Achaemenid History

We know very little about the facilities that Achaemenid kings established along the roads that crossed the vast territory that they ruled, where travelers, officials and messengers could stock up, rest and change of saddle to continue their journey. Thank to the information the ancient sources and archaeological research give us, we can get an idea of the distance from each other, the diversity of activities that took place and the more luxurious structures which existed exclusively for the royal family and the high dignitaries of the court.

The empire that the Athenians established in the years after 478 BC was an entirely new phenomenon in the history of Greece, and the basis of much of the brilliant development of Athenian culture in the fifth century. Its growth and collapse was the key event in the history of the period, after the defeat of the Persian invasion. Yet this important historical phenomenon remains baffling to study. New developments in various fields have made urgent a revision of existing approaches, which largely originated in the first half of the last century. Advances in archaeology have hugely extended the possibilities of writing an archaeology of the empire. The accepted chronology of many key inscriptions has been powerfully challenged, so that new narrative reconstructions become possible. Relevant new documents in languages such as Lycian have become available. Understanding of the Persian empire which was the parallel, and in a sense the model, with which the Athenian empire interacted has been transformed in the last quarter century. Broader developments in historiography (microhistory; history from below; and, post-colonial theory) invite us to pose new questions.The aim of this collection is not to offer a final word on any of the problems, but to give a sense of the possibility of a new generation of studies of the empire.

This article analyzes the techniques by which the kings of the early Sasanian dynasty engaged the past and shaped the experience of future generations. I concentrate on the innovations and legacy of the first two kings of kings of the dynasty, Ardashir I (r. 224–239/40 C.E.) and his son Shapur I (239/40–270/2 C.E.). These sovereigns fashioned a new and politically useful vision of the past to establish their dynasty's primacy in Persia and the wider Iranian world, eclipsing their Seleucid, Fratarakid, and Arsacid predecessors. I identify and examine the artistic, architectural, and ritual means by which the early Sasanians conformed the built and natural environment of their homeland to their grand new vision of the past. I argue that the Achaemenid patrimony of the province of Pars played an important role in these efforts, serving as inspirations and anchors for the Sasanians' new creations.

This study seeks to ascertain the identification and origins of the commodities in trade between the Levant and Aegean during the Persian period, ca. 540-330 B.C.  Using Semitic and Greek textual sources, as well as numismatic, epigraphic and archaeological evidence, I identify and discuss nearly 200 commodities, including spices, pigments, dyes, chemicals, and manufactured items such as coinage and ceramics.  In the final chapter, a synthesis of the material is presented along with the historic and economic conclusions for Persian period trade that can be drawn from the assembled evidence.

The previous and widely held approach to Alexander and Darius III during the Persian campaign was that Alexander was a brilliant and masterful commander—and that Darius was overpowered, and outclassed.  Indeed the Greek history of the campaign would have us believe that Alexander was ahead of Darius every step of the campaign, outwitting Darius and his commanders at every turn of the battle, boldly leading his men at precisely the right moment in the battle.  These accounts are wrong. 
We have in the Astronomical Diaries and Related Texts from Babylonia, as well as from Curtius, Diodorus and Justin, a series of key passages that must force us to reevaluate our previously held conceptions of not only Gaugamela, but of Darius III as well.  This paper will examine several key events that occurred prior to the battle, during the battle and offer  a hypothesis of events that may change our previously held notion of Gaugamela, Alexander, Darius and Battle that led to the fall of Persia as we know it.

The fact that the Achaemenids controlled Anatolia for two centuries provokes a question about the extent of Greek, Anatolian, and Persian contacts and exchange during this period. The growing
evidence for foreign domination has been accompanied by new and revised evidence of the region’s acculturation, which appears to have been a natural process. Archaeological finds from funerary contexts provide
a large amount of information and testify to the cosmopolitan art and culture. Artists and craftsmen spread their artistic styles far and wide along with iconographic norms closely connected to exchange networks, circulation of people, and common lifeways.

