142 The Rev. Dr. Wall on the Nature, Age, and Origin of the 



narrative he gives of the birth and death of that sovereign ; but they were then 

 so notoriously false, that he did not think it worth while to specify them.* In, 

 however, about sixty years after, when Xenophon collected his materials while 

 living on terms of intimacy with Persians of rank in the army of Cyrus the 

 younger, all vestiges of the older accounts, it would appear, were lost in Persia ; 

 for he takes not the slightest notice of them, but confines himself to statements 

 that were, in all probability, of more recent origin, and among those which had 

 been rejected by the more ancient writers as utterly unworthy of credit. 



which are compatible with the above anecdote, the former is better adapted to the part of it which 

 describes his bursting into tears ; and this would fix the recital in question to the year B. C. 460 ; 

 that is, sixty-nine years after the death of Cyrus, and fifty-nine before the battle in which the 

 younger prince of that name lost his life. 



* Herodotus intimates, in a manner that cannot be mistaken, the falsehood of the reports rejected 

 by him; particularly of those respecting the birth and early part of the hfe of Cyrus; in allusion to 

 which he says, " As then certain of the Persians relate, who do not wish to extol beyond measure the 

 concerns of Cyrus, but to tell the actually true account, according to these statements I shall write." 

 'QiQ wv Uepiriwv fiirt^tTspoi Xlyovai, ol /xrj /3owXoju£vot (ts/jlvovv ra fftpi Kiipov, aWa rov 

 iovra \syiiv \6yov, Kara ravra ypaipw' — Herodoli, 1. i, c. xcv. It is moreover to be remarked, 

 that our author does not refer to written accounts in the hands of the Persians, either here, or in the 

 place where he alludes to the different reports respecting the death of Cyrus ; in each place he only 

 mentions spoken ones ; and here says he will write what was told him by others. The consequence 

 is, that while he speaks with certainty and from his own knowledge of the manners and customs of 

 the Persians (showing thereby that he had actually gone to Persia, and spent some time there for the 

 purpose of getting the best information) ; he does not by any means express himself with the same 

 confidence respecting the history of that nation. I would not, however, have it inferred from the 

 remark just made, that the Persians had at this time no writing of any sort in use among them ; but 

 merely that they had not a great deal, and that they had none which Herodotus could read. It 

 cannot be maintained that they had none whatever, as in the early part of this author's account of the 

 life of Cyrus (Lib. i, c. cxxiii), he mentions the circumstance of a letter having been sent to that 

 prince, concealed within the body of a hare, from a nobleman of the court of Astyages. But from 

 his having derived his information immediately from Persians, and having lived among them upon 

 terms of intimacy, it is evident that he must have understood their language ; and, therefore, 

 supposing they had any historic records, he would in all probability have learned to read them, if 

 they had been alphabetically written. I should not rely much on this proof of the Persian writing 

 having been hieroglyphic at the time in question, if it stood alone ; but it is, I submit, entitled to 

 some consideration, inasmuch as it falls in with, and thereby serves to corroborate, the more decisive 

 one which is given in the text, derived from discrepancies, between Herodotus and Xenophon, 

 that cannot possibly be accounted for in a satisfactory manner on any other supposition with respect 

 to the nature of that writing. 



