Ancient Persia: A Concise History of the Achaemenid Empire, 550-330 BCE

by Matt Waters

  Ctesias also places Cyrus in the Median court, as a ward of Astyages, but not of his bloodline. Instead, Cyrus is given the humblest of origins, named the son of Artadates the bandit and Argoste the goat herder. Scholars have debated the significance of these base origins, because they deviate so much from other versions. Another Artembares, who in Ctesias’ version was Astyages’ cupholder, served as Cyrus’ mentor and foster-father. Through that connection and Cyrus’ own aptitude and potential, Cyrus became one of Astyages’ foremost lieutenants and advisors. Portents play a large role in Ctesias’ story as well, including a flood of urine like in Herodotus, though this time from Cyrus himself as dreamed by his mother.

  It is notable that Cyrus is entrenched so firmly in the Median tradition by numerous Greek writers. We have no Median sources per se, but one cannot help but assume that Cyrus’ excellent press in Babylonian and Hebrew sources was applied among the Medes as well, which carried over to the Greek tradition. Claims that Cyrus was descended from Astyages would go a long way toward the legitimization of his Median rule.

  Back to Anshan

  Given Cyrus’ prominence in disparate traditions, it is important to return to Anshan itself, where Cyrus claimed himself and his forebears as kings. Unfortunately, we have little to go on here, because excavations at Anshan have not yet revealed extensive, sixth-century habitation. Mention of Anshan in the extant sources for the seventh and sixth centuries is rare, so it is surprising when the “King of Anshan” (Cyrus) makes such a powerful entrance on the scene. Royal titles are significant markers in understanding what the king represents and what message(s) he wished to convey. With Cyrus we have a very small sampling, and it is necessary to highlight the fact that we have found none of Cyrus’ royal inscriptions from Iran itself. The inscriptions from Pasargadae inscribed in Cyrus’ name were in fact commissioned by Darius I, in order to bolster Darius’ legitimacy (see pp. 148–150).

  It is not only in Nabonidus’ inscription and the Babylonian chronicle that Cyrus is named “King of Anshan.” Cyrus’ own inscriptions, from Babylon and from Ur, use the same title. By the time these inscriptions were commissioned, sometime after Cyrus’ conquest of Babylon in 539 BCE, Cyrus had already conquered three of the great powers of his day: the Medes, the Lydians, and the Babylonians – and by extension much of the ancient Near East. In the Cyrus Cylinder, line 20, Cyrus arrogates traditional Babylonian titles: “I am Cyrus King of the world, great King, strong King, King of Babylon, King of Sumer and Akkad, King of the four quarters.” But earlier in the inscription (line 12) he is referred to as “King of Anshan,” as are his four predecessors: Cambyses I, Cyrus I, and Teispes (line 21). On inscribed bricks from a temple in Ur, Figure 3.3, Cyrus again calls himself and his father Cambyses “King of Anshan.” The entire inscription reads:

  Cyrus, King of the world, King of Anshan, the son of Cambyses,

  King of Anshan. The great gods have delivered all the lands into my

  hands, and I caused the land to live in peace.

  Stamped inscriptions of this sort were commonly used by Mesopotamian rulers. This inscription also uses archaic sign forms, a practice carried over from the Neo-Babylonian period kings. These archaic cuneiform signs evoked a connection to the script used by the earliest kings in the Mesopotamian tradition, from centuries previous, such as Sargon of Akkad. Once again, the new Persian king adopted and adapted older forms to legitimize himself and to locate Persian rule within Mesopotamian norms. But that was not all. The title “King of Anshan” has few antecedents, but most scholars take it as a conscious modification of the traditional Elamite title “King of Anshan and Susa,” with emphasis on the former as the seat of Cyrus’ family’s power. This appears to be Cyrus’ initial title, and that of his forebears, another compelling testimony to the Elamite-Persian acculturation that lay at the roots of the Achaemenid Persian Empire’s history.

