Ancient Persia: Cyrus the Great and the
Achaemenid Empire: Zoroastrianis
Ancient Persia (Iran)
Overview
- The Achaemenid Persian Empire first expanded under the leadership of
Cyrus the Great, who utilized a strategy of religious and cultural
toleration to maintain order.
- Darius the Great further expanded the empire and introduced reforms
such as standard currency and satraps—provincial governors—to rule over
smaller regions of the empire on his behalf.
- The increased wealth and power of the empire allowed Darius to
construct a brand new capital city, called Persepolis.
- The Achaemenid Empire fell when it was conquered by Alexander the
Great.
Creation of the Achaemenid Persian Empire
In 559 BCE, a man named Cyrus became the leader of Persia. He was the
great-great-grandson of the first Persian king, Achaemenes—whose name is
why historians call this the Achaemenid Persian Empire!
Prior to Cyrus’s rule, Persia was a small tributary state to the Median
Empire, which happened to be ruled by Cyrus’s grandfather, Astyages.
Persia paid the Medes for protection and to maintain a level of
independence.
Cyrus came into conflict with his grandfather—for reasons that are
unknown—and initiated a rebellion that ultimately succeeded in 550 BCE.
Cyrus commemorated his victory over Astyages by building a city on the
site of the battle and naming it Pasargadae, after his tribe.
By defeating Astyages, Cyrus took on his role as ruler of what had been
the Median Empire. Not everyone who had been paying tribute to Astyages
accepted Cyrus as their new ruler, however. In order to solidify his
power, Cyrus had to find ways to bring lesser rulers under his control.
His success earned Cyrus the title of "Cyrus the Great."
Religious toleration and maintaining local traditions
Cyrus was a successful military commander, but he also recognized the
need to leave the regions that he conquered in good economic order if
they were going to provide him with tribute revenues. To achieve this,
Cyrus left local rulers in place after conquering a region, and he
allowed the local population to continue practicing their preferred
religious traditions. These policies ensured that conquered regions
continued to function economically and reduced the chance that they
would rebel against him.
In ancient Mesopotamia, a common imperial strategy was to relocate
conquered populations to new areas in order to break up their political
and cultural unity and make them less dangerous to the ruling power.
Cyrus reversed this practice by allowing the Jews, who had been
relocated by the Babylonians, to return to Israel and establish a
tributary state. While this might appear to be an act of generosity, it
was probably a calculated move on the part of Cyrus to help ensure
Jewish loyalty, and thus a continuation of his general policy of
tolerance.
What did Cyrus hope to achieve by leaving local rulers in charge after
he conquered them?
Why might this have been an effective strategy? Why could it have been
dangerous?
Political developments
Cyrus’s son, Cambyses II, added to the Achaemenid Empire by conquering
Egypt. While Cambyses II was away in Egypt, a man pretending to be his
brother tried to take control of the empire. Cambyses died in 522 BCE
while returning from Egypt to remove this pretender and was succeeded by
a general named Darius.
Although Darius had a legitimate claim in that he was distantly related
to Cambyses II, several other claimants to the Persian throne challenged
Darius. Many regions saw the resulting chaos as an opportunity to rebel
against Achaemenid rule.
Darius eventually established himself as the sole ruler of Persia and
reconquered the rebellious regions, growing the Achaemenid Empire to its
greatest extent. Partly as a response to the initial challenges that he
faced, Darius reorganized the empire by dividing it into satrapies, or
provinces. For each satrapy, Darius appointed a satrap—a political
governor—and a military commander.
The division of military and political power was meant to prevent
regional leaders from becoming too powerful. Unlike the system of local
control employed by Cyrus, Darius appointed these satraps directly,
meaning that their loyalty was to him.
Like most ancient rulers, Darius used religion to justify his power. He
claimed that the Zoroastrian god, Ahura Mazda, had appointed him to rule
the world. To emphasize his power over his appointed satraps—and also to
demonstrate that he was ruler of a diverse empire, rather than of a
single kingdom or people—he took the title of Shahanshah, King of Kings.
The idea here was to avoid the appearance of favoring a particular group
or region within the empire.
Economic reforms
Darius introduced a standard currency—a gold coin known as a daric.
Having a standardized currency encouraged more economic activity within
the empire by making transactions easier. Unlike specific goods and
services, money was accepted by almost everyone in exchange for almost
anything and was also easier to transport than most goods. A
standardized currency also allowed Darius to collect taxes and tributes
in coin rather than in goods or services, which allowed him to
concentrate the empire’s wealth where he chose.
How did a standard currency allow Darius greater control over his
empire’s resources?
The ability to concentrate wealth combined with the expansion of the
territory under Achaemenid control allowed Darius to pay for the
construction of an impressive new imperial capital, called Parsa, better
known to history as Persepolis, which in Greek means city of the
Persians. The city incorporated artistic and architectural styles from
throughout the empire and, because it was built in a mountainous region
with elaborate defenses, was home to Darius’s imperial vault.
The construction of Persepolis represented the growing power of the
Achaemenids not only in terms of its art and grandeur, but also because
of its location. Darius chose the site of Persepolis specifically
because it was difficult to access. The Achaemenids already had several
capital cities, all of which were better placed in terms of
accessibility and economic potential. Persepolis was only possible
because of the wealth and power Darius had gained and he may have built
it to emphasize precisely this point.
What does the fact that the inscription is written in three languages
tell us about the composition of the Persian Empire?
Besides building an entirely new city, Darius also worked to improve
many existing cities with repairs and new construction. One particularly
ambitious project was digging a canal between the Nile River and the Red
Sea to make trade easier. All of these improvements were made possible
by the increased wealth that came with imperial expansion.
The Royal Road—a highway running from the city of Sardis in the west to
Susa in the east, see map—was completed during Darius’s reign. Darius
created a spy network to ensure that satraps were carrying out his
orders and to watch for signs of rebellion. A system of messengers and
horses along the Royal Road allowed for the speedy transmission of
information to and from Darius. In an age when overland transport was
expensive and dangerous, the road also offered traders a relatively safe
and efficient route.
How would the Royal Road have facilitated trade? How would it have
helped the king run the empire?
Decline of Achaemenid power
In 499 BCE, the Greek city-states in Ionia—the western region of
modern-day Turkey, represented by the red dots on the coast near Sardes
on the above map—rebelled against Achaemenid rule. They were supported
in their rebellion by city-states in Greece, which led to retaliatory
Persian invasions of Greece.
In 490 BCE, Darius’s army was famously defeated by the Greeks at the
Battle of Marathon. Between 480 and 479 BCE, Darius’s son, Xerxes, was
more successful, but he ultimately failed to subdue the Greeks as well.
Xerxes’s failure to defeat the Greeks marked the end of Achaemenid
expansion. Over the following century and a half, the Achaemenid kings
increased taxes and continued to interfere in Greece via economic and
political strategies, rather than military invasions. With the end of
expansion came more attempts by regional rulers to escape from
Achaemenid control; many of the distinct groups within the empire saw
less and less reason to remain a part of it.
In 334 BCE, Alexander of Macedon invaded the Persian Empire, and by 330
BCE, the Persian king, Darius III, was dead—murdered by one his
generals. Alexander claimed the Persian throne. Alexander left the
officials and institutions of the cities he captured in place to manage
his massive empire. After his death, one of his generals, Seleucus,
gained control of much of the territory that had been the Achaemenid
empire.
Why might Achaemenid power have started declining around the same time
that imperial expansion ended (KA)?
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