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The Achaemenid Empire, also called First
Persian Empire,was an ancient Iranian empire based in Western Asia founded by
Cyrus the Great. Ranging at its greatest extent from the Balkans and Eastern
Europe proper in the west to the Indus Valley in the east, it was larger than
any previous empire in history, spanning 5.5 million square kilometers (2.1
million square miles).It is notable for its successful model of a centralised,
bureaucratic administration (through satraps under the King of Kings), for its
multicultural policy, for building infrastructure such as road systems and a
postal system, the use of an official language across its territories, and the
development of civil services and a large professional army.
The empire's successes inspired similar systems in later empires. By the 7th
century , the Persians had settled in the south-western portion of the Iranian
Plateau in the region of Persis, which came to be their heartland. From this
region, Cyrus the Great advanced to defeat the Medes, Lydia, and the
Neo-Babylonian Empire, establishing the Achaemenid Empire. Alexander the Great,
an avid admirer of Cyrus the Great, conquered most of the empire by 330. Upon
Alexander's death, most of the empire's former territory fell under the rule of
the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Seleucid Empire, in addition to other minor
territories which gained independence at that time. The Iranian elites of the
central plateau reclaimed power by the second century under the Parthian
Empire.
The Achaemenid Empire is noted in Western history as the antagonist of the
Greek city-states during the
Greco-Persian
Wars and for the emancipation of the Jewish exiles in Babylon. The
historical mark of the empire went far beyond its territorial and military
influences and included cultural, social, technological and religious
influences as well. For example, many Athenians adopted Achaemenid customs in
their daily lives in a reciprocal cultural exchange, some being employed by or
allied to the Persian kings. The impact of Cyrus's edict is mentioned in
Judeo-Christian texts, and the empire was instrumental in the spread of
Zoroastrianism as far east as China. The empire also set the tone for the
politics, heritage and history of Iran (also known as Persia).
Name:
The term Achaemenid means "of the family of the
Achaemenis/Achaemenes". Achaemenes was himself a minor seventh-century
ruler of the Anshan in southwestern Iran, and a vassal of Assyria. The Persian
term Xšaça, meaning "The Empire", was used by the
Achaemenids to refer to their multinational state.
History See also: Achaemenid Kingdom
Origin:
Main articles: Achaemenes, Teispids, and Achaemenid family tree
The Persian nation contains a number of tribes as listed here: the Pasargadae,
Maraphii, and Maspii, upon which all the other tribes are dependent. Of these,
the Pasargadae are the most distinguished; they contain the clan of the
Achaemenids from which spring the Perseid kings. Other tribes are the
Panthialaei, Derusiaei, Germanii, all of which are attached to the soil, the
remainder—the Dai, Mardi, Dropici, Sagarti, being nomadic.
The Achaemenid Empire was created by nomadic Persians. The name
"Persia" is a Greek and Latin pronunciation of the native word
referring to the country of the people originating from Persis. The Persians
were an Iranian people who arrived in what is today Iran c. 1000 and settled a
region including north-western Iran, the Zagros Mountains and Persis alongside
the native Elamites. For a number of centuries they fell under the domination
of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–609), based in northern Mesopotamia. The
Persians were originally nomadic pastoralists in the western Iranian Plateau
and by 850 were calling themselves the Parsa and their constantly shifting
territory Parsua, for the most part localized around Persis. The Achaemenid
Empire was not the first Iranian empire, as the Medes, another group of Iranian
peoples, established a short-lived empire and played a major role in the
overthrow of the Assyrians.
The Achaemenids were initially rulers of the Elamite city of Anshan near the
modern city of Marvdasht; the title "King of Anshan" was an
adaptation of the earlier Elamite title "King of Susa and Anshan".
There are conflicting accounts of the identities of the earliest Kings of
Anshan. According to the Cyrus Cylinder (the oldest extant genealogy of the
Achaemenids) the kings of Anshan were Teispes, Cyrus I, Cambyses I and Cyrus
II, also known as Cyrus the Great, who created the empire (the later Behistun
Inscription, written by Darius the Great, claims that Teispes was the son of
Achaemenes and that Darius is also descended from Teispes through a different
line, but no earlier texts mention Achaemenes). In Herodotus' Histories, he
writes that Cyrus the Great was the son of Cambyses I and Mandane of Media, the
daughter of Astyages, the king of the Median Empire.
Formation and expansion:
Further information: Battle of the Persian Border, Persian Revolt, Battle of
Pteria, Battle of Opis, Battle of Pelusium (525 ), Achaemenid invasion of the
Indus Valley, and European Scythian campaign of Darius I
Cyrus revolted against the Median Empire in 553 , and in 550 succeeded in
defeating the Medes, capturing Astyages and taking the Median capital city of
Ecbatana. Once in control of Ecbatana, Cyrus styled himself as the successor to
Astyages and assumed control of the entire empire. By inheriting Astyages'
empire, he also inherited the territorial conflicts the Medes had had with both
Lydia and the Neo-Babylonian Empire.
King Croesus of Lydia sought to take advantage of the new international
situation by advancing into what had previously been Median territory in Asia
Minor. Cyrus led a counterattack which not only fought off Croesus' armies, but
also led to the capture of Sardis and the fall of the Lydian Kingdom in 546.
Cyrus placed Pactyes in charge of collecting tribute in Lydia and left, but
once Cyrus had left Pactyes instigated a rebellion against Cyrus. Cyrus sent
the Median general Mazares to deal with the rebellion, and Pactyes was
captured. Mazares, and after his death Harpagus, set about reducing all the
cities which had taken part in the rebellion. The subjugation of Lydia took
about four years in total. When power in Ecbatana changed hands from the Medes
to the Persians, many tributaries to the Median Empire believed their situation
had changed and revolted against Cyrus. This forced Cyrus to fight wars against
Bactria and the nomadic Saka in Central Asia. During these wars, Cyrus
established several garrison towns in Central Asia, including the Cyropolis.
