- Eber-Nari
Eber-Nari (Akkadian, also Ebir-Nari) or Abar-Nahara (Aramaic) was the name of a region of Western Asia and a
satrapy of theAchaemenid Empire , which roughly corresponded with theLevant . It means "Beyond the River" or "Across the River" in both Akkadian and Aramaic (that is, the Western bank of theEuphrates from aMesopotamia n and Persian viewpoint). It is also referred to as Transeuphratia (French "Transeuphratène") by modern scholars.The
toponym appears in an inscription of the6th century BC Assyrian kingEsarhaddon [Tuell 1991, p. 51.] . In535 BC the Persian kingCyrus the Great organized most of the newly conquered territories of the formerNeo-Babylonian Empire as a single satrapy, "Babylonia and Eber-Nari" [Dandamaev 1994.] . The satrap resided in Babylon and there were subgovernors in Eber-Nari, one of which wasTettenai , mentioned in both theBible and Babyloniancuneiform documents [Olmstead 1944.] . This organization remainded untouched until at least486 BC (Xerxes I 's reign), but before c.450 BC the "mega-satrapy" was spplited into two, Babylonia and Eber-Nari [Stolper 1989; Dandamaev 1994.] .Herodotus ' description of the Achaemenid tax district number V fits with Eber-Nari. It comprisedSyria ,Phoenicia ,Palestine andCyprus (which was also included in the satrapy [Dandamaev 1994] ). Herodotus did not included in the tax list the Arabian tribes, identified with theKedarites [Dumbrell 1971; Tuell 1991.] , that did not pay taxes but contributed with a tax-like gift offrankincense .Notes
References
*Dandamaev, M (1994): " [http://www.iranica.com/articles/v7/v7f6/v7f662.html Eber-Nari] ", in E. Yarshater (ed.) "
Encyclopaedia Iranica " vol. 7.
*Drumbrell, WJ (1971): "The Tell el-Maskuta Bowls and the 'Kingdom' of Qedar in the Persian Period", "BASOR" 203, pp. 33-44.
*Olmstead, AT (1944): "Tettenai, Governor of Across the River", "JNES" 3 n. 1, p. 46.
*Stolper, MW (1989): "The Governor of Babylon and Across-the-River in 486 B.C.", "JNES" 48 n. 4, pp. 283-305.
*Tuell (1991): "The Southern and Eastern Borders of Abar-Nahara", "BASOR" n. 234, pp. 51-57.
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