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After their glorious military expeditions which resulted in the creation of a huge territorial empire (Figure 3.1), the Achaemenid kings faced a political unit with lots of different ethnic groups as well as languages. It was a daunting task to keep such a large territory together. The Achaemenid administration especially had to deal with various administrative systems in different languages. The big challenge here was to communicate commands and directives to the various satrapies and to make these orders comprehensible for the non‐Persian‐speaking inhabitants of these satrapies, even more so knowing that the knowledge of Old Persian, the king's and the Persian elites' vernacular, was not widespread in the empire (Briant 1996: p. 525).

In fact, in order to solve these linguistic problems the Achaemenids conducted an active language policy (Tavernier 2008; 2017; 2018; forthcoming). The main basis for the reconstruction of this policy is the many administrative formulas at the end of, e.g., letter‐orders. Such formulas are attested in Aramaic texts (from Egypt as well as from Bactria), Egyptian (demotic) texts, and Elamite texts. They reveal a coherent system, imposed by the Achaemenid kings and used throughout the existence of their empire, both geographically and chronologically. The formulas are attested from the reign of Darius I (521–486 BCE) to that of Artaxerxes III (358–338 BCE) in texts from Egypt (Arsames Correspondence [Aramaic], Pherendates Correspondence [Egyptian]), Persia proper (Persepolis Fortification and Treasury Archives [Elamite]), and Bactria (Akhvamazda Correspondence [Aramaic]).

The administrative notes are attested only on letters from the satrap or from his administration; letters to satraps do not have these formulas. Unfortunately, this implies that outside of the satrapal administration the Achaemenids' dealing with multilingualism cannot be reconstructed. In addition, the evidence for this system does not cover the whole Achaemenid territory, as it is not attested in Anatolia, although various Aramaic inscriptions were found there.

The formulas are:

Language	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3
Aramaic	PN1 knows this command PN1 is the master of the command	PN2 is the sepīru	PN3 wrote
Egyptian	PN1 knows this command	PN2 is he who wrote this letter	PN3 wrote
Elamite	PN1 knew about this PN1 delivered the command	PN3 received the draft from PN2	PN3 wrote

From these formulas a reconstruction model of how royal or satrapal commands were created can be drawn up:

1 A high official (e.g. satrap) passes a (royal) command in Old Iranian to one of his officials. This person (PN1) is the one who knows the command.

2 The official transmits the command to the interpreter (PN2) in Old Iranian. This is equivalent to formula P.

3 The interpreter notes it down in Aramaic.

4 If necessary, the interpreter also makes a translation into Egyptian or Elamite.

5 He passes this translation to an indigenous scribe (PN3).

6 This scribe makes an additional copy, the copy of which is preserved.

The interpreters‐scribes, called teppir in Elamite, spr in Aramaic, and sepīru in Akkadian, occupied a considerable position in the Achaemenid administration. This is corroborated by the high rations they received according to the Persepolis Fortification Tablets (Tavernier 2007b: p. 63). In fact, interpreters (῾ερμηνεύς) occur frequently in the Greek sources (e.g. Xen., Anab., 1.2.17 and 8.12).

This also implies that Aramaic, although it did not supplant the local languages which remained in use throughout the Achaemenid period (Briant 1996: p. 524), was imposed on the empire as an administrative language. It lay as a veil on the whole territory of the Achaemenid Empire. In this capacity, Aramaic was the linguistic binder of the empire, the language used throughout its territory, between the Old Persian level and the local administrative level. The following table makes this clear:

Administration level	Language
King, satraps	Old Persian
Administration: top level	Aramaic
Administration: local level	Egyptian, Elamite, etc.

Through this system, the Achaemenids managed to keep their realm together and to put up an efficient state administration. Yet, further studies will hopefully deepen our knowledge of the Achaemenid language policy.