Tory
Cyaxares II?
Tue Dec 7, 2010 07:09
119.93.39.76
http://disc.yourwebapps.com/discussion.cgi?disc=177754;article=10970;
As for the reign of Cyaxares II, besides Xenophon nothing else about him is known unless the book of Esther is a Hebrew narrative about events during his reign. Consider the following points:
1. All are in agreement that the name “Ahasuerus” in the Bible is the attempt of the Hebrew to render the Persian Xšayāršā (Xerxes). It is in fact an attempt to render a Median name according to Daniel 9:1 and Tobit 14:15. That name is rendered in Greek as Κυαξάρης (Cyaxeres).
2. Esther 1:1 states that Ahasuerus became king over 127 מדינה “districts” (not satraps, a satrap can include more than one province or district) from India to “Kush.” Note that the Hebrew term כוש (Kush) need not refer to Ethiopia. Kush was also the name of a region (and a Scythian tribe) in eastern Turkey and Armenia. From India to Kush fits the description of Herodotus’ huge Median empire stretching across Asia and northern Mesopotamia from the Indus valley to the Halys River in eastern Anatolia and Cappadocia.
3. Esther 1:2-3. Ahasuerus did not sit on his throne at Shushan until the 3rd year of his reign. This fits with Herodotus and Xenophon if we assume Cyaxares II had two coronations. The first coronation took place when his father Astyages was captured by Kuraš in 550 BCE. The second would have been when Astyages died later on. Ecbatana ceased to be the royal capital of Media when Kuraš looted the place in 550 BCE. Cyaxares II would have moved his capital elsewhere and Shushan is mentioned several times in Xenophon’s account. It is described as being an important city of the Medes in the time of Cyaxares II. Ecbatana is mentioned only once and only as the summer residence of Kuraš.
4. Daniel 8:2. In the 3rd year of Bel-šarra-usur, which we now know must be measured from the year Nabû-na’id entrusted his son with the kingship in 553 BCE and set off for Tema, Daniel was at the palace in Shushan. This is the year 550 BCE, the year Astyages was captured, and yet the book describes a vision of Daniel that year about a ram with two horns representing the two kingdoms of the Medes and the Persians. Is this another indication that the kingdom of the Medes was not over in 550 BCE but that the capital moved to Shushan?
5. Esther 2:5-6. Mordecai was among the Judean captives deported to Babylon when Jehoiachin was removed from the throne of Judah, i.e. in 597 BCE. But if “Ahasuerus” is Xerxes we must reject or somehow reinterpret this remark, for Mordecai would be a minimum of 118 years of age in the 7th year of Xerxes (479 BCE). This problem disappears if “Ahasuerus” is accepted to be Xenophon’s Cyaxares II who became king of Media in 550 BCE. Vashti was removed as queen in the 3rd year (547 BCE) and Esther was made queen in the tenth month of Tebet in the king’s 7th year (543 BCE).
6. When Haman asked Ahasuerus permission to slaughter all Jews in his big realm on a future date at the end of the king’s 12th year, the story goes that Ahasuerus didn’t give this a second thought. He didn’t seem even to know who Jews are, Haman had to describe them to His Majesty. Kuraš and Xerxes’ father Darius, on the other hand, had favorable views of and dealings with Jews. If it doesn’t seem believable that Xerxes or any Achaemenid ruler from Kuraš onward would have signed off on a request like Haman’s, and this is one reason the book of Esther is considered pious fiction, contrast this with Xeneophon’s king Cyaxares who had no dealings with Jews and no reason to protect them, that is until he possibly made one of them his queen.
