The Persian Empire

by Kia, Mehrdad;

  See also: Ancient Cities: Bisotun Inscription; K&Q, Achaemenid: Cyrus II the Great; Darius I

  Further Reading

  Bresciani, E. “The Persian Occupation of Egypt.” In The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 2, edited by Ilya Gershevitch, 502–528. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.

  Briant, Pierre. From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2002.

  Ghirshman, R. Iran. New York: Penguin, 1978.

  Herodotus. The Histories. Translated by Aubrey De Sélincourt. New York: Penguin, 2003.

  Kent, Roland G. Old Persian. New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1950.

  Cyrus II the Great

  Cyrus II the Great (Kurush II) is one of the most important figures in the history of Iran, the Near East, and the world. He is also the founder of the Persian Achaemenid Empire (r. 550 BCE–330 BCE) and one of the most influential political figures in the history of the ancient world. The date of his birth is unknown, but most historians agree that he died in 530 BCE. Cyrus was the son of Cambyses I (Kambujiya I), a grandson of Cyrus I (Kurush I), and a descendant of Teispes (Chishpish). Cyrus II’s great-grandfather, grandfather, and father were all kings of Anshan, a small kingdom in present-day southern Iran near the city of Shiraz. Anshan was an important urban center in the eastern part of the Elamite Empire. According to the Greek author Herodotus, Cyrus was born from the union between Cambyses, a Persian, and Mandane, the daughter of Astyages, the king of Media. If his mother was indeed Mandane, then Cyrus descended on both his father’s and mother’s sides from a royal lineage.

  After the death of his father in 559 or 558 BCE, Cyrus ascended the throne as the new ruler of Anshan. At the time of Cyrus’s ascension to the throne, four powerful states dominated the political and economic life of the Near East: Media, Lydia, Babylonia, and Egypt. Both the father and grandfather of Cyrus were vassals of the kings of Media. In either 554/553 or 550/549 BCE, a conflict erupted between Cyrus and the Median king Astyages. It is impossible to know with any certainty whether Cyrus or Astyages initiated the conflict between the Medes and the Persians. According to Herodotus, Astyages summoned Cyrus to his court after learning that the Persians intended to revolt and free themselves from the Median yoke, but Cyrus responded by sending a threatening message to the Median king that “he would be there a good deal sooner than Astyages liked” (Herodotus: 1.127). The author Polyaenus reported that Cyrus was defeated in three different battles with the Medes. Despite these setbacks, the king of Anshan rallied his men and led them in a fourth battle with the Medes at Pasargadae in present-day southern Iran near the city of Shiraz. 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” (Polyaenus: 7.6.1). Another source, namely Ctesias, claims that after the conquest of Ecbatana, the Median capital, Astyages was captured while hiding in the attic or vaults of the royal palace together with his daughter Amytis and her husband Spitamas (Ctesias’ History of Persia: 170). Nicolaus of Damascus, however, claimed that Astyages escaped his capital after it fell into the hands of the Persians and he was captured in another battle with Cyrus. The Neo-Babylonian Chronicle of Nabonidus contradicts the Greek accounts and reports that the Median king Astyages “marched against Cyrus,” the king of Anshan, but his army “revolted against him” and delivered him “in fetters” to Cyrus, who attacked the Median capital, Ecbatana, and seized all the silver, gold, and other valuables of the country as booty and carried them off back to Anshan (Pritchard: 235). Cyrus treated Astyages with kindness and compassion and allowed him to live at his court until he passed away (Herodotus: 1.130). One source even claimed that Astyages was appointed by Cyrus as the governor, or satrap, of Carmania (Kerman) in present-day southeastern Iran.

  The fall of the Median Empire proved to be a turning point in the career of Cyrus. The conquest allowed him to emerge as the master of Assyria and Urartu in eastern Asia Minor (present-day Armenia and eastern Turkey). Under Cyrus, the new unified kingdom of Persia and Media also became a neighbor of the wealthy and powerful Lydia, a kingdom that ruled the central and western regions of Asia Minor. As a successor to the Median kings, Cyrus was recognized as the master of the eastern provinces of the Median state, including Hyrcania (Old Persian: Varkana), the region of present-day Gorgan in northern Iran, and Parthia (Old Persian: Parthava) in northeastern Iran. His rule may have extended as far east as Bactria in present-day northern Afghanistan.

