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tranquillity, until the fourth persecution so called. In Asia Minor, they were violently assailed, about the year 160, by the heathen populace; and the Christian apologist Justin Martyr, and the bishop of Smyrna, Polycarp, were put to death. About the year 177, Marcus Aurelius treated the new congregations in Gaul, at Vienne and Lyons, with great severity, and many Christians suffered martyrdom (fourth persecution). About the end of the second century, a strong disposition was manifested to unite the congregations, which had been hitherto independent of one another, into one church. The spiritual teachers, too, growing bolder with the increase of their distinctions and privileges, showed a disposition to grasp more authority, and often came into collision with the civil magistrates; and the Christians, having become numerous and powerful, openly derided the pagan worship, now sinking into decline. These circumstances led to wild outbreaks of the heathen populace, bent on revenging the insults offered to their gods (about 192), and a dreadful slaughter ensued. The emperor Septimius Severus, moreover, in 202, forbade the accession of new converts to the Jewish and Christian religions, and this decree was followed by still severer oppressions of the Christians. Dreadful tortures were employed by the Roman magistrates, at that time, in order to compel the Christians, of every age and sex, to deny their religion. Many yielded to the storm, with the intention of returning to Christianity in more peaceful times; yet not a few preferred death to apostasy, and gained the martyr's crown, and the admiration of Christian posterity. (See Martyrs, and Saints.) After this fifth persecution, the Christians enjoyed toleration and peace from 211, under Caracalla, Macrinus and Heliogabalus, and, under Alexander Severus, even privileges and distinction. The restraints imposed upon them by the emperor Maximian (235) received the name of the sixth persecution, although, properly speaking, only Christian teachers and clergymen were oppressed by this emperor; but the oppressions which many of the congregations underwent were inflicted without his command. Private hatred, in fact, often led to outrages against the Christians, and excited the populace to assail them. This happened at Alexandria, in the latter years of the reign of the emperor Philip the Arabian, who was, personally, well-affected towards them. But his successor, Decius, began his reign (249) with a perse

cution of the Christians (the seventh) throughout his kingdom. The universality of this persecution, and the perseverance and cruelty with which it was pursued, made it plain that the emperor's purpose was to extirpate them entirely, and induced many to fall from their faith. Fortunately, however, from the rapid changes in the government at this period, the persecuting policy was not very steadily followed. Valerian, in 257, put to death few but the clergy (eighth persecution); and the execution of the edict of Aurelian against the Christians (274, the ninth persecution, as it was called) was prevented by his violent death. A severe persecution (the tenth) took place under the emperor Diocletian, at the instigation o his ministers, Galerius and other enemies of the Christians, in 303. Throughout the Roman empire, their churches were destroyed, their sacred books collected and burned, and all imaginable means of inhuman violence employed to induce them to renounce their faith. As they were accused, moreover, of a rebellious spirit, and of kindling a conflagration in the royal palace at Nicomedia, thousands suffered martyrdom. Constantius Chlorus, a sovereign favorable to them, was unable to protect them entirely in his Gallic and British provinces; and in Greece, Illyria, Italy and Spain, Galerius, Maximinus and Licinius pursued them with imprisonments and executions, principally directed against the clergy, till 310. These were the last oppressions of the Christians under the Roman government. Constantine the Great (312 and 313) restored to the Christians full liberty, and the use of their churches and goods; and his conversion to Christianity made it the established religion in the Roman empire. This religion afterwards experienced oppression without the limits of the Roman empire; for instance, in 343 and 414 in Persia, and from 437, with little interruption, till the commencement of the sixth century, in the African kingdom of the Vandals; but the efforts of some Roman emperors favorable to heathenism, as Julian and Eugenius, for the restoration of the pagan worship in the Roman empire, were more prejudicial to themselves than to the Christians. After the establishment of islamism, the caliphs in Asia and Africa labored, with success, for the extirpation of Christianity, and spared only particular schismatic sects, which still enjoy, under the protection of the Mohammedans, the free exercise of their religion. Christians themselves, after it had become a crime to

be a heretic (see Heretic, and Inquisition), persecuted one another most bitterly; and the outrages which the early Christians had suffered from the heathens were tolerable, compared to the religious wars which they waged against each other in the middle ages, and to the sufferings inflicted on heretics, so called, by the inquisition, and by fanatical princes, even to the eighteenth century. But, as heathen Rome could not stop the spread of Christianity, so Protestantism, in later times, rooted itself the more firmly in proportion to the tempests which assailed it; for the direct tendency of persecution is to awaken a spirit of heroic resistance, and a zeal to make sacrifices for the cause of truth.

