Achaemenid Persian Empire

The first empire to govern most of the known world, and the model every later one in the region copied. Cyrus took Media, Lydia and Babylon between 550 and 539 BCE, and his successors held territory from the Indus to the Aegean and into Egypt - perhaps forty per cent of the world's population under one administration, a proportion never matched since. What made it work was a method rather than an army: satrapies with local governors, a royal road with relay stations, a standardised gold coinage, and a policy of leaving conquered peoples their gods and customs. Cyrus permitted the exiled Judeans to return and rebuild the Temple, which is why the Hebrew Bible calls him anointed. Darius codified the system and cut the Behistun inscription into a cliff in three languages, the text that later unlocked cuneiform. The Greek wars that dominate the Western account were a frontier problem for Persia and an existential one for Athens, which is why the surviving narrative is so lopsided. Alexander destroyed the empire between 334 and 330 BCE and burned Persepolis. Zoroastrianism was the court religion. Aramaic served as the administrative language across it. Persepolis, Susa and Ecbatana served as royal centres at different seasons. The empire ran a postal relay whose riders Herodotus described in a line now carved on a New York post office. Its army included contingents from every subject people, listed on the tomb reliefs. The Ionian revolt of 499 BCE began the conflict with the Greek cities. Persepolis is a World Heritage site.

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