Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents Summary for Volumes 1, 2 and 3
- Contents
- Volume 1 Maps
- Volume 2 Maps
- Volume 3 Maps
- About the Contributors
- Volume 1
- Volume 2
- Volume 3
- VII. Western and Central Asia
- 3.1 The Early Prehistory of Western and Central Asia
- 3.2 Western and Central Asia: DNA
- 3.3 The Upper Palaeolithic and Earlier Epi-Palaeolithic of Western Asia
- 3.4 The Origins of Sedentism and Agriculture in Western Asia
- 3.5 The Levant in the Pottery Neolithic and Chalcolithic Periods
- 3.6 Settlement and Emergent Complexity in Western Syria, c. 7000–2500 bce
- 3.7 Prehistory and the Rise of Cities in Mesopotamia and Iran
- 3.8 Mesopotamia
- 3.9 Anatolia: From the Pre-Pottery Neolithic to the End of the Early Bronze Age (10,500–2000 bce)
- 3.10 Anatolia from 2000 to 550 bce
- 3.11 The Prehistory of the Caucasus: Internal Developments and External Interactions
- 3.12 Arabia
- 3.13 Central Asia before the Silk Road
- 3.14 Southern Siberia during the Bronze and Early Iron Periods
- 3.15 Western Asia after Alexander
- 3.16 Western and Central Asia: Languages
- VIII. Europe and the Mediterranean
- Index
- References
3.15 - Western Asia after Alexander
from VII. - Western and Central Asia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents Summary for Volumes 1, 2 and 3
- Contents
- Volume 1 Maps
- Volume 2 Maps
- Volume 3 Maps
- About the Contributors
- Volume 1
- Volume 2
- Volume 3
- VII. Western and Central Asia
- 3.1 The Early Prehistory of Western and Central Asia
- 3.2 Western and Central Asia: DNA
- 3.3 The Upper Palaeolithic and Earlier Epi-Palaeolithic of Western Asia
- 3.4 The Origins of Sedentism and Agriculture in Western Asia
- 3.5 The Levant in the Pottery Neolithic and Chalcolithic Periods
- 3.6 Settlement and Emergent Complexity in Western Syria, c. 7000–2500 bce
- 3.7 Prehistory and the Rise of Cities in Mesopotamia and Iran
- 3.8 Mesopotamia
- 3.9 Anatolia: From the Pre-Pottery Neolithic to the End of the Early Bronze Age (10,500–2000 bce)
- 3.10 Anatolia from 2000 to 550 bce
- 3.11 The Prehistory of the Caucasus: Internal Developments and External Interactions
- 3.12 Arabia
- 3.13 Central Asia before the Silk Road
- 3.14 Southern Siberia during the Bronze and Early Iron Periods
- 3.15 Western Asia after Alexander
- 3.16 Western and Central Asia: Languages
- VIII. Europe and the Mediterranean
- Index
- References
Summary
The Achaemenian monarch Cyrus II, the Great (539–530 bce), created the first “World Empire”, which at its greatest extent stretched from Egypt to Central Asia and from Thrace to India. It lasted for some two centuries until the last king, Darius III, was defeated by Alexander the Great. Cyrus ushered in a millennium of the ascendancy of the Iranian peoples, for the Achaemenian kings were Persians, from the area near modern Shiraz. Not only were they ethnically distinct from the previous rulers in western Asia, but they followed a new, essentially monotheistic religion, worshipping the Good Lord, Ahura Mazda. After the Seleucid interregnum they were succeeded, first by a nomadic Iranian dynasty, the Parthians, and then by the Persian Sasanians, who claimed to be descended from them. Both dynasties were to rule for four centuries.
Because Alexander (355–323) died so early, he had no time to consolidate his conquests, and on his death his generals fought before dividing the Achaemenian Empire between them. Alexander’s eastern territories from the Mediterranean to the Oxus fell to Seleucus I (321–281), but he had to fight both the locals and the Greeks settled by Alexander to establish control. Seleucid rule was not to last long: it was challenged as early as 240 by a revolt by the Greek rulers of Bactria, the Greco-Bactrians, and by the recently settled Parthians, who had moved into the former Achaemenian and Seleucid satrapy to the south and east of the Caspian Sea, Parthava, from which they took their name. The ruler who established Parthian power was Mithradates I (c. 171–138), while Mithradates II (124/3–87) confirmed it.
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- Information
- The Cambridge World Prehistory , pp. 1658 - 1677Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014