A Brief History of Iran. Persia - what country is it now? Ancient Persia and modern Iran

>>History: Ancient Persia

21. Ancient Persia - “country of countries”

1. The rise of Persia.

The country of the Persians was a remote province for a long time Assyria. It was located on the site of modern Iran, occupying the territory between the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf. In the middle of the 6th century BC. e. The rapid rise of the Persian state began. In 558 BC. e. king Persia became Cyrus II the Great. He captured neighboring Media, then defeated Croesus, the ruler of the richest kingdom of Lydia.

Historians suggest that the world's first silver and gold coins began to be minted in Lydia in the 7th century BC. e.

The wealth of the last Lydian king Croesus became a proverb in ancient times. “Rich as Croesus” - this is what they said and still say about a very rich man. Before the start of the war with Persia, Croesus turned to the soothsayers, wanting to get an answer about the outcome of the war. They gave an ambiguous answer: “By crossing the river, you will destroy the great kingdom.” And so it happened. Croesus decided that we were talking about the Persian kingdom, but he destroyed his own kingdom, suffering a crushing defeat from Cyrus.

Under King Cyrus, the Persian Empire included all the lands that once belonged to Assyria and the Neo-Babylonian kingdom. In 539 BC. e. fell under the pressure of the Persians Babylon. The Persian state surpassed all previously existing states of the Ancient World in territory and became an empire. The possessions of Persia as a result of the conquests of Cyrus and his son extended from Egypt to India. While conquering the country, Cyrus did not encroach on the customs and religion of its people. To the title of the Persian king he added the title of ruler of the conquered country.

2. The death of Cyrus the Great.

In ancient times, many considered King Cyrus the Great to be the model of a ruler. From his ancestors, Cyrus inherited wisdom, firmness and the ability to rule over peoples. However, Cyrus, who defeated many kings and military leaders, was destined to fall at the hands of a female warrior. To the northeast of the Persian kingdom stretched the lands inhabited by the warlike nomadic tribes of the Massagetae. They were ruled by Queen Tomiris. Cyrus first invited her to marry him. However, the proud queen rejected Cyrus's proposal. Then the Persian king moved his army of thousands to the country of the Syr Darya River, in Central Asia. In the first battle, the Massagetians were successful, but then the Persians defeated part of the Massagetian army by cunning. Among the dead was the queen's son. Then the queen swore an oath to give the hated conqueror blood to drink. The light cavalry of the Massagetae exhausted the Persian army with their sudden and swift attacks. In one of the battles, Cyrus himself was killed. Tomiris ordered the leather fur to be filled with blood and the head of the dead enemy to be stuffed into it. Thus ended the almost 30-year reign of Cyrus the Great, who seemed so powerful.

3. The greatest eastern despotism.

At the end of the reign of Cyrus's son, King Cambyses, turmoil began in Persia. As a result of the struggle for power, Darius I, a distant relative of Cyrus, became the ruler of the Persian state.

The events that followed the death of Cyrus the Great and the first years of Darius's reign are known from the Behistun inscription. It was carved on the rock during the reign of Darius I. The height of the inscription is 7.8 m. It is made in three languages - Old Persian, Elamite and Akkadian. The inscription was discovered in 1835 by the English officer G. Rawlinson. It made it possible to decipher Persian and then Akkadian cuneiform.

Under Darius, the Persian Empire expanded its borders even further and reached its greatest power. It united many countries and peoples. Persian empire was called the “country of countries”, and its ruler was called the “king of kings”. All his subjects obeyed him unquestioningly - from noble Persians who occupied the highest positions in the state, to the last slave. The Persian Empire was a true oriental despotism.

In order to better manage the huge empire, Darius divided its territory into 20 satrapies. A satrapy is a province headed by a governor appointed by the king - a satrap. Since these managers often abused their power, the word "satrap" subsequently acquired a negative meaning. It came to mean an official who rules arbitrarily, a tyrant ruler. Darius did not trust many satraps, so each of them had secret informers. These informers were called the “eyes and ears” of the king. They were obliged to report to the king everything about the actions, life and plans of the satraps.

Throughout the Persian Empire, special officials collected taxes into the royal treasury. Severe punishment awaited all those who evaded. No one could escape paying taxes .

Roads were built not only between major cities, but also reached the most remote corners of the Persian Empire. In order for the king's orders to reach the provinces faster and more reliably. Darius established a state post office. The "royal" road connected the most important cities of the Persian Empire. Special posts were installed on it. There were messengers here, ready at any moment to set off on fast-footed horses and deliver the king’s message to any point in the empire. Darius updated the monetary system. Under him, gold coins began to be minted, which were called “dariks”. Trade flourished in the Persian Empire, grandiose construction was carried out, and crafts developed.

4. Capitals of the Persians.

The Persian Empire had several capitals: the ancient city of Susa, the former capital of Media Ecbatana, the city of Pasargadae built by Cyrus. The Persian kings lived for a long time in Babylon. But the main capital was Persepolis, built by Darius I. Here the “king of kings” solemnly celebrated the Persian New Year, which was celebrated on the day of the Winter Solstice. The coronation took place in Persepolis. Representatives from all provinces came here for several weeks a year to present rich gifts to the king.

Persepolis was built on an artificial platform. In the royal palace there was a huge throne room where the king received ambassadors. The guards of the “immortals” are depicted on the walls rising along the wide staircases. This was the name of the selected royal army, numbering 10 thousand soldiers. When one of them died, another immediately took his place. The "Immortals" are armed with long spears, massive bows, and heavy shields. They served as the “eternal” guard of the king. Persepolis was built by all of Asia. An ancient inscription testifies to this.

The “procession of peoples” that were part of the Persian state is immortalized on the walls of Persepolis. Representatives of each of them bring rich gifts - gold, precious items, and lead horses, camels, and cattle.

5. Religion of the Persians.

In ancient times, the Persians worshiped different gods. Their priests were called magicians. At the end of the first half of the 1st millennium BC. e. The magician and prophet Zoroaster (Zarathustra) transformed the ancient Persian religion. His teaching was called Zoroastrianism. The sacred book of Zoroastrianism is "Avesta".

Zoroaster taught that the creator of the world is the god of goodness and light, Ahura Mazda. His enemy is the spirit of evil and darkness Angra Manyu. They are constantly fighting among themselves, but the final victory will be for light and goodness. Man must support the god of light in this struggle. Ahura Mazda was depicted as a winged solar disk. He was considered the patron saint of the Persian kings.

The Persians did not build temples or erect statues of gods. They built altars on high places or on hills and performed sacrifices on them. Zoroaster's teaching about the struggle between light and darkness in the world had a great influence on the religious ideas of subsequent eras

