The 220-Year History of the Achaemenid Persian Empire

Pierre Briant, From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire (trans. Peter T. Daniels; Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2002 [orig. French, 1996]), 48. Briant continues:

Resituated in the ideological and political context of the Near East, they again become what they had been originally: certainly an important episode for the Jews themselves, but a banal and typical event that many Near Eastern peoples would already have experienced in the course of Assyrian and Babylonian dominion.

For a sharp critique of the Cyrus Cylinder as a “human rights” document, see Jacob L. Wright,“The Cyrus Cylinder and a Dream for the Middle East,” Huffington Post (May 2, 2012).

For the earlier period, we have the works of Herodotus, Ctesias, and Xenophon. For the later period, although less detailed, we have the works of Arrian, Diodorus, Strabo, Plutarch, Quintus Curtius, and Justin.

For a detailed presentation of the ancient sources, see Amélie Kuhrt, The Persian Empire: A Corpus of Sources from the Achaemenid Period (London: Routledge Press, 2007).

This essay is not a fresh attempt at reconstruction from sources, but follows the contours of Pierre Briant’s, From Cyrus to Alexander, in consultation with other sources. For a briefer, more accessible history, see Matt Waters, A Concise History of the Achaemenid Empire 550-330 BCE (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014). Another useful source, though dated, is A. T. Olmstead, History of the Persian Empire (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948).  

Tell Hagmatana in Hamedan Province, Iran

In the 2^nd millennium B.C.E., some Elamite kings even used the title “King of Anshan and Susa.”

Pierre de Miroschedji, “Notes sur la glyptique de la fin d’Elam,” Revue d’Assyriologie 76 (1982): 51-63 [62-63].

Cyrus’ father, King Cambyses I, married Astyages’ daughter, Mandane.

Croesus was either afraid of Cyrus’ great power, or believed the turmoil in Media offered him an opportunity, or some combination thereof.

Historically speaking, Belshazzar was neither the son of Nebuchadnezzar nor even a descendent. Belshazzar’s father, Nabonidus, was a usurper, who killed Nebuchadnezzar’s grandson, Labashi Marduk, and took the throne.

In 526 B.C.E., after 44 years on the throne, Pharaoh Amasis had died, and his son was king for barely a year when Cambyses attacked. It may be that the powerful and experienced Amasis would have fared better against the Persian onslaught but this is impossible to know.

For more on this temple, see discussion in Stephen G. Rosenberg, “The Jewish Temple in Elephantine,” Near Eastern Archaeology 67.1 (2004), 4-13.

This battle was the inspiration for the 2006 movie, 300, with Rodrigo Santoro as Xerxes.

Harem is an Arabic term meaning “inviolable place” and is related to the Hebrew word חרם, “consecrated to God.” 

For more on what Torah might mean in this context, see Elizabeth Fried, “Sukkot in Ezra-Nehemiah and the Date of the Torah.”

Like Darius, Artaxerxes is tough on those who will not listen to the order:

^{עזרא ז:כו} וְכָל דִּי לָא לֶהֱוֵא עָבֵד דָּתָא דִי אֱלָהָךְ וְדָתָא דִּי מַלְכָּא אָסְפַּרְנָא דִּינָה לֶהֱוֵא מִתְעֲבֵד מִנֵּהּ הֵן לְמוֹת הֵןלשרשו [לִשְׁרֹשִׁי] הֵן לַעֲנָשׁ נִכְסִין וְלֶאֱסוּרִין.

^Ezra  7:26 Let anyone who does not obey the law of your God and the law of the king be punished with dispatch, whether by death, corporal punishment, confiscation of possessions, or imprisonment.”

The book of Ezra describes a letter written to Artaxerxes complaining about the Jews rebuilding of Jerusalem. Although the placement of this anecdote is problematic, historically speaking, it is likely referring to the fight against Nehemiah, which is described in the book of Nehemiah from his perspective.

See discussion in Michael L. Satlow, “Passover and the Festival of Matzot,”TheTorah.com (2014). 

There may be a connection between this incident and Moses’ claim in Exodus 8:22 that the Egyptians would stone the Israelites if they were to sacrifice a ram in Egypt. See Jan Assmann and Zev Farber, “Sacrificing a Ram in Egypt,” TheTorah.com (2016). 

The translations in this section as well as much of the discussion comes from, Peter Schäfer, Judeophobia: Attitudes towards the Jews in the Ancient World (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997), 127-133. See also, Bezalel Porten and Ada Yardeni, Textbook of Aramaic Documents from Ancient Egypt 1-4: Newly copied, edited and translated into English (Texts and Studies for Students; Jerusalem: Hebrew University Press, 1986-1999), nn. 286 and 287.

Not the same person as the governor of Judea mentioned in the Elephantine letter quoted above.