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During the time of these early
civilizations the area called Persia, modern Iran, began to develop a very
sophisticated empire. This empire would battle Greece, Rome and eventually
would begin to lose influence as the Islamic Empire began to expand in the 7th century.
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A bronze Persian head was cast in the 1000's B.C.
Silver drinking cup was used by a king or nobleman.
Persian coins. The Achaemenid coin, was minted in the 400's B.C. The Sassanian
coin, dates from about A.D. 400.
The winged Ahura Mazda, was the chief god of ancient Persia and symbol of Zoroastrianism.
An Achaemenid cylinder seal shows King
Darius killing a lion. Impressions were made by rolling the seal across soft
clay.
Investiture of Ardashir I, a rock
relief sculpture at Naqshi Rustam, near Persepolis, shows Ardashir, founder of
the Sassamid dynasty, taking the symbol of royalty from Ahura Mazda, the
supreme Zoroastrian god.
Persian Empire about 500 B.C. - This map
shows the Achaemenid Empire at its peak in about 500 B.C, during the reign of
Darius I. Persis, later called Persia,
was the centre of an empire that stretched west to the central Mediterranean
Sea, east to northeastern India (now Pakistan), and from the Gulf of Oman in
the south to the southern part of the present-day Soviet Union in the north.
Darius ruled from several capitals.
Ancient Persia, was a land that included parts of what are now Iran and Afghanistan.
Under Cyrus the Great, Darius I, Xerxes, and other leaders, it became the home
of a great civilization and the centre of a vast empire. The name Persia
came from Persis, which was the Greek name for the region. The Persians themselves
called the region the land of the Aryans, from which the name Iran
comes. The Persians called their language Aryan.
The early Persians were nomads who came to
the area from what is now the southern Soviet Union in about 900 B.C. They were
good organizers and administrators, and the empire they created lasted over 200
years. They made important contributions in government, law, and
religion. The Persians developed an efficient system of postal delivery
using relays of fast horses. They also built an irrigation system and tried to standardize
weights and measures. For a quotation about their postal system, see Post
office (Ancient times).
The Persians treated their subjects better
than earlier rulers had, and they probably influenced the action and policies
of later governments. Alexander the Great build on Persian accomplishments to
unify his empire. So did the Arabs in building their civilization.
In the 500's B.C., Persia became the
centre of the vast Achaemenid Empire, which included most of the known world. It
extended from North Africa and southeastern Europe in the west to India in the
east, and from the Gulf of Oman in the south to the Caucasus Mountains and Syr
Darya River in the north. Persians invaded Greece
in the early 400's B.C. But the Greeks drove them from Europe, ending
the empire's expansion. Alexander the Great conquered the empire in 331 B.C.
Later, Parthians and Sassanids controlled Persia before it was conquered by
Arabs in A.D.641.
Way of life
The people. Ancient sculptures show that
the Persians were a handsome people with long, straight noses. Persians dressed
in long robes, later called caftants and wore jewellery and false hair.
Most of the common people lived in mud
huts, very much like the huts in which many of the country people of Iran live
today. Nobles and kings built large stone houses and palaces. The ruins of some
of these buildings are still
standing today.
The Persians adopted many of the customs
of the Elamites, the people they had conquered. But they kept many traditions
of the nomadic (wandering) peoples. For example, they taught
their sons to ride horses, shoot bows, and speak the truth. The Persians
considered it a disgrace to lie or to be in debt.
S Early Persian families formed into
clans, and clans into tribes. But as the empire grew, social units larger than
the family began to disappear. Persian men could have several wives. A king
could select his wives only from the six highest families. Rulers had large harems,
where all the women in the family lived.
Language and literature. The people of ancient Persia spoke Old Persian, a language of the
Indo-European family related to the Sanskrit language of India and to modern
Persian. The Persians developed a cuneiform system of writing (see Cuneiform).