IN AND. Ukolova, L.P. Marinovich, History, 5th grade
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Persia is the ancient name of a country in South-West Asia, which since 1935 has been officially called Iran. Previously, both names were used, and today the name "Persia" is still used when talking about Iran. In ancient times, Persia became the center of one of the greatest empires in history, stretching from Egypt to the river. Ind. It included all previous empires - the Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians and Hittites. The later empire of Alexander the Great included almost no territories that had not previously belonged to the Persians, and it was smaller than Persia under King Darius. Since its inception in the 6th century. BC. before the conquest by Alexander the Great in the 4th century. BC. for two and a half centuries, Persia occupied a dominant position in the Ancient World. Greek rule lasted about a hundred years, and after its fall the Persian power was reborn under two local dynasties: the Arsacids (Parthian Kingdom) and the Sassanids (New Persian Kingdom). For more than seven centuries they kept first Rome and then Byzantium in fear, until in the 7th century. AD The Sassanid state was not conquered by Islamic conquerors.
Geography of the empire. The lands inhabited by the ancient Persians only approximately coincide with the borders of modern Iran. In ancient times, such borders simply did not exist. There were periods when the Persian kings were the rulers of most of the then known world, at other times the main cities of the empire were in Mesopotamia, to the west of Persia proper, and it also happened that the entire territory of the kingdom was divided between warring local rulers. A significant part of the territory of Persia is occupied by a high, arid highland (1200 m), intersected by mountain ranges with individual peaks reaching 5500 m. In the west and north are the Zagros and Elborz mountain ranges, which frame the highlands in the shape of the letter V, leaving it open to the east. The western and northern borders of the plateau approximately coincide with the current borders of Iran, but in the east it extends beyond the country, occupying part of the territory of modern Afghanistan and Pakistan. Three regions are isolated from the plateau: the coast of the Caspian Sea, the coast of the Persian Gulf and the southwestern plains, which are the eastern continuation of the Mesopotamian lowland. Directly west of Persia lies Mesopotamia, home to the world's most ancient civilizations. The Mesopotamian states of Sumer, Babylonia and Assyria had a significant influence on the early culture of Persia. And although the Persian conquests ended almost three thousand years after the heyday of Mesopotamia, Persia in many ways became the heir to Mesopotamian civilization. Most of the most important cities of the Persian Empire were located in Mesopotamia, and Persian history is largely a continuation of Mesopotamian history. Persia lies on the routes of the earliest migrations from Central Asia. Slowly moving west, the settlers skirted the northern tip of the Hindu Kush in Afghanistan and turned south and west, where through the more accessible areas of Khorasan, southeast of the Caspian Sea, they entered the Iranian plateau south of the Alborz Mountains. Centuries later, the main trade artery ran parallel to the earlier route, connecting the Far East with the Mediterranean and ensuring the administration of the empire and the movement of troops. At the western end of the highlands it descended onto the plains of Mesopotamia. Other important routes linked the southeastern plains through rugged mountains to the highlands proper. Off the few main roads, thousands of agricultural communities were scattered along long, narrow mountain valleys. They led a subsistence economy; due to their isolation from their neighbors, many of them remained aloof from wars and invasions, and for many centuries they carried out an important mission to preserve the continuity of culture, so characteristic of the ancient history of Persia.
STORY
Ancient Iran. It is known that the most ancient inhabitants of Iran had a different origin than the Persians and related peoples, who created civilizations on the Iranian plateau, as well as the Semites and Sumerians, whose civilizations arose in Mesopotamia. During excavations in caves near the southern coast of the Caspian Sea, human skeletons dating back to the 8th millennium BC were discovered. In the north-west of Iran, in the town of Gey-Tepe, skulls of people who lived in the 3rd millennium BC were found. Scientists have proposed calling the indigenous population Caspians, which indicates a geographical connection with the peoples who inhabited the Caucasus Mountains to the west of the Caspian Sea. The Caucasian tribes themselves, as is known, migrated to more southern regions, to the highlands. The "Caspian" type appears to have survived in a greatly weakened form among the nomadic tribes of the Lurs in modern Iran. For the archeology of the Middle East, the central question is the dating of the appearance of agricultural settlements here. Monuments of material culture and other evidence found in the Caspian caves indicate that the tribes inhabiting the region from the 8th to the 5th millennium BC. engaged mainly in hunting, then switched to cattle breeding, which, in turn, approx. IV millennium BC replaced by agriculture. Permanent settlements appeared in the western part of the highlands before the 3rd millennium BC, and most likely in the 5th millennium BC. The main settlements include Sialk, Gey-Tepe, Gissar, but the largest was Susa, which later became the capital of the Persian state. In these small villages, mud huts were crowded together along winding narrow streets. The dead were buried either under the floor of the house or in the cemetery in a crouched (“uterine”) position. The reconstruction of the life of the ancient inhabitants of the highlands was carried out on the basis of the study of utensils, tools and decorations that were placed in the graves to provide the deceased with everything necessary for the afterlife. The development of culture in prehistoric Iran occurred progressively over many centuries. As in Mesopotamia, large brick houses began to be built here, objects were made from cast copper, and then from cast bronze. Seals made of stone with a carved pattern appeared, which were evidence of the emergence of private property. The discovery of large jars for storing food suggests that supplies were made for the period between harvests. Among the finds from all periods there are figurines of the mother goddess, often depicted with her husband, who was both her husband and son. The most remarkable thing is the huge variety of painted clay products, the walls of some of them are no thicker than the shell of a chicken egg. The figurines of birds and animals depicted in profile testify to the talent of prehistoric artisans. Some clay products depict the man himself, engaged in hunting or performing some kind of rituals. Around 1200-800 BC painted pottery gives way to monochromatic ones - red, black or gray, which is explained by the invasion of tribes from as yet unidentified regions. Ceramics of the same type were found very far from Iran - in China.
Early history. The historical era begins on the Iranian plateau at the end of the 4th millennium BC. Most of the information about the descendants of the ancient tribes who lived on the eastern borders of Mesopotamia, in the Zagros Mountains, is gleaned from Mesopotamian chronicles. (There is no information in the annals about the tribes that inhabited the central and eastern regions of the Iranian plateau, because they had no connections with the Mesopotamian kingdoms.) The largest of the peoples inhabiting the Zagros were the Elamites, who captured the ancient city of Susa, located on the plain at the foot of Zagros, and founded the powerful and prosperous state of Elam there. The Elamite records began to be compiled ca. 3000 BC and lasted for two thousand years. Further to the north lived the Kassites, barbarian tribes of horsemen, who by the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. conquered Babylonia. The Kassites adopted the civilization of the Babylonians and ruled southern Mesopotamia for several centuries. Less important were the Northern Zagros tribes, the Lullubei and the Gutians, who lived in the area where the great Trans-Asian trade route descended from the western tip of the Iranian plateau onto the plain.
Invasion of the Aryans and the Kingdom of Media. Starting from the 2nd millennium BC. The Iranian plateau was hit one after another by waves of tribal invasions from Central Asia. These were Aryans, Indo-Iranian tribes who spoke dialects that were the proto-languages of the current languages of the Iranian Plateau and Northern India. They gave Iran its name (“homeland of the Aryans”). The first wave of conquerors arrived ca. 1500 BC One group of Aryans settled in the west of the Iranian plateau, where they founded the state of Mitanni, another group - in the south among the Kassites. However, the main flow of Aryans passed Iran, turned sharply to the south, crossed the Hindu Kush and invaded Northern India. At the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. along the same route, a second wave of aliens, Iranian tribes themselves, arrived on the Iranian plateau, and much more numerous. Some of the Iranian tribes - the Sogdians, Scythians, Saks, Parthians and Bactrians - retained a nomadic way of life, others went beyond the highlands, but two tribes, the Medes and Persians (Parsians), settled in the valleys of the Zagros range, mixed with the local population and adopted their political , religious and cultural traditions. The Medes settled in the vicinity of Ecbatana (modern Hamadan). The Persians settled somewhat further south, on the plains of Elam and in the mountainous region adjacent to the Persian Gulf, which later received the name Persida (Parsa or Fars). It is possible that the Persians initially settled northwest of the Medes, west of Lake Rezaie (Urmia), and only later moved south under pressure from Assyria, which was then experiencing the peak of its power. On some Assyrian bas-reliefs of the 9th and 8th centuries. BC. battles with the Medes and Persians are depicted. The Median kingdom with its capital in Ecbatana gradually gained strength. In 612 BC. the Median king Cyaxares (reigned from 625 to 585 BC) entered into an alliance with Babylonia, captured Nineveh and crushed the Assyrian power. The Median kingdom extended from Asia Minor (modern Türkiye) almost to the Indus River. During just one reign, Media turned from a small tributary principality into the strongest power in the Middle East.
Persian Achaemenid state. The power of the Medes did not last longer than two generations. The Persian dynasty of the Achaemenids (named after its founder Achaemen) began to dominate Pars even under the Medes. In 553 BC Cyrus II the Great, the Achaemenid ruler of Parsa, led a rebellion against the Median king Astyages, son of Cyaxares, which resulted in the creation of a powerful alliance of Medes and Persians. The new power threatened the entire Middle East. In 546 BC King Croesus of Lydia led a coalition directed against King Cyrus, which, in addition to the Lydians, included the Babylonians, Egyptians and Spartans. According to legend, an oracle predicted to the Lydian king that the war would end in the collapse of the great state. The delighted Croesus did not even bother to ask which state was meant. The war ended with the victory of Cyrus, who pursued Croesus all the way to Lydia and captured him there. In 539 BC Cyrus occupied Babylonia, and by the end of his reign expanded the borders of the state from the Mediterranean Sea to the eastern outskirts of the Iranian plateau, making Pasargadae, a city in southwestern Iran, the capital. Cambyses, son of Cyrus, captured Egypt and proclaimed himself pharaoh. He died in 522 BC. Some sources claim that he committed suicide. After his death, a Median magician seized the Persian throne, but a few months later he was overthrown by Darius, a representative of a younger branch of the Achaemenid dynasty. Darius (reigned from 522 to 485 BC) is the greatest of the Persian kings, he combined the talents of a ruler, builder and commander. Under him, the northwestern part of India came under Persian rule up to the river. Indus and Armenia to the Caucasus Mountains. Darius even organized a campaign to Thrace (modern territory of Turkey and Bulgaria), but the Scythians drove him away from the Danube. During the reign of Darius, the Ionian Greeks in the western part of Asia Minor rebelled. Supported by the Greeks in Greece itself, it marked the beginning of the struggle against Persian rule, which ended only a century and a half later due to the fall of the Persian kingdom under the blows of Alexander the Great. Darius suppressed the Ionians and began a campaign against Greece. However, a storm scattered his fleet near Cape Athos (Chalcedonian Peninsula). Two years later he launched a second campaign against Greece, but the Greeks defeated a huge Persian army at the Battle of Marathon, near Athens (490 BC). Darius' son Xerxes (reigned 485 to 465 BC) renewed the war with Greece. He captured and burned Athens, but after the defeat of the Persian fleet at Salamis in 480 BC. was forced to return to Asia Minor. Xerxes spent the remaining years of his reign in luxury and amusements. In 485 BC he fell at the hands of one of his courtiers. During the long years of the reign of his son Artaxerxes I (ruled from 465 to 424 BC), peace and prosperity reigned in the state. In 449 BC. he made peace with Athens. After Artaxerxes, the power of the Persian monarchs over their vast possessions began to weaken noticeably. In 404 BC Egypt fell away, the mountain tribes rebelled one after another, and the struggle for the throne began. The most significant in this struggle was the rebellion raised by Cyrus the Younger against Artaxerxes II and ending with the defeat of Cyrus in 401 BC. at the battle of Kunax, near the Euphrates. Cyrus's large army, consisting of Greek mercenaries, fought its way through the collapsing empire to its homeland, Greece. The Greek commander and historian Xenophon described this retreat in his work Anabasis, which became a classic of military literature. Artaxerxes III (ruled from 358/359 to 338 BC) with the help of Greek mercenaries briefly restored the empire to its former borders, but soon after his death Alexander the Great destroyed the former power of the Persian state.

