Persians

The Persians were to inherit the rule of all the peoples that once in­habited Southwest Asia. They were an Indo-European people, a part of the great migrations that took place early in the first millennium ВС. The Persians chose the plateau that extends from the Zagros Mountains to the Indus Valley for their homeland. Much of the plateau, except for the val­leys of the Zagros and the immediate region south of the Caspian Sea, is very arid. For farmers, irrigation was needed, but for the herders of horses, the grass that grew on the plateau was sufficient for their needs.

The Persians had close relatives in the Medes, Sogdians, and Bactri-ans, all of whom found a place to settle on, or close by, the great Iranian plateau about 800 ВС. The Medes were the first to gain notoriety when their ruler, Kashtaritu (in Greek, Phraortes), was one of the allies that in 612 ВС attacked Nineveh and brought down the Assyrian Empire.

For a moment the Medes created a small empire that reached into Anatolia. Their king became so impressed with his victories that he as­sumed the name king of kings, just in time for the Medes to be toppled, as the Persians came on the scene. The future belonged to the Persians.

The greatest of Persian kings was Cyrus, who ruled at the very begin­ning of his nation's prominence, from 549 to 530 ВС. The dynasty he founded receives the name Achaemenid, from Achaemenes, a legendary king believed to be the first of the Persian kings.

Not surprisingly, Cyrus led his armies, as was expected of a ruler in South­west Asia, into Anatolia against the Lydian empire and Ionian Greek cities that were located along the coast. In 539 ВС he turned his forces southward, where the Chaldeans of Babylon opened the gates of the city to him.

His tolerance made Cyrus popular with conquered people, for he al­lowed them to retain their own culture as long as they paid tribute. Cyrus forbade his troops to pillage and ordered them to respect the temples of those he defeated. Peoples who had once been exiled, like the Jews, were allowed to return to their homelands. Cyrus's victories created a multieth-

nic empire over all Southwest Asia, and Mesopotamia lost its preeminence to leadership when it became a province of Persia.

The son of Cyrus, Cambyses, invaded Egypt, opening a brief period of Persian rule over that country. Because he died unexpectedly, the kingship passed to Darius I, one of his close relatives and a member of the elite army corps, the Immortals.

Persian kings were not bashful about their accomplishments. Darius ordered an inscription to be carved on a cliff at Behistun of all nineteen of his campaigns. This Behistun Rock, written in three languages, proved to be the key to deciphering cuneiform writing in modern times.

One campaign that Darius was not so happy to record followed a suc­cessful invasion of western India. Because of a revolt in the Ionian Greek cities of Anatolia while he was away, Darius not only suppressed the rebels but also decided to punish the Athenians for sending help to the Ionians. Thus began the classic conflict between Persians and Greeks.

A Persian army marched across Thrace while the navy followed it along the coast. In 490 ВС at Marathon, the Athenians met and defeated the Persians. Ten years later Darius's successor, Xerxes, tried once more to overcome the Greeks, but he, too, failed. Despite its strength, the Persian Empire had reached its limits.

It was now the turn of the Greeks to intervene in Persian affairs. Be­cause of a struggle over the kingship between two brothers, a Greek mer­cenary army fought on Persian soil, in vain as it turned out. On their de­parture from the country, one of the Greek generals, Xenophon, wrote a history of the expedition. This work, the Anabasis, is one of the most im­portant sources for the history of both Greece and Persia.

The final page of Achaemenid Persia came in the fourth century ВС, when Alexander the Great concluded the conflict between the Greeks and Persians, with a win for the Greeks. The last Persian king, Darius III, was killed as his troops fled from the Greeks. According to legend, Alexander gave the king a drink of water just before his death.