was discovered, and a con- spiracy among the Median and Persian nobility placed on the throne one of their own number, Darius, the son of Hystaspes, who as a matter of course claimed kinship with Cyrus, of whom there were now no actual descendants. Darius is to be regarded as the organiser of the Persian Empire, in which the Persian and Median nobility were the dominant section. Nevertheless, the civilisation of the empire continued to be essentially of the same type as before the domination of these Aryan races. It does not, in fact, appear that any great changes in the actual organisation were made by Darius; rather, he extended over The new the wno ^ e empire the system which had prevailed Persian for centuries in the various Mesopotamian Empires, mpire. r^g w hole was divided up into great districts called Satrapies, each under its own Satrap, a title which may be rendered as Lieutenant-governor. It was the Satrap's business to administer the affairs of his province, so that he supplied the Imperial Treasury with the tribute required, and with the troops Greek which might be demanded. The divisions of his Subjects of province were managed by a local government, ersia. a ^ er t ] ie j r own f asn ion • and thus we find Asia Minor distributed into four or five Satrapies, where the separate Greek cities were in the hands of despots who looked to the Satrap to keep them secure. Owing to the fact that Asia Minor was now for the first time brought under this general system, the Greeks credited Darius with having invented the system itself. It is probable that otherwise the main change lay in the favour shown to the Persian and Median nobility in the dis- tribution of power and office. Darius, like his predecessors, set about extending his dominions, and seems to have obtained some recognition of his Darius in authority even from Indian princes. He invaded Europe. Europe by way of the Hellespont, marching north- ward and crossing the Danube; on this expedition he pene-