sian monarchs,
like the Assyrian, pursued the king of beasts in their chariots, and
generally despatched him by means of arrows. Seated in a light car,
and attended by a single unarmed charioteer, they invaded the haunts of
these fiercest of brutes, rousing them from their lairs--probably with
Indian hounds, and chasing them at full speed if they fled, or, if they
faced the danger, attacking them with arrows or with the javelin. [PLATE
XXXVI., Fig. 2.] Occasionally the monarch might indulge in this sport
alone; but generally he was (it seems) accompanied by some of his
courtiers, who shared the pleasures of the chase with him on the
condition that they never ventured to let fly their weapons before he
had discharged his. If they disregarded this rule they were liable
to capital punishment, and might esteem themselves fortunate if they
escaped with exile.

Besides lions, the Persian monarch chased, it is probable, stages,
antelopes, wild asses, wild boars, bears, wild sheep, and leopards.
[PLATE XXXVI., Fig. 3.] These animals all abounded in the neighborhood
of the royal palaces, and they are enumerated by Xenophon among the
beasts hunted by Cyrus. The mode of chasing the wild ass was for the
horsemen to scatter themselves over the plain, and to pursue the
animal in turns, one taking up the chase when the horse of another was
exhausted. The speed of the creature is so great that no horse with
a rider on his back can long keep pace with him; and thus relays were
necessary to tire him out, and enable the hunters to bring him within
the range of their weapons.

When game was scarce in the open country, or when the kings were
too indolent to seek it in its native haunts, they indulged their
inclination for sport by chasing the animals which they kept in their
own "paradises." These were walled enclosures of a large size, well
wooded, and watered with sparkling streams, in which were bred or kept
wild beasts of various kinds, chiefly of the more harmless sorts, as
stags, antelopes, and wild sheep. These the kings pursued and shot with
arrows, or brought down with the javelin; but the sport was regarded as
tame, and not to be compared with hunting in the open field.

Within the palace the Persian monarchs are said to have amused
themselves with dice. They played, it is probable, chiefly with their
near relatives, as their wives, or the Queen-Mother. The stakes, as was
to be expected, ran high, as much as a thousand darics (