Achaemenid inscriptions* sources
often in old persian with Elamite or Babylonian translations
Greek Historians* sources
Heroduts, Ctesias, Xenophon
Hebrew Bible* sources
Ezra and Nehemiah- jews are returned from deportation
Esther- negative image
economic documents * sources
in Aramaic, Babylonian, Egyptian, and Elamite
Sardis (map)
key war with Greeks, goes to Indus river
Arachosia
becomes Camdahar (in Afghanistan)
Persian Provinces
Satrapy, Satrap at the head- usually persians or medes
Army of Achaemenid
better land gifts = provide better men for fighting- disjointed, easy to take over, no one wants to risk their neck
use aramaic as bureacratic language
22 characters as opposed to old persian that has over 100, texts that are in old persian are only royal annals
acheamenid dynasty
married siblings, had their own religion
punishment for not paying taxes
deface deities or destroy temple
helped rebuild temples
of conquered people, respected their cultural and religious beliefs so long as they paid taxes
Silk road
Parthia, Bactria, Sogdiana
persian kings were called
kings of anshan
homeland of persians
Fars- SE Zagros mountains, part of Elam, known as Anshan
Medes homeland
NE Zagros, Ecbatana (modern Hamadan) tribal confederation
2 Iranian Speakers in 1st millenium
Medes and Persians
Cyaxares
an ally of the Babylonians and attacked Assyrian cities (Assur, Nineveh, Harran)
Cyrus takes over (550)
Ecbatana (550), incorporates Medes into empire, even giving them higher positions
Cyrus II, a.k.a. “Cyrus the Great” (559-530)
took over Susa, successful campaigns in central and eastern Iran (Bactria, Sogdiana) and Afghanistan
controlled previous Babylonian areas
Cambyses II (530-522)
created the Persian navy- to defeat Egypt, Greeks etc
Libya, Barca, Cyrene) Herodotus paints him as a dumb brute, but egyptians said he was less harsh than all that
Darius I (522-486)
trilingual inscription of Darius in Bisitun (Elamite, Old Persian, Babylonian, Darius confronted the Greeks at Marathon and lost (490)
building activities at Susa and the building of a new capital (Persepolis)
Persepolis
Capital Cities were composed of: temple, palace, and houses for the workers, not real cities, Persepolis is very well preserved, made by Darius I
Xerxes (486-465)
king with many battles against Greeks
Thermopylae (Leonidus)
Persians win vs. Greeks (Xerxes)
straits of Salamis (480)
greeks defeat Persian Navy (Xerxes)
Plataea (479)
greeks defeat persian infantry (Xerxes)
Delian League
formed by Athenians to fight Persians in Aegean, Thracia, and Asia Minor (Anatolia)
battle at the mouth of the Eurymedon river in Pamphylia (466)
after a string of persian defeats by Greeks
Artaxerxes II (405-359)
his brother Cyrus tried to take the throne with troops from Asia Minor and Greek mercenaries (the Greek historian Xenophon was among the latter)
The King’s Peace
the Persian king (Artaxerxes II) was able to impose a peace treaty on the Greeks (“the King’s Peace”), which placed Asia Minor (Anatolia) under Persian control
Xenophon’s personal mercenary account
The Analysis (going up in sea level)
Darius III (336-330)
killed by one of his generals, fought Alexander the Great in Asia Minor, Phoenicia and the Levant
(“battle of Gaugamela,” 330)
Alexander takes the Persian Homeland, last battle for the persians