[56]. Column I, line 3. Achæmenes was the last king independent of Persia, and therefore the kings after Cyrus declared that they were his descendants. It is supposed that he was superseded by Phraortes, the Median king (657-635) as it was he who first subdued the Persians. Phraortes was the great grandfather of Cyrus, who was born 599 B.C.
[57]. Col. I, line 7.
[58]. The name of this province appears to be derived from Susun, signifying a “lily.”
[59]. Col. III, line 41.
[60]. This list of nations and provinces found at Persepolis is of great importance. It was executed after the first expedition of Darius to the Greek nations 496, B. C, or still later, and many Hellenic nations are enumerated as being subdued to the Persian power.
[61]. If Dr. Oppert’s version is correct this text gives us the first mention of the name of Ahriman to be found in the inscriptions, although the warring of the evil elements against the good is introduced in a Chaldean legend of the creation, which will be noticed in the following chapter.
[62]. Commentaire sur le livre d’Esther, p. 4.
[63]. The Chaldean mythology represented by the worship of Baal and Ashtaroth appears to have been an organized system demanding the erection of a temple to Merodach, as early as the seventeenth century B.C., while the earliest songs of the Vedas are ascribed to the period between 1500 to 1000 B.C. and the greater portion of Hindu mythology appears only in much later works.
[64]. Sayce, Rec. of P., Vol. I, pp. 123-130.
[65]. Assur-bani-pal, king of Assyria, who reigned from 668 to 625 B.C.