Levantine Epigraphy and History in the Achaemenid Period (539-332 BCE) : Oxford University Press : 9780197265895 : 0197265898 : 12 Nov 2015 : Inscriptions discovered since 1980 and fresh epigraph research have revealed much about the Archaeminid period in the Levant (533-332 BCE). Andre Lemaire concentrates on three areas where new data has shed light on the societies living in the largest empire that the world had known to that date. Phoenicia played a vital political and economic role in the empire because Persian kings had to rely on the Phoenician navy in their wars against Greece and Egypt in the Eastern Mediterranean. Newly discovered inscriptions from Byblos, Sidon and Tyre, as well as the results of research into coins, have illuminated the chronology, history and extent of the Phoenician kingdoms, as well as their influence in Palestine. New inscriptions have added to our knowledge ofthe Judean Diaspora in Babylonia, Egypt and Cyprus. The main indirect information about the Ex