Nothing is known of Persian-Babylonian relations between 547 and 539 , but it
is likely that there were hostilities between the two empires for several years
leading up to the war of 540–539 and the Fall of Babylon. In October 539 ,
Cyrus won a battle against the Babylonians at Opis, then took Sippar without a
fight before finally capturing the city of Babylon on 12 October, where the
Babylonian king Nabonidus was taken prisoner. Upon taking control of the city,
Cyrus depicted himself in propaganda as restoring the divine order which had
been disrupted by Nabonidus, who had promoted the cult of Sin rather than
Marduk, and he also portrayed himself as restoring the heritage of the
Neo-Assyrian Empire by comparing himself to the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal. The
Hebrew Bible also unreservedly praises Cyrus for his actions in the conquest of
Babylon, referring to him as Yahweh's anointed. He is credited with freeing the
people of Judah from their exile and with authorizing the reconstruction of
much of Jerusalem, including the Second Temple.
In 530, Cyrus died while on a military expedition against the Massagetae in
Central Asia. He was succeeded by his eldest son Cambyses II, while his younger
son Bardiya[e] received a large territory in Central Asia. By 525, Cambyses had
successfully subjugated Phoenicia and Cyprus and was making preparations to
invade Egypt with the newly created Persian navy. The great Pharaoh Amasis II
had died in 526 and had been succeeded by Psamtik III, resulting in the
defection of key Egyptian allies to the Persians. Psamtik positioned his army
at Pelusium in the Nile Delta. He was soundly defeated by the Persians in the
Battle of Pelusium before fleeing to Memphis, where the Persians defeated him
and took him prisoner.
Herodotus depicts Cambyses as openly antagonistic to the Egyptian people and
their gods, cults, temples and priests, in particular stressing the murder of
the sacred bull Apis. He says that these actions led to a madness that caused
him to kill his brother Bardiya (who Herodotus says was killed in secret), his
own sister-wife and Croesus of Lydia. He then concludes that Cambyses
completely lost his mind, and all later classical authors repeat the themes of
Cambyses' impiety and madness. However, this is based on spurious information,
as the epitaph of Apis from 524 shows that Cambyses participated in the funeral
rites of Apis styling himself as pharaoh. Following the conquest of Egypt, the
Libyans and the Greeks of Cyrene and Barca in Libya surrendered to Cambyses and
sent tribute without a fight. Cambyses then planned invasions of Carthage, the
oasis of Ammon and Ethiopia.
Herodotus claims that the naval invasion of Carthage was cancelled because the
Phoenicians, who made up a large part of Cambyses' fleet, refused to take up
arms against their own people, but modern historians doubt whether an invasion
of Carthage was ever planned at all. However, Cambyses dedicated his efforts to
the other two campaigns, aiming to improve the Empire's strategic position in
Africa by conquering the Kingdom of Meroë and taking strategic positions
in the western oases. To this end, he established a garrison at Elephantine
consisting mainly of Jewish soldiers, who remained stationed at Elephantine
throughout Cambyses' reign. The invasions of Ammon and Ethiopia themselves were
failures. Herodotus claims that the invasion of Ethiopia was a failure due to
the madness of Cambyses and the lack of supplies for his men, but
archaeological evidence suggests that the expedition was not a failure, and a
fortress at the Second Cataract of the Nile, on the border between Egypt and
Kush, remained in use throughout the Achaemenid period.
The events surrounding Cambyses' death and Bardiya's succession are greatly
debated as there are many conflicting accounts. According to Herodotus, as
Bardiya's assassination had been committed in secret, the majority of Persians
still believed him to be alive. This allowed two Magi to rise up against
Cambyses, with one of them sitting on the throne able to impersonate Bardiya
because of their remarkable physical resemblance and shared name (Smerdis in
Herodotus' accounts[e]). Ctesias writes that when Cambyses had Bardiya killed
he immediately put the magus Sphendadates in his place as satrap of Bactria due
to a remarkable physical resemblance. Two of Cambyses' confidants then
conspired to usurp Cambyses and put Sphendadates on the throne under the guise
of Bardiya. According to the Behistun Inscription, written by the following
king Darius the Great, a magus named Gaumata impersonated Bardiya and incited a
revolution in Persia. Whatever the exact circumstances of the revolt, Cambyses
heard news of it in the summer of 522 and began to return from Egypt, but he
was wounded in the thigh in Syria and died of gangrene, so Bardiya's
impersonator became king. The account of Darius is the earliest, and although
the later historians all agree on the key details of the story, that a magus
impersonated Bardiya and took the throne, this may have been a story created by
Darius to justify his own usurpation.
Iranologist Pierre Briant hypothesises that Bardiya was not killed by Cambyses,
but waited until his death in the summer of 522 to claim his legitimate right
to the throne as he was then the only male descendant of the royal family.
Briant says that although the hypothesis of a deception by Darius is generally
accepted today, "nothing has been established with certainty at the
present time, given the available evidence".
According to the Behistun Inscription, Gaumata ruled for seven months before
being overthrown in 522 by Darius the Great (Darius I) (Old Persian
Daryavuš, "who holds firm the good", also known as Darayarahush
or Darius the Great). The Magi, though persecuted, continued to exist, and a
year following the death of the first pseudo-Smerdis (Gaumata), saw a second
pseudo-Smerdis (named Vahyazdata) attempt a coup. The coup, though initially
successful, failed. Herodotus writes that the native leadership debated the
best form of government for the empire. It was agreed that an oligarchy would
divide them against one another, and democracy would bring about mob rule
resulting in a charismatic leader resuming the monarchy. Therefore, they
decided a new monarch was in order, particularly since they were in a position
to choose him. Darius I was chosen monarch from among the leaders. He was
cousin to Cambyses II and Bardiya (Smerdis), claiming Ariaramnes as his
ancestor. The Achaemenids thereafter consolidated areas firmly under their
control. It was Cyrus the Great and Darius the Great who, by sound and
far-sighted administrative planning, brilliant military manoeuvring, and a
humanistic world view, established the greatness of the Achaemenids and, in
less than thirty years, raised them from an obscure tribe to a world power. It
was during the reign of Darius the Great (Darius I) that Persepolis was built
(518–516 ) and which would serve as capital for several generations of
Achaemenid kings. Ecbatana (Hagmatana "City of Gatherings", modern:
Hamadan) in Media was greatly expanded during this period and served as the
summer capital.
