Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BCE)

Achaemenid Empire 𐎧𐏁𐏂
550 BCE–330 BCE
Standard
The empire at its height around 500 BCE
Capital	Babylon
Official languages	Aramaic Old Persian
Religion	Zoroastrianism
Government	Monarchy
Area
• Total	5,500,000 km²

The Achaemenid Empire, also known as the First Persian Empire, was a multinational ancient state stretching from what is now Bulgaria to Pakistan. It began in 550 BCE with the unification of Persia and Media and quickly grew to include Egypt and much of Western Asia. The empire fell after Alexandros III of Macedon conquered Persepolis in 331 BCE.

Background

The Persians separated from the related Medes around 800 BCE and went south. At the end of the eighth century BCE, chieftains from the clan of Haxāmaniš established a tribal union.

King Kūruš (Cyrus) I recognized Assyrian sovereignty over Persia after Assyria defeated Elam in 642 BCE. His successor, Kambūjiyah (Cambyses) I, was a vassal of Media and married Mandanā, the daughter of the Median king Rštivaigah.

Kūruš II, the son of Kambūjiyah and Mandanā, became king of the Persian tribes in 558 BCE. He founded the capital city of Pāthragadā (Pasargadae).

History

Persian revolt

In 553 BCE, as Media was preparing to invade Babylonia, Kūruš II launched a revolt against the Medes. In the first battle of the rebellion, General Arbakah and a large part of his army defected to join the Persians. Rštivaigah personally led a second battle against the rebels but was defeated and captured. In 550 BCE, the Persians captured the Median capital of Ecbatana. In the following years, Kūruš conquered the other parts of the Median empire, including Armenia, Elam, Hyrcania, and Parthia.

Conquests of Kūruš II

Anatolia

In response to the Persian conquests, Karos of Lydia began preparing for war with the Persia. He formed an alliance with Iahmes II of Egypt in 549 BCE. Soon after, Sparta joined the alliance. Lydia and Persia fought an inconclusive battle near Sinope, and Karos retreated to his capital of Sfard. He dismissed his mercenaries and told them to return the next spring, but the Persians attacked earlier than expected. They besieged Sfard for 14 days and captured it before Spartan support could arrive.

After taking Lydia, Kūruš and Arbakah conquered the Greek cities of Anatolia. Miletos submitted to the Persians without a fight. The Spartans refused to support the Greeks. Persia could not yet attack the Greek islands because it did not have a navy.

Babylon

In 539 BCE, the Persians defeated the Babylonian army near Upî on the Tigris. They captured Sippar and Babylon soon after. The other countries of Western Asia, including the Phoenicians, acknowledged Persian sovereignty.

Central Asia

Between 545 and 539 BCE, Kūruš conquered the countries east of Persia, including Bactria, Khorezm, and Sogdiana. His empire reached the Syr Darya and the northwestern borders of India. After defeating Babylon, he fought to secure the northeastern border against the Saka tribes. In 530 BCE, the Massagetae defeated Kūruš on the Amu Darya and killed him in battle.

Conquest of Egypt

Kambūjiyah II succeeded his father Kūruš. To prepare for invading Egypt, he allied with the Phoenicians, Cypriots, and Sinai nomads and concentrated his army in Palestine. He conquered Egypt in 525 BCE after several battles. He then began fortifying Upper Egypt in order to prepare to invade Ethiopia, but the invasion failed when his soldiers ran out of food. The Egyptians rebelled at the same time. In 524 BCE, Kambūjiyah returned to Men-nefer and executed Pesmetjek, the leader of the rebellion.

Civil war

Succession crisis

In 522 BCE, Kambūjiyah received the that his younger brother Bardiya had seized the throne. He died before he could return to the capital to challenge Bardiya. Bardiya cancelled taxes and conscription for three years to discourage conquered peoples from rebelling.

