Chronology of the Persian (Achaemenid) Empire:
a Short Period

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By the grace of G-d 
Copyright © 2009 

The Monograph >>

by Nathaniel (Nesanel) Segal
formerly from Chicago, Illinois

Preface

For centuries, discrepancies between conventional chronology and traditional Jewish chronology have vexed Jewish scholars.  Nowhere else but during the Medean and Persian period of Jewish history is this discrepancy greater.  The Jewish Sages count fifty-two years from when Darius the Mede ^* became king over Babylonia until Alexander the Great defeated Persia.  Conventional historians reckon about 208 years for this period.  That said, let us consider orders of magnitude rather than quibbling over exact numbers and actual dates, and discuss the issue as generations of memory and as believable lists of the reigns of kings.  For this article, I call the length of the Persian rule from traditional Jewish chronology a 'short period' and the conventional length an 'extended period.'

Traditional Jewish sources know of a short reign of Darius the Mede followed by the Persian Kōrêsh.  Hebrew Scripture, the Tanakh, calls him 'Kōrêsh'.  I am careful to call him Kōrêsh, rather than the usual Cyrus, since it is likely that the Persians and Greeks knew him by the name Cambyses.

The Bible mentions another King Darius, Darius of Persia, and also King Artaxerxes.  These names appear in the Books of Daniel and Ezra.  From the context of the Book of Ezra, it appears that two Persian kings bear the name Darius.  The name Ahasverus ^* appears in the Book of Esther, although it probably is a birth name despite resembling the royal name 'Xerxes'.^*  Regardless, according to Rabbinical tradition the short period of Medean and Persian hegemony over the Land of Israel included only one Medean and three or four Persian kings.

Conventional chronology, on the other hand, has a Persian king by the name of Cyrus – Kûrauš ^* – conquering the Babylonian Empire and initiating a Persian rule called the Achaemenid Empire ^* of roughly eight more 'Great Kings.'  This is a reasonable number of rulers for roughly two centuries, but double or triple the number in the Jewish tradition.  Note that the conventional history also does not recognize that a Medean king ruled Babylonia as we find in the Jewish accounts of the period.

However, when we examine the evidence, there is an overwhelming lack of support for the extended Persian period — the conventional chronology.  Rather, the evidence is consistent with the traditional Jewish chronology, and this traditional chronology explains some anomalies in the archaeological record that are otherwise perplexing.

Although science frowns on using the lack of evidence as a proof, the merit of my argument rests upon the overwhelmingly preponderant lack of evidence to support the conventional chronology.

I propose a theory by using the same standards of academics who have shown no interest in shortening the established Persian period's length, despite whether they are aware of a conflict with their chronology and the traditional Jewish one.  I show that faulty critical judgment has led to academic mistakes.  My theory is the most economical explanation of the evidence (Occam’s razor), especially the evidence of archaeology.

Greek Rhetoric

To the best of my knowledge, the flawed chronology of an extended Persian period derives from the Greek doctor, Ctesias of Cnidos.^*  He wrote Persika, a sweeping but unbelievable history of an extended Persian Achaemenid dynasty.  Events of the Persian era and earlier were also preserved in separate books such as the well-known Histories by Herodotus of Halicarnassis and in The Peloponnesian Wars by Thucydides.

Herodotus, the primary source of our knowledge of ancient Persia, wrote his researches when Athenians possessed fresh memories of the war between Xerxes' Persia and Greece.  Athenians still remembered how they had defeated Xerxes' invasion and how they had rebuilt their city-state after the Persians had burnt Athens.

Thucydides wrote his journals of the thirty-year long Peloponnesian Wars, wars among Greek city-states, but primarily between Athens and Sparta.

When Greek librarians, in Athens, Alexandria, and Pergamum, organized their historical collections, Ctesias's chronology was taken for granted.  These librarians, lacking a feel for an accurate depth of their history, deemed that the Peloponnesian Wars had been fought after the Persian sack of Athens and its resurgence.

However, Herodotus, widely considered the "father of history," lived after the events that Thucydides described rather than before.

This major revision of Greek history corrects the blunder in the conventional chronology of the Persian (Achaemenid) period that supposedly endured for 208 years.

