The main sources of
information on this subject are Herodotus,
Xenophon,
Ctesias,
Nicolas of Damascus
(all
B.C.);
and Arrian
(century 2
A.D.)
The writers of a former generation
were occupied in unraveling and piecing together
the varying accounts of these ancient historians
without the knowledge of the still more ancient
Inscriptions recently discovered,
which were caused to be written by the
persons concerned in the events recorded.
In 1846 Major (afterward Sir Henry)
Rawlinson published a complete translation of
the trilingual Persian text on the isolated
rock of Behistun,
(or more correctly Bahistun)
which rises 1,700 feet out of the Plain,
on the high road from Babylonia to the East;
in which
DARIUS
HYSTASPIS
gives his own genealogy.
This famous rock
(of which a view is given below
by the kind permission of Messieurs
Longmans & Company,
the publishers of Canon Rawlinson's
Memoir of Major-General
Sir H.C. Rawlinson)
derives its name from the village of
Bisitun or Bisutun,
near its foot.
It is on the high road
from Baghdad to Teheran,
about sixty-five miles from Hamadan
(on the site of the ancient Ecbatana).
On this rock,
on a prepared surface about 500 feet
from the level of the plain,
and most difficult of access,
DARIUS
HYSTASPIS
caused to be carved the
principal events of his reign;
and he commences with an
account of his genealogy.
The following
is the translation of the Persian
text 1:—
§ I. "I
am Darius,
the great king,
the king of kings,
the king of Persia,
the king of the provinces,
the son of Hystaspes,
the grandson of Arsames
the Achæmenian.
§ II. (Thus)
saith Darius the king:
My father is Hystaspes;
the father of Hystaspes was Arsames;
the father of Arsames was Ariyaramnes;
the father of Ariyaramnes was [Teispes];
the father of Teispes was Achæmenes.
§ III. (Thus)
saith Darius the king:
On that account are we
called Achæmenians;
from antiquity are we descended;
from antiquity hath our race been kings.
§ IV. (Thus)
saith Darius the king:
Eight of my race were
kings before (me);
I am the
ninth.2
In two
lines 3
have we been kings",
etc.
It must be noted that the confusion which
has hitherto been experienced arises from the fact
that appellatives have been mistaken for proper names;
to say nothing of the confusion arising from their
transliteration or translation into other languages.
These appellatives are,
like Pharaoh and Abimelech,
the general titles of a line of kings,
such as the modern Czar,
Sultan,
Shah,
etc.
Hence
AHASUERUS
means "the Mighty",
and "is the name,
or rather the title,
of four Median and Persian monarchs"
(Kitto,
Bible Encyclopedia I,
page 91).
"In every case the
identification of the
person named is a matter
of controversy".
See
The Encyclopedia Britannica,
11th (Cambridge) edition,
volume i,
page 429.
ARTAXERXES
means Great King,
or Kingdom,
and is synonymous with
Artachshast
(Arta = Great,
and Kshatza = Kingdom,
preserved in the modern
"Shah").
According to Prideaux
he is identified
with the Ahasuerus of
Esther
1:1
(volume i,
page 306).
DARIUS
means the Restrainer
(Her. VI.98);
or,
according to Professor Sayce,
the Maintainer.
DARIUS
"appears to be originally
an appellative meaning 'king',
'ruler'",
(Herbelot,
Biblioth,
Orient.,
Article 'Dara');
Herodotus (VI.98)
renders it
Erxeies = Coercer.
"It was assumed
as his throne-name
by Ochus (= Darius Nothus),
son and successor of
Artaxerxes Longimanus
(Ctesias,
de Reb.
Pers.,
48, 57,
Muller)".
See Kitto,
Bible Cycl.,
volume i,
page 625.
XERXES,
in his inscription at Persepolis,
actually calls himself
"DARIUS";
one paragraph beginning
"XERXES
the great king,"
and the next beginning
"DARIUS
the king."
This is why
DARIUS
HYSTASPIS
is thus called,
to denote him as
DARIUS
the son of
HYSTASPES;
and to distinguish him from
"Darius the Mede",
who was
ASTYAGES
his grandfather.
ASTYAGES
Is the Persian monarch with
which this Appendix is concerned.
According to Herodotus,
ASTYAGES
was the son of
CYAXARES,
who was the son of
PHRAORTES
(II),
who was the son of
DEIOKES
(Bk. I. 73),
who, again,
was the son of
PHRAORTES
(I).
(Bk. I. 96.)
