Relations of Persians with temples in Anatolia in the Achaemenid Period

SUMMARYRELATIONS OF PERSIANS WITH TEMPLES IN ANATOLIA IN THE ACHAEMENIDPERIODVarious studies concerning religious policies of Achaemenids and their relations withtemples in the counturies captured by them have been worked so far and these studies arecontinued with increasing symposiums, workshops and monographs. Relations with templesand religious policies in Asia Minor had not yet been studied as subject of a particular work.Persians dominated Asia Minor more than two ceturies, during this period they confrontedlocal and Greek religion and contacted closely temples in Anatolia. This study aims to seeknature of these relations.In this study, classical sources and epigrafic documents were considered as main materialsof the research. The accounts of ancient writers regarding to relations with temples were givenin chronological order according to historical events. Inscriptions were examined in a chapterseparated and interpretations in dispute concerning the documents were gathered.Ancient sources revealed that Persians destroyed Greek temples and honored them. Theevents of destroying temples were occured rarely in battles and revolts. The purpose of theseoperations was retaliation or punishment and they did not intend to suppress foreign religions.However, Persians offered sacrifices to Greek and local gods and they serviced in the templesof these gods.Equally the epigrafic documents proved that Persians supported protection anddevolopment of local cults and also adopted them and founded cults for foreign gods whichthere were not in Persian pantheon.It may be concluded that Persian otorities did not force their believes on subject peoplesbut they followed the policies of religious tolerance.