Xerxes is the Persian king. Persian power: history of origin, life and culture
The Persian Empire was a centralized monarchical state. The successes and defeats of the Persians depended on the personal qualities of the king and his ability to make the right decisions. The main turns of the Persian foreign policy associated with the decisions made by the kings. Even the most powerful satraps, military leaders and rulers of vassal areas depended on the mercy of the Achaemenids. The main stages of the history of the Persian Empire can be associated with the activities of its supreme rulers, who controlled the power from Persepolis.
First Achaemenids. The royal family from which Cyrus II and Darius I came ruled the Persians from at least the 7th century BC. Its founder was considered to be Achaemen, who reigned at the turn of the 8th-7th centuries BC. The next king was his son Chishpish (Teisp).
It is known that in the 7th century BC. was the king of Persia Cyrus I. In the first half of the 6th century BC. Cambyses I ruled the Persians, and after him the throne was inherited by his son named Cyrus.
Cyrus II reigned 559-530. BC. This ruler was able to go from being the king of little Persia to becoming the founder of a world empire. He conquered Media, Babylonia, Asia Minor and its Greek cities, and vast lands in Central Asia. Cyrus allowed the Jews, who were driven to Mesopotamia after the Babylonian conquest, to return to their homeland.
Cambyses II(530-522 BC). He was the closest ally of his father Cyrus. For several months during his father's life he ruled as king of Babylon. Before the last campaign against the Massagetae, Cambyses became co-ruler of Cyrus.
In 525-522 BC. King Cambyses II organized an invasion and subjugated Egypt. He was proclaimed king of this country in accordance with Egyptian traditions and is considered the founder of the XXVI dynasty.
Herodotus created the image of Cambyses as a cruel and insane tyrant who mocked the religious traditions of the Egyptians. Authentic texts do not confirm this, emphasizing the king's respect for the Egyptian religion.
Darius I(522-486 BC). He achieved power after the turmoil that followed the death of Cambyses. Overthrew the usurper Bardiya and suppressed the uprisings. Reorganized the satrapy system. Under Darius I, the borders of the empire reached their maximum: northwestern India, part of Thrace, and the Greek islands in the Aegean were conquered.
Artaxex I(465-424 BC). Under this king, the wars with the Greeks ended. He managed to maintain control over the rebels Egypt and Cyprus. He began a policy of cooperation with the Greek city-states to the benefit of Persia.
Artaxerxes II(404-359 BC). Soon after coming to power, he suppressed the uprising of his brother Cyrus the Younger, who marched towards Babylon. Under Artaxex II, Persia actively intervened in the affairs of the Greek city-states, supporting different city-states alternately so that the Greeks could not become dangerous.
In 386 BC. in alliance with Sparta, he dictated the Antalcid (Royal) peace to the Greeks, according to which the Hellenic city-states of Ionia and Aeolis returned to the Achaemenid Empire. In 375, 371, 366 BC. with the participation of Artaxerxes II, new peace treaties were concluded between the Greek city-states. In 391-382 BC. subjugated the strong ruler of Cyprus, Evagoras.
Artaxex III(359-338 BC). He continued his father's policy towards the Greek city states. In 355 BC. intervened in the Allied War of Athens against Byzantium, Rhodes and Chios. He promised these policies support against Athens and achieved a peace agreement, according to which Byzantium, Rhodes and Chios left the alliance led by Athens.
In 349-344 BC. suppressed uprisings in Phenicia. During the campaigns of 344-342 BC. Artaxerxes' generals re-conquered Egypt, which had seceded at the end of the 5th century BC.
Darius III(336-330 BC). He was a representative of a side branch of the royal house, tracing its origin back to Darius II. Before coming to power, he was the governor of Armenia under the name Kodoman. Received the throne in adulthood as a result of a conspiracy organized by a court eunuch. His reign saw the invasion of Alexander the Great. After a series of defeats and the loss of the capital, Darius was killed by his entourage.
