Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎529r] (1070/1814)

FBOM ISFAHAN TO SHIRAZ
81
Strabo, 1 utilising the same materials, differs in unimportant details,
but generally corroborates Arrian :—
Then he (Alexander) came to Pasargadee; and this was the ancient abode of
the kings. And there he saw the tomb of Cyrus in a paradise, a tower of no great
size, concealed beneath the thicket of trees, in its lower parts massive, but in its
upper parts having a roof and a shrine, with a very narrow entrance. By this
Aristobulus sa}^s that he entered. And he saw there a golden couch and a table
with drinking-cups, and a golden coffin, and much raiment, and ornaments inlaid
with stones. At his first visit he saw these things ; but afterwards they had been
despoiled, and the other things had been carried away, and the couch had been
shattered, and the coffin, while they had shifted the corpse. From which it was
clear that it wa,s the work of plunderers, and not of the satrap, since they had
left behind the things that it was not possible to carr}^ away with ease. And
these things had happened, although a guard of Magi had been set about the
tomb, who received every day a sheep for food, and every month a horse. Now
the absence of the army of Alexander in Bactria and the Indies was the occasion
of many other renovations being made, of which renovations this was one. So
said Aristobulus ; and the inscription he related from memory as follows : ‘ O
man I am Cyrus, who founded the Empire of the Persians, and was King of Asia.
Grudge me not therefore this monument.’ Onesicritus further said the tower was
ten storeys high ; and in the uppermost storey was placed Cyrus ; and the inscrip
tion was m Greek, engraved in Persian characters: ‘ Here I lie, Cyrus, King of
Kings ’; and there was another in Persian of the same sense.
Pliny merely said : 2 —
. 0n the easfc (° f p ersepolis) the Magi hold the fortress of Passagarda, in which
is the tomb of Cyrus.
Plutarch, in his Life of Alexander, wrote as follows :
Then finding the tomb of Cyrus broken open, he slew the man that had done
the wrong, though the offender was a Pelkean, and not of the least distinguished,
by name Polymachus. And having read the inscription he ordered it to be en
graved again below in Greek characters; and it ran thus : ‘ Q man, whosoever
thou art, and from whencesoever thou comest (for that thou wilt come I know)
I am Cyrus, who founded the Empire of the Persians. Grudge me not, therefore,’
this little earth that covers my body.’ These things caused Alexander to be sore’
moved, when he called to mind the uncertainty and the vicissitudes of things.
Finally, Quintus Curtius, 3 obviously untrustworthy, gave the follow
ing version :—
For it happened that Alexander ordered the tomb of Cyrus to be opened
wherein had been buried his body, to which he wished to offer obsequies. He
probably be referred to the specially Egyptian jewellery of gold inlaid with enamel
which would not, naturally, have been found at so early a date except in Egypt.’
To his Egyptian queen, Nitetis, therefore, the treatment of the corpse of Cyrus
according to the custom of her country may conceivably have been due ; by her
orders, even, it may, in common with the winged bas-relief, have been executed
How entirely the structure at Murghab harmonises with the dispositions required’
by such a mode of sepulture is manifest.
1 Geog. lib. xv. 1061
VOL. II.
2 HUt. Nat. vi. 29.
3 Hist. Alex. x. 1.
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