inscriptions of the Persian column—with the exception of the Behistun, which was not accessible to him—he had succeeded in making their contents as well known as they are at present in all the essential points of their subject-matter. It must be recollected also that he had to contend with difficulties that have since been in great measure removed. The texts upon which he worked were in many places in need of emendation; and the parallel columns in Susian and Babylonian, which have afforded so much assistance to later translators, were then completely unknown. Moreover, it should not be forgotten that, notwithstanding all the advantages that are now at command, many of the passages over which Lassen stumbled are still the subject of dispute. His collection included the ten independent inscriptions at Persepolis; the Tomb inscription at Naksh-i-Rustam, so lately recovered by Westergaard; the Cyrus inscription from Murgab; the inscriptions of Elvend and Van that only a few years before had acquired an entire volume to expound. He added a translation of the short inscription on the crystal cylinder brought from Egypt and now in the British Museum. He reads: ‘Ego Darius hominum tutor.’ He also translated the Denon inscription, found in 1800 near Suez, which, according to him, signifies ‘Darius hominum tutor magnus.’ Both these inscriptions write ‘King’ with the abbreviation to which Lassen assigned the value of ‘narpa’ and translates ‘hominum tutor.’ The true meaning of the first is ‘I [am] Darius the King,’ and of the second ‘Darius the great King.’[528] The same abbreviation occurs in the inscription on the Caylus vase, but in this case Lassen translates it simply as ‘rex’—‘Xerxes rex magnus.’[529]