•
Vast territory
(in size or number)
•
Many peoples & cultures
Under a single authority

•
Usually formed through conquest
•
Purpose = $ and extraction of resources

Why conquer?
•
How to extract wealth?
How does one maintain an empire?
•
Direct rule? Established authorities?
How are conquered peoples affected?
•
Imposed culture? Cultural tolerance?

New Directions in Government & Society
400 300 bce
200 bce
100 bce
100-
1 bce
Greece
1-
100 ce
100 ce
200 ce
300 ce
400 ce
500 ce
Roman Republic
Mauryan
Han
Roman Empire
Gupta
Qin Sui

Legacy :
Enormous empire
Successful incorporation of different peoples
Lasted 200 years

• Scarcity of historical inscriptions
• Primarily economic records
• Greatest detail from Classical writers in Greece

It is [the Persian’s] general practice to deliberate upon affairs of weight when they are drunk; and then on the morrow, when they are sober, the decision to which they came the night before is put before them by the master of the house; and if it is then approved of, they act upon it; if not, they set it aside. Sometimes, however, they are sober at their first deliberation, but in this case they always reconsider the matter under the influence of wine.

There is no nation which so readily adopts foreign customs as the Persians. (This was the greatest weakness of the Persians, and the chief cause of their decline.) Thus, they have taken the dress of the Medes, considering it superior to their own; and in war they wear the Egyptian breastplate. As soon as they hear of any luxury, they instantly make it their own. Each of them has several wives, and a still larger number of concubines.

Other examples…
Cambyses:
What he did : conquered Egypt and attempted to legitimize his rule and gain acceptance among the people (mixed results)
What the Greek say : Cambyses slaughtered many Egyptians out of insanity, tortured and killed the Apis bull, attempted suicide, practiced incest, and regularly mocked Persian and
Egyptian customs. He stabbed the Apis bull for his pure enjoyment and to mock the Egyptians. Then he forced the priests to torture the Apis bull and put to death any priests who disobeyed. He left the bull to bleed to death in pain.
His name! Not Cambyses = Kambujiyahya

• Scarcity of historical inscriptions
• Greatest detail from Classical writers in Greece
• Exceedingly biased!
• Effeminate, pants, eunuchs, concubines, luxury, greed, laziness
• Only cared about western part of empire

• Achaemenes: started dynasty
• Cyrus
• Defeated Media
• Greeks: Persian King = Mede
• Rapid expansion of empire
• Anatolia, Babylon
• Cambyses
• Egypt not raided  true incorporation of country into Persian empire

• Darius
• Battle of Marathon in Greece
– lost
• Xerxes
• Greece = primary goal
• Herodotus: 2,617,610 men
• End of expansion

• Draws from enormous population
• State land rented to groups who, in return, provide military service
• Different skills from different cultures
• Arabian camel drivers
• Libyan charioteers
• Phoenician navy w/ Egyptain,
Cypriot, Ionian sailors
• “Immortals” – native Persians, king’s personal bodyguard

• King = absolute authority ordained by Ahura Mazda
• Satraps
• Persian governors that rule provinces and answer to king
• Local authorities

How did they handle diversity?
• First to acknowledge the variety among its people
• Successfully brought together areas with different languages, cultures, economies, sociopolitical organization