It is well, in reference to this subject, to recollect that the ordinary policy of the Asiatic monarchies was not that of holding immense continuous areas of territory, but the comparatively simpler one of safeguarding the great highways of communication. “It is important to remember this in connection with rapid conquest like that of Alexander. To conquer the Achæmenian empire did not mean the effective occupation of all the area within its extreme frontiers—that would have been a task exceeding one man’s lifetime—but the conquest of its cultivated districts and the holding of the roads which connected them.” Cf. The House of Seleucus, Vol. I, p. 22 (by E. R. Bevan, London, 1902).
[264] Mishkab V, 6. Hughes’ Dictionary of Islam, p. 635 (London, 1885).
[265] Mohammedanism, p. 85 (New York, 1916).
[266] Missionary Review, 1889, p. 302.
[267] Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah, p. 299 (by Richard F. Burton, Boston, 1858).
[268] “But for the earthquakes which have here and there rent the walls and caused the roofs to fall in nothing would be missing except the woodwork carried off by the builders of more recent cities. The removal of the basalts and other hard materials drawn from the quarries of the district would have been too troublesome and expensive.” The Earth and Its Inhabitants, Vol. IV, p. 285 (New York, 1885).
[269] “Nel far le mercanzie, non si contano, ma si pesano casse intere di denari; e non si fa mai compra o vendita dove non corran quaranta, cinquanta, ottanta o centomila que piu a minuto non si parla e sarebbe vergogna.” Viaggi di Pietro della Valle, Vol. I, p. 331 (Brighton, 1843).
When one remembers the purchasing power of money in the time of the illustrious patrician compared with what it is now, the sums mentioned were indeed considerable.
[270] Op. cit., Vol. I, p. 353.
[271] The Voyage of John Huyghen Van Linschoten to the East Indies, Vol. I, p. 48 (pub. by the Hakluyt Society, London, 1885). “Merchants come thither”—Ormuz—“from India with ships loaded with spicery and precious stones, pearls, cloths of silk and gold, elephants’ teeth and many other wares, which they sell to the merchants of Hormos”—Ormuz—“and which these in turn carry all over the world to dispose of again. In fact ’tis a city of immense trade.” The Book of Ser Marco Polo the Venetian Concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East, Vol. I, p. 107 (trans. by H. Yule, London, 1903).