50 Fun Facts About Persian Empire

Who founded the Achaemenid Persian Empire in 550 BC?

He rose from Persis to defeat Media, Lydia and Babylon and is honoured in Judaism for ending the Babylonian captivity.

Roughly how large was the Achaemenid Empire at its peak, making it the largest empire of its time?

It stretched from the Balkans and Libya to the Indus Valley.

Which conqueror annexed the entire Achaemenid Empire in 330 BC?

His campaign had begun in 336 BC; after his death most of the territory fell to the Seleucids and Ptolemies.

The empire is named after which ancestor of the dynasty, a minor 7th-century ruler of Anshan?

His name, Haxamanis, means roughly 'having a friend's mind'; no text before Darius mentions him.

Cyrus's first great conquest, in 550 BC, was of which empire, ruled by Astyages?

He captured King Astyages, his own grandfather according to Herodotus, and styled himself his successor.

Which fabulously wealthy king of Lydia lost his capital Sardis to Cyrus in 546 BC?

He had advanced into former Median territory hoping to profit from the upheaval.

Which Babylonian king was taken prisoner when Cyrus captured Babylon in October 539 BC?

Cyrus's propaganda cast him as an impious ruler who had promoted the moon god Sin over Marduk.

Cyrus is credited with freeing which people from captivity in Babylon and letting them rebuild their temple?

The Book of Ezra attributes the decree to him, and the Cyrus Cylinder is often cited as corroboration.

According to tradition, Cyrus died fighting which nomadic people in Central Asia?

His tomb at Pasargadae was later visited by Alexander, who was horrified to find it looted.

The Cyrus Cylinder, found in Babylon in 1879, is written in which script and language?

It was buried as a foundation deposit in the Esagila temple and is now in the British Museum.

Which archaeologist discovered the Cyrus Cylinder in March 1879 while excavating for the British Museum?

The Pahlavi dynasty later adopted the Cylinder as a national symbol and gave the UN a replica in 1971.

Cyrus's son Cambyses II conquered which country in 525 BC after the Battle of Pelusium?

Pharaoh Psamtik III was captured and later killed himself after a failed revolt.

Herodotus claims Cambyses went mad after killing which sacred Egyptian animal?

An epitaph from 524 BC shows Cambyses actually took part in the bull's funeral rites as pharaoh.

According to Darius's Behistun inscription, a magus named Gaumata seized the throne in 522 BC by impersonating whom?

Many historians suspect the impostor story was Darius's own cover for usurpation.

How did Cambyses II die in 522 BC while hurrying home from Egypt?

The Behistun inscription says Gaumata then ruled for seven months before Darius overthrew him.

Darius the Great organised the empire into provinces each governed by an official with what title?

A general handled military recruitment and a state secretary kept the records, so no one man held all the power.

Which language did Darius make co-official across the empire alongside Persian?

Under Artaxerxes I, Elamite ceased to be the language of government altogether.

Roughly how long was the Royal Road from Susa to Sardis?

It was probably perfected under Darius I and reorganised for trade in the 5th century BC.

How many days were mounted royal couriers supposed to take from Susa to Sardis along the Royal Road?

The relay stations were called Chapar Khaneh, and the courier service the Angarium.

Herodotus gave what name to the 10,000-strong elite infantry of the Persian army?

They served as both imperial guard and standing army, drawn mainly from Persians, Medes and Elamites.

Cyrus governed from four capitals: Babylon, Susa, his own Persian seat and which former Median capital?

Artaxerxes II later gilded Ecbatana's columns and roofed it with silver and copper tiles as a summer capital.

Persepolis, the ceremonial capital begun by Darius around 515 BC, lies in which modern Iranian province?

It sits on the Marvdasht plain ringed by the Zagros Mountains and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

One theory says Alexander burned Persepolis at the urging of which courtesan during a drunken feast?

The rival theory is that it was deliberate revenge for the Persian destruction of Athens.

Darius's Behistun inscription is written in Old Persian, Elamite and which third language?

As the longest known trilingual cuneiform text, it was the key to deciphering cuneiform.

Which British East India Company officer scaled the cliff at Behistun from 1835 to copy the inscription?

Darius's text boasts of nineteen battles won in a single year against rebels and impostors.

