View source for Achaemenid Empire-213534

{{Short description|Ancient Iranian empire, 550–330 BC}}
{{Redirect|Persian Empire||Persian Empire (disambiguation)}}
{{Pp-move}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Use Oxford spelling|date=November 2022}}
{{Infobox country
| native_name            = {{native name|peo|𐎧𐏁𐏂}}<br />{{Transliteration|peo|Xšāça}}
| conventional_long_name = Achaemenid Empire
| common_name            = Persia
| era                    = [[Classical antiquity]]
| government_type        = Monarchy
| area_rank              = [[List of largest empires#Timeline of largest empires at the time|1st]]
| year_start             = 550 BCE
| year_end               = 330 BC
| life_span              = 550–330 BCE
| event_start            = [[Medo-Persian conflict|Succession to Media]]
| date_start             = 
| event_end              = [[Wars of Alexander the Great|Fall to Macedonia]]
| date_end               = 
| event1                 = [[Battle of Thymbra|Conquest of Lydia]]
| date_event1            = 547 BC
| event2                 = [[Fall of Babylon|Conquest of Babylonia]]
| date_event2            = 539 BC
| event3                 = [[Achaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley|Conquest of the Indus Valley]]
| date_event3            = 535–518 BC
| event4                 = [[Battle of Pelusium|Conquest of Egypt]]
| date_event4            = 525 BC
| event5                 = [[Scythian campaign of Darius I|Invasion of Scythia]]
| date_event5            = 513 BC
| event6                 = [[Greco-Persian Wars]]
| date_event6            = 499–449 BC
| event7                 = [[Babylonian revolts (484 BC)|Babylonian Revolts]]
| date_event7            = 484 BC
| event8                 = [[Corinthian War]]
| date_event8            = 395–387 BC
| event9                 = [[Great Satraps' Revolt]]
| date_event9            = 372–362 BC
| event10                = [[Second Achaemenid conquest of Egypt|Reconquest of Egypt]]
| date_event10           = 343 BC
| image_flag             = Standard of Cyrus the Great.svg
| flag_width             = 95px
| flag_size              = 100px
| flag_type              = [[Shahbaz (bird)|Standard of Cyrus the Great]]{{efn|The standard was described as "a golden eagle mounted upon a lofty shaft." This image is from a reconstruction, the design based on  [[c:File:Achaemenid plaque from Persepolis.JPG | an Achaemenid tile from Persepolis]], and the coloring based on the [[Alexander Mosaic]], which depicts the standard in dark red and gold.<ref>{{Encyclopædia Iranica Online|volume=7|fascicle=3|title=Derafṣ̌|last=Shahbazi|first=Alireza Shapur|pages=312-315|url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/derafs/}}</ref>}}
| image_coat             = 
| symbol                 = 
| symbol_type            = 
| image_map              = Achaemenid Empire 500 BCE.jpg <!-- Consensus map, see talk page. -->
| map_width              = 260px
| image_map_caption      = Map of the Achaemenid Empire's greatest territorial extent, achieved during the reign of [[Darius the Great]] (522–486 BC)<ref>2002 Oxford Atlas of World History [https://books.google.com/books?id=ffZy5tDjaUkC&pg=PA42 p.42 (West portion of the Achaemenid Empire)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221129133020/https://books.google.com/books?id=ffZy5tDjaUkC&pg=PA42 |date=29 November 2022 }} and [https://books.google.com/books?id=ffZy5tDjaUkC&pg=PA43 p.43 (East portion of the Achaemenid Empire)].</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=O'Brien |first1=Patrick Karl |title=Atlas of World History |date=2002 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-521921-0 |pages=42–43 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ffZy5tDjaUkC&pg=PA43 |language=en}}</ref><ref>Visible online: [http://users.rowan.edu/~mcinneshin/101/wk05/images/NEWachaemexp.jpg Philip's Atlas of World History (1999)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181017082134/http://users.rowan.edu/~mcinneshin/101/wk05/images/NEWachaemexp.jpg |date=17 October 2018 }}</ref><ref>The Times Atlas of World History, p. 79 (1989): {{cite book |last1=Barraclough |first1=Geoffrey |title=The Times Atlas of World History |date=1997 |publisher=Times Books |isbn=978-0-7230-0906-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_IYYAQAAMAAJ |language=en}}</ref>
| capital                = {{ubl|[[Babylon]]<ref name=EY>{{cite book|last=Yarshater|first=Ehsan|author-link=Ehsan Yarshater|title=The Cambridge History of Iran|volume =3|year=1993|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|isbn=978-0-521-20092-9|page=482|quote=Of the four residences of the Achaemenids named by [[Herodotus]]—[[Ecbatana]], [[Pasargadae]] or [[Persepolis]], [[Susa]] and [[Babylon]]—the last [situated in Iraq] was maintained as their most important capital, the fixed winter quarters, the central office of bureaucracy, exchanged only in the heat of summer for some cool spot in the highlands. Under the [[Seleucid Empire|Seleucids]] and the [[Parthian Empire|Parthians]] the site of the Mesopotamian capital moved slightly to the north on the [[Tigris]]—to [[Seleucia]] and [[Ctesiphon]]. It is indeed symbolic that these new foundations were built from the bricks of ancient [[Babylon]], just as later [[Baghdad]], a little further upstream, was built out of the ruins of the [[Sasanian Empire|Sassanian]] double city of [[Al-Mada'in|Seleucia-Ctesiphon]].}}</ref>||[[Pasargadae]] (Cyrus the Great)|[[Ecbatana]] (ceremonial)|[[Susa]] (Darius the Great)|[[Persepolis]] (ceremonial)}}
| common_languages       = {{ubl|[[Akkadian language|Akkadian]]{{efn|Literary language in [[Achaemenid Babylonia|Babylonia]].}}<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kittel|first1=Harald|last2=Frank|first2=Armin Paul|last3=House|first3=Juliane|author-link3=Juliane House|last4=Greiner|first4=Norbert|last5=Schultze|first5=Brigitte|last6=Koller|first6=Werner| title = Traduction: encyclopédie internationale de la recherche sur la traduction| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=oD0dBqGDNscC| year = 2007| publisher = Walter de Gruyter| isbn = 978-3-11-017145-7| pages = 1194–1195}}</ref>|[[Elamite language|Elamite]]<ref>{{Encyclopædia Iranica Online|volume=8|fascicle=4|title=Iran vii. Non-Iranian Languages (3) Elamite|last=Windfuhr|first=Gernot L.|pages=386–390|url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/iran-vii3-elamite/}}</ref>|[[Ancient Greek|Greek]]<ref name="Iranian, E. Tucker 2001">{{cite book |last=Tucker |first=Elizabeth |editor-last=Christidis |editor-first=Anastasios-Phoivos |year=2001 |title=A History of Ancient Greek: From the Beginnings to Late Antiquity |chapter=Greek and Iranian |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-83307-3 }}</ref>|[[Median language|Median]]<ref>{{cite web |last1=Young |first1=T. Cuyler |title=History of Iran: Achaemenid Society and Culture |url=https://www.iranchamber.com/history/articles/achaemenid_society_culture.php |work=Iran Chamber Society }}</ref>|''see {{section link|#Languages}}''}}
| official_languages     = [[Old Persian]] (dynastic, official)<br />[[Imperial Aramaic|Aramaic]] (official, ''[[lingua franca]]''){{sfn|Wiesehöfer|2001|p=119}}
| religion               = '''State religion''':<br />[[Zoroastrianism]]<br />'''Others''':<br />{{ubl|[[Ancient Mesopotamian religion|Mesopotamian religion]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Boiy |first=T. |year=2004 |title=Late Achaemenid and Hellenistic Babylon |location=Leuven |publisher=Peeters Publishers |page=101 |isbn=978-90-429-1449-0 }}</ref>|[[Second Temple Judaism]]|[[Historical Vedic religion|Vedic Hinduism]]|[[Ancient Egyptian religion|Egyptian religion]]|[[Ancient Greek religion|Greek religion]]|''see {{section link|#Religion}}''}}
| demonym                = 
| currency               = {{hlist|[[Daric]]|[[siglos]]}}
| title_leader           = Monarchs{{efn|Either King ({{Transliteration|peo|Xšāyaθiya}}) or [[King of Kings]] ({{Transliteration|peo|Xšāyaθiya xšāyaθiyānām}})}}
| year_leader1           = 559–530 BC
| leader1                = [[Cyrus the Great]]
| year_leader2           = 530–522 BC
| leader2                = [[Cambyses II]]
| year_leader3           = 522–522 BC
| leader3                = [[Bardiya]]
| year_leader4           = 522–486 BC
| leader4                = [[Darius the Great]]
| year_leader5           = 486–465 BC
| leader5                = [[Xerxes I]]
| year_leader6           = 465–424 BC
| leader6                = [[Artaxerxes I]]
| year_leader7           = 424–424 BC
| leader7                = [[Xerxes II]]
| year_leader8           = 424–423 BC
| leader8                = [[Sogdianus]]
| year_leader9           = 423–405 BC
| leader9                = [[Darius II]]
| year_leader10          = 405–358 BC
| leader10               = [[Artaxerxes II]]
| year_leader11          = 358–338 BC
| leader11               = [[Artaxerxes III]]
| year_leader12          = 338–336 BC
| leader12               = [[Arses of Persia|Artaxerxes IV]]
| year_leader13          = 336–330 BC
| leader13               = [[Darius III]]
| footnotes              = 
| stat_area1             = 5500000
| stat_year1             = 500 BC
| ref_area1              = <ref name="Turchin">{{cite journal |last1=Turchin |first1=Peter |last2=Adams |first2=Jonathan M. |last3=Hall |first3=Thomas D. |title=East-West Orientation of Historical Empires and Modern States |journal=Journal of World-Systems Research |date=26 August 2006 |pages=219–229 |doi=10.5195/jwsr.2006.369 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name="Taagepera">{{cite journal |last1=Taagepera |first1=Rein |title=Size and Duration of Empires: Growth-Decline Curves, 600 B.C. to 600 A.D. |journal=Social Science History |date=1979 |volume=3 |issue=3/4 |pages=115–138 |doi=10.2307/1170959 |jstor=1170959 }}</ref><ref name="OxfordArea">{{Cite book|last1=Bang|first1=Peter Fibiger|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9mkLEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA92|title=The Oxford World History of Empire: Volume One: The Imperial Experience|last2=Bayly|first2=C. A.|last3=Scheidel|first3=Walter|year=2020|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-977311-4|pages=92–94|language=en}}</ref>
| stat_pop1              = 17–35&nbsp;million
| ref_pop1               = <ref name="Dynamics of Ancient Empires">{{Cite book|title=The Dynamics of Ancient Empires: State Power from Assyria to Byzantium|url=https://archive.org/details/dynamicsanciente00sche|url-access=limited|last1=Morris|first1=Ian|last2=Scheidel|first2=Walter|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2009|isbn=978-0-19-975834-0|page=[https://archive.org/details/dynamicsanciente00sche/page/n95 77]}}</ref>
| p1                     = Persis
| p2                     = Median kingdom
| p3                     = Lydia
| p4                     = Neo-Babylonian Empire
| p5                     = Elam
| p6                     = Sindhu-Sauvīra
| p7                     = Gandhāra (kingdom)
| p8                     = Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt
| p9                     = Macedonia (ancient kingdom)
| s1                     = Macedonian Empire
}}

The '''Achaemenid Empire'''{{Efn|Also called the '''Achaemenian Empire''',{{sfn|Lavan|Payne|Weisweiler|2016|p=17}} the '''Persian Empire''',{{sfn|Lavan|Payne|Weisweiler|2016|p=17}} '''Ancient Persia''', '''Old Persia''', or the '''First Persian Empire'''.{{sfn|Brosius|2020|p=1}}}} ({{IPAc-en|ə|ˈ|k|iː|m|ə|n|ɪ|d}} {{respell|ə|KEE|mə|nid}}; {{langx|peo|[[wikt:𐎧𐏁𐏂𐎶<!-- This wiktionary link is to the Achaemenid endonym we've used (Xšāça) just in another tense, it's accurate -->|𐎧𐏁𐏂]]}}, {{Transliteration|peo|Xšāça}}, {{Text|{{Literal translation}}|&nbsp;'The Empire'<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199732159.013.0005 |first1=A. Shapur |last1=Shahbazi |chapter=The Achaemenid Persian Empire (550–330 bce) |pages=120–141 |editor-first1=Touraj |editor-last1=Daryaee |title=The Oxford Handbook of Iranian History |date=2012 |isbn=978-0-19-973215-9 |quote-page=131 |quote=Although the Persians and Medes shared domination and others were placed in important positions, the Achaemenids did not—could not—provide a name for their multinational state. Nevertheless, they referred to it as Khshassa, 'the Empire'. }}</ref> or 'The Kingdom'<ref name="auto">{{cite book |last1=Kent |first1=Roland G. |author-link=Roland Grubb Kent|title=Old Persian: grammar, texts, lexicon |date=1954 |publisher=American Oriental Society |isbn=978-0-940490-33-8 |page=181 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.32106016799493&view=1up&seq=203}}</ref>}}) was an [[History of Iran#Classical antiquity|ancient Iranian empire]] founded by [[Cyrus the Great]] of the [[Achaemenid dynasty]] in 550 BC. At peak, its territorial extent was roughly {{convert|5.5|e6sqkm|e6sqmi|abbr=off}}, making it the [[List of largest empires#Timeline of largest empires at the time|largest empire of its time]]. Based in the [[Iranian plateau]], it stretched from the [[Skudra|Balkans]] and [[Putaya|Cyrenaica]] in the west to the [[Achaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley|Indus Valley]] in the east, including [[Anatolia]], [[Ancient history of Cyprus#Persian period|Cyprus]], [[Mesopotamia]], the [[Levant]], the [[South Caucasus]], parts of [[Eastern Arabia]], and large parts of [[Central Asia]].<ref name="Turchin" /><ref name="Taagepera" /><ref name="OxfordArea" />

By the 7th century BC, the region of [[Persis]], located in the southwestern part of the Iranian plateau, had been settled by [[Ancient Iranian peoples|Persian people]].<ref name="book">{{cite book|last1=Sacks|first1=David|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gsGmuQAACAAJ|title=Encyclopedia of the Ancient Greek World|last2=Murray|first2=Oswyn|last3=Brody|first3=Lisa|publisher=Infobase Publishing|year=2005|isbn=978-0-8160-5722-1|page=256}}</ref> From Persis, Cyrus rose and defeated [[Median kingdom|Media]], [[Lydia]], and the [[Neo-Babylonian Empire]], thus marking the establishment of a new imperial polity in the [[ancient Near East]]. While its conquests were largely successful in most regions, the Achaemenid Empire's attempts to expand into [[Ancient Greece|Greece]] proved extremely difficult over the course of [[Greco-Persian Wars|decades of wars]] and multiple kings, ultimately resulting in its defeat in the [[Greek mainland]].

In 330 BC, amidst a [[Wars of Alexander the Great|Greek military campaign that began in 336 BC]], the Achaemenid Empire was conquered in its entirety by [[Alexander the Great]], who annexed it to his [[Macedonian Empire]].<ref name="Ulrich">{{cite book |author=Wilcken |first=Ulrich |url=https://archive.org/details/alexandergreat00wilc |title=Alexander the Great|publisher=W.W. Norton & Company |year=1967 |isbn=978-0-393-00381-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/alexandergreat00wilc/page/146 146] |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref name="Taagepera"/> Upon Alexander's death, which sparked the beginning of the [[Hellenistic period]] in 323 BC, the majority of the former Achaemenid Empire's territories came under the rule of the [[Seleucid Empire]] and the [[Ptolemaic Kingdom]]. Almost a century later, Iranian elites in the central plateau successfully reclaimed power from the Seleucids and established the [[Parthian Empire]], which existed for nearly half a millennium before being succeeded by the Iranian [[Sasanian Empire]].<ref name="book" />

In the modern era, the Achaemenid Empire has been recognized for its centralized bureaucracy and administration; its multicultural policy and religious tolerance, [[Religious tolerance#In Antiquity|especially under Cyrus]]; its complex infrastructure projects, such as the [[Royal Road]] and an [[Chapar Khaneh|organized postal system]]; the use of official languages ([[Old Persian|Persian]] and [[Imperial Aramaic|Aramaic]]) across its territories; and the development of a civil service and a large, professional [[Achaemenid Persian army|army]] and [[Achaemenid navy|navy]]. Many of these systems were adopted and expanded upon by later empires in the [[Greco-Roman world]] and beyond.<ref name="schmitt">{{Encyclopædia Iranica Online|volume=1|fascicle=4|title=Achaemenid Dynasty|last=Schmitt|first=Rüdiger|pages=414–426|url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/achaemenid-dynasty/}}</ref>

==Etymology==
The Achaemenid Empire is named after [[Achaemenes]], who is credited as the progenitor of the Achaemenid dynasty. The term ''{{lang|en|Achaemenid}}'' means "of the family of the Achaemenis/Achaemenes" ({{langx|peo|[[Wikt:𐏃𐎧𐎠𐎶𐎴𐎡𐏁|𐏃𐎧𐎠𐎶𐎴𐎡𐏁]]|Haxāmaniš}};<ref>{{cite book|last1=Curtis|first1=Vesta Sarkhosh|author-link1=Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis|last2=Stewart|first2=Sarah|author-link2=Sarah Stewart (historian)|title=The Sasanian Era|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qPVHBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA79|year=2010|publisher=I.B. Tauris|isbn=978-0-85773-309-2}}</ref> a [[bahuvrihi]] compound translating to "having a friend's mind").{{sfn|Tavernier|2007|p=17}} Achaemenes was himself a minor seventh-century ruler of the [[Anshan (Persia)|Anshan]] in southwestern Iran, and a vassal of [[Assyria]].<ref name=enc/>

Around 850 BC the original [[nomad]]ic people who began the empire called themselves the ''Parsa'' and their constantly shifting territory ''Parsua'', for the most part localized around Persis.<ref name=book/> The name "Persia" is a Greek and [[Latin]] pronunciation of the native word referring to the country of the people originating from [[Persis]] ({{langx|peo|[[Wikt:𐎱𐎠𐎼𐎿|𐎱𐎠𐎼𐎿]]|Pārsa}}).<ref name="enc">{{cite book |author=Stokes |first=Jamie |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofpe0000unse_h6k0/page/551/ |title=Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Africa and the Middle East |publisher=Infobase Publishing |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-8160-7158-6 |volume=II |page=551}}</ref> The [[Old Persian language|Persian]] term {{lang|peo|𐎧𐏁𐏂}} {{Transliteration|peo|Xšāça}}, literally meaning "The Kingdom",<ref name="auto"/> was used to refer to the Empire formed by their multinational state.<ref name=name>{{cite book|editor-last1=Daryaee |editor-first1=Touraj |last=Shapour Shahbazi|first=Alireza|author-link=Alireza Shapour Shahbazi |title=The Oxford handbook of Iranian history |url=https://archive.org/details/incompleteoxford00dary |url-access=limited |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-973215-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/incompleteoxford00dary/page/n142 131]|quote=Although the Persians and Medes shared domination and others were placed in important positions, the Achaemenids did not—could not—provide a name for their multinational state. Nevertheless, they referred to it as Khshassa, "the Empire".|doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199732159.001.0001}}</ref>

==History==
===Timeline===
<timeline>
ImageSize = width:800 height:115
PlotArea = width:700 height:90 left:65 bottom:20
AlignBars = justify

Colors =
    id:time value:rgb(0.7,0.7,1) #
    id:period value:rgb(1,0.7,0.5) #
    id:age value:rgb(0.95,0.85,0.5) #
    id:era value:rgb(1,0.85,0.5) #
    id:eon value:rgb(1,0.85,0.7) #
    id:filler value:rgb(1,1,0.01) # background bar
    id:black value:black

Period     = from:-675 till:-329
TimeAxis   = orientation:horizontal
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:100 start:-675
ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:10 start:-675