PERSEPHONE. (See Proserpine.) PERSEPOLIS. In a northern direction from the Persian capital of Shiraz are the ruins of ancient structures of different ages, among which are the only remains of ancient Persian architecture, belonging to the most flourishing period of that powerful nation. There are other architectural remains, with inscriptions, belenging to the time of the modern Persian empire, which originated in the third century of the Christian era, out of the Parthian empire. (See Parthians.) These latter remains lie about four or five miles from the ruins of Persepolis proper, and consist partly of works of sculpture, partly of inscriptions in the ancient Pehlvi language, cut in the rocks. They are called, by the Arabs, Nakshi Rustam (the image of Rustam) because they were regarded as intended to commemorate the deeds of this ancient hero; but, according to De Sacy's satisfactory explanation, they relate to the kings of the modern Persian race (the Sassanides). (See Persia.) Many inscriptions in Arabic, the later Persian, and other languages, were put here in the century after Mohammed. The ancient Persian monuments differ essentially from all the rest of the ruins. These are the ruins of the proper palace of Persepolis, called, by the Arabs, Chilminar, i. e. the forty (used indefinitely to signify many) columns, with two tombs near it; four tombs towards the north-east, near Nakshi Rustam, called the tombs of the kings, with the ruins of some other ancient buildings; and lastly many remains and columns of unfinished tombs between Chilminar and Nakshi Rustam. All these remains are represented in Chardin's Travels through Persia, and in Niebuhr's Travels to Arabia. The chief monument is Chilminar, undoubtedly the remains of a great and magnificent structure, encir

cled in the rear by rocky mountains, which open in the form of a crescent, and consisting of three divisions, one above the other, and built entirely of the most beautiful gray marble, the immense block: of which are put together with admirable art, without mortar. Marble stairs, so wide and easy of ascent, that ten horsemen can ride up them abreast, lead from the lower divisions to the higher. At the entrance of the portico, to which the steps belonging to the first division lead, fabulous animals are seen, wrought in the still remaining pilasters, as if to guard the palace. Similar steps lead to the second division, to a colonnade, several columns of which still exist, fifty feet high, and of such a circumference that three men can hardly clasp them. This colonnade leads to several detached buildings, of which the largest stands in the same division; the others, farther back, form the third division. These houses contain a number of chambers, of different sizes, and seem to have been real dwellings. They are ornamented with a number of images representing processions, people of all ranks, combats of fabulous animals with one another and with men. In the wall of the rock against which the building stands, are two large tombs. At a considerable height from the ground, a facade is hewn in the rock itself, behind which is a chamber that can be entered only by passage broken through, as no regular entrance has been found. Beneath, the rock is cut perpendicularly, in order to make the monument entirely inaccessible. best representation of the ruins is to be found in Niebuhr. The result of the most recent investigations, compared with the information contained in the cient writers, is, that the monuments of Persepolis are actually of Persian origin, and the tombs, those of Persian kings, belonging to the buildings called Chilminar, with which they are connected by subterranean passages. Though the buildings belong to Persian antiquities, yet it is probable that the Persians themselves did not construct them, but caused them to be erected by others; and their truly Asiatic character affords foundation for the supposition that they were built in imitation of the architecture of the Medes (to whom the Persians were indebted, in general, for their civilization), under the direction of the priests. The ruins of Persepolis proper are most probably not all of the same age, but the work of several Persian kings. Persepolis was not destined for a temple, for the Persians

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PERSEPOLIS-PERSEUS.

