characters in the behistun inscription Flashcards
(19 cards)
Achaemenes
Darius traced his genealogy back as far as Achaemenes and is the first to identify the line as the Achaemenids - Darius has to legitimise his claim to power as his father and grandfather are still alive and he seized power rather than inheriting it.
mythologises Achaemenes as a common ancestor with cyrus and cambyses - only mentioned in one inscription at pasargadae in cyrus’ ‘self definition’ - likely wasn’t him that inscribed it
in contrast - cyrus identifies himself with the king of anshan
Ahuramazda
god worshipped my the achaemenids - no evidence of him being worshipped by the kings before king darius
ahuramazda is described by darius as the greatest of gods - but also one amongst his household deities
could perhaps describe achaemenid religion as henotheism - one supreme or prominent god that is part of a larger pantheon
ahuramazda particularly associated with Darius’ kingship - in the inscription he describes receiving his kingship by the favour of ahuramazda
cambyses
son of cyrus, and cyrus’ successor
in the behistun inscription Cambyses kills his brother Bardiya and went to egypt - during this time away the people became disloyal ‘the Lie’ grew amongst people in persia and media
later dies
Guamata
pretends to be Bardiya as the persian/medians didn’t know he was dead and he rebelled, and gathered the people behind him and seized power then cambyses died
accused in the inscription of killing people who had know the real Bardiya
Darius (and a few others, not named in the inscription) killed Guamata in Media
accused of destroying cult-centres which Darius then rebuilds
Acina
rebelled in Elam and declared himself king, the elamites supported his bid for power
led as prisoner to Darius and killed
Nebuchadnezzar - the false name which he goes by
rebelled in babylon and falsely declared himself king, the babylonian people supported his rebellion
held the Tigris river which was unnavigable but Darius and his army managed to cross
he defeats N’s army, and finds him later where he had fled - captured and killed him in babylon
which peoples rebelled against darius while he was in babylon
persia, elam, media, assyria, egypt, parthia, mariana, sattagydia, scythia
Martiya
another guy who rebels in Elam and declares himself king but this time the people were too afraid of Darius and gave him up - darius killed him
Fravartish
rebelled in Media, became king of media - sent out an army under the persian Vidarna to put down the rebellion - they were successful but Favartish wasn’t initially killed
even when darius himself eventually went to media he managed to flee on horseback
when he was eventually captured - darius cuts off his nose, ears and tongue and took out one eye
for a while he was held prisoner and put on display before being impaled at Ecbatana - his biggest supporters were also hung there
Vidarna
a persian general that Darius sends to put down rebellion in Media
Dadarshi
armenian sent by darius to put down rebellion in Armenia - successful
the army tried again but they were defeated again
later puts down rebellion in Margiana, and was satrap in bactria
Vaumisa
a persia sent by darius to put down rebellion in Armenia - successful, rebels tried again - defeated again
Takmaspada
a mede sent by Darius to put down a rebellion in Sagartia
vishtaspa
Darius’ dad
persian general sent by Darius to put down rebellion in Parthia
Vahyazdata
another false Bardiya but now in Persia - got army to rebel against Darius -> impaled
Arakha
claims to be son of Nabonidus (Nebuchadnezzear) - seized babylon, impaled at babylon
summary of Darius’ first year
fought 19 battles
took 9 kings prisoner
characterises the people of the places that rebelled as manipulated by the ‘lie’
key points of the additional (4th) column
events of the 2nd/3rd year
elam rebel AGAIN (this time he notes that they do not worship ahuramazda)
fought in scythia and crossed a sea with his whole army
As a also disloyal and not worshippers of ahuramazda
