362 RUINS OF RHEY. 
were the walls which bounded the entire town. It rather seems 
likely, that the whole space within the fortified triangle, formed 
the habitable part of an extensive citadel; the commanding 
structure on the promontory, having been, what in more modern 
description, we would call the keep, or last resource of the 
garrison ; and being to it, what the entire fortress itself was to 
the city at large, the heart of the place. Besides, we are told, 
that when Ashk, the founder of the Arsacesian dynasty, slew 
the viceroy of the Seleucesian kings, and established his resi¬ 
dence at Rhey, that the princes of the provinces repaired thither 
to him, to form a confederacy for the purpose of recovering 
Persia entirely from the Grecian yoke. May it not then be 
probable that these chiefs, with each his warlike followers, and 
Ashk their leader at their head, might deem it prudent during 
their different consultations there, to abide in a stronghold 
within the city, distinctly appropriated to themselves. In that 
case, the trigonal area I have described, (which would form an 
immense fortress, but a very inconsiderable capital city,) might, of 
old remains, be duly fortified, to afford a secure residence, worthy 
the dignity of the assembled princes to whom history has 
given the great name of the Moolook-u-Tuaif, or the Com¬ 
monwealth of Tribes. But, whatever were its purpose, it cer¬ 
tainly has no more claim to the title of comprising the whole 
of the capital, bearing the name of Rhey, than the scanty 
spot, which is called the city of Paris, or that, which has a 
similar appellation at London, would have, to the character of 
containing all the magnificent buildings, or numerous popu¬ 
lation, generally attributed to Paris or to London. Hence, 
if the walls I saw, were only this common nucleus of a great 
metropolis, then might the town itself have stretched nearly 
