Behistun Inscription

 


The Behistun Inscription, pictured above, provides context for the abnormality of Greek bureaucracy compared to other ancient societies. The Behistun Inscription, carved during the reign of Darius I (522-486 B.C.E.), features kings from each of the various regions of the Achaemenid Empire (over which Darius ruled) standing below Darius, prepared to offer him tributes. 


The Behistun Inscription demonstrates both the diversity of Darius’s empire and the expansive nature of the bureaucracy necessary to control such a wide swath of land. Each of the kings is depicted as serving under Darius; this, of course, makes sense, as the Achaemenid Empire was much too large for any one person to rule without delegating some amount of power. 


Such a dilemma rarely, if ever, faced Greek leaders at least until the Persian Wars, at which point alliances across the peninsula became necessary and commonplace. Polis bureaucracies affected the daily lives of Greeks to an outsized extent because, due to the internal disunity of Greece, areas of rule were relatively small. The Behistun Inscription indicates that, in more unified empires, an extra layer of bureaucracy – that of the various “kings” within the empire – existed.


Bresson, Alain. The Making of the Ancient Greek Economy: Institutions, Markets, and Growth in the City-States. Princeton University Press, 2016. 

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