Darius Disturbs The Tomb of Nitocris - OCR 2025 Ancient Greek GCSE

Νίτωκρις ἡ τῆς Βαβυλῶνος βασίλεια ἀπάτην τοιάνδε τινὰ ἐμηχανήσατο. ὑπὲρ τῶν μάλιστα λεωφόρων πυλῶν τοῦ ἄστεως τάφον ἑαυτῇ κατεσκευάσατο μετέωρον, ἐπιπολῆς αὐτῶν τῶν πυλων‧ ἐνεκόλαψε δὲ εἰς τὸν τάφον γράμματα λέγοντα τάδε‧

Nitocris, the queen of Babylon devised a trick as follows. Above the very busy gates of the city, she got a tomb built for herself high up on top of the actual gates. She cut in stone onto the tomb letters saying as follows:

‘ἤν τις τῶν ἐμοῦ ὕστερον γιγνομένων Βαβυλῶνος βασιλέων σπανίσῃ χρημάτων, ἀνοίξας τὸν τάφον λαβέτω ὁπόσα βούλεται χρήματα‧ μὴ μέντοι γε, μὴ σπανίσας γε, ἄλλως ἀνοίξῃ‧ οὐ γὰρ ἄμεινον.’

"If any Babylonian who is ruling, of those who come later than (after) me, needs money, let him open my tomb and take as much money as he wants. However, do not open it for any other reason, unless in need. For it would not be a good idea."

οὗτος ὁ τάφος ἦν ἀκίνητος μέχρι οὗ εἰς Δαρεῖον περιῆλθεν ἡ βασιλεία. Δαρείῳ δὲ καὶ δεινὸν ἐδόκει εἶναι ταῖς πύλαις ταύταις μηδὲν χρῆσθαι καί, χρημάτων κειμένων καὶ αὐτῶν τῶν χρημάτων ἐπικαλουμένων, μὴ οὐ λαβεῖν αὐτά.

This tomb was undisturbed until royal power came into [the hands of] Darius. It seemed to be terrible to Darius both to make no use of these gates and when the money was lying there and the money itself was inviting [him], not to take it.

(ταῖς δὲ πύλαις ταύταις οὐδὲν ἐχρῆτο τοῦδε ἕνεκα, ὅτι ὑπὲρ κεφαλῆς αὐτῷ ἐγίγνετο ἂν ὁ νεκρὸς διεξελαύνοντι.) ἀνοίξας δὲ τὸν τάφον ηὗρε χρήματα μὲν οὔ, τὸν δὲ νεκρόν, καὶ γράμματα λέγοντα τάδε,

(He made no use of these gates for this reason: that there would have been a corpse above his head when he was driving out through them.) He opened the tomb and did not find money, but [he did find] the corpse, and letters saying the following:

‘εἰ μὴ ἄπληστός τε ἦσθα χρημάτων καὶ αἰσχροκερδής, οὐκ ἂν νεκρῶν θήκας ἀνέῳγες.’

"If you were not greedy of money and avaricious, you would not be opening the tomb of the dead."