What comes to mind when you think of Persia? Rug? Persian cat? Or the camel bells on the Silk Roads? Richly dressed Persian merchants, with camel caravans full of rare treasures, traveled thousands of miles to the Central Plains, so that the word "Persia" once became a synonym for merchants, symbolizing wealth and a strong exoticism. For many, the word "Persian" represents a charm and mystery.
According to historical records, as early as the Western Han Dynasty, China established direct contact with Persia. The scene of "Persian old Jadu quicksand, listening to camel bells at night and knowing the road credit" left a deep impression on the ancient Chinese. In modern times, the international situation has been changing, and as the successor of Persian civilization, Iran has increasingly become the focus of attention of all parties.
In his book Crescent moon and roses: Five Thousand Years of Persia, iranian historian, political scientist, and economist Homa Katuzan argues that Iranian history predates its written record by three thousand years. There is evidence that civilization in parts of Iran can in some cases go back thousands of years. The Iranian nomads who named the country entered Iran more than a thousand years before one of the Persians established the First Persian Empire in 550 BC. Rich, complex and exhaustive myths and legends developed in ancient times before the Medes established the first Iranian Empire, and the Median Empire was later overthrown and replaced by the first cosmopolitan empire established by Cyrus the Great of Iran Persians. Katuzan points out that the history of ancient Iran began with the establishment of the first world empire by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty, about 2500 years ago.
The following is an excerpt from The Crescent moon and the Rose: Five Thousand Years of Persia, which has been published with permission from the publishing house.
The Crescent Moon and the Rose: Five Thousand Years of Persia, by [Iran] Homa Katuzan, translated by Wang Donghui, January 2022 edition.
In ancient history, Iran was the name of a land and a people, and until the Sassanid period it seemed that it was not the name of an empire. Aryan tribes came here between 3000 and 2000 BC, and there was probably more than one wave of immigration. Nomadic Iranian tribes settled on the Iranian plateau in 1000 BC, with the Medes, Persians, Bactrians, and Parthians living in the west, while the Iranian Pashtuns and Baluchis began to settle on the eastern edge of the Iranian plateau, now called Balochistan, on the rugged northwestern border of India. There were also other Iranian peoples, such as the Scythians and Alan tribes, who later harassed several Persian empires by invading the borders.
The history of ancient Iran began with the establishment of the first world empire by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty, about 2500 years ago. This empire did not remain as glorious as Cyrus and his successor, Veliko, but it remained the greatest world empire when it was defeated and conquered by Alexander the Great in a short period of time in an Iranian-like manner in 330 BC.
After Alexander's death, the Seleucid Empire spread certain aspects of Greek culture to the Persian lands, but it was not enough to penetrate deep into the cultural roots and influence subsequent cultural development. Beginning in 247 BC, the Parthian Iranians in the northeast began to establish power, although it would take a century to establish a fully self-reliant Sabbath Empire. In any case, a degree of Hellenization lasted until the Period of the Sabbath Empire, which was again overthrown in 224 by the founder of the Sassanid Dynasty, Ardashir Babakon, at typical Iranian speed. The Sassanids were ethnically Persian and arose from Persis (i.e., Pars), who sought to rebuild the traditional Persian Empire, although not as vast and powerful as the Achaemenids. More than four centuries later, they were overthrown by Arab Muslims in a relatively short span of time.
These empires rose and fell for a variety of reasons. But their common system of authoritarian government plays a decisive role in hastening their demise in the face of strong enemies. This system does not provide the social basis for the regime, and the loyalty and support of society to the regime determines the length of time the regime defends and survives. The fall of the Achaemenid Emperor Darius III at the end of the 4th century BC and the fall of Muhammad Reza Shah in the 20th century are examples of this. Few historians have noticed this phenomenon, and most often attribute it to the alienation of the general population from the regime. Yet these regimes collapsed rapidly, precisely because at crucial moments they did not enjoy the support of any social class, especially the upper classes. In European-style class societies, the upper classes usually defended power against internal strife and foreign invasions.
Stills from the movie Prince of Persia: Blade of Time (2010).
