At three points, however, the Persians improved on their
models:
(1) They used marble instead of brick; (2) they made in the halls
painted floors of wood; (3) they erected eight columns in the form of
trunks of trees, the slenderest that we know, twelve times as high as
they were thick.
Thus their architecture is more elegant and lighter than that of
Assyria.
The Persians had made little progress in the arts. But they seem to
have been the most honest, the sanest, and the bravest people of the
time. For two centuries they exercised in Asia a sovereignty the least
cruel and the least unjust that it had ever known.
FOOTNOTES:
[28] That is, of about the same area as that part of the United States
east of the Mississippi, with Minnesota and Iowa. Modern Persia is not
two-thirds of this area.--ED.
[29] Most historians place Zoroaster before 1000 B.C.--ED.
[30] "I created the dog," said Ormuzd, "with a delicate scent and strong
teeth, attached to man, biting the enemy to protect the herds. Thieves
and wolves come not near the sheep-fold when the dog is on guard, strong
in voice and defending the flocks.
Pages:
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118