History - Iran - page 537

The Elamites believed in a pantheon of
gods, and their most notable remaining build-
ing, the enormous ziggurat at Choqa Zanbil,
was built around the 13th century BC and ded-
icated to the foremost of these gods. By the
12th century BC the Elamites are thought to
have controlled most of what is now western
Iran, the Tigris Valley and the coast of the Persian Gulf.
About this time Indo-European Aryan tribes began arriving from the north. These Persi-
ans eventually settled in what is now Fars province, around Shiraz, while the Medes took
up residence further north, in what is today northwestern Iran. The Medes established a
capital at Ecbatana, now buried under modern Hamadan, and first crop up in Assyrian re-
cords in 836 BC. Little more is heard of them until, according to Greek historian Hero-
dotus, Cyaxares of Media expelled the Scythians in about 625 BC.
Under Cyaxares, the Medes became a for-
midable military force, repeatedly attacking the
neighbouring Assyrians. In 612 BC, having
formed an alliance with the Babylonians, the
Medes sacked the Assyrian capital of Nineveh
and chased the remnants of this once-mighty
empire into history.

The Elamites' system of inheritance and power dis-
tribution was sophisticated for the time, ensuring
power was passed through various family lines.

Cyrus the Great, by Jacob Abbott, tells the story of
the fair-minded empire builder through the writings
of Greek historian Herodotus and general Xen-
ophenon, with extensive commentary from Abbott.

The Achaemenids & the First Persian Empire
In the 7th century BC the king of one of the Persian tribes, Achaemenes, created a unified
state in southern Iran, giving his name to what would become the First Persian Empire,
the Achaemenids. By the time his 21-year-old great-grandson Cyrus II ascended the
throne in 559 BC, Persia was a state on the up. Within 20 years it would be the greatest
empire the world had known up until that time.
Having rapidly built a mighty military force, Cyrus the Great (as he came to be known)
ended the Median Empire in 550 BC when he defeated his own grandfather - the hated
king Astyages - in battle at Pasargadae. Within 11 years, Cyrus had campaigned his way
across much of what is now Turkey, east into modern Pakistan, and finally defeated the
Babylonians. It was in the aftermath of this victory in 539 BC that Cyrus established a
reputation as a benevolent conqueror. According to Herodotus in The Persian Wars, Cyr-
us declared he would 'respect the traditions, customs and religions of the nations of my
empire and never let any of my governors and subordinates look down on or insult