Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 2.djvu/47

 The Palace of Sargon. 29 indication of their purpose was found, were mostly servants' lodgings. They are, as a rule, of very small size. On the other hand, courts were ample and passages wide. Plenty of space was required for the circulation of the domestics who supplied the tables of the seraglio and harem, for exercising horses, and for washing chariots. If, after the explorations of Place, any doubts could remain as to the purpose of this quarter of the palace, they would be removed by the Assyrian texts. Upon the terra-cotta prism on which Sennacherib, after narrating his campaigns, describes the restoration of his palace, he says, " the kings, my predecessors, constructed the office court for baggage, for exercising horses, for the storing of utensils." Esarhaddon speaks, in another inscription, of " the part built by the kings, his predecessors, for holding baggage, for lodging horses, camels, dromedaries and chariots." 1 We have now made the tour of the palace, and we find ourselves again before the propy laeum whence we set out. This propylaeum must have been one of the finest creations of Assyrian architecture. It had no fewer than ten winged bulls of different sizes, some parallel, others perpendicular, to the direction of the wall. There were six in the central doorway, which was, in all probability, reserved for the king and his suite. A pair of smaller colossi flanked each of the two side doors, through which passed, no doubt between files of guards, the ceaseless crowd of visitors, soldiers, and domestics. The conception of this façade, with its high substructure, and the ascending lines of a double flight of steps connecting it with the town below, is really grand, and the size of the court into which it led, not much less than two acres and a half, was worthy of such an approach. The huge dimensions of this court are to be explained, not only by the desire for imposing size, but also by the important part it played in the economy of the palace. By its means the three main divisions, the seraglio, the harem, and the khan, were put into communication with each other. When there were no particular reasons for making a détour, it was crossed by any one desiring to go from one part to another. It was a kind of general rendezvous and common passage, and its great size was no more than necessary for the convenient circulation of servants with provisions for the royal tables, of military detachments, of 1 Oppert, Les Inscriptions des Scu'gonides, p. 52.