The Rise of Athens

A clay cylinder has been found, inscribed in Babylonian cuneiform (one of the earliest known systems of writing, consisting of wedge-shaped marks on clay tablets), which gives Cyrus’s own account of his next victory, now that he had disposed of the Lydians. This was nothing less than the conquest of the ancient city of Babylon in 539. It took some years to accomplish, but the king presented his victory as a walkover, almost as if his invasion had not simply been peaceable but the result of an invitation by the people. He entered the city “without fighting or battle” and the ruling elite welcomed him. “Their faces shone.”

Cyrus saw himself as the inheritor of the “perpetual seed of kingship,” as if it were in his genes, and did not allow himself to be knowingly undersold:

I am Cyrus, king of the universe, the great king, the powerful king, king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad (ancient territories under Babylonian rule), king of the four quarters of the world, son of Cambyses, the great king, king of the city of Anshan, grandson of Cyrus, the great king, ki[ng of the ci]ty of Anshan, descendant of Teispes, the great king, king of the city of Anshan.

The Persians under Cyrus now controlled a large empire stretching from the Ionian Greek city-states on the western seaboard of Asia Minor to Persia. At some stage (we do not know exactly when) Cyrus also conquered Central Asia. It was an extraordinary rise. At its fullest extent and for the first time in the history of the Middle East, countries from the river Indus to the Balkans, from Central Asia to Upper Egypt were incorporated into a single political system.

Cyrus the Great, as he came to be known, did not have many years to enjoy his achievements. He continued aggressively campaigning in the east of his domains. In 539 he fought with an Iranian nomadic confederation, the Massagetae, who probably roamed lands south of the Caspian Sea and who were then ruled by a queen. The Persians captured her son, who felt so shamed that he killed himself at the first opportunity.

His enraged mother assembled all her forces and defeated the Persians in a great battle during which Cyrus lost his life. She found his corpse on the battlefield and stuffed its head into a wineskin filled with blood. “I said I would make you have your fill of blood.”

His tomb, set in a park, was a modest stone building with a gabled roof and two small stone doors, standing on a stepped platform. The monument survives, although the body and grave goods are long gone. Apparently it once contained a golden bed, a table with drinking cups on it, a golden coffin, and various ornaments studded with jewels. There was also an inscription on the tomb. According to the first-century B.C. geographer Strabo, this read:

O man, I am Cyrus. I won an empire for the Persians, and was king of Asia.

So do not grudge me this monument.

—

How was this enormous empire run? It is a hard question to answer, for the Persians left behind them no books of political theory, nor descriptions of their system of government, nor even a history of their times. However, there is no question but that the Achaemenid dynasty (so-called after its founder, Achaemenes, an early king of Persia) that Cyrus founded was autocratic. The Great King, as he was called, lived in splendid and solemn state. He was divinely appointed and divinely accountable.

Distances from the imperial capitals of Susa and Persepolis to the farthest provinces were so great that it was essential to make communications as speedy as possible. A highway, called the Royal Road, was created that ran from Sardis, Croesus’s old base, to Susa. At intervals all along the way, more than one hundred posthouses were established where royal messengers and public officials could obtain a change of horses, food, and rooms for the night. Sometimes this express service operated around the clock; night messengers succeeded day messengers in relays. “Nothing prevents these couriers,” comments Herodotus, “from completing their allotted course in the quickest possible time—neither snow, rain, heat or darkness.” Even so travel was painfully slow, for nothing could go faster than a horse. According to the indefatigably curious historian, “the distance from Sardis to what is called the Palace of Memnon [at Susa] will be 13,500 furlongs. Thus those travelling at a rate of 150 furlongs a day, will take just ninety days to make the journey.”

Clay tablets have been unearthed at Persepolis that record officials’ traveling expenses. As this typical example shows, the Persians ran an efficient bureaucracy: “1:5 [?] quarts of flour supplied by Bakadusda. Muska received, as a fast messenger. He went from the King to Zissawis. He carried a sealed document of the King. In the tenth month.”