Plundering expeditions were sometimes undertaken
by bodies of horse alone; but serious invasions were seldom or never
attempted unless by a force complete in all arms; comprising, that
is, horse, foot, elephants, and artillery. To attack the Romans to any
purpose, it was always necessary to engage in the siege of towns; and
although, in the earlier period of the Sassanian monarchy, a certain
weakness and inefficiency in respect of sieges manifested itself, yet
ultimately the difficulty was overcome, and the Persian expeditionary
armies, well provided with siege trains, compelled the Roman fortresses
to surrender within a reasonable time. It is remarkable that in the
later period so many fortresses were taken with apparently so little
difficulty--Daras, Mardin, Amida, Carrhse, Edessa, Hierapolis, Berhasa,
Theodosiopolis, Antioch, Damascus, Jerusalem, Alexandria, Caesaraea
Mazaca, Chalcedon; the siege of none lasting more than a few months, or
costing the assailants very dear. The method used in sieges was to open
trenches at a certain distance from the walls, and to advance along
them under cover of hurdles to the ditch, and fill it up with earth and
fascines. Escalade might then be attempted; or movable towers, armed
with rams or balistae, might be brought up close to the walls, and the
defences battered till a breach was effected. Sometimes mounds were
raised against the walls to a certain height, so that their upper
portion, which was their weakest part, might be attacked, and either
demolished or escaladed. If towns resisted prolonged attacks of this
kind, the siege was turned into a blockade, lines of circumvallation
being drawn round the place, water cut off, and provisions prevented
from entering. Unless a strong relieving army appeared in the field, and
drove off the assailants, this plan was tolerably sure to be successful.

Not much is known of the private life of the later Persians. Besides the
great nobles and court officials, the strength of the nation consisted
in its _dilchans_ or landed proprietors, who for the most part lived on
their estates, seeing after the cultivation of the soil, and employing
thereon the free labor of the peasants. It was from these classes
chiefly that the standing army was recruited, and that great levies
might always be made in time of need. Simple habits appear to have
prevailed among them; polygamy, though lawful, was not greatly in use;
the maxims of Zoroaster, which commande