The document provides an overview of classical Persia and the Achaemenid Empire. It describes the harsh geography and social hierarchy of Persia, with mining and irrigation supported by slave labor. It highlights the innovations of Cyrus the Great in establishing a centralized hereditary monarchy and tolerant policies. The empire prospered under Darius I through bureaucracy, infrastructure like the Royal Road system, and cultural diffusion across its vast territories. However, the empire eventually declined due to overexpansion and was conquered by Alexander the Great.

1. Classical Persia
THE ART AND ARCHITECTURE OF EMPIRE

2. HARSH GEOGRAPHY
- Bad news: Little arable
land

3. SOCIAL HIERARCHY:
Multi-level society
 Slave labor
Mining , irrigation, agriculture…
 Built palaces, cities, roads…
 Peasants
 Agriculture, Trade, Artisans…
 Priests, Scribes… BUREAUCRACY
 Elite: Some families amassed huge wealth
 Merchants, Government Bureaucrats, Land Owners… Kings!
Huge discrepancy between rich and rest of
society

4. MINING
 Zagros, Caucasus
Mountains: Slave
Labor
 Copper
 Tin
 Iron
 Gold
 Silver
 Created fine
crafted
goods – traded
surplus
 Traded for
Agricultural goods

5. UNDERGROUND
IRRIGATION!
1st Millenium BCE
Strong Central
Authority of King
To draft &
Organize
labor
Slave Labor

6. PASTORAL NOMADS
Persian Textiles
Carpets
TRADE
Location, location, location!

7. PERSIAN LEGACY: PAST & PRESENT
Legacy:
- Indo-Aryan beginnings
- PERSIAN EMPIRE =
Achaemenids
- Greek Persia –
Seleucids
- Silk Roads…
- Sasanids
- Ottoman Empire

8. GOVERNMENT:
HEREDITARY KINGSHIP
Cyrus the Great
(r. 559-530 BCE)
Achaemenid Dynasty
 Centralized Rule
 Absolute Monarch
 Expansion!
 Military brilliance
 Media, Lydia, Bactria, &
Babylonia annexed

9. October
29th is
Cyrus the Great
Day!
Earliest
Human
Rights
Declaration
The Charter of Cyrus the
Great, a baked-clay Aryan language (Old
Persian) cuneiform cylinder.

10.  “I am Cyrus, King of the world, great king, mighty king, king of
Babylon, king of the land of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four
quarters…I announce that I will respect the traditions, customs
and religions of the nations of my empire and never let any of
my governors and subordinates look down on or insult them while I
am alive… I will impose my monarchy on no nation. Each is free to
accept it , and if any rejects it, I resolve not to wage war. While I
am the king of Persia, Babylon, and the nations of the four
directions, I will allow no one to oppress any others, and if it
occurs, I will … penalize the oppressor.”
 “And while I am the monarch, I will never let anyone take
possession of movable or landed properties of others by force or
without compensation. While I am alive, I will prevent unpaid,
forced labor. To day, I announce that everyone is free to choose
a religion. People are free to live in all regions and take up a job
provided that they never violate other's rights.”
 “No one shall be penalized for his relatives' faults. I prevent
slavery and my governors and subordinates are obliged to prohibit
exchanging people as slaves within their own ruling domains. Such
a tradition should be exterminated the world over.”
 “I implore God to help me succeed in fulfilling my obligations to the
nations of Persia, Babylon, and the ones of the four directions.”

