Page:Discovery and Decipherment of the Trilingual Cuneiform Inscriptions.djvu/35

H, I, K and L of Niebuhr. The I inscription enumerates the provinces of Darius: another contains the declaration that that Terrace or Fortress was built by Darius, and, 'before him there was not any fortress in that place.' ^[1] Above the animals in the Porch is an inscription of Xerxes in three tablets, declaring that it was erected by him, and that it was one of the many beautiful works accomplished by him and his father Darius 'in Parsa' (Inscription D). The unilingual inscription on the sculptured staircase informs us that it also was constructed by Xerxes (Inscription A). As we ascend the south stairs to the Palace of Darius, we observe on the façade below the landing stage three tablets of inscriptions which are repeated upon the landing, on the anta in the south-west corner. It is again Xerxes who speaks, but he tells us that it was Darius who erected that palace (Inscriptions C and C^a). Passing through the great doors we observe above the king and his attendants three tablets of inscriptions. They are in the three languages and run: 'Darius, the great king, king of kings, king of nations, son of Hystaspes, the Achaemenian, has built this palace' (Inscription B). Within, round the doors and windows is a single-line inscription written on the top in Persian, ascending on the left in Susian and descending on the right hand in Babylonian (Inscription L). On the west side of this palace is a second staircase, added later, of Artaxerxes Ochus, as we learn from a magnificent inscription on the façade (Inscription P). This inscription is repeated on the stairs leading to the palace of that king.^[2] Adjoining the latter is the Palace of Xerxes, approached

1. Die Achämenideninschriften Zweiter Art., by F. H. Weisbach, 1890, p. 77. Inscription II.
2. A much defaced inscription at the corner is conjectured from the position of the name Xerxes to have been set up by his son Artaxerxes Longimanus: only the Semitic portion is partly legible, and it is the only trace of that king at Persepolis. Carl Bezold: Die Achämenideninschriften, 1882, pp. 47