istance from the capital for the time being. But this
was no longer the case, now that Persian rule extended over nearly the
whole of Asia, from the Indus to the Thracian Bosphorus, and over a
portion of Africa also. It must have seemed far from prudent to set
governors invested with almost regal powers over countries so distant
that a decree despatched from the palace might take several weeks
to reach its destination. The heterogeneity of the elements in each
province was a guarantee of peace in the eyes of the sovereign, and
Darius carefully abstained from any attempt at unification: not only did
he allow vassal republics, and tributary kingdoms and nations to subsist
side by side, but he took care that each should preserve its own local
dynasty, language, writing, customs, religion, and peculiar legislation,
besides the right to coin money stamped with the name of its chief or
its civic symbol. The Greek cities of the coast maintained their own
peculiar constitutions which they had enjoyed under the Mernmadas;
Darius merely required that the chief authority among them should rest
in the hands of the aristocratic party, or in those of an elective or
hereditary tyrant whose personal interest secured his fidelity. The
Carians,* Lycians,** Pamphylians, and Cilicians*** continued under the
rule of their native princes, subject only to the usual obligations.
of the _corvee_, taxation, and military service as in past days; the
majority of the barbarous tribes which inhabited the Taurus and the
mountainous regions in the centre of Asia Minor were even exempted from
all definite taxes, and were merely required to respect the couriers,
caravans, and armies which passed through their territory.

* Herodotus cites among the commanders of the Persian fleet
three Carian dynasts, Histiseus, Pigres, and Damasithymus,
besides the famous Artemisia of Halicarnassus.

** In Herodotus where a dynast named Kyberniskos, son of
Sika, is mentioned among the commanders of the fleet. The
received text of Herodotus needs correction, and we should
read Kybernis, son of Kossika, some of whose coins are still
in existence.

*** The Cilician contingent in the fleet of Xerxes at
Salamis was commanded by Syennesis himself, and Cilicia
never had a satrap until the time of Cyrus the younger.

[Illustration: 181.jpg MAP OF THE ARCHAEMENIAN STRAPIES]

Native magistrates and kings still bore sway