lready said, there were introduced into the
Empire a number of customs of an effeminate and demoralizing character.
From the earliest times the Persians seem to have been very careful of
their beards and hair, arranging the latter in a vast number of short
crisp curls, and partly curling the former, partly training it to hang
straight from the chin. After a while, not content with this degree
of care for their personal appearance, they proceeded to improve it by
wearing false hair in addition to the locks which nature had given them,
by the use of cosmetics to increase the delicacy of their complexions,
and by the application of a coloring matter to the upper and lower
eyelids, for the purpose of giving to the eye an appearance of greater
size and beauty. They employed a special class of servants to perform
these operations of the toilet, whom the Greeks called "adorners". Their
furniture increased, not merely in splendor, but in softness; their
floors were covered with carpets, their beds with numerous and delicate
coverlets; they could not sit upon the ground unless a cloth was first
spread upon it; they would not mount a horse until he was so caparisoned
that the seat on his back was softer even than their couches. At the
same time they largely augmented the number and variety of their viands
and of their sauces, always seeking after novel delicacies, and offering
rewards to the inventors of "new pleasures." A useless multitude of lazy
menials was maintained in all rich households, each servant confining
himself rigidly to a single duty, and porters, bread-makers, cooks,
cup-bearers, water-bearers, waiters at table, chamberlains, "awakers,"
"adorners," all distinct from one another, crowded each noble mansion,
helping forward the general demoralization. It was probably at this
comparatively late period that certain foreign customs of a sadly
lowering character were adopted by this plastic and impressible people,
who learnt the vice of paederasty from the Greeks, and adopted from the
Assyrians the worship of Beltis, with its accompaniment of religious
prostitution.

On the whole the Persians may seem to have enjoyed an existence free
from care, and only too prosperous to result in the formation of a high
and noble character. They were the foremost Asiatic people of their
time, and were fully conscious of their pre-eminency. A small ruling
class in a vast Empire, they enjoyed almost a monopoly of office, and
were able