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Achaemenid Dynasty
DAVID STRONACH
identity. If these first-person trilingual inscriptions (written in Old Persian, Elamite, and
Akkadian) were indeed erected near 515, as is
now commonly supposed, they would stand
near the beginning of an interesting evolution
in the ways in which Darius chose to treat the
memory of his eminent near-predecessor. That
is to say that, while Cyrus is not given a title of
any kind in the Bisitun text, he is characterized
as king in the just-mentioned first-person
inscription. Then, at a time when the offspring
of the marriages that Darius had contracted
with the daughters of Cyrus were no doubt
starting to lend new legitimacy to Darius
progeny, Darius elected to erect elegant doorway images of Cyrus in the still unfinished
fabric of Palace P at Pasargadai. From the
testimony of various details in the rendering
of Cyrus pleated costume, this initiative can
be dated to ca. 510 a date that must then also
be ascribed to the accompanying legend,
Cyrus, the Great King, an Achaemenid, that
originally appeared on each of these once
part-gilded reliefs.
The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, First Edition. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine,
and Sabine R. Huebner, print pages 3236.
2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah01001
2
been a further local accommodation, Cyrus
describes each of his named forebears
Cambyses (I), Cyrus (I), and Teispes as
a great king, king of Anshan. With this title
he appears to have evoked the storied (if no
longer vibrant) city of Anshan in southwestern
Iran, whose name would still have resonated in
the historical memory of a Mesopotamian
audience. Thus, while Cyrus and his forebears
may indeed have called themselves kings of
Anshan, only the future discovery of authentic
inscriptions of Cyrus from within southwestern Iran can be expected to reveal this rulers
home titulary and, hence, his preferred view
of his own identity.
In general terms, Cyrus building program
at his capital, Pasargadai, can be said to reflect
the milestones of his singular career. Thus, the
citys location, in the present-day Dasht-e
Morghab (the Plain of the Water Bird)
in northern Fars, appears to have been
dictated by the fact that this was the scene of
his decisive victory over Astyages, the last king
of Media, in ca. 550. Subsequently, following
an outbreak of hostilities between Cyrus
and Croesus of Lydia (see CROESUS), Cyrus
advanced westwards and seized the Lydian
capital, SARDIS, which probably fell in 547
or not long thereafter. This enabled Cyrus to
bring highly skilled planners, architects, and
stonemasons back to Iran to begin work
on his gleaming, partly stone-built capital.
Within this spacious site he experimented
with various new forms of columned hall, the
two latest examples of which, known as Palace
S and Palace P, no doubt helped to inspire
the quintessential reception hall of the Achaemenid Empire: namely the APADANA, introduced by Darius. Otherwise Pasargadai is
perhaps most notable for Cyrus finely preserved, upstanding tomb and for the Takht,
a monumental stone platform (on which
Cyrus may have intended to erect his private
palace). Indeed, the latter structure may have
been inspired by an important palace-related
platform at Lydian Sardis and it may have
given rise to aspects of the design of the great
terrace at PERSEPOLIS.
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According to Darius version of events,
carved into the cliff at Bisitun, the kingship
had fallen into the hands of a usurper,
Gaumata the Magian (see MAGI, PERSIAN), who
claimed to be Cyrus second son, Bardiya. In
Darius own words, There was not a man,
neither Persian nor Mede, nor anyone of our
family who could wrest the kingdom from the
imposter. This impasse set the stage for the
overthrow of Gaumata and, in the view
Darius promulgated, the restoration of the
Achaemenid Persian line on its time-honored
foundations. Perhaps in reality Darius seized the
throne in a violent coup that cost Cyrus one
surviving son his life, and perhaps the widelyheld conviction that this was indeed the
case accounts for the scale of unrest that shook
even the home provinces of the empire during
the first year of the reign of Darius. Nevertheless,
the new sovereign quickly displayed unerring
strategic instincts that allowed him to overcome
all opposition and to embark on a long and
productive reign. In keeping, moreover, with
Darius distinct pride in his Persian identity,
his home capital present-day Persepolis
(ancient Parsa) was erected in the very heart
of the Persian homeland.
The reign of Darius was characterized by
innovation. He introduced the Old Persian
cuneiform script, he designed the first Achaemenid coins, and, apart from his vaunted
administrative skills, he sponsored a new,
evolved style in Achaemenid art and architecture that successfully absorbed and transformed
the many separate traits that contributed to
its formation. In this latter connection Nylander
has remarked that, most, if not all, Achaemenian works of architecture, sculpture, relief
[and] toreutic . . . partake of the same refined
aesthetic language, saturated with beauty of line,
and a calm, serious dignity not devoid of
a subdued emotion; he goes on to note that
this unity is maintained for almost two centuries, a fact indicating some degree of congruence
between the art and the society that created and
used it (Nylander 1970: 17).
Noteworthy among the artistic and architectural accomplishments of his reign are
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successor. Thus, while the best-known event
of Xerxes reign remains his ill-fated campaign against Greece, he clearly adhered to
his fathers veneration of AHURA MAZDA, he
completed many of his fathers major building
projects, and, following the dizzying pace of
conquest under Cyrus and Cambyses, he may
be said to have done much to carry through his
fathers project of consolidating the far-flung
Achaemenid Empire. Indeed, it is not a little
remarkable that successive Persian monarchs
maintained effective military and administrative control over an area that stretched from
the first cataract on the Nile to the banks of the
Jaxartes in the far northeast for the better part
of 200 years. During this time there is no proof
that the worship of Ahuramazda was forcefully
imposed on any territories within the bounds
of Achaemenid control. In addition, Cyrus
well-attested respect for local beliefs and
traditions appears to have served, by and
large, as a model for later kings.
Xerxes son and successor Artaxerxes I
(r. 464425) is unanimously hailed in classical
sources as a capable monarch. Apart from
overcoming a serious challenge to Persian
rule in Egypt, he completed the greater part
of the major building program at Persepolis,
and, in 449/448, he apparently approved the
Peace of Callias with the Athenians.
A severe crisis arose early in the reign of
Artaxerxes II (r. 404359), the grandson of
Artaxerxes I, when his elevation to the throne
came to be contested by his brother, Cyrus the
Younger (d. 401). When the armies of the two
siblings met at the battle of CUNAXA, not far
from Babylon, the issue could well have gone
either way. However, Cyrus decision to lead
a direct attack on the position occupied by
his brother proved, by a narrow margin, to be
a fatal miscalculation. It was an event that
obliged Cyrus stranded ten thousand Greek
mercenary troops to undertake their epic
five-month retreat to Greece, a march immortalized in Xenophons Anabasis (see XENOPHON).
With regard to his building activities, Artaxerxes II is known especially for a number of
initiatives at SUSA. There he laid out an entirely
5
Nylander, C. (1970) Ionians in Pasargadae: Studies
in Old Persian architecture. Uppsala.
Potts, D. T. (2005) Cyrus the Great and the
Kingdom of Ansan. In V. S. Curtis and S.
Stewart, eds., Birth of the Persian Empire: 728.
London.
Stronach, D. (1978) Pasargadae. Oxford.
Stronach, D. (1997) Anshan and Parsa: Early
Achaemenid history, art and architecture on the