Persepolis
Darius I built the greatest palace at Persepolis on the western side of platform. This palace was called the "Apadana". The King of Kings used it for official audiences. The work began in 518 BC, and his son, Xerxes I, completed it 30 years later. The palace had a grand hall in the shape of a square, each side long with seventy-two columns, thirteen of which still stand on the enormous platform. Each column is high with a square Taurus (bull) and plinth. The columns carried the weight of the vast and heavy ceiling. The tops of the columns were made from animal sculptures such as two-headed lions, eagles, human beings and cows (cows were symbols of fertility and abundance in ancient Iran). The columns were joined to each other with the help of oak and cedar beams, which were brought from Lebanon. The walls were covered with a layer of mud and stucco to a depth of 5 cm, which was used for bonding, and then covered with the greenish stucco which is found throughout the palaces.
Pompey
Syria had once been the heart of the vast Seleucid Empire, which had become increasingly unstable after the death of Antiochus IV in 164 BC. Continuous civil wars made central authority weak. By 163 BC, the Maccabean Revolt established the independence of Judea. The Parthians of Persia gained control of the Iranian Plateau. In 139 BC, they defeated the Seleucid king Demetrius II, and took Babylon from the Seleucids. The following year they captured the king. His brother Antiochus VII gained the support of the Maccabees, regained the submission of the once vassal kingdoms of Cappadocia and Armenia, drove back the Parthians and retook Mesopotamia, Babylon, and Media. However, he was killed in battle and the Seleucids lost all of these gains. By 100 BC, the Seleucid Empire was reduced to a few cities in western Syria. It was still riddled with king makers and civil wars. It survived only because none of its neighbours took it over. In 83 BC Tigranes the Great of Armenia invaded Syria, invited by a faction in one of the civil wars, and virtually ended Seleucid rule. When Lucius Licinius Lucullus defeated Tigranes in the Third Mithridatic War in 69 BC, a rump Seleucid kingdom was restored. However, the civil war continued.