Liberation or Accommodation? Phoenicians, Egyptians and Babylonians in the Twilight of the Achaemenid Empire

Abstract

Mainly based on the testimony of literary sources, but also on preconceived ideas about the merits of Western civilization and the ills of Oriental despotism, the often peaceful submission of the Persian Great King’s subjects to Alexander III of Macedon has been viewed as an undeniable proof of the Achaemenid Empire’s fragility and oppressive system of governance. The present paper aims at challenging this view by studying the cases of Phoenicia, Egypt and Babylonia. From the critical study of classical authors, but also of textual sources coming from the empire itself, such as Babylonian cuneiform tablets, emerges a more nuanced picture in regard to the politically complicated relations between the Macedonian conqueror, the Persian authorities and the indigenous elites.