Lesson 2: Herodotus and the Persian Wars
A brief historical outline of the Persian Wars.
The Persian Empire
At the beginning of the fifth century BC, the Achaemenid Persian Empire was the most powerful state in the Ancient Near East.
The term 'Achaemenid' actually comes from the name of the ancestor of the ruling dynasty, who was supposedly a man called 'Achaemenes'.
Not much is known about the early history of the Persians. Before the sixth century BC, there is no real mention of them.
The only important peoples that we hear about living in the country known as Iran today were the Medes and the Elamites. Both of these peoples are mentioned as enemies in the records kept by the Assyrians.
The Medes, in fact, played a significant role in the final destruction of the Assyrian Empire.
Then, in about the middle of the sixth century BC, Cyrus the Great, who was the founder of the Persian Empire, conquered in turn the Medes, the Lydians and the Babylonians. By the end of his reign, the Persians were in control of all of Anatolia, Mesopotamia, the Levant and much of Central Asia in addition to the whole of Iran.
Much is made of the 'greatness' of Cyrus by later writers (including Herodotus), but we cannot be sure how much of this is factual. It does seem pretty certain that a lot of the material written about him is legendary.
For example, Herodotus gives us an account of how he had been left to die of exposure as a baby because it had been predicted that he would usurp the throne when he grew up. The similarity of this story to several others (e.g. the story of Oedipus) cannot but shed doubt on its historicity.
Cyrus was succeeded by his son Cambyses, who extended his father's conquests by adding Egypt to the empire.
After the death of Cambyses there was a brief period of instability. Cambyses was eventually succeeded by one Darius.
We cannot be sure who Darius was. One modern theory is that Darius was actually a usurper who had assasinated Cambyses' brother Bardiya who should by right have succeeded to the throne.
Darius continued the tradition of his predecessors by making further conquests.
By about 500 BC, the Persian Empire was at the peak of its power. In addition to all its territories in Asia and Africa, it also had taken over the Greek city-states of Ionia (the eastern coast of the Aegean Sea).
