506 
TOMB OF CYRUS. 
prince: and, from his epitaph as given by Strabo, we find in its 
simplicity the same greatness, even in death : — 
“ O man ! I am Cyrus son of Cambyses, founder of the 
Persian empire, and sovereign of Asia; therefore grudge me not 
this sepulchre.” 
Plutarch describes it thus : (after a translation which Alexander 
caused to be made in Greek from the original, and cut beneath 
that old inscription, on the tomb.) 
“ O man ! whosoever thou art, and whencesoever thou comest, 
(for come I know thou wilt!) lam Cyrus, the founder of the 
Persian empire : envy me not the little earth that covers my body .” 
Plutarch relates that this was done at the command of 
Alexander, after the tomb had been violated by Polymachus; 
and, that “ when he read the inscription, he was sensibly 
touched ; it causing him to reflect seriously upon the mutability 
of human affairs.” And then he ordered the epitaph to be 
repeated in Greek. The alteration made from the first, in the 
conclusion of the last inscription, is striking. The native 
language of Cyrus, calls upon the visitor of his tomb, not to 
grudge the deceased monarch of so vast an empire, that 
“ sepulchre,” which a common mind might regard as referring 
to the golden sarcophagus : but the unworthy countryman of 
the great Alexander, was insensible to this appeal; and, rifling 
the tomb of its whole treasure, doubtless the body of the king 
would be restored to its place in some less tempting sarcophagus, 
and give rise to the second, still more affecting appeal, “ not to 
envy” so great a monarch “ the little earth that then covered his 
remains.” It is possible that both these inscriptions, may 
originally have been on marble tablets affixed to the wall, and, 
by subsequent removal, entirely lost. Onesicritus, an author of 
