1' Achaemenid History

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1. Achaemenid History

• BOT535 Postexilic History Literature

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Cyrus the Great Genealogy

• Achaemenes (700-675?)
• Teispes (675-640?)
• Cyrus I (640-600?) Ariaramnes (640-615?)
• Cambyses I (600-559?) Arsames (590-550?)
• Cyrus II (559-530)
• Yamauchi, Edwin M. Persia and the Bible, 70

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Cyrus II

• Biblical References Dan 1.21 6.28 10.1 2 Chr
  36.22-23 Ezra 1.1-4 6.3-5 Isa 44.28 45.1 (Isa
  41.2-3, 25-26 45.13 46.11).
• Parents and Birth
• Father Cambyses I, a Persian
• Mother Mandane, the daughter of the Median king
  Astyages.
• 590 BCE

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Cyrus II (559-530 BCE)

• At the beginning of my lasting kingship they
  (the great gods) showed me a vision in a dream .
  . . . Marduk said to me, The Umman-manda of whom
  thou speakest, he, his land, and the kings who go
  at his side, will not exist for much longer. At
  the beginning of the third year, Cyrus, kind of
  Anshan, his youthful servant, will come forth.
  With his few forces he will rout the numerous
  forces of the Umman-manda. He will capture
  Astyages, the king of the Umman-manda, and will
  take him prisoner to his country.
• DOTT, pp. 89-90 in Yamauchi, 80-81

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Cyrus II (559-530)

• Defeats Astyage and the Medes in 550 BCE
• Capital was Ecbatana (Ezra 6.2)
• Received the allegiance from the Hyrcanians,
  Parthians, Sakai and Bactrians
• Treasure of Astyage
• Conquest of Croesus of Lydia
• Sardis conquered
• Period of consolation of power (546-540 BCE)

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Cyrus II (559-530)

• Conquest of the Neo-Babylonian Empire
• Babylonian citizen assisted
• Cyrus general Gobryas enters Babylon in 539 BCE
• Cyrus uses propaganda
• Cyrus seizes the territory of the Outer Euphrates
• Dies in 530 BCE (Massagetai)

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Cyrus Cylinder Amelie Kuhrts Outline

• 1-3 . . . a reference to Cyrus predecessor
  (Nabonidus) as a person unfit to rule Bablonia.
• 4-8 A narrative of the wicked deeds of Nabonidus
  particularly in relation to Esagila, his
  blasphemous offerings, his interruption of
  regular offerings, his lack of awe for Marduk. In
  addition he caused the people to perish by
  imposing heavy labour-duties.

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Cyrus Cylinder Amelie Kuhrts Outline

• 9-10 Marduk raged as he heard the laments of his
  people (cult centres were abandoned?), their
  shape (was forgotten?) and the gods who dwelt
  therein abandoned them. He (Nebonidus) brought
  the gods into Babylon.
• 19-14 Marduks anger turns to mercy in the face
  of his peoples suffering he examines all the
  countries to find a just and suitable ruler. He
  takes Cyrus, king of Anshan, calls

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Cyrus Cylinder Amelie Kuhrts Outline

• him to his position and appoints him
• 15-19 Marduk now orders Cyrus to go to Babylon
  and accompanies him and his troops like a friend
  he causes him to enter Babylon without a battle
  and hands Nabonidus over to him. All the
  inhabitants of Babylon are delighted, welcome
  Cyrus as king and praise Marduk for their
  deliverance.

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Cyrus Cylinder Amelie Kuhrts Outline

• 20-22 I, Cyrus followed by royal titles and
  genealogy back to great-grandfather - eternal
  seed of royalty, whose kingship is loved by
  Marduk and Nabu, who desired his kingship in
  order to please their hearts.
• 22-24 Cyrus peaceful and joyful arrival in
  Babylon and his daily honouring of Marduk.

