Is it not passing brave to be a king,
And ride in triumph through Persepolis?

These lines come from Christopher Marlowe’s early tragedy "Tamburlaine the Great," in which the Scythian conqueror Tamburlaine exults in the spectacle and psychology of empire. Persepolis (a storied Persian capital associated with Achaemenid grandeur) functions as a shorthand for the riches, antiquity, and prestige of the East that Tamburlaine seeks to master. The question is rhetorical: it is spoken in a mood of triumph, emphasizing the intoxicating public pageantry of kingship—being seen, acclaimed, and feared—rather than the burdens of rule. The moment typifies Marlowe’s fascination with overreaching ambition and the theatricality of power.

The speaker equates sovereignty with spectacle: to be a king is “passing brave” not because of justice or governance, but because of the exhilaration of conquest made visible in a triumphal ride. The line captures Marlowe’s recurring theme of boundless aspiration—power as an aesthetic and emotional experience. Persepolis, emblematic of Persian imperial magnificence, heightens the sense that Tamburlaine’s ambition is not merely territorial but symbolic: he wants to possess the world’s most storied centers of civilization. At the same time, the rhetorical flourish hints at the moral ambiguity of such glory, inviting audiences to admire the grandeur while sensing the violence and hubris that underwrite it.