Is it not passing brave to be a King,
And ride in triumph through Persepolis?
The centuries have piled deep since the princes of the Earth came in homage to Parsagard, the city of Kurush, the Great King, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, called by the Hebrew Prophets the annointed of God. They are all gone, gone to the keeping of the dusty winds and the lizards, Persepolis, Ephesus, Ch'ang-an, the nameless cities of Turkestan and the Tarim, Thebes and Memphis, Balkh the mother of cities and great Babylon herself, the gate of the Gods; and Uruk where Gilgamesh was king is a pile of mud.