The Persian Empire

by Kia, Mehrdad;

  The references to the Medes in Assyrian inscriptions portray a society divided into numerous urban and rural communities, each led by its own chieftain who ruled from his own walled fortress. Representations of military campaigns on Assyrian reliefs depict Median fortresses “with towers and crenellated battlements” (Curtis: 32). However, no single ruler or central government controlled the entire Median territory. These sources also indicate that toward the end of the eighth century BCE, the Medes controlled the area extending from central Iran in the east to the Zagros Mountains in the west.

  Despite numerous military campaigns, the Assyrians could not retain their hold on the Medes and successfully integrate them into their political system. The distance between Media and the core territory of the Assyrian kingdom in present-day northern Iraq, the rugged nature of the terrain in which the Medes lived, and their fragmented and decentralized political and social organization made it extremely difficult for the Assyrians to impose their authority over them. But the disjointed and fragmented social organization also gave rise to infighting among various Median communities and leaders. Assyrian royal inscriptions indicate that the Medes fought among themselves. The power struggle and squabbling among the Median leadership reached such a point that at least on one occasion several Median leaders brought along large thoroughbred horses and blocks of precious lapis lazuli as gifts to the Assyrian court at Nineveh, opposite present-day Mosul in northern Iraq, where they sought the protection of the Assyrian king against their own Median vassals, who had posed a threat to their power.

  The Assyrian kings used the infighting among the Medes to impose authority over them, exacting tribute and taxes from their chieftains in the form of people, horses, cattle, sheep, and Bactrian camels. Despite the fragmentation and infighting, which engrossed the Medes, they had become sufficiently powerful to force Esarhaddon to conclude vassal treaties, in which the Assyrian monarch “sought to enlist the support of the Medes in ensuring a peaceful succession to the throne of Assyria” (Curtis: 32). By the time Ashurbanipal (r. 668–627 BCE) ascended the Assyrian throne, the Medes had emerged as an independent and powerful state. As a justification for attacking Median cities and carrying their spoils back with him to the Assyrian capital of Nineveh, the Assyrian king cites a certain Median chieftain who had thrown off the Assyrian yoke (Luckenbill: II:854). No reference exists, however, of Median chiefs paying tribute to the Assyrian king or appealing to him to intervene in their internal conflicts.

  The death of Ashurbanipal in 627 BCE signaled the beginning of the end for the Assyrian kingdom. A fierce civil war erupted shortly after Ashurbanipal’s passing. Local rulers who had been intimidated by the power of Assyria rose in rebellion and proclaimed their independence. In the autumn of 615 the Medes crossed the Zagros Mountains and captured Arrapha (present-day Kirkuk in northern Iraq). Then in the summer of 614, the Median king Huvakhshtra, who appears as Cyaxares in Herodotus’s Histories, captured Tarbisu and proceeded to sack the city of Ashur, the first capital of the Assyrian state and second only to Nineveh in political and economic importance. The inhabitants of Ashur were slaughtered, their temples were destroyed, and state treasures were plundered before the city was razed. Those who survived the massacre were carried off as prisoners. Nabopolassar, the king of Babylon, who had reached Ashur with his army after it had been seized and destroyed by the Medes, met with the king of the Medes outside the city, and the two monarchs concluded a treaty of peace and friendship. In the summer of 612, the Babylonians and Medes joined forces and marched against the Assyrian capital, Nineveh. After a siege and several fierce battles, the city was finally conquered.

  The fall of Nineveh was a deathblow to the Assyrian state. The Assyrian king Sin-sharr-ishkun (r. 627–612 BCE) was most probably killed during the final assault, but parts of his army under the command of Ashuruballit (r. 612–609 BCE) escaped to Harran in northern Mesopotamia (present-day southeastern Turkey). Once in Harran, Ashuruballit sat on the throne as the king of Assyria. He intended to regroup his forces and receive assistance from Necho II, the pharaoh of Egypt. In 610 the Medes and the Babylonians, who were determined to prevent the resurgence of the Assyrian state, merged their forces again and marched against Ashuruballit, who abandoned Harran and retreated to Carchemish on the western bank of the Euphrates River. But the Assyrians refused to accept defeat. In 609 BCE with assistance from Egypt, Ashuruballit attacked Harran but failed to recapture the town after the king of Babylon, Nabopolassar, arrived with his army to rescue the besieged garrison. Ashuruballit was most probably killed sometime during this campaign, since his name is not mentioned again. The remnants of the Assyrian army along with support from Egypt fought desperately to expel the enemy, but they were defeated for the last time in 605 BCE at Carchemish and Hamath in Syria. After centuries of domination, the Neo-Assyrian state ceased to exist, and its territory was divided between the Babylonians and the Medes.

