Skip to main content

Kourosh, Cyrus the Great

In 539 Cyrus, declared on the cylinder (now in the British Museum) that:... when my numerous soldiers in great numbers peacefully entered Babylon and moved about undisturbed in the midst of the Babylon, I did not allow anyone to terrorize the people of the lands of Sumer and Akad and ...

I kept in view, the needs of the people and all their sanctuaries to promote their well being. I strove for peace in Babylon and in all his other sacred cities. As to the inhabitants of Babylon who against the will of the gods were enslaved, I abolished the tax which was against their social standing, I freed all slaves. I brought relief to their dilapidated housing, putting thus an end to their misfortunes and slavery ......

I announce that I will respect the traditions, customs and religions of the nations of my empire and never let any of my governors and subordinates look down on or insult them until I am alive. From now on, till (Ahura) Mazda grants me the kingdom favor, I will impose my monarchy on no nation. Each is free to accept it , and if any one of them rejects it , I never resolve on war to reign. Until I am the king of Iran, Babylon, and the nations of the four directions, I never let anyone oppress any others, and if it occurs , I will take his or her right back and penalize the oppressor.

And so long as I am the monarch, I will never let anyone take possession of movable and landed properties of the others by force or without compensation. So long as I am alive, I prevent unpaid, forced labor.

Today, I announce that everyone is free to choose a religion. People are free to live in all regions and take up a job provided that they never violate other's rights.No one could be penalized for his or her relatives' faults. I prevent slavery and my governors and subordinates are obliged to prohibit exchanging men and women as slaves within their own ruling domains. Such a traditions should be exterminated the world over ...

Labels

Labels:

Comments

  1. Emil Perhinschi12:42

    Is this very oblique sarcasm, or is there a reference for this text ? I'd like to see the context ...

    Somehow it does not seem believable that Cyrus outlawed slavery.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Philip Hall21:24

    emil per

    This is what Cyrus said on the great seal. Now whether he actually abolished slavery or not, I don't know. He did liberate the Jews from Babylon and give them back Jerusalem in 539 bc.

    Just go to answers.com and check it out. Tell me what you find.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Guardian books blog fringe: Norman Mailer

FLASHING THE GUARDIAN -- A BOOKS BLOGGERS' REBELLION :  The unheroic censor with a death wish Part 1: In which Norman Mailer stars in an experiment in search engine optimisation By ACCIACCATURE 3 February 2009 When Norman Mailer died in 2007, informed opinion – in the blogosphere, people who had read at least two of his books – was split. The army of readers who saw him as one of the most despicable misogynists writing fiction in the 20th century was perfectly matched by warriors on the other side, who raged that the label wasn’t just unwarranted but tantamount to heinous calumny. Before commenters returned to bitching-as-usual, tempers were lost on literary sites all over the net in debating temperatures high enough to bring to mind tiles burning off space shuttles re-entering Earth’s atmosphere. After I'd agreed to a spontaneous suggestion by our good friend Sean Murray -- a pioneer and stalwart of the comments section of The Guardian’s books blog – that we re-...
71 comments
Read more

Aerogramme from Lisa and Richard

To: Mr & Mrs J. Hall, Box 49 Eikenhof (TVL) Johannesburg Afrique du Sud. 28.3.76 Dear John and Nola, Today a week ago we were still in New Delhi with Eve and Tony and the boys and the whole thing looks like a dream. We arrived on the 28.2 in New Delhi and were happy to see the whole family fit and in good health. The boys have grown very much, Phil is just about the size of Tony and the twins are above average. We stayed untill the 22nd March, as our visa ran out and we did not want to go through all the ceremony of asking for an extension. It also got hotter and I don't know how I would have supported the heat. The extra week would also have passed, so we decided not to go to all the trouble with the authorities and leave on the 22nd. I cannot tell you how happy we have been to see such a lovely family, so happy and united. It is rare to experience sucha thing and we have both all the reasons to be proud of them (when I say goth I mean you and us ). There is su...
2 comments
Read more

The mote in Jacqui Smith's eye

Stop your foolish baying! In response to Polly Toynbee's article in the Guardian. These personal attacks are just laying the scent for a massive Tory fox hunt. The Jacqui Smith scandal is designed to make subsequent attacks on the public sector acceptable. The orchestrated Tory attack is nasty and vicious attack aimed at preparing us for a massive campaign of cuts. This is how it works. Shadowy Tory groups with the help of friendly newspapers, spindoctors and top flight PR companies, look for the weakest links: the weak sisters, of the public sector and then attack them. First they attack social services for making mistakes and play on the salary of the person forced to resign, then they look for a poorly performing hospital and attack it, then they look for at MPs expenses and attack them. Freindly newspapers start publishing planted articles about over paid public sector bosses and then, it never fails, they find a juicy little sex tidbit and link it to their attack on the public...
17 comments
Read more