The Persians may have experimented at first with ruling Yehud as a client kingdom under descendants of Jehoiachin, who had kept his royal status even in captivity.[5] Sheshbazzar, the governor of Yehud appointed by Cyrus in 538, was of Davidic origin, as was his successor (and probable nephew) Zerubbabel; Zerubbabel in turn was succeeded by his second son and then by his son-in-law, all of them hereditary Davidic governors of Yehud, a state of affairs that ended only around 500 BCE.[6] This hypothesis—that Zerubbabel and his immediate successors represented a restoration of the Davidic kingdom under Persian overlordship—cannot be verified, but it would be in keeping with Persian policy in other parts of the Persian Empire, such as Phoenicia.[7]