PlotData =
  align:center textcolor:black fontsize:10 mark:(line,black) width:15 shift:(0,-5)

  bar:Period color:pink
  from: -675 till: -550 text:Origins
  bar:Period color:age
  from: -550 till: -499 shift:(0,3) text:Expansion
  from: -499 till: -449 shift:(0,-10) text:[[Greco-Persian wars]]
  from: -449 till: -358 text:Cultural
  from: -358 till: -330 text:Decline

  bar:Rulers color:era
  from:-675 till:-640 text: [[Teispes of Anshan|Teispes]]
  from:-640 till:-600 text: [[Cyrus I]]
  from:-600 till:-559 text: [[Cambyses I]]
  from:-559 till:-530 shift:(0,5) text: [[Cyrus the Great|Cyrus II]]
  from:-530 till:-522 shift:(0,-9) text: [[Cambyses II]]
  from:-522 till:-522 shift:(0,-17) text: [[Bardiya|Smerdis]]
  from:-522 till:-486 shift:(0,-33) text: [[Darius I]]
  from:-486 till:-465 text: [[Xerxes I of Persia|Xerxes I]]
  from:-465 till:-424 shift:(0,-10) text: [[Artaxerxes I of Persia|Artaxerxes I]]
  from:-424 till:-424 shift:(0,-3) text: [[Xerxes II]]
  from:-424 till:-424 shift:(0,-25) text:[[Sogdianus of Persia|Sogdianus]]
  from:-424 till:-404 shift:(-20,14) text: [[Darius II of Persia|Darius II]]
  from:-404 till:-358 shift:(-10,4) text: [[Artaxerxes II of Persia|Artaxerxes II]]
  from:-358 till:-338 shift:(0,-8) text: [[Artaxerxes III]]
  from:-338 till:-336 shift:(-20,21) text: [[Arses of Persia|Arses]]
  from:-336 till:-330 shift:(-10,11) text: [[Darius III]]
  from:-330 till:-329 shift:(0,-15) text: [[Bessus]]

  bar:&nbsp; color:pink
  from: -675 till: -480 text:Early
  from: -480 till: -380 text:Middle
  from: -380 till: -330 text:Late
</timeline>
{{block indent|left=4.5|1=''Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details''}}

===Origin of the Achaemenid dynasty===
{{Main|Achaemenes|Teispids|Achaemenid family tree}}

[[File:Achaemenid lineage.jpg|thumb|upright=1.6|Family tree of the Achaemenid rulers.]]
{{blockquote|The Persian nation contains a number of tribes as listed here.&nbsp;... : the [[Pasargadae (tribe)|Pasargadae]], [[Maraphii]], and [[Maspii]], upon which all the other tribes are dependent. Of these, the Pasargadae are the most distinguished; they contain the clan of the Achaemenids from which spring the Perseid kings. Other tribes are the Panthialaei, Derusiaei, [[Kerman Province#History and culture|Germanii]], all of which are attached to the soil, the remainder—the [[Dahae|Dai]], [[Mardi (people)|Mardi]], [[Dropici]], [[Sagarti]], being [[nomad]]ic.|[[Herodotus]]|[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]] 1.101 & 125}}

The Achaemenid Empire was created by nomadic [[Persian people|Persians]]. The Persians were [[Iranian peoples|Iranian people]] who arrived in what is today [[Iran]] {{Circa|1000 BC}} and settled a region including north-western Iran, the [[Zagros Mountains]] and [[Persis]] alongside the native [[Elam]]ites.{{sfn|Brosius|2006|p=3}} The Persians were originally [[nomadic pastoralism|nomadic pastoralists]] in the western Iranian Plateau. The Achaemenid Empire may not have been the first Iranian empire, as the [[Medes]], another group of Iranian people, possibly established a short-lived empire when they played a major role in overthrowing the Assyrians.<ref>{{Cite book|title=A history of the ancient Near East ca. 3000–323 BC|last=Van de Mieroop|first=Marc|isbn=978-1-118-71817-9|edition=Third|location=Chichester, West Sussex, UK|oclc=904507201|date=25 June 2015}}</ref>

The Achaemenids were initially rulers of the Elamite city of [[Anshan (Persia)|Anshan]] near the modern city of [[Marvdasht]];{{sfn|Briant|2002|p=17}} the title "King of Anshan" was an adaptation of the earlier Elamite title "King of Susa and Anshan".{{sfn|Brosius|2006|p=6}} There are conflicting accounts of the identities of the earliest Kings of Anshan. According to the [[Cyrus Cylinder]] (the oldest extant genealogy of the Achaemenids) the kings of Anshan were [[Teispes]], [[Cyrus I]], [[Cambyses I]] and [[Cyrus the Great|Cyrus II]], also known as Cyrus the Great, who founded the empire.{{sfn|Briant|2002|p=17}}

The later [[Behistun Inscription]], written by [[Darius the Great]], claims that Teispes was the son of [[Achaemenes]] and that Darius is also descended from Teispes through a different line, but no earlier texts mention Achaemenes.{{sfn|Briant|2002|p=16}} In [[Herodotus]]' [[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]], he writes that Cyrus the Great was the son of Cambyses I and [[Mandane of Media]], the daughter of [[Astyages]], the king of the Median Empire.{{sfn|Briant|2002|p=15}}

===Formation and expansion===
{{Further|Wars of Cyrus the Great|First Achaemenid conquest of Egypt|Achaemenid invasion of the Indus Valley|European Scythian campaign of Darius I}}
[[File:Achaemenid (greatest extent).svg|thumb|upright=1.2|Achaemenid Empire at greatest extent ([[orthographic projection]])]]

====550s BC====
Cyrus revolted against the [[Median kingdom|Median Empire]] in 553 BC, and in 550 BC succeeded in defeating the Medes, capturing Astyages and taking the Median capital city of [[Ecbatana]].<ref>[[Cylinders of Nabonidus|Nabonidus Cylinder]] [https://www.livius.org/sources/content/nabonidus-cylinder-from-sippar/ I.8–II.25]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210512055152/https://www.livius.org/sources/content/nabonidus-cylinder-from-sippar/|date=12 May 2021}}.</ref><ref>[[Nabonidus Chronicle]] [https://www.livius.org/sources/content/mesopotamian-chronicles-content/abc-7-nabonidus-chronicle/ II.1–4]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511170730/https://www.livius.org/sources/content/mesopotamian-chronicles-content/abc-7-nabonidus-chronicle/|date=11 May 2021}}.</ref>{{sfn|Briant|2002|p=31}} Once in control of Ecbatana, Cyrus styled himself as the successor to Astyages and assumed control of the entire empire.{{sfn|Briant|2002|p=33}} By inheriting Astyages' empire, he also inherited the territorial conflicts the Medes had with both [[Lydia]] and the [[Neo-Babylonian Empire]].{{sfn|Briant|2002|p=34}}

====540s BC====
King [[Croesus]] of Lydia sought to take advantage of the new international situation by advancing into what had previously been Median territory in Asia Minor.<ref>Herodotus, ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D72 I.72], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D73 I.73]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225143018/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D73|date=25 February 2021}}.</ref>{{sfn|Briant|2002|p=35}} Cyrus led a counterattack which not only fought off Croesus' armies, but also led to the capture of [[Sardis]] and the fall of the Lydian Kingdom in 546 BC.{{sfn|Briant|2002|p=36}}{{sfn|Brosius|2006|p=11}}{{efn|The chronology of the reign of Cyrus is uncertain, and these events are alternatively dated in 542–541 BC.{{sfn|Briant|2002|p=34}}}} Cyrus placed [[Pactyes]] in charge of collecting tribute in Lydia and left, but once Cyrus had left Pactyes instigated a rebellion against Cyrus.{{sfn|Brosius|2006|p=11}}{{sfn|Briant|2002|p=37}}<ref>Herodotus, ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+1.154&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126 I.154].</ref> Cyrus sent the Median general [[Mazares]] to deal with the rebellion, and Pactyes was captured. Mazares, and after his death [[Harpagus]], set about reducing all the cities which had taken part in the rebellion. The subjugation of Lydia took about four years in total.{{sfn|Briant|2002|pp=37–38}}

When the power in Ecbatana changed hands from the Medes to the Persians, many tributaries to the Median Empire believed their situation had changed and revolted against Cyrus.<ref>[[Justin (historian)|Justin]], ''Epitome'' {{usurped|[https://web.archive.org/web/20210517225411/http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/justin/english/trans1.html I.7]}}.</ref> This forced Cyrus to fight wars against [[Bactria]] and the nomadic [[Saka]] in Central Asia.{{sfn|Briant|2002|p=39}} During these wars, Cyrus established several [[garrison town]]s in Central Asia, including the [[Cyropolis]].{{sfn|Briant|2002|p=40}}

====530s BC====
Nothing is known of Persia–Babylon relations between 547 and 539 BC, but it is likely that there were hostilities between the two empires for several years leading up to the war of 540–539 BC and the [[Fall of Babylon]].{{sfn|Briant|2002|pp=41–43}} In October 539 BC, Cyrus won a battle against the Babylonians at [[Opis]], then took [[Sippar]] without a fight before finally capturing the city of [[Babylon]] on 12 October, where the Babylonian king [[Nabonidus]] was taken prisoner.<ref>[[Nabonidus Chronicle]] [https://www.livius.org/sources/content/mesopotamian-chronicles-content/abc-7-nabonidus-chronicle/ III.12–16]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511170730/https://www.livius.org/sources/content/mesopotamian-chronicles-content/abc-7-nabonidus-chronicle/|date=11 May 2021}}.</ref>{{sfn|Briant|2002|pp=41–43}}{{sfn|Brosius|2006|pp=11–12}}

Upon taking control of the city, Cyrus depicted himself in propaganda as restoring the divine order which had been disrupted by [[Nabonidus]], who had promoted the cult of [[Sin (mythology)|Sin]] rather than [[Marduk]],<ref>[[Cyrus Cylinder]] [https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=327188&partId=1 23–35] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190119192924/https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=327188&partId=1 |date=19 January 2019 }}</ref>{{sfn|Kuhrt|1983|pp=85–86}}{{sfn|Briant|2002|pp=43–44}} and he also portrayed himself as restoring the heritage of the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire]] by comparing himself to the Assyrian king [[Ashurbanipal]].<ref>[[Cyrus Cylinder]] [https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=327188&partId=1 43] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190119192924/https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=327188&partId=1 |date=19 January 2019 }}</ref>{{sfn|Kuhrt|1983|pp=88–89}}{{sfn|Briant|2002|pp=43–44}} Cyrus is credited with freeing the people of [[Yehud (Province)|Judah]] from their exile and with authorizing the reconstruction of much of [[Jerusalem]], including the [[Second Temple]].{{sfn|Briant|2002|p=46}}

[[File:Pasargad_Tomb_Cyrus3.jpg|thumb|[[Tomb of Cyrus|Cyrus the Great's tomb]], located at [[Pasargadae]]]]

====520s BC====
In 530 BC, Cyrus died and was succeeded by his eldest son [[Cambyses II]], while his younger son [[Bardiya]]{{efn|name=bardiya|Bardiya is referred to by a variety of names in Greek sources, including Smerdis, Tanyoxarces, Tanoxares, Mergis and Mardos. The earliest account to mention him is the [[Behistun Inscription]], which has his name as Bardiya.<ref name=behistunsmerdis/>{{sfn|Briant|2002|p=98}}}} received a large territory in Central Asia.{{sfn|Briant|2002|pp=49–50}}{{sfn|Brosius|2006|p=13}} By 525 BC, Cambyses had successfully subjugated [[Phoenicia]] and [[Cyprus]] and was making preparations to invade Egypt with the newly created [[Achaemenid navy|Persian navy]].{{sfn|Wallinga|1984|pp=406–409}}{{sfn|Briant|2002|pp=52–55}} Pharaoh [[Amasis II]] had died in 526, and had been succeeded by [[Psamtik III]], resulting in the defection of key Egyptian allies to the Persians.{{sfn|Briant|2002|pp=52–55}} Psamtik positioned his army at [[Pelusium]] in the [[Nile Delta]]. He was soundly defeated by the Persians in the [[Battle of Pelusium]] before fleeing to [[Memphis, Egypt|Memphis]], where the Persians defeated him and took him prisoner. After attempting a failed revolt, Psamtik III promptly committed suicide.{{sfn|Briant|2002|pp=52–55}}<ref name=III.11,13>Herodotus, ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+3.11&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126 III.11] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227142639/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+3.11&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126 |date=27 February 2021 }}, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D3%3Achapter%3D13 III.13] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210310031638/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D3%3Achapter%3D13 |date=10 March 2021 }}</ref>

Herodotus depicts Cambyses as openly antagonistic to the Egyptian people and their gods, cults, temples, and priests, in particular stressing the murder of the sacred bull [[Apis (deity)|Apis]].<ref>Herodotus, ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+3.29&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126 III.29] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225191523/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+3.29&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126 |date=25 February 2021 }}</ref> He says that these actions led to a madness that caused him to kill his brother Bardiya (who Herodotus says was killed in secret),<ref>Herodotus, ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D3%3Achapter%3D30 III.30] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210301014336/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D3%3Achapter%3D30 |date=1 March 2021 }}</ref> his own sister-wife<ref>Herodotus, ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D3%3Achapter%3D31 III.31] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210304024925/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D3%3Achapter%3D31 |date=4 March 2021 }}</ref> and Croesus of Lydia.<ref>Herodotus, ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D3%3Achapter%3D36 III.36] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210226230453/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D3%3Achapter%3D36 |date=26 February 2021 }}</ref> He then concludes that Cambyses completely lost his mind,<ref>Herodotus, ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+3.38&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126 III.38] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224210504/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+3.38&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126 |date=24 February 2021 }}</ref> and all later classical authors repeat the themes of Cambyses' impiety and madness. However, this is based on spurious information, as the epitaph of Apis from 524 BC shows that Cambyses participated in the funeral rites of Apis styling himself as pharaoh.{{sfn|Briant|2002|pp=55–57}}

Following the conquest of Egypt, the [[Ancient Libya|Libyans]] and the Greeks of [[Cyrene, Libya|Cyrene]] and [[Barca (ancient city)|Barca]] in present-day eastern Libya ([[Cyrenaica]]) surrendered to Cambyses and sent tribute without a fight.{{sfn|Briant|2002|pp=52–55}}<ref name=III.11,13/> Cambyses then planned invasions of [[Carthage]], the oasis of Ammon and [[Aethiopia|Ethiopia]].<ref>Herodotus, ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D3%3Achapter%3D17 III.17] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210228091449/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D3%3Achapter%3D17 |date=28 February 2021 }}</ref> Herodotus claims that the naval invasion of Carthage was canceled because the Phoenicians, who made up a large part of Cambyses' fleet, refused to take up arms against their own people,<ref>Herodotus, ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D3%3Achapter%3D19 III.19] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224161429/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D3%3Achapter%3D19 |date=24 February 2021 }}</ref> but modern historians doubt whether an invasion of Carthage was ever planned at all.{{sfn|Briant|2002|pp=52–55}} However, Cambyses dedicated his efforts to the other two campaigns, aiming to improve the Empire's strategic position in Africa by conquering the [[Kingdom of Kush|Kingdom of Meroë]] and taking strategic positions in the western oases. To this end, he established a garrison at [[Elephantine]] consisting mainly of Jewish soldiers, who remained stationed at Elephantine throughout Cambyses' reign.{{sfn|Briant|2002|pp=52–55}} Herodotus claims that the invasion of Ethiopia was a failure due to the madness of Cambyses and the lack of supplies for his men,<ref>Herodotus, ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+3.25&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126 III.25] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210304045925/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+3.25&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126 |date=4 March 2021 }}</ref> but archaeological evidence suggests that the expedition was not a failure, and a fortress at the [[Cataracts of the Nile|Second Cataract of the Nile]], on the border between Egypt and Kush, remained in use throughout the Achaemenid period.{{sfn|Briant|2002|pp=52–55}}{{sfn|Heidorn|1992|pp=147–150}} Furthermore, in two inscriptions of Darius, Nubia is listed as one of the lands in the empire, and a Nubian delegation is depicted in Persepolis on the [[Apadana|Apadana reliefs]] which visually present the lands of Darius’ empire. These suggest that Cambyses saw success in subduing Nubia.{{sfn|Brosius|2020|p=40}}

The events surrounding Cambyses's death and Bardiya's succession are greatly debated as there are many conflicting accounts.{{sfn|Briant|2002|p=98}} According to Herodotus, as Bardiya's assassination had been committed in secret, the majority of Persians still believed him to be alive. This allowed two [[Magi]] to rise up against Cambyses, with one of them sitting on the throne able to impersonate Bardiya because of their remarkable physical resemblance and shared name (Smerdis in Herodotus's accounts{{efn|name=bardiya}}).<ref>Herodotus, ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+3.61&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126 III.61] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224155236/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+3.61&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126 |date=24 February 2021 }}</ref> [[Ctesias]] writes that when Cambyses had Bardiya killed he immediately put the magus Sphendadates in his place as satrap of Bactria due to a remarkable physical resemblance.<ref>Ctesias, ''Persica'' [https://www.livius.org/sources/content/ctesias-overview-of-the-works/photius-excerpt-of-ctesias-persica/ 11] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170402145945/http://www.livius.org/sources/content/ctesias-overview-of-the-works/photius-excerpt-of-ctesias-persica/ |date=2 April 2017 }}</ref> Two of Cambyses' confidants then conspired to usurp Cambyses and put Sphendadates on the throne under the guise of Bardiya.<ref>Ctesias, ''Persica'' [https://www.livius.org/sources/content/ctesias-overview-of-the-works/photius-excerpt-of-ctesias-persica/ 15] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170402145945/http://www.livius.org/sources/content/ctesias-overview-of-the-works/photius-excerpt-of-ctesias-persica/ |date=2 April 2017 }}</ref> According to the [[Behistun Inscription]], written by the following king [[Darius the Great]], a magus named Gaumata impersonated Bardiya and incited a revolution in Persia.<ref name=behistunsmerdis/> Whatever the exact circumstances of the revolt, Cambyses heard news of it in the summer of 522 BC and began to return from Egypt, but he was wounded in the thigh in Syria and died of gangrene, so Bardiya's impersonator became king.{{sfn|Briant|2002|p=61}}{{efn|Sources differ on the circumstances of Cambyses' death. According to Darius the Great in the [[Behistun Inscription]], he died of natural causes.<ref name=behistunsmerdis>[[Behistun Inscription]] [https://www.livius.org/sources/content/behistun-persian-text/behistun-t-05/ 11] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511170933/https://www.livius.org/sources/content/behistun-persian-text/behistun-t-05/ |date=11 May 2021 }}</ref> According to Herodotus, he died after accidentally wounding himself in the thigh.<ref>Herodotus, ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+3.64&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126 III.64] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227041028/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+3.64&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126 |date=27 February 2021 }}</ref> The true cause of death remains uncertain.{{sfn|Brosius|2006|p=13}}}} The account of Darius is the earliest, and although the later historians all agree on the key details of the story, that a magus impersonated Bardiya and took the throne, this may have been a story created by Darius to justify his own usurpation.{{sfn|Briant|2002|pp=100–101}} Iranologist [[Pierre Briant]] hypothesises that Bardiya was not killed by Cambyses, but waited until his death in the summer of 522 BC to claim his legitimate right to the throne as he was then the only male descendant of the royal family. Briant says that although the hypothesis of a deception by Darius is generally accepted today, "nothing has been established with certainty at the present time, given the available evidence".{{sfn|Briant|2002|pp=101–103}}

[[File:Achaemenid Empire at its greatest extent according to Oxford Atlas of World History 2002.jpg|thumb|upright=1.8|The Achaemenid Empire at its greatest extent {{circa|500 BC}}]]

According to the [[Behistun inscription]], Gaumata ruled for seven months before being overthrown in 522 BC by [[Darius the Great]] (Old Persian {{Transliteration|peo|Dāryavuš}}, "who holds firm the good", also known as {{Transliteration|peo|Darayarahush}}). The Magi, though persecuted, continued to exist, and a year following the death of the first pseudo-Smerdis ({{Transliteration|peo|Gaumata}}), saw a second pseudo-Smerdis ({{Transliteration|peo|Vahyazdāta}}) attempt a coup. The coup, though initially successful, failed.<ref>{{cite book| author = Herodotus| title = Herodotus: the text of Canon Rawlinson's translation, with the notes abridged, Volume 1| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Xe_fAAAAMAAJ| year = 1897| publisher = C. Scribner's| page = 278}}</ref>

[[Herodotus]] writes<ref>{{cite book|last=Herodotus|title=The Histories Book 3.80–83}}</ref> that the native leadership debated the best form of government for the empire.

