22. The Persian finance continues to preserve those peculiarities which naturally result from the formation of an empire by a nomad race of conquerors, desirous of living at the expense of the conquered, and under a despotic form of government. Collection of tribute, mostly in kind, for the support of the court and the armies; and in precious metals, not coined, but in their raw state. Application of the treasure thus collected towards constituting a private chest for the king. Various other royal imposts.--Mode of providing for the public expenditure by assignments on the revenues of one or several places. 23. Organization of the military system, conformably to the primitive state of the nation, and the necessity now felt of keeping the conquered countries in subjection by means of standing armies. Military organization of the Persian nations, by means of a decimal division pervading the whole.--Royal troops cantoned in the open field, according to a certain division of the empire, or stationed as garrisons in the cities, and distinct from the encampments.--Manner in which the troops were supported at the cost and by the taxes of the provinces.--Introduction of mercenaries and Greeks, more particularly among the Persians, and fatal consequences of that measure. Military household of the satraps and grandees.--Institution of a general conscription in national wars. Formation of the Persian navy, consisting of the Phoenician, and not unfrequently of the Asiatic Greek fleets. 24. From the time of Darius, the court of the kings of Persia attained its complete form, and the government soon after was wholly concentrated in the seraglio. Yet the mode of life which the kings led, surrounded by a court, taken principally if not wholly from the tribe of the Pasargadae, and changing their residence according to the revolutions of the seasons, still preserved the traces of nomad origin. Babylon, Susa, and Ecbatana, the usual residences; Persepolis now used as a royal cemetery. The court supported by the most costly productions of each province; hence arose the rigid ceremonial observed at the royal table.--Internal organization of the seraglio.--Influence of the eunuchs and queen-mothers on the government. 25. Already had Darius commenced preparations to wreak his vengeance on Athens, when a revolution broke out in Egypt, and hindered him from prosecuting his design. He died after nominating for his successor Xerxes I. grandson of Cyrus, and his eldest son by a second wife, Atossa, whose influence over her husband was boundless. 26. Xerxes I. A prince educated in the seraglio, who knew nothing beyond the art of representing the pomp of royalty. Subjection of Egypt, and severe treatment of that country under the satrap Achaemenes, brother to Xerxes.