Ever since the Macedonian king Amyntas I surrendered his country to the
Persians in about 512–511, Macedonians and Persians were strangers no more
as well. Subjugation of Macedonia was part of Persian military operations
initiated by Darius the Great (521–486) in 513—after immense
preparations—a huge Achaemenid army invaded the Balkans and tried to
defeat the European Scythians roaming to the north of the Danube river. Darius'
army subjugated several Thracian peoples, and virtually all other regions that
touch the European part of the Black Sea, such as parts of nowadays Bulgaria,
Romania, Ukraine, and Russia, before it returned to Asia Minor. Darius left in
Europe one of his commanders named Megabazus whose task was to
accomplish conquests in the Balkans. The Persian troops subjugated gold-rich
Thrace, the coastal Greek cities, as well as defeating and conquering the
powerful Paeonians. Finally, Megabazus sent envoys to Amyntas, demanding
acceptance of Persian domination, which the Macedonians did. The Balkans
provided many soldiers for the multi-ethnic Achaemenid army. Many of the
Macedonian and Persian elite intermarried, such as the Persian official Bubares
who married Amyntas' daughter, Gygaea. Family ties the Macedonian rulers
Amyntas and Alexander enjoyed with Bubares ensured them good relations with the
Persian kings Darius and Xerxes I. The Persian invasion led indirectly to
Macedonia's rise in power and Persia had some common interests in the Balkans;
with Persian aid, the Macedonians stood to gain much at the expense of some
Balkan tribes such as the Paeonians and Greeks. All in all, the Macedonians
were "willing and useful Persian allies. Macedonian soldiers fought
against Athens and Sparta in Xerxes' army.
The Persians referred to both Greeks and Macedonians as Yauna
("Ionians", their term for "Greeks"), and to Macedonians
specifically as Yaunã Takabara or "Greeks with hats that look like
shields", possibly referring to the Macedonian kausia hat. The Persian
queen Atossa, daughter of Cyrus the Great, sister-wife of Cambyses II, Darius
the Great's wife, and mother of Xerxes I By the 5th century the Kings of Persia
were either ruling over or had subordinated territories encompassing not just
all of the Persian Plateau and all of the territories formerly held by the
Assyrian Empire (Mesopotamia, the Levant, Cyprus and Egypt), but beyond this
all of Anatolia and Armenia, as well as the Southern Caucasus and parts of the
North Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, all of Bulgaria, Paeonia,
Thrace and Macedonia to the north and west, most of the Black Sea coastal
regions, parts of Central Asia as far as the Aral Sea, the Oxus and Jaxartes to
the north and north-east, the Hindu Kush and the western Indus basin
(corresponding to modern Afghanistan and Pakistan) to the far east, parts of
northern Arabia to the south, and parts of northern Libya to the south-west,
and parts of Oman, China, and the UAE.
Greco-Persian
Wars:
Map showing events of the first phases of the Greco-Persian Wars
The Ionian Revolt in 499 , and associated revolts in Aeolis, Doris, Cyprus and
Caria, were military rebellions by several regions of Asia Minor against
Persian rule, lasting from 499 to 493 . At the heart of the rebellion was the
dissatisfaction of the Greek cities of Asia Minor with the tyrants appointed by
Persia to rule them, along with the individual actions of two Milesian tyrants,
Histiaeus and Aristagoras. In 499, the then tyrant of Miletus, Aristagoras,
launched a joint expedition with the Persian satrap Artaphernes to conquer
Naxos, in an attempt to bolster his position in Miletus (both financially and
in terms of prestige). The mission was a debacle, and sensing his imminent
removal as tyrant, Aristagoras chose to incite the whole of Ionia into
rebellion against the Persian king Darius the Great.
The Persians continued to reduce the cities along the west coast that still
held out against them, before finally imposing a peace settlement in 493 on
Ionia that was generally considered to be both just and fair. The Ionian Revolt
constituted the first major conflict between Greece and the Achaemenid Empire,
and as such represents the first phase of the Greco-Persian Wars. Asia Minor
had been brought back into the Persian fold, but Darius had vowed to punish
Athens and Eretria for their support of the revolt. Moreover, seeing that the
political situation in Greece posed a continued threat to the stability of his
Empire, he decided to embark on the conquest of all of Greece. The first
campaign of the invasion was to bring the territories in the Balkan peninsula
back within the empire. The Persian grip over these territories had loosened
following the Ionian Revolt.
In 492, the Persian general Mardonius re-subjugated Thrace and made Macedon a
fully subordinate part of the empire; it had been a vassal as early as the late
6th century , but retained a great deal of autonomy. However, in 490 the
Persian forces were defeated by the Athenians at the Battle of Marathon and
Darius would die before having the chance to launch an invasion of Greece.