Seven months into Bardiya's reign, the nobleman Hutānah organized a conspiracy with Dārayavahuš (Darius) to assassinate Bardiya. Dārayavahuš then split with the other conspirators and took power for himself. He created the Behistun inscription, which called Bardiya an impostor. According to the inscription, Bardiya had already died before the Egyptian campaign, but the court official Gaumata impersonated him. The historian Ktesias said that Gaumata looked so similar to Bardiya that even his relatives and servants could not tell them apart. It is unclear whether Gaumata was the real Bardiya, but some modern scholars believe he was.

Rebellions

A series of rebellions began at the start of Dārayavahuš I's reign in response to the high tribute and conscription imposed on conquered peoples. Nidintubēl of Babylon declared himself the son of Nabûnaʾid, the last king of independent Babylon. In late 522 BCE, the Persians defeated the rebellion and executed its leaders. At the same time, rebellions began all across the empire, encompassing Egypt, Elam, Media, Parthia, and Central Asia. Dādaršiš, the satrap of Bactria, put down a rebellion in Margiana and killed 55,000 people.

Vahyazdātah now claimed to be Bardiya and gained popular support. He took control of the Persian homeland and the eastern Iranian provinces and fought against Dārayavahuš for six months before being defeated and executed. After a failed rebellion in Elam, Martiya led another Elamite rebellion, and Fravartiš rebelled in Media. Dārayavahuš personally led the expedition against the Medes and defeated them in 521 BCE. A long revolt also occurred in Armenia, and Babylon rebelled a second time.

After defeating the rebellions, Dārayavahuš restored the old borders of the empire. Between 518 and 512 BCE, he conquered Macedon and Thrace.

Greco-Persian Wars

Ionian rebellion

In 500 BCE, the Greek city of Miletos rebelled against Persia. Ephesos and other Greek cities in Anatolia joined the uprising and overthrew their Persian-backed rulers. Aristagoras, the leader of the rebellion, asked the European Greeks for support. Sparta refused, but Athens and Eretria sent small fleets to assist the rebels. The Greeks captured Sfard, the capital of the Lydian satrapy, and destroyed most of the city. The Persian officials hid in the acropolis, which the Greeks failed to capture. In 498 BCE, the Persians defeated the Greeks near Ephesos, leading the Athenians and Eretrians to flee. The Persians besieged Miletos in 494 BCE from land and sea and destroyed the city after capturing it.

Battle of Marathon

In 492 BCE, the Persian army crossed through Macedon and Thrace, but a storm destroyed 300 Persian ships containing 20,000 soldiers. The army retreated back to Anatolia. In 491 BCE, Dārayavahuš sent messengers to Greece demanding that the Greek city-states submit to Persia. The only cities that refused were Athens and Sparta, who killed the Persian messengers.

In 490 BCE, Dātiya led a new Persian fleet across the Aegean Sea to Attica. 15,000 soldiers, including cavalry, arrived on the Marathon plain 40 km from Athens. Because the Athenians were in a narrow area where cavalry could not be used, Dātiya divided the army and sent the cavalry to capture Athens by ship. Miltiades, the Athenian commander, attacked the remaining Persian infantry. The Persians concentrated their forces in the center while the Athenians focused on the flank. The Persian archers were ineffective against the heavily armored Greek hoplites. Athens won and lost only 192 men, while the Persians lost 6,400. Another Greek force came to defend Athens before the Persians arrived, and the Persians sailed back to Anatolia.

Battle of Thermopylae

In 486 BCE, Xšayāršā (Xerxes) succeeded Dārayavahuš as emperor. He put down a rebellion in Egypt and two rebellions in Babylon. In 481 BCE, the Persians destroyed the city walls of Babylon and made it an ordinary satrapy. He prepared for war with the Greeks by building two pontoon bridges across the Hellespont. Persia gathered an army of 100,000 soldiers and 1,200 ships. The Greek cities formed an alliance, and Athens built 200 ships that had three tiers of oarsmen. The Greeks gathered 6,500 soldiers, including 300 Spartans led by Leonidas I Agiados, at the mountain gorge of Thermopylae in 480 BCE. The Greeks resisted the Persians for three days until a spy told the Persians about another route around the gorge. Leonidas ordered most of the Greek army to retreat, but the Spartans continued to fight until death.

