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Flashcards in The Achaemenid Empire Deck (34)
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1
Q

Achaemenid inscriptions* sources

A

often in old persian with Elamite or Babylonian translations

2
Q

Greek Historians* sources

A

Heroduts, Ctesias, Xenophon

3
Q

Hebrew Bible* sources

A

Ezra and Nehemiah- jews are returned from deportation

Esther- negative image

4
Q

economic documents * sources

A

in Aramaic, Babylonian, Egyptian, and Elamite

5
Q

Sardis (map)

A

key war with Greeks, goes to Indus river

6
Q

Arachosia

A

becomes Camdahar (in Afghanistan)

7
Q

Persian Provinces

A

Satrapy, Satrap at the head- usually persians or medes

8
Q

Army of Achaemenid

A

better land gifts = provide better men for fighting- disjointed, easy to take over, no one wants to risk their neck

9
Q

use aramaic as bureacratic language

A

22 characters as opposed to old persian that has over 100, texts that are in old persian are only royal annals

10
Q

acheamenid dynasty

A

married siblings, had their own religion

11
Q

punishment for not paying taxes

A

deface deities or destroy temple

12
Q

helped rebuild temples

A

of conquered people, respected their cultural and religious beliefs so long as they paid taxes

13
Q

Silk road

A

Parthia, Bactria, Sogdiana

14
Q

persian kings were called

A

kings of anshan

15
Q

homeland of persians

A

Fars- SE Zagros mountains, part of Elam, known as Anshan

16
Q

Medes homeland

A

NE Zagros, Ecbatana (modern Hamadan) tribal confederation

17
Q

2 Iranian Speakers in 1st millenium

A

Medes and Persians

18
Q

Cyaxares

A

an ally of the Babylonians and attacked Assyrian cities (Assur, Nineveh, Harran)

19
Q

Cyrus takes over (550)

A

Ecbatana (550), incorporates Medes into empire, even giving them higher positions

20
Q

Cyrus II, a.k.a. “Cyrus the Great” (559-530)

A

took over Susa, successful campaigns in central and eastern Iran (Bactria, Sogdiana) and Afghanistan
controlled previous Babylonian areas

21
Q

Cambyses II (530-522)

A

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

22
Q

Darius I (522-486)

A

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)

23
Q

Persepolis

A

Capital Cities were composed of: temple, palace, and houses for the workers, not real cities, Persepolis is very well preserved, made by Darius I

24
Q

Xerxes (486-465)

A

king with many battles against Greeks

25
Q

Thermopylae (Leonidus)

A

Persians win vs. Greeks (Xerxes)

26
Q

straits of Salamis (480)

A

greeks defeat Persian Navy (Xerxes)

27
Q

Plataea (479)

A

greeks defeat persian infantry (Xerxes)

28
Q

Delian League

A

formed by Athenians to fight Persians in Aegean, Thracia, and Asia Minor (Anatolia)

29
Q

battle at the mouth of the Eurymedon river in Pamphylia (466)

A

after a string of persian defeats by Greeks

30
Q

Artaxerxes II (405-359)

A

his brother Cyrus tried to take the throne with troops from Asia Minor and Greek mercenaries (the Greek historian Xenophon was among the latter)

31
Q

The King’s Peace

A

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

32
Q

Xenophon’s personal mercenary account

A

The Analysis (going up in sea level)

33
Q

Darius III (336-330)

A

killed by one of his generals, fought Alexander the Great in Asia Minor, Phoenicia and the Levant

34
Q

(“battle of Gaugamela,” 330)

A

Alexander takes the Persian Homeland, last battle for the persians