Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/373

 Inhabited Palaces. 351 the naked rock with dewy mossy grass ; intersperse mobile living domes of plane and cypress among white colonnades outlined against the sky, mirrored in the basins of fountains; renew the radiancy and splendour of tints the brush had applied to stone and brick, along with those inherent to the materials employed — costly woods, the creamy white of ivory, the precious metals, such as bronzy silver, and gold. A severe critical taste may find fault with Persian architecture ; yet it cannot deny thereto harmony of tones and the grandeur arising from mere size ; the effect of which must have been pro- digious, even upon minds accustomed to the supreme elegance and noble purity of Hellenic temples. The platform erected by Darius preserves the remains of no less than eight different buildings, and it is probable that many more are hidden under accumulated rubbish. Among the ruins still visible above ground may be counted over twelve hundred figures carved on freestone. Despite lacunae, these fragments, all told, are among the best specimens the nations of antiquity have handed down to us, or the least ill used by the hand of man or the action of the weather, and testify at the same time to no mean effort Traces of repairs and alterations have certainly been detected in the Palace of Darius, and may be due to some prince or satrap who wished to establish himself in a house formerly erected by the greatest king of Persia. To this date also belongs a wall, vestiges of which appear on the hill behind the tombs.^ But if an attempt was ever made to inhabit the palace, the intruders do not appear to have remained long, for the residence must even then have been a wilderness of ruins. No* monument has been found on the platform stamped with the style of the Seleucids, Parthians, or Sassanidse. The work of destruction begun by the Macedonians did not stop then. Not only is the Hall of a Hundred Columns strewn with cinders, but the deep splits observable' in the stones of the Palace of Xerxes seem likewise to have been caused by intense heat* The edifices which the firebrand of the Athenian Thais had spared, did not survive any length of time those she had vowed to the flames. They, too, must have perished by the falling in of the roof, when pillars and capitals were cast down. Moreover, as the coverings torn. ii. p. 1 84) makes the same observation. Digitized by Google
 * HUt. of Artt torn. v. p. 528, note 4, and p. 619.
 * SroLZB, Ptrs^ist Bemerkwtgen. TfixiER {DtsmpHon ie PArminuttdetoFent,