The Ancient And Forgotten Empire Of Persepolis

In the middle of a plane in modern-day Iran lies a

forgotten

ancient

city. Persepolis, built two and a half thousand years ago, was known in its time as the richest city under the sun. Persepolis was the capital of the largest

empire

the world had ever had. never seen but for over two thousand years after its destruction it was largely ignored the life and achievements of the Persians who built it erased from history the Persians remain an enigma to us we do not know them as well as we would like to think We know the Greeks, the Romans or the Egyptians, so in a sense they are one of the remaining mysteries of

ancient

civilization.

It is one of the most underrated periods of history in antiquity imaginable, but no longer through archaeology, ancient texts and thanks to the work of a new generation of historians we can build a picture of this extraordinary civilization and it is this place, Persepolis, the one that holds the key to this Forgotten Empire. Until recently, Iran was largely closed to Western visitors; The political turmoil of the 1980s made it almost impossible to come here, but in recent years this has begun to change. Iran is opening up. You know, it's actually welcoming people from the West, so now was the time for our study of ancient Persia to accelerate.

I think we should take advantage of the opportunity. Dr. Lloyd Llewellyn Jones has spent 15 years studying ancient Persia, but this is the first time he has been able to visit Persepolis, the heart of Persian civilization. By coming to places like Persepolis, we can start to give the Persians a personality, start to give them an identity. Amazing boy, what they were doing is incredible, amazing, you know, in the stillness of the morning and just the birds singing, it's just extraordinary, it really is remarkable. Persepolis may be, but history has never given it its due, most of what we know about it.

We have deduced from Greek accounts that the Persians themselves left little written history, but the Greeks were sworn enemies of the Persians, they defeated them in battle, and it is the victors who write the history books. The Greeks like to paint themselves as the creators of all things. civilized and the Persians as cruel, despotic and backward, we in the West identify with a Greco-Roman tradition, we know the works of Greek and Latin authors and they are going to downplay Persia in its historical framework, they are going to say that the Persians are barbarians and this is the theme that appears again and again in the sources, but the Persians cannot be so easily dismissed for 250 years.

They ruled the largest

empire

the world had ever seen. It had humble beginnings among nomadic tribes. who lived on the Persian plains in 550 BC. Cyrus, a tribal leader, set out with his army on a campaign of conquest with his charisma and what the Greeks called the fear he inspired and the terror he instilled in all men. Cyrus took more and more control. territory in just 30 years laid the foundations of an empire that would extend from the borders of India in the east to Greece in the Mediterranean, passing through Egypt in Ethiopia and to what is now Russia, more than 30 different peoples gathered under the rule of the man who called himself king of the world and at the heart of this Empire was Persepolis, the largest of all Persian cities and the key to understanding the achievements of the ancient Persians.

Persepolis was started around 515 BC. by Darius the great IV. King of the Persian dynasty known as the Akeem minutes, but much of what we can see today remained hidden under the sands for 2,000 years. It was not until the 1930s that many of the wonders of Persepolis were finally discovered. The entire staircase is adorned with perfectly preserved reliefs. were seen for the first time no one dreamed of the royal splendors that their excavation would reveal to the world for more than 22 centuries the capital of the Persian Empire was abandoned as were the reliefs archaeologists found some less spectacular artifacts that would prove vital In discovering the secrets of the Thirty thousand fragments of these tiny clay tablets were found among the rubble of Persepolis by ancient Persians.

They provide one of the few sources of information about the workings of the Empire written by the Persians themselves. The markings on the tablets are the ancient Persian script known as cuneiform dr. Maria Brosius is one of the few scholars in the world who can decipher what is written on the tablets. What we have here is an example of a clay tablet found at Persepolis. A scribe would take a piece of wet clay and then hold it in his left hand and it actually fits perfectly into the shape of your hand and then he would write it.

