Near East Kingdoms

Susiana / Susa (Persian Satraps) (Western Iran)
Incorporating the Satraps of Elymais (of the Uxians / Cissians)

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The city states of Sumer formed one of the first great civilisations in human history (see feature link). This Near Eastern civilisation emerged a little way ahead of that of Africa's ancient Egypt, and up to a millennium before that of the Indus Valley culture.

Early civilisation here emerged during the Pottery Neolithic, with its Neolithic Farmer practices being spread far and wide. Southern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and the western edge of Iran) was subjected to permanent settlement and, by the late fourth millennium BC, Sumer was divided into approximately a dozen city states, by which time other regions were emerging as population centres in their own right.

Elam was one of the oldest named regions in history, being located in one of the oldest civilised areas in the world (see feature link). With a small but important selection of city states at its core it also provided history with one of its longest-surviving states, or at least a series of states which, for outsiders, can barely be distinguished apart from one another.

For a good deal of its early independent history - and certainly prior to the launch of the Achaemenid empire - Elam was much more a land of city states along the same lines as Sumer, and far less a unified state which implacably opposed Sumer. The land of Elam was situated in south-western Iran, on the east (left) bank of the Tigris and opposite modern Kuwait, Iraq's city of Basrah, and the northern part of the Persian Gulf. This area approximately covers the modern Khuzestan and Ilam provinces, the latter of which inherits the former kingdom's name.

It neighboured Sumer along that region's eastern flank, but it took some time to assimilate Sumer's groundbreaking social, agricultural, and administrative inventions. Elam's first city state kingdom arose by around 2700 BC, but little is known of its origins. Although geographically similar to southern Mesopotamia and not at all distant, Elam was located on an alluvial plain below the Zagros mountains rather than in the sandy dustbowl of Sumer which mainly clung to life along the two main rivers.

Travel between the two regions could be difficult due to a string of large marshes which lay in the way. The nearest access route was in the Zagros foothills to circle the marshes, something which armies from both sides would later do with increasing frequency. This also meant difficulties in communication, which probably helps to explain at least part of Elam's comparatively late climb towards true civilisation. Only in the third millennium BC did the two regions begin to share closer relations.

Culturally, Elam achieved less than its advanced neighbours, and imported much of what it needed, including writing from Sumer and architecture from the later city and empire of Babylon. From the few surviving records, it seems the Elamite language bore no relation to any others, whether Semitic, Sumerian or Indo-European, forming part of a pre-Indo-European group called Elamo-Dravidian which reached into India. It was a linguistic isolate which was later replaced by the Farsi of the Parsua.

Elamite records are also extremely sparse in recording local events, and large areas of its history are almost totally unknown except through Sumerian records. It is generally known in classical writings as Susiana, from the city state of Susa which usually (in much later years) formed its capital. Alexander the Great certainly used it as such.

The form of the kingdom's name, 'Elam' is generally taken to mean meaning 'highland'. It is Akkadian (and this survives via Akkadian to reach Hebrew). In the original Elamite form it seems to have been Haltamtu or Haltamti, although this was not written down until the eighteenth century BC. It could have been inherited from the Akkadian version and was simply accepted through centuries of familiarity, although a reverse argument also exists which classes it as an Elamite name which was adopted into Akkadian.

As a result of the local process of absorbing Sumer's advances and making them their own, an initial centralisation of power probably took place in the late fifth millennium BC at the site of Chogha Mish. In the early fourth millennium BC a new centre emerged, this time at Susa, located a hundred kilometres to the east of the Tigris. This went on to develop its own monumental architecture and, during the Uruk IV period of that millennium, it thoroughly absorbed Sumer's material culture.

The kingdom's four major cities during the 'Early Dynastic' period in the early and middle third millennium BC were Awan, Anshan, Simash (or Kimash), and the 'mother city' of Susa, which was also the Persian-era capital. Rulers in these cities practised kingship by matrilineal descent, being referred to as 'son of a sister'.