====510s BC====
Ever since the [[Ancient Macedonians|Macedonian]] king [[Amyntas I]] surrendered his country to the Persians in about 512–511, Macedonians and Persians were strangers no more as well. The subjugation of [[Macedonia (ancient kingdom)|Macedonia]] was part of Persian military operations initiated by [[Darius the Great]] (521–486) in 513—after immense preparations—a huge Achaemenid army invaded the [[Balkans]] and [[European Scythian campaign of Darius I|tried to defeat]] the European [[Scythians]] roaming to the north of the [[Danube]] river.<ref name="books.google.nl">Joseph Roisman, Ian Worthington [https://books.google.com/books?id=QsJ183uUDkMC&pg=PA345 ''A Companion to Ancient Macedonia'']. pp.&nbsp;342–345. John Wiley & Sons, 2011 {{ISBN|978-1-4443-5163-7}}</ref> Darius' army subjugated several [[Thracians|Thracian people]], and virtually all other regions that touch the European part of the [[Black Sea]], such as parts of modern [[Bulgaria]], [[Romania]], [[Ukraine]], and [[Russia]], before it returned to [[Asia Minor]].<ref name="books.google.nl"/><ref>The Oxford Classical Dictionary by Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth,{{ISBN|978-0-19-860641-3}}, p. 1515, "The Thracians were subdued by the Persians by 516"</ref> Darius left in Europe one of his commanders named [[Megabazus]] whose task was to accomplish conquests in the Balkans.<ref name="books.google.nl"/> The Persian troops subjugated gold-rich [[Thrace]], the coastal Greek cities, and defeated and conquered the powerful [[Paeonians]].<ref name="books.google.nl"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.livius.org/ia-in/influence/influence02.html|title=Persian influence on Greece (2)|access-date=17 December 2014|archive-date=24 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200724223725/https://www.livius.org/ia-in/influence/influence02.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>{{sfn|Howe|Reames|2008|p=239}} Finally, Megabazus sent envoys to Amyntas, demanding acceptance of Persian domination, which the Macedonians did. The Balkans provided many soldiers for the multi-ethnic Achaemenid army. Many of the Macedonian and Persian elite intermarried, such as the Persian official [[Bubares]] who married Amyntas' daughter, Gygaea. Family ties that the Macedonian rulers Amyntas and Alexander enjoyed with Bubares ensured them good relations with the Persian kings Darius and [[Xerxes the Great|Xerxes I]], who was also known as Xerxes the Great. The Persian invasion led indirectly to Macedonia's rise in power and Persia had some common interests in the Balkans; with Persian aid, the Macedonians stood to gain much at the expense of some Balkan tribes such as the Paeonians and Greeks. All in all, the Macedonians were "willing and useful Persian allies. Macedonian soldiers fought against Athens and [[Sparta]] in Xerxes I's army.<ref name="books.google.nl"/> The Persians referred to both Greeks and Macedonians as ''[[Yona|Yauna]]'' ("[[Ionian Greeks|Ionians]]", their term for "Greeks"), and to Macedonians specifically as ''Yaunã Takabara'' or "Greeks with hats that look like shields", possibly referring to the Macedonian [[kausia]] hat.<ref>Johannes Engels, "Ch. 5: Macedonians and Greeks", In: Roisman and Worthington, "A companion to Ancient Macedonia", p. 87. Oxford Press, 2010.</ref>
[[File:Achaemenid prince's head 1.jpg|thumb|The Persian queen [[Atossa]], daughter of [[Cyrus the Great]], sister-wife of [[Cambyses II]], [[Darius the Great]]'s wife, and mother of [[Xerxes the Great]]]]

====5th century BC====
By the 5th century BC, the Kings of Persia were either ruling over or had subordinated territories encompassing not just all of the [[Persian Plateau]] and all of the territories formerly held by the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire|Assyrian Empire]] ([[Mesopotamia]], the [[Levant]], [[Cyprus]] and [[Persian Egypt|Egypt]]), but beyond this, all of [[Anatolia]] and [[Armenia]], as well as the [[Southern Caucasus]] and parts of the [[North Caucasus]], [[Azerbaijan]], [[Uzbekistan]], [[Tajikistan]], [[Bulgaria]], [[Paeonia (kingdom)|Paeonia]], [[Thrace]] and [[Macedonia (ancient kingdom)|Macedonia]] to the north and west, most of the [[Black Sea]] coastal regions, parts of [[Central Asia]] as far as the [[Aral Sea]], the [[Amu Darya|Oxus]] and [[Syr Darya|Jaxartes]] to the north and north-east, the [[Hindu Kush]] and the western [[Indus River|Indus basin]] (corresponding to modern Afghanistan and [[Pakistan]]) to the far east, parts of northern [[Arabia]] to the south, and parts of eastern [[Ancient Libya|Libya]] ([[Cyrenaica]]) to the south-west, and parts of [[Oman]], China, and the [[UAE]].<ref name="livius.org">{{cite web|url=https://www.livius.org/articles/place/maka/ |title=Maka |website=livius.org}}</ref><ref name="behi">[[Behistun Inscription]]</ref><ref>{{Encyclopædia Iranica Online|volume=6|fascicle=6|title=Dāḡestān|last1=Gamzatov|first1=Gadzhi Gamzatovich|last2=Thordarson|first2=Fridrik|pages=568–576|url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/dagestan/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=riW0kKzat2sC&q=achaemenid+empire+abkhazia&pg=PA409|title=The Making of the Georgian Nation|access-date=29 December 2014|isbn=978-0-253-20915-3|last1=Suny|first1=Ronald Grigor|year=1994|publisher=Indiana University Press }}</ref><ref name="c_ramirez-faria">{{cite book| last1= Ramirez-Faria| first1= Carlos| title = Concise Encyclopedia of World History| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=gGKsS-9h4BYC| access-date = 7 October 2012| year = 2007| publisher = Atlantic Publishers & Dist| isbn = 978-81-269-0775-5| page = 6}}</ref>{{sfn|Kuhrt|2013|p=2}}<ref>{{cite book| last1= O'Brien| first1= Patrick| title = Concise Atlas of World History| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ffZy5tDjaUkC| access-date = 7 October 2012| year = 2002| publisher = [[Oxford University Press]]| isbn = 978-0-19-521921-0| page = 43}}<br />{{cite book| title = Forgotten Empire: The World of Ancient Persia| url = https://archive.org/details/forgottenempirew00curt| url-access = limited| year = 2005| publisher = [[University of California Press]]| isbn = 978-0-520-24731-4| page = [https://archive.org/details/forgottenempirew00curt/page/n48 47]| first1 = John E.| first2 = Nigel| last1 = Curtis| last2 = Tallis}}<br />{{cite book| author = Facts on File, Incorporated| title = Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Africa and the Middle East| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=stl97FdyRswC| access-date = 7 October 2012| year = 2009| publisher = [[Infobase Publishing]]| isbn = 978-1-4381-2676-0 | page = 60}}<br />{{cite book| last1= Parker| first1= Grant| title = The Making of Roman India| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ahMXbSFxGhUC| access-date = 7 October 2012| year = 2008| publisher = [[Cambridge University Press]]| isbn = 978-0-521-85834-2| page = 13}}<br />{{cite book| last1= Thapar| first1= Romila| author-link = Romila Thapar| title = Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=-5irrXX0apQC| access-date = 7 October 2012| year = 2004| publisher = [[University of California Press]]| isbn = 978-0-520-24225-8| page = 157}}</ref>

===Greco-Persian Wars===
{{Main|Greco-Persian Wars}}

[[File:Greek-Persian duel.jpg|thumb|Greek [[hoplite]] and Persian warrior depicted fighting, on an ancient [[Kylix (drinking cup)|kylix]], 5th century BC]]
The [[Ionian Revolt]] in 499 BC, and associated revolts in Aeolis, Doris, Cyprus, and Caria, were military rebellions by several regions of Asia Minor against Persian rule, lasting from 499 to 493 BC. At the heart of the rebellion was the dissatisfaction of the Greek cities of Asia Minor with the tyrants appointed by Persia to rule them, along with the individual actions of two Milesian tyrants, [[Histiaeus]] and [[Aristagoras]]. In 499 BC, the then-tyrant of [[Miletus]], Aristagoras, launched a joint expedition with the Persian satrap [[Artaphernes]] to [[Siege of Naxos (499 BC)|conquer Naxos]], in an attempt to bolster his position in Miletus, both financially and in terms of prestige. The mission was a debacle, and sensing his imminent removal as a tyrant, Aristagoras chose to incite the whole of Ionia into rebellion against the Persian king, Darius I, who was commonly known as Darius the Great.{{citation needed|date=January 2018}}

The Persians continued to reduce the cities along the west coast that still held out against them, before finally imposing a peace settlement in 493 BC on Ionia that was generally considered to be both just and fair. The [[Ionian Revolt]] constituted the first major conflict between Greece and the Achaemenid Empire, and as such represents the first phase of the Greco-Persian Wars. Asia Minor had been brought back into the Persian fold, but Darius had vowed to punish Athens and Eretria for their support of the revolt.<ref>{{cite book |author=West |first=Willis Mason |url=https://archive.org/details/ancientworldfro00westgoog |title=The ancient world from the earliest times to 800 CE |publisher=Allyn and Bacon |year=1904 |page=[https://archive.org/details/ancientworldfro00westgoog/page/n187 137] |quote=The Athenian support was particularly troubling to Darius since he had come to their aid during their conflict with Sparta.}}</ref> Moreover, seeing that the political situation in Greece posed a continued threat to the stability of his Empire, he decided to embark on the conquest of all of Greece. The first campaign of the invasion was to bring the territories in the [[Balkan]] peninsula back within the empire.<ref name="A companion to Ancient Macedonia">Joseph Roisman, Ian Worthington. [https://books.google.com/books?id=QsJ183uUDkMC&dq=Achaemenid+Persians+ruled+balkans&pg=PA345 "A companion to Ancient Macedonia"]. John Wiley & Sons, 2011. {{ISBN|978-1-4443-5163-7}}, pp.&nbsp;135–138, 343–345.</ref> The Persian grip over these territories had loosened following the Ionian Revolt. In 492 BC, the Persian general [[Mardonius (general)|Mardonius]] re-subjugated [[Thrace]] and made [[Macedonia (ancient kingdom)|Macedonia]] a fully [[subordinate]] part of the empire; it had been a vassal as early as the late 6th century BC but retained a great deal of autonomy.<ref name="A companion to Ancient Macedonia"/> However, in 490 BC the Persian forces were defeated by the Athenians at the [[Battle of Marathon]] and Darius I would die before having the chance to launch an invasion of Greece.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Darius I {{!}} Biography, Accomplishments, & Facts|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Darius-I|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|access-date=2020-05-29}}</ref>

[[File:Achaemenid king fighting hoplites, Cimmerian Bosphorus intaglio (composite).jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Achaemenid king fighting hoplites, seal and seal holder, [[Cimmerian Bosporus]].]]
[[Xerxes I]] (485–465 BC, Old Persian ''Xšayārša'' "Hero Among Kings"), son of [[Darius the Great|Darius I]], vowed to complete the job. He organized a massive invasion aiming to conquer [[Greece]]. His army entered Greece from the north in the spring of 480 BC, meeting little or no resistance through [[Macedonia (Greece)|Macedonia]] and [[Thessaly]], but was delayed by a small Greek force for three days at [[Battle of Thermopylae|Thermopylae]]. A simultaneous naval [[battle of Artemisium]] was tactically indecisive as large storms destroyed ships from both sides. The battle was stopped prematurely when the Greeks received news of the defeat at Thermopylae and retreated. The battle was a tactical victory for the Persians, giving them uncontested control of Artemisium and the Aegean Sea.<ref name="VIII21">Herodotus [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+8.21 VIII, 21].</ref>

Following his victory at the [[Battle of Thermopylae]], Xerxes sacked the evacuated city of [[Athens]] and prepared to meet the Greeks at the strategic [[Isthmus of Corinth]] and the [[Saronic Gulf]]. In 480 BC the Greeks won a decisive victory over the Persian fleet at the [[Battle of Salamis]] and forced Xerxes to retire to [[Sardis]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Hanson|first=Victor Davis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XGr16-CxpH8C|title=Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise to Western Power|year=2007|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-307-42518-8|language=en}}</ref> The land army which he left in Greece under [[Mardonius (general)|Mardonius]] retook Athens but was eventually destroyed in 479 BC at the [[Battle of Plataea]]. The final defeat of the Persians at [[Battle of Mycale|Mycale]] encouraged the Greek cities of Asia to revolt, and the Persians lost all of their territories in Europe with Macedonia once again becoming independent.<ref name="books.google.nl"/> [[Artabanus of Persia|Artabanus]], the commander of the royal bodyguard and the most powerful official in the Persian court, assassinated Xerxes with the help of a [[eunuch]], Aspamitres.<ref>[[Xerxes I#refkhshayayrsha|Iran-e-Bastan/Pirnia, book 1, p. 873]].</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Stoneman |first1=Richard |title=Xerxes |chapter=Assassination |date=2015 |pages=195–209 |doi=10.12987/yale/9780300180077.003.0009 |isbn=978-0-300-18007-7 }}</ref> The exact year and date of Xerxes' assassination is disputed among historians.

===Cultural phase and Zoroastrian reforms===
After [[Xerxes I]] was assassinated, he was succeeded by his eldest surviving son [[Artaxerxes I]]. It was during his reign that [[Elamite]] ceased to be the language of government,{{citation needed|date=July 2022}} and Aramaic gained in importance. It was probably during this reign that the solar calendar was introduced as the national calendar. Under Artaxerxes I, [[Zoroastrianism]] became the ''de facto'' religion of the empire.{{citation needed|date=July 2021}}

After Persia had been defeated at the [[Battle of Eurymedon]] (469 or 466 BC<ref>See discussion on possible dates for the battle in the article [[Battle of the Eurymedon]].</ref>), military action between Greece and Persia was halted. When Artaxerxes&nbsp;I took power, he introduced a new Persian strategy of weakening the Athenians by funding their enemies in Greece. This indirectly caused the Athenians to move the treasury of the [[Delian League]] from the island of [[Delos]] to the Athenian acropolis. This funding practice inevitably prompted renewed fighting in 450&nbsp;BC, where the Greeks attacked at the [[Battle of Salamis in Cyprus (450&nbsp;BC)|Battle of Cyprus]]. After [[Cimon]]'s failure to attain much in this expedition, the [[Peace of Callias]] was agreed between [[Athens]], [[Argos, Peloponnese|Argos]] and [[Persia]] in 449&nbsp;BC.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Artaxerxes I Makrokheir (Artaxerxes I) Makrokheir (± 475-± 424) » Stamboom Homs » Genealogy Online|url=https://www.genealogieonline.nl/en/stamboom-homs/I6000000006131531097.php|last=Homs|first=George|website=Genealogy Online|language=en|access-date=2020-05-24}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Artaxerxes I of Persia|year=2010|isbn=978-613-0-82634-5}}</ref>

Artaxerxes&nbsp;offered [[Political asylum|asylum]] to [[Themistocles]], who was the winner of the [[Battle of Salamis]], after Themistocles was [[ostracized]] from [[Athens]]. Also, Artaxerxes gave him [[Magnesia on the Maeander|Magnesia]], [[Myus]], and [[Lampsacus]] to maintain him in bread, meat, and wine. In addition, Artaxerxes I gave him [[Palaescepsis]] to provide him with clothes, and he also gave him [[Percote]] with bedding for his house.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://plutarch.classicauthors.net/PlutarchsLives/PlutarchsLives3.html|title=Plutarch's Lives by Plutarch: Themistocles Themistocles, Part II|date=1 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151001032753/http://plutarch.classicauthors.net/PlutarchsLives/PlutarchsLives3.html|archive-date=1 October 2015|access-date=22 March 2018}}</ref>
[[File:Achaemenid gold ornaments,70.142.6-.11.jpg|thumb|right|Achaemenid gold ornaments, [[Brooklyn Museum]]]]

When Artaxerxes died in 424 BC at [[Susa]], his body was taken to the tomb already built for him in the [[Naqsh-e Rustam]] Necropolis. It was Persian tradition that kings begin constructing their own tombs while they were still alive. Artaxerxes I was immediately succeeded by his eldest and only legitimate son, [[Xerxes II]].{{sfn|Kuhrt|2013|page=880}} However, after a few days on the throne, he was assassinated while drunk by Pharnacyas and Menostanes on the orders of his illegitimate brother [[Sogdianus]], who apparently had gained the support of his regions. Sogdianus reigned for six months and fifteen days before being captured by his half-brother, [[Darius II|Ochus]], who had rebelled against him. Sogdianus was executed by being [[Suffocation in ash|suffocated in ash]] because Ochus had promised he would not die by the sword, by poison or by hunger.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kitto |first=J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wd0-AAAAcAAJ&pg=PR98-IA43 |title=Palestine: the Bible History of the holy land |publisher=London |year=1841 |page=657}}</ref> Ochus then took the royal name Darius II. Darius' ability to defend his position on the throne ended the short power vacuum.<ref name="Zawadski">{{Cite journal|last=Zawadzki|first=S.|date=1995–1996|title=The Circumstances of Darius II's Accession|journal=Jahrbericht Ex Oriente Lux|volume=34|pages=45–49}}</ref>

From 412 BC [[Darius II of Persia|Darius II]], at the insistence of [[Tissaphernes]], gave support first to Athens, then to Sparta, but in 407 BC, Darius' son [[Cyrus the Younger]] was appointed to replace Tissaphernes and aid was given entirely to Sparta which finally defeated Athens in 404 BC. In the same year, Darius fell ill and died in Babylon. His death gave an Egyptian rebel named [[Amyrtaeus]] the opportunity to throw off [[Twenty-seventh Dynasty of Egypt|Persian control over Egypt]]. At his death bed, Darius' Babylonian wife [[Parysatis]] pleaded with him to have her second eldest son Cyrus (the Younger) crowned, but Darius refused. Queen Parysatis favoured Cyrus more than her eldest son [[Artaxerxes II]]. [[Plutarch]] relates (probably on the authority of [[Ctesias]]) that the displaced Tissaphernes came to the new king on his coronation day to warn him that his younger brother Cyrus (the Younger) was preparing to assassinate him during the ceremony. Artaxerxes had Cyrus arrested and would have had him executed if their mother Parysatis had not intervened. Cyrus was then sent back as Satrap of Lydia, where he prepared an armed rebellion. Cyrus assembled a large army, including a contingent of [[Ten Thousand Greek mercenaries]], and made his way deeper into Persia. The army of Cyrus was stopped by the royal Persian army of [[Artaxerxes II]] at [[Battle of Cunaxa|Cunaxa]] in 401 BC, where Cyrus was killed. The [[Ten Thousand Greek Mercenaries]] including [[Xenophon]] were now deep in Persian territory and were at risk of attack. So they searched for others to offer their services to but eventually had to return to Greece.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brennan |first1=Shane |last2=Thomas |first2=David |title=The Landmark Xenophon's Anabasis |date=2021 |publisher=Pantheon Books |location=New York |isbn=9780307906854}}</ref><ref name=":0" /><ref>Maurice Whittemore Mather (ed.), Joseph William Hewitt (ed.), [[Xenophon]]: ''Anabasis, Books 1–4''. University of Oklahoma Press, 1979, {{ISBN|978-0-8061-1347-0}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=dQltw0UIC2UC&pg=PA44 p. 44].</ref>

[[Artaxerxes II]] was the longest reigning of the Achaemenid kings and it was during this 45-year period of relative peace and stability that many of the monuments of the era were constructed. Artaxerxes moved the capital back to [[Persepolis]], which he greatly extended. Also, the summer capital at [[Ecbatana]] was lavishly extended with gilded columns and roof tiles of silver and copper.<ref>(Polybius, 27 October 2012).</ref> The extraordinary innovation of the Zoroastrian shrines can also be dated to his reign, and it was probably during this period that Zoroastrianism spread from [[Armenia]] throughout [[Asia Minor]] and the [[Levant]]. The construction of temples, though serving a religious purpose, was not a purely selfless act, as they also served as an important source of income. From the Babylonian kings, the Achaemenids adopted the concept of a mandatory temple tax, a one-tenth tithe which all inhabitants paid to the temple nearest to their land or another source of income.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dandamaev |first1=Muhammad A. |last2=Lukonin |first2=Vladimir G. |title=The Culture and Social Institutions of Ancient Iran |date=1989 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-32107-5 |pages=361–362 }}</ref>