Organization of the Achaemenid state. Apart from a few brief Achaemenid inscriptions, we draw the main information about the Achaemenid state from the works of ancient Greek historians. Even the names of the Persian kings entered historiography as they were written by the ancient Greeks. For example, the names of the kings known today as Cyaxares, Cyrus and Xerxes are pronounced in Persian as Uvakhshtra, Kurush and Khshayarshan. The main city of the state was Susa. Babylon and Ecbatana were considered administrative centers, and Persepolis the center of ritual and spiritual life. The state was divided into twenty satrapies, or provinces, headed by satraps. Representatives of the Persian nobility became satraps, and the position itself was inherited. This combination of the power of an absolute monarch and semi-independent governors was a characteristic feature of the country's political structure for many centuries.
All provinces were connected by postal roads, the most significant of which, the “royal road,” 2,400 km long, ran from Susa to the Mediterranean coast. Despite the fact that a single administrative system, a single currency and a single official language were introduced throughout the empire, many subject peoples retained their customs, religion and local rulers. The period of Achaemenid rule was characterized by tolerance. The long years of peace under the Persians favored the development of cities, trade and agriculture. Iran was experiencing its Golden Age. The Persian army differed in composition and tactics from earlier armies, which were characterized by chariots and infantry. The main striking force of the Persian troops were horse archers, who bombarded the enemy with a cloud of arrows without coming into direct contact with him. The army consisted of six corps of 60,000 warriors each and elite formations of 10,000 people, selected from members of the noblest families and called “immortals”; They also constituted the king’s personal guard. However, during the campaigns in Greece, as well as during the reign of the last king from the Achaemenid dynasty, Darius III, a huge, poorly controlled mass of horsemen, chariots and infantrymen went into battle, unable to maneuver in small spaces and often significantly inferior to the disciplined infantry of the Greeks. The Achaemenids were very proud of their origins. The Behistun inscription, carved on the rock by order of Darius I, reads: “I, Darius, the great king, the king of kings, the king of the countries inhabited by all peoples, have long been the king of this great land, extending even further, son of Hystaspes, Achaemenid, Persian, son Persians, Aryans, and my ancestors were Aryans." However, the Achaemenid civilization was a conglomeration of customs, culture, social institutions and ideas that existed in all parts of the Ancient World. At that time East and West came into direct contact for the first time, and the resulting exchange of ideas was never interrupted thereafter.

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OK. 1300 BC e. - Medes and Persians founded their settlements.
OK. 700-600 BC e. - creation of the Median and Persian kingdoms.
Achaemenid Empire (550-330 BC);
- 559-530 BC e. - reign of Cyrus II in Persia.
- 550 BC e. — Cyrus II defeats the Medes.
- 522-486 BC e. - reign of Darius I in Persia. The rise of the Persian Empire.
- 490-479 BC e. - Persians are at war with Greece
- 486-465 BC e. - reign of Xerxes I in Persia.
- 331-330 BC e. - conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great. Surrender of Persepolis to the fire.
Parthian Kingdom or Arsacid Empire (250 BC - 227 AD).
Sassanid State or Sassanid Empire (226-651 AD). Material from the site

Persia is the ancient name of the country that we now call Iran. Around 1300 BC e. two tribes invaded its territory: the Medes and the Persians. They founded two kingdoms: the Median - in the north, the Persian - in the south.

In 550 BC. e. The Persian king Cyrus II, having defeated the Medes, captured their lands and created a colossal power. Years later, during the reign of King Darius I, Persia becomes the largest state in the world.

For many years, Persia waged war with Greece. The Persians won several victories, but in the end their army was defeated. After the death of Darius' son, Xerxes I, the power lost its former strength. In 331 BC. e. Persia was conquered by Alexander the Great.

Darius I

Policy

King Darius I, collecting taxes from conquered peoples, became fabulously rich. He allowed the population to adhere to their beliefs and way of life, as long as they paid tribute regularly.

Darius divided the huge state into regions, which were to be governed by local rulers, satraps. The officials who looked after the satraps ensured that the latter remained loyal to the king.

Construction

Darius I built good roads throughout the empire. Now the messengers could move faster. The Royal Road stretched 2,700 km from Sardis in the west to the capital city of Susa.

Darius spent some of his wealth building a magnificent palace at Persepolis. During the New Year celebrations, officials from all over the empire came to the palace with gifts for the king. The main hall, where the king received his subjects, could accommodate 10 thousand people. Inside, the front hall was decorated with gold, silver, ivory and ebony (black) wood. The tops of the columns were decorated with bull heads, and the staircase was decorated with carvings. During the gathering of guests for various holidays, people brought gifts to the king: vessels with golden sand, gold and silver cups, ivory, fabrics and gold bracelets, lion cubs, camels, etc. Those who arrived were waiting in the courtyard.

The Persians were followers of the prophet Zarathustra (or Zoroaster), who taught that there is only one god. The fire was sacred, and therefore the priests did not allow the sacred fire to go out.

