Lisbeth S. Fried's insightful study investigates the impact of Achaemenid rule on the political power of local priesthoods during the 6th-4th centuries B.C.E. Scholars typically assume that, as long as tribute was sent to Susa, the capital of the Achaemenid Empire, subject peoples remained autonomous. Fried's work challenges this assumption. She examines the inscriptions, coins, temple archives, and literary texts from Babylon, Egypt, Asia Minor, and Judah and concludes that there was no local autonomy. The only people with power in the Empire were Persians and their appointees, and this was true for Judah as well. The Judean priesthood achieved its longed-for independence only much later, under the Maccabees
The Berlinka Collection / Monika Jaglarz -- Manuscripta Americana and the Provenance of Mss. Amer. 3, 8, and 10 / Monika Jaglarz and Julia Madajczak -- Mss. Amer. 3, 8, and 10 in Relation to the Marquesado Census Corpus / Julia Madajczak -- Mss. Amer. 3, 8, and 10: The Scribes / Szymon Gruda -- The Creation and History of the Tepoztlan Census / Julia Madajczak, Szymon Gruda and Monika Jaglarz -- The Jagiellonian Library Census Fragments in Numbers / José Luis de Rojas -- Family Relations in Tepoztlan / Katarzyna Granicka -- Administrative Structure and Social Groups in Tepoztlan / Julia Madajczak -- Land and Tribute in the Jagiellonian Library Census Fragments / José Luis de Rojas -- Glossary of Nahuatl Terms / Julia Madajczak and José Luis de Rojas -- Conventions for the Transcription of the Jagiellonian Library Census Fragments / Julia Madajczak and José Luis de Rojas -- Transcription and Translation / Julia Madajczak and José Luis de Rojas.