[198] For all that concerns this artist, one of the most skilful draughtsmen of our time, see the biographical notice of M. de Girardot:--_Felix Thomas, grand Prix de Rome Architecte, Peintre, Graveur, Sculpteur_ (Nantes, 1875, 8vo.). [199] PLACE, _Ninive_, vol. i. pp. 249-269. [200] PLACE, _Ninive_, vol. i. pp. 254-255. [201] _Ibid._ p. 246. [202] PLACE, _Ninive_, vol. i. p. 264. [203] _Ibid._ p. 265. RICH made similar observations at Bagdad. He noticed that the masons could mount on the vault a few minutes after each course was completed (_Narrative of a Journey to the Site of Babylon_). [204] M. A. CHOISY, well known by his Essays on _L'Art de batir chez les Romains_, shows that the same method was constantly used by the Byzantine architects. See his _Note sur la Construction des Voutes sans cintrage pendant la Periode byzantine_ (_Annales des Ponts et Chausees_, 1876, second period, vol. xii.). See also Mr. FERGUSSON'S account of the erection of a huge stone dome without centering of any kind, by an illiterate Maltese builder, at Mousta, near Valetta (_Handbook of Architecture_, Second Edition, vol. iv. p. 34).--ED. [205] STRABO, xvi. i. 5, Hoi oikoi kamarotoi pantes dia ten axulian. [206] For a description of these buildings see FLANDIN and COSTE, _Voyage en Perse, Perse ancienne, Text_, pp. 24-27, and 41-43 (6 vols. folio, no date. The voyage in question took place in 1841 and 1842). [207] Brick played, at least, by far the most important part in their construction. The domes and arcades were of well-burnt brick; the straight walls were often built of broken stone, when it was to be had in the neighbourhood. At Ctesiphon, on the other hand, the great building known as the _Takht-i-Khosrou_ is entirely of brick. [208] See M. AUGUSTE CHOISY'S _Note sur la Construction des Voutes_, &c. p. 14. This exact and penetrating critic shares our belief in these relations between the Chaldaean east and Roman Asia. [209] _Note sur la Construction des Voutes sans cintrage_, p. 12. [210] PLACE, _Ninive_, vol. i. pp. 266-267. [211] As M. CHOISY remarks (_L'Art de batir chez les Romains_, p. 80), each horizontal course, being in the form of a ring, would have no tendency to collapse inwards, and a dome circular on plan would demand some means for keeping its shape true rather than a resisting skeleton. [212] _Ninive_, vol. i. p. 131. [213] In both the examples here reproduced the sculptor has indicated the cords by which the canvas walls were kept in place. We find almost the same profile in a bas-relief at Khorsabad (BOTTA, _Monument de Ninive_, pl. 146), but there it is cut with less decision and there are no cords. Between the two semi-domes the figure of a man rises above the wall to his middle, suggesting the existence of a barbette within. Here the artist may have been figuring a house rather than a tent. [214] STRABO, xv. 3, 10. [215] STRABO, xvi. 1, 5.