300 cecily j. hilsdale
Persepolis’s Apadana reliefs picture the tributary and fiscal relations between
the center of the Persian Empire and its peripheries, with tribute bearers from
every corner of the empire participating in the procession of bounty to the great
ruler. Darius’s policies of territorial expansion and consolidation were marked by
substantial campaigns in Thrace, the Aegean, “Indian” territories, and Egypt, and
under his rule the ideologies of Persian sovereignty became formalized. The
founding of Persepolis was central to this agenda in that it testified to Darius’s
ability to mobilize resources—labor, raw materials, and visual idioms—from
throughout his vast Mediterranean empire.
In 490 bce following in the wake of the Persian defeat at Marathon, Darius’s forces
invaded mainland Greece and sacked, looted, and burned the Athenian Acropolis and
its twin temples dedicated to Athena, including the first Parthenon then still under
construction. For the next 30 years, the Acropolis lay in ruin as a visible reminder of
the desecration —an especially poignant reminder considering that ritual activity,
including the Panathenaia, the festival staged every four years in honor of Athena,
continued at the site (Kousser, 2009). With the defeat of the Persians and the transfer
of the treasury of the Delian League to Athens, construction of the new Parthenon
began on the exact spot of its predecessor that had been destroyed by the Persians.
The new structure utilized the very same materials, which were immaculately woven
into the new monument, but was larger in size and included an elaborate visual pro-
gram of pediment and metope sculptures as well as an inner ionic frieze running the
entire length of the building (Figure 19.3). Given this history, the (re)construction of
the Parthenon and its celebrated decorative program should be seen in light of the
Persian wars and in relation to the reliefs at Persepolis.
Figure 19.3 Detail of frieze and metopes of the Parthenon, Acropolis, Athens. Photograph
Cecily Hilsdale.