In return for a quantity of gold given by Crœsus to the Lacedemonians, they sent him a large vessel of bronze, round the mouth of which the figures of all sorts of animals were chased or engraved. The vase, indeed, never reached Crœsus, who was dethroned by Cyrus while it was on its way, and it fell into the hands of some merchants who sold it for a large price. Cyrus had the fortune not only to obtain the treasure in the precious metals and in the workmanship, of the gorgeous possessions of Crœsus, more precious than those metals themselves, but also to restore to Jerusalem the splendid ornaments and rich vessels, the work of the Tyrian artists, which belonged to the temple, and which were no doubt saved, by having been consecrated in[81] the temple of Belus, during the taking of Babylon. It will perhaps never be known in what degree the taking of the Capital of the Chaldeans by Cyrus, altered the state of literature and art in ancient Persia. I have already referred to the passage in the prophet Ezekiel, which mentions the portraying the figures of men with vermilion, according to the use of the Chaldeans of Babylon; and, it should be observed, that their _many-coloured_ head-dresses are also mentioned; so that the Babylonian pictures, such as they were, were not monochromes. But this belongs to another place[82]. The Greeks had early adopted or borrowed deities from every nation. The Syrian Astaroth or Astarte, and Thammuz or Adonis, were not neglected, but were received as kindly in the temples, as the Tyrian purple and the fine linen of Egypt, in the ports of Greece; and they were too intelligent and tasteful, not to adopt whatever of beautiful or elegant might be found among the artificers and artists of the nations with which they traded. Perhaps the Greeks were less inventors, than quick and happy discerners, of what was beautiful. They seem to have wrought the rough materials of many other nations into the happiest forms; and, if they borrowed largely from others, they amply repaid them by the beauty of the works they produced, and the excellent artists they formed, and these, by seeking employment in foreign countries, refined no doubt the taste of the great barbaric courts. The art of inlaying and colouring metals is still possessed in perfection by many of the descendants of the nations of Asia Minor and Syria. The Circassians especially pride themselves on colouring silver, an art in which in ancient times the Egyptians excelled, though it was practised by the artists of Tyre and Sidon[83]. Figures and sometimes portraits were introduced in the patterns of the stained metals; and though the damasking or colouring steel[84] is now confined to swords and fire-arms, the example of the curious under-cup, seen by Pausanias at Delphi, shows that it was applied to different purposes by the inventors.