There were certain privileged families,--six besides the royal clan of the _Achæmenidæ_, the chiefs of all of which were his counselors, and from whom he was bound to choose his legitimate wives. When the monarch traveled, even on military expeditions, he was accompanied by the whole varied apparatus of luxury which ministered to his pleasures in the court,--costly furniture, a vast retinue of attendants, of inmates of the harem, etc. ARMY AND NAVY.--The arms of the footman were a sword, a spear, and a bow. Persian bowmen were skillful. Persian cavalry, both heavy and light, were their most effective arm. The military leaders depended on the celerity of their horsemen and the weight of their numbers. It is doubtful whether they employed military engines. They were not wholly ignorant of strategy. Their troops were marshaled by nations, each in its own costume, the commander of the whole being in the center of the line of battle. The body-guard of the king was "the Immortals," a body of ten thousand picked footmen, the number being always kept intact. The enemies of the Persians, except in the case of rebels, were not treated with inhumanity. In this regard the Persians are in marked contrast with the Semitic ferocity of the Assyrians. Their navies were drawn from the subject-peoples. The _trireme_, with its projecting prow shod with iron, and its crew of two hundred men, was the principal, but not the only vessel used in sea-fights. LITERATURE AND ART.--A Persian youth was ordinarily taught to read, but there was little intellectual culture. Boys were trained in athletic exercises. It was a discipline in hardy and temperate habits. Etiquette, in all ranks of the people, was highly esteemed. The Persians, as a nation, were bright-minded, and not deficient in fancy and imagination. But they contributed little to science. Their religious ideas were an heirloom from remote ancestors. The celebrated Persian poet, _Firdousí_, lived in the tenth century of our era. His great poem, the _Shahnameh_, or Book of Kings, is a storehouse of ancient traditions. It is probable that the ancient poetry of the Persians, like this production, was of moderate merit. Of the Persian architecture and sculpture, we derive our knowledge from the massive ruins of _Persepolis_, which was burned by Alexander the Great, and from the remains of other cities. They had learned from Assyria and Babylon, but they display no high degree of artistic talent. They were not an intellectual people: they were soldiers and rulers. LITERATURE--Works mentioned on pp 16, 42; _Encycl. Brit.,_ Art. Persia; Vaux, Persia from the Monuments (1876); Nöldeke, _Aufsdtze zur persischen Geschichte_ (1887); Justi, _Geschichte trans_ (1900); Markham, _General Sketch of the History of Persia_ (1874). RETROSPECT.