PP Notes Persia and Greece

The Achaemenid Period The Hellenistic World
Persia: First Empire
Expansion to control Near East:
Cyrus the Great – Babylon 539 BCE
Expansion into Egypt, Asia Minor

Attacks Greek city-states:
Darius I attacks Greek mainland
Persians invade again under Xerxes

Ideology of rule:
Persian ruler was ‘King of Kings’ (shahanshah)
Satraps – local rulers over native region




Achaemenid Dynasty
Cyrus the Great, 559 – 530 BCE
Created empire, start of dynasty

Darius I, 522 – 486 BCE
Developed mature empire
Empire expands to largest extent

Xerxes, 486 – 465 BCE
Lost battle against Greece
Ended expansion
Stable period until civil war 404

Persian Decline: ends with Macedon conquest

Last Achaemenid: Darius III, 336 – 330 BCE
Cyrus Cylinder

I am Cyrus, King of the globe, great king, mighty king, King of Babylon, king of the land of Sumer and Akad, King of ......, king of the four quarters of Earth, son of Cambysis (Kambujiye), great king, king of Anshan, grandson of Cyrus (Kurosh), great king, king of Anshan, descendant of Teispes (Chaish Pish), great king, king of Anshan, progeny of an unending royal line, whose rule, The Gods, Bel and Nabu cherish, whose kingship they desire for their hearts' and pleasures.
When I … entered Babylon, I had established the seat of government… Marduk the great god, induced the magnanimous inhabitants of Babylon to love me, and I sought daily to worship him … I did not allow anyone to terrorize the people of the lands of Sumer and Akad and ...... I kept in view, the needs of the people and all their sanctuaries to promote their well being. I strove for peace in Babylon ... As to the inhabitants of Babylon who against the will of the gods were enslaved, I abolished the corvee … I brought relief to their dilapidated housing… Marduk, the great lord, was well pleased with my deeds, rejoiced and to me, Cyrus, the king who worshipped him… to all my troops he graciously gave his blessing, and in good sprit, before him we stood peacefully and praised him joyously.
All the kings who sat in throne rooms, throughout the four quarters, from the Upper Sea (Mediterranean Sea) to the Lower Sea (Persian Gulf), those who dwelt in ...... the holy cities beyond the Tigris River, whose sanctuaries had been in ruins over a long period, the gods whose abode is in the midst of them, I returned to their places and housed them in lasting abodes.
I also gathered all their former inhabitants and returned to them their habitations. Furthermore, I resettled upon the command of Marduk, the great lord, all the gods of Sumer …into Babylon to the anger of the lord of the gods, unharmed, in their former chapels…

Rise of Macedon
Philip of Macedon:
Fall of Greece
End of Athenian democracy

Alexander the Great:
Conquers Persia
Extends empire to India
Spreads Greek culture to the east
Intermarries and has his soldiers do so
Dies young, causing empire to be divided
Empire split into different kingdoms

The Hellenistic Kingdoms
Ptolemies:
Names for Ptolemy – last Egyptian monarch was Cleopatra
Rule from Alexandria

Seleucids:
Named for Seleucus
Ruled from Mesopotamia and Antioch
Lost Mesopotamia (to kingdom of Parthia)

Ptolemies and Seleucids fight over Levant:
Replicates pattern of empires of the Bronze Age
Shapes early history of Judaism
Independent Jewish state under Maccabees

Other kingdoms:
Pergamum – city on coast of Asia Minor (Attalid dynasty)
Antigonids – would control Greece, Macedon and parts of Asia Minor