professing the religion of the Magians, had no temples; nor was it a palace of the kings, because, though it may have originated, as most of the capitals of Asia did, from the residence of the 'kings of the first conquerors, it soon ceased to be their actual abode. But the ideas of country, power and religion attached to it, made it the receptacle of the royal dead, and the sanctuary of the people. The various images represent the whole private life of the king, as it was strictly prescribed by the Magians. Immediately after their accession to the throne, the Persian kings proceeded to Persepolis to be invested with the garment of Cyrus, and, at certain times, visited this holy place to sacrifice on the summits of the mountains. After the death of a king, his apparel, utensils, and even his treasures, were preserved here, as the tomb of the king was considered a fit dwelling to be provided with all necessaries. For this reason, not only numerous guards protected the palace, but also the most important officers of the deceased king, perhaps even his wives, were obliged to remain near the tomb. Alexander, after overcoming Darius, gratified his revenge by the destruction of Persepolis. (See Alexander.) The mechanical execution of these monuments is very perfect, and no country on earth, Egypt only, perhaps, excepted, can show such masonry as these ruins. The character of this architecture, however, is totally opposite to that of the Egyptian monuments. Surprising assiduity and minuteness of execution are shown in the ornamental work. The inscriptions on these ruins are in a threefold character-comprised under the general name of arrow-headed character, and also in three different languages. The oldest character, undoubtedly, consisting of letters, is, according to the unanimous opinion of critics, in the Zend language, a sacred idiom of the Magians: the characters of the second kind seem to belong to the Pehlvi language; and the third are, perhaps, Assyrian or Babylonian. Grotefend and Lichtenstein have been particufarly successful in the explanation of these characters. Drawings, still more exact than those of captain Keppel, and accounts of newly discovered bass-reliefs in Persepolis, have been given by Jam. Edw. Alexander, in his Travels from India to England, through Persia, Asia Minor, &c., 1825-1826 (London, 1827, 4to.)

PERSEUS; Son of Danaë (q. v.) and Jupiter. Polydectes, king of Seriphos, an island in the Archipelago, who had re

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ceived him with his mother, soon wished
to remove from his court the young and
daring hero. Under pretence, therefore,
of suing for the daughter of Enomaus,
he requested from his friends presents of
rarities to make his wedding feast more
splendid. Perseus promised him the
head of the Gorgon (Medusa). Beyond
the ocean, just on the borders of eternal
night, dwelt the formidable Gorgon race,
with serpent-locks and serpent-girdles,
of whom Medusa alone was mortal.
Conducted by Mercury and Minerva,
he first went to the three Graiæ, on the
western coast of the ocean; who had
but one eye and one tooth, in common.
Perseus got possession of these, and
promised to restore them on condition
that they would bring him to the nymphs,
who kept the instruments which he
needed in this enterprise-the talaria, or
winged shoes, the bag, and the helmet of
Pluto, which made its wearer invisible.
They agreed to the condition, and Per-
seus obtained from the nymphs what he
desired. Other accounts say, that he was
furnished by Mercury and Vulcan. Led
by Mercury and Minerva, he reached the
slumbering Gorgons. With his face avert-
ed, he approached the monsters, whose
look transformed the spectator into stone,
saw the head of Medusa by reflection in
his brazen shield, and cut it off. From
the drops of blood sprang Pegasus and
Chrysaor. With the head in his bag, he
escaped from the pursuing sisters, by
means of the helmet of Pluto. On the
winged sandals of Mercury, he now hov-
ered over various regions, seeking adven-
tures. He went to king Atlas, who had
been informed by an oracle, that a son of
Jupiter would strip his garden of the
golden apples which it bore; and there-
fore refused to Perseus the rites of hospi-
tality, who, presenting to his eyes the
Gorgon's head, changed him into a rock,
which was doomed to support the heav-
ens. He then delivered Andromeda. (q. v.)
By her he became the father of Perses,
whom he left in the care of his grand-
father Cepheus, and returned with An-
dromeda to Seriphos. Here he found his
mother at the altar of Minerva, to which
she had fled with his foster-father Dictys,
to escape the violence of Polydectes. He
transformed the latter, with all his associ-
ates, into stone; and, having placed Dictys
upon the throne of Seriphos, he returned
to Mercury the talaria, the bag and the
helmet, and gave to Minerva the Gorgon's
head, which she fixed in the centre of her
shield, or, according to some, on her

breastplate. Perseus then went to Argos, with Danae and Andromeda, to visit his grandfather Acrisius. To avoid the predictions of an oracle, Acrisius had fled to Thessaly; but he could not escape his destiny; for Perseus followed him there, and killed him accidentally with the discus, of which he was the inventor. In consequence of this event, he refused to ascend the throne of Argos, which had thus fallen to him, and exchanged it for Tirynthus, the kingdom of Megapenthes. Here he founded Mycena. Besides Perses, the founder of the Persian nation, Andromeda also became the mother of Alcæus, Sthenelus, Eleus, Mestor, Electryon, and a daughter named Gorgophone. Áfter his death, Perseus was worshipped as a hero, and placed among the stars. The fable of Perseus has been, by some writers, derived from Persia, and been interpreted as typical of the introduction of agriculture from Upper Asia or Persia into Greece. He is the Bersin of the Shahnameh.

