CHAPTER X Discoveries of Colonel Rawlinson-Sculptures and Inscriptions from BehistánOther Achæmenian Inscriptions-Of Cyrus at Murgháb-Of Dareius at Persepolis M. Elwend-On the Rock Tomb at Nakhsh-i-Rustám-On the Window at Persepolis-And on a Cylinder at the British MuseumOf Xerxes at M. Elwend-Persepolis-Ván-Vase of the Count de Caylus-Of Artaxerxes Ochus at Persepolis-Vase at S. Mark's, Venice -Interpretation of the Perso-Cuneiform Inscriptions Labours of Grotefend-Rask-St. Martin-Burnouf-Lassen-Rawlinson. HAVING now given a description of all the principal monuments of Assyria and Persia, we come to the more particular consideration of the labours of Colonel Rawlinson in the interpretation of the cuneiform inscriptions which have been found on a great number of the remains in those countries. The certain determination of the meaning of one branch of this curious writing, which we owe mainly to the indefatigable zeal of that officer and of Professor Lassen, is a contribution to the history of the East of the utmost importance, while it affords a confirmation to the general truthfulness of Herodotus of the most direct and satisfactory kind. In pursuing this portion of our subject, we shall have an opportunity of describing the rock tablets at Behistán, near Kirmansháh, which we have hitherto purposely omitted. We propose dividing this narrative into Two principal divisions. The First portion will be devoted to the History of the remarkable monument which was the earliest subject of Colonel Rawlinson's studies, with such an outline of what is known of it from ancient authors, or modern travellers, as may enable the reader to realise its nature in his own mind. In the Second portion, we shall give the translation of some of the Inscriptions on it, with a notice of the method whereby the Persian class of those Inscriptions has at length been satisfactorily deciphered. For a full account of both branches of inquiry, the world is indebted to the surprising perseverance of the same distinguished officer, and to the Royal Asiatic Society, at whose expense the results of his valuable discoveries have been published. From the papers which have been given to the world in the Journal of that Society, we shall extract as much as may be necessary for our purpose; referring, however, at the same time, to such other FF 2 works as may show what has been the previous opinion of the world upon these curious monuments. The Inscriptions, now admitted to record the personal history of Dareius, the son of Hystaspes, and of the Achæmenian family, are generally inscribed on the same stone in three forms of the Cuneiform character, which, for the sake of simplicity, are usually termed Assyrian or Babylonian, Median or Scythic, and Persian, representing, doubtless, three distinct languages, and apparently addressed to three different races of his subjects. The most extensive of these Trilingual monuments, which has been deciphered by Colonel Rawlinson, is found on the escarpment of a rock, at a place called by him Behistán (but on the maps more frequently Bisútún), at no great distance from Kirmansháh, on the frontiers of Persia, while shorter legends in the Persian class are met with at Pasargadæ, Persepolis, Hamadán, and Ván, upon a stone found at Suez, on a vase in the Treasury of S. Mark's at Venice, on the urn of the Count de Caylus, and on the legend of Tarki, a place north of the Caucasus. The situation which the Perso-Cuneiform inscriptions occupy in the Trilingual Tablets,-to the left where the series is horizontal, at the head where the succession is downward, and in the centre when that is the place of honour, and the lateral compartments are thrown out of the field of vision, seems to mark them as the original and vernacular records, of which the Median and Babylonian are the translations. At Persepolis, too, the head-quarters of the Achæmenian dynasty, an important document has been found, unaccompanied by the usual transcripts, which asserts triumphantly the domination of the Persian race, and represents the feudatory provinces of the empire as the victims of Persian prowess. It may be that the exclusiveness of this memorial was, in this instance, the result rather of policy than of accident. The position of Behistun," says Colonel Rawlinson, "has in ages been well known; on the high road from Babylonia to the eastward, it must have always attracted the attention of travellers. Its imposing aspect, too, an almost perpendicular rock, rising abruptly from the plain to the height of 1700 feet, and its aptitude for holy purposes, would not be neglected by a race who made all 66 "Their altars, the high places and the peaks It was known to the Greeks by the name of Βαγίστανον ὄρος, a name derived from the old Persian, Baghistán; and was said to have been sacred to Zeus, whose temple stood on the top of it, or, as Colonel Rawlinson has suggested, to Ormazd, the chief of the Bagas or Supreme Deity. The description of Diodorus from Ctesias resembles remarkably the actual existing state of Behistán. According to his account, Queen Semiramis marched a large army into Baghistán, and encamped near this mountain. On the plain below the hill she laid out a paradise or park, twelve stadia in circuit, and watered by a copious stream. The lower part of the precipitous rock she scarped, and caused her own image, and those of a hundred of her guards, to be sculptured on its face, with an inscription in Syrian characters.* "The precipitous rock," says Colonel Rawlinson, in Journ. of Roy. Geog. Soc., vol. ix., "seventeen stadia high, facing the garden, the large spring gushing out from the foot of the precipice, and watering the adjoining plain, and the smoothing of the lower part of the rock, all convey an accurate idea of the present appearance of Bisutún. But what can we say of the sculptures of Semiramis and the inscription in Syrian characters? There are only two tablets at Bisutún : the one nearly destroyed, which contains a Greek inscription, declaring it to be the work of Gotarzes, and the other a * Diod. ii. Persepolitan sculpture, which is adorned by nearly a thousand lines of Cuneiform character.” It does indeed seem an extraordinary stretch of the imagination which has converted the thirteen figures, which at present exist on the monument, into the portraits of Semiramis and her hundred guards; but it is possible, as Colonel Rawlinson has suggested, that the statue, and what Isidore of Charax calls the Pillar of Semiramis, did once exist upon some part of the rock, but has been destroyed, perhaps at the time of the execution of the latter Sassanian works near the same spot. It is fair to remember, in complaining of the exuberant imagination and careless observation of the ancients, that even modern and well-instructed travellers have made blunders hardly less wonderful, and constructed theories hardly less fanciful. In the same sculptures, Sir R. K. Porter, living in an age which deemed every new Eastern discovery to have some Scriptural allusion, beheld Tiglath Pileser and the ten captive tribes; combining with a wild imagination a singular ignorance of the Bible History, and assigning to the Tribe of Levi, whose representative he dressed in a kind of sacerdotal mitre, a place among the other captive tribes; while another and later traveller, Keppel, thinking one of the figures represented a female, changed the whole scene of the story, confounded Susa and Ecbatana, and converted the whole train into Esther and her attendants, entreating the King of Persia to have mercy on her countrymen. The discovery by Colonel Rawlinson of the true interpretation of the Cuneiform character has at length determined satisfactorily both the chief figure, and the captives who are approaching him from the front. The sculptured portion of the rock still remains very perfect, and represents a line of nine persons united by a cord tied round their necks, with their hands bound behind them, approaching another of more majestic stature, who treads on a prostrate body; his countenance expressing the idea of a great King or Conqueror. Of these captives the greater number appear to be middle-aged, but the third and last are old men. Three wear the flowing dress of him whom we have called the Monarch; the rest are clad in tight short tunics. Above floats the Royal Feroher, or attendant guardian angel. Behind the King stand two warriors, armed with the bow or spear. The execution of the figures is, perhaps, |