  The Median conquest of Nineveh and the disintegration of the Assyrian kingdom were followed by the incorporation of Assyrian territory into the emerging Median Empire. The Medes expanded their territorial possessions in the west by defeating the Scythians and the Mannaeans. With the Medes seizing the eastern regions of Asia Minor, the kingdom of Lydia emerged as the neighbor of the Medes to the west. In 585 BCE, after fighting a series of inconclusive wars with Lydia that dominated the central and western regions of Asia Minor (present-day Turkey), the Medes concluded a peace treaty with the Lydians that established the Halys River (Kizilirmak River in present-day eastern Turkey) as the boundary between Lydia and Media. This treaty of peace and friendship was cemented through an arranged marriage between the daughter of the king of Lydia and the son of the king of Media, who appears as Astyages, the last ruler of the Median kingdom, in Herodotus’s Histories. To the east, the Medes extended their domain to Parthia in present-day northeastern Iran and perhaps even to Bactria in present-day northern Afghanistan.

  The Median kingdom was overthrown by Cyrus II, the ruler of Anshan, a kingdom in the present-day southern Iranian province of Fars. Cyrus, his father Cambyses I, and his grandfather Cyrus I were vassals of the Medes. According to Herodotus, Cyrus was a grandson of Astyages, the ruler of the Median Empire through his mother Mandane, the daughter of the Median king who married a Persian named Cambyses. This claim cannot, however, be validated. Sometime in 554/553 or 550/549 BCE, Cyrus revolted and defeated Astyages. According to a Babylonian chronicle, the Median army revolted against its king and delivered him to Cyrus, who attacked and captured the Median capital, seizing the royal residence and carrying the silver, gold, and other valuables of the country back with him to Anshan. The classical sources, including Herodotus and Polyaenus, held Cyrus responsible for instigating a rebellion. Herodotus claimed that Astyages summoned Cyrus to his court after learning that the Persians intended to revolt and free themselves from Median yoke, but Cyrus responded by sending a threatening message to the Median king that he would pay him a visit sooner than the king would desire. Polyaenus reported that Cyrus was defeated in three different battles with the Medes. Despite these setbacks, he rallied his men and led them in a fourth battle with the Medes at Pasargadae near the present-day city of Shiraz in southern Iran. The Persians were defeated again and fled the battlefield, but when they saw their wives and children, they were “ashamed of themselves and turned around to face the enemy,” routing the Medes “who were pursuing in disorder” and winning “so great a victory that Cyrus no longer needed another battle against them” (Plyaenus: 7.6.1).

  This victory allowed Cyrus to unify the Persians and the Medes into a single kingdom and incorporate the former provinces of the Median state in the east and the west into his possessions. As a successor to the Median kings, Cyrus was recognized as the ruler of the eastern provinces of the Median state, including Hyrcania, the region of modern Gorgan in northern Iran and Parthia, that corresponded with the western regions of Iranian Khorasan. His rule at this time may have extended as far east
as Bactria in present-day northern Afghanistan. In the west, the fall of the Median Empire allowed Cyrus to emerge as the master of Assyria and Urartu in eastern Asia Minor (present-day Armenia and eastern Turkey). The empire of Cyrus now became a neighbor to the wealthy and powerful Lydia, a kingdom that ruled the central and western regions of Asia Minor.

