Expansion, Problems, Control and Lessons to be Learnt
Empires whose domain span countries and continents can be governed and administered in a highly organized manner if the right blend of approach, planning and implementation is found. The Persian empire and Alexander’s Hellenistic empire are two excellent examples how how massive empires can be governed, even in times when logistics and transportation were limited to using animals on roads and ships on the sea. Further, forms of government were not as developed and these empires were predominantly monarchies. They were ever expanding, and were the two largest empires of their time, with massive populations and armies to govern. Despite these challenges, the Persian as well as the Hellenistic empires were well organized, focused on development, progress and growth.
The country we recognize today as Iran was ancient Persia. Duringthe 5th century B.C.E., the Persian Empire was the biggest empire in the entire world. The kingdom of Persia even surpassed the extent of the well-known Assyrian Empire. The only empire to surpass the Persian’s was the mammoth Alexandrian Hellenistic Empire. Both were unquestionably epoch packed empires with several notable trade interactions, invasions and development of religions. These civilizations truly set an example for the people of all ages to come on how to rise to the summit with incredible pioneers as rulers to channelize their resources and ambition into right avenues of development .
Both these empires were ruled by leaders who were renowned across nations for the ingenuity, novel thinking and might. Cyrus, Emperor of the Persian Empire, was baffled t as he could not conquer Babylon whose citizens were not ready to surrender. Cyrus was not even able to crack the great walls around Babylon built for their protection. After several unsuccessful endeavors, Cyrus developed a tricky plan. The Euphrates River generally flowed inside and outside of Babylon. The pathway of the river was side-tracked into a sink during the festive season of the Babylonians. While the people of Babylon were in a festive mood, the Persian soldiers entered the city through the entering route of the Euphrates River. As a consequence, Babylon was conquered by Persia during 539 B.C.. As Babylon was considered to be the greatest city at the time, this conquest was a major victory for Cyrus, in terms of land, glory, power and influence.
In the ancient World, paper money was nonexistent. The main currency was gold. The fiscal strategy of Persia reserved huge amount of gold. As a result, the prices and taxes of all commodities increased due to this reserved gold. Darius III, another Emperor of Persia, had extensive quantities of gold and fortune when compared to the rulers of Greece., The traders corns and other merchants lay great emphasis on gold and hence, Darius and his ministers were almost always able to outbid their Greek counterparts in every the markets. However, the excess of gold in Persia also led to unemployment. The rulers of Persia never felt the importance of allowing the gold to circulate in the market and the necessity to expose the vaults. If the general people had gold in their hands, all these problems could have diminished and it would have pressurized the Greeks much more .
Greece, on the other hand, was under a constant threat due to attacks by barbarians on its colonies. As a result its armies were dispersed and constantly in a state of battle. During the fourth century, Alexander the Great, who was a Macedonian general and Emperor, came to conquer Babylon. Though the Era of Alexander was short-lived, still it is very important for the history of the world. The Greeks colonized Babylon and did business deals through the Black Sea coast and the Mediterranean Sea coast for a long time .The wheat production lands of Egypt were controlled by the Persian Empire towards the southern Russia. As a consequence, a crisis of food occurred in the inland of Greece that happened first time in its history. During the period of 594 BCE, export of grains was seen as illegal from Attica. The depletion climbed high above the quantity manufactured.
The Government of Persia was established following the model of Assyrian Government. But the model system was modified to create the best administrative system that was compassionate to the general people. The entire kingdom was marked into twenty outlying areas or provinces. The provinces were known as “Satrapies”. The Satrapies were governed by a ruler designated as a “Satrap”. To control the Satraps, a designated person known as a military official or a secretary was appointed in each province. These controlling authorities were known as “King of Kings” or “Great Kings” etc. Special inspectors were also appointed who were known as "the Eyes and Ears of the King". The inspectors moved from one province to the other to supervise the subordinate authorities .
The important towns and cities were all connected with grand post roads. The Royal Road connected the Susa and Sardis. Every fourteen miles there was apost station. In the post stations the couriers of the king used to change their fatigued horses and take fresh horses. This changing of horses in each post stations enabled the couriers to travel a long distance of near about 1600 mile within a week. This motto was so rational and eternal that the Postal Service of United States uses this motto and it is believed to be one of the best Postal Systems in the World
The Realm of Persia was the forerunner to rule a lot of diverse cultural and tribal clusters on the attitude of equivalent privileges and responsibilities for all the individuals. The people needed to simply pay the proper taxes on time to keep peace. The king allowed the liberty of individual trade, custom or religion provided tax was paid on time. In fact, Darius was designated as the "shopkeeper" as he encouraged trade in his kingdom with silver coinage and gold coinage which were all similar and uniform.
The people of Persia were highly cultured and thrived for maintaining their culture. They maintained interaction with their “mother-land” in several outstanding ways . The specific culture of specific group of people was dependent upon the arts, customs and religion of the people of that group. The people of Persia loved their land and used to interrelate with their land by means of several unique ways of praising the huge resources and beauty of the land. The similar culture and art was the identification mark of similar cultural group. Different cultural groups from the entire world followed the tradition of praising the land which helps in creating a sense of brotherly feeling among the entire group. This brought a sense of unity among the different nations, small or large, that were conquered by the Persians. Having commonalities in culture facilitated easier transition to a new regime and encouraged cooperation among the people who had been conquered.
Alexander died in 323 BCE. Thereafter three inheritor kingdoms appeared. The rulers of these three kingdoms were from Greece. They were all enthusiastic in spreading Greek culture and language. During this period the Greek rulers had close ties with the countries of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and various Inner Eurasia republics. In this era, the Maurya Empire arose in India. Maurya Empire had great influence of the Greek Rulers having resilient political and commercial connections. Although the death of Alexander effectively ended this era, the connections of his generals with Maurya kings allowed the Greek culture to become a part of the Northern India. Business deals were the major factors making these connections stronger. In the course of time, demand of various products started growing along with the continuous growth of then cities. Exchange of trade, gold, money, culture, horses, timber, etc. together helped in the emergence of new religious, political and scientific ideas. This era also observed the birth of great personalities like Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, Pericles Euclid, and Herodotus .
Two of the mightiest empires in the ancient history of the world are undoubtedly the Persian Empire and the great Hellenistic Empire of Alexander. They conquered several provinces and maintained a reasonably stable kingdom. Both the empires have left a lasting impression on the rulers of the world. The battlefield tactics of their kings and generals are still used in modern day warfare. They contributed in the fields of governance, architecture, mathematics, art and other fields as well. After the termination of this period, the trade connections were extended to the Mediterranean Region, Britain, Africa, China and Asia. Life in all these provinces became very much interconnected and multifaceted.
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