The Persian Empire It was formed in the union of the Medes and Persians, they developed on the plateau of what is now Iran, around 1500 BC. They spread throughout the Middle East. Dario I was its main promoter at an economic and territorial level, although its territorial expansion began with the reign of Cyrus II.
Mede Empire, beginning of the Persian Empire
In the II millennium, around the year 1500, the Persians occupied the western regions of Iran, Indo-Europeans, who came from the other side of the Caucasus. Other groups penetrated into Asia Minor. Some of its branches continued on their way to India. Those who stayed here were called Medes and Persians; these settled in the southern regions, and the first in the North.
While Assyria was powerful , he was able to hold off the neighboring highlanders, and among them the Indo-Europeans of the Iranian plateau. Some of these paid tribute to Sargon. When Ashurbanipal reigned, a leader of the Medes arose, Ciaxares . He unified his people, brought the boundary of his domain to the river Halys, in the fight with the Lydians (585), and along with the revolted Babylonians destroyed Nineveh. He established the capital of his kingdom at Ecbatana. His successor was Astyages .
TheformationofthePersianEmpire. Cyrus.
If the Persian tribe initially accepted the domination of the Medes, a leader soon emerged who knew how to organize it. It was Ciro , descendant of Achaimenes, after whom the dynasty was named (Achaemenids). A great politician and an excellent general, he unified his compatriots and the Medes were incorporated by defeating their king Astyages (550). From this moment he set out to conquer the neighboring kingdoms: Lydia and Babylon . In 540, Cyrus defeated Croesus, king of Lydia, in Sardis, and annexed this country. Three years later he seizes Babylon, poorly defended.
When Cyrus died in 529 fighting the nomads of the Northeast, the first great Indo-European Empire was firmly established. Cyrus was tolerant, a policy followed by his immediate successors, and allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem (537).
Cambises and Darío
The expansion of the Persian Empire continued during the reigns of the immediate successors of Cyrus. His son Cambyses (530-522) easily conquered Egypt and incorporated Cyrene into his estate; but in trying to occupy Nubia and command, at the same time, an expedition to the oasis of Amman, he suffered a double failure; Enraged, he brutalized the Egyptians and their gods. A suitor posing as his dead brother rose up in Persia, and Cambyses died going to put down the rebellion.
Darius I , from another branch of the family, took the throne and appeased the Empire. He returned to Egypt, winning the affection of its population by moderate treatment of him (517). His arrival in the Aegean brought him into contact with the Hellenic world. He made an expedition to Scythia (Ukraine), crossing the Hellespont and the Danube, in which the Greeks of Asia Minor took part, subject to his power (515). Soon after, the Ionian cities rose up and burned Sardis. Athens he helped them. This is the reason for the medical wars , struggle between two branches of the great Indo-European family, each with different ideals. Although Persia had the greatest military and political strength, it was unable to defeat the small Greek states.
The army of the Persian empire was an army of strong peasants. Their weapon was the bow, which they wielded skillfully. His ranged action disconcerted the enemy, who was immediately attacked by a very powerful cavalry. It also had numerous auxiliary forces from various parts of the Empire. Instead, his fleet had to be made up of a conglomerate of the vanquished countries:Ionia, Phoenicia, Egypt, and Cilicia; against her the Athenian fleet had unity. The Persian soldier was agile and patient, tireless and sober; a handful of dates and a piece of hard cheese were enough for him.
Darius was a great monarch, humane and reasonable like Cyrus. With him, the administrative system that such a vast Empire required reaches its perfection. It was divided into twenty provinces , including the Penjab , in India, conquered around 510 (twenty-one with Thrace, which was later lost). Each province was headed by a satrap , who freely directed internal affairs. Each satrapy he paid large contributions to the royal treasury. The gold of the Persian empire became famous. Darío was the first to regularly mint this metal. His coins, with the image of the king as an archer, were called Doric . Ancient Susa , capital of the Empire, was linked to the most remote regions of the Empire by well-preserved roads.
Darío's successors
Darius died in 485 and his son Xerxes succeeded him , who after putting down several revolts made his famous and unsuccessful expedition to Greece. Become an oriental despot he was assassinated in 465. The ancient spirit of the tribes of Persia had disappeared by adopting oriental fashions. The Persians had developed the sense of imitation. They took the dress of the Medes, the luxury of the Babylonians, some garments of the Egyptians, rites of the Chaldean priests. All this accentuated the despotism of their monarchs. His servants were always exposed to a terrible death. This explains why the intrigues were constant, weakening the monarchy and putting it defenseless in the hands of Alexander of Macedon , two centuries after having reached the maximum power of the East.
During the long reign of Xerxes' son, Artaxerxes I Longimanus (465-424), the monarchy of the Persian empire still maintained its prestige and power, showing the king to be tolerant and very friendly with the Jews. He had to put down various palace revolts and intrigues and very serious insurrections in Egypt, supported by Greece. He continued the fight with Athens, but the Persian monarch knew how to take advantage of the disagreements between the Greek states to obtain better conditions than the military facts allowed to expect.
