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40 General History oj Europe paid regular tribute and furnished soldiers for the army of the Great King. In the east this tribute was paid, as of old, in prod- uce of various kinds. But in western Asia Minor, especially in Lydia and the Greek settlements on the coast, the coinage of metal had become common by 600 B.C., and the payments were made in coined money ( 93). 56. Persia becomes a Sea Power. Unlike the Assyrians the Persian rulers built up a great sea power, and we shall find later how they used, it against the Greeks. They treated the Phreni- cians kindly and with their cooperation constructed a war fleet in the eastern Mediterranean. Darius restored the ancient Egyptian canal connecting the Nile with the Red Sea. This enabled his vessels to sail from the Persian Gulf clear around into the Medi- terranean. Roads were also built throughout the Empire, and a regular postal service was established. The later world, especially the Greeks, often represented the Persian rulers as cruel and barbarous tyrants. This unfavorable opinion is not wholly justified. For there can be no doubt that the Persian Empire, the largest the ancient world had thus far seen, enjoyed a government more just and humane than any that had preceded it in the East. The religious beliefs of the Persians spread among other peoples and even into Europe ; but far more important than Zoroastrian- ism for the Western world was the religion of the Hebrews. We must therefore consider the little Hebrew kingdom among the Persian vassals in the West, which was destined to influence the history of Europe profoundly. III. THE HEBREWS 57. Hebrew Invasion of Palestine (about 1400-1200 B. c.). The Hebrews were all originally nomads of the Arabian desert. For two centuries, beginning about 1400 B.C., they were gradually drifting along the west end of the Fertile Crescent into their final home in Palestine. Some of the Hebrew tribes had been slaves in Egypt, but had been induced to flee by their leader, Moses.