Before Writing, vols. 1-2.

• Author: Powell, Marvin A.

Before Writing marks the end of over two decades of work in which Denise Schmandt-besserat has developed her theories about the meaning of the "small clay objects" which we - thanks to her labors - now associate with the word "token." Her previous specialized studies here find revision and integration into a larger theoretical picture depicting the relationship of tokens to the beginning of writing.

Volume II catalogues some seven thousand tokens from Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, and Israel, representing about 70% of the tokens identified by the author over the course of her work. The volume opens with a photographic overview of token types, classified into sixteen basic shapes with some five hundred subtypes distinguished by size or markings. The catalogue itself (pp. 1-416) provides evidence on size, srapenaufstande" (Kleinasiatische Studien: Untersuchungen zur griechischpersischen Geschichte des IV. Jahrhunderts v. Chr. [Marburg, 1892], 190-220). Thereafter, the "[Great] Satraps' Revolt" became the standard phrase for describing the rebellion. In contrast to this now generally accepted interpretation, Weiskopf disputes the unity of the affair and challenges the organized nature of the conflict. In his opinion, what Diodorus represents as a revolt against the central imperial authority is actually only local dissension among the satraps on the western frontier. Rather than a merger of governing officials in opposition to the crown, Weiskopf presents a series of personal and private clashes involving the contentious status-seeking Persian governors of the region that were of purely local significance.

Based on recent portrayals of the Achaemenid realm as a decentralized empire administered locally by "miniature dynasties," the author argues that strife and rivalry among these governing officers were endemic (pp. 9-22). From this perspective, Diodorus' account is then critically scrutinized and the "revolt" reinterpreted as a series of four "minor" struggles among the local satraps that destabilized western Asia. These episodes began in 367, when the satraps Autophrates of Lydia and Ariobarzanes of Dascylium became embroiled in warfare over the adjacent territory of the Troad, which Diodorus misrepresented as rebellion against the king (pp. 26-44). By 364, internal conflict arose among members of the satrapal family of Dascylium, resulting in the dismemberment of their territory by local freebooters, rebels, and bandits; according to...