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TifE Hall of a Hundred Columns. 331 a walled saloon and an open kiosk. Which of the two was fairest, dearest, and most admired by the sons of Achaemenes? It is not easy to say; in order to give a discriminating vote it had . been necessary to see the pair of edifices in their pristine state, clothed in their ample and rich decoration. AU we durst affirm is that the conception of the architect of Xerxes bears off the palm for originality and strangeness of aspect over that of his rival. The fact that the plan of the Hall of a Hundred Columns is similar to that of the royal edifices at Pasafgadae, the difference being solely one of size, inclines us to believe — in the absence of historical or epigraphic data—that the monument is older than the audience hall of Xerxes. The arrangement of the latter is more complicated, and it is a trite remark to make, that art proceeds from the simple to the complex. Nor should the height of the pillars be left out of the reckoning. Columns to which an altitude of some twenty metres had been allotted in one reign were not likely to be shorn of nearly half that height in the next ; the existing sovereign would be loth to appear less daring than his predecessor in the matter of supports to his ceilings. Lastly, the sculptures of the unsigned palace are the finest and noblest in style at Peisepolis, those where execution has been most carefully attended to. To judge from our knowledge of other countries, the highest degree of perfection attained by native •'art must synchronize with the good administration and the pros- perity which the empire enjoyed under the reign of the greatest sovereign of the Achcemenid dynasty, whilst the decay of the Persian monarchy, which began with the death of Darius, must ere long have affected even plastic art. The probability, then, is in favour of the hypothesis which would attribute to Darius the erection of the Hall of a Hundred Columns. Upon the platform, composed of solid masses of hewn stone, he selected the site for building himself not only a (summer ?) palace (of which a restora- tion has been attempted in Plate IX.), but a spacious winter house to accommodate him durincy the months he was wont to spend in his cradle-land, as well as a hall whose proportions and magnificence would enable him to show himself to his subjects with a majesty and in a setting befitting a monarch whom so many millions of men obeyed, from the banks of the Indus to the borders of the iCgean Sea. Later, Xerxes, in the fuhiess of his pride, conceived the ambitious project of eclipsing his glorious father, of producing L.iyu,^cd by Google