Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T17:59:46.796Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

11 - The Persian Near East

from Part II - Early Mediterranean Economies and the Near East

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
Peter Bedford
Edited by
Walter Scheidel ,
Ian Morris  and
Richard P. Saller
Peter Bedford
Affiliation:
Edith Cowan University
Walter Scheidel
Affiliation:
Stanford University, California
Ian Morris
Affiliation:
Stanford University, California
Richard P. Saller
Affiliation:
Stanford University, California
Get access

Summary

introduction

The Achaemenid Persian empire at its greatest extent covered an area from the Indus river in the east to Macedonia in the west, from the Aral Sea in the north to Elephantine in Egypt in the south. It was the largest polity that had yet existed in the world. Cyrus II laid the foundation of the empire when he led a successful Persian rebellion against his Median overlord in 553–550, going on to conquer Lydia in 546 and Babylon, which gave him control of the Near East, in 539. Later kings, notably Darius I (522–486) extended Persian hegemony westwards into Europe and eastwards across Central Asia. In a series of battles over 333–331 Alexander defeated the Persians to lay claim to their empire. The Achaemenid Persian empire thus lasted for slightly over two hundred years. It incorporated a myriad of languages and cultures (some seventy peoples and tribes according to Hdt. 3.90–4), as well as diverse forms of economic subsistence. This chapter focuses on one major region of the empire, the Near East.

Given that the Achaemenid Persian empire inherited and adapted pre-existing economic structures in the Near East, some reaching back into the second millennium, if not earlier, and that any consideration of economic growth cannot be confined to just an analysis of the Persian period, it is necessary to draw out the economic history of the Near East in the centuries preceding the rise of the Achaemenid Persian empire, specifically the period of the Neo-Assyrian (c. 950–612) and Neo-Babylonian (612–539) empires.

