conquered peoples was fundamentally different from that of the Babylonians
and Assyrians. They had sought to establish their power by crushing the
conquered rather than by furthering their well-being; but Cyrus, by his
many acts of clemency, aimed to secure and hold their loyalty.

VIII. His Treatment of Conquered Peoples. Cyrus showed the same wisdom
in his treatment of the many petty peoples who had been ground down under
the harsh rule of Babylon. In one of his inscriptions he declares: "The
gods whose sanctuaries from of old had lain in ruins I brought back again
to their dwelling-places and caused them to reside there forever. All of
the citizens of these lands I assembled and I restored them to their
homes" (Cyrus Cyl., 31, 32). In the light of this statement it is clear
that the Jews, in common with other captive peoples, were given full
permission to return to their homes and to rebuild their ruined temple.
The decree of Cyrus recorded in the Aramaic document preserved in Ezra
6:3-5 is apparently the Jewish version of the general decree which he
issued. It is also possible that he aided the vassal peoples in rebuilding
their sanctuaries; for such action was in perfect accord with his wise
policy. He also intrusted the rulership of different kingdoms as far as
possible to native princes. In the Greek book of I Esdras has been
preserved a list (which has fallen out of the biblical book of Ezra) of
those who availed themselves of Cyrus's permission to return to Palestine.
It includes simply the priest Jeshua, or Joshua, the lineal heir of the
early Jerusalem priestly line of Zadok, and Zerubbabel, a descendant of
the Judean royal family. They doubtless took with them their immediate
followers and were probably accompanied by a few exiles whose loyalty
impelled them to leave the attractive opportunities in Babylon to face the
dangers of the long journey and the greater perils in Palestine.

From Jeremiah 41:5 and Haggai 2:14 it appears that a rude altar had been