[[File:Achaemenid Empire.gif|thumb|upright=1.5|Persian Empire timeline including important events and territorial evolution – 550–323 BC]]
Artaxerxes II became involved in a war with Persia's erstwhile allies, the [[Sparta]]ns, who, under [[Agesilaus II]], invaded [[Asia Minor]]. To redirect the Spartans' attention to Greek affairs, Artaxerxes II subsidized their enemies: in particular the [[Athens|Athenians]], [[Thebes, Greece|Thebans]] and [[Corinth]]ians. These subsidies helped to engage the [[Sparta]]ns in what would become known as the [[Corinthian War]]. In 387 BC, Artaxerxes II betrayed his allies and came to an arrangement with Sparta, and in the [[Treaty of Antalcidas]] he forced his erstwhile allies to come to terms. This treaty restored control of the Greek cities of [[Ionia]] and [[Aeolis]] on the Anatolian coast to the Persians while giving Sparta dominance on the Greek mainland. In 385 BC he [[Artaxerxes' II Cadusian Campaign|campaigned against the Cadusians]]. Although successful against the Greeks, Artaxerxes II had more trouble with the [[Egypt]]ians, who had successfully revolted against him at the beginning of his reign. An attempt to reconquer Egypt in 373 BC was completely unsuccessful, but in his waning years the Persians did manage to defeat a joint Egyptian–Spartan effort to conquer [[Achaemenid Phoenicia|Phoenicia]]. He quashed the [[Revolt of the Satraps]] in 372–362 BC. He is reported to have had a number of wives. His main wife was [[Stateira (wife of Artaxerxes II)|Stateira]], until she was poisoned by Artaxerxes II's mother Parysatis in about 400 BC. Another chief wife was a Greek woman of [[Phocaea]] named Aspasia (not the same as the concubine of [[Pericles]]). Artaxerxes II is said to have had more than 115 sons from 350 wives.<ref>{{cite web |date=25 April 2014 |title=The Achaemenid Empire |url=http://iranologie.com/the-history-page/the-achaemenid-empire/ |access-date=21 June 2015}}[http://www.iranologie.com/history/Achaemenid/chapter%20V.html] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080619124220/http://www.iranologie.com/history/Achaemenid/chapter%20V.html|date=19 June 2008}}</ref>

In 358 BC Artaxerxes II died and was succeeded by his son [[Artaxerxes III]]. In 355 BC, Artaxerxes III forced [[Athens]] to conclude a peace which required the city's forces to leave [[Asia Minor]] and to acknowledge the independence of its rebellious allies.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://lexicorient.com/e.o/artaxerxes3.htm |title=Artaxerxes 3 |access-date=5 March 2008 |last=Kjeilen |first=Tore| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080225213722/http://lexicorient.com/e.o/artaxerxes3.htm| archive-date=25 February 2008 | url-status= live}}</ref> Artaxerxes started a campaign against the rebellious [[Cadusii|Cadusians]], but he managed to appease both of the Cadusian kings. One individual who successfully emerged from this campaign was Darius Codomannus, who later occupied the Persian throne as [[Darius III]].<ref>{{Encyclopædia Iranica Online|volume=6|fascicle=1|article=DARIUS v. Darius III|year=1994|last=EIr|url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/darius-v/|page=51-54|quote=In the Greek tradition he was unanimously depicted as an outsider who had risen to the throne through outstanding bravery, first shown in single combat in an early expedition of Artaxerxes III Ochus (359-38 B.C.E.) against the Cadusii.}}</ref>

Artaxerxes III then ordered the disbanding of all the satrapal armies of Asia Minor, as he felt that they could no longer guarantee peace in the west and was concerned that these armies equipped the western satraps with the means to revolt.<ref name="PersianArmy">{{cite book |title=The Persian Army 560–330 BC |url=https://archive.org/details/persianarmybc00seku |url-access=limited |last=Sekunda |first=Nick |author2=Nicholas V. Sekunda|author3=Simon Chew|year=1992 |publisher=Osprey Publishing |isbn=978-1-85532-250-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/persianarmybc00seku/page/n28 28]}}</ref> The order was however ignored by [[Artabazos II of Phrygia]], who asked for the help of Athens in a rebellion against the king. Athens sent assistance to [[Sardis]]. [[Orontid dynasty#Orontid Kings and satraps of Armenia|Orontes of Mysia]] also supported Artabazos and the combined forces managed to defeat the forces sent by Artaxerxes III in 354&nbsp;BC. However, in 353&nbsp;BC, they were defeated by Artaxerxes III's army and were disbanded. Orontes was pardoned by the king, while Artabazos fled to the safety of the court of [[Philip II of Macedon]]. In {{circa|351&nbsp;BC}}, Artaxerxes embarked on a campaign to recover Egypt, which had revolted under his father, Artaxerxes II. At the same time, a rebellion had broken out in Asia Minor, which, being supported by [[Thebes, Greece|Thebes]], threatened to become serious. Levying a vast army, Artaxerxes [[Second Achaemenid conquest of Egypt|invaded Egypt]] and engaged in fighting with [[Nectanebo II]]. After a year of fighting the Egyptian [[Pharaoh]], Nectanebo inflicted a crushing defeat on the Persians with the support of mercenaries led by the Greek generals Diophantus and Lamius.<ref name=Miller1986>{{cite book|last1=Miller|first1=James Maxwell|author-link1=J. Maxwell Miller (biblical scholar)|last2=Hayes|first2=John Haralson|title=A History of Ancient Israel and Judah|page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofancient00mill/page/465 465]|publisher=The Westminster Press|location=Philadelphia|year=1986|isbn=978-0-664-21262-9|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofancient00mill/page/465}}</ref> Artaxerxes was compelled to retreat and postpone his plans to reconquer Egypt. Soon after this defeat, there were rebellions in [[Achaemenid Phoenicia|Phoenicia]], [[History of Anatolia#Achaemenid Empire|Asia Minor]] and [[Ancient history of Cyprus#Persian period|Cyprus]].{{citation needed|date=January 2018}}

{{multiple image
| align         = right
| caption_align = center
| total_width   = 350
| title         = Darius vase
| image1        = Darius vase Napoli Museum without background.jpg
| caption1      = The [[Darius Vase]] at the [[National Archaeological Museum, Naples|Archaeological Museum of Naples]]. c. 340–320 BC.
| image2        = Darius detail on the Darius vase.jpg
| caption2      = Detail of [[Darius I|Darius]], with a label in Greek (ΔΑΡΕΙΟΣ, top right) giving his name.
}}
In 343&nbsp;BC, Artaxerxes committed responsibility for the suppression of the Cyprian rebels to [[Idrieus]], prince of [[Caria]], who employed 8,000 Greek mercenaries and forty [[trireme]]s, commanded by [[Phocion]] the Athenian, and [[Evagoras II|Evagoras]], son of the elder [[Evagoras I|Evagoras]], the Cypriot monarch.<ref>{{cite book |title=A History of Discoveries at Halicarnassus, Cnidus & Branchidæ |url=https://archive.org/details/gri_33125008617553 |last=Newton |first=Sir Charles Thomas |author2=R.P. Pullan |year=1862 |publisher=Day & son |page=[https://archive.org/details/gri_33125008617553/page/n78 57]}}</ref><ref name="Persianempire">{{cite web |url=http://persianempire.info/ArtaxerxesIII.htm |title=Artaxerxes III Ochus ( 358 BC to 338 BC )|access-date=2 March 2008}}</ref> Idrieus succeeded in reducing Cyprus. Artaxerxes initiated a counter-offensive against [[Sidon]] by commanding [[Belesys]], satrap of Syria, and [[Mazaeus]], [[Cilicia (satrapy)|satrap of Cilicia]], to invade the city and to keep the [[Phoenicia]]ns in check. Both satraps suffered crushing defeats at the hands of [[Tennes]], the Sidonese king, who was aided by 40,000 Greek mercenaries sent to him by [[Nectanebo II]] and commanded by [[Mentor of Rhodes]]. As a result, the Persian forces were driven out of [[Phoenicia]].<ref name="Persianempire"/>

After this, Artaxerxes personally led an army of 330,000 men against [[Sidon]]. Artaxerxes' army comprised 300,000-foot soldiers, 30,000 [[cavalry]], 300 triremes, and 500 transports or provision ships. After gathering this army, he sought assistance from the Greeks. Though refused aid by [[Athens]] and [[Sparta]], he succeeded in obtaining a thousand Theban heavy-armed hoplites under Lacrates, three thousand Argives under Nicostratus, and six thousand Æolians, [[Ionians]], and Dorians from the Greek cities of Asia Minor. This Greek support was numerically small, amounting to no more than 10,000 men, but it formed, together with the Greek mercenaries from Egypt who went over to him afterward, the force on which he placed his chief reliance, and to which the ultimate success of his expedition was mainly due. The approach of Artaxerxes sufficiently weakened the resolution of Tennes that he endeavoured to purchase his own pardon by delivering up 100 principal citizens of Sidon into the hands of the Persian king and then admitting Artaxerxes within the defences of the town. Artaxerxes had the 100 citizens transfixed with javelins, and when 500 more came out as supplicants to seek his mercy, Artaxerxes consigned them to the same fate. Sidon was then burnt to the ground, either by Artaxerxes or by the Sidonian citizens. Forty thousand people died in the conflagration.<ref name=Persianempire/> Artaxerxes sold the ruins at a high price to speculators, who calculated on reimbursing themselves by the treasures which they hoped to dig out from among the ashes.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tomrawlinson.com/Personal/Links/RawlinsonGeorge.htm |title=Phœnicia under the Persians |access-date=10 March 2008 |last=Rawlinson |first=George |author-link=George Rawlinson |year=1889 |website=History of Phoenicia |publisher=Longmans, Green |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060720031359/http://www.tomrawlinson.com/Personal/Links/RawlinsonGeorge.htm |archive-date=20 July 2006 }}</ref> Tennes was later put to death by Artaxerxes.<ref name=Lovetoknow>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Artaxerxes |volume=2 |page=663}}</ref> Artaxerxes later sent Jews who supported the revolt to [[Hyrcania]] on the south coast of the [[Caspian Sea]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iras.ucalgary.ca/~volk/sylvia/GogAndMagog.htm |title=The Legend of Gog And Magog |access-date=10 March 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080315084037/http://www.iras.ucalgary.ca/~volk/sylvia/GogAndMagog.htm |archive-date=15 March 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Acts of the Apostles: The Greek Text with Introduction and Commentary |last=Bruce |first=Frederick Fyvie |year=1990 |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|isbn=978-0-8028-0966-7 |page=117}}</ref>

===Second conquest of Egypt===
{{main|Second Achaemenid conquest of Egypt}}

[[File:HibisGate3Dareios1AmunRaKamutef.jpg|thumb|upright|Relief showing Darius I offering lettuces to the Egyptian deity [[Amun-Ra Kamutef]], [[Temple of Hibis]]]]
[[File:Darius I statue list of subject countries.jpg|thumb|upright|The 24 countries subject to the Achaemenid Empire at the time of Darius, on the [[Egyptian statue of Darius I]].]]
The reduction of Sidon was followed closely by the invasion of Egypt. In 343&nbsp;BC, Artaxerxes III, in addition to his 330,000 Persians, had now a force of 14,000 Greeks furnished by the Greek cities of Asia Minor: 4,000 under [[Mentor of Rhodes|Mentor]], consisting of the troops that he had brought to the aid of Tennes from Egypt; 3,000 sent by Argos; and 1,000 from Thebes. He divided these troops into three bodies, and placed at the head of each a Persian and a Greek. The Greek commanders were Lacrates of Thebes, [[Mentor of Rhodes]] and Nicostratus of Argos while the Persians were led by Rhossaces, Aristazanes, and [[Bagoas]], the chief of the eunuchs. [[Nectanebo II]] resisted with an army of 100,000 of whom 20,000 were Greek mercenaries. Nectanebo II occupied the [[Nile]] and its various branches with his large navy.{{citation needed|date=January 2018}}

The character of the country, intersected by numerous canals and full of strongly fortified towns, was in his favour and Nectanebo II might have been expected to offer a prolonged, if not even a successful resistance. However, he lacked good generals, and, over-confident in his own powers of command, he was out-maneuvered by the Greek mercenary generals, and his forces were eventually defeated by the combined Persian armies. After his defeat, Nectanebo hastily fled to [[Memphis, Egypt|Memphis]], leaving the fortified towns to be defended by their garrisons. These garrisons consisted of partly [[Greeks|Greek]] and partly Egyptian troops; between whom jealousies and suspicions were easily sown by the Persian leaders. As a result, the Persians were able to rapidly reduce numerous towns across Lower Egypt and were advancing upon Memphis when Nectanebo decided to quit the country and flee southwards to [[Ethiopia]].<ref name="Persianempire"/> The Persian army completely routed the Egyptians and occupied the Lower Delta of the Nile. Following Nectanebo fleeing to Ethiopia, all of Egypt submitted to Artaxerxes. The Jews in Egypt were sent either to [[Babylon]] or to the south coast of the [[Caspian Sea]], the same location that the Jews of [[Phoenicia]] had earlier been sent.{{citation needed|date=January 2018}}

After this victory over the Egyptians, Artaxerxes had the city walls destroyed, started a reign of terror, and set about looting all the temples. [[Persia]] gained a significant amount of wealth from this looting. Artaxerxes also raised high taxes and attempted to weaken [[Ancient Egypt|Egypt]] enough that it could never revolt against Persia. For the 10&nbsp;years that Persia controlled Egypt, believers in the native religion were persecuted and sacred books were stolen.<ref name="Egyptloot">{{cite web|url=http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/egypt/history/periods/persianii.html |title=Persian Period II |access-date=6 March 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080217023749/http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/egypt/history/periods/persianii.html |archive-date=17 February 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Before Artaxerxes returned to Persia, he appointed Pherendares as [[History of Achaemenid Egypt|satrap of Egypt]]. With the wealth gained from his reconquering Egypt, Artaxerxes was able to amply reward his mercenaries. He then returned to his capital having successfully completed his invasion of Egypt.{{citation needed|date=January 2018}}

After his success in Egypt, Artaxerxes returned to Persia and spent the next few years effectively quelling insurrections in various parts of the Empire so that a few years after his conquest of Egypt, the Persian Empire was firmly under his control. Egypt remained a part of the Persian Empire from then until [[Alexander the Great]]'s conquest of Egypt.{{citation needed|date=January 2018}}

After the conquest of Egypt, there were no more revolts or rebellions against Artaxerxes. Mentor and [[Bagoas]], the two generals who had most distinguished themselves in the Egyptian campaign, were advanced to posts of the highest importance. Mentor, who was governor of the entire Asiatic seaboard, was successful in reducing to subjection many of the chiefs who during the recent troubles had rebelled against Persian rule. In the course of a few years, Mentor and his forces were able to bring the whole Asian Mediterranean coast into complete submission and dependence.{{citation needed|date=January 2018}}

Bagoas went back to the Persian capital with Artaxerxes, where he took a leading role in the internal administration of the Empire and maintained tranquillity throughout the rest of the Empire. During the last six years of the reign of Artaxerxes III, the Persian Empire was governed by a vigorous and successful government.<ref name="Persianempire" />

The Persian forces in [[Ionia]] and [[Lycia]] regained control of the [[Aegean Sea|Aegean]] and the [[Mediterranean Sea]] and took over much of [[Athens]]' former island empire. In response, [[Isocrates]] of Athens started giving speeches calling for a 'crusade against the barbarians' but there was not enough strength left in any of the Greek city-states to answer his call.<ref name="conspiracy">{{cite web|url=http://www.iranologie.com/history/Achaemenid/chapter%20V.html |title=Chapter V: Temporary Relief |access-date=1 March 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080619124220/http://www.iranologie.com/history/Achaemenid/chapter%20V.html |archive-date=19 June 2008 }}</ref>

Although there were no rebellions in the Persian Empire itself, the growing power and territory of [[Philip II of Macedon]] in [[Macedon]] (against which [[Demosthenes]] was in vain warning the Athenians) attracted the attention of Artaxerxes. In response, he ordered that Persian influence was to be used to check and constrain the rising power and influence of the Macedonian kingdom. In 340&nbsp;BC, a Persian force was dispatched to assist the [[Thrace|Thracian prince]], [[Cersobleptes]], to maintain his independence. Sufficient effective aid was given to the city of [[Perinthus]] that the numerous and well-appointed army with which Philip had commenced his siege of the city was compelled to give up the attempt.<ref name="Persianempire"/> By the last year of Artaxerxes' rule, Philip II already had plans in place for an invasion of the Persian Empire, which would crown his career, but the Greeks would not unite with him.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://historyofmacedonia.org/AncientMacedonia/PhilipofMacedon.html |title= Philip of Macedon Philip II of Macedon Biography |access-date=7 March 2008| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080314165325/http://www.historyofmacedonia.org/AncientMacedonia/PhilipofMacedon.html| archive-date=14 March 2008 | url-status= live}}</ref>

In 338&nbsp;BC Artaxerxes was poisoned by [[Bagoas]] with the assistance of a physician.{{sfn|Briant|2002|p=769}}

===Fall to Alexander III of Macedon===
[[File:Napoli BW 2013-05-16 16-25-06 1 DxO.jpg|thumb|The [[Battle of Issus]], between [[Alexander the Great]] on horseback to the left, and [[Darius III of Persia|Darius III]] in the chariot to the right, represented in a Pompeii [[mosaic]] dated 1st century BC – [[Naples National Archaeological Museum]]]]
[[File:Alexander’s first victory over Darius, the Persian king.jpg|thumb|Alexander's first victory over Darius, the Persian king depicted in medieval European style in the 15th century romance ''The History of Alexander's Battles'']]
Artaxerxes III was succeeded by [[Artaxerxes IV Arses]], who before he could act was also poisoned by Bagoas. Bagoas is further said to have killed not only all Arses' children, but many of the other princes of the land. Bagoas then placed [[Darius III]], a nephew of Artaxerxes IV, on the throne. Darius III, previously the [[Orontid Dynasty|Satrap of Armenia]], personally forced Bagoas to swallow poison. In 334 BC, when Darius was just succeeding in subduing Egypt again, Alexander and his battle-hardened troops [[Wars of Alexander the Great|invaded Asia Minor]].{{citation needed|date=January 2018}}

[[Alexander the Great]] (Alexander III of Macedon) defeated the Persian armies at [[Battle of Granicus|Granicus]] (334 BC), followed by [[Battle of Issus|Issus]] (333 BC), and lastly at [[Battle of Gaugamela|Gaugamela]] (331 BC). Afterwards, he marched on [[Susa]] and [[Persepolis]] which surrendered and was destroyed by fire in early 330 BC.{{sfn|Olmstead|2022|p=524}} From Persepolis, Alexander headed north to [[Pasargadae]], where he visited the [[tomb of Cyrus]], the man whom he had heard of from the ''[[Cyropaedia]]''.{{citation needed|date=January 2018}}

In the ensuing chaos created by Alexander's invasion of Persia, Cyrus's tomb was broken into and most of its luxuries were looted. When Alexander reached the tomb, he was horrified by the manner in which it had been treated, and questioned the Magi, putting them on trial.<ref name="Cleveland">{{cite book |author=Cleveland |first=Charles Dexter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SaU1AAAAMAAJ |title=A compendium of classical literature: comprising choice extracts translated from Greek and Roman writers, with biographical sketches |publisher=Biddle |year=1861 |page=313}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Jackson |first=Abraham Valentine Williams |url=https://archive.org/details/persiapastandpr01jackgoog |title=Persia past and present |publisher=The Macmillan Company |year=1906 |page=[https://archive.org/details/persiapastandpr01jackgoog/page/n470 278]}}</ref> By some accounts, Alexander's decision to put the Magi on trial was more an attempt to undermine their influence and display his own power than a show of concern for Cyrus's tomb.<ref>{{cite book |author=Griffiths |first1=Ralph |url=https://archive.org/details/monthlyreview70grifgoog |title=The Monthly review |last2=Griffiths |first2=George Edward |publisher= |year=1816 |page=[https://archive.org/details/monthlyreview70grifgoog/page/n522 509]}}</ref> Regardless, Alexander the Great ordered Aristobulus to improve the tomb's condition and restore its interior, showing respect for Cyrus.<ref name=Cleveland /> From there he headed to [[Ecbatana]], where Darius III had sought refuge.<ref name="crystalinks.com">{{cite web |title=Achaemenid Empire, Cyrus the Great, Darius the Great, Xerxes the Great |url=https://www.crystalinks.com/Achaemenid_Empire.html |website=Crystalinks }}{{self-published inline|date=January 2026}}</ref>

Darius III was taken prisoner by [[Bessus]], his [[Bactria]]n [[satrap]] and kinsman. As Alexander approached, Bessus had his men murder Darius III and then declared himself Darius' successor, as Artaxerxes V, before retreating into Central Asia leaving Darius' body in the road to delay Alexander, who brought it to Persepolis for an honourable funeral. Bessus would then create a coalition of his forces, to create an army to defend against Alexander. Before Bessus could fully unite with his confederates at the eastern part of the empire,<ref>{{cite book |author=Dodge |first=Theodore Ayrault |url=https://archive.org/details/alexanderhistory01dodg |title=Alexander: a history of the origin and growth of the art of war from the earliest times to the battle of Ipsus, B.C. 301, with a detailed account of the campaigns of the great Macedonian |publisher=Houghton, Mifflin & Company |year=1890 |page=438}}</ref> Alexander, fearing the danger of Bessus gaining control, found him, put him on trial in a Persian court under his control, and ordered his execution in a "cruel and barbarous manner."<ref>{{cite book |author=Smith |first=William |url=https://archive.org/details/asmallerhistory14smitgoog |title=A smaller history of Greece: from the earliest times to the Roman conquest |publisher=Harper & Brothers |year=1887 |page=[https://archive.org/details/asmallerhistory14smitgoog/page/n225 196]}}</ref>