It's an extraordinary feeling to know that something like this has survived to tell us about life 2,500 years ago, information we would never have had otherwise. They tell me something about how people lived and how this Empire worked and that's what fascinates me so what can the tablets tell us about Persepolis? The receipt and invoice tablets of the Empire, including those of the workers who built Persepolis, record one and the other. half a shekel of silver for the carpenters who make sculptures, another details a jug of wine for each of the 74 Syrian workers working in the pillared hall, another two and a half shekels for the workers who transport the gold, the amount of gold which seems to be used here indicates that again you know that the cost of the site must have been immeasurable from the information on the tablets, we can deduce what materials once decorated these huge buildings for decades, we have seen only the stone pillars and walls, but now we can recreate the halls and palaces of Persepolis in all their dazzling splendor, and as we do so we can see why Persepolis was once known as the richest city under the sun.

Access to the complex was through the All Nations Gate. Bulls with human heads announced to visitors that they were entering the heart of Persian royal power. It was covered with a cedar wood roof, its doors adorned with golden ornaments. In the heart of the complex was Adana, where King Darius received his subjects. Today only 10 of the original Kahlan are still preserved in ancient times. 36 columns of 20 meters high supported another huge cedar wood the ceiling the walls were covered with sumptuous tapestries this huge room could accommodate 10,000 people something that was built with 20 meter high columns I think it was impressive the people probably looked up and were completely In amazement you can see how each of these columns rises towards the sky and would have supported a huge roof of beautiful cedar wood there, also giving us this intoxicating cedar aroma wherever we went.

King after king added Tudor eyes, his creation Dimly lit, the light would have come in through the window spaces and in fact we can notice this from some of the highly polished walls. Don't know this would have shined in that scene and in fact some people have called this room the hall of mirrors. The building was located on an artificial terrace 15 meters high. In terms of beauty, it's hard to fight for the right words. As a feature, it is an architectural symphony, everything is built to harmonize with each other, each building is synchronized with another to create a beautiful harmonized home.

Persepolis is one of the great architectural achievements of the ancient world, but why did the Persian kings go there? Beyond housing the royal entourage, what exactly was the purpose of these extraordinary buildings? Over two and a half thousand years ago, the Persians built the largest city in the world from which they ruled most of the known world, but this was no ordinary city because it was built. With a particular purpose in mind, the use of the city was an integral part of how the Persians maintained their vast empire for 250 years. Impressive stone reliefs show the different peoples of the Empire who come to Persepolis to give gifts and pay homage to the great Persian king.

The Nubians of Africa, the Lydians of modern-day Turkey, returned from what is now Afghanistan, so what you have here is a series of representations of tribute bearers who have come to Persepolis and all bring gifts from different parts of the Empire. Good horses. Hairy mountain goats. It is all the wealth of the empire that the horses are tributes to the Great King. So much personality in the face. Marvelous. sheep with curved horns and depicted in such detail and if you look at the very stylized way they do things like the way they create curls in the hair and the beard in a very artificial way and then when we get to En's furry fleece the Sheep you can see has acted again, so you have these triangles that end in these perfect little swirls and finally this wagging tail at the bottom, as well as the costumes of all these foreign delegates are represented in such detail and it's clear The Persian artist is fascinated by the ethnic variety that can be visited here, so this is what Persepolis was, it was not a military capital, it was above all a symbolic and ceremonial place of the entire Empire, the subjects came here to Giving his gifts to the king The formal presentation of the tribute confirmed the loyalty of the subject nations and the power of the king The path to the king followed a specific route through the complex intended to maximize the impact of the architecture Climbing these stairs would have been a overwhelming experience if you look at the stairs, they are not something you can climb quickly, they are so shallow you have to walk very very slowly, that raises expectations and I guess it gave you a sense of the power of the King that you can't.

