Homework due oct/2

• What was the name of the ancient Greek historian that is one of our major sources for information about the Persian Empire?

  • Herodotus

  • Herodotus is one of the most famous historians of all times and because of the high standards of writing history that he advocated. he has become known as the father of History because of these high standards.

• What had the Persian Empire become by 539 BCE because of Cyrus the Great?

  • It had become the largest empire to have existed in the Near East to that point

• After Cyrus was killed defending the borders of the Persian Empire, who succeeded him and what did he do to expand the Persian Empire?

  • Cyrus was the founder and first emperor of the first Persian Empire which was the Achaemenid Empire- the first for the four Persian empires

  • Cambyses (son of cyrus)

• After the death of Cambyses, who was able to grasp control of the Persian Empire in 522 BCE

  • Darius took control of the Persian Empire after the death of Cambyses

  • Darius became the third ruler of the Persian empire and become the most powerful ruler this empire ever had

• At the bottom of this page, what was the name of the governing districts that Darius created called?

  • Satrapies

  • The governing districts of the Achaemenid Empire and subsequent Persian empires became known as satrapies

• What was the person who administered a satrapy called?

  • A royal governor who became known as a satrap

• Darius I and later kings had a number of tools at their disposal to keep the powerful satraps in line. For example, they frequently sent royal officials to the satrapies to do what?

  • to arrive unnaouned and conduct audits, compiling detailed reports about how the satrapies were being governed that were sent directly to the king for review

  • The kings of the Persian empires frequently utilized official spies to make sure the satraps remained loyal to them

• According to your authors, how many miles could communication move in a single day in the Persian Empire?

  • 200 miles

  • the persian empires utilized a form of the Pony Express in which frequent riders and horses were implemented in transporting messages quickly across the vast Persian empire.

  • The four empires of Persia built many good roads that facilitated communication and transportation throughout the empire

  • Persian emporers greatly depended on good roads in keeping their empire centralized

  • Persian emperors protected the merchants to encourage trade throughout the empire

What were qanats? (Please see what Figure 4.33 states about qanats

These were long underground tunnels used for carrying fresh water over many kilometers, usually for irrigation, and represented a major improvement over earlier technologies