ALTARS ON THE ROCKS. 
569 
he caused fire-temples to be built wherever lie came; for 
whereas hitherto the kings had erected their altars on the tops 
of hills, and there performed their adorations in the open air ; 
where often, by rains or other accidents, the sacred fire was 
extinguished, and the holy offices disturbed.” But the previous 
union of the simple and manly Persians, with the gay and luxu¬ 
rious Medes, and afterwards, by conquest, with the magni¬ 
ficence of Babylon, gradually increased the splendour of the 
Mithratic rites ; and laid them open to the corruptions of the 
more extended paganism, which, in after-ages, profaned the 
land of the Sun with many strange altars, long before the inva¬ 
sion of Alexander claimed one for the Jupiter of Greece. The 
Parthians, who followed the Grecian successors of Alexander in 
the empire, professed the ancient religion ; but the worship 
they affected to restore, was only an entangled web of all that 
had preceded them ; and not until the accession of Ardashir 
Babigan, who revived in his own person the Kaianian, or 
line of Cyrus, were the real doctrines and rites of Zoroaster 
re-established. Hence it is probable that under his direction 
these two altars of Nakshi-Roustam may have been hewn, as 
an example of the original simplicity of the religion he renewed ; 
or they may even be as ancient as Darius Plystaspes himself; and 
afford a specimen of his first attempt at placing a protection 
round the sacred fire, in the shape of the cylindrical forms 
which parapet the summit of the altar; and from there being 
no memorial extant of any similitude to these altars having 
existed in either of those ages, these rough-hewn stones 
may as reasonably be attributed to the one time as to the 
other; and the arched form used as ornament on their sides, 
may have been suggested to the Magi by the natural bend in 
VOL. i. * 4 D 
