Satrapal Power and Royal Policy – The Transformation of Inner Political Forces in the Achaemenid Empire

After a first phase of dynamic expansion the Great Kings changed into a kind of ‘diplomatic policy’, particularly known from the western edge of the Achaemenid empire. Since Xerxes I they tried to use new methods for foreign policy, inter-state connections and indirect influence. This assumes a new understanding of the empire (with acceptance of fixed? borders) and of the royal ideology and representation. In consequence, the satraps gained importance as political representatives of the royal interests. Therefore, their function of their position seems to change from an originally focus on the administration of the regional, inner- Achaemenid conditions to a ‘diplomatic key figure’ at the border zone of the empire. But their new political, military and economic competences also strengthened their position towards the Great King. So, the increase of satrapal power seems to change the relationship to the Great King and the inner-political conditions. Obviously, the results are a tension of particularism at end of the 5th and in the 4th century BC and – in reaction to it – a regulation and modification of satrapal power by the Great King. This development, in which the imperium/the imperial territory shifted its importance in relation to the center, illustrates and characterizes the process of transformation to a ‘long-term empire’ the Achaemenid Great Kings were faced to manage.

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