After the death of most of the kings in Persia, the empire was rocked by rebellions. Satraps and dependent rulers tried to break away from the central empire, and representatives of the side branches of the Achaemenids took the throne. To retain power from the king, determination, cruelty and the gift of a politician were required.
The activities of the kings from the Achaemenid clan were connected, first of all, with the acquisition of new lands and the desire to keep those already conquered in subjection.
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In the middle of the 6th century BC. That is, a hitherto little-known tribe entered the historical arena - the Persians, who, by the will of fate, soon managed to create the greatest empire of that time, a powerful state stretching from Egypt and Libya to the borders. The Persians were active and insatiable in their conquests, and only courage and bravery during the Greco-Persian Wars managed to stop their further expansion into Europe. But who were the ancient Persians, what was their history and culture? Read about all this further in our article.
Where is Persia
But first, let’s answer the question of where ancient Persia is located, or rather, where it was. The territory of Persia at the time of its greatest prosperity extended from the borders of India in the East to modern Libya in North Africa and parts of mainland Greece in the West (those lands that the Persians managed to conquer from the Greeks for a short time).
This is what ancient Persia looks like on the map.
History of Persia
The origin of the Persians is associated with the warlike nomadic tribes of the Aryans, some of whom settled on the territory of the modern state of Iran (the word “Iran” itself comes from ancient name“Ariana”, which means “country of the Aryans”). Once on fertile lands Iranian highlands, they moved from a nomadic lifestyle to a sedentary one, nevertheless, preserving both their military traditions of nomads and the simplicity of morals characteristic of many nomadic tribes.
Story ancient Persia as a great power of the past begins in the middle of the 6th century BC. that is, when, under the leadership of the talented leader (later the Persian king) Cyrus II, the Persians first completely conquered Media, one of the large states of the then East. And then they began to threaten itself, which at that time was the greatest power of antiquity.
And already in 539, near the city of Opis, on the Tiber River, a decisive battle took place between the armies of the Persians and Babylonians, which ended in a brilliant victory for the Persians, the Babylonians were completely defeated, and Babylon itself, the greatest city of antiquity for many centuries, became part of the newly formed Persian Empire . In just a dozen years, the Persians from a seedy tribe truly turned into the rulers of the East.
According to the Greek historian Herodotus, such a crushing success of the Persians was facilitated, first of all, by the simplicity and modesty of the latter. And of course there is iron military discipline in their troops. Even after gaining enormous wealth and power over many other tribes and peoples, the Persians continued to honor these virtues, simplicity and modesty, most of all. It is interesting that during the coronation of the Persian kings, the future king had to put on clothes common man and eat a handful of dried figs and drink a glass sour milk- food of common people, which symbolized his connection with the people.
But back to the history of the Persian Empire, the successors of Cyrus II, the Persian kings Cambyses and Darius, continued their active policy of conquest. So under Cambyses the Persians invaded Ancient Egypt, who was experiencing by that time political crisis. Having defeated the Egyptians, the Persians turned this cradle ancient civilization, Egypt into one of its satrapies (provinces).
King Darius actively strengthened the borders of the Persian state, both in the East and in the West; under his rule, ancient Persia reached the pinnacle of its power, and almost the entire civilized world of that time was under its rule. With the exception of ancient Greece in the West, which gave no rest to the warlike Persian kings, and soon the Persians, under the reign of King Xerxes, the heir of Darius, tried to conquer these wayward and freedom-loving Greeks, but it was not to be.
Despite their numerical superiority, military luck betrayed the Persians for the first time. In a number of battles they suffered a number of crushing defeats from the Greeks, however, at some stage they managed to conquer a number of Greek territories and even plunder Athens, but still the Greco-Persian wars ended in a crushing defeat for the Persian Empire.
From that moment on, the once great country entered a period of decline; the Persian kings, who had grown up in luxury, increasingly forgot the former virtues of modesty and simplicity, which were so valued by their ancestors. Many conquered countries and peoples were just waiting for the moment to rebel against the hated Persians, their enslavers and conquerors. And such a moment has come - Alexander the Great, at the head of a united Greek army, himself attacked Persia.
