Persian Empire

The empire of western Asia which was begun by Kyrus the Great in 559 BCE and ended with Darius III in 330 BCE.

After the overthrow of the Medes, the Persians successfully ruled western and central Asia without opposition but were soundly defeated on the two occasions when they tried to expand their empire westward into Greece.

Even though the Persians had advanced forms of art and science, in Greek literature the Persians were referred to as Barbarians; when Greece entered historic times, the Persian Empire was in decline and their influence was restricted to eastern Asia Minor, India and Egypt; their constant threats to the Greek colonies in Asia Minor and the Aegean Sea were merely a prelude to the invasion of the Greek mainland in 490 and 480 BCE.

The first invasion by Darius was repelled by the Greeks with a resounding victory in 490 BCE on the plains of Marathon; the second invasion, by Xerxes in 480 BCE, resulted in the sack of Athens but the Persian navy was decimated at the sea-battle near the island of Salamis and the remnants of the Persian army were defeated at Plataea.

After these two catastrophic defeats, the Persians were content to harass the Greek colonies in Asia Minor but their incursions were tempered by the well known fact that the Greeks were, in all ways, militarily superior to the Persians and, if left to themselves, the Greeks were not a threat to the Persian Empire and perfectly content to fight amongst themselves.

The kings of the Persian Empire and the approximate periods in which each ruled are as follows:

Kyrus (Cyrus) the Great 559-529 BCE;

Kambyses (Cambyses) 529-522 BCE;

Pseudo-Smerdis 522 BCE; 521-485 BCE;

Xerxes I 486-465 BCE;

Artaxerxes I 465-423 BCE;

Xerxes II 423 BCE;

Darius II 423-404 BCE;

Artaxerxes II 404-358 BCE;

Artaxerxes III 338-336 BCE;

Darius III 336-330 BCE.