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  For example, not long before the fall of the Assyrian Empire, the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal conquered the country of Elam. He ravaged the entire kingdom, leveling major cities, desecrating temples, and dragging off sacred cult objects. He also ordered his troops to destroy the royal tombs of the Elamite kings because they, in Ashurbanipal's own words, “had not revered the deities Ashur and Ishtar,” his “lords.” Assyrian kings similarly razed the cities of Jerusalem and Thebes and left many other districts a wilderness stripped of human and animal population.13

  Nabunidus, the king of Babylonia when it fell to Cyrus, is also famous for his religious intolerance. He suppressed popular worship of the god Marduk, forcing adherence instead to the deity of his own cult, the moon-god Sin. If we can believe the inscriptions on the Cyrus cylinder, now in the British Museum, Nabunidus “did evil” to his subjects, tormenting them by imposing “a cult that was not proper to them.” By contrast, Cyrus took just the opposite approach.

  Entering the city of Babylon with his army, Cyrus prostrated himself before the god Marduk in order to win over the local people. He presented himself as the liberator of the Babylonians, divinely chosen and assisted by their own great deity. In his own words from the Cyrus cylinder:

  When I made my gracious entry into Babylon, with rejoicing and pleasure I took up my lordly residence in the royal palace. Marduk, the great lord, turned the noble race of the Babylonians toward me, and I gave daily care to his worship.

  I did not allow anybody to terrorize [any place] of the [country of Sumer] and Akkad. I strove for peace in Babylon and in all his [other] sacred cities. As to the inhabitants of Babylon … I abolished forced labour…From Nineveh, As-sur and Susa, Akkad, Eshnunna, Zamban, Me-Turnu and Der until the region of Gutium, I returned to these sacred cities on the other side of the Tigris, the sanctuaries of which have been ruins for a long time.”

  Although this account is in part self-glorifying propaganda, it is nonetheless instructive of how Cyrus wished to be perceived by his subjects.

  Classical sources consistently attest to Cyrus's tolerance and magnanimity. In his romanticized Cyropaedia, for example, Xeno-phon writes:

  Believing this man [Cyrus] to be deserving of all admiration, we have therefore investigated who he was in his origin, what natural endowments he possessed, and what sort of education he had enjoyed, that he so greatly excelled in governing…That Cyrus's empire was the greatest and most glorious of all the kingdoms in Asia—of that it may bear its own witness…And although it was of such magnitude, it was governed by the single will of Cyrus; and he honoured his subjects and cared for them as if they were his own children; and they, on their part, revered Cyrus as a father.15

  As a side note, Xenophon also writes admiringly of Cyrus's skill in cultivating his public image. At a parade in Persepolis, Cyrus “appeared so great and so goodly to look upon,” evidently in part because he chose to wear the physique-flattering Median native costume:

  [Cyrus] thought that if anyone had any personal defect [the Median] dress would help to conceal it, and that it made the wearer look very tall and very handsome. For they have shoes of such a form that without being detected the wearer can easily put something into the soles so as to make him look taller than he is. He encouraged also the fashion of pencilling the eyes, that they might seem more lustrous than they are, and of using cosmetics to make the complexion look better than their nature made it. He trained his associates also not to spit or wipe the nose in public.16

  The biblical accounts of Cyrus are even more exalting. After conquering Babylon, Cyrus freed the Jews from their Babylonian captivity and allowed them to return to Jerusalem. For this benevolence, Jewish prophets hailed him as a savior. The book of Isaiah describes Cyrus as “anointed” by Yahweh, the Jewish name for God:

  Thus says Yahweh to his anointed, to Cyrus, whom he has taken by his right hand to subdue nations before him and strip the loins of kings, to force gateways before him that their gates be closed no more: I will go before you levelling the heights. I will shatter the bronze gateways, smash the iron bars. I will give you the hidden treasures, the secret hoards, that you may know that I am Yahweh.