You just walk into a room and there you are, it's all about a procession to the king, what you have here in the offering, Baris, leading his camels, bringing his bowls and his jewels, and all the time you have to imagine such time it's a cacophony of noise behind you, so if you go all the time your heart beats faster and faster, you hear languages ​​you've never heard before, you see places you've never seen before and you come to this place and I think your knees are about to break. Give way because this is the so-called door of all nations, this is the welcoming portal for all these visitors and immediately you are faced with this image of royalty, these bulls with human heads, symbols of royal virility, strength and power, they walk through these huge pool structures. and now everything goes dark, they take away your sunlight and they ask you to stop and wait here and then you turn around and you are surprised by this incredible imperial platform and you know that somewhere there you are literally going to meet your creator you go to see the great king himself so you walk forward and get closer you really have to go in now it may seem like a very long walk when you do this if you come from the most remote corners of In the Empire, you will never have seen a structure like this.

Every visitor in ancient times who was allowed to go up to the Royal Terrace was total or you have a perfection that they have not seen anywhere else and people must have been absolutely stunned and you go up the imperial staircase and you find yourself in the heart of the complex okay, in front of you now there is a great application Adama now this is where the mystery really begins you can't get any closer to how the Persian kings wanted to present themselves and what they really do here is show that we have conquered the world, we don't need to prove anything anymore and then you are offering the bearer begins his journey towards the king, he would have paused and here he would have done a In a specific act, he would have fallen on his knees in front of the king and then immediately prostrated himself on the ground and then your gifts would be handed to you.

Your work is done. You slowly back out of the large throne room and it's your 15 minutes of fame. Ending gift-giving in Persepolis was the Persian kings' way of reinforcing the loyalty of their subjects, but they had other, less benign ways of exercising power. The relief at Bisset Oon in northwestern Iran shows the Persian king in his most ruthless form. Here is King Darius, the great slaves. those who threatened his throne is a public warning to those who might attempt to resist him. Ancient Greek accounts also suggest that Persian kings ruled with an iron fist. It is told how the Persians cut off the limbs and even the noses of their prisoners, and yet the reliefs at Persepolis seemed to paint a very different picture.

There you see these men holding hands or one holding his hand against someone's shoulder, they talk to each other, they encourage each other, the whole image that is represented here is an image of peace and harmony there is absolutely no scene of battle there is no violenceDepicted here is a Persian piece. The royal Persian inscriptions found in Persepolis reinforce this image of benevolent rule. They declare that the king loves peace, not war, and the subject peoples are allowed to practice their customs and religions, but this is all mere Persian propaganda. Of all these are reliefs commissioned by the King and tablets written by his loyal servants, the Jewish book of Ezra offers a separate account in Chapter 1.

The Persians are praised for freeing the Jews and allowing them to practice their religion freely. I think it's fair to say that the Persians are unique in the way they envision how an empire in general should be run. In the ancient world there seems to be an idea of ​​conquering, destroying and rebuilding on our terms. I don't find that with Persia at all if you paint your tribute if you paint your taxes to the Persian king that was fine that was all the king wanted from you any other way of life cultural environment was accepted by allowing nations to live their own lives the Persians ensured that a multiethnic and multilingual empire flourished in relative peace for 250 years it is tolerance that has a completely political objective the objective of the Persian kings was if they left the people their ethnic origin their religious cults then they have Less reasons to resist my power, but it took more than tolerance to maintain this vast empire.

Empires need infrastructure. 50 miles from Persepolis carved into the side of the hill is an ancient Persian road leading to Persepolis. The sides of the road measure up to 10 meters. Such engineering feats were repeated throughout the empire, being in charge of an empire that extends about 4000 kilometers from west to east needed to be controlled in order to control it, you need a fabulous network, a road system that allows you to obtain information from a corner. of the Empire to wherever the king was as quickly as possible, even critical Greeks could not help but be impressed by the Persian road system that extended from Persepolis to another Persian city, Suzer, and then 1,500 miles west to Ephesus by the roads of the Mediterranean.

