Political Science Of The State

POLITICAL SCIENCE.

mercial Ionia. Until Darius, no fixed tribute had been levied,
only gifts were offered. Herodotus (ii., 90-94) gives the
sums which were paid by the several satrapies, which are
almost all reckoned in money. Thus the first satrapy, com-
prehending with Ionia several adjoining districts, paid 400
talents ($400,000) ; Phenicia, Palestine and Cyprus, forming
the fifth satrapy, 350; Egypt with adjoining parts of Libya,
Cyrene and Barca, 700, together with the profits of the fisher--
ies in lake Mceris, and grain furnished to 120,000 Persians at
Memphis ; India the largest tribute of 350 talents [weight]
of gold dust. The whole revenue, amounting at first to
about fifteen millions of dollars, does not speak of a heavy
taxation. Later it was somewhat increased. And perhaps
local payments may have been made, for a time or as a rule,
for the support of the army and for other purposes. Media
rendered 100,000 sheep besides a number of mules and
horses ; Cappadocia, half as many ; Armenia, 20,000 colts ;
Cilicia, 360 white horses and 140 talents. The main object
of the whole arrangement, says Prof. Rawlinson (Anc.
Mon., iii., 421), was evidently the taxation of each province
proportionate to its wealth and resources^
Taking everything into account, we are led to judge that
Prof. Rawlinson accords with the truth when he says that
"it would seem that while the caprice and cruelty of the
kings rendered the condition of the satraps and other great
men as bad as it has ever been under the worst of the orien-
tal despotisms, the oppression of^the masses was lighter than
at almost any other period in eastern history. " There was not,
however, anything civilizing or uniting in the way in which
the Persians managed the territory conquered by their arms.*
When Alexander put Greek power in the place of Persian
Macedonian sys- power, his early death and the breaking up of
his empire prevented the development of any
change of government in the provinces. The policy however
*Comp. Heeren, Ideen, Rawlinson, Transl. of Herodot Append.
to Book, m., Essay, 3; his Ancient Monarchies, iii., 417, onw- Dun-
ker, u. s., L, 884 onw. (ed. 3.)