among the allies or vassal princes who helped Kyaxares to overwheim Assyria. There is no doubt, at all events, that Persia stood towards Media in the position of a subject and tributary country, since the beginning of its greatness dates from its revolt against the Median rule under Kyros II. and the overthrow of the Median Empire by that king. 16. None of the histories we inherit from antiquity, either entire or in fragments, nor, consequently, of the modern histories compiled from those materials, gives us the facts crowded into the last few paragraphs. No one had the remotest idea of Kyros having been any thing but a king of Persia, or of the Akhæmenians having reigned in a double line, and the very name of Anshan was unknown. Two sets of monuments accidentally discovered at various times and in various places revealed these facts, which, standing forth in the uncompromising simplicity and stubbornness of contemporary evidence, overthrew the familiar structure raised out of the stories-half fabulous as they now turn out to be— which the Greek writers took on trust from Median and Persian sources, epical ballads, most of them, not untainted with myth. Of these monuments some are Persian and three are Babylonian cylinders recording some of the acts of Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon, and the capture of that city by Kyros, who on both cylinders is called and calls himself "King of Anshan," not of Persia. It is wellestablished that Kyros, at the time of the conquest of Babylon, was already king of Persia; but that country was rather distant and probably little known to the Chaldeans, whereas the Land and City of Anshan were very near and had long been familiar to them, as doubtless also the new reigning family that had established itself there. As to his lineage, this is how he sets it forth in his proclamation, on mounting the throne of Babylon: 'I am KYROS (KURUSH), the great king, the powerful king, the king of Tintir*), king of Shumir and Accad, king of the four regions; son of KAMBYSES (KAMBUJIYA) the great king, KING OF THE CITY OF ANSHAN, grandson of Kyros, the great king, king of the city of Anshan, great-grandson of TEÏSPES (THIESPISH) the great king, king of the city of Anshan." 17. Very different in size from these tiny Babylonian monuments are the Persian ones, and, like the cylinders, somewhat posterior to the time our history has reached, indeed still later, since we owe them to Persian kings, successors of Kyros. The most important one for the point now under examination is the famous ROCK OF BEHISTÛN or BISUTÛN, or rather the inscription engraved on that rock by Dareios, second successor of Kyros, and after him the greatest of the Akhæmenians. The rock, noticed from very ancient times on account of its isolated position and peculiar shape, rises nearly perpendicular to a height of 1700 feet, the most striking feature of the road from Hamadân (ancient Agbatana) to Baghdad, and near the modern town of KIRMANSHAH. On the straightest and smoothest face of the rock Dareios determined to perpetuate, by means of sculpture and writing, the great deeds of his reign. The monument was to be absolutely * Tintir,—the most ancient name of Babylon, in the Accadian, or pre-Semitic period; see Story of Chaldea,” p. 216, indestructible, and, first of all, inaccessible to the sacrilegious hand of invader or domestic foe. This was so well secured by the height at which the work was executed-over 300 feet from the base,—that it could be scarcely got at for the purpose of studying or copying it. Indeed, the French scholars, Messrs. Flandin and Coste, after many attempts, gave up the task, which it was the glory of Sir Henrythen Major-Rawlinson, with the help of field-glasses successfully to achieve, at the cost of three years' labor (1844-1847)-infinite hardships and dangers, and an outlay of over five thousand dollars. How the artists and engravers originally ever got to the place, is a question which the steepness of the ascent makes very puzzling, unless there were some practicable paths which were cut away subsequently; and even then they could not have worked without ladders and scaffoldings. Besides, the rock had to undergo an elaborate preliminary preparation. Not only was the surface smoothed down almost to a state of polish, but wherever the stone showed crevices or dints, it was closely plastered with a kind of cement, matching and fitting it so exactly as to be hardly distinguishable. The result of all this foresight and painstaking, we have before us in the shape of a very remarkable piece of historical sculpture, surrounded by numerous columns of inscription, making in all over one thousand lines of cuneiform writing. The long narrative is repeated three times in the different languages, so as to be intelligible to all the three races which the new empire had united under its rule: in Persian, in Assyrian, and in the language of Anshan, which was probably that of all Elam,-or Susiana, |