reform.

Here, however, the reform touched less upon a question of belief than on
one of fact. The unity of the empire presupposed the unity of the royal
fire, and where-ever that fire was burning another could not be lighted
without sacrilege in the eyes of the faithful. The pyres that Gaumata
desired to extinguish were, no doubt, those which the feudal families
had maintained for their separate use in defiance of the law, and the
measure which abolished them had a political as well as a religious
side. The little we can glean of the line of action adopted by Smerdis
does not warrant the attribution to him of the vast projects which
some modern writers credit him with. He naturally sought to strengthen
himself on the throne, which by a stroke of good fortune he had
ascended, and whatever he did tended solely to this end. The name and
the character that he had assumed secured him the respect and fidelity
of the Iranians: "there was not one, either among the Medes or the
Persians, nor among the members of the Achaemenian race, who dreamed of
disputing his power" in the early days of his reign. The important thing
in his eyes was, therefore, to maintain among his subjects as long as
possible the error as to his identity. He put to death all, whether
small or great, who had been in any way implicated in the affairs of the
real Smerdis, or whom he suspected of any knowledge of the murder. He
withdrew from public life as far as practicable, and rarely allowed
himself to be seen. Having inherited the harem of his predecessors,
together with their crown, he even went so far as to condemn his wives
to a complete seclusion. He did not venture to hope, nor did those in
his confidence, that the truth would not one day be known, but he hoped
to gain, without loss of time, sufficient popularity to prevent the
revelation of the imposture from damaging his prospects. The seven great
houses which he had dispossessed would, in such a case, refuse to
rally round him, and it was doubtless to lessen their prestige that he
extinguished their pyres; but the people did not trouble themselves as
to the origin of their sovereign, if he showed them his favour and took
proper precautions to secure their good will. He therefore exempted the
provinces from taxes and military service for a period of three years.
He had not time to pursue this policy, and if we may believe tradition,
the very precautions which he took to conceal his identity became th