History of the Ancient Near East · Part 21 · Babylon and Persia · B2
Cyrus, Darius and the Persian Empire
Part 21 of History of the Ancient Near East: in twenty years, Cyrus of Persia conquered Media, Lydia and Babylon. His successors ruled from the Aegean to India: the largest empire the world had ever seen. The Babylonians called him Marduk’s choice; Isaiah called him the Lord’s anointed; the Greeks called his heirs tyrants. Let, make and allow, and the largest … had ever seen, with Philo, Sophia, Marcos and Demetria.
Tonight, the Persians. Demetria, what do Greeks say about them?
That they were slaves of a king, rich and soft, and that we beat them at Marathon and Salamis.
And my people say that a Persian king sent us home from Babylon, and our prophet called him the Lord’s anointed.
Two very different Persias. Let us see what the Persians said about themselves.
Cyrus II, king of a small kingdom in south-western Iran, conquered the Medes around 550 BCE, Lydia and its king Croesus around 546, and Babylon in 539 BCE. His son Cambyses conquered Egypt in 525. The Achaemenid empire, named after the family’s ancestor, reached from the Aegean Sea to the Indus, and from Egypt to Central Asia: the largest empire the world had ever seen.
Darius I (522–486 BCE) organised it. He divided it into provinces called satrapies, each with a governor, a satrap, who collected tribute. He built the Royal Road, about 2,700 kilometres from Sardis to Susa, with stations where royal messengers could change horses; a message could cross it in about a week. He began the great palace of Persepolis, and introduced gold coins, the darics.
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