to give to the Magian priesthood, the keepers and interpreters
of the sacred book, very extensive powers. The Magian hierarchy
was therefore associated with the monarch in the government and
administration of the State. It was declared that the altar and the
throne were inseparable, and must always sustain each other. The Magi
were made to form the great council of the nation. While they lent their
support to the crown, the crown upheld them against all impugners,
and enforced by pains and penalties their decisions. Persecution was
adopted and asserted as a principle of action without any disguise. By
an edict of Artaxerxes, all places of worship were closed except the
temples of the fire-worshippers. If no violent outbreak of fanaticism
followed, it was because the various sectaries and schismatics succumbed
to the decree without resistance. Christian, and Jew, and Greek, and
Parthian, and Arab allowed their sanctuaries to be closed without
striking a blow to prevent it; and the non-Zoroastrians of the empire,
the votaries of foreign religions, were shortly reckoned at the
insignificant number of 80,000.

Of the internal administration and government of his extensive empire
by Artaxerxes, but little is known. That little seems, however, to
show that while in general type and character it conformed to the usual
Oriental model, in its practical working it was such as to obtain the
approval of the bulk of his subjects. Artaxerxes governed his provinces
either through native kings, or else through Persian satraps. At the
same time, like the Achaemenian monarchs, he kept the armed force
under his own control by the appointment of "generals" or "commandants"
distinct from the satraps. Discarding the Parthian plan of intrusting
the military defence of the empire and the preservation of domestic
order to a mere militia, he maintained on a war footing a considerable
force, regularly paid and drilled. "There can be no power," he remarked,
"without an army, no army without money, no money without agriculture,
and no agriculture without justice." To administer strict justice was
therefore among his chief endeavors. Daily reports were made to him of
all that passed not only in his capital, but in every province of his
vast empire; and his knowledge extended even to the private actions of
his subjects. It was his earnest desire that all well-deposed persons
should feel an absolute assurance of security with respect to their
lives, t