Endnote 10 – How Bad Was the Babylonian Exile?

There is no cuneiform evidence of such a proclamation in the reign of Cyrus or of any other Achaemenid king. Claims that the Cyrus Cylinder [BM 90920+NBC 2504] does so are unfounded. As a typical building inscription, the barrel-shaped document touts the work authorized by Cyrus for the restoration of ancient shrines in the eastern and northern regions of Mesopotamia. For a recent translation, and a discussion of the place of the Cyrus Cylinder in the historiographic program of the Achaemenid empire, see P. Michalowski, “The Cyrus Cylinder,” in M. Chavalas, ed., Historical Sources in Translation: The Ancient Near East (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006), pp. 426–430. For an important, earlier study on the programmatic nature of the cylinder, see A. Kuhrt, “The Cyrus Cylinder and Achaemenid Imperial Policy,” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 25 (1983), pp. 83–97.