624 
HISTORY IN ILLUSTRATION 
lived to an extreme old age. They, of course, would inhabit 
Tackt-i-Jemsheed, while their renowned son, as the Prince- 
general of his uncle Cyaxares, was winning for Media all the 
then known Asiatic world; and, probably, Cambyses might 
have a pride in causing some of the sculptures I shall presently 
describe, to be executed on the walls of his capital, to com¬ 
memorate the triumphs of a native prince, in whose person, by a 
double inheritance, the two kingdoms of Media and Persia were 
hereafter to be united in one. Egyptian captive artists, obtained 
first by alliance with the Babylonians, and secondly by Cyrus’s 
conquest over them, would afford to his father, and to himself, 
when he became sole monarch, architects and masons to pursue 
the most magnificent designs. But whatever works of the kind 
might have been commenced by Cambyses, or accomplished in 
after-years by his grandson of the same name, Cyrus himself ap¬ 
pears to have confined most of his architectural improvements to 
the building of Pasargadas ; and the erection of spacious resting- 
places along the roads, for the refreshment of travellers, and the 
convenience of the posts continually passing to and fro through¬ 
out his extensive dominions. (Cyrop. b. viii.) Hence we come 
to the conclusion, that the fine finishing of some of the superb 
works we find at Persepolis, and the planning and accomplish¬ 
ment of most of the others, must have been done by the direction 
of Darius Hystaspes; who, emulating to tread in the steps of 
Cyrus, felt establishing his claim of birthright, and consequent 
hold on the empire, by every stroke of the chisel that perpetuated 
the happy institutions of a predecessor, who alone had acquired 
the great name of Father of his People. Besides, Darius, like 
Cyrus, was of Persia Proper, and could not but find a son’s 
gratification in aggrandizing his native capital. His spirit 
