Th ere were further safeguards to check the ambition of
satraps. First, like the chief military offi cer, the treasurer and
secretary of each satrapy were appointees of the king and
were not subject to orders from the satrap. Second, the king
had a corps of inspectors, known as the king’s eyes and ears,
who roamed the empire examining tax records, interrogat-
ing both members of satrap staff s and the general public, and
making regular reports to the king. None of these measures
completely stopped rebellion, and the fi nal safeguard was to
get word to Persia as quickly as possible when trouble broke
out. Th e Persian kings had a series of signal fi res placed on the
top of hills. When a fi re was lit, it was visible to the next sta-
tion, which would then light its own fi re and so on in a string
that led to a Persian military outpost.
For more detailed information and orders the Persians,
like the Assyrians, had a corps of mounted messengers. By
changing horses every 15 miles along the excellent road sys-
tem maintained by the empire, a courier could average 250
miles a day. Th e 1,500-mile trip from the western Asia Minor
city of Sardis in Lydia to Susa, an important administrative
center in southwestern Iran, normally took three months.
Th e king’s messengers made it in seven days.
AFTER PERSIA
Despite these safeguards, by the time that Alexander the
Great (r. 336–323 b.c.e.) conquered the Persian Empire, many
satrapies had shaken off much of the Great King’s control and
were operating virtually as independent states. Establishing
himself if not in name at least in practice as the successor to
the Achaemenid, Alexander kept most of the Persian govern-
mental organization, particularly the satrapy divisions and
much of the protocol that surrounded the Persian ruler.
Aft er Alexander’s death a series of large kingdoms—the
Seleucid (311–140 b.c.e.), the Parthian (250 b.c.e.–226 c.e.),
and the Sasanian (224–651 c.e.)—ruled large sections of the
old Achaemenid lands, most notably the Persian heartland
and Mesopotamia. Th ese realms retained much of the Per-
sian governmental organization, though the Seleucid added
some Greek elements and eliminated the division of author-
ity in the satrapies by giving the satrap both civil and military
power. Th e Sassanians even revived the title of Great King.
Meanwhile, Syrio-Palestine came under the rule of Rome in
the last century b.c.e. Cut up into several provinces, this part
of the ancient Near East would remain under Roman and
later Byzantine control until the Muslim conquest in the sev-
enth century of the Common Era.
ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
BY AMY HACKNEY BLACKWELL
CHINA
Th e fi rst government recorded in Chinese historical records
was that of the Xia Dynasty, a Bronze Age kingdom that ex-
isted from approximately 2205 to 1500 b.c.e. Th e Xia, like the
mythical kingdoms that were said to precede them, had hered-
itary monarchs, with members of a single family controlling
the entire country. China’s fi rst legal codes were written dur-
ing this time, defi ning crimes and creating punishments for
them. Th e Xia Dynasty was said to have ended when the last
king, the corrupt Jie, was overthrown by the Shang people.
Th e Shang Dynasty (1500–1045 b.c.e.) is the fi rst dynasty
for which there is historical information, though historians
know little about it. During this period rulers appear to have
been hereditary kings who were also considered gods and
spiritual leaders. Kings performed divinations with oracle
bones (bones used to determine the wishes of spirits and dead
ancestors) and led rituals as part of their state duties. Th ey
believed that keeping the gods happy was an essential part
of maintaining a healthy state. Th e rulers lived in cities that
were centers of government and court life. Th e Shang terri-
tory encompassed a small portion of modern China’s terri-
tory around the Yangtze River. Outside the capital cities the
countryside was divided into territories under the control
of nobles. Common people raised crops, livestock, and silk-
worms, which they used to pay tribute to their local nobles.
Th e local lords maintained armies within their territories in
order to render military aid to the kings. Kings controlled the
armies, which were oft en deployed to fi ght neighboring king-
doms and nomadic barbarians. Th e Shang Dynasty ended af-
ter its army lost a war with the Zhou people, who had invaded
from the west, and the king committed suicide. Th e survivors
of the ruling family changed their name to Yin and went to
work as administrators in the Zhou Dynasty.
Th e Zhou Dynasty (1045–256 b.c.e.) was the longest of
China’s dynasties. It is divided into two portions, the West-
ern Zhou (1045–771 b.c.e.) and the Eastern Zhou (770–256
b.c.e.). It was founded by hereditary monarchs of the Ji fam-
ily, who justifi ed their power by claiming that the gods gave
them the right to govern. Th ey also claimed that if a king was
dethroned, it was a sign that the gods no longer wanted him
in power. Th e government was organized into a group of city-
states that each had its own local government. Each territory
was ruled by a hereditary nobleman, or duke. Within terri-
tories, each duke’s land was divided into nine equal portions
arranged in a square; the commoners worked all the land, but
the produce of the center square belonged to the duke. Th is
was called the well-fi eld system. In return, the dukes were ex-
pected to pray to the gods and ancestors to ensure that the
entire territory had a good harvest.
Initially, the Zhou Dynasty had no real central govern-
ment. Each duke paid tribute to the king out of loyalty, but the
king did not directly control dukes or their territories. As the
dynasty progressed, the central government became stronger
and implemented a uniform scheme of taxation on crops. Th e
system resembled the feudal system of medieval Europe, with
warlords protecting and taxing their local residents and in
turn giving tribute and aid to the monarch.
In the late 700s b.c.e. western barbarians sacked the capi-
tal city, so the king moved the capital to Luoyang in Henangovernment organization: Asia and the Pacific 519