right: the departure for the hunt (1), a sacrifice to the god Silvanus (2), the bear hunt (3), and the sacrifice to Diana (4). To the sides of the central inscription, the decoration of the attic shows two pairs of panels from the age of Marcus Aurelius framed by four statues of Dacian prisoners (A) from the age of Trajan (with hands and heads restored in the eighteenth century). The reliefs portray scenes of the emperor’s military campaigns against the Germanic tribes, which were definitively defeated in A.D. 175. In order: the presentation of a barbarian chief to the Romans (5) and prisoners to the emperor (6), the sovereign’s address to the troops (adlocutio) (7), and the performance of a sacrifice in the field (8).

South Façade Reliefs -Photoclose as to become embarrassing.

Yesterday's move by the Saudis was significant, analysts said, because it broke not simply with their policy of staying aloof from their superpower patron, the United States, but with the cultural traditions of reticence and indirectness that nurtured their policy.

While inhospitable coasts and Arabian desert that make up the peninsula have for centuries afforded protection from invasion by outsiders, they also help keep Saudi Arabia one of the world's most thinly populated countries. With an area comparable to the United States east of the Mississippi, Saudi Arabia has only 8 million people.

During this century, however, advances in military technology have undermined the kingdom's natural defenses, leaving the country to worry over its demographic weaknesses. Neighbors such as Iraq, Iran, Syria and Egypt have been