506 Baron de Sacy’s Remarks on an Inscription at Naksh-i-Rustam. 
The Baron says that AIOC is misplaced here through ignorance or miscon- 
ception ; and suggests that the word was Hormisdas, which it could not 
possibly be, if the same person is also the last king of the Arsacide: it is 
in the word supposed to be AIOC that the mistake lies. On examining the 
inscriptions with minuteness (before I had seen Baron De Sacy’s work), the 
first letter of that word appeared to me evidently not to be a delta (A), or it 
must have faded since the time of Nizunr, for a semicircle ( is now plainly 
visible in its place, to the right of which, and a little above, I could trace 
another curve thus ~; then followed what certainly appeared to be IOC, 
but which, for reasons I now offer, I think must have been IOY. 
The figure on the left, carrying the globe, exactly resembles those seen 
on many of the Sassanian coins, particularly on such as bear the head of 
Arpasnir; the globe appears to be symbolic of royalty in its plenitude of 
power, and was an emblem peculiar to the monarchs of that dynasty. 
It is remarkable that on all the Sassanian coins, no two kings wear the 
same kind of crown or cap, and that those which represent the face and 
head of SuApur, invariably have the flat cap, on which the globe is placed. 
The person supposed by M. Dr Sacy to be the Arsacian king carries a head- 
dress exactly similar, but without the globe. Another singular circumstance 
is, that so far from seeming to dispute about the ring they hold between 
them, ARTAXERXEs or ARDASHiR is represented more as giving it into the 
hands of the other individual, who has firmly grasped it, while the former 
seems scarcely to retain it. It is a fact well known in Persian history, that 
Anpasuir, after a long and prosperous reign, resigned the government into 
the hands of his son and retired into private life; an act so unusual would 
naturally induce the son to commemorate it by a monument like the one I 
have just described, together with others illustrating the actions of ArDAsuHir, 
which there is no doubt that the figures ranged below were designed to 
celebrate ; while the memorials of his own exploits are confined to the 
sculptures at Naksh-i-Rajab, where the inscription * containing his name is 
to be found. 
Should this be the case, it would not be unreasonable to infer that the 
words on the horse’s breast are TOYTO TO MPOCQOIION YIOY GEOY; 
and not AIOC, which is unintelligible and inexplicable. If the fact is so, 
* Mem. Plate I, A No, 3. 
