The tomb of Cyrus, also at Pasargadae, was doubtless con structed during his lifetime. In a small court, surrounded by pillared cloisters, stands a stepped platform, surmounted by a little gabled building that resembles Lycian tombs in western Asia Minor, which in their details display Greek influence. It is, therefore, not surprising that the base, with horizontal flutings, of one of the columns of the cloister, resembled to a certain extent a type used at Ephesus, in the temple begun with the help of Croesus but probably completed during the reign of Cyrus. Professor Herzfeld, who minimises the Greek influence in Persia, has recently claimed that the only foreign elements in the tomb come from eastern Asia Minor or from the north ; but it is impossible to deny that the Persian work offers fewer analogies to the scantily known architecture of those regions than to the architecture of western Asia Minor, the sphere of Greek influence. This remark applies also to the so-called fire-temples of Pasargadae and Nakht-i-Rustam (near Persepolis), tall, rectan gular buildings of yellow limestone, supplied with a doorway and two tiers of blind windows in black limestone ; the interior contains a small chamber, presumably for sepulchral purposes, since neither light nor air could be admitted except through the door, which was carefully constructed so that when closed it hermetically sealed the chamber. The two-colour scheme, re producing the effect of brick and wood, characterises the build ings of Cyrus, so that these tombs may be assigned to Cambyses or other members of the family of Cyrus.
Darius commemorated his stormy accession by a great in scription and relief carved, perhaps in 516, upon the cliff at Behistun (Bisitun), near the scene of one of his victories. He is shown, attended by two nobles at his back, planting his foot upon the prostrate body of the Magian, behind whom comes a line of nine other rebels, standing in chains ; the last, a Scythian wearing a tall, pointed hat, was carved later than the others, obliterating part of the inscription. The symbol of the god Ahuramazda, which floats in the air above the prisoners, is carved after the manner of the Assyrian Asshur, and many of the other details as well as the plan of the whole relief, are purely Assyrian. But the figures project further from the background, so that the forms require more rounding than was necessary in Mesopotamia, while the region of the eyes and the folds of the drapery are rendered in a more naturalistic style than had ever been seen in these countries. The nearest parallel to the drapery over the legs of Darius and his nobles occurs in a column-base from the temple at Ephesus, and the evident attempt to vary the facial types of the personages may likewise be due to Greek influence.
Later in his reign, Darius began the construction of a new capi tal at Persepolis, lower down the valley of the river which flows past Pasargadae. A low spur of rock, that projects into the valley from the bounding range of hills, was levelled into three terraces and strongly fortified. The buildings which arose upon the plat form were composed, like the palaces of Cyrus, of unbaked brick reinforced with stone, but differ from them in many par ticulars. Thus the two-colour scheme is abandoned ; the pillared
rooms are square instead of oblong and much larger than those at Pasargadae (the Hall of the Hundred Columns actually meas ures two hundred and twenty-five feet in each direction) ; small rooms are interpolated round the main hall, in the palace for private audiences; walls had no dado of carved slabs but were broken by stone windows and by niches of the same size and shape, which served as cupboards or tables ; doorways bear the feather crowned cornice characteristic of Egyptian work, instead of a simple, flat-faced dripstone ; the columns have their shafts in variably fluted instead of smooth, their bases and caps have elaborate floral ornaments, and they terminate in a heavy mem ber topped by the fronts of two kneeling bulls, set back to back —a motive that occurs in older bronzes from Armenia, as a pedestal for figures of deities, while complete winged bulls seem to have been used in Assyria for the bases of columns. The palaces had ceilings of cedarwood, carried on thick baulks that rested on the backs of the bulls; the ends of the beams penetrated to the exterior of the building, and on the cornice above these ran a frieze of lions.
Sculpture within the palaces was otherwise confined to the door jambs, on which the king is seen enthroned, walking or stand ing with his attendants, or unconcernedly stabbing a rampant monster in the traditional pose of Mesopotamian art. Greek in fluence was perhaps responsible for a change in the carving of the beard during the reign of Darius; at Behistun the king's beard is represented frontally on a profile head, following the Assyrian convention, while at Persepolis both are invariably seen in profile like the rest of the figure. Magnificent double staircases placed flat against the walls—an architectural innovation—are lined with a number of figures of the royal guards and also of several foreign subjects bringing tribute (see DRESS), in rows preceded by panels of an allegorical scene of a lion killing a bull. There remain at Persepolis, it is said, 1,200 figures, all monoto nously applied to these few subjects, and although a space of 15o years intervenes between the earliest and the latest reliefs the difference in style is insignificant. The increase of Greek influence—official approval of which is now guaranteed by the statement that the sculptor Telephanes was employed by Darius and Xerxes (presumably the first two kings of those names)— results in greater grace and delicacy in the reign of Xerxes, to whom most of the buildings probably owe their construction or at least their completion. The main gateway, guarded by pairs of enormous human-headed bulls at either side, bears only the name of Xerxes : it should also be noted that on the winged monsters of the east side the tips of the wings curl upwards, as in the art of Asia Minor and Greece, whereas the Assyrian colossi, which in other respects they so closely resemble, have straight wings.