Persika by Ctesias of Cnidos

In writing Persika, he is our earliest informant about an extended Achaemenid period.  He tells us that he was a doctor living at the Persian court during this Achaemenid period, attending to the queen mother Parysatis.  Ctesias wrote a sweeping history of the Achaemenid dynasty covering roughly a century and a half – from the founding of the dynasty during the era of Cyrus and the Persian, Darius the Great,^* until the life of king Arsaces (Arsakes), whose throne name became Artaxerxes.  The latest events that Ctesias covered are contemporary with the accounts of Xenophon's Anabasis, although he and Xenephon disagree on crucial details.  There are no extant contemporary reports after this juncture until after the death of Alexander of the Great.

Ctesias's account defies belief.  After the reigns of Xerxes and Artaxerxes, he mostly recorded royal intrigue and court plots.  If we believe his account, no events of importance occurred outside the lives of the royal family.  During this extended Persian period, if we believe Ctesias, the empire neither expanded nor contracted.  There are no rebellions or wars.  Provinces paid their tribute diligently.

In contrast, Darius the Great inscribed an account ^* of his first three years as the Great King of Persia.^*  In the first year alone, Darius and his generals quashed nineteen rebellions (if we are to believe him).  Also, he took nine rebellious kings prisoner (and executed them).  Distant provinces rebelled, as did his own Persians.

Babylonian Chronicles

The Babylonians composed texts that have survived.  They wrote these with cuneiform wedges baked into clay tablets or cylinders which archaeologists have unearthed during the last century or so.  The Babylonians recorded their documents in the Akkadian language, which belongs to the same family of languages as Aramaic and Hebrew.  Their cuneiform script, though, is largely a legacy from the earlier Sumerian civilization.

The Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar ^* ruled at the time of the last independent Jewish kings of Judea — Jerusalem and the surrounding area.  Babylonian chronicles tell us that Nebuchadnezzar's rule began with the death of his father, who had ruled for twenty-one years.  As crown prince, Nebuchadnezzar commanded troops whom he led in aggressive moves against Egypt.

Judea found itself lodged between the Egyptian and Babylonian clashes.  In King Nebuchadnezzar's seventh year, he besieged the city of Jerusalem.  According to his chronicles, he deposed the Jewish king and appointed another Jewish king of his own choice.^*

We find a gap here in the chronicles.  Historians use the narratives of the Tanakh to construct the account of how Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and carried away booty and captives.  Compare the Bible's books 2nd Kings 24:8-17 and Jeremiah 52:28-30.  Jews call this period, from the destruction of the Temple onward, the Seventy-Year Exile in Babylonia.

During this Jewish Exile, Persians and Medes swept down from the Zagros Mountains and defeated a later Babylonian king, Nabonidus.^*  The Persian, Cyrus the Great,^* led the conquering army.  He was already the ruler of an empire on the eastern and northern fringes of the Babylonian Empire.  He had made his capital, Parsagadae,^* in Fars Province, Iran – the original homeland of a Persian tribe.

Cyrus commissioned a text that narrates his conquest and then his ascent to the throne of the empire.  This text is the famous Cyrus Cylinder.^*  In this text, Cyrus invokes the names of the gods of Babylonia, especially Marduk, their supreme god, to justify deposing Nabonidus, the last Babylonian king.  Cyrus presents himself as a liberator bringing measures of relief to the inhabitants of the city of Babylon.  He also arranged the restoration of the temples that Nabonidus supposedly had defiled.  Cyrus claims that he will continue to do the will of the gods and is a legitimate king and friend of the Marduk priests.^*

Cyrus appointed his son, Cambyses, as co-regent.  "Marduk, the great lord, rejoiced at [my good] deeds, and he pronounced a sweet blessing over me, Cyrus, the king who fears him, and over Cambyses, the son [my] issue. . . ." ^*  Conventionally, this is considered the beginning of the Persian Empire.

The Persian Period Begins

The co-regency of Cyrus and Cambyses lasted nine years, and then Cambyses ruled for eight years after Cyrus had died.  The most important event during Cambyses' reign was the conquest of Egypt.  Cambyses and part of his army reached the south of Egypt.  They occupied Thebes, the capital of Upper Egypt, and the army continued along the Nile until it reached the first cataract.  Cambyses posted a garrison on an island in the Nile, Elephantine.^* (Among the soldiers were Jews and/or philo-Jews who had an altar dedicated to Y-H-U.)