  In 547 BCE Cyrus moved against Croesus, the king of Lydia, who was known as one of the wealthiest men of his time. The first battle between the two kings was inconclusive. Croesus returned to his capital, Sardis, in western Asia Minor for the winter, hoping to rest his troops and regroup. He also sent messages to his allies, including Sparta and Egypt, pleading for support, but his allies did not get the opportunity to send him reinforcements. Instead of retreating back to the interior of his kingdom, Cyrus attacked Sardis shortly after the conclusion of the first battle, denying any opportunity for Croesus to reorganize. A Persian army stormed the Lydian capital and captured it. Croesus was taken prisoner and brought to Cyrus, who spared his life and treated him with kindness. The fall of Lydia was followed by the conquest of the Ionian cities on the Aegean coast. Cyrus did not personally participate in these conquests but instead entrusted them to his generals.

  After the conquest of Lydia, Cyrus shifted his attention from west to east. From 545 to 539 BCE, he most probably conquered vast areas in eastern Iran and 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. To the east, the frontiers of the Persian Empire stretched into present-day southern Afghanistan.

  In 539 BCE, Cyrus moved against Babylonia. As the Persian king and his army closed in, the Babylonian monarch Nabonidus fled, and his army disintegrated. 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 archaeologist Hormuzd Rassam in Babylon in 1879, is one of the most significant artifacts of the ancient world. It recounts the peaceful conquest of Babylon by Cyrus and his army, who faced no resistance as they entered one of the most important urban centers of the ancient world. The cylinder also describes the compassion, deference, and respect shown by Cyrus toward all the people of Babylon and their gods. The vassal kings who paid tribute to the king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire rushed to the court of Cyrus to swear their allegiance to the new leader. Thus, Phoenicia, centered on the coastline of today’s Lebanon, as well as Syria and Palestine joined the Persian Empire.

  The Cyrus Cylinder, housed today in the British Museum in London, was issued by the Persian monarch, Cyrus the Great, in 539 BCE to commemorate his conquest of Babylon. The cylinder, which contains an inscription in Akkadian, was discovered by the archaeologist Hormuzd Rassam at the site of the temple of Marduk in Babylon in 1879. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

  With the submission of Palestine, the lands that had formerly constituted the kingdoms of Israel and Judah also fell into the hands of Cyrus. Cyrus issued a proclamation ordering the repair and reconstruction of the Jerusalem Temple. 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 Hebrew 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 the Neo-Babylonian Empire, Cyrus returned to Central Asia to pacify the Scythian tribes.

  NAMES OF GODS, PEOPLE, AND PLAC
ES MENTIONED IN THE CYRUS CYLINDER INSCRIPTION

  In the Cyrus Cylinder inscription, Cyrus II the Great mentioned the names of several gods, people, and places. In order of appearance, these were (1) Marduk, the city god of Babylon and the patron of the Neo-Babylonian kings; (2) Belshazzar, the firstborn son of Nabonidus, the last native king of Babylon (r. 556–539 BCE), who acted as regent for his father during his absence in Teima in Arabia; (3) Esagil, the great temple dedicated to Marduk in Babylon south of the ziggurat tower complex Etemenanki; (4) Enlil, the second most powerful of the ancient gods of Mesopotamia whose place was usurped by Marduk; (5) Shuanna, a name for the city of Babylon, here standing for the whole city but in fact the name of its southernmost quarter; (6) Sumer and Akkad, the old names for southern Mesopotamia, later Babylon; (7) Tintir, the old Sumerian name for the city of Babylon; (8) Anshan, the ancient Elamite city, modern-day Tal-e Malyan, northwest of Shiraz in southern Iran; (9) Guti, the name for the inhabitants of the area between the Zagros Mountains and the Tigris River, referring specifically to Iranians, including the Medes; (10) Nabu, the god of writing, son of Marduk and his wife Zarpanitu; (11) Amurru, the west land; (12) Ashur, one of the old Assyrian capital cities in the north of Iraq on the upper reaches of the Tigris River; (13) Susa, the Elamite capital city in southwestern Iran; (14) Eshnunna, the central Babylonian city on the Diyala River in Iraq; (15) Zamban, a city in the northeast; (16) Meturnu, a city located roughly between Zamban and Eshnunna; (17) Der, an ancient city located east of the Tigris River on the border between Sumer and Elam; (18) Tigris, the river that with the Euphrates defined ancient Mesopotamia, the “land between the rivers”; (19) Imgur-Enlil, the famous inner wall of the city of Babylon; and (20) Ashurbanipal, the last great king of Assyria (685–627 BCE), a warrior and librarian who undertook restoration work in Babylon.

