MIDEAST 207 Lecture 10: Mideast 207 Lecture 10
22 Oct 2018
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10/11 The Persian Period 520-33/2 BCE
1. The Sources
a. The bible — books of Ezra and Nehemiah
i. Ezra was the leader of the new Jews
ii. Nehemiah was a Jewish Persian dude
b. Persian sources (archaeology)
c. Greek Historians (Herodotus; Thucydides)
d. Papyri
i. Made of plants from the banks of the Nile
2. The Rise of the Persian Empire
a. Cyrus
i. David of Iran
ii. King of a Vassal Kingdom of the babylonians
1. Media
2. Allowed to run by itself but under the rule of the Babylonians
3. Ecbatana capital
iii. 539 BCE captures the city of Babylon
iv. Gained control of the entire middle east
b. Cyrus’ imperial/religious strategy
i. Presented himself as a liberator of oppressed minorities
3. The Return of the Deportee from Babylonia
a. The Declaration of Cyrus
i. 530 BCE
ii. Given to the Judean deportees
iii. Allows them to go back to their hometown
iv. Funds the rebuilding of the Temple and Jerusalem
v. The Cyrus Cylinder shows another letter to another oppressed group
that’s almost the same as the Declaration of Cyrus
1. First copying format
2. Shows his political methods
vi. Only some of them went back due to the resources that Persians offered
b. 516 BCE the Second Temple in Jerusalem Opens
i. 10,000-20,000 went back
ii. They rebuilt the temple
iii. There was a lot of tension between the people who stayed and the people
who return
c. Exile and diaspora
i. Exile is when a group of people is forced to live outside their homeland
ii. Diaspora is when people choose to live out of their homeland but
maintain connections to it (religious, emotional, etc)
d. The geographical/provincial setting
i. Created provinces and appointed a Persian administrator to rule the
province
ii. Tried to slice the provinces according to ethnicities
Document Summary
10/11 the persian period 520-33/2 bce: the sources, the bible books of ezra and nehemiah. King of a vassal kingdom of the babylonians: media, allowed to run by itself but under the rule of the babylonians, ecbatana capital. 539 bce captures the city of babylon: gained control of the entire middle east, cyrus" imperial/religious strategy. Presented himself as a liberator of oppressed minorities: the return of the deportee from babylonia, the declaration of cyrus. 530 bce: given to the judean deportees. Allows them to go back to their hometown. Funds the rebuilding of the temple and jerusalem. There was a lot of tension between the people who stayed and the people who return: exile and diaspora. Tried to slice the provinces according to ethnicities: surges in ethnic identity. Pehah administrator of province: they tried to make it a person that originated from that province, nehemiah was the pehah of yehud.
