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δOYλOσ OY BAσIσλEωδ The Politics of Translation*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Anna Missiou
Anna Missiou
Affiliation:
University of Crete, Rethymno
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Extract

Students of the relations between Greeks and Persians in classical antiquity usually depend entirely on Greek authors, as there are no extensive narrative texts among the cuneiform inscriptions of the Achaemenid kings, our extant Oriental sources for the history of the Persian empire. Hence modern scholars have raised the question of the reliability of the Greek sources and emphasized the need to reveal the ideology and presuppositions of the Greek writers. For, if language embodies social reality, the assimilation of information is conditioned by the character of the mind, individual or collective, which comprehends the data within its own terms of reference, fits them into its own set of concepts and records them in that form. Thus, it has been argued that ‘the impression we get of the Persians in the Greek authors is in some ways a deceptive one. Too much emphasis is laid on what is pejorative’, that the labelling of Persia ‘as an Oriental Monarchy: a state and society ruled less by rational actions than by the writing and caprices of its king and court… is to be traced back directly to the Greek sources on Persian history’; and that the ‘discourse of barbarism’ which projected upon the Persians ‘the opposite of qualities admired’ in the Athenian society, ‘is ultimately to be referred to the ideology binding together democratic Athens and her empire’.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 43 , Issue 2 , December 1993 , pp. 377 - 391
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1993

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References

1 Cook, J. M., ‘The Rise of the Achaemenids and the Establishment of their Empire’, in Gershevitch, Ilya, ed., The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 2 (Cambridge, 1985), pp. 290–91Google Scholar.

2 Sancisi-Weerdenburg, Heleen, ‘The Fifth Oriental Monarchy and Hellenocentrism: Cyropaedia VIII and Its Influence’ in Sancisi-Weerdenburg, H. and Kuhrt, Amélie, Achaemenid History II. The Greek Sources (Leiden, 1987), p. 118Google Scholar.

3 Hall, Edith, Inventing the Barbarian. Greek Self-Definition through Tragedy (Oxford, 1989), pp. 121 and 154Google Scholar.

4 I have analysed these historical examples in the context of Athens' general approach to foreign policy in The Subversive Oratory of Andokides. Politics, Ideology and Decision-making in Democratic Athens (Cambridge, 1992), ch. 5Google Scholar.

5 And. 3.29: μετ δ ταȗτα 'AμΌργῃ πειӨΌμενοι τ δολω τοȗ βασιλωσ καì φγδι τν μν βασιλωσ δναμιν πεβαλΌμεӨα ὡσ οδενῸσ οὗσαν, τν δ 'AμΌργο φιλíαν εΊλΌμεӨα, κρεΊττω νομῚσαντεσ ειναι Cf. Hdt. 7.39 and Plut.Alex. 10.

6 The name of Amorges has also been read in the Lykian text of the stele from Xanthos, where Kharee the Xanthian talks about his own contribution to the smiting of the men of Iasos: Olmstead, A. T., History of the Persian Empire (Chicago, 1948), p. 360Google Scholar.

7 Pissouthnes assisted Samos in revolt against Athens in 440 (Thuc. 1.115.4–5; cf. Plut. Per. 25.3); some years later, in 430, he supported Kolophon in breaking away from Athens (Thuc. 3.34.2), and in 427 there were expectations that he might assist the oligarchs in Lesbos (Thuc. 3.31).

8 On the date of Pissouthnes' revolt see Lewis, D. M., Sparta and Persia (Leiden, 1977), pp. 80–81Google Scholar and Westlake, H. D., ‘Athens and Amorges’, Phoenix 31 (1977) pp. 321–2CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Contra, Olmstead, , History of the Persian Empire, p. 359Google Scholar.

9 On Hystaspes, father of Pissouthnes, see Lewis, , Sparta and Persia, p. 55Google Scholar; cf. Burn, A. R., ‘Persia and the Greeks’ in Gershevitch, Ilya, ed., The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 2 (Cambridge, 1985), p. 342Google Scholar.

10 Finley, M. I., Ancient Slavery and Modern Ideology (London, 1980), p. 119Google Scholar.

11 See Finley, M. I., ‘Was Greek Civilization Based on Slave Labour?’ in Finley, M. I. (ed.), Slavery in Classical Antiquity (Cambridge and New York, 1968), p. 53Google Scholar and Croix, G. E. M. de Ste., The Class Struggle in the Ancient World (London, 1981), p. 40Google Scholar.