Xerxes I (485–465 , Old Persian Xšayarša "Hero Among
Kings"), son of Darius I, vowed to complete the job. He organized a
massive invasion aiming to conquer Greece. His army entered Greece from the
north, meeting little or no resistance through Macedonia and Thessaly, but was
delayed by a small Greek force for three days at Thermopylae. A simultaneous
naval battle at Artemisium was tactically indecisive as large storms destroyed
ships from both sides. The battle was stopped prematurely when the Greeks
received news of the defeat at Thermopylae and retreated. The battle was a
strategic victory for the Persians, giving them uncontested control of
Artemisium and the Aegean Sea. Following his victory at the Battle of
Thermopylae, Xerxes sacked the evacuated city of Athens and prepared to meet
the Greeks at the strategic Isthmus of Corinth and the Saronic Gulf. In 480 the
Greeks won a decisive victory over the Persian fleet at the Battle of Salamis
and forced Xerxes to retire to Sardis. The land army which he left in Greece
under Mardonius retook Athens but was eventually destroyed in 479 at the Battle
of Plataea. The final defeat of the Persians at Mycale encouraged the Greek
cities of Asia to revolt, and the Persians lost all of their territories in
Europe; Macedonia once again became independent.
Cultural phase:
After Xerxes I was assassinated, he was succeeded by his eldest son Artaxerxes
I. It was during his reign that Elamite ceased to be the language of
government, and Aramaic gained in importance. It was probably during this reign
that the solar calendar was introduced as the national calendar. Under
Artaxerxes I, Zoroastrianism became the de facto religion of state. After
Persia had been defeated at the Battle of Eurymedon (469 or 466 ), military
action between Greece and Persia was halted. When Artaxerxes I took power, he
introduced a new Persian strategy of weakening the Athenians by funding their
enemies in Greece. This indirectly caused the Athenians to move the treasury of
the Delian League from the island of Delos to the Athenian acropolis. This
funding practice inevitably prompted renewed fighting in 450, where the Greeks
attacked at the Battle of Cyprus. After Cimon's failure to attain much in this
expedition, the Peace of Callias was agreed between Athens, Argos and Persia in
449. Artaxerxes I offered asylum to Themistocles, who was the winner of the
Battle of Salamis, after Themistocles was ostracized from Athens. Also,
Artaxerxes I gave him Magnesia, Myus, and Lampsacus to maintain him in bread,
meat, and wine. In addition, Artaxerxes I gave him Palaescepsis to provide him
with clothes, and he also gave him Percote with bedding for his house.
When Artaxerxes died in 424 at Susa, his body was taken to the tomb already
built for him in the Naqsh-e Rustam Necropolis. It was Persian tradition that
kings begin constructing their own tombs while they were still alive.
Artaxerxes I was immediately succeeded by his eldest son Xerxes II, who was the
only legitimate son of Artaxerxes.[106] However, after a few days on the
throne, he was assassinated while drunk by Pharnacyas and Menostanes on the
orders of his illegitimate brother: Sogdianus who apparently had gained the
support of his regions. He reigned for six months and fifteen days before being
captured by his half-brother, Ochus, who had rebelled against him. Sogdianus
was executed by being suffocated in ash because Ochus had promised he would not
die by the sword, by poison or by hunger.[107] Ochus then took the royal name
Darius II. Darius' ability to defend his position on the throne ended the short
power vacuum.[citation needed]
From 412 Darius II, at the insistence of Tissaphernes, gave support first to
Athens, then to Sparta, but in 407 , Darius' son Cyrus the Younger was
appointed to replace Tissaphernes and aid was given entirely to Sparta which
finally defeated Athens in 404 . In the same year, Darius fell ill and died in
Babylon. His death gave an Egyptian rebel named Amyrtaeus the opportunity to
throw off Persian control over Egypt. At his death bed, Darius' Babylonian wife
Parysatis pleaded with him to have her second eldest son Cyrus (the Younger)
crowned, but Darius refused. Queen Parysatis favoured Cyrus more than her
eldest son Artaxerxes II.
Plutarch relates (probably on the authority of Ctesias) that the displaced
Tissaphernes came to the new king on his coronation day to warn him that his
younger brother Cyrus (the Younger) was preparing to assassinate him during the
ceremony. Artaxerxes had Cyrus arrested and would have had him executed if
their mother Parysatis had not intervened. Cyrus was then sent back as Satrap
of Lydia, where he prepared an armed rebellion. Cyrus assembled a large army,
including a contingent of Ten Thousand Greek mercenaries, and made his way
deeper into Persia. The army of Cyrus was stopped by the royal Persian army of
Artaxerxes II at Cunaxa in 401 , where Cyrus was killed. The Ten Thousand Greek
Mercenaries including Xenophon were now deep in Persian territory and were at
risk of attack. So they searched for others to offer their services to but
eventually had to return to Greece.
Artaxerxes II was the longest reigning of the Achaemenid kings and it was
during this 45-year period of relative peace and stability that many of the
monuments of the era were constructed. Artaxerxes moved the capital back to
Persepolis, which he greatly extended. Also the summer capital at Ecbatana was
lavishly extended with gilded columns and roof tiles of silver and copper. The
extraordinary innovation of the Zoroastrian shrines can also be dated to his
reign, and it was probably during this period that Zoroastrianism spread from
Armenia throughout Asia Minor and the Levant. The construction of temples,
though serving a religious purpose, was not a purely selfless act, as they also
served as an important source of income. From the Babylonian kings, the
Achaemenids had taken over the concept of a mandatory temple tax, a one-tenth
tithe which all inhabitants paid to the temple nearest to their land or other
source of income. A share of this income called the Quppu Sha Sharri,
"king's chest"—an ingenious institution originally introduced by
Nabonidus—was then turned over to the ruler. In retrospect, Artaxerxes is
generally regarded as an amiable man who lacked the moral fiber to be a really
successful ruler. However, six centuries later Ardeshir I, founder of the
second Persian Empire, would consider himself Artaxerxes' successor, a grand
testimony to the importance of Artaxerxes to the Persian psyche.