DeclineofthePersianEmpire
After a period of murky intrigues and palatine assassinations, he is entrenched on the throne Darío II Ochos (424-405). His reign is also full of intrigue and is interesting in connection with the struggles between the Greeks. Thanks to the support of the Persian empire, accentuated by Cyrus, the ambitious son of the Great King, Sparta was able to defeat Athens.
To his fate, in 405, Cyrus tried to wrest the kingdom from his brother Artaxerxes II, with the help of an army of Greek mercenaries. At Cunaxa the Greeks won, but Cyrus died, and they suffered great hardships to reach the Black Sea coast (retreat of the Ten Thousand ). Thanks to the disagreements between the Greeks, Artaxerxes managed to impose the so-called Peace of the King, which restored his Empire to the extent it had in the time of Darius I. He had to quell dangerous revolts in Cyprus and Egypt, complicated by a great conspiracy of satraps. After a long reign, he died in 359. Artajeijes III, his son, succeeded him and reconquered Egypt. He was assassinated by his favorite Bagoas, who committed many crimes until he was also assassinated by Darius III (336), the king defeated by Alexander and with whom the Persian Empire ends. .
ThereligionofthePersianEmpire
In the sixth century a. C. lived Spithama Zarathustra , called Zoroaster by the Greeks, founding magician of the religion called Mazdeism , which Darius made the officer of the Empire of him. In all probability, Zarathustra, perhaps influenced by the Hebrews, thought of a monotheistic religion, whose god was called Ahura-Mazda (Ormuz, for the Greeks). But a latent dualism in his religious thought made his disciples elaborate a dualistic theology, contained in the Zend-Avesta, which opposed Mazda, the god of good, Angra-Mainyu (Arihman, for the Greeks), the god of evil The fight between the two would last until the end of time, when he will defeat Ahura-Mazda. The moral of this religion is quite high and the main cult is fire.
The art of the Persian Empire
As for the art of the Persian empire, the Behistún stela stands out, where under a winged image of Mazda there is a relief in which Darius I is represented trampling the defeated Gaumata, and below it a summary of the campaigns of his reign. The remains of the palace of Darius I in Persepolis, burned by order of Alexander, and the tomb of the same king on a cliff in Nakch-Rustem, near the capital, are also preserved.
The Hebrews under the Seleucids and Rome
In 537, Cyrus allows the Jews to return to Jerusalem, where they enjoy autonomy. In the time of the Seleucids the fights are renewed, especially when Antiochus IV implanted in Jerusalem the cult of Zeus instead of that of Jehovah (168). The Maccabean family leads the liberation movement, which was achieved, after a heroic struggle, in 130. Thanks to his friendship with Rome, John Hyrcanus (130-105) represents a new heyday for Judah, ruled by kings who are high priests.
After new turmoil, the Roman general Pompey incorporates Judea into the province of Syria; but retains its autonomy under the high priest Hyrcanus. César gives him the title of ethnarch and that of tetrarchs to other subordinates of his. In the year 40, the Senate, to thank Herod for his intervention against the Parthians, granted him the title of king. Herod received the nickname of Great, embellished Jerusalem and enlarged the Jewish territory. New uprisings force Rome to incorporate Palestine back into the province of Syria. The Tetrarch Herod Antipas he is the one who has Saint John the Baptist killed, and the one who sentences—with the Roman governor Pontius Pilate—Jesus. Later, Herod Agrippa, a descendant of the Maccabees, was king of Judea, returning to his death the country to be a Roman province. In the year 66 of C. an uprising of the Jews breaks out. Vespasian starts the war, and his son Titus ends it with the destruction of Jerusalem. Hadrian turns this city into the colony Aelia Capitolina . The Jews, always waiting for the Messiah, rise up again. The fortress of Masada, by the Dead Sea, is his last, desperate and heroic refuge. Defeated (132-135) by the same emperor, they are punished with dispersion (the diaspora ).
Phoenicia under foreign rule
With the domination of the Persian empire, Sidon again occupies the first place. In general, the Phoenicians are faithful to the Persians and form the main body of their fleet in the fight against the Greeks. Sometimes they revolt, and refuse to attack Carthage, as Cambyses wanted. Artaxerxes III burns Sidon. After the Battle of Issos , the Phoenician cities are delivered to Alexander the Great . Only Tire closes its doors to him. After a difficult siege of seven months. Tire is taken and looted.
Hellenism is rapidly imposing itself in Syria. With the successors of Alexander the Great, this land is to witness new struggles, as the Seleucids and Egypt dispute the coast. Since the death of Antiochus IV Epiphanes (163), anarchy reigns. In 120 and 111, Tire and Sidon regain their independence. As of the year 64, Phoenicia is annexed to the Roman Empire.