Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/390

 368 History of Art in Antiquity. enamel, was obtained the whole sculptured decoration excepting the capitals. As in Chaldaea, here and there bitumen was made to play the part of mortar ; by its means a perfect cohesion was assured to the gkzed squares, for the least girding wotild have caused the lines of the decoration to fall out of place.* From the * above instances it will be seen that the buildings at Susa hold a middle course between those of Persia proper and those of Chaldaea. They are of a composite character. Their adjustment and the themes treated by sculpture belong to Persia; but the technique applied to them, represented by clay impressed into moulds, where variety of tint is either obtained from colouring matter mixed with the paste, or the degree of firing through which it is •passed, or pigments spread over the tiles with the brush of the enamellist, is Chaldxan, at least to a very huge extent. As to the mighty ramparts wholly made of crude brick, they betray in a far greater degree the stamp of the methods of Chaldaean industry ; but inasmuch as they are the sole relic of the military architecture of the Achsemenidse, of which the disposition can be grasped, they could not be passed over without a word of recognition on our part We await the description and restoration which have been promised to us, and which cannot fail to awaken interest of the highest order. Towns and their Defences. When Alexander invaded the country there were no walled cities either from one end of Iran to the other, or in the adjoining provinces, Susiana for instance. If ramparts ever existed, during a long and peaceful era they had come to be regarded as super- fluous appendages, so that left to themselves they had very naturally gone the way of all things. Unbaked bricks had been reduced to powder, and the emporiums towards which flowed the productions of all Asia had speedily extended far out into the plain, in order that they might surround their dwellings with beautiful gardens. No wall surrounded Ecbatana or Susa when Alexander entered them ; ' but then, as now in those regions, ' DiEULAKOv, Premier Rapport^ p. 68. xlviii. During the frequent aflTnys in the re^ of the Sdeudde, Mdon entered the town with^t lesistance, but his progress was checked befoiie the citaddi within which his adversaiy had shut himself up.
 * For Ecbatana, Folybius, X. xxvii. 6. For Susa, Strabo, XV'L iii.; Polybius, V.