Origins of Great Ancient Civilizations | The Persian Empire (Lecture 12)

Lecture 12: Four imperial orders, which emerged from the Neo-Assyrian Empire, shared rule over the Near East for two generations: Egypt under the Saite Dynasty XXVI, a resurgent Babylon under Chaldaean kings, the kings of Lydia in western Asia, and the Medes of western Iran. Between 550 and 525 B.C., these kingdoms fell to the Achaemenid kings of Persia, Cyrus the Great (559–530 B.C.) and Cambyses (530–522 B.C.). Darius I (521–486 B.C.), who seized the throne in a major rebellion, organized the Persian Empire based on Assyrian administration, drawing upon Mesopotamian political and cultural traditions.

The Persian Empire was divided into satrapies administered by Persian or Median aristocrats bound by honor and service to the great king. The empire, spanning 3,000 miles from the Aegean shores to the Indus valley, was linked by a royal highway and defended by the first army to depend on cavalry. The Achaemenid kings adroitly adapted local institutions and co-opted native elites to win approval from subject peoples, such as the Hebrews, or admiration from their foes, the Greeks. In 500 B.C., King Darius reigned over a mighty empire, the climax and epitome of 30 centuries, but within the year, he was drawn into wars on his distant western frontiers against the Greeks, who had evolved along quite different lines since the Late Bronze Age. The ensuing Persian Wars altered the course of Western civilization.

Further Reading:
J. M. Cook, The Persian Empire.
M. A. Dandamaev and V. G. Lukonin, The Culture and Social Institutions of Ancient Iran. Translated by P. L. Kohl and D. J. Dadson.