Assessing the Historical Record: Ancient Sources and the Expansion of the Persian Empire - Essay Example

? Assessing the Historical Record: Ancient Sources and the Expansion of the Persian Empire By Department Herodotus’ account of the Persian Empire, its origins and the aggrandizing wars of its early kings, presents modern observers with a scrupulously detailed account of events scarcely 100 years removed from the writer’s own time. The reader may well consider that Herodotus, in his long travels throughout Asia and parts of Europe, uncovered fact and anecdote from individuals in a position to speak authoritatively on the subject, and only a generation removed from the wars of Cyrus the Great, Cambyses and Darius I. A master at gathering, ordering and synthesizing information, Herodotus undoubtedly had access to, and amassed, a wealth of data on an empire the likes of which the ancient world had not seen. In Book 1, chapters 188-191, Herodotus describes the Persians’ assault on Babylon, an event commemorated by the inscription on the “Cyrus cylinder,” discovered in 1879. The inscription speaks of the Babylonian god Marduk, who caused Cyrus to act on behalf of the Babylonian people who, it says, suffered cruelly under the godless tyranny of their king, Nabonidus. After briefly describing the conquest of Babylon, the inscription offers an account in the voice of Cyrus, casting him in the role of liberator. It is a self-legitimizing bit of public relations, with Cyrus portrayed as an enlightened conqueror who paid homage to the Babylonian god Marduk (referred to significantly as “the supreme God”) for his victory before declaring himself king of Babylon (Eduljee, 2007). Regardless of its purpose, the cylinder clearly makes reference to a conquest of Babylon by the Persians. And while one may question the veracity of a source ostensibly put forth as propaganda, the cylinder does confirm Persian expansion, as do the Books of Ezra and Isaiah. 2 After conquering Babylon, Cyrus freed thousands of Jews who had been enslaved when Nebuchadnezzar sacked and looted Jerusalem in 597 BCE. Isaiah and Ezra lauded Cyrus as an agent of God, the restorer of the Temple and liberator of the Jews, who could resume their worship of Yahweh (a Zoroastrian, Cyrus may well have felt a certain kinship to practitioners of a monotheistic religion). The Book of Ezra speaks of Cyrus restoring the “House of God” in Jerusalem, going so far as to describe its dimensions and physical characteristics (Ezra 6:3). Cyrus is regarded as a messiah figure in the Old Testament, one who fulfilled prophecy against the backdrop of the Persian subjugation of Babylon, though the native bias that colors biblical commentary about Cyrus should not be overlooked. Both Herodotus and the Old Testament speak of Cyrus utilizing innovative engineering strategies to overcome the gates protecting the city, though Herodotus identifies the gates as spanning the Gyndes, a tributary along the approach to the city, rather than the Euphrates itself, a much larger stream and presumably more difficult to manage (Herodotus, Histories 1.190). The prophet Isaiah makes reference to the “two-leaved gate” blocking the Euphrates entrance to the city, an obstruction that the Persians were obliged to overcome before Babylon could be taken (Isaiah 45:1-13). Such discrepancy of detail is not uncommon, but both the Bible and Herodotus describe a 6th century act of military aggression by Cyrus against the Babylonians, an early yet significant imposition of Persian power in the Middle East. The panegyric language of Isaiah and Ezra is echoed in the language of the Cyrus cylinder, which refers to the Persian king as a divinely inspired crusader, a favorite of God and a humane ruler. The evident accuracy of the cylinder inscription, as reflected in the Old Testament, concerning Cyrus’ actions in Babylon may be extended to that part of the inscription 3 that addresses his genealogy. A seal, discovered at Persepolis, corroborates the claims of Cyrus’ royal ancestry made by the writer of the cylinder inscription (Garthwaite 2005, p. 30). The independent corroboration of the Persepolis seal affirms Cyrus’ genealogy back to his distant ancestor Teispes (p. 30). The Nabonidus Chronicle, which is inscribed on a clay tablet, also records a history of Persian expansion in the 6th century BCE, during which the Persians extended their empire. In so doing, it presents a slightly different view of Cyrus’ vanquishing of the Babylon and its king, Nabonidus. The chronicle speaks to the Persians’ victory at the battle of Opis, the taking of Babylon itself and the overthrow of Nabonidus. In column iii, line 19, the chronicle also attests to the fact that the taking of the city was peaceful, lending credence to other accounts that laud Cyrus for his forbearance and magnanimity. Despite the incomplete and damaged inscriptions on the tablet and the prevalence of lacunas, the script provides many details about Cyrus’ wars of expansion in Babylon, over the Lydian king Astyages and includes an account of Cyrus’ son, Cambyses. The account of the sixth year included in the chronicle (circa 550 BCE) speaks of Cyrus’ defeat of Astyages, and his invasion of Agamtanu, likely a reference to the Median capital Ecbatana (Nabonidus