PersianEmpire.info History of the Persian Empires

'Cyrus' in Old Persian cuneiform, 'King Seleucus' in Greek, 'Kingdom of the Aryans ' in Sassanid Pahlavi script .

3 major horse riding, Indo-European groups entered the Iranian around 2,000 BC. They encountered the more advanced Elamite civilization...more

The Seleucid Empire

323 - 60 B.C

The Seleucid empire was named after Seleucus, a Macedonian officer of Alexander the Great. In the wars of the Diadochi that took place after Alexander's death, Seleucus established Seleucid Empire after battle of Ipsus in 301 B.C. The Seleucids built hundreds of Greek style towns with amphitheatres and other architecture of Greek civilization ...more

Hannibal at the court of Antiochus III

The Median Empire

650 - 550 B.C.

The Medes originally settled in northwestern Iran and were themselves a vassal state of the Assyrian Empire until the mid 7th century B.C.. By by the 6th century BC, the Medes were able to establish an empire that stretched from the middle of present day Turkey to Afghanistan...more

The Parthian Empire

63 B.C. - 226 A.D.

For nearly five centuries, from the middle of the third century B.C., the Parthian Empire ruled Persia

.For most of this long period it was the leading power of the Middle East and the rival of the Roman Empire. Parthian grew rich from duties on east - west trade, esp. silk. Their greatest victory over the Romans was at Carrhae in 53 B.C. , when with the when a new breed of horse was developed than was stronger and could support heavy armour - the cataphract...more

The Achaemenid Empire

550 - 330 B.C.

Cyrus the great overthrew the Median empire, establishing the largest empire in the world up to that date . At its height this Persian Empire would stretch from India to Libya and hold an est. 70,000,000 people . Under Darius I , the Persians came into conflict with the Greeks, leading to such battles as Marathon, Thermopylae and Salamis ...more

Sassanid Empire

226 - 651 A.D.

The Sassanids saw themselves as heirs of the Persian Achaemenid Empire . During its 400 year rule the Sassanid kingdom became rich and the loose administartion of the Parthians was replaced with a stronger Achaemenid style system. Under Shapur I, the Sassanid empire stretched from Euphrates to the west, Merv in the north and Punjab in the east, Briefly under Khosrau II it conquered Egypt. Zoroastrianism, which had fallen into disuse under the Parthians, was revived and made a powerful state religion .Town planning and irrigation works were carried out on a grand scale . Sculpture, textiles and metal work reached new heights during the Sassanid reign. After exhaustive wars with the Byzantine empire, the weakened Sassanids fell to the armies of the Islamic Umayyd Caliphs from Arabia in 637...more