The Persian Empire. History of the Persian Empire

Did you know that the region where the Will had as its first inhabitants the people known as fears and Persians? These peoples from Central Asia arrived in the region located east of Mesopotamia around the year 6,000 BC. Ç. and after a long time of this arrival they built one of the greatest kingdoms of the eastern antiquity.

The first to dominate the region were the fears, creating the realm of media whose main monarchs were Dejoces, Fraortes and Ciaxares, who allied with the Kingdom of Babylon and annexed the Assyrian Empire. Despite having been a strong regional kingdom, the Medes were dominated by the Persians when Cyrus I dethroned the successor of Cyaxares, and merged the Realm of Media with the new persian kingdom or Achaemenid. Ciro I undertook the first expansions of the Persian Empire, extending from east Asia Minor to the Mediterranean coast in the west and as far as India in the east.

Ciro I managed to conquer and keep many peoples under his control, mainly by respect religious differences

within the kingdom and for allying itself with the elites of these peoples. Another famous king of the Persians was Darius I, which brought the Persian Empire to its zenith.

In addition to maintaining respect for the practice of different religions within the Empire, Darius I innovated in the administration by adopting some measures. He divided the empire into twenty provinces called satrapies, governed by the satraps, who paid taxes to the emperor according to the wealth they held. He even placed a troop in each satrapy to guard them, avoiding the concentration of powers in the hands of the satraps. In order to keep himself informed about what was going on in the kingdom, Darius I created the first system of post offices that there is news, building for this roads that linked the host cities of the kingdom to the satrapies.


Several works were built by the Persians, such as the palace of Xerxes in Persepolis

He also exercised control over regional administrations through the use of special inspectors, whom he called "eyes and ears of the king", which informed him about the complaints and requests that the governors and governors had. Created a system of taxes and stimulated commercial exchange with the adoption of a gold coin as a measure of this trade, the daric. This currency became the first reliable and accepted international currency in the ancient world, although regional currencies continued to be used.

It also tried to defeat and conquer Greece during the Medical Wars, being defeated in the famous marathon battle. His son Xerxes I also tried to defeat the Greeks, being also defeated, marking with this defeat the decline of the Persian Empire in antiquity. Its disintegration was completed when, weakened by conflicts between the subjugated populations and the central government, Alexander, the Great definitively conquered the Persian territories in 330 a. Ç.

In addition to administrative innovations, the Persians were notable for their arts, with their decorative sculptures and the monumental architecture of their palaces and gardens. In religion they developed the Zoroastrianism, based on a religious conception of good and evil and whose sins would be saved when the messiah came. The principles of religion would be in the book Avesta, written by the legendary Zoroaster or Zarathustra. With the arrival of Islam in the region, Zoroastrianism lost many of its followers.

However, other religions existed in Persia, such as the Mithraism, which overvalued the good, the afterlife and the reservation of paradise for the just, with a strict religious morality. The deity of Mithraism, Miter, would have been born on December 25th, but this religious conception predates Christianity. There was still the gnosticism, who sought full knowledge through divine grace, and manichaeism with a religious origin based on dualism, putting light against darkness.

Take the opportunity to check out our video lesson related to the subject:

Russian Revolution (1917): summary, what it was and causes

Russian Revolution (1917): summary, what it was and causes

THE Russian Revolution of 1917 there were two popular uprisings: the first in February, against t...

read more

Major Battles of World War II

THE World War II recorded 582 battles between the years 1939 and 1945. Some of these fights laste...

read more
Monarchy: what is it, constitutional, absolutist and in Brazil

Monarchy: what is it, constitutional, absolutist and in Brazil

THE monarchy it was one of the first forms of government known to mankind.Currently, 43 countries...

read more
instagram viewer