Alan Guerra, Andrea Castaneda and Evan Amador

Mr. Casso

B4

9/14/12

CH.2SEC. 4

THE PERSIAN EMPIRE

• Cyrus the Great• Darius I• Satrap• Xerxes• Zoroaster• dualism

• King of Persia and founder of the Persian Empire; he defeated the Median army and united the Persians and Medians under his rule.

• King of Persia from 522 to 486 BC; he reorganized and strengthened the Persian Empire by reforming the army and the government.

• Governors of ancient Persia.

• King of Persia; his armies invaded Greece but were eventually defeated by the Greeks.

• Religious teacher and prophet of ancient Persia; he founded a religion known as Zoroastrianism based on the idea that people have free will and can act as they choose.

• The belief that the world is controlled by two opposing forces, good and evil.

KEY WORDS

• After the death of the King Cambyses, Darius had a lot of controversy in getting to the throne and keeping it, as well as to change the systems Persian had then.

• Zoroastrianism teaches that the world was created by a god named Ahura Mazda who fought against an evil sprit named Ahrima. This was one of the first religions to teach dualism- the belief that the world is controlled by two opposing forces, good and evil.

• One of the greatest achievements was cultural unity. The people worked together to advance and it was relatively peaceful in its early history. It had a huge empire stretching into most of Asia as well.

• Who shaped the growth and organization of the Persian Empire?

• What were the main teachings of Zoroastrianism?

• What were the most significant Persian achievements?

READING FOCUS QUESTIONS

Questions Answers

• Before the great Persian empire, Medes had conquered Persia. The king had a daughter who was married with a Persian prince, and they had a son, Cyrus. The king had a dream that the baby would one day overthrow him. So he ordered it to death. Not wanting to kill a baby, the guards gave it to a poor farmer. After some years, Cyrus grew up and led a rebellion and declared himself king of Persia.

RISE OF THE EMPIRE

THE PEAK OF THE EMPIRE

• Darius I organized a strong army in Persia.

• He trained a troop of soldiers called the Ten Thousand Immortals.

• This group were given fast moving horses, chariots, and much support.

THE PERSIAN ARMY.

• Communications was essential to running the empire, the ruler need to know what was happening in the other parts if the country.

• At the heart of its communication was Persias roads.

• They had high quality roads that linked every part of the country

• The largest was the the royal road witch was the worlds first high way and was 1500 miles long.

• It connected to the 2 most important cities, Susa and Sardis, from there other smaller roads branched off connecting other key cities.

COMUNICATION

• The Persians had a message system pretty similar to other early civilizations.

• They had horseman travel short distances at a time before giving it off to the other rider with a fresh horse.

• These guys went on for day in any and all conditions.

• They can get a message across the empire in a matter of days

THE PERSIAN MESSENGERS.

• Being a culturally united country, Persia had many cultural advancements.

• There art work mainly consisted of animals such as lions, bulls, and giraffes.

• The also crafted solid gold cups incrusted with gems, these cups were in the shape of animals.

• There architecture was monumental nothing like it in the far east. One example was the great hall of the city Persepolis.

ART AND ARCHITECTURE

• Most historians would agree that Darius I was the peak of the empires exsistence. No other ruler had such power folowing Darius.

• Xerxes tried to build on his fathers cuccess when he past.

• He even tried to invade Greece ad tried to succeed where his father failed. But he too in turn failed and returned a failure.

PERSIAN DECLINE

• After Darius’ death, the empires trade began to slow down and rebellions were common.

• However the empire continued for 150 years.

• In 330 B.C. Alexander the great invaded Persia and effectively ended the empire.

AFTER DARIUS’ DEATH

SOURCES• The book

• Google images