  In 547 BCE, Cyrus clashed with Croesus, the king of Lydia, who was known as one of the wealthiest men of his time. The first battle between the Persians and the Lydians was inconclusive. After the end of the battle, Croesus returned to his capital of Sardis for the winter, hoping to rest his troops and regroup. He also sent messages to his allies, including Sparta and Egypt, requesting support. Instead of returning to the interior of his kingdom, however, Cyrus attacked Sardis and captured it. The fall of Lydia was followed by the conquest of Caria and Lycia as well as the Greek cities of Asia Minor by Cyrus’s generals.

  After the conquest of Asia Minor, Cyrus shifted his attention from west to east. From 545 to 539 BCE, he most probably conquered vast areas in Central Asia. These conquests established the northeastern border of the Persian Empire at the Jaxartes River (Syr Darya), which originates from the Tien Shan Mountains in present-day Kyrgyzstan and, after flowing through Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan, empties into the Aral Sea.

  In 539 BCE, Cyrus moved against Babylonia. As Cyrus and his army closed in, the king of Babylon, Nabonidus, fled, and his army disintegrated. A Persian army entered Babylon without a fight. The conquest of Babylon was celebrated by Cyrus on a cylinder with an inscription of 35 lines. This remarkable clay cylinder, which was discovered by the Assyrian-born archaeologist Hormuzd Rassam at the temple of the Babylonian god Marduk in 1879, is one of the most significant artifacts of the ancient world. It recounts the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus and his army, who did not face resistance as they entered one of the most important urban centers of the ancient world. The cylinder describes the deference and respect shown by the Persian monarch toward all the peoples of Babylon and their gods. The vassal kings who paid tribute to the king of Babylon now rushed to the court of Cyrus to swear their allegiance to the Persian monarch.

  After the conquest of Babylon, Cyrus also issued a proclamation liberating the Jews from their long captivity and ordering the repair and reconstruction of the Jerusalem Temple. Thus, the Jews, who had been living in captivity in Babylon since the sack of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 587 BCE, were freed and allowed to return to Palestine to build their temple. The support of Cyrus for the Jewish cause brought him praise from the prophet Isaiah, who declared him God’s shepherd and the Lord’s anointed, a proclamation recorded in Isaiah 44:28–45:1 in the Hebrew scriptures. After the conquest of Babylon, Cyrus returned to Central Asia to pacify the Scythian tribes of the region.

  According to Herodotus, it was in Central Asia in a battle against a Scythian group known as the Massagetae that Cyrus was killed in 530 BCE. The body of the fallen king was carried back to Pasargadae, located on Dasht-e Morghab (Plain of the Water Bird) near the present-day city of Shiraz in southern Iran. Pasargadae, which had been designated by Cyrus as the capital of his empire, contained numerous buildings, including palaces, pavilions, gardens, and parks. According to Arrian, the mausoleum of Cyrus stood in the midst of a park surrounded by a grove and rich meadows of grass. Today, however, the only structure that reminds us of the power and glory of the first Persian capital is the simple but majestic tomb of Cyrus.

  After the death of Cyrus, his oldest son and successor, Cambyses (r. 530–522 BCE), continued with his father’s territorial expansions. Persian forces attacked and captured Egypt in 525 BCE. While Cambyses was in Egypt a revolt erupted against him in Persia, forcing the Persian king to return home. Cambyses, however, died on his journey back to Persia. The death of Cambyses allowed a pretender to the throne who claimed to be Bardiya, the king’s brother, to proclaim himself the king. The pretender became quickly popular among the masses after he proclaimed “a three years’ remission of taxes and military service” to all peoples and communities within the empire (Herodotus: 3.67). The policy of the new ruler was probably “directed toward the abolition of the privileges of the Persian hereditary nobility and of its predominant position in the economy and society” (Dandamaev and Lukonin: 91). It was at this critical juncture that a group of Persian officers staged a coup and seized the reins of power. They denounced the man who had led the anti-Cambyses revolt as an imposter and marched to Media, where they killed him. The officers then selected from among themselves Darius, a distant relative of Cyrus and Cambyses and an officer in the Persian army, as the new ruler of the Persian Empire. Mass uprisings erupted throughout the empire, and Darius was forced to send his armies to suppress them. In his long inscription at Bisotun near Kermanshah in western Iran, Darius listed the names of the provinces and rebel leaders who had revolted against his authority, and he described how he had defeated each uprising. Once he had restored order, Darius embarked on establishing a new and more integrated administrative structure, which would bring even the most distant provinces of the empire under the direct authority of the central government.