Artaxerxes II became involved in a war with Persia's erstwhile allies, the
Spartans, who, under Agesilaus II, invaded
Asia Minor. In order to redirect the Spartans' attention to Greek affairs,
Artaxerxes II subsidized their enemies: in particular the Athenians, Thebans
and Corinthians. These subsidies helped to engage the Spartans in what would
become known as the Corinthian War. In 387,
Artaxerxes II betrayed his allies and came to an arrangement with Sparta, and
in the Treaty of Antalcidas he forced his erstwhile allies to come to terms.
This treaty restored control of the Greek cities of Ionia and Aeolis on the
Anatolian coast to the Persians, while giving Sparta dominance on the Greek
mainland.
In 385 he campaigned against the Cadusians. Although successful against the
Greeks, Artaxerxes II had more trouble with the Egyptians, who had successfully
revolted against him at the beginning of his reign. An attempt to reconquer
Egypt in 373 was completely unsuccessful, but in his waning years the Persians
did manage to defeat a joint Egyptian–Spartan effort to conquer Phoenicia.
He quashed the Revolt of the Satraps in
372–362 . He is reported to have had a number of wives. His main wife was
Stateira, until she was poisoned by Artaxerxes II's mother Parysatis in about
400 . Another chief wife was a Greek woman of Phocaea named Aspasia (not the
same as the concubine of Pericles). Artaxerxes II is said to have had more than
115 sons from 350 wives.
In 358 Artaxerxes II died and was succeeded by his son Artaxerxes III. In 355 ,
Artaxerxes III forced Athens to conclude a peace which required the city's
forces to leave Asia Minor and to acknowledge the independence of its
rebellious allies. Artaxerxes started a campaign against the rebellious
Cadusians, but he managed to appease both of the Cadusian kings. One individual
who successfully emerged from this campaign was Darius Codomannus, who later
occupied the Persian throne as Darius III.
Artaxerxes III then ordered the disbanding of all the satrapal armies of Asia
Minor, as he felt that they could no longer guarantee peace in the west and was
concerned that these armies equipped the western satraps with the means to
revolt. The order was however ignored by Artabazos II of Phrygia, who asked for
the help of Athens in a rebellion against the king. Athens sent assistance to
Sardis. Orontes of Mysia also supported Artabazos and the combined forces
managed to defeat the forces sent by Artaxerxes III in 354. However, in 353,
they were defeated by Artaxerxes III's army and were disbanded. Orontes was
pardoned by the king, while Artabazos fled to the safety of the court of Philip
II of Macedon.
In around 351, Artaxerxes embarked on a campaign to recover Egypt, which had
revolted under his father, Artaxerxes II. At the same time a rebellion had
broken out in Asia Minor, which, being supported by Thebes, threatened to
become serious. Levying a vast army, Artaxerxes marched into Egypt, and engaged
Nectanebo II. After a year of fighting the Egyptian Pharaoh, Nectanebo
inflicted a crushing defeat on the Persians with the support of mercenaries led
by the Greek generals Diophantus and Lamius. Artaxerxes was compelled to
retreat and postpone his plans to reconquer Egypt.
Soon after this defeat, there were rebellions in Phoenicia, Asia Minor and
Cyprus. In 343 , Artaxerxes committed responsibility for the suppression of the
Cyprian rebels to Idrieus, prince of Caria, who employed 8,000 Greek
mercenaries and forty triremes, commanded by Phocion the Athenian, and
Evagoras, son of the elder Evagoras, the Cypriot monarch. Idrieus succeeded in
reducing Cyprus. Artaxerxes initiated a counter-offensive against Sidon by
commanding Belesys, satrap of Syria, and Mazaeus, satrap of Cilicia, to invade
the city and to keep the Phoenicians in check. Both satraps suffered crushing
defeats at the hands of Tennes, the Sidonese king, who was aided by 40,000
Greek mercenaries sent to him by Nectanebo II and commanded by Mentor of
Rhodes. As a result, the Persian forces were driven out of Phoenicia.
After this, Artaxerxes personally led an army of 330,000 men against Sidon.
Artaxerxes' army comprised 300,000-foot soldiers, 30,000 cavalry, 300 triremes,
and 500 transports or provision ships. After gathering this army, he sought
assistance from the Greeks. Though refused aid by Athens and Sparta, he
succeeded in obtaining a thousand Theban heavy-armed hoplites under Lacrates,
three thousand Argives under Nicostratus, and six thousand Æolians,
Ionians, and Dorians from the Greek cities of Asia Minor. This Greek support
was numerically small, amounting to no more than 10,000 men, but it formed,
together with the Greek mercenaries from Egypt who went over to him afterwards,
the force on which he placed his chief reliance, and to which the ultimate
success of his expedition was mainly due. The approach of Artaxerxes
sufficiently weakened the resolution of Tennes that he endeavoured to purchase
his own pardon by delivering up 100 principal citizens of Sidon into the hands
of the Persian king, and then admitting Artaxerxes within the defences of the
town. Artaxerxes had the 100 citizens transfixed with javelins, and when 500
more came out as supplicants to seek his mercy, Artaxerxes consigned them to
the same fate. Sidon was then burnt to the ground, either by Artaxerxes or by
the Sidonian citizens. Forty thousand people died in the conflagration.
Artaxerxes sold the ruins at a high price to speculators, who calculated on
reimbursing themselves by the treasures which they hoped to dig out from among
the ashes. Tennes was later put to death by Artaxerxes. Artaxerxes later sent
Jews who supported the revolt to Hyrcania on the south coast of the Caspian
Sea.
Second conquest of Egypt:
After the reductionof Sidon was followed closely by the invasion of Egypt. In
343 , Artaxerxes, in addition to his 330,000 Persians, had now a force of
14,000 Greeks furnished by the Greek cities of Asia Minor: 4,000 under Mentor,
consisting of the troops that he had brought to the aid of Tennes from Egypt;
3,000 sent by Argos; and 1000 from Thebes. He divided these troops into three
bodies, and placed at the head of each a Persian and a Greek. The Greek
commanders were Lacrates of Thebes, Mentor of Rhodes and Nicostratus of Argos
while the Persians were led by Rhossaces, Aristazanes, and Bagoas, the chief of
the eunuchs.
