--- title: 'Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda' url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce/ description: A carved cliff panel beside the ancient road from Babylon to Ecbatana. section: Collection --- [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/) **Content note:** Shows bound captives before the king, and the inscription records the mutilation and public execution of rebel leaders, as the king's own account. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was) [![Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce.jpg) # Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda A carved cliff panel beside the ancient road from Babylon to Ecbatana. Darius stands at left with a bowbearer and a spearbearer behind him and a figure lies under his foot; nine roped captives file toward him beneath a winged figure. Text in Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian surrounds the scene and tells it as a story of lies defeated. ## Text on the object Original (Old Persian) · checked against a source transcription ``` [Column IV, end of section 69 and section 70, Old Persian transliteration:] thâtiy Dârayavauš xšâyathiya vašnâ Auramazdâha iyam dipîmaiy tyâm adam akunavam patišam ariyâ âha utâ pavastâyâ utâ carmâ grathitâ âha patišamaiy patikaram akunavam patišam uvadâm akunavam utâ niyapithiya utâ patiyafrasiya paišiyâ mâm pasâva imâm dipîm adam frâstâyam vispadâ atar dahyâva kâra hamâtaxšatâ ``` English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader) ``` King Darius says: By the grace of Ahuramazda this is the inscription which I have made. Besides, it was in Aryan script, and it was composed on clay tablets and on parchment. Besides, a sculptured figure of myself I made. Besides, I made my lineage. And it was inscribed and was read off before me. Afterwards this inscription I sent off everywhere among the provinces. The people unitedly worked upon it. ``` Transliteration and English (King and Thompson, 1907, as adapted) from Livius.org's Behistun pages, where the web text breaks some words with stray spaces; those are joined here and the page's backslash word dividers are shown as spaces. Only this section is transcribed; the full text runs to over 400 lines in Old Persian. The monument also carries Elamite and Babylonian versions. [← Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) [Clay cylinder with the Ehulhul inscription of Nabonidus, king of Babylon, describing work on three temples →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cylinder-nabonidus-ehulhul-inscription-555bce/) ## Using the same techniques - [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer) - [Tomb of Darius I at Naqsh-e Rustam: the king in relief beside his inscription DNa, c. 490 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dna-inscription-darius-i-naqsh-e-rustam-490bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Testimonial, Card stacking) - [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account. - [Persepolis, Apadana staircase relief: a figure with an animal from a procession of delegations, early fifth century BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/persepolis-apadana-delegate-relief-500bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Manufactured consensus) - [Alabaster relief, Assyrian troops storming a citadel, from Nineveh (reign of Sennacherib)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/relief-sennacherib-storming-citadel-nineveh-704bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Card stacking). Content note: An Assyrian palace relief of troops storming a fortified city, with a file of figures below; Assyrian royal reliefs and texts record killing, mutilation and deportation, shown as carved, with the historical context and scholarly dispute on the regime page. - [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/) (Roman Empire · 0014 · Card stacking, Glittering generalities) - [Silver denarius of Vespasian, reverse IVDAEA with a trophy of arms and a seated mourning woman](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/denarius-vespasian-judaea-capta-0070/) (Roman Empire · 0070 · Card stacking). Content note: A Roman victory coin showing a mourning female figure as the personification of the conquered province of Judaea after the Roman suppression of the Jewish revolt; shown as struck, with the historical context on the regime page. - [Relief on the Arch of Titus, Rome: soldiers carrying the menorah and other spoils from the Temple at Jerusalem in a triumphal procession](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/relief-arch-of-titus-spoils-of-jerusalem-0081/) (Roman Empire · 0081 · Card stacking). Content note: A Roman state relief commemorating the capture of Jerusalem in 70, showing soldiers in a triumphal procession carrying the Temple's menorah and other spoils; shown as it stands, with the historical context on the regime page.