Assessing Biblical and Classical Sources for the Reconstruction of Persian Influence, History and Culture.

• Author: Waters, Matt

Assessing Biblical and Classical Sources for the Reconstruction of Persian Influence, History and Culture. Edited by ANNE FITZPATRICK-MCKINLEY. Classica et Orientalia, vol. 10. Wiesbaden: HARRASSOWITZ VERLAG, 2015. Pp. 216. [euro]52 (paper).

The essays in this volume treat historiographie issues within the fields of classical and biblical scholarship vis-a-vis the study of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. The contributions, including bibliographies, range from ten to fifty-four pages, with the unsurprising result of a mix in the level of detail and depth on the respective topics. In the introduction, A. Fitzpatrick-McKinley frames the volume's purpose with an even-handed critique of scholars' use of source material outside their fields of specialty, which often manifests "a certain lack of awareness of methodological issues on both sides" (p. 3). Taken as a whole, the volume's contributions apply a corrective, nuanced, approach to mitigate persistent notions in both fields that, if not simply wrong-headed, are still in need of a lot of work. All the articles in the volume offer useful insights into their respective topics, but in a short review only a few of the particulars may be delineated.

T. Harrison's contribution ("Herodotus on the Character of Persian Imperialism [7.5-11]") focuses on the so-called Council Scene set in the Achaemenid court. He engages the ongoing question of how directly and how accurately Herodotus channels Achaemenid royal ideology, the connections between Herodotean representation and Persian reality. This is a well-covered subject, of course, but particularly trenchant here are Harrison's assessments of the various ways Herodotus refracts Achaemenid dynastic continuity and the King's self-representation among the subject peoples.

C. Tuplin's learned survey ("The Justice of Darius") seeks to contextualize the Achaemenid kings' rule as it relates to concepts of law. One focus of his treatment involves revisiting the precise nuances of Old Persian data, a term usually translated as "law," but one with wider connotations,. The author shows how the term "draws us to a specifically legal or juridical environment" (p. 73). Tuplin's survey of complementary and parallel evidence across much of the empire (organized by region), along with detailed consideration of Near Eastern antecedents, provides a strong backdrop for the empire as "a realm of law" (p. 101) even if its articulation in the royal inscriptions is not as...