The Achaemenids (also known as Hakhamanishiya) were the royal house of Persia, allegedly founded in the seventh century BCE by Hakhamanish, known in Greek as Achaemenes. At first the Achaemenids were vassals of the Medes. By the middle of the sixth century BCE, however, they had built up a small kingdom in the Anshan and Parsa regions on the northern coast of the Persian Gulf.
The Great Kings
Traditionally, the first Achaemenid king of the Persians was Cyrus the Great (reigned 550–529 BCE), who was said to have had a Persian father and a Median mother. He united these two peoples and built an empire that straddled most of southwest Asia. His son, Cambyses (reigned 529–522 BCE) added Egypt to the empire before dying mysteriously in Syria.
Of all the Achaemenids, Darius I, who ruled from 521 to 486 BCE, is the best known, because the Greek historian Herodotus wrote about his reign. After his defeat by the Greeks at Marathon in 490 BCE, Darius planned to invade Greece again, but he died before he could do so.
His son Xerxes, continuing Darius’s plan, defeated the Spartans at Thermopylae and burned the deserted city of Athens in 480 BCE. However, the Athenians defeated Xerxes’ fleet at Salamis and his army at Plataea. Like his father, Xerxes never managed to force the Greeks to offer him earth and water, the sign of submission to the Persian emperor. Still, under Xerxes, the Persian Empire reached its greatest extent.
The Later Achaemenids
The royal house of Achaemenid was weakened by court intrigues and civil wars. Xerxes himself was murdered by his own hazarapat, or chief minister. His son Artaxerxes I (reigned 465–425 BCE) murdered his own brother to gain the throne. The empire was further weakened when civil war broke out in 401 BCE between Artaxerxes II and his brother Cyrus.
The Fall of the Royal House
The last Achaemenid was Darius III (reigned 336–330 BCE). He had barely settled on the throne when the Macedonian king Alexander the Great invaded Persia. Darius suffered three defeats in rapid succession. Deserted by his troops, the last of the Achaemenid kings was killed by one of his own satraps.
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During the reigns of Cyrus and Cambyses there was no fixed tribute at all, the revenue coming from gifts only; and because of his imposition of regular taxes, and other similar measures, the Persians have a saying that Darius was a tradesman, Cambyses a tyrant, and Cyrus a father – the first being out for profit wherever he could get it, the second harsh and careless of his subjects’ interests, and the third, in the kindness of his heart always occupied with plans for their well-being. HERODOTUS, THE HISTORIES
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