Sometimes those cities had rival kingships, mostly poorly-recorded, and sometimes they seemed to combine into one kingdom or perhaps acted as a loosely-joined coalition. Sometimes they even attacked and/or invaded one another's territories. Potentially also included at various times in various events were smaller cities or groups which included Aratta, Harshi, Itnigi, Sapum, Shig(i)rish, Zabshali, and Zitanu.

Late 'Early Dynastic' Sumerian rulers, such as the king of Lagash, campaigned against the land of Elam and its various states, probably in competition for trade routes which reached overland towards eastern Iran and the Indus Valley. The descendants of the Jiroft culture were amongst these eastern Iranian trading partners. The Marhashi state may have formed part of this group, but it could also be hostile to Sumer.

The Old Testament claims the personification of Elam as a son of Shem, ancestor of the Israelites, and founder figure of the region which bears his name. The Elamites, however, bore no relation to Semitic-speakers like the Israelites. They did not disappear with the fall of Elam to a major Assyrian campaign of destruction in the seventh century BC, but instead survived as the Elymaeans.

(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information from Mesopotamia: The Invention of the City, Gwendolyn Leick (Penguin Books, 2001), from Encyclopaedia Britannica (Eleventh Edition, Cambridge (England), 1910), from The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character, Samuel Noah Kramer ('List 1' of Sumerian rulers, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1963), from First Farmers: The Origins of Agricultural Societies, Peter Bellwood (Second Ed, Wiley-Blackwell, 2022), from Historical Atlas of the Ancient World, 4,000,000 to 500 BC, John Heywood (Barnes & Noble, 2000), from The Ancient Near East, c.3000-330 BC, Amélie Kuhrt (Routledge, 2000, Vol I & II), from Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East, Michael Road (Facts on File, 2000), from Mesopotamia: Assyrians, Sumerians, Babylonians, Enrico Ascalone (Dictionaries of Civilizations 1, University of California Press, 2007), from The Archaeology of Mesopotamia, S Lloyd (Revised Ed, London, 1984), from Early Mesopotamia: Society and Economy at the Dawn of History, J N Postgate (Routledge, 1994), from The First Empires, J N Postgate (Oxford 1977), from History of the Ancient Near East c.3000-323 BC, Marc van der Mieroop (Blackwell Publishing, 2004, 2007), from Ancient History: A Theory About Ancient Times, L C Gerts (List 4 of Sumerian rulers, Chapter 12: The Sumerian king list, 2002), from Mesopotamia, Chris Scarre (Ed, Past Worlds - The Times Atlas of Archaeology, Guild Publishing, London 1989), from The Age of the God-Kings, Kit van Tulleken (Ed, Time Life Books, Amsterdam 1987), from The Archaeology of Elam, D T Potts (Cambridge University Press, 1999), from History & Philology, Walther Sallaberger & Ingo Schrakamp (Eds, Arcane III, Brepols, 2015), from The Elamite World, Javier Álvarez-Mon, Gian Pietro Basello, & Yasmina Wick (Eds, Routledge, 2018), and from External Links: Some Thoughts in Neo-Elamite Chronology, Jan Tavernier (PDF), and Ancient Worlds, and Ancient History, Anthony Michael Love (via Sarissa.org), and Images from History (University of Alabama), and the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, and Early Kings of Kish, Albrecht Goetze (Journal of Cuneiform Studies, Vol 15, No 3, 1961, pp 105-111 and available to read via University of Chicago Press Journals), and Archaeology.org.)