Later battles

After their defeat at Thermopylae, the Greeks evacuated the Athenian population to allied Greek cities shortly before the Persians took Athens. The Greeks abandoned land offensives in order to focus on naval battles. Themistokles organized a fleet of 380 ships (147 from Athens) between Salamis and the Attic coast. A storm destroyed much of the Persian fleet before the battle, and the Greeks destroyed most of their remaining fleet. Xšayāršā returned to Anatolia, but his general Mrduniyah remained in Thessaly with 50,000 troops. After Mrduniyah proposed to make peace with Athens, the Spartans sent an army to the city of Plataia. More cities began sending troops to Plataia to support the Spartans, but Mrduniyah did not want to start a battle because his cavalry would not be able to fight on mountainous slopes. After ten days, Mrduniyah began the battle before his troops' supplies ran out. His archers drove the Greeks away from their food and water sources and towards the hills. 1,000 Persian soldiers reached the Spartans and killed many of them, but the Spartans killed Mrduniyah and his bodyguards. After his death, the Persian army split apart and retreated back to Anatolia.

In 479 BCE, the Ionian Greeks defeated Persia at the naval battle of Mycale off the coast of Anatolia. Sparta and Athens advanced into Anatolia and signed a peace treaty with Persia in 449 BCE.

Decline

Artaxšaçāh (Artaxerxes) I succeeded his father Xšayāršā in 465 BCE. In 460 BCE, Irethorereru II rebelled against the Persians in Egypt. He won the battle of Papremis and took control of the Egyptian delta. Athens sent a fleet to help the rebels capture the Egyptian capital of Men-nefer. Bagabuxša, the satrap of Syria, sent a land army and a Phoenician fleet against the rebels. The Persians recaptured Men-nefer and executed Irethorereru in 454 BCE.

When the Peloponnesian War began between Athens and Sparta in 431 BCE, the Persians alternated which side they supported in order to weaken the Greeks. Dārayavahuš II became king in 423 BCE. He recaptured many Greek cities but faced uprisings in Anatolia, Egypt, and Media. The satraps of Anatolia began fighting against each other and sometimes rebelled against the central government.

Rebellion of Kūruš the Younger

Artaxšaçāh II became king in 404 BCE. His brother and satrap of Caria, Kūruš, formed an alliance with Egypt and Sparta to rebel against Artaxšaçāh. In 401 BCE, Kūruš led his army from Sfard to Kunaxa, located 90 km from Babylon, where he fought against Artaxšaçāh's forces. Kūruš was killed in battle, and his army was defeated. The Spartans expected to be attacked for supporting Kūruš, so they invaded Anatolia in 396 BCE. Queen Parušyātis, the mother and supporter of Kūruš, organized the execution of General Ciçafarnāh, who had succeeded Kūruš as satrap. Greek forces from Athens, Cyprus, and Rhodes allied with Persia and defeated Sparta. In 386 BCE, the Persians and Greeks signed a treaty that established Persian control over Ionia and the eastern coast of the Aegean.

Egyptian rebellion

Djedhor became pharaoh of Egypt around 362 BCE and sought to capture Palestine and Syria from the Persians.

Artaxšaçāh III became king of Persia in 358 BCE and executed his brothers to prevent them from rebelling. He destroyed the rebellious Phoenician city of Ṣīdūn and enslaved its population in 349 BCE. Six years later, he led a Persian fleet up the Nile and recaptured Egypt after its Greek mercenaries defected to support Persia.

Macedonian conquest

In 337 BCE, Artaxšaçāh's doctor poisoned him. His son Ršā was killed the next year, and Artašiyāta became king.

Philippos II Argeados of Macedon sent 10,000 warriors to Anatolia to free its Greek cities from Persian rule in 336 BCE but was assassinated by a conspiracy. His successor Alexandros III returned his forces to Macedon to prepare for the next invasion. In 334 BCE, Alexandros led 30,000 infantry, 5,000 cavalry, and 160 warships against Persia. Memnon, the leader of Persia's 30,000 Greek mercenaries, proposed retreating and destroying resources to prevent the Macedonians from using them. He also tried to ally with Macedon's enemies in Greece, but the satraps refused.