PERSIA ancient
Persia is the ancient name of a country in South-West Asia, which since 1935 has been officially called Iran. Previously, both names were used, and today the name "Persia" is still used when talking about Iran. In ancient times, Persia became the center of one of the greatest empires in history, stretching from Egypt to the river. Ind. It included all previous empires - the Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians and Hittites. The later empire of Alexander the Great included almost no territories that had not previously belonged to the Persians, and it was smaller than Persia under King Darius. Since its inception in the 6th century. BC. before the conquest by Alexander the Great in the 4th century. BC. for two and a half centuries, Persia occupied a dominant position in the Ancient World. Greek rule lasted about a hundred years, and after its fall the Persian power was reborn under two local dynasties: the Arsacids (Parthian Kingdom) and the Sassanids (New Persian Kingdom). For more than seven centuries they kept first Rome and then Byzantium in fear, until in the 7th century. AD The Sassanid state was not conquered by Islamic conquerors.
Geography of the empire. The lands inhabited by the ancient Persians only approximately coincide with the borders of modern Iran. In ancient times, such borders simply did not exist. There were periods when the Persian kings were the rulers of most of the then known world, at other times the main cities of the empire were in Mesopotamia, to the west of Persia proper, and it also happened that the entire territory of the kingdom was divided between warring local rulers. A significant part of the territory of Persia is occupied by a high, arid highland (1200 m), intersected by mountain ranges with individual peaks reaching 5500 m. In the west and north are the Zagros and Elborz mountain ranges, which frame the highlands in the shape of the letter V, leaving it open to the east. The western and northern borders of the plateau approximately coincide with the current borders of Iran, but in the east it extends beyond the country, occupying part of the territory of modern Afghanistan and Pakistan. Three regions are isolated from the plateau: the coast of the Caspian Sea, the coast of the Persian Gulf and the southwestern plains, which are the eastern continuation of the Mesopotamian lowland. Directly west of Persia lies Mesopotamia, home to the world's most ancient civilizations. The Mesopotamian states of Sumer, Babylonia and Assyria had a significant influence on the early culture of Persia. And although the Persian conquests ended almost three thousand years after the heyday of Mesopotamia, Persia in many ways became the heir to Mesopotamian civilization. Most of the most important cities of the Persian Empire were located in Mesopotamia, and Persian history is largely a continuation of Mesopotamian history. Persia lies on the routes of the earliest migrations from Central Asia. Slowly moving west, the settlers skirted the northern tip of the Hindu Kush in Afghanistan and turned south and west, where through the more accessible areas of Khorasan, southeast of the Caspian Sea, they entered the Iranian plateau south of the Alborz Mountains. Centuries later, the main trade artery ran parallel to the earlier route, connecting the Far East with the Mediterranean and ensuring the administration of the empire and the movement of troops. At the western end of the highlands it descended onto the plains of Mesopotamia. Other important routes linked the southeastern plains through rugged mountains to the highlands proper. Off the few main roads, thousands of agricultural communities were scattered along long, narrow mountain valleys. They led a subsistence economy; due to their isolation from their neighbors, many of them remained aloof from wars and invasions, and for many centuries they carried out an important mission to preserve the continuity of culture, so characteristic of the ancient history of Persia.
STORY
Ancient Iran. It is known that the most ancient inhabitants of Iran had a different origin than the Persians and related peoples, who created civilizations on the Iranian plateau, as well as the Semites and Sumerians, whose civilizations arose in Mesopotamia. During excavations in caves near the southern coast of the Caspian Sea, human skeletons dating back to the 8th millennium BC were discovered. In the north-west of Iran, in the town of Gey-Tepe, skulls of people who lived in the 3rd millennium BC were found. Scientists have proposed calling the indigenous population Caspians, which indicates a geographical connection with the peoples who inhabited the Caucasus Mountains to the west of the Caspian Sea. The Caucasian tribes themselves, as is known, migrated to more southern regions, to the highlands. The "Caspian" type appears to have survived in a greatly weakened form among the nomadic tribes of the Lurs in modern Iran. For the archeology of the Middle East, the central question is the dating of the appearance of agricultural settlements here. Monuments of material culture and other evidence found in the Caspian caves indicate that the tribes inhabiting the region from the 8th to the 5th millennium BC. engaged mainly in hunting, then switched to cattle breeding, which, in turn, approx. IV millennium BC replaced by agriculture. Permanent settlements appeared in the western part of the highlands before the 3rd millennium BC, and most likely in the 5th millennium BC. The main settlements include Sialk, Gey-Tepe, Gissar, but the largest was Susa, which later became the capital of the Persian state. In these small villages, mud huts were crowded together along winding narrow streets. The dead were buried either under the floor of the house or in the cemetery in a crouched (“uterine”) position. The reconstruction of the life of the ancient inhabitants of the highlands was carried out on the basis of the study of utensils, tools and decorations that were placed in the graves to provide the deceased with everything necessary for the afterlife. The development of culture in prehistoric Iran occurred progressively over many centuries. As in Mesopotamia, large brick houses began to be built here, objects were made from cast copper, and then from cast bronze. Seals made of stone with a carved pattern appeared, which were evidence of the emergence of private property. The discovery of large jars for storing food suggests that supplies were made for the period between harvests. Among the finds from all periods there are figurines of the mother goddess, often depicted with her husband, who was both her husband and son. The most remarkable thing is the huge variety of painted clay products, the walls of some of them are no thicker than the shell of a chicken egg. The figurines of birds and animals depicted in profile testify to the talent of prehistoric artisans. Some clay products depict the man himself, engaged in hunting or performing some kind of rituals. Around 1200-800 BC painted pottery gives way to monochromatic ones - red, black or gray, which is explained by the invasion of tribes from as yet unidentified regions. Ceramics of the same type were found very far from Iran - in China.
Early history. The historical era begins on the Iranian plateau at the end of the 4th millennium BC. Most of the information about the descendants of the ancient tribes who lived on the eastern borders of Mesopotamia, in the Zagros Mountains, is gleaned from Mesopotamian chronicles. (There is no information in the annals about the tribes that inhabited the central and eastern regions of the Iranian plateau, because they had no connections with the Mesopotamian kingdoms.) The largest of the peoples inhabiting the Zagros were the Elamites, who captured the ancient city of Susa, located on the plain at the foot of Zagros, and founded the powerful and prosperous state of Elam there. The Elamite records began to be compiled ca. 3000 BC and lasted for two thousand years. Further to the north lived the Kassites, barbarian tribes of horsemen, who by the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. conquered Babylonia. The Kassites adopted the civilization of the Babylonians and ruled southern Mesopotamia for several centuries. Less important were the Northern Zagros tribes, the Lullubei and the Gutians, who lived in the area where the great Trans-Asian trade route descended from the western tip of the Iranian plateau onto the plain.
Invasion of the Aryans and the Kingdom of Media. Starting from the 2nd millennium BC. The Iranian plateau was hit one after another by waves of tribal invasions from Central Asia. These were Aryans, Indo-Iranian tribes who spoke dialects that were the proto-languages of the current languages of the Iranian Plateau and Northern India. They gave Iran its name (“homeland of the Aryans”). The first wave of conquerors arrived ca. 1500 BC One group of Aryans settled in the west of the Iranian plateau, where they founded the state of Mitanni, another group - in the south among the Kassites. However, the main flow of Aryans passed Iran, turned sharply to the south, crossed the Hindu Kush and invaded Northern India. At the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. along the same route, a second wave of aliens, Iranian tribes themselves, arrived on the Iranian plateau, and much more numerous. Some of the Iranian tribes - the Sogdians, Scythians, Saks, Parthians and Bactrians - retained a nomadic way of life, others went beyond the highlands, but two tribes, the Medes and Persians (Parsians), settled in the valleys of the Zagros range, mixed with the local population and adopted their political , religious and cultural traditions. The Medes settled in the vicinity of Ecbatana (modern Hamadan). The Persians settled somewhat further south, on the plains of Elam and in the mountainous region adjacent to the Persian Gulf, which later received the name Persida (Parsa or Fars). It is possible that the Persians initially settled northwest of the Medes, west of Lake Rezaie (Urmia), and only later moved south under pressure from Assyria, which was then experiencing the peak of its power. On some Assyrian bas-reliefs of the 9th and 8th centuries. BC. battles with the Medes and Persians are depicted. The Median kingdom with its capital in Ecbatana gradually gained strength. In 612 BC. the Median king Cyaxares (reigned from 625 to 585 BC) entered into an alliance with Babylonia, captured Nineveh and crushed the Assyrian power. The Median kingdom extended from Asia Minor (modern Türkiye) almost to the Indus River. During just one reign, Media turned from a small tributary principality into the strongest power in the Middle East.
Persian Achaemenid state. The power of the Medes did not last longer than two generations. The Persian dynasty of the Achaemenids (named after its founder Achaemen) began to dominate Pars even under the Medes. In 553 BC Cyrus II the Great, the Achaemenid ruler of Parsa, led a rebellion against the Median king Astyages, son of Cyaxares, which resulted in the creation of a powerful alliance of Medes and Persians. The new power threatened the entire Middle East. In 546 BC King Croesus of Lydia led a coalition directed against King Cyrus, which, in addition to the Lydians, included the Babylonians, Egyptians and Spartans. According to legend, an oracle predicted to the Lydian king that the war would end in the collapse of the great state. The delighted Croesus did not even bother to ask which state was meant. The war ended with the victory of Cyrus, who pursued Croesus all the way to Lydia and captured him there. In 539 BC Cyrus occupied Babylonia, and by the end of his reign expanded the borders of the state from the Mediterranean Sea to the eastern outskirts of the Iranian plateau, making Pasargadae, a city in southwestern Iran, the capital. Cambyses, son of Cyrus, captured Egypt and proclaimed himself pharaoh. He died in 522 BC. Some sources claim that he committed suicide. After his death, a Median magician seized the Persian throne, but a few months later he was overthrown by Darius, a representative of a younger branch of the Achaemenid dynasty. Darius (reigned from 522 to 485 BC) is the greatest of the Persian kings, he combined the talents of a ruler, builder and commander. Under him, the northwestern part of India came under Persian rule up to the river. Indus and Armenia to the Caucasus Mountains. Darius even organized a campaign to Thrace (modern territory of Turkey and Bulgaria), but the Scythians drove him away from the Danube. During the reign of Darius, the Ionian Greeks in the western part of Asia Minor rebelled. Supported by the Greeks in Greece itself, it marked the beginning of the struggle against Persian rule, which ended only a century and a half later due to the fall of the Persian kingdom under the blows of Alexander the Great. Darius suppressed the Ionians and began a campaign against Greece. However, a storm scattered his fleet near Cape Athos (Chalcedonian Peninsula). Two years later he launched a second campaign against Greece, but the Greeks defeated a huge Persian army at the Battle of Marathon, near Athens (490 BC). Darius' son Xerxes (reigned 485 to 465 BC) renewed the war with Greece. He captured and burned Athens, but after the defeat of the Persian fleet at Salamis in 480 BC. was forced to return to Asia Minor. Xerxes spent the remaining years of his reign in luxury and amusements. In 485 BC he fell at the hands of one of his courtiers. During the long years of the reign of his son Artaxerxes I (ruled from 465 to 424 BC), peace and prosperity reigned in the state. In 449 BC. he made peace with Athens. After Artaxerxes, the power of the Persian monarchs over their vast possessions began to weaken noticeably. In 404 BC Egypt fell away, the mountain tribes rebelled one after another, and the struggle for the throne began. The most significant in this struggle was the rebellion raised by Cyrus the Younger against Artaxerxes II and ending with the defeat of Cyrus in 401 BC. at the battle of Kunax, near the Euphrates. Cyrus's large army, consisting of Greek mercenaries, fought its way through the collapsing empire to its homeland, Greece. The Greek commander and historian Xenophon described this retreat in his work Anabasis, which became a classic of military literature. Artaxerxes III (ruled from 358/359 to 338 BC) with the help of Greek mercenaries briefly restored the empire to its former borders, but soon after his death Alexander the Great destroyed the former power of the Persian state.

