Compare And Contrast Achaemenid Persian Empire

Andrea Mendez

HST 210

Second Paper

9-20-2015

Title

The Achaemenid Persian Empire is known as one of the greatest and most powerful empires throughout history. However, what is not usually known is the fact that the Persian Empire became so powerful partly because it absorbed another relatively powerful territory that once was its own empire: The Egyptian. The Achaemenid Persian Empire was a multi-cultural and a multi-ethnic empire because it owned or governed many lands from modern territories such as, Iran, Jordan, Palestine to all the main cities of Ancient Egypt, to Central Asia, Pakistan, and many more. However, while the Persian Empire became very powerful, it differed from the Egyptian empire that came before it. The Achaemenid Persian

Empire, while similar to the Egyptian empire in terms of its hierarchical political structures, differed from the Egyptian empire in its approach to religion.
Even if there are two different designations of leaders either emperor or pharaoh they were considered as the main or most powerful image of the empire. The way social status or social organization may vary with time between the two empires. Therefore, during the Achaemenid Persian Empire the second most powerful person was the satrap usually known as a governor who helped the emperor make decisions and “shaped their rule according to preexisting local mores and were granted a certain measure of autonomy” (Graham and Cline 99). After the satrap, next in line was the vassal king who was in charge of the military decisions. Lastly, there was the state secretary who wrote and published laws created by the emperor. In comparison to the Persian Empire, during the Egyptian Empire the pharaoh was known as a King or God who was followed by the vizier, the king’s representative. Then, the nomarch was a person who governed the nomes because the Egyptian Empire was divided by 42 nomes and the pharaoh chose a representative for every nome in order to have control over them. The nomarch was followed by the temples who were the backbone of the economy. Although the social hierarchies between the two empires differed, in the transition from the Egyptian to the Achaemenid Persian Empire Darius, the last emperor, considered himself to be “both an Egyptian pharaoh and warrior monarch and conqueror and foreigner” (96). Thus, even though the Persian and Egyptian empires were predominantly different in their social structures, the transition was a period when the two structures intermixed as the Egyptian empire was absorbed into the Persian Empire.
Something that is clearly different between the Achaemenid Persian Empire and the Egyptian Empire is the culture.

The approach to religion was different. For the Achaemenid Persian Empire during early years they followed a specific God named Marduk who was the one that inspired and made Cyrus the Great the first emperor, owner and governor of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. Therefore, the Achaemenid Persian Empire was a multi-religious and multi-cultural empire because they owned many territories such as Egypt, Palestine, Jordan and so on. In addition, Jews were free to follow their own traditions and “as the biblical books of Ezra and Nehemiah record, the Persian king allowed the Jews to return to Israel, where they then rebuilt their temple” (102). However, when Darius was in charge of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, the religion changed. Zoroastrianism was implemented as the new faith whose god was Ahura- Mazda. Therefore, the new faith presented two different paths, the good one known as Arta and the bad one know as Drauga whose god was Ahriman. In comparison, the Egyptian Empire followed one god named Horus. Therefore, Horus was the living pharaoh but the previous pharaoh would be called Osiris. In addition, the pharaoh believes in many rituals and traditions such as immortality, which played a huge part during the after life. The immortality was divided by a vital self named Ka, an individual self named Ba, and a transcendent spirit which was the only independent part of the body named Akh. Mummification was also an important ritual for the Egyptians in terms of religion and rituals. There were three ways to make mummification successful and it depended on your social class. Therefore, while both empires were heavily invested in religion, the Egyptian Empire was more strict because everyone was required to follow one religion, whereas in the Persian Empire different religious groups were allowed to worship their own gods and participate in their own rituals

and traditions until the reign of Darius when Zorastrianism was implemented as the new faith.