Assyrian warship
THE ASSYRIAN (700-612
BCE) AND PERSIAN (559360 BCE) EMPIRES
Assyrian King
Ashurbanipal Hunting
Lions
ASSYRIA (700-612 BCE)
• Semitic-speaking people
• Used iron weapons to establish an
empire
Modern
reproduction of
Assyrian sword
and shield
GOVERNMENT
• Ruled by kings with absolute power
• Well-organized
• Officials developed an efficient
communication system
• Sargon II was the most important
leader
Assyrian winged bull from
Sargon’s palace
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
• Created one of the world’s finest libraries
at Nineveh: Ashurbanipal
• Established Aramaic as official
language
Infantry
• Effective military
• Assyrians had the first large armies equipped
with iron weapons
• Used guerilla warfare, various siege tactics,
and terror
Assyrian battering ram
FALL OF THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
• The Chaldeans and Medes (people
who lived in the east) joined
together to conquer the Assyrians
• The fall of Nineveh preceded the fall of
the Assyrian Empire
• They divided the empire
Tablet detailing the destruction of
Nineveh
BETWEEN THE EMPIRES
• Nebuchadnezzar
• Chaldean King
• Made Babylonia the strongest city in western
Asia
• Famous hanging gardens
• Babylon fell to the Persians in 539 BC
• This marked the end of the Mesopotamian empires
• Persians adopted Assyrian military, political and
artistic inventions
Nebuchadnezzar faces off against King
Zedekiah, the last king of Judah
PERSIA (559 BCE- 360 BCE)
• Persians
• Indo-Europeans who lived in modern Iran
• Mostly nomadic
• Eventually united by one family (Achaemenids)
• Contemporaries of Greeks
• Persian Empire was massive and grew larger
than the prior Mesopotamian empires
• Established durable political and cultural traditions
• Fertile farmland and thriving trade
CYRUS THE GREAT – 559 BC
•
•
•
•
Created a powerful state through warfare
Indus River to Anatolia
Demonstrated wisdom, compassion, and mercy
Had a genuine respect for other cultures and
practiced tolerance of local customs
• Respected temples
• Jews returned to Jerusalem
DARIUS – 521 BCE
• Bodyguard for Cambyses (son of Cyrus)
and one of the Ten Thousand Immortals
• Conqueror
• Added part of India to Persian Empire
• Conquered Thrace (in Europe)
• Invaded Greek mainland
• Halted at the Battle of Marathon
• Created world’s largest empire at that time
• Government
• Strengthened
• Divided empire into 20 ethnic provinces
• Satraps: Governor
• Homelands
• Created efficient communication system
• Like the Assyrians, Darius had a secret spy force –
“King’s Eyes and Ears”
• The King had the power of life and death
• Military
• Empire’s power depended upon the military
• Included standing army of professional soldiers
• cavalry and infantry
• Effective road system
XERXES
• Son of Darius
• Stopped rebellion in Egypt and attacked
Greece
• Greece
• Battle of Thermopylae
• Battle of Salamis
• Was defeated and returned to Persia
ZOROASTRIANISM
• Persian religion Named after its prophet -Zoroaster
• Tenets
• Proto-Monotheistic: Ahura Mazda
• Humans play a role in the struggle between good and evil
• Humans are given the freedom to choose between right and
wrong
• Modern Parsis
FALL OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE
• Kings became isolated and focused on obtaining luxuries,
following Darius
• Struggles over the throne weakened the monarchy
• Family problems
• Eventually defeated by Alexander the Great
Persian archer