Babylonian models of Achaemenids (1)

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Babylon and Assyria provided the model from which the Achaemenids moulded their kingship. Throne and footstool, crown and sceptre, titles and epithets, military and ritual duties all conform to the style of their predecessors within Mesopotamia, and the winged disc, as an emblem of royalty associated with the national deity, they adopted as their own. For their administration the Achaemenid kings took road and courier systems over from the Babylonians and Assyrians, and the allocation of fields as a reward for military service. They did not attempt to replace the native priests and administrators of the great temples with Iranian nationals, but allowed cult and culture to continue in Babylonia uninterrupted. Business was still carried on there without coinage, using silver and gold by weight that could be assayed as required; but when the Persian daric was minted as the coin of the dynasty, it was based on upon the Babylonian system of weights, corresponding to one-sixtieth of a mina. Neither Cyrus nor his successors changed the names of cities or built new ones in Mesopotamia. Susa was refurbished as a royal city, and Babylonian specialists were employed for the brickwork, much of it glazed as in Nebuchanezzar’s Babylon.

Bibliography

Stephanie Dalley

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