But the cuneiform system was used only for royal inscriptions, because few
people could read it. The Persians used Aramaic, a Semitic language related to Hebrew,
as a written language. Aramaic was widely used in Syria, Palestine, and
Mesopotamia then, and the Persians extended its use to India, central Asia, and
Asia Minor (now Turkey). Local languages were used in various parts of the
empire.
Little is known of the literature of
ancient Persia. But stories of ancient heroes still survive, probably passed
down by minstrels and through folk tales.
Religion. The Persians believed in gods
of nature, such as the sun and sky. The people believed the gods had social
powers. Mithra, the god of light, for example, controlled contracts. The Persians
had no temples. They prayed and offered sacrifices on mountains.
Zoroaster (or Zarathustra), a prophet who
lived sometime between 1400 and 1000 B.C, reformed the ancient religion. Fie
preached a faith based on good thoughts, words, and deeds, emphasizing a
supreme god called Ahura Mazda, "the wise spirit." Zoroaster's
followers, called Zoroastrians, gradually spread his religion all
over Persia. Zoroaster's teachings are found in the Gathas, part of a
holy book called the Avesta.
Art and architecture in ancient Persia
was a unique mixture of Greek, Egyptian, Babylonian, and other cultures.
Remains of huge royal palaces that stood at Pasargadae, Persepolis, and Susa
have been found in what is now Iran. Goblets, plates, and other objects made of
gold during the Persian Empire have been found. After Alexander the Great
conquered Persia, silver became popular, and many silver art objects have been
found. Many museums exhibit ancient Persian textiles, rugs, and pottery.
Economy. Early Persians were farmers.
They raised grain and livestock. Deserts covered much of the highland region,
and the peasants developed irrigation to grow wheat, barley, oats, and
vegetables. They used underground tunnels to avoid evaporation by the hot sun,
and brought water as much as 160 kilometres from the mountains to the valleys
and plains. Highland Persia had few large towns until Alexander the Great
conquered it. Crafts developed after cities were founded. Pottery, weaving, and
metal work in copper, iron, gold, and silver became important occupations.
Pots and pans became more important than weapons, armour, and farming tools.
Potters and weavers made clothing, pottery, and rugs for the people.
Caravans carried trade goods from many
parts of the world through Persia to the Mediterranean Sea. Important articles
of trade included precious and semiprecious stones, and spices. A silk route
to central Asia and China was opened, probably during the 100's B.C. Trade
routes from Mesopotamia to the Far East led across Persia, skirting the
central desert.
Other routes led east to India, and north
to the Caucasus Mountains and the Black Sea. The Persians built roads between
the important cities in their empire. The most famous was the royal road that
linked Sardis in
western Asia Minor to Susa near the
Persian Gulf. The Persians used the roads to deliver post swiftly by relays of
horsemen.
Government
Well-organized bureaus governed the Achaemenid
Empire (about 550-331 B.C.). The empire was divide into provinces called satrapies,
each satrapy governed by an official called a satrap. Satraps ruled and
lived like minor kings. But the king of kings, who ruled the empire from
Persia, had final and absolute authority. The kings codified (systematized)
the laws in various parts of the empire. Troops in the satrapies were
controlled by the central government. A secret service, which the Greek called
the "eyes and ears of the king," informed the king of affairs
throughout the empire.
Under the Parthians (155 B.C.-A.D. 225)
and Sassanids (A.D. 224-641), Persians kept the title king of kings. Some of
these Persian rulers were strong, but others were weak. Local lords exercised
great powers during the Parthian period. A powerful state church existed under
the Sassanids. Priests served in important civil post, that church and state
remained separate.
