The Great King was looked upon as little less than a god. Every one who entered his presence threw himself flat upon the ground, as if in the presence of a divine being. It was supposed that a mere subject must of necessity be struck to the earth with sudden blindness on meeting the dazzling rays of such exalted majesty. The court of the Great King was on a scale of the utmost splendour. His chief residence was the city of Susa, but in the hot season he preferred the city of Ecbatana, which was higher and cooler, and he also stayed occasionally at Babylon and at Persepolis. At each of these places there was an immense palace, adorned with every conceivable magnificence, and from the discoveries recently made among the ruins of Persepolis we can form some idea of what the palace of the Great King of Persia must have been like. The palace of Persepolis stood upon a terrace above the rest of the city, and all round it were houses of a simpler kind, used for lodging the soldiers and the civil and military officers who were attached to the King’s person, and who ate daily at his expense. There must, in all, have been about fifteen thousand of them, including the ten thousand soldiers of the royal body-guard.[1] [1] See illustration, p. 103. [Illustration: RUINS OF THE PALACE OF PERSEPOLIS.] The gate of the palace was approached by two superb flights of marble stairs, which joined in front of the entrance, and were so wide that ten horsemen could ride abreast up each side.[2] Within the gate was a square building with a front of more than two hundred feet.[3] The entrance-hall was a magnificent room, with a roof supported by a hundred pillars of richly carved stone,[4] and on either side of it were other rooms with beautiful pillars. In all directions lovely colours and ornaments of gold and silver met the eye. The walls were covered with gigantic sculptures, representing the Great Kings Darius I. and Xerxes, who had built the palace, with attendants, both in time of peace, and at war with monsters and wild beasts.[5] Together with the sculptures were inscriptions which can be read even now. This is a translation of the beginning of one of them: ‘I am Darius, the Great King, the King of kings, the King of these many countries.’ Among the sculptures is one that represents Darius seated on his throne, with a slave standing behind him, holding in his hand a fan with which to keep off the flies. The mouth of the slave is covered with a bandage, for it would have been considered a profanation to allow the air breathed by so august a sovereign to be polluted by the breath of a slave.[6] Another sculpture represents an audience given to an ambassador, who, for the same reason, holds his hand before his mouth in the presence of the King. [2] See illustration facing p. 26. [3] _Ibid._ p. 14. [4] _Ibid._ pp. 38, 47, 62. [5] _Ibid._ p. 88. [6] _Ibid._ p. 72. [Illustration: THE GREAT KING IN GALA DRESS.