The text implies that, immediately after conquering Babylon, Dairus the Median (Daniel 5:31) set 120 princes over the kingdom, with three presidents over them, in an effort to protect the king from loss of revenue (cp. Ezra 4:13). Daniel was the preferred president, and the king was making arrangements to make him, effectively, a prime minister over the entire kingdom, formerly known as Babylon (Daniel 6:1-3). But, why would he do that? Would any of us, if we were a world leader, make anyone who had been a former enemy or someone who aided a former enemy, prime minister over the whole kingdom we had just conquered?
Actually, the matter isn’t so unbelievable once we understand the context. Daniel, and at least most of the authorities, who governed former Babylonian territories, were not Babylonian nationals. They were recruited from the nations Nebuchadnezzar conquered and trained by Babylonian authorities. While they may have had a stake in the fact they enjoyed their political positions, and worked diligently to please their masters, one couldn’t call them patriots. They really had no personal stake in the Babylonian Empire, which conquered their homelands, taking them captive with of view of training them for their former positions of authority in that empire. Apart from the violence involved, this isn’t too much different from how things work today in corporate America or any other country in the world. Due to a person’s rare abilities, he or she is placed in a valuable position in corporation ‘A’. However, corporation ‘B’ also has a need for that one’s services, due to the need of the rare abilities he or she possesses. If ‘B’ made that one a better offer, than ‘A’, what would keep him or her from changing workplaces and laboring just as diligently for ‘B’ as was done for ‘A’? Afterall, such leaders, as a rule, don’t have a personal stake in either corporation. What is important is obtaining folks, having those rare abilities, and placing them in offices of great responsibility for the execution of the affairs of the corporation under consideration!
The fact is, something similar occurred in Roman history, immediately after Octavian defeated Mark Antony in the War of Actium. Mark Antony and Herod, who was the king of the Jews, were friends, and Herod was very loyal to Antony. However, after Antony’s defeat, Herod was summoned by Octavian, who waited for him in Egypt. Herod left Judea for Egypt and met with Octavian, the victor of the War of Actium. Many thought it would be the end of Herod, but, after pledging allegiance to Octavian and offering as great a friendship with him as he had with Antony (now dead), Herod returned to Judea with great honor and assurance of his position as king in the land of the Jews.[1]
So, what occurred immediately after Babylon was conquered (Daniel 5:30-31; 6:1-2), wasn’t so unique or out of the ordinary in matters that concerned warfare in ancient times. After meeting with the former authorities in the Babylonian Empire, and after certain pledges and assurances were made, the conqueror, Darius, made certain nominal changes that agreed with the Persian political arrangement, and reestablished most, if not all, of the former governors in the positions they held under the king of Babylon.
The new regime, however, reactivated former political conspiracies. When Nebuchadnezzar placed Daniel and his friends in positions of authority, he made it difficult for their political enemies to charge them with wrongdoing (Daniel 2:47-48; 3:28-30). However, Belshazzar seems to have changed Nebuchadnezzar’s decree by challenging the God of the Jews, when he used the Lord’s gold and silver vessels in a common manner (Daniel 5:1-4), thus renewing political rivalries. Therefore, after Darius had made his decisions regarding the political positions of the former Babylonian authorities, some of those authorities sought to find fault with Daniel and have him removed from his office, especially from the king’s consideration of making Daniel head of state under himself (Daniel 6:3). However, they knew of Daniel’s faithfulness and decided their only hope of success would be to put his devotion to God in an offensive light in the context of Darius’ political success (Daniel 6:4-5). In other words, after conquering such a large empire, as Babylon, it would be prudent for Darius to motivate the newly conquered territories to embrace the rule of the Medes and the Persians. Unity, without any acts of rebellion against their victors was extremely important. It is the endangerment of this unity, as we shall see, that the conspirators sought to exploit, hoping Darius would see that placing Daniel in such a high office was contrary to his best interest.
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[1] Josephus: “Antiquities of the Jews;” Book 15; paragraphs 6 & 7.
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