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Cyrus Cylinder Amelie Kuhrts Outline

• 24-26 Cyrus guarantees the peace of the country
  and protects the welfare of Babylon and its cult
  centres he releases them from their burden
  (which was not in accordance with the will of the
  gods).
• 26-30 Marduk is pleased and blesses Cyrus, his
  son, Cambyses, and all his troops. At Marduks
  command all enthroned kings of all regions bring
  tribute and kiss Cyrus feet

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Cyrus Cylinder Amelie Kuhrts Outline

• in Babylon.
• 30-34 All the gods whose dwelling-places have
  been abandoned long ago are returned to their
  places and allowed to settle in an eternal
  dwelling (the cult-centres listed in this section
  are (Nineveh?), Assur, Susa, Akkad, Esnunna,
  Zamban, Me4turnu, De4r as far as Gutium,
  cult-centres on the other side (i.e. east) of the
  Tigris). All the

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Cyrus Cylinder Amelie Kuhrts Outline

• people associated with these returned deities
  are gathered together and brought back to their
  (i.e. the restored gods) dwelling-places. All
  the gods of Babylonia that had been gathered by
  Nabonidus together in Babylon were also joyfully
  returned to their homes at the command of Marduk.
• 34-36 A prayer asking that all the restored

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Cyrus Cylinder Amelie Kuhrts Outline

• gods may daily speak to Marduk and Nabu on
  behalf of Cyrus and Cambyses, his son.
• 36 All lands are at peace.
• 37-38 (Probably) a reference to increased
  cult-offerings.
• 33-43 Improvements and completion of building in
  Babylon (walls, quay-wall, elaborate doors).

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Cyrus Cylinder Amelie Kuhrts Outline

• 43-45 Cyrus finds an inscription of
  Assurbanipal, a king who preceded me the last
  line has only the final word preserved but it is
  probable that it would have referred to the
  reverent replacing of the text and perhaps a
  mention of the fact that Cyrus placed his own
  inscription next to it.

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Cyrus Cylinder Amelie Kuhrts Literary Pattern

• A. (1-19) Historical preamble and Marduks role
  in it (in the third person)
• B. (20-22) Royal protocol and genealogy (in the
  first person)
• C. (22-34) Cyrus correct behaviour in returning
  everything to normal
• D. (34-35) Prayer by Cyrus for himself and his son

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Cyrus Cylinder Amelie Kuhrts Literary Pattern

• E. (36-37) Statement that everything in the
  empire is in order
• F. (38-45) Cyrus building works in Babylon.

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Cyrus Cylinder Amelie Kuhrts Analysis

• 1. The Cyrus Cylinder is a document composed in
  accordance with traditional Mesopotamian royal
  building texts and apart from the
  incontrovertible fact that the main protagonist
  is a Persian no foreign and /or new literary
  elements appear in it.
• 2. It is thus unsuprising that the text relates
  itself exclusively to the fortunes of the city

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Cyrus Cylinder Amelie Kuhrts Analysis

• of Babylon and its god Marduk and only by
  extension to other deities of the Babylonian
  pantheon and the country of which Babylon was the
  capital.
• 3. The fact that the text has a limited local
  application is confirmed by the geographical
  horizon outlined above and the possibility that
  similar (albeit perhaps not

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Cyrus Cylinder Amelie Kuhrts Analysis

• such elaborate) compositions were produced in
  relation to the restoration of other sanctuaries.
• 4. The main significance of the text lies in the
  insight it provides into the mechanism used by
  Cyrus to legitimise his conquest of Babylonia by
  manipulating local traditions - an exercise in
  which he probably received

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Cyrus Cylinder Amelie Kuhrts Analysis

• the support of a fairly powerful segment of the
  urban population in Babylonia, whose traditional
  privileges were perhaps being threatened by
  Nabonidus policy.
• 5. Whether Cyrus ever actually restored any
  cults is quite unclear and to some extent the
  answer to this question depends on an evaluation
  of the effect of Nabonidus

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Cyrus Cylinder Amelie Kuhrts Analysis

• religious reforms on the Babylonian cities it
  is possible that some kind of restoration of
  normal cult-practice, disrupted by the fall of
  the Assyrian empire, was also envisaged . . . .
  But such a restoration does not appear to have
  been carried out. . . .

