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The Achaemenid Empire: a Babylonian perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2013

Amélie T. L. Kuhrt
Amélie T. L. Kuhrt
Affiliation:
University College London
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Extract

For over 2000 years views of the Persian empire founded by Cyrus c. 550 B.C. and conquered by Alexander in the space of ten years between 334 and 323 have been constructed on the basis of Greek literary sources (in which I would include historical works, such as Herodotus' histories) and some sections of the Old Testament. Despite the fundamental ‘honesty’ of Herodotus' account, the fact that the focus of his history centered on the Greco-Persian conflict of 480/79 and aimed to explain the unexpected Persian defeat which had such enormous repercussions for Greek political and cultural development, means that his work serves to commemorate for us the ineffectiveness of the Achaemenid style of imperialism and to emphasize its ultimate failure. A failure epitomized at the very end of Herodotus' work (9.122), where Cyrus, the wise ‘father’ of the empire, is made to utter a prophetic warning about the enfeebling dangers of successful imperial expansion particularly when connected with the system of ‘oriental despotism’. The implication, given the detailed descriptions of Xerxes and the huge Persian army's defeat at the hands of a small number of Greeks, is that by the time of the Persian wars the rulers of the empire had lost their former rugged strength and had been seduced by the soft life offered them by the countries they had defeated: the conquerors had been taken captive by their victims and emasculated.

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Research Article
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Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society (Second Series) , Volume 34 , 1988, pp. 60 - 76
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Copyright © The Author(s). Published online by Cambridge University Press 1988

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References

NOTES

1. Cf. Kuhrt, A., ‘A brief guide to some recent work on the Achaemenid empire’. LCM 8 (10 December 1983) 146–53Google Scholar.

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3. Pervasively reflected in the numerous histories of classical Greece that take 479/8 as their chronological starting point, such as Davies, J. K., Democracy and classical Greece (1978)Google Scholar; Hornblower, S., The Greek world, 479-323 B.C. (1983)Google Scholar.

4. Alan Griffiths made the interesting suggestion in a seminar at the Institute of Classical Studies, London (November 1987) that Herodotus' image of Oriental despotism' is menacingly and intentionally darkened by the structural pairing of the story of Candaules and Gyges at the beginning of his work with that of Xerxes and Masistes' wife at the end.

5. Ctesias: cf. Sancisi-Weerdenburg, H., ‘Decadence in the empire or decadence in the sources? From source to synthesis: Ctesias’, in Sancisi-Weerdenburg, H. (ed.), Achaemenid History I: sources, structures and synthesis (1987) 33–45Google Scholar. Deinon: Stevenson, R. B., ‘Lies and invention in Deinon's Persica’, in Sancisi-Weerdenburg, H. & Kuhrt, A. (eds.), Achaemenid History II: the Greek sources (1987) 27–35Google Scholar.

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34. See above n.27: 117, iii. 12–14.

35. N.27: 121, 1.14.

36. For references see above n.27.

37. Above n.27.

38. Cf. van der Spek, R. J., ‘Cyrus de Pers in assyrisch perspectief’, Tijdschrift voor Geschiendenis 96 (1983) 1–27Google Scholar; Kuhrt, A., ‘Conquest, usurpation and ceremonial: from Babylon to Persia’, in Cannadine, D.N. and Price, S. R. F. (eds.) Rituals of royalty: power and ceremonial in traditional societies (1987) 20–55Google Scholar.

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40. Cf. above n.30.

41. E.g. Ghirshman, R., Iran (1954) 193–4Google Scholar.

42. Cf. Sancisi-Weerdenburg, H., Yauna en Persai (see above n.17) 1–47Google Scholar; Cook, J. M., The Persian empire (1983) 148Google Scholar.

43. Cook (see above n.42) 99–100.

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46. Although Ctesias, (FGrH 688Google ScholarF13, 25/Photius, Bihl. 39a, 21–3Google Scholar) mentions a visit to the ‘tomb of Belitanes’ in Babylon by Xerxes and a revolt, he does not report any destruction of temples there by him.

