Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/595

 PEESrS. of this small district; though in later times the name was applied generally to the subjects of the great king, whose empire extended, under Dareius the son of Hystaspes, from India to the Jlediterranean. In the earliest times of the Old Testament they are not mentioned by name as a distinct people, and when, in the later days of the capti'ity, their name occurs, they must be taken as the inhabitants of the great empire above noticed (^Ezek. xxxviii. 5 ; Estk. ). 3 — 18; Ezra, iv. 5; 1 Maccab.i. 1, &c.), and not simply of the limited district of Persis. According to Herodotus, the ancient people ^vere divided into three leading classes, warriors, husbandmen, and nomades. In the first class, the Pasargadae, Ma- raphii, and Maspii, were the most important sub- divisions. The Achaemenidae, from whom their well-known line of kings descended, was one of the fiimilies of the Pasargadae. The tribes of husband- men bore the names of Panthialaei, Derusiaei and Gennanii; those of the nomades were called, Dai, Mardi, Dropici and Sagartii. (Herod, i. 125) It is clear from this account that Herodotus is describing what was the state of the Persae but a little while before his own times, and that his view embraces a territory far more extensive than that of the small province of Persis. We must suppose, from bis notice of the nomade tribes, that he extended the Persian race over a considerable portion of what is now called K/wrdsan ; indeed, over much of the country which at the present day forms the realm of Persia. In still later times, other tribes or subdivisions are met with, as the Paraetaceni, Messabatae, Stabaei, Suzaei, Hippophagi, &c. &c. Herodotus states further that the most ancient name of the people was Artaei (Herod, vii. 61), a form which modern philology has shown to be in close connection with that of the Arii, the earliest title of their inmiediate neighbours, the Medes. Both alike are derived from the old Zend and Sanscrit Aiya, signifying a people of noble descent; a name still preserved in the modern J'rak (Ariaka). (}heT,Jau7'n. Asiat. iii. p. 299; Lassen, Iml. Alterth. ii. p. 7.) There can be no doubt that the naiiie Persae is itself of Indian origin, the earliest form in which it is found on the cuneiform inscrip- tions being Parasa. (Lassen, Alt-Pers. Keil-Inscr. p. 60.) The Persian people seem to have been in all times noted for the pride and haughtiness of their language (Aeschyl. Pers. 795; Amm. Marc, xxiii. 6); but, in spite of this habit of boasting, in their earlier history, under Cyrus and his immediate suc- cessors, they appear to have made excellent soldiers. Herodotus describes fully the arms and accoutre- ments of the foot-soldiers, archers, and lancers of the army of Xerxes (vii. 61), on which description the well-known sculptures at Persepolis afford a still living commentary. (Cf also Strab. xv. p. 734; Xen. Cyrop. vi. 3. § 31.) Their cavalry also was celebrated (Herod. I. c. ix. 79, 81; Xen. Cyrup. vi. 4. § 1). Strabo, who for the most part confines the name of Persae to the inhabitants of Persis, has fully described some of the manners and cus- toms of the people. On the subject of their re- ligious worship Herodotus and Strabo are not at one, and each writer gives .separate and uncon- nected details. The general conclusion to be drawn )s that, in the remotest ages, the Per.sians were pure lire-worshippers, and that by degrees they adopted what became in later times a characteristic of their religious system, the Dualistic arrangement of two separate principles of good and evil, Hormuzd and PERUSIA. 579 Ahriman. (Strab. xv. p. 727 — 736; Herod, i. 33, 133; Xen. Cyrop. i. 22.) Many of their ancient religious customs have continued to the present dav; the fire-worshippers of India still contending that they are the lineal descendants of the ancient Persians. The language of the ancient people was strictly Indo- Germanic, and was nearly connected with the classical Sanscrit: the earliest specimens of it are the cuneiform inscriptions at Murghdh, — the site of Pasargada, and the place where Cyrus was buried, — and those of Dareius and Xerxes at Perse- polis and Behistdn, which have been deciphered bv Colonel Rawlinson and Professor Lassen. (Kawlinson, Journ.As. Soc. vol. x.; Lassen, Zeitschrift f. Mor- genl. vi. 1; Hitzig, Grabschrift d. Darius, Zurich, 1847; Benfey, Pers. Keil-Inscrift, Leipzig, 1847.) The government of Pei'sia was a rigid monarchy. Their kings lived apart from their subjects in well secured palaces {Esth. iv. 2, 6), and rejoiced in great parks (irapaSeiffOi), well stocked with game and animals for the chase {Cyrop. i. 3. § 14, viii. 1. § 38, Anah. i. 2. § 7 ; Curt. viii. 1. § 11), and passed (in later times, when their empire was most widely extended) their summer at Ecbatana, their spring at Susa, and their winter at Babylon. {Nehem. i. 1; Dan. viii. 2; Esth. i. 2, 5; Xen. Anah. iii. 5. § 15, Cyrop. viii. 6. § 22.) Like other eastern monarchs, the Persian kings possessed a well ap- pointed harem, many curious details of which we gather from the history of Esther (cf. also Curt, iii. § 3; Athen. xiii. p. 557; Plut. Artax. c. 43); and they were accustomed to receive from their sub- jects direct adoration (TrpofTKvvrjais), as the pre- sumed descendants or representatives of Hormuzd. (Plut. Themist. c. 7; Curt. vi. 6. § 2, viii. 5. § 6.) Their local government was a pure despotism; but in some extraordinary cases a sort of privy council was called of the seven chief princes, who stood around the royal throne, like the Amshaspands round the throne of Honimzd. (Herod, vii. 8, viii. 67; Esth. I. 14, 19, vii. 14.) ^■hatever document had once passed the king and had been sealed by the royal signet was deemed irrevocable. (^Esth. i. 19, viii. 8; Dan. vi. 9, 16; cf. also Chardin, Voy. iii. 418.) Over the individual provinces — which in the time of Dareius were said to have been twenty in number (Her. iii. 89), but were subsequently much more numerous (^Esth. i. 1), probably from the sub- division of the larger ones — were placed satraps, whose business it was to superintend them, to collect the revenues, and to attend to the progress of agricul- ture. (Her. iii. 89, 97; Joseph. /?«/. xi. 3, &c.) Between the satraps and the kings was a well or- ganised system of couriers, who were called &yyapoi ora(TTd'^atl^l'lnt.Eo7't.Alex. vii. p. 294, ed. Keiske), who conveyed their despatches from station to station on horses, and had the power, when necessary, to press horses, boats, and even men into their service. As this service was very irksome and ojiprcssive, the word ayyapiveif came to mean conijmlsion or de- tention under other circumstances. (Joseph. Ant. xiii. 2. § 3; Estli. iii. 13, 15, viii. 10, 14; Bentley's Menander, p. 56.) The history of the Persian empire need not be repeated here, as it is given under the names of the respective kings in the Diet, of J3wi/r. [V.] PEKTU'SA, a town of the Ilergetes in Hispaniii Tarraconensis, which still exists under the old name on the A Icamdre. (Itin. A nt. p. 39 1 .) [T. H. D.] PEIvU'SIA(nef<ou(ria: A.VA. Perusinus: Peit/gia), one of the most important and powerful cities of p p 2