We may gain some idea of the wealth represented by this building when we learn that the king of Persia carried away the greater portion of the gold and silver decorations for his palace; Alexander the Great removed the silver tiling from the roof, and some seventy years later another conqueror found about $5,000,000 worth of gold and silver plating overlooked by his predecessors. While no former palace may have exceeded this in actual outlay of wealth, others may have been more artistic, for the Medes reached no special architectural skill.
After the Assyrian conquest, the Median nation soon became weak and degenerate. The people affected a life of luxury and idleness. The king lived amidst pomp and ostentatious seclusion; his courtiers and nobles gave themselves up to immoderate indulgences and amusements. While under Cyaxares and his father, Media had become a power in Asia, upon the death of this king, his son Astyages succeeded to the throne. He had grown up during the later years of ease and had no greater ambition than to rule the kingdom left him, no more animating impulses than to pass his days amid the ceremony and studied formality of the Median court. Astyages seems to have planned neither political activity nor personal diversion. He never joined in the hunts which were popular with his courtiers. Rather, he spent his leisure with such entertainment as his palace afforded and for his administration, depended wholly upon the reports of his officials. Such was Media when a Persian king, realizing the real situation, led an army against the country. In connection with our study of Persia we shall come again to the story of this conquest.
Polygamy was always allowed by the code of Median laws and morals, while women seem to have been treated with a certain chivalrous attention and deference. The civilization of the land was similar to that of Persia, which nation, it is supposed, sprang originally from the same stock. No greater difference existed between the two peoples than might be found between two modern Teutonic nations.
Education and learning was not valued in either country. Boys were taught to ride, to hunt, to shoot, and to become proficient in out of door sports rather than the arts of reading and writing.
The religion was akin to that of Persia, and the faith of the Persians was singularly pure. They like the Hebrews, worshipped one God. No degrading ceremonies and teachings attached to their forms of worship, as was the case in Egypt and Babylonia. The most ancient writings of the Zenda-Vesta appear to embody the faith of the Medes, and these will be considered in connection with the religion of Persia.
In conclusion, it may be said that the Medes were neither an inventive nor an ingenious people, nor did they develop a great civilization, culture, or literature. Indeed we are forced to the conclusion of Rawlinson: they scarcely contributed an idea or invention to the great store of knowledge transmitted by the past to the modern world.
RUINS OF PERSEPOLIS.
[1] Isa. 13, 17. The chapter is late, and, as Duhm says, the fact that the redactor ascribed it to Isaiah is instructive as regards the want of critical ability of the diaskenasts. Craig.