ranean Sea have sometimes been credited with the fall of the
Hittites, but internal troubles seem to have been more sig-
nifi cant, and several vassal states had already succeeded in
breaking free under Suppiluliuma II (aft er 1215 b.c.e.).
ISRAEL
Although Palestine was dominated by Egypt for much of
its ancient history, Egypt in general did not meddle in local
politics. Its primary concern was keeping open and free from
danger the trade routes that linked Palestinian seaports with
the Near East and Egypt. Most historians believe that He-
brews settled in Palestine in about 1200 b.c.e. and that they
were a nomadic people. Biblical accounts say that they left
Egypt, and accounts left by Egyptians on their monuments
indicate that the Hebrews had lived in Egypt in a region in
the eastern Nile Delta. Th is was not unusual, because at other
times Egypt allowed Libyan tribes and even some of the no-
torious Sea Peoples to settle, all of whom were absorbed into
the Egyptian culture.
Palestine was a land of city-states and experienced a fl ow
of diff erent peoples through it. Some of the Sea Peoples who
had attacked the Hittites settled in Palestine, becoming the
Philistines. Wars with the Philistines and other tribes seem
to have driven the Hebrews to organize their tribes into a
nation. Th eir fi rst king was Saul (r. ca. 1020–ca. 1000 b.c.e.),
who conquered territory well north of the Sea of Galilee,
much of the land around the Dead Sea, and eastward beyond
the city of Ammon, but he died while fi ghting the Philistines.
His successor, David (ca. 1000–ca. 962 b.c.e.), decisively de-
feated the Philistines and extended the empire of the Hebrews
northward into Syria and southward to the Gulf of Aqaba,
and he claimed much of the Mediterranean coastline of the
region. Th e extent of his eastward conquering has yet to be
established by archaeologists. King David conquered the city
of Jerusalem and made it his capital.
David’s son Solomon (r. ca. 961–ca. 921 b.c.e.) was the
last to rule over a united Hebrew nation. Th e power of his na-
tion was great enough to create vassal states in Syria. During
his rule, the empire was a powerful economic force in Pal-
estine. With the nation’s wealth he undertook many public
building projects, the most famous of which was a temple in
Jerusalem. Aft er his death the kingdom split into Israel, with
its capital in the city of Samaria, and Judah, with its capi-
tal in Jerusalem. Israel lasted until around 722 b.c.e., when
Shalmaneser V of Assyria destroyed it. He had the Hebrews
resettled elsewhere in his empire to separate them from their
homeland and relocated Mesopotamian peoples to Israel.
Judah lasted until about 587 b.c.e., when Babylonia burned
Jerusalem and resettled the people in Mesopotamia.
PERSIA
Th e Medes were a people in western Iran (between the Cas-
pian and the Zagros mountains) who are spoken of in Assyr-
ian sources and participated in the sack of Nineveh in 614
b.c.e. Although they were credited by the historian Herodo-
tus with having a powerful empire, there is little evidence of
this outside the literary sources. Indeed, the fi rst great Per-
sian Empire (538–331 b.c.e.), also known as the Achaeme-
nid Empire, arose not from Median but from Elamite roots.
Cyrus the Great (r. 558–529 b.c.e.), who entered Babylon in
539 b.c.e. and is credited with subsuming Media before going
on to conquer Lydia, emerged from an Elamite milieu. Cyrus
established a new capital at Pasargadae, not far from the an-
cient city of Anshan (modern-day Tal-e Malyan), northwest
of Shiraz.
Cyrus was killed while campaigning near the Aral Sea in
Central Asia and was succeeded by his son Cambyses II (r. 529–
522 b.c.e.), who conquered Egypt in 525 b.c.e. Aft er the death
of Cambyses during the return journey from Egypt, Darius I
(r. 522–486 b.c.e.) came to power. It is with him that the true
Achaemenid Dynasty began, since Darius was of the house
of Achaemenes, whereas Cyrus was not. Darius’s conquests
stretched from the Indus River valley in the east to Th race in
southeastern Europe. He reorganized the Persian Empire into
20 provinces, called satrapies, and he improved the postal sys-
tem that had been created by Assyria. He built the Royal Road,
extending 1,600 miles from Susa in Iran to Sardis in LydiaPortion of a relief in the tomb of Darius I showing his throne bearers;
all 28 throne bearers represent the 28 nations of his empire. (Courtesy
of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago)400 empires and dynasties: The Middle East