Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/36

 History and Religion. 7t to alien dominion, or refractory satraps ; or Athens and Sparta, ever ready to fan and help on the spirit of revolt. The brilliant achievements of Artaxerxes Ochus (cir. 350 b.c.) restored a semblance of unity to the empire. It could not last any time, however, for its machinery was utterly worn out. A state of general decay was evident everywhere, both in the religion, to which quite an array of foreign elements had been superadded ; in the manners of the people, whom luxury had so chanjj^ed for the worse as to make them forget the noble and simple moral code of Zoroaster ; in the army, now chiefly made up of Greek mercenaries; in the languaj:;c, which was fast losing its purity ; whilst native art repeated itself, but was powerless to create or blossom forth. It needed not the intervention of Alexander to bring about the downfall of the Achaemenid dynasty; left to itself, it would none the less have fallen to pieces, or suc- cumbed, perhaps, to northern tribes, when a Parthian empire ■would have started on its course from the fourth century b.c. The zenith of Persian prosperity was reached, towards the end of the sixth century B.C.,' with Darius, son of Hystaspes. The Persians of that time had lost none of their energy, and their reputation for manly virtues stood as high as ever. Men who had fought with Cyrus were still alive, and the remembrance of those days made them understand the necessity of organizing their conquests. Darius was a prince of commanding intellect, and there is but little doubt that, had his successors been capable of carrying on with any consistency the reforms he had instituted, which, like a network, were intended to embrace the whole of his vast dominions, a degree of solidity would have accrued to them such as had been unknown to the incoherent and fragile empires Persia had inherited. His statesmanlike genius made him reject the idea of fusing the conquered nations into one body ; so that they were permitted to retain their particular laws, and live their own life unfettered. Nevertheless, he devised a " satraj)ial administration" in the provinces, which he divided between civil and military officers ; ' each acting as check on the other, and each A<Tirfi avSpam K<u jyni/idrw /icyoAiMV awiovraar* administration, notably the department of finance, and wielded the power of life and death ; the commandant, who was supreme over the troops ; and the secretary, Digitized by Google
 * The Gvedcs thoroughly grasped the ntuation. Thus Herodotus (!▼. i) : Mntr^
 * The officers in question consisted of the satrap, who was charged with the civil