1
Medes and Persians
Around the 2nd millennium BC, many nomadic Iranian tribes migrated to the Land of Iran from the northeast and northwest, and the Medes and Persians were destined to establish a local and a cosmopolitan empire, respectively. At the beginning of the 8th century BC, the Iranians united under the leadership of one of their chiefs, named Dayouku, whom the Greeks called Theokis. He thus became the founder of the nascent Median state, which survived the struggle against powerful neighbors such as Assyria, Uraltu (later Armenia), and Scythians, who also belonged to the Iranian race. The capital of the Medes was Ekbatana, meaning "meeting place", and is now buried under the site of Hamadan. During the reign of Dayuku's grandson Chiakhsales, the Medes briefly submitted to the Scythians, but eventually consolidated the foundations of the state by defeating the Scythians and annexing the area around Lake Orumyeh in modern Azerbaijan.
During this period, sometime in the 8th century BC, Persian tribes moved south from the northwest and settled in the middle of the West Bahtial Mountains. They were a vassal of the Medes, and under the rule of the Anshan king Tieispes, the Persians expanded their rule further to the southeast by encroaching on the ancient native civilization of Elam. The territory seized from the Elamites was named Poseis after the new occupiers. Tieispes thus became king of Poseidon and Anshan, but before his death in 640 BC, he divided his kingdom among his two sons, Cyrus and Aryaramnes. Cyrus became the King of Annunciation, and Ariaramnes became the ruler of the southeastern region of Poseidon. During the reign of Cyrus the Great (Cyrus II), king Cambyses I of Ansan, the two small Persian kingdoms were merged. Cambises was a vassal of the Medes king Chiaxales, who defeated Assyria and razed Nineveh forever, extending the territory of the Medes empire from the caspian coast to Elam.
The Median Empire under Chiaquezares was vast and powerful, but it did not last long. The reign of Chiaxales' son Asdouagas (reigned 584-550 BC) was relatively peaceful until his empire was overthrown by his grandson Cyrus the Great, born to his daughter Mandani, who married Mandani to The Persian king Cambyses I. The rebellion and victory of Cyrus the Great and the victory over Asdoupeias were also typically brief and decisive.
Achaemenid Empire, 550–330 BC (Illustration of The Crescent Moon and the Rose: Five Thousand Years of Persia)
2
Cyrus the Great
In 550 BC, Cyrus the Great (reigned 559–529 BC) merged the Medes and Persia. Herodotus recounts a legend that after the birth of Cyrus, Asdou arapais had a dream in which the monk who interpreted it said that the dream foreshadowed that his grandson would eventually overthrow him. So he ordered his attendants to execute the baby. The squire, believing that he could not do anything, left a shepherd to do it, but the latter hid the baby and raised it as his own. When Cyrus was ten years old, his manners and behavior showed that he was not a child of ordinary people. Asdouagis became suspicious and questioned the elderly squire chief, who admitted that he had not killed the child. The king was furious and designed for the squire to eat his son's flesh, but allowed Cyrus to return to his biological parents, Cambyses and Mandani. Obviously, this is a legend, similar to the legends of other historical figures, but it is not without historical basis.
In 559 BC, Cyrus succeeded his father to the thrones of Anshan and Poseidon. There are rich and varied legends about the reason why Cyrus rebelled against his maternal grandfather and suzerain in 553 BC.
But in fact, Cyrus was welcomed by the Medes at all levels, and Babylon's severance with the Medes was a key reason for the Medes' failure. After the conquest of the Medes, Cyrus began a career of conquest, and by the time of his death in 530 or 529 BC, he had established the first world empire.
Stills from the movie Prince of Persia: Blade of Time (2010).
Cyrus's next step was to attack and conquer Lydia and most of Asia Minor, and the Greek city-states of Asia Minor fell into his hands. Traditionally, the conquest of Lydia was set at 547 BC, but more modern scholars have questioned this claim. A few years later, Cyrus turned his attention to the east, thus securing his eastern frontier against nomadic incursions, and he conquered vast areas including Sykhania, Parthia, and Sogdiana, reaching the banks of the medicinal waters (Syr Darya) that flowed into the Aral Sea. Cyrus introduced agriculture to these areas and built garrison towns—most notably Samarkand in Uzbekistan—to defend against the invasion of Central Asian nomads from the northeast of the empire. However, the jewel in his crown was the conquest of Babylonia in 539 BC, the oldest surviving civilization in the region, including Mesopotamia, Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine.