This article proposes a function for the dates in the Behistun inscription of Darius I: that alongside its telling of an authorised story of righteous accession it made possible, and perhaps even established, a calendar of historical commemoration. The article makes observations about DB’s internal chronography – its synchronisation of the Persian and Babylonian calendars, the function of its single-year container for the battles’ day-month dates, and the stability, panimperial distribution, and continued availability of this information; it establishes parallels for annual victory calendars in Mesopotamia and Judea; and it identifies good, if infrequent, testimony to an Achaemenid concern with the institution of anniversary celebrations and battle commemorations.

Using predominantly archaeological evidence this study looks at the strategies employed by the Hekatomnids to build and bolster their dynasty. Carstens examines architecture, sculpture coinage and inscriptions to reveal a systematic attempt to create a distinctive Hekatomnid iconographic style which emphasises its Anatolian roots to instill a sense of legitimacy but includes elements of the Classical and Persian traditions, "Creolization as political strategy" as Carstens puts it. Includes detailed reassessments of the Maussolleion at Halikarnassos and the Sanctuary of Zeus Labraundos.

Focusing on important themes, events or periods throughout ancient history, each volume in this series is divided into roughly equal parts. Th e fi rst introduces the reader to the main issues of interpretation. Th e second contains a selection of relevant evidence supporting diff erent views. published Diocletian and the Tetrarchy Roger Rees Julian the Apostate Shaun Tougher Rome and its Empire, AD 193-284 Olivier Hekster with Nicholas Zair Roman Imperialism Andrew Erskine King and Court in Ancient Persia 559-331 BCE Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones forthcoming Th e Family in the Roman World

This paper (in Dutch) places Alexander's universalism in the context of the tradition of universal empire that was current in the Ancient Near East. It is argued that Alexander's pothos, especially his urge to reach the edges of the earth and "to go where no man has gone before", was a Greco-Macedonian rendering of a rather genuine, and age-old, ideology of empire: the claim to world unity in a single, peaceful empire protected by a single benevolent emperor. Tarn may have been right after all when he postulated that Alexander aimed at creating a "Unity of Mankind", as this was indeed a central notion in the contemporaneous Macedonian ideology and propaganda of empire.

This brief chapter looks at the way Alexander deployed his forces for the battle of Gaugamela, with particular attention to the way Alexander marched his army obliquely across the battlefield, and the significance of that action.
This is quite a brief chapter but includes a number of diagrams to illustrate the Macedonian deployment.

Link to download: https://hdl.handle.net/11299/220694

This article makes three arguments regarding the Battle of Thermopylae. First, that the discovery of the Anopaea path was not dependent upon Ephialtes, but that the Persians were aware of it at their arrival and planned their attacks at Thermopylae, Artemisium, and against the Phocians accordingly. Second, that Herodotus’ claims that the failure of the Phocians was due to surprise, confusion, and incompetence are not convincing. And third, that the best explanation for the Phocian behavior is that they were from Delphi and betrayed their allies as part of a bid to restore local control over the sanctuary.

The composition known as the Verse Account is a polemical poem about Nabû -nā <id's (Nabonidus') evil reign composed after Cyrus' conquest in 539 BC. In a well-known passage, the text mentions two local dignitaries by name: Zēria, the administrator (šatammu) of the Esagil temple of Marduk in Babylon, and Rēmū t, the royal secretary (zazakku). The current interpretation of this passage holds that these two men are despised by the author(s) of the Verse Account for having supported Nabû -nā <id's heretical policies. This article challenges this interpretation and argues that Zēria and Rēmū t are pictured positively, as collaborators of Cyrus, the conqueror and liberator of Babylon.

