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Persian society in the time of Darius and Xerxes
Social structures
Outcomes
Overview
Social Structure
Occupations
Questions
More
Outcomes
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H1.2 |
Describes and analyses political, military,
religious, social, cultural and economic features of ancient
societies |
|
H2.1 |
Identifies factors that contribute to change
and continuity in the ancient world |
|
H3.1 |
uses historical terms and concepts
appropriately to answer historical questions. |
Overview
This tutorial presents the social structures
and people’s occupations in the Persian society at that
time, using key terms, concepts and evidence.
Social Structure
Darius' inscription at Naqsi -i Rustam (1.
81–5) informs us of his: family (Mnana) as he is son
of Vishtaspa; clan (Vis) as he is of the Haxamanisiya;
tribe (Zama) as he was of the Pasargadae; people as he was
of the Parsa; race as he was of the Ariya; land
(Dahyu) as it was Fars. Indeed, Wiesehoefer (1996: 34) argues
that the Avesta divides society into three functions: priest,
warrior and farmer.
The family
The family was the basic social unit in Persian
society. Fathers had tyrannical authority, treating their
children as slaves (Aristotle, Nicomedian Ethics, IX, 12).
Marriage was a formal affair which saw grooms toasted and brides
kissed (Arrian Anabasis 7. 4–5). Children were much sought
after as legitimate heirs (Herodotos, m. 2), therefore polygamy
was encouraged for this reason (Strabo 15.3.17). Children had to
obey their fathers (Aelian Varia Historiae 1. 34) and could be
rewarded (Fortification texts record a gift of 100 sheep by Danus
I to his daughter Artystone). The death of a spouse was a time of
mourning (A Babylonian Chronicle 7. iii. 22-24). Incest was
against Persian customs and laws (Herodotos III. 31), but
successive Persian Great Kings named sisters, cousins, nieces,
daughters, and slept with the wives and daughters of their
brothers (Plutarch Artaxerxes XXIII. 5-6). Divorce is almost
unheard of: an adulterous wife of Xerxes son-in-law only gets a
reprimand, then promises to behave! (Ctesias 39b). Only Xerxes
divorced his disobedient wife Vashti. (Esther 1.9-22).
The clan
Several families made up the clan. Several
clans made up the tribe. The Achaemenids were one clan of the
Pasargadae. Intermarriage went on between families within the
same clan. The clan was the basic unit of identification, but not
social function: you lived with your family, obeying your
patriarchal father, but told people you met the name of your
clan. (Herodotos III. 119.2).
The tribe
If you told the people you met to which clan
you belonged, then you told the world to which tribe you
belonged. Both Darius and Xerxes make sure we know their tribe,
as well as clan. Many Persians identified in the Fortification
tablets and Treasury tablets from Persepolis are identified by
name, region and tribe. The bulk of the Persians were small
farmers (Weisenhoefer, 1996: 35). We know that divisions in
society were made at the tribal level. Several clans made a
tribe. Entire tribes were either nomadic herders or settled
farmers. Within these divisions was a clear heirarchy, attested
to by Herodotos (I. 134.3), and Strabo, who refers to
proskynesis. There were other tribes: the Panthialaei, the
Derusiaei and the Germanii, who were farmers. The Dai, Mardi,
Dropici and Sagartii were herders. These all had the status of
skauthis, peasants, whose labour was the basis of
agriculture. Free workers were even recruited from neighbouring
satrapies at harvest time (Dandemaev and Lukonin, 1989:
157). Paid free-born labourers worked on the Babylonian canals,
and free non-citizen farmers worked the land of the state,
temples and the rich (Dandamaev and Lukonin, 1989: 152), and
provided the corvee labour at such sites as Susa and
Persepolis (Kent 1953DSf 22–58). They could not be sold,
and so were not actually slaves, and could be considered
non-citizen workers.
Occupations
Priest
One tribe of the Persians, the Magi became the
priest class. They interpreted the teachings of the prophet,
Zarathshtra, through their own beliefs. In some cases, this meant
that they encouraged night-time sacrifices of cattle to Mithra,
drinking haoma, and worshipping the mother goddess Anahita
(Olmstead, 1948: 106), all of which had been expressly forbidden
by Zarathushtra. A professional and hereditary priesthood, "such
as the Magi provided... may develop superstition elaborately,
since scrupulousness may easily come to be counted for
righteousness and so be a road to eminence" (Burn, 1984:
79-80).
Craftsman
There was a small artisan class within Persian
or Median society. In Babylonia, an inscription says that the
temples relied on the skilled labour of "carpenters, metal
engravers goldsmiths and ...all the craftsmen (of the temple)"
(Dandemaev and Lukonin, 1989: 157). Great Kings used the skills
of the conquered peoples. Lydian stonemasons worked on Pasargadae
(Roaf, 1990: 204). The slaves who worked these sites were called
Kurtash, and ration payments for them are recorded on the
Persepolis Fortification tablets (Dandemaev and Lukonin, 1989:
158), and show that Darius borrowed from the architectural
traditions of the Medes, the Mesopotamians, the Greeks and the
Egyptians. According to the Treasury tablets, there were Egyptian
and Carian stonemasons, and Ionian slaves in the quarries.
