hands. In the 540 s, Croesus, the Lydian king, came into conflict with his new Persian
neighbour, and Cyrus’ subsequent victory over him meant that the entire territory
from Central Anatolia to the Aegean coast was added to his conquests. In 539 , Cyrus
won a major victory over the Babylonian king, Nabonidus, and so the Babylonian
empire (including Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine and the northern ends of the Arabian
desert routes) was incorporated. It seems likely that some of the last years of Cyrus’
life were spent conquering eastern Iran and beyond; certainly by 522 the region was
part and parcel of Persia’s imperial territory and, according to some traditions, he
was killed on campaign in Central Asia. On his death, the empire stretched from the
Egyptian frontier and the Aegean coast to Uzbekistan, and in 526/5his son and
successor, Cambyses, added Egypt to this already gigantic area. Persian control here
extended to Aswan in the south, and was secured through agreements reached with
Cyrene, Barca and Libya to the west of Egypt (Herodotus 3. 13 ), and the wealthy
Nubian kingdom to the south.
The very rapid acquisition of empire created internal problems in Persia, involving
a revolt by Cambyses’ younger brother, Bardiya, during the former’s absence in Egypt.
The serious nature of this internal Persian conflict is strikingly illustrated by the fact
that, despite being a legitimate son of Cyrus, founder of the empire, Bardiya was
rapidly eliminated by a small group of Persian nobles, one of whom then acceded to
the throne claiming relationship with Cyrus’ family. This was Darius I ( 522 – 486 ).
The turmoil unleashed by these events is known from the massive, in some cases,
repeated revolts against his seizure of the throne that took place, particularly on the
Iranian plateau, in Babylonia (two revolts in 522 and 521 ), Armenia and Fars itself.
They were, however, ruthlessly crushed and Darius was able to consolidate control
in northern Central Asia, add the Indus valley to his realm, and begin to exploit the
maritime routes between north India and the Persian Gulf (Herodotus 4. 44 ). He
further strengthened his north-western frontier, by adding Thrace and several Aegean
islands to his direct control, and creating close links with Macedon in northern Greece.
His son Xerxes’ ( 486 – 465 ) attempt to consolidate this by adding more of Greece in
480 / 79 was not successful, although the setback for the Persian empire in this region
was, overall, slight and proved ultimately to be temporary.
A sign that the empire achieved its final form under Darius I and Xerxes is that
there was no further territorial expansion after their time. It can now be considered
to have entered its ‘mature’ phase, a conclusion borne out by the evidence for the
tightening up of the administrative structure within this period and the introduction
of a more uniform system of taxation.
IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT AND
ADMINISTRATIONSatraps and subjectsThe immense imperial territories were divided into provinces, generally called by the
Iranian-derived term ‘satrapies’. Each province was fairly extensive, each was governed
by a ‘satrap’ (governor) who was virtually always a Persian noble and lived in the
satrapal capital. The satrapal centre was, in many cases, identical with the old capital
of the original political units conquered. Thus, in Egypt the satrapal capital was
— The Persian empire —