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Achaemenid Royal Inscriptions: DPf and DPg
Inscriptions DPd, DPe, DPf, and DPg on the southern terrace wall of Persepolis. Photo Marco Prins.
Inscriptions DPd, DPe, DPf, and DPg on the southern terrace wall of Persepolis
 In ca.521, the Persian king Darius I the Great ordered that a new alphabet, the Aryan script, was to be developed. This was used for a small corpus of inscriptions, known as the Achaemenid Royal Inscriptions. An overview of all inscriptions can be found here.

The following texts can be found on the southern terrace wall of Persepolis, next to the main inscription DPd and DPe, in which Darius described the building of Persepolis and the size of his empire. Similar themes are found in the following inscriptions, which were written in Elamite and Babylonian.
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The Elamite inscription from Persepolis known as DPf. Chicago Oriental Institute.
DPf (Photo Chicago
Oriental Institute; ©!!!)

DPf, Elamite terrace inscription

I am Darius, the great king, the king of kings,
the king of all nations, the king of this earth,
the son of Hystaspes, the Achaemenid.

And king Darius says:
On this terrace, on which the palace has been built,
on a place where no palace had been built before,
by the grace of Ahuramazda, I built a palace.
And Ahuramazda, and the other gods,
wanted that this palace was built. And I built it.
Therefore, it was made strong and excellent,
and exactly as I had ordered it to be.

And king Darius says:
May Ahuramazda, with the other gods, protect me,
and this palace, and what has been built on this terrace.
May there never be someone who thinks bad of it!

The Babylonian inscription from Persepolis known as DPg. Chicago Oriental Institute.
DPg (Photo Chicago
Oriental Institute; ©!!!)

DPg, Babylonian terrace inscription

The great Ahuramazda is the greatest of all gods,
who created heaven and earth, who created the nations,
who gave prosperity to the people living down here,
who made Darius king and gave king Darius the kingship
on this wide earth, where he owns numerous nations:
Persia, Media, and other countries,
with other languages, mountains and plains,
from the shore of one sea to the shore of another sea,
from one desert to another desert.

King Darius says:
With the protection of Ahuramazda,
these are the countries that have made this, who have united here:
Persia, Media, and other countries,
with other languages, mountains and plains,
from the shore of one sea to the shore of another sea,
from one desert to another desert,
as I have ordered them.
All that I did, I did with the protection of Ahuramazda.
May Ahuramazda and the other gods protect me,
protect me and what I love!
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