Keywords

Persian Near Eastinstitutional frameworkeconomic growthAchaemenid Persian empirepopulation levelsurban centers
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World , pp. 302 - 330
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Åkerman, K. (1999–2001) “The ‘Aussenhaken Area’ in the city of Assur during the second half of the seventh century BC: a study of a neo-Assyrian city quarter and its demography,” State Archives of Assyria Bulletin 13.Google Scholar
Aaboe, A. (1991) “Babylonian mathematics, astrology and astronomy,” in Boardman, J. et al., eds., The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume III part 2, The Assyrian and Babylonian Empires and other States of the Near East, from the Eighth to the Sixth Centuries BC. 2nd edn. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Adams, R. M. (1981) Heartland of Cities: Surveys of Ancient Settlement and Land Use on the Central Floodplain of the Euphrates. Chicago.
Ahlström, G. W. (1993) The History of Ancient Palestine from the Palaeolithic Period to Alexander’s Conquest. Sheffield.
Aperghis, G. G. (1997) “Surplus, exchange and price in the Persepolis fortification texts,” in Andreau, , Briant, , and Descat, , eds. (1997).
Aperghis, G. G. (1998) “The Persepolis fortification texts – another look,” in Brosius, M. and Kuhrt, A., eds., Studies in Persian History: Essays in Memory of David M. Lewis. Leiden.Google Scholar
Aperghis, G. G. (2000) “War captives and economic exploitation: evidence from the Persepolis fortification tablets,” in Andreau, , Briant, , and Descat, , eds. (2000).
Aperghis, G. G. (2001) “Population-production-taxation-coinage: a model for the Seleukid economy,” in Archibald, et al., eds. (2001).
Aubet, M. E. (2001) The Phoenicians and the West: Politics, Colonies, and Trade. 2nd edn. Cambridge.
Baker, H. D. (2001) “Degrees of freedom: slavery in mid-first millennium BC Babylonia,” World Archaeology 33.Google Scholar
Beaulieu, P.-A. (2000) “A finger in every pie: the institutional connections of a family of entrepreneurs in neo-Babylonian Larsa,” in Bongenaar, , ed. (2000).
Bedford, P. (2005) “The economy of the Near East in the first millennium BC,” in Manning, and Morris, , eds. (2005).
Bisi, A. M. (1991) “L’economia fenicia tra Oriente e Occidente,” in Acuaro, E., ed., Atti del II Congresso internazionale di studi fenici e punici (vol. 1).Rome.Google Scholar
Bondí, S. F. (1991) “Elementi di storia fenicia nell’ età dell’ espansione mediterranea,” in Acuaro, E., ed., Atti del II Congresso internazionale di studi fenici e punici (vol. 1).Rome.Google Scholar
Bongenaar, A. C. V. M. (2000a) “Private archives in neo-Babylonian Sippar and their institutional connections,” in Bongenaar, , ed. (2000b).
Briant, P. (1986b) “Polythéisme et empire unitaire (Remarques sur la politique religieuse des Achéménides),” in Lévêque, P. and Mactoux, M. M. Les grandes figures religieuses: fonctionnement pratique et symbolique dans l’antiquité.Paris.Google Scholar
Briant, P. (2002) From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire. Translated by Daniels, P.. Winona Lake, IN.
Brinkman, J. A. (1984) Prelude to Empire: Babylonian Society and Politics, 747–626 BC. Philadelphia.
Broshi, M. (2001) Bread, Wine, Walls and Scrolls. Sheffield.
Broshi, M. and Finkelstein, I. (1992) “The population of Palestine in Iron Age II,” BASO 287.Google Scholar
Carter, C. E. (1999) The Emergence of Yehud in the Persian Period: A Social and Demographic Study. Sheffield.
Culican, W. (1991) “Phoenicia and Phoenician colonization,” in Boardman, J. et al., eds., The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume III part 2.Cambridge Google Scholar
Curtis, J. (1999) “Late Assyrian agricultural tools: the archaeological evidence,” in Klengel, and Renger, , eds. (1999).
Curtis, J. E., Wheeler, T. S., Muhly, J. D., and Maddin, R. (1979) “Neo-Assyrian ironworking technology,” PAPhS 123.Google Scholar
