rxes suffering no person except himself to assume the
title of king, abolished every intermediate power between the throne and
the people. His kingdom, nearly equal in extent to modern Persia, was,
on every side, bounded by the sea, or by great rivers; by the Euphrates,
the Tigris, the Araxes, the Oxus, and the Indus, by the Caspian Sea,
and the Gulf of Persia. [35] That country was computed to contain, in
the last century, five hundred and fifty-four cities, sixty thousand
villages, and about forty millions of souls. [36] If we compare the
administration of the house of Sassan with that of the house of Sefi,
the political influence of the Magian with that of the Mahometan
religion, we shall probably infer, that the kingdom of Artaxerxes
contained at least as great a number of cities, villages, and
inhabitants. But it must likewise be confessed, that in every age the
want of harbors on the sea-coast, and the scarcity of fresh water in
the inland provinces, have been very unfavorable to the commerce and
agriculture of the Persians; who, in the calculation of their numbers,
seem to have indulged one of the nearest, though most common, artifices
of national vanity.

[Footnote 31: These colonies were extremely numerous. Seleucus Nicator
founded thirty-nine cities, all named from himself, or some of his
relations, (see Appian in Syriac. p. 124.) The aera of Seleucus (still
in use among the eastern Christians) appears as late as the year 508,
of Christ 196, on the medals of the Greek cities within the Parthian
empire. See Moyle's works, vol. i. p. 273, &c., and M. Freret, Mem. de
l'Academie, tom. xix.]

[Footnote 32: The modern Persians distinguish that period as the dynasty
of the kings of the nations. See Plin. Hist. Nat. vi. 25.]

[Footnote 33: Eutychius (tom. i. p. 367, 371, 375) relates the siege of
the island of Mesene in the Tigris, with some circumstances not unlike
the story of Nysus and Scylla.]

[Footnote 34: Agathias, ii. 64, [and iv. p. 260.] The princes of
Segestan de fended their independence during many years. As romances
generally transport to an ancient period the events of their own time,
it is not impossible that the fabulous exploits of Rustan, Prince of
Segestan, many have been grafted on this real history.]

[Footnote 35: We can scarcely attribute to the Persian monarchy the
sea-coast of Gedrosia or Macran, which extends along the Indian Ocean
from Cape Jask (the promontory Capella) to Cape Goadel.