Identifier: persiapastpresen01jack (find matches)
Title: Persia past and present; a book of travel and research, with more than two hundred illustrations and a map
Year: 1906 (1900s)
Authors: Jackson, A. V. Williams (Abraham Valentine Williams), 1862-1937
Subjects: Zoroastrianism
Publisher: New York, The Macmillan Company London, Macmillan & Co., ltd.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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andconstructed of stone quarried from the hillside, encloses thearea on the three exposed sides, for no barrier was needed atthe rear because of the natural fortification of the hills, as willbe clear to any one who has visited the scene or consulted thepanoramic photograph by Dieulafoy and the drawings of Flan-din. ^ The configuration of the terrace-height is such that threedistinct levels are clearly noticeable, the highest being in themiddle, which is made still more elevated by a mound in itsmidst. Over the surface of the platform are spread theremains of the architectural glories of the Achaemenians. We have a general description of the platform, written in 1 See p. 307, n. 1, above. Diodorus ^ gge Diodorus Siculus, History, Siculus (History, 17. 72) draws a vivid 17. 71. picture of the orgy and of the burning ^ gge Dieulafoy, L^Art A7itique de of Persepolis, a scene familiar through la Perse, 2. pis. 4-7 ; Flandin and Drydens Alexanders Feast. Coste, Voyage en Perse, 2. pi. 67.
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THE PLATFORM OF PERSEPOLIS 311 Greek nearly two thousand years ago, by Diodorus Siculus(c. B.C. 50). Since the passage is important as a means ofidentification of the site, I translate the paragraph which relatesto the construction of the terrace and the tombs of the kings,preserving in my rendering the interchange of tenses, presentand past, that is found in the original Greek. The citadel (ampa) is worthy of mention. It had a threefoldwall surrounding it, the first (section) of which was constructedwith stately bastions (avaXyfifrnTi 7ro\v8aTrdv(o) and adorned withbattlements (eTraA^ecri) and it had a height of sixteen cubits.^ Thesecond has a similar arrangement to that of the preceding, but doubleits height. The third enclosure is rectangular in shape, and its wallis sixty cubits high and constrvicted of solid stone so perfectly setas to last forever. On each side it has brazen gates and, beside them,brazen bulls, twenty cubits high,^ the latter being intended toinspire awe in the

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