Persian Satraps of Susa (Susiana)
 

Persian & Greek Empires (Indices) Persian & Greek Satrapies Persian Satraps Greek Satraps

It may have been as early as 644 BC when the Parsua gained dominance in the eastern regions of Elam. The ancient kingdom was devastated by Assyria, although not as badly as had previously been believed from inscriptions left by the Assyrians themselves. The populace suffered greatly, but they were not massacred. Instead, the fragmented and weakened Elamites ruled an increasingly shrinking domain which eventually passed into the hands of the Parsua. They gain Anshan (Anzan) even while the last seventh century Elamite kings were still claiming it within their title. The semi-mythical Achaemenes was acclaimed as the king of Anshan (although perhaps retrospectively, from a century later).

For a while, the Parsua were dominated by their fellow Indo-Iranians, the Medes. Then, in 559 BC, Cyrus I, king of Anshan, staged an uprising which ended Median control and exchanged it for Persian control. One of his very first acts after that was to move the Persian capital to the former Elamite capital, Susa. In the later Behistun inscription of Darius the Great this land is known as Uwja or Ūja, and was part of the 'Great Satrapy Pārsa/Persis', or rather Persis and Ūja were two 'main satrapies' which were governed together and from the same place.

This was the oldest and senior-most of the satrapies or provinces of the empire, although its precise boundaries are somewhat anomalous. Confusingly perhaps it didn't include the former Elamite capital of Susa which had its own satrapy (shown here, while the satraps of Pārsa/Persis are shown in the main Achaemenid page), even though the same person may have commanded in all three to begin with (see Bagapāna around 500 BC). Susa seems to have been not only the imperial capital for a time, but also a provincial one (see Arrian of Nicomedia). Little is known about the main satraps for this region while the main satrapy Ūja was divided into two regions: the plain around Susa and the Zagros Mountains. The central minor satrapy of Susa seems to have coincided essentially with the modern province of Khuzestan which sits at the top of the Persian Gulf and borders Kuwait to the west.

By the middle of the fourth century BC there existed near Persis a minor satrapy called Elymais (or Elamais). Containing the territory of the 'Uxians of the Mountains', this region was autonomous, or a 'free' territory, as the sources like to put it. Instead of having a governing satrap it was subordinate to an indigenous 'prefect'. Despite the acknowledgement of autonomy the inhabitants were still obliged to perform military service for the satrap of the superior main satrapy of Persis. It does seem to suggest, however, that the Achaemenids were beginning to lose their grip on power if an autonomous tribal area was able to exist in their own back yard. Elymais survived right up to the third century AD as a semi-independent component of the later Parthian empire, and was generally hostile to the Achaemenids. Their worship suggests that they were not Indo-Iranian relatives of the Persians, making it far more likely that they were a remnant of the ancient Elamites, who themselves were rarely unified beyond the need to deal with external states. The name is also highly redolent of an Elamite continuation state.

The Uxians (or Cissians) were first noted around the time at which Assyrian power was declining (seventh century BC). They were a Persian tribe (see index for more tribes) whose people are referred to in later sources by these names (Diodorus, for instance), noted as having migrated to the mountain region within the vicinity of Susa. The Achaemenids considered this tribe to be representative of the area in much the same way as their Persis was for the Parsua people from whom the Achaemenids descended, so they named the province after them.

(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information from Bibliotheca Historica, Diodorus Siculus, from Anabasis Alexandri, Arrian of Nicomedia, from A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire, M A Dandamaev, from The Persian Empire, J M Cook (1983), from The Histories, Herodotus (Penguin, 1996), from Historical Atlas of the Ancient World, 4,000,000 to 500 BC, John Haywood (Barnes & Noble, 2000), from The Ancient Near East, c.3000-330 BC (Volumes I & II), Amélie Kuhrt (Routledge, 2000), from A History of the Ancient Near East c.3000-323 BC, Marc van der Mieroop (Blackwell Publishing, 2004, 2007), and from External Links: Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus, Marcus Junianus Justinus (Translated, with notes, by Rev John Selby Watson, London 1853), and The Achaemenid Court, Bruno Jacobs & Robert Rollinger (PDF), and Encyclopaedia Iranica, and Persepolis Fortification Tablets, Richard T Hallock (Oriental Institute Publications at the University of Chicago, available for download as a PDF).)

