Persia from the Earliest Period to the Arab

HISTORY OF PERSIA. 39
their number ranging between twenty at their commencement
and twenty-nine, as recorded on one of
his latest inscriptions. The satraps were entrusted
with the complete rule of their own satrapies, and
with the power of life and death, but were liable to
recall or removal whenever this step seemed good
to the monarch. They were selected from any class
at the king's pleasure; even Greeks, such as Xeno-
crates and Memnon being occasionally promoted to
this office. In some instances, as in that of Cilicia,
a native dynasty was allowed to bear rule in its own
province, while Persia, or rather Persis, alone paid no
tribute.
The fiscal arrangements consisted chiefly in re-
ducing all dues to a fixed sum in money or kind,
but the tribute thus exacted was in too many instances
neither paid in itself, nor judiciously collected. Be-
sides this, each province paid largely of what it was
most famed for : thus Egypt supplied vast quantities
of grain; Media, sheep, mules, and horses; Armenia,
colts ; Cilicia, white horses, &c. Some provinces, too,
were much more heavily burthened with imposts than
others. Thus in Persia itself, where water was generally
scarce, the king claimed as his right the rivers and
streamlets, and imposed heavy fines for opening the
many of the western Asiatic kingdoms. Thus Sargon speaks of his
"chief of provinces, prefects, wise men," &c. (Oppert. Hist, de
Sargonides, p. 33. ) They were, in fact, like our lord lieutenants
of Ireland, governors of the Cape, New Zealand, &c. The same
idea
"
is implied in Isaiah x. 8, Are not my princes altogether
kings?" The royal title of "king of kings" denoted the chief
king over a number of such rulers, each himself a king.