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Hermann Hunger - Vienna Robartus J. van der Spek - Amsterdam An astronomical diary concerning Artaxerxes II (year 42 = 363-2 BC): Military Operations in Babylonia1 Introduction- The document discussed here is a small

pieceofanastronomicaldiary in thecollectionof theBritishMuseum. It is part of the corpus of texts published byHermann Hunger in three volumes containing the datedastronomical diaries from Babylonia (Sachs & Hunger 1988;1989; 1996).Thedocument studiedhere wasnot included inthe corpus since it previously could not be dated. Now,however, we are confident that we have established its date.Thehistoricalpartofthetabletwasstudied,transliteratedandtranslated in London in December 2005 by Van der Spek,with the help of Irving Finkel; the astronomical part hassubsequentlybeen the subjectof a renewed studybyHunger.Following the convention of the edition of the diaries, this

1 ADno.-362;BM36742(=80-6-17,475)+37478(=80-6-17,1235).

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diary can be added to Volume I (1988) under No. -362.Wethank the Trusteesof theBritishMuseum for thepossibilitytostudythetextandpresentitinanon-linepublication.

Description of the tablet - The fragment as it is

preserved is the upper part of a larger tablet and consists oftwo pieces, joined by the late Abraham Sachs in 1957. Theobverse contains astronomicalobservations; thepreservedpartof the reverse contains historical information. The text endswithacolophonontheupperedge.

The text of the obverse is written both on BM 37478 (leftpart)andBM 36742 (rightpart).Theheightof theobverse is8.5cm.Sinceareconstructionoflines1andr.9'-10'ispossible,we can calculate the lost part of the beginning of the tablet.The loss at the right end side is moredifficult to gauge,butcomparisonwith,e.g.,ADI,p.142,no.-346indicatesthatc.15signsarelostattherightendsideofline1.OfthereverseonlyBM 36742containswriting.The lengthof liner.7' is4.8cm;thedividinglineontheloweredgeis4cm.Theheightofthetablet from the upper part up to and including line 7' is 4cm.2

2 The photographs presented below were taken by Van der Spek; the British

Museumisnotresponsiblefortheirquality.

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Transliteration

obverse1. [MU 42 KAM mr-] mr-tak-at-su LUGAL KUR.KUR

MU-na-bu-[GAN..........]2. [.. .. .. .. ..] GE6 2 DIR AN ZA 2 ina KIN-SIG am TR

NGINGE63[..........]3. [.. .. .. .. ..] xni-di par-pi ina IGI amr-ki am id

KURu[..........]4. [.. .. .. .. ..] x DUL TIR-AN id SI GIB GE6 7 SAG GE6

[.]5. [............]anaNIMDIBGE69SAGGE6sinSIGMLKUR

aDUR[nu-nu.............]6. [.. .. .. .. .. ..] 10 -GE6 11 SAGGE6 sinTRNUKD

NGIN[]7. [.. .. .. .. .. .. ..] GE6 13 SAGGE6 sin ina IGI urGIGIR

UL?[.......]8. [..............]xDIRNUPAPANe-niDUH[..........]9. [................]xx[.......]

BM36742obverse

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reverse1' [..................]xx[.]2' [..............D]UMU.ME-lx[.]3' [...... ........ ..]x inaITIAPINa-naURUUD.KIB.N[UN.KI

.]4' [.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..] x UGU IM ! u-pal IM UB.ME

[.]5' [..................]xTI-DUMULUGALa-nama-ap-par-

t[.]6' [.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..]x BAD5.BAD5--nu GAR-un hu-bu-

hu-us-su-n[uih-tab-ta.]7' [..............lERN?].MELUGALa-napal-tuminamuh-

hiKUR-[.]8' [.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ]x UII-su-nu ik-ta-ad URU

GAZ[.ME?.] 9' [MU 42 KAM mr- ] mr-tak-at-su LUGAL KUR.KUR

MU.[na-bu-]

BM36742reverse

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10' [EN.NUN gi-n-e T]A GAN EN TIL E ..? MU

40[+2KAM]11' [UII mG]I?-dEN DUMUx mMU.dEN DUMU ml?Mu-e-

zi-b[u.] Translation obverse

1 [Year 42 of Ars]es, who is calledArtaxerxes, king of thelands.[MonthIX(29Nov.28Dec.363BC).......]

2 [..........]Nightof the2nd,cloudswere in thesky.The

BM36742lowerreverseandupperedge(withcolophon)

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2nd, in the afternoon, the sunwas surroundedby ahalo.Nightofthe3rd,[.......]

3 [.. .. .. .. ..] adark cloud in frontof the sun andbehindthesun,ontheeastsideand[.]

4 [..........]xDUL;arainbowstretchedon thenorthside.Nightofthe7th,beginningofthenight,[.]

