Topic summary
Religious toleration
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Religious tolerance.
In Antiquity
Religious toleration has been described as a "remarkable feature" of the Achaemenid Empire of Persia. Cyrus the Great assisted in the restoration of the sacred places of various cities. In the Old Testament, Cyrus was said to have released the Jews from the Babylonian captivity in 539–530 BCE, and permitted their return to their homeland.