  According to the book of Ezra, Cyrus not only freed the Jews but he restored to Jerusalem “the vessels of gold and silver” that Nebuchadnezzar had taken to Babylon. Cyrus also rebuilt the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, apparently at his own expense.17

  There is no question: Cyrus the Great has had good press. From the classical Greek accounts to the Cyrus cylinder to the Old Testament, the first Achaemenid king comes off as so tolerant that some modern fans have called him the founder of “human rights.” This portrayal is both anachronistic and misleading. Cyrus's conquests were almost certainly bloodier and harder fought than some of the ancient sources suggest; it is implausible that the Persians were welcomed with open arms from Media to Babylonia.18

  More fundamentally, most modern historians agree that Cyrus's tolerance was a matter of strategy and expediency, not a matter of principle. Embracing local deities—whether Marduk for the Babylonians or Yahweh for the Jews—gave Cyrus legitimacy. Respecting local traditions and practices decreased the likelihood of resistance and rebellion among conquered peoples. The modern concept of freedom of religion as a “human right” was foreign to Cyrus and his successors. For the Achaemenids, tolerance was simply good politics.19

  THE MADMAN AND HIS CHAIR

  Cyrus left the massive empire he established to his son Cambyses, who ruled for just eight years (roughly 530-522 BC). According to Greek sources, Cambyses did not share his father's even temperament. Indeed, Herodotus opined: “I have no doubt whatever that Cambyses was completely out of his mind.” Herodotus recorded a particularly charming episode involving Cambyses's efforts to enforce the rule of law: “One judge, Sisamnes, had given an unjust judgment in return for a bribe; Cambyses slaughtered him like a sheep and flayed him. Then from the skin he caused leather strips to be tanned and with them covered the judgment seat of the son Otanes, who was appointed to the father's office with the grim admonition to remember on what he sat.”20

  If Cambyses was a madman, he was an effective one. He invaded Egypt soon after becoming king, and by 525 had captured Heliopolis, where he continued his father's policy of respecting local customs and religions.

  In Egypt, Cambyses declared himself a “son of Ra” and “beloved of [the goddess] Wajet.” At the urging of his Egyptian advisor Udjahorresnet, Cambyses went to the town of Sais and prostrated himself at the altar of Neith, an Egyptian goddess. He embraced the rites and rituals of Egyptian tradition, made offerings to the local gods, and helped restore their temples. In the famous Serapeum stele, excavated in Egypt in 1851, Cambyses is dressed in Egyptian royal garb, with uraeus—the sacred Egyptian rearing cobra—around his neck. As the historian Pierre Briant puts it, Cambyses permitted himself to be “Egyptianized” in Egypt. Rather than imposing Persian culture on his subjects, Cambyses presented himself as a devotee of the Egyptian deities and the legitimate successor to the Egyptian pharaohs.21

  In addition to Egypt, Cambyses also subjugated Phoenicia, Libya, and many Greek cities in Asia Minor. With these conquests, the Achaemenid Empire not only had swallowed every major kingdom in the Near East and central Asia, but also, by incorporating the Phoenician and Egyptian fleets, had become the world's greatest naval power, controlling a vast maritime front from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf. Cambyses died in 522 BC, of gangrene or suicide, depending on the source. Later that year, a distant relative of his named Darius took the throne.22

  DARIUS THE GREAT

  The Achaemenid Empire reached its zenith under Darius the Great, who ruled for nearly forty years (roughly 522-486 BC). Darius expanded Persian dominion into India, strengthened its foothold in Greece, and even made forays into eastern Europe, marching past the Danube in a failed effort to conquer the Scythian peoples. (The Scythians were helmeted, expert horseback riders from the steppes of southern Russia, who, as pa
rt of their funerary rituals, toasted marijuana seeds on red-hot stones and inhaled the fumes.) At the outset of his reign, Darius also had to contend with a rash of opportunistic rebellions brought about by the questionable nature of his ascent to the throne. He suppressed all of them, some quite ruthlessly, “smother[ing] them in a sea of blood,” in his own words.23

  Darius was by all accounts an exceptional administrator. When not engaged in his many military campaigns, he occupied himself ensuring that the Achaemenid Empire would take its place in history as one of the most glorious and sophisticated the world had ever seen. He oversaw the construction of new regional capitals; Persepolis became one of the architectural wonders of the ancient world. He introduced a standard currency and extended the empire's fabulous network of roads and its communications system, which included royal mail service, express messengers, and fire signals.24