5 [............]havingpassed[] to theeast.Nightof the9th, beginning of the night, the moon was [] belowEtaPiscium[.]

6 [.. .. .. .. .. ..] The 10th, very overcast. Night of the 11th,beginning of the night, the moon was surrounded by ahalo,whichwasnotclosed.[.]

7 [.... .. .... .. ..]Nightof the 13th,beginningof thenight,themoonwas[]infrontofZetaTauri[.]

8 [..............]..clouds;Ididnotwatch;rainso that thesandalwasremoved[.]

9 [................]xx[.]reverse1' [..................]xx[.]2' [................]hissons,thex[]person[s?.]3' [.. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..]x in the monthArachsamna (VIII = 31

Oct.28Nov.363BC)tothecityofSipp[ar.]4' [.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..] x upstream and downstream they

encamped[.]5' [..................]xtheytook.Thesonoftheking,who

fortheprotecti[onof.]6' [.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..]x inflictedsg adefeatupon them, [he

plundered]bootyfromthem[.]

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7' [..................The troop]sof theking,who fordoing

battleoverthemountains?[hadcome,.]8' [.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..]xgothold [ofhim/the city?]. [They?]

conqueredthecity.[.] 9' [Year 42 of Arses, who is called] by the name of

Artaxerxes,kingofthelands.10' [Regularobservationsfr]omKislimu(IX)untiltheendof

Addaru(XII),year40[+2]11' [HandofMual]lim(?)-Bl, sonof Iddin-Bl,descendant

ofMushezib[u(.)] Commentary The date - This diary must belong to the later years of

Artaxerxes II. Year number 40 is just preserved on line r.10',the remainder is broken off. The name Artaxerxes is clearlywritten on lines 1 and r. 9. Hence Artaxerxes I and II, whobothreignedmore than40years,come intoaccount.BecauseafainttraceoftheWinkelhakenofthesignispreservedonline1,wecanbeprettysurethattheking inquestionwas theArtaxerxes whose personal name was Arshu (mr-), as weknow fromseveralotherastronomicaldiaries.Inaddition,thecolophonshowsgreatsimilarity todiaryADI,p.138,no.-361,r.1'-3' (Year 43Artaxerxes II).Unfortunately the scribe of thattablet (Uballissu-Bel, son of Bel-apla-[]) is not the samepersonasthescribeofthisdiary.

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The astronomical observations concern the months IX-XII,

KislimutoAddaru.Sincethereseemstobenoquestionofanintercalary Addaru, the observation will concern years 41, 42,44 or 46 of Artaxerxes II reign, if the list of Parker andDubberstein (1956) is correct. The astronomical informationon the obverse helps us to establish a precise date. It isreported that themoonwasbelowEtaPisciumon the9thofKislimu. Since only years 41, 42, 44 and 46 are possible, themoonspositionintheseyearsisrelevant:

41IX9=-363(=364BC)Dec17 7.142IX9=-362Dec6 353.944IX9=-360Dec14 18.646IX9=-358Dec23 39.9

The numbers to the right are ecliptic longitudes at 7 p.m.

Year42fitsnicely,becauseEtaPisciumhasa longitudeofca.353atthistime.

Historical relevance -Thehistorical sectionyieldsnew

historical information.Certainpeople (his sons?)encampedaround thecityofSipparon theEuphrates inNovember363BC.Afterwardsthey took thecity.Some time later(possiblythe samemonth,orperhapsmonthXII [27Febr.27March262 BC]; the information comes from the endof the tablet),the son of the king set out to defend the city, inflicted adefeaton theattackers.Then,[troop]sof thekingarrived todobattleandgotholdof someoneor something.Were theseadditionaltroopssenttobringaboutthecaptureofSippar?

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We should like to know who the son of the king was.

Artaxerxes II had three sons who were possible successors. AtfirstArtaxerxesappointedDariusashisheir(Plut.Art.26.4-5),but he rebelled against his father. The conspiracy was dis-covered and Darius was put to death. Another candidate isArsames, but Briant points out that Ochos, later to beenthronedasArtaxerxesIII,wasthedestinedsuccessor.Duringthe lifetime of his father, he was the head of a campaignagainst Tachsof Egypt (Syncellus,p.486,20) and, accordingto Diodorus XV.93.1, Artaxerxes III succeeded without anymajorproblemtohisfathersthroneafterthelattersdeath(cf.Briant2002:681).

The enemies are even more difficult to determine. Onemight thinkofgovernors,oralso tosons,hencebrothersofthesonoftheking justmentioned.Inthecaseofgovernorsone might think of satraps who revolted in the so-calledGreatSatraps revolt, in the caseof sonsof the king,onemight think of the struggle for theposition of crownprincedescribedabove.Itmightaswellhavebeenamountaintribe.

