5. Study Questions Copy
Try to write your answers first and then compare with the answers provided below. Click on the questions to view the answers.
It allowed them to take control of the territories of the Levant as well as getting rid of their main rivals.
The Babylonian sources are very negative about him: he is irreligious. But the Cyrus Cylinder very much puts a pro-Cyrus spin on things. Did Cyrus manipulate the information that was being disseminated?
The Old Testament is certainly problematic as so much of the material is allegorical. What can you trust? Are we so starved of evidence that we must take what we can find regardless of its potential usefulness? Or should we just accept that we sometimes (like with Herodotus) have to sift carefully to separate fact from fiction?
There appears to have been no blanket policy towards the treatment of the conquered, but on the whole, acquiescence was rewarded with generosity and resistance was treated with extreme cruelty.
