The Persian Empire

by Kia, Mehrdad;

  In 610 BCE the Medes and the Babylonians, who were determined to prevent the resurgence of the Assyrian state, again merged their forces and marched against Ashuruballit—who abandoned Harran and retreated to Carchemish on the western bank of the Euphrates River (close to the present-day border between Turkey and Syria). The Assyrians refused to accept defeat, however. In 609 BCE, with military assistance from Egypt, Ashuruballit attacked Harran but failed to recapture the city after the Babylonian army arrived to rescue the besieged garrison. Ashuruballit was most probably killed sometime during this campaign, because his name is never mentioned again. The remnants of the Assyrian army, with support from Egypt, fought desperately to expel the enemy, but they were defeated for the last time in 605 BCE at Carchemish and Hamath in Syria. After several centuries of nearly unchallenged domination, the Neo-Assyrian state ceased to exist, and its territory was divided between Babylonia and Media.

  With the collapse of the Assyrian Empire, Media rose as a major power in the Near East. The Medes followed their victory against the Assyrians by annexing the kingdom of Urartu, which was centered on Lake Van in eastern Asia Minor (present-day eastern Turkey). The annexation of Urartu allowed the Medes to emerge as the dominant political and military power in eastern Asia Minor and to become a neighbor of the powerful kingdom of Lydia. From 590 to 585 BCE, the two new neighbors fought several inconclusive battles. In 585 BCE the king of the Medes, Cyaxares, and the ruler of Lydia, Alyattes, finally agreed to cease all hostilities and established the Halys River (Kizil Irmak or Red River in present-day east-central Turkey) as the boundary between their two states. To strengthen this new peace treaty, the son of Cyaxares married a daughter of Alyattes. Shortly afterward, the Median king died and was succeeded by his son, who appears in Herodotus’s Histories as Astyages.

  The end of the Median Empire came when Astyages was defeated by one of his vassal kings, Cyrus II, the ruler of Anshan. In either 554/553 or 550/549 BCE, a conflict erupted between the Median king Astyages and Cyrus, the ruler of Anshan. It is difficult to state with any certainty whether Cyrus or Astyages initiated the conflict between the Medes and the Persians. According to Herodotus, Astyages summoned Cyrus to his court after he learned that the Persians intended to revolt and free themselves from the Median yoke, but Cyrus responded by sending a threatening message to the Median king that “he would be there a good deal sooner than Astyages liked” (Herodotus: 1.127). The author Polyaenus reported that Cyrus was defeated in three different battles with the Medes. Despite these setbacks, the king of Anshan rallied his men and led them in a fourth battle with the Medes at Pasargadae in present-day southern Iran near the city of Shiraz. The Persians were defeated again and fled the battlefield, but when they saw their wives and children, they were “ashamed of themselves and turned around to face the enemy,” routing the Medes, “who were pursuing in disorder,” and winning “so great a victory that Cyrus no longer needed another battle against them” (Plyaenus: 7.6.1). Niccolaus of Damascus claimed that Astyages escaped his capital after it fell into the hands of the Persians and was captured in another battle with Cyrus. The Neo-Babylonian Chronicle of Nabonidus contradicts the Greek accounts and reports that the king of Media “marched against Cyrus,” the ruler of Anshan, but his army “revolted against him” and delivered him “in fetters” to Cyrus, who attacked the Median capital of Ecbatana; seized all the silver, gold, and other valuables of the country as booty; and carried them off back to Anshan (Pritchard: 235). Cyrus treated Astyages with kindness and compassion and allowed him to live at his court until he passed away (Herodotus: 1.130). One source even claimed that Astyages was appointed by Cyrus as the governor (satrap) of Carmania or Kerman in present-day southeastern Iran.

