nearly L 1100.)
being sometimes set on a single throw. Occasionally they played for the
persons of their slaves, eunuchs, and others, who, when lost, became the
absolute property of the winner.

Another favorite royal amusement was carving or planing wood. According
to AElian, the Persian king, when he took a journey, always employed
himself, as he sat in his carriage, in this way; and Ctesias speaks of
the occupation as pursued also within the walls of the palace. Manual
work of this kind has often been the refuge of those rulers, who, sated
with pleasure and devoid of literary tastes, have found time hang heavy
upon their hands.

In literature a Persian king seems rarely to have taken any pleasure at
all. Occasionally, to beguile the weary hours, a monarch may have had
the "Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Persia and Media" read
before him; but the kings themselves never opened a book, or studied any
branch of science or learning. The letters, edicts, and probably even
the inscriptions, of the monarch were the composition of the Court
scribes, who took their orders from the king or his ministers, and
clothed them in their own language. They did not even call upon their
master to sign his name to a parchment; his seal, on which his name was
engraved, sufficiently authenticated all proclamations and edicts.

Among the more serious occupations of the monarch were the holding of
councils, the reviewing of troops, the hearing of complaints, and the
granting or refusing of redress, the assignment of rewards, perhaps, in
some cases, the trying of causes, and, above all, the general direction
of the civil administration and government of the Empire. An energetic
king probably took care to hear all the reports which were sent up to
the Court by the various officials employed in the actual government of
the numerous provinces, as well as those sent in by the persons who from
time to time inspected, on the part of the Crown, the condition of this
or that satrapy. Having heard and considered these reports, and perhaps
taken advice upon them, such a monarch would give clear directions as
to the answers to be sent, which would be embodied in despatches by his
secretaries, and then read over to him, before he affixed his seal to
them. The concerns of an empire so vast as that of Persia would have
given ample employment for the greater part of the day to any monarch
who was determined not only to reign, but to govern. Among t