Chapter V. Copies and Translations of the Persian Cuneiform Inscriptions of Persepolis, Hamadan, and Van

THE translations which I have given in the preceding chapter of the elaborate inscriptions of Behistun, will enable the reader to follow me with comparative ease through the present portion of the inquiry; for in the several detached legends which occur in other parts of the Persian empire, and of which I now proceed to give amended copies and translations, I shall neither have occasion to explain many new words, nor even to point out any essential varieties of grammar or construction. I cannot pretend, at the same time, that these brief and disconnected legends which have hitherto, as the only available materials of analysis, exclusively occupied the attention of the learned in Europe, will be found to possess nearly the same interest as the great inscription of Behistun. In the place of varied and historical recital, we must be content for the most part to peruse a certain formula of invocation to Ormazd, and a certain empty parade of royal titles, recurring with a most wearisome and disappointing uniformity. Geographical names, it is true, will occasionally be found to relieve the monotonous phraseology, and there are a few incidental expressions scattered among the records, which throw a faint light upon the faith and usages of the early Persians; but as a general principle, we may consider the value of these inscriptions to be confined to the aid which they afford in identifying the respective works of the early mbnarchs of the house of Achælmenes.