Page:Light and truth.djvu/99

Rh quadrant, four square, and 60 cubits high, built of the hardest marble, and so cemented as almost to defy the ravages of time. On the four sides were brazen gates, with curtains or palisades of the same metal, 120 cubits high, and 410 paces long, for the purpose of giving defence to the city, and striking beholders with terror. The walls were 600 paces from north to south, and 396 from east to west. The numerous columns, porticoes, stair-cases, images, &c. are exceedingly magnificent, even in their ruinous state; and induce the belief that the Persian empire in all its grandeur, could boast of nothing more glorious, nor have left anything to posterity more astonishing than the description and ruins of this once splendid city. The fine plain in which this city stood was in the eastern part of Persia; it was 20 leagues long and 6 broad, and within this compass there were more than 1000 villages, adorned with beautiful gardens.

Alexander the Great, taking Persepolis by storm, put the unhappy inhabitants to the sword. He likewise burnt the other cities and villages of that plain. The destroying element rolled onward like an overwhelming and resistless deluge; and in a little time the dwelling place of thousands presented nothing but a heap of smoking ruins—one vast picture of desolation. It is supposed that Alexander took 120,000 talents from the city of Persepolis, and robbed the inhabitants of the plain of all their valuable property. The spoil was so great that it required nearly 6,000 camels and mules to carry it off.

. (Neh. i. 1; Esth. i. 5.) An ancient extensive, and magnificent city, [called by the Greeks, Susa, or the city of lilies,] situated on the river Ulai, [now Kerrah.] It was in the province of Elam, in Persia, now known as Khusistan, and formerly as Susiana. Shushan was the capital. It is said to have been built by Memnon, before the Trojan war. It was the winter residence of the Persian kings from the time of Cyrus, being sheltered by a high ridge of mountains from the north-east wind; but in the summer it was so intensely hot as to be scarcely habitable. Here Daniel had his vision of the ram and he-goat.—(Daniel viii.)