Political and Economic Persian and Greek Comparison Essays

There are many reasons in which the Persian empire is considered one of the greatest civilizations ever in human history and this can mostly be attributed to the stupendous leadership of the one and only Cyrus the great. One of the best kings that the world has ever seen and was the most dominant man in his era. He was brilliant and extremely powerful as he was smart and strong enough to conquer almost every single land within his area and put them all together into one persian empire. The legacy that Cyrus left behind him was one that every king after him tried to follow. For example, emperor Darius I still continued the expansion of the persian empire and reigned control over it as well. After Cyrus died there was a time in which there was nothing but trash rulers and then Darius I came into power. As I stated earlier Darius wanted to follow in the steps of Cyrus and be even greater than him so Darius builded on what Cyrus achieved and split the persian empire into multiple provinces to control the government a little easier. Another thing that made persia so successful was the fact that they tolerated non-Persian folks to live in their empire. There were many different types of people all across persia and the government did not force anything upon these non-Persian residents and let them live their lives how they had before arriving and they only had to pay taxes. Due to this the

The Persian Wars were a series of conflicts fought between the Greek states and the Persian Empire from 500-449 BC. It started in 500 BC, when a few Greek city-states on the coast of Asia Minor, who were under the control of the Persian Empire, revolted against the despotic rule of the Persian king Darius. Athens and Eretria in Euboea gave aid to these Greek cities but not enough, and they were subdued by the Persians. The Persians became determined to conquer Hellas and make Athens and Eretria pay for helping the Ionian cities. In 492 BC, the first Persian invasion had its fleet crippled by a storm before it could do any damage. King Darius sent another Persian expedition in 490 which destroyed

The Persian Empire is considered one of the most successful empires at its time. What made the Persian Empire so unique and successful, was because of how sophisticated there government was. Like other empires the Persian Empire had a religion. This made the people of Persia freely think about their ruler and help the empire out in any way. The Persian empire compared to preceding empires, (such as the Assyrian Empire etc) were relatively less oppressive and abusive to their people. This prevented the empire from collapsing that easily. Which is one reason why they advanced their rule for another 200 years (1,429 years in Dynasty rule (1979)).

Pericles and Alexander the Great are known as two Greek Icons who developed Greece into one of the most prestigious empires in history. During their time, Greece was vastly advanced and influenced western civilization today. The first leader to unselfishly use the political system of democracy, Pericles wanted to strengthen Greece influence around the world and pushed for other states to adopt democracy. Pericles allowed even the poorest citizens to hold a seat in office if elected by their peers. Alexander the Great was one of the greatest leaders and emperors of all time earning the name of “the great”. Today Alexander the Great is known as a conquering leader who created one of the largest empires of all time. Both Pericles and Alexander the Great are remembered today as some of the most accomplished and respected leaders in living memory.

The classical period was a time of war and conflict, and showed “an era of unprecedented political and cultural achievement,” (“Classical Greece”), during this time period, the Persians began to invade the mainlands and Greek Islands. “In 499 BCE, some Greek city-states and others in the eastern Mediterranean revolted against the Persians…” (Pollard 136) The civilization needed men to be warriors. Among the fact that Persia was invading Greece, it was the beginning of

The ancient civilizations had very different ways of running their empires throughout their time. The Persians and Greeks held very true to this statement. They both had different sources that contributed to the power they held. The Persians had a very large empire and had a specific way of controlling it. First lets see how the Persians came to be. Cyrus, the son of the Assyrian king, was supposed to be killed as a baby. He was instead taken to a village that soon became called Persia. As Cyrus matured, the people could tell he had the characteristics of a king. He soon became just that. He didn’t want to be just a ruler though, he wanted to be different. His tactics were based on mercy, forgiveness, and compassion. Cyrus did go to war still

There were four great multicultural Empires in our world’s history Ancient Greece, The Roman Empire, Persia and China. I am going to focus on Ancient Greece and the Persian Empire, what geographical features did each region offer to help the people build these great empires, what were some of the cultures of this empires, and what changes did they have over time? Going further into details on the Persian Empire, who were two of the leaders and what contributions did they make to Persia, what methods did they use to expand the region and gain power? How did the political system change over time?