559 - ? BC

First satrap? Also in Persis.

559 BC

The Persian Sybares had been released from Median slavery by Cyrus the Great and subsequently becomes the king's companion in his undertakings. Now, at the beginning of the reign of Cyrus, he appoints Sybares to the position of chancellor of Persis. Given that Bagapāna around 500 BC seems to hold this same position while also governing Susa, it seems likely that Sybares fulfils the same role.

Cyrus the Great freed the Indo-Iranian Parsua people from Median domination to establish a nation which is recognisable to this day, and an empire which provided the basis for the vast territories which were later ruled by Alexander the Great

539 BC

Nabonidus angers the Babylonians by trying to reintroduce Assyrian culture, including placing the moon god Sin above Babylon's Marduk in terms of importance. Perhaps because of that, resistance to Cyrus the Great of Persia, when he enters Babylonia from the east, is limited to just one major battle, near the confluence of the Diyala and Tigris rivers. On 12/13 October (sources vary), Babylon is occupied by Cyrus, which also gains him the remainder of Elam's territory plus 'Athura' (Ashur, heartland of the former Assyrian empire).

fl c.500 BC

Satrap? Also in Persis? Otherwise unknown.

c.500 BC

A certain Bagapāna is mentioned is named in the Persepolis Fortification Tablets (forming just about the largest coherent body of material available today on Persian administration). This individual has also been noted as a potential chancellor of Persis. At the same time, Darius oversees the completion of a canal connecting the Nile to the Red Sea.

521 BC

Immediately after Darius secures the throne from the usurper 'Gaumata' who uses the name Smerdis, he faces several rebellions. The first, in Babirush, is defeated in battle. The Cyaxarid, Fravartiš, tries to restore Media to independence and is defeated and executed. Extensions of the insurrection in Armina, Parthawa, and Verkâna are also crushed. Darius mentions that the revolt arises in Asagarta, which is the land of the Sargatians within the satrapy of Zranka.

340s BC

By this time there exists near Persis a minor satrapy called Elymais. Containing the territory of the 'Uxians of the Mountains', it is autonomous, or a 'free' territory, as the sources like to put it. Instead it is subordinate to an indigenous 'prefect'. Despite the acknowledgement of autonomy the inhabitants are obliged to perform military service for the satrap of the superior main satrapy of Persis. It does seem to suggest, however, that the Achaemenids are beginning to lose their grip on power if an autonomous tribal area can exist in their own back yard.

Initially appearing in history as a semi-independent state that was only under nominal Persian control, even though it still provided troops to the empire, Elymais by the end of the first century BC was producing its own coins stamped with the name of its king (the example shown here was issued by King Orodes I-III (the specific king is uncertain), circa AD 50-200)

? - 331 BC

Satrap. Retained by Alexander the Great.

331 BC

At the Battle of Gaugamela, Oxathres, son of Abulites, commands the Uxians and Susians during the battle. His superior, 'Chancellor' Ariobarzanes of Persis, leads some Persian units, perhaps two thousand men in total, with the concentration of these being in the centre. They take heavy casualties, but Ariobarzanes is able to leave the battlefield with his king.

Darius flees eastwards and the defence of each province is left to its satrap. Oxathres returns to Susa to stand alongside his father. Alexander seizes Babirush and Susa (although Abulites actually welcomes Alexander into Susa) and, having gathered intelligence on Persis, he sets out with a picked force of 17,000 men for Persepolis.

Seeing that the Macedonian army is unbeatable on the plain, Ariobarzanes blocks its path on the way to Persepolis in a gorge known as the Persian Gate or Susian Gate in order to deprive it of battle formation, diverse arms, and superior numbers. The first Greek attack is a failure, so Alexander handsomely bribes some prisoners to lead him around the defensive line and attack the Persian camp from behind. The Persians are defeated in ferocious hand-to-hand fighting and Ariobarzanes falls. The Uxians are similarly dispatched at the Battle of the Uxian Defile. Persian Susa has fallen.

