330

THE DECLINE AND FALL

chap. tor, at the head of a numerous and disciplined

.^,army, visited in person every province of Persia .

The defeat of the boldest rebels, and the reduc-tion of the strongest fortifications , 11 diffused theterror of his arms, and prepared the way for thepeaceful receptionofhis authority. An obstinateresistance was fatal to the chiefs; but their fol-lowers were treated with lenity . 1 A cheerful sub-mission was rewarded with honours and riches;but the prudent Artaxerxes , suffering no personexcept himself to assume the title of king, abo-lished every intermediate power between theExtent and throne and the people. His kingdom, nearlyOf Persia" ef l ua l in extent to modern Persia , was, on everyside, bounded by the sea , or by great rivers; bythe Euphrates, the Tigris, the Araxes, the Oxus ,and the Indus, by the Caspian sea , and thegulph of Persia.™ That country was computed

k Eutychiiis (tom. i, p. 367, 371, 375) relates the siege of the islandof Mesene in the Tigris , with some circumstances not unlike the storyof Nisus and Scylla.

1 Agathias, ii, 164. The princes of Segestan defended their indepen-dence during many years. As romances generally transport to an an-cient period the events of their own time, it is not impossible that thefabulous exploits of Rustan, prince of Segestan, may have been graftedon this real history.

” We can scarcely attribute to the Persian monarchy the sea-coastof Gedrosia or Macran, which extends along the Indian ocean fromCape Jask (the promontory Capella) to Cape Goodel. In the timeof Alexander, and probably many years afterwards, it was thinlyinhabited by a savage people of Iclithyophagi, or fishermen, whoknew no arts, who acknowledged no master, and who were dividedby inhospitable deserts from the rest of the world. (See Arrian deReb. Indicis). In the twelfth century, the little town of Taiz (sup-posed by M. d’Anville to be the Tefa of Ptolemy) was peopled and

enriched