Persia from the Earliest Period to the Arab

HISTORY OF PERSIA. 4!
satrap then becoming much the same as the Turkish
pasha or the Persian bey of the present day, with
powers practically unlimited. Posts, or rather a system
of couriers, were also established along what was,
hence, called the " royal road " from Susa to Sardis,
with places for rest and change at convenient intervals.
To Darius, probably, is also due the creation of the
first Oriental coinage; his money, of which many
specimens still exist, technically called from him
"
Darics," being pieces of gold and silver, weighing
respectively 124 and 224 to 230 grains of pure metal,
and having for their device a somewhat rude re-
presentation of an archer. Moreover we do not
know of any other coins throughout the Persian em-
pire for nearly two centuries subsequently to Darius
himself. To his other great works, as his memorable
inscription at Behistan, his palace at Susa, his build-
ings at Persepolis, and his tomb at Nakhsh-i-Rustam,
we shall recur hereafter when we shall describe the
principal antiquities of Persia.
After a period of peace, which may have lasted five
or six years, subsequently to B.C. 516, Darius resolved
to carry out two other great wars, one to the East and
the other to the West. It may be inferred from the
Behistan inscription that the former preceded the latter,
as the name of India does not occur on it : the inducement
to it may have been the repoits of those who had
accompanied Cyrus in his expeditions in the direction
of Central Asia. In order to ascertain the nature of the
Indus itself, a fleet was ordered to navigate it under
the command of a certain Scylax of Caryanda, and
the fact that he accomplished this remarkable feat