Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/93

 8o HistORY or Art in Antiquity. like a junction between the stone wall and the artificial blocks would have been out of the question ; but there was no difficulty in making the soft viscous mass adhere to the surface to which it was applied The burnt bricks collected at Persepolis had the same use and were found in the same situation as the glazed wedges at Susa. ^ It will long ere this have been surmised that the covering of the edifices could be no other than timber.' This is asserted by Quintus Curtius, in a passage where he refers to the large use of cedar in Persepolitan palaces ; and we know that when descriptions and harangues give him no scope to display his rhetorical powers and in- dulge in winding and finely rounded off" periods, he often limits himself to translating ancient documents now lost, but which, as Arrian for instance, were open to him.' His testimony is confirmed, moreover, by inspection of the ruins. Thus, the columns which upheld ceilings and hypostyle halls are so wide apart as to pre- clude the notion that they could be spanned by stone beams, in that their weight would have crushed the under supports. These, as we have already pointed out, arc very slender and unable to bear a stone covering akin to that of Egyptian edifices. Nor is this all. Superficial examination of the attics represented on the tombs at Persepolis suffices to show that they arc an exact copy of wooden lofts. But to have covered vast spaces, such as those of the hypostyle halls, presupposes the employment of wood in such enormous quantities that we cannot imagine its having entirely disappeared without leaving a trace, above all where it was destroyed by fire. As a matter of fact, the floor of the Hall of a Hundred Columns is covered all over with ashes and charcoal. The exist- igne concepto, late fudit incendium." part is of special interest, in that refeienoe is made to the authorities he con- sulted to write his criticism. Fn.. 24- — Pcrscjxjlis. I'alacc No. 6. Profile of cnU. FLANOIK aod COSTE, Plate CXLII.
 * Quintus Curtius, V. vii. 5 : " Malta cedro aediiicata erat regia; quae celeriter,
 * DossoN, £tude sur QutnU-Curce^ sa vie a som muvrtt 1886, 8vo. The second