eat monarchs who
marched their armies through the Zagros range, as a place where they
might conveniently set up memorials of their exploits. The works of this
kind ascribed by the ancient writers to Semiramis were probably either
Assyrian or Babylonian, and (it is most likely) resembled the ordinary
monuments which the kings of Babylon and Nineveh delighted to erect
in countries newly conquered. The example set by the Mesopotamians was
followed by their Arian neighbors, when the supremacy passed into
their hands; and the famous mountain, invested by them with a sacred
character, was made to subserve and perpetuate their glory by receiving
sculptures and inscriptions which showed them to have become the lords
of Asia. The practice did not even stop here. When the Parthian kingdom
of the Arsacidee had established itself in these parts at the expense
of the Seleucidse, the rock was once more called upon to commemorate
the warlike triumphs of a new race. Gotarzes, the contemporary of the
Emperor Claudius, after defeating his rival Meherdates in the plain
between Behistun and Kermanshah, inscribed upon the mountain, which
already bore the impress of the great monarchs of Assyria and Persia, a
record of his recent victory.

[Illustration: PLATE II.]

The name of Adrapan occurs only in Isidore, who places it between
Bagistan and Ecbatana, at the distance of twelve schoeni--36 Roman or 34
British miles from the latter. It was, he says, the site of an ancient
palace belonging to Ecbatana, which Tigranes the Armenian had destroyed.
The name and situation sufficiently identify Adrapan with the modern
village of Arteman, which lies on the southern face of Elwend near
its base, and is well adapted for a royal residence. Here, during the
severest winter, when Hamadan and the surrounding country are buried in
snow, a warm and sunny climate is to be found; whilst in the summer
a thousand rills descending from Elwend diffuse around fertility
and fragrance. Groves of trees grow up in rich luxuriance from the
well-irrigated soil, whose thick foliage affords a welcome shelter from
the heat of the noonday sun. The climate, the gardens, and the manifold
blessings of the place are proverbial throughout Persia; and naturally
caused the choice of the site for a retired palace, to which the court
of Ecbatana might adjourn when either the summer heat and dust or the
winter cold made residence in the capital irksome.

In the neighborhood of Adr