essay+on+the+fall+of+Persia

__Lessons From the Persian Empire__ The Persian Empire was the largest and most successful empire to date. The interesting thing is that it started in horrible conditions and from that the Persian people built the biggest and most powerful empire the world had ever seen. Though this campaign was largely based on religion, they did not force their religion on people. Their greatness was based not only on the amount of power and size of their empire but they also made many societal changes that affect the world today. __We can learn from the Persian Empire, that true greatness does not come from wealth or power but from the richness of culture, the development of math and science.__

This great people started from very simple origins living in nomadic tribes in what is now southern Iran ([]). They had to move around a lot and relied on hunting and gathering ([]). Once they stopped roaming, they faced a serious problem. The landscape was hot, arid and rocky and it was hard to find water or plant crops. They dealt with this problem ingenious. They found water underground and they build underground canals in order to have a source of water ([]). They built canals underground in order to water their crops (Engineering an Empire, History Channel). These canals spanned for kilometres. Many historians believe that they were successful because they had to be resourceful enough to deal with these harsh circumstances. This shows that the Persian empire grew out of a need for scientific ingenuity which shows that, though they were great conquerors, science was one of the main focuses that persisted throughout their history.

Zoroastrianism, the religion of Ancient Persia, is based on a heavenly war, an ultimate good against an ultimate evil with the universe as their battle field. The goal of a follower is twofold. First, he strives to do good deeds that will make Ahura Mazda (the good god) more powerful in the fight ([]). Second, he explores the material world (essentially studying science) in order to contribute knowledge to the spirit world when they die ([]). Cyrus the Great, the creator the Persian Empire, was a devout Zoroastrian (History of The Persion Empire, 154). His conquest was religious but it was not about conversion (Olmstead, Albert, 154). Instead, he conquered in order to fight the war against darkness on the material world to help his god. Zoroastrians believed that all the other Gods people worshiped were real but were just allies of the good god or the bad god ([]). . So this conquest consisted of actually righting bad deeds, Cyrus freed slaves, helped the poor and educated people about new Persian discoveries ([]). A powerful example is when he conquered Babylon he allowed the exiled Jews there to return to Israel, which he had already conquered. Therefore, this conquest was not entirely based on power and expansion but also on doing good things for people and spreading science and culture throughout the known world.

While Cyrus the Great was the father of the Persian Empire, it was Darius the Great that really made the empire rich in science and culture. The truly revolutionary things that Darius and the people of Persia did still persist to this day. One example is the development of a universal language that survives in the roots of many English word (eg. asparagus) Second, the invention of a fair and efficient taxing system that is built to benefit the people, This was developed to help so many people in the empire from so many different cultures support a unified kingdom (Briant, Pirre, 274). Darius decided that it would be better to retain thier individual cultures. Many laws, policies and the previously mentioned tax system grew out of an amalgamation of the conquered states (Briant, Pierre, 134). Some of the Presian scientific and mathematic accomplishments include the Canal system which is explained above; the Royal road which was a 1600-mile Royal Road from Susa to Sardis; and the incredible feats of engineering and architecture found in all of their major cities but particularly the capital Persepolis (Engineering an Empire, History Channel). This city was composed of soaring towers larger than the world had ever seen and incredibly deteiled carving. The Persian people knew that greatness came not from power but from societal and scientific accomplishments.

In conclusion, we can learn from the Persian Empire that making positive societal and scientific advancements instead focusing on accumulating wealth and power creates a lasting civilization. The Persian Empire advanced many fields of knowledge and made lives better for centuries and taught us that we should focus on changing practices that don’t work well. We also learned from the Persian Empire that everyone has the right to believe what they want and should be treated equally. Finally, we remember that greatness is not measured by the empire's size or the amount of power it has but by the positive legacy it leaves.

**__web references__** [] - Mespotamia The Persians [] - Zoroastrianism [] - warfare of ancient civilizations [] - the Persian empire

Olmstead, Albert. __History of The Persion Empire__. Chigago: University of Chigago Press, 1948. Briant, Pirre. __from Cyrus to Alexader__. paris: Librairie Artheme Fayard, 1996
 * __ books __**

__ **Movies** __ Engineering an Empire, History Channel

go to research pages back to rise of an empire back to the Persian empire