and remained in the service, but not in the highest court of the kingdom.[365] One of the mildest forms of punishment was banishment to the islands of the Persian Gulf. Common punishments were the loss of eyes, nose, ears, tongue; the cutting off of hands, arms, and feet; scourgings were frequent, and they were inflicted even by the satraps.[366] The king pronounced the sentence of death by touching the girdle of the accused, or occasionally allowed it to be pronounced in his presence by the seven judges. The sentence was then carried out by crucifixion or decapitation.[367] In later times we hear of grinding between stones, incisions in the body while alive, and painful imprisonment in troughs; Xenophon indeed tells us that one of those who took part in the rebellion of the younger Cyrus was tortured for a whole year.[368] If we compare the practice of the princes of Persia with the conduct of the Assyrian kings, and the later rulers of the East, we cannot fail to recognize that the officers under the Achaemenids were in a better position and more richly paid, but also better controlled and kept in greater dependence than was the case afterwards. The subjects, in spite of acts of cruel caprice which affected certain persons, were incomparably better off than those of the Assyrians, or of the dynasties which afterwards ruled the East. They were governed with more intelligence and clemency than the subjects of the Porte, or the Khedive, or the Shah of Persia, or the Emirs of Cabul and Herat. It was no small thing that the Persian kings established peace in all Asia from the shores of the Hellespont to the Belurdagh, and maintained order and security from the Nile to the Himalayas. Moreover, the religion and worship of the subject nations, of whatever kind they might be, were not injured, but rather protected and held in honour. Law, justice, and manners remained the same, and the subjects preserved their local self-government. Agriculture in the provinces received attention, trade and commerce went on along the roads and rivers of the vast empire, and was not only unmolested but protected. FOOTNOTES: [316] Herod. 7, 55; 8, 113; 9, 31. Xenoph. "Cyri Instit." 8, 3, 10, 25. [317] "Laws," p. 695. Vol. V. 390 _n._ 2. [318] Xenoph. "Cyri Instit." 8, 1, 5, 6, 17-20. [319] Xenoph. "Cyri Instit." 8, 1, 33. [320] Xenoph. "Cyri Instit." 8, 1, 11. [321] Xenoph. "Cyri Instit." 8, 1, 9. [322] Xenoph. "Cyri Instit." 8, 1, 40; 8, 2, 7-9. [323] Xenoph. "Anab." 1, 9, 25; "Cyri Instit." 8, 2, 3. [324] Herod. 3, 130. 8, 118; Ctes. "Pers." 22; Xenoph. "Cyri Instit." 8, 3, 3, 4; "Anab." 1, 2; Plut. "Artaxerxes," c. 10-14. [325] Herod. 1,134; Xenoph. "Anab." 1, 9, 31; "Cyri Instit." 8, 3, 13; Arrian, "Anab." 7, 11; Curtius, 3, 3, 19. [326] Herod. 1, 136; Xenoph. "Cyri Instit." 1, 2, 13; 8, 8, 7; Strabo, p. 733. [327] Nicol. Damasc. fragm. 67, ed. Müller; "Laws," p. 695. [328] "Alcib. I." p. 121, 122. [329] Plut. "Artax." c. 3.