Vines, doves and peacocks

Vines, doves and peacocks

To this festival came representatives of 28 subject peoples bearing tribute to Darius, ‘king of kings’. Sculptors chiselled their images on the stone walls of the two staircases of the terrace, where they can still be seen. From Africa came Ethiopians bringing a giraffe, Somalis guiding a horse drawn chariot, and Egyptians leading a bull. From the east came Bactrians with a two-humped camel; Indians with a donkey, axes and other gifts carried in a pair of baskets suspended from a pole across a man’s shoulders; and Scythians from Samarkand, bringing daggers, bracelets and a horse. From Persia’s Greek possessions came Thracians and Macedonians bringing shields, spears and another horse. From nearer territories, came Arabs offering cloth and a one-humped camel; Assyrians with a bull; Elamites with bows, driving a lioness with two cubs; and Babylonians bearing gifts of gold and silver.

Decorative but highly formal, the spirit of Persian
art is clearly shown in the vase mounted on kneeling
rams, and the subtly smiling winged Sphinx.

The Achaemenian kings took a personal interest in forestry and agriculture. In the conquered Mediterranean lands the Persians exploited the timber, but replanted trees systematically. Darius ordered fruit trees from the fertile areas west of the Euphrates to be transplanted to Persia’s eastern satrapies. The Persians experimented with the vine, and introduced pistachios into Syria. They planted sesame in Egypt, and rice in the Tigris-Euphrates area. In the wake of Persian soldiers, white doves and peacocks made their first appearance in Europe.

Persia’s food was produced mainly on large estates worked by serfs, who were bound to the land and purchased or sold with it, and by slaves captured in war. Barley, wheat, olives and grapes were grown, and rich and poor ate fish, bread and oil, and drank wine. Cattle, sheep and goats were bred for food, and horses, mules and donkeys for the army or for transportation. Bees provided honey for sweetening matter.

The large estates were mainly self sufficient. Some of the serfs made clothing, furniture and other items of everyday life. Under the Achaemenian kings the standard of living rose in most parts of the empire. Babylon, for example, probably had a higher standard of living than Greece did at that time. Internal and external trade expanded fast as money came into general circulation. At the beginning of Xerxes’ reign (486 BC), workmen at Persepolis received a third of their pay in cash and two-thirds in goods; by the end of it (465 BC), they received two thirds of their pay in cash.

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