Organization of the Achaemenid state. Apart from a few brief Achaemenid inscriptions, we draw the main information about the Achaemenid state from the works of ancient Greek historians. Even the names of the Persian kings entered historiography as they were written by the ancient Greeks. For example, the names of the kings known today as Cyaxares, Cyrus and Xerxes are pronounced in Persian as Uvakhshtra, Kurush and Khshayarshan. The main city of the state was Susa. Babylon and Ecbatana were considered administrative centers, and Persepolis the center of ritual and spiritual life. The state was divided into twenty satrapies, or provinces, headed by satraps. Representatives of the Persian nobility became satraps, and the position itself was inherited. This combination of the power of an absolute monarch and semi-independent governors was a characteristic feature of the country's political structure for many centuries.
All provinces were connected by postal roads, the most significant of which, the “royal road,” 2,400 km long, ran from Susa to the Mediterranean coast. Despite the fact that a single administrative system, a single currency and a single official language were introduced throughout the empire, many subject peoples retained their customs, religion and local rulers. The period of Achaemenid rule was characterized by tolerance. The long years of peace under the Persians favored the development of cities, trade and agriculture. Iran was experiencing its Golden Age. The Persian army differed in composition and tactics from earlier armies, which were characterized by chariots and infantry. The main striking force of the Persian troops were horse archers, who bombarded the enemy with a cloud of arrows without coming into direct contact with him. The army consisted of six corps of 60,000 warriors each and elite formations of 10,000 people, selected from members of the noblest families and called “immortals”; They also constituted the king’s personal guard. However, during the campaigns in Greece, as well as during the reign of the last king from the Achaemenid dynasty, Darius III, a huge, poorly controlled mass of horsemen, chariots and infantrymen went into battle, unable to maneuver in small spaces and often significantly inferior to the disciplined infantry of the Greeks. The Achaemenids were very proud of their origins. The Behistun inscription, carved on the rock by order of Darius I, reads: “I, Darius, the great king, the king of kings, the king of the countries inhabited by all peoples, have long been the king of this great land, extending even further, son of Hystaspes, Achaemenid, Persian, son Persians, Aryans, and my ancestors were Aryans." However, the Achaemenid civilization was a conglomeration of customs, culture, social institutions and ideas that existed in all parts of the Ancient World. At that time East and West came into direct contact for the first time, and the resulting exchange of ideas was never interrupted thereafter.