12 Xen. ὥστε μγὼ μν γε, ξ ὦν κοω, οὐδνα κρíνω ὑπῸ πλειῸνων πεφιλῃσӨαι οὒτɛ Ἑλλνων οὒτɛ βαρβρων. ɛκμρioν δ τoτoυ καì τΌδε παρ Kρον δολου ὔντοσ οὺδεìσ πῇει πρῸσ βασιλα, πλν 'OρΌντασ πεχεíρησε.

13 Antrich, J. and Usher, S., Xenophon. The Persian Expedition. Text, Introduction and Notes (Bristol, 1978), p. 66Google Scholar. A similar point has been expressed by Pretor, A., The Anabasis of Xenophon. Book I (Cambridge, 1900), pp. 104 and 115 on 1.7.3 and 1.9.29 respectively.Google Scholar.

14 , Eur.Hel. 276Google Scholar: τ βαρβρων γρ δοȗλα παντῸσ πλν νΌσ.

16 Eur.Iph. Aul. 1400–1401: βαρβρων δ' “Eλληνασ ἄρχειν εῚκῸσ λλ' οὐ βαρβροσ, μτερ, ‘Eλλνων τῸ μν γρ δοȗλον, οΊ δ’ λεӨεροι Cf. , Xen.Hell. 6.1.12Google Scholar and Dem. 15.23.

16 Finley, M. I., Politics in the Ancient World (Cambridge, 1983), p. 123CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

17 , Xen.Anab. 2.5.38Google Scholar: ‘Yμσ δ βασιλε7sigma; τ πλα παιτε αὑτοȗ γρ εἶναí φησιν, πεíπερ Kρο ἦσαν τοȗ κεíνο δολον

18 Meiggs, R. and Lewis, D., A Selection of Greek Historical Inscriptions to the End of the Fifth Century B.C, rev. edn. (Oxford, 1988), no. 12, pp. 20–22Google Scholar.

19 Cook, , ‘The Rise of the Achaemenids’, p. 224Google Scholar.

20 Meiggs and Lewis, p. 21.

21 Meiggs and Lewis, p. 20.

22 Cook, , ‘The Rise of the Achaemenids’, p. 224Google Scholar and Meiggs and Lewis, p. 22.

23 Cook, , op. cit., p. 224 n. 1Google Scholar. See also Meiggs and Lewis, p. 22.

24 The narrative text, organized in columns, is carved to the right, to the left and below the relief. It is now commonly accepted that the figure of the Skythian leader Skunka, defeated in 518 B.C., and the fifth column of the Old Persian inscription were executed later.

25 DB 11.19–20, 29–30, 49–50, 82; 111.13, 31, 56, 84–5; V.8. In my references to the Old Persian text of the Behistun inscription I use the abbreviation DB followed by a number (1–76), indicating the paragraphs, as they are in the edition of the text by Schmitt, Rüdiger, The Bisitun Inscription of Darius the Great. Old Persian Text (Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum, London, 1991)Google Scholar. Here, however, in order to allocate the phrase manᨔ ba[n]daka very precisely, I have used two numerals, indicating column (I—V) and line.

26 Balcer, J. M., Herodotus and Bisitun. Problems in Ancient Persian historiography (Historia Einzelschriften, 49, 1987), p. 45, n. 82Google Scholar, is, to my knowledge, unique when he claims that ‘bandaka = “possession” or “property”’;.

27 Rawlinson, H. C., ‘The Persian Cuneiform Inscription at Behistun’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 10, 1847, p. 217Google Scholar, writes that the phrase manā ba[n]daka ‘signifies literally “bound to me” but I always translate the phrase “one of my servants” or “one of my subjects”.’ Cf. Tolman, H. C., Ancient Persian Lexicon and Texts (Nashville, 1908)Google Scholar, s.v. ‘…lit. “he who is in bonds”’. Yet, as no definite opinion has been so far formed as to the literal meaning of the word, Professor Gershevitch has emphasized in a private conversation that further study is necessary to analyse the influence of the suffix -ka on the preceding ba[n]da-.

