326 History of Art in Antiquity. ments of bases, and when these fail, their foundations; the intercolumnations are about those of the portico^ 6 m. 20 c/ measured from one axis to another, whilst all the bases, without one exception, are uniform in shape. Even before recent excavations had brought to light a number of supports which till then had lain buried, their number, amounting to a hundred, had been made out from the marks of bases left on the floor. They were distributed in rows of ten each, and upheld the roof of a square hall,' whose dbposition, if we except the wall by which it was enclosed, is identical with that of the central pavilion of the great Palace of Xerxes. With data of this nature to go by, it is easy to restore the edifice. There are no diver- gences of any importance between those that have attempted it in the past, nor is it likely that, save in points of minor detail, any will occur in the future, the main divisions being traced by the ruins themselves. The advantage which our restoration (Plates VII., VIII.) has over that of Coste is twofold, in that ampl^ provision is made for lighting the halt, whilst the decoration is more in character with the colossal proportions of the edifice.' Why should the architect have displayed less magnificence here than in the other throne-room or in the palace at Susa, where the surfaces were enriched all over with gay and many-coloured enamels ? There is no sign or token of porches or chambers around the edifice ; no other dependency save a portico which forms a kind of pronaos in front Its width is less than that of the hall against which it leans. We have put great panels over its farther wall, made up of glazed bricks of many hues, so adjusted as to imitate the forms and aspect of carpets; this we have repeated on the uncovered face of the wall enclosing the hypostyle hall.' Ant3e have been distributed, one at each comer of this same wall, in order that tlie building should not only look firmer, but in reality be more solid. They are fluted all over — a mode of embellishment
- Arcording to Coste, the «;pacin;; of the pillars in the hall is 6 m. lo c. ; but,
then, it should be borne in mind that his observations were restricted to a pair or so of bases which he had disengaged. In conditions such as these a slight discrepancy u likdy to have occurred.
- The hall, it would seem, is not a perfect square. Tt^xier (torn. ii. pp. 178, 179)
noticed a difTerence of one metre between the sides, whilst Coste sets it down at fifteen centimetres.
- Flan DIN and Costs, /Vrw muittnie, Plate CLIX.
- Two sides of the wall in question appear in the middle distance of the perspec-
tive view of the Palace of Darius as restored by us (see Plate IX.). Digitized by Google
