Although Cyrus's son, Cambyses, managed to conquer Egypt easily, before going to Egypt he killed his brother Bardia who was more popular. When he left Iran a man who resembled Bardia took the throne and Cambyses died or killed himself on his way back. In 521 BC a few of the noblest princes assassinated the imposter and elected Darius I as the new King of Kings, or the Great King as Persian kings were known to the Greeks.
Darius is, unfortunately, better known for his defeat at Marathon, in his battle against the Greeks who were the only people left on the West that the Persians and the Medes had not subjugated. Except for this failure, how ever, Darius's reign was full of great achievements. He developed, for the first time in history, a system for running his territories through the satraps. He built admirable highways, and developed an excellent postal system both of which allowed him to receive rapidly information from his twenty or so provinces. He appointed inspectors in whom he had confidence to act as "the Eyes and Ears" of the king and keep him informed of all developments, specially with regard to the behavior of each satrap towards his people and towards the empire, bearing in mind at all times that a satrap was always a potential rebel.
Among Darius's other achievements was the development of a standard coin known worldwide for its consistency in its gold content and weight A canal linking the Nile to the Red Sea which was the predecessor of the present day Suez Canal, was also made by him. He was buried at Naghshe Rustam in a great tomb with inscriptions that reflects a persian monarchs mind 2500 years ago. After Darius, his son Xerxes attempted to subvert the Greeks. He managed to capture Athens but was eventually pushed back by the Greeks. In the latter days of the Achaemenids the Persian kings tried to break the Greeks, not by the sword, but by their gold coins. They were about to succeed when history took one of its greatest turns. This time it fancied to hand over just about the entire civilized world of the time to a young Macedonian, Alexander, who defeated Darius III in 323 BC after long and hard battles which almost took 10 years.
Was the speed of his conquests too fast or his life too short? Or did he lack the genius required for organization and administration of such vast territories at time of peace - the genius with which Darius was amply endowed? Whatever the reason, Alexander died before he had brought about a well-established and organized empire. After his death his territories were divided among his generals; Seleucus Nicator (the victorious) gaining what was then called "Asia". This was most of the Achaemenid Empire less Judea, the Arabian peninsula and parts of Asia Minor.
Alexander made great efforts to bring together the East and the West, Persia and Greece effectively. He had great admiration for the Persian culture, customs and traits, and often dressed in the fashion of the King of Kings. He married the daughter of a Persian noble, and encouraged Greek noblemen to marry Persian noble-women, one of whom, by the name of Apama, became Seleucus Nicator's wife.
The Greek Seleucus and his Persian wife Apama became the king and queen of a territory with a population of Persians and Greeks mixed together and enjoying equal rights. But the Seleucids were not on the whole successful politically and gradually lost parts of their territories, most of it in the first 100 years. However, during their era the encounter of the two civilizations resulted in some artistic and cultural developments. The first province to break away from the Seleucids was Parsa, the birthplace of the Achaemenid empire. Then gradually, Bactria, Parthia and Hyrcania. Finally, after years of clash and struggle, the Parthians captured today's Iran and Mesopotamia and retained these territories for about 300 years.
Meanwhile, a new empire based on and replacing Greek civilization, had appeared in the West and eventually became the neighbor of the Parthian territory and that empire was Rome.
During the reign of Mithridates(123-87 BC) Iran established relations with China on the East and Rome on the West. Thus trade between East and West expanded, Iran providing a convenient route that later came to be known as the famous Silk Road or Silk Route. Although the first contacts between Parthia and Rome were friendly and resulted in the development of trade and thereby cultural exchanges, there were intermittent border skirmishes and small scale battles between the two powers, in which the Parthians showed remarkable abilities.
Besides such quarrels with Rome, the Parthians, whose chief interests were hunting and battling, were kept busy by the nomad hordes on the northeast. They withstood invasions by other nomadic tribes and even at times drove them back considerably and thus acted as a barrier to these nomads rushing westwards. (Had it not been for the Parthians these hordes would probably have overrun the Near East and even parts of Europe, 1000 years before Holaku finally did so.)
Unfortunately, Parthians have left no written records of their times and what we know about them today are deductions from archaeological findings and non-Parthian sources. It is most likely that their nobles were so concerned with warfare that they left writing to the lower classes. Empires come and empires go. The vassal overcomes the lord to be toppled by one of his own vassals. In 220 AD, Ardeshir, the king of Parsa, who paid tribute to the Parthian king, revolted and in a relatively short time toppled the Parthian empire, and thus in 220 AD the Sassanian or Sassanid dynasty replaced the Parthian. And Iranian history took another turn. Rome considered these developments of little importance to the Roman empire. But when Ardeshir attacked Armenia, Rome's ally, and even parts of the Roman empire in Mesopotamia, the Roman emperor found himself compelled to take to the battlefield, in 231 AD, and so centuries of minor disputes with the Parthians gave way to a few more centuries of fierce battles and deep enmity with the Sassanids.
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