n land
forces as might happen to be in the neighborhood, who would be sure to
come with all speed to their aid, and might be expected to prove a sure
protection.

The subject nations who furnished the Persians with their fleet were,
in the earlier times, the Phoenicians, the Egyptians, the Cypriots, the
Cilicians, the Syrians of Palestine, the Pamphylians, the Lycians, the
Carians, and the Greeks of Asia Minor and the islands. The Greeks seem
to have furnished the largest number of ships; the Phoenicians, the
next largest; then the Egyptians; after them the Cypriots; then the
Cilicians; then the Carians; next the Lycians; while the Pamphylians
furnished the least. The best ships and the best sailors were the
Phoenicians, especially those of Sidon. In later times, ships were drawn
either from Phoenicia alone, or from Phoenicia, Cilicia, and Cyprus.

The limits assigned to the present work forbid the further prosecution
of this branch of our inquiry, and require us now to pass on from the
consideration of the Persian usages in war, to that of their manners
and customs, their habits and proceedings, in time of peace. And here
it will once more be convenient to follow a division of the subject with
which the reader is familiar, and to treat first of the public life of
the King and Court, and next of the private life of the people.

The Persian king held the same rank and position in the eyes of his
subjects which the great monarch of Western Asia, whoever he might be,
had always occupied from time immemorial. He was their lord and master,
absolute disposer of their lives, liberties, and property; the
sole fountain of law and right, incapable himself of doing wrong,
irresponsible irresistable--a sort of God upon earth; one whose favor
was happiness, at whose frown men trembled, before whom all bowed
themselves down with the lowest and humblest obeisance.

To a personage so exhalted, a state and pomp of the utmost magnificence
was befitting. The king's ordinary dress in time of peace was the long
flowing "Median garment," or _candys_--made in his case (it is probable)
of richest silk, which, with its ample folds, its wide hanging sleeves,
and its close fit about the neck and chest, gave dignity to almost any
figure, and excellently set off the noble presence of an Achaemenian
prince. The royal robe was either of purple throughout, or sometimes of
purple embroidered with gold. It descended below the ankles; resting on
the