Persia from the Earliest Period to the Arab

HISTORY OF PERSIA. 193
chief personage appears nearly at the top of the sculpture,
entering the field in state, under the shade of an
umbrella, and mounted on a richly caparisoned horse.
Below is a similar figure, but this time moving at full
speed. Towards the top of the relief is raised a
scaffold, on which rows of musicians are seated, playing
on various instruments, all curious specimens of
the art of the period. In another compartment we
see the carrying off of the spoil, and elephants in
pursuit of the deer. This bas-relief is finished in only
a few places, parts are merely begun, but what has
been completed, both in this, and on the opposite side,
is executed in a masterly style.
It has been supposed
that the group of the three figures above the equestrian
warrior, commemorates the double gift by the
emperor Mauricius to the Persian king of his bride and
his crown. On this supposition, Khosru is standing in
his robes of inauguration between the imperial pair,
the princess on the one side holding a diadem, and the
emperor on the other presenting the new king with
the crown, to which the arms of the Romans had restored
him. At the same time it must be remembered
that it is purely an Oriental tradition which gives Khosru
a Greek wife, the daughter of his benefactor, Mauricius,
and that the story is scarcely probable.
The second arch is smaller in its dimensions than
the former, being only nine feet wide by
twelve in
depth. The figures on each side were originally
rudely and carelessly sculptured,
and are now still less
visible owing to the wilful mutilation they have sus-
tained. The monument, however,
is of value from
the inscriptions still remaining on it, which prove
o