The Persian Gate presented a formidable obstacle for any large army attempting to force its way through from Susa to Persepolis (as it would do even today) so in 331 BC Alexander was forced to go around and attack the defenders from behind

Argead Dynasty in Susiana (Elam)
Incorporating the Satraps of Paraetacene

Persian & Greek Empires (Indices) Persian & Greek Satrapies Persian Satraps Greek Satraps

The Argead were the ruling family and founders of Macedonia who reached their greatest extent under Alexander the Great and his two successors before the kingdom broke up into several Hellenic sections. Following Alexander's conquest of central and eastern Persia in 331-328 BC, the Greek empire ruled the region until Alexander's death in 323 BC and the subsequent regency period which ended in 310 BC. Alexander's successors held no real power, being mere figureheads for the generals who really held control of Alexander's empire. Following that latter period and during the course of several wars, the territory of the ancient kingdom of Elam was left in the hands of the Seleucid empire from 301 BC.

As elsewhere in the captured empire, Alexander retained most of the previous system of administration, and this included the use of satraps to govern the regions. The Greek focus in Elam was on their capital at Susa - its Persian name, better known as Shushan or Susiana in Greek writings. This generally formed the capital of the province of Susiana and had once formed one of the key regions of Elam itself. During subsequent Macedonian rule its importance lessened greatly, with the focus of power being in Babylon or the new Seleucid capital of Seleucia-on-Tigris. Susa lies at the foot of the southern end of the Zagros Mountains, close to the modern town of Shush and also close to the border with south-eastern Iraq.

The minor satrapy of Paraetacene was situated, according to Strabo, between Persia and the Median core region. The province is also said by Strabo to adjoin Susiana in the (south-)west, with the desert extending to Carmania in the south-east, and Parthia lying to the north-east. Arrian's report that Alexander arrived in the territory of the Paraetaceneans soon after his departure from Persepolis for Ecbatana fixes the position of the province approximately in the area of the modern province of Isfahan. Herodotus counted the Paraetaceni as a tribe of the Medians.

(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information from Alexander the Great: A Reader, Ian Worthington (Routledge, 2012), from Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus, Volume II, Marcus Junianus Justinus, from the Cyropaedia & Anabasis, Xenophon of Athens, from Brill's Companion to Alexander the Great, Joseph Roisman (BRILL, 2002), and from External Links: Some Thoughts in Neo-Elamite Chronology, Jan Tavernier (PDF), and A Brief History of Ancient Greece (Oxford University Press), and A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith (Ed, 1867), and Encyclopaedia Iranica.)

331 - 323 BC

King of Macedonia. Conquered Persia.

323 - 317 BC

Feeble-minded half-brother of Alexander the Great.

317 - 310 BC

Infant son of Alexander the Great and Roxana.

331 - 325 BC

Satrap of Susiana. Former Achaemenid satrap. Executed.

330 - 325 BC

Son. Satrap of Paraetacene. Executed.

331 BC

Following the defeat of Darius at the Battle of Gaugamela, Abulites opens the gates of Susa to Alexander the Great, sending his son, Oxathres, ahead as the messenger of good news. Abulites is retained in his post as satrap of Susiana (the Greek form of the name), and Oxathres is attached to him as satrap of the junior post Paraetacene.

The route of Alexander's ongoing campaigns are shown in this map, with them leading him from Europe to Egypt, into Persia, and across the vastness of eastern Iran as far as the Pamir mountain range (click or tap on map to view full sized)

325 BC

When Alexander returns from his long expedition into India, towards the latter end of 325 BC, eight satraps and generals are removed from office and executed. Most are guilty of assuming that Alexander would not survive and had begun to exploit his empire for their own personal benefit. To prevent similar problems in the future, all satraps are ordered to disband their mercenary forces. Abulites and Oxathres are amongst the dead, apparently killed by Alexander in person using a javelin.