28 Rawlinson, as above, passim.

29 Tolman, H. C., The Behistan Inscription of King Darius (Nashville, 1908)Google Scholar, passim andKent, Roland, Old Persian. Grammar, Texts, Lexicon, rev. edn. (American Oriental Series, 33, New Haven, 1953)Google Scholar, passim in his translation. In his lexicon, s.v., Kent cites both ‘subject, servant’.

30 Weissbach, F. H., Die Keilinschriften der Achameniden (Leipzig, 1911)Google Scholar, passim..

31 King, L. W. and Thompson, R. C., The Sculptures and Inscription of Darius the Great on the Rock of Behistun in Persia. A New Collation of the Persian, Susian, and Babylonian Texts (London, 1907)Google Scholar, passim..

32 Meillet, A., Grammaire du Vieux-Perse, 2nd edn. revised by Benveniste, Ém. (Paris, 1931), pp. 83, 105, 149, 159Google Scholar; on p. 149: ‘attaché, serviteur’.

33 Cook, , ‘The Rise of the Achaemenids’, p. 225Google Scholar and Cardascia, Guillaume, Les archives des Murasû. Une famille d'hommes d'affaires babyloniennes a Vepoque perse (455–403 av. J. C.) (Paris, 1951), pp. 5 and 13Google Scholar.

34 Schmitt, , The Bisitun Inscription of Darius the Great. The Old Persian Text, passim. On p. 50Google Scholar, he writes: ‘ba[n]daka does not mean, as it has commonly been interpreted in the past, “subject, servant”, but rather “vassal, (feudal) tenant”’. Cf. Balcer, , Herodotus and Bisitun. Problems in Ancient Persian historiography, p. 44Google Scholar.

35 On this see Kent, , Old Persian, p. 199Google Scholar, who also offers information on the “lingusitic setting of Old Persian”, pp. 6–7.

36 See also Sancisi-Weerdenburg, H., ‘Was there ever a Median Empire?’ in Kuhrt, Amelié and Sancisi-Weerdenburg, H. (eds), Achaemenid History III. Method and Theory (Leiden, 1988), p. 202Google Scholar.

37 D B 60, 64, 66: dauta, ‘friend’; D B 8; āgariya, ‘loyal’; D B 13, 32, 42, 43, 47, 50, 68: anuiyā, ‘followers'; D B 35 anuiya, ‘faithful’.

38 The interval of time between these two authors emphasizes the persistent use of the terms in this context. See πιστοí Aiskh. Persai 2, 171, 681; Xen. Anab. 1.5.15; 1.6.8; 1.7.5; 1.9.31 and φíλοι Aoi: Aiskh. Persai 162, 206, 231, 445, 598, 618; Xen. Anab. 1.6.5–6, 8 ; 1.7.6; 1.9.31; 2.1.5; 2.5.14; 4.4.4, and Cyropaedia 5.1.25; 7.5.41, 48, 54; 8.7.4, 7, 8.

39 Benveniste, Émile, Indo-European Language and Society, transl. Palmer, E. (London, 1973), p. 267Google Scholar.

40 Cook, , ‘The Rise of the Achaemenids’, p. 236Google Scholar and Briant, Pierre, Rois, Tribus et Paysans (Annales littéraires de Besançon, 269, Paris, 1982), p. 480Google Scholar.

41 See also Goldhill, Simon, Reading Greek Tragedy (Cambridge, 1986), pp. 82–3CrossRefGoogle Scholar, for similar remarks on φíλοσ.

42 On this Cook, , ‘The Rise of the Achaemenids’, p. 279, writes: ‘under Cyrus the Great and his son Cambyses there is no doubt that Medes and indeed others of the subject peoples were promoted to positions of responsibility… In 522/1 Darius had no choice but to use commanders already in post’.Google Scholar.

43 Kent, , Old Persian, p. 161Google Scholar, but only on Omises (Vaumisa).

44 I mean, authority to act with or without Darius' orders or authority to kill, or not to kill, the captive enemy.

45 It should be noted that Meillet, , Grammaire du Vieux-Perse, para. 21, pp. 14–15Google Scholar, referring to the Old Persian texts in general makes the remark: ‘l'expression des notions essentielles n'est pas fixée’; this remark may apply to the other terms of the Behistun inscription but not to ba[n]daka.