Darius the Great became the next Persian Great King.  The text of his Behistun Inscription,^* column 4, serves as evidence that Darius was a usurper.  Cambyses died under suspicious circumstances.^*  The throne would have passed to Bardiya (Smerdis),^* Cambyses' brother, but Bardiya had been murdered.  Darius claims that "Cambyses slew that Bardiya" before Cambyses went to Egypt.  We have no evidence or reason to believe that Cambyses would have murdered his brother.  Elsewhere, Darius claims that, "I seized Egypt." ^*  Instead, we have reason to be sure that Cambyses conquered Egypt.  Darius continues, "After that, the Lie grew ^* great . . . in Persia and in Medea and in the other provinces."  Then, "there was one man, a Magian, named Gaumâta;  he rose up. . . .  He lied to the people saying:  'I am Bardiya, the son of Cyrus, brother of Cambyses.'"  After that, "all the people" rebelled against Cambyses and went over to the alleged impostor.

Achaemenid Royal Inscriptions

(10)  Darius the King says:  "This is what was done by me after I became king:  A son of Cyrus, Cambyses by name, of our family, was king here.  That Cambyses had a brother, Bardiya (Smerdis) ^* by name, having the same mother and the same father as Cambyses.  Afterwards, Cambyses slew that Smerdis.  When Cambyses slew Smerdis, it did not become known to the people that Smerdis had been slain.  Afterwards, Cambyses went to Egypt.  When Cambyses had gone off to Egypt, after that the people became evil [hostile].  After that, the Lie grew^* great in the country, both in Persia and in Medea and in the other provinces"  (Column 1, lines 26-35).

10. (1.26-35.) Darius the King says: This is what was done by me after I became king. A son of Cyrus, Cambyses by name, of our family -- he was king here of that Cambyses there was a brother, Smerdis by name, having the same mother and the same father as Cambyses. Afterwards, Cambyses slew that Smerdis. When Cambyses slew Smerdis, it did not become known to the people that Smerdis had been slain. Afterwards, Cambyses went to Egypt. When Cambyses had gone off to Egypt, after that the people became evil. After that the Lie waxed great in the country, both in Persia and in Media and in the other provinces.

Then were all the people in revolt, and from Cambyses they went over unto him, both Persia and Media, and the other provinces. He seized the kingdom; on the ninth day of the month Garmapada [1 July 522] he seized the kingdom. Afterwards, Cambyses died of natural causes.

(11)  Darius the King says:  "Afterwards, there was one man, a Magian, named Gaumâta;  he rose up. . . .  He lied to the people thus:  'I am Bardiya, the son of Cyrus, brother of Cambyses.'  After that, all the people became rebellious from Cambyses, (and) went over to him, both Persia and Medea and the other provinces. . . .  He seized the kingdom. . . .  After that, Cambyses died by his own hand" ^*  (Column 1, lines 35-43).

(13)  Darius the King says:  "There was not a man, neither a Persian nor a Mede nor any of our family, who might take the kingdom from Gaumâta, the Magian.  The people feared him greatly, (thinking that) he would slay in numbers the people who had previously known Smerdis;  for this reason he would slay the people, 'lest they know that I am not Smerdis, the son of Cyrus.'  Nobody dared say anything about Gaumâta, the Magian, until I came.  After that . . . Ahuramazda brought me aid. . . .  [Then] I with a few men slew that Gaumâta, the Magian, and those who were his foremost followers. . . .  I took the kingdom from him.  By the favor of Ahuramazda I became king;  Ahuramazda bestowed the kingdom upon me"  (Column 1, lines 48-61).

(14)  Darius the King says:  "The kingdom which had been taken away from our family, that I put in its Place; I reestablished it on its foundation. As before, so I made the sanctuaries which Gaumâta, the Magian, destroyed. I restored to the people the pastures and the herds, granted me the kingdom"  (Column 1, lines 61-71). the household slaves and the houses which Gaumâta the Magian took away from them. I reestablished the people on its foundation, both Persia and Media and the other provinces. As before, so I brought back what had been taken away. By the favor of Ahuramazda this I did: I strove until I reestablished our royal house on its foundation as (it was) before. So I strove, by the favor of Ahuramazda, so that Gaumâta the Magian did not remove our royal house.

