This Is Appendix 57 From The Companion Bible.
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 following is the translation of the Persian
text 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.
The writers of a former generation were occupied in
unravelling 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 on page 82
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 sixtyfive 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.
2.
In two lines3
have we been kings", etc.
These appellatives are, like Pharaoh and Abimelech,
the general titles of a line of kings, such as the modern Czar, Sultan,
Shah, etc. Hence
A
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 Est. 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, Müller)". 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.
Is the Persian monarch with which this Appendix is
concerned. According to Herodotos, 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.)
In this 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 aggrandisement 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.
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, 135, 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.
- In the Cuneiform Cylinder account of the capture of Babylon, CYRUS
states
:-
- "I am C
YRUS 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 C
YRUS 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 C
AMBYSES, his grandfather as CYRUS, and his great-grandfather under the name (or title), common to the Behistun Inscription and the Cylinder alike, of 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, it 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.
Therefore in the presence of all these
indentifications from independent sources and authorities, we have :-
| ASTYAGES ARSAMES CAMBYSES |
= |
the AHASUERUS
of Esther 1:1,
etc. the ARTAXERXES of Ezra 6:14; Nehemiah 2:1. the "DARIUS the Median" of Daniel 5:31. |
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 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.
1
For full particulars see the handsome volume published by the Trustees
of the British Museum, The Sculptures and Inscription of Darius
the Great on the Rock of Behistun, in Persia. London, 1907.
(Price 21s.)
Cyrus and Cambyses both
seem to be territorial titles rather than names.
There was a still later "Cyrus"
(the Cyrus of Xenophon). See Her. VII. 11.
