ch imply a fairly advanced
civilization. Their tolerance of varieties in religion has been already
mentioned. Even in political matters they seem to have been free from
the narrowness which generally characterizes barbarous nations. They
behaved well to prisoners, admitted foreigners freely to offices of high
trust, gave an asylum to refugees, and treated them with respect and
kindness, were scrupulous observers of their pledged word, and eminently
faithful to their treaty obligations. On the other hand, it must be
admitted that they had some customs which indicate a tinge of barbarism.
They used torture for the extraction of answers from reluctant persons,
employed the scourge to punish trifling offences, and, in certain
cases, condescended to mutilate the bodies of their dead enemies. Their
addiction to intemperance is also a barbaric trait. They were, no doubt,
on the whole, less civilized than either the Greeks or Romans; but the
difference does not seem to have been so great as represented by the
classical writers.

Speaking broadly, the position that they occupied was somewhat similar
to that which the Turks hold in the system of modern Europe. They had a
military strength which caused them to be feared and respected, a vigor
of administration which was felt to imply many sterling qualities. A
certain coarseness and rudeness attached to them which they found it
impossible to shake off; and this drawback was exaggerated by their
rivals into an indication of irreclaimable barbarity. Except in respect
of their military prowess, it may be doubtful if justice is done them by
any classical writer. They were not merely the sole rival which dared to
stand up against Rome in the interval between B.C. 65 and A.D. 226, but
they were a rival falling in many respects very little below the great
power whose glories have thrown them so much into the shade. They
maintained from first to last a freedom unknown to later Rome;
they excelled the Romans in toleration and in liberal treatment
of foreigners, they equalled them in manufactures and in material
prosperity, and they fell but little short of them in the extent and
productiveness of their dominions. They were the second power in the
world for nearly three centuries, and formed a counterpoise to Rome
which greatly checked Roman decline, and, by forcing the Empire to exert
itself, prevented stagnation and corruption.

It must, however, be confessed, that the tendency of the Pa