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The Inscriptions of Darius II Darius II in Babylonia and Egypt

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The Inscriptions of Darius II Darius II in Babylonia and Egypt CHAPTER TWELVE DARIUS II (423-404 B.C.) Artaxerxes I died in 424, and his body, according to Ctesias, 1 was brought from Susa to Persepolis, where it was laid in a tomb at Naqs-i Rustam, beside those of Darius and Xerxes. The stereotyped reliefs were carved above and around the door; and within, as in the tomb of Xerxes, there was provision for three bodies, there being three vaults each with a single stone cist. 2 Ctesias' account indicates that one of these vaults was occupied by the body of Queen Damaspia, who died on the same day as her husband, and the other by that of their son Xerxes II, who was assassinated after a few weeks' reign by one of his half-brothers. Darius II was then in Babylon, where he succeeded in rallying support for himself. He marched eastward, deposed and put to death the assassin, and was crowned king in 423. The inscriptions of Darius II Unlike his forbears, the half-Babylonian Darius II appears to have preferred the plains to the Iranian plateau, favouring his capitals oi Susa and Babylon. He added no further buildings at Persepolis, and the only inscriptions of his which are known are two short ones from column­ bases in Susa. One of these contains a few lines derived from Darius the Great's inscription at Naqs-i Rustam, with the added words: 'Saitb Darayavahu the King: This palace Artakhsa~a built, who was my father; this palace, by the will of Ahuramazda, I afterwards completed'.~ The other is even briefer: 'This palace of stone, with its columns, Daraya­ vahu the Great King built; may Ahuramazda, with the gods, protect Darayavahu the King'.4 This inscription is in Old Persian only, the other in Old Persian and Akkadian. Darius II in Babylonia and Egypt Like his predecessors, Darius II records the erection of secular build­ ings only; but like them he seems to have been liberal towards the 1 Ctesias § 45. 2 See Schmidt, Persepolis III, 93-6 with Pis 48-55. Again, in the absence of an inscription th< assignment of this particular tomb, Grave III, to Artaxerxes I is on the grounds of probability. P. Calmeyer attributes it rather to Darius II, and Grave IV to Artaxerxes I, see AMI VIII, 1975, 94-8, 110·2. 3 D 2Sb 3-4 (Kent, Old Persian, 154). 4 D 2Sa (ibid.). DARIUS II (423-404 B.C.) 199 temple-buildings of other peoples. Thus Babylonian records suggest that he contributed to repairs at the temple of Eanna in Uruk, and that he was 'in all probability responsible for the construction of the temple archives from which thousands of texts have been recovered'.5 The commercial life of Babylon in his reign is reflected in the records of the great financial house of Murasu (unearthed at Nippur in 1893), which cover the period 455 to 403. 6 These records were kept in Akkadian, written in cuneiform on clay tablets, though some bear filing notes in Aramaic, the spoken language then of Babylonia. 7 They show that the Persians kept the administration of Babylonia at its highest level in their own hands, but as long as tribute was paid interfered little in local affairs. They also bear witness to the astonishing mixture of peoples in Lower Mesopotamia at that time: Babylonians, Persians, Aramaeans, Jews, Egyptians, Lycians-indeed representatives from all lands of the Empire. There were also foreign garrisons (seemingly permanently stationed there and holding fiefs) from Armenia, India, Afghanistan, Asia Minor and Arabia. 8 The Murasu archives contain records of administration of estates belonging to Queen Parysatis, Darius' sister-wife, one dating from the fourth year of his reign. 9 Darius II was also (as far as is known) the first King of kings for sixty years to undertake any building in Egypt. There he added to Darius I's huge Amun-temple at El Khargeh; but this is thought to have been out of piety towards his great forbear and namesake rather than out of any real concern for the Egyptian cult.10 Darius II and the Jews Darius II appears to have maintained his family tradition of active patronage towards the Jews. The evidence comes from a damaged scrap of Aramaic papyrus recovered from Elephantine.11 According to this, in 419 the king sent an order to the Egyptian satrap Arsama (Arsames), which was transmitted by the Jew Hananiah. This order commanded the Jews of Elephantine to keep the Festival of Unleavened Bread in that 5 J\!I. Meauleau, 'Mesopotamia under Persian Rule', in Greeks and Persians (ed. Bengtson), 378. 6 See G. Cardascia, Les archives des Murasii. 7 See ibid., rg ff., 25. 8 Ibid., 6-7; M. Dandamaev, 'Politische und wirtschaftliche Geschichte', Beitrage z. Achame- nidengeschichte (ed G. Walser), 56-8. 9 Cardascia, op. cit., 78, 8o, 95-6. 10 See Kienitz, Politische Geschichte Agyptens, 73-4. 11 Cowley, Aram. Papyri, no. zr. .
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