Cylinder seal and modern impression: battle scene with king, soldiers, enemy

This chalcedony cylinder seal, which is broken off at the bottom, features an image of the Persian king spearing a defeated enemy. As shown in the modern impression of the seal, the king faces right. He wears a robe with wide, flaring sleeves and a fluted crown. He carries a bow and a quiver of arrows over his shoulder. He grasps another man by the arm and stabs him from above with a spear. Only the head and shoulders of the victim survive. He is clean shaven and wears a version of the double crown worn by Egyptian kings, albeit with the raised back of the crown and uraeus duplicated. Behind the king is a row of bound prisoners who are also tied to each other by the neck. The prisoners are clean shaven and wear patterned robes. A date palm with pendulous fruit is in the terminal field between the prisoners and the king’s victim.

The content of this seal is reminiscent of the famous relief of Darius I at Bisitun. The relief shows Darius in front of nine defeated rebel kings, who are bound and tied together by the neck. The relief commemorates the defeat of the various rebellions against Darius during the first year of his reign, in 522-1 B.C. The accompanying inscription lists Egypt among the places that rebelled, but an Egyptian king is not depicted on the relief. The king’s victim on this seal, however, is clean shaven and wears a version of an Egyptian royal crown, suggesting perhaps that he is the defeated Egyptian rebel, now identified as Petubastis IV. It is also possible that he is meant to represent a later Egyptian rebel, or that he symbolize the subjugation of Egypt more generally.