Alexander generally kept the original Achaemenid administrative structure, leading some scholars to dub him as "the last of the Achaemenids".<ref>{{cite book |author=Briant |first1=Pierre |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ziEp4kjhW9AC |title=Alexander the Great and His Empire: A Short Introduction |last2=Kuhrt |first2=Amélie |date=2010 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-14194-7 |pages=183–185}}</ref> Upon Alexander's death in 323 BC, his empire was divided among his generals, the [[Diadochi]], resulting in a number of smaller states. The largest of these, which held sway over the Iranian plateau, was the [[Seleucid Empire]], ruled by Alexander's general [[Seleucus I Nicator]]. Native Iranian rule would be restored by the [[Parthian Empire|Parthians]] of northeastern Iran over the course of the 2nd century BC through the [[Parthian Empire]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Resources – Iran History|url=http://toosfoundation.com/category/resources-iran-history/|website=toosfoundation.com|access-date=2020-05-24}}</ref>

===Descendants in later Persian dynasties===
;"Frataraka" of the Seleucid Empire
[[File:KINGS of PERSIS. Vādfradād (Autophradates) I. 3rd century BC.jpg|thumb|[[Frataraka]] dynasty ruler [[Vadfradad I]] (Autophradates I). 3rd century BC. Istakhr (Persepolis) mint.<ref>{{cite web |title=CNG: Feature Auction CNG 96. KINGS of PERSIS. Vādfradād (Autophradates) I. 3rd century BC. AR Tetradrachm (28mm, 15.89 g, 9h). Istakhr (Persepolis) mint. |url=https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=256484 |website=Classical Numismatic Group }}</ref>]]
{{Main|Frataraka}}

Several later Persian rulers, forming the ''[[Frataraka]]'' dynasty, are known to have acted as representatives of the [[Seleucids]] in the region of [[Fārs]].<ref name="EI"/> They ruled from the end of the 3rd century BC to the beginning of the 2nd century BC, and [[Vahbarz]] or [[Vādfradād I]] obtained independence {{circa|150&nbsp;BC}}, when Seleucid power waned in the areas of southwestern Persia and the Persian Gulf region.<ref name="EI">{{Encyclopædia Iranica Online|volume=10|fascicle=2|title=Frataraka|last=Wiesehöfer|first=Josef|page=195|url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/frataraka/}}</ref>

;Kings of Persis under the Parthian Empire
{{main|Kings of Persis}}

[[File:KINGS of PERSIS. Dārēv (Darios) I. 2nd century BC.jpg|thumb|[[Dārēv I]] (Darios I) used for the first time the title of ''mlk'' (King). 2nd century BC.]]
During an apparent transitional period, corresponding to the reigns of Vādfradād II and another uncertain king, no titles of authority appeared on the reverse of their coins. The earlier title ''prtrk' zy alhaya'' (Frataraka) had disappeared. Under [[Dārēv I]] (Darios I) however, the new title of ''mlk'', or king, appeared, sometimes with the mention of ''prs'' (Persis), suggesting that the kings of Persis had become independent rulers.<ref name="CNG"/>

When the [[Parthian Empire|Parthian]] [[Arsacid]] king [[Mithridates I of Parthia|Mithridates I]] (c. 171–138 BC) took control of [[Persis]], he left the Persian dynasts in office, known as the [[Kings of Persis]], and they were allowed to continue minting coins with the title of ''mlk'' ("King").<ref name="EI"/>

;Sasanian Empire
{{main|Sasanian Empire}}

With the reign of Šābuhr, the son of [[Pāpag]], the kingdom of Persis then became a part of the [[Sasanian Empire]]. Šābuhr's brother and successor, Ardaxšir (Artaxerxes) V, defeated the last legitimate Parthian king, [[Artabanus V of Parthia|Artabanos V]] in 224 AD, and was crowned at [[Ctesiphon]] as [[Ardaxšir I]] (Ardashir I), ''šāhanšāh ī Ērān'', becoming the first king of the new [[Sasanian Empire]].<ref name="CNG">{{cite web |title=CNG: Feature Auction CNG 90. KINGS of PERSIS. Vahbarz (Oborzos). 3rd century BC. AR Obol (10mm, 0.50 g, 11h). |url=https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=208365 |website=Classical Numismatic Group }}</ref>

;Kingdom of Pontus
The Achaemenid line would also be carried on through the [[Kingdom of Pontus]], based in the [[Pontus (region)|Pontus]] region of northern [[Asia Minor]]. This Pontic Kingdom, a state of [[Persian people|Persian]] origin,<ref>B. C. McGing''. The Foreign Policy of Mithridates VI Eupator, King of Pontus'', p. 11.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Freely |first1=John |title=Children of Achilles: The Greeks in Asia Minor since the Days of Troy |date=2009 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-0-85773-630-7 |pages=69–70 }}</ref><ref>''Strabo of Amasia: A Greek Man of Letters in Augustan Rome'', by Daniela Dueck, p. 3</ref><ref name="EIO Pontus">{{Encyclopædia Iranica Online|title=Pontus|last=McGing|first=Brian|url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/pontus/}}</ref> may even have been directly related to [[Darius I]] and the [[Achaemenid dynasty]].<ref name="EIO Pontus"/> It was founded by [[Mithridates I of Pontus|Mithridates I]] in 281 BC and lasted until its conquest by the [[Roman Republic]] in 63 BC. The kingdom grew to its largest extent under [[Mithridates VI]] the Great, who conquered [[Colchis]], [[Cappadocia]], [[Bithynia]], the Greek colonies of the [[Chersonesus Taurica|Tauric Chersonesos]] and for a brief time the Roman province of [[Asia (Roman province)|Asia]]. Thus, this Persian dynasty managed to survive and prosper in the [[Hellenistic world]] while the main Persian Empire had fallen.{{citation needed|date=January 2018}} Despite Greek influence on the Kingdom of Pontus, Pontics continued to maintain their Achaemenid lineage.<ref name="EIO Pontus" />
[[File:Sphinx Darius Louvre.jpg|thumb|upright|Winged [[sphinx]] from the [[Palace of Darius in Susa]], [[Louvre]] museum]]

Both the later dynasties of the [[Parthian Empire|Parthians]] and [[Sasanian Empire|Sasanians]] would on occasion claim Achaemenid descent. Recently there has been some corroboration for the Parthian claim to Achaemenid ancestry via the possibility of an inherited disease ([[neurofibromatosis]]) demonstrated by the physical descriptions of rulers and from the evidence of familial disease on ancient coinage.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ashrafian |first1=Hutan |title=Limb gigantism, neurofibromatosis and royal heredity in the Ancient World 2500 years ago: Achaemenids and Parthians |journal=Journal of Plastic, Reconstructive & Aesthetic Surgery |date=April 2011 |volume=64 |issue=4 |pages=557 |doi=10.1016/j.bjps.2010.08.025 |pmid=20832372 }}</ref>

==Government==
[[File:Map of Achaemenid Imperial Satraps (English Version).png|thumb|upright=1.6|Satrapies of the Achaemenid Empire showing their ancient names and the extent of their territory.]]
[[Cyrus the Great]] founded the empire as a multi-[[State (polity)|state]] empire, governed from four capital cities: [[Pasargadae]], [[Babylon]], [[Susa]] and [[Ecbatana]]. The Achaemenids allowed a certain amount of regional autonomy in the form of the [[satrap]]y system. A satrapy was an administrative unit, usually organized on a geographical basis. A '[[satrap]]' (governor) was the governor who administered the region, a 'general' supervised military recruitment and ensured order, and a 'state secretary' kept the official records. The general and the state secretary reported directly to the satrap as well as the central government. At differing times, there were between 20 and 30 satrapies.

Cyrus the Great created an organized army including the [[Persian Immortals|Immortals]] unit, consisting of 10,000 highly trained soldiers{{sfn|Briant|2002|p=261}} Cyrus also formed an innovative [[postal system]] throughout the empire, based on several relay stations called [[Chapar Khaneh]].<ref>Herodotus, trans. A. D. Godley, vol. 4, book 8, verse 98, pp. 96–97 (1924).</ref>

[[Persepolis Administrative Archives]] provide many insights into the Achaemenid government system. Found at [[Persepolis]] in the 1930s, they are mostly in [[Achaemenid Elamite|Elamite]]; the remains of more than 10,000 of these cuneiform documents have been uncovered. [[Imperial Aramaic|Aramaic]] is represented by about 1,000 or more original records.<ref>[https://oi.uchicago.edu/research/projects/persepolis-fortification-archive Persepolis Fortification Archive.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160929234803/http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/projects/persepolis-fortification-archive |date=29 September 2016 }} Oriental Institute – The University of Chicago</ref> Only one tablet in [[Old Persian language|Old Persian]] has been identified so far.<ref>Stolper, Matthew W. and Tavernier, Jan (2007), [http://www.achemenet.com/document/2007.001-Stolper-Tavernier.pdf From the Persepolis Fortification Archive Project, 1: An Old Persian Administrative Tablet from the Persepolis Fortification.]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220920045714/http://www.achemenet.com/document/2007.001-Stolper-Tavernier.pdf|date=20 September 2022}}. ''ARTA'' 2007.001.</ref>

Also, many seals and seal impressions are found in these Persepolis archives. These documents represent administrative activity and flow of data in Persepolis over more than fifty consecutive years (509–457 BC).

===Coinage===
{{Main|Achaemenid coinage}}

[[File:Double daric 330-300 obverse CdM Paris.jpg|thumb|right|[[Daric]] of Artaxerxes II]]
The Persian [[daric]] was the first [[gold coin]] which, along with a similar silver coin, the [[siglos]], introduced the bimetallic [[monetary standard]] of the Achaemenids, which has continued until today.<ref name="iranica">{{Encyclopædia Iranica Online|volume=7|fascicle=1|title=Daric|last=Alram|first=Michael|pages=36–40|url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/daric/}}</ref> This was accomplished by [[Darius I]], who reinforced the empire and expanded [[Persepolis]] as a ceremonial capital;<ref>{{multiref|1={{cite book|title=Persepolis Recreated|publisher=NEJ International Pictures|edition=1st|year=2005|isbn=978-964-06-4525-3|first1=Farzin|last1=Rezaeian}}|2=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCwxJsk14e4{{Dead link|date=June 2025}}{{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210512055818/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCwxJsk14e4 |date=12 May 2021 }}}}</ref> he revolutionized the economy by placing it on the silver and gold coinage.

===Tax districts===
{{see also|Districts of the Achaemenid Empire}}
[[File:Tribute in the Achaemenid Empire.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|[[Districts of the Achaemenid Empire|Volume of annual tribute per district]], in the Achaemenid Empire, according to [[Herodotus]].<ref name=HIII>Herodotus [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Herodotus/3D*.html Book III, 89–95] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221129133022/https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Herodotus/3D%2A.html |date=29 November 2022 }}</ref><ref name=ZA>{{cite book |last1=Archibald |first1=Zosia |last2=Davies |first2=John K. |last3=Gabrielsen |first3=Vincent |title=The Economies of Hellenistic Societies, Third to First Centuries BC |date=2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-958792-6 |page=404 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w9YUDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA404 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Iranica - Achaemenid Relations">{{Encyclopædia Iranica Online|volume=8|fascicle=1|title=INDIA iii. Political and Cultural Relations: Achaemenid period|last=Callieri|first=Pierfrancesco|pages=10–13|url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/india-iii-relations-achaemenid-period/}}</ref>]]

Darius also introduced a regulated and sustainable tax system that was precisely tailored to each satrapy, based on their supposed productivity and their economic potential. For instance, [[Babylon]] was assessed for the highest amount and for a startling mixture of commodities – 1,000 [[Talent (measurement)|silver talents]], four months' supply of food for the army. [[Hindush|India]] was clearly already fabled for its gold; [[Egypt]] was known for the wealth of its crops; it was to be the granary of the Persian Empire (as later of Rome's) and was required to provide 120,000 measures of grain in addition to 700 talents of silver. This was exclusively a tax levied on subject peoples.<ref name="historyworld.net">{{cite web|url=http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=aa65 |title=History of Iran (Persia) |publisher=Historyworld.net |access-date=7 January 2011}}</ref> There is evidence that conquered and rebellious enemies could be sold into slavery.<ref>[[Muhammad Dandamayev|M. Dandamayev]], "Foreign Slaves on the Estates of the Achaemenid Kings and their Nobles", in Trudy dvadtsat' pyatogo mezhdunarodnogo kongressa vostokovedov II, Moscow, 1963, pp. 151–152</ref> Alongside its other innovations in administration and taxation, the Achaemenids may have been the first government in the ancient Near East to register private slave sales and tax them using an early form of [[sales tax]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Stolper |first1=Matthew W. |title=Registration and Taxation of Slave Sales in Achaemenid Babylonia |journal=Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie |date=1989 |volume=79 |issue=1 |doi=10.1515/zava.1989.79.1.80 }}</ref>

Other accomplishments of Darius' reign included the codification of the ''dāta'' (a universal legal system which would become the basis of later Iranian law), and the construction of a new capital at [[Persepolis]].<ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Nyrop |editor-first1=Richard F.  |title=Iran, a Country Study |date=1978 |publisher=American University (Washington, D.C. ) Foreign Area |pages=25–26 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lvvrt670CB8C&pg=PA25 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Encyclopædia Iranica Online|volume=7|fascicle=1|title=Dāta|last=Schmitt|first=Rüdiger|pages=114–115|url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/data/}}</ref>

=== Transportation and communication ===
Under the Achaemenids, trade was extensive and there was an efficient infrastructure that facilitated the exchange of commodities in the far reaches of the empire. Tariffs on trade, along with agriculture and tribute, were major sources of revenue for the empire.<ref name="historyworld.net" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.1902encyclopedia.com/D/DAR/darius-i-the-great.html|title=Darius I (Darius the Great), King of Persia (from 521 BC)|publisher=1902encyclopedia.com|access-date=7 January 2011}}</ref>
[[File:Khalili Collection Aramaic Documents IA 6F.jpg|thumb|Letter from the Satrap of Bactria to the governor of Khulmi, concerning camel keepers, 353 BC]]
[[File:Tuyserkan-Ganjnameh Road (2022).jpg|thumb|Part of the royal road that connected Ecbatana to Anatolia, this road is still in use today.]]
The satrapies were linked by a 2,500-kilometer highway, the most impressive stretch being the [[Royal Road]] from [[Susa]] to [[Sardis]], built under the command of [[Darius the Great|Darius I]]. It connected the [[Iranian plateau|Iranian Plateau]] to [[Central Asia]] and the Mediterranean.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Daryaee |first=Touraj |title=The Oxford Handbook of Iranian History |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-0199390427 |pages=4}}</ref> It featured stations and [[caravanserai]]s at specific intervals. The relays of mounted couriers (the [[angarium]]) could reach the remotest of areas in fifteen days. Herodotus observes that "there is nothing in the world that travels faster than these Persian couriers. Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these courageous couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."<ref>The words are actually inscribed on the [[frieze]] of the [[James A. Farley Post Office Building]] in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The inscription is based on: Herodotus with George Rawlinson, trans., ''The History of Herodotus'' (New York, New York: Tandy-Thomas Co., 1909), vol. 4, Book 8, § 98, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uva.x000329532;view=1up;seq=163 p. 147.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308112106/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uva.x000329532;view=1up;seq=163 |date=8 March 2021 }}</ref> Despite the relative local independence given by the satrapy system, royal inspectors, the "eyes and ears of the king", toured the empire and reported on local conditions.{{citation needed|date=January 2018}}

Another highway of commerce was the [[Khurasan Road|Great Khorasan Road]], an informal mercantile route that originated in the fertile lowlands of Mesopotamia and snaked through the Zagros highlands, through the Iranian plateau and Afghanistan into the Central Asian regions of [[Samarkand]], [[Merv]] and [[Fergana Valley|Ferghana]], allowing for the construction of frontier cities like [[Cyropolis]]. Following Alexander's conquests, this highway allowed for the spread of cultural syncretic fusions like [[Greco-Buddhism]] into Central Asia and China, as well as empires like the [[Kushan Empire|Kushan]], [[Indo-Greek Kingdom|Indo-Greek]] and [[Parthian Empire|Parthian]] to profit from trade between East and West. This route was greatly rehabilitated and formalized during the [[Abbasid Caliphate]], during which it developed into a major component of the famed [[Silk Road]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/content/diary-young-explorers-iran-and-royal-road|title=The Diary of Young Explorers: Iran and the Royal Road {{!}} Silk Roads|website=en.unesco.org|access-date=2020-04-11}}</ref>

==Military==
Despite its humble origins in Persis, the empire reached an enormous size under the leadership of [[Cyrus the Great]]. Cyrus created a multi-state empire where he allowed regional rulers, [[satrap]]s, to rule as his proxy over a certain designated area of his empire called a [[satrapy]]. The basic rule of governance was based upon loyalty and obedience of each satrapy to the central power, or the king, and compliance with tax laws.<ref name=cyv>{{cite book| author = Palmira Johnson Brummett |author2=Robert R. Edgar |author3=Neil J. Hackett|author4=Robert R. Edgar|author5=Neil J. Hackett| title = Civilization past & present, Volume 1| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Vz65MAm_6JMC| year = 2003| publisher = Longman| isbn = 978-0-321-09097-3| page = 38}}</ref> Due to the ethno-cultural diversity of the subject nations under the rule of Persia, its enormous geographic size, and the constant struggle for power by regional competitors,<ref name=book/> the creation of a professional army was necessary for both maintenance of the peace and to enforce the authority of the king in cases of rebellion and foreign threat.<ref name=schmitt/>{{sfn|Briant|2002|p=261}} Cyrus managed to create a strong land army, using it to advance in his campaigns in [[Babylonian empire|Babylonia]], Lydia, and [[Asia Minor]], which after his death was used by his son [[Cambyses II]], in [[Ancient Egypt|Egypt]] against [[Psamtik III]]. Cyrus would die battling a local Iranian insurgency in the empire, before he could have a chance to develop a naval force.<ref>''A history of Greece'', Vol. 2, by Connop Thirlwall, Longmans, 1836, p. 174</ref> That task would fall to [[Darius the Great|Darius I]], who would officially give Persians their own royal navy to allow them to engage their enemies on multiple seas of this vast empire, from the [[Black Sea]] and the [[Aegean Sea]], to the [[Persian Gulf]], [[Ionian Sea]] and the [[Mediterranean Sea]].{{citation needed|date=January 2018}}

