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The Achaemenid Empire (559-330 BC) was
one
of the most dynamic and historically
significant
socio-political entities of the first
millennium
BC.
Originally based in Persia, their
borders
extended
eastwards and also into the
Mediterranean
region, where they were the notable
foe of
the
ancient Greeks. The founder (the
mythological
founder of the Achaemenid empire was
called
Achaemenes) Cyrus, following an
abortive
raid on
the Peloponnese, besieged and captured
Babylon
in 539 BC; his release of Jews who had
been
held
captive there earned him immortality
in the
Book
of Isaiah. The empire continued to
grow until
Cyrus’ death in 529 BC, by which time
the
kingdom extended as far as the Hindu
Kush
in
present-day Afghanistan. However, his
successors were less successful and
the
empire
was gradually eroded as intrigue and
corruption
threatened court stability. Darius,
beaten at
the
battle of Marathon in 490 BC, led the
Achaemenids back to Asia Minor where
they
attempted to consolidate the remains
of their
power. While successful in his
lifetime, the
court
and empire returned to their usual
downward
cycle until the death in 330 of the
last of the
Achaemenids, Darius III, at the hands
of his
own
subjects.
The cultural achievements of the
Achaemenids
were considerable, for although
somewhat
despotic in the technical sense, free
trade
and
social tolerance went to provide a
comparatively
enlightened environment in which the
arts
flourished. The economy was healthy,
fuelled
by
Darius’ introduction of stable gold
currency,
and
the road system allowed the spread of
trade,
luxury items and ideas. As a result
the artists
and craftsmen of the time were
extremely
attuned to neighbouring and distant
polities,
and
were able to produce a wide variety of
elite
items
such as this. Most iconography of the
time
was
based around enormously ornate
zoomorphic
statuary and architectural design as
seen in
Persepolis, and smaller items retain
much of
their
grandiose monumentality.
- (LO.629)
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