(J52 
PERSEPOLIS, 
authorities of antiquity corroborate this deftination. 
Thus Strabo, (lib. xv. p. 730.) though he calls the buil¬ 
ding Keax., lays that Alexanderdeftroyed it in revenge 
for the deftruClion of Grecian temples by thePerfians; 
and Arrian tells us that Alexander feized there a treafure 
which had been laid up by Cyrus : now the treafuries 
of antiquity were commonly in the temples. Diodorus 
Siculus, who is fometimes deficient in critical judgment, 
tranfcribes the teftimony of the forged Ctefias as confi¬ 
dently as that of the genuine Herodotus; and, if he fa¬ 
vours the opinion that Parjhandatha was a royal refidence, 
dill he admits that it contained the fepulchres of the Per- 
fian kings, which would naturally be placed near a 
temple, and be guarded by a monaftery of priefts. No 
doubt, however, there were barracks, and a citadel, in the 
place of depofit for the imperial treafure. From Arrian 
it may be inferred, that the great Cyrus was the builder 
of this ftupendous monument; in which cafe it was cer¬ 
tainly a temple of Jehovah. Cyrus and Darius both ori¬ 
ginated among thofe Jewifli tribes whom Shalmanefer 
tranfplanted into the cities of Media ; and, when they ob¬ 
tained the upper hand of the idolaters, they eftablifhed in 
Perfia their hereditary worfhip. An edict of Cyrus for 
building a temple at Jerufalem to Jehovah, in which 
ediCt he recognizes Jehovah as his perfonal god, has been 
preferved by Ezra; and the magophonia, or (laughter of 
the idolatrous priefts, ordered by Darius, was fuperinten- 
ded by Daniel, Arioch, and other Jewifh officers, and was 
anniverfarily commemorated in the temple at Jerufalem 
under the name of the Feaft of Purina ; which could not 
have been unlefs Darius alfo was a worffiipper of Jehovah. 
Herodotus fays, (i. 225.) that the people of Parfiiandatha 
were A^a.ip.BviSai ; and that this tribe or clan was the do¬ 
mineering one in Perfia, and that Cyrus and Darius be¬ 
longed to it. Hence it is highly probable that Herodo¬ 
tus wrote Abrahamites, by which name 
all the Jewifli clans would be proud to clafs themfelves. 
It is not at Alexandria that the letters / 3 pa would have 
been firft dropped, but the fcribes of European Greece 
readily corrupted barbarous names. Now, if the word 
Axctipev^ca be every-where rendered Abrahamites in He¬ 
rodotus, it is not difficult to account for the afcendancy of 
the Jewifli religion in ancient Perfia; or for the patronage 
extended to the Jews of Jerufalem by Cyrus, Darius, and 
Artaxerxes; or for the curious faff that Ezra, the final 
collector of the Jewifli canon, was, under the appellation 
Zerdufcht or Zoroaffer, as much the national faint of Per¬ 
fia as of Palefline. This equally important archseologi- 
cal inference will alfo become probable; that into the 
book of Leviticus has been grafted the entire code of the 
Perfian empire; and that through its means may be re- 
difcovered the jurifprudence of the firlt great civilized 
empire on earth, of whofe legiflation and opinions fo much 
continues operative at the prefent day. 
Among the arguments for confidering the ruins of 
Parfiiandatha as the remains of the chief cathedral, or 
metropolitan temple, of the Perfian empire, may be placed 
thefe circumflances, collected from Col. Johnfon’s narra¬ 
tive: 1. That the building precifely fronts the weft, and 
is open on that fide only, which is obfervable in other 
places of vVorfliip. 2. The local fite, clof'ely bounded by 
mountains, excludes many accommodations ufually 
fought in the neighbourhood of palaces. 3. The angle 
vaft ftaircafe is little worn, and is apparently adapted for 
the flow afcent of proceffions. 4. The ftone-baiin of 
water at the head of this ftaircafe announces a place of 
ablution. 5. The burial-places of two kings are placed 
immediately behind and above the central hall of pillars, 
and looking into it. 6. This hall appears to have been 
rooflefs, the capitals of the columns being furmounted 
with an ornament which terminates in a point; and this 
was commonly the cafe with Perfian temples. 7. Here 
are no contiguous ruins of fmaller buildings, while all 
palaces attract towns around them, and monafteries af- 
feCt to be complete within themfelves and to ftand apart. 