===Ethnic composition===
[[File:Xerxes all ethnicities.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Relief of throne-bearing soldiers in their native clothing at the tomb of [[Xerxes I]], demonstrating the satrapies under his rule.]]
The empire's great armies were, like the empire itself, very diverse, having:{{efn|All peoples listed (except for the [[Caucasian Albania]]ns) are the ones that took part in the [[Second Persian invasion of Greece]].<ref>Herodotus [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126;query=chapter%3D%231123;layout=;loc=7.60.1 VII, 59] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221129133018/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&redirect=true |date=29 November 2022 }}</ref> The total amount of ethnicities could very well amount to much more.{{citation needed|date=January 2018}}}} [[Persian people|Persians]],<ref name="vii-84">Herodotus [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&layout=&loc=7.84.1 VII, 84] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080506154130/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&layout=&loc=7.84.1 |date=6 May 2008 }}</ref> [[Macedon]]ians,<ref name="books.google.nl"/> European [[Thrace|Thracians]], [[Paionia|Paeonians]], [[Medes]], Achaean [[Greeks]], [[Khuzistan|Cissians]], [[Hyrcanians]],<ref name="vii-62">Herodotus [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&layout=&loc=7.62.1 VII, 62] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080506153822/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&layout=&loc=7.62.1 |date=6 May 2008 }}</ref> [[Achaemenid Assyria|Assyrians]], [[Chaldea]]ns,<ref name="vii-63">Herodotus [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&layout=&loc=7.63.1 VII, 63] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080506153833/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&layout=&loc=7.63.1 |date=6 May 2008 }}</ref> [[Bactria]]ns, [[Sacae]],<ref name="vii-64">Herodotus [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&layout=&loc=7.64.1 VII, 64] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221129133025/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&redirect=true |date=29 November 2022 }}</ref> [[Aria (satrapy)|Arians]], [[Parthia]]ns, [[Caucasian Albania]]ns,<ref name="Chaumont">{{Encyclopædia Iranica Online|volume=1|fascicle=8|title=Albania|last=Chaumont|first=Marie Louise|pages=806–810|url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/albania-iranian-aran-arm/}}</ref> [[Khwarezm|Chorasmians]], [[Sogdiana|Sogdians]], [[Gandhara|Gandarans]], [[Daradas|Dadicae]],<ref name="vii-66">Herodotus [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&layout=&loc=7.66.1 VII, 66] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080506153916/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&layout=&loc=7.66.1 |date=6 May 2008 }}</ref> [[Caspians]], [[Drangiana|Sarangae]], [[Pashtun people|Pactyes]],<ref name="vii-67">Herodotus [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&layout=&loc=7.67.1 VII, 67] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080506153917/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&layout=&loc=7.67.1 |date=6 May 2008 }}</ref> [[Utians]], [[Maka (satrapy)|Mycians]], [[Phoenicia]]ns, [[Yehud Medinata|Judeans]], [[Ancient Egypt|Egyptians]],<ref name="vii=89">Herodotus [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+7.89.1&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126 VII, 89] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804175531/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.%207.89.1&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126 |date=4 August 2020 }}</ref> [[Greek Cypriots|Cyprians]],<ref name="vii-90">Herodotus [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&layout=&loc=7.90.1 VII 90] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221129133027/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&redirect=true |date=29 November 2022 }}</ref> [[Cilicia]]ns, [[Pamphylia]]ns, [[Lycia]]ns, [[Dorians]] of Asia, [[Caria]]ns, [[Ionia]]ns, [[Aegean Islands|Aegean islanders]], [[Aeolis|Aeolians]], Greeks from [[Pontus (region)|Pontus]], [[Balochistan (Pakistan)|Paricanians]],<ref name="vii-68">Herodotus [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+7.68.1&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126 VII, 68] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210723133518/https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+7.68.1&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126 |date=23 July 2021 }}</ref> [[Arabian Peninsula|Arabians]], [[Ethiopia|Ethiopians of Africa]],<ref name="vii-69">Herodotus [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+7.69.1&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126 VII, 69] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200724232523/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+7.69.1&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126 |date=24 July 2020 }}</ref> [[Sistan and Baluchestan Province|Ethiopians of Baluchistan]],<ref name="vii-70">Herodotus [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+7.70.1&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126 VII, 70] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210723133542/https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+7.70.1&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126 |date=23 July 2021 }}</ref> [[Libya]]ns,<ref name="vii-71">Herodotus [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&layout=&loc=7.71.1 VII, 71] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080506154012/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&layout=&loc=7.71.1 |date=6 May 2008 }}</ref> [[Paphlagonia]]ns, [[Kutaisi|Ligyes]], [[Matiene|Matieni]], [[Bithynia|Mariandyni]], [[Cappadocia]]ns,<ref name="vii-72">Herodotus [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&layout=&loc=7.72.1 VII, 72] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080506154017/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&layout=&loc=7.72.1 |date=6 May 2008 }}</ref> [[Phrygia]]ns, [[Armenia]]ns,<ref name="vii-73">Herodotus [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&layout=&loc=7.73.1 VII, 73] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080506135017/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&layout=&loc=7.73.1 |date=6 May 2008 }}</ref> [[Lydia]]ns, [[Mysia]]ns,<ref name="vii-74">Herodotus [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&layout=&loc=7.74.1 VII, 74] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080506154038/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&layout=&loc=7.74.1 |date=6 May 2008 }}</ref> Asian [[Bithyni|Thracians]],<ref name="vii-75">Herodotus, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&layout=&loc=7.75.1 VII, 75] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080506154046/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&layout=&loc=7.75.1 |date=6 May 2008 }}</ref> [[Pisidia|Lasonii]], [[Lycia|Milyae]],<ref name="vii-77">Herodotus [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&layout=&loc=7.77.1 VII, 77] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080506154111/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&layout=&loc=7.77.1 |date=6 May 2008 }}</ref> [[Mushki|Moschi]], [[Tabal (state)|Tibareni]], [[Macrones]], [[Mossynoeci]],<ref name="vii-78">Herodotus [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+7.78.1&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126 VII, 78] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200724223706/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+7.78.1&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126 |date=24 July 2020 }}</ref> [[Trabzon|Mares]], [[Colchis|Colchians]], [[Urartu|Alarodians]], [[History of the Kurdish people|Saspirians]],<ref name="vii=79">Herodotus [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+7.79.1&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126 VII, 79] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200724224548/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+7.79.1&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126 |date=24 July 2020 }}</ref> [[Red Sea]] islanders,<ref name="vii-80">Herodotus [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&layout=&loc=7.80.1 VII, 80] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080506154124/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&layout=&loc=7.80.1 |date=6 May 2008 }}</ref> [[Sagartians]],<ref name="vii-85">Herodotus [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&layout=&loc=7.85.1 VII, 85] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080506154200/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&layout=&loc=7.85.1 |date=6 May 2008 }}</ref> [[Hindush]],<ref name="vii-65">Herodotus [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+7.65.1&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126 VII, 65] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210723133509/https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+7.65.1&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126 |date=23 July 2021 }}</ref> Eordi, [[Bottiaea|Bottiaei]], [[Chalkidiki|Chalcidians]], [[Bryges|Brygians]], [[Pieres|Pierians]], [[Perrhaebi]], Enienes, Dolopes, and [[Magnesia Prefecture|Magnesians]].{{citation needed|date=January 2018}}

=== Infantry ===
The Achaemenid infantry consisted of three groups: the [[Immortals (Persian Empire)|Immortals]], the [[Sparabara]], and the [[Takabara]], though in the later years of the Achaemenid Empire, a fourth group, the [[Cardaces]], were introduced.{{citation needed|date=January 2018}}

The [[Immortals (Persian empire)|Immortals]] were described by [[Herodotus]] as being heavy [[infantry]], led by [[Hydarnes II]], that were kept constantly at a strength of exactly 10,000 men. He claimed that the unit's name stemmed from the custom that every killed, seriously wounded, or sick member was immediately replaced with a new one, maintaining the numbers and cohesion of the unit.<ref name="livius.org2" /> They had wicker shields, short spears, swords or large daggers, and bow and arrows. Underneath their robes they wore [[scale armour]] coats. The spear counterbalances of the common soldiery were of silver; to differentiate commanding ranks, the officers' spear butt-spikes were golden.<ref name="livius.org2">{{cite web |last=Jona |first=Lendering |url=https://www.livius.org/articles/concept/immortals/ |title=Immortals|access-date=16 May 2009 |website=Livius.org |date=1997}}</ref> Surviving Achaemenid colored glazed bricks and carved reliefs represent the Immortals as wearing elaborate robes, hoop earrings and gold jewellery, though these garments and accessories were most likely worn only for ceremonial occasions.<ref>Volume IX, Encyclopædia Britannica, Fifteenth Edition 1983</ref>

[[File:Achaemenid infantry on Alexander Sarcophagus.jpg|thumb|upright|Color reconstruction of Achaemenid infantry on the [[Alexander Sarcophagus]] (end of 4th century BC).]]
The [[Sparabara]] were usually the first to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy. Although not much is known about them today, it is believed that they were the backbone of the Persian army who formed a [[shield wall]] and used their two-metre-long spears to protect more vulnerable troops such as [[Archery|archers]] from the enemy. The Sparabara were taken from the full members of Persian society, were trained from childhood to be soldiers and when not called out to fight on campaigns in distant lands they practised hunting on the vast plains of [[Persia]]. However, when all was quiet and the ''Pax Persica'' held true, the Sparabara returned to normal life farming the land and grazing their herds. Because of this, they lacked true professional quality on the battlefield, yet they were well trained and courageous to the point of holding the line in most situations long enough for a counter-attack. They were armoured with quilted [[linen]] and carried large rectangular [[wicker]] shields as a form of light maneuverable defence. This, however, left them at a severe disadvantage against heavily armoured opponents such as the [[hoplite]], and their two-metre-long spear was not able to give the Sparabara ample range to plausibly engage a trained [[phalanx]]. The wicker shields were able to effectively stop arrows but not strong enough to protect the soldier from spears. However, the Sparabara could deal with most other infantry, including trained units from the East.{{citation needed|date=January 2018}}

The Achaemenids relied heavily on [[archery]]. Major contributing nations were the [[Scythians]], [[Medes]], [[Persian people|Persians]], and the [[Elam]]ites. The [[composite bow]] was used by the Persians and Medes, who adopted it from the Scythians and transmitted it to other nations, including the Greeks.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Potts |first1=D. T. |title=The Archaeology of Elam: Formation and Transformation of an Ancient Iranian State |date=1999 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-56496-0 |page=345 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mc4cfzkRVj4C&pg=PA346 |language=en}}</ref> Achaemenid armies typically used socketed, three-bladed (also known as trilobate or Scythian) [[arrowheads]]. These arrowheads were cast from leaded tin-bronze, which made them amenable to mass-production unlike the wrought iron arrowheads of the period that had to be individually forged.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dugaw |first1=Sean |last2=Lipschits |first2=Oded |last3=Stiebel |first3=Guy D. |title=A New Typology of Arrowheads from the Late Iron Age and Persian Period and Its Historical Implications |journal=Israel Exploration Journal |date=2020 |volume=70 |issue=1 |pages=64–89 |jstor=27100276 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Yahalom-Mack |first1=Naama |last2=Herzlinger |first2=Gadi |last3=Bogdanovsky |first3=Alexander |last4=Tirosh |first4=Ofir |last5=Garfinkel |first5=Yosef |last6=Dugaw |first6=Sean |last7=Lipschits |first7=Oded |last8=Erel |first8=Yigal |date=2020 |title=Combining chemical and lead isotope analyses with 3-D geometric–morphometric shape analysis: A methodological case study of socketed bronze arrowheads from the southern Levant |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |volume=118 |article-number=105147 |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2020.105147 |bibcode=2020JArSc.118j5147Y }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Moorey |first=P. R. S. |date=1980 |title=Cemeteries of the First Millennium B.C. at Deve Hüyük, near Carchemish, salvaged by T. E. Lawrence and C. L. Woolley in 1913 |page=65 |publisher=British Archaeological Reports Limited |isbn=978-0-86054-101-1}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Delrue |first1=Parsival|date=2007 |title=Trilobate Arrowheads at Ed-Dur (U.A.E, Emirate of Umm Al-Qaiwain) |journal=Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy |volume=18 |number=2 |pages= 239–250|doi=10.1111/j.1600-0471.2007.00281.x}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=282545&partId=1&searchText=achaemenid&page=1 |website=British Museum |title=Collection online: arrow-head}}</ref>

The [[Takabara]] were a rare unit who were a tough type of [[peltasts]].<ref>{{cite book |first1=Nicholas |last1=Sekunda|date=1992 |title=The Persian Army 560–330 BC |url=https://archive.org/details/persianarmybc00seku |url-access=limited |page= [https://archive.org/details/persianarmybc00seku/page/n30 30] |publisher=Osprey Publishing |isbn=978-1-85532-250-9}}</ref> They tended to fight with their own native weapons which would have included a crescent-shaped light wickerwork [[shield]] and [[axe]]s as well as light linen cloth and [[leather]]. The Takabara were recruited from territories that incorporated modern Iran.

=== Cavalry ===
[[File:The Darius seal. Darius stands in a royal chariot below Ahura Mazda and shoots arrows at a rampant lion. From Thebes, Egypt. 6th-5th century BCE. British Museum (cropped).jpg|thumb|Seal of [[Darius the Great]] hunting in a chariot]]

The Persian cavalry was crucial for conquering nations and maintained its importance in the Achaemenid army to the last days of the Achaemenid Empire. The cavalry was separated into four groups. The [[chariot archer]]s, [[horse cavalry]], the [[camel cavalry]], and the [[Persian war elephants|war elephants]].{{citation needed|date=January 2018}}

In the later years of the Achaemenid Empire, the chariot archer had become merely a ceremonial part of the Persian army, yet in the early years of the Empire, their use was widespread. The chariot archers were armed with lances, bows, arrows, swords, and [[scale armour]]. The horses were also suited with scale armour similar to scale armour of the [[Sassanian]] [[cataphract]]s. The chariots would contain imperial symbols and decorations.

[[File:Altıkulaç_Sarcophagus_Combat_scene_(detail).jpg|thumb|Armoured cavalry: Achaemenid Dynast of [[Hellespontine Phrygia]] attacking a Greek [[psiloi]], [[Altıkulaç Sarcophagus]], early 4th century BC.]]
The horses used by the Achaemenids for cavalry were often suited with scale armour, like most cavalry units. The riders often had the same armour as Infantry units, wicker shields, short spears, swords or large daggers, bow and arrow, and scale armour coats. The camel cavalry was different, because the camels and sometimes the riders, were provided little protection against enemies, yet when they were offered protection, they would have lances, swords, bow, arrow, and scale armour. The camel cavalry was first introduced into the Persian army by [[Cyrus the Great]], at the [[Battle of Thymbra]]. The elephant was most likely introduced into the Persian army by [[Darius I]] after his [[Achaemenid invasion of the Indus Valley|conquest of the Indus Valley]]. Elephants may have been used in Greek campaigns by Darius and [[Xerxes I]], but Greek accounts only mention 15 of them being used at the [[Battle of Gaugamela]].{{citation needed|date=January 2018}}

=== Navy ===
{{main|Achaemenid navy}}

Since its foundation by Cyrus, the Persian empire had been primarily a land empire with a strong army but void of any actual naval forces. By the 5th century BC, this was to change, as the empire came across Greek and Egyptian forces, each with their own maritime traditions and capabilities. [[Darius the Great|Darius I]] was the first Achaemenid king to invest in a Persian fleet.<ref name=navy>{{cite book| author = Kaveh Farrokh| title = Shadows in the desert: ancient Persia at war| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=wywlvgAACAAJ | year = 2007 | publisher = Bloomsbury | isbn = 978-1-84603-108-3| page = 68}}</ref> Even by then no true "imperial navy" had existed either in Greece or Egypt. Persia would become the first empire, under Darius, to inaugurate and deploy the first regular imperial navy.<ref name=navy/> Despite this achievement, the personnel for the imperial navy would not come from Iran, but were often [[Phoenicia]]ns (mostly from [[Sidon]]), [[Egyptians]] and [[Greek people|Greeks]] chosen by Darius the Great to operate the empire's combat vessels.<ref name=navy/>

[[File:BeachedShipsMarathon.jpg|thumb|left|Reconstitution of Persian landing ships at the [[Battle of Marathon]].]]
At first the ships were built in Sidon by the Phoenicians; the first Achaemenid ships measured about 40 meters in length and 6 meters in width, able to transport up to 300 Persian [[Persian Immortals|troops]] at any one trip. Soon, other states of the empire were constructing their own ships, each incorporating slight local preferences. The ships eventually found their way to the Persian Gulf<ref name=navy/> and Persian naval forces laid the foundation for a strong Persian maritime presence there. Persians also had ships often of a capacity 100 to 200 troops patrolling the empire's various rivers including the [[Karun]], [[Tigris]] and [[Nile]] in the west, as well as the [[Indus River|Indus]].<ref name=navy/>

[[File:Ship dashed against ship, till the Persian Army dead strewed the deep like flowers.jpg|thumb|upright|Greek ships against Achaemenid ships at the [[Battle of Salamis]].]]
The Achaemenid navy established bases located along the Karun, and in Bahrain, Oman, and Yemen. The Persian fleet was not only used for peace-keeping purposes along the Karun but also opened the door to trade with India via the Persian Gulf.<ref name=navy/> Darius's navy was in many ways a world power at the time, but it would be [[Artaxerxes II]] who in the summer of 397 BC would build a formidable navy, as part of a rearmament which would lead to his decisive victory at [[Knidos]] in 394 BC, re-establishing Achaemenid power in [[Ionia]]. Artaxerxes II would also use his navy to later on quell a rebellion in Egypt.<ref name=navi>{{cite book| author = Elspeth R.M. Dusinberre| title = Aspects of empire in Achaemenid Sardis| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=uWkzTBHB6ekC| year = 2002| publisher = Cambridge University Press| isbn = 978-0-521-81071-5| page = 42}}</ref>

The construction material of choice was wood, but some armoured Achaemenid ships had metallic blades on the front, often meant to slice enemy ships using the ship's momentum. Naval ships were also equipped with hooks on the side to grab enemy ships, or to negotiate their position. The ships were propelled by sails or manpower. The ships the Persians created were unique. As far as maritime engagement, the ships were equipped with two [[mangonel]]s that would launch projectiles such as stones, or flammable substances.<ref name=navy/>

[[Xenophon]] describes his eyewitness account of a massive military bridge created by joining 37 Persian ships across the Tigris. The Persians used each boat's buoyancy to support a connected bridge above which supply could be transferred.<ref name=navy/> [[Herodotus]] also gives many accounts of the Persians using ships to build bridges.<ref>{{cite book|title=Encyclopaedia Iranica, Volume 4, Issues 5–8|publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul|year=1982|author=Ehsan Yar-Shater|author-link=Ehsan Yarshater|title-link=Encyclopaedia Iranica}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Persian Empire|author=John Manuel Cook|publisher=Schocken Books|year=1983|url=https://archive.org/details/persianempire0000cook/mode/2up|page=109|isbn=978-0-8052-3846-4 |quote=The Achaemenids maintained some bridges on their main routes. What we hear of is boat bridges, which seem to have been in normal use on the Tigris in Babylonia...}}</ref>

Darius I, in an attempt to subdue the [[Scythia]]n horsemen north of the Black Sea, crossed over at the [[Bosphorus]], using an enormous bridge made by connecting Achaemenid boats, then marched up to the [[Danube]], crossing it by means of a second boat bridge.<ref>{{cite book|author1=E.V. Cernenko |author2=Angus McBride |author3=M.V. Gorelik | title = The Scythians, 700–300 BC| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ozA8d9AFiMgC| date = 24 March 1983| publisher = Osprey Publishing| isbn = 978-0-85045-478-9}}</ref> The bridge over the Bosphorus essentially connected the nearest tip of Asia to Europe, encompassing at least some 1000 meters of open water if not more. Herodotus describes the spectacle, and calls it the "bridge of Darius":<ref>{{cite book| author = Herodotus |translator1=George Rawlinson |translator2=Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson |translator3=Sir John Gardner Wilkinson | title = The History of Herodotus: a new English version, Volume 3| url = https://archive.org/details/historyherodotu00unkngoog| year = 1859| publisher = John Murray| page = [https://archive.org/details/historyherodotu00unkngoog/page/n93 77] (Chp. 86)}}</ref>

{{blockquote|''Strait called Bosphorus, across which the bridge of Darius had been thrown, is hundred and twenty [[furlong]]s in length, reaching from the [[Euxine]], to the [[Propontis]]. The Propontis is five hundred furlongs across and fourteen hundred long. Its waters flow into the [[Dardanelles|Hellespont]], the length of which is four hundred furlongs&nbsp;...''}}

Years later, a similar boat bridge would be constructed by [[Xerxes I]], in his invasion of Greece. Although the Persians failed to capture the Greek city-states completely, the tradition of maritime involvement was carried down by the Persian kings, most notably Artaxerxes II. Years later, when Alexander invaded Persia and during his advancement into India, he took a page from the Persian art of war, by having [[Hephaestion]] and [[Perdiccas]] construct a similar boat-bridge at the Indus river in India in the spring of 327 BC.<ref>{{cite book| author = Waldemar Heckel| title = Who's who in the age of Alexander the Great: prosopography of Alexander's empire| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=JJ4K1wFZkrsC| year = 2006| publisher = Wiley-Blackwell| isbn = 978-1-4051-1210-9| page = 134}}</ref>

==Culture==
===Languages===
{{multiple image
| caption_align     = center
| total_width       = 352
| image1            = Corner of the Apadana Darius the Great inscription.jpg
| caption1          = Gold foundation tablets of Darius I for the [[Apadana Palace]], in their original stone box. The [[Apadana hoard|Apadana coin hoard]] had been deposited underneath {{Circa|510 BC}}.
| image2            = Deposition plate of Darius I in Persepolis.jpg
| caption2          = One of the two gold deposition plates. Two more were in silver. They all had the same trilingual inscription (DPh inscription).<ref>{{cite book |title=DPh – Livius |url=https://www.livius.org/sources/content/achaemenid-royal-inscriptions/dph/? |language=en}}</ref>
}}

During the reign of Cyrus II and Darius I, and as long as the seat of government was still at [[Susa]] in [[Elam]], the language of the chancellery was [[Elamite language|Elamite]]. This is primarily attested in the [[Persepolis Fortification Tablets|Persepolis fortification and treasury tablets]] that reveal details of the day-to-day functioning of the empire.<ref name="EIR_Dandamayev_Elamite">{{Encyclopædia Iranica Online|title=Persepolis Elamite Tablets|last=Dandamayev|first=Muhammad A.|url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/persepolis-elamite-tablets/}}</ref> In the grand rock-face inscriptions of the kings, the Elamite texts are always accompanied by [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] (Babylonian dialect) and [[Old Persian]] inscriptions, and it appears that in these cases that the Elamite texts are translations of the Old Persian ones. It is then likely that although Elamite was used by the capital government in Susa, it was not a standardized language of government everywhere in the empire. The use of Elamite is not attested after 458 BC.{{citation needed|date=January 2026}}

[[File:BehistunInscriptiondetail.jpg|thumb|A section of the [[Old Persian language|Old Persian]] part of the trilingual [[Behistun inscription]]. Other versions are in [[Babylonian language|Babylonian]] and [[Elamite language|Elamite]].]]
[[File:Aramaic translation of the behistun inscripton.png|thumb|The [[Behistun papyrus]], a copy of the Behistun inscription in [[Official Aramaic|Aramaic]] on a [[papyrus]]. Aramaic was the ''[[lingua franca]]'' of the empire.]]