History
Early civilization. The first known civilization in Persia was that of the Elamites, who
settled the region perhaps as early as 3000 B.C. Tribes of Medes and Persians
wandered into Persia beginning about 900 B.C. The Medes created the first state
on the Persian plateau about in 700 B.C., and reached the height of their power
in the late 600's B.C. The Persians, led by Cyrus the Great, overthrew the Medes in about
550 B.C
The Achaemenid Empire. Cyrus enlarged the Median empire by seizing the kingdom of Lydia around
545 BC and gradually absorbing Greek colonies in Ionia, in western Asia Minor.
He called this the Achaemenid Empire, after his ancestor, Achaemenes. He conquered Babylonia in 539 B.C and
freed the Jews in captivity there. They returned to Palestine. Cyrus was killed
in 530 B.C. He had
created an empire that extended from the Mediterranean Sea and western Asia
Minor to the upper Indus River in what is now northern Pakistan, and from the
Gulf of Oman to the Aral Sea.
Cambyses, Cyrus' son, conquered Egypt in
525 B.C, but died on his way back to Persia. A civil war for control of the
empire followed, and Darius I, a relative of Cambyses, became king in 522 B.C.
Darius reorganized the government under
the satrapy system, established the absolute power of the king of kings, and
developed a regulated system of taxation. He also built palaces at Persepolis
and Susa, two of his capitals. He expanded the Persian Empire into
southeastern Europe and into what is now southern Pakistan.
About 513 B.C, the Persian army invaded
the area west and north of the Black Sea, but did not conquer much land. Darius
sent an army into Greece in 490 B.C., but it was defeated by Athenian forces at
Marathon. Darius died in 486 B.C., while preparing for new attacks on Greece.
Xerxes, Darius' son, invaded Greece in 480
B.C., and defeated a force of Spartans and other Greeks after a fierce battle
at Thermopylae. But the Persians suffered crushing defeats at Salamis and
Plataea, and were driven from Europe in 479 B.C. See Greece, Ancient (The
Persian Wars).
After Xerxes' death, Persia declined. But
the empire continued to exist in spite of revolts until 331 B.C., when
Alexander the Great defeated a huge Persian army at the Battle of Arbela
(sometimes called the Battle of Gaugamela). This ended the Achaemenid Empire,
and Persia became part of Alexander's empire.
The Seleucid dynasty. More than 10 years after Alexander's death in 323 B.C., one of his
generals, Seleucus, started a dynasty that ruled Persia and nearby areas. The
Seleucids founded many cities and introduced Greek culture into western and
central Asia. From 155 B.C, the Parthians won control of Persia.
The Parthian Empire lasted until A.D. 224. The Parthians built a large empire across
eastern Asia Minor and southwest Asia. During the last 200 years of their rule,
the Parthians had to fight the Romans in the west and the Kushans in what is
now Afghanistan. Civil wars erupted in the Parthian Empire.
In about A.D. 224, a Persian named
Ardashir overthrew the Parthians and seized the Parthian Empire.
After more than 550 years under other
rulers, Persians again ruled Persia.
The Sassanid dynasty, named in honour of Sassan, grandfather of Ardashir, ruled Persia until
the mid-600's. Wars between Persians and Romans continued through much of the
Sassanian reign. After the Romans adopted Christianity in the 300's, the
conflict seemed to become a religious struggle between Christianity and
Zoroastrianism, the religion of the Persians.
The Sassanian civilization reached its
high point in the mid-500's. Persians won several victories over the Romans,
and reconquered land that had been part of the Achaemenid Empire. Persian
troops advanced to the wails of Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey), then the
capital of the Byzantine (East Roman) Empire. But they were defeated there and
forced to withdraw from all the land they had conquered.
The rise of Islam, a new religion in
Arabia, brought a sudden end to the Sassanid dynasty in the mid-600's. Arabs
invaded Persia and defeated the Persians in 637 and during the 640's. Islam
spread across the Persian plateau. But the new Islamic rulers kept much of
Persia's organization, art and architecture, and culture.
For the history of Persia after the Arab
conquest, see Iran (History).
Related articles:
Alexander the Great
Clothing (Ancient times)
Cyrus the Great
Mithras
Persepolis
Salamis
Satrap
Darius I
Darius III
Susa
Thermopylae
Magi
Marathon
Media
Xerxes 1
Zoroastrianism
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