Late Period
Darius II
27th Dynasty (First Persian Period) · 525-404 BCE
Open full-size illustration →Source: Shaw, Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (2000)
Background
Official Egyptian records from Darius II's reign are thin, but a remarkable cache of everyday documents from a Jewish garrison at Elephantine fills the gap, preserving both a royal directive on observing Passover and the account of a local religious conflict that ended in a temple's destruction. Further detail: UCL Digital Egypt.
Dating: Shaw, Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (2000)
Full profile
Imperial control and local distraction
Darius II governed Egypt during a period marked by ongoing political instability within the Achaemenid royal court and persistent threats of localized unrest along the borders. While direct records from Egypt during his reign are sparse, the province remained firmly under Persian satrapal control as the central administration increasingly focused on managing conflicts with Athens and maintaining power in the eastern Mediterranean.
A Passover decree and a temple's destruction
Among the Aramaic documents left by a Jewish military colony stationed on Elephantine Island near Aswan is a letter, dated to 419 BCE, informing the community that Darius II had sent instructions to the Persian satrap of Egypt spelling out exactly how the Festival of Unleavened Bread and Passover were to be observed that year. A decade later, in 410 BCE, the same community's own temple was destroyed by local priests of the ram god Khnum, apparently provoked by the Jewish garrison's practice of sacrificing sheep, an animal sacred to Khnum, during their own Passover rites, an episode preserved because the Jewish community later petitioned Persian authorities in writing for permission to rebuild.
Sources for this profile
- Shaw, I. (Ed.). (2000). The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press.
- Dodson, A., & Hilton, D. (2004). The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson.
- Leprohon, R. J. (2013). The Great Name: Ancient Egyptian Royal Titulary. Society of Biblical Literature.
- UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology. Chronology. UCLA.
- University College London. Digital Egypt for Universities.
The complete, APA-formatted reference list is on the Academic Sources & Bibliography page.