242 
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences. Arts and Letters. 
THE INSCRIPTION OF DARIUS HYSTASPES AT BEHISTAN. 
The longest and most important of the Old Persian inscriptions is the 
great monument of Behistan. The name Behistan forms a dependent 
compound, the first member being baga (God) and the second stana 
(place.) Behistan or “ Place of God ” was known to the Greeks who gave 
it the name (dayidravov opo6. This immense rock rises abruptly to a 
height of 1,700 feet from the plain below. No place in all Persia could 
Darius have found more fitted for the purpose of holding an everlasting 
memorial of his reign. The bas-reliefs are uninjured and show a row of 
nine usurpers bound with a cord about their necks. In front of them 
stands the monarch who treads upon the prostrate body of a tenth vic¬ 
tim. Behind Darius are two attendants, armed with the spear and bow. 
The figures of the conquerer and his warriors are skillfully executed, 
while the rebels are intentionally represented as diminutive in size. 
Above the picture is an effigy of Auramazda, the greatest deity of the 
Persians. 
Over the heads of the king and his captives are placed legends com¬ 
memorating the monarch’s triumphs and showing the ancestry of Darius 
and the fraud of the usurpers. Below the reliefs in five parallel columns 
occurs the inscription of nearly one thousand lines, the translation of 
which I make at this point. 
i. 
1. I (am) Darius, the great king, the king of kings, the king in Persia, 
the king of countries, the son of Hystaspes, the grandson of Arshama, 
the Achaemenide. 
2. Says Darius the king my father (is) Hystaspes, the father of 
Hystaspes (is) Arshama, the father of Arshama (is) Ariyaramna, the 
father of Ariyararamna (is Caispis *), the father of Caispis (is) 
Achaemenes. 
3. Says Darius the king therefore we are called the Achaemenides: 
from long ago we have extended t from long ago our family have been 
kings. 
4. Says Darius the king VIII.J of my family (there were) who were 
formerly kings: I am the ninth IX: individually we were (lit. are) kings. 
* Caispis is omitted by tbe carelessness of the stone-cuttei\ It is easily supplied from 
the inscription above the head of Darius which repeats these introductory sections; vide 
infra. 
X The Persian word amata I connect with the Sanskrit root ma to measure (CP Zend ma 
and Latin me-to). The A is doubtless a prefix corresponding to the Sanskrit a (hither). 
amata would mean measured hither or to the present time, i. e. reaching to the present. 
It is possible to emphasize the idea of the root ma (measure): hence the word might 
signify measured, tested, tried. 
X The numerals are represented by horizontal wedges for the units and oblique for the 
tens. 