  Source: Irving Finkel, ed., The Cyrus Cylinder: The King of Persia’s Proclamation from Ancient Babylon (London: I. B. Tauris, 2013).

  According to Herodotus, Cyrus was killed in Central Asia in a battle against the Massagetae, a Scythian tribe. The death of the Persian king in 530 BCE did not end the conquests of the Persian state, which would continue under Cyrus’s successors, Cambyses II and Darius I. The body of the fallen king was carried back to Pasargadae on Dasht-e Morghab (Plain of the Water Bird) near the city of Shiraz in southern Iran. There he was laid to rest in a simple mausoleum. According to classical sources, the mausoleum containing the king’s golden coffin stood in the midst of a park surrounded by a grove and lush meadows (Arrian: 6.29). Cyrus had married a Persian princess, Cassandane, and they had two sons and three daughters. Their oldest son, Cambyses, ascended the throne after the death of his father. Their second son was Bardiya, whose fate has been subjected to some controversy. Cyrus and Cassandane’s three daughters were Atossa, Artystone, and Roxane.

  Cyrus has been celebrated as a great conqueror who established the largest empire of antiquity. Upon examining his life and career, it is impossible to escape the fundamental fact that although he was a brilliant king, warrior, and general, the true greatness of Cyrus lies in his introduction of a new concept of kingship, one that rejected the notion that exercise of power always required the use of violence and coercion. Instead, it emphasized the benefits of benevolent rule based on compassion, persuasion, and respect for all cultures, religions, and belief systems.

  See also: K&Q, Achaemenid: Cambyses II; Darius I; Peoples: Achaemenid Empire; Cyropaedia; Primary Documents: Document 6; Document 7; Document 8

  Further Reading

  Arrian. Campaigns of Alexander. Translated by Aubrey De Sélincourt. New York: Dorset, 1986.

  Ctesias’ History of Persia: Tales of the Orient. Translated by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones and James Robson. London: Routledge and Taylor and Francis Group, 2010.

  Curtis, John. The Cyrus Cylinder and Ancient Persia. London: British Museum Press, 2013.

  Dandamayev, Muhammad A. “Cyrus II, the Great.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, 2005, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/cyrus-iiI.

  Grayson, A. Kirk. Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2000.

  Herodotus. The Histories. Translated by Aubrey De Sélincourt. London: Penguin, 2003.

  Mallowan, Max. “Cyrus the Great.” In The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 2, edited by Ilya Gershevitch, 392–419. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.

  Polyaenus. Stratems of War. Edited and translated by Peter Krentz and Everett L. Wheeler. Chicago: Ares Publishers, 1994.

  Pritchard, James B. Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969.

  Cyrus the Younger

  The Persian Achaemenid king Darius II had two sons: Artaxerxes (Old Persian: Artakhshacha) and Cyrus (Kurush). The older son, Artaxerxes, ascended the Persian throne upon the death of Darius II in 404 BCE and ruled until 359 BCE. According to several classical sources, Artaxerxes II was opposed by his younger brother Cyrus, who viewed himself as more deserving of kingship than his older brother. Before the two brothers could clash over the throne, their mother interceded with Artaxerxes and secured for Cyrus the governorship of the western provinces of the Persian Empire.