PERSIA (Iran, Chahistan); a country of Asia, between 25° and 40° N. lat., and 44° and 64° E. lon.; bounded N. by Russia, the Caspian sea and Independent Tartary, W. by Turkey, S. by the Persian gulf, and E. by Beloochistan and Afghanistan; comprising about 390,000 square miles, with a population of about 6,500,000. The centre of Persia is an elevated plain, containing several deserts of sand. The northern provinces, in which rises the chain of the Ararat, and the western parts of the country, are mountainous. To the east of the Tigris, and nearly parallel with it, is a granitic ridge, called by the ancients Zagros; and also parallel with the same is the Orontes (now Elwind), which separates into two branches, one of which, to the west of the Caspian sea, is connected with the Elbour, or the Caspian chain, a prolongation of the Taurus. The country on the Caspian is lower than the coasts on the ocean, and is surrounded by a semicircular barrier of mountains, which are a continuation of the Taurus and Caucasus, and present a much steeper descent towards the Caspian than on the land side. In the southern part of Persia, the elevation of the country is more gradual than in the north and west; and along the Persian gulf, there is a narrow strip of low land, which is uninhabitable in summer on account of the heat. As we recede from the sea, and approach the mountains, the climate becomes cooler. The elevated northern and western regions are temperate, and, in winter, cold. Earthquakes are not uncommon: in 1824, a

shock, which continued six days and six nights, destroyed the city of Shiraz (50,000 inhabitants) and Kazroun; mountains disappeared without leaving a trace behind. It is remarkable that so extensive a country has no considerable river, although it contains many high mountains. There are a few small rivers, that lose themselves in the sand, or are consumed by canals, which serve the purpose of irriga- ! tion. Persia, however, contains several lakes, among which are that of Erivan and Bakteghian or Salt lake. All the water is impregnated with salt; the lakes are all saline, and wherever water has stood in winter, the soil is found to have become salt. The extensive plains are, many of them, covered with water in winter, and in summer present a bare, hot surface, coated with saline matter. The mountains are naked; the hills dry and barren. On account of the scarcity of water, but a small portion of the plains is cultivated; the remainder is either naked or merely bears some succulent plants, which soon wither. There are, however, some fertile tracts. The country supplies excellent horses and asses, dromedaries, cattle, broad-tailed sheep, silk, grain, rice, pulse, melons, sesame, saffron, madder, hemp, flax, tobacco, poppies, liquorice, sugarcane, date-palms, cassia, mastic, rich wines, cotton, manna, gum tragacanth, senna, galbanum, assafoetida, rhubarb, all the fruits of the temperate zone, and fine tropical fruits, gall-nuts, copper, iron, lead, saltpetre, sulphur, salt, &c. The inhabitants are partly Tadshiks, consisting of a mixed race of Parsee, Arabic, &c., origin, Parsees, or fire-worshippers and Armenians; and partly nomads, among whom_the Curds are the principal nation. The Tadshiks (modern Persians) are superior to the Ottomans in civilization, and manifest a strong passion for the arts and sciences. They are Mohammedans, of the sect of Ali, or Shiites. A peculiar Mohammedan sect, the Sabians (q. v.), worship the cross, have a sort of baptism, and call themselves disciples of St. John. The Ishmaelites (q. v.) also form a distinct sect. The Parsees are Guebers (q. v.), of the philosophical sect of Sophis. (See Sophis.) Jews and Christians are tolerated in Persia. The Persians are distinguished for their skill in dyeing, and in silk and woollen manufactures. They manufacture shagreen, morocco, work in gold and silver to great perfection, and make excellent sword blades, and a great number of articles of copper ware. In agriculture they make great use of artificial irrigation,