Nectanebo II resisted with an army of 100,000 of whom 20,000 were Greek
mercenaries. Nectanebo II occupied the Nile and its various branches with his
large navy. The character of the country, intersected by numerous canals and
full of strongly fortified towns, was in his favour and Nectanebo II might have
been expected to offer a prolonged, if not even a successful, resistance.
However, he lacked good generals, and, over-confident in his own powers of
command, he was out-manoeuvred by the Greek mercenary generals and his forces
were eventually defeated by the combined Persian armies at the Battle of
Pelusium (343).
After his defeat, Nectanebo hastily fled to Memphis, leaving the fortified
towns to be defended by their garrisons. These garrisons consisted of partly
Greek and partly Egyptian troops; between whom jealousies and suspicions were
easily sown by the Persian leaders. As a result, the Persians were able to
rapidly reduce numerous towns across Lower Egypt and were advancing upon
Memphis when Nectanebo decided to quit the country and flee southwards to
Ethiopia. The Persian army completely routed the Egyptians and occupied the
Lower Delta of the Nile. Following Nectanebo fleeing to Ethiopia, all of Egypt
submitted to Artaxerxes. The Jews in Egypt were sent either to Babylon or to
the south coast of the Caspian Sea, the same location that the Jews of
Phoenicia had earlier been sent.
After this victory over the Egyptians, Artaxerxes had the city walls destroyed,
started a reign of terror, and set about looting all the temples. Persia gained
a significant amount of wealth from this looting. Artaxerxes also raised high
taxes and attempted to weaken Egypt enough that it could never revolt against
Persia. For the 10 years that Persia controlled Egypt, believers in the native
religion were persecuted and sacred books were stolen. Before he returned to
Persia, he appointed Pherendares as satrap of Egypt. With the wealth gained
from his reconquering Egypt, Artaxerxes was able to amply reward his
mercenaries. He then returned to his capital having successfully completed his
invasion of Egypt.
After his success in Egypt, Artaxerxes returned to Persia and spent the next
few years effectively quelling insurrections in various parts of the Empire so
that a few years after his conquest of Egypt, the Persian Empire was firmly
under his control. Egypt remained a part of the Persian Empire until Alexander
the Great's conquest of Egypt.
After the conquest of Egypt, there were no more revolts or rebellions against
Artaxerxes. Mentor and Bagoas, the two generals who had most distinguished
themselves in the Egyptian campaign, were advanced to posts of the highest
importance. Mentor, who was governor of the entire Asiatic seaboard, was
successful in reducing to subjection many of the chiefs who during the recent
troubles had rebelled against Persian rule. In the course of a few years Mentor
and his forces were able to bring the whole Asian Mediterranean coast into
complete submission and dependence. Bagoas went back to the Persian capital
with Artaxerxes, where he took a leading role in the internal administration of
the Empire and maintained tranquillity throughout the rest of the Empire.
During the last six years of the reign of Artaxerxes III, the Persian Empire
was governed by a vigorous and successful government.
The Persian forces in Ionia and Lycia regained control of the Aegean and the
Mediterranean Sea and took over much of Athens' former island empire. In
response, Isocrates of Athens started giving speeches calling for a 'crusade
against the barbarians' but there was not enough strength left in any of the
Greek city-states to answer his call. Although there were no rebellions in the
Persian Empire itself, the growing power and territory of Philip II of Macedon
in Macedon (against which Demosthenes was in vain warning the Athenians)
attracted the attention of Artaxerxes. In response, he ordered that Persian
influence was to be used to check and constrain the rising power and influence
of the Macedonian kingdom. In 340, a Persian force was dispatched to assist the
Thracian prince, Cersobleptes, to maintain his independence. Sufficient
effective aid was given to the city of Perinthus that the numerous and
well-appointed army with which Philip had commenced his siege of the city was
compelled to give up the attempt. By the last year of Artaxerxes' rule, Philip
II already had plans in place for an invasion of the Persian Empire, which
would crown his career, but the Greeks would not unite with him. In 338
Artaxerxes was poisoned by Bagoas with the assistance of a physician.
Fall of the empire:
Artaxerxes III was succeeded by Artaxerxes IV Arses, who before he could act
was also poisoned by Bagoas. Bagoas is further said to have killed not only all
Arses' children, but many of the other princes of the land. Bagoas then placed
Darius III, a nephew of Artaxerxes IV, on the throne. Darius III, previously
Satrap of Armenia, personally forced Bagoas to swallow poison.
In 334 , when Darius was just succeeding in subduing Egypt again, Alexander and
his battle-hardened troops invaded Asia Minor. Alexander the Great (Alexander
III of Macedon) defeated the Persian armies at Granicus (334), followed by
Issus (333), and lastly at Gaugamela (331). Afterwards, he marched on Susa and
Persepolis which surrendered in early 330 . From Persepolis, Alexander headed
north to Pasargadae where he visited the tomb of Cyrus, the burial of the man
whom he had heard of from the Cyropedia.[citation needed] In the ensuing chaos
created by Alexander's invasion of Persia, Cyrus's tomb was broken into and
most of its luxuries were looted. When Alexander reached the tomb, he was
horrified by the manner in which it had been treated, and questioned the Magi,
putting them on trial. By some accounts, Alexander's decision to put the Magi
on trial was more an attempt to undermine their influence and display his own
power than a show of concern for Cyrus's tomb.
