نسخة مذيلة من "بلاد فارس والشأن الفارسي" بقلم جورج كرزون، مع أوراق مدرجة [ظ‎‎٦‎١‎٣] (١٨١٤/١٢٤١)

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PERSIA
campaign ^ or his victory over the Syrian king, Sitaiun. I incline to
some such hypothesis, from the resemblance of the head-dress of the
captives to that of the Bedouin tribes of Mesopotamia and Syria . 1
The superior elevation of the next bas-relief has fortunately saved
it from the aqueous disfigurement of the last, the channel in this case
merely cutting into the hocks and pasterns of the horses at
tablet • the base of the tablet. It is about sixteen to eighteen feet
Ormuzd high . 2 Two figures on horseback meet each other, that on
and Narses the presenting the royal circlet with streamers,
which the opposing figure holds out his right hand to receive. A
Pehlevi inscription in the right-hand corner, first deciphered by
M. Longperier , 3 contains these words :—
This is the image of the Ormuzd-worshipper, the God, Narses, King of kings
Arian and non-Arian, of the race of the Gods, the son of the Ormuzd-worshipper,
the God, Shapur, King of kings Arian and non-Arian, of the race of the Gods, the
offspring of the God, Artakshatr, King of kings.
We learn, therefore, that the figure of one of the horsemen is that
of NTarses, who reigned from 292 to 301 a.d., when he abdicated. He
has usually been supposed to be the son or brother of Yarahran II., i.e.
grandson or great-grandson of Shapur I., but here he calls himself the
son’of the latter monarch, and the grandson of Ardeshir or Artaxerxes.
It has been suggested by Thomas that this may possibly have been a
figure of speech on the part of Harses, in the desire to ignore the inter
mediate succession of less renowned monarchs ; but it appears to me
that we shall do well to let Narses speak for himself, and to accept his
own account of his parentage, in which there is no inherent impro
bability. Of the two figures, that on the right is doubtless the young
king. He wears a diadem, or spiked crown, with the conventional
globe rising above it. His hair is elegantly curled, and flows behind
his head in ringlets ; 4 his expression is mild and benign, and his short
beard is tied in a knot. The left hand figure, conferring the cydaris,
is doubtless that of Ormuzd. He wears the mural or turreted crown,
above and behind which emerge his bushy locks. The features are
well preserved, and the beard and hair are those of an older man than
his vis-a-vis. The twisted tail of his horse, the trappings of both
steeds, and the veins and muscles depicted on their forelegs are in
a wonderful state of preservation, and indicate no mean level of
1 Morier is very wide afield when he calls this ‘the commencement of a
hunting piece.’
2 Texier, vol. ii. pi. 148; Flandin and Coste, vol. i. pi. 52; Stolze, vol. ii.
ph 139. 3 Medailles des Sassanides, 1840.
4 It does, not, however, in the least resemble the stiff trim curls depicted by
Flandin and Coste, which are wholly imaginary.