The Locus of Power: Kings and Queens, the Royal Court, and the Elites
The king of kings was the sun around whom all else revolved. From his physical stature to his presentation, all was carefully managed to highlight his august position. Most of our descriptive evidence comes from Greek sources, though the archaeological record—especially the sculptures from Persepolis—is of course of critical importance.
The king’s robe and accoutrements distinguished him from others. In sculpture he is generally larger than others portrayed, his beard is longer and more elaborate, and he also wears a special type of crown, a tiara called in Greek the kidaris.The queen held a similarly august position to the king, but she is less visible in the sources. The queen herself and the queen mother were prominent in a hierarchy that included secondary wives, concubines, and palace staff. Persian royal women were enormously powerful, but in ways that often defy the stereotypes prevalent in Greek sources, which overflow with sexual intrigue and emphasize the dominant position of women and eunuchs. This lay at the root of the overarching sense of effeminacy that has colored much of subsequent Western tradition about the Persian court. But later Classical perspectives, especially concerning the royal women, do not always match up with other evidence. Documents from Persepolis testify to the range of economic activities of the royal women Irtashduna (Greek Artystone, a daughter of Cyrus and wife of Darius) and Irdabama, who controlled major land holdings with large staff retinues, interacted consistently with high officials (men) on state and private business, and were able to travel at will.[344]
The king was dependent on an elite class of nobles in order to govern successfully. But this dependence worked both ways: members of the nobility were dependent upon royal favor for their positions and prerogatives, and royal favor could be lost.
Herodotus relates the story of one of Darius’s helpers against Gautama, Intaphernes, who overstepped his authority in dispensing punishment to some of Darius’s guards (3.118-119). Darius viewed this act as a threat to royal prerogative, i.e., his own security, and Intraphernes was put to death. Disbursements of royal favor often accompany descriptions of the royal table, elaborate feasts that were spectacles in their own right in the number of attendants, the lavish entertainments, as well as enormous quantities of food and drink.[345] Gifts, the marks of royal favor, might include grants of land; elite status symbols of clothing, weapons (such as an akinakes, a type of dagger), or jewelry; and special favors. Numerous Greek and Roman sources refer to the phenomenon of royal feasting and gift giving, and Elamite and Babylonian documentation allude to the requisition of foodstuffs and other supplies for such.Themistocles, the Athenian general who was responsible for the Greek naval victory at Salamis in 480, provides a striking example of the king's largesse to worthy individuals outside the Persian elite, in this case even one who was previously an enemy. After his rejection by his own countrymen, Themistocles made his way to Persia, duly impressed the king (whether Xerxes himself or Artaxerxes I is debated), and received a bequest of several cities in Anatolia for his upkeep (Thucydides 1.137-138; Plutarch, Life of Themistocles §29). The Greek accounts of this fascinating story are truncated, perhaps because the phenomenon of the great Athenian hero “going Persian” (or “Medizing,” as the Greeks termed it[346]) was difficult to countenance. Themistocles provides a notorious case, but examples of the co-opting of local elites into the Persian system are legion. Persians may have, in most cases, served as the upper stratum of the governing system (e.g., the satrap and his staff), but effective rule went beyond a Persian gloss and the capability of armed force.
The incorporation of local elites, who also had a stake in the system, might be displayed in style of clothing, drinking and dining behaviors, imagery embroidered or engraved on personal effects, gift exchange, and even mortuary practices, among other behaviors.[347] The hieroglyphic inscription of Udjahorresnet, a naval commander who defected to the Persians, provides one example. It is carved on his votive statue from Sais in Egypt. The inscription chronicles Udjahorresnet's career, with special emphasis on his service to both Cambyses and Darius I. Udjahorresnet lists his own titles and achievements and relates the various ways that he facilitated a smooth transition to Persian rule: by advising the kings on proper treatment and offerings for temples and by supplying competent personnel for the keeping of sacred records. In return Udjahorresnet maintained a high position in Egyptian society and even aggrandized himself via his collaboration. The cooperation and incorporation of such local elites was essential for successful Persian rule.
It is important to note that with royal grants and honors came responsibilities. When requested, the overseers of these estates (still technically considered royal property) would be required to provide what was asked by satraps or the king: supplies, workers, even troops. It is through such means that the empire functioned, in other words, how the empire obtained and organized labor, military duty, or other types of service. This organizational capacity is best traceable in Babylonian documentation such as the Murashu archive. This archive consists of several hundred clay tablets dating from the reigns of Artaxerxes I and Darius II (dating from 440 to 416) that record the operations of a family of businessmen, the Murahu, with wide-ranging commercial interests that also involved the management of landed estates. Members of the highest levels of Persian administration— Darius II's queen, Parysatis, and Arshama, the satrap of Egypt, among others—are mentioned in texts from the archive.[348] Some of the estates that the Murashu managed were state-controlled, granted to various individuals for their use and profit, in return for services to the king.
The practice was not unique to Babylonia, and it parallels exactly the bequests to Themistocles in Anatolia.Military obligations accompanied these grants of land, arranged by what is called the hatru-system, hatru the Akkadian word for “bow.” The system was land-for- service: grants of land were given by the crown in return for services on demand. Grant holders, often termed “tenants” in the modern literature, relinquished the supervision of the estates to managers like the Murashu. The tenants could borrow from the managers against future harvests. The managers in turn sublet the land to farmers, who did the actual agricultural work and were allowed to keep a percentage. Any surplus produce would be sold on the market for silver and credited to the tenant's account for future use; from this the manager also received a percentage. This basic system included most socioeconomic groups. The amount of land granted to each person was commensurate with that person's socioeconomic status and the amount of services expected in return.
The maintenance of power required the potential as well as the real application of force. Persian military forces were drawn from all areas of the empire, members of the professional corps as well as conscripts levied for local action or for major campaigns. Classical sources frequently refer to the (usually exaggerated) numbers of the army or the variety of its contingents. But these sources are neither clear nor consistent with regard to the makeup of the army or its organization, so it is not possible to provide a definitive breakdown of its hierarchy or even its size.[349] The backbone of the Persian army consisted of an elite permanent corps, the so-called Immortals, which numbered 10,000 soldiers according to Herodotus. Whenever one of their number died or was wounded or ill, another would take his place so the number of the battalion always remained at 10,000.
An inner core of the Immortals, numbering 1,000, may have been the king's select bodyguard.
This would have represented the cream of the empire's elite, socially and militarily. This force was commanded by the chiliarch, a Greek word meaning “commander of 1,000,” perhaps from an Old Persian word *hazarapatish.[350] The chiliarch was clearly a high official in the army and at the court, where he regulated access to the king, but the full range of his powers is not yet understood. Prestige items are frequently mentioned in conjunction with Persian officers and nobles, a phenomenon that fed Greek stereotypes of Persian effeminacy and weakness. But these items were more symbolic than practical and communicated the status of the possessor.In addition, the Achaemenid ruler was able to conscript soldiers from all over the empire for specific campaigns or local action, on the model of the hatru-system described previously. These levied troops from the provinces of course did not have the same sort of armor or weaponry as did, for example, the Persian Immortals and similar contingents, and their training (and thus effectiveness) varied widely. When he tallies the vast forces that Xerxes arrayed against Greece in 480, Herodotus gives a colorful rendering of the vast and diverse forces of the imperial levy, including descriptions of the various contingents clothing and equipment (7.61100). That these depictions describe a parade more than a battle array has long been acknowledged.