The Achaemenid enid Administrative Organization

Since Persian domination had taken place without any particular traumas, its administration of Palestine has been supposed more or less to adopt the system already existing in neo-Babylonian times. Unfortunately, we do not know as much about the Babylonian system as the Assyrian, which may have been used as a model only in general terms, given the very different way in which Assyrians and Babylonians looked after their provinces. Because of the size of their empire, the Achaemenids certainly set up an administrative organization involving several levels, with a more complicated hierarchy than the Babylonians, but the ancient sources are not entirely consistent on this point.

At first the entire Babylonian empire was annexed as one single satrapy. At a later stage, under Darius I, this satrapy (too large and too important) was divided into two, and the Trans-Euphrates satrapy (‘Across-the-river’, bab. Ebir Nāri, aram. ‘Abar Nahărāh) had Damascus as its capital, where a Persian satrap lived. The satrapy's territory was then divided into provinces, probably more numerous along the densely inhabited coast (there are numerous remains of Persian palaces in Sidon, Arwad and Byblos), while the inland plateaux of Palestine were all entrusted to a governor based in Samaria.