Horses In The Achaemenid Persian Empire

Introduction

Horses were a very important animal to the Achaemenid Persian Empire. After forming their empire, the Persians retained some cultural elements of their nomadic past, including their appreciation for horses. The horse in the Achaemenid Persian Empire had imperial, administrative, military, and cultural elements.

First, horsemanship was deeply tied to royalty. For example, in King Darius’ self-presentation in the Naqsh-i-Rustam inscription, on the façade of his tomb:

“As a horseman I am a good horseman (asabâra uvâsabâra amiy). As a bowman, I am a good bowman both afoot and on horseback (asabâra). As a spearman I am a good spearman both afoot and on horseback (asabâra).”[1]

Note how Darius emphasizes his might and power, most relevantly his skill as a horseman. Thus good horsemanship was a fundamental part of his identity as the king. Curiously, though, there are no depictions of any Persian king riding a horse, but there are images of the king riding in a horse-drawn chariot.[2] This can be attributed to the influence of the sedentary Persian society.

Horses were also an important administrative animal crucial to running the empire. Their impressive messenger system, which could deliver messages between the major cities of the empire along the so-called Royal Road, relied on horses to deliver the messages. The Royal Road stretched from Sardis, in modern-day Turkey, to Susa, in modern-day Iran (see Figure 1). Fixed stations where horses were permanently maintained were set up along the Road, so that messages could constantly move along the Road without breaks. Herodotus, the Greek historian, famously wrote, “These [horses] are stopped neither by snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness from accomplishing their appointed course with all speed.”

Figure 1. Map of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. Fig 3.1 of (Jan Tavernier 2021).

Many of the Persepolis Fortification (PF) tablets record rations given to horses. This shows the administrative importance of horses and the government’s interest in them. 76 of the tablets (PF 1635-1704, 2060-65)[3] record regular rations given to horses. These rations, usually grain, were given for a period of months and the tablets record the number of horses maintained and where, so it is clear that these rations are for permanently stationed horses.

In addition to the grain, special forms of ration (mostly wine, but also beer, grain, and grain products) were also given to horses.[4] Since these special rations were given almost exclusively to horses, and not to other animals, it can be reasonably concluded that horses were treated better than other animals.

The last type of rations are those given to traveling horses. Out of 18 PF tablets where animals receive travel rations, 8 of them are about horses.[5] This shows the special importance that horses had over other animals.

Another important role of horses in the Achaemenid Empire was as cavalry. The Persian army was most dependent on the strength of their cavalry, and it was through their cavalry that they were able to conquer so much land.[6] According to Herodotus’ description of Xerxes’ army, there were 2,000 horsemen chosen out of the Persians and another 10,000 Persian horsemen.[7]  Imagery of Persian cavalry also shows up in seals (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. A Persian man on horseback hunting a lion. Drawing of a fragment of a chalcedony cylindrical seal (the 4th century BC). Fig. 7 of (Nefedkin 2006).

Medians and Scythians had better cavalry than the Persians, especially the Medians, who were the first peoples in the Iranian plateau to master the art of horse-riding.[8] As a result, the Medians were associated with horses in the ancient world. For example, in the Persepolis frieze the Medes are depicted as wearing the riding costume to associate them with horse-riding.[9]

Finally, horse imagery features prominently in Persian culture. To the ancient Greeks, from which much of our information about the Achaemenid Persian Empire comes from, horses were a powerful symbol representing the Persians. The taming of a horse, an animal that was once wild, free, and unrestrained, demonstrated the power of the Persians and was seen by the Greeks as a metaphor for the nurturing of progress itself.[10] As the importance of the horse came from the past nomadic society, its representation was, to the elites, a “reminiscence of the past reality of nomadic society”.[11] The elites used metal and terracotta drinking vessels in the shape of a horse, and there are also bronze and gold figures of riders.[12] Horses also show up in sealings, reliefs, inscriptions, and texts. For example, in Darius’ Foundation Charter from Susa, Darius wrote, “Ahura Mazda, who is the greatest of the gods, has created me … has given me this kingdom … which has good horses and good men.[13]

Figure 3. PFS 67, the personal seal of Kuntukka, an official involved in grain supply at Tirazziš (Shiraz). Note the winged horse being held by the throat. Image courtesy of (Garrison and Root 2001). 

