Achaemenica — updated articleshttps://achaemenica.org/2026-10-02T00:00:00ZEgypt as a Provincehttps://achaemenica.org/articles/egypt-as-a-province2026-10-02T00:00:00ZEgypt as a province of the Achaemenid Empire, the Twenty-seventh Dynasty of the Egyptian king-lists, ran from the conquest by Cambyses II (conventionally 525 BCE) to a staggered secession between 405/4 and 400/399. Artaxerxes III recovered the Delta and Memphis in 343/2, but the evidence does not…The Elephantine Papyrihttps://achaemenica.org/articles/the-elephantine-papyri2026-10-02T00:00:00ZThe Elephantine Papyri are the Aramaic archives of a garrison town at the First Cataract of the Nile, where a community of Judaean soldiers and their Aramaean, Egyptian and Iranian neighbours served the Persian kings from before the conquest of Egypt until the empire lost the province at the end…The Murašû Archivehttps://achaemenica.org/articles/the-murashu-archive2026-10-02T00:00:00ZThe Murašû Archive is the business file of a firm of entrepreneurs at Nippur in central Babylonia, active under the Persian kings Artaxerxes I, Darius II and Artaxerxes II. It is the single richest documentary source for the countryside of the empire's wealthiest province in the later fifth…Udjahorresnethttps://achaemenica.org/articles/udjahorresnet2026-10-02T00:00:00ZUdjahorresnet, an Egyptian noble of Sais (fl. c. 526–518 BCE), commanded the royal ships of the last two Saite kings and then served their Persian conquerors as chief physician, palace administrator and confidant of Cambyses II and Darius I. His autobiography, inscribed on a green-stone statue now…Zarathustrahttps://achaemenica.org/articles/zarathustra2026-10-02T00:00:00ZZarathustra (Zoroaster to the Greeks) is the Iranian prophet and poet-priest whose seventeen hymns, the Gāthās, exalt Ahura Mazdā as the one God and lay upon every person a choice: aša, the Truth, or druj, the Lie. His date, his homeland, even (to a few sceptics) his existence are among the most…Daēnāhttps://achaemenica.org/articles/daena2026-09-20T00:00:00ZDaēnā is the Avestan term associated with vision, conscience and religious understanding, and the name of the female figure whom the soul meets after death. In the Hāδōxt Nask’s righteous-soul narrative, she approaches as a beautiful maiden and identifies herself as the person’s own daēnā. Her…Achaemenid Art and the Imperial Stylehttps://achaemenica.org/articles/achaemenid-art-and-the-imperial-style2026-09-19T00:00:00ZAchaemenid art comprises the buildings, images and objects made under the Persian dynasty that ruled from the sixth to the fourth century BCE. Its most recognisable products are the royal monuments of Pasargadae, Susa, Persepolis and Naqš-e Rostam: columned halls, carved processions, figures…Arshama, satrap of Egypthttps://achaemenica.org/articles/arshama-satrap-of-egypt2026-09-19T00:00:00ZArshama (Old Persian Aršāma; Aramaic ʾršm; Greek Arsames) was an Achaemenid prince who governed Egypt, among the empire’s richest and most rebellious provinces, through the later fifth century BCE. On the leading reconstruction he held the satrapy from about 454, after the suppression of the…The Behistun Inscription (DB)https://achaemenica.org/articles/behistun-inscription2026-09-19T00:00:00ZThe Behistun inscription (DB) is the monumental cliff-relief and trilingual text that Darius I had carved at Bagastāna in Media between about 520 and 518 BCE, recounting in the king's own voice his seizure and defence of the throne against Gaumāta and a wave of rebels. It is the longest Achaemenid…Imperial Aramaic and the Languages of Empirehttps://achaemenica.org/articles/imperial-aramaic-and-the-languages-of-empire2026-09-19T00:00:00ZImperial Aramaic is the conventional name for the standardised written Aramaic used widely in administration, correspondence and record-keeping