It seemed that the Persian troops would crush this arrogant Greek (or rather, not even a completely Greek - a Macedonian) into powder, but everything turned out to be completely different, the Persians again suffered crushing defeats, one after another, the united Greek phalanx, this tank of antiquity, crushes superior forces over and over again. Persian forces. The peoples once conquered by the Persians, seeing what was happening, also rebelled against their rulers; the Egyptians even met Alexander’s army as liberators from the hated Persians. Persia turned out to be a true ear of clay with feet of clay, formidable in appearance, it was crushed thanks to the military and political genius of one Macedonian.
Sasanian state and Sasanian revival
The conquests of Alexander the Great turned out to be a disaster for the Persians, who, instead of arrogant power over other peoples, had to humbly submit to their long-time enemies - the Greeks. Only in the 2nd century BC. That is, the Parthian tribes managed to expel the Greeks from Asia Minor, although the Parthians themselves adopted a lot from the Greeks. And so in 226 AD, a certain ruler of Pars with the ancient Persian name Ardashir (Artaxerxes) rebelled against the ruling Parthian dynasty. The uprising was successful and ended with the restoration of the Persian state, the Sassanid state, which historians call the “second Persian empire” or the “Sassanid revival”.
The Sasanian rulers sought to revive former greatness ancient Persia, which at that time had already become a semi-legendary power. And it was under them that a new flowering of Iranian and Persian culture began, which everywhere supplants Greek culture. Temples and new palaces in the Persian style are being actively built, wars are being waged with neighbors, but not as successfully as in the old days. The territory of the new Sassanian state is severalfold smaller sizes former Persia, it is located only on the site of modern Iran, the actual ancestral home of the Persians, and also covers part of the territory of modern Iraq, Azerbaijan and Armenia. The Sasanian state existed for more than four centuries, until, exhausted by continuous wars, it was finally conquered by the Arabs, carrying the banner of a new religion - Islam.
Persian culture
The culture of ancient Persia is most notable for their system government controlled, which even the ancient Greeks admired. In their opinion, this form of government was the pinnacle of monarchical rule. The Persian state was divided into so-called satrapies, headed by the satrap himself, which means “guardian of order.” In fact, the satrap was a local governor-general, whose broad responsibilities included maintaining order in the territories entrusted to him, collecting taxes, administering justice, and commanding local military garrisons.
Another important achievement of Persian civilization was the beautiful roads described by Herodotus and Xenophon. The most famous was the royal road, running from Ephesus in Asia Minor to the city of Susa in the East.
The post office also functioned well in ancient Persia, which was also greatly facilitated by good roads. Also in ancient Persia, trade was very developed; a well-thought-out tax system, similar to the modern one, functioned throughout the state, in which part of the taxes and taxes went to conditional local budgets, while part was sent to the central government. The Persian kings had a monopoly on the minting of gold coins, while their satraps could also mint their own coins, but only in silver or copper. The "local money" of the satraps circulated only in a certain territory, while the gold coins of the Persian kings were a universal means of payment throughout the Persian empire and even beyond its borders.
Coins of Persia.
Writing in ancient Persia had an active development, so there were several types of it: from pictograms to the alphabet invented in its time. The official language of the Persian kingdom was Aramaic, coming from the ancient Assyrians.
The art of ancient Persia is represented by the sculpture and architecture there. For example, skillfully carved stone bas-reliefs of Persian kings have survived to this day.
Persian palaces and temples were famous for their luxurious decoration.
Here is an image of a Persian master.
Unfortunately, other forms of ancient Persian art have not reached us.