Names in the Achaemenid Persian Empire

The study of names in the Achaemenid Persian Empire is essential to understanding both the languages and culture of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. There are a substantial amount of personal names attested.[14] As the Achaemenid Persian Empire was a multilingual empire, these personal names occur in many different languages, including “in Elamite, Late Babylonian, Aramaic, Hebrew, Hieroglyphic and Demotic Egyptian, Lycian, Lydian, Greek, etc.”[15] Many scholars have attempted to collate all the onomastic evidence by collecting all the material for each single name in every language in order to determine the original form of the name. This is especially important since some languages, in particular the Elamite and Babylonian languages, do not record the exact name well and leave behind many alternate forms.[16] The most notable of these collections are those created by Tavernier[17] and by Hinz and Koch.[18] Of Tavernier’s collection, Rüdiger Schmitt writes that it is ““[t]he most comprehensive collection for the period and the languages of the Achaemenid Empire”.[19] In addition to these collections, there exist numerous collections of names for individual languages and sources. Schmitt notes that the “most important [sources] are the Elamite, Babylonian, Aramaic, and (Hieroglyphic and Demotic) Egyptian sources”, and much of the current onomastic research focuses on these languages. I will go over some of these languages below.

Since Aramaic was the official administrative language of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, there are many Aramaic forms of Old Iranian names on texts distributed all across the empire.[20] Schmitt notes that “only for the hundreds of papyri uncovered in Egypt … is a recent compilation of the entire evidence at hand.”[21] As a result, much research has focused on Iranian names occurring in other languages such as Babylonian and Elamite.

Another source of much onomastic evidence are the Babylonian texts. Mostly civil law texts, these Babylonian documents contain names from all levels of society, including more than 600 Iranian names.[22] The Babylonian evidence is compiled by Ran Zadok.[23] Additionally, in Old Iranian Names, Jan Tavernier discusses Old Iranian names found in Babylonian texts from three different time periods: the Neo-Babylonian, Achaemenid, and post-Achaemenid time periods. Tavernier uses his own categorisation, which he used in his larger collection of Iranian names,[24] to organize the Old Iranian personal names in Babylonian documents. He defines ‘directly attested names’ as Babylonian names found on Achaemenid royal inscriptions and ‘semi-directly attested names’ as Babylonian names which either lack an Old Iranian equivalent or show slight differences with the Old Iranian equivalent.[25]

Elamite is another rich source of onomastic material. Schmitt notes that “[m]ore than 2,000 personal names, the great majority being of Iranian origin, are attested alone on the Elamite administrative texts found in the Persepolis archives.”[26] The evidence has been compiled by Hinz and Koch[27] and by Tavernier[28] and analyzed, from the Iranian scholar’s perspective, by Mayrhofer.[29] However, compared to Old Persian, Elamite as a language is much less understood by scholars, and so there has not been much research done on Neo-Elamite texts. One exception is Elam and Persia, where Tavernier analyzed Iranian names in Neo-Elamite texts, looking at texts and documents from Susa as well as Neo-Elamite seals.

Many of the Iranian names contain the stem “asa” or “aspa”, meaning horse. For example, Vištāspa, the name of Darius I’s father, means “Possessing horses untied (for racing)”[30] or “having free, unbridled horses”[31]. Tavernier notes that in Babylonian texts, there are 16 Iranian names with “aspa”, making “aspa” the most frequently occurring element in Iranian names in Babylonian texts.[32] The horse’s cultural importance to the Persians is clearly reflected in their onomastics as well.

Names with ‘Horse’

Names containing meanings related to horses are some of the most frequently occurring names in Achaemenid texts. This shows that the cultural status of horses most likely originated from before the Achaemenid Empire was formed. Some examples of these names are listed below. All the names below are compiled in (Tavernier 2007). 

Table 1. Some names including the stem “asa”, which means horse in Old Persian. 

Table 2. Some names including the stem “aspa”, which means horse in Median. The Medians were the tribes settling in western Iran, and were the first peoples in the Iranian plateau to master the art of horse-riding.[33] Thus the Medians were associated with horses in the ancient world, and it is understandable that many of the names involving horses from the Achaemenid Period were Median. Višta-aspa- was the name of Darius I’s father.