47. Texts from northern Babylonia: McEwan, G.J. P., Late Babylonian texts in the Ashmolean Museum, OECT 10 (1984)Google Scholar, nos. 171, 174, 175, 183, 191, 229. Uruk texts: Kessler, K., ‘Duplicate und Fragments aus Uruk, Teil II’, BaM 15 (1984) 261–72Google Scholar.

48. For a positive assessment of Xerxes' reign which marked a crucial developmental stage of the empire cf. Sancisi-Weerdenburg, , Yauna en Persai (see above n.17) 32–6Google Scholar; Graf, D. F., ‘Greek tyrants and Achaemenid polities’, in Eadie, J. W. and Ober, J. (eds.), The craft of the ancient historian: essays in honor of Chester G. Starr (1985) 79–123Google Scholar.

49. Cf. Kuhrt, A. and Sherwin-White, S., ‘Xerxes' destruction of Babylonian temples’, Achaemenid History II (see above n.5) 69–78Google Scholar.

50. See, for example, Burn, A. R., Alexander and the hellenistic empires ed. 2 (1951) 159–60Google Scholar; Fox, R. Lane, Alexander the Great (1973) 247–9Google Scholar; Briant, P., Alexandre le Grand ed. 2 (1977) 96–7Google Scholar (but not in ed. 3 of 1987).

51. Work on the Esagila temple, that must have been initiated by Alexander, is mentioned in LBAT 212 r. 14′ (astronomical diary for 322/1 B.C.). Work seems to have continued in 320/19, cf. Grayson, Chronicles (above n.27) no.10, obv. 1. 6. (For later mentions in 311/10, 309/8 and 308/7 see ibid. rev.11. 13, 33 and p. 116, n.6.)

52. Cf. Luckenbill, D. D., Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia II (1927) §§31-5Google Scholar.

53. For the ‘remnants’ from divine meals presented to the king, see Oppenheim, A. L., Ancient Mesopotamia, portrait of dead civilization (1964) 189Google Scholar.

54. Cf. Grayson, Chronicles (see above n.27) no.7, col.iii: 12–19.

55. For detailed arguments, see Kuhrt, A., ‘Alexander and Babylon’, in Sancisi-Weerdenburg, H. and Drijvers, J. W. (eds.), Achaemenid History V: the roots of the European tradition (forthcoming)Google Scholar.

56. BM 36761, cf. Wiseman, D. J., Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon (The Schweich Lectures 1983) (1985) 119–20Google Scholar.

57. Cf. Ellis, R. S., Foundation deposits in ancient Mesopotamia (Yale Near Eastern Researches 2) (1968) 7Google Scholar.

58. The ‘dynastic prophecy’: Grayson, A. K., Babylonian historical literary texts (Toronto Semitic Texts and Studies 3) (1975) 24–37Google Scholar; cf. for discussion, Sherwin-White, S., ‘Seleucid Babylonia: a case-study for the installation and development of Greek rule’, in Kuhrt, A. and Sherwin-White, S. (eds.), Hellenism in the east: the interaction of Greek and non-Greek civilizations from Svria to Central Asia after Alexander (1987) 1–31 (esp. 10–14)Google Scholar.

59. Cf., for example, Wiesehöfer, J., ‘Kyros und die unterworfenen Völker’, Quaderni di Storia 26 (1987) 107–26Google Scholar.

60. See, for example, the forthcoming article by Sancisi-Weerdenburg, H., ‘The personality of Xerxes, king of kings’, Louis Vandenberghe Festschrift (in preparation)Google Scholar.

61. For the ravages suffered by Babylonia see Sherwin-White, , ‘Seleucid Babylonia’ (see above n.58) 15Google Scholar; Kuhrt, A., ‘Berossus' Babyloniaka and Seleucid rule in Babylonia’, Hellenism (see above n.58) 32–56 (esp.51)Google Scholar.