Religion of Persia
The religion of ancient Persia is represented by a very interesting religious doctrine - Zoroastrianism, so named after the founder of this religion, the sage, prophet (and possibly magician) Zoroaster (aka Zoroaster). The teachings of Zoroastrianism are based on the eternal confrontation between good and evil, where good start represented by the god Ahura Mazda. The wisdom and revelation of Zarathushtra are presented in the sacred book of Zoroastrianism - the Zend Avesta. In fact, this religion of the ancient Persians has a lot in common with other monotheistic later religions, such as Christianity and Islam:
- Belief in one God, which among the Persians was represented by Ahura-Mazda himself. The antipode of God, the Devil, Satan in the Christian tradition in Zoroastrianism is represented by the demon Druj, personifying evil, lies, and destruction.
- Availability scripture, Zend-Avesta among the Zoroastrian Persians, like the Koran among Muslims and the Bible among Christians.
- The presence of a prophet, Zoroastrian-Zaratushtra, through whom divine wisdom is transmitted.
- The moral and ethical component of the teaching is that Zoroastrianism preaches (as well as other religions) renunciation of violence, theft, and murder. For an unrighteous and sinful path in the future, according to Zarathustra, a person after death will end up in hell, while a person who commits good deeds after death will remain in heaven.
In a word, as we see, the ancient Persian religion of Zoroastrianism is strikingly different from the pagan religions of many other peoples, and in its nature is very similar to the later world religions of Christianity and Islam, and by the way, it still exists today. After the fall of the Sasanian state, the final collapse of Persian culture and especially religion came, since the Arab conquerors carried with them the banner of Islam. Many Persians also converted to Islam at this time and assimilated with the Arabs. But there was a part of the Persians who wanted to remain faithful to their ancient religion Zoroastrianism, fleeing the religious persecution of Muslims, they fled to India, where they have preserved their religion and culture to this day. Now they are known under the name Parsis; in the territory of modern India, even today there are many Zoroastrian temples, as well as adherents of this religion, real descendants of the ancient Persians.
Ancient Persia, video
And in conclusion, an interesting documentary about ancient Persia - “The Persian Empire - an empire of greatness and wealth.”
Darius came from the reigning Achaemenid dynasty, but was not close to the throne after the death of King Cambyses. He had little chance of ascending the throne if not for the cunning of Darius, which is described ancient legend. King Cambyses killed his brother Bardia. Soon the ruler himself died around 522 BC. e. However, immediately after the death of the ruler, an impostor appeared, who in fact turned out to be the magician Gaumata, who claimed that he was the miraculously saved Bardiya. The army sided with Gaumata and the false Bardiya managed to gain considerable love from the people. However, the Persian rulers, who were equal to the king and differed from him only in rank, suspected something was wrong and decided to get rid of the deceiver. The new king inherited the harem of his predecessor. One of his wives was the daughter of a noble Persian leader, who helped uncover the deception. There were rumors that Gaumata's ears were cut off for some crime. The wife confirmed that her new husband did not have ears, so the rulers confirmed that they were right.
Darius I defeats the magician Gaumata
The leaders of the seven ancient Aryan tribes also enjoyed the privilege of entering the king without warning at any time. Darius gathered local rulers, at night they broke into the impostor’s chambers and killed him. Darius struck the decisive blow. Before the murder, the conspirators agreed that the throne would go to the one whose horse neighs first when they leave the palace gates. Then Darius decided to cheat. He ordered his grooms to hide behind the gate a mare who had just recently given birth to a foal from his horse. As soon as the rulers left the gate, Darius’s horse sensed the mare, rushed forward and neighed. Darius was unanimously recognized as the new ruler of Persia, however, to strengthen his position, Darius married the daughter of Cyrus the Great.
Darius inherited a vast empire stretching from Egypt to India. However, the conquered peoples did not want to live under the rule of the Persians, and uprisings broke out here and there. Darius gathered an army and went to Babylon, believing that if he could calm it down, then other nations would also calm down. Babylon was conquered, and Darius brought order to Media. The king then went to Phenicia, Egypt and invaded a number of Greek cities. In an effort to strengthen his influence on the eastern borders and seize Indian gold, he sent troops to India. The Persians did not encounter fierce resistance there and formed their easternmost province. The Persian Empire regained the size it was under Cyrus the Great.
