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Achaemenid

 

 


 History of Achaemenid dynasty 550 Bc-334 Bc

Page 1

 559-530 Bc

 
Cyrus the Great was the first Achaemenian Emperor. He founded Persia by uniting the two original Iranian Tribes- the Medes and the Persians. Although he was known to be a great conqueror, who at one point controlled one of the greatest Empires ever seen, he is best remembered for his unprecedented tolerance and magnanimous attitude towards those he defeated.

522-486 Bc
 The reign of Darius the Great marked the zenith of the Persian Empire. Upholding the tradition established by Cyrus, Darius valued the rights of all people under his rule. The following inscription appears on his tomb:
By the favor of the great god I believe in justice and abhor inequity. It is not my desire that the weak man should have wrong done to him by the mighty...
Darius' goal was to be a great law-giver and organizer. He structured the empire under the satrapy system (similar to national and local governments). He built many roads, ports, banking houses (the word "check" comes from old Persian), elaborate underground irrigation systems and a canal to link the Nile to the Red Sea (an early precursor of the Suez Canal).
In the 19th century, archeologists in Egypt discovered an inscription by Darius commemorating the completion of the Canal:
I am a Persian. I commanded to dig this canal from a river by name of Nile which flows in Egypt... After this canal was dug, ships went from Egypt through this canal to Persia, thus as was my desire.
Darius revolutionized mankind's economic activities by introducing one of the earliest (certainly the first on such a massive scale) forms of common coinage in history, the darik. This initiative, along with the standardization of weights and measures and the codification of commercial laws, stimulated world trade and elevated the Persian Empire's economy to new levels of prosperity.

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Dariush the great
Dariush the great

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