03-27-2009, 02:20 PM
Your initial claim was that the ancient Persians had no concept of slavery. This is clearly incorrect.
However, reading through Kandrathe's link, the point is brought up in the comments that the Persians ruled over a large and multi-ethnic empire, and that a transaction between Babylonians under Persian rule is not necessarily good evidence that the Persians allowed or tolerated slavery amongst themselves. From my limited understanding of Persian empire-building, my impression was that they left local religions and customs alone to a large extent. They tended to free slaves, but abolishing the entire cultural practice of buying and selling domestic slaves was probably far beyond their ability to control. This is not the modern world; the reach of the state is much shorter, unless the army is in town.
-Jester
However, reading through Kandrathe's link, the point is brought up in the comments that the Persians ruled over a large and multi-ethnic empire, and that a transaction between Babylonians under Persian rule is not necessarily good evidence that the Persians allowed or tolerated slavery amongst themselves. From my limited understanding of Persian empire-building, my impression was that they left local religions and customs alone to a large extent. They tended to free slaves, but abolishing the entire cultural practice of buying and selling domestic slaves was probably far beyond their ability to control. This is not the modern world; the reach of the state is much shorter, unless the army is in town.
-Jester