586

STANDARD INSCRIPTION.

APP. BOOK III.

votaries, by the grace of his godship (i. e. Merodach), I strengthened. With that which my father had made I joined it. I made the way of Nana, the protectress of her votaries. The great gates of the Ingur-Bel and the Nimiti-Belthe reservoir of Babylon, at the time of the flood (lit. of fulness), inundated them. These gates I raised. Against the waters their foundations with brick and mortar I built. [Here follows a description of the gates, with various architectural details, and an account of the decorations, hangings, &c.] For the delight of mankind I filled the reservoir. Behold! besides the Ingur-Bel, the impregnable fortification of Babylon, I constructed inside Babylon on the eastern side of the river a fortification such as no king had ever made before me, viz. a long rampart, 4000 ammas square, as an extra defence. I excavated the ditch: with brick and mortar I bound its bed; a long rampart at its head (?) I strongly built. I adorned its gates. The folding-doors and the pillars I plated with copper. Against presumptuous enemies, who were hostile to the men of Babylon, great waters, like the waters of the ocean, I made use of abundantly. Their depths were like the depths of the vast ocean. I did not allow the waters to overflow, but the fulness of their floods I caused to flow on, restraining them with a brick embankment. . . . Thus I completely made strong the defences of Pabylon. May it last for ever!

[Here follows a similar account of works at Borsippa.]

"In Babylon-the city which is the delight of my eyes, and which I have glorified-when the waters were in flood, they inundated the foundations of the great palace called Taprati-nisi, or "the Wonder of Mankind;" (a palace) with many chambers and lofty towers; the high-place of Royalty; (situated) in the land of Babylon, and in the middle of Babylon; stretching from the Ingur-Bel to the bed of the Shebil, the eastern canal, (and) from the bank of the Sippara river to the water of the Yapur-Shapu; which Nabopolassar my father built with brick and raised up; when the reservoir of Babylon was full, the gates of this palace were flooded. I raised the mound of brick on which it was built, and made smooth its platform. I cut off the floods of the water, and the foundations (of the palace) I protected against the water with bricks and mortar; and I finished it completely. Long beams I set up to support it: with pillars and beams plated with copper and strengthened with iron i built up its gates. Silver and gold, and precious stones whose names were almost unknown [Here follow several unknown names of objects, treasures of the palace], I stored up inside, and placed there the treasure-house of my kingdom. Four years (?), the scat of my kingdom in the city . . . . which . . . . . did not rejoice (my) heart. In all my dominions I did not build a high place of power; the precious treasures of my kingdom I did not lay up. In Babylon, buildings for myself and the honour of my kingdom I did not lay out. In the worship of Merodach my lord, the joy of my heart (?), in Babylon, the city of his sovereignty and the seat of my empire, I did not sing his praises (?), and I did not furnish his altars (ie. with victims), nor did I clear out the canals. [Here follow further negative clauses.]

66

As a further defence in war, at the Ingur-Bel, the impregnable outer wall, the rampart of the Babylonians-with two strong lines of brick and mortar I made a strong fort, 400 ammas square, inside the Nimiti-Bel, the inner defence of the Babylonians. Masonry of brick within them (the lines) I constructed. With the palace of my father I connected it. In a happy month

ESSAY IV. BABYLONIAN RESEARCHES OF M. OPPERT.

587

and on an auspicious day its foundations I laid in the earth like *** I completely finished its top. In fifteen days I completed it, and made it the high place of my kingdom. [Here follows a description of the ornamentation of the palace.] A strong fort of brick and mortar in strength I constructed. Inside the brick fortification another great fortification of long stones, of the size of great mountains, I made. Like Shedim I raised up its head. And this building I raised for a wonder; for the defence of the people I constructed it."

NOTE B.

BABYLONIAN RESEARCHES OF M. OPPERT.

Since this Essay was in type I have enjoyed the advantage of examining three livraisons of Plates belonging to the magnificent work which will shortly be published by M. Oppert, on the subject of the French expedition into Mesopotamia. As these plates are unaccompanied by any letter-press it is impossible at present to be sure how far they are based upon accurate measurements or observations. In some respects the views taken coincide remarkably with those expressed in the foregoing Essay. This is especially the case as regards the ancient course of the Euphrates, and the position of the lesser palace (that of Neriglissar) upon the right bank of the stream. In other points M. Oppert differs from all former observers, and is not confirmed by the notes and recollections of recent visitants; as in his omission of the two long parallel embankments (FF in the plan, supra, page 571), which close in the chief ruins on the east; of the single embankment (H) towards the north; and of the mound (K) on the west, which interrupts what seems to be the ancient bed of the river; and, again, in the extent and position which he assigns to the curious heap called Homeira. Capt. Jones's surveys will decide whether these changes are in accordance with the real features of the locality; at present the judgment is necessarily held in suspense between rival observers, whose accounts of the ruins are in many respects so different. With regard to M. Oppert's restorations of the ancient city the most remarkable points have been already noticed in the foot-notes. He believes that he has found traces of the ancient walls in certain lines of Tels which exist on both sides of the Euphrates. If the positions of these mounds are accurately laid down on his map, which is fairly represented by the subjoined chart, there would appear to be some grounds for regarding the lesser circuit of 360 stades as really indicated by the remains in question, though, upon the showing of the map itself, the larger circuit is almost entirely unsupported. It is an additional objection to this circuit, as placed by M. Oppert, that it includes Borsippa, which the inscriptions, the native writer Berosus, and the classical geographers, all regard as a city quite distinct from Babylon. The inclusion of Cutha in the opposite corner of the square, marked (as M. Oppert supposes) by the ruins of Hymar, or Oheimir, is still more impossible; for Cutha was at least 15 miles from Hymar in a north-easterly direction, being marked, not by the Hymar group, but by the ruins at Ibrahim. In his restoration of the royal residence-which has t