Let us first consider the so-called Great Satraps Revolt.AccordingtoDiodorusXV.93.1,the inhabitantsoftheAsiaticcoast revolted from Persia, and some of the satraps andgeneralsrising in insurrectionmade waronArtaxerxes.At thesame time Tachs, the Egyptian king, decided to fight thePersiansandpreparedshipsandgathered infantry forces.Thekinghadtofightatthesame timeagainsttheEgyptianking,theGreekcitiesofAsia, theLacedaemoniansand thealliesofthese: satraps and generals who ruled the coastaldistricts andhad agreed upon making common cause (koinopragia).

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Diodorus mentions the following rebels in person: Ariobar-zanes,satrapofPhrygia,Mausolos,overlordofCaria,Orontes,satrap of Mysia, and Autophradates, satrap of Lydia. Inaddition: Apart from the Ionians were Lycians, Pisidians,Pamphylians,andCilicians,likewiseSyrians,Phoenicians,andpracticallyallthecoastalpeoples(ethne).

The summary (prologus) of book X of the histories ofPompeius Trogus has it that the Great King pursued hisdignitaries (purpurati) who had defected (defectores) in Asia:first of all Datames, satrap (praefectus) of [Paphlagonia] theoriginof thePaphlagonians ispresented then the satrapofthe Hellespont,Ariobarzanes; and next in Syria the satrap ofArmenia, Orontes; how he conquered them all and died,leavingthethronetohissonOchus.

Other sources of importance are the life of Datames byCornelius Nepos and some Stratagems by Polyaenus con-cerning Datames (Polyaenus VII.21.1-7), Orontes (VII.14.2-4),Ariobarzanes (VII.26) and Autophradates (VII.27.1-3). It isstriking that Plutarch does not find the affair interestingenoughtoincludeitinhislifeofArtaxerxes.

Is itpossible to link the information of thisdiary to whatweknow about theGreatSatrapsRevolt(366-360 BC)?Thisrevolt has been the subject of an extensive discussion on itschronologyand itsnature.Oursourcesaremeagreandcontra-dictory,andourknowledgeofthechronologyispracticallynil.Moreover, the main interest of the Greek and Roman his-toriansis inthewesternpartsofAsia.Diodorusexplicitlysaysthat the revoltconcernedwesternsatrapiesandall thecoastalpeoples. Babylonia is not mentioned. The rebels operating

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most closely to Babylonia are Datames, who is said to haveinvadedMesopotamia(PolyaenusVII.21.3),andOrontes,satrapof Armenia, is finally defeated in Syria (Pomp.Trog. Prol. X).OrontesmayhaveattackedMesopotamiaaswell.

In an earlier discussion of the other astronomical diariesconcerning Artaxerxes II Van der Spek (1998: 253) defendedthe idea that this invasion was recorded in AD I, p. 130,no.-366 A Col. II: 2-5 (diary concerning month II, year 38Artaxerxes II = 20 May 19 June 367 BC). This idea wascriticized by Pierre Briant (Briant 2000: 93-4). We mustindeed admit that it ispossible to combine this informationofPolyaenuswiththisnewdiary,assumingthatDatamesmayhave reached Sippar. A similar reconstruction is possible asregards Orontes. Hence the more prudent position is not tomakeconnectionswiththesatrapsrevoltatallcosts.

The revolt (or revolts) has been the subject of a greatnumberofpublications, thoroughlydiscussedbyPierreBriant(1996: 695-694 = 2002: 656-675; 1997: 57-61; 2000: 92-97).Thedebatehascentredabout thequestionwhether therevoltwas a concerted actionor a more or less contiguousnumberofuprisings.Concomitanttothis issueisthequestionofhowserious the revolt was. Was the revolt a clear sign of thedecadence of the Achaemenid empire which brought themonarchy to thebrinkofdownfall,orwas itsimplyanormalfeatureof largeempireswhichhaveonoccasion todealwithrevolts? The traditional view has been simply to followDiodorus and consider the events as the near collapse of theempire. Weiskopf (1989) tried to reduce the importance ofthe events and stressed the lack of coordination, followed in

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thisbyBriant.Debord (1999: 302-74) seems to return to thetraditional view. Can this diary help us any further in thisdiscussion?

Letusstartwith thenegativeanswers.Itgivesnoanswer tothe question whether or not the revolt was a coordinatedaction.Itgivesnoclearindicationwhotheattackerswere.Noname of a rebel or satrap or whoever is preserved. The onlyhints wehave is thephrase his sons and thedeterminativeL, followed by traces of two horizontal wedges and onevertical wedge indicating the name of a people or tribe or acertaincategoryofpeople(e.g.officials).AnyconnectionwithDatamesorOrontesisthereforespeculative.

