XERXES: THE CASE OF SIPPAR AND THE EBABBAR TEMPLE

This paper is based on the Sipparean textual record for the last regnal years of Darius I and the first two regnal years of Xerxes. It takes as its point of departure the fact that economic difficulties and the heavy burden placed by the Achaemenid government on the Babylonian elites contributed to triggering the revolts against Xerxes in 484 BCE (but they hardly were their structural cause). Given the absence of specific evidence from Sippar for crisis phenomena, the paper will point to a certain loosening of royal control over temple institutions before the revolts. Regarding the aftermath of the