11. INNOVATION IN GOVERNMENT!
 Cyrus ruled THROUGH LOCAL
ELITES & INSTITUTIONS
 kings, aristocrats, priests …
 Legacy of TOLERANCE!!
Aramaic in most announcements.
Ended Babylonian captivity of
the Jews  return to their
homeland & temple
Cyrus’ tomb at Pasargardae

12. STABILITY OF ACHAEMENID RULE!
Legitimization:
 “Cult of Kingship”
 “Shah-han-shah” = King of Kings
 “Shah”
 Zoroastrian religion
 Ahura Mazda’s trust won through
JUSTICE & UPRIGHTNESS
 King as “PRIEST and SACRIFICER” in rituals
 ROYAL FIRE burned “eternally” to symbolize his
role as “COSMIC RULER”

13. PAX
ACHAEMENID
“Persian
Peace”
Strong Economy-
Crossroads of
Trade
- Location,
Location,
- Location…

14. STABILITY
 Built Educated
Bureaucracy
 Tax collectors,
 record keepers,
 scribes,
 translators…

15. STABILITY OF ACHAEMENID RULE
 Cambsyses –
Added Egypt
Darius I –
 Conquest
Cultural Diffusion
 Thrace, Macedonia, and pressed into India
Seal of Darius I
 Ruled 70 ethnic groups, spoke many languages & worshipped many gods
 Greatest Prosperity of Persian Empire
 Centrallized Rule
 Land-owning aristocracy, professional armies.

16. WINGED SPHINX,
PALACE OF DARIUS THE GREAT

17. SATRAPS & SATRAPIES
 23 provincial governors
with armies –
 Collected taxes
 Guarded King’s Roads
 Judge for King’s Laws
 Put down revolts
 Lived like a King!
 Local Institutions & Rulers
 Local politics, decisions.
Two Capitals: Susa &
Persepolis.

18. ROYAL ROAD SYSTEM
 Military
Travel
 Informatio
n
(Spies!)
 Trade

19. STANDARDIZATION
 Bureaucratic
Administration
 Regularized Taxes
 Centralized Coinage
 United ALL LAWS of diverse
Empire into one code
Written in Aramaic & other popular langauges
- though Persians spoke Farsi.

20. DECLINE OF ACHAEMENIDS
Xerxes b. 520 BCE
 Suppressed Egyptian & Babylonian
Revolts
 INTOLERANT – ruled with iron hand
 Invaded Greece
 Northern Greece fell & Battle of Thermopylae
Pass, 480 BCE
 Marched to Athens & burned Acropolis
 Lost Battle of Salamis, returned home.
 Battle of Plataea, Fall of their ally, Thebes -
479 (disciplined Greek hoplites)
 Delian League formed, Athenians became
imperialistic
 Sank deeper into his life of luxury..
 Assassinated 465 BCE – probably at
order of his son, Artaxerxes

21. ALEXANDER OF MACEDON
 Invaded 334 BCE, against Darius II
 Claimed kingship as CONTINUATION of Persian
Power.
Darius II

22. HELLENISM REIGNED IN PERSIA
 Alexander’s General Seleucus –
Seleucid State
 Lost “Iran “to
Parthian Empire
 Rest fell to
Rome, 83 BCE
 Sasanid dynasty
224- 651 CE
 Fell to Arabic
warriors, 651 CE

23. HOW DO WE KNOW?
1. Archaeological
discoveries:
ART
ARCHITECTURE

24. RUINS OF PERSEPOLIS

25. PERSEPOLIS

26. Hall of One Hundred Columns, Palace, Stables…

27. PERSIAN & MEDIAN SOLDIERS - PERSEPOLIS

31. ACHAEMENID
SOLDIERS
The “Elamite Immortals” ?
10,000 always
Persians, Medes, Elamites
King’s personal guard
from a frieze in Darius's palace at Susa.
Siliceous glazed bricks, 510 BCE, Louvre.

32. ELAMITE IMMORTALS
 Ten Thousand Immortals, in Persian history, core troops in the
Achaemenian army, so named because their number of 10,000
was immediately reestablished after every loss. Under the direct
leadership of the hazarapat, or commander in chief, the
Immortals, who formed the king’s personal bodyguard, consisted
primarily of Persians but also included Medes and Elamites.
 They apparently had special privileges, such as being allowed to
take concubines and servants along with them on the march. On
coloured glazed bricks and carved reliefs found at the
Achaemenian capitals, such as the Palace of Artaxerxes at Susa,
 Silver blades on Spears & Silver pomagranates resting on toe.
 They wore elaborate robes and much gold jewelry.
 An elite 1,000 of the Immortals were further distinguished by
having gold pomegranates on their spears.