While many scholars have interpreted Achaemenid religious policy as one of indifference, the inscriptions on the Naoforo Vaticano statue of Udjahorresnet tell a different tale. These texts demonstrate a strategic willingness to allow—and even support—heterogeneous religious customs to the benefit of the Achaemenid Empire. On the statue of Udjahorresnet, both the religious and political importance of Neith is clear: She, as the mother of the sun god Re, was at the center of the religious cult in Sais, the political center of power for Egypt’s Twenty-sixth Dynasty. A reading of the inscriptions of Udjahorresnet’s statue reveals a deliberate policy on the part of Cambyses, and later Darius, to reestablish and maintain a critical Egyptian cult, thus imbedding Persian dominion within the religious tradition of Egypt and making a strong political statement.

On the canal stelae erected by Dareios I, two residence cities of the Achaemenids are mentioned, which could not be identified beyond doubt until now. In this article, two new identification proposals will be made and explained. In addition, the journey of the Persian ruler mentioned in the stelae is reconstructed.

In the famous inscription of the Cylinder of Cyrus the Great composed after the fall of Babylon in 539 BC, the founder of the Persian empire is referred to as “king of the city of Anshan” and is made to indicate that this title was equally borne by his ancestors, Cambyses, Cyrus and Teispes.

Reference to the venerable –but nonetheless Elamite and to all appearances no longer politically important at the time– city of Anshan in Cyrus’ royal family titulary has triggered much scholarly discussion. It is currently thought that the references to Cyrus’ dynastic association with Anshan might acknowledge some sense of an Elamite affinity on the part of Cyrus’ royal line.

The present study argues that the title “king of the city of Anshan” of Cyrus and his forebears was meant to accommodate traditional perceptions of “legitimate kingship” within a native Mesopotamian/Elamite environment and cannot be used as evidence for an Elamite affiliation of Cyrus’ dynastic line.

The paper picks up the question what country Cyrus was attacking in 547 BC, therefore dealing with the broken toponym of the Nabonidus Chronicle obv. ii 16. The reading of the sign(s) has been highly influenced by later classical sources, which place Croesus' defeat against Cyrus somewhere around the corresponding year 547 BC. A collation has made it clear that no reliable reading can be inferred with absolute certainty. Instead of placing a cornerstone of Anatolian and early Persian-Teispid history exclusively on this ambiguous evidence, a new approach to this vexed topic is suggested. The contextualisation of the whole text passage leads to the conclusion that the region of Urartu depicts the most convincing hypothesis so far.

Geography, history, and the material culture provide the three bases for definition and determination of a cultural landscape. The region of Maymand in northwestern of Kerman province as the interacting-ground of the three aforementioned factors is considered as a cultural landscape. The geographic diversity, historical events and 2500-years-old cultural vestiges have prepared the necessities for the formation of a dynamic cultural landscape. The archaeological survey findings show the process of change and evolution in lifestyles of the people who have been living in the Maymand region from ancient times to modern era. This process has been affected by geographic conditions on the one hand and has influenced the region’s history on the other hand. In addition to the complicated and multilinear historical processes having determined the characteristics of the Maymand’s landscape, the village of Maymand has played the focal role in the changing and evolution of the region. Identifying the factors which were acting in the evolution of the cultural landscape of Maymand, would help us to find the true way to indicate and solve the current problems.