Cyrus's justice and kindness to the conquered people is legendary. The Cyrus Instrument, now in the British Museum, records a declaration of religious and cultural freedom for his subjects, sometimes referred to as the first declaration of human rights. Yet "human rights" is a modern concept—just two centuries since the American and French revolutions introduced human rights—and in an era of general extreme and intolerance, the designation of human rights correlates with the degree of tolerance and moderation displayed by the supreme monarch. Cyrus showed respect for the Babylonian worshipper Bell (i.e., Maduk) and was known for releasing Jewish prisoners and allowing Jews to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem.
The capital of Cyrus's conquest was Anshan, and when his rule extended to the Medes, Ecpatana became his second capital. In another capital, Babylon, he was officially inaugurated as king with solemn ceremonies, and he lived in the above-mentioned cities at various times. He built his own capital for the entire Persian Empire, Pasargad, meaning "Persian Tabernacle", located about 150 kilometers northeast of the modern city of Shiraz. Originally built in 546 BC or later, Pasargard was not yet completed when Cyrus died in 530 or 529 BC, and remained the capital of the Persian Empire until Darius began to build another capital, Persepolis.
The ruins of Pasargad cover an area of 1.6 square kilometers and include the Cyrus Mausoleum, the largest surviving remains of which are the Tower tahut Fortress, located on a nearby hill, and the ruins of two royal palaces and gardens. The gate is engraved in Ancient Persian, Elamite and Babylonian: "I, Cyrus, king, Achaemenid." ”
The garden in the ruins is the earliest known Siyuan Square, a design that divides a whole into four parts. Now in ruins, Pasargad represents the highest achievement of Persian art of that era. The incorporation of architectural and decorative art from Babylonia, Egypt, and other foreign regions into indigenous Iranian art produced a unique and complex effect that resulted in artistic wonders that some scholars believe that their achievements were far above the magnificent and complex architectural complexes of Persepolis.
There are different accounts of Cyrus's death. According to Herodotus, he was killed in a battle to the East to resist the invasion of nomadic people belonging to the Iranian race, and Xenophon believed he died of natural causes, although according to other accounts, he was mortally wounded on his journey to the Far East. He had already appointed his eldest son, Cambyses, as Vice-King of Babylon and instructed him to prepare for a western expedition to Egypt, while his youngest son Bardia was in charge of the eastern provinces. In 525 BC, before setting out for Egypt, Cambyses secretly executed his brother, apparently fearing that his brother would rebel in his absence. He conquered Egypt, and it is believed to be religiously and culturally intolerant of the Egyptians, although modern research tends to revise this claim. While in Egypt, he heard that someone in Persia was pretending to be Bardia in an attempt to take the throne. Cambyses died on his way back from Egypt, perhaps because he accidentally stabbed himself with a sword, which is somewhat considered a deliberate suicide.
3
The heyday of the Empire
The rebels, named Gomeda, came from the Medes tribe of Magar, whose members usually engaged in religious circles, although it is unclear whether they were Zoroastrianism at the time. Gomeda ruled for about three years, until 522 BC, when Darius and his henchmen succeeded in overthrowing him. There is an interesting legend about how to choose a king from these conspirators: they agreed to meet at the palace one morning, and whoever rode the horse first hissed first was the king. As a result, Darius adopted the ruse of his groom, thus letting his horse hiss first.
Stills from the movie Aladdin and the Divine Lamp (2015).
Accounts of Gomeda and his downfall are mainly from the Behesten inscription written by Darius himself, located near the modern Kermanshah, and later in the accounts of Herodotus. This information may be true. On the other hand, it is also necessary to consider other possible materials. For example, if the story of Cambyses' assassination of Bardia is false, or if Bardia escapes, then the so-called "rebel" Gomeda may be Bardia. He may have rebelled and claimed the throne while his brother was not in the country, causing Cambyses to commit suicide in anger or be murdered on his way home. There are two rebellions in this narrative: Bardia's rebellion against Cambyses and Darius's rebellion against Bardia.
Whatever the truth, we should note that cannibalism, father-son killing, and father-killing have all been common phenomena in Iranian history, rooted in the authoritarian nature of power, and that successful rebels have enough evidence to claim to have divine blessings and therefore their rule is legitimate (see Introduction). If you believe that the whole story of Gomeda is true, it is important to note that he was a religious man, and he was clearly a popular ruler because he abolished military service and was exempt from taxes for three years. A series of rebellions with Persian history broke out after the fall of Gomeda and were successfully put down by Darius. The death of a ruler almost always triggers unrest, at least for a short time.