Alexander was a military genius. Alexander conquered a large amount of land (Doc A). The map shows that there were many battles that were fought throughout greece. He also founded many cities in the land he conquered. Alexander also was smart about

The Greeks showed more unity during the Second Persian War. Xerxes assembled a Persian army including soldiers from all parts of the Eastern world in order to

Together with religion, the way each empire ran their government was a major difference between the Greek and the Persian Empire. In fact, Greece was originally a monarchy, but later on, Athens, one of the city states of Greece, started the first ever democratic. During this time Greece also sets up individual towns called city states. A few of the most powerful city-states include Athens, Sparta and Argos. Persia on the other hand was always a monarchy. In Persia, governors called Satrap govern each province called Satrapies. Although it was a

Greece is one of the four multicultural empires that occurred around 600 BCE to 600 CE. Ancient Greece had so many different geographical features that helped brand the outcomes of the empire. One of the key features was Greece’s rugged mountains with deep valleys. With the mountains and valleys being rugged, it produced poor rocky soils (Acrobatiq, 2014). Also, there were narrow coastal areas as well. With this being a living environment for the Greeks, the production of food crops was unfortunate because of those factors. The Greeks had to find other ways to gather foods to their city-states because of the low production of food crops. With this being a bittersweet situation, Greeks recognized more about trades. They eventually became more knowledgeable and respectable at it. Greeks would find other places that would trade with them for food crops and other resources. Greeks built colonies that were decent areas for finding foods and resources. Through this time, Greeks expanded with trading and traveling to enhance their empire.

The foundations of an ancient empire are shaped by many characteristics originating in a civilization’s social, philosophical, and theological values. Collectively these will bring about an empire that has aspects which will classify them in distinctive ways. The aspects that will be compared between Persia and Rome are the motives for expansion, methods of expansion, the administration, the impact on those conquered and the original empire, and the reasons for the decline of each empire. When combined, these aspects predispose the individual overall shape of ancient Rome and Persia. Both empires began with conquering larger rulers and creating vast empires which had never been seen

Greece’s economy was primarily based on the trade of grapes, cereals, and olive oil. However, because of natural constraints, production soon proved insufficient to satisfy demand. The olive tree and grapevine were the main sources for economic growth, as well as the cultivation of herbs and vegetables. Sheep and goats were the most common types of livestock. Woods were heavily exploited, first for domestic use and eventually to build triremes. Bees were kept to produce honey, the only source of sugar known to the ancient Greeks. Since it was so labor intensive, agriculture employed up to 80% of the Greek population.[5] Ancient Rome was a slave-based economy whose main concern was feeding the vast number of citizens and legionaries who populated the Mediterranean region. Agriculture and trade dominated the Roman economy, only supplemented by small scale industrial production.5 This was a similarity between Greece and Rome because Greece had to adapt to the demands of their own economy, and trade, while Rome had to do the same, but to a greater extent because their main concern was to feed the people of their empire.

There are precious few similarities between the political systems of the two civilizations; in fact they were basically opposite of each other. The Persian Empire had been ruled by a King from a central location; but the size of the Empire was so large that he wasn't able to effectively rule alone. He got a number of governors called Satraps to rule in his stead in different provinces. The Satraps were almost always Persian, but he did let the local officials to be chosen from local people with local language and customs. To keep insurrections or treason from happening, he employed a secret police system known as the "eyes and ears of the King" that gave him information of events in the far reaches of his Empire. The Greek poleis were each

Persia was a small kingdom until 539 B.C. when King Cyrus decided to expand its borders. After conquering about 8 million square kilometers over the span of Asia, Europe and Africa, the Persian Empire became the largest empire in the world. During this time of Persia’s large reign, the city of Ionia revolted against Persian rule and the cities of Athens and Eretria supported them in this revolt. In response, Persia, now led by King Darius, decided to punish Athens and Eretria for their support in the revolt. Darius also saw this as an opportunity to further extend the Persian Empire into Europe. This led to the First Persian Invasion of Greece, which had two distinct campaigns beginning in 492 B.C. and ending in 490 B.C.