In the middle of the VI century. BC e. the Persians entered the arena of world history - a mysterious tribe about which the previously civilized peoples of the Middle East knew only by hearsay.
The manners and customs of the ancient Persians are known from the writings of the peoples who lived next to them. In addition to mighty growth and physical development, the Persians possessed a will hardened in the struggle against the harsh climate and the dangers of nomadic life in the mountains and steppes. At the time, they were renowned for their moderate lifestyle, temperance, strength, courage and solidarity.
According to Herodotus, the Persians wore clothes made of animal skins and felt tiaras (caps), did not drink wine, and did not eat as much as they wanted, but as much as they had. They were indifferent to silver and gold.
Simplicity and modesty in food and clothing remained one of the main virtues even during the domination of the Persians over the entire Middle East, when they began to dress in luxurious Median outfits, wear gold necklaces and bracelets, when fresh fish from distant seas, fruits from Babylonia and Syria. Even then, during the coronation ceremony of the Persian kings, the Achaemenid ascending the throne had to wear the clothes that he wore without being a king, eat some dried figs and drink a cup of sour milk.
The ancient Persians were allowed to have many wives, as well as concubines, to marry close relatives, such as nieces and half-sisters. Ancient Persian customs forbade women to show themselves to strangers (among the numerous reliefs in Persepolis there is not a single female image). The ancient historian Plutarch wrote that the Persians were characterized by wild jealousy not only towards their wives. They even kept the slaves and concubines locked up so that outsiders would not see them, and carried them in closed carts.
History of ancient Persia
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The Persian king Cyrus II from the Achaemenid clan conquered Media and many other countries in a short time and had a huge and well-armed army, which began to prepare for a campaign against Babylonia. A new force appeared in Southwest Asia, which managed in a short time - in just a few decades - to completely change the political map of the Middle East.
Babylonia and Egypt abandoned a long-term hostile policy towards each other, for the rulers of both countries were well aware of the need to prepare for war with the Persian Empire. The beginning of the war was only a matter of time.
The Persian campaign against Babylon began in 539 BC. e. A decisive battle between the Persians and the Babylonians took place near the city of Opis on the Tigris River. Cyrus won a complete victory here, soon his troops took the well-fortified city of Sippar, and the Persians captured Babylon without a fight.
After that, the eyes of the Persian ruler turned to the East, where for several years he waged a grueling war with the nomadic tribes of Central Asia and where he eventually died in 530 BC. e.
Cyrus' successors, Cambyses and Darius, completed the work he had begun. in 524-523 BC e. the campaign of Cambyses to Egypt took place, as a result of which the Achaemenid rule was established on the banks of the Nile. Ancient Egypt became one of the satrapies of the new empire. Darius continued to strengthen the eastern and western borders of the empire. By the end of the reign of Darius, who died in 485 BC. e., the Persian state dominated a vast territory from the Aegean Sea in the west to India in the east and from the deserts of Central Asia in the north to the rapids of the Nile in the south. The Achaemenids (Persians) united almost the entire civilized world known to them and owned it until the 4th century. BC e., when their state was broken and conquered by the military leader's genius of Alexander the Great.
Chronology of the rulers of the Achaemenid dynasty:
- Achaemen, 600s BC.
- Teispes, 600s BC
- Cyrus I, 640 - 580 BC.
- Cambyses I, 580 - 559 BC.
- Cyrus II the Great, 559 - 530 BC.
- Cambyses II, 530 - 522 BC
- Bardia, 522 BC
- Darius I, 522 - 486 BC
- Xerxes I, 485 - 465 BC
- Artaxerxes I, 465 - 424 BC
- Xerxes II, 424 BC
- Sekudian, 424 - 423 BC
- Darius II, 423 - 404 BC
- Artaxerxes II, 404 - 358 BC
- Artaxerxes III, 358 - 338 BC
- Artaxerxes IV Arses, 338 - 336 BC
- Darius III, 336 - 330 BC
- Artaxerxes V Bessus, 330 - 329 BC
Map of the Persian Empire.
The Aryan tribes - the eastern branch of the Indo-Europeans - by the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. e. inhabited almost the entire territory of present-day Iran. The word "Iran" itself is the modern form of the name "Ariana", that is, the country of the Aryans. Initially, these were the warlike tribes of semi-nomadic herders who fought in war chariots. Some of the Aryans migrated to Northern India even earlier and captured it, giving rise to Indo-Aryan culture. Other Aryan tribes, closer to the Iranians, remained to roam in Central Asia and the northern steppes - the Scythians, Saki, Sarmatians, etc. The Iranians themselves, having settled on the fertile lands of the Iranian highlands, gradually abandoned their nomadic life, engaged in agriculture, adopting the skills of the Mesopotamian civilization. It reached a high level already in the XI-VIII centuries. BC e. Iranian craft. Its monument is the famous "Luristan bronzes" - skillfully executed weapons and household items with images of mythical and really existing animals.