Hellenic dominion. Weakened by endless revolts, uprisings and civil strife, the Achaemenid state could not resist the armies of Alexander the Great. The Macedonians landed on the Asian continent in 334 BC and defeated the Persian troops on the river. Granik and twice defeated huge armies under the command of the incompetent Darius III - at the Battle of Issus (333 BC) in southwest Asia Minor and at Gaugamela (331 BC) in Mesopotamia. Having captured Babylon and Susa, Alexander headed to Persepolis and set it on fire, apparently in retaliation for Athens burned by the Persians. Continuing east, he found the body of Darius III, killed by his own soldiers. Alexander spent more than four years in the east of the Iranian plateau, founding numerous Greek colonies. He then turned south and conquered the Persian provinces in what is now West Pakistan. After this, he went on a campaign to the Indus Valley. Back to 325 BC in Susa, Alexander began to actively encourage his soldiers to take Persian wives, cherishing the idea of a unified state of Macedonians and Persians. In 323 BC Alexander, aged 33, died of fever in Babylon. The vast territory he conquered was immediately divided between his military leaders, who competed with each other. And although Alexander the Great’s plan to merge Greek and Persian culture was never realized, the numerous colonies founded by him and his successors maintained the originality of their culture for centuries and had a significant influence on local peoples and their art. After the death of Alexander the Great, the Iranian plateau became part of the Seleucid state, which received its name from one of its generals. Soon the local nobility began to fight for independence. In the satrapy of Parthia, located southeast of the Caspian Sea in the area known as Khorasan, the nomadic Parni tribe rebelled and expelled the Seleucid governor. The first ruler of the Parthian state was Arshak I (ruled from 250 to 248/247 BC).
Parthian state of the Arsacids. The period following Arsaces I's revolt against the Seleucids is called either the Arsacid period or the Parthian period. There were constant wars between the Parthians and the Seleucids, ending in 141 BC, when the Parthians, under Mithridates I, took Seleucia, the Seleucid capital on the Tigris River. On the opposite bank of the river, Mithridates founded a new capital, Ctesiphon, and extended his rule over most of the Iranian plateau. Mithridates II (reigned from 123 to 87/88 BC) further expanded the boundaries of the state and, taking the title “king of kings” (shahinshah), became the ruler of a vast territory from India to Mesopotamia, and in the east to Chinese Turkestan. The Parthians considered themselves the direct heirs of the Achaemenid state, and their relatively poor culture was supplemented by the influence of Hellenistic culture and traditions introduced earlier by Alexander the Great and the Seleucids. As before in the Seleucid state, the political center moved to the west of the highlands, namely to Ctesiphon, so few monuments testifying to that time have been preserved in good condition in Iran. During the reign of Phraates III (ruled from 70 to 58/57 BC), Parthia entered a period of almost continuous wars with the Roman Empire, which lasted almost 300 years. The opposing armies fought over a vast area. The Parthians defeated an army under the command of Marcus Licinius Crassus at Carrhae in Mesopotamia, after which the border between the two empires lay along the Euphrates. In 115 AD Roman Emperor Trajan took Seleucia. Despite this, the Parthian power held out, and in 161 Vologes III devastated the Roman province of Syria. However, long years of war bled the Parthians, and attempts to defeat the Romans on the western borders weakened their power over the Iranian plateau. Riots broke out in a number of areas. The Fars (or Parsi) satrap Ardashir, the son of a religious leader, declared himself ruler as a direct descendant of the Achaemenids. After defeating several Parthian armies and killing the last Parthian king, Artabanus V, in battle, he took Ctesiphon and inflicted a crushing defeat on the coalition attempting to restore Arsacid power.
Sassanid State. Ardashir (reigned 224 to 241) founded a new Persian empire known as the Sassanid state (from the Old Persian title "sasan", or "commander"). His son Shapur I (reigned 241 to 272) retained elements of the previous feudal system, but created a highly centralized state. Shapur's armies first moved east and occupied the entire Iranian plateau up to the river. Indus and then turned west against the Romans. At the Battle of Edessa (near modern Urfa, Turkey), Shapur captured the Roman Emperor Valerian along with his 70,000-strong army. The prisoners, who included architects and engineers, were forced to work building roads, bridges and irrigation systems in Iran. Over the course of several centuries, the Sassanid dynasty changed about 30 rulers; often successors were appointed by the higher clergy and feudal nobility. The dynasty waged continuous wars with Rome. Shapur II, who ascended the throne in 309, fought three wars with Rome during the 70 years of his reign. The greatest of the Sassanids is Khosrow I (ruled from 531 to 579), who was called the Just or Anushirvan (“Immortal Soul”). Under the Sassanids, a four-tier system of administrative division was established, a fixed rate of land tax was introduced, and numerous artificial irrigation projects were carried out. In southwest Iran, traces of these irrigation structures still remain. Society was divided into four classes: warriors, priests, scribes and commoners. The latter included peasants, traders and artisans. The first three classes enjoyed special privileges and, in turn, had several gradations. Governors of the provinces were appointed from the highest rank of class, sardars. The capital of the state was Bishapur, the most important cities were Ctesiphon and Gundeshapur (the latter was famous as a center of medical education). After the fall of Rome, the place of the traditional enemy of the Sassanids was taken by Byzantium. Violating the treaty of perpetual peace, Khosrow I invaded Asia Minor and in 611 captured and burned Antioch. His grandson Khosrow II (reigned 590 to 628), nicknamed Parviz ("Victorious"), briefly restored the Persians to their former Achaemenid glory. In the course of several campaigns, he actually defeated the Byzantine Empire, but the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius made a bold move against the Persian rear. In 627, the army of Khosrow II suffered a crushing defeat at Nineveh in Mesopotamia, Khosrow was deposed and stabbed to death by his own son Kavad II, who died a few months later. The powerful Sassanid state found itself without a ruler, with a destroyed social structure, exhausted as a result of long wars with Byzantium in the west and with the Central Asian Turks in the east. Over the course of five years, twelve half-ghost rulers were replaced, unsuccessfully trying to restore order. In 632, Yazdegerd III restored central power for several years, but this was not enough. The exhausted empire could not withstand the onslaught of the warriors of Islam, who were uncontrollably rushing north from the Arabian Peninsula. They struck their first crushing blow in 637 at the Battle of Kadispi, as a result of which Ctesiphon fell. The Sassanids suffered their final defeat in 642 at the Battle of Nehavend in the central highlands. Yazdegerd III fled like a hunted animal, his assassination in 651 marking the end of the Sassanid era.
CULTURE
Technology. Irrigation. The entire economy of ancient Persia was based on agriculture. Rainfall in the Iranian Plateau is insufficient to support extensive agriculture, so the Persians had to rely on irrigation. The few and shallow rivers of the highlands did not provide the irrigation ditches with enough water, and in the summer they dried up. Therefore, the Persians developed a unique system of underground canals. At the foot of the mountain ranges, deep wells were dug, passing through hard but porous layers of gravel to the underlying impervious clays that form the lower boundary of the aquifer. The wells collected meltwater from mountain peaks, which were covered with a thick layer of snow in winter. From these wells, underground water conduits as tall as a man broke through, with vertical shafts located at regular intervals, through which light and air were supplied to the workers. Water conduits reached the surface and served as sources of water all year round. Artificial irrigation with the help of dams and canals, which originated and was widely used on the plains of Mesopotamia, spread to the territory of Elam, similar in natural conditions, through which several rivers flow. This region, now known as Khuzistan, is densely cut by hundreds of ancient canals. Irrigation systems reached their greatest development during the Sasanian period. Today, numerous remains of dams, bridges and aqueducts built under the Sassanids are still preserved. Since they were designed by captured Roman engineers, they closely resemble similar structures found throughout the Roman Empire. Transport. The rivers of Iran are not navigable, but in other parts of the Achaemenid Empire water transport was well developed. So, in 520 BC. Darius I the Great reconstructed the canal between the Nile and the Red Sea. During the Achaemenid period, there was extensive construction of land roads, but paved roads were constructed mainly in swampy and mountainous areas. Significant sections of narrow, stone-paved roads built under the Sassanids are found in the west and south of Iran. The choice of location for the construction of roads was unusual for that time. They were laid not along valleys, along river banks, but along mountain ridges. Roads descended into valleys only to make it possible to cross to the other side in strategically important places, for which massive bridges were built. Along the roads, at a distance of a day's travel from one another, post stations were built where horses were changed. There was a very efficient postal service, with postal couriers covering up to 145 km per day. The center of horse breeding since time immemorial has been the fertile region in the Zagros Mountains, located adjacent to the Trans-Asian trade route. Iranians began using camels as beasts of burden from ancient times; This “type of transport” came to Mesopotamia from Media ca. 1100 BC
Economy. The basis of the economy of Ancient Persia was agricultural production. Trade also flourished. All the numerous capitals of the ancient Iranian kingdoms were located along the most important trade route between the Mediterranean and the Far East or on its branch towards the Persian Gulf. In all periods, the Iranians played the role of an intermediate link - they guarded this route and kept part of the goods transported along it. During excavations in Susa and Persepolis, beautiful items from Egypt were found. The reliefs of Persepolis depict representatives of all satrapies of the Achaemenid state presenting gifts to the great rulers. Since Achaemenid times, Iran has exported marble, alabaster, lead, turquoise, lapis lazuli (lapis lazuli) and carpets. The Achaemenids created fabulous reserves of gold coins minted in various satrapies. In contrast, Alexander the Great introduced a single silver coin for the entire empire. The Parthians returned to a gold currency, and during the Sasanian times silver and copper coins predominated in circulation. The system of large feudal estates that developed under the Achaemenids survived into the Seleucid period, but the kings of this dynasty significantly eased the situation of the peasants. Then, during the Parthian period, the huge feudal estates were restored, and this system did not change under the Sassanids. All states sought to obtain maximum income and established taxes on peasant farms, livestock, land, introduced per capita taxes, and collected fees for travel on roads. All these taxes and fees were levied either in imperial coin or in kind. By the end of the Sasanian period, the number and magnitude of taxes had become an intolerable burden for the population, and this tax pressure played a decisive role in the collapse of the social structure of the state.
Political and social organization. All Persian rulers were absolute monarchs who ruled their subjects according to the will of the gods. But this power was absolute only in theory; in fact, it was limited by the influence of hereditary large feudal lords. The rulers tried to achieve stability through marriages with relatives, as well as by taking as wives the daughters of potential or actual enemies - both domestic and foreign. Nevertheless, the reign of the monarchs and the continuity of their power were threatened not only by external enemies, but also by members of their own families. The Median period was distinguished by a very primitive political organization, which is very typical for peoples transitioning to a sedentary lifestyle. Already among the Achaemenids the concept of a unitary state appeared. In the Achaemenid state, satraps were fully responsible for the state of affairs in their provinces, but could be subject to unexpected inspection by inspectors, who were called the eyes and ears of the king. The royal court constantly emphasized the importance of administering justice and therefore continuously moved from one satrapy to another. Alexander the Great married the daughter of Darius III, retained satrapies and the custom of prostrating himself before the king. The Seleucids adopted from Alexander the idea of merging races and cultures in the vast expanses from the Mediterranean Sea to the river. Ind. During this period, rapid urban development occurred, accompanied by the Hellenization of the Iranians and the Iranianization of the Greeks. However, there were no Iranians among the rulers, and they were always considered outsiders. Iranian traditions were preserved in the Persepolis area, where temples were built in the style of the Achaemenid era. The Parthians tried to unite the ancient satrapies. They also played an important role in the fight against nomads from Central Asia advancing from east to west. As before, the satrapies were headed by hereditary governors, but a new factor was the lack of natural continuity of royal power. The legitimacy of the Parthian monarchy was no longer indisputable. The successor was chosen by a council composed of nobles, which inevitably led to endless fighting between rival factions. The Sasanian kings made a serious attempt to revive the spirit and original structure of the Achaemenid state, partly reproducing its rigid social organization. In descending order were vassal princes, hereditary aristocrats, nobles and knights, priests, peasants, and slaves. The state administrative apparatus was led by the first minister, to whom several ministries were subordinate, including military, justice and finance, each of which had its own staff of skilled officials. The king himself was the supreme judge, and justice was administered by the priests.
Religion. In ancient times, the cult of the great mother goddess, a symbol of childbirth and fertility, was widespread. In Elam she was called Kirisisha, and throughout the Parthian period her images were cast on Luristan bronzes and figurines made of terracotta, bone, ivory and metals. The inhabitants of the Iranian plateau also worshiped many Mesopotamian deities. After the first wave of Aryans passed through Iran, Indo-Iranian deities such as Mithra, Varuna, Indra and Nasatya appeared here. In all beliefs, a pair of deities was certainly present - the goddess, personifying the Sun and Earth, and her husband, personifying the Moon and natural elements. Local gods bore the names of the tribes and peoples who worshiped them. Elam had its own deities, most notably the goddess Shala and her husband Inshushinak. The Achaemenid period marked a decisive turn from polytheism to a more universal system reflecting the eternal struggle between good and evil. The earliest inscription from this period, a metal tablet made before 590 BC, contains the name of the god Agura Mazda (Ahuramazda). Indirectly, the inscription may be a reflection of the reform of Mazdaism (the cult of Agura Mazda), carried out by the prophet Zarathushtra, or Zoroaster, as narrated in the Gathas, ancient sacred hymns. The identity of Zarathushtra continues to be shrouded in mystery. Apparently he was born ca. 660 BC, but perhaps much earlier, and perhaps much later. The god Agura Mazda personified the good principle, truth and light, apparently, in contrast to Ahriman (Angra Mainyu), the personification of the evil principle, although the very concept of Angra Mainyu could have appeared later. Darius's inscriptions mention Agura Mazda, and the relief on his tomb depicts the worship of this deity at a sacrificial fire. The chronicles give reason to believe that Darius and Xerxes believed in immortality. Worship of the sacred fire took place both inside temples and in open places. The Magi, originally members of one of the Median clans, became hereditary priests. They supervised the temples and took care of strengthening the faith by performing certain rituals. An ethical doctrine based on good thoughts, good words and good deeds was revered. Throughout the Achaemenid period, rulers were very tolerant of local deities, and starting with the reign of Artaxerxes II, the ancient Iranian sun god Mithra and the fertility goddess Anahita received official recognition. The Parthians, in search of their own official religion, turned to the Iranian past and settled on Mazdaism. Traditions were codified, and magicians regained their former power. The cult of Anahita continued to enjoy official recognition, as well as popularity among the people, and the cult of Mithra crossed the western borders of the kingdom and spread throughout most of the Roman Empire. In the west of the Parthian kingdom, Christianity, which became widespread there, was tolerated. At the same time, in the eastern regions of the empire, Greek, Indian and Iranian deities united in a single Greco-Bactrian pantheon. Under the Sassanids, continuity was maintained, but there were also some important changes in religious traditions. Mazdaism survived most of Zarathushtra's early reforms and became associated with the cult of Anahita. To compete on equal terms with Christianity and Judaism, the sacred book of the Zoroastrians, Avesta, a collection of ancient poems and hymns, was created. The Magi still stood at the head of the priests and were the guardians of the three great national fires, as well as the holy fires in all important settlements. Christians by that time had long been persecuted, they were considered enemies of the state, since they were identified with Rome and Byzantium, but by the end of the Sassanid reign, the attitude towards them became more tolerant and Nestorian communities flourished in the country. Other religions also emerged during the Sasanian period. In the middle of the 3rd century. preached by the prophet Mani, who developed the idea of unifying Mazdaism, Buddhism and Christianity and especially emphasized the need to liberate the spirit from the body. Manichaeism demanded celibacy from priests and virtue from believers. Followers of Manichaeism were required to fast and offer prayers, but not to worship images or perform sacrifices. Shapur I favored Manichaeism and may have intended to make it the state religion, but this was sharply opposed by the still powerful priests of Mazdaism and in 276 Mani was executed. Nevertheless, Manichaeism persisted for several centuries in Central Asia, Syria and Egypt. At the end of the 5th century. preached by another religious reformer, a native of Iran, Mazdak. His ethical doctrine combined both elements of Mazdaism and practical ideas about non-violence, vegetarianism and communal life. Kavad I initially supported the Mazdakian sect, but this time the official priesthood turned out to be stronger and in 528 the prophet and his followers were executed. The advent of Islam put an end to the national religious traditions of Persia, but a group of Zoroastrians fled to India. Their descendants, the Parsis, still practice the religion of Zoroaster.
Architecture and art. Early metal products. In addition to the colossal number of ceramic objects, products made from such durable materials as bronze, silver and gold are of exceptional importance for the study of Ancient Iran. A huge number of so-called Luristan bronzes were discovered in Luristan, in the Zagros Mountains, during illegal excavations of the graves of semi-nomadic tribes. These unique examples included weapons, horse harnesses, jewelry, as well as objects depicting scenes from religious life or ritual purposes. Until now, scientists have not come to a consensus as to who and when they were made. In particular, it was suggested that they were created in the 15th century. BC. to 7th century BC, most likely by the Kassites or Scythian-Cimmerian tribes. Bronze items continue to be found in the Azerbaijan province in northwestern Iran. They differ significantly in style from the Luristan bronzes, although they both appear to belong to the same period. Bronzes from Northwestern Iran are similar to recent finds from the same region; for example, the finds of an accidentally discovered treasure in Ziviya and a wonderful golden cup found during excavations in Hasanlu Tepe are similar to each other. These items date back to the 9th-7th centuries. BC, Assyrian and Scythian influence is visible in their stylized ornaments and depictions of deities.
Achaemenid period. Architectural monuments of the pre-Achaemenid period have not survived, although reliefs in Assyrian palaces depict cities on the Iranian plateau. It is very likely that for a long time, even under the Achaemenids, the population of the highlands led a semi-nomadic lifestyle and wooden buildings were typical for the region. Indeed, the monumental structures of Cyrus at Pasargadae, including his own tomb, which resembles a wooden house with a gabled roof, as well as Darius and his successors at Persepolis and their tombs at nearby Naqshi Rustem, are stone copies of wooden prototypes. In Pasargadae, royal palaces with columned halls and porticos were scattered throughout a shady park. In Persepolis under Darius, Xerxes and Artaxerxes III, reception halls and royal palaces were built on terraces raised above the surrounding area. In this case, it was not arches that were characteristic, but columns typical of this period, covered with horizontal beams. Labor, construction and finishing materials, as well as decorations were brought from all over the country, while the style of architectural details and carved reliefs was a mixture of artistic styles then prevailing in Egypt, Assyria and Asia Minor. During excavations in Susa, parts of the palace complex were found, the construction of which began under Darius. The plan of the building and its decorative decoration reveal a much greater Assyro-Babylonian influence than the palaces at Persepolis. Achaemenid art was also characterized by a mixture of styles and eclecticism. It is represented by stone carvings, bronze figurines, figurines made of precious metals and jewelry. The best jewelry was discovered in a chance find made many years ago known as the Amu Darya treasure. The bas-reliefs of Persepolis are world famous. Some of them depict kings during ceremonial receptions or defeating mythical beasts, and along the stairs in the large reception hall of Darius and Xerxes the royal guard lined up and a long procession of peoples is visible, bringing tribute to the ruler.
Parthian period. Most of the architectural monuments of the Parthian period are found west of the Iranian plateau and have few Iranian features. True, during this period an element appeared that would be widely used in all subsequent Iranian architecture. This is the so-called ivan, a rectangular vaulted hall, open from the entrance. Parthian art was even more eclectic than the art of the Achaemenid period. In different parts of the state, products of different styles were made: in some - Hellenistic, in others - Buddhist, in others - Greco-Bactrian. Plaster friezes, stone carvings and wall paintings were used for decoration. Glazed pottery, the forerunner of ceramics, was popular during this period.
Sasanian period. Many structures from the Sasanian period are in relatively good condition. Most of them were made of stone, although baked brick was also used. Among the surviving buildings are royal palaces, fire temples, dams and bridges, as well as entire city blocks. The place of columns with horizontal ceilings was taken by arches and vaults; square rooms were crowned with domes, arched openings were widely used, and many buildings had ivans. The domes were supported by four trumpos, cone-shaped vaulted structures that spanned the corners of the square rooms. Ruins of palaces remain at Firuzabad and Servestan, in southwestern Iran, and at Qasr Shirin, on the western edge of the plateau. The largest palace was considered to be in Ctesiphon, on the river. The tiger known as Taki-Kisra. In its center there was a giant ivan with a vault 27 meters high and a distance between supports equal to 23 m. More than 20 fire temples have survived, the main elements of which were square rooms topped with domes and sometimes surrounded by vaulted corridors. As a rule, such temples were erected on high rocks so that the open sacred fire could be seen from a great distance. The walls of the buildings were covered with plaster, onto which a pattern made using the notching technique was applied. Numerous rock-cut reliefs are found along the banks of reservoirs fed by spring waters. They depict kings facing Agura Mazda or defeating their enemies. The pinnacle of Sassanian art are textiles, silver dishes and cups, most of which were made for the royal court. Scenes of royal hunting, figures of kings in ceremonial attire, and geometric and floral patterns are woven onto thin brocade. On the silver bowls there are images of kings on the throne, battle scenes, dancers, fighting animals and sacred birds made using the technique of extrusion or appliqué. The fabrics, unlike the silver dishes, are made in styles that came from the West. In addition, elegant bronze incense burners and wide-necked jugs were found, as well as clay products with bas-reliefs covered with shiny glaze. The mixture of styles still does not allow us to accurately date the found objects and determine the place of manufacture of most of them.
Writing and science. The oldest written language of Iran is represented by as yet undeciphered inscriptions in the Proto-Elamite language, which was spoken in Susa ca. 3000 BC The much more advanced written languages of Mesopotamia quickly spread to Iran, and in Susa and the Iranian plateau the population used the Akkadian language for many centuries. The Aryans who came to the Iranian plateau brought with them Indo-European languages, different from the Semitic languages of Mesopotamia. During the Achaemenid period, royal inscriptions carved on rocks were parallel columns in Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian. Throughout the Achaemenid period, royal documents and private correspondence were written either in cuneiform on clay tablets or in writing on parchment. At the same time, at least three languages were in use - Old Persian, Aramaic and Elamite. Alexander the Great introduced the Greek language, his teachers taught about 30,000 young Persians from noble families the Greek language and military science. On his great campaigns, Alexander was accompanied by a large retinue of geographers, historians and scribes, who recorded everything that happened day after day and became acquainted with the culture of all the peoples they met along the way. Particular attention was paid to navigation and the establishment of sea communications. The Greek language continued to be used under the Seleucids, while the Old Persian language was preserved in the Persepolis area. Greek served as the language of trade throughout the Parthian period, but the main language of the Iranian Highlands became Middle Persian, which represented a qualitatively new stage in the development of Old Persian. Over many centuries, the Aramaic script used to write in the Old Persian language was transformed into the Pahlavi script with an undeveloped and inconvenient alphabet. During the Sasanian period, Middle Persian became the official and main language of the inhabitants of the highlands. Its writing was based on a variant of the Pahlavi script known as the Pahlavi-Sassanian script. The sacred books of the Avesta were written in a special way - first in Zenda, and then in the Avesta language. In ancient Iran, science did not rise to the heights that it reached in neighboring Mesopotamia. The spirit of scientific and philosophical search awakened only in the Sasanian period. The most important works were translated from Greek, Latin and other languages. It was then that the Book of Great Deeds, the Book of Ranks, the Countries of Iran and the Book of Kings were born. Other works from this period survive only in later Arabic translations.

