[31] The passage in the Chronicle, which appears to record this act on Gubaru's part (Col. III., 1. 22 f.), is broken and its reading is not certain; but the fact that the next entry relates to a period of national mourning in Akkad is in favour of the interpretation suggested.
[32] Cf. "Nab.-Cyr. Chron.," Col. III., 1l. 18 ff.
[33] The enormous number of these that have been recovered attest the continued prosperity of the country.
[34] Cf. King and Thompson, "Sculptures and Inscription of Darius," pp. 6 ff.
[35] Cf. Weissbach, "Zeits. für Deutsch. Morgenland. Gesellschaft," Bd. LXII. (1908), pp. 631 ff. The majority of the national revolts were probably suppressed during the accession-year of Darius and the early part of his first year. The later revolts of Susiania and Scythia also gave little difficulty; Weissbach (ib., p. 641) suggests a restoration of the Persian text of the Behistun Inscription which would place them in the fourth and fifth year of Darius' reign.
[36] See King and Thompson, op. cit., Plates iii., xv. and xvi.
[37] It was only towards the end of Darius' reign, after the Egyptian revolt, that we have evidence pointing to a renewal of Babylonian unrest (see below, n. 4). The fear inspired by Darius on his accession was evidently felt throughout his Asiatic provinces, and it was the revolt of Egypt, not Asia, that checked his activities against the Greeks.
[38] For a list of documents dated in the brief reigns of Bel-simanni, Shamash-erba, and two other Babylonian usurpers of this period, see Weissbach, op. cit., p. 044. The extraordinary variants in writing the Babylonian form of Xerxes' name show the difficulty the Babylonians had in pronouncing it; but Akshimakshu can hardly be regarded as such a variant, and may well be that of a rebel who secured a brief period of power (cf. also Boissier, "Orient. Lit.-Zeit.," 1013, p. 300). On the evidence of the proper names occurring in the contracts, he and the others are all to be placed in the reign of Xerxes or in the last years of Darius.
[39] Cf. Oppert, "Comptes rendus," 1898, pp. 414 ff.
[40] See above, [p. 83], Fig. 31, «I. The theatre was built of mud-brick; for the pillars and their bases a sort of concrete was employed, made of burnt-brick rubble and gypsum mortar, washed over with white plaster.