Regardless, Alexander the Great ordered Aristobulus to improve the tomb's
condition and restore its interior, showing respect for Cyrus. From there he
headed to Ecbatana, where Darius III had sought refuge. Darius III was taken
prisoner by Bessus, his Bactrian satrap and kinsman. As Alexander approached,
Bessus had his men murder Darius III and then declared himself Darius'
successor, as Artaxerxes V, before retreating into Central Asia leaving Darius'
body in the road to delay Alexander, who brought it to Persepolis for an
honourable funeral. Bessus would then create a coalition of his forces, in
order to create an army to defend against Alexander. Before Bessus could fully
unite with his confederates at the eastern part of the empire, Alexander,
fearing the danger of Bessus gaining control, found him, put him on trial in a
Persian court under his control, and ordered his execution in a "cruel and
barbarous manner."
Alexander generally kept the original Achaemenid administrative structure,
leading some scholars to dub him as "the last of the Achaemenids".
Upon Alexander's death in 323, his empire was divided among his generals, the
Diadochi, resulting in a number of smaller states. The largest of these, which
held sway over the Iranian plateau, was the Seleucid Empire, ruled by
Alexander's general Seleucus I Nicator. Native Iranian rule would be restored
by the Parthians of northeastern Iran over the course of the 2nd century.
Military:
Despite its humble origins in Persis, the empire reached an enormous size under
the leadership of Cyrus the Great. Cyrus created a multi-state empire where he
allowed regional rulers, called the "satrap", to rule as his proxy
over a certain designated area of his empire called the satrapy. The basic rule
of governance was based upon loyalty and obedience of each satrapy to the
central power, or the king, and compliance with tax laws. Due to the
ethno-cultural diversity of the subject nations under the rule of Persia, its
enormous geographic size, and the constant struggle for power by regional
competitors, the creation of a professional army was necessary for both
maintenance of the peace and to enforce the authority of the king in cases of
rebellion and foreign threat. Cyrus managed to create a strong land army, using
it to advance in his campaigns in Babylonia, Lydia, and Asia Minor, which after
his death was used by his son Cambyses II, in Egypt against Psamtik III. Cyrus
would die battling a local Iranian insurgency in the empire, before he could
have a chance to develop a naval force. That task would fall to Darius the
Great, who would officially give Persians their own royal navy to allow them to
engage their enemies on multiple seas of this vast empire, from the Black Sea
and the Aegean Sea, to the Persian Gulf, Ionian Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.
Military composition:
The empire's great armies were, like the empire itself, very diverse, having:
Persians, Macedonians, European Thracians, Paeonians, Medes, Achaean Greeks,
Cissians, Hyrcanians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Bactrians, Sacae, Arians,
Parthians, Caucasian Albanians, Chorasmians, Sogdians, Gandarians, Dadicae,
Caspians, Sarangae, Pactyes, Utians, Mycians, Phoenicians, Judeans, Egyptians,
Cyprians, Cilicians, Pamphylians, Lycians, Dorians of Asia, Carians, Ionians,
Aegean islanders, Aeolians, Greeks from Pontus, Paricanians, Arabians,
Ethiopians of Africa, Ethiopians of Baluchistan, Libyans, Paphlagonians,
Ligyes, Matieni, Mariandyni, Cappadocians, Phrygians, Armenians, Lydians,
Mysians, Asian Thracians, Lasonii, Milyae, Moschi, Tibareni, Macrones,
Mossynoeci, Mares, Colchians, Alarodians, Saspirians, Red Sea islanders,
Sagartians, Indians, Eordi, Bottiaei, Chalcidians, Brygians, Pierians,
Perrhaebi, Enienes, Dolopes, and Magnesians.
Infantry:
The Achaemenid infantry consisted of three groups: the Immortals, the
Sparabara, and the Takabara, though in the later years of the Achaemenid
Empire, the Cardaces, were introduced. The Immortals were described by
Herodotus as being heavy infantry, led by Hydarnes, that were kept constantly
at a strength of exactly 10,000 men. He claimed that the unit's name stemmed
from the custom that every killed, seriously wounded, or sick member was
immediately replaced with a new one, maintaining the numbers and cohesion of
the unit. They had wicker shields, short spears, swords or large daggers, bow
and arrow. Underneath their robes they wore scale armour coats. The spear
counterbalances of the common soldiery were of silver; to differentiate
commanding ranks, the officers' spear butt-spikes were golden. Surviving
Achaemenid coloured glazed bricks and carved reliefs represent the Immortals as
wearing elaborate robes, hoop earrings and gold jewellery, though these
garments and accessories were most likely worn only for ceremonial occasions.
Color reconstruction of Achaemenid infantry on the Alexander Sarcophagus (end
of 4th century).
The Sparabara were usually the first to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the
enemy. Although not much is known about them today, it is believed that they
were the backbone of the Persian army who formed a shield wall and used their
two-metre-long spears to protect more vulnerable troops such as archers from
the enemy. The Sparabara were taken from the full members of Persian society,
they were trained from childhood to be soldiers and when not called out to
fight on campaigns in distant lands they practised hunting on the vast plains
of Persia. However, when all was quiet and the Pax Persica held true, the
Sparabara returned to normal life farming the land and grazing their herds.
Because of this they lacked true professional quality on the battlefield, yet
they were well trained and courageous to the point of holding the line in most
situations long enough for a counter-attack. They were armoured with quilted
linen and carried large rectangular wicker shields as a form of light
manoeuvrable defence. This, however, left them at a severe disadvantage against
heavily armoured opponents such as the hoplite, and his two-metre-long spear
was not able to give the Sparabara ample range to plausibly engage a trained
phalanx. The wicker shields were able to effectively stop arrows but not strong
enough to protect the soldier from spears. However, the Sparabara could deal
with most other infantry, including trained units from the East.
The Achaemenids relied heavily on archery. Major contributing nations were the
Scythians, Medes, Persians, and the Elamites. The composite bow was used by the
Persians and Medes, who adopted it from the Scythians and transmitted it to
other nations, including the Greeks. The socketed, three-bladed (also known as
trilobate or Scythian) arrowheads made of copper alloy was the arrowhead
variant normally used by the Achaemenid army. This variant required more
expertise and precision to build.