Darius (reigned 522–486 BC) belonged to the Achaemenid family and was a capable administrator who divided his vast empire into 20 provinces, each with a governor, called Satrap in Persian, and a military commander independent of the governor, both of whom were under the watchful eye of secret intelligence known as the "eyes and ears of the king" in case they defected. This system continued in Iran into modern times, at least into the Pahlavi dynasty.
These measures failed to prevent the outbreak of rebellion and rebellion in various places and provinces, and it is not surprising that such a large empire of different nationalities was in turmoil in terms of the transportation and technical conditions of the time. Rebellions occurred in Babylonia and elsewhere, but the most important in later histories was the rebellion that took place in Ionia, which led to the defeat at the Battle of Marathon in the years before Darius' death. Even so, Darius extended the empire's borders to the Caucasus Mountains, across the Caspian Sea and the Uhu Waters, where numerous Iranian and non-Iranian nomads lived.
The power of the king was absolute and authoritarian, although the governors were generally autonomous in their bailiwicks and had much the same power as the servants of the ruler. Impartiality meant that the Governor and other government officials could not exercise powers outside the lawful limits permitted by the King. Darius fixed the currency system and introduced Darius gold coins. Tax rates were standardized, although tax rates differed between rich and barren provinces. Gold and silver taxes were allocated to each province, and in some cases, such as in Babylonia, excessive taxation led to economic depression. Other initiatives, such as the tax package system, were retained in different forms until the 19th century, when the tax revenue of a certain province was contracted by a wealthy tax collector who paid a fixed amount to the state every year. The tax-inclusive system is an effective way to satisfy the state finances, but in practice it puts the people at the mercy of the tax collectors.
Stills from the movie Aladdin and the Divine Lamp (2015).
Darius was not only a talented administrative and military leader, but also a man of great foresight who consciously built monumental buildings in his name, leaving his perception of things to future generations. He set about the construction of a palace complex called Persepolis, 70 km northeast of Shiraz, which helped consolidate its power and honor and promote the development of art. Persepolis was the new and most important capital of the Empire, and in the other capitals of Babylon, Ecpatana and Susa, he built spectacular palaces, which unfortunately have not survived to this day. Darius often traveled extensively, and the king and his courtiers would stay in Susa in the winter, in Persepolis in the spring, and in the cooler Exbatana, which was higher in the sea in the summer.
Archaeological evidence tells us that the early construction of Persepolis began around 518 BC, only four years after Darius' succession. Some scholars believe that Cyrus chose the site of the city of Persepolis, but it was Darius who built the columns and palaces. He ordered the construction of the Apadana Palace and the Council Chamber, and during the reign of his son Xerxes, he built the main royal treasury and surrounding buildings. Subsequent works continued until the fall of the Achaemenid dynasty.
The greatest and most splendid palace in Persepolis is the Apadana Palace, which the kings of kings use to receive their subjects. Construction work began in 515 BC and was completed 30 years later. The palace has a square hall with 72 columns and 13 columns still standing on the huge platform of the city's ruins. These pillars carry huge and heavy domes. Most of these columns are decorated with animal sculptures such as two-headed cows, lions and eagles. The columns are connected by oak and cedar beams. The walls are decorated with lion, bull and floral motifs. Darius's name and the details of the empire are inscribed in gold and silver on plates, which are held in airtight stone boxes and placed under the foundations of the four corners of the palace. Two symmetrical steps were built on the north and east sides of the Apadana Palace. There are also two steps in the middle of the building. The front and outer sides of the palace are covered with images of the undead army, the king's elite guard.
Another feat of engineering that is no less magnificent than the Apadana Palace may be the Royal Mile from Susa to sardis, the capital of Lydia. There were 111 stations on the road, and it took three months for the army to patrol from one end to the other, which was extremely fast at the time, and the king's courtiers used this road to receive information and convey orders. Another equally impressive project was the Egyptian Canal (built before the Persian conquest), which connected the Mediterranean sea with the Indian Ocean from the Nile to the Red Sea.
Darius revered Ahurah Mazda, the supreme god of Zoroastrianism, as supreme ruler in his inscriptions, and attributed his authority to the blessing of Ahula Mazda. This suggests that Darius may have been zoroastrian, but other evidence suggests that it does not appear to be. First, Zoroastrianism could not have been the state religion, for if so, Darius would not have been as tolerant as Cyrus, and would sometimes even offer tribute to idols and gods of other peoples. Second, Zoroastrian's name is not mentioned in all his inscriptions. Third, the Achaemenid kings, including Darius, were buried in their graves, while Zoroastrianism strictly ordered the dead to be exposed to the elements. Fourth, before the advent of Zoroastrianism, Ahurah Mazda was one of the three great gods worshipped by Iranians: Ahula Mazda, Mithra, and Anahita.