  Shortly after Artaxerxes II became king, Egypt broke away from the Achaemenid Empire and declared its independence. Persian authority would not be reestablished in Egypt until the reign of Artaxerxes III (r. 359–338 BCE). A year after Artaxerxes II had lost Egypt, his brother Cyrus revolted against him. Cyrus raised an army, which included a large unit of Greek mercenaries, and marched through Asia Minor to Mesopotamia, where the Persian army led by Artaxerxes II was waiting for him. In 401 BCE when the two armies joined battle at Cunaxa on the left bank of the Euphrates River 50 miles north of Babylon in present-day southern Iraq, Cyrus was defeated. The Persian prince was killed on the battlefield after he had attacked and wounded Artaxerxes. The bulk of Cyrus’s army was routed, and the Greek commanders who had participated in the campaign were executed, but a group of Greek mercenaries (according to Greek sources some 10,000 men) who had fought with the ill-fated Persian prince managed to return to Greece. This defeat and retreat were turned into a story of heroism and perseverance by the Greek officer and author Xenophon (431/430–356/354 BCE) in Anabasis [Retreat of the Ten Thousand]. Xenophon depicted Cyrus the Younger as a gifted, magnetic, and yet tragic leader who was most deserving of the Persian throne. This opinion not only reflects the friendship that the Greek author enjoyed with the Persian prince but also the popularity that Cyrus the Younger enjoyed among the Greeks of Asia Minor.

  See also: K&Q, Achaemenid: Artaxerxes II; Prophets: Xenophon; Primary Documents: Document 16

  Further Reading

  Plutarch. Lives, Vol. 2. Translated by John Dryden. Edited by Arthur Hugh Clough. New York: Barnes and Noble, 2006.

  Xenophon. The Persian Expedition. Translated by Rex Warner. London: Penguin, 1950.

  Darius I

  Darius I (Old Persian: Daryavaush I) was a king of the Persian Achaemenid dynasty (r. 550–330 BCE). He ruled from 522 to 486 BCE. It was during the reign of Darius I that the Achaemenid state reached the zenith of its power and its greatest territorial extant, emerging as the largest empire the world had ever seen. The empire stretched from the Indus River Valley in present-day Pakistan to the Danube River in Southeast Europe and from the Aral Sea in Central Asia to Libya in North Africa.

  Darius was the eldest son of Hystaspes (Old Persian: Vishtaspa) and Rhodugune (Old Persian: Vadagauna). Before seizing the Persian throne, Darius was a high-ranking officer in the Persian army. He rose to power after the death of Cambyses II, the son of Cyrus the Great, the second king of the Achaemenid dynasty, in 522 BCE. Cambyses was in Egypt when he was informed that a man claiming to be his younger brother Bardiya had revolted against him. Before he could reach Persia and quell the rebellion, however, Cambyses died. The seizure of the Persian throne by the man who claimed to be Bardiya was opposed by a group of Persian army officers, including Da
rius. In his inscription at Bisotun near Kermanshah in western Iran, Darius claimed that the man who had revolted against Cambyses was not Bardiya but rather a lookalike magus (priest) named Gaumata. Darius asserted that before leaving for Egypt, Cambyses had secretly ordered the murder of his brother to prevent a palace coup in his absence. The murder of the king’s brother was, however, kept secret and was known to only a handful of individuals within the imperial court. Denouncing the new king as an impostor, Darius, with support from six fellow Persian officers, marched against the new ruler and killed him in Media in western Iran. The six officers who joined Darius in a plot to remove Gaumata/Bardiya were Vidafarna (Intaphernes), Utana (Otanes), Gaubaruva (Gobryas), Vidarna (Hydarnes), Bagabuxsha (Megabyzus), and Ardumanish.

  Darius became king in the autumn of 522 BCE. Mass insurrections erupted in several provinces of the empire shortly after he seized the throne but were suppressed, with rebel leaders captured, tortured, and executed. In his inscription at Bisotun in western Iran, Darius stated that he and his army commanders fought a total of 19 battles in the first year of his reign. The rebel leaders Darius defeated in the first year of his reign were Achina, who proclaimed himself the king of Elam; Nidintu-Bel, who proclaimed himself king in Babylon; Phraortes, who proclaimed himself king of Media; Martiya, a Persian who wished to be the king of Elam; Cicantakhma, a Sargatian; Vahyazdata, a Persian who claimed to be Smerdis; Arkha, an Armenian who claimed to be a son of Nabonidus, the Neo-Babylonian king who was defeated by Cyrus II the Great; and Frada, who hailed from Margiana. In the third year of Darius’s reign another rebellion broke out in Elam (in southwestern Iran), which was crushed by the Persian army. In 519 BCE, Darius attacked the Scythian tribes who lived beyond either the Caspian Sea or the Black Sea. He defeated the Scythians and captured their leader, Skunkha, who was subsequently executed.