Conqueror of Egypt

Conqueror of Egypt

Cyrus also earned the undying gratitude of the many Jews who had been forcibly transported to Babylon over the years. He freed from their ‘Babylonian captivity’ all those Jews who wanted to return to Palestine. Following a policy of assimilation rather than domination, Cyrus made Babylon one of the four capitals of his empire, took over Nabonidus’ palace, and styled himself King of Babylon.

rising from the dusty, windswept plains of today's Iran,
still convey the might of the Persian empire in its glory
a power deliberately symbolizes in the relief of a lion
slaying a bull.

Cyrus long had the ambition to subdue Egypt, but the consolidation of his empire absorbed his energies for the ten years that followed the conquest of Babylon. In 530 BC he hurried eastwards to defend the Persian frontier against savage attackers.The eastern frontier held, but Cyrus was killed defending it. It was Cambyses, Cyrus’ son and successor, who finally launched the attack on Egypt. Weakened by treason within its own armies, Egypt capitulated in 525 BC and was reduced to the status of a Persian province. Cambyses’ thoughts then turned westward to the conquest of Carthage, but he had to abandon this ambition because his fleet was manned by Phoenician mercenaries who would not fight their Carthaginian kinsfolk. Instead, advancing up the Nile the Persian armies entered Ethiopia, but failed to capture Meroe, its capital, and had to withdraw. Towards the end of Cambyses’ reign, rebellions broke out in various parts of the empire. One Gaumata, a magian (priest of a Median cult), usurped the throne, by impersonating Bardiya, the dead brother of Cambyses. In 521 BC, having consolidated Persian power in Egypt, Cambyses turned back to Persia. But he never reached it, and scholars think he committed suicide on the way.

After Cambyses’ death, Darius, who came from another branch of the Achaemenian family, killed Gaumata and crushed the rebellions before establishing himself as King Darius I (521-486 Bc). Darius was a great organiser. Over each of the empire’s satrapies (provinces) Darius set a satrap (governor), a general, and a secretary of state. Each acted independently of the other and reported direct to the king. Inspectors, acting for the king,, visited each satrapy regularly, accompanied by troops. They were empowered to investigate the conduct of affairs as they thought fit, and to punish abuses of power by the satrap, general or secretary of state. All the satrapies (except Persia itself) paid taxes to the central government. It has been estimated that Darius received in taxes each year the equivalent of 3,500,000 gold sovereigns in cash alone. Considering the size of the empire, this amount of tax was hardly oppressive.

found in the famous Oxus treasure and now in the British Museum.

Darius was the first Persian king to mint money. His gold coin, the ‘daric’, passed as currency in many countries even outside the Persian empire. (The first king to have minted gold coins was the un fortunate Croesus of Lydia.) Apart from monetary taxes, each satrapy had to supply a stipulated quantity of goods to Persia’s central government. Egypt, for example, had to provide corn for Persia’s soldiers. Darius constructed good roads throughout the Persian empire, particularly the Royal Road between Sardis and Susa, which extended for 1,500 miles. Along these roads travelled not only soldiers and traders, but mounted couriers organized in relays, who sped royal dispatches to the remotest part of the empire in less than 15 days. By order of Darius a canal (begun and abandoned by the Egyptians) was completed to link the river Nile with the Red Sea, near the present town of Suez. The Persians also kept in good repair the Egyptian-built dam at Memphis. The empire of Darius stretched from Ethiopia to China, from the south-eastern corner of Europe to India.

set back to back and brilliant painted. The Persians
borrowed freely from nations they conquered;
.  their pillar palaces were inspired by Egyptian
architecture, the double animals follow old Elamite
and Babylonia traditions,while the masons were probably Greek.
Among the most skilled of native craftsmen must have
been the goldsmiths who made the griffin armlet.

Following the policy of Cyrus the Great, the Persians ruled their empire from more than one city: Susa was the main capital, Ecbatana the summer capital, and Babylon the winter capital. Pasargade was also a royal capital. In these capitals each king constructed new palaces and administrative centres, improving upon the work of his predecessors. Darius I began to build his imperial capital in about 520 BC, but it took about 150 years to complete; he called it Parsa, which meant ‘Persian’, so the Greeks who later conquered it called it ‘the city of the Persians’ — Persepolis. To build Persepolis, workmen constructed a terrace about 40 feet high, covering an area about 1,500 feet by 1,000 feet. Here, Darius began the construction of palaces, audience halls, administrative buildings and monuments, all to the glory of the Achaemenian kings. Its largest buildings were the Apadana (audience hall of Darius) and the Hall of a Hundred Columns (the throne hall of Xerxes I, Darius’ son and successor). Persepolis was built not as another political capital, but rather as a ceremonial shrine. It became the main centre of the New Year festival, held each spring.

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