ADMINISTRATIONKhusraw Anushirvan (531-79), the entire empire was divided into
four quarters that were oriented to the points of the compass; each
quarter was divided into districts, and each district was divided into
subdistricts.^3 Under the last Sasanians, each quarter had a military
governor called a spahbadh (M.P. spahpat) or ispahbadh (N.P.) who
was served by a lieutenant called a padhghospan (M.P. patkostpan),
although along the frontier the districts were under marzbans (M.P.
marzpan).4 There were separate officials for the collection of taxes
and for financial administration, and there was usually a separate
hierarchy of Magian priests who had ritual and judicial responsibilities.
This picture is complicated somewhat by the use of alternative means
to separate responsibilities either by dividing military, financial, and
religious-legal authority among different officials in the same juris-
diction or by establishing separate military and civilian financial dis-
tricts, usually as border districts and crown provinces. In the latter
case, local landed notables might be given both military and financial
responsibility in their districts while crown property was assigned to
members of the royal family.
This system was supported by a theory of government called the
"circle of power," which amounted to a kind of paternal absolutism
that operated through a strictly efficient hierarchy. An absolute mon-
arch needs a monopoly of power and must be able to enforce his
commands and defend his realm by means of an army; the army must
have a regular source of income, insured by economic prosperity;
prosperity depends on enlightened administrative practices, centrali-
zation, and absolute authority which must, after all, be enforced by
the army. This concept of an interlocking circular balance of military
force, economic prosperity, and justice, in which the failure of any
one of these three components might destroy the entire system, is neatly
summarized by the famous aphorism ascribed (among others) to the
third century Sasanian ruler, Ardashir I: there is "no ruler without
men, no men without wealth, no wealth without prosperity, and no
prosperity without justice and good administration."5 One of the most
3 Tabari, Ta'rlkh, I, 892-94; Tha'iilibi, Ghurar, p. 609; Ya'qiibi, Ta'rtkh, I, 202.
4 Tabari, Ta'rlkh I, 1056.
5 Tha'iilibi, Ghurar, p. 482. For the parallel Middle Persian passage in Book Ill,
chapter 134 of the Denkart, see M. F. Kanga, "Kingship and Religion in Iran," Acta
Iranica 3 (1974), 224-25. This division into ethical, military, and economic factors
invites comparison with Indo-European trifunctionalism. See Georges Dumezil, L'ideo-
logie tripartie des Indo-Europeens (Brussels, 1958).