shape, and
rudely stamped, but of remarkable fineness, the amount of alloy being
never more than three per cent. The use of this coinage was nowhere
obligatory, and it only became general in the countries bordering on the
Mediterranean, where it met the requirements of international traffic
and political relations, and in the payment of the army and the navy.
In the interior, the medium of exchange used in wholesale and retail
commercial transactions continued to be metals estimated by weight, and
the kings of Persia themselves preferred to store their revenues in the
shape of bullion; as the metal was received at the royal treasury it
was melted and poured into clay moulds, and was minted into money only
gradually, according to the whim or necessity of the moment.*

* Arrian relates that Alexander found 50,000 talents' weight
of silver in the treasury at Susa; other hoards quite as
rich were contained in the palaces of Persepolis and
Pasargadae.

Taxes in kind were levied even more largely than in money, but the exact
form they assumed in the different regions of the empire has not yet
been ascertained. The whole empire was divided into districts, which
were charged with the victualling of the army and the court, and Babylon
alone bore a third of the charges under this head. We learn elsewhere
that Egypt was bound to furnish corn for the 120,000 men of the army
of occupation, and that the fisheries of the Fayum yielded the king a
yearly revenue of 240 talents. The Medes furnished similarly 100,000
sheep, 4000 mules, and 3000 horses; the Armenians, 30,000 foals;
the Cilicians, 365 white horses, one for each day in the year; the
Babylonians, 500 youthful eunuchs; and any city or town which produced
or manufactured any valuable commodity was bound to furnish a regular
supply to the sovereign. Thus, Chalybon provided wine; Libya and the
Oases, salt; India, dogs, with whose support four large villages in
Babylonia were charged; the AEolian Assos, cheese; and other places, in
like manner, wool, wines, dyes, medicines, and chemicals. These imperial
taxes, though they seem to us somewhat heavy, were not excessive, but
taken by themselves they give us no idea of the burdens which each
province had to resign itself to bear. The state provided no income for
the satraps; their maintenance and that of their suite were charged on
the province, and they made ample exactions on the natives. The province
of Babylo