1. The Persian Empire
Iron Age Empires

2. Iron Age Empires: Introduction
Iron metallurgy begins around
1500BCE with the Hittites
600 BCE – 600 CE
Age of large empires encompassing multiple people groups
Iron allows
More complex, more coercive government structures.
Population to grow (better military equipment/better plows)
More extraction of resources from conquered lands

3. Main Questions for Time Period II
In pre-modern times, how do rulers govern large territories and establish unity, stability, and prosperity?
How do Empires operate politically and socially?
What kinds of cultural characteristics are seen in empires?
What developments occurred within trade and religion during the period 600 BCE – 600 CE?

4. Persian Empire Huge & Unified Located in modern Iran
By 500 BCE, it consisted of everything between Egypt, Turkey, Indus River Valley and Mesopotamia.
Problem? –
How to unify
these very
different areas!

5. What was the common religion of the Persian Empire?

6. Methods of Unification 1 of 3
Common Religion – the Persian Empire followed Zoroastrianism and encouraged it, but did NOT impose it
Belief in cosmic struggle between good and evil.
Shah = main representative of the “good guys”
Lesson: Religious Toleration is GOOD
2. Communications – Royal Roads were built connecting the empire
3. Delegating power – Satraps (governors) were appointed to rule outlying territories

7. Methods of Unification 2 of 3
4. Displays of power – Persepolis, the capital, contained huge monumental structures;
5. Using size to their advantage
Imposing unified coinage
Taxation was regular and predictable
Created a stable empire
6. Ideology of Kingship
Shah was the representative of God *Ahura Mazda* on earth

8. Persepolis
Persepolis
*The location for the citadel was picked by Cyrus the Great ;Darius I began building; his son, Xerxes, continued its construction; and his grandson, Artaxerxes I, completed the magnificent city of Persepolis.
*The building styles were influenced my Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and Greek styles.
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9. Methods of Unification 3 of 3
7. Keep the People Happy
Persians used a new technology called the qanat system (underground irrigation canals)
Food = Happy People
Elites who were taken over in conquest often were made bureaucrats and wealth was given to these elites by the
Shah (King)

11. Tomb of Cyrus
Tomb of Cyrus
Cyrus the Great (r B.C.E.), king of the Persians, was one of the most remarkable statesmen. For all his greatness Cyrus retained a sense of perspective. His tomb, though monumental in size, is rather simple. Greek writers reported that it bore the following epitaph: "O man, I am Cyrus the son of Cambyses. I established the Persian Empire and was king of Asia. Do not begrudge me my memorial." (The Oriental Institute, University of Chicago)

12. Check out that other slide right now!

13. Continuity or Change?
What methods seem similar to the River Valley Civilizations? Different?
EVENTUAL PROBLEMS:
Persia clashed with Greece, as the Greek city-states unified and attempted to fight back the expanding Persian Empire
Eventually, the Greeks unified under Alexander the Great, who defeated Persia in military campaigns

17. Relief of two Persian Magi
This stone relief from Dascylium, headquarters of the Persian governor in northwest Anatolia, shows two magi wearing veils over their mouths and holding bundles of sticks used in the ceremony of sacrifice. The Persian kings and their subordinates were Zoroastrians, and it is likely that Zoroastrianism spread to the provinces, where significant numbers of Persians lived, and influenced the beliefs of other peoples. (Courtesy, Archaeological Museums of Istanbul)
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