"Luristan Bronzes" is a cultural monument of Western Iran. It was here, in the immediate neighborhood and confrontation with Assyria, that the most powerful Iranian kingdoms were formed. The first of them strengthened Media (in the north-west of Iran). The Medes kings participated in the destruction of Assyria. The history of their state is well known from written records. But the Median monuments of the 7th-6th centuries. BC e. very poorly studied. Even the capital of the country, the city of Ecbatana, has not yet been found. It is only known that it was located in the vicinity of the modern city of Hamadan. Nevertheless, the two Median fortresses already investigated by archaeologists from the times of the struggle with Assyria speak of a rather high culture of the Medes.
In 553 BC. e. Cyrus (Kurush) II, the king of the subordinate Persian tribe from the Achaemenid clan, rebelled against the Medes. In 550 BC. e. Cyrus united the Iranians under his rule and led them to conquer the world. In 546 BC. e. he conquered Asia Minor, and in 538 BC. e. Babylon fell. Cyrus's son, Cambyses, conquered Egypt, and under King Darius I at the turn of the 6th-5th centuries. before. n. e. The Persian state reached its greatest expansion and flourishing.
Monuments of her greatness are the royal capitals excavated by archaeologists - the most famous and best researched monuments of Persian culture. The oldest of these is Pasargadae, the capital of Cyrus.
Sassanian revival - Sassanian state
In 331-330. BC e. the famous conqueror Alexander the Great destroyed the Persian Empire. In revenge for Athens, once devastated by the Persians, the Greek Macedonian soldiers brutally plundered and burned Persepolis. The Achaemenid dynasty ended. The period of Greco-Macedonian rule over the East began, which is usually called the era of Hellenism.
For the Iranians, the conquest was a disaster. Power over all neighbors was replaced by humiliated submission to old enemies - the Greeks. The traditions of Iranian culture, already shaken by the desire of kings and nobles to imitate the vanquished in luxury, were now finally trampled upon. Little changed after the liberation of the country by the nomadic Iranian tribe of the Parthians. The Parthians expelled the Greeks from Iran in the II century. BC e., but they themselves borrowed a lot from Greek culture. The Greek language is still used on the coins and inscriptions of their kings. Temples are still being erected with numerous statues, according to Greek models, which seemed to many Iranians blasphemy. Zarathushtra in ancient times forbade the worship of idols, commanding to honor the inextinguishable flame as a symbol of the deity and to offer sacrifices to it. It was the religious humiliation that was the greatest, and no wonder the city,erected by the Greek conquerors, in Iran later they were called "structures of the Dragon".
In 226 A. D. e. the rebel ruler of Pars, bearing the ancient royal name of Ardashir (Artaxerxes), overthrew the Parthian dynasty. The history of the second Persian empire began - the Sassanid state, the dynasty to which the winner belonged.
The Sassanids sought to revive the culture of ancient Iran. The very history of the Achaemenid state by that time had become a vague legend. So the society that was described in the legends of the Zoroastrian priests-mobed was put forward as an ideal. The Sassanids built, in fact, a culture that had never existed in the past, thoroughly imbued with a religious idea. This had little to do with the era of the Achaemenids, who willingly adopted the customs of the conquered tribes.
Under the Sassanids, the Iranian decisively triumphed over the Hellenic. Greek temples disappear completely, the Greek language is no longer in official use. The broken statues of Zeus (who was identified with Ahura Mazda under the Parthians) are being replaced by faceless fire altars. Naqsh-i-Rustem is decorated with new reliefs and inscriptions. In the III century. the second Sassanian king Shapur I ordered to carve his victory over the Roman emperor Valerian on the rocks. On the reliefs of the kings, a bird-like farn overshadows - a sign of divine protection.
The capital of Persia was the city of Ctesiphon, built by the Parthians next to the emptying Babylon. Under the Sassanids, new palace complexes were built in Ctesiphon and huge (up to 120 hectares) royal parks were laid out. The most famous of the Sassanian palaces is Tak-i-Kisra, the palace of King Khosrov I, who ruled in the 6th century. Along with the monumental reliefs, the palaces were now adorned with fine carved ornamentation over a lime mixture.
