The Rise and the Fall of the Persian Empire

. The rise of the Persian Empire started when Cyrus The Great ruled Persia. It all started with the fall of Assyria. The Medians defeated the Assyrians with the help of the Babylonians. Nimrud and Nineveh cities, were invaded. In the war between Medians and Assyrians, Medes became the dominant power of northern Iraq.

. Because of the Assyrians’ fall, Medes was brought to another war, with the Lydians. Both empires, benefited from the fall of the Assyrian Empire. The war between the Medians and Lydians, started in 590 BCE, and it lasted for five years. This became famous, because during the war, a solar eclipse occurred. And both sides saw the solar eclipse, and believe that the solar eclipse is an omen (a sign of warning of something that will happen in the future). And therefore, the war was stopped, and the people declared peace in both empires. But in 549 BCE, the king of Persia, Cyrus I removed the king of Medes, which is Astyages. Cyrus believed that he has relation with the Median line, by his mother’s way. Croesus, the king of Lydians, saw an opportunity to expand his kingdom and power by taking advantage of the Persian Empire and also by crossing the Halys River. This river was known as the boundary between the Medians and Lydians. But before declaring a war against the Persians, Croesus first went to a Greek oracle, to ask what would happen. If he’ll declare a war with Cyrus. According to the oracle, an empire would fall, and that is the Persian Empire. But in Croesus interpretation, his own empire will fall. Instead of attacking the Persians, Croesus had a faced off against Cyrus. And after a battle, both empires, re-grouped and re-supplied, Persia was the first one to finished. So while the Lydians were still regrouping, the Persians attacked the capital of Sardis, the location where the Lydians retreated. In the battle of Sardis, Cyrus succeeded to defeat Croesus and because of it , Lydia was added to the Persian Empire.

. Cyrus controlled, Asia Minor, Persia, and also some Greek cities. Then in 539 BCE, Cyrus put his attention to the king of Babylon and after several battles, Babylon, Mesopotamia and Palestine were added to the Persian Empire. The Persian Empire expanded from the Mediterranean to the fringes of Arabia. But then in 530 BCE, Persia’s king (Cyrus The Great) died, while he was in a war against a tribe called Massagetae, located in the east of Aral Sea.
Cyrus succeeded the war because of his son Cambyses who expanded the Persian Empire even further. Cambyses was described as a cruel ruler, and believed that he was no difference from his father. His greatest achievement, was the conquest of the decreased of the Egyptian Empire. But unfortunately he died in 522 BCE, while travelling to Syria to stop a revolt.

. An impostor succeeded to impersonate Cambyses. But he only controlled Persia for a short period of time, for he was executed by the conspirators (a person who is involved in doing illegal or harmful things). And Darius is one of those conspirators. Several repressed people’s used the chaos that was happening in Persia, for them to enter and be a part of the Persian Empire. These people, wanted to take away the cruelty in the Persian Empire. Aside from the other achievements of Darius, there were two important campaigns. Darius, used the expedition happening in India, for him to invade the Sind and Punjab, and for him to be able to add these places, to the Persian Empire. Under Darius’ reign, the Persian Empire, expanded even further.

. Darius used a system of twenty provinces that were each ruled by a Satrap. Each Satrap was taxed based on the wealth of the province that was assigned to them. It was said, that Darius was described as a great ruler, which is true. He had achieved many achievements. Though he has a lot of achievements, those were disregarded, his one mistake was more noticed.

The Fall of The Persian Empire

. The first Persian War, the war between Persia and Greece.
Darius was defeated, and he was known by his defeat. At the second Persian War, Xerxes, son of Darius. Was the current ruler and king of the Persian Empire. Unfortunately they lost the battle. The Persians were doing good, at first. They even outnumbered the Greeks. But that wasn’t enough, in order for them to win the battle. At that time, Xerxes had no alternative, he didn’t have any backup plans. So he only flee and left his own army, which were still fighting their enemies. The Persians failed to invade the Greeks at their second attempt (which was the Second Persian War).

Their failure, was the beginning of the fall of the Persian Empire.

. Also, when the greatest Kings of the Persian Empire died. The kings who replaced them, were not as good as the previous Kings. The succeeding Kings of the Persian Empire, weren’t good. In result, the Persian Empire started to have conclusions or problems. Also the rulers were corrupt and took advantage of their power. And of course, because of the weakness of the successors, Alexander The Great had a great opportunity to invade the Persian Empire. And he succeeded.
The result, was the fall of the Persian Empire.