Persian History

In 490 BCE the Persians landed at Marathon where they squared off against the Athenians and the Athenian allies. During the battle the Greeks gained the upper hand were able to force the Persians to retreat to their boats. The Persians then attempted to use their ships to move against Athens, but by the time they reached the city, the defenders at Marathon had already returned and reinforced the city. At this point in time the Persians chose to withdraw. According to legend, the runner Pheidippides ran from Marathon to Athens to warn to Athenians about the Persian armada that was on its way. This story, despite its popularity in western civilization, is inaccurate. Pheidippides did not run from Marathon to Athens, he ran from Athens to Sparta before the battle of Marathon to try to convince the Spartans to join the battle against the Persians.

Hostilities were not renewed by the Persians against the Greeks until six years into the reign of Darius’s successor Xerxes. After crossing the Hellespont, Xerxes moved against the Greek states via land and sea. The confederation of Greek forces met the Persian army at Thermopylae where the Greek troops occupied the narrow pass; however a Greek defector informed the Persians of a mountain pass that could be utilized to get behind the Greek army. Seeing that the battle was lost, the Spartan commander Leonidas asked the other Greeks to withdraw and let the Spartans stand alone. Despite their military prowess the Spartans were defeated in this classical demonstration of the Spartan military code. With the way to Athens cleared, Xexres was able to march unopposed to the Greek city. When Xexres forces arrived the city was deserted. Themistocles, the great Athenian strategist, had vacated the city and withdrawn to the Island of Salamis. In the Bay of Salamis the Athenian and Persian fleets clashed. The Persians, despite outnumbering the Greeks by a ratio of more than 2:1, were unable to carry the day. Xerxes had no alternative at this point, but to withdraw his fleet. He left control of his army, which was still pillaging Attica, in control of the capable Mardonius. In 479 BCE, the armies of the Greek states and the Persian army met at the Plains of Plataea. During the battle Mardonius was, and the ensuing disarray caused the Persians to be routed. The Persians had failed in their second attempted to take control of Greece. Although the Persians would play a prominent role in Greek politics for the next hundred years, they did not attempt to invade Greece again. The defeat of the Persians in the Second Persian War would mark the beginning of the decline of the Persian Empire.

In 334 BCE Alexander the Great marched his armies across the Hellespont in order to seize the Persian Empire for himself. Darius III, king of Persia was defeated, first at Granicus, then at Isssus and finally at Garugamela in 331 BCE. When Alexander died in 323 BCE, he had brought the entire Persian Empire under his thumb. Though in the wake of his death, his generals began to quarrel about who should succeed Alexander and later, how to divide up this immense amount of territory. In the east, Seleucus emerged from the fray victorious, taking control of Iran, Mesopotamia and northern Syria. Hellenistic control over Iran and parts of the former Persian Empire would last for over two centuries.

The Hellenistic period and the rise of Parthia: 323 BCE to 36 BCE

Despite the fact that the ruling class in the former Persian Empire, now the Seleucid Empire was now Macedonian, little changed in the governance of Persia. Alexander the Great, upon conquering the region had kept the system of provinces and Satraps. The Seleucids continued this system of control. The Hellenistic policy in Iran was to establish colonies in order to gain control of trade routes and important military positions. Many of the cities that were founded were populated by Macedonian settlers. However, native Iranians could choose to become citizens of the Greek polis in Iran. Alexander’s conquests had spread the Greek language throughout Persia; however the language was only spoken in the major urban centres. Once away from these centres, the Hellenistic influence was minimal.

The first challenge to the Seleucid domination of this region came in 238 BCE when the Arsacids seized control of the satrapy of Parthia. The Arsacids were nomads from central Asia, however upon their conquest of the Parthian region, they became known as the Parthians. The Parthian kings slowly consolidated their control over northern Iran, largely at the expense of the now crumbling Seleucid Empire. The traditional date of the foundation of the Parthian Empire is consider 141 BCE. This is the date in which Mithriades I was crowned king of Parthia at Seleucia. At the time of his death in 138 BCE, the Parthians were masters of the Iranian plateau, Mesopotamia and Central Asia. By 113, Mithriades I successor, Mithriades II had extended the Parthian border to the Euphrates River.

Parthia situated between the great Chinese and Roman Empires benefited greatly from being the middleman between these two trading giants. The Parthians had a cordial relationship with the Han Dynasty in China, but their western expansion brought them into sharp conflict with the Roman Empire. The biggest point of contention between these two powers was control over Armenia. The first major battle between these two powers occurred at Carrhae in 53 BCE, where the triumvirate Crassus was annihilated by superior Parthian cavalry archers. Mark Antony met a similar fate in 36 BCE when he attempted to subdue the Parthian Empire. Our historical sources about the Parthian Empire largely come from the western works of Latin and Greek authors. Unfortunately, these sources are rather biased. Thus it has been rather difficult for modern historians to construct a true history of the Parthian Empire.

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