MEPX
Chapter 7 of 10All chapters
  1. 1How we know
  2. 2Mesopotamia
  3. 3Ancient Egypt
  4. 4The Indus and early China
  5. 5Ancient Greece
  6. 6Rome
  7. 7Persia and the Near East
  8. 8The ancient Americas
  9. 9Africa and wider Asia
  10. 10Why civilizations fall

Chapter 7 of 10

Persia and the Near East

Empires of administration.

Achaemenid Persia

The largest empire of its time, governed through satrapies, a royal road and a policy of tolerating local customs and religions.

  • Cyrus is remembered for permitting exiled peoples to return.
  • Alexander's conquest ended it, then fragmented into successor kingdoms.

Later dynasties

Parthian and Sasanian empires continued as the eastern counterweight to Rome, exchanging warfare, trade and ideas across a long contested frontier.