Collier's Encyclopedia. - Open Society. 2000 .

The history of Ancient Persia (although it is more correct to call it Iran (that is what it is called in the sources of that time); the name 'Persia' was coined by the Greeks) begins with the conquests of Cyrus II. But you can’t immediately move on to his accomplishments; first you need to find out who this Cyrus was?

First mentions of Persia

The first mentions of Persia are found in Assyrian sources of the 9th century BC. It is known that this was a tribal union in the southwest of modern Iran, led by a noble Achaemenid family. A century later, they began to expand their possessions, but after Assyria established itself in these lands, they recognized the power of their king. Later, the Persians came under the authority of King Astyages, the ruler of the Median state. He gave his daughter in marriage to Cambyses I, the ruler of the Persians. From this union the son Cyrus I the Great was born.

The Legend of Cyrus

Nothing precise can be said about Cyrus’s childhood. However, there is a legend. One day, King Astyages had a dream that a tree was growing from the womb of his daughter and covering all the Median lands with its crowns. The priests interpreted this dream in such a way that the son born to his daughter would seize power from his grandfather. Astyages was frightened and ordered his courtier Harpagus to abandon the infant Cyrus I in the forests of Media. He, in turn, ordered the shepherd Mithridad to take the child to the forest. But Mithridar and his wife had a stillborn child; they could not leave Cyrus in the forests. They decided to put their stillborn son in Cyrus’s cradle and raise the prince as their own.

The truth was revealed when Cyrus was ten years old. He played with the sons of the courtiers and was elected king among them. One of the boys refused to obey him, so he beat him. The boy's father complained to Astyages that the shepherd's son dared to beat his master. Cyrus was taken to the palace. Seeing him, Astyages realized that his grandson was alive. He turned to the priests again. But they assured him that the dream had already come true - the boy was elected king among his peers. Having calmed down, the king of Media sent him to his parents in Persia.

Revolt of Cyrus and capture of provinces

Cyrus rebelled against Media in 553 BC. Most of the Medes voluntarily went over to Cyrus's side. By 550 BC. Media was conquered. Next, Cyrus began to conquer its provinces: Susa (Elam), Parthia, Hyrcania and Armenia. In 547 BC. Cyrus launched an attack on the Lydian kingdom. The first battle near the Halys River ended in nothing; the second time Cyrus showed cunning and placed camels in front of his army. The Lydian horses, sensing an unfamiliar smell, fled from the battlefield.