  To finance his ambitious projects, Darius formalized the system of imperial taxation and tribute, requiring each satrapy to pay a fixed annual amount, usually in talents of gold or silver. Herodotus reports that both Bactria and India were assessed 360 talents a year. Egypt had to pay 700 talents and the “income from the fish of Lake Moeris.” Babylonia was assessed 1,000 talents and “500 young eunuchs.” In addition, for reasons still debated, some peoples did not have to pay taxes but made their contributions in the form of “gifts.” For example, Colchis (a kingdom in the Caucasus) sent a “gift” of “a hundred boys and a hundred girls,” and the Ethiopians, “about two quarts of unrefined gold, two hundred logs of ebony, [five Ethiopian boys,] and twenty elephant tusks.” According to Plutarch, Darius also mastered the art of the fictitious tax cut. After setting the amount of taxes for a particular satrapy, Darius would “consult” with local leaders, asking if the amounts were too heavy, then magnanimously announce that the taxes were to be cut in half.25

  Throughout his reign, Darius continued the Achaemenid tradition of cultural and religious tolerance; indeed, he carried it further. Darius apparently took pride in the extraordinary diversity of his empire. He described himself with a title that has been translated as “king of the countries containing all races” or “king of the peoples of every origin.” He respected his empire's multilingual-ism: His royal inscriptions were translated into several languages; satrapal orders were proclaimed in Greek, Babylonian, Lycian, or Demotic, and interpreters operated throughout the kingdom. Interestingly, Darius himself was almost certainly monolingual—and probably could not read.26

  In some of his royal inscriptions, Darius refers to the divinity Ahura Mazda as the “greatest of gods” and “god of the Aryans.” Historians continue to debate these passages: What was the religion of the Achaemenids? Did Darius and Cyrus favor the same gods? Were the Achaemenids Zoroastrians? But on one point there is consensus: Like Cyrus, Darius did not impose Persian gods on his subjects. On the contrary, Darius and the satraps under him exhibited great reverence for local cults and divinities. Darius also left local social structures largely intact. “The great majority of the elites of subject peoples, with the possible exception of Egypt, saw the Persian king not as a foreign ruler or tyrant, but as the guarantor of political stability, social order, economic prosperity, and hence ultimately of their own position.”27 Darius famously codified and enforced local laws. For example, the Persian king upheld and even guaranteed decisions of Egyptian judges. Similarly, Darius reportedly recognized and sanctioned the Torah as the law of Israel.28

  From these policies of tolerance, Darius reaped tremendous benefits. Instead of wasting resources destroying conquered populations or trying to “Persianize” them, Darius harnessed their different skills, talents, and resources. In this way, Darius built some of the most splendid imperial capitals the world had ever seen.

  For example, in constructing the grand royal residence at Susa, Darius employed the finest materials and best artisans from his empire, drawing on the labors of at least sixteen different peoples. In Susa's trilingual “foundation charter,” Darius says:

  The palace of Susa, it is I who made it; its materials were brought from afar…That which [was made] of molded bricks, people who [were] Babylonians made it themselves. And the beams which [were] cedar, them, from a mountain call[ed] Lebanon, from down there they were brought…And the ivory which was worked here, it, from Ethiopia and India and Arachosia were brought…The craftsmen who worked the stone, they, [were] Ionians and Sardians. And the goldchasers who worked this gold, they [were] Sardians and Egyptians. And the men who baked the brick, they [were] Babylonians. And the men who decorated the terrace, they [were] Medes and Egyptians.

  As the historian Richard Frye puts it, this was likely “the most cosmopolitan crew of workers ever assembled up to that time.”29

  Recruiting the best from the empire's diverse peoples was the hallmark strategy of not only Darius but all the Achaemenid kings. The imperial court welcomed Egyptian doctors, Greek scientists, and Babylonian astronomers. According to Greek sources, the Achaemenid kings constantly tried to lure prominent Greek thinkers into their service with promises of great rewards. In 513 BC, when Darius needed a bridge built over the Bosporus to cross into Europe, he chose for the job a Samian architect (from the Greek island of Samos). Three decades later, the Achaemenid king Xerxes ordered two bridges built across the Hellespont (today, the Dardanelles Straits). Xerxes employed specialists from several countries, including “Phoenicians, who spun cables of white linen; and Egyptians, who brought cables made of papyrus.”30