Which supreme deity does Darius repeatedly credit for his kingship in his inscriptions?

Under Artaxerxes I, Zoroastrianism became the de facto religion of the empire.

Herodotus says Darius served in what humble-sounding role in Cambyses's Egyptian campaign before seizing power?

The doryphoros was probably the king's personal spear-carrier, an important post.

Darius conquered lands along which river in 515 BC, extending the empire to modern Pakistan?

He wintered in Gandhara first and controlled the valley from there to modern Karachi.

Which Macedonian king surrendered his country to Persia around 512 BC during Darius's Balkan campaign?

The Persians called Macedonians 'Greeks with hats that look like shields', and Macedonian troops later fought for Xerxes.

Which uprising of Greek cities in Asia Minor, from 499 to 493 BC, opened the Greco-Persian Wars?

Aristagoras of Miletus started it after a botched expedition against Naxos, and Athens sent help.

Darius's forces were defeated by the Athenians in 490 BC at which battle?

He died before he could launch a second invasion, leaving the job to Xerxes.

When a storm wrecked his first bridge across the Hellespont, what did Xerxes reportedly order done to the strait?

The second bridge held, and his army marched into Greece in spring 480 BC.

Xerxes's army was held up for three days in 480 BC by a small Greek force at which pass?

A Greek named Ephialtes showed the Persians a path around the mountains, dooming Leonidas's Spartans.

Which 480 BC naval battle forced Xerxes to withdraw to Sardis?

The army he left under Mardonius was destroyed at Plataea the next year.

Greek and Roman sources blame which official for the assassination of Xerxes in his bed in 465 BC?

A Babylonian tablet instead points the finger at Xerxes's own son.

Which exiled Athenian, architect of the Greek naval victory of 480 BC, was given asylum and the city of Magnesia by Artaxerxes I?

He also received Myus and Lampsacus 'to maintain him in bread, meat, and wine'.

The 449 BC treaty that halted fighting between Athens and Persia is known by what name?

Artaxerxes had switched to funding Athens's enemies, which prompted the Delian League treasury to move to Athens.

How was the usurper Sogdianus executed in 424 BC, because his brother had promised he would not die by sword, poison or hunger?

The brother, Ochus, then took the throne as Darius II.

Which Achaemenid king reigned longest, 45 years, and moved the capital back to Persepolis?

He bankrolled Sparta's enemies in the Corinthian War before switching sides in the Treaty of Antalcidas.

Which eunuch poisoned Artaxerxes IV and placed Darius III on the throne, only to be forced to drink poison himself?

He had run the empire for the last six years of Artaxerxes III's reign.

Alexander defeated Persian armies at Granicus and Issus before which decisive battle in 331 BC?

Susa and Persepolis surrendered afterwards; Persepolis was burned in early 330 BC.

Which Bactrian governor and kinsman murdered the fleeing Darius III and proclaimed himself Artaxerxes V?

He left the king's body in the road to slow Alexander, who gave Darius an honourable funeral at Persepolis.

Which Iranian dynasty reclaimed the plateau from the Seleucids about a century after Alexander?

Their empire lasted nearly half a millennium before the Sasanians replaced it.

Where did Alexander visit the plundered tomb of Cyrus and put the Magi on trial?

He knew Cyrus from Xenophon's Cyropaedia and ordered the tomb restored.

Persian kings began building what for themselves while still alive, as Artaxerxes I did at Naqsh-e Rustam?

Artaxerxes died at Susa in 424 BC and was carried to the rock-cut necropolis.

Cambyses stationed a garrison at Elephantine on the Nile that consisted mainly of soldiers of which faith?

It stayed in place throughout his reign, guarding the border with Kush.

Persia's relay-station postal system, credited to Cyrus, used stations known by what Persian name?

Herodotus's praise of its couriers is the origin of the US Postal Service's unofficial motto.

Persepolis was completed by Xerxes, including which great gateway?

He also finished the Apadana and Tachara begun by Darius, and kept up the Royal Road.

What was the Persian daric, first of its kind in the world?

Paired with the silver siglos, it introduced the bimetallic monetary standard.

Under which king did Zoroastrianism become the de facto religion of the Achaemenid Empire?

His reign probably also introduced the solar calendar as the national calendar.