They also went to eastern India and southern Egypt. The Greeks were particularly amazed by the messengers who traveled these roads keeping the Persian kings in Persepolis informed of everything happening in the Empire. The great Greek historian Herodotus wrote at the time that no mortal thing travels faster than Persian couriers. Such speed was made possible by another Persian innovation, the halting post, which appears to have here is a system in which a messenger mounted on a horse comes to a garis and quickly changes directly to a new horse, a new horse. directly again and then maybe 20 miles down the road, he gets back on a new horse so the speed continues, it seems that because the messenger has the pioneer spirit of him and can continue as long as he has new horses, he can do it.

Knowing the way well through the stopping posts manned by Persian soldiers also ensured that for the first time in ancient times travelers and merchants could move across a vast expanse of land safe from bandits, so from Persepolis the Persian kings They managed their immense Empire, tolerant, peaceful and rich. The Achaemenid kings believed they were the masters of all they beheld, and to demonstrate their power, they set out to create nothing less than a paradise on earth, the world's first formal gardens. Two and a half thousand years ago, the Persians created the largest empire in the world.

I had ever seen the Greeks, they said they were an uneducated and warlike race, but here in the ancient city of Posaga Day, the stones tell a different story. Posaga Day was the palace of Cyrus, the great founder of the Persian Empire and the first king of the accumulated dynasty. and here is evidence of Persian culture in its most sophisticated and refined form hidden among the undergrowth our irrigation canals for lazy days the most impressive feature its Royal Gardens would run around the garden so that the entire area here in front of the residential palace of Cyrus it would be irrigated imagine it was gleaming white it was polished stone it shone in the sun you would have water floating through it it would refresh the area it would cool the air here no archaeologist has ever found the legendary Gardens of Babylon so these canals are the oldest evidence known of a formal garden anywhere in the world King Cyrus called his garden Paradiso this Persian word meaning walled garden is one we still use today paradise was his paradise and it was a perfection of nature where life grew where the Water was the essence of life Cyrus was famous throughout the ancient world for his love of gardens, the Greek historian Xenophon wrote that in all the districts in which he resides he takes great care that there are paradises filled with all the beautiful things he the soil will produce.

He even said that Cyrus tended his own garden. He told a Greek visitor that the arrangement is my own work. I swear to the Sun God that I never sat down to dinner without first working on some gardening task, so what was really growing in these Persian gardens were the clay tablets they found. in the great city of Persepolis lists the different trees and plants that were planted here, they showed that the composition of the garden was deeply symbolic. The tablets tell us that there were thousands of tree seedlings, different types of trees including olive trees, blackberries, dates that were collected to be planted the next spring these retreats that he imported from across his empire to reflect the size and extent of his empire in this garden in this garden space, ultimately the Persian garden was a political statement by having plants grow in an otherwise arid landscape the Persian kings showed all who came here that they were the Masters of the world the king was practically the king of the world and the garden reflected the power of the Empire.

What Cyrus did here was to produce order in a chaotic, otherwise wild nature, the garden symbolized in a way the capacity of the king to control life. The Persians may have built great cities and gardens, but they were still essentially a nomadic people. This kind of nomadic feeling always remained with the Persians even though they built these. vast imperial cities felt at home in a tent city for the greeks the persians the nomadic lifestyle was a source of ridicule like modern nomads the ancient persians spent the winter months tending their flocks on the plains and The hot summer months in the cool of the mountains for the Greeks this escape from the summer heat was evidence of the unmanned thinness of the Persians.

The Greeks like to criticize the Persians for this softness. They see them as rather hot and wet creatures and the other thing the Greeks see is hot and wet in our women, this is the way women's bodies work, if women are hot and wet and so Therefore, Persians are hot and humid, they must be one in the same thing, basically, Persians are not real men because they cannot stand the heat. The Greeks never understood if traveling was part of the Persian way of life, even around large centers like Persepolis which would have been a tent city as people came and went, certainly within these tents we can imagine ancient Persian life It wouldn't be much different.

