S6 On the Verfepolitan Infcriptioni. 



a trifling difpute with one of his friends, laid a bet that he 

 would decvpher one of the Perfepolitan infcriptions. He 

 facceeded beyond his expectation, and in a few weeks was 

 able to explain the greater part of the infcriptions, and 

 to communicate details refpetting the manner in which he 

 proreeded, and concerning his relulls. 



The author firft fpeaks of the cuneiform •wnl'ing in general, 

 and lays down the following principles : ift, The wedge- 

 formed characters are really letters. On the monumtnis of 

 Perfepolis there are three forts of them, which, for the nioft 

 part, correfpond with each other, as has been remarked by 

 Niebuhr and Munter, and which may be called the firft, 

 fecond, and third kinds of writing. The whole three may 

 be clearly ohferved on the vafe of Caylus *•', provided two 

 ficrns only be correded from fimilar infcriptions found in 

 Niebuhr and Le Bruyn. ad. ']"he wedge-formed figures are 

 alphabetic letters, and not fyllables or figns. In the firit fort 

 of letters the end of a word is indicated by a wedge placed 

 obliquely, and in the fecond, by a perpendicular wedge. If 

 the irroupes of figures were fyllables, we ought to have here 

 ^vo^ds of ten fyllables, for very often there are fo many figns 

 between two feparations of words. In each of thefe kinds of 

 writing there are diRinguifhed about forty figures, a number 

 which would be too fmall for writing in figns. 3d. All the 

 wedo^e-formed infcriptions proceed from left to right, in a 

 horizontal dire&ion, and not vertically or in buftrophedon 

 charafters, as may be feen by comparing the infcriptions B, 

 I), C, in Niebuhr. It is thence feen that this principle, ex- 



refled perhaps too generally, can be applied only to the in- 

 "criptions of Perfepolis. 



In the fecond fedion, which relates to infcriptions of the 

 firft fort in particular, the author obferves, that this writing 

 has need of marks proper for the long and ftiort vowels, as in 

 the antient Perfian writing called the Zendic : hence the 

 Q' antity of forty letters which Niebuhr has already colk(fl.td. 

 In a word, all the infcriptions which the author has been 

 hitherto able to explain, relate to Darius the fon of Hyftafpes, 

 .and to Xerxes; a circumftance to which new refearches have 

 already given a high degree of probability. 



In the third fecHon the author defcribes the manner in 

 •which he proceeded, and gives liis explanations. The fuppo- 

 iitions already mentioned, as well as the analogy of the in- 

 fcription of the Saftanides, gave reafon to expe6l in particular 

 the name of king, and titles particularly for Darius and 



• Rem. d'/Utiq. v. p!. 30. 



^ . ■ Xerxes. 



I 