Moreover, the worship of the Iranian gods flourished at this time, and it is uncertain whether ordinary Persians actually converted to Zoroastrianism. After quelling the Ionian Uprising and conquering several Aegean islands, as well as suppressing the rebellion of the Athenian-backed Greek city-states of Asia Minor, Darius went to war with Athens. In 490 BC, a decisive battle took place at Marathon, and the Persians were defeated. It was a relatively minor setback from the perspective of the Persian Empire, but from the point of view of whether it was beneficial to Europe, the Battle of Marathon was a historic event.
4
The end of the expansion
At the time of the death of his father Darius, Xerxes (reigned 486-465 BC), who succeeded to the throne, was serving as Vice-King of Babylon. He had no talent at all of his father or Cyrus the Great. The Victory of the Greeks triggered a series of rebellions in Asia Minor and Egypt, as has continued in Iranian history, exacerbated by the death of great kings. Xerxes' first task was to quell the rebellion. Unwilling to fight for the expansion of his powerful empire, he preferred court life and the construction of palaces, including the addition of Persepolis. But his subordinates and exiles from Athens put pressure on him to teach Athens a lesson and to pacify the Greeks.
Stills from the movie 300 Warriors: Rise of the Empire (2014).
In 480 BC, Xerxes, king of kings, assembled an army of the world's largest scale—though the Greek record of millions is somewhat exaggerated—across the Strait of Helles, consolidating Thessal and Macedonians, crushing the heroic resistance of the Spartans at the Hot Springs Pass, capturing Athens, and burning the Acropolis. The vast majority of the Greek city-states in Asia, Africa and Europe fell into their hands. But the Greeks did not give up, and gathered their fleet in Salamis and defeated his fleet in front of the King of Kings, who was watching the battle from a throne set up on the coast. The Persians' remaining chances of victory were squandered by the king's own anger, including the killing of his Phoenician naval commander, which further led him to abandon his army and retreat to the Persian mainland. The campaign ended ambitions to expand the Persian Empire into Europe.
Xerxes was a violent ruler with impulsive and brutal tendencies to act. He was assassinated in a court conspiracy, the first of many acts of king-killing in Iranian history, if not Gomeda's bad luck. In the present case, the murderer was the king's own son.
5
Gradually declining
From the death of Xerxes to the conquest of Alexander the Great, the Achaemenid Empire existed for another 130 years. Although the vastness and power of the empire are still unparalleled, it has reached its peak and can no longer reap the glory that its founders once brought to it. The remaining rule of the Achaemenid dynasty was characterized by court intrigue, assassinations, and succession struggles, accompanied by frequent rebellions involving several provinces. Bloodshed became the essence and common phenomenon of the court and the royal family, and several provinces were essentially out of the king's control. During the reign of Artaxerxes III, the Empire was the last ZTE, but the foundations of the Empire had weakened beyond repair.
Artaxerxes I (reigned 465-424 BC) first had to quell the rebellion of his brother, who was governor of Bactria and the empire to the east, and then he killed all his remaining brothers. He quelled the rebellions in Egypt and Syria. His Greek policy was to use gold as a weapon to provoke infighting among the Greek city-states. So he incited Sparta against Athens, but the hostility between the two countries did not last, and they united to defeat Persia in a war, causing the latter to lose some Greek cities and Persian influence among the Greeks. The eastern frontier of the Empire also lost some territory. The king's Babylonian policy was Persianized, which caused resentment in the province of Babylon. But he maintained friendly relations with the Jews. Artaxerxes died as usual the succession struggle, and his son Xerxes II soon lost the throne and was acquired by another member of the royal family under the name Darius II. Darius II's reign was torn apart by intrigue and corruption. In terms of Greek policy, he continued to use Persian gold as a weapon, with mixed results. In response to the rebellion of the governor of Sardis, he sent a large army and successfully pacified the land, but the governor's son continued his father's struggle. Egyptian revolts rose and fell, with the Egyptians revolting again in 411 BC, although the revolt was quelled later in the year of Darius' death.
