tribute and serve the interests of the empire. We have a number of ancient treaties, some—the so-called Neo-Assyrian treaties1—from approximately a century before the time of Daniel, that are between an emperor and a lesser king that demonstrates that the latter could not have, say, an independent foreign policy as well as other requirements imposed on them. What is interesting when it comes to Daniel 1 is that the actions that are described here are exactly what we would expect from other historical