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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.
- (OS.097)
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