the tribute which was imposed. The satrapies were generally given
to members of the royal family, or to great nobles connected with it by
marriage. The monarch governed by no council, and the laws centered in the
principle that the will of the king was supreme. The only check which he
feared was assassination, and he generally spent his life in the
retirement of his seraglio, at Susa, Babylon, or Ecbatana.

The Persian empire was the last of the great monarchies of the Oriental
world, and these flourished for a period of two thousand years. When
nations became wicked or extended over a large territory, the patriarchal
rule of the primitive ages no longer proved an efficient government. Men
must be ruled, however, in some way, and the irresponsible despotism of
the East, over all the different races, Semitic, Hamite, and Japhetic, was
the government which Providence provided, in a state of general rudeness,
or pastoral simplicity, or oligarchal usurpations. The last great monarchy
was the best; it was that which was exercised by the descendants of
Japhet, according to the prediction that he should dwell in the tents of
Shem, and Canaan should be his servant.

Before we follow the progress of the descendants of Japhet in Greece,
among whom a new civilization arose, designed to improve the condition of
society by the free agency displayed in art, science, literature, and
government--the rise, in short, of free institutions--we will glance at the
nations in Asia Minor which were brought in contact with the powers we
have so briefly considered.

CHAPTER X.

ASIA MINOR AND PHOENICIA.

(M201) Concerning the original inhabitants of Asia Minor our information
is very scanty. The works of Strabo shed an indefinite light, and the
author of the Iliad seems to have been but imperfectly acquainted with
either the geography or the people of that extensive country. According to
Herodotus, the river Halys was the most important geographical limit; nor
does he mention the great chain of Taurus, which begins from the southern
coast of Lycia, and strikes northeastward as far as Armenia--the most
important boundary line in the time of the Romans. Northward of Mount
Taurus, on the upper portion of the river Halys, was situated the spacious
plain of Asia Minor. The northeast and south of this plain was
mountainous, and was bounded by the Euxine, the AEgean, and the Pamphylian
seas. The northwester