It is difficult to attribute much meaning to a person being given a name containing “asa” and “aspa”. As Schmitt notes, names are not necessarily given based on the meaning of the name itself, but could be given due to family tradition or after famous figures in history or mythology.[34] However, some conjectures can still be made using basic logic. For example, since names were usually given by parents either traditionally (passing down names generationally, or names of mythological heroes) or as a wish for the future, which could indicate something about Achaemenid culture.

*Vanta-asa-, “possessing a dear horse”: This name implies that some horses could have a special companionship relation with people.

*Par(u)v-aspa-, “rich in horses”: Horses could have been seen as a status symbol in Achaemenid court society. This name could represent a wish for having a large number of horses, which could be associated with being rich.

*Arva-aspa-, “having swift horses”: Being swift could be seen as a desirable trait for a horse to have; the Persians most likely bred horses to be faster.

Višta-aspa-, “having free, unbridled horses”: Perhaps “free, unbridled horses” were seen as more powerful than other horses, and so the name could represent a wish for better horses.

Conclusion

The horse was indispensable to the society of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. It was important to every aspect of the empire: the imperial, the administrative, the military, and the cultural. In this paper, I have also shown the prevalence of the horse in the names of people within the empire, as well as made some extrapolations from the names to Persian society as a whole. 

Notes

[1] Almagor, “The Horse and the Lion in Achaemenid Persia.”

[2] Ibid.

[3] D. N. Mackenzie, “Richard T. Hallock (Ed. and Tr.): Persepolis Fortification Tablets. (University of Chicago. Oriental Institute Publications, Vol. XCII) x, 776 Pp. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969. $45, £20.25.,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 34, no. 3 (October 1971): 608–10, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X0012868X, 47.

[4] Mackenzie, “Richard T. Hallock (Ed. and Tr.).”, 49.

[5] Ibid, 50.

[6] Garrett Fagan and Matthew Trundle, New Perspectives on Ancient Warfare (BRILL, 2010), 102.

[7] Michael B. Charles, “ACHAEMENID ELITE CAVALRY: FROM XERXES TO DARIUS III,” The Classical Quarterly65, no. 1 (May 2015): 14–34, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009838814000627, 16-7.

[8] Ibid

[9] Ibid

[10] Ibid

[11] Ibid.

[12] Ibid.

[13] Maria Brosius, The Persian Empire from Cyrus II to Artaxerxes I, 40.

[14] Schmitt Rüdiger, “Personal Names, Iranian iii. Achaemenid Period.,” accessed February 6, 2025, https://iranicaonline.org/articles/personal-names-iranian-iii-achaemenid.

[15] Rüdiger, “Personal Names, Iranian iii. Achaemenid Period.”

[16] Rüdiger Schmitt, “Onomastics,” in A Companion to the Achaemenid Persian Empire (John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2021), 65, https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119071860.ch5.

[17] Jan Tavernier, Iranica in the Achaemenid Period (ca. 550-330 B.C.) : Lexicon of Old Iranian Proper Names and Loanwords, Attested in Non-Iranian Texts, Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta; 158 (Leuven: Peeters, 2007).

[18] Walther Hinz and Heidemarie Koch, Elamisches Wörterbuch: in 2 Teilen, Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran Ergänzungsband 17 (Berlin: Reimer, 1987).

[19] Schmitt, “Onomastics,” 62.

[20] Rüdiger, “Personal Names, Iranian iii. Achaemenid Period.”

[21] Rüdiger, “Personal Names, Iranian iii. Achaemenid Period.”

[22] Schmitt, “Onomastics,” 62.

[23] Ran Zadok, Iranians and Individuals Bearing Iranian Names in Achaemenian Babylonia (Tel-Aviv: Tel-Aviv University, 1977).

[24] Tavernier, Iranica in the Achaemenid Period (ca. 550-330 B.C.) : Lexicon of Old Iranian Proper Names and Loanwords, Attested in Non-Iranian Texts.

[25] Rüdiger Schmitt, “Old Iranian Names,” in Personal Names in Cuneiform Texts from Babylonia (c. 750–100 BCE): An Introduction, ed. Caroline Waerzeggers and Melanie M. Groß, 1st ed. (Cambridge University Press, 2023), 239-40, https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009291071.

[26] Rüdiger, “Personal Names, Iranian iii. Achaemenid Period.”

