These are the lands that have brought the materials for the decoration of this palace: Persia, Media, Elam, Babylonia, Assyria, Arabia, Egypt, the Sea Lands, Lydia, Ionia, Armenia, Cappadocia, Parthia, Drangiana, Aria, Chorasmia, Bactria, Sogdiana, Gandāra, Cimmeria, Sattagydia, Arachosia, Maka (Qadê).
Clearly, these building inscriptions fit into the royal ideology concerning the vispazana‐ness of the empire. Thanks to the unity and collaboration of all lands, guided by the master hand of the king himself, this magnificent palace has been built. The inscriptions stress the unity as well as the diversity of the Achaemenid Empire. Conspicuously, but not surprisingly, nearly all building activities are realized by two lands/peoples: stone‐cutting is the job of the Ionians and Lydians, whereas woodworking is taken care of by Egyptians and Lydians, etc. This is in contrast to the Persepolis Fortification Archive (cf. infra), where there are but few instances of two ethnonyms appearing together in a single text (Henkelman and Stolper 2009: pp. 278–279). This underlines the ideological character of the inscriptions, which stress the solidarity and the eagerness, shared by all people governed by the Achaemenid king, to collaborate in order to realize the king's great projects.
Finally, the Achaemenid iconography also gives us some information on the royal consciousness concerning the multitude of peoples living in the empire. Throne bearers are depicted in Persepolis and Naqš‐i Rustam. They are neatly distinguished with regard to their external appearance and are accompanied by captions describing them. Note that here the peoples' names are used rather than the lands' names: Persian, Median, Elamite, Parthian, Arian, Bactrian, Sogdian, Chorasmian, Drangianian, Arachosian, Sattagydian, Gandharian, Indian, hauma‐drinking Saca, Pointed Hat Saca, Babylonian, Assyrian, Arab, Egyptian, Armenian, Cappadocian, Lydian, Ionian, Saca across the sea, Thracian, petasos‐wearing Ionian, Libyan, Nubian, Macian, Carian.
A statue of Darius (DSab), but sculpted in Egypt, depicts 24 persons, each belonging to a different people or land: Persia, Media, Elam, Aria, Parthia, Bactria, Sogdiana, Arachosia, Drangiana, Sattagydia, Chorasmia, Saca of Marsh and Saca of Plain, Babylonia, Armenia, Lydia, Cappadocia, Skudra, Assyria, Hagar (Arabia), Egypt, Libya, Nubia, Maka, India.
The Persepolis reliefs also show representatives of countries bringing their tribute: Medes, Elamites, Armenians, Arians, Babylonians, Lydians, Arachosians, Assyrians, Cappadocians, Egyptians, Saca (three types), Ionians, Bactrians, Gandharians, Parthians, Sagartians, Indians, Arabians, Drangians, Nubians.
If all this is taken together, one can make up a list of people mentioned by the Achaemenid kings as subject people. No less than 36 lands or people appear in these texts: Persia, Elam, Media, Sagartia, Akaufaciya, Parthia, Aria, Bactria, Sogdiana, Chorasmia, Drangiana, Arachosia, Sattagydia, Gandhara, India, hauma‐drinking Saca, Pointed Hat Saca (these two peoples are plainly called Saca in the eldest inscriptions DB and DPe), Babylonia, Assyria, Arabia, Egypt, Libya, Nubia, Armenia, Cappadocia, Lydia, Skudra, Saca across the sea, Caria, inland Ionians, Ionians by the sea, Ionians across the sea, petasos‐wearing Ionians (the Ionians are brought together under the header Ionia in DB), Lands across the sea, Dahia, Maka.
The rather large number of textual and iconographical royal sources listing the subject lands corroborates the importance for the Achaemenid kings to act in such a way. In other words, the enumerating of these lands is firmly established in the royal mind. In fact, it is one of the central axes of the royal Achaemenid ideology.
Peoples and Languages in Elamite, Babylonian, and Greek Texts
Elamite Texts
Large groups of ethnically defined workmen also appear in documentary texts from the Achaemenid period, especially in the Persepolis Fortification and Treasury Texts, where they are active in the Persepolis economy (cf. Henkelman and Stolper 2009 on the Skudrians; Rollinger and Henkelman 2009 on the Ionians; Tavernier 2015 on the Lycians; Uchitel 1989 and 1991 in general; Wasmuth 2009 on the Egyptians).