Dandamaev, M. A. (1971) “Die Rolle des tamkarum in Babylonien im 2. und 1. Jahrtausand v.u.Z.,” in Klengel, H., ed., Schriften zur Geschichte und Kultur des Alten Orients, I. Beiträge zur sozialen Struktur des Alten Vorderasien.Berlin.Google Scholar
Dandamaev, M. A. (1974) “Social stratification in Babylonia (7th–4th centuries bc),” Acta Antiqua 22.Google Scholar
Dandamaev, M. A. (1976) “State and temple in Babylonia in the first millennium BC”, in Lipinski, E., ed., State and Temple Economy in the Ancient Near East II.Leuven.Google Scholar
Dandamaev, M. A. (1981) “The neo-Babylonian citizens,” Klio 63.Google Scholar
Dandamaev, M. A. (1983) “Aliens and the community in Babylonia in the 6th–5th centuries bc,” Recueils de la Société Jean Bodin 41.Google Scholar
Dandamaev, M. A. (1984) Slavery in Babylonia from Nabopolassar to Alexander the Great (626–331 B.C.), Revised edn., translated by Powell, V.. De Kalb, IL.
Dandamaev, M. A. (1987) “Free hired labor in Babylonia during the sixth through fourth centuries BC,” in Powell, M. A., ed., Labor in the Ancient Near East.New Haven, CT.Google Scholar
Dandamaev, M. A. (1996) “An age of privatization in ancient Mesopotamia,” in Hudson, M. and Levine, B. A., eds., Privatization in the Ancient Near East and Classical World.Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Dandamaev, M. A. (1999) “Land use in the Sippar region during the neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid periods,” in Hudson, and Levine, , eds. (1999).
Dandamaev, M. A. and Lukonin, V. G. (1989) The Culture and Social Institutions of Ancient Iran, translated by Kohl, P. L.. Cambridge.
Dion, P.-E. (1997) Les araméens à l’âge du fer: histoire politique et structures sociales. Paris.
Elat, M. (1991) “Phoenician overland trade within the Mesopotamian empires,” in Cogan, and Eph’al, , eds. (1991).
Elayi, J. (1989) Sidon, cité autonome de l’Empire perse. Paris.
Eph’al, I. (1978) “The western minorities in Babylonia in the sixth-fifth centuries BC: maintenance and control,” Orientalia n.s. 47.Google Scholar
Fales, F. M. (1973) Censimenti e catasti di epoca neo-assira. Rome.
Fales, F. M. (1984) “A survey of neo-Assyrian land sales,” in Khalidi, , ed. (1984).
Fales, F. M. (1990) “The rural landscape of the neo-Assyrian empire: a survey,” State Archives of Assyria Bulletin 4.Google Scholar
Finley, M. I. (1999) The Ancient Economy, updated edn. with foreword by Morris, Ian. Berkeley.
Frankenstein, S. (1979b) “The Phoenicians in the far west: a function of neo-Assyrian imperialism,” in Larsen, , ed. (1979)
Gates, C. (2003) Ancient Cities: The Archaeology of Urban Life in the Ancient Near East and Egypt, Greece, and Rome. London and New York.
Gitin, S. (1997) “The neo-Assyrian empire and its western periphery: the Levant, with a focus on Philistine Ekron,” in Parpola, S. and Whiting, R. M., eds., Assyria 1995: Proceedings of the 10th Anniversary Symposium of the Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project Helsinki, September 7–11, 1995.Helsinki.Google Scholar
Goldsmith, R. W. (1984) “An estimate of the size and structure of the national product of the early Roman empire,” Review of Income and Wealth 30.Google Scholar
Goldsmith, R. W. (1987) Premodern Financial Systems. A Historical Comparative Study. Cambridge.
Graf, D. F. (1985) “Greek tyrants and Achaemenid politics,” in Eadie, J. and Ober, J., eds., The Craft of the Ancient Historian: Essays in Honor of Chester G. Starr.Lanham, MD.Google Scholar
Graf, D. F. (1994) “The Persian royal road system,” in Sancisi-Weerdenburg, H., Kuhrt, A., and Root, M. C., eds., Continuity and Change (Achaemenid History 8).Leiden.Google Scholar
Hopkins, D. (1997) “Agriculture,” in Myers, E. M., ed., Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East I.New York.Google Scholar
Hopkins, K. (1995/6) “Rome, taxes, rents, and trade,” Kodai 6/7; reprinted in Scheidel, and Reden, , eds. (2002).Google Scholar
