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in its own right, became the third ranking satrapy, but its custom of matrilinear succession was a baneful influence at the court of the Achaemenian sovereigns. Media, once itself the center of a mighty realm, be­came the second ranking satrapy, though Medes were equally honored with Persians, and foreigners spoke of them as a unity, Medes and Persians. Parsa, thenceforth considered the heart of the empire, was the satrapy par excellence, from which had come the virile successors of the Iranian Achaemenes. With the appearance of these successors the Near East entered a new phase of history.