In the third year of his reign, he made a feast unto all his princes and his servants; the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and princes of the provinces, being before him:
Made a feast unto all his princes and his servants. Banquets on so grand a scale, and extending over so great a period, have not been unfrequently provided by the luxurious monarchs of Eastern countries, both in ancient (especially in Assyria and Babylon, Daniel 5:1; 'Herodotus,' 9:, 110; 'Dis. Sic.,' 2:, 20: cf. Botta's 'Monuments,' plates 51 to 67; 107 to 114; 'Nineveh and its Remains,' 2:, p. 244) and modern times. The early portion of this festive season, however, seems to have been dedicated to amusement, particularly an exhibition of the magnificence and treasures of the court, and it was closed by a special feast of seven days' continuance, given to all classes of the inhabitants, within the gardens of the royal palace.
The ancient palace of Susa has been recently disinterred from an incumbent mass of earth and ruins; and in that palace, which is, beyond all doubt, the actual edifice referred to in this passage, there is a great hall of marble pillars. 'The position of the great colonnade corresponds with the account hero given. It stands on an elevation in the center of the mound, the remainder of which we may well imagine to have been, occupied, after the Persian fashion, with a garden and fountains. Thus the colonade would represent the "court of the garden the king's palace," with its pillars of marble." I am even inclined to believe the expression, "Shushan the place," applies especially to this portion of the existing ruins, in contradistinction to the citadel and the city of Shusban' (Loftus, 'Chalrises and Susiana'). Or it might be the quadrangle denominated by Mr. Ferguson the 'temple court,' at Khorsabad.