7. Ezra 4:6. There was a king Ahasuerus alive between the reigns of Kuraš and Darius I: ובמלכות אחשורוש בתחלת מלכותו כתבו שטנה על־ישבי יהודה וירושלם. I once thought to equate this king with Bardiya but the verse may be rendered to mean that Samaritans complained to Cyaxares II before they frustrated attempts to rebuild Jerusalem after learning that Zerubbabel laid the foundation of the Temple: “And in the reign of Ahasuerus, previously in his reign, they wrote an accusation against the residents of Judah and Jerusalem.” The Jews returned in the 1st year of Kuraš. The foundation of the Temple was laid in the second year. Between these two dates did Samaritans appeal to Cyaxares II to pressure his nephew to overturn or at least modify the recent Jewish decree?
A tentative chronology of Cyaxares II (550-537 BCE) would be:
550 Capture of Astyages, Cyaxares II transfers the Median capital to Shushan
547 Death of Astyages, great feast at Shushan in year 3
543 Esther becomes queen in year 7
538 Purim episode in year 12
537 Kuraš issues decree at the end of year 1 (response to Purim episode?)
537 Samaritan letter to Cyaxares II in year 13 (point #7)
537 Death of Cyaxares II?
Finally, as for Darius the Mede, if Xenophon’s account of Cyaxares II has basis in fact then I confess Astyages cannot be Darius the Mede since Astyages would have died in Media long before the conquest of Babylon in 539 BCE. Nor can Darius be a bi-name of Cyaxares II. Darius the Mede “son of Cyaxares” can only have been an otherwise unattested brother of Astyages or son of Cyaxares II. At the moment I will assume he was son of Cyaxares II and born before his father’s accession, i.e. not eligible to inherit the throne according to the Median rules for regular succession.
My proposed chronology of the reign of Darius the Mede remains the same. Kambujia was co-regent with his father Kuraš over Babylon from the time of its capture in 539 BCE to at least the eleventh and twelfth month of Kuraš's first official year in 537 BCE according to tablets CT 55 731 and CT 57 165. There is no space for a king Darius the Mede at Babylon in the period from the capture of Babylon in 539 BCE to the end of Kuraš’s first official year.
However the economic tablet NBRU II 10 dated in the intercalary month of Ululu in the accession-year of "Darius, King of Babylon" is I believe a record from the time of Darius the Mede. The tablet fits comfortably within Kuraš's 2nd year in 537 BCE, this being the year an intercalarly Ululu II was inserted into the Babylonian calendar. Thus year 3 Kuraš = year 1 Darius (536 BCE). Daniel 10:1 and 11:1 imply that Darius the Mede died in his first year. Neither the Babylonian king lists nor Ptolemy’s canon mention Darius the Mede just as they don't mention the fact that Kambujia had ruled Babylon alongside his father from 539 to 537 BCE.
Assuming Darius the Mede was son of Cyaxares II son of Astyages son of Cyaxares I, a relative chronology of ages can be worked out. At 62 (in 537 BCE) when Darius the Mede was made king by Kuraš he would have been born c.599 BCE during the reign of his great-grandfather Cyaxares I (625-585 BCE). Let’s assume Cyaxares II was age c.20 and his father Astyages age c.40 at this time. Astyages would have been born c.639 BCE and thus around age 25 when his daughter Amytis was promised to the Babylonian crown prince Nebuchadnezzar II in 614 BCE. She was a small child at this time and presumably it was not before she reached puberty that she was sent off to Babylon.
Cyaxares I died in 585/584 BCE in his mid 70s. Astyages was about 55 when his daughter Mandane was born in 584 BCE. So Aryenis of Lydia could not have been his first wife. By this time Cyaxares II, born c.619 BCE, was about 35 and his son Darius the Mede, born c.599, was about 15.
Astyages was captured in 550 BCE at the age of about 89, and if I’m correct he died three years later in 547 BCE, i.e. year 3 Cyaxares II at Shushan. Cyaxares II was about 72 in 547 BCE and his son Darius the Mede was about 52. Kuraš was about 20 and Kambujia may already have been born.
By this scheme Cyaxares II would have died in c.537 BCE at about age 82. Kuraš had thought to make his son Kambujia share in the rulership of Babylonia, but maybe with the passing of Cyaxares II, and in view of Kambujia’s youth and inexperience, Kuraš altered his mind in 537 BCE and replaced Kambujia with Kuraš’s older cousin Darius son of Cyaxares (Ahasuerus) instead.
