Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/256

 238 HISTORY OF GREECE. as hitherto known, is obtained exclusively near the surface ; so that a country once rich in that metal may well have been exhausted of its whole supply, and left at a later period without any gold at all. Of the nineteen silver-paying satrapies, the most heavily im- posed was Babylonia, which paid one thousand talents : the next in amount of charge was Egypt, paying seven hundred talents, besides the produce of the ash from the lake of Mceris. The re- maining satrapies varied in amount, down as low as one hundred and seventy talents, which was the sum charged on the seventh satrapy (in the enumeration of Herodotus), comprising the Sat- lagydas, the Gandarii, the Dodikae, and the Aparytae. The Jonians, JEolians, Magnesians on the Ma^ander, and on Mount Sipylus, Karians, Lykians, Milyans, and Pamphylians, includ- ing the coast of Asia Minor, southward of Kane, and from thence round the southern promontory to Phaselis, were rated as one division, paying four hundred talents. But we may be sure that much more than this was really taken from the people, when we read that Magnesia alone afterwards paid to Themis- tokles a revenue of fifty talents annually. 1 The Mysians and Lydians were included, with some others, in another division, and the Hellespontine Greeks in a third, with Phrygians, Bithy- nians, Paphlagonians, Mariandynians, and Syrians, paying three hundred and sixty talents, nearly the same as was paid by Syria proper, Phenicia, and Judasa, with the island of Cyprus. Independent of this regular tribute, and the undefined sums ex- torted over and above it, 2 there were some dependent nations, which, though exempt from tribute, furnished occasional sums called presents ; and farther contributions were exacted for the maintenance of the vast suite who always personally attended the king. One entire third of this last burden was borne by Baby- lonia alone in consequence of its exuberant fertility. 3 It was paid in produce, as indeed the peculiar productions of every part of the empire seem to have been sent up for the regal consumption 1 Thucyd. i, 138. J Hcrodot. iii, 117. the Great King, in Polyaenus, iv, 3, 32 : also Ktesias and Demon ap Ath* nanun,-ii, p 67-
 * Herodot. i, 192. Compare the description of the dinner and supper ot