under the Achaemenid kings. Evidence from Egypt, the Persian heartland and documents attributed to Bactria shares distinctive spellings, expressions and…Naqsh-e Rostamhttps://achaemenica.org/articles/naqsh-e-rostam2026-09-19T00:00:00ZNaqsh-e Rostam is the perpendicular cliff about six kilometres north-west of Persepolis where the Great Kings of the Achaemenid house were entombed. Four cruciform tombs are cut into the rock: the oldest secured to Darius I by its inscriptions, DNa and DNb; the other three attributed on position…Pasargadaehttps://achaemenica.org/articles/pasargadae2026-09-19T00:00:00ZThe first Achaemenid capital, raised by Cyrus the Great on the high, well-watered plain of the River Pulvar in the heart of Persis, some forty kilometres north-east of the later Persepolis. Here Cyrus built a dispersed royal park of columned stone halls (a free-standing gatehouse, Gate R, with its…Persepolishttps://achaemenica.org/articles/persepolis2026-09-19T00:00:00ZPersepolis was the ceremonial and administrative heart of the Achaemenid empire in its Persian homeland, a vast terraced complex of palaces, audience halls and treasuries raised by Darius I from about 518 BCE on the Marv Dasht plain of Fars. The Persians called it simply Pārsa, the name of the…Susahttps://achaemenica.org/articles/susa2026-09-19T00:00:00ZSusa was the great lowland capital of the Achaemenid empire, the ancient city of Elam that Darius I rebuilt from about 520 BCE as a royal residence and working seat of government. It lay on the Susiana plain of south-western Iran, at the meeting point of the Iranian plateau and the Mesopotamian…The Apadana Reliefshttps://achaemenica.org/articles/the-apadana-reliefs2026-09-19T00:00:00ZThe Apadana reliefs are the sculptured façades of the two great stairways of the Apadana, the audience hall of Persepolis: files of Persian and Median guards, courtiers and royal grooms on one wing and, on the other, twenty-three delegations of subject peoples, each in the costume of its land,…The Persepolis Fortification Archivehttps://achaemenica.org/articles/the-persepolis-fortification-tablets2026-09-19T00:00:00ZThe working paperwork of Darius I's own heartland: tens of thousands of clay tablets from a bastion in the Persepolis fortification wall, recording the intake and disbursement of food, livestock, and travel rations across Fars and Elam in the middle of the reign. Dry, sealed, never meant for…The Royal Courthttps://achaemenica.org/articles/the-royal-court2026-09-19T00:00:00ZThe royal court was the household of the Achaemenid king and the principal setting in which access to him, service to the dynasty and the distribution of royal favour were organised. Between the reigns of Cyrus II and Darius III, the court accompanied the ruler between residences and on campaign.…The Winged Symbol (the figure in the winged ring)https://achaemenica.org/articles/the-winged-symbol2026-09-19T00:00:00ZThe winged symbol is the ring or disc with outspread wings, most often enclosing a robed male figure, that hovers above the Great King at Behistun, on the reliefs of Persepolis and over the royal tombs at Naqsh-e Rostam. It is the most conspicuous religious image of Achaemenid kingship and the…Proskynesishttps://achaemenica.org/articles/proskynesis2026-09-18T00:00:00ZProskynesis (Greek προσκύνησις, from pros, "towards", and kyneō, "to kiss") is the gesture of respect a Persian made before a social superior, and above all before the king: a graded act that ran from a kiss between equals to a full prostration by the lowly. The word is Greek, not Persian, and…The King of Kingshttps://achaemenica.org/articles/the-king-of-kings2026-09-18T00:00:00ZKing of kings (Old Persian xšāyaθiya xšāyaθiyānām) is the title the Achaemenid ruler set at the head of almost every inscription he left, and the seed of a whole account