slew Gomates the Magian, and the chief men who were with
him; and having re-established the chaunts and sacrificial
worship, he confided these duties to the families who were deprived
of them by Gomates, or, in other words, he restored the
ancient religion of the country in connexion with the State.
Darius, although he only followed the steps of Cyrus and his
uncle Cyaxares, may be considered the real founder of the
Persian empire, in consequence of the wisdom he displayed in
the government of the country, which had only been in part
reduced to order, after having been subjected by the arms of
His organiza- those monarchs. tion of the
Darius accomplished these great objects by
dividing his vast dominions into provinces of a convenient size:
a certain number of these constituted a viceroyalty, of which
there were twenty, .each under the general superintendence of
a satrap, to whom all the inferior governors of provinces, districts,
&c., were responsible; though they were appointed or
removed only at the pleasure of the sovereign himself. By this
arrangement, a salutary check was maintained over the governors
of the satrapies. Such a check was the more necessary, as in
various general the satrapies not only comprised many provinces, but
emp!re?S ** sometimes one of them consisted of several kingdoms. In the
first, for instance, were the Ionians, the Carians, the Lycians,
Pamphylians, and others;1 in the second were the Mysians,
the Lydians, and the Cabalii. Babylon, together with the
territory of Assyria, belonged to the ninth satrapy.8
In the time of Cyrus, and even during that of his successor,
there was not any fixed taxation, and the sovereign only received
uncertain gratuities from time to time; in addition to
which, during war, contingents of men and money were furnished
for the exigencies of the state. This system prevailed
till a fixed tribute and a regular quota of men were established
for each satrapy3 by Darius. This regulation induced
the Persians to designate him the Broker, whilst with equal
point, Cambyses was called Master, and Cyrus the Pather of
the Empire.4
But the statistics, then so wittily termed brokerage, were the
Moderate
contributions
established,
and intercommunications
1 Herod., lib. I I I ., cap. xc.
3 Ibid., cap. lxxxix.
Ibid., cap. xcii.
Ibid.
more easily managed, in consequence of a system of intercommu- throughout the
nication which had been commenced throughout the empire in emp're'
the time of Cyrus, and was more completely established in that
of Darius.1 The object was accomplished by means of couriers,
who were stationed at certain distances, for the rapid transmission
of the firmáns, which in this way were sent to, and answers
received from, the different governors. Those issued by the Firmáns or
monarch are supposed to have been stamped upon barrel-shaped Meaes and
bricks of small size, which were afterwards solidly baked as the Persians-
best and surest means of preventing any change in the edicts;
which thus became the laws of the Medes and Persians.8 Without
doubt one of the most memorable was the decree of Cyrus, Darius causes
permitting the return of the captives to rebuild Jerusalem and onheTeínpie
its Temple. Encouraged by the prophet Haggai, the work was resnmed>
resumed in the beginning of the second year of Darius, viz.,
520 b .c . Tatnai, the governor of Syria and Palestine, having
made an appeal to his sovereign, in order to ascertain if the
decree of Cyrus really existed, as was alleged by the elders of
the Jews, a search was in consequence made, and the decree
being found in the archives of Ecbatana,3 the king enjoined
Tatnai and Setharboznai to see it fully executed. These persons
were further commanded to carry out the original intentions
of Cyrus, and to give at the same time all possible
assistance to the Jews in rebuilding their Temple.4 To this
measure Darius was no doubt moved, like his predecessor, by an
irresistible impulse, which made each an instrument in fulfilling
the Divine purposes. In other respects, it would seem that the the return of
court of Persia could have no good ground of objection to to
the return of the Jews to their native land, since, in such * e edict
return, they only moved from one part of the Assyrian dominions
to another.
1 Herod., lib. V I I I ., cap. xcviii.
s Several of these barrel-shaped bricks may be seen in the British
Museum; and Asiatic tradition connects them with the firmáns of the great
Assyrian monarchs: the character is cuneiform.
* Ezra, chap. V I., v. 1-3.
4 1 Esdras, chap. V., v. 47, and following verses; also Ezra, chap. V I.,
v. 5-17.
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