ACHAEMENIDS (Old Persian Hakhāmanishiya, Greek Achaemenidae). - Persian dynasty (founded by Achaimenes) of the tribe of the Pasargadae, which in the 7th century B.C. moved from its first capital Pasargadae into Susiana, founding there the Elamite kingdom of Anshan, and then, with Cyrus, the great Persian empire (549-330 B.C.), incorporating Media, Assyria, Babylonia, Lydia (Asia Minor), Syria and Palestine and (after Cambyses) Egypt. Once the Babylonian exile had ended, Israel, reduced to the Jews, lived under their dominion (the "Persian period"), amid internal and external vicissitudes little known to us (the books of Ezr. and Neh., Esth., Hag., Zech., Mal.). The Persian period is characterized by the religious restoration among the Jews who returned from exile. The transformations of Israel's national life were followed by the elaboration of a cultural and doctrinal organization, which constituted "Judaism."
The success of the A., who formed the political power of Iran and were the first to realize a universal monarchy by absorbing the preceding monarchies, is due first of all to the genius and magnanimity of Cyrus, who spared the life of Astyages and of Croesus, spared the conquered cities of Ecbatana and Babylon, and allowed the many exiles to return home, and then to the organizing genius of Darius I. Under the A. the Persians rose to a high culture and derived from the Babylonian cuneiform a alphabetic script, still however partly syllabic, composed of 41 signs.
The religion of the A. kings was the ancient Mazdeism: they worshipped Ahura-Mazda, symbolized in fire; it does not appear that they adopted Zoroastrianism, the religion of the Magi, still confined to Bactria. J. Hertel affirms the identity of the dynasty of the Kaianids (Kayāni), mentioned in the Avesta, with the A.; Hystaspes (Ὑστόσπης), father of Darius I, would be identified with the king Viṣṭaspa, praised in the Avesta as protector and patron of Zarathuṣtra. But G. Messina demonstrates that Zarathuṣtra must be placed much earlier, in the 11th century B.C., and that Darius I was not properly a Zoroastrian. Eclectic, the "great kings" did not care to proselytize. The A. must have felt religiously akin to the monotheistic Hebrews, who likewise shrank from representations of the deity. The desire to win the love of their subjects, however, drove Cyrus to a practical polytheism, whereby he attributed his ascent to the throne indifferently to Marduk and to Yahweh (cf. Ezr. 1:2).
The internal organization was skillfully implemented by Darius I. The empire, strongly centralized, was divided into 23, then, under Darius I, into 31 satrapies, whose satrap (khāthrapa), a powerful viceroy subject to the "king of kings," had to regulate the ordinary civil and military administration, and to carry out the payment of the fixed tribute. Under him, but responsible only to the King, were a commander of the army (karanos) and an official in charge of the bureaucratic process. Periodic inspections reported the situation of the satrapy to the Great King. But, under inept kings such as Xerxes I and Artaxerxes II, the offices came to be accumulated in a few persons, and the inspections became empty formalities.
Grandiose road constructions (Darius I built the "royal road" between Sardis and Susa, of ca. 2400 km), rapid postal services, bold exploratory journeys, connected the most distant provinces ever better. Thus the syncretistic movement developed; "from the east to the west of the empire, cults mingle and gods unite" (A. Causse).
But continuous rebellions of the various peoples led to the collapse of the dynasty and the empire. Darius I sustained 19 battles in 7 years; under Darius II (404) Egypt defected, until 341. The revolts were fomented by the atrocities of the unworthy successors of Cyrus. In Egypt, Cambyses went so far as to kill the bull Apis, then Artaxerxes Ochus repeated his devastations; Xerxes I destroyed the grandiose city of Babylon. Cruel suppressions of pretenders to the throne (Smerdis killed by his brother Cambyses, 80 relatives killed by Artaxerxes III), favored conspiracies that killed Xerxes I, Xerxes II after only one month of reign, Sogdianus after six; then the eunuch Bagoas poisoned Artaxerxes III and Arses. The internal decadence of the Achaemenid kingdom allowed Alexander the Great to defeat the Persians at the Granicus (334), at Issus (333) and at Arbela (330), where the fugitive Darius III was killed.
At Susa (v.) the palaces of the A. and their citadel have been explored by M. Dieulafoy and by J. de Morgan, from 1884 onward (Neh. 1:1; Tob. 1:2). At Persepolis E. Herzfeld discovered in 1933 the archives of the A. kings with over 30,000 tablets, of which 500 in Aramaic.
Chronological list of the A. kings. - The genealogy from Achaimenes onward is known to us from the "Cyrus Cylinder" and from the inscription of Behistun. After Teispes, son of Achaimenes, a double branch begins (Herodotus, I, 209).
1) Cyrus (v.) [II], great-grandson of Teispes, king of Anshan from 558 and of Persia from 549; 2) Cambyses, 530-522, conqueror of Egypt, opposed the Jewish restoration; 3) Gaumata the Magus, the "false Smerdis," attempted to raise Zoroastrianism to the throne; 4) Darius I (v.) son of Hystaspes (great-grandson of Ariaramnes, younger son of Teispes) of the second Achaemenid branch, (522-486), was favorable to the Jews; 5) Xerxes I (v. AS-KEBO) little benevolent toward the Jews (486-465); 6) Artaxerxes I (v.) Longimanus (465-424); 7) Xerxes II (424; 1 month); 8) Sogdianus (424; 6 months); 9) Darius II Nothos (424-405 [404]), under whom the uprising of Egypt took place; 10) Artaxerxes II Mnemon (405 [404]-358); 11) Artaxerxes III Ochus (358-337), who reconquered Egypt; 12) Arses (337-335); 13) Darius III Codomannus (335-330). - v. PERSIA.