The Takabara were a rare unit who were a tough type of peltasts. They tended to
fight with their own native weapons which would have included a crescent-shaped
light wickerwork shield and axes as well as light linen cloth and leather. The
Takabara were recruited from territories that incorporated modern Iran.
Cavalry:
The armoured Persian horsemen and their death dealing chariots were invincible.
No man dared face them —?Herodotus The Persian cavalry was crucial for
conquering nations, and maintained its importance in the Achaemenid army to the
last days of the Achaemenid Empire. The cavalry were separated into four
groups.
The chariot archers, horse cavalry, the camel cavalry, and the war elephants.
In the later years of the Achaemenid Empire, the chariot archer had become
merely a ceremonial part of the Persian army, yet in the early years of the
Empire, their use was widespread. The chariot archers were armed with spears,
bows, arrows, swords, and scale armour. The horses were also suited with scale
armour similar to scale armour of the Sassanian cataphracts. The chariots would
contain imperial symbols and decorations.
Armoured cavalry: The riders often had the same armour as Infantry units,
wicker shields, short spears, swords or large daggers, bow and arrow and scale
armour coats. The camel cavalry was different, because the camels and sometimes
the riders, were provided little protection against enemies, yet when they were
offered protection, they would have spears, swords, bow, arrow, and scale
armour. The camel cavalry was first introduced into the Persian army by Cyrus
the Great, at the Battle of Thymbra. The
elephant was most likely introduced into the Persian army by Darius I after his
conquest of the Indus Valley. They may have been used in Greek campaigns by
Darius and Xerxes I, but Greek accounts only mention 15 of them being used at
the Battle of Gaugamela.
Navy:
Main article: Achaemenid navy
Since its foundation by Cyrus, the Persian empire had been primarily a land
empire with a strong army, but void of any actual naval forces. By the 5th
century BC, this was to change, as the empire came across Greek, and Egyptian
forces, each with their own maritime traditions and capabilities. Darius the
Great (Darius I) was the first Achaemenid king to invest in a Persian
fleet.[200] Even by then no true "imperial navy" had existed either
in Greece or Egypt. Persia would become the first empire, under Darius, to
inaugurate and deploy the first regular imperial navy.[200] Despite this
achievement, the personnel for the imperial navy would not come from Iran, but
were often Phoenicians (mostly from Sidon), Egyptians and Greeks chosen by
Darius the Great to operate the empire's combat vessels.[200] Reconstitution of
Persian landing ships at the Battle of Marathon. At first the ships were built
in Sidon by the Phoenicians; the first Achaemenid ships measured about 40
meters in length and 6 meters in width, able to transport up to 300 Persian
troops at any one trip. Soon, other states of the empire were constructing
their own ships, each incorporating slight local preferences. The ships
eventually found their way to the Persian Gulf.[200] Persian naval forces laid
the foundation for a strong Persian maritime presence in the Persian Gulf.
Persians were not only stationed on islands in the Persian Gulf, but also had
ships often of 100 to 200 capacity patrolling the empire's various rivers
including the Karun, Tigris and Nile in the west, as well as the Indus.[200]
Greek ships against Achaemenid ships at the Battle of Salamis. The Achaemenid
navy established bases located along the Karun, and in Bahrain, Oman, and
Yemen. The Persian fleet was not only used for peace-keeping purposes along the
Karun but also opened the door to trade with India via the Persian Gulf.[200]
Darius's navy was in many ways a world power at the time, but it would be
Artaxerxes II who in the summer of 397 BC would build a formidable navy, as
part of a rearmament which would lead to his decisive victory at Knidos in 394
BC, re-establishing Achaemenid power in Ionia. Artaxerxes II would also utilize
his navy to later on quell a rebellion in Egypt.[201] The construction material
of choice was wood, but some armoured Achaemenid ships had metallic blades on
the front, often meant to slice enemy ships using the ship's momentum. Naval
ships were also equipped with hooks on the side to grab enemy ships, or to
negotiate their position. The ships were propelled by sails or manpower. The
ships the Persians created were unique. As far as maritime engagement, the
ships were equipped with two mangonels that would launch projectiles such as
stones, or flammable substances.[200] Xenophon describes his eyewitness account
of a massive military bridge created by joining 37 Persian ships across the
Tigris. The Persians utilized each boat's buoyancy, in order to support a
connected bridge above which supply could be transferred.[200] Herodotus also
gives many accounts of Persians utilizing ships to build bridges.[202][203]
Darius the Great, in an attempt to subdue the Scythian horsemen north of the
Black Sea, crossed over at the Bosphorus, using an enormous bridge made by
connecting Achaemenid boats, then marched up to the Danube, crossing it by
means of a second boat bridge.[204] The bridge over the Bosphorus essentially
connected the nearest tip of Asia to Europe, encompassing at least some 1000
meters of open water if not more. Herodotus describes the spectacle, and calls
it the "bridge of Darius":[205] "Strait called Bosphorus, across
which the bridge of Darius had been thrown is hundred and twenty furlongs in
length, reaching from the Euxine, to the Propontis. The Propontis is five
hundred furlongs across, and fourteen hundred long. Its waters flow into the
Hellespont, the length of which is four hundred furlongs ..." Years later,
a similar boat bridge would be constructed by Xerxes the Great (Xerxes I), in
his invasion of Greece. Although the Persians failed to capture the Greek city
states completely, the tradition of maritime involvement was carried down by
the Persian kings, most notably Artaxerxes II. Years later, when Alexander
invaded Persia and during his advancement into India, he took a page from the
Persian art of war, by having Hephaestion and Perdiccas construct a similar
boat-bridge at the Indus river, in India in the spring of 327 BC.[206]
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