8 
paper. The character is more complex; it is syllabic, not al¬ 
phabetical ; some are not even alphabetical, but have origin¬ 
ated in representations of visible objects, the resemblance 
to which it is very difficult to trace. It is probable that when 
the Persians became acquainted with the cuneiform character 
as practised by the Assyrians, they simplified it and made it 
wholly alphabetical. A passage in the so-called Epistles of 
Themistocles ascribes to the first Darius a change of the writ¬ 
ten character;* and though these Epistles are probably, like 
those of Phalaris, the forgeries of a sophist, they may have 
preserved a true tradition of an historical fact. The language, 
too, appeared to be of a mixed character. There was a Semitic 
element in it, but there were many words which could not be 
resolved into Semitic roots, nor is it yet clear to what language 
they belong. Nevertheless much progress was made, the 
soundness of which was confirmed by a trial which took place 
in 1857. Mr. Fox Talbot in that year sent to the Poyal 
Asiatic Society a sealed translation of a cylinder of Tiglath 
Pileser, and his fellow-labourers. Dr. Hincks, M. Oppert, and 
Sir H. Pawlinson did the same. The translations were opened 
and compared by Dean Milman and Mr. Grote, and published 
in parallel columns. In the numerous proper names and the 
arithmetical characters the decipherments were almost identi¬ 
cal ; in the general sense there was a remarkable coincidence 
joined to considerable differences. 
In what I have to say respecting the age and import of the 
inscription on the obelisk I depend wholly on the authority of 
the experts^ and especially on a translation of it given in the 
Transactions of the Poyal Society of Literature, Vol. IX., by 
G. Smith, Esq., Dr. Birch’s Assistant in the Assyrian depart¬ 
ment of the British Museum, who has lately published The 
phonetic values of Cuneiform characters.” It commemorates 
the war of Shalmaneser II. against Hazael of Damascus and 
the payment of a tribute by Jehu, king of Israel. A powerful 
enemy to Assyria had risen up at Damascus. Benhadad (I. 
* Themist. Epistolas, ed. J. C. Bremer Ep. xxi. It speaks of “ the golden 
howls and censers, inscrihed with old Assyrian letters, not those which Darius 
the father of Xerxes wrote for the Persians.” 