Tory
1. All are in agreement that the name “Ahasuerus” in the Bible is the attempt of the Hebrew to render the Persian Xšayāršā (Xerxes). It is in fact an attempt to render a Median name according to Daniel 9:1 and Tobit 14:15. That name is rendered in Greek as Κυαξάρης (Cyaxeres).
2. Esther 1:1 states that Ahasuerus became king over 127 מדינה “districts” (not satraps, a satrap can include more than one province or district) from India to “Kush.” Note that the Hebrew term כוש (Kush) need not refer to Ethiopia. Kush was also the name of a region (and a Scythian tribe) in eastern Turkey and Armenia. From India to Kush fits the description of Herodotus’ huge Median empire stretching across Asia and northern Mesopotamia from the Indus valley to the Halys River in eastern Anatolia and Cappadocia.
3. Esther 1:2-3. Ahasuerus did not sit on his throne at Shushan until the 3rd year of his reign. This fits with Herodotus and Xenophon if we assume Cyaxares II had two coronations. The first coronation took place when his father Astyages was captured by Kuraš in 550 BCE. The second would have been when Astyages died later on. Ecbatana ceased to be the royal capital of Media when Kuraš looted the place in 550 BCE. Cyaxares II would have moved his capital elsewhere and Shushan is mentioned several times in Xenophon’s account. It is described as being an important city of the Medes in the time of Cyaxares II. Ecbatana is mentioned only once and only as the summer residence of Kuraš.
4. Daniel 8:2. In the 3rd year of Bel-šarra-usur, which we now know must be measured from the year Nabû-na’id entrusted his son with the kingship in 553 BCE and set off for Tema, Daniel was at the palace in Shushan. This is the year 550 BCE, the year Astyages was captured, and yet the book describes a vision of Daniel that year about a ram with two horns representing the two kingdoms of the Medes and the Persians. Is this another indication that the kingdom of the Medes was not over in 550 BCE but that the capital moved to Shushan?
5. Esther 2:5-6. Mordecai was among the Judean captives deported to Babylon when Jehoiachin was removed from the throne of Judah, i.e. in 597 BCE. But if “Ahasuerus” is Xerxes we must reject or somehow reinterpret this remark, for Mordecai would be a minimum of 118 years of age in the 7th year of Xerxes (479 BCE). This problem disappears if “Ahasuerus” is accepted to be Xenophon’s Cyaxares II who became king of Media in 550 BCE. Vashti was removed as queen in the 3rd year (547 BCE) and Esther was made queen in the tenth month of Tebet in the king’s 7th year (543 BCE).
6. When Haman asked Ahasuerus permission to slaughter all Jews in his big realm on a future date at the end of the king’s 12th year, the story goes that Ahasuerus didn’t give this a second thought. He didn’t seem even to know who Jews are, Haman had to describe them to His Majesty. Kuraš and Xerxes’ father Darius, on the other hand, had favorable views of and dealings with Jews. If it doesn’t seem believable that Xerxes or any Achaemenid ruler from Kuraš onward would have signed off on a request like Haman’s, and this is one reason the book of Esther is considered pious fiction, contrast this with Xeneophon’s king Cyaxares who had no dealings with Jews and no reason to protect them, that is until he possibly made one of them his queen.
7. Ezra 4:6. There was a king Ahasuerus alive between the reigns of Kuraš and Darius I: ובמלכות אחשורוש בתחלת מלכותו כתבו שטנה על־ישבי יהודה וירושלם. I once thought to equate this king with Bardiya but the verse may be rendered to mean that Samaritans complained to Cyaxares II before they frustrated attempts to rebuild Jerusalem after learning that Zerubbabel laid the foundation of the Temple: “And in the reign of Ahasuerus, previously in his reign, they wrote an accusation against the residents of Judah and Jerusalem.” The Jews returned in the 1st year of Kuraš. The foundation of the Temple was laid in the second year. Between these two dates did Samaritans appeal to Cyaxares II to pressure his nephew to overturn or at least modify the recent Jewish decree?
