Major Ancient Near and Middle Eastern Kings

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.