46 DB 71.

47 DB 13: ‘I with a few men, kamnaibi martiyaibis, slew that Gaumata the magus, and the men who were his foremost followers, fratamā martiyā anuiydā’. Quotations from the Old Persian inscription are from Schmitt's translation, The Bisitun Inscription of Darius the Great. The Old Persian Text.

48 DB 11 (Gaumata), 16 (Açina and Nidintu-Bel), 22 (Martiya), 24 (Phraortes), 33 (Ciçantakhma), 38 (Frada), 40 (Vahyazdata; cf. 47), and 49 (Arkha).

49 DB passim; in particular see para. 1: ‘I am Darius the great king, the king of kings, king in Persia, king of countries’.

50 For example, DB 59 and 67.

51 DB 16, 22, 49, and in particular 52: ‘By the favour of Ahuramazda I defeated them and captured nine kings’ and 53: ‘These (are) the nine kings whom I have captured within these battles’. The term is also used in the small inscriptions of the monument (DBa-j), over Darius’ head, under the prostrate figure of Gaumata and over each of the other captive opponents, except for Skunka, the Skythian leader (DBk).

52 DB 16, 22, 24, 32, 35, 40,47, 49, 54. On the term karā see Diakonoff, M. I., ‘Media’ in Gershevitch, Ilya (ed.), The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 2 (Cambridge, 1985), pp. 135–6Google Scholar and Clarisse Herrenschmidt, ‘Les historiens de l'empire achéménide et l'inscription de Bisotun’ Annales ESC, 37, 5–6 (1982), 821–2Google Scholar.

53 DB 13, 32, 42, 43, 47, 50.

54 DB 68. It is interesting that in para. 35 the word anusiyā qualifies Hystaspes' kāra, ‘army’.

55 I disregard the third-person-singular formulaic expression ‘Proclaims Darius, the king’, which, repeated seventy-five times, introduces the paragraphs with the first-person narrative. On this introductory sentence see Herrenschmidt, Clarisse, ‘Nugae Antico-Persianae’, in Sancisi-Weerdenburg, Heleen and Kuhrt, Amélie (eds), Achaemenid History IV. Centre and Periphery (Leiden, 1990), pp. 49–54Google Scholar. For a parallel wording assigned to Cyrus see in the Bible 2 Chronicles 36.23: ‘Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia’.

56 D B 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 35, 36, 38, 41, 42, 46 and 50.

57 See also Gnoli, G., ‘Politique religieuse et conception de la royauté sous les Achéménides’ (Ada Iranica, lere Serie: Commémoration Cyrus, Hommage Universel, 2, Leiden, 1974), p. 167Google Scholar.

58 An analysis of the interrelations between the versions of Darius' declaration remains a desideratum: Schmitt, , The Bisitun Inscription of Darius the Great. The Old Persian Text, p. 19.Google Scholar.

59 These are: Hydarnes, Dadarshi, Omises, Takhmaspada, Dadarshi, Artavardiya, Vivana and Intaphernes. Gobryas, the ninth ba[n]daka-general, is only mentioned in the fifth column of the Old Persian text, which is only a short postscript, added after the completion of the inscriptions and sculptures.

60 King and Thompson, The Sculptures and Inscription of Darius, passim: ‘my servant’. In his translation of the Elamite version Hinz, Walter, ‘Die Behistan-Inschrift des Darius in ihrer urspriinglichen Fassung (Taf. 29–30)’, Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran 7 (1974)Google Scholar, passim, renders the term as ‘Gefolgsmann’.

61 Voigtlander, Elizabeth N. von, The Bisitun Inscription of Darius the Great. Babylonian Version (Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum, London, 1978)Google Scholar, passim:‘my subject’’. See also Herzfeld, Ernst, Altpersische Inschriften (Berlin, 1938), p. 252Google Scholar. The term qalla is not included among the terms for ‘free men, slaves, the personnel of palace and temple as well as the menials of the large estates’ given by Oppenheim, A. L., ‘The Babylonian Evidence of Achaemenian Rule in Mesopotamia’ in Gershevitch, Ilya (ed.), The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 2 (Cambridge, 1985), pp. 573ffGoogle Scholar.

