Old Persian dāta-, “law,” in the Persepolitan context

Abstract

While Darius i (522–486 BC) of the Achaemenid dynasty did not introduce a universal royal law in Persia, he used an Old Persian term dāta-, “law,” in his inscriptions. In the local context, in Persepolis and Fārs, this term had two different meanings: 1) an ideological concept related to the obligations of the subjects and countries of the empire towards their king, and 2) a term used for regulations of the exchange of commodities in the Persepolis economy. In the royal inscriptions, the term dāta- represents the loyalty of the subjected countries and the tribute they owe to the king. This law held the subjected countries stable. As such, this term is related to the concepts of the Truth and Lie in the royal inscriptions, and virtually identical with term ṛštā-, “righteousness.” According to the Achaemenid ideology, the loyal countries and people were followers of the Truth and righteousness, but when they became disloyal, they became the followers of the Lie. In his inscriptions, Darius emphasizes that he was not disloyal, did not follow the Lie, but righteousness. Therefore, Darius and other Achaemenid kings were placing themselves as subjects to the same laws. In the Persepolis Fortification Archive, a collection of the administrative documents from the reign of Darius I, there is an Elamite term datam (a rendition of Old Persian dāta-). It occurs only in several texts related to the exchange of the commodities for šaumarraš, i.e., bars of silver. This exchange was done “according to the former regulations (datam)” (alternatively, “former decrees”). This suggests that in Persepolis, the exchange rates, as the rest of the economy, were controlled by the state. This use of the term dāta- is then much closer to the modern meaning of the term “law.”