DNa Inscription
DNa
In his tomb inscription, Darius I asserts that Ahuramazda alone grants and sustains kingship, and that the long, orderly catalog of peoples paying him tribute is the visible proof of that divine mandate.
- kingship as a direct grant from Ahuramazda
- a list of subject peoples used as proof of divine favor
- royal genealogy asserting Achaemenid descent
- paired with the moral testament DNb on the same tomb facade
Cut into the upper register of Darius I's rock-cut tomb facade above Persepolis, DNa functions as a compressed political autobiography and companion piece to the moral testament DNb inscribed just below it. It opens by naming Ahuramazda as the god who created this earth and gave Darius kingship, then has Darius declare himself king of kings, king of countries containing all kinds of men, son of Hystaspes and an Achaemenid. The bulk of the text is an exhaustive list of more than twenty subject lands, from Media and Babylon to Egypt and the Greeks by the sea, framed as evidence of divine favor rather than mere conquest. It closes by exhorting the reader to follow Ahuramazda's law and the right path. Probably composed toward the end of Darius's reign, since its territorial list reflects the empire's fullest extent.
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