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In the genealogy given by
CYRUS
on the Cuneiform Cylinder,
he calls his great-grandfather
TEISPES
(see below).
This
TEISPES
is to be identified with
TEISPES
the son of
ACHÆMENES
in the Behistun Rock genealogy of
DARIUS
HYSTASPIS.
The
ACHÆMENES
of
DARIUS,
identified with the
DEIOKES
of Herodotus (I. 96),
was the real founder of the
Achæmenian
dynasty of which Darius speaks,
although his father
(PHRAORTES I)
was the first of the line.
Herodotus describes him
(DEIOKES)
as a man "famous for wisdom",
of great ambition,
"aiming at the aggrandizement
of the Medes and his own absolute
power" (I. 96).
PHRAORTES
I. would therefore be the first
of the eight kings before
DARIUS
HYSTASPIS,
who speaks of himself as the ninth.
See translation given above.
ARSAMES.
As the grandfather of
DARIUS
HYSTASPIS,
he is (according to the Behistun
Inscription) to be identified with the
ASTYAGES
of Herodotus.
At the close of the
Lydio-Median War "Syannesis
the Cilician and Labynetus
(or Nabonnedus) the Babylonian
(identified by Prideaux,
volume i,
page 82 note,
and pages 135,
136,
19th edition with
Nebuchadnezzar)
persuaded
ALYATTES
to give his daughter
ARYENIS
in marriage to
ASTYAGES,
son of
KYAXARES"
(Her. 1. 74).
Of this marriage came
HYSTASPES
and
DARIUS
his son.
CYRUS.
In the Cuneiform Cylinder
account of the capture of Babylon,
CYRUS
states:—
"I am
CYRUS
the king . . .
the great king,
the mighty king,
king of Tintir
(Babylon),
king of Sumir,
and Akkad,
king of the regions
of the earth,
the son of
CAMBYSES
the great king,
king of the city of Anzan,
grandson of
CYRUS,
the great king,
king of the city of Anzan,
great-grandson of
TEISPES,
the great king of the city of Anzan,
of the ancient seed of royalty,
whose dominion (reign,
that is to say,
of Cyrus himself)
Bel and Nebo had exalted
according to the
beneficence of their hearts"
(E. Wallis Budge,
Babylonian Life and History
page 87).
Here we have the statement
of Cyrus his father was known as
CAMBYSES,
his grandfather as
CYRUS,
and his great-grandfather
under the name
(or title),
common to the
Behistun
Inscription and
the Cylinder alike,
of
TEISPES.
TEISPES.
If
TEISPES'
grandson was
ARSAMES
(according to the
Behistun
Inscription),
and this
TEISPES
and the
TEISPES
of Cyrus's Cylinder
are one and the
same,—then,
it follows that the
CAMBYSES
of the Cylinder and the
ARSAMES
of the Inscription must be
one and the same person,
well known under different names,
titles,
or
appellatives.4
Moreover,
if the
TEISPES
of the Behistun Inscription
and the one of the Cylinder of
Cyrus are to be identified with the
PHRAORTES
(II) of Herodotus (I. 73),
then the grandson of this
PHRAORTES
(II) must be
ASTYAGES.
Consequently we have,
under these three names,
titles,
or appellatives,
from Greek, Median,
and Persian sources,
three persons,
called by Herodotus
ASTYAGES,
by Darius
ARSAMES,
and by Cyrus
CAMBYSES,5
who are in reality
one and the same.
But,
if the father of
CYRUS
was
CAMBYSES,
by Esther
(see the Table
of the Genealogy,
below),
then it follows
that not only does
CAMBYSES
=
ARSAMES
=
ASTYAGES,
but = also the
AHASUERUS
of the book of Esther
(Prideaux i,
page 306).
Therefore in the presence
of all these identifications from
independent sources and authorities,
we have:—
ASTYAGES }={the AHASUERUS of Esther 1:1, etc.
ARSAMES }={the ARTAXERXES of Ezra 6:14; Neh. 2:1.
CAMBYSES}={the "DARIUS the Median" of Dan. 5:31.
all one and the same person.
We now give the Genealogy,
according to the Inscription of
DARIUS
HYSTASPIS
on the Behistun rock,
referred to above.
The names in large capitals
are the Greek names given by
HERODOTUS.
Those in small capitals are the
corresponding Persian names as given by
DARIUS
HYSTASPIS
on the Behistun rock,
and by
CYRUS
on his Cylinder;
while the names in ordinary small
type are the appellatives.
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