A proper understanding of any military establishment is predicated on a sound understanding of the distinctions of its various components, including the relationship of elite units to those of lesser standing. The infantry of Achaemenid Persia has been given increased attention in recent years, especially in my three recent articles on (a) the permanent Achaemenid infantry, these being the 10,000 so-called Immortals (ἀθάνατοι) and the 1,000 Apple Bearers (μηλοφόροι), (b) the κάρδακες, whom I identified as a kind (...) of general-purpose infantry of indeterminate ethnicity, and (c) the defensive equipment of Achaemenid infantry. In these articles, the Persian cavalry, orasabārain Old Persian, was mentioned in passing, yet a thorough appraisal of elite Achaemenid cavalry is still required. For example, in his overview of Xerxes' army, Barkworth pays particular attention to the elite infantry, but the cavalry is mentioned only in passing, while Shabazi, in his entry on the Achaemenid army orspāda, does not mention elite cavalry at all. In a recent important study, Tuplin looked carefully at the evidence for Achaemenid cavalry and the degree of importance attached to cavalry among the Persians, but only mentioned what might be termed elite cavalry twice – he did not offer any in-depth commentary on their relationship to other cavalry units. (shrink)

Alexander’s conquest of Persia transformed the way he ruled, with aspects of Achaemenid monarchy becoming prominent. In general, historians have focused on instances of deliberate engagement with Achaemenid practices, leading to the impression that this change resulted from conscious imitation. Here, I nuance this view, arguing that the gradual adoption of aspects of Achaemenid royal space played a pivotal role in transforming Alexander’s monarchy. This approach shifts our focus away from Alexander himself, placing his reign in (...) a wider context, while also demonstrating how space can act as a conduit for cultural interchange. (shrink)

Archaeology of Empire in Achaemenid Egypt. By Henry P. Colburn. Edinburgh Studies in Ancient Persia. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2020. Pp. xvii + 318, illus. $130. [Distributed by Oxford University Press].

Name der Zeitschrift: Klio Jahrgang: 99 Heft: 2 Seiten: 464-484.

Students of the relations between Greeks and Persians in classical antiquity usually depend entirely on Greek authors, as there are no extensive narrative texts among the cuneiform inscriptions of the Achaemenid kings, our extant Oriental sources for the history of the Persian empire. Hence modern scholars have raised the question of the reliability of the Greek sources and emphasized the need to reveal the ideology and presuppositions of the Greek writers. For, if language embodies social reality, the assimilation of (...) information is conditioned by the character of the mind, individual or collective, which comprehends the data within its own terms of reference, fits them into its own set of concepts and records them in that form. Thus, it has been argued that ‘the impression we get of the Persians in the Greek authors is in some ways a deceptive one. Too much emphasis is laid on what is pejorative’, that the labelling of Persia ‘as an Oriental Monarchy: a state and society ruled less by rational actions than by the writing and caprices of its king and court… is to be traced back directly to the Greek sources on Persian history’; and that the ‘discourse of barbarism’ which projected upon the Persians ‘the opposite of qualities admired’ in the Athenian society, ‘is ultimately to be referred to the ideology binding together democratic Athens and her empire’. (shrink)

Sasanian Persia: The Rise and Fall of an Empire. By Touraj Daryaee. London: I. B. Tauris in association with Iran Heritage Foundation, 2013. Pp. xxvi + 225, illus. $29.

My paper has two parts. First, I talk about the golden rule. After introducing the rule and its global importance, I explain why many scholars dismiss it as a vague proverb that leads to absurdities when we try to formulate it clearly. I defend the golden rule against such objections. Second, I talk about the golden rule in Persia and Islam; I consider Persian sources and also non-Persian Muslim sources. I show that the golden rule is deeply rooted in (...) Persia and Islam. And I point out special ways that this tradition‘s understanding of the golden rule can contribute to those outside this tradition. (shrink)

“Persia beyond the Oxus.” Edited by M. Rahim Shayegan. Bulletin of the Asia Institute 21 : 147–96.

Persian Religion in the Achaemenid Period. Edited by Wouter F. M. Henkelman and Céline Redard. Classica et Orientalia, vol. 16. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2017. Pp. 496, illus. €98.

Persia’s Imperial Power in Late Antiquity: The Great Wall of Gorgān and Frontier Landscapes of Sasanian Iran. By Eberhard W. Sauer; Hamid Omrani Rekavandi; Tony J. Wilkinson; and Jebrael Nokandeh. British Institute of Persian Studies Archaeological Monographs. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2013. Pp. xvi + 711, illus. $150. [Distributed by the David Brown Book Co., Oakville, CT.].