People attested in Persepolis, which must have been a really multicultural residential city, are Ākaufacians, Arabs, Arachosians, Arbelans, Areians, Armenians, Assyrians (Syrians), Babylonians, Bactrians, Cappadocians, Carians, Carmanians, Drangianians, Egyptians, Gandharians, Hattians (north Syrians), Hyrcanians, Indians, Ionians, Lycians, Lydians, Macians, Parikanians, Parthians, Sagartians, Skudrians, and Sogdians (Henkelman and Stolper 2009: pp. 300–306).
Remarkably, Persians, Medes, and Elamites are absent or nearly absent from the written documents, although their role in the Persepolis economy is beyond doubt (as already indicated by the Old Persian, Median, and Elamite names). This absence or near‐absence may be explained by the fact that their ethnicity did apparently not matter for the Persepolis administrators (Henkelman and Stolper 2009: pp. 275–278).
Babylonian Texts
Babylonian texts dated to the Achaemenid period too sometimes mention foreign groups or individuals (Joannès 2009: pp. 224–227) and the fact that they are rather private texts than texts belonging to the public administration makes the context in which these groups appear different from the Persepolis context. An interesting dossier is that of the Caro‐Egyptian (i.e. Carians coming from Egypt) soldiers stationed in Borsippa (Waerzeggers 2006; Heller 2010: pp. 341–344). This dossier illustrates one of the systems by which the Achaemenid state channeled the influx of foreign people in Babylonia: Borsippean citizens had to provide rations for the Caro‐Egyptians. Other systems are (i) war prisoners that were sold into slavery or donated to a temple and (ii) the military land‐grant system, which functions according to the “land‐for‐service” principle and which is fairly well attested in the late fifth‐century Murašû Archive. One text also illustrates this system for Jews (Waerzeggers 2006: p. 68). In addition, the Murašû Archive contains various names of so‐called arus, which were named after an ethnic group: Arabs, Armenians, Carians, Cimmerians, Indians, Lydians, Phrygians, and Tyrians (Stolper 1985: pp. 72–79). An Egyptian community at Susa is well‐attested in the Babylonian documentation (Joannès 1984).
From Babylonian texts can also be derived that Babylonian workers were active in the construction of a palace at Taokè (modern Borazjan, in the Bushehr region; Tolini 2008). The Elamite texts corroborate this, in naming groups of Egyptians, Skudrians, Cappadocians, and Lydians that were directed to the same place (Henkelman and Stolper 2009: pp. 279–280).
It should be kept in mind, however, that the Achaemenid Empire was not unique in using workforces not belonging to the same ethnicity of the ruling class for its own purposes. The Neo‐Assyrian Empire is notoriously famous for its deportations of workmen from conquered areas to Assyria proper. In the same way the Neo‐Babylonian Empire did precisely the same (just to mention the Babylonian Captivity) and at the royal court many non‐Babylonian people are attested (Heller 2010: p. 336; Jursa 2010: pp. 72–73). The difference between the earlier empires and the Achaemenid Empire, however, is that in the latter the ethnically‐defined groups play a role in the royal ideology whereas in Mesopotamia they are kept away from this ideology.
Greek Texts
The many Greek classical sources informing us on the history of the Achaemenid Empire mention numerous people, but the most famous passage must be the one in which Herodotus lists the 20 provinces installed by Darius I (Hist., III 90–97; cf. Jacobs 2003; Ruffing 2009). The provinces are:
1 Ionians, Magnesians in Asia, Aeolians, Carians, Lycians, Milyans, and Pamphylians.
2 Mysians, Lydians, Lasonians, Cabalians, and Hytennians.
3 Hellespontines, Phrygians, Thracians in Asia, Paphlagonians, Mariandynians, and Syrians.
4 Cilicians.
5 The city of Posideium up to Egypt (except the Arabs), including Phoenicia, Palestinia, and Cyprus.
6 Egypt, Libya, Cyrene,