Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/382

 36o History of Art in Antiquity. envoys and refugees were received by the Achaemenidse. Yet, curiously enough, Strabo is the only historian who furnishes details as to the aspect and extent of the town. "Susa," he writesi " is supposed to have been founded by Tithonus, the father of Mnemon, who built a wall around it, 120 stadia, embracing an oblong square. According to some historians, the wall^ the temples, and the royal palace at Susa were built of burnt bricks bound together with bitumen. Polydetus, on the other hand, says that " Susa was an open city, 200 stadia in circumference ; that the Persians took great pains in embellishing it above all others, although they likewise set great store by Persepolis and Pig. 176^— AMjrian plan of Sim. Layard, .4 Sr.'i>nJ Srriti tftke Mmimmti tflHmrvtk, Plate XLIX. Pasargadae."* We have Strabo's own word to the effect that he was equally well informed with regard to the situation of the royal buildings at the summit of the mound.' Excavations have fully confirmed his testimony as to the part brick and bitumen played in the &brication. Nor is there much difficulty in accounting for discrepancies due to information he had derived from this or that source. Susa must have been surrounded by a wall during the reign of her native princes, who were often obliged to defend her against the attacks of Babylonian and Ninevite conquerors. In any case, it figures as a walled dty in a rough kind of plan which the Assyrian sculptors of Asur-nat- Sirpal introduced into the bas-reliefs representing the main episodes of that king^s campaigns in the district of Elam (Fig. 1 76). But in the interval extending from Cyrus to Darius Codomanus, who would have been bold enough to attack Susa, the favourite Digitized by Google
 * Strabo^ XV. iii. a, 3. at.