Week 9 Schedule

Week 9 Schedule:




Due Date Activity

Mar 18

Read & Examine: Week # 9 Module

Textbook: Chapter 6

Watch: All Videos
Mar 18

 Assignment: Homework # 4

Mar 18

 Map Quiz # 5

Image: Persian Frieze

Topic:

Persian Empire

Persian society developed on the arid Iranian plateau in southwestern Asia. The plateau is inhospitable, but also easy to defend. Central Asian nomads arrived in the region about 5,000 years ago. Among them were the Medes and Persians, speaking two dialects of Farsi. The Medes and the Persians took advantage of war between Babylonia and Assyria to free themselves from the Assyrians. The Persian king Cyrus the Great defeated the Medes and established the Persian Empire. Cyrus ruled indirectly, through persuasion and compromise.

Cyrus was killed in battle with the Massagetae, and was succeeded by his son Cambyses. When Cambyses died, a power struggle ensued, with Darius emerging as the eventual winner. Darius renewed Persian efforts at conquest and expansion, and imposed strong central rule on the empire. Mesopotamian influences shaped Persian law, administration, and commerce. Like Mesopotamia, Persia had a class-based society. The Medes and Persians exerted a strong influence on the empire’s culture, especially through their language, Farsi.

Zoroastrianism developed from Persian polytheism. The prophet Zoroaster promoted a form of monotheism blended with an ancient cult emphasizing fire worship. Once the Persian emperors adopted Zoroastrianism, they gave control of it to scholar-priests called Magi. Zoroastrianism influenced the development of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Zoroastrianism had a strong social and political message, providing a rationale for the rule of Persian kings.

The revolt of Greek city-states in Ionia in 499 b.c.e. sparked a series of conflicts between Persia and Greece. The Persians launched an attack on mainland Greece to punish the Greek city-states for their support of the Ionian rebels. The Persian defeat at Marathon led eventually to the full-scale invasion of Greece under Xerxes. A number of factors contributed to the Greek victory. The situation remained a stalemate until the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War gave the Persians a new opportunity to dominate Greece.

Persia’s failure to perceive the danger posed by Macedon proved fatal. Alexander the Great conquered Persia, sacking its capital Persepolis in 330 b.c.e. Alexander’s empire collapsed after his death and a number of successor states emerged in Persia to take its place, including the Seleucid kingdom, the Parthian Empire, and the Sasanian Empire. The Sasanians ruled Persia for four centuries, continuing many Achaemenid traditions.

Goals:

Learning Objectives:

  1. Identify the administrative, legal, and commercial developments in Persia under Darius the Great, and note Mesopotamian influences on those developments.

  2. Examine the emergence of Zoroastrianism and account for its usefulness to the emperors.

  3. Analyze the consequences of the wars against the Greeks and explain Persia’s repeated failures to defeat them.