Transcript History 210: The Ancient World

Achaemenid Persia
The Great King and the Rise of the Persian Empire
Near Eastern Powers before Persia:
Successors to Assyria (ca. 610-550 BCE)
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Egyptian Saite Dynasty XXVI
Neo-Babylonian (Chaldaean) Kingdom
Lydian Kingdom in western Asia Minor
Median Kingdom of western Iran
Neo-Babylonian and Median Empires
Persia: An Iranian Landscape
Origins of Persians
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Outsiders from Near Eastern power center
(Mesopotamia) from Iranian plateau
Original homeland Russian steppelands
Persian language: Indo-European, not Semitic (Sumerian,
Akkadian, Babylonian, Assyrian)
Supreme god: Ahura Mazda (sky, sun, moon, rivers,
earth, water, and fire are sacred)
As conquerors, Persian monarchs display power through
sumptuous royal courts and monumental architecture
Persian Capitals
Significance of Achaemenid Persia
in Ancient Greek History
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Watershed Moment in Ancient Greek History of
Magnitude of Collapse of Bronze Age Kingdoms
Greatest Territorial Empire of Ancient Near East
(Historical Persia)
Cultural History and Collective Identity: Greek “Lens”
on Persian Empire (“Greek” Persia: Herodotus)
Achaemenid Persian Kings
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Cyrus the Great (r. 559-530 BCE)
Cambyses (r. 530-522 BCE)
Dynastic Succession Struggle (522-521 BCE)
Darius I (r. 521-486 BCE)
Xerxes I (r. 486-465 BCE)
Tomb of Cyrus
Persian Conquests
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Median Kingdom in 550 BCE (Cyrus)
Lydia in 546 BCE (Cyrus)
Babylon in 539 BCE (Cyrus)
Egypt in 525 BCE (Cambyses)
Near Eastern powers conquered by Achaemenid Persians
within twenty-five years
Persians and Greeks
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Asia Minor Greeks tribute-paying subjects of Lydian
kingdom
By 514 BCE, Asia Minor Greeks pay tribute to Persian
satraps, who rule through Greek tyrants and potentates
Greek workmen and craftsmen employed in building the
great Persian royal palaces
Greek physicians at Persian royal court
Persian Gold Daric
Darius’ Achievement (521-486 BCE)
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Marries Atossa, daughter of Cyrus the Great
Thirty Districts (Satrapies) ruled by governors of
Persian/Median aristocracy
Separate Military and Financial Officers in Satrapies
(Provinces)
Governors (Satraps) successfully work through local elites
(Hebrews, Lydians, Babylonians, Greeks)
Royal Road (Sardis to Susa)
Overseer of Satraps from Persepolis (King’s “Eyes and
Ears”)
Persepolis: A Persian Capital
Persepolis
Persepolis: Royal Staircase
Darius receives allegiance of nobility
King Darius I (r. 521-486 BCE)
Darius’ Archers
Royal Tombs near Persepolis
Colossus: Achaemenid Persian Empire
Achaemenid Persian Empire
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Hindu Kush to Mediterranean (3,000 miles)
Empire includes Egypt, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor
Linked together by network of roads and highways
(“Royal Road” from Sardis to Susa)
Armies depend on mounted cavalry (hybrid, polyglot,
variously armed, high command by Great King’s
“Friends”)
Achaemenid Persian Empire
Greek “Lens” and Achaemenid Persia
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“Constitutional Debate” (Herodotus, 3.80-83): a literary
anachronism
 Aristocracy
 Democracy
 Monarchy
Persians choose despotism (non-Greek barbarians slaves
by nature)
Persian Monarchy
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Great King as Ahura Mazda’s viceroy on earth
Rigid social hierarchy with royal family at top
Persian monarch’s subjects as slaves (submission of earth
and water)
Submission and subjection: proskynesis
Modes of Warfare: Hoplites vs. Mounted Cavalry
Persian Virtues: Horsemanship,
Archery, and Truth-Telling
Achaemenid Persia and Athens
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Alcmaeonid tradition: Hostility to the Tyrants
Inscriptional evidence shows Cleisthenes as archon
between 527 and 521 BCE
As a counterweight to the possibility of the return of a
Spartan army, Cleisthenes approached Persia in 508 BCE
(Herodotus, 5.73)
Exiled tyrant Hippias, Pisistratus’ son, takes refuge with
Persians
Athenian Overtures to Persia
After that the Athenians, having brought back Cleisthenes and the 700
households that had been banished by Cleomenes, sent off messengers
to Sardis, since they wished to make an alliance with the Persians, for
they knew well that the Spartans and Cleomenes had been provoked to
war against them. The messengers came to Sardis and said what they
had been told to say. Then Artaphernes, son of Hystaspes, the satrap
of Sardis, asked his question: “Who are these people and where in the
world do they live that they ask the Persians to become their allies?”
When he got his answer from the messengers, he said, rather pithily,
“If the Athenians are willing to give King Darius earth and water, he
offers an alliance to them; if not, away from here with them!” The
messengers took the risk on their own heads and said they were willing
to make the alliance. Then they went home to their own country and
were severely blamed for what they had done.
~Herodotus, 5.73