Events+and+leaders+of+the+Persian+empire

**E vents and leaders of the Persian Empire**

The two main leaders of the Persian Empire were Cyrus the great and Darius the great **Cyrus the great** . Cyrus II of Persia, also known as Cyrus the Great or Cyrus the Elder (576 or 590 – July 529 BC), founded the Persian Empire under the Achaemenid Dynasty. He was the original ruler of the great Persian Empire and is one the greatest liberators of all time (see major events of the Persian empire).(Oxfords First Ancient History by: Roy Burrell and illustrations by: Peter Connolly pg.145) **Darius** . After the death of Cyrus, the great Darius a general of the Persian army and a cousin of Cambyses (When Cyrus conquered Babylon in 539 BC Cambyses was employed in leading religious ceremonies) beat the rebels to the throne and kept the blood of the family on the throne. . Darius was also known for reorganizing laws postal services, weights and measurements and set up a proper system of money. He was also one of the greatest builders of all time.(Oxfords First Ancient History by: Roy Burrell and illustrations by: Peter Connolly pg.143) **Xerxes** . Xerxes was the son of Darius the Great and Atossa and a descendent of Cyrus the Great. He succeeded his father in 486 BC with a very smooth transition of power challenged by no subject nation of the huge Achaemenid Empire. Xerxes was pretty much the end of the Persian Empire and was credited because of his campaign against Greece and his bridge across the Hellespont.(Oxfords First Ancient History by: Roy Burrell and illustrations by: Peter Connolly pg.148) **Here are some of the m****ajor events of the Persian Empire** . One of the major events in Persian history was when Cyrus the great the great conquered Babylon in 539 BC however he did not consider himself a conqueror he wanted to be know as a liberator because once he got to Babylon he did something absolutely remarkable he freed the Jews and because of this act he is to this day know as a messiah in bible. Another major event in Persian history was when Darius the great (a former general of the Persian empire) created a canal linking the Mediterranean and the red sea together.( Oxfords First Ancient History by: Roy Burrell and illustrations by: Peter Connolly pg.145) . One of my favorite events in Persian Empire was when Darius made a boat canal across the Bosporus straight of the black sea he essentially connected Europe and Asia together.(Oxfords First Ancient History by: Roy Burrell and illustrations by: Peter Connolly pg.149)

. The reason he did this was because Greece started a revolt against Persia so Darius wanted to teach them a lesson so he built this bridge of boats across the straight and marched 60 000 soldiers to Athens.(Oxfords First Ancient History by: Roy Burrell and illustrations by: Peter Connolly pg.145)

. Another event was when Darius’s son Xerxes made another pontoon bridge across the Hellespont, which was essentially the same idea and design as Darius’s pontoon bridge across the Bosporus, straight but it involved 674 ships and TWO bridges! This was one of the most impressive and greatest achievements in military engineering of all time and surpassed Darius’s boat bride by more than 150 ships Darius would have been proud if he had still been alive.(Oxfords First Ancient History by: Roy Burrell and illustrations by: Peter Connolly pg.149)

. One of the major battles of Persian history was the battle of marathon.(Oxfords First Ancient History by: Roy Burrell and illustrations by: Peter Connolly pg.145)

**The battle of marathon 490 BC** . The great Persian Empire had just made a marvel of engineering the boat canal across the Bosporus however Darius was angry that Athens and Eretria had sent a force to support the cities of Ionia in their attempt to overthrow Persian rule so Darius wanted revenge. He sent an army of approximately 60,000 across the Aegean to attack Athens. Darius thought that it was going to be a decisive win because of the fact that Persia clearly outnumbered the Greeks 10 to 1 however this is an example of the beginning of the end for the Persian empire.(Oxfords First Ancient History by: Roy Burrell and illustrations by: Peter Connolly pg.145

. The Greeks were massively outnumbered but still had an excellent strategy up their sleeve what happened was that the Persians marched on to Athens but were met at marathon on a great plain at first the Persians decimated the small numbers of the Greek’s however then the Athenians were joined by a small force from Plataea and blocked of all exits from the field looking the Persians into a death pit where they would suffer heavy losses (the approximate number is 6 400 Persians casualties against 192 Greeks casualties).

. This was a bad loss for Darius and could be the reason that the Greeks gained enough confidence to over through the Persians in later battles.