Following the conquest of [[Mesopotamia]], the [[Official Aramaic|Aramaic]] language (as used in that territory) was adopted as a "vehicle for written communication between the different regions of the vast empire with its different peoples and languages. The use of a single official language, which modern scholarship has dubbed "Official Aramaic" or "Imperial Aramaic", can be assumed to have greatly contributed to the astonishing success of the Achaemenids in holding their far-flung empire together for as long as they did."<ref>{{Encyclopædia Iranica Online|volume=2|fascicle=3|title=Aramaic|last1=Greenfield|first1=Jonas C.|last2=Rosenthal|first2=Franz|last3=Shaked|first3=Shaul|pages=250–261|url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/aramaic/}}</ref>

In 1955, Richard Frye questioned the classification of Imperial Aramaic as an [[official language]], noting that no surviving edict expressly and unambiguously accorded that status to any particular language.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Frye|first1=Richard N.|author-link1=Richard N. Frye|title=Review of G.R. Driver's 'Aramaic Documents of the Fifth Century B.C.'|journal=Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies|volume=18|issue=3/4|year=1955|pages=456–61|doi=10.2307/2718444|jstor=2718444|last2=Driver|first2=G. R.}} p. 457.</ref> Frye reclassifies Imperial Aramaic as the ''[[lingua franca]]'' of the Achaemenid empire, suggesting that the use of Aramaic language in Achaemenid empire was more widespread than generally thought. Many centuries after the fall of the empire, [[Aramaic script]] and—as [[huzvarishn|ideograms]]—Aramaic vocabulary would survive as the essential characteristics of the [[Pahlavi scripts|Pahlavi writing system]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Geiger |first= Wilhelm |author2=Ernst Kuhn|year=2002|title=Grundriss der iranischen Philologie: Band I. Abteilung 1|location=Boston|publisher=Adamant|author2-link=Ernst Kuhn|author-link=Wilhelm Geiger}}{{isbn?}} pp. 249ff.</ref>

Although Old Persian also appears on some seals and art objects, that language is attested primarily in the Achaemenid inscriptions of Western Iran, suggesting then that Old Persian was the common language of that region. However, by the reign of Artaxerxes II, the grammar and orthography of the inscriptions was so "far from perfect"<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Ware |first1= James R. |last2=Kent |first2= Roland G.|title=The Old Persian Cuneiform Inscriptions of Artaxerxes II and Artaxerxes III|journal=Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association|volume=55|year=1924|pages=52–61|doi=10.2307/283007|jstor=283007}} p. 53</ref> that it has been suggested that the scribes who composed those texts had already largely forgotten the language, and had to rely on older inscriptions, which they to a great extent reproduced verbatim.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gershevitch |first1=Ilya |title=Zoroaster's Own Contribution |journal=Journal of Near Eastern Studies |date=January 1964 |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=12–38 |doi=10.1086/371754 }} p. 20.</ref>

When the occasion demanded, Achaemenid administrative correspondence was conducted in [[Old Greek|Greek]], making it a widely used [[bureaucratic]] language.<ref name="Iranian, E. Tucker 2001"/> Even though the Achaemenids had extensive contacts with the Greeks and vice versa, and had conquered many of the Greek-speaking areas both in [[Europe]] and [[Asia Minor]] during different periods of the empire, the native Old Iranian sources provide no indication of Greek linguistic influence.<ref name="Iranian, E. Tucker 2001"/> However, there is plenty of evidence (in addition to the accounts of Herodotus) that Greeks, apart from being deployed and employed in the core regions of the empire, also evidently lived and worked in the heartland of the Achaemenid Empire, namely Iran.<ref name="Iranian, E. Tucker 2001"/> For example, Greeks were part of the various ethnicities that constructed [[Darius' palace in Susa]], apart from the Greek inscriptions found nearby there, and one short Persepolis tablet written in Greek.<ref name="Iranian, E. Tucker 2001"/>

===Customs===
[[File:Persia - Achaemenian Vessels.jpg|thumb|An [[Achaemenid Persian Lion Rhyton|Achaemenid rhyton]], or drinking vessel]]
[[Herodotus]] mentions that the Persians were invited to great [[birthday]] feasts (Herodotus, ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]'' 8), which would be followed by many desserts, a treat which they reproached the Greeks for omitting from their meals. He also observed that the Persians drank wine in large quantities and used it even for counsel, deliberating on important affairs when drunk, and deciding the next day, when sober, whether to act on the decision or set it aside.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Herodotus, The Histories, Book 1, chapter 133|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0126:book=1:chapter=133|access-date=2020-11-21|website=Perseus }}</ref>

===Religion===
{{main|Religion in the Achaemenid era}}

[[Religious tolerance|Religious toleration]] has been described as a "remarkable feature" of the Achaemenid Empire.<ref name=Cambridge>{{cite book|last1=Fisher|first1=William Bayne|last2=Gershevitch|first2=I.|title=The Cambridge History of Iran|date=1968|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-20091-2|page=412|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BBbyr932QdYC&pg=PA412|language=en}}</ref> The [[Hebrew Bible]], known as [[Old Testament]] by [[Christians]], reports that Persian king [[Cyrus the Great]] released the [[Jews|Jewish people]] from the [[Babylonian captivity]] in 539–530 BC and [[Return to Zion|permitted them to return to their homeland]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Book of Ezra {{pipe}} King James Bible |url=http://www.kingjamesbibletrust.org/the-king-james-bible/ezra |publisher=Kingjamesbibletrust.org |access-date=21 March 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110510013551/http://www.kingjamesbibletrust.org/the-king-james-bible/ezra |archive-date=10 May 2011  }}</ref> Cyrus the Great assisted in the restoration of the sacred places of various cities.<ref name=Cambridge />

It was during the Achaemenid period that [[Zoroastrianism]] reached southwestern Iran, where it came to be accepted by the rulers and through them became a defining element of Persian culture. The religion was not only accompanied by a formalization of the concepts and divinities of the traditional Iranian [[Pantheon (gods)|pantheon]] but also introduced several novel ideas, including that of [[Free will in theology|free will]].<ref>{{cite book| author = A. V. Williams Jackson| title = Zoroastrian Studies: The Iranian Religion and Various Monographs (1928)| year = 2003| publisher = Kessinger Publishing| isbn = 978-0-7661-6655-4| page = 224| ol = 8060499M}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| author = Virginia Schomp| title = The Ancient Persians| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=U21j7vDhCCIC| year = 2009| publisher = Marshall Cavendish| isbn = 978-0-7614-4218-9| page = 24}}</ref>

[[Mithra]]<ref name="Malandra1983">{{cite book | author = William W. Malandra | date = 1983 | title = An Introduction to Ancient Iranian Religion: Readings from the Avesta and Achaemenid Inscriptions | publisher = U of Minnesota Press | pages = | isbn = 978-0-8166-1114-0 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=8dKeJH3f59IC}} in the Achaemenid Empire.</ref> was worshipped in the Empire;<ref name="Briant2002">{{cite book | author = Pierre Briant | date =  2002 | title = From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire | publisher = Eisenbrauns | pages = 252– | isbn = 978-1-57506-120-7 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=lxQ9W6F1oSYC&pg=PA252}}</ref><ref name="Dandamaev1989">{{cite book | author = M. A. Dandamaev | date = 1989 | title = A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire | publisher = Brill | pages = 97– | isbn = 978-90-04-09172-6 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ms30qA6nyMsC&pg=PA97}}</ref> his temples and symbols were the most widespread,<ref name="Bivar1998">{{cite book | author = A. D. H. Bivar | date = 1998 | title = The Personalities of Mithra in Archaeology and Literature | publisher = Bibliotheca Persica Press | pages = | isbn = 978-0-933273-28-3 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=vZTXAAAAMAAJ}}</ref> most people bore names related to him<ref name="AdrychBraceyDalglish2017">{{cite book | author1 = Philippa Adrych | author2 = Robert Bracey | author3 = Dominic Dalglish | author4 = Stefanie Lenk | author5 = Rachel Wood | date =  2017 | title = Images of Mithra | publisher = Oxford University Press | pages = | isbn = 978-0-19-251111-9 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=GPJ0DgAAQBAJ}}</ref> and most festivals were dedicated to him.<ref name="Perrot2013">{{cite book | author = Jean Perrot | date =  2013 | title = The Palace of Darius at Susa: The Great Royal Residence of Achaemenid Persia | publisher = Bloomsbury Academic | pages = | isbn = 978-1-84885-621-9 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=MSJXzAEACAAJ}}</ref><ref name="StojanovStoyanov2000">{{cite book | author1 = Juri P. Stojanov | author2 = Yuri Stoyanov | date = 11 August 2000 | title = The Other God: Dualist Religions from Antiquity to the Cathar Heresy | publisher = Yale University Press | pages = 77– | isbn = 978-0-300-08253-1 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Bco_AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA77}}</ref>

[[File:201312 iran Shiraz 72 (12475982935).jpg|thumb|A bas-relief of [[Farvahar]] at Persepolis]]
During the reign of [[Artaxerxes I]] and [[Darius II]], the Greek historian [[Herodotus]] wrote: "[the Persians] have no images of the gods, no temples nor altars, and consider the use of them a sign of folly. This comes, I think, from their not believing the gods to have the same nature with men, [[Ancient Greek religion|as the Greeks imagine]]."<ref name="Herodotus, I.131">Herodotus, I.131</ref> He claims the Persians offer sacrifice to: "the sun and moon, to the earth, to fire, to water, and to the winds. These are the only gods whose worship has come down to them from ancient times. At a later period, they began the worship of [[Urania]], which they borrowed from the [[Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia|Arabians]] and [[Assyria]]ns. [[Mullissu|Mylitta]] is the name by which the Assyrians know this goddess, to whom the Persians referred as [[Anahita]]."<ref name="Herodotus, I.131"/>

The Babylonian scholar and priest [[Berossus|Berosus]] records—although writing over seventy years after the reign of [[Artaxerxes II]]—that the emperor had been the first to make cult statues of divinities and have them placed in temples in many of the major cities of the empire.<ref>Berosus, III.65</ref> Berosus also substantiates Herodotus when he says the Persians knew of no images of gods until Artaxerxes II erected those images. On the means of sacrifice, Herodotus adds "they raise no altar, light no fire, pour no libations."<ref name="Herodotus, I.132">Herodotus, I.132</ref> Herodotus also observed that "no prayer or offering can be made without a [[Magi|magus]] present".<ref name="Herodotus, I.132"/>

===Women===
The position of women in the Achaemenid Empire varied depending on the culture to which they belonged and therefore differed by region. The position of Persian women in actual Persia has traditionally been described from mythological Biblical references and the sometimes biased Ancient Greek sources, neither of them fully reliable as sources, but the most reliable references are the archeological Persepolis Fortification Tablets (PFT), which describes women in connection to the royal court in Persepolis, from royal women to female laborers who were recipients of food rations at Persepolis.<ref name="Maria Brosius">{{Encyclopædia Iranica Online|title=Women i. In Pre-Islamic Persia|last=Brosius|first=Maria|url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/women-i/}}</ref>

The hierarchy of royal women at the Persian court was ranked as follows: the king's mother, then the queen, the king's daughters, the king's concubines, and the other women of the royal palace.<ref name="Maria Brosius"/> The king normally married a female member of the royal family or a Persian noblewoman related to a satrap or another important Persian man; it was permitted for members of the royal family to marry relatives, but there is no evidence for marriage between closer family members than half-siblings.<ref name="Maria Brosius"/> The king's concubines were often either slaves, sometimes prisoners of war, or foreign princesses, whom the king did not marry because they were foreigners, and whose children did not have the right to inherit the throne.<ref name="Maria Brosius"/>

Greek sources accuse the king of having hundreds of concubines secluded in a [[harem]]. There is no archeological evidence supporting the existence of a harem, or the seclusion of women from contact with men, at the Persian court.<ref name="Maria Brosius"/> The royal women joined the king at breakfast and dinner and accompanied him on his journeys.<ref name="Maria Brosius"/> They may have participated in the royal hunt, as well as during the royal banquets. [[Herodotos|Herodotus]] relates how the Persian envoys at the Macedonian court demanded the presence of women during a banquet because it was the custom for women to participate in the banquets in their own country.<ref name="Maria Brosius"/>

The queen may have attended the king's audience, and archeological evidence shows that she gave her own audiences, at least for female supplicants.<ref name="Maria Brosius"/> Royal women and noblewomen at court could travel on their own, accompanied by both male and female staff, own and manage their own fortune, land, and business.<ref name="Maria Brosius"/> Depictions of Persian women show them with long dresses and veils which did not cover their faces or their hair, only flowing down over their neck at the back of the head as an ornament.<ref name="Maria Brosius"/>

Royal and aristocratic Achaemenid women were given an education in subjects that did not appear compatible with seclusions, such as horsemanship and archery.<ref>(Ctesias, frg. 16 (56) in Jacoby, Fragmente III/C, p. 471)</ref> Royal and aristocratic women held and managed vast estates and workshops and employed large numbers of servants and professional laborers.{{sfn|Brosius|1996|pp=125–182}} Royal and aristocratic women do not seem to have lived in seclusion from men, since it is known that they appeared in public{{sfn|Brosius|1996|pp=83–93}} and traveled with their husbands,{{sfn|Brosius|1996|pp=83–93}} participated in hunting<ref>(Heracleides of Cyme apud Athenaeus, 514b)</ref> and in feasts.{{sfn|Brosius|1996|pp=94–97}} The chief wife of a royal or aristocratic man did not live in seclusion, as it is clearly stated that wives customarily accompanied their husbands at dinner banquets. They left the banquet when the "women entertainers" came in and the men began "merrymaking".<ref>(Plutarch, Moralia, 140B)</ref>

No woman ever ruled the Achaemenid Empire, as [[monarch]] or as [[regent]], but some queen's consorts are known to have had influence over the affairs of state, notably [[Atossa]] and [[Parysatis]].

There is not evidence of any women being employed as an official in the administration or within religious service; however, there are plenty of archeological evidence of women being employed as free labourers in Persepolis, where they worked alongside men.<ref name="Maria Brosius"/> Women could be employed as the leaders of their workforce, known by the title ''arraššara pašabena'', which were then given a higher salary than the male workers of their workforce.<ref name="Maria Brosius"/> Female laborers were given less than men. Qualified workers within the crafts were given equal pay regardless of their sex.<ref name="Maria Brosius"/> Women are abundant in religious context in the cuneiform sources from late Achaemenid and Hellenistic [[Babylon]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Debourse |first1=Céline |chapter=Women in Cultic Functions in Late Achaemenid and Hellenistic Babylon |pages=147–158 |chapter-url={{GBurl|8bJfEQAAQBAJ|p=147}} |editor1-last=Dolansky |editor1-first=Shawna |editor2-last=Shectman |editor2-first=Sarah |title=The Bloomsbury Handbook of Religion, Gender, and Sexuality in the Ancient Near East |date=2025 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-350-38202-2 }}</ref>

===Architecture and art===
{{Main|Achaemenid architecture}}

[[File:History History Travel from Shiraz to Isfahan, Iran (26376451617).jpg|thumb|The ruins of Persepolis]]
Achaemenid architecture included large cities, temples, palaces, and [[mausolea]] such as the [[Tomb of Cyrus the Great]]. The quintessential feature of its architecture was its eclectic nature, with elements of Median, Assyrian, and Asiatic Greek all incorporated, yet maintaining a unique Persian identity seen in the finished products.<ref>{{cite book| author = Charles Henry Caffin| title = How to study architecture| url = https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_HnoWAAAAYAAJ| year = 1917| publisher = Dodd, Mead and Company| page = [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_HnoWAAAAYAAJ/page/n348 80]}}</ref> Its influence pervades the regions ruled by the Achaemenids, from the Mediterranean shores to India, especially with its emphasis on monumental stone-cut design and gardens subdivided by water-courses.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://theconversation.com/irans-cultural-heritage-reflects-the-grandeur-and-beauty-of-the-golden-age-of-the-persian-empire-129413|title=Iran's cultural heritage reflects the grandeur and beauty of the golden age of the Persian empire|last=MacDonald|first=Eve|website=The Conversation|date=8 January 2020 |language=en|access-date=2020-02-15}}</ref>

Achaemenid art includes [[frieze]] reliefs, metalwork such as the [[Oxus Treasure]], decoration of palaces, glazed brick masonry, fine craftsmanship (masonry, carpentry, etc.), and gardening. Although the Persians drew artists from all corners of their empire, incorporating their styles and techniques, they did not merely produce a combination of styles, but a synthesis of a new, unique Persian style.<ref>{{cite book |last1=van Lerberghe |first1=Karel |title=Immigration and Emigration Within the Ancient Near East: Festschrift E. Lipiński |date=1995 |publisher=Uitgeverij Peeters en Departement Oriëntalistiek |isbn=978-90-6831-727-5 |page=119 }}</ref>

One of the most remarkable examples of both Achaemenid architecture and art is the grand palace of [[Persepolis]], and its detailed workmanship, coupled with its grand scale. In describing the construction of the [[Palace of Darius in Susa]], [[Darius the Great]] records:
{{blockquote|text=Yaka timber was brought from [[Gandhara|Gandara]] and from [[Carmania (region)|Carmania]]. The gold was brought from [[Sardis]] and from [[Bactria]]&nbsp;... the precious stone lapis-lazuli and carnelian&nbsp;... was brought from [[Sogdiana]]. The turquoise from [[Chorasmia]], the silver and ebony from [[Egypt]], the ornamentation from [[Ionia]], the ivory from [[Ethiopia]] and from [[Sindh]] and from [[Arachosia]]. The stone-cutters who wrought the stone were Ionians and [[Sardis|Sardians]]. The goldsmiths were [[Medes]] and [[Egyptians]]. The men who wrought the wood were Sardinians and Egyptians. The men who wrought the baked brick were Babylonians. The men who adorned the wall, those were Medes and Egyptians.
|author=[[Darius the Great]]
|source=[http://www.avesta.org/op/op.htm#dsf DSf inscription]
}}

<gallery>
File:History of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia and Assyria (1903) (14584070300).jpg|A reconstruction of the [[Palace of Darius in Susa]]. The palace served as a model for [[Persepolis]].
File:Lion Darius Palace Louvre Sb3298.jpg|A lion on a decorative panel from [[Darius the Great]]'s palace, [[Louvre]]
File:Nowruz Zoroastrian.jpg|An iconic relief of lion and bull fighting, [[Apadana of Persepolis]]
File:Gold cup kalardasht.jpg|An Achaemenid golden bowl with lioness imagery, [[Mazandaran]], [[National Museum of Iran]]
File:Lobed bowl with a royal inscription MET DT345459.jpg|A silver [[Patera|phiale]] with a royal inscription, reading "Artaxerxes, the great king, king of kings, king of lands, son of Xerxes the king, Xerxes son of Darius the king, the Achaemenid: in his house this silver bowl was made."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lobed bowl with a royal inscription |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/324026 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250815192504/https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/324026 |archive-date=2025-08-15 |access-date=2026-01-06 |website=[[The Metropolitan Museum of Art]] |language=en}}</ref>
</gallery>

