(This article is adapted from " The Essential Asian History " published by Lao Ba in 2017)
Chapter 3, Section 4 (Total Section 13)
At the end of the previous lecture, we mentioned, Persia A The Chemenid Dynasty, also known as the First Persian Empire, destroyed the Neo-Babylonian Kingdom in 539 BC, completely ending the Mesopotamian civilization.
Today we will talk about how this powerful empire rose.
Persia refers to today's Iran area, next to Mesopotamia . Although Persia is slightly inferior to Mesopotamia in terms of civilization and development, it is still an important place in West Asia. Among them, countries such as , Elam, , and Media in the Persian region participated in the struggle for hegemony in the Mesopotamia very early.
Persians belong to the Indo-European race, that is, Aryans . In fact, the name of Persia today, "Iran", originally meant Aryan.
Around 700 BC, in the early Spring and Autumn Period of China, there was a tribal leader named Achaemenids who established a small Persian kingdom in what is now southwest Iran. Later, the Kingdom of Medes in the north became stronger. In the 7th century BC, it destroyed the Assyrian Empire together with Babylon in the 7th century BC, and its power was at its peak. Those who knew the current affairs of the Persian Kingdom were considered outstanding and submitted to the Median Kingdom. The two countries have been intermarriage for a long time, and the relationship is not bad.
Less than a hundred years later, the king of Persia was replaced by Cyrus II. Cyrus II's father was the great-grandson of Achaemenids, and his mother was the princess of Astyages , king of Media.
There have been many legends about this king. It is said that Cyrus's grandfather, King Astyages of Media, had a dream very early on that his grandson would replace Media. Therefore, in order to prevent future troubles, the old man persecuted the people many times. Rush. But as the saying goes, good people have their own destiny, and little Cyrus escaped from his grandfather's murderous hands many times.
It is also said that Cyrus had a wet nurse when he was a child, nicknamed "She-Wolf", so everyone said that Cyrus grew up drinking the milk of the she-wolf. Later, rumors spread and it became "Cyrus was raised by a she-wolf". This is exactly the same as "The she-wolf nurtured and Roman ". I don't know who copied whom.
In 559 BC, Cyrus succeeded to the throne of Persia. After succeeding to the throne, he first spent several years unifying the various tribes in Persia, and then in 553 BC, he summoned all the strong men of Persia to kill his mother's natal Media. After three years of hard fighting, Cyrus captured the Mede capital and formally established the Persian Empire in 550 BC.
In the following years, Cyrus conquered nearby Elam, Parthia, Armenia and other countries.
At that time, there were three major powers in western Asia: the Kingdom of Lydia in Asia Minor, the Kingdom of Medes in Iran, and the Kingdom of New Babylon in Iraq . The destruction of the Kingdom of Medes by Persia aroused the jealousy of King Croesus of Lydia. He decided to do justice for heaven and sent out his army to teach these Persian boys a lesson.
It is said that before going to war, the king went to ask God for divination, and God gave him an answer: If a mule becomes the king of Media, you will be defeated. Croesus was overjoyed and thought how could a mule become king, so he confidently sent troops to attack Persia.
Asia Minor has always been martial. The Lydian army was well-equipped, especially with elite spear cavalry, while the Persian soldiers were numerous and powerful. The two sides fought many battles, with no winner or loser.
In order to deal with the enemy's main cavalry, Cyrus came up with a clever plan. He gathered a large group of camels carrying baggage in front of the team, and rushed forward with a loud cry. When the horses of the Lydian cavalry saw so many smelly, fluffy monsters charging towards them, they were so frightened that they jumped and ran around in confusion. Cyrus took the opportunity to use his army to cover up the attack and defeated the Lydian army.
In 546 BC, Lydia was destroyed by Persia. Only then did Croesus understand that the so-called "mule is the king", that "mule" refers to Cyrus - because Cyrus is a hybrid of Persians and Medes.
