Ancient Persia
The Persians did not refer to were they live as Persia
The modern word Iran comes from:
oAryans
oAryan-Vega
oAran-Shah
oAran
oThe Modern word Iran is close to what the region used to be called in ancient Persia
Achaemenid Empire is the origins of the Persian Empire
oThey came from a region in modern day Iran called:
Pars
Persus
Fars (Comes from Arabic with no P’s)
The Greeks called them the Persians
The Persian Empire emerges from this region
The Region of modern-day Iran was controlled by the Medians before the
Persian
Cyrus The great in 549 to 550 BCE overtake the Median emperor who was his grandfather
oHe was originally Cyrus the II but was renamed Cyrus the Great
oHe names the region the Achaemenid Empire
The reason it is called the Achaemenid empire is because Cyrus claims to be
from the family of the patriarch Achaemenids
He lived around 7th Century BCE
The empire lasted around 200 years, until they were conquered by the
Greeks and Alexander the Great
In 4th century BCE, Persia weakens, and Greece strengthens
The Persians empire is in the control of the Seleucids
The Persians don’t rule their own territory until 238 BCE when the Parthians
come to conquer it
The Parthians were side by side with the Romans
The Achaemenid empire had around 50 Million people or around 50% of the
entire world’s population
oIn the 7th century CE Islam is introduces
Before that you had Zoroastrianism
It was a Monotheistic religion following their god ‘Ahura Mazda’
It was based on the ideas of ‘Good Thoughts’, Lead to good words and good
deeds
oEach region or Satrap had its own Governor type leader, but as time went on the
Satraps got a bit more powerful than originally hoped for