(Dandamaev and Lukonin, 1989: 160). The Phoenicians provided
purple dye, the Egyptians manufactured rope, the Greeks built the
bridges across the Danube. The social heirachy put craftsmen
between warriors and peasants. Scribes were essential for
administration and for distributing the propaganda of the Great
King. They ranked higher than other craftsmen in the East.
Although they had their own slaves, those who worked in
Persepolis were referred to as slaves in the records (Dandamaev
and Lukonin, 1989: 159). Mostly, they worked in languages foreign
to the Persians, mostly Elamite and Akkadian, and little in Old
Persian (Kurht, 1995: 649).
Military
With the land grants of fiefs, from the Great
King came the obligation to be constantly ready to provide troops
in times of war (and this included their full kit). Each member
of the military class carried a duty to pay a service
(ilku) of silver, by whomever owned the fief. Xerxes says
of himself that he was a good horseman, bowman and spearman (Kent
1953 Dnb). Babylonian documents attest the renting out of these
lands. The "census officers made sure that a soldier matching the
obligation of each land grant appeared at the call up" Kurht
(1995: 695). This census was taken in 500–499, and the
information was "kept by army scribes at the main mustering
points of the satrapy" (Kurht, 1995: 695). The division of land
into bow (bit qasha), horse (bit sisi) and chariot (bit
narkabhi), shows the place of the military within Persian
society. The peace which this system brings, allows agricultural
workers to produce their maximum taxable amount which maintains
the empire and its military system.
Slavery
Domesticated animals and enslaved humans and a
vast number of people were needed to work on projects of
agriculture, warfare and monumental construction. State owned
slaves in the mines (Olmstead, 1948: 74 ff), and they were well
paid (Dandemaev and Lukonin, 1989: 161-2), but they had the
status of livestock moveable property (op. cit 153). The
household of the Great King maintained a large retinue of slaves
who functioned as plowmen, millers, cow herds, shepherds,
winemakers and beer brewers, cooks, bakers, wine waiters and
eunuchs (Dandamaev and Lukonin, 1989: 158, 170). Of the slaves at
Persepolis, 12.7% were boys, and 10% were girls (Fortification
Tablets). Dandemaev and Lukonin (1989: 160–1), concluded
that these slaves lived together as families but they were also
moved around the empire in what amounts to job lots. Documents
record the movements of between 150 and 1500 slaves from one site
to another. In Babylon, Egypt and the Greek cities of Lydia, the
arrangements predating the Persians were kept. Slaves were
usually acquired through warfare (Falcelière et al, 1970:
433), and were known as "the booty of the bow" (Dandamaev and
Lukonin, 1989: 156). The peace established by the Great King
would have effectively dried up this source. However, the Great
Kings enslaved satrapies and cities which rebelled (Dandemaev and
Lukonin, 1989: 170). Slavery was usually seen as a hereditary
state, the children of those slaves maintained private stocks.
Household slaves could be bought (Herodotos, vm, 1os). There was
a privately owned slave labour force doing menial tasks. In
Babylon, debtors could sell themselves into slavery (Olmstead,
1948: 74 ff), but this quickly died out under Persian rule
(Dandemaev and Lukonin, 1989: 156). Everyone from the highest
nobles down were defined as bandaka (the slaves of the
Great King) (Kurht, 1995: 687), or 'those who wear the belt of
dependence' (Wiesehoefer, 1996:31). This meant that taxation was
due in money, precious metals, goods, military service and
labour.
Questions
- Into which social division would a Persian:
- live?
- identify privately?
- identify publicly?
- gain citizenship?
- Describe the role of the family in Persian life.
- What was the agricultural function of tribesmen?
- From where did the Great Kings gain their skilled artisans?
- Why were scribes important to the empire?
- Discuss the role of craftsmen in the building programs of the Great Kings.
- What were the duties and rewards expected of and by, the military class?
- How did the Persian Empire make use of non-citizen workers?
- How did the Persian Empire make use of slaves?
- Assess the effect of the peace brought to the empire by the Persians. How did it affect soldiers, slaves, farmers and business people?
More
Burn, ARR. (1984) Persia and the Greeks,
Duckworth, London.
Dandemaev, M.A. and Lukonin, V.G. (1989) The
Culture and Social Institutions of Ancient Iran, Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge.
Herodotos (1985) The Histories, trans.
Rex Warner, Penguin, Harmondsworth.
Kuhrt, A. (1995) The Ancient Near East c.
3000–330BC Vol 2 Routledge, London.
Lawless and Cameron (1994) Studies in
Ancient Persia, Thomas Nelson, South Melbourne.
Olmstead, A.T., (1948) History of the
Persian Empire, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Roaf, M. (1990) Cultural Atlas of
Mesopotamia and the Near East, Facts on File Ltd, New
York.
Weishoefer, J. (1996) Ancient Persia
550BC–650 AD trans. Azodi, A. IB Tauris Publishing,
London.