62 Greenfeld, Jonas C. and Porten, Bezalel, The Bisitun Inscription of Darius the Great. Aramaic Version (Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum, London, 1982)Google Scholar, in the text passim and in the glossary, p. 62: ‘my servant’.

63 Schmitt, , The Bisitun Inscription of Darius the Great, The Old Persian Text, p. 19Google Scholar.

64 Id., pp. 17–18, and 19, and Gershevitch, Ilya, ‘The Alloglottography of Old Persian’, Transactions of the Philological Society (1979), pp. 114ffGoogle Scholar.

65 Schmitt, , The Bisitun Inscription of Darius the Great. The Old Persian Text, p. 18Google Scholar.

66 Hallock, R. T., Persepolis Fortification Tablets (Oriental Institute Publications, vol. 92, Chicago, 1969), p. 720Google Scholar.

67 I owe this remark to Professor Gershevitch.

68 On salur in DB 3 (Elam) see Cameron, George G., ‘The Elamite Version of the Bisitun Inscriptions’, Journal of Cuneiform Studies 14 (1960), p. 62CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hinz, , ‘Die Behistan-Inschrift des Darius’, p. 123Google Scholar and Hallock, , Persepolis Fortification Tablets, p. 753Google Scholar.

69 According to Jakobson, Roman, ‘On Linguistic Aspects of Translation’ in Brower, R. A. (ed.), On Translation (Cambridge, MA, 1959), pp. 232–9Google Scholar, even apparent synonymy does not yield equivalence.

70 In addition to the category of royal servants, the eunuchs, Diakonoff, , ‘Media’, p. 136Google Scholar, distinguishes three categories of slaves:(1) captives, who were transferred to new places, settled on the land and formed whole villages of people technically or actually in a state of slavery;(2) slaves, mainly from among the captives, who formed gangs employed in construction and agricultural work for the households of the king and the aristocracy; and (3) slaves in the personal service of free men.

71 Māniya, a loan-word from the Median language, used in the Behistun inscription (BD 14), probably designated the captive slaves who came in large numbers to Media in the late seventh and early sixth centuries B.C.: Diakonoff, , ‘Media’, p. 136Google Scholar. Kent, , Old Persian, pp. 202 and 219Google Scholar, translates the term as ‘household slave(s)’; see alsoHerrenschmidt, , ‘Les historiens de l'empire achéménien et l'inscription de Bisotun’, p. 815Google Scholar: ‘les esclaves domestiques’. Marīka is used in the OP text of the trilingual inscription on the rock-cut tomb of Darius at Naqsh-i Rustam, which in the Babylonian version is rendered as qalla: see Herzfeld, , Altpersische Inschriften, pp. 251–2Google Scholar, and Kent, ib., p. 202.

72 Gershevitch, , ‘The Alloglottography of Old Persian’, p. 114Google Scholar. On OP as the language in which Darius was thinking see Herrenschmidt, Clarisse, ‘Designation de l'empire et concepts politiques de Darius ler d'apres ses inscriptions en vieux-perse’, Studia Iranica 5 (1976), p. 34Google Scholar.

73 It has already been emphasized, above p. 381, that the notion of binding does not exclusively signify the notion of subordination.

74 Finley, , ‘Was Greek Civilization Based on Slave Labour?’, p. 55Google Scholar.

75 On the juridical status of slaves in Athens see Garlan, Yvon, Les esclaves en Gréce ancienne (Paris, 1982)Google Scholar.

76 That is, to emphasize someone's absolute and shameful dependence on his desires; see, for example, Eur. Hecuba 865–6: οὐκ ἔστι Өνητν ὅστισ' λεӨεροσ χρημτων γρ δοȗλΌσ στιν ἧ τχησ. Aiskhines 1.42: ἔπραξε ταȗτα δολεων τασ αῚσχíστfαισ Pl. Phaidros 238e and Xen. Memorabilia 1.5.5 and 6.8.

77 Usually with reference to a relationship with gods; for example, see Sophokles, Oedipus Rex 410, where Teiresias says to Oedipus: οὐ γρ τι σοì ξ δοῡλοσ, λλ λοχí Eur. Ion 132, 182 and 309. Cf. Plato, Phaido 85b. It was also used to qualify Greek attitudes towards the laws; e.g. see Arist.Politics 1315b 15–16. Plato Nomoi 698bc: καì δεσπΌτησ νν τισ αΊδᾡσ, δι ἣν δουλεοντεσ τοσ τΌμοισ ξῇν ἠӨλομεν.