From the kind of images that you can still see today, inside these stores what you have is, of course, your entire lifestyle, everything happens there, from cooking, of course, to raising animals and collecting food, as well as weaving carpets. and the pendants are the very essence of the shop, but they also weave clothes and this is a traditional women's work, of course, this is all part of the current nomadic tradition and can certainly be reflected in the ancient Persian tradition throughout Over the centuries, fine, colorful textiles have been central to Persian culture, from the most remote nomadic peoples of ancient Persia to the shoppers and merchants of a modern Iranian bazaar.

Textiles are a way to express status and wealth. I have brought you to a place like Shira Bazaar only because there is this long legacy. of an artistic tradition and a cultural tradition and one thing we know about life in the ancient Near East in general is that they loved color and textiles, these are wonderful turquoises and blues and also wonderful greens, so we know that these are the colors they would have had and colors they would have loved. This idea of ​​a room completely covered in textiles is very much part of ancient Near Eastern tradition and certainly something that the Persians would have identified with textile tapestries on the walls being very much a part of the culture of the ancient world.

Textiles on all floors. Textiles on the sofas too so you know you are surrounded. You are inundated by this idea of ​​color and luxury and, of course, warmth as well. That's the real McCoy. Okay, modern faux velvet, but maybe. This gives you a better idea than anything else of the luxury that the Persians were famous for for their purple, which first of all, of course, is the color of royalty throughout the ancient world because purple is very hard to come by in the Antique, good solid and deep color. Imperial purple dye. You know this is a modern textile but it does its job very well.

I think it captures what Persians are to me. A little shine. Truly the smells, sounds and sights of this bazaar would be familiar to the ancient Persians. The spices. gold and reams of fine, brightly colored fabrics this modern market reflects what the persians were famous for in the ancient world their pursuit of luxury the purpose of luxury in Persepolis is primarily about the power and propaganda of royalty because, Of course, to have superfluous clothing or to have your palace full of textiles that are really redundant other than being, you know, Laurel Don or something that covers something or a cover that is then covered by another cover, all of this has to do with this idea of ​​power and wealth. expressed through material goods is no different Tina the type of things that happen today in the West the ancient Persians were the greatest power on earth their style and fashions were widely copied The Persians take on the aesthetic side of life at the most From how you plant your garden and how you walk through your garden to how you decorate your walls, it clearly had an impact on the civilizations of the later world, certainly through Greece and Rome, possibly in contemporary Western society, as well as the Persian approach to architecture, gardens and textiles.

It survived to this day, but there were those in the ancient world who despised everything the Persians stood for. This hostility would one day lead to the destruction of the Persian Empire and Persepolis itself. 2,500 years ago, Persepolis was the sumptuous capital of the great Persian Empire, but what the Persians saw as luxury, their Greek rivals saw as decadence. A custom that fascinated and horrified the Greeks was the Persian festival. Most of what we know about Persian festivals, of course, comes from Greek sources because the Greeks are very interested or fascinated by it. concept of luxury that obviously banquets will be an element of the luxurious lifestyle Persian banquets will be opulent all the kinds of things that are always associated with luxury drinking was an essential part of Persian banquets Herodotus wrote that the Persians like a lot of wine and no one is allowed to vomit or urinate in the presence of another person, the Persians seem to live by this principle of telling the truth, that is something that actually the Greeks, repenting of Lee, admire in the law and use the drink as a rather political system.

Persians tend to get drunk a lot because only when you drink do you say it, so you know you have your political displeasure. You drink a lot. Things are said. Now everyone goes to bed and cuts it off. They wake up the next day hungover and then everyone comes over. Meet again to have the same conversation and see if you still have those kinds of ideas, as in many Persian traditions, feasting was not luxury for luxury's sake, it had an important social role, feasting unites you as a community, everyone participates in the same meal. and from the same experience, so it is a great union, but for the Greeks it was another example of why the Persians were an inferior race.

