[Frosty05]

Hello,

I want to learn more about Ancient Persia, and was wondering if anyone could either a) give me some info on the background of the Empire, or b) lend me one of their old essays for me to have a look at.

Thanks for your help, God of War

[captain_octavain]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_Empire

http://www.google.com/

try google serching!!!!!!!

[Colonel_Sanders]

Well for one thing, I can tell you with a fair certainty of truth that their executioners did not have crab claws in the place of hands, and that Immortals were not demons.

[Gearhead]

Thier prince did not travel through time, the empire was huge, they got war elephants in age of empires 2.

[the_vilest_worm]

According to Civilisation IV, they were creative and..... something else. Not very good anyway. Rome was/is better.

[Automatic_Demise]

(Sorry if this counts as thread necromancy, but I saw this come up during a random search, and couldn't help but contribute. )

The Persian Empire can be split into three different dynasties:

Achaemenid Persia: 550-330 BC

This is the Persia that invaded Greece, and was considered pretty much unstoppable before then. In a ridiculously short amount of time they conquered the four great powers of the Near East - The Chaldean, Median, Lydian and Egyptian Empires, as well as beating off the Saka and Scythian tribes to the north, and taking over modern-day Afghanistan, Pakistan and part of India as well.

They had the largest Empire in Antiquity, under Darius the Great, at 7.5 Million Square Kilometres(est.) They were capable of both great cruelty and clemency; Cyrus would initially show mercy to foes, but was completely merciless if they rebelled against him. Their strength was their cavalry, esp. cavalry archers, which could outmanouevre the chariot and infantry-based armies of their enemies.

They tried twice to conquer Greece, once in the reign of Darius I, after Athens aided a rebellion by the Ionian Greeks in Turkey, and again in the reign of his son, Xerxes I, to avenge their defeat. Both attempts failed, despite the superiority in cavalry and numbers that the Persians had. The Achaemenid Empire came to an end when Alexander the Great led the Macedonians to conquer it. Corrupt and suffering from internecine struggles for power, it was also far behind in terms of military technology, using wicker shields where the Macedonians used bronze and iron, for example.

The Achaemenids converted to Zoroastrianism, and it became their state religion, and the second-oldest monotheistic religion in the world. They also used it to make the Greco-Persian wars into a proto-crusade, claiming that the Greeks worshipped Daiva "The Lie", and that they would show them the truth.

Alexandrian/Seleucid Persia: 330-250 BC

Under Alexander's brief rule, it seems that Persian and Hellenistic culture melded quite well, and before Alexander's death, it was feared that he would make a large, Persian army trained in the Macedonian style, and have no need for his veterans. However, upon his death, his Empire collapsed.

Seleucus I Nicator held control of the main Asian provinces, including most of Turkey, Mesopotamia and Persia. However, the Seleucids were not very successful. Unable to conquer Ptolemaic Egypt, and constantly facing attacks from the Parthians to the northeast, they crumbled as the eastern provinces broke off, to form seperate kingdoms. Parthia's cavalry were able to defeat the phalanx of the Seleucids, and eventually bring Persia and Mesopotamia under its control. The Seleucids lived on in Syria until Rome eventually ended their autonomy and made Syria a province of theirs.

Parthian Persia: 250 BC-226 AD

The Parthians were one of Rome's greatest foes, and yet one of their favourite enemies, for Roman soldiers much preferred fighting rich, established Empires to poor barbarians in the wilderness. The Romans suffered one of their greatest defeats at Carrhae, but managed to sack Ctesiphon (Which I think is Babylon, or a city very close to it.) The Parthians were eventually overthrown and replaced with the last native dynasty, the Sassanids. The Parthians main achievement other than Carrhae was the reducing of Hellenistic Culture in favour of Persian culture, and the modernising of Persian forces, particularly with the heavily armoured Cataphracts that the Romans had no counter for.

Sassanid Persia: 226-651 AD
The Sassanids came the closest to matching the gains of the Achaemenids, inflicting many defeats upon the Romans, conquering Armenia, and seeing off the Huns before they reached Roman territory.

They were, like the Parthians, a constant thorn in the Roman's sides, and though the Romans took Ctesiphon again, the Sassanids retaliation was immense, as they basically obliterated the Roman presence in Asia, taking Egypt, Mesopotamia, and most of Anatolia. However, the Byzantine (Rome having fallen by now) Emperor Heraclius managed to outflank the Persian armies besieging Constantinople, and force them to withdraw by attacking Mesopotamia. As the Byzantine-Persian war reached stalemate again, a new player entered the fray - Islam. With some of the most brilliant military minds in the near-east leading them, despite an initial defeat, the completely outnumbered and outclassed army of the Caliphate not only defeated, but conquered most of the Asian territories of Persia and Rome.

Phew... Hope I've helped...

[Praying Mantidae]

Nah, you've actually added something useful to the conversation (which was probably forgotten anyway, but whatever.) Necromancy is forgiven in this case.