  Figure 3.3 Cyrus Brick Inscription, Temple of Nanna-Suen, Ur. Courtesy of Grant Frame, Associate Curator, Babylonian Section, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

  4 From Cyrus to Darius I: Empire in Transition

  Death of Cyrus

  Cyrus’ movements between his conquest of Babylon and his death may only be guessed. The remaining major power not yet conquered was Egypt, which was supposedly one of Cyrus’ objectives that drew him away from Lydia (Hdt. 1.153). Perhaps plans were being developed for an invasion of Egypt, plans subsequently implemented by Cambyses, but there is no way of knowing. Babylonian evidence indicates that Cyrus died in August 530 BCE. According to Herodotus, Cyrus reigned for twenty-nine years (1.214) and his final campaign was in the extreme northeast.1

  Herodotus’ account of Cyrus’ death focuses on his war with the Massagetae, a Scythian people who lived beyond the Araxes (or Jaxartes, the modern Syr Darya) in modern Kazakhstan. Herodotus here offers another cautionary tale – the limits and consequences of hubris – so one hesitates to take it for literal truth. As he did with Cyrus’ birth legend, Herodotus acknowledges multiple versions (1.214) but relates the one he found most plausible. The Massagetae were ruled by a widowed queen, Tomyris, whom Cyrus first attempted to wed and thus gain the territory by diplomacy before conquest.2 Tomyris rebuffed Cyrus with a warning to stay within his territory: to cease his expansionism or pay the price. Cyrus instead heeded the advice of Croesus, who counseled Cyrus to cross the river and engage Tomyris’ forces.

  The Persians’ initial victory over the Massagetae, led by Tomyris’ son Spargapises, was due to a trick. The Persians laid out a great feast and then feigned a retreat, and the Massagetae raided their camp. When the entire Massagetae force became drunk on the wine “abandoned” by the Persians, the Persian forces returned. They killed many of the Massagetae and captured the rest, including Spargapises. Tomyris demanded Spargapises’ return with the threat that otherwise, because Cyrus seemed ravenous for blood, she would give him his fill of it. Spargapises committed suicide, and when Cyrus was killed in the subsequent engagement, Tomyris was true to her word: she cast Cyrus’ head into a container filled with blood.

  Ctesias’ story (Fragment 9 §7–8) of Cyrus’ death is similar in outline: Cyrus died while campaigning in the far northeast but against a people called the Derbicae. Where these Derbicae dwelled is unclear, but ancient geographers place them in northeastern Iran or Central Asia. Wounded in battle but reinforced by Saka (Scythian) allies, Cyrus lived long enough to defeat the Derbicae and to arrange his succession. Cambyses was appointed king, while Cambyses’ brother Tanyoxarkes was granted a vast territory in the northeast – free from tribute – that included Bactria, Chorasmia, Parthia, and Carmania. Herodotus does not assign a formal position to Cambyses’ brother, whom Herodotus calls Smerdis.

  Cambyses had been groomed for the succession for some time. An entry in the Nabonidus Chronicle noted Cyrus and Cambyses’ joint involvement in the Babylonian New Year’s festival for 538 BCE, one of the most important events of the Babylonian calendar. Several economic documents from 538 are given the date formula “Cambyses, King of Babylon, and Cyrus, King of lands.” This is striking, but it was also short-lived: the joint formula seems to have been used only that one year. Some scholars take it as evidence for co-regency, but the episode remains an enigma.3 It is unclear why this joint dating formula was used and why it was discontinued. Perhaps the joint dating formula was instituted for continuity during the transitional period of a new conquest, but that remains speculation. Various Classical sources attest to periodic special commands (e.g., Harpagus in Lydia and Asia Minor, Tanyoxarkes in Bactria), but there is no parallel for a Persian co-regency.

  King Cambyses

  In 530 BCE Cambyses inherited a vast empire, far larger than any previous, and one that had been formulated in just twenty years. Cambyses’ royal pursuits are hard to gauge, however, because the record is even thinner for his reign. Cambyses’ first order of business would have been arrangements for Cyrus’ burial at his tomb in Pasargadae. An inc
omplete structure found near Persepolis has been identified as an intentional replica of Cyrus’ tomb, and it was naturally assumed to have been for Cambyses. But some documentary evidence suggests that Cambyses’ tomb lay elsewhere, southeast of Persepolis near modern Niriz, and the evidence pointing there indicates a royally sponsored cult, similar to that associated with Cyrus’ tomb.4

  Cambyses eventually turned his attention westward, where the main power was Egypt. Amasis (reigned 570–526 BCE) had conquered Cyprus and formed an alliance with the Greek ruler Polycrates of Samos, an island off the coast of Ionia. By the 520s Polycrates had become dominant in the Aegean Sea region. This alliance was fractured sometime after Cambyses’ accession, and Polycrates offered ships to Cambyses for the Egyptian expedition. Reasons for the switch may only be guessed. Perhaps the intensifying Persian hold on Ionia in conjunction with inducements (or threats?) swayed Polycrates toward Persia. Cambyses’ efforts to develop a royal navy, mainly through his Phoenician and Ionian subjects, were no doubt intended for the western front and a planned Egyptian campaign. The territories of the Levant, geographically at the crossroads between Greater Mesopotamia and Egypt, had been a point of contention between rulers of those regions for centuries. Persian control of that region was bound to inflame tensions with Egypt. With an eye on Persian expansionism, Amasis had cultivated good relations with many city-states and sanctuaries in the Aegean world. In 526 Amasis was succeeded by his son Psammetichus III, whose rule was to prove quite short.