VOL. II.

2 R

Chart of the Country round Babylon, with the limits of the ancient City, according to Oppert.

least the merit of boldness-M. Oppert appears to have discarded alike the
guidance of the inscriptions and that of the ancient writers. He takes no
notice of Nebuchadnezzar's "Great Reservoir," of his "Shebil," or "Eastern
Canal," nor of the "palace of his father," which adjoined his own;
he places
the lesser palace opposite, not to the greater one, as Ctesias did, but to the
hanging-gardens; and he regards the hanging-gardens as represented by the
mound of Amrám, though the latter has an area at least four times as great
as that ascribed by Diodorus to the former. He also fails to give in his restora-
tion at all a close representation of the present ruins, introducing main walls,
is that between the river and Babil, of which he does not profess to have
found a trace; placing the quay of Nabonidus above a mile higher up the
stream than the place where that monarch's bricks are found; and turning
into a
"middle wall" what clearly appears, by the traces of water-action out-
side it, to have been the embankment of a canal or reservoir. He also, in

ESSAY IV.

OF M. OPPERT.

589

assuming the outer triangular rampart to be a Babylonian work restored by the Parthians, goes beyond the existing data, since no Babylonian remains have (it is believed) been found in that structure. On the other hand, M. Oppert's surveys of particular ruins, as of the Kasr, Babil, and the Birs-Nimrud, are (apparently) much in advance of any hitherto published; while his "Views' are alike striking and original, greatly increasing the attractiveness of his work.

590

THE BEHISTUN INSCRIPTION.

APP. BOOK III.

NOTE C.

THE GREAT INSCRIPTION OF DARIUS AT BEHISTUN,

[NOTE. Behistun is situated on the western frontier of the ancient Media, upon the road from Babylon to the southern Ecbatana, the great thoroughfare between the eastern and the western provinces of the ancient Persia. The precipitous rock, 1700 feet high, on which the writing is inscribed, forms a portion of the great chain of Zagros, which separates the high plateau of Iran from the vast plain watered by the two streams of the Tigris and Euphrates. The inscription is engraved at the height of 300 feet from the base of the rock, and can only be reached with much exertion and difficulty. It is trilingual: one transcript is in the ancient Persian, one in Babylonian, the other in a Scythic or Tatar dialect. Col. Rawlinson gathers from the monument itself that it was executed in the 5th year of the reign of Darius, B.C. 516. The subjoined is the Persian transcript, as deciphered by Col. Rawlinson, Roman letters being substituted for the original cuneiform. Col. Rawlinson's translation is also given. The numbers are added for convenience of reference.]

COLUMN I.

Par. 1. (1) Adam Dárayavush, (2) khsháyathiya vazarka, (3) khsháyathiya 'khshayathiyánám, (4) khsháyathiya Pársiya, (5) khsháyathiya dahyannám, (6) Vishtáspahyá putra, (7) Arshámahyá napá, (8) Hakhámanishiyá.'

(1) I (am) Darius, (2) the great king, (3) the king of kings, (4) the king of Persia, (5) the king of the (dependent) provinces, (6) the son of Hystaspes, (7) the grandson of Arsames, (8) the Achæmenian.

Par. 2. (1) Thátiya Dárayavush khsháyathiya; (2) Maná pitá Vishtáspa; (3) Vishtáspahyá pitá Arsháma; (4) Arshámahyá pitá Ariyárámana; (5) Ariyárámanahyá pitá Chishpáish; (6) pitá Hakhámanish.

(1) Says Darius the king- (2) My father (was) Hystaspes; (3) the father of Hystaspes (was) Arsames; (4) the father of Arsames (was) Ariaramnes; (5) the father of Ariaramnes (was) Teispes; (6) the father (of Teispes) was Achæmenes.

1 The italics indicate that the original is in such places illegible, and restored conjecturally.

2 The accented A (á) is expressed in the original; the unaccented A (a), unless at the beginning of words, is the supplied vowel of the Sanskrit,

and its kindred languages.

3 Chishpaishahya is here omitted by a mistake of the artist employed to engrave the inscription. Cf. Detached Inscriptions. No. 1, and Norris's Behist. Inser. p. 95.