8. The fculptures reprefent religious proceffions, appa¬ 
rently thofe connected with the proclamation of the 
nouroos, or new-year’s day, at the vernal equinox. 
The queftion, however, will probably never be fet 
completely at reft, till we are able to decipher the infcrip- 
tions which abound here. Niebuhr feems to have repre- 
fented them with great accuracy. The letters fomewhat 
referable nails, difpofed in various directions, in which 
fingularity they approach to what are called the Heljing 
rimes of Scandinavia; but the form and difpofition feem 
more complex, and perhaps a clue might arife from com¬ 
paring the Uchen character of Thibet. Chardin, who 
alfo obferved the infcriptions on the fpot, obferves, that 
they bear no refemblance whatever to the letters ufed by 
the Gabres, in their copies of the Vendidad ; whence 
fir William Jones inferred, that the Zend letters were a 
modern invention : and, in an amicable debate with a 
friend named Bahman, that friend infilled that the letters, 
to which he had alluded, and which he had often feen, 
were monumental characters never ufed in books, and 
intended either to conceal fome religious myfteries from 
the vulgar, or to difplay the art of the fculptor, like the 
embeliifhed Cufic and Nigari on feveral Arabian and In¬ 
dian monuments. With regard to thefe infcriptions, fir 
W. Jones fuggefts, that it may be reafonably doubted, 
whether they contain a fyftem of letters which any na¬ 
tion ever adopted : in five of them, the letters, which 
are feparated by points, may be reduced to forty, or at 
lead he could diftinguifh no more efi'entially different; 
and they all feem to be- regular variations and compofi- 
tions of a flraight line and an angular figure like the head 
of a javelin, or a leaf (to ufe the language of botanifts) 
“hearted and lanced.” Many of the Runic letters ap¬ 
pear to have been formed of fimilar elements ; and it has 
been obferved that the writing atPerfepolis bearsaftrong 
refemblance to that which the Irifh cail “ Ogham,” 
(which fee). The word “ Agam” in Sanfcrit means 
myfterious knowledge; but fir William Jones dares not 
affirm that the two words had a common origin ; and he 
only means to fugged, that, if the characters in quedion 
be really alphabetical, they were probably fecret and facer- 
dotal, or a mere cipher, perhaps, of which the priefts only 
had the key. In all the other infcriptions of the fame 
fort, the characters are too complex, and the variations 
of them too numerous, to admit of an opinion that they 
could be fymbols of articulate founds ; for even the Na- 
gari fyftem, which has more diftin (51 letters than any 
known alphabet, confifts only of forty-nine fimple cha¬ 
racters, two of which are mere fubftitutions, and four of 
little ufe in Sanfcrit or in any other language ; while the 
more complicated figures, exhibited by Niebuhr, mud be 
as numerous at lead as the Chinefe keys, which are the 
figns of ideas only, and fome of which refemble the old 
Perfian letters at Perfepolis. The Danifh traveller was 
convinced from his own obfervations, that they were 
written from the left hand, like all the characters ufed 
by Hindoo nations. Sir William Jones concludes with 
obferving, that the fquare Chaldaic letters, a few of which 
are found in the Perfian ruins, appear to have been ori¬ 
ginally the fame with the Devanagari, before the latter 
were enclofed, as they are now feen, in angular frames. 
See Sir W. Jones’s Sixth Difcourfe in vol. ii. of Afiatic 
Refearches; or in his Works, vol. iii. Morier’s Second 
Journey through Perfia, between the years 1810 and 
1816. Colonel Johnfon’s Journey from India to England, 
through Perfia, &c. in 1817. Sir Robert Ker Porter’s 
Travels in Georgia, Perfia, &c. 1817—20. Monthly 
Mag. for July 1818. Monthly Rev. May 1820. Quar¬ 
terly, Review. 
PER'SES, or Perseus, the laft king of Macedon. 
See that article, vol. xiv. p.36,7. 
PERSEVEfRANCE, J'. [Fr. perfeverantia, Lat. This 
word was once accented on the fecond fyliable.] Perfift- 
ance in any defign or attempt; fleadinefs in purfuits; 
conftancyin progrefs. It is applied alike to good and ill. 
—Wait 
