tween, which were then filled in with
woodwork. Above the whole a roof was placed, sloping at an angle, and
composed (as we are told) of silver plates in the shape of tiles. The
pillars, beams, and the rest of the woodwork were likewise coated with
thin laminse of the precious metals, even gold being used for this
purpose to a certain extent.

Such seems to have been the character of the true ancient Median palace,
which served probably as a model to Darius and Xerxes when they designed
their great palatial edifices at the more southern capitals. In the
additions which the palace received under the Achaemenian kings, stone
pillars may have been introduced; and hence probably the broken shafts
and bases, so nearly resembling the Persepolitan, one of which Sir E.
Ker Porter saw in the immediate neighborhood of Hamadan on his visit
to that place in 1818. [PLATE I., Fig. 1.] But to judge from the
description of Polybius, an older and ruder style of architecture
prevailed in the main building, which depended for its effect not on the
beauty of architectural forms, but on the richness and costliness of the
material. A pillar architecture, so far as appears, began in this part
of Asia with the Medes, who, however, were content to use the more
readily obtained and more easily worked material of wood; while the
Persians afterwards conceived the idea of substituting for these
inartificial props the slender and elegant stone shafts which formed the
glory of their grand edifices.

At a short distance from the palace was the "Acra," or citadel, an
artificial structure, if we may believe Polybius, and a place of very
remarkable strength. Here probably was the treasury, from which Darius
Codomanus carried off 7000 talents of silver, when he fled towards
Bactria for fear of Alexander. And here, too, may have been the Record
Office, in which were deposited the royal decrees and other public
documents under the earlier Persian kings. Some travellers are of
opinion that a portion of the ancient structure still exists; and there
is certainly a ruin on the outskirts of the modern town towards the
south, which is known to the natives as "the inner fortress," and which
may not improbably occupy some portion of the site whereon the original
citadel stood. But the remains of building which now exist are certainly
not of an earlier date than the era of Parthian supremacy, and they can
therefore throw no light on the character of the old Median