A tentative chronology of Cyaxares II (550-537 BCE) would be:
550 Capture of Astyages, Cyaxares II transfers the Median capital to Shushan
547 Death of Astyages, great feast at Shushan in year 3
543 Esther becomes queen in year 7
538 Purim episode in year 12
537 Kuraš issues decree at the end of year 1 (response to Purim episode?)
537 Samaritan letter to Cyaxares II in year 13 (point #7)
537 Death of Cyaxares II?
Finally, as for Darius the Mede, if Xenophon’s account of Cyaxares II has basis in fact then I confess Astyages cannot be Darius the Mede since Astyages would have died in Media long before the conquest of Babylon in 539 BCE. Nor can Darius be a bi-name of Cyaxares II. Darius the Mede “son of Cyaxares” can only have been an otherwise unattested brother of Astyages or son of Cyaxares II. At the moment I will assume he was son of Cyaxares II and born before his father’s accession, i.e. not eligible to inherit the throne according to the Median rules for regular succession.
My proposed chronology of the reign of Darius the Mede remains the same. Kambujia was co-regent with his father Kuraš over Babylon from the time of its capture in 539 BCE to at least the eleventh and twelfth month of Kuraš's first official year in 537 BCE according to tablets CT 55 731 and CT 57 165. There is no space for a king Darius the Mede at Babylon in the period from the capture of Babylon in 539 BCE to the end of Kuraš’s first official year.
However the economic tablet NBRU II 10 dated in the intercalary month of Ululu in the accession-year of "Darius, King of Babylon" is I believe a record from the time of Darius the Mede. The tablet fits comfortably within Kuraš's 2nd year in 537 BCE, this being the year an intercalarly Ululu II was inserted into the Babylonian calendar. Thus year 3 Kuraš = year 1 Darius (536 BCE). Daniel 10:1 and 11:1 imply that Darius the Mede died in his first year. Neither the Babylonian king lists nor Ptolemy’s canon mention Darius the Mede just as they don't mention the fact that Kambujia had ruled Babylon alongside his father from 539 to 537 BCE.
Assuming Darius the Mede was son of Cyaxares II son of Astyages son of Cyaxares I, a relative chronology of ages can be worked out. At 62 (in 537 BCE) when Darius the Mede was made king by Kuraš he would have been born c.599 BCE during the reign of his great-grandfather Cyaxares I (625-585 BCE). Let’s assume Cyaxares II was age c.20 and his father Astyages age c.40 at this time. Astyages would have been born c.639 BCE and thus around age 25 when his daughter Amytis was promised to the Babylonian crown prince Nebuchadnezzar II in 614 BCE. She was a small child at this time and presumably it was not before she reached puberty that she was sent off to Babylon.
Cyaxares I died in 585/584 BCE in his mid 70s. Astyages was about 55 when his daughter Mandane was born in 584 BCE. So Aryenis of Lydia could not have been his first wife. By this time Cyaxares II, born c.619 BCE, was about 35 and his son Darius the Mede, born c.599, was about 15.
Astyages was captured in 550 BCE at the age of about 89, and if I’m correct he died three years later in 547 BCE, i.e. year 3 Cyaxares II at Shushan. Cyaxares II was about 72 in 547 BCE and his son Darius the Mede was about 52. Kuraš was about 20 and Kambujia may already have been born.
By this scheme Cyaxares II would have died in c.537 BCE at about age 82. Kuraš had thought to make his son Kambujia share in the rulership of Babylonia, but maybe with the passing of Cyaxares II, and in view of Kambujia’s youth and inexperience, Kuraš altered his mind in 537 BCE and replaced Kambujia with Kuraš’s older cousin Darius son of Cyaxares (Ahasuerus) instead.
Tory
No comments:
Post a Comment