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kind. As, however, their mortar had excellent tenacious properties, these pendentives still remain 'in situ (fig. 22), and their defects were probably hidden under the stucco. In the halls which flank the building on either See also:

side, however, they displayed considerable knowledge of construction. Instead of having enormously thick walls to resist the thrust of their vaults, to which we have already See also:

DRAWN

drawn See also:

ATTENTION (from Lat. ad-tendo, await, expect; the condition of being " stretched " or " tense ")

attention in the See also:

ASSYRIAN

Assyrian work and at el Hadr, they built piers at intervals, covering over the spaces between them, with semi-domes on which the walls carrying the vaults are supported, so that they lessened the span of the vault and brought the thrust well within the See also:

wall.

This, however, lessened the width of the hall, so they replaced the See also:

LOWER

lower portions of the piers by the columns, leaving a passage See also:

ROUND (O. Fr. rond, Lat. rotundus, the Fr. is the source also of Du. rond; Ger., Swed., Dan. and Nor. rond)

round. It is possible that this See also:

IDEA (Gr. Ibia, connected with i&eiv, to see; cf. Lat. species from specere, to look at)

idea was partly derived from the great Roman halls of the thermae (See also:

BATHS

baths), where the vault is brought forward on columns; but It was an improvement to leave a passage behind. The elliptical sections given to all the barrel vaults may have been the traditional method derived from See also:

ASSYRIA

Assyria, of which, however, no remains exist. In the See also:

ARTICLE (from Lat. articulus, a joint)

article VAULT there will be f ound areason Section in lines BC, DE, FG of plan. why these elliptical sections were adopted (see also below in the description of the great hall at See also:

CTESIPHON

Ctesiphon). In the palace of See also:

FIRUZABAD

Firuzabad, attributed by Fergusson to See also:

PEROZ (Peirozes, Priscus, fr. 33; Perozes, Procop. Pers. i. 3 and Agath. iv. 27; the modern form of the name is Feroz, Firuz, cf. FIRUZABAD)

Peroz (Firuz)' (A.D. 459-485), the plan (fig. 23) follows more closely the disposition of the Assyrian palaces, and we return again to the thick walls, which might incline us to give a later date to Serbistan, except that in the pendentives carrying the three great domes in the centre of the palace at Firuzabad they show greater knowledge in their construction. The angles of the square hall are vaulted, with a See also:

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

series of concentric See also:

ARCHES, COURT OF

arches, each See also:

RING (O.E. hring; a word common to Teutonic languages; and probably cognate with the Lat. circus, Gr. KtpKOS or KpLKOS, Skt'. chakra, wheel, circle, cf. also " harangue "); in art, a band of circular shape of varying sizes, made of any material and used f

ring as it rises being brought forward, the See also:

OBJECT

object being to See also:

SAVE, or SAVA (Ger. Sau; Hungarian Szdva; Lat. Savus)

save centreing, because each ring rested on the ring beneath it. The plan is a rectangular parallelogram with a frontage of 180 ft. and a See also:

DEPTH

depth of 333 ft., more than See also:

double, therefore, of the See also:

SIZE

size of Serbistan. An immense entrance hall in the centre of the See also:

main front is flanked on each side by two halls placed at right angles to it, so as to resist the thrust of the elliptical barrel vaults of the entrance hall. This hall leads to a series of three square halls, side by side, each surmounted by a dome carried on pendentives.

Beyond is an open court, the smaller rooms round all covered with barrel vaults. Here, as in Serbistan, the material employed is rubble masonry with thick joints of mortar, and fortunately portions of the stucco with which this Sassanian masonry was covered remain both externally and internally. As there are no windows of any sort, the wall See also:

SURFACE

surface of the exterior has been FIG.23.—PtanofthePalace decorated with semi - circular at- at Firuzabad. tached shafts and panelling between, which recall the See also:

PRIMITIVE

primitive decorations found in the See also:

early Chaldaean temples, except that arches are carried at the See also:

TOP (cf. Dan. top, Ger. Topf, also meaning pot)

top across the sunk panels. Internally an See also:

ATTEMPT (Lat. adtemptare, attentare, to try)

attempt has been made to copy the decoration of the See also:

Persian See also:

DOORWAY (corresponding to the Gr. Iran, Lat. porte)

doorway, which represents a kind of See also:

RENAISSANCE, THE

renaissance of the See also:

ancient See also:

style. But instead of the See also:

LINTEL (0. Fr. lintel, mod. linteau, from Late Lat. limitellum, limes, boundary, confused in sense with limen, threshold; the Latin name is supercilium, Ital. soprasogli, and Ger. Stutz)

lintel the arch has been introduced, and the See also:

ORNAMENT (Lat. ornare, to adorn)

ornament in stucco representing the Persian See also:

CAVETTO (Ital. diminutive of cave, hollow)

cavetto See also:

CORNICE (Fr. corniche, Ital. cornice)

cornice shows imperfect knowledge of the See also:

ORIGINAL

original and is clumsily worked. The niches also, in the main front, have been copied from Plan. the windows which flank the doorway in the Persian palace. But they are decorative only, and are too shallow to serve any purpose. If there has been some difficulty in determining the exact date of Firuzabad, that of the third great palace, at Ctesiphon, on the See also:

BORDERS, THE

borders of the See also:

TIGRIS (Old Persian Tigrd, Diklat of the cuneiform inscriptions, Hiddekel of the Old Testament, Diglath of the Targum, Digla of the Arabs)

Tigris, is known to have been built by See also:

CHOSROES

Chosroes I. in A.D. 550. Owing probably to its proximity to See also:

BAGDAD, or BAGHDAD

Bagdad, from which it lies about 25 M. distant, it is much better known than the other examples we have quoted; but while they are constructed in rubble masonry, Ctesiphon is built of See also:

BRICK (derived according to some etymologists from the Teutonic bricke, a disk or plate; but more authoritatively, through the French brique, originally a " broken piece," applied especially to bread, and so to clay, from the Teutonic brikan, to break)

brick, because we have now returned to the alluvial See also:

PLAIN (O. Fr. plain, from Lat. plenum)

plain where no See also:

stone could be procured. The only portion of the palace which still exists is that which was built in burnt brick, and this far exceeds in dimensions Serbistan and Firuzabad.

Its main front measured 312 ft.; its height was about 115 ft.; and its depth 175 ft. The plan is very See also:

SIMPLE

simple, and consisted of an See also:

AIWAN

aiwan or immense hall, 86 ft. in width and 163 ft. See also:

long, covered with an elliptical barrel vault, the thrust of which is counteracted by five long halls on each side, also covered with barrel vaults and probably used as guard See also:

chambers or stores. The great hall was open in the front, and constituted an immense portal, 83 ft. wide and 95 ft. to the See also:

CROWN

crown of the arch. The springing of the vault is 40 ft. from the ground, but up to about 26 ft. above the springing the walls are built in See also:

HORIZONTAL

horizontal courses projecting inwards as they rise, so that the actual width of the vaulted portion (fig. 24) has been diminished From Dieulafoy's L'Atrt See also:

ANTIQUE (Lat. antiquus, old)

Antique, by permission of See also:

MOREL

Morel et Cie. one-See also:

SIXTH

sixth and measures only about 71 ft. The crown of the vault is 9 ft. thick, the walls at the See also:

BASE

base being 23 ft. The bricks or tiles of which the vault is built are, like those at See also:

Thebes, laid See also:

FLAT (a modification of O. Eng. flet, an obsolete word of Teutonic origin, meaning the ground beneath the feet)

flat-See also:

wise, and there is also a similar inclination of the rings of brick-work, which are about 1o° out of the See also:

VERTICAL (from Lat. vertex, highest point)

vertical. This leads fo the conclusion that this immense vault was built without centreing, as the tenacious quality of the mortar would probably be sufficient to hold each See also:

TILE (0. Eng. tigel, Fr. tuile, connected with Lat. tegula)

tile in its position until the ring was See also:

COMPLETE

complete. In the building of the arch of the great portal other precautions were taken; See also:

bond timbers 23 f t. long and in five rows, one above the other, were carried through the wall from front to back. The lower portion of the arch (5 ft. in height) was built with bricks placed flat-wise; the upper portion (h ft. in height) in the usual way, viz. right angles to the See also:

FACE (from Lat. fades, derived either from facere, to make, or from a root fa-, meaning " appear "; cf. Gr. cbatvstv)

face. The See also:

REASON (Lat. ratio, through French raison)

reason for this See also:

CHANGE (derived through the Fr. from the Late Lat. cambium, cambiare, to barter; the ultimate derivation is probably from the root which appears in the Gr. «a urmu', to bend)

change was probably that the upper portions might be carved, as they have been, with a series of semi-circular cusps.

The decoration of the flanks of this great central portal is of the most bewildering description. There has evidently been a See also:

DESIRE

desire to give a monumental See also:

CHARACTER (Gr. xapareri7p, from xap&crew, to scratch)

character to the main front. With this idea in view they would seem to have attempted to reproduce Roman features, such as are found decorating the fronts of the various amphitheatres of the Empire. But the semi-circular shafts which See also:

FORM (Lat. forma)

form the decoration do not come one over the other on the severalstoreys, and there is a reckless employment of See also:

BLANK (from the Fr. blanc, white)

blank arcades distributed over the surface. There are remains of two other palaces at Imamzade and Tag See also:

IRAN

Iran, and in See also:

MOAB

Moab a small example, the Hall of Rabboth See also:

Ammon, supposed to have been erected for Chosroes II. during the subjugation of See also:

PALESTINE

Palestine, which is richly decorated with See also:

CARVING

carving, probably by Syrio-See also:

Greek artists, with a mixture of Greek, Jewish and Sassanian details. At Takibostan and See also:

BEHISTUN

Behistun (Bisutun), some 20o m. See also:

north-See also:

east of Ctesiphon, are some remarkable Sassanian capitals and panels (published in Flandin and Coste's Voyage en Perse, 1851, See also:

Paris). (R. P.

End of Article: SASSANIAN

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