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which is, at present, a monopoly of the government. The commerce, which is considerable, is chiefly carried on by caravans to India, Turkey and Arabia. The navigation of the Persian gulf is mostly in the hands of foreigners. The navigation of the Caspian sea is open to the Russians and Persians; but the latter, by the terms of the treaty of 1828, are excluded from maintaining ships of war in its waters. Arts and sciences are held in esteem, but are by no means in a flourishing condition. The study of the Koran, divination, astrology, a sort of ethics, medicine and poetry, are the chief departments of education. The style of architecture is simple, sculpture almost unknown, the music detestable. The government is an absolute despotism; at the head of it is the shah, with unlimited power. Jaubert estimated his income at $10,000,000. The twelve provinces into which the kingdom is divided are governed by khans. The nomadic tribes enjoy a sort of independence under their chiefs, and form the main body of the military force. Abbas Mirza, the heir apparent, has endeavored to form troops with the European discipline. Persia has no naval force, owing partly to a want of ship timber. The largest town is Ispahan (q. v.), formerly one of the principal cities of Asia, now much reduced. The capital is Teheran (50,000 inhabitants in winter; 10,000 in summer.)

History. The history of Persia first emerges from the obscurity of antiquity with Cyrus. The dynasty of the Mahabads is mentioned by Oriental writers as the first. It was followed by that of the Pishdadians (coeval with our Assyrian emI pire). After the Pishdadians, the Kajanides ruled for 718 years. Gustasp (Hystaspes), the Median Cyaxares, or his contemporary, under whom Zerdusht (Zoroaster) lived, belongs to the uncertain time before Cyrus. With Cyrus (q. v.), 559 529 B. Č., began the period of Persian power in the West. By uniting the Persians and Medes under his sceptre, he made them the ruling nation in Western Asia; he conquered Croesus, took Babylon, and reduced Asia Minor. He was succeeded by his son Cambyses (529 522), who conquered Tyre, Cyprus and Egypt. After him, a Magian ruled for a short time, who gave himself out as Smerdis, brother of Cambyses. He was dethroned, and Darius Hystaspes (q. v.) obtained the crown by lot or the choice of his colleagues (521—487 B. C.). He reduced the revolted kingdom of Babylon,

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and subdued Thrace, Macedonia, (512 B. C.), and a small part of India; but his attempt to conquer the Scythians beyond the Danube was unsuccessful. He reduced the Greek colonies in Asia Minor, which had attempted to shake off the Persian yoke (501 B. C.); but he was unfortunate in his war against the European Greeks, and Egypt revolted from him. His son Xerxes (487 to 467 B. C.) effected the submission of Egypt, but was defeated by the Greeks on the field of Marathon and at Salamis, and was obliged to defend himself against their attacks in a disastrous war. Under Artaxerxes Longimanus, the Ahasuerus of the Scriptures (until 425 B. C.), the first symptoms of decline became visible. Egypt again revolted, and was again conquered, after a bloody struggle. The Greek war terminated disadvantageously, in 449 B. C. (See Cimon.) Megabyzus excited a dangerous insurrection. The weak king was governed by his mother and wife. The next changes of government were rapid and violent. Xerxes II, his only legitimate son, was murdered, after a reign of fortyfive days, by his natural brother Sogdianus, who suffered the same fate, six months afterwards, by the hands of another illegitimate son of Artaxerxes,Ochus, who assumed the name of Darius II, and reigned until 404 B. C., under the influence of his wife Parysatis. The revolts of his satraps hastened the decline of the empire, and the Persians were obliged to acknowledge independent kings in Egypt. But the internal troubles in Greece, of which the Persians artfully took advantage, saved them, for a time, from a united attack by the Greeks. Artaxerxes II, Memnon, or Mnemon (until 361 B. C.), was entirely under the influence of his mother, Parysatis. His brother Cyrus, supported by 10,000 Greeks under Xenophon (q. v.), attempted to dethrone him (400 B. C.), but was defeated and killed. Domestic dissensions obliged the Lacedæmonians to abandon their advantages in Asia Minor, and to conclude the disadvantageous peace of Antalcidas (387 B. C.). Artaxerxes III, Ochus (untit 338 B. C.), son of Mnemon, secured his throne by putting to death his numerous brothers. He recovered Egypt (350 B. C.); but his eunuch, Bagoas, poisoned him on account of his cruelty, successively murdered all his sons, and gave the crown to Darius Codomannus (q. v.), a prince of the blood, who was conquered by Alexander in three decisive actions, on the Granicus, at Issus and Gaugamela, and

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