Darius I
Darius showed himself not only as a talented commander and conqueror, but also as a skillful organizer. He realized that it would be difficult to manage such vast domains and divided the territory into satrapies. At the head of each such administrative unit was a satrap, who was appointed by the king and had administrative, judicial, military and financial control over the lands entrusted to him. However, the king understood that such great power was a great temptation, and installed deputies for the satraps who would monitor their work and report everything personally to the king. Also in the satrapies there were permanent royal garrisons, which represented a force in opposition to the power of the satrap.
Persian warriors
Darius also solved the problem with message delivery. One of the main problems of such a gigantic empire was that sometimes news and royal orders arrived six months late. Then Darius ordered the creation of a system of “all-weather” roads and a courier service. Along the way there were intermediate stations where horses and riders were ready to continue the journey. Thus, the distance that previously had to be covered by one person in 3 months was covered in a week. In addition, the king resolved the issue of sea communications. He decided to connect Egypt more closely with Mesopotamia and Iran and ordered the completion of a direct line sea route. Work on digging a canal from the Nile to the Red Sea began under Pharaoh Necho, and was finally completed under the Persian king. Darius installed Suez Canal granite steles, the inscription on which reads: “I am a Persian from Persia... He conquered Egypt, decided to dig this canal from the river called the Nile, which flows in Egypt, to the sea, which comes from Persia.” Also under Darius, the collection of tribute from the satrapies was established and the first official Persian coinage was established.
Palace of Darius in Persepolis
The Persians were united by a common language and religion, especially cult supreme god Ahura Mazda. It was believed that it was he who gave the king power, so the Persians swore to faithfully serve their king as the viceroy of God. Darius often wrote: “By the will of Ahuramazda, I own this kingdom.” As the scale of the empire grew, so did the attitude towards religion. The power relied on the ancient Persian religion, which meanwhile absorbed many of the customs of the conquered peoples. However, Ahuramazda continued to remain the supreme deity. Darius began to be called the “king of kings” or “king of countries” to justify his campaigns of conquest. At the same time, the king did all this according to the will of the main deity.
With the blessing of his patron, Darius decided to organize trips to Europe. The first campaign took place in 513 BC. e., when the Persians decided to conquer the lands around the Black Sea and annex the possessions of the Scythians. But the nomads did not want to fight the well-armed Persian army. They drove the cattle into the distant steppes, burned all the lands behind them and filled up the wells with water. The Persians very soon began to starve and die of thirst, discontent grew in the army and Darius took his troops home with nothing.
Battle of Marathon
But Darius did not think about calming down and began to prepare a new campaign, this time against the Greeks. The outbreak of the Ionian uprising, although suppressed by the Persians, provoked a series of Greco-Persian wars. For a long time The Greeks were defeated by the troops of the Achaemenid Empire, but the Battle of Marathon changed everything. Darius ordered the construction of ships, and in the fall of 490 BC. e. A Persian army of thousands landed near the village of Marathon. The Persians were met by a small but well-organized Athenian army under the leadership of Miltiades. The Greeks fought fiercely and were able to defeat the Persian army, which was many times superior to them. According to legend, the Greeks sent a messenger Pheidippides to Athens to tell the inhabitants the good news of the victory. The messenger ran 42 km without stopping between Marathon and Athens and, shouting: “Rejoice, Athenians, we have won!”, fell from fatigue and died. For the Greeks, this victory was the first over the Persians, so it was of great importance. Darius, who suffered such a crushing defeat for the first time, perceived it simply as a failure. Persia was at the peak of its power and possessed enormous resources. Darius began to gather an army to conquer all of Greece, but he was distracted by the uprising in Egypt in 486 BC. e. Soon the Persian king died, and his throne was taken by Xerxes, who, having suppressed the Egyptian uprising, continued preparations for the Greek campaign.