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1462 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

Module EH 2001. Retrieved March 25, 2004, from http://www. temple in Jerusalem, for which the Old Testament re-
le.ac.uk/esh/teach/ug/modules/eh2001/chapter7.pdf members him and the Persians kindly (Isaiah 35:40–
Fukuyama, F. (1993). The end of history and the last man. New York:
Avon. 55; Ezra 1). He also left behind a firsthand account in
Reinhard, W. (1997). The idea of early modern history. In M. Bentley the Akkadian language of his tolerance—the “Cyrus
(Ed.), Companion to historiography (pp. 281–92). London: Routledge.
Sullivan, J. E. (1970). Prophets of the West: An introduction to the philos- Cylinder.” By the time of his death at the hands of
ophy of history. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston. nomadic Saka people around 529 BCE, his empire
Widgery, A. G. (1961). Interpretations of history: Confucius to Toynbee. stretched all the way from the Plateau of Iran to the
London: George Allen & Unwin.
Mediterranean Sea.
Cyrus’s son, Cambyses II (reigned 529–522 BCE), is
known for conquering Egypt and incorporating it into
the Persian empire in 525 BCE. Just as his father had been
respectful of the Babylonian deities, Cambyses respected
Persian Empire Egyptian ceremonies and religion and was accepted as

the pharaoh of the twenty-sixth dynasty of the New
he Persian (or Achaemenid) empire (550–330 BCE) Kingdom. From Egypt the Persian forces made inroads
Twas established in 550 BCE by Cyrus II (c. 585–c. into Libya, another force went southward from Egypt
529 BCE). It included the Plateau of Iran, northern India, toward Ethiopia, and although the Persians were unsuc-
Central Asia, Arabia, Mesopotamia, the Caucauses, cessful in their military campaign, through negotiations
Syria, Palestine, Anatolia (Asian Turkey), Egypt, Nubia, they were able to draw that region into their empire.
Cyprus, and parts of northern Hellas (Greece). The last Upon the death of Cambyses, his brother Bardiya
Persian king, Darius III (reigned 336–330 BCE), was (according to some accounts) or an imposter imperson-
defeated by Alexander of Macedon in 330 BCE.The Per- ating Bardiya (according to other accounts) came to the
sian empire brought a period of peace to the areas in its throne. Bardiya—or his impersonator—forgave taxes
sway for two centuries. and initiated a land redistribution. It was not long, how-
ever, before Darius I (reigned 522–486 BCE), who was
The Rise of the Persians married to Cyrus’s daughter, staged a coup de’état with
The Persians were a confederation of tribes who, along the backing of the Persian nobility and brought his line
with other Iranian-speaking peoples, had moved into the of the family into dominance.
Plateau of Iran in the first millennium BCE. They estab-
lished their stronghold in such locations as Anshan in the Darius I and the
southwestern portion of the plateau, in what came to be Organization of the Empire
known as Persis or Fars province. Cyrus II was able to Darius is responsible for the organization of the
unite the Persian tribes by 559 BCE and became king of Achaemenid Persian empire. He unified the empire in
Anshan.A decade later, in 550 BCE, he was able to defeat many ways. For example, he created a uniform system of
the last king of the Medes,Astyages (reigned c. 584–550 measurement and weights throughout the empire for bet-
BCE). He then moved on to Anatolia and defeated King ter trade and economic activity; Darius also instituted a
Croesus (reigned c. 560–546 BCE) of Lydia, taking his unified monetary system; gold coins called darics
capital, Sardis, in 547–546 BCE. This was followed by became the recognized coinage in the empire.To govern
the conquest of Mesopotamia and the city of Babylon in his unified realm, Darius divided the empire into twenty-
539 BCE. Upon entering, Cyrus honored the Babylonian three administrative units known as satrapies, each to be
god Marduk and paid for the rebuilding of the temple of overseen by a provincial governor, or satrap.
Marduk. He also freed the Hebrews who had been held His public works projects included the building of a
captive in Babylon and paid for the rebuilding of their royal road, which stretched some 2,560 kilometers from