hen a despatch was to be forwarded it was
taken to the first post-house along the route, where a courier received
it, and immediately mounting on horseback galloped with it to the next
station. Here it was delivered to a new courier, who, mounted on a fresh
horse, took it the next stage on its journey; and thus it passed from
hand to hand till it reached its destination. According to Xenophon, the
messengers travelled by night as well as by day; and the conveyance was
so rapid that some even compared it to the flight of birds. Excellent
inns or caravanserais were to be found at every station; bridges or
ferries were established upon all the streams; guard-houses occurred
here and there, and the whole route was kept secure from the brigands
who infested the Empire. Ordinary travellers were glad to pursue so
convenient a line of march; it does not appear, however, that they could
obtain the use of post-horses even when the government was in no need
of them. The coinage of Darius consisted, it is probable, both of a gold
and silver issue. It is not perhaps altogether certain that he was
the first king of Persia who coined money; but, if the term "daric" is
really derived from his name, that alone would be a strong argument in
favor of his claim to priority. In any case, it is indisputable that
he was the first Persian king who coined on a large scale, and it is
further certain that his gold coinage was regarded in later times as of
peculiar value on account of its purity. His gold darics appear to have
contained, on an average, not quite 124 grains of pure metal, which
would make their value about twenty two shillings of our money.
They were of the type usual at the time both in Lydia and in
Greece--flattened lumps of metal, very thick in comparison with the size
of their surface, irregular, and rudely stamped. The silver darics
were similar in general character, but exceeded the gold in size. Their
weight was from 224 to 230 grains, and they would thus have been worth
not quite three shillings of our money. It does not appear that any
other kinds of coins besides these were ever issued from the Persian
mint. They must, therefore, it would seem, have satisfied the commercial
needs of the people.

From this review of the governmental system of Darius we must now return
to the actions of his later life. The history of an Oriental monarchy
must always be composed mainly of a series of biographies; for, as the
monarch is all i