The Babylonian World - Historia Antigua

— The Persian empire —
(almost certainly of Aramaic) working at a high level in the bureaucracy of Fars.
It is also worth remembering that all Old Persian royal inscriptions were accompanied
not only by versions in Elamite, closely linked to Persian identity, but also by ones
in Babylonian. How to understand the significance of this precisely is unclear, but
it must surely be an indicator of Babylon’s status within the empire.
Persian imagery circulated through the empire in the form of the royal gold and
silver coins and seals attached to, or imprinted on, official orders. The impact of this
is reflected in the changing iconography of Babylonian seals. By the late sixth century
some Persian symbols already appear, but there are many more in the seals impressed
on the tablets from the late fifth century Murashu archive. The effects of so many
different peoples drawn together under the imperial umbrella also led to informal
interactions between them. This is reflected in the fact that, by the late fifth century,
several Babylonians used Greek coins to seal perfectly standard Babylonian transactions.
By the time a Macedonian dynasty had established itself in control of Babylonia (end
of the fourth century), many typically Greek motifs were already familiar to the local
inhabitants.
The number of people who set eyes on the fine Persian-style columned palace, with
its moulded glazed brick reliefs echoing those at Susa (above, p. 566), was probably
limited. But many more will have seen the Babylonian copies of Darius I’s account
of his triumph over those who challenged his seizure of the Persian throne. This was
set up on the walls of the palace in Babylon, overlooking the great processional street.
Not only was it exclusively in Babylonian, it attributed Persia’s victory to Babylon’s
patron god, Marduk, and was accompanied by a relief picturing the king victorious
over his enemies, among whom figured two Babylonian rebels.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The bibliography on Achaemenid history is immense; the following is intended to
provide a basic guide only.
To obtain a general orientation, see:
A. Kuhrt, 2000, ‘The Achaemenid empire (c.550–330 BCE): continuities, adaptations, transformations’,
in S. Alcock et al. (eds), Empires (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 93–123).
J. Wiesehöfer, 1996, Ancient Persia (trans; London), BI-IV.
Fundamental problems and issues of approaches can be found in the articles published
in:
H. Sancisi-Weerdenburg, A. Kuhrt, J.-W. Drijvers, M.C. Root (eds), 1987–1994, Achaemenid
History I–VIII (Leiden: Neederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten).
Detailed studies of the history of the imperial regions by various specialists can be
found in:
Cambridge Ancient History IV: Persia, Greece and the Western Mediterranean, c.525–479 (rev. edn,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988).
Cambridge Ancient History VI: the Fourth Century (rev. edn, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1994).
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