Europe. It was thus at least eight times as large as the
Babylonian Empire at its greatest extent, and was probably more than
four times as large as the Assyrian.

The provinces included within the Empire may be conveniently divided
into the Central, the Western, and the Eastern. The Central are Persia
Proper, Susiana, Babylonia, Assyria, Media, the coast tract of the
Caspian, and Sagartia, or the Great Desert. The Western are Paeonia,
Thrace, Asia Minor, Armenia, Iberia, Syria and Phoenicia, Palestine,
Egypt, and the Cyrenaica. The Eastern are Hyrcania, Parthia, Aria,
Chorasmia, Sogdiana, Bactria, Scythia, Gandaria, Sattagydia, India,
Paricania, the Eastern AEthiopia, and Mycia.

Of these countries a considerable number have been already described in
these volumes. Susiana, Babylonia, Assyria, Media, the Caspian coast,
Armenia, Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine, belong to this class; and it
may be assumed that the reader is sufficiently acquainted with their
general features. It would therefore seem to be enough in the present
place to give an account of the regions which have not yet occupied our
attention, more especially of Persia Proper--the home of the dominant
race.

Persia Proper seems to have corresponded nearly to that province of the
modern Iran, which still bears the ancient name slightly modified, being
called Farsistan or Fars. The chief important difference between the two
is, that whereas in modern times the tract called Herman is regarded as
a distinct and separate region, Carmania anciently was included within
the limits of Persia. Persia Proper lay upon the gulf to which it has
given name, extending from the mouth of the Tab (Oroatis) to the point
where the gulf joins the Indian Ocean. It was bounded on the west by
Susiana, on the north by Media Magna, on the east by Mycia, and on
the south by the sea. Its length seems to have been about 450, and its
average width about 250 miles. It thus contained an area of rather more
than 100,000 square miles.

In modern times it is customary to divide the province of Fars into
the _ghermsir_, or, "warm district," and the _serdsir_, or "cold
region"--and the physical character of the country must have made such a
division thoroughly appropriate at every period. The "warm district"
is a tract of sandy plain, often impregnated with salt, which extends
between the mountains and the sea the whole length of the province,
being a continuation of the flat region of Sus