[27] Hinz and Koch, Elamisches Wörterbuch.

[28] Tavernier, Iranica in the Achaemenid Period (ca. 550-330 B.C.) : Lexicon of Old Iranian Proper Names and Loanwords, Attested in Non-Iranian Texts.

[29] Mayrhofer, Onomastica Persepolitana.

[30] Rüdiger, “Personal Names, Iranian iii. Achaemenid Period.”

[31] Jan Tavernier, Iranica in the Achaemenid Period (ca. 550-330 B.C.) : Lexicon of Old Iranian Proper Names and Loanwords, Attested in Non-Iranian Texts, Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta; 158 (Leuven: Peeters, 2007), 22.

[32] Schmitt, “Old Iranian Names,” 246.

[33] Almagor, “The Horse and the Lion in Achaemenid Persia.”

[34] Schmitt, “Onomastics,” 64.

*Image featured in cover of post is courtesy of Garrison and Root, 2001.

Bibliography: 

Almagor, Eran. “The Horse and the Lion in Achaemenid Persia: Representations of a Duality.” Arts 10, no. 3 (September 2021): 41. https://doi.org/10.3390/arts10030041.

Charles, Michael B. “ACHAEMENID ELITE CAVALRY: FROM XERXES TO DARIUS III.” The Classical Quarterly65, no. 1 (May 2015): 14–34. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009838814000627.

Fagan, Garrett, and Matthew Trundle. New Perspectives on Ancient Warfare. BRILL, 2010.

Garrison, Mark B., and Margaret Cool Root. Seals on the Persepolis Fortification Tablets. 1: Images of Heroic Encounter / by Mark B. Garrison and Margaret Cool Root. The University of Chicago Oriental Institute Publications 117. Chicago, Ill: Oriental Inst., Univ. of Chicago, 2001.

Hinz, Walther, and Heidemarie Koch. Elamisches Wörterbuch: in 2 Teilen. Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran Ergänzungsband 17. Berlin: Reimer, 1987.

Jan Tavernier. “Peoples and Languages.” In A Companion to the Achaemenid Persian Empire, 39–52. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2021.

Llewellyn-Jones, Lloyd. “The Royal* Gaunaka: Dress, Identity, Status and Ceremony in Achaemenid Iran.” Masters of the Steppe: The Impact of the Scythians and Later Nomad Societies of Eurasia, Oxford, 2020, 248–57.

Mackenzie, D. N. “Richard T. Hallock (Ed. and Tr.): Persepolis Fortification Tablets. (University of Chicago. Oriental Institute Publications, Vol. XCII) x, 776 Pp. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969. $45, £20.25.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 34, no. 3 (October 1971): 608–10. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X0012868X.

Brosius, Maria. The Persian Empire from Cyrus II to Artaxerxes I. 2nd ed., n.d.

Mayrhofer, Manfred. Onomastica Persepolitana: Das altiranische Namengut d. Persepolis-Täfelchen. Verlag d. Österr. Akad. d. Wiss., 1973.

Nefedkin, Alexander K. “The Tactical Development of Achaemenid Cavalry.” Gladius 26 (December 31, 2006): 5–18. https://doi.org/10.3989/gladius.2006.1.

Schmitt, Rüdiger. “Old Iranian Names.” In Personal Names in Cuneiform Texts from Babylonia (c. 750–100 BCE): An Introduction, edited by Caroline Waerzeggers and Melanie M. Groß, 1st ed., 238–57. Cambridge University Press, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009291071.

———. “Onomastics.” In A Companion to the Achaemenid Persian Empire, 61–70. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119071860.ch5.

———. “Personal Names, Iranian Iii. Achaemenid Period.” Accessed February 6, 2025. https://iranicaonline.org/articles/personal-names-iranian-iii-achaemenid.

Tavernier, Jan. “Iranians in Neo-Elamite Texts.” In Elam and Persia, by Javier Álvarez-Mon, 191–261. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2011.

———. Iranica in the Achaemenid Period (ca. 550-330 B.C.) : Lexicon of Old Iranian Proper Names and Loanwords, Attested in Non-Iranian Texts. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta; 158. Leuven: Peeters, 2007.

Zadok, Ran. Iranians and Individuals Bearing Iranian Names in Achaemenian Babylonia. Tel-Aviv: Tel-Aviv University, 1977.