Assyria and Persia - CCUSD 93€¢When leaders of the city Suru rebelled against Assyria and were...
Transcript of Assyria and Persia - CCUSD 93€¢When leaders of the city Suru rebelled against Assyria and were...
ASSYRIAN EMPIRE (700 BCE – 612 BCE)
• Exploited the use of iron weapons to create and expand their empire
• Assyrian kings held absolute poweroOrganized communication helped govern empire
ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
• Assyrians effective at conquering others✓100,000+ troops
✓Cavalry
✓Horse-drawn chariots
✓Advanced military tactics
✓Terror and destruction
• Not so effective at governing territory; collapsed in less than 100 years
KING ASHURBANIPAL
Terror
•When leaders of the city Suru rebelled against Assyria and were then reconquered, King Ashurbanipal of Syria wrote:
o“I built a pillar at the city gate and I flayed all the chief men who had revolted and I covered the pillar with their skins; some I walled up inside the pillar, some I impaled upon the pillar on stakes.”
• Dissidents killed or sold into slavery; populations deported and replaced with Assyrians
PERSIAN EMPIRE
• Indo-Europeans who lived in modern-day Iran
oUnited under one ruler: Cyrus “the Great”
oCyrus creates a powerful Persian state (559 BCE)
Cyrus “the Great”
• Freed the Jews and allowed them to return to Israel
• Inclusive government and society
oAllowed native peoples as government officials
• Accepted by all under his rule
PERSIAN EMPIRE
• Successors sought to expand empire
•Persian Empire reached peak under King Darius I, or Darius the Great
• Darius divides empire into 20 satrapies (provinces)
oSatraps (governors) appointed to rule each satrapy
• All subjects seen as servants to king
FALL OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE
• Successors to Darius become lazy, corrupt; increase taxes
oLoyalty to empire declines
• Persian kings were polygamous
oPlots to gain throne increase
oArtaxerxes II had 115 sons
• Weakened empire conquered by Alexander the Great
ZOROASTRIANISM
• Many Persians followed Zoroastrianism
oFounded by Zoroaster, a prophet
oMonotheistic
• Good vs evil
• Mankind given choice between good and evil
oThose that choose good achieve paradise
oThose that choose evil have souls thrown into abyss; eternity