  After Darius I (r. 522–486 BCE) seized the Persian throne in 522 BCE, Media revolted against him. The revolt was led by a certain Fravartish (Phraortes), who claimed to be Khshathrita from the family of the former Median king Huvakhshtra. The Median army stationed in the province rose in rebellion and switched its allegiance to Fravartish, who proclaimed himself the king of Media. It seems that the revolt in Media enjoyed popular support in Armenia, Parthia, and Hyrcania. Because the Persian and Median units under Darius were small, the king sent an army under the command of his trusted friend Vidarna to suppress the uprising. Vidarna defeated the rebel army in the first battle, but this victory did not put an end to the rebellion. The Persian king then marched with his army to Media while sending another army under the command of an Armenian commander, Dadarshish, to Armenia to quell the rebellion there. After three inconclusive battles with the Armenian rebels, Darius dispatched another commander, Vaumisa, who had to fight two more battles before the Armenian rebels were fully pacified. Darius himself also marched north to Media, where he fought and defeated Faravartish (Phraortes), who fled to Rhagae (modern-day Ray south of modern Tehran). An army was sent to capture the rebel leader. Fravartish was seized and sent back to Darius. Fravartish was tortured and imprisoned at the royal palace before he was impaled at the former Median capital, Hagmatana (Ecbatana). His closest followers and supporters were flayed, and their hides were stuffed with straw and hung out for everyone to see (Kent: 122–124). After consolidating his power, Darius selected Ecbatana as his summer residence and the home of the royal mint.

  After he was defeated by Alexander the Macedon in 331 BCE, the last Achaemenid monarch, Darius III, fled to Media and sought refuge in Ecbatana. In pursuing the Persian king, Alexander marched to Media, seized Ecbatana, and plundered the imperial treasury. After the collapse of the Achaemenid Empire, a part of Media emerged as “Atropatian Media [present-day Iranian Azerbaijan], which received its name from the commander Atropates, who preserved also this country, which was a part of Greater Media, from becoming subject to the Macedonians” (Strabo: 11.13.1). After Atropates was “proclaimed king, he organized this country into a separate state by itself, and his succession of descendants” was preserved down to the Parthian period, with his successors marrying “with the kings of the Armenians and Syrians [Seleucids] and in later times, with the kings of the Parthians” (Strabo: 11.13.1).

  After the death of Alexander in 323 BCE and the division of his short-lived empire among his commanders, Media became part of the Seleucid Empire. Ecbatana was plundered on several occasions by the new rulers of Iran, including Seleucus I Nicator (r. 312–281 BCE), who followed the model set by Alexander and looted the city’s gold and silver. During the reign of the Seleucid dynasty, Ecbatana continued to serve as an important political and administrative center as well as the home of the royal mint. It was from Media that the Seleucids ruled the eastern provinces of their empire. Seleucus I appointed his son Antiochus (the future Antiochus I) as the ruler of the eastern provinces of the Seleucid kingdom. Antiochus was based in Media (Diodorus Siculus: XXI.19.20).

  The Arsacids, who defeated the Seleucids and pushed them out of Iran, captured Media during the reign of Mithridates I (r. 171–139/138 BCE) in 148 or 147 BCE. Following the tradition set by the Achaemenid kings, the Arsacid monarchs continued to use Ecbatana “as a royal residence” and their summer capital, “while the winter capital remained at Seleucia on Tigris near Babylon” (Strabo: 11.13.1–2). The exact geographical boundaries of Media during the reign of the Arsacid dynasty is not clear. The Greek geographer Strabo (64 BCE–21 CE), a contemporary of the Arsacids of Iran, wrote that Media was “divided into two parts”; one part of it was called “Greater Media, of which the metropolis” was “Ecbatana, a large city containing the royal residence of the Median empire” (Strabo: 11.13.1). According to Strabo, most of Media was considered as a “high and cold” country, and such also were the mountains that were situated “above Ecbatana and those in the neighborhood of Rhagae (modern-day Tehran) and the Caspian Gates, and in general the northerly regions extending thence to Matiane and Armenia; but the regions below the Caspian Gates, consisting of low-lying lands and hollows,” was “very fertile and productive of everything but the olive” (Strabo
: 11.13.7). These low lands of Media provided “exceptionally good ‘horse-pasturing country’ … and in the time of the Persians it is said that fifty thousand mares were pastured in it and that these herds belonged to the kings” (Strabo: 11.13.7). The Greeks also called the grass that made the best food for horses by the special name “Medie” (Strabo: 11.13.7).

  In 224 CE, Ardashir, the ruler of the district of Istakhr in southern Iran and a vassal of the Arsacids, defeated the last Arsacid (Parthian) king, Artabanus IV, and established the Sasanian dynasty. Ecbatana remained under Arsacid control until 226, when it was seized by Ardashir. It is not clear whether the Sasanian kings followed the Achaemenids and the Arsacids by using Ecbatana as their summer capital. In 642 after the Sasanians were defeated in the Battle of Nahavand, Ecbatana was captured by Arab Muslims.

