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 •324 History of Art in Antiquity. their festive apparel; the uniform of the body-guard raAged around the throne, the pellucid light toying about their polished arms ; the gorgeous and magnificent attire of the royal suite. If your imagination could * evoke but for an instant all those figures sculptured down the side walls of the steps, and deck them in the colours we know were theirs — from the figured bas>reliefs discovered at Susa — grouping them at the approaches and the interior of the edifice, and, put there along with these, the thou- sands of outsiders that helped to fill the scene, though evanescent, a vision of such splendour would be called forth as ever human genius offered to the mortal gaze. Tiih Hall of a Hundred Columns. If proximit) alone were considered, after the great hypostyle hall, the next building to be visited would be the Palace of Darius, which stands close to it (Fig. lo, No. 3). But in reviewing the ediBces on the plateau, we have classed them not according to locality, but the uses to which they were put ; hence it is that the -r monument v^hich most resembles the one just described rises in the centre of the platform, covering a space of 6484 m. square. Its plan is much simpler and lends itself to be easily restored ; although out of the hundred columns that once supported the roof one alone remains in situ. In shape the built surface is a parallelogram 75 m. 82 c. from east to west, and 91 m. 16 c. from north to south.' That the principal fa(jade was on the north side is made manifest by two stone pillars which occur in front of the mass of building, Hanked by gigantic bulls akin to those of the Propyla:a ; whilst b(?ll-shapcd bases have been disengaged in the space interposing between them. These pillars, against which stood colossi, jutting out beyond them, were no other than anta; ; they formed the heads of the lateral walls of a porch 56 m. long and 16 m. deep. Counting the intervals between the bases, we get the number of pillars, which was sixteen, arranged in two rows of eight (Fig. 159). Two great portals open upon the porch. As you pass behind their veil, some few yards beyond, you become aware that along four lines of uniform length that cross each other at right angles, forty-four stone frames, between doors, windows, and niches, were distributed here, constituting one of ' Flandin and Coste, Peru ancienne^ pp. 119-127. Digitized by Gopgle