d industry, purity, and piety,
were fairly observed. Women seem not to have been kept in seclusion,
or at any rate not in such seclusion as had been the custom under
the Parthians, and as again became usual under the Arabs. The general
condition of the population was satisfactory. Most of the Sassanian
monarchs seem to have been desirous of governing well; and the system
inaugurated by Anushirwan, and maintained by his successors, secured
the subjects of the Great King from oppression, so far as was possible
without representative government. Provincial rulers were well watched
and well checked; tax-gatherers were prevented from exacting more than
their due by a wholesale dread that their conduct would be reported
and punished; great pains were taken that justice should be honestly
administered; and in all cases where an individual felt aggrieved at
a sentence an appeal lay to the king. On such occasions the cause was
re-tried in open court, at the gate, or in the great square; the king,
the Magi, and the great lords hearing it, while the people were also
present. The entire result seems to have been that, so far as was
possible under a despotism, oppression was prevented, and the ordinary
citizen had rarely any ground for serious complaint.

But it was otherwise with the highest class of all. The near relations
of the monarch, the great officers of the court, the generals who
commanded armies, were exposed without defence to the monarch's caprice,
and held their lives and liberties at his pleasure. At a mere word
or sign from him they were arrested, committed to prison, tortured,
blinded, or put to death, no trial being thought necessary where the
king chose to pronounce sentence. The intrinsic evils of despotism thus
showed themselves even under the comparatively mild government of the
Sassanians; but the class exposed to them was a small one, and enjoyed
permanent advantages, which may have been felt as some compensation to
it for its occasional sufferings.

[Illustration: FAMILY-TREE]

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Seven Great Monarchies Of The
Ancient Eastern World, Vol 7. (of 7): The Sassanian or New Persian Empire, by George Rawlinson

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SEVEN GREAT MONARCHIES ***

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