Deportations

Abstract

The topic of deportations in the Achaemenid Empire, i.e. the state-ordered and forced transfer of people to predetermined areas within the empire, is not without problems in theory and methodology, since we owe our knowledge in this regard, with the exception of the case of Sidon, only to Greek-Roman authors, not least Herodotus, whose focus is understandably on Greek deportees and who often enough have their own intentions and biases. Nevertheless, some information can be obtained through source criticism and wise analysis: Besides the Persian kings' motives for the forced relocation of persons or (not too large) groups, i.e. to make the most effective use of the deportees' manpower, this chapter will address the following fields of investigation: the difficult issue of the legal and social status of the deportees, the five-phase procedure of the relocation, the extent of the Persian deportation phenomenon and – connected to the latter – the comparison of the Achaemenid deportations with those of the preceding Ancient Near Eastern empires (not least those of the Assyrians, about which we are much better informed).