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of the existence of a corresponding written document, the Res Gestae of Ardashihr, and gives an idea of the probable character of it.7

The Res Gestae of Shapuhr certainly go back to official records, records of the deeds of the king, carefully compiled by court scribes day by day and year by year. It was from these records that the condensed summary of our inscription was compiled. The aim of its publication was to impress the subjects of Shapuhr with the greatness of his deeds and thus to set up to him a memorial after his death. This publication was a kind of political propaganda, typical of the Orient.8

This is the reason why the inscription of Shapuhr was engraved in three languages, and why in its military part it dealt exclusively with some striking episodes of his struggle with the Romans. Shapuhr wanted his inscription to be read first and foremost by his own Iranian subjects, especially by those who still cherished the memory of the Parthian kings. But at the same time he desired to impress by his superiority over his rivals in the West - the Romans - the numerous rich and influential Greeks, residents of the Greek cities scattered all over the Sassanian Empire. Shapuhr's political propaganda was aimed at the ruling and civilized classes of the population of his Empire. The

7. The last and best treatment of the Sassanian rock reliefs with excellent reproductions of the monuments will be found in E. Herzfeld, Iran in the Ancient East, 1941, pp. 310 ff. (Ardashihr) and pp. 314 ff. (Shapuhr) with plates CVII ff. In this book will be found references to the previous publications and to some of the discussions of the reliefs. A fuller bibliography will be found in A. Christensen, CAH, XII, pp. 123 f. and pp. 744 f., cf. his L'Iran sous les Sassanides, 1936, pp. 216 ff. and F. Sarre in Survey of Persian Art, 1, 1938, p. 596, pl. 155 A. I may note in this connection first that the set of triumphal reliefs begins in the Parthian times (the well known relief of Gotarzes) and that Augustus' Res Gestae have also their artistic counterpart in various monuments of architecture and sculpture in Rome and elsewhere, monuments which illustrate the same political ideas which form the background of his written Res Gestae.
8. I cannot discuss at any length the problem of the general character and the historical background of the Res Gestae of Shapuhr. It would require many pages. The "royal records" or "court journals" are well attested for Achaemenid Persia and certainly existed before in Assyria and Egypt also, see E. Meyer, Geschichte des Altertums, 3d ed., IV, 1, 1939, pp. 42 f. and n. 1 ; cf. J. Kaerst, art. "Ephemerides" in PW, V, 27 5 1. The latest offspring of this Oriental tradition are the so-called Annals of the Sassanian kings, from which are derived the PehIevi "Book of Kings" and the Arabic chronicles reporting on the political history of Sassanian Persia; see A. Chris- 		    tensen, l'iran sous les sassanides, 1936, p. 53: "comme c'était le cas déjà du temps des Achéménides la cour royale a tenu des annales officielles (Agathias 11, 23; IV, 27.30; Theoph. Ill, 18)," cf. id., Les gestes des rois dans les traditions do I'Iran antique, 1936, ch. Ill, and the short summary in CAN, XII, p. 742. These Oriental records and annals find a good parallel in similar royal records kept at the Macedonian court first of Philip and then of Alexander the Great (the "ephemerides"). Alexander's 11 ephemerides" are well known, since they were the chief source for some early historians of his life and rule. They have been studied by several modern scholars. I may cite some basic modern contributions to this study without aiming at completeness. Fundamental is the article on the ephemerides in general by U. Wilcken, Philologus, LIII, 1894, pp. 80 ff. The fragments of Alexander's Ephemerides will be found in F. jacoby, Frag. Cr. Hist., IIB, no. 117, pp. 618 ff., cf. IIBD, pp. 403 ff., and Ch. A. Robinson, The Ephemerides of Alexander's Expedition, 1932 (with good bibliography; add H. Berve, Das Alexanderreich, 1, 1926, p. So f. and E. Kornemann, Die Alexander geschichte des Königs Ptolemaios 1 von Aegypten, 1933, and for a. different view F. Altheim, Epochen der Römischen Geschichte, 11, 1935, pp. 140 ff.). Similar records were kept by the successors of Alexander and had a long life afterwards. The Macedonian "ephemerides" are regarded by some scholars as going back to the Oriental "royal records." The question however is controversial.

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