Alexander the Great warned his own soldiers that gluttony and opulence are very conducive to virility, those who eat such huge meals are too quickly defeated in battles, what is playing with Greek sauce is this idea that Persians are luxurious , a feminized luxury, who love a feminized race that is really no good and is somewhere in the east and is corrupting us and our morals. and everything we stand for and it was Alexander the Great who was determined to end the corrupting influence of the Persians once and for all. In the year 334 BC. C. he began a campaign to take over the empire that had ruled the known world for the previous 250 years. in the first pitched battle between the two armies at Issus inTurkey, Alexander's Macedonian army won a resounding victory over the forces of King Darius the Third of Persia despite being greatly outnumbered, probably a lot has to do with the different military tactics that the Macedonian army used against the Persians the Persians were Accustomed to fighting in an airplane they used tanks that were not used in the Macedonian army, but it was also the Macedonian idea of ​​an immediate surprise attack that helped for the next two years.

Alexander's superior military tactics allowed him to take control. lands once under Persian control in 331 BC. C. arrived in Persia itself when he reached Persepolis the Persian armies had been defeated the twelfth and last Persian king Darius the third was dead Alexander entered the defenseless city without opposition to the ceremonial center that for almost two centuries had embodied Persian domination of the world it was finally in Greek hands Alexander told his soldiers that they were now in the most hateful cities, you have to remember where Alexander of Macedonia really comes from, okay these are thugs who set up thugs, this is what Alexander Stock It's all about and suddenly it comes to this place that, after all, the protis have been accused for centuries of being lovers of luxury, now this is anathema to the Macedonian and Greek followers of Alexander.

The triumphant Alexander held a banquet for some of his troops in Persepolis. According to Greek accounts, it was here that the fate of the city was sealed. A lot of drinking and many bad things, Alexandra is said to have in her company, according to some Greek and then Latin sources, a couple. of courtesans one of whom is called cara who is she is supposed to be one of the most beautiful courtesans in Greece. Now I dare say she is a little drunk and maybe a little emotional, we don't know, but she decides to ask Alexander if she would be okay if she burned Persepolis.

Alexander drunkenly says yes, ahead he fully understood the symbolic importance of Persepolis as the very heart of the Persian Empire that had to be destroyed. Alexander will destroy everything that could be a potential source of resistance and opposition to him. Persepolis wanted to destroy Persian power and that is why Alexander's soldiers began to burn and loot the city itself, as ancient authors describe, we were unprotected. There is no military guard here to defend the population. Some say that what he did was pile up flammable materials, furniture, curtains, and from there the fire started and then of course it spread throughout the terrace.

It only burned. They dare to say that tonight there must have been chaos. here then the slaughter the chaos must have been horrible Alexander's soldiers simply looted the city looted everything there burned the houses I think Alexander is the first hooligan recorded in history who used to brood to force violence by unnecessarily destroying a place that There was no military function that was in fact unprotected when it arrived here, it was totally unnecessary to burn it down to destroy and kill the population of Persepolis. The Greeks who claimed to be the founders of the civilization who called the Persians barbarians had committed a serious act of vandalism.

They had destroyed the largest city on earth. It is a sad death for this notable imperial city. This is the seat of culture and the seat of ceremony at that time was the most magnificent city in the non-ancient world and which Alexander had destroyed and with that. An era came to an end, but by burning the city, Alexander ironically helped preserve it. Much of it remained buried under the ashes produced by the fire, protected from the elements for the next 2,000 years. It was not until excavations in the 1930s that many of the reliefs and clay tablets that tell us so much about Persian life could be studied for the first time and, although the city had been destroyed, the legacy of the Persians survived, its gardens formalities, its ceremonial architecture and its sense of luxury were copied by other civilizations even. the Greeks, but their greatest achievement of all was the Empire itself, the first global Empire in history, it was built on a model of tolerance and respect for other cultures that few great powers have matched perhaps now, at last, the Persians occupy the place that belongs to them as one. of the great civilizations of antiquity