What we do learn is that unrest was not restricted to thecoastal area of the Persian empire. An attack on Sippar wasserious enough to send an army under the leadership of thesonof theking.Itcannothavehappened in theyear that theson of the king launched an attack on Tachs, the king ofEgypt.Whatwealso learn is that theattackwasabortiveandin this the story is in line with the reports about the otherrevolts: inallcases theking (in thiscase the sonof theking)was successful.So,on theonehand there isevidence that therevolts were more widespread than assumed before; on theotherhand,it isnotevidence foradownfallofthemonarchy:orderwasrestored.Itistobenotedthatthediariescannotbeinterpreted as pro-Persian propaganda, rather as a fairlydetacheddata baseof facts. The report alsogives evidenceofthe lack of interestofGreek andRomanhistoriansof eventsthathappenedinthecentreofthePersianempire.

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The second option is to disregard the Great Satraps Revolt

altogether and to focus on the struggle for the succession ofthe old king Artaxerxes II. The diary may report an insur-rectionof some sonsorofficialsof thekingwhogotholdofSippar.Thesonof theking,thedesignatedcrownprince, isable to re-capture the city. The role of the [troop]s of theking is unclear: they may have arrived in order to help theson of the king, but it cannot be excluded that he was thevictimoftheiraction.Thelacunaearetantalizingindeed.

Textual notes obverse1.,r.9' Artaxerxeshasthetitlekingofthelands,atitleoftenusedin

the Achaemenid and early Hellenistic period. In fact, this isthe only diary of Artaxerxes II that mentions the title. Otherdiarieshavenotitleatall,orlugal,king,only.

reverse2' D]UMU.ME-lx[...,his[s]ons,thex-persons Few tracesarepreserved: twoverticalwedges(theupperonea

bit longer),andaverticalone.It isdifficult tosuggestwhat itistobereadhere;lGAL.UKKIN,satrap,seemsimpossible.

3' ITIAPIN,themonthArachsamna(VIII) It is curious to note that reference is made to month VIII,

while the diary concerns months IX-XII. We assume thatreference ismade to anattack inmonthVIII,which led to a

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campaigninmonthIX-XII=29Nov.36327March262.

4' Cf. Nabonidus Chronicle (ABC 7), III.11 UGU IM u KI.TA

IM, lit. who were above the wind and below the wind.Glassner (CM no. 26, p.236/7) translates: upstream anddownstream from Isin (?).Cf. CAD III,p.316,s.v. upalu2d).NotethatGlassnersadditionfromIsinisincomprehensible.

UB=nad,topitchcamp Fornadinthechronicles,cf.Grayson,ABC,no.1III.40(with

commentary).Cf. CAD NI 84, s.v.nad 2b 4'. The expressionis often, but not always, used with the connotation ofaggression.

7' lERN?].MELUGAL Atfirstsightonewouldexpect lERN].MELUGAL,thetroop]s

of theking.Otheroptionsshouldbeconsideredaswell,likesonsoftheking.

KUR- This may be derived from KUR, ad, mountain; open

country,steppelandorfromKUR,kaadu,toarrive.Inviewof the phonetic complement , a derivation from ad ismore likely.Itmayrefer to royal troopswhohadcome fromPersepolisovertheZagrosmountains.

8' UII-su-nuik-ta-ad,theirhandcaught Cf. CAD K 276 s.v. kaadu 2a, to conquer a country, a city

with qatu as subject; p.277 2b, to defeat an enemy, to be

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victorious; p.277-8, 2c, to capture an enemy, to arrest afugitive, a criminal. The subject their hand is technicallysingular, hence the verb, iktaad, is singular. Nevertheless, thesubjectconcernsmorepeopleandispluralad sensum(their).Theobject isunknown;itmaybeacountry,city(Sippar?)orperson(thesonoftheking;arebel?).

9'-11' Similar phrasing in AD I, p. 138, no. -361, r.1'-3' (year 43

Artaxerxes II). Note that this diary (BM 37073 = 80-6-17,818)enteredthe inventoryoftheBritishMuseumonthesamedayasourdiary,17June1880.

11' Theastronomer inquestionbelongstotheMushezibu family.

This family was a well known family of astronomers whichstillpractised their scholarship in theHellenisticandParthianperiods.Cf.,e.g.,Bel-apla-iddin,sonofMushallim-Bel,descen-dantofMushezibu in322BC(ADI,p.228-9,no.-321rev.27)and the collection of judicial documents of the Parthianperiod(c.120BC)ontheassignmentofsalariestomembersofthisfamily(VanderSpek1985:548-56).SeealsoOelsner2000:802-11,whodiscussesthefamilyintheHellenisticperiod.

HermannHUNGER RobartusVANDERSPEK Hermann.Hunger@oeaw.ac.at rj.vander.spek@let.vu.nl

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