“By the Favour of Ahuramazda I Am King”: On the Promulgation of a Persian Propaganda Text among Babylonians and Judaeans

Abstract The aim of this article is to explore how the Achaemenid kings disseminated their official ideology among their subjects—including Judaeans outside of and within the Persian province of Yehud—in the Achaemenid period. The main text that the article focuses on is King Darius I’s Bisitun inscription (DB) and the remains of it that have been found in Babylon (DB Bab) and within the context of the Judaean community on the Elephantine Island in Upper Egypt (DB Aram). The author discusses the contents of the Persian propaganda text and how it was disseminated among and possibly received by the Judaeans.