of viceroy. Absorbed in disputes among themselves, or
in conspiracies against the Achsemenian dynasty, these officials had no
time to look after the well-being of the districts under their control,
and the various tribes and cities took advantage of this to break the
ties of vassalage. To take Asia Minor alone, some of the petty kings
of Bithynia, Paphlagonia, and certain districts of Cappadocia or the
mountainous parts of Phrygia still paid their tribute intermittently,
and only when compelled to do so; others, however, such as the
Pisidians, Lycaonians, a part of the Lycians, and some races of Mount
Taurus, no longer dreamed of doing so. The three satrapies on the shores
of the Caspian, which a hundred years before had wedged themselves in
between that sea and the Euxine, were now dissolved, all trace of them
being lost in a confused medley of kingdoms and small states, some of
which were ready enough to acknowledge the supremacy of Persia, while
others, such as the Gordiseans, Taochi, Chalybes, Colchi, Mosynoki, and
Tibarenians, obeyed no rule but their own.

[Illustration: 321.jpg MAP OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE]

All along the Caspian, the Cadusians and Amardians, on either side of
the chain of mountains bordering the Iranian plateau, defied all the
efforts made to subdue them.* India and the Sakse had developed from
the condition of subjects into that of friendly allies, and the
savage hordes of Gedrosia and the Paropamisus refused to recognise any
authority at all.**

* They appear in the history of every epoch as the
irreconcilable foes of the great king, enemies against whom
even the most peacefully disposed sovereigns were compelled
to take the field in person.

** The Sakae fought at Arbela, but only as allies of the
Persians. The Indians who are mentioned with them came from
the neighbourhood of Cabul; most of the races who had
formerly figured in Darius' satrapy of India had become
independent by the time Alexander penetrated into the basin
of the Indus.

The whole empire needed to be reconquered and reorganised bit by bit if
it was to exercise that influence in the world to which its immense size
entitled it, and the question arose whether the elements of which it
consisted would lend themselves to any permanent reorganisation or
readjustment.

The races of the ancient Eastern world, or, at any rate, that portion of
them which helped to make its history,