Inscription DSaa

Achaemenid Royal Inscriptions: collection of Old Persian cuneiform texts from the sixth, fifth, and fourth centuries BCE, left by the Achaemenid kings on their official monuments.

DSaa, inscription on a slab of stone

[This text from Susa is a Babylonian, abridged variant of DSf on a square block of grey stone.]

I am Darius, the great king, the king of kings, the king of all countries, the son of Hystaspes, the Achaemenid.

King Darius says: By the grace of Ahuramazda, this palace that was built over here, was built by me. Before this palace was constructed, its foundations were laid, until I arrived at the rock bottom, and this was twenty cubits deep; and on this rock bottom, the foundations of this palace were laid.

These are the building materials of this palace: gold, silver, lapis lazuli, turquoise, cornalin, cedar wood, wood from Maka, ebony, ivory, and the decoration of the reliefs. All columns were made of stone.

These are the countries that brought building materials for the decoration of this palace: Persia, Elam, Media, Babylonia, Assyria, Arabia, Egypt, the countries of the sea (= the Greeks overseas), Lydia, the Ionian Greeks, Armenia, Cappadocia, Parthia, Drangiana, Aria, Chorasmia, Bactria, Sogdia, Gandara, Scythia, Sattagydia, Arachosia, Maka.

King Darius says: With the help of Ahuramazda, the building materials for the decoration of this palace were brought from far away, and I have used them. Everything that I did, I could only do with the help of Ahuramazda. May Ahuramazda protect me until I have finished everything!

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