Eig. 43. “ I am Cyrus, the King; tho
Aclieemenian.” 132
Such is the simple epitaph
of sterling greatness, on
the ruined pilasters of Mur-
ghab, or Parsagadse, adjacent
to the tomb of Cy r u s :
built about b. c, 528.
The abraded condition
of the face (Fig. 43) enables
us merely to distinguish
that high-class type,
which the grandson of a
Mede (Astyages) and a Lydian
(Mandane, sister of
C roesus) , and the son of a
Persian, would naturally
present.
Singularly enough, the
effigy wears an jEgyptian
(Kneph-Oeiris) head-dress;
which confirms L e tro n n e ’s
argument of the very intimate
relations between Persia
and Egypt, before the
conquest by Cambyses.134
“ I am Darius7(Fig. 44) the great
King, the King of Kings, the King
of Persia, the King of (the dependent)
provinces, the son of Hys-
taspes, the 'grandson of Arsames,
the Achgemenian.” 135
W e s e e D a r i u s i n th e
a t t i tu d e o f u t t e r i n g t h a t
n o b le a d d r e s s , w h ic h s ta n d s
in s c r ib e d o n t h e v a s t c u n
e if o rm Tablet of Behistim,
c u t a b o u t 4 8 2 b . c.
“ Xerxes, the great King, the
King of Kings, the son of King
Darius, the Achsemenian.”.B7
Bas-Re lief of CyrusA®
Fiq. 44. F ig . 45.
B a s -R e lie f o f
D a r itts . 136
B a s -R e lie f o f
X e rx e s . 138
W e are uncertain whether the effigy (Fig. 45) he not that of his
son, A r t a x e r x e s : hut, ethnologic ally, the point is immaterial; for
the Persic type of the line of Achsemenes is rigorously preserved in
these sculptures of Persepolis.
“ This is the face (Fig. 46) of the (Mazdsean) servant of Ormuzd, of the god Sapor,
king of the kings of the Iranians and of the non-Iranians, of the race of the gods; son
of the (Mazdsean) servant of Ormuzd Ardeshir, king of the kings of Iran, of the race of
the gods; grandson of the god Babek, king.” 138
Fig. 46.
This Orreek version of the trilinguar inscription carved upon S h a -
poor’s horse at Nakshi-Redjeb, near Persepolis, is the more precious,
because it served to G r o t e f e n d , 1802, the same purpose that the tri-
glyphic Rosetta Stone answered to Young, in 1816. The latter
became the finger-post to C h aMpo llion l e J e u n e ’s deciphering of
all Egyptian hieroglyphics; just as the former to R aw l in so n ’s of all
cuneiform writings.
Our heads, however, are taken from the bas-relief of the same
king S hapoor, Sapor, at Xakshi-Roustam: where a Roman suppliant,
no less a personage than the captive emperor V a l e r ia n , kneels in vain
hope of exciting Persian humanity. The scene refers to events of
about a . d . 260 ; when, under the Sassanian dynasty, art had wofully
declined. The contrast, notwithstanding, between the Persian and
the Roman, is here preserved; and- still more effectively in another
tableau141 at Chapour.
Among the prisoners of D a r iu s at Behistun, the nations carved on
his rock-hewn sepulchre at Persepolis, and the troops supporting the
throne of X e r x e s , may be seen many varieties of the Median, Persian,
and Chaldsean races; although, in the latter instances, the absence
of names prevents identification: but this son of the desert,
(Fig. 47) of the age of S apor,142 affords a variant, with some Arabian
lineaments, that we are inclined to refer to Belooehistin, or the
Indian side of the Persian Gulf.
Still nearer to the Indus do we assign the first of two effigies (Figs.
48, 49) painted in Egypt about 1800 years previously. The second