in the triple Inscriptions of the Persians, &c. 283 
of our race have been kings.* Says Darius the king: there are eight of my race 
who have been kings before me, I am the ninth; for a very long time we have 
been kings.” 
Let us compare with this extract the following passage of Herodotus, part of 
a speech of Xerxes, in which he is represented as incidentally giving his father’s 
pedigree : 
“For I could not have sprung from Darius (who was the son of Hystaspes, 
who was the son of Arsames, who was the son of Ariaramnes, who was the son 
of Teispes, who was the son of Cyrus, who was the son of Cambyses, who was 
the son of Teispes, who was the son of Achemenes), if I were not to take ven- 
geance on the Athenians.’’} 
The exact agreement between the first four names and the last one of the 
two lists is surely (considering the wholly independent sources from which they 
were taken) very striking; and, even where those lists differ, the remainder of the 
Persian statement attests the perfect correctness of the Grecian enumeration; for, 
though Darius mentions but five names in the line of his descent, he expressly 
declares that eight of that race were kings before him,—the very number of them 
distinctly reckoned up by the Greek historian. Moreover, the same statement 
adds strength to the grounds I have, in the second part of my Work, assigned for 
preferring the account of Herodotus to that given by Xenophon, with respect to 
the condition in life of the father of the principal Cyrus. The part of the quoted 
* In the above sentence Darius speaks of his family at large, as is indicated by his use of the 
pronoun ‘our;’ but in the next sentence he speaks of that particular branch of it to which he 
himself belonged (and which he had just before described), as is marked by his use of the pro- 
noun ‘my.’ There is the same word, ¢wmd, in both places of the original ; but still, I am in- 
clined to think, the difference of the senses in whch it is employed would have been better 
pointed out in the English, by varying its translation; by, for instance, inserting the expression 
“our family,” in the former place, and leavy'ng, as it stands, ‘‘my race,” in the latter. In 
accordance with this distinction, Darius subsequently speaks of Camb: es, the son of Cyrus, as 
member “ of owr tuma,” but never of him as member “‘ of my tuma:” for Cambyses belonged 
to the same family as he did, but not to the same branch of that family. 
+ Mh yee etn én Acesiov roy Yordiomeos, Tov "Agrdptos, Tov "A picegct paved, tou Teicmeos, Tov Kipov, TOU 
KauBucew, tov Teicmsoc, tov "A ycoespeeveos YE OVE, fen Tipewenrepeevos A bavatovs.—Herodotus, lib. vii. 
cap. 11. The third name in this pedigree of Darius is variously written in different copies of the 
work, "Agusew, Agiceduew, or Agsccedevew. ‘The Behistun inscription actually enables us to decide 
which of these is the correct reading of the word. 
2N 2 