78 Cf. the other characteristic formula of the Achaemenid titulature xāyathiya xāyathiyanam, ‘king of kings’; this expression does not mean ‘king among kings’, but ‘he who reigns over other kings’: Benveniste, , Indo-European Language and Society, p. 314Google Scholar.

79 See, for example, the stele from the temple of Leto at Xanthos bearing inscription in Greek, Lykian and Aramaic.

80 Esther 1.22; 3.12; 8.9. Lewis, D.M., ‘Persians in Herodotus’ in The Greek Historians. Literature and History. Papers Presented to A. E. Raubitschek (Stanford, 1985), p. 102, suggests that a Greek copy of the Behistun inscription might have reached the Greek-speaking subjects of Darius.Google Scholar.

81 This has been mentioned above, p. 384.

82 Voigtlander, , The Babylonian Version, pp. 63–6Google Scholar and Seidl, U., ‘Ein Relief Dareios’ I in Babylon’, Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran 9 (1976), pp. 125–30Google Scholar.

83 Contra Balcer, , Herodotus and Bisitun. Problems in Ancient Persian Historiography, pp. 28–9, who argues that because of the absolute inaccessibility of the Behistun monument, the inscription was not ‘for public consumption’ (p. 29); yet Balcer ignores DB 60–61 and 70Google Scholar.

84 Cameron, George G., ‘Ancient Persia’ in Dentan, R. C. (ed.), The Idea of History in the Ancient Near East (New Haven and London, 1955), p. 86Google Scholar.

85 Kuhrt, Amélie, ‘The Cyrus Cylinder and Achaemenid Imperial Policy’, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 25 (1983), p. 93Google Scholar: ‘th e main significance of the text lies in the insight it provides into the mechanisms used by Cyrus to legitimate his conquest of Babylonia by manipulating local traditions’. See also Harmatta, Janos, ‘Les modéles littéraires de l'édit babylonien de Cyrus’ (Ada Iranica, lére Série: Commémoration Cyrus, Hommage Universel, 1, Leiden, 1974), pp. 29–44, who argues that the closest parallels of the Cyrus Cylinder are the inscriptions of Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria (668–627 B.C.)Google Scholar.

86 In the Cyrus Cylinder Cyrus had traced his genealogy only back to Teispes; Achaemenes, Teispes' father, did not appear in the cuneiform inscriptions until Darius I. Hdt. 3.88 ‘documents’ the latter's efforts to merge the two branches of the royal house of Achaemenes by a series of marriages, to Atossa and Artystone, daughters of Cyrus, to Phaidyme, daughter of Otanes and wife of Cambyses and to Parnys, daughter of the late Smerdis.

87 DB 5–9, 13–14, 18–20, 25–31, 33, 35–6, 38, 40–42, 45–6, 50, 52, 54, 56, 58–9, 62–3, 72.

88 Gnoli, , ‘Politique religieuse et conception de la royauté sous les Achéménides’, p. 167Google Scholar; Herrenschmidt, , ‘Les historiens de l'empire ach!eménide et l'inscription de Bisotun’, p. 820Google Scholar; and Oppenheim, , ‘Achaemenian Rule in Mesopotamia’, p. 549Google Scholar.

89 Root, Margaret Cool, The King and Kingship in Achaemenid Art. Essays on the Creation of Iconography of Empire (Ada Iranica, 3éme Série: Textes et Mémoires, 9, Leiden, 1979), pp. 185–9Google Scholar. See also ch. 4, where she analyses the rock-cut tomb of Darius at Naqsh-i Rustam as a source of information on the relationship between the god Ahuramazda and the Achaemenid king.

90 For a brief sketch on these events see Dandamaev, M. A. and VI. Lukonin, G., The Culture and Social Institutions of Ancient Iran, transl. Ph. Kohl, L. (Cambridge, 1989), pp. 91–5Google Scholar.

