Aug 30 2008
"The Greeks considered their poleis... infinitely superior to the absolute monarchy of Persia. Europeans have traditionally maintained that if these battles had not been won, history would have been utterly changed, with Europe falling under the sway of Eastern despotism. Whether or not this theory is true can never be known; but the theory itself helped to shape centuries of European hostility to and contempt for the nations of the Middle East."
Richard Hooker
Conflict Between East and West
The West and Middle East (or Near East) have long been at odds. Before Mohammed and Islam, even before Christianity, ideological differences and desire for land and power led to conflict; first in the Greek-occupied territory of Ionia, in Asia Minor, and then, later, across the Aegean Sea and onto the Greek mainland. While the Greeks favored their small, local governments, the Persians were empire builders, with autocratic monarchs in charge. For the Greeks, banding together to fight a common foe presented challenges both for individual city-states (poleis) and collectively, since the poleis of Greece weren't unified; whereas Persian monarchs had the power to demand the support of however many able-bodied men they required.The problems and different styles of recruiting and managing armies became important when the Persians and Greeks first came into conflict, during the Persian Wars. They came into contact again later, when the Macedonian Greek Alexander the Great began his own imperial expansion. By this time, however, the individualistic Greek poleis had fallen apart.
Empire Builders
Below you will find information on major empire building and consolidating monarchs of the area now described as the Middle East or Near East. Cyrus was the first of these monarchs to conquer the Ionian Greeks. He took control away from Croesus, King of Lydia, a rich local king who had demanded little more than tribute from the Ionian Greeks. Darius and Xerxes came into conflict with the Greeks during the Persian Wars, which soon followed. The other monarchs are earlier, belonging to the period before the conflict between Greeks and Persians.Ashurbanipal
Ashurbanipal ruled Assyria from about 669-627 B.C. Succeeding his father Esarhadon, Ashurbanipal expanded Assyria to its broadest, when its territory included Babylonia, Persia, Egypt, and Syria. Ashurbanipal was renowned also for his library at Ninevah containing more than 20,000 clay tablets written in the wedge-shaped letters called cuneiform.
Cyrus
Cyrus was an Achmaenid who ruled (from 559-529) the Persian Empire, extending from Lydia through Babylonia. He was the son of Cambyses I, king of Anshan, a Persian kingdom, and a Median princess. At the time, as Jona Lendering explains it, the Persians were vassals of the Medes. Two of Cyrus' daughters married Darius the Great.Cyrus conquered the Median Empire, becoming the Persian king by 546 B.C. That was also the year he conquered Lydia. Cyrus defeated the Babylonians in 539, and is called the liberator of the Babylonian Jews. Tomyris, Queen of the Massagetae, led an attack that killed Cyrus. He was succeeded by his son Cambyses II, who expanded the Persian empire into Egypt, before dying after 7 years as king.
Read the translated Cyrus Cylinder.