  Cambyses’ Invasion of Egypt

  There is no narrative record of the preparations for the Persian invasion of Egypt in 525 BCE, but they were no doubt extensive. As part of these preparations, Cambyses fostered relations with the king of the Arabs, who controlled the desert route across the Sinai peninsula and could thus enable the successful crossing. The first engagement occurred at the easternmost branch of the Nile delta, the so-called Pelusiac mouth. The Persians put the Egyptians to flight, invaded the Nile Valley, and besieged Psammetichus in his capital, Memphis. There he was protected by fortifications named “the White Wall,” which could only be taken with support from a fleet. The city was eventually taken and Psammetichus captured. But he was spared and treated well, as per the pattern of kings previously defeated by the Persians. Herodotus even claims that if Psammetichus had comported himself appropriately he would have been made governor of Egypt (3.15). But Psammetichus subsequently plotted rebellion and was put to death.

  Once Egypt was secure, Cambyses intended further military actions both west and south, following the paths of many Egyptian pharaohs. The Libyan oases offered control over strategic western trade routes. Beyond the First Cataract in the south, the kingdom of Kush had always been coveted for its gold. The installation of a Persian garrison at Elephantine – an island in the Nile near modern Aswan – reveals the strategic importance of this area at Egypt’s southern boundary.5 This garrison was one of several similar that were stationed at strategic points throughout the Empire.

  Additional Persian expeditions against the oasis of Ammon in the west and against Nubia and Ethiopia in the south ended badly. The particulars may seem far-fetched, but the historicity of these campaigns, including an aborted expedition against the Carthaginians (modern Tunisia), need not be rejected out of hand. The limits of Persian imperialism had not yet been reached. It made sense to secure those borderlands that had been problems for previous Egyptian rulers for centuries. If Herodotus may be believed, the army dispatched to Libya was swallowed in a sandstorm. Cambyses himself led the expedition against Nubia and Ethiopia, but it was abandoned en route: desperate straits culminated in cannibalism among the troops. These misadventures, replete with divine portents and human warnings that Cambyses was going too far, serve as case studies for Herodotus’ portrayal of the “mad Cambyses” – more a literary exercise than a historical one. Herodotus records a litany of Cambyses’ outrages, overreach, and arrogance – directed not only at Egyptians but also at Persians and even his own family – the paradigmatic example of a stereotypical oriental despot.

  Herodotus’ “mad Cambyses” shows first of all that the Father of History relied on a negative tradition of Cambyses current in Egypt when Herodotus visited in the mid-fifth century BCE. Herodotus devotes portions of his Book 3 to Cambyses’ increasing instability. Cambyses purportedly ordered Amasis’ mummy to be disinterred, abused, and finally burned – an insult, to both Persian and Egyptian religions (3.16). Other tombs were opened and cult statues mocked, particularly in the temple of Ptah, an Egyptian creator god whose sacred city was Memphis. The greatest outrage to the Egyptians was the slaying of the Apis bull (3.27–29), a sacred calf that was considered the earthly embodiment of Ptah. The Egyptian king was a central part of the Apis cult, which in turn was directly connected to the office of kingship.

  When Cambyses returned to Memphis after the disastrous Ethiopian expedition, he found the Egyptians of Memphis celebrating the birth of a new Apis calf: a new beginning, their god again made manifest. Cambyses snapped. He saw their festival as an expression of joy at his misfortune, and he reacted: stabbing the Apis bull with a knife to the thigh and flogging or slaying many priests. Herodotus subsequently catalogs a cascade of misfortune and misery that brought Cambyses to his own end and shook the entire Empire to its core – the result of Cambyses’ impiety. The slaying of the Apis bull makes compelling drama, but it is mostly exaggerated if not fabricated. We have some Egyptian evidence that seems to refute Herodotus’ portrayal. Contrary to Herodotus’ assertion that the Egyptian priests buried the Apis bull without Cambyses’ knowledge, a sarcophagus from a bull buried during Cambyses’ reign is engraved with Cambyses’ own inscription in traditional Egyptian format:

  The Horus Sma-Towy, King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Mesuti-Re, born of Re, Cambyses, may he live forever! He has made this fine monument, a great sarcophagus of granite, for his father Apis-Osiris, dedicated by the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Mesuti-Re, son of Re, Cambyses, may he be granted long life, prosperity in perpetuity, health and joy, appearing as King of Upper and Lower Egypt eternally.