Artaxerxes II succeeded to the throne, although his mother favored his younger brother Cyrus the Younger and managed to make Cyrus the Younger Governor of Lydia and Commander of the Garrison in Asia Minor. In fact, Cyrus the Younger tried to kill the king as early as his brother's coronation, but his mother spared him punishment and he returned to his province to command the garrison in Asia Minor. Cyrus the Younger was brave and fearless, and he soon raised his army against his brother again, and he led a powerful army that nearly won the battle before being killed. It is often believed that if Cyrus the Younger became king, he would put an end to the decline of the dynasty and empire. Unable to prevent the return of the 10,000 Greek mercenaries in Cyrus's army, Artaxerxes was known for his incompetence, and interesting accounts were recorded by Xenophon and told to posterity.
But he relied on gold rather than military power to retake the cities of Ionian from the Greeks. Despite some victories, the Empire remained in turmoil. After Artaxerxes succeeded to the throne, the Egyptians rebelled, and his efforts to quell the rebellion were unsuccessful. Some of the governors rebelled, and the entire area west of the Euphrates, including Lydia of Cyrus, did so. The tax burden is getting heavier. The revolts of peasants and craftsmen, who could only make ends meet, were suppressed, but the trend was typical. The king himself was tormented by constant court intrigue and finally died after a long reign. Remembered for his weak, unreliable, and bloodthirsty despotic rule, he was deeply influenced by his mother as a monarch unable to sustain the empire.
Stills from the movie Spartan 300 Warriors (2006).
Artaxerxes III (reigned 359-338 BC) executed many of his brothers and sisters as soon as he ascended to his father's throne. He combined ruthlessness and iron will to restore the power and glory of the empire. He dealt with the rebellious governors with the most ruthless means, including the Cardusians, who had been rebelling for quite some time. After two attempts, Egypt was finally retaken and severely punished. Greece felt the pressure of Persian revival and expansion, which in fact stemmed from the king's strong leadership will. There has been little progress in the war to unify the Greeks and the Hellenistic peoples.
At this time, new forces from Macedonia began to enter the stage of history, and the Macedonians were not Greeks, but belonged to the Greek cultural circle. Philip, king of Macedon, annexed some Greek lands and was gradually recognized by the Greeks as his leader, and needed to stand up against the Persians. He proceeded carefully, first concluding a peace treaty with the king of Persia. Soon after, in 338 BC, Philip attacked Greece and ended Its independence. That same year, the powerful Persian king was poisoned by his general Bagoas. This was the starting point for the end of the mighty Achaemenid Empire. Bagoas poisoned the king after his son Artaxerxes succeeded to the throne. Not surprisingly, there was no clear successor to the empire at this time, and darius III (reigned 335-330 BC), a close relative of the ill-fated royal family, succeeded to the throne. He was also nearly poisoned by Bagoas, but fortunately he took the lead and made the general drink the poisoned wine he had prepared.
6
The end of alexander and Achaemenid dynasties
By the time Philip, king of Macedon, was assassinated, a powerful army had been assembled. His heir, the young son Alexander, led an army of 40,000 men and liberated the Persian-ruled Greek colonies without resistance. The two sides fought at Granikas, and the Persians were defeated. At first Darius III did not take Alexander seriously, but when he led a large army to meet Issus, Alexander again defeated the Persian army, thus occupying Syria and being welcomed by the Egyptians.
With Darius's request for peace rejected by Alexander, the decisive battle was fought in Gaugamela in 331 BC, at the foot of the Assyrian mountains, the Persian army was crushed, and Darius fled to Ecbattana. Defeat was tantamount to losing the throne, so Darius was soon killed by two of his governors. The gates of Susa and Persepolis were open to Alexander's troops, but it is not clear whether the burning of Persepolis was deliberate or accidental. Alexander then turned to pacify the eastern provinces, traveled through Central Asia to India, and is said to have married a Bactrian noblewoman named Roxana. It is recorded that Alexander, after returning to Susa, married Statra, the daughter of Darius III, and some of his generals and soldiers also married Persian girls. However , earlier beliefs that Alexander attempted to unite Greece and Persia were opposed by recent scholars.
As a result, the mighty Persian Empire collapsed even faster than it was established.
Text/[Iran] Homa Katuzan
Excerpts/Ann also
Editor/Yaguang Liu
Proofreading/Wu Xingfa