Cyrus not only destroyed Lydia, but also took the opportunity to conquer the Greek city-states in Asia Minor.
After conquering Lydia, Cyrus returned to the east, conquered eastern Iran and Central Asia, and gained a stable rear. Then, in 539 BC, he attacked Babylon, the last powerful country in Western Asia. Although Babylon was strong for a while, its majesty had long since ceased. When the Persian army arrived, the Babylonian priests opened the city to welcome the surrender. As a result, the last local power in the Mesopotamia became a Persian territory. The Mesopotamian civilization ended completely.
At this point, Cyrus unified most of Western Asia.
What is commendable is that although Cyrus conquered various countries with force, he did not bully the weak and use force to promote "Persianization". On the contrary, every time he conquered a place, he visited the nobles, appeased the people, preserved local traditions and political institutions, and allowed the conquered areas to worship his own gods.
He released a large number of Jews who were imprisoned in the Kingdom of Babylon back to the Palestine area. This kind of good deeds earned the Persian king the title of "God's tool" in the " Bible ", saying that God bless the people. Lushi was invincible.
The captured Lydian King Croesus also saved his life. Cyrus also followed his advice and declared military discipline to prevent the Persian army from plundering and ravaging Asia Minor.
Cyrus, who was wise, courageous and generous, was worthy of being a great king, so later generations respectfully called him "Cyrus the Great".
After that, Cyrus continued his expeditions east and west, expanding his territory and conquering a large area of land that today belongs to eastern Iran, the five Central Asian countries and Afghanistan . To the east, he approached the Indus River basin, Pamir Plateau and my country. Xinjiang region.
However, if you often walk by the river, how can you avoid getting your shoes wet? Cyrus loved military warfare, and finally the earthen jar was broken without leaving the well.
In 530 BC, Cyrus sent troops to the east coast of the Caspian Sea to attack the Massagetae people. Queen Massagetae was a tough woman who personally led an army and launched a bloody battle with the Persians. As a result, the Persian army was defeated miserably, almost completely wiped out, and Cyrus was also killed. His head was cut off by the queen and put into a leather bag filled with blood: "Aren't you bloodthirsty? I want you to drink enough!"
Although Cyrus died, the Persian Empire continued to expand. Cyrus' son Cambyses II inherited his father's ambition, defeated the Massagetae in the east, conquered Egypt in the west, and turned the fertile Egypt into the granary of Persia. Persia wiped out two ancient civilizations in one fell swoop and became an unprecedentedly powerful empire spanning two continents. succession. Darius I suppressed domestic uprisings and carried out political, military, economic, and legal reforms, making the Persian state stronger.
Darius I also expanded aggressively. He went east to the northwest of India, and to the west he entered the European Balkans from Asia Minor, conquering the Thracians in today's Bulgaria. In this way, the Persian Empire became the first empire in world history to span three continents: Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Having established such a large empire, how to deal with the problems of so many ethnic groups and religions in the country is also a troublesome matter. The religion of the Persian Empire is Zoroastrianism which believes that fire is a sign of the god of light and a symbol of light and life. Darius himself was a devout Zoroastrian, and Zoroastrianism was the mainstream religion in the Persian Empire. However, other religious beliefs also coexist with tolerance. Among the various ethnic groups in Persia, the Semitic Phoenicians , Aramaeans, and Jews have great affection for the Persian Empire, while the Medes, Babylonians , Egyptians, and The Greeks and others rebelled at every opportunity.
At the end of the 6th century BC, our country was at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, and the Persian Empire in West Asia was at its peak. Next, the Persian Empire will face an extremely powerful opponent. That is the ancestor of European civilization - the ancient Greeks .When the two powers of , Europe and Asia meet, who will win? Let’s listen to the breakdown next time.
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audio brief history of Asia (11) The birth of Confucianism and Taoism
Audio Asia A Brief History (8) The Exodus of the Jews
Audio Asia A Brief History (7) Inventor of Iron: The Hittite Kingdom
