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Antiquity

The Achaemenid Persian Empire

The rise, administration, and fall of history's first great multinational empire, from Cyrus the Great to Alexander's conquest.

Wikimedia Commons · Carole Raddato · CC BY-SA 2.0

60-Second Review

Express review

A condensed, point-by-point summary of the module, for reviewing right before a test or exam.

  1. Origins: The Medes and Persians on the Iranian Plateau. The Indo-Iranian Medes and Persians settled Iran; Cyrus II's revolt against Media, c. 550 BCE, united them.
  2. Cyrus the Great and the Founding of the Empire. Cyrus the Great conquered Lydia and Babylon, founding the Achaemenid Empire through conquest and tolerance.
  3. Cambyses II and the Conquest of Egypt. Cambyses II conquered Egypt in 525 BCE, but his death in 522 BCE opened a succession crisis resolved by Darius I.
  4. Darius I and the Consolidation of the Empire. Darius I organized the empire into twenty satrapies, built the Royal Road, and fixed its tribute system.
  5. Persepolis and the Empire's Other Capitals. Persepolis, founded by Darius I around 518 BCE, joined Susa, Ecbatana, and Pasargadae as royal capitals.
  6. Religion and Royal Ideology. Achaemenid religion centered on Ahura Mazda and royal 'arta,' combined with real tolerance for subject cults.
  7. The Greco-Persian Wars. The Persian Wars, from Marathon to Salamis and Plataea, halted Persian expansion into mainland Greece.
  8. Decline and Fall: From Court Intrigue to Alexander. Dynastic intrigue weakened the empire until Alexander the Great conquered it between 334 and 330 BCE.

This module continues after "The Ancient Levant: Phoenicia and Israel" in the syllabus. If you haven't reviewed it yet, it may help set the context.

Key points

Visual module map

1Origins: The Medes and Persians on the Iranian Plateau
2Cambyses II and the Conquest of Egypt
3Persepolis and the Empire's Other Capitals
4Religion and Royal Ideology
5Decline and Fall: From Court Intrigue to Alexander

Alternative visual view: a simplified sequence of some of the module's key points, in their order within the syllabus.

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Memory

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Chronological Order

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Further reading

Bibliography and cited sources used to create this module.

  • Pierre Briant, From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire.
  • Herodotus, Histories.
  • Xenophon, Cyropaedia.
  • Xenophon, Anabasis.
  • The Behistun Inscription of Darius I (trans. various editions).
  • Maria Brosius, The Persians: An Introduction.
  • Amélie Kuhrt, The Persian Empire: A Corpus of Sources from the Achaemenid Period.
  • The Cyrus Cylinder, British Museum, London.
  • UNESCO, Persepolis, World Heritage List, available at whc.unesco.org.