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Cyrus Cylinder Amelie Kuhrts Summary

• 1. He and his successors were doing no more than
  following Assyrian policy in relation to the
  Babylonian cities - a policy which could be
  reversed when necessary not the destruction of
  Babylon and possible removal / destruction of the
  Marduk statue by Xerxes after the revolts in
  Babylonia in the early part of his reign.

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Cyrus Cylinder Amelie Kuhrts Summary

• 2. Cambyses the tyrant also restored cultic
  order in the temple of Neith and Sais and yet
  certainly withdrew incomes and privileges from
  other temples in Egypt in order to break the
  power of the priesthoods.
• 3. While Achaemenid rulers appear to have been
  anxious to maintain the privileges of cultic
  communities as evidenced, for

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Cyrus Cylinder Amelie Kuhrts Summary

• example, by the letter from Darius to Gadates
  concerning the workers in the sacred of Apollo,
  yet the temple at Didyma in Asia Minor was
  destroyed on the others of the same king probably
  because of the role it had played in the Ionian
  revolt (Hdt. 6.20).
• 4. While Achaemenids certainly practised the

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Cyrus Cylinder Amelie Kuhrts Summary

• deportation of populations as part of their
  policy just as Assyrians and Babylonians had
  done thus, the inhabitants of Barca in Libya
  were moved to Bactria by Darius I (Hdt. 4.204),
  the Paeonians were moved from Thrace to Phrygia
  (Hdt. 5.13-16), and the inhabitants of Miletus
  were settled on the Persian Gulf (Hdt. 6.20). A
  much later

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Cyrus Cylinder Amelie Kuhrts Summary

• reference in a Babylonian text dating to
  Artaxerxes III lists deportees, including women,
  arriving in Babylon after the revolt of Sidon.

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Cyrus Cylinder Amelie Kuhrts Conclusion

• The assumption that Persian imperial control was
  somehow more tolerable than the Assyrian yoke is
  based, on the one hand, on the limited experience
  of one influential group of a very small
  community which happened to benefit by Persian
  policy and, on the other, on a piece of blatant
  propaganda successfully modelled on

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Cyrus Cylinder Amelie Kuhrts Conclusion

• similar texts derised to extol a representative
  and practitioner of the earlier and much
  condemned Assyrian imperialism.
• Kuhrt, Amelie, The Cyrus Cylinder and
  Achaemenid Imperial Policy, JSOT 25 (1983),
  83-97

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Cambyses (530-522 BCE)

• Conquest of Egypt
• 525 Cambyses enters Sais
• Failure in the Ethiopian Campaign
• Cambyses Policies
• Local sacral traditions followed as politically
  expedient the sacred Apis Bull and the testimony
  of Udjahorresnet, etc.
• Dies attempting to return to Persia (522BCE)

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Egypt 26th Dynasty

• Psammetichus I 664-610 BCE
• Necho II 610-595 BCE
• Psammetichus II 595-589 BCE
• Apries 589-570 BCE
• Amasis 570-526 BCE
• Psammetichus III 526-525 BCE

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Darius I (522-486 BCE)

• Biblical References
• Ezra 4-6
• Haggai 1.1, 15 2.10
• Zechariah 1.1, 7 7.1

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Darius I (522-486 BCE)

• Problem of Succession
• Was Bardya, Smerdis (Hdt.), Guamata Cambyses
  brother?
• Or was Darius the usurper?
• Rebellions Crushed
• in Egypt, Persia, Elam, Babylonia, Media and East
  on the Iranian Plateau.
• In Egypt in 518 Did he stop by Judah during the
  ministries of Haggai and Zechariah?