Joannès, F. (1989) Archives de Borsippa, la Famille Ea-ilûta-bâni: étude d’un lot d’archives familiales en Babylonie du VIIIe au Ve siècle av J.-C. Geneva.
Joannès, F. (1995) “Private commerce and banking in Achaemenid Babylonia,” in Sasson, , ed. (1995), vol. III.
Jursa, M. (1999) Das Archiv des Bēl-Rēmanni. Leiden.
Jursa, M. (2002a) “Debts and indebtedness in the neo-Babylonian period: evidence from institutional archives,” in Hudson, and Mieroop, , eds. (2002).
Kühne, H. (1995) “The Assyrians on the middle Euphrates and the Habur,” in Liverani, , ed. (1995).
Kümmel, H. M. (1979) Familie, Beruf und Amt im spätbabylonischen Uruk. Berlin.
Kippenberg, H. G. (1981) Religion und Klassenbildung im antiken Judäa, 2nd edn. Göttingen.
Koch, H. (1990) Verwaltung und Wirtschaft im persichen Kernland zur Zeit der Achämeniden. Wiesbaden.
LaBianca, Ø. and Younker, R. W. (1995) “The kingdoms of Ammon, Moab, and Edom: the archaeology of society in late Bronze/Iron Age Transjordan (ca. 1400–500 BCE),” in Levy, , ed. (1995).
Lanz, H. (1976) Die neubabylonischen harrânu- Geschäftsunternehmen. Berlin.
Lehmann, G. (1998) “Trends in the local pottery development of the late Iron Age and Persian period in Syria and Lebanon, ca. 700 to 300 BC,” BASOR 311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lipinski, E. (2000) The Arameans: Their Ancient History, Culture, Religion. Leuven.
Lipschits, O. (2003) “Demographic changes in Judah between the seventh and the fifth centuries BCE,” in Lipschits, O. and Blenkinsopp, J., eds., Judah and Judeans in the Neo-Babylonian Period.Winona Lake, IN.Google Scholar
Liverani, M. (1984) “Land tenure and family inheritance in the ancient near east: the interaction between ‘palace’ and ‘family’ sectors,” in Khalidi, , ed. (1984).Beirut.
Liverani, M. (1988) Antico Oriente: Storia, Società, Economia. Rome.
Liverani, M. (1991) “The trade network of Tyre according to Ezek. 27,” in Cogan, and Eph’al, , eds. (1991).
Mazzoni, S. (1995) “Settlement pattern and new urbanization in Syria at the time of the Assyrian conquest,” in Liverani, , ed. (1995).
Moorey, P. R. S. (1994) Ancient Mesopotamian Materials and Industry: The Archaeological Evidence. Oxford.
Neumann, J. and Parpola, S. (1987) “Climate change in the eleventh-tenth century eclipse of Assyria and Babylonia,” JNES 46.Google Scholar
Oded, B. (1979) Mass Deportations and Deportees in the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Wiesbaden.
Oelsner, J. (1976) “Erwägungen zum Gesellschaftsaufbau Babyloniens von der neubabylonischen bis zur achämenidischen Zeit (7.-4. Jh. v. u. Z.),” Altorientalische Forschungen 4.Google Scholar
Olmstead, A. T. (1948) History of the Persian Empire. Chicago.
Oppenheim, A. L. (1967) “An essay on overland trade in the first millennium,” Journal of Cuneiform Studies 21.Google Scholar
Parpola, S. (1995) “The construction of Dur-Sarrukin in the Assyrian royal correspondence,” in Caubert, A., eds., Khorsabad le palais de Sargon II, roi d’Assyrie.Paris.Google Scholar
Petit, T. (1990) Satrapes et satrapies dans l’empire achéménide de Cyrus le Grand à Xerxès Ier. Paris.
Postgate, J. N. (1974) Taxation and Conscription in the Assyrian Empire. Rome.
Postgate, J. N. (1979) “The economic structure of the Assyrian empire,” in Larsen, , ed. (1979).
Postgate, J. N. (1989) “The ownership and exploitation of land in Assyria in the 1st millennium bc,” in Lebeau, M. and Talon, P., eds., Reflets des deux fleuves: volume de mélanges offerts à André Finet.Leuven.Google Scholar
Potts, D. T. (1990) The Arabian Gulf in Antiquity I: From Prehistory to the Fall of the Achaemenid Empire. Vol. 2, From Alexander the Great to the Coming of Islam. Oxford.
Potts, D. T. (1997) Mesopotamian Civilization: The Material Foundations. London and Ithaca.
Radner, K. (1999) “Traders in the neo-Assyrian period,” in Dercksen, , ed. (1999).
Renger, J. (1971) “Notes on the goldsmiths, jewelers, and carpenters of neo-Babylonian Eanna,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 91.Google Scholar