  During the reign of Darius I (r. 522–486 BCE), the Persian Achaemenid state reached the zenith of its power and emerged as the largest empire the world had ever seen. It stretched from the Aral Sea in Central Asia to Libya in North Africa and from the Indus River Valley in the Indian subcontinent to the shores of the Danube in Southeastern Europe. According to Herodotus, Darius I divided his empire into 20 provinces, each ruled by a governor, or satrap. The satraps were responsible for collecting taxes and maintaining security and order in their provinces.

  The Achaemenid Empire was based on an agrarian economy. The Persian kings promoted agricultural production and the expansion of cultivable lands by introducing an elaborate irrigation system. Recognizing the importance of communication in ruling and controlling a vast empire, Darius reorganized, rebuilt, and expanded an ancient highway, which came to be known as the Royal Road. A major thoroughfare of 1,500 miles (over 2,400 kilometers), the Royal Road connected the Achaemenid winter capital, the city of Susa in southwestern Iran, to Sardis, the former capital of Lydia, thereby establishing for the first time a direct and unhindered link between the cultures and economies of Central and Southwest Asia and those of Asia Minor, mainland Greece, and Southeastern Europe. Rest stations as well as “excellent caravanserais” were built along the length of the road (Herodotus: 5.51). Messengers used the Royal Road to relay news and information from various provinces of the empire to the capital: “Nothing mortal travels so fast as these Persian messengers. The entire plan is a Persian invention; and this is the method of it. Along the whole line of road there are men (they say) stationed with horses, in number equal to the number of days which the journey takes, allowing a man and horse to each day; and these men will not be hindered from accomplishing at their best speed the distance which they have to go, either by snow, or rain, or heat, or by darkness of night” (Herodotus: 8.98). The road also facilitated the movement of Persian armies while at the same time serving to promote trade and commerce in the empire. Indeed, one of the strategic objectives of the Achaemenid state was to convert the newly created empire into a vast and integrated free trade zone. The ships and overland caravans that traveled across a vast region extending from China and India to the Balkans and North Africa were filled with glass from Egypt; spices from India; gold from present-day Afghanistan; silver from Asia Minor; lapis lazuli, carnelian, and turquoise from Central Asia; dyes and textiles from Lebanon; ivory from Ethiopia; perfumes from Arabia; timber from Crete; and numerous other commodities. Food products such as grain, wine, oil, dried fish, and honey were shipped far and wide. Darius completed the process of linking the empire by building the first Suez Canal. Thousands of workers from the four corners of the empire were assembled to construct a channel connecting the Gulf of Suez to an arm of the Nile River. Thus, “the whole empire from India to the Aegean was … linked by sea as well as
by land” (Cawkwell: 33). To establish an integrated system of trade and taxation, Darius also introduced a standardized coinage. The growth of international commerce initiated unprecedented economic prosperity and a sharp increase in the revenue of the central government.

  As practitioners of the most advanced engineering and architecture of their time, the Achaemenid kings built magnificent cities with palaces, pavilions, gardens, and parks. As already mentioned, the city of Pasargadae was built by Cyrus the Great as his capital. Darius moved the capital to Susa for winter and Hagmatana or Ecbatana (modern-day Hamedan) for summer. He also began the construction of Persepolis as a ceremonial capital near Pasargadae on the plains of Morghab, north of present-day Shiraz in southern Iran. Central to Iranian cities were the private gardens, or pairidaeza, watered by aqueducts, the earliest known instance of gravity-fed water rills and basins arranged in a geometric system. The centrality of these paradises (gardens) in Iranian life was well known even to the Greeks, who observed Persian power with awe, envy, and admiration. Xenophon described how the Persian kings and princes designed numerous paradises, as they called them, full of all the good and beautiful things that the soil produced, and in these gardens the royals spent most of their time except when the season precluded it.