One of the most important aspects of the Achaemenid Empire was the establishment of a coherent empire from various beliefs, cultures and nationalities. Hence, the formation of the multi-national cultures like Persian-Elamite, Egypto-Persian, Greco-Persian and Anatolian-Persian made a new chapter in the cultural relations of the ancient world. The Religious effects as one of the most elemental signs of the new unified cultures emerged at Asia Minor (Present Turkey) more than everywhere. At the Achaemenid period, the Classical texts on the one hand, and the archaeological evidence on the other hand, has proven that the impressive presence of supreme political and religious officials in Asia Minor has made the process of cultural relations more serious in that region. Perhaps the formation of Persian sacred sanctuaries and the presence of the Iranian figures in the form of prominent clerics of the Anatolian gods are the most obvious signs of a dual culture founded in Asia Minor during the Achaemenid period, a dual culture that appears in the form of Artemis Persike and Cybele, the Great Mother of Gods, as two Persian-Anatolian goddesses, insofar as the incumbency of the Great Temple of Artemis at Ephesus has given to an Iranian House for a long period. The study on the Persian-Anatolian culture has always been in the context of the Persian-Greek studies and has not been dealt with as it was worthy of. According to a traditional belief among some historians and archaeologists, the Achaemenid presence in Anatolia is merely a political rule, and the main throne in Anatolia is for Greek culture in this period. It is undeniable that a significant part of Anatolian culture's heritage has a very close connection with the Greek and Ionian culture, but this one-sided view has prevented new commentaries, especially in the historiological and archaeological circles of Iran. Today, the examination of the written documents and the archaeological evidence of different parts of Anatolia has proven that the prevalence of Persian culture in Asia Minor was much more than it was supposed to have, until the emergence of the same ritual among the Iranian immigrants and the native inhabitants of Anatolia around the axis of a goddess Leads to the appearance of a unified religion. Evidence suggests that the emergence of this new religion will provide the new cultural exchanges among the Anatolian natives and the immigrants and its effects will continue until the rise of the Roman Empire. In the study on the theological aspects of the personality of Persian Artemis or Artemis Persike, it is inevitable to look into numismatics and inscriptions data. The focus of this paper is on the comparative study on the archaeological evidence including the coins and the related inscriptions, as well as classical texts in redefining the historical features of a new goddess, which is the result of the administration of the Achaemenid Empire and beyond that resulting from new cultural and political relations in the region.
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یکی از مهمترین ویژگیهای فرهنگی شاهنشاهی هخامنشی، تشکیل یک امپراتوری منسجم از باورها، فرهنگها و ملیتهای گوناگون بود. در همین راستا شکل‌‌گیری فرهنگهای دوگانۀ پارسی-عیلامی، پارسی-مصری، پارسی-یونانی و پارسی-آناتولیایی افقی جدید را در مناسبات فرهنگی جهان باستان شکل داد. تاثیرات مذهبی بعنوان یکی از نشانه‌های اساسی فرهنگهای تلفیقی جدید، بیش از هر جای دیگر در آسیای صغیر (ترکیۀ امروزی) به منصۀ ظهور رسید. متون کلاسیک از یک طرف و شواهد باستان‌شناختی از سوی دیگر، ثابت کرده است که در دورۀ هخامنشی، حضور چشمگیر مقامات عالی‌رتبۀ سیاسی و مذهبی در آسیای صغیر، روند مناسبات فرهنگی منطقه را دچار تحولاتی جدی نموده است. شاید بتوان شکل‌گیری محوطه‌های مقدس پارسی و حضور چهره‌های ایرانی در قامت روحانیون برجستۀ خدایان آناتولی را آشکارترین نشانه‌های فرهنگ دوگانه‌ای دانست که در آسیای صغیر در دورۀ هخامنشی بنیان نهاده میشود، فرهنگ دوگانه‌ای که بیش از هرچیز در قالب آرتمیسِ پارسی و کیبِلِه، مادرِ خدایان، بعنوان دوخدابانوی پارسی-آناتولیایی ظهور میکند، تا جایی که تصدی معبد آرتمیس در اِفِسوس برای مدتی به یک خاندان ایرانی میرسد. بررسی فرهنگ پارسی-آناتولیایی همیشه در سایۀ مطالعات پارسی-یونانی قرار گرفته و آنگونه که شایسته‌اش بوده، بدان پرداخته نشده‌است. بر اساس یک باور سنتی در میان بخشی از مورخان و باستان‌شناسان، حضور هخامنشیان در آناتولی صرفاً به منزلۀ حاکمیت سیاسی بوده و غلبۀ اصلی در آناتولی، در این دوره با فرهنگ یونانی-ایونی می‌باشد. البته انکارشدنی نیست که بخش قابل‌توجهی از میراث فرهنگ آناتولی، ارتباطی بسیار نزدیک با فرهنگ یونانی و ایونی دارد، اما این دیدِ یکسویه، مانع اظهارنظرهای جدید بخصوص در محافل تاریخ‌شناسی و باستان‌شناسی ایران فرهنگی گشته است. امروز بررسی اسناد مکتوب و شواهد باستان‌شناختی مناطق مختلف آناتولی ثابت کرده که غلبۀ فرهنگ پارسی در آسیای صغیر خیلی بیشتر از آنچه که تصور میشد، بوده است، تا جایی که به ظهور آیینی یکسان، در میان ایرانیانِ مهاجر و ساکنان بومی آناتولی حول محور یک خدابانو می‌انجامد. شواهد، نشان میدهد که ظهور و بروز این آیین جدید، مبادلات فرهنگی جدیدی را در میان بومیان و مهاجران آناتولی فراهم می سازد و تاثیرات آن تا دوره اوج گیری امپراتوری روم ادامه پیدا میکند. در مطالعه جنبه های تئولوژیک شخصیت آرتمیس پارسی یا آرتمیس پرسیکه، مداقه در داده های سکه شناختی و کتیبه شناختی اجتناب ناپذیر است. تمرکز این مقاله بر مطالعه مقایسه ای شواهد باستان شناختی اعم از سکه و کتیبه های مرتبط و نیز متون کلاسیک در بازتعریف ویژگیهای تاریخی خدابانوی جدیدی است که حاصل مدیریت شاهنشاهی هخامنشی و فراتر از آن حاصل مناسبات جدید فرهنگی و سیاسی در منطقه است.