Chronicle, ii.3). In the ninth year, the chronicle describes Cyrus’ campaigns in Akkad, followed by several entries that speak of Nabonidus himself. In the 17th year (539 BCE), the chronicle terminates with an extensive description of Cyrus’ campaign against the Babylonians, and of his entering the city without battle or other incident (iii.5-23). In addition to its account of the demise of the Babylonian dynasty, the chronicle describes a series 4 of military actions that expanded the Persian Empire from Iran into Anatolia. However, the chronicle omits any mention of Nabonidus’ fate and of his treatment at the hands of Cyrus. In contrast to the Cyrus Cylinder and Nabonidus Chronicle, the monumental inscription at Behistun, or Bisitun, is comparatively difficult to assess for historical reliability, at least in regard to the portion that identifies his place in the royal Achaemenid dynasty. An overtly propagandistic monument, which features three large columns of text, it is a physical representation of Darius’ royal power depicting the vanquishing of his foes and illustrating that he was “strong in the favor” of the god Ahuramazda (Holland 2007, p. 54). Tom Holland points to the geographic significance of the monument, which is etched into a mountainside that overlooked the site of two significant events in Darius’ consolidation of power, namely, his defeat of Phraortes and the execution of Gautama (2007, p. 54). From an archaeological standpoint, the monument/inscription’s greatest significance is in its value as a linguistic template for translating cuneiform. As Holland explains, while the Bisitun inscription depicts a murderous political suppression, it differs from other pictorial expressions of “royal self-promotion” in that the epoch portrayed includes no evidence of bloody retribution (2007, p. 55). The victims’ expressions are serene, as though they accept their fate as just punishment at the hands of a great king, whose reign has the blessing of Heaven. The inscription is not able to shed much light on other accounts of Darius’ rise to power, such as that of Herodotus (Histories, 3.61-119), who describes the conspiracy against Darius in great detail, right down to what must be considered spurious verbal exchanges between the conspirators. The Bisitun inscription provides an important 5 overview of Darius’ ascension to the Persian throne, though it should be remembered that its foremost purpose was to advertise the legitimacy of Darius’ rule (Head 2010, p. 117). The crypt commonly known as the Tomb of Cyrus at Pasargadae lacks the kind of specific inscripted evidence that marks the Cyrus Cylinder, Nabonidus Chronicle and Bisitun inscription as signposts of Persian imperial expansion. The impressive burial structure at Cyrus’ capital exhibits architectural signatures that reflect building styles from throughout the Middle East, indicating the breadth of the Persian Empire. But from a practical standpoint, there may be little else to confirm its identity. The Greek historian Arrian, who chronicled the exploits of Alexander the Great, wrote of an epitaph within the burial chamber, as recounted by Aristobulus, which clearly identified the resting place of Cyrus the Great (Arrian 1893, p. 340-41). However, subsequent visitors found no such epitaph, which may have been damaged when the tomb was marred by grave robbers. Thus, the reliability of the tomb’s historical significance was compromised. The historical record tracing the growth of the Persian Empire contains inconsistencies in the sequence of some events and the viability of the ancestries claimed by some of its early rulers, such as Darius the Great. The self-promotional nature of the inscriptions on the Cyrus Cylinder and the Bisitun monument requires the observer to carefully filter out extra-historical factors. Yet common details tying together 6th century accounts of Persian imperial expansion found in the archaeological record, chronicled in Herodotus and praised in the Bible supplies historians with an essentially reliable and useful basis for studying the aggrandizement of the Persian empire, a process that played out from the borders of modern-day Iran to Anatolia. 6 Thus, we find that much of what Herodotus relates about the expansion of the Persian Empire finds a reasonable level of corroboration in the available written record from the period in question. 7 References Arrian. (1893). Arrian’s Anabasis of Alexander and Indica. London: George Bell and Sons. Eduljee, K.E. (2007). “Cyrus the Great Liberator.” Zoroastrian Heritage. http://heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/achaemenian/cyrus.htm. Garthwaite, G.R. (2005). The Persians. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. Head, R. (2010). “Assyria at Bisitun and the Universal Kingship of Darius I of Persia.” In H.D. Baker, E. Robson & G. Zolyomi (eds). Assyriology. http://www.academia.edu/Papers/in/Assyriology. Herodotus. (1858). The History of Herodotus, George Rawlinson, ed. London: John Murray. Holland, T. (2007). Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West. New York: First Anchor Books. Nabonidus Chronicle. (ca. 539 BCE). Clay tablet. ABC 7: The Nabonidus Chronicle. http://www.livius.org. World English Bible. Michael Paul Johnson, ed. Rainbow Missions. 2000. Read More