CYRUS THE GREAT. A cylinder of this monarch, which was sent to Britain after Mr. Hormazd Rassam's return, was the most interesting historical record in the cuneiform character till then brought to light. It is in the Babylonian script, and was discovered among the ruins of the Birs Nimrud, the ancient Borsippa. The cylinder is 9 inches long by 3i inches in diameter, and must originally have been covered with 45 long lines of text. The writing is very minute, and it is computed that the inscription would run to about 130 lines of the average length. Unfor tunately the beginning was wholly lost, with the exception of a few scattered signs. It is found to relate to the very moment of that great historical event, the capture of Babylon by the founder of the Persian universal monarchy. Nabonidus has abandoned his capital, which has fallen into the hands of Cyrus, though he is still struggling against his fate in Babylonia. The Guti, and a people whose name is taken to be equivalent to Blackheads, are described as his subjects, and the god Merodach has delivered king Nabonidus into his hands. In a proclamation issued by Cyrus upon the taking of the city, the king repeats in the first person the principal allegations of the preamble. It is partly mutilated, but the begin ning, I am Cyrus,' with his genealogy in full, and his description of himself as king of Gyndia,' etc., can be pretty clearly made out. Cyrus is
made to speak of his reparation of the temples of Babylon, and of the favours conferred upon him by Merodach, Be], and Nebo, in answer to his prayers to them ; of the homage paid him by dis tant nations, and of the gatherings of the people in the city to acclaim him king. Sir Henry Rawlinson said this new text settled for ever in favour of Herodotus, as against Ctesias (in Dio dorus), the genealogy of Cyrus. He was fifth in descent from Achmtnenes, next to whom came Teispes, then Cyrus the grandfather, and Cam byses, the father of Cyrus the Great. The suc cession was direct, not indirect, as Professor Oppert. has maintained. The inscription styles the native country of the Persians Assan,' which Sir.Henry Rawlinson seems to think was in the plains between the modern Shuster and the Persis of the classical writers. An important religious centre, named Calaua in the inscription, he re ferred to the Calneh of Genesis and the Calno of Isaiah. Cyrus evinced sympathy with the Jews, as is shown by Isaiah xli. 2, xliv. 28, xlv. 1, and Ezra i. 2 t,o 4.