=== Tombs ===
[[File:Iran, Persepolis, Tomb of Artaxerxes III.jpg|thumb|The tomb of [[Artaxerxes III]] in [[Persepolis]]]]
Many Achaemenid rulers built tombs for themselves. The most famous, [[Naqsh-e Rostam]], is an ancient necropolis located about 12&nbsp;km north-west of [[Persepolis]], with the tombs of four of the kings of the dynasty are carved in this mountain: [[Tomb of Darius I|Darius I]], [[Xerxes I]], [[Artaxerxes I]] and [[Darius II]]. Other kings constructed their own tombs elsewhere.<ref name="Viking">{{cite book |last1=Cotterell |first1=Arthur |title=The Penguin Encyclopedia of Classical Civilizations |date=1993 |publisher=Viking |isbn=978-0-670-82699-5 |page=162 }}</ref>

[[Artaxerxes II]] and [[Artaxerxes III]] preferred to carve their tombs beside their spring capital [[Persepolis]]. The left tomb belongs to [[Artaxerxes II]] and the right tomb belongs to [[Artaxerxes III]], the last Achaemenid king to have a tomb. The [[Tomb of Cyrus the Great|tomb]] of the founder of the Achaemenid dynasty, [[Cyrus the Great]], was built in [[Pasargadae]] (now a world heritage site).<ref name="Viking"/>

==Legacy==
[[File:The maussolleion model dsc02711-miniaturk nevit.jpg|thumb|The [[Mausoleum at Halicarnassus]], one of the [[Seven wonders of the ancient world]], was built by Greek architects for the local Persian [[satrap]] of [[Caria]], [[Mausolus]] (Scale model)]]

The Achaemenid Empire has been referred to as the first  “world empire” as it contained in the words of Persian kings “many people and many languages”. The diverse groups which made up the empire enjoyed a great deal of legal and cultural autonomy.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Daryaee |first=Touraj |title=The Oxford Handbook of Iranian History |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-0199390427 |pages=120}}</ref> The Achaemenid Empire has also left a lasting impression on the heritage and cultural identity of Asia and the Middle East, and influenced the development and structure of future [[empire]]s. In fact, the Greeks, and later on the Romans, adopted the best features of the Persian method of governing an empire.<ref>"Mastering World History" by Philip L. Groisser, New York, 1970, p.&nbsp;17</ref>

The Persian model of governance was particularly formative in the expansion and maintenance of the [[Abbasid Caliphate]], whose rule is widely considered the period of the [[Islamic Golden Age]]. Like the ancient Persians, the Abbasid dynasty centered their vast empire in Mesopotamia (at the newly founded cities of [[Baghdad]] and [[Samarra]], close to the historical site of Babylon), derived much of their support from Persian aristocracy and heavily incorporated the Persian language and architecture into Islamic culture.<ref name="Hovannisian">{{Cite book|last1=Hovannisian|first1=Richard G.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=39XZDnOWUXsC&q=abbasid+and+achaemenid&pg=PA81|title=The Persian Presence in the Islamic World|last2=Sabagh|first2=Georges|last3=Yāršātir|first3=Iḥsān|date=1998|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-59185-0|language=en}}</ref>

The Achaemenid Empire is noted in Western history as the antagonist of the [[polis|Greek city-states]] during the [[Greco-Persian Wars]] and for the emancipation of the [[Babylonian captivity|Jewish exiles in Babylon]]. The historical mark of the empire went far beyond its territorial and military influences and included cultural, social, technological and religious influences as well. For example, many [[Athens|Athenians]] adopted Achaemenid customs in their daily lives in a reciprocal cultural exchange,<ref>{{cite book| author = Margaret Christina Miller| title = Athens and Persia in the Fifth Century BC: A Study in Cultural Receptivity| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=oGXMMD5rXBQC| year = 2004| publisher = Cambridge University Press| isbn = 978-0-521-60758-2| page = 243}}</ref> some being employed by or allied to the Persian kings. The impact of the [[Edict of Cyrus]] is mentioned in Judeo-Christian texts, and the empire was instrumental in the spread of [[Zoroastrianism]] as far east as China. The empire also set the tone for the [[politics]], heritage and [[history]] of [[Iran]] (also known as Persia).<ref>{{cite book|title=Birth of the Persian Empire|author1=Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis |author2=Sarah Stewart |publisher=I.B.Tauris|year=2005|page=7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a0IF9IdkdYEC&pg=PA7|isbn=978-1-84511-062-8}}</ref>

Historian [[Arnold J. Toynbee|Arnold Toynbee]] regarded Abbasid society as a "reintegration" or "reincarnation" of Achaemenid society, as the synthesis of Persian, Turkic and Islamic modes of governance and knowledge allowed for the spread of [[Persianate society|Persianate culture]] over a wide swath of Eurasia through the Turkic-origin [[Seljuk Empire|Seljuq]], [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]], [[Safavid Iran|Safavid]] and [[Mughal Empire|Mughal]] empires.<ref name="Hovannisian" /> Historian [[Bernard Lewis]] writes,

<blockquote>The work of Iranians can be seen in every field of cultural endeavor, including Arabic poetry, to which poets of Iranian origin composing their poems in Arabic made a very significant contribution. In a sense, Iranian Islam is a second advent of Islam itself, a new Islam sometimes referred to as Islam-i-Ajam. It was this Persian Islam, rather than the original Arab Islam, that was brought to new areas and new peoples: to the Turks, first in Central Asia and then in the Middle East in the country which came to be called Turkey, and of course to India. The Ottoman Turks brought a form of Iranian civilization to the walls of Vienna. [...] By the time of the great Mongol invasions of the thirteenth century, Iranian Islam had become not only an important component; it had become a dominant element in Islam itself, and for several centuries the main centers of the Islamic power and civilization were in countries that were, if not Iranian, at least marked by Iranian civilization ... The major centers of Islam in the late medieval and early modern periods, the centers of both political and cultural power, such as India, Central Asia, Iran, Turkey, were all part of this Iranian civilization.<ref>{{cite book |title=From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting the Middle East |url=https://archive.org/details/frombabeltodrago00lewi |url-access=registration |first=Bernard |last=Lewis |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2004 |page=[https://archive.org/details/frombabeltodrago00lewi/page/44 44] |isbn=978-0-19-517336-9}}</ref></blockquote>

[[Georg W. F. Hegel]] in his work ''[[Lectures on the Philosophy of History|The Philosophy of History]]'' introduces the Persian Empire as the "first empire that passed away" and its people as the "first historical people" in history. According to his account:

<blockquote>The Persian Empire is an empire in the modern sense—like that which existed in Germany, and the great imperial realm under the sway of Napoleon; for we find it consisting of a number of states, which are indeed dependent, but which have retained their own individuality, their manners, and laws. The general enactments, binding upon all, did not infringe upon their political and social idiosyncrasies, but even protected and maintained them; so that each of the nations that constitute the whole, had its own form of constitution. As light illuminates everything—imparting to each object a peculiar vitality—so the Persian Empire extends over a multitude of nations, and leaves to each one its particular character. Some have even kings of their own; each one its distinct language, arms, way of life and customs. All this diversity coexists harmoniously under the impartial dominion of Light&nbsp;... a combination of peoples—leaving each of them free. Thereby, a stop is put to that barbarism and ferocity with which the nations had been wont to carry on their destructive feuds.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Philosophy of History |author=George W.F. Hegel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GbxWvCCUdD8C |isbn=978-1-60206-438-6|year=2007|publisher=Cosimo }}</ref></blockquote>

[[Will Durant]], the American historian and philosopher, during one of his speeches, "Persia in the History of Civilization", as an address before the ''[[Iran–America Society]]'' in [[Tehran]] on 21 April 1948, stated:

<blockquote>For thousands of years Persians have been creating beauty. Sixteen centuries before Christ there went from these regions or near it&nbsp;... You have been here a kind of watershed of civilization, pouring your blood and thought and art and religion eastward and westward into the world&nbsp;... I need not rehearse for you again the achievements of your Achaemenid period. Then for the first time in known history an empire almost as extensive as the United States received an orderly government, a competence of administration, a web of swift communications, a security of movement by men and goods on majestic roads, equalled before our time only by the zenith of Imperial Rome.<ref>{{cite web|last=Durant|first=Will|title=Persia in the History of Civilization|url=http://www.mazdapublisher.com/Documents/Persian%20Civilization.pdf|website=Addressing 'Iran-America Society|publisher=Mazda Publishers, Inc.|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723072146/http://www.mazdapublisher.com/Documents/Persian%20Civilization.pdf|archive-date=23 July 2011}}</ref></blockquote>

==Rulers==
[[File:Achamenid-dynasty-timeline.png|upright=3.4|Achamenid dynasty timeline]]

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! style="width:120px;"| Name
! Image
! Comments
! Dates
|-
|[[Achaemenes]]
|
|First ruler of the Achaemenid kingdom and founder of the dynasty. Attested to only by the Behistun Inscription.
|705 BC
|-
|[[Teispes]]
|
|Son of Achaemenes. Attested to only by the Behistun Inscription.
|640 BC
|-
|[[Cyrus I]]
|[[File:Cyrus I on horseback, seal.png|100px]]
|Son of Teispes, first Achaemenid ruler with attestation.
|580 BC
|-
|[[Cambyses I]]
|
|Son of Cyrus I and father of Cyrus II. No records from his reign survive.
|550 BC
|-
| [[Cyrus II]]
| 
| Transformed the dynasty into an empire; King of the "four corners of the world"
| 560–530 BC
|-
| [[Cambyses II]]
| [[File:Cambyses II of Persia.jpg|130x130px]]
| [[List of kings of Persia|King of Persia]] in addition to [[List of pharaohs|Pharaoh of Egypt]]
| 530–522 BC
|-
| [[Bardiya]]
| [[File:Gaumata portrait on the Behistun inscription.jpg|100px]]
| [[List of kings of Persia|King of Persia]], allegedly an impostor named Gaumata. 
| 522 BC
|-
| [[Darius I]]
| [[File:Darius I (The Great).jpg|125x125px]]
| [[List of kings of Persia|King of Persia]] in addition to [[List of pharaohs|Pharaoh of Egypt]]. Cousin of Cambyses II and Bardiya.
| 522–486 BC
|-
| [[Xerxes I]]
| [[File:National Museum of Iran Darafsh (784).JPG|150x150px]]
| [[List of kings of Persia|King of Persia]] in addition to [[List of pharaohs|Pharaoh of Egypt]]
| 486–465 BC
|-
| [[Artaxerxes I of Persia|Artaxerxes I]]
| [[File:Relief of Artaxerxes I, from his tomb in Naqsh-e Rustam.jpg|138x138px]]
| [[List of kings of Persia|King of Persia]] in addition to [[List of pharaohs|Pharaoh of Egypt]]
| 465–424 BC
|-
| [[Xerxes II]]
|[[File:Coin of Achaemenid Empire (Xerxes II to Artaxerxes II) (Cropped).jpg|106x106px]]
| [[List of kings of Persia|King of Persia]] in addition to [[List of pharaohs|Pharaoh of Egypt]]. Assassinated by his half-brother and successor, Sogdianus.
| 424 BC (45 days)
|-
| [[Sogdianus of Persia|Sogdianus]]
|[[File:Daric coin of the Achaemenid Empire (Xerxes II to Artaxerxes II) (Cropped).jpg|100x100px]]
| [[List of kings of Persia|King of Persia]] in addition to [[List of pharaohs|Pharaoh of Egypt]]
| 424–423 BC
|-
| [[Darius II]]
| [[File:Darius II (reduced shadow).jpg|100px]]
| [[List of kings of Persia|King of Persia]] in addition to [[List of pharaohs|Pharaoh of Egypt]]. His birth name was Ochus.
| 423–405 BC
|-
| [[Artaxerxes II of Persia|Artaxerxes II]]
| [[File:Artaxerxes II relief portrait detail.jpg|121x121px]]
| [[List of kings of Persia|King of Persia]]. Ruling for 47 years, Artaxerxes II was the longest reigning Achaemenid king. His birth name was Arses.
| 405–358 BC
|-
| [[Artaxerxes III]]
| [[File:Rock relief of Artaxerxes III in Persepolis.jpg|133x133px]]
| [[List of kings of Persia|King of Persia]] in addition to [[List of pharaohs|Pharaoh of Egypt]], having re-conquered the land after it was lost during the reign of Artaxerxes II. His birth name was Ochus.
| 358–338 BC
|-
| [[Artaxerxes IV]]
|[[File:Artaxerxes IV Arses.jpg|100px]]
| [[List of kings of Persia|King of Persia]] in addition to [[List of pharaohs|Pharaoh of Egypt]]. His birth name was Arses. 
| 338–336 BC
|-
| [[Darius III]]
| [[File:Darius III mosaic.jpg|frameless|107x107px]]
| [[List of kings of Persia|King of Persia]] in addition to [[List of pharaohs|Pharaoh of Egypt]]; last ruler of the empire. His birth name was either Artashata or Codomannus.
| 336–330 BC
|}

==See also==
* [[List of rulers of the pre-Achaemenid kingdoms of Iran]]
* [[List of Zoroastrian states and dynasties]]

== Explanatory notes ==
{{notelist|30em}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

=== Sources ===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book |last=Briant |first=Pierre |year=2002 |title=From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire |publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press |isbn=978-1-57506-031-6 |author-link=Pierre Briant }}
* {{cite book |last1=Brosius |first1=Maria |title=Women in Ancient Persia, 559-331 BC |date=1996 |publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn=978-0-19-815009-1 }}
* {{cite book |last=Brosius |first=Maria |year=2006 |title=The Persians |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-32089-4 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Brosius |first1=Maria |title=A History of Ancient Persia: The Achaemenid Empire |date=2020 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-4443-5092-0 }}
* {{cite thesis |last=Heidorn |first=Lisa Ann |year=1992 |title=The Fortress of Dorginarti and Lower Nubia during the Seventh to Fifth Centuries B.C. |type=PhD |publisher=University of Chicago |id={{ProQuest|275736184}} |oclc=28133807 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Howe |first1=Timothy |last2=Reames |first2=Jeanne |year=2008 |title=Macedonian Legacies: Studies in Ancient Macedonian History and Culture in Honor of Eugene N. Borza |publisher=Regina Books |isbn=978-1-930053-56-4 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Kuhrt |first=Amélie |author-link=Amélie Kuhrt |year=1983 |title=The Cyrus Cylinder and Achaemenid Imperial Policy |journal=Journal for the Study of the Old Testament |volume=8 |issue=25 |pages=83–97 |doi=10.1177/030908928300802507 }}
* {{cite book |last=Kuhrt |first=Amélie |author-link=Amélie Kuhrt |year=2013 |title=The Persian Empire: A Corpus of Sources from the Achaemenid Period |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-01694-3  }}
* {{cite book |last=Olmstead |first=A.T. |title=History of the Persian Empire |publisher=University of Chicago Press  |year=2022 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Lavan |first1=Myles |last2=Payne |first2=Richard E. |last3=Weisweiler |first3=John |title=Cosmopolitanism and Empire: Universal Rulers, Local Elites, and Cultural Integration in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean |chapter=Cosmopolitan Politics: The Assimilation and Subordination of Elite Cultures |date=2016 |pages=1–28 |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190465667.003.0001 |isbn=978-0-19-046566-7 }}
* {{cite book |last=Tavernier |first=Jan |year=2007 |title=Iranica in the Achaeamenid Period (ca. 550–330 B.C.): Lexicon of Old Iranian Proper Names and Loanwords, Attested in Non-Iranian Texts |publisher=Peeters Publishers |isbn=978-90-429-1833-7 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Wallinga |first=Herman |year=1984 |title=The Ionian Revolt |journal=Mnemosyne |volume=37 |issue=3/4 |pages=401–437|doi=10.1163/156852584X00619 }}
* {{cite book |last=Wiesehöfer |first=Josef |translator-last=Azodi |translator-first=Azizeh |year=2001 |title=Ancient Persia |publisher=I.B. Tauris |isbn=978-1-86064-675-1 |author-link=Josef Wiesehöfer }}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |editor1-last=Achenbach |editor1-first=Reinhard |title=Persische Reichspolitik und lokale Heiligtümer |year=2019 |publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag |location=Wiesbaden |isbn=978-3-447-11319-9}}
* {{cite book |last=Dandamaev |first=M. A. |author-link=Muhammad Dandamayev |year=1989 |title=A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-09172-6 }}
* {{cite book |last=Kosmin |first=Paul J. |author-link=Paul J. Kosmin |year=2014 |title=The Land of the Elephant Kings: Space, Territory, and Ideology in Seleucid Empire |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-72882-0 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Nagel |first1=Alexander |title=Color and meaning in the art of Achaemenid Persia |date=2023 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge; New York; Port Melbourne |isbn=978-1-00-936129-3 }}
* {{cite book |last=Olmstead |first=Albert T. |year=1948 |title=History of the Persian Empire |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.532747 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-62777-9 }}
* {{cite book |editor1-first=Michael |editor1-last=Kozuh |editor2-first=Wouter F. M. |editor2-last=Henkelman |editor3-first=Charles E. |editor3-last=Jones |editor4-first=Christopher |editor4-last=Woods |date=2014 |title=Extraction & Control: Studies in Honor of Matthew W. Stolper |series=Studies In Ancient Oriental Civilization Volume 68 |url=https://isac.uchicago.edu/research/publications/saoc/saoc-68-extraction-control-studies-honor-matthew-w-stolper |lccn=2013956374 |isbn=978-1-61491-001-5 }}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{Wiktionary|Achaemenid Empire}}
* [http://www.persiansarenotarabs.com/persian-history Persian History]
* {{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Persia |volume=21 |pages=187–252 |short=1}}
* [https://www.livius.org/aa-ac/achaemenians/achaemenians.html Livius.org on Achaemenids] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131017093213/https://www.livius.org/aa-ac/achaemenians/achaemenians.html |date=17 October 2013 }}
* {{Encyclopædia Iranica Online|volume=5|fascicle=6|title=Čišpiš|last=Schmitt|first=Rüdiger|pages=600–601|url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/cispis-opers/}}
* [https://www.livius.org/be-bm/behistun/behistun01.html The Behistun Inscription] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303225415/http://www.livius.org/be-bm/behistun/behistun01.html |date=3 March 2016 }}
* [https://www.livius.org/aa-ac/achaemenians/inscriptions.html Livius.org on Achaemenid Royal Inscriptions] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161218193522/http://www.livius.org/aa-ac/achaemenians/inscriptions.html |date=18 December 2016 }}
* [http://www.iranchamber.com/art/articles/art_of_achaemenids.php Achaemenid art on Iran Chamber Society (www.iranchamber.com)]
* [http://www.persianempire.info/AchaemenidArchitecture.htm#tribute Photos of the tribute bearers from the 23 satrapies of the Achaemenid empire, from Persepolis]
* [http://irancollection.alborzi.com/ Coins, medals and orders of the Persian empire] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126095027/http://irancollection.alborzi.com/ |date=26 January 2021 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100502073108/http://en.tarikhema.ir/category/ancient/ancient-iran/achaemenid-empire Dynasty Achaemenid]
* [http://www.farsmovie.com/eng/index.htm Iran, The Forgotten Glory – Documentary Film About Ancient Iran (achaemenids & Sassanids)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100428091251/http://farsmovie.com/eng/index.htm |date=28 April 2010 }}
* [http://www.achemenet.com/ Achemenet] an electronic resource for the study of the history, literature and archaeology of the Persian Empire
* [http://www.virtualtourengine.com/tour.aspx?id=17&langindex=1 Persepolis Before Incursion] (Virtual tour project)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20061126081333/http://www.museum-achemenet.college-de-france.fr/ Musée achéménide virtuel et interactif (Mavi)] a "Virtual Interactive Achemenide Museum" of more than 8000 items of the Persian Empire
* [http://persianpast.com/ Persian history in detail]{{dead link|date=February 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}
* [http://samla.raa.se/xmlui/bitstream/handle/raa/3156/2007_168.pdf?sequence=1 Swedish Contributions to the Archaeology of Iran] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210722052638/http://samla.raa.se/xmlui/bitstream/handle/raa/3156/2007_168.pdf?sequence=1 |date=22 July 2021 }} Artikel i ''Fornvännen'' (2007) by Carl Nylander
{{Achaemenid Empire}}
{{Achaemenid Provinces}}
{{Ancient seafaring}}
{{Ancient Syria and Mesopotamia}}
{{Empires}}
{{Iran topics}}

[[Category:Achaemenid Empire| ]]
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