33. Silver tipped spears, that ended in wooden Pomegranites

34. Queen Atossa – Wife of Darius I,
Mother of Xerxes
Relief of Xerxes

35. MONOLITHIC?

38. BEHUSTAN INSCRIPTION, CYLINDER SEAL
Lists 23 Satrapies

42. DETAIL OF A CARPET - ACHAEMENID

44. ACHAEMENID COIN 420 BC
Standardization
Of Coinage,
Weights & Measures

45. HOW DO WE KNOW?
 Some archaeological
discoveries: Persepolis,
Susa…
 Little written material from the
Persians has survived…
So, historians look at them
through the eyes of others of the
time or slightly later… like the
Ancient Greeks …

47. WHO WAS HERODOTUS?
 “Father of History”
 (c.484 – 425 BCE)…
childhood Anatolia at
beginning of Persian Wars.
 “The Histories”
 “investigation” of the origins of
the Greco-Persian Wars.
 Includes geographical &
ethnographical information.
 Although some of his stories
were fanciful, he claimed to
report only what had been told
to him.

48. HERODOTUS, FATHER OF LIES!!??
 Herodotus has sometimes been called "The Father of Lies" because of
his tendency to report fanciful information.
 Herodotus himself reported dubious information if it was
interesting, sometimes adding his own opinion about its
reliability…. Huge spiders in Persia gold-digging ants in India that
provided their kings with wealth.
 Although The Histories were often criticized in antiquity for bias,
inaccuracy and plagiarism ,modern historians and philosophers take a
more positive view of Herodotus's methodology, especially those
searching for a paradigm of objective historical writing.
 A few modern scholars have argued that Herodotus exaggerated the
extent of his travels and invented his sources yet his reputation
continues largely intact: "The Father of History is also the father of
comparative anthropology", "the father of ethnography",and he is "more
modern than any other ancient historian in his approach to the ideal of
total history".

49. HERODOTUS
Camel Spiders Gold digging ants
Marmots – really from
Ethiopia, not India.
People collected gold dust
from the displaced soil.

50. WHAT IS A CLASSICAL CIVILIZATION?

51. WHAT IS A CLASSICAL CIVILIZATION?
 VAST -
 Area, Population, Diversity,
 Density: cities- creativity, innovation, sharing ideas
 Unique new government
 Powerful elite, forced labor, bureaucracy, powerful STANDING military
 Empire:
 EXPANSION: Military Conquest, Colonization, Trade Network
 Trade Relationships valued – unified and stabilized the society & relationships with other
groups
 Religions spread & unified, stabilized the society and relationships with others
 Cultural Diffusion united and stabilized the society and the area
 Complex Economy –
 Commoners not just involved in agriculture… also lived & worked in cities
 Manufactured unique luxury goods for own elites and exports
 Regional and long distance trade

52. WHAT IS A CLASSICAL CIVILIZATION?
 STRICTLY HIERARCHAL SOCIETY STRUCTURE
 INEQUALITY INCREASED; Forced Labor
 Strictly Patriarchal; poor masses/ rich & powerful elite
 FLOWERING of Culture with Distinctive Emphasis
 Recognizable & innovative Government, Art, Architecture,
Philosophy/Religion, Literature, Technology…
 Leaves a Legacy to the world
 Stable, durable; Copied & memorialized
 Space & time
 Cultural Integration
 Standardization – Language & Writing; Law; Coinage; Weights &
measures; Religion.
 Strong Sense of Identity – Clear notion of “Us vs. Them”