of the world. It claims that above the many kings of the earth's many peoples stands one king; that his office is part of the…The Royal Roadhttps://achaemenica.org/articles/the-royal-road2026-09-18T00:00:00ZThe great overland route and courier relay that bound the Achaemenid empire together: the road of stations and inns Herodotus walked in his mind from Sardis to Susa, and the mounted post along it that the Greeks called the angareion, carrying the King's word across a world in a matter of days. It…The Sevenhttps://achaemenica.org/articles/the-seven2026-09-18T00:00:00ZThe Seven are the seven Persian nobles, Darius among them, who in September 522 BCE killed the man ruling the empire as Bardiya, son of Cyrus, and made Darius king. They are unique in Achaemenid history in being attested by two versions of the same list, set down separately, in different languages…Tribute & Taxationhttps://achaemenica.org/articles/tribute-and-taxation2026-09-18T00:00:00ZTribute and taxation comprised the assessments, renders and services imposed in Achaemenid territories. Herodotus distinguishes the “gifts” received under Cyrus and Cambyses II from fixed imperial assessments attributed to Darius I. Late Babylonian field plans begin around 519 BCE; Dandamaev…Anshanhttps://achaemenica.org/articles/anshan2026-07-24T00:00:00ZAnshan (Elamite Anzan) was the highland capital of Elam, on the Marvdasht plain in the province the Old Persian sources called Parsa, modern Fars. Its ruins are the tell of Tall-e Malyan, some 47 km north of Shiraz, identified as Anshan only in 1973, when inscribed bricks from the site were read.…Artaxerxes IIhttps://achaemenica.org/articles/artaxerxes-ii2026-07-24T00:00:00ZArtaxerxes II (Old Persian Artaxšaça, "whose rule is through Arta"; throne-name of a prince born Arsaces), the seventh Achaemenid King of Kings, reigned from 405/4 to 359/8 BCE. His forty-six years on the throne are the longest of the dynasty, and the Greeks who wrote of him called him Mnemon,…Artaxerxes IIIhttps://achaemenica.org/articles/artaxerxes-iii2026-07-24T00:00:00ZArtaxerxes III (the throne name of Ochus; Babylonian Umakuš or Umasu, Greek Ôchos) was the Achaemenid King of Kings from 359/8 to 338 BCE. The son and successor of Artaxerxes II, he came to the throne late in a century the Greek sources present as one of dynastic murder, over-mighty satraps and…Babylonhttps://achaemenica.org/articles/babylon2026-07-24T00:00:00ZBabylon was one of the largest cities of ancient western Asia and the centre of the Achaemenid empire's most heavily assessed province. It was a royal residence and, among the principal residences of the Persian kings, the only one whose densely built urban character is beyond dispute. Rebuilt on…Cambyses IIhttps://achaemenica.org/articles/cambyses-ii2026-07-24T00:00:00ZCambyses II (Old Persian Kambūjiya; r. 530–522 BCE) was the second Achaemenid Great King, elder son and heir of Cyrus the Great, who in 525 BCE conquered Egypt and added the last of the great old kingdoms of the Near East to the empire, the achievement that turned Cyrus's realm into a power…Croesushttps://achaemenica.org/articles/croesus2026-07-24T00:00:00ZCroesus (Greek Kroisos; reigned c. 560 to the mid-540s BCE) was the last king of Lydia, ruler of the wealthy kingdom of western Anatolia from his capital at Sardis, subjugator of the Ionian Greek cities of the coast, and, in the Greek imagination, the archetype of the fabulously rich king undone…Cyrus the Greathttps://achaemenica.org/articles/cyrus-the-great2026-07-24T00:00:00ZCyrus II, called the Great (Old Persian Kūruš), was the founder of the Achaemenid, or first Persian, empire, and reigned from about 559 to 530 BCE. A king of Anshan in the highlands of Fārs, he overthrew in turn the three great powers of his world, the Median kingdom of Astyages about 550, the…