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Imbossed work, representing 
the king Xerxes upon the throne 
(Roger-Miles). 
THE PERSIAN ORNAMENT. 
mnion and a continual state of unrest were the conditions permanent in the
south-western part of Asia in olden times. The supremacy was ever changing
and never fixed, and, as a consequence, the peoples who inhabited it were
not in a position to develop any independent art distinct from each other.
The conquerors or the conquered were always naturally influenced by the more
advanced section of those with whom they were brought into contact. For these
reasons, it is clear that Persian ornament can show but very little characteristic
peculiarities, Egyptian, Assyrian, and Hellenic influences being all plainly
d~~rna~ 
 The beautiful buildings of the Persian kings were erected by artists who
were made prisoners in the wars in Babylonia, Egypt, and in the Grecian colonies
in Asia Minor. 
 The first beginnings in Persian art were very probably made by the Medes,
a people who conquered the kingdom of the Elomites with