Alexandros's forces defeated Persia near the Granicus in mid-334 BCE. The next year, he captured Cilicia and Syria. Artašiyāta fled from the battle of Issus before the fighting was over, and Alexandros captured his family. The Phoenicians then surrendered without a fight, cutting off Persia from the sea. Artašiyāta offered to surrender and make peace, but Alexandros continued his invasion. He captured Egypt in 332 BCE and then returned to Syria.

At the Battle of Gaugamela on 1 October 331 BCE, Artašiyāta once again fled. His Greek mercenaries were defeated after the Persian soldiers stopped fighting. The Macedonians then captured Babylonia and looted the cities of Çūšā, Pārsa, and Pāthragadā.

Artašiyāta fled to eastern Iran, where the Bactrian satrap Bayaçā killed him. Bayaçā ruled Bactria until the Macedonians conquered it in 229 BCE.

Government

In 519 BCE, Dārayavahuš reorganized the empire into large satrapies and installed Persians as satraps to replace the native rulers who existed under Kūruš and Kambūjiyah. However, non-Persians could still be judges and local officials. Satraps lost their military power and could only have a small number of bodyguards during peacetime. They oversaw the courts and administration and collected taxes. The highest official besides the king was the commander of the king's bodyguard. Officials from the central government known as the "king's eyes and ears" spied on people across the empire.

Economy

Since the reign of Dārayavahuš I, the currency of the empire was the daric, an 8.4g gold coin. One daric was equal to 20 silver shekels, each of which weighed 5.6g. Satraps and autonomous cities could mint silver coins, but only the king could mint gold coins. Towards the end of the empire, royal treasuries held over 7,000 tonnes of gold and silver.

Agriculture

The most important part of the Persian economy was agriculture. The king personally owned large amounts of land. The Persians gave conquered farmland to aristocrats, officials, and members of the royal family. Owners of these large estates did not pay taxes. Soldiers collectively worked plots of land and had to pay taxes in money and in kind.

Egypt and Babylon were sources of grain. The Greek cities produced wine and olive oil, and Lebanon exported cedar.

Crafts

The cities of Nutkaretj (Egypt) and Miletos (Ionia) exported pottery. The Egyptians produced linen, and the Babylonians produced clothes from wool. Phoenician cities including Ṣīdūn and Ṣūr also created glass, clothes, and luxury goods.

Taxation

Under Kūruš and Kambūjiyah, subjugated peoples paid tribute in kind. Starting with the reign of Dārayavahuš I, all satrapies had to pay a fixed amount of taxes based on the area and productivity of farmland. Persians paid taxes in kind, while other peoples paid in silver. The annual tax burden for the empire was around 232 tonnes of silver per year. Peoples on the edge of the empire, such as Arabia, Egrisi, Kush, paid fixed amounts of tribute in kind but did not pay taxes in money.

Trade

The Phoenicians controlled Persia's international trade by sea. After 518 BCE, Dārayavahuš I restored the 84-km canal between the Nile and the Suez. He ordered Skylax to sail down the Indus River to establish trade with India. Caravan routes connected Babylon to Lydia, Šuša, and Ecbatana. Less developed regions of the empire had to sell agricultural products to get silver to pay taxes.

Military

In 519 BCE, Dārayavahuš I removed the satraps' military powers. Military commanders were independent of the satraps and responsible the king.

Each ethnic group in the Achaemenid military retained its own fighting style; for example, the Persians fought as spear infantry and the Medes were light cavalry.

Religion

Dārayavahuš I adopted Zoroastrianism as the official religion after it spread into Persia and Media. Zoroastrianism taught that Ahura Mazdā created the world and was the only omnipotent god. Angra Mainiiu was an evil spirit opposed to Ahura Mazdā.

The Persian masses worshipped ancient nature gods such as the Sun god Mithra and the water goddess Arədvī. The Persians gave offerings to the cults of local gods of Persia, Elam, and Babylon.