The example of one of Suleiman’s chief servants will illustrate the _cursus honorum_ in the Ottoman system. Ali Pasha was a native of Dalmatia. Levied with the tribute boys, he was admitted to the principal palace at the time when Ibrahim was _Oda-bashi_, or head of the Inner Chamber of pages. In the course of time he was made _Kapuji_, or gatekeeper. When Ibrahim became grand vizier, Ali became _Chasnejir_, or chief taster, to Suleiman, and held that office during the expedition to Vienna in 1529. In due course he was discharged from the palace, and appointed to high office outside. He soon reached the grade of _Agha_, or general or the _Ghurebas_, the lowest of the four divisions of the regular cavalry, and was then promoted to be _Agha_ of the _Spahi-oghlans_, the highest of the cavalry divisions. Next he became second equerry and later first equerry (_Emir-al-Akhor_), then _Agha_ of the Janissaries, then _Beylerbey_ of Rumelia. In the last capacity he attended the sultan in the Persian war of 1548-1549. As a reward for special services in the war he was made pasha of Egypt in 1549, and at the time of his departure was nominated vizier. Returning to Constantinople in 1553, he was made third vizier, and upon the death of Rustem in 1561, he became grand vizier. Because of jealousies and enmities caused by his promotions he had hardly a friend left; nevertheless, he was able to hold the favor of Suleiman until his death in 1565.[277] PUNISHMENTS The system did not attempt to rely wholly upon the glittering attractions of indefinite promotion and enormously increasing wealth. Not all men can be allured to remain unswervingly within a narrow path of strict obedience and whole-hearted service. Pages and _Ajem-oghlans_ were held to severe discipline by sufficient and certain punishment; but their teachers and eunuch masters were required to keep that punishment within bounds by the certainty of yet severer punishment.[278] _Ajem-oghlans_ might be beaten, or sold out of the sultan’s service. After the close of the strictly educational period, punishment, like reward, followed continuously the law of proportionate increase. The higher the position, the heavier the punishment of being passed over in promotion, or of being actually degraded. Fines and confiscations also grew with rank. At no great height in the scale, the personal punishments reached that of death, and death was always very near the highest officials. Any tendency toward treason or revolt, any act of disobedience, sometimes a plot against a higher official, sometimes even a disagreement with the sultan in a matter of policy,[279] would lead to sudden execution. The viziers of Selim I carried their wills in their bosoms; and well they might, since the heads of seven are said to have fallen at his command.[280]