Then Cyrus subjugated the entire Asia Minor coast. And he turned his gaze towards the Eastern Iranian and Central Asian territories: Afghanistan, the northwestern part of India, Pakistan, Drangiana, Margiana, Bactria, Arachosia, Gandhara, Hydrosia, Khorezm and Sogdiana. Miletus and the rest of the countries up to Egypt voluntarily submitted to Cyrus. Moreover, Phoenician, Babylonian and Asia Minor merchants advocated for the creation of a strong centralized state. Now Cyrus' goal was Egypt. But the nomadic Massagetae on the northeastern outskirts of the empire caused a lot of trouble. On a campaign against them in 530 BC. Cyrus was wounded and died.

The rise of the Persian Empire

The work of Cyrus the Great was continued by his son Cambyses II. He led the campaign against Egypt. At this time, Egypt was not going through the best of times: a weak army, an inept pharaoh Psammetichus III, high taxes. Population dissatisfaction. Before setting out on a campaign, Cambyses enlisted the help of the nomads of the waterless Sinai desert, who helped his army reach the city of Pelusium. The Egyptian commander-in-chief Phanes and the commander of the fleet Ujagorresent went over to the side of the Persians.

In 525 BC. A battle took place near the city of Pelusium. Both sides suffered heavy losses, but the Persians won. The capital Memphis was plundered, the population was taken into slavery, the son of Pharaoh Psammetichus was executed, but the pharaoh was spared. In the same year, Cambyses became pharaoh of Egypt. The next point of conquest was Nubia, but a sandstorm killed most of the Persian wax and they were forced to return to Egypt, where the former pharaoh Psammetichus rebelled against Cambyses. The Shah brutally suppressed the uprising: Psammetichus was now executed.

In connection with the above events, the Shah stayed in Egypt for three years. In Iran itself, uprisings began against the oppression of the Persians. Rumors reached the Shah that one of the leaders of the rebels was his brother Bardiya. Cambyses urgently went back, but died on the way home under mysterious circumstances.

Rebellion of Bardiya Gaumata

There is a lot of information about the Bardiya uprising. Firstly, Bardiya was not the Shah’s brother at all, but a Median priest and impostor Gaumata. He began his uprising in Babylonia, where he received universal support, and moved to Pasagard (the capital of Persia). Having won and subjugated Persia, Gaumata abolished taxes and conscription for three years in order to retain the provinces of the empire. The entire internal policy was aimed at displacing the Persian elite and replacing it with the Median, as well as depriving them of all privileges.

Gaumata did not rule for long - only seven months - and was killed as a result of a palace conspiracy by the seven most noble Persian families. They were the ones who elected the new Shah. He became 28-year-old Darius, who restored the privileges of the Persians and began restoring the empire within its former borders. The task was not easy. The power was disintegrating: Babylonia, Armenia, Margiana, Elam, Parthia, the Saka tribes and others. In each province an impostor appeared, proclaiming himself either Cambyses, who miraculously survived on his way to his homeland, or a king overthrown by the Persians.

Darius Campaign

Many did not believe in the success of Darius' campaign. Nevertheless, he won victory after victory. The riots were suppressed with particular cruelty. In honor of all the victories, Darius erected the Behistun inscription, carved on a rock in the Pasagard region. It shows the enslaved kings of the provinces of the Achaemenid state, bringing tribute to their Shahan Shah Darius the Great. The kings look smaller than Darius, which indicates their subordinate position. Above the Shahanshah of Persia rises the sign of divine grace - farr.

In Zoroastrian mythology (Zoroastrianism, although it was not the official religion of the empire, had a dominant position in the Persian court), far or hwarene was considered a sign of the gods who blessed the Shah to reign. However, if the Shah failed to fulfill his obligations or used his power for evil, the gods deprived him of farr and handed him over to another worthy candidate for the title of Shahanshah.

Persian reforms of Darius

The uprisings of the Achaemenid power pointed out to Darius the 'holes' in its administrative and military systems. Taking into account the mistakes of the past, the Shah carried out a number of reforms that did not change until the end of the empire:

1) The empire was divided into satrapies. Most often, the borders of satrapies were equivalent to the borders of the states located in these territories (Assyria, Babylonia, Egypt). They were led by satraps, who were appointed by the Shah and came from Persian families. Only administrative power was concentrated in the hands of the satraps: they monitored the collection of taxes, maintained order in the satrapy, and exercised judicial power. The satrapies also had military leaders, but they were subordinate only to the Shah. The number of satrapies also included autonomous regions such as the Phoenician cities, Cyprus and Cilicia. They were ruled with the help of local kings or tribal leaders.

2) The new capital Susa was created the central apparatus headed by the Shah's office. In large cities - Babylon, Ecbatana, Memphis and others - royal offices also appeared. The offices included scribes and officials. Accounting for taxes, duties and even gifts was introduced, and royal correspondence was conducted. The official language of the Achaemenid Empire was Aramaic, but the satrap's offices also used the local language. The entire administrative system was under the control of the Shah: a secret police was created (the ears and eyes of the king), as well as a new position - the commander of a thousand - the commander of the personal guard of the Shah, who supervised the officials.

3) Was carried out work to codify the laws of conquered countries and the study of ancient laws in order to combine them into one single code for all peoples. True, it is worth noting that the Persians occupied a privileged place in them.

4) Darius introduced new tax system: each satrapy paid a fixed amount of taxes, which was based on soil fertility, the number of male population, etc. the Persians did not pay taxes, but supplied food. The system of gifts was no longer voluntary - their size was also strictly fixed.

5) They began to mint a single coin - a gold darik.

6) The power of the empire directly depended on the army. Its core consisted of the Persians and Medes. The army consisted of infantry (recruited from farmers) and cavalry (it included the Persian nobility). The Saka nomads played an important role in the Persian army as horse archers. The armament of the horsemen usually consisted of a bronze shield, iron armor and spears. The backbone was 10 thousand 'immortals'. The first thousand were the king's personal guard and were recruited from the sons of noble Persian families. The rest were recruited from the Elamites and Iranian tribes. This detachment was considered the most privileged in the entire Achaemenid army. Each satrapy had an army to prevent revolts. Their composition was quite varied, but did not contain representatives of this province. On the border of the country, soldiers were allocated a small piece of land. Every month each warrior received grain and meat. And being retired - land plots on which grain crops were grown, or sold or donated.

7) Darius started construction of roads and post offices. The satrapies were connected by post offices so that in case of war they could reach their destination as quickly as possible.

After carrying out such successful reforms, the Shah turned his attention to the Scythians, who were disturbing the borders of the empire, and the Greeks, who rebelled against the power of the Persians. Darius' campaign against Athens is considered to be the beginning of the Greco-Persian Wars.

Provincial uprisings

The cause of the uprisings was the ever-increasing tax burden and the removal of artisans from the cities (at that time, the construction of the Persepolis Palace (Takhte Jamshid), the new residence of the Achaemenids, was being completed). Egypt was the first to express dissatisfaction (in 486 BC). The uprising was suppressed, but it took away too many of Darius' forces - he died in the same year. Now his son Xerxes became the Shah, who spent his entire life constantly suppressing uprisings. It was Egypt that was re-included. In 484 BC. Babylon rose, and with it another half of the provinces of the state. The uprising was finally suppressed only in 481 BC. its population was taken into slavery, and all the city's defenses were destroyed.

In 480 BC. Xerxes set out on a second military campaign against the Greeks. Troops were gathered from all satrapies from India to Egypt. According to Geradot, the Persian army consisted of 1,700,000 infantry, 80,000 horsemen, and 20,000 camels. But such calculations are unlikely to be correct: if we take into account all the facts, such as the number of the male population in the satrapies, their mortality from disease and simply hard physical labor, then the total number of warriors will not exceed 100,000 people. But even this figure was terrifying at the time. But this campaign also turned out to be a failure. Such famous battles at Salamis, Thermopylae and Plataea did not bring victory to the Persians. Greece gained independence. Moreover, she began her campaign in Asia Minor and the Aegean Sea against the Achaemenids.

Fall of the Persian Empire

After the death of Xerxes, the shahs mainly tried to keep the empire within its borders, and also waged internecine wars with each other for the throne. In 413 BC. the Lydian state rebelled; in 404 BC Egypt separated, where the XXIX Dynasty was proclaimed; in 360 BC Cyprus, Cilicia, Lydia, Khorezm, northwestern India, Caria, and the Phoenician city of Sidon gained independence.

However, the main danger came from Asia Minor from the Greek province of the shepherds of Macedonia. While Greece was busy fighting between Athens and Sparta, and Persia was frantically trying to maintain its borders, the young Macedonian prince Alexander in 334 BC. went on a campaign against the Achaemenids. The ruling Shah Darius III suffered defeat after defeat. The satraps voluntarily went over to Alexander's side. In 331 BC. The decisive battle of Gaugamela took place, after which Greater Persia ceased to exist. Darius III fled and took refuge in a mill, the owner of which, flattered by the rich clothes of the stranger, stabbed him to death at night. This is how the last Shah of the Achaemenid dynasty ended his life. All previously subject lands of the Achaemenids came under the rule of Alexander the Great.

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