Revolts and the Persian Great Kings: Active Involvement or Careful Abstention?

Abstract

Summary Revolts against the Persian Great Kings remain a largely contentious issue in Achaemenid studies, several aspects of which are however left unexplored. One such example is the question of the role of the Persian sovereign himself in this conflict: Was he actively implicated or did he adopt a more passive stance? This study aims to provide an answer to this question by systematically examining in a chronological order all the attested rebellions that have broken out in opposition to the incumbent Persian sovereign. Although on the surface level the attitude of the Achaemenid monarchs greatly varied, through this study a more coherent picture emerges, as it gradually becomes clear that the policy of the Persian sovereigns when facing an internal threat to their authority depended on the objective of the rebel themselves: Secession from the empire and the formation of an independent state or usurpation of the imperial throne.