rock represents a line of nine persons united by a cord tied round their necks, and having their hands bound behind their backs, who are approaching another of more majestic stature, who, holding up his right hand in token of authority, treads on a prostrate body. His countenance expresses the idea of a great king or conqueror, and behind the king stand two guards with long spears in their hands. The reign of Darius was disturbed by many revolts, and the insurrectionary attempts of many impostors and pretenders. It is these impostors who are represented as prisoners in the sculpture, and over the head of each figure we find his name and description. The first one, the prostrate figure, is “Gomates, the Magian, an impostor,” who said, “I am Bartius, the son of Cyrus; I am the King,” and so on. The inscription is by far the largest and most important record which has been preserved of the greatness of Darius, and of the Persian state and system. The lines over the monarch himself would read in English as follows:-- “I am Darius the king, the great king, the king of kings, the king of Persia, the king of the (dependent) provinces, the son of Hystaspes, the grandson of Arsames, the Achæmenian,” &c. It will be noticed here how the word king is repeated; as the inscription proceeds the name Darius is repeated also. A German scholar, Professor Grotefend, had observed that such inscriptions generally begin with three or four words, one of which varies while the others do not. He suspected that the word which changes would be the king’s name--as different inscriptions would relate to different kings--and that the other words gave the king’s titles. He felt convinced that a word which was constantly repeated signified “king,” and conjectured that when two kings were mentioned they were probably father and son. Finding that the names of Cyrus and Cambyses would not suit, because no two names in the inscription he was dealing with commenced with the same letter, he tried others. Cyrus and Artaxerxes seemed equally inapplicable, because of their unequal length, the two names he was dealing with being of six letters each. The only names remaining were those of Darius and Xerxes; and these on further comparison appeared to agree so exactly with the characters that he did not hesitate at once to adopt them. Having thus found out more than twelve letters, among which were precisely those composing the royal title, the next business was to give these names their original Persian form, in order that by ascertaining the correct value of each character, the royal title might be deciphered. From the “Zendavesta” of Anquetil du Perron, M. Grotefend found that the Greek form Hystaspes was originally represented in Persian by Gustasp, Kishtasp, or Wistasp. The first seven letters of this name were at once discovered, while a comparison of all the royal titles led him to the conclusion that the three last formed the inflection of the genitive singular,