The general form, arrangement, and purposes of the apartments in which the monuments of ancient Assyria have been discovered, were at first involved in so much obscurity, as to be unintelligible. The labours, however, of Mr. Fergusson, who in his recent work "The Palaces of Nineveh and Persepolis restored," has brought to bear on the subject much learning, and a familiar acquaintance with ancient art, classic, Egyptian and Oriental,-seem to have thrown a flood of light on what was before so obscure. From his restorations, which though in some points only conjectural, are supported by arguments of great weight, and parallelisms of great value from Hindoo and Persian architecture, we are able to form a somewhat distinct idea of an Assyrian palace, and of the public and private life of the monarch who reigned in it. We can do little more, in these pages, than convey an outline of the results arrived at by Mr. Fergusson, referring our readers to his valuable work itself for the reasonings by which they are attained.

The great collection of buildings which constituted the royal dwelling-place was built on a flat platform of masonry, eight, ten, or even twenty yards in height above the surrounding plain. This platform or terrace was, in Assyria, owing to the deficiency of stone, built of sun-dried bricks, faced with broad slabs of alabaster ;* in Persia, however, it was constructed of stone or marble. Its surface was not of

* Pliny's statement (Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 6.) that the first example of a brick wall, faced with slabs of marble, was in the palace of Mausolus, about B.C. 360, is therefore erroneous.

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equal elevation in all parts, but terraces of different levels sometimes were formed on the great superficies. Access to the platform from below was obtained by one or more flights of steps, which, judging from those of Persepolis (for no examples have as yet been exposed in the Assyrian mounds), led up from the plain, not by a direct advance, but laterally; sometimes by one, sometimes by two series of two flights each, the first flight receding from, the second approaching, a central point.

The object of this arrangement, as Mr. Fergusson explains, when speaking of the noble staircase leading to the Hall of Xerxes, on the platform of Persepolis, was twofold, and is easily understood on inspecting the ruins. The first was to admit of the front being adorned with sculpture; the second depended on the circumstance that immediately before the summit of the steps, upon the platform, was placed the throne-room, or hall of audience, in which the sovereign sat on state occasions, while the cohorts of his army, or the crowds of his subjects passed up and down the stairs before him in procession, all rendering their homage in turn, without changing the direction of their march.

The propyleum, or throne-room, was an isolated building of comparatively small size, containing a single apartment supported by four pillars. The front, and each of the two sides, were pierced with central door-ways of massive grandeur, each guarded by a pair of those colossal cherubic forms, which we have before described. In an inscription many times repeated on the piers of this edifice in front of

the Hall of Xerxes, the hall is called "duwarthim," which, as Colonel Rawlinson suggests, certainly means door or gate, and is found in nearly the same form in all the cognate languages. "Still," says Mr. Fergusson, "it is not a gateway or entrance in the manner we usually understand this word, but used more as a justice-hall or place of assembly at the entrance or gate of the palace. I have, for instance, no hesitation in identifying this building with the gate which plays so important a part in the story of Esther, under the reign of the very king who built this one, the gate in which Mordecai sat when he overheard the conspirators, and in which Haman sat when he refused to bow to him, where Mordecai could not enter when clothed in sackcloth, &c., the viziral seat of judgment, or that where one of the principal officers of the palace sat to transact business, hear causes, or receive. homage.

So too in Homer:

Gerenian Nestor issued forth, and sat
Before his palace-gate, on the white stones
Resplendent as with oil, on which of old
His father Neleus had been wont to sit

In council like a god; but he had sought,
By destiny dismiss'd long since, the shades.
On those stones therefore, guardian of the Greeks,
Sat Nestor now, his sceptre in his hand,
And thither from their chambers also came,
T'encircle him around, his num'rous sons.

Odyss. iii. 509.

The kings of Persia, in modern times, pass a considerable portion of every day in an audience-hall, or judgment-room, which is open to the public, where they sit to decide in person those cases which by appeal or

Perhaps this will appear yet more clear by a reference to the following passage, in which "to sit in the gate of the king" expresses the highest office of a subject in the court of Babylon.

Then Daniel requested of the king, and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, over the affairs of the province of Babylon; but Daniel sat in the gate of the king. Dan. ii. 49.

It is supposed that the throne of judgment was placed against that wall which had no door; that the front entrance, which faced the throne, was reserved for the king or vizier, who sat in state, while the crowd, who came to demand justice, or to pay their homage, passed before the centre of the hall before the judgment-seat, entering at one lateral doorway and going out at the opposite; and thus these became the principal portals, distinguished by the superior grandeur of their gigantic guardians, or by some other architectural peculiarities.

The walls on each side of the grand gateways were adorned with magnificent sculptures. At Khorsabad the propyleum that stood almost on the

by consent are brought to the foot of the throne. The Greek historians tell us that such was the practice of their predecessors of old.

edge of the terrace, looking down upon the city below, M. Botta describes as having portals formed by two winged human-headed bulls of nineteen feet in height, crowned with three-horned mitres, and looking outwards. The wall on each side of the portal consisted of great slabs, on which were sculptured in bold relief two similar cherubic forms, rather less gigantic, standing back to back, between which stood a colossal human figure, strangling a lion in his arms.

Beyond the throne-room or "gate," other flights of stairs appear to have conducted the visitor to a higher level, on which the various erections which constituted the true palace were placed. These consisted of suites of apartments, appropriated to distinct purposes, surrounding quadrangular courts. Thus, if we take for an example the palace at Khorsabad, according to Mr. Fergusson's restoration, the eastern angle of the upper platform was occupied by a large quadrangular space, which he calls the Outer Court, about 350 feet long by 200 feet wide. Passing directly across this court, through its length, the visitor came to the palace wall, in which was a narrow gallery or passage, closed by a massive door; the door has disappeared, but the places for its hinges yet remain, and there is a recess in the passage wall to receive its ponderous lock, when it stood open, as it is supposed was usually the case; for the part of the wall behind the door was not sculptured. The portals of the gate were formed, as usual, of two winged humanheaded bulls, and the outer surface of the wall on