Persians
Last Updated     10/27/2007      10/25/2007

The Persians were originally part of the people known as Aryans.  In 2000 BC, the Persians separated from the Aryans.  Iran means "Land of the Aryans".  The first mention we have of the Persians is on a tablet recording the expedition of Shalmanesser III into a country called Parsua, in the mountains of Kurdistan around 837 BC.

Army and Empire
Medes capture of Niniva in 612 BC brinds down the Assyrian Empire.
In 550 B.C. Cyrus the Great, came to power after deposing last ruler of the Medes, King Astyages.
Immortals numbered 10,000.
Empire stretched from Egypt to India.
Allowed subjects to keep own culture.
Persia wanted subjects to pay taxes and produce goods for trade.
Persipolis was the capital city of the empire.

Government Officials
King choose a governor, a secretary and a general for each of the 20 provinces.
Collected taxes of: gold, silver, sheep, horses, wheat, spices
Taxes were sent to the Royal Treasury.
Inspectors were "the eyes and ears of the King."
Judges made sure laws were carried out.

Houses
Pointed roofs with porches that faced the sun.
Poor families had one-room houses.
Noble families had rooms for men and rooms for women.

Family Life
Persian families were large.
A father's word was law.
Poor children worjed with their parents.
Noble children were raised by mother until the age of 5. Then slaves raised them.
They often did not see rtheir father until they were adults.
Boys were trained to ride horses and draw a bow.
Girls were trained to run households and raise children.
Rich women spent most of their time at home

Religion
At first the Peians worshipped many gods.
Zoroaster tells the Persians about two Gods.
Ahura Mazda and Ahriman were at war with each other.
Good deeds: keeping your word, giving to the poor, working the land, treating others well
Bad deeds: lazy, proud, greedy

Language
Spoke Aramic, the language used by Middle Eastern merchants.

Trade
Persians thought they should be warriors, farmers, or shepherds
They refused to become traders.
They believed trades had to lie, cheat, and be greedy.
They encouraged trade with the people they conquered.
Merchants sold chickens, dried fish, furniture, clothing, pots and pans.

Roads
Expanded system of roads began by Assyrians.
Royal Road was 1600 miles long.
Open a caravan route to China.
Silk was brought west along this route.

Coins
Persians spread the idea of using coins.
Lydia made the first coins.
Persian king decided to use gold coins.

History

Cyrus
539 B.C. Cyrus went to Babylon, where he attacked Nabonidus.
Cyrus is said to have diverted the course of the Euphrates River during his assault of Babylon.
The river passed under the city walls and through the city.
When the water was diverted, his army was able to enter the city by walking along the now dry riverbed.
538 BC, Babylon fell to Cyrus. 
Cyrus' policy was that the various people of his empire should be left free in their religious worship and beliefs.
Cyrus was one of the first rulers to recognize a basic principle of statesmanship: religion is stronger than the state. 
He did not sack cities and wreck temples.
He showed a respect for the gods of the conquered people.
He contributed to the maintance of their shrines. 

"I am Cyrus, king of the world, great king, mighty king, king of Babylon, king of the land of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four quarters, son of Cambyses, ...king of Anshan, grandson of Cyrus, ...descendant of Teispes, ...progeny of an unending royal line, whose rule Bel and Nabu cherish, whose kingship they desire for their hearts' pleasures.
When I, well-disposed, entered Babylon, I established the seat of government in the royal palace amidst jubilation and rejoicing. Marduk, the great God, caused the big-hearted inhabitants of Babylon to come to me. I sought daily to worship him. My numerous troops moved about undisturbed in the midst of Babylon. I did not allow any to terrorize the land of Sumer and Akkad. I kept in view the needs of Babylon and all its sanctuaries to promote their well being. The citizens of Babylon ...their dilapidated dwellings I restored. I put an end to their misfortunes...
...the cities of Ashur and Susa, Agade, Eshnuna, the cities of Zamban, Meurnu, Der, as far as the region of the land of Gutium, the holy cities beyond the Tigris whose sanctuaries had been in ruins over a long period, the gods whose abode is in the midst of them, I returned to the places and housed them in lasting abodes. I gathered together all their inhabitants and restored to them their dwellings..." (1)

530 B.C. Cyrus himself was killed in battle in a battle with Massagetae.
They were an obscure tribe that peopled the southern shores of the Caspian Sea on the eastern frontier of his empire.

Cambyses
His son, the jerk, was called Cambyses. He was half crazy.
He took the throne upon his father's untimely demise.
He immediately put to death his own brother and potential rival, Smerdis. 
Cambyses publically scoffed at the Egyptian religion.
He plunged a dagger into the bull revered by the Egyptians as the god Apis.
He exhumed mummies, and pried into royal tombs.
He profaned temples and ordered idols burned.
He thought he would succeed in freeing the Egyptians of their superstitions.
Unfortunately, he was stricken with epileptic seizures.
The Egyptians became convinced that it was the gods themselves punishing him.
Cambyses killed his wife (and sister) Roxana with a kick in the stomach.
He dispatched his son Prexaspes with an arrow.
Twelve Persians of noble birth he buried alive.
He condemned Croesus, king of Lydia, to death.
He changed his mind, and rejoiced at the news that the execution had not yet been carried out.
To celebrate, he punished the officers who had delayed in executing the Lydian king.

Usurpers
On his way back to Persia from Egypt, he learned that an usurper had taken the throne.
The usurper was supported by a massive revolution.
Nothing more is heard of Cambyses, though the rumor is, he committed suicide.
The usurper had pretended to be Cambyses.
In reality he was a religious fanatic bent on destroying Zoroastrianism, the official religion of Persia.
This idea did not go over well, and so another revolution soon got rid of him.

Darius Becomes King
The seven aristocrats who had organized this rebellion.
They chose one of their own to rule.
His name was Darius, he was the son of Hystaspes.
The seven aristocrats all went to the stables.
Which ever man the horses winned for would be king.
Darius had gone to the stables with apples for the horses.
They knew him.

King Darius
518 BC, The magnificent palace complex of Persepolis was founded.
512 B.C., Darius I conquered Gandhara and the Indus Valley.
In the west, he attacked the Scythians, whom he never managed to subdue.
Then he turned against Greece.
Each night at dinner, Darius had a slave remimd him of what the Greeks had done to him.
"Remember the Greeks," they had burned Sardis.

Persian Wars
In 490 B.C., Darius suffered a humiliating defeat at Marathon, near Athens.
Darius died in 486 B.C. without renewing his attack on Greece.

Xerxes
Xerxes quickly subdued Thessaly and Macedonia.
He then captured Attica and Athens, which he burned down.
In 480 B.C. the Persian fleet was destroyed at Salamis.

Decline of the Persian Empire
The last Achaemenian ruler, Darius III (336 - 330 B.C.) was weak.
In 333 BC, he showed cowardice at two major campaigns, the first at Issus.
And again at Gaugamela.
Two years later surrendered the Persian Empire to Alexander the Great.

Alexander
The conquest of Persia by Alexander's armies left the Persian army in complete disarray.
Alexander captured Babylon, Susa and then Persepolis.
The splendour of Persepolis was short lived.
The palaces were looted and burned by Alexander in just one night. 
In 324 B.C., having travelled down the Indus as far as its delta.
In 323 BC, Alexander returned to Babylon, where he fell ill and died at the age of 32.
He died without having nominated an heir to his empire.

Persian Time Line

Cyrus Charter of Human Rughts Cylinder   13 October 207. (1)