15. (1.71-2.) Darius the King says: This is what I did after I became king.

The Persian period begins when the Babylonian period ends. Specialists have used Ctesias's account to sort the documents from Elephantine by the supposed reign of [29 = 17 + 12] of [30 + 17 = 47]

Aramaic Manuscripts from Elephantine, Egypt ^*

A group of papyri written in Aramaic have been recovered from a Persian military outpost on an island in the southern Nile called Elephantine by Greeks — Yeb by the scribes writing in Aramaic.  Aramaic was the lingua franca of the Persian Empire, including the Persian-speaking court.

Most of the forty-seven documents are legal contracts.  However, a few contain correspondence between members of the garrison and officials in the Empire.  Of the papyri discovered, twenty-nine are dated.  These dates are uniformly designated by the year of the Great King's rule.  The names of only three kings appear in the dating:  Darius, Xerxes, and Artaxerxes.^*  Cambyses' name^* appears in one document.  Besides not seeing the names of any other Persian Great Kings, we see no distinctions between kings who carried the same name during the supposed extended Persian Period.

By convention, historians will refer to Darius the Great as Darius I to distinguish him from a later king Darius, Darius II.  Following this convention, we must keep track of Artaxerxes I, II, and III, for example.  Ctesias, on the other hand, associates the duplicate names with a birth name or some characteristic of their personality or body.  Despite this, only three royal names appear in dates of the papyri from Elephantine, and the scribes who wrote the legal documents gave no indication that the same royal name was used more than once during the period of the Achaemenid dynasty.

When we look at the documents from Elephantine, we have no way to discern the dating scheme.  One papyrus is dated "Year 21, the beginning of the reign when King Artachshasish sat on his throne."  When did the count of twenty-one years begin?  When we find the document dated "Year 31 of King Artachshasis," is this the tenth year of his reign or the thirty-first year?

Greek Rhetoric

To the best of our knowledge, the flawed chronology of an extended Persian period derives from Greek narratives.  Ctesias of Cnidos wrote a sweeping history of the Achaemenid dynasty.  and from the logical manner that Greek librarians used to assemble their collections in Athens, Alexandria, and Pergamum.  Little is known about the early years of Athen's library. We do know that other Greek libraries date from a time after Alexander's short-lived empire fell apart. Being rivals in most ways, the rulers of the 'north' established their library in Pergamum (today's Antioch, Turkey) while the rulers of the 'south' established their library in Alexandria, Egypt.

As far as we know, Alexandrians borrowed books from Athens to copy. Legend has it that they never returned the books. Regardless,   the Greeks organized the collection in their libraries by logic rather than memory. The events of the Persian era and earlier were preserved in separate books, not Persian memory. There had never been any consistent dating of years across the region. Years were reckoned by the reign of kings in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Years were reckoned in Athens according to the elected 'archon.'

Greek librarians regarded two authors as having written long before anyone could remember.Although the Greek author Herodotus is widely considered the "father of history," it is likely that Thucydides wrote journals of the thirty-year long Peloponnesian War, a war among Greek city-states, but primarily between Athens and Sparta. Herodotus wrote his Histories of the wars between Persia and Greece. before .  This major revision of Greek history corrects the blunder in the conventional chronology of the Persian (Achaemenid) Empire that supposedly endured for 208 years — roughly four or five generations of social memory.

Instead, the accurate measure of Persian ascendancy was roughly fifty years — only one or two generations of memory — as the Jewish Sages insist.  Divine revelation informs the student of history and guides him away from blunders.  This historian uses both the tools and standards of modern research and Torah scholarship to describe G-d's links with the world.  The academically trained human mind is at its best when it learns and operates according to the Divine.

This is still a work in progress.  This current version is as of May 24, 2009.

Nuances

For the sake of brevity, I have given an account without words of nuance such as:

• very likely,
• likely,
• not unlikely,
• possibly,
• unlikely,
• extremely unlikely,
• virtually impossible,
• and so on.

I ask the reader’s indulgence to supply these words appropriately.  Still, I believe that my assertions are generally likely, or at least not unlikely.

Notes