Persia Unites Many Lands

Forrest Wood, Ling Li,Karen Hall

Persia Arises from Nothing

While The Medes and The Chldeans fought and defeated the Assyrian Empire, Persia was busy expanding their new empire with territorial ambitions.

We will first be looking at the dark green and brown colors on this map.

The rest of the world paid little attention until 550 B.C. that year Cyrus began conquest of neighboring kingdoms. Eventually Persians ruled from the Indus River to the east to Anatolia in the west. That’s 2,000 miles!

Forrest Wood/ Ling Li

More about Cyrus

King Cyrus First King of Persia King Cyrus was the first king of Persia. The thriving triad of Persia put settlers in contact with their neighbors. Some of the things they would triad were copper, lead, gold, silver, and lapis lazuli. At first dozens of small kingdoms ruled, but eventually two major powers emerged.

They joined forces along with the Babylonians to over throw Assyrian empire. (612 B.C.) But the remarkable ruler led Persia not only to dominate Medes and the Babylonians but a huge empire; and that remarkable ruler was King Cyrus.

Ling Li

Cyrus had one of the strongest military forces too. Soldiers wore thick leather pants and thick felt boots; they rode mountain ponies, and shot arrows that their ancestors had used on the steps of Russia. They fought victory to victory, and Cyrus kept conquering, and conquering; until Cyrus conquered all of the Fertile Crescent and most of Anatolia.

Cyrus was always very kind to the people he conquered as he could possibly be; and during battle, there was a strong policy against looting and burning. When Cyrus conquered a local temple, instead of destroying it he would kneel there to pray. Babylon peacefully surrendered to Persia because of King Cyrus’s kindness towards all the people he conquered.

Ling Li

Conquering Babylon

Cyrus was very happy about the bloodless victory. Cyrus offered prayers to Babylon’s chief god, (Marduk.) Princes and all high powered government bowed down to kiss his feet happily. Cyrus also allowed Jews to come back to Persia and they were forever grateful to him.

When Cyrus and his army marched on Babylon, they open their gates and welcomed the army in. Cyrus walked in and all of Babylon bowed.

Ling Li/Forrest Wood

Cambyses Cambyses was Cyrus' son. And like Cyrus, he focused his rule on military conquest.

Cambyses' military expansion is marked by the light green on the map.

Cambyses was the son of Cyrus. Unfortunately he was not as nice as Cyrus. Cambyses was an evil ruler. Cambyses was successful in conquesting Egypt however he didn’t treat then nicely. He got rid of the Egyptians religion and did not let them worship their gods. He ordered the Egyptian gods images to be burned. After 8 years of harsh ruling Cambyses died. Cambyses death is quite a mystery. Many websites in the internet are unsure of why he died. After his death, hell struck and people rebelled.

Karen Hall/ Forrest Wood

Power Hungry Cambyses

Cambyses was 1 out of 2 sons of Cyrus. The other sons name was Smerdis. Cambyses wanted to be in charge so one day Smerdis “unexpectedly” died. Cambyses was in power and wanted to make others fear him. In this process he did the “The Flaying of Sisamnes”. Cambyses rendered Sisamnes judgment. He was then found guilty of bribery. Cambyses idea of punishment was usually cruel. He ordered to strip Sisamnes by the robe of his office and for him to be flayed. Cambyses was a mad man in love with power. After conqusting Egypt he went further to Africa. He led his army in to the deserts and was unsuccessful.

Karen Hall

Darius

Darius was Cambyses' successor. He came to power as a body guard for the king. After he died, Darius thought he could rule. So with the help of an elite group of solders known as The Ten Thousand Immortals, he rose as king.

He spent the beginning of his time as king putting down revolting peoples. After that he established a well organized administration.

He started his military conquest to the east as you can see marked by the yellow on the map.

This empire now stretched from the Fertile Crescent to present day Afghanistan.

Forrest Wood

Darius' Administration

Darius divided his massive empire into 20 provinces so he could keep more control. Although under Persian rule, each province could practice their own religion, language and even own laws. There was a tax collector, a province inspector, a governor, and and an army leader.

Darius took the idea of metal coins from the Lydians of the Asia Minor. Now triad was easier throughout Persia.

Darius also constructed a Royal Road that connected most of Persia. It is represented by the black line in the map.

Forrest Wood

Religion

Persia’s a place where the people believed in Zoroastrianism. Zoroastrianism believers believe in a monotheistic religion. There is only one god and he is good. He made the world around us and we have to thank him for that. This god is superior to others. He is really smart and is the resion there are sessions, planets, and the moon. People who believed in this religion only use good words, think positive, and do good deeds. Therefore they would arrack only good things. Zoroastrians lives are based on the principle of Asha or Right Behaviour. They achieve this by working within or contemplation of nature, or by chanting songs of praise. These 2 are forms of meditation. Zoroastrians pay attention to life on earth rather than the afterlife. They believe that life is what you make it on earth(happy or not) and not just being rewarded after death.

Karen Hall

What Zoroastrianism Originated From

Zoroastrianism was founded by Zarathushtra. In this present day people from Iran believe in this religion. Zarathushtra life time was about between 1500 and

1000 BCE. They believed that Zarathushtra was one of the first religious leaders. Zarathushtra was 30 when he had a vision that made him want to

make others believe in Ahura Mazda- the wise lord. The old religion priests did not like the ideas of Zoroastrianism. The priest tried to harm Prophet and his

family. Eventually Zarathushtra had to free his village and let them go their own ways. Then over time he had King Vishtaspa to protect him. King Vishtaspa

liked his ideas and let Zoroastrianism spread.

Karen Hall

Bibliography:

Cyrus: World history Patterns of interactionBy: McDougal Littell,

www.semp.us

Cambyses:World history Patterns of interactionBy: McDougal Littell,

www.touregypt.net

www.semp.us

Darius:World history Patterns of interactionBy: McDougal Littell,

www.semp.us

Zoroastrianism: World history Patterns of interactionBy: McDougal Littell,

www.zoroastriankids.com

www.semp.us

Forrest Wood