Under the Sassanids, the irrigation system of Iranian and Mesopotamian lands was improved. In the VI century. the country was covered by a network of caries (underground water pipes with clay pipes), stretching up to 40 km. The caries were cleaned through special wells dug every 10 m. The carises served for a long time and ensured the rapid development of agriculture in Iran during the Sassanid era. It was then that cotton and sugarcane were grown in Iran, and horticulture and winemaking developed. At the same time, Iran became one of the suppliers of its own fabrics - both woolen and linen and silk.
The Sassanid state was much smaller than the Achaemenid state, covering only Iran itself, part of the lands of Central Asia, the territories of present-day Iraq, Armenia and Azerbaijan. She had to struggle for a long time, first with Rome, then with the Byzantine Empire. Despite all this, the Sassanids held out longer than the Achaemenids - more than four centuries. Ultimately, the state, exhausted by continuous wars in the west, was engulfed in a power struggle. This was taken advantage of by the Arabs, who carried by force of arms a new faith - Islam. In 633-651. after a fierce war, they conquered Persia. So it was done with the ancient Persian state and ancient Iranian culture.
Persian control system
The ancient Greeks, who became acquainted with the organization of state administration in the Achaemenid empire, admired the wisdom and foresight of the Persian kings. In their opinion, this organization was the pinnacle of the development of the monarchical form of government.
The Persian kingdom was divided into large provinces, called satrapies according to the title of their rulers - satraps (Persian, "kshatra-pavan" - "guardian of the region"). Usually there were 20 of them, but this number fluctuated, since sometimes the management of two or more satrapies was entrusted to one person and, conversely, one area was divided into several. This pursued mainly the purpose of taxation, but sometimes the peculiarities of the peoples inhabiting them and historical characteristics were also taken into account. The satraps and rulers of the smaller regions were not the only representatives of local government. In addition to them, in many provinces there were hereditary local kings or sovereign priests, as well as free cities and, finally, "benefactors" who received cities and districts for life, or even hereditary possession. These kings,rulers and high priests in their position differed from satraps only in that they were hereditary and had a historical and national connection with the population, who saw in them the carriers of ancient traditions. They independently exercised internal government, preserved local law, system of measures, language, imposed taxes and duties, but were under the constant control of satraps, who could often intervene in the affairs of the regions, especially during unrest and unrest. Satraps also resolved border disputes between cities and regions, litigation in cases when the participants were citizens of different urban communities or different vassal regions, regulated political relations. Local rulers, like satraps, had the right to directly communicate with the central government, and some of them, such as the kings of the Phoenician cities, Cilicia, Greek tyrants,maintained their army and navy, which they personally commanded, accompanying the Persian army on large campaigns or carrying out the military orders of the king. However, the satrap could at any time demand these troops for the tsarist service, put his garrison in the possessions of local rulers. The main command over the troops of the province also belonged to him. The satrap was even allowed to recruit soldiers and mercenaries on his own and at his own expense. He was, as it would have been called in an era closer to us, the governor-general of his satrapy, ensuring its internal and external security. The main command over the troops of the province also belonged to him. The satrap was even allowed to recruit soldiers and mercenaries on his own and at his own expense. He was, as it would have been called in an era closer to us, the governor-general of his satrapy, ensuring its internal and external security. The main command over the troops of the province also belonged to him. The satrap was even allowed to recruit soldiers and mercenaries on his own and at his own expense. He was, as it would have been called in an era closer to us, the governor-general of his satrapy, ensuring its internal and external security.
The supreme command of the troops was carried out by the commanders of four or, as during the subordination of Egypt, five military districts into which the kingdom was divided.
The Persian system of government provides an example of the amazing respect by the winners of local customs and the rights of conquered peoples. In Babylonia, for example, all documents of the times of Persian rule in legal terms do not differ from those related to the period of independence. It was the same in Egypt and Judea. In Egypt, the Persians left the same not only the division into nomes, but also the sovereign names, the disposition of troops and garrisons, as well as the tax inviolability of temples and priesthood. Of course, the central government and the satrap could intervene at any time and decide matters at their own discretion, but for the most part it was enough for them if the country was calm, the taxes were proceeding regularly, the troops were in order.
Such a control system did not take shape in the Middle East overnight. For example, Assyria initially relied only on force of arms and intimidation in the conquered territories. The regions taken "with battle" were included directly into the House of Ashur - the central region of the Assyrian Empire. Those who surrendered at the mercy of the victor often retained their local dynasty. But over time, this system turned out to be ill-suited for managing the growing state. Reorganization of management, carried out by the king Tiglathpalasar III in CNT c. BC e., in addition to the policy of forced relocations, and changed the system of governance of the regions of the empire. The kings tried to prevent the emergence of overly powerful families. Eunuchs were often appointed to important posts to prevent the creation of hereditary dominions and new dynasties among the rulers of the regions. Besides,although high officials received huge land holdings, they did not form a single array, but were scattered throughout the country.
