Persia Unites Many Lands

Synopsis: The Persian Empire ruled with tolerance and wise government. Tolerance and wise government are characteristics of the most successful methods of rule.

The Rise of Persia

• Persia, a new power, arose east of Mesopotamia, in modern Iran. The area had good farmland.

• It was also rich in minerals. There were mines of copper, lead, gold, and silver.

• The Persians joined with other forces to help defeat the Assyrians. About 550 B.C., the Persians began their own conquests.

• Their king was Cyrus, and excellent general. His troops rode swift ponies and used short bows that could be fired quickly.

• Cyrus was a great warrior. He led his army to conquer a huge empire. It stretched from the Indus Valley in India all the way through Mesopotamia to Turkey.

• The empire covered about 2,500 miles. Cyrus took all this land in just over 10 years.

• Cyrus won this vast land in part because of the wise way he treated the people there.

• Cyrus did not follow the examples of the Assyrians. The Assyrians had destroyed towns and cities.

Cyrus, however, made sure that his army did not harm the people he conquered. He allowed the people to practice their old religions, too.

Cyrus let the Hebrews return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple there.

Persian Rule and Religion

Cyrus died in 530 B.C. The kings who followed him had to decide how to run the vast new empire.

• His son, Cambyses II, conquered Egypt in 525 B.C.

The Battle of Pelusium in 525 B.C.E., was the first major battle between the Persian (Achaemenid) Empire, and Egypt. The Persians won decisively and Cambyses II was able to take the throne of Egypt.

• The Egyptians were unwilling to strike the Persians during the battle, because the Persians were carrying shields with the image of Bastet on it. They also threw cats at the Egyptians.

• Cambyses executed the Egyptian Pharaoh after he tried to lead a rebellion against him.

529–522 BC

As the Pharaoh over Egypt, Cambyses decided to lessen the taxes that the people had to pay to the priests. He told them that they would no longer have to give as much of their livestock for sacrifices.

He did not respect the Egyptian priests or their practices.

• Cambyses killed the Apis bull. This was a manifestation of the god Ptah and therefore a sacred animal.

Cambyses could be very cruel to those who he felt were corrupt. When he found out that a judge, Sisamnes, had accepted a bribe, he decided to make an example out of him.

Cambyses would have the judge arrested and punished. The punishment was far from ordinary.

Judgment of Cambyses

• “King Cambyses slit his throat and flayed off all his skin, and he strung the chair on which Sisamnes had used to sit to deliver his verdicts with these thongs.”

• From: Herodotus, The Histories V.25 (translation by Robert Waterfield (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 312).

To replace Judge Sisamnes whom he had killed and flayed, Cambyses appointed Sisamnes’s son, Otanes, as the new judge. From: http://www.harris-greenwell.com/HGS/FlayingFalseJustice#fn1_1

• Cambyses would continue to have trouble with the Egyptian priests. He decided to send 50,000 soldiers from Thebes to attack the Oasis of Siwa and destroy the oracle at the Temple of Amun.

At some point during their march, the mighty Persian army was said to have been overcome by a sandstorm in the Egyptian desert.

• The next king, Darius, proved as able as Cyrus, Darius put down several revolts.

• He won more land for the empire and created a government for the empire.

Only Greece escaped Persian control.

Darius divided the land into 20 provinces, each holding a certain group to practice its own religion, speak its own language, and obey many of its own laws.

• He also put royal governors – (satraps) – in place to make sure that the people obeyed his laws.

• The king had inspectors check on the satraps, they were called eyes and ears.

• Darius built the Royal Road to unite his large empire.

• This excellent road system ran 1,677 miles.

• Royal messengers on horses could travel this distance in about seven days. The Royal Road made communication better within the empire. Transportation became easier too.

• Darius also had metal coins made that could be used for business anywhere in the empire. He copied this idea from the Lydians that lived in Turkey (Anatolia).The coins had a standard value.

• This money system, along with the Royal Road, helped increase trade.

• During the Persian Empire, a new religion arose in Southwest Asia.

• A prophet named Zoroaster said there were two powerful gods.

• One stood for truth (Ahura Mazda) and light. The other represented evil (Ariman) and darkness. Paradise awaited those who followed truth and light, and punishment for those who chose darkness. This was determined by a day of Judgement. Zoroaster wrote down these ideas in a book called the Avesta.

• The two gods were in a constant struggle. People needed to choose truth and light to enter paradise.

The Story of Zoroaster

He was placed by god in a Hamoa plant.

He Laughed instead of crying at birth.

He glowed so bright that the people became frightened of him and wanted to destroy him.

They tried to burn him to death

They tried to let animals stamped upon him

They left him in the woods, where a mother wolf found and raised him.

Then Angels took him up to heaven

They taught him about the past, present, and future

• The Persians left their mark in history. The Persians showed respect for other cultures.

• Their government brought order to Southwest Asia.