Persia
Introduction
The descendants of the Aryans that settled in the East in modern Iran were known as the Medes and the Persians. The Medes were great warriors, and when the Assyrians went into decline, they formed a strong kingdom with their capital in Ecbatana. They also had control, eventually, over all of the Persians. The Medes captured Nineveh with the help of the Babylonians, and the Assyrian empire ended.
The Territory of the Persians
The Persian territory originally consisted of the southwestern Iranian plateau. This territory extends from eastern Mesopotamia, to the Indus River Valley, and from the Caspian Sea in the north to the Arabian Sea. This territory is a bowl-shaped desert surrounded by mountains. It is a barren land today, but in ancient times, there were pasturelands and crops were grown there. The slopes of the mountains were forest covered, and there were natural resources such as iron, lead, turquoise, and lapis lazuli.
History
Cyrus II, the Great, was the first well-known ruler of the Achaemenid dynasty, which was founded by Achaemenes. Cyrus' reign began in 559 B.C., but he was a vassal to the Median Empire. He married into the royal family of Media and rebelled with a coalition of Persians. By 550 B.C., the Median Empire had fallen to Cyrus. Croesus of Lydia was paranoid that he may be targeted by Cyrus, and consulted the oracle at Delphi in Greece, which apparently told him to attack. Cyrus launched an attack on Lydia and captured Sardis the Lydian capital. He also took advantage of the Marduk priests' dissatisfaction with Belshazzar in Babylon, and easily acquired the Chaldean empire and the Assyrian colonies of Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine. Cyrus was killed in war with the Iranian tribes in 530 B.C. During his reign, the Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem to begin rebuilding their Temple (2 Chronicles 36:23). During his reign, the empire expanded to the west all the way to the Mediterranean Sea.
There was unrest in the land at the death of Cyrus, partly because of the Magi-Zoroastrian struggle. Cyrus' eldest son rose to the throne, named Cambyses. He killed his brother Smerdis to ensure that he would have no rival for the throne. His military campaign stretched to include Egypt and Nubia, but had to return home because of a revolt in Persia. One of the Magi had claimed to be Smerdis, and was rallying the revolt. Cambyses died on the way home, and there are no clear records why or how.
The army had been the important role in a Persian monarch's success. The elite of the army were 10,000 Mede-Persian troops called the 'Immortals'. In 522, Darius, a distant cousin of Cambyses won the support of the army and became the king. He overcame the false Smerdis and consolidated his rule within the year. He divided the territories into 20 satrapies, each under a satrap (governor). Inspectors traveled throughout the land and reported to the king if the satrapies were governed well. They were the "eyes and the ears" of the king (Howe, 76). Conquered peoples needed to pay tribute to the king, and in return would have a great amount of freedom in governing and in religion.
In the first year of his reign, he had an inscription carved on the mountainside of Behistun. This was located 500 feet above the road from Persia to Babylon. This inscription includes conquering of the Magi claiming to be Smerdis. From all of his inscriptions, one can tell he was proud of his fairness and his military endeavors. His effectiveness as a ruler is apparent in the way that he can run an empire comprised of many people and cultures. It was from other cultures that the Persians borrowed their art and architectural patterns. This eclecticism is evident in the remains of their palaces that were discovered/excavated in Susa and Persepolis. Persepolis was the capital chosen by Darius in 518 B.C. The palace was constructed with sun-dried clay bricks.
Darius had the Royal Road built to improve transportation across the empire. The road was 1680 miles long, extending from Sardis, Lydia to Susa, Persia. There were many military garrisons built to respond to threats to enemies of the empire. He established a standard system of weights (cf. Revelation 13:16-17). He formed a navy out of conquered ships from the Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Greeks. He looked for the possibility of forming a trade route from the Indus River along the coast to the Arabian Sea, and then to the Red Sea.
Darius crossed the Bosporus and conquered Thrace to gain access to its silver mines and to attack the Greeks. The Greeks in those days controlled the trade routes from the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea. In 490 B.C., however, Darius lost to Greece in the battle of Marathon, in which the Greek city-states stood united to fight against him. Darius was going to try to take them again years later, but died before he could carry out his plan.
Zoroastrianism
Persians worshipped a pantheon of nature gods. There were worship ceremonies that consisted of animal sacrifice to appease their gods. The Magi officiated these ceremonies and were believed to have the power to ward off evil spirits.
Around 600 B.C., a prophet named Zoroaster designed a new religion that opposed to the traditional religion of the Persians. There were no nature gods, nor was there any animal sacrifice according to his teaching. There were, according to Zoroaster, two forces in the world. The first force was one of truth, goodness, and light, which symbolized by the god Ahuramazda. The second force was one of evil, deceit, and darkness, personified by the god Ahriman. Man could choose to follow one or the other, and the decision would either lead to happiness or despair in an afterlife. This depended on righteous conduct, not on ceremonial rites. This is, therefore known as an ethical religion. Fire was used as a symbol of Ahuramazda and to remind the followers to be of good conduct. This religion affected the Achaemenid dynasty. Some liberal theologians and scholars might say that the faith had effects on Judeo-Christian thinking, since it had ideas of final judgment immortality and the concept of Satan. Most of the followers of Zoroaster left for India when the Arabs invaded Iran in the eighth century, and these followers are known as Parsis today. They live around the area of Bombay and are numbered about 100,000.
Sources
Howe, Helen and Robert Howe. Ancient and Medieval Worlds. White Plains: Longman, 1992. Chapter 3.