  As for the impact of Median customs and traditions, Strabo wrote that the Medes had contributed significantly to the enrichment of Armenian and Persian cultures: “the Median stole” (the royal tiara, which was high and erect and encircled with a diadem) and the “zeal for archery and horsemanship, and the court they pay to their kings, and their ornaments, and the divine reverence paid by subjects to kings, came to the Persians by the Medes” (Strabo: 11.13.7–9). The Persians also adopted Median fashion and attire, wearing “feminine robes” and covering “their bodies all over with clothes” (Strabo: 11.13.10).

  EXCAVATIONS AT MEDIAN SITES

  The evidence on the origins of the Medes and the internal organization of their society are meager. Archaeological excavations at the Median sites of Baba Jan Tepe, Godin Tepe, and Tepe Nush-i Jan in the Hamedan-Malayer-Kangavar triangle (also known as the Median Triangle) in western Iran have so far produced valuable but scanty results. Baba Jan Tepe, 60 miles southwest of Hamedan, was excavated in 1966 and for several seasons after by Clare L. Goff. Godin Tepe, located 30 miles southwest of Hamedan on the road to Kangavar, was excavated by T. Cuyler Young of the Royal Ontario Museum between 1965 and 1973, and Nush-i Jan Tepe, located 40 miles south of Hamedan between Malayer and Kangavar, was excavated by David Stronach on behalf of the British Institute of Persian Studies between 1967 and 1977.

  See also: K&Q, Achaemenid: Cyrus II the Great; K&Q, Median: Astyages; Cyaxares/Huvakhshtra; Deioces; Phraortes; Primary Documents: Document 4; Document 5

  Further Reading

  Curtis, John. Ancient Persia. London: British Museum Publications, 1989.

  Diodorus Siculus. Translated by C. H. Oldfather. London: William Heinemann, 1933.

  Goff, Clare. “Excavations at Baba Jan: The Pottery and Metal from Levels III and II.” Iran: Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies 46 (1978).

  Grayson, Kirk A. Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2000.

  Herodotus. The Histories. Translated by Aubrey De Sélincourt. London: Penguin, 2003.

  Kent, Roland G. Old Persian. New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1950.

  Leichty, Erle. The Royal Inscriptions of Esarhaddon, King of Assyria (680–669 BC). Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2011.

  Levine, Louis D. Geographical Studies in the Neo-Assyrian Zagros. Toronto and London: Royal Ontario Museum and British Institute of Persian Studies, 1974.

  Luckenbill, Daniel David. Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia. 2 vols. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1926.

  Lumsden, Stephen. “Power and Identity in the Neo-Assyrian World.” In The Royal Palace Institution in the First Millennium BC, edited by Inge Nielsen. Athens: Danish Institute at Athens, 2001.

  Pritchard, James B. Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969.

  Strabo. The Geography of Strabo. Translated by Horace Leonard Jones. London: William Heinemann, 1930.

  Stronach, David. “Tepe Nūsh Jān: The Median Settlement.” In The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 2, edited by Ilya Gershevitch, 832–837. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.

  Tadmor, Hayim. The Inscriptions of Tiglath-Pileser III, King of Assyria, Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1994.

  Tadmor, Hayim, and Shigeo Yamada. The Royal Inscriptions of Tiglath-Pileser III (744–727 BC), and Shalmaneser V (726–722 BC), Kings of Assyria. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2011.