After defeating Darius III at Gaugamela in 331, Alexander took Babylon and Susa before entering Persepolis. According to the literary sources, Alexander burned the palace complex before resuming his pursuit of Darius. The reasoning behind this act of vandalism is difficult to establish since the sources do not paint a clear picture of the event; consequently, modern scholars have been unable to determine the cause of the fire. Since there is ambiguity within the literary evidence, this paper also draws on the archaeological evidence, and also analyses the merits and weaknesses of the explanations for the conflagration within modern scholarship.

Roman relations (as recorded in rabbinic literature) and thinks they resulted from the Jews' deliberate resistance to Romanization. Though from the point of view of classical philology some of the essays are of more interest than the others, on the whole this is a volume that should not be ignored by anyone working in the eld of Judaeo-Greek studies. And it certainly demonstrates that it can only be to their detriment if classicists ignore ancient Jewish evidence.

The Iranian Expanse explores how kings in the ancient Iranian world utilized the built and natural environment—everything from royal cities and paradise gardens, to hunting enclosures and fire temples—to form and contest Iranian cultural memory, royal identity, and sacred cosmologies over a thousand years of history. Although scholars have often noted startling continuities between the traditions of the Achaemenids and the art and architecture of medieval or Early Modern Islam, the tumultuous millennium between Alexander and Islam has routinely been downplayed or omitted. The Iranian Expanse delves into this fascinating period, examining royal culture and identity as something built and shaped by strategic changes to architectonic and urban spaces and the landscape of Western Asia. Canepa shows how the Seleucids, Arsacids, and Sasanians played a transformative role in developing a new Iranian royal culture that deeply influenced not only early Islam, but also the wider Persianate world of the Il-Khans, Safavids, Timurids, and Mughals.

An examination of the way in which the subject of religion in Achaemenid Persia has been so heavily influenced by the contemporary academic context. Looking at the the developments in anthropology and history, the development of notions such as progress and structuralism and how these have played a part in cultivating a particular interpretation of how religion in Achaemenid Persia would have functioned.

This course presents a broad survey of historical forces at work over the past 6,000 years, examining the manners in which human societies have organized themselves along categories of race, ethnicity, class, and gender to meet the challenges of the increasing human population and its demands on natural resources: thus, it examines continuity and change in societies over time, in different places, and among various peoples.