Persia from the Earliest Period to the Arab

ICO HISTORY OF PERSIA.
was found by Mr. Newton during bis excavations on
the site of the tomb of Maussollus at Halicarnassus.
Each bears the royal title,
" Xerxes the great king,"
in the three types of Cuneiform writing, together with
an Egyptian royal cartouche, containing his name ex-
pressed hieroglyphically. It is worthy of note that,
long before any form of the Cuneiform writing was
made out, Champollion read the name of Xerxes on
the vase of the Count de Caylus. On the discovery by
Sir H. C. Rawlinson of the Perso-cuneiform alphabet,
the name of Xerxes was at once detected on this vase,
and a valuable corroboration thus obtained of the
truth of his discoveries. Indeed, this remarkable vase
ought alone to have proved that the interpretation
of Cuneiform was not, as Sir Cornewall Lewis main-
tained, a "cunningly devised fable." Mr. Ne^vton's
discovery is chiefly valuable for the place where he
found it, as the question naturally arises, how came
it there? My belief is that this vase was given by
Xerxes to Artemisia queen of Halicarnassus, in return
for the aid in ships she had given him at the battle of
Salamis. Fragments of other similar vases have been
met with by Layard, Loftus and other excavators, in
some cases bearing Cuneiform letters; and, as their
material is Egyptian, it may be fairly presumed that
a store of them was kept in the Royal treasury in-
scribed with the king's name and titles, to be given
from time to time to those whom he wished to
honour.
After the time of Xerxes, the Persian Cuneiform
alphabet seems to have fallen into disuse, though
the use of the Babylonian system of Cuneiform
writing continued up to the commencement of the