  Parthian Stations

  Parthian Stations is a short account of the overland trade route between the Levant and India in the first century BCE. The author of the text, written in Greek, is Isidore (Isidorus) of Charax. We know very little about him. He most probably lived during the reign of the Roman emperor Augustus, knew both Greek and Aramaic, and was identified with the town of Charax in present-day southern Iraq. The text of Parthian Stations offers a brief description of the towns and stations situated on the main military and trade route crossing the Arsacid (Parthian) Empire (r. 247/238 BCE–224 CE) from west to east. The route began in the west at Zeugma on the bank of the Euphrates River in present-day southern Turkey, which marked the beginning of Parthian territory. It then moved eastward through 19 regions, first along the Euphrates to Seleucia Tigris in present-day southern Iraq, then in a northeasterly direction toward Hagmatana or Ecbatana (modern-day Hamedan) in Media in western Iran, and then to Rhagae (Ray) south of modern Tehran and the Caspian Gates to Nisa, the first capital of the Arsacid state in the present-day Republic of Turkmenistan. From there the route continued through the northeastern Iranian province of Khorasan, turning south to Aria in present-day northwestern Afghanistan, from there to Sistan in eastern Iran, and finally ending in “White India,” or Arachosia (present-day Qandahar), in southern Afghanistan, where, as Isidore of Charax notes in Parthian Stations, “as far as this place the land is under the rule of Parthians” (Isidore of Charax: 9). The regions mentioned in the text are: (1) Mesopotamia and Babylonia, (2) Apolloniatis, (3) Chalonitis, (4) Media, (5) Cambadena, (6) Upper Media, (7) Media Rhagiana, (8) Charena, (9) Comisena, (10) Hyrcania, (11) Astauena, (12) Parthyena, (13) Apauarticena, (14) Margiana, (15) Aria, (16) Anaua, (17) Zarangiana, (18) Sacastana, and (19) Arachosia. The author provides his readers with the names of each province as well as the names of supply stations and the exact distances between them. The description of the provinces and stations in the western regions of the Parthian Empire are more detailed, while the accounts of the eastern regions are brief in the extreme and lack the names of stations and the precise distances between them. One of the most interesting details of the text is the reference to several cities in the northeastern and eastern regions of the Arsacid (Parthian) Empire. The first of these is Asaac, in which the first Parthian monarch, Arsaces (Arshak), was proclaimed king and where a temple stood, complete with its everlasting fire. There is no information on the exact location of this important city, and archaeologists have not been able to identify the site, but some scholars have suggested that it was located near the present-day town of Quchan in the upper Atrek River Valley in northeastern Iran (Debevoise: 10–11). Another city mentioned is Parthaunisa or Parthian Nisa, the city where the royal tombs of the Parthian monarchs were located. Finally, Isidore of Charax mentions the cities of Sacastana (the land of Sakas), including Barda, Min, Palacenti, and Sigal, where the royal residence of the Sakas was located. “Sakas” was a generic word that referred to northern Iranian tribes of Eurasian steppes, branches of which had pushed southward, settling in Sistan in present-day eastern Iran. As with the Parthian city of Asaac, the exact location of Sigal remains a mystery.

  See also: Ancient Cities: Nisa; K&Q, Arsacid/Parthian: Arsaces I; Mithridates I; Mithridates II; Peoples: Arsacids; Primary Documents: Document 25

  Further Reading

  Debevoise, Neilson. A Poltical History of Parthia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1938.

  Isidore of Charax. Parthian Stations by Isidore of Charax: An Account of the Overland Trade Route between the Levant and India in the First Century B.C. Translated by Wilfred H. Schoff. Philadelphia: Commercial Museum, 1914.

  Woodthorpe, William. The Greeks in Bactria
and India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

  Royal Road

  The empires of pre-Islamic Iran dedicated a great deal of effort and investment in maintaining an efficient transportation system. Roads and sea and river routes allowed armies to conquer but also facilitated trade and commerce, which generated revenue and prosperity. Also known as the King’s Road, the Royal Road was one of the most important communication links during the reign of the Persian Achaemenid dynasty (r. 550–330 BCE). The Achaemenid monarch Darius I (r. 522–486) established the Royal Road during his reign. The Royal Road connected the Persian winter capital of Susa (present-day Shush) in southwestern Iran to the city of Sardis, the former capital of the kingdom of Lydia, in western Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). The distance from Susa to Sardis along this highway covered some 1,678 miles (2,700 kilometers). Persian mounted couriers traveled from Susa to Sardis in 7 days, while it took 90 days for ordinary travelers to complete the journey from beginning to end. Dotting the highway were 111 post-stations, each with relays of fresh horses for the royal messengers. Inns to accommodate overnight stays were also built up at intervals along the highway. Couriers used the Royal Road to carry news and information from various provinces of the empire to the capital. The Greek author Herodotus wrote that “no mortal thing travels faster than these Persian couriers. The whole idea is a Persian invention, and works like this: riders are stationed along the road, equal in number to the number of days the journey takes—a man and horse for each day. Nothing stops these couriers from covering their allotted stage in the quickest possible time—neither snow, rain, heat, nor darkness” (Herodotus: 8.98).