  This inscription states that Cambyses, acting as a typical Egyptian pharaoh, took responsibility for the proper care and burial of the deceased Apis, which is understood to have died during Cambyses’ fifth regnal year. If only it were so simple. There are significant problems with our understanding of this sequence: the death and burial of the Apis bull during Cambyses’ reign, and the overlap between the birth of a successor bull and the death of the current Apis. Other inscriptions further complicate matters.6

  Although the initial inclination is to reject any suggestion that Cambyses killed the Apis, it cannot be excluded that Cambyses may have killed a younger calf (the Apis successor) before the death of the one buried in the sarcophagus. The Egyptian evidence reminds us not to take Herodotus at face value. Some of the changes Cambyses wrought in the aftermath of the Persian victory must have been unwelcome, perhaps even unprecedented. For example, a reduction in support for some Egyptian temples could easily have given rise to negative stories about Cambyses.

  The inscription of Udjahorresnet, a naval commander under Amasis and Psammetichus III who defected to the Persians, also provides some balance to Herodotus’ account. Udjahorresnet’s hieroglyphic inscription is carved on his votive statue from Sais, in the western Delta (Figure 4.1). The statue holds a small shrine for Osiris, god of the underworld. The autobiographical inscription chronicles Udjahorresnet’s career, with special emphasis on his service to both Cambyses and Darius I. It is invaluable as a window on how one of the Egyptian nobility secured a place for himself in the new order.

  Figure 4.1 Statue of Udjahorresnet, Sais, Egypt, housed in the Vatican Museum. Drawing by Tessa Rickards, used by permission.

  Udjahorresnet’s inscription provides the only surviving royal titles for Cambyses beyond Babylonian administrative documents. Cambyses adopted Egyptian titles (e.g., “King of Upper and Lower Egypt”) as would be expected fr
om a new ruler seeking to place himself in an age-old tradition. Udjahorresnet himself would have been keen to trumpet his own titles and achievements – typical in this sort of inscription – and also to justify his collaboration with the Persians. Udjahorresnet’s inscription, and Cambyses’ titles therein, indicate that Cambyses behaved as did previous kings by restoring order and respecting religious sanctuaries. Udjahorresnet’s version is no doubt slanted as well, but the picture it provides runs directly counter to Herodotus’. It would not be surprising to discover that the respect Cambyses showed for sanctuaries included those with which Udjahorresnet had been involved, those in and near Sais, but that is unverifiable. That the Persians presented themselves as pharaohs in the traditional Egpytian manner is not surprising. Successful integration into Egyptian tradition would make Persian rule much smoother. As evidenced by subsequent Egyptian revolts, however, this integration was not always smooth.

  The Death of Cambyses and the Crisis of 522 BCE

  The length of Cambyses’ Egyptian campaign is uncertain, but various sources indicate that Cambyses was returning to Persia in 522 when he died. He had been away for at least three years. Babylonian economic documents reveal that Cambyses died sometime in April and was succeeded by his brother Bardiya. Bardiya ruled for six months, until he was supplanted by Darius. Darius conversely related that Cambyses had killed Bardiya sometime previously and that a look-alike double, whom Darius called Gaumata, rebelled against Cambyses in March of 522. The crisis of 522 was of epic proportions, and the stability of the fledgling Empire was at stake. Various ancient sources relay a story of fratricide; an elaborate cover-up; a body double and impostor on the throne; and a small group of heroes who discover the truth, slay the pretender, and set Persia to rights once again. Despite the fundamental interpretive problems that persist in evaluating the sources, it is clear that the Persian Empire faced a decisive moment. Darius I’s eventual, and by no means easy, victory was monumental in its own right and had lasting consequences for the durability of the Empire. The testimonies for this turbulent time are confusing and often contradictory. Separate overviews of the main ones – Darius’ Bisitun Inscription and Herodotus’ account – are warranted before any attempt at reconciliation.