Achaemenid Empire: A Visual History

The Achaemenid Empire was founded by Cyrus the Great around 550 BC when he overthrew the Medes, and expanded under Cambyses and Darius I to stretch from Egypt and Thrace to the Indus. It governed some 20 satrapies through royal roads, a postal relay, coined money and tolerance of local religions, and at its height may have ruled 40 percent of the world's population. It failed to conquer Greece in 490 and 480 BC and was destroyed by Alexander the Great in 330 BC.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Achaemenid Empire. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Estimated annual tribute by region (Herodotus)

Herodotus lists 20 satrapies' assessments under Darius; India's gold is converted to silver at his rate. Rough but the only surviving imperial budget from antiquity.

Timeline of the Achaemenid Empire

1. 550 BC
   Cyrus overthrows the Medes
2. 539 BC
   Babylon fallsThe Cyrus Cylinder.
3. 525 BC
   Egypt conqueredBy Cambyses.
4. 522 BC
   Darius I seizes powerBehistun inscription.
5. 490 BC
   MarathonFirst invasion of Greece repelled.
6. 480 BC
   Thermopylae and SalamisXerxes's invasion.
7. 401 BC
   CunaxaCyrus the Younger's revolt fails; the Ten Thousand march home.
8. 334 BC
   Alexander invades
9. 331 BC
   Gaugamela
10. 330 BC
    Persepolis burned; Darius III killed

Cyrus and Cambyses

Cyrus II of Persia rebelled against his Median overlord Astyages and took Ecbatana around 550 BC, then conquered Lydia (546) and Babylon (539). His Cylinder proclaims the return of exiled peoples and their gods, and the Bible credits him with letting the Jews return to Jerusalem. He died fighting the Massagetae in 530. His son Cambyses conquered Egypt in 525.

Darius and the imperial system

Darius I seized the throne in 522 after a murky coup and spent a year suppressing revolts, recorded on the Behistun inscription. He organised the satrapies, standardised tribute, dug a canal from the Nile to the Red Sea, built Persepolis and the Royal Road from Sardis to Susa, and issued the gold daric. His invasion of Greece failed at Marathon in 490; his son Xerxes's larger invasion won at Thermopylae but lost at Salamis (480) and Plataea (479).

Long stability and sudden fall

For 150 years after Plataea the empire remained the world's greatest power, using gold to play Greek states against each other, though Egypt broke away for 60 years. Artaxerxes III reconquered it in 343. Then Alexander of Macedon crossed the Hellespont in 334, won at Granicus, Issus and Gaugamela, and burned Persepolis in 330. Darius III was murdered by his own satrap; Alexander presented himself as his avenger and heir.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Median Empire (678 BC to 549 BC)
• Neo-Babylonian Empire (626 BC to 539 BC)
• Lydia (680 BC to 546 BC)
• Macedonian Empire (359 BC to 323 BC)
• Seleucid Empire (312 BC to 63 BC)
• Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt (Saite period) (664 BC to 525 BC)
• Scythia (800 BC to 300 BC)

Wars of the same era and region

• Greco-Persian Wars (499 BC to 449 BC)
• Wars of Alexander the Great (335 BC to 323 BC)

8 surprising things about the Achaemenid Empire

1. Herodotus says the Persian couriers were stopped by 'neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night', a line later carved on New York's main post office.
2. The Cyrus Cylinder has been called the first charter of human rights, though it is really a conventional Babylonian building inscription.
3. Persepolis was never really a capital in the sense of a seat of government; the kings moved between Susa, Babylon and Ecbatana with the seasons.
4. Xerxes had the Hellespont whipped 300 times after a storm destroyed his first bridge.
5. The Persian kings claimed to rule 'many lands' and are the first rulers known to have called their state universal.
6. Aramaic, not Persian, was the empire's administrative language.
7. The Persian navy was largely Phoenician, Egyptian and Greek.
8. The empire's road system meant a message could travel from Sardis to Susa, about 2,700 km, in a week.

Sources

• Achaemenian dynasty Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Achaemenid Empire Wikipedia
• Achaemenid Empire World History Encyclopedia
• Pierre Briant, From Cyrus to Alexander (2002) Eisenbrauns

Back to all empires and wars