But still, the main support of Assyrian rule, as well as Babylonian later, was the army. Military garrisons literally girdled the entire country. Taking into account the experience of their predecessors, the Achaemenids added to the power of arms the idea of a "kingdom of countries", that is, a reasonable combination of local peculiarities with the interests of the central government.
The vast state needed the means of communication needed to control the central government over local officials and rulers. The language of the Persian chancellery, in which even royal decrees were issued, was Aramaic. This is due to the fact that, in fact, it was commonly used in Assyria and Babylonia even in Assyrian times. The conquests by the Assyrian and Babylonian kings of the western regions, Syria and Palestine, further contributed to its spread. This language gradually took the place of the ancient Akkadian cuneiform in international relations; it was even used on the coins of the Asia Minor satraps of the Persian king.
Another feature of the Persian Empire that admired the Greeks was the beautiful roads described by Herodotus and Xenophon in stories about the campaigns of King Cyrus. The most famous were the so-called Royal, which went from Ephesus in Asia Minor, off the coast of the Aegean Sea, to the east - to Susa, one of the capitals of the Persian state, through the Euphrates, Armenia and Assyria along the Tigris River; the road leading from Babylonia through the Zagros mountains to the east to the other capital of Persia - Ecbatana, and from here to the Bactrian and Indian border; the road from the Isa Gulf of the Mediterranean Sea to Sinop on the Black Sea, crossing Asia Minor, etc.
These roads were not only laid by the Persians. Most of them existed in Assyrian and even earlier times. The beginning of the construction of the Royal Road, which was the main artery of the Persian monarchy, probably dates back to the era of the Hittite kingdom, located in Asia Minor on the way from Mesopotamia and Syria to Europe. Sardis, the capital of Lydia, conquered by the Medes, was connected by a road with another large city - Pteria. From him the road went to the Euphrates. Herodotus, speaking of the Lydians, calls them the first shopkeepers, which was natural for the owners of the road between Europe and Babylon. The Persians continued this path from Babylonia further east, to their capitals, improved it and adapted it not only for trade purposes, but also for state needs - mail.
The Persian kingdom also took advantage of another invention of the Lydians - the coin. Until the VII century. BC e. throughout the East, a natural economy dominated, money circulation was just beginning to emerge: the role of money was played by metal ingots of a certain weight and shape. These could be rings, plates, mugs without embossing or images. The weight was different everywhere, and therefore, outside the place of origin, the ingot simply lost the value of a coin and had to be weighed again each time, that is, it was made an ordinary commodity. On the border between Europe and Asia, the Lydian kings were the first to go over to the minting of a state coin of a clearly defined weight and value. From here, the use of such coins spread throughout Asia Minor, to Cyprus and Palestine. The ancient trading countries - Babylon, Phenicia and Egypt - kept the old system for a very long time. They began to mint coins after the campaigns of Alexander the Great, and before that they used coins made in Asia Minor.
By establishing a unified tax system, the Persian kings could not do without minting coins; in addition, the needs of the state that kept mercenaries, as well as the unprecedented flourishing of international trade, caused the need for a single coin. And a gold coin was introduced into the kingdom, and only the government had the right to mint it; local rulers, cities and satraps, for payment to mercenaries, received the right to mint only silver and copper coins, which outside their area remained an ordinary commodity.
So, by the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. in the Middle East, through the efforts of many generations and many peoples, a civilization arose that was considered ideal even by the freedom-loving Greeks. Here is what the ancient Greek historian Xenophon wrote: “Wherever the king lives, wherever he goes, he makes sure that everywhere there are gardens called paradis, full of everything beautiful and good that the earth can produce. He spends most of his time in them, if the season does not interfere with this … Some say that when the king gives gifts, first those who distinguished themselves in the war are summoned, for it is useless to plow a lot if there is no one to defend, and then - those who cultivate the land in the best way, for they do not the strong could have existed if it had not been for the processing …”.
It is not surprising that this civilization developed precisely in Western Asia. It not only arose earlier than others, but also developed faster and more energetically, had the most favorable conditions for its development thanks to constant contacts with neighbors and the exchange of innovations. Here, more often than in other ancient centers of world culture, new ideas arose and important discoveries were made in almost all areas of production and culture. The potter's wheel and wheel, the manufacture of bronze and iron, the war chariot as a fundamentally new means of warfare, various forms of writing from pictograms to the alphabet - all this and much more genetically goes back to Western Asia, from where these innovations spread throughout the rest of the world, including others centers of primary civilization.