INTRODUCTION The most remarkable feature of the character of the Persian people is their love of Metaphysical speculation. Yet the inquirer who approaches the extant literature of Persia expecting to find any comprehensive systems of thought, like those of Kapila or Kant, will have to turn back disappointed, though deeply impressed by the wonderful intellectual subtlety displayed therein. It seems to me that the Persian mind is rather impatient of detail, and consequently destitute of that organising faculty which gradually (...) works out a system of ideas, by interpreting the fundamental principles with reference to the ordinary facts of observation. The subtle Brahman sees the inner unity of things; so does the Persian. But while the former endeavours to discover it in all the aspects of human experience, and illustrates its hidden presence in the concrete in various ways, the latter appears to be satisfied with a bare universality, and does not attempt to verify the richness of its inner content. The butterfly imagination of the Persian, flies half-inebriated as it were, from flower to flower, and seems to be incapable of reviewing the garden as a whole. For this reason, his deepest thoughts and emotions find expression mostly in disconnected verses (Ghazal), which reveal all the subtlety of his artistic soul. The Hindu, while admitting, like the Persian, the necessity of a higher source of knowledge, yet calmly moves from experience to experience, mercilessly dissecting them, and forcing them to yield their underlying universality. In fact the Persian is only half-conscious of Metaphysics as a system of thought; his Brahman brother, on the other hand, is fully alive to the need of presenting his theory in the form of a thoroughly reasoned out system. And the result of this mental difference between the two nations is clear. In the one case we have only partially worked out systems of thought; in the other case, the awful sublimity of the searching Vedanta ... (shrink)

Summary In October of 2018 a new trilingual Achaemenid inscription from Naqsh-e Rostam was discovered and in March of 2019 a detailed investigation of it with linguistic and historical commentary was published online in ARTA. The inscription includes a previously unknown Old Persian verb, a-f-r-[?]-a-t-i-y, which the first publishers Soheil Delshad and Mojtaba Doroodi read as *ā-fra-yāti (perhaps “he comes forward to”) or *ā-fra-θāti (“he speaks forth to”). They conclude that “an Old Persian verb with the meaning ‘to greet, (...) to bless’ (etc.) seems to be called for”. It is clear that as a result of this discovery we get an Old Persian verb which could refer to an act which the Greek verb προσκυνεῖν may have described relating to the Persians. This new evidence stimulates further discussion about the practice and meaning of proskynēsis at the royal court in the Achaemenid Empire. My article shows that all literary and pictorial evidences on proskynēsis may be divided into two groups: 1) Greek authors’ information that represents proskynēsis mainly as prostration before the King; 2) Persian bas-reliefs that depict the scenes with proskynēsis as a hand-kissing gesture. It is supposed that the previously unknown Old Persian verb (like προσκυνεῖν in Ancient Greek usage) refers not only to specific gestures, but relates to a model of behaviour (‘salutation’, ‘obeisance’, ‘greeting’, ‘worship’, ‘respect’ etc.). It is argued that Achaemenid officials performed proskynēsis before the King as hand-kissing, while the rest of the people bowed down, kneeled or prostrated. Exceptions were made only for members of the royal family who did not perform proskynēsis, but kissed the King and got a kiss from him. (shrink)

The kings of the Achaemenid Empire are known for employing a number of particularly gruesome punishments for those who were deemed guilty of rebellion. While it is certainly true that the Achaemenids punished rebels with utmost severity, it is also true that they were, at times, willing to forgive rebels, and even to rehabilitate them. In this paper, I investigate the mechanisms by which the Achaemenid kings were able to show mercy to rebels. By examining a number of (...) relevant cases from a period of a century and a half, I argue that the decision to be merciful was based on the king’s familial or social relationship with the rebel, the rebel’s relative strength vis-à-vis the king, the geography of the revolt, and the presence of other external factors which might also restrict the king’s powers. By a comparison with royal inscriptions and texts found throughout the empire, I demonstrate the ways in which these reconciliations stood apart from, and even in contradiction to, administrative and ideological norms concerning law and justice within the Achaemenid Empire. Finally, by reviewing the traditions and attitudes towards justice and mercy among the Achaemenids' Near Eastern predecessors, I put this policy in historical context and show that it is a unique response to a problem faced by other ancient empires. (shrink)

The Alexander Romance in Persia and the East. Edited by Richard Stoneman, Kyle Erickson, and Ian Netton. Ancient Narrative, vol. 15. Groningen: Barkhuis Publishing and Groningen University Library, 2012. Pp. xv + 416, illus. €95.40.

Zarathustra and the Greeks.--Zarathustra, the Achaemenids, and Israel.