Renger, J. (1995) “Institutional, communal, and individual ownership or possession of arable land in ancient Mesopotamia from the end of the fourth to the end of the first millennium BC,” Chicago-Kent Law Review. 71.Google Scholar
Rowton, M. (1976) “Dimorphic structure and typology,” Oriens Antiquus 15.Google Scholar
Salles, J.-F. (1990) “Les Achéménides dans le Golfe arabo-persique,” in Sancisi-Weerdenburg, H. and Kuhrt, A., eds., Centre and Periphery.Leiden: Achaemenid History.Google Scholar
Schloen, J. D. (2001) The House of the Father as Fact and Symbol: Patrimonialism in Ugarit and the Ancient Near East. Winona Lake, IN.
Schwartz, G. M. (1995) “Pastoral nomadism in ancient western Asia,” in Sasson, , ed. (1995), vol. 1.
Sherratt, E. S. and Sherratt, A. (1993) “The growth of the Mediterranean economy in the early first millennium bc,” World Archaeology 24.Google Scholar
Stern, E. (1994) Dor, Ruler of the Seas: Twelve Years of Excavations at the Israelite-Phoenician Carmel Coast. Jerusalem.
Stolper, M. W. (1985) Entrepreneurs and Empire. The Murashû Archive, the Murashû Firm, and Persian Rule in Babylonia. Leiden.
Tuplin, C. (1987) “The administration of the Achaemenid Empire,” in Carradice, I., ed., Coinage and Administration in the Athenian and Persian Empires.Oxford.Google Scholar
Van De Mieroop, M. (1997) The Ancient Mesopotamian City. Oxford.
Van der Spek, R.J. (2000a) “The effect of war on the prices of barley and agricultural land in Hellenistic Babylonia,” in Andreau, et al., eds. (2000).
Van Driel, G. (1988) “Neo-Babylonian agriculture,” Bulletin of Sumerian Agriculture 4.Google Scholar
Van Driel, G. (1989) “The Murašûs in context,” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 32.Google Scholar
Van Driel, G. (1990) “Neo-Babylonian agriculture, part III: cultivation,” Bulletin of Sumerian Agriculture 5.Google Scholar
Van Driel, G. (1999) “Agricultural entrepreneurs in Mesopotamia,” in Klengel, and Renger, , eds. (1999).
Van Driel, G. (2002) Elusive Silver. In Search of a Role for a Market in an Agrarian Environment. Aspects of Mesopotamia’s Society. Leiden.
Wilkinson, T. J. (1994) “The structure and dynamics of dry-farming states in upper Mesopotamia,” Current Anthropology 35.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, T. J. (1995) “Late-Assyrian settlement geography in upper Mesopotamia,” in Liverani, , ed. (1995).
Wilkinson, T. J. (2000) “Regional approaches to Mesopotamian archaeology: the contribution of archaeological surveys,” Journal of Archaeological Research 8.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, T. J. and Barbanes, E. (2000) “Settlement patterns in the Syrian Jazira during the Iron Age” in Bunnens, , ed. (2000).
Winter, I. (1976) “Phoenicians and North Syrian ivory carving in historical context: questions of style and distribution,” Iraq 38.Google Scholar
Wunsch, C. (1997–8) “Und die Richter berieten … Streitfälle in Babylon aus der Zeit Neriglissars und Nabonids,” Archiv für Orientforschung 44–45.Google Scholar
Wunsch, C. (1999) “The Egibi family’s real estate in Babylon (6th century bc),” in Hudson, and Levine, , eds. (1999).
Wunsch, C. (1999–2000) “Eine Richterurkunde aus der Zeit Neriglissars,” Aula Orientalis 17–18.Google Scholar
Wunsch, C. (2000) “Neubabylonische Geschäftsleute und ihre Beziehungen zu Palast- und Tempelverwaltungen: Das Beispiel der Familie Egibi,” in Bongenaar, , ed. (2000).
Zabehlicky, H. (1995) “Preliminary views of the Ephesian harbor,” in Koester, H., ed., Pergamon: Citadel of the Gods.Harrisburg, WV: Harvard Theological Studies 46.Google Scholar
Zaccagnini, C. (1989a) “Asiatic mode of production and ancient Near East: notes towards a discussion,” in Zaccagnini, C., ed., Production and Consumption in the Ancient Near East.Budapest.Google Scholar
Zaccagnini, C. (1989b) “Prehistory of the Achaemenid tributary system,” in Briant, and Herrenschmidt, , eds. (1989).

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×