Classical Studies 2902B

Major Topics: Alexander and the Persians

[In our last class, we did not deal with A. and the Macedonians; so this will be our first item of business in this class.]

Alexander and the Persians: there are three items to consider.

a) Darius III: who was he? Apparently he was known as “Codomannus” in his earlier life and he was not a “legitimate” descendant of any earlier Achaemenid king; he came to prominence for bravery fairly early the reign of Artaxerxes III Ochus (359-338) and became one of the King’s “Friends” and was promoted to the position of Satrap of Armenia and was given the name “Darius” by Artaxerxes III. In Babylonian documents he is called Artašātu and he seems to have been a Persian who grew up in Babylon. [E. Badian, “Darius III”, Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 100 (2000) 241-267, is the best available study of Darius’s background and career (available via JStor in the Weldon Library).] Darius was probably a descendent of Artaxerxes II (404-359) by a non-Persian concubine, which would under normal circumstances not qualify him for the throne, but seemingly the direct line of Darius I ended with the brief reign of Artaxerxes III’s son Arses (338-336), and Darius III was chosen by the Persian nobility to be his successor—and no one disputed his accession to power.

b) At this point we shall look at a short video extract about the survival of Zoroastrianism (the religion of the Achaemenid house par excellence) in modern Iran and the views of its adherents about A. the Great!

c) A. and the Persian succession/. There was no way in which A. could ever be regarded as a “legitimate” successor to the Persian throne. Reasons for this. A. does not seem to have understood the “whole ideology” of Persian kingship and his adoption of certain outward features of Persian kingship amounted to very little in Persian eyes. The destruction of Persepolis, whatever its ultimate cause (?anger on A.’s part that he was not inaugurated into the Persian kingship either there or at Pasargadae: this was raised earlier), while it signified the end of the Hellenic war of revenge, destroyed the greatest symbol of Persian kingship; and after this, it is doubtful if the Persian nobility ever regarded A. as anything other than a foreign invader (this was the view of the last Shah of Iran)—certainly not King of Persia, and not even “Ruler of Asia”; hence the fact that they rebelled whenever it seemed an appropriate moment to do so. See further, Maria Brosius, “Alexander and the Persians”, in J. Roisman, ed., Brill’s Companion to Alexander the Great (Leiden/Boston, 2003) 169-193.