of the royal decree.

This reform in the method of government was displeasing to the Persian
nobles, whose liberty of action it was designed to curtail, and they
took their revenge in sneering at the obedience they could not refuse
to render. Cyrus, they said, had been a father, Cambyses a master,
but Darius was only a pedler greedy of gain. The chief reason for this
division of the empire into provinces was, indeed, fiscal rather than
political: to arrange the incidence of taxation in his province, to
collect the revenue in due time and forward the total amount to the
imperial treasury, formed the fundamental duty of a satrap, to which all
others had to yield. Persia proper was exempt from the payment of any
fixed sum, its inhabitants being merely required to offer presents
to the king whenever he passed through their districts. These
semi-compulsory gifts were proportioned to the fortunes of the
individual contributors; they might consist merely of an ox or a
sheep, a little milk or cheese, some dates, a handful of flour, or some
vegetables. The other provinces, after being subjected to a careful
survey, were assessed partly in money, partly in kind, according to
their natural capacity or wealth. The smallest amount of revenue
raised in any province amounted to 170 talents of silver--the sum, for
instance, collected from Arachosia with its dependencies Gedrosia and
Grandara; while Egypt yielded a revenue of 700 talents, and the amount
furnished by Babylon, the wealthiest province of all, amounted to
1000 talents. The total revenue of the empire reached the enormous sum
of.L3,311,997, estimated by weight of silver, which is equivalent to
over L26,000,000 of modern English money, if the greater value of silver
in antiquity is taken into consideration. In order to facilitate the
collection of the revenue, Darius issued the gold and silver coins which
are named after him. On the obverse side these darics are stamped with a
figure of the sovereign, armed with the bow or javelin. They were coined
on the scale of 3000 gold darics to one talent, each daric weighing
normally.2788 oz. troy, and being worth exactly 20 silver drachmae
or Medic shekels; so that the relative value of the two metals was
approximately 1 to 13 1/2|.

[Illustration: 188.jpg daric of darius, SON OF HYSTASPES]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a specimen in the Bibliotheque
Nationale.

The most ancient type of daric was thick and irregular in