The first Persian empire, the Achaemenids
Arash Monzavi-Kia
In 545 BC, Cyrus defeated the Greek city-states of Asia Minor (Lydia), and captured the legendary treasures of their king. That defeat effectively crippled the Greek civilization in today’s Turkey, and lead to the looting and destruction of a number of their cities and monuments.
Figure 6: Depiction of Artemis Temple in Lydia (a destroyed world wonder)
Next in 540 BC, Cyrus’s army (greatly assisted by local sympathizers) easily defeated the despised Babylonian king and took over the Mesopotamia. Unlike their previous rulers, Cyrus freed the varied Mesopotamian minorities to practice their cultures and religions, which also included the release of Jews and assistance for their return to Zion (today’s Israel).
Figure 7: Babylon Lion Relief
Cyrus then focused his attention to expanding the Eastern frontiers of the empire, but was killed during a fierce battle with the nomadic Scythians (530 BC). Cambyses II succeeded his father, and conquered the ancient civilization of Egypt, in a brutal campaign. However, unlike his father, the cruel Cambyses was unable to gain the respect of his new subjects or the loyalty of his generals. He was assassinated during the eighth year of his bloody reign, and the multinational Persian empire faced numerous rebellions by its subjugated peoples. Another of Cyrus’s sons (Bardia) came to power, but was challenged by a group of Persian princes led by Darius, who successfully overthrew and killed him. This coup brought a new dynasty to power, who claimed a common ancestry (Achaemenid) with Cyrus.
Figure 8: Darius the great
Unlike Cyrus, who was more interested in conquering new realms and then leaving each nation’s organization to the subdued local nobility, Darius created a truly centralized government. He first forcefully crushed all the rebellions in the subject nations and vanquished a dozen of their leaders. Darius then turned each nation into a Satrapy (province), strictly governed by his Persian appointees, who directly reported to the ShahanShah.
Figure 9: The Persian empire at its peak
To govern this vast empire, which included Greek, Egyptian, Babylonian, Mede and Scythian nations, Darius built a network of roads, postal service, common currency, regular army and navy. Although Cyrus is credited with starting the Persian domination, Darius was the king who built it into a functioning empire!
Figure 10: Persian army
Among the rebellious subject nations during Darius’s reign, were the Greek cities of Asia Minor (today’s Turkey). However, Darius’s army suppressed that uprising, and then shipped an expeditionary attack force (~20,000 strong) to punish the mainland Greek city-states who had helped their Asian kindred. This ignited the legendary Persian-Greek wars of the antiquity that is most famously remembered by the Marathon defeat of the Darius’s army.
Figure 11: Reconstruction of the beached Persian ships near Marathon
After 35 years of Darius as ShahanShah, his son Xerxes (Khashayar) became emperor and tried to finish what his father had started, i.e. take over the mainland Greece. Xerxes summoned the largest army in the near East history (some 200,000), complete with a contingent of the subjugated Egyptian navy. However, despite initial victories and even the capture of Athens, the Greek city-states who had united since the battle of Marathon, sank the Xerxes navy and decimated the stranded Persian army in 480 BC.
Figure 12: Ruins of ancient Athens
For the next 140 years, the Persian Empire continued a fierce rivalry against the Greek city-states, until the latter were captured or united under the domineering Macedonian king, Phillip. After the suspicious assassination of Philip, his son Alexander accused the Persian Shah (Darius III) of the murder, and summoned a formidable Balkan force to take revenge, liberate the Asian Greek cities and pillage the riches of Persia. Unfortunately, the Achaemenid dynasty had severely deteriorated under the absolute corruption of the absolute rule, continuously falling into brutal royal murders, court intrigues and state blunders. Hence, Alexander the great defeated Darius and conquered Egypt, Mesopotamia and Persia.