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Darius I (522-486 BCE)

• Building Programs
• Canal from Nile to Red Sea (512 BCE)
• I am Persian from Persia I seized Egypt, I gave
  order to dig this canal from a river by name Nile
  which flows in Egypt, to the sea which goes from
  Persia. After this canal was dug thus as I had
  ordered and ships went from Egypt through this
  canal to Persia thus as was my desire.
• Behistun Monument

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Darius I (522-486 BCE)

• Persepolis
• Royal road system from Sadis to Susa
• Governance
• 20 Satrapies
• He established in the Persian Empire twenty
  governments (archai) called satrapies the
  variousgovernors were appointed, and each nation
  assessed for tributes (phoroi) that should revert
  to him (Hdt. 3.89)

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Darius I (522-486 BCE)

• Coinage, the daric in about 515 BCE
• Military Problems
• Aristagoras of Miletus (499-494 BCE)
• First Persian War (490 BCE) and the defeat at
  Marathon
• Darius dies 486 BCE)

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The Behistun Relief

• Date 521 or 520 BCE to 519 BCE (addition).
• Description The relief represents Darius
  triumphant over his enemies he holds a bow in
  this left hand and stands with one foot on the
  fallen figure of Gaumata, the first rebel, who
  raises his arms in a pleading gesture toward
  Darius. Behind the king are two Persian
  attendants, and the nine

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The Behistun Relief

• remaining rebel leaders stand in front of
  Darius their hands are tied behind their backs,
  and their necks are bound by a rope which runs
  from figure to figure. Above the rebels floats
  the truncated figure of Ahura Mazda in a winged
  disc the god holds a ring in his left hand and
  raises his right hand toward Darius. The Persian
  monarch raises

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The Behistun Relief

• his right hand in a similar gesture to the god,
  so that the two seem to be in communion, the god
  bestowing, the king worshipping. The king and his
  two officers wear Persian dress each rebel
  leader is shown in his appropriate native costume
  and hairdress.
• Farkas, Ann, The Behistun Relief, The
  Cambridge History of Iran, Vol 2., 828

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The Behistun Relief Inscription

• Afterwards, there was one man, a Magian, Gaumata
  by name he rose up from Paishiyauvada. A
  mountain by name Arakadri - from there 14 days of
  the month Viyakhna March 11, 522 were past when
  he rose up. He lied to the people thus I am
  Smerdis OP Bardiya, the son of Cyrus, brother
  of Cambyses. After that all the

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The Behistun Relief Inscription

• people became rebellious from Cambyses, (and)
  went over to him, both Persia and Media and the
  provinces.
• Quoted from Yamauchi, p. 138

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Xerxes I (486-465 BCE)

• Biblical References
• Ezra 4.6
• Daniel 11.2 (?)
• Esther
• Birth and Parentage
• Not the eldest son of Darius, but first born
  after Darius came to power (_at_518)
• Mother Atossa, daughter of Cyrus

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Xerxes I (486-465 BCE)

• Revolts
• Egypt suppressed by 484 BCE
• Babylonian revolts of 484 and 482 BCE
• Defeated in the immense land and sea battle with
  Greece in 480 BCE
• Death
• Assassinated in 465 BCE

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Arataxerxes I (465-424 BCE)

• Biblical References
• Nehemiah 1.1 2.1 (Nehemiah was cupbearer)
• Supposed dates of the so-called Trito-Isaiah,
  Jonah, many Psalms, Proverbs and Qoheleth
• Revolts
• The third son of Xerxes who was satrap of Bactria

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Arataxerxes I (465-424 BCE)

• Egypt (460 BCE) rebelled under Inarus with the
  aid of Athens - suppressed by Megabyzus by 454
  BCE
• Struggle with Athens continues . . . 449 the
  peace of Callias
• Death
• Natural causes in 425/424 BCE

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The Last Rulers

• Xerxes II (45 days, i.e., 424-425 BCE)
• Darius II Ochus (423-404 BCE)
• Artaxerxes II Memnon (404-359 BCE)
• Artaxerxes III Ochus (359-338 BCE)
• Arses (338-336 BCE)
• Darius III Codommanus (336-331 BCE)