  Most crucially, it was only through tolerance that the Achae-menids were able to amass the greatest war machine yet known to man. Under Cyrus the Great, the Persian army initially consisted primarily of Persians and Medes. (The Medes and the Persians were apparently closely related. Indeed, the ancient Greeks and Egyptians often used the terms “Persians” and “Medes” interchangeably.31) At the core of the army were the Ten Thousand Immortals, so named because their numbers never dropped below ten thousand, “a substitute being always ready when one fell sick or was killed.” According to Herodotus, not only were the Immortals “gorgeously clad in gold-decked raiment, but on the march they were permitted to take with them their concubines and servants on wagons, while special food was brought on camels and other baggage animals.” Nine thousand of the Immortals carried spears adorned with silver pomegranates; the remaining thousand, who constituted the king's royal guard, had pomegranates of gold.32

  With each new conquest, however, the Achaemenid military engulfed additional units, including entire cavalries, phalanxes, and navies. By the time of Darius, the army was an amazingly diverse multinational force, commanded principally by Persians. Each satrapy supplied its own contingent, which in turn was divided into squads of tens, companies of hundreds, regiments of thousands, and so on. Soldiers wore armor and headdresses, and bore weapons distinctive to their nationality. The Persian infantry carried long bows, short swords, and wicker shields. They wore multicolored tunics over armor, topped with loose felt hats and tiaras. By contrast, the Alarodians wore “wooden helmets;” the Paphlagonians, “plaited helmets;” and the Pisidians, “crested bronze helmets with horns and ears of an ox.” Perhaps in a fashion faux pas, the latter also wore “purple leggings,” giving them “an extraordinary appearance.”33

  Every attempt was made to match skill with role. The Achaemenid navy, for example—the source of Persia's tremendous sea power—was dominated by Phoenicians, expert sailors whose ships formed the core of the Persian fleet. The Persians, while not themselves seafaring people, fostered maritime trade and commerce, and Phoenician merchants flourished under Achaemenid rule. So did the Achaemenid rulers, who siphoned off a good share of the commercial profits through customs duties and tolls.34

  The Persians drew also on the naval strength of the Egyptians and Greeks. Under Darius, the Ionian admiral Scylax famously sailed down the Indus River to the Indian Ocean and then to Egypt. Darius likely sent out other expeditionary ships as well, perhaps even circumnavigating Afri
ca. In addition, the Persians recruited large numbers of Greek mercenaries, renowned for their tactical capabilities. At least according to Greek historians, these mercenaries eventually became the cream of the Achaemenid army.35

  As always, there is a danger of anachronism when discussing ancient empires in modern terms. Although the Achaemenids “recruited” the best craftsmen and warriors from throughout the empire, we are not talking about recruitment in the modern sense of recruiting college basketball players. Many craftsmen and warriors were probably conscripted; individual liberty and freedom of contract were not organizing principles of ancient Persia. It also bears noting that Darius was fond of impaling anyone who defied him. When the Sagartian rebel Cicantakhma was captured, Darius, in his own words, “cut off both his nose and ears,” “put out one eye,” and kept him “bound at [the] palace entrance,” where “all the people saw him.” “Afterwards,” he continued, “I impaled him at Arbela.” As for Fravartis the Mede, Darius had a similar treatment: “I cut off his nose, ears, and tongue and plucked out an eye; he was chained under guard at the gate of my palace and everyone could see him there. Then I impaled him at Ecbatana.”

  Nor was Achaemenid tolerance accompanied by any modern sense of equality. On the contrary, Achaemenid Persia was a hierarchy, with Persians unmistakably on top. Power was concentrated in the Great King. The center of authority was wherever he happened to be, whether at Susa, Persepolis, or Memphis (depending on the season, the Achaemenid rulers moved from one capital to another, accompanied by massive entourages). Below the king, the satraps who ruled over their mini-kingdoms were exclusively Persian. Below the satraps, the highest-ranking positions throughout the empire were also held by members of the Persian aristocracy. Herodotus wrote of the Persians: “Themselves they consider in every way superior to everyone else in the world, and allow other nations a share of good qualities decreasing according to distance, the furthest off being in their view the worst.”36