324 BC

Alexander holds an event which has become known as the 'Susa Weddings'. His intention is to unite Persians and Macedonians symbolically by carrying out a mass joining of prospective couples in a single ceremony. He takes a Persian wife himself and arranges many Persian wives for his officers. Persian custom allows multiple wives, so the fact that Alexander is already married to Roxana of Sogdiana is not a hindrance. His second wife is Stateira II, eldest daughter of the late Darius. Alexander may also have taken a third wife at the same ceremony, Parysatis, youngest daughter of Artaxerxes III (the late great-uncle of Darius and a former Persian king in his own right).

Following Alexander's premature death in 323 BC, Roxana murders Stateira, and possibly her sister, primarily to remove competition in the succession. All of the surviving Macedonian officers also divorce their own Persian wives, ending any pretence at Macedonian-Persian unity. At the same time, Susiana is presumably governed by Archon, who holds Babylonia in the name of the titular successors to the empire.

323 - 321 BC

Greek satrap of Babylonia & Susiana. Killed in battle.

320 BC

A new agreement with Antipater makes him regent of the Greek empire and commander of the European section. Antigonus Monophthalmus remains in charge of Lycia and Pamphylia, to which is added Lycaonia, Syria and Canaan, making him commander of the Asian section. Ptolemy retains Egypt, Lysimachus retains Phrygia and Thrace, while the three murderers of Perdiccas - Seleucus, Peithon, and Antigenes - are given the former Persian provinces of Babylonia, Media, and Susiana respectively.

This late nineteenth century engraving depicts a vision of the 'Susa Weddings', with Stateira seated next to Alexander and several other newlywed officers filling the rest of the scene (gravure reproduction of a painting by Andreas Muller, Munich)

320 - 316 BC

Greek satrap. Gained Susiana after First War of the Diadochi.

316 BC

Eumenes is defeated in Asia and is murdered by his own troops, and Seleucus is forced to flee Babylon by Antigonus. The result is that Cassander controls the European territories (including Macedonia), while the Antigonids control those in Asia (Asia Minor, centred on Lycia and extending as far as Susiana). Antigenes, satrap of Susiana, is killed by Antigonus, burned alive. Susiana is subsequently drawn into Antigonus' empire.

315 - 312? BC

Greek satrap. Gained Susiana after First War of the Diadochi.

314 - 311 BC

The Third War of the Diadochi results because the Antigonids have grown too powerful in the eyes of the other generals, so Antigonus is attacked by Ptolemy (of Egypt), Lysimachus (of Phrygia and Thrace), Cassander (of Macedonia), and Seleucus (who is hoping to regain Babylonia). The latter indeed does secure Babylon and the others conclude peace terms with Antigonus in 311 BC. Antigonus' appointment as satrap of Media, Nicanor, is removed from his post by Seleucus, and it seems likely that the same happens in northern Mesopotamia.

312? - 305 BC

Greek satrap of Babylonia again. Became king (305 BC).

308 - 301 BC

The Fourth War of the Diadochi soon breaks out. In 306 BC Antigonus proclaims himself king, so the following year the other generals do the same in their domains. Polyperchon, otherwise quiet in his stronghold in the Peloponnese, dies in 303 BC and Cassander claims his territory. The war ends in the death of Antigonus at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC.

The Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC ended the drawn-out and destructive Wars of the Diadochi which decided how Alexander's empire would be divided

Seleucus is now king of all Hellenic territory from Syria eastwards, and the Seleucid empire is created. The Parthians capture Susiana in 138 BC and the region's importance largely ends for several centuries. In later years Elam is traditionally counted as being part of Persian territory, and its modern successor, Iran.