[introduction.]

The core of the ancient Kingdom of Persia was the vast Iranian plateau situated to the east of Mesopotamia. While the central part of this plateau was made up of rather dry soil with sparse vegetation, the foothills were rich in forests, metals (gold, silver, copper, iron and lead) and marble. Taken all in all, natural conditions made possible the cultivation of cereals (rye, wheat and barley) and stockbreeding (nomadic in the east and settled in the west).

Media and Persia

p During the 3rd millennium B.C. Iranian tribes from Asia penetrated the Iranian plateau, and it was after these tribes that the area was subsequently named. In some areas they conquered the local inhabitants and in others they settled peaceably alongside them, later to fuse with them.

p In approximately the ninth century B.C. two large groups of Iranian tribes emerge: the Medes and the Persians. The Medes were to come to the fore earlier than the Persians, but little of their history is known to us and what there is is of a semi- legendary character. However, it is certain that at the end of the seventh 38 century B.C. Media became a powerful state and together with Babylon succeeded in dealing Assyria a crushing blow. Yet by the middle of the sixth century B.C. the Medes were compelled to submit to their neighbours, the Persians.

p The founder of the Persian state was the famous military commander and statesman Cyrus (559-529 B.C.). His origins are obscured in the mists of legend, according to which, although a king’s son, he was brought up as a foundling by a shepherd. During the expedition of the last Median king against Mesopotamia the Persians under Cyrus invaded Media, and after fighting which lasted for three years the country was conquered and annexed to the Persian kingdom.

p Having made himself master of Media, Cyrus undertook a number of military operations. He reorganised the Persian army, making the cavalry its main striking force. In 547 B.C. Cyrus conquered Armenia and Cappadocia and then the Kingdom of Lydia in 546, seizing the tremendous riches belonging to King Croesus, whose name had already become a by-word, synonymous with a wealthy potentate. Cyrus gained control over the whole of Asia Minor including the numerous rich Greek towns situated along the littoral.

p After these victories, almost the whole of Mesopotamia (apart from the south) was surrounded by countries conquered by Cyrus, which greatly strengthened his hand in the war against Babylon and in 538 B.C. the city fell to him. Cyrus then issued a manifesto in which he promised not to alter Babylonian patterns of administration, to respect the local deities and further the prosperity of the city of Babylon. This manifesto shows Cyrus to have been not merely an outstanding military commander but also a skilled statesman and diplomat.

Cyrus conducted his campaign against Palestine and Phoenicia in a similar way. Throughout he stressed the peaceful aims of this expedition: the reconstruction of the city of Jerusalem, which had been laid waste by the Babylonian conquerors, and assistance for a number of Phoenician towns. In actual fact the conquest of Palestine and Phoenicia provided Cyrus with a bridgehead, vital for the imminent war against the last remaining large power in the East at that period—Egypt. However, Cyrus himself was unable to carry out this plan since he was killed in a battle against the Massagetae on the north-eastern border of his empire.

The Formation of the Persian Power

p Cyrus’s military policy was continued by his son Cambyses (529-522 B.C.) who made careful preparations for war against Egypt with the aid of the Phoenician fleet. In contrast to Cyrus’s 39 “soft" diplomacy, Cambyses initiated a reign of terror in Egypt after he had conquered it. Nevertheless, the last major power in the East had been conquered and Persia—following in Assyria’s footsteps—had now become a world power, by the standards of those times.

p Details as to the organisation of this enormous empire can be gleaned from the famous inscription of King Darius I (522-486 B.C.) on a rockface in the mountains. The whole of the Persian state was divided up into a series of satrapies and as a rule each of the countries conquered by the Persians constituted a separate satrapy (Egypt, Babylonia, Lydia, etc.). The rulers of these satrapies, the satraps, were appointed by the king himself; they were directly responsible to him and held full juridical and administrative powers.

p All satrapies were obliged to pay taxes in money and in kind. For example, Egypt had to supply wheat sufficient to feed 120,000 garrison troops. As a result of these taxes Darius’s treasury was able to gather in a colossal revenue.

p Darius also introduced a monetary reform. For the first time in history an enormous empire consisting of many different countries came to use a uniform coinage—gold coins or “darics” which only the king had the right to mint (though the satraps were allowed to mint silver and copper coins). The introduction of the daric furthered the expansion of trade, in the interests of 40 which Darius’s government also organised the building of roads and their effective guarding. Persia during that period had a fine system of roads, with inns and post-stations at intervals of 15 miles. Apart from their importance for trade these roads naturally also had a great strategic significance.

p Darius also introduced military reforms. Permanent military garrisons were set up in the various satrapies and the whole state was divided up into five military zones which did not coincide with the satrapy borders. The commanders of the military zones were directly responsible to the king.

Such was the structure of the state during the reign of King Darius. The Persians themselves occupied a dominant position in the country. They both served in the army and worked as tillers of the land and stockbreeders. They were free from all taxes and labour conscription, to which all the conquered peoples were subject. Yet in the long run the Persian state also proved to be a clay-legged colossus like Assyria before it: it was able to survive as a result of its military strength alone, while firm economic and political ties between the various component states were fatally lacking. This lack of inner cohesion was to make itself felt much more when the Persians came up against a more serious enemy—the Greeks.

The Religion and Culture of Persia

p As in all other countries of the East at that period religion also played an important part in the life of Iranian society. The ancient Iranian religion involved nature (for example the mountains) and animal worship. Later worship of the Persian tribal god Ahura Mazda and the Sun-god Mithras became widespread. It is commonly held that Zoroastrianism (which takes its name from the legendary prophet Zoroaster) made its appearance during the reign of Darius; an essential feature of this religion was the concept of a universal struggle between the principles of good and evil, light and darkness.

There was little that was genuinely original about Iranian culture, and virtually no literature has survived. Egypt and Assyria both exerted a strong influence on Iranian architecture. The Persians had taken their writing from Babylonia, although later they were to evolve an alphabet on the basis of this cuneiform script. This absence of important original cultural achievements can be explained by the military nature of the state itself and its lack of homogeneity.