91 Young, T. Cuyler Jr, “The Consolidation of the Empire and Its Limits of Growth under Darius and Xerxes’ in Boardman, J., Hammond, N. G. L., Lewis, D. M. and Ostwald, M. (eds), The Cambridge Ancient History IV2. Persia, Greece and the Western Mediterranean c. 525 to 479 B.C. (Cambridge, 1988), p. 57Google Scholar; see also Dandamaev, M. A. and VI. Lukonin, G., The Culture and Social Institutions of Ancient Iran, pp. 93–4Google Scholar: ‘His (sc. Gaumata's) domestic policy was directed toward the abolition of the privileges of the Persian hereditary nobility and of its predominant position in the economy and society. Darius restored to the nobility the privileges that had been rescinded by Gaumata.’

92 On the theme of peace and order see Bickerman, E. J. and Tadmor, H., ‘Darius I, PseudoSmerdis and the Magi’, Athenaeum 56 (1978), pp. 239–61, in particular p. 245, who recognized commonplaces of Babylonian political ideology ‘used to glorify the founders of new dynasties’ in DB 14Google Scholar.

93 Benveniste, , Indo-European Language and Society, p. 315Google Scholar; see also Kent, Old Persian, s.v.

94 Pritchard, J. B., The Ancient Near East: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures (Princeton and London, 1958), vol. I, p. 207Google Scholar.

95 It should be added that proskynēsis made a shocking impression on the Greeks: Aiskh. Persai 152 and 588; Hdt. 1.134.1 and 7.136.

96 Gnoli, , ‘Politique religieus et conception de la royauté sous les Achéménides’, p. 168Google Scholar. Cf. Root, , The King and Kingship in Achaemenid Art, p. 266Google Scholar.

97 Gelb, I. J., ‘Terms of slaves in Ancient Mesopotamia’ in Societies and Languages of the Ancient Near East. Studies in Honour of I. M. Diakonoff (Warminster, 1982), pp. 86, 88, and 94Google Scholar.

98 Cardascia, , Les archives ties Murasû, pp. 5 and 13Google Scholar.

99 Dandamaev, M. A., Political History of the Achaemenid Empire, transl. Vogelsang, W. J. (Leiden, 1989), p. 134Google Scholar.

100 The reliefs in Palace P of Cyrus at Pasargadae show clear Assyrian influence. On this see Root, , The King and Kingship in Achaemenid Art, p. 210Google Scholar. It should be noted, however, that Root's thesis is that the Achaemenid sculptures in general stand in contrast to a Near Eastern tradition, which emphasizes the absolute submission of the people to the king:passim.

101 Gnoli, , ‘Politique religieuse et conception de la royauté sous les Achéménides’, p. 167Google Scholar.

102 Root, , The King and Kingship in Achaemenid Art, pp. 75–6, however, without considering linguistic information, argues that the Behistun monument as well as the relief of Darius’ rockcut tomb at Naqsh-i Rustam emphasize the ‘crucial bonds of loyalty’ between Darius and the Persian nobilityGoogle Scholar.

103 See also Benveniste, Émile, Titres et nomspropres en iranien ancien (Paris, 1966), p. 5Google Scholar: ‘La titulature est liée a des structures sociales et à des formes d'organisation dont elle est souvent le seul témoignage, et la société achéménide a été à cet égard une des plus complexes et des mieux différencièes qu'on puisse trouver dans le monde antique.’

104 The best known parallel to the Persian society outside antiquity is the Ottoman Empire; both societies designate their high-ranking men as ba[n]daka/kullar, ‘slaves', and assign honour as well as power to them. According to Inalcik, Halil, The Ottoman Empire (New York, 1973), p. 87, ‘In the Ottoman society, to be a slave of the Sultan was an honour and a privilege’. Cf. Encyclopaedia of Islam, s.v. kul.Google Scholar

105 On the rhetoric about the polarized political ideals of Greeks and non-Greeks as an invention of the fifth-century Athenian democracy see Hall, , Inventing the Barbarian, passim, in particular pp. 16, 54–59, 121, and 154Google Scholar.

106 To the latter we should add Diod. 9.36; [Arist.] Peri kosmou 398a27–30: τν δ πσαν ρχν τσ' Aσíασ… διειλφεσαν κατ ἗Өνη στρατηγοì καì βασιλεσ, δοȗλοι τοȗ μεγλου βασιλωσ.