THE PERSIAN PERIOD
However that may be, at this time the palace-and-treasury was on the top of the hill in very splendid surroundings, for the upper two walls nearest them were "encrusted the one with silver and the other with gold" and no doubt the palace with its temple and treasuries was equally adorned as the later and lower one was. It was already "vastly superior to the other cities" in the splendor of its buildings and this same treasury was already overflowing with almost incredible wealth. Whether Arbaces some sixty years or so before this "roll" of Cyrus had been placed in this Treasury, had put there "all the gold and silver treasure which had been taken at the fall of Nineveh" as alleged or not, it had in any event held, before the decree was found, and near the time when it was laid up, all the riches of Croesus which Cyrus took. It seems incredible that the walls could actually have been encrusted with gold, and
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