The Phoenicians (Mediterranean) and the Persian Empire (Near East)
The Phoenicians (Mediterranean) and the Persian Empire (Near East)
In the Mediterranean, the Phoenicians reached their peak as a civilization during this era. Originators of the alphabet and great seafaring traders, the Phoenicians, starting in the 800s B.C.E., spread westward from present-day Syria and Lebanon to establish city-states throughout the Mediterranean. The most important of these was the North African port of Carthage. Like most Phoenician colonies, Carthage enjoyed a high degree of social mobility, electing an oligarchic government from a merchant aristocracy that was not restricted by birth.
The Phoenicians worshipped a polytheistic pantheon headed by the storm deity Baal, and are known to have sacrificed children to their gods.
Women had legal freedom. They could divorce, sue others and pass down their fortune and property to family, be priests and merchants. However, women in general were a lower class with lower jobs and usually stayed at home to cook, clean and take care of kids.
Carthage possessed a large and technologically advanced navy, and proved a powerful foe to Rome in the 200s B.C.E. The Punic Wars between Carthage and Rome determined the destiny of the Mediterranean world for centuries.
The Persians of present-day Iran came to dominate the Middle East in a short time. Their first dynasty, the Achaemenid (550–331 B.C.E.), quickly conquered neighbours like the Lydians (who invented metal coinage around 600–500 B.C.E.), the Neo-Babylonians, and the Egyptians. Under the third Achaemenid ruler, Darius the Great, Persia’s empire stretched from North Africa to India and measured more than 2 million square miles, making it the biggest state seen in the world to that date.
From two capitals—Susa for administration and Persepolis, built by Darius in the Mesopotamian style to impress citizens with his power—the Persians ruled with the help of an advanced postal system, an excellent network of roads, a single currency, and a form of provincial administration that divided the empire into 20 or so regions and delegated local authority over them to officials called satraps.
Persian society was patriarchal and rigidly stratified, with the population divided into several castes: warriors, priests called magi, and peasants. The ruler was known as the “king of kings” (shahan-shah) and referred to all his subjects as “my slaves.” Under Darius, Persia embraced Zoroastrianism, but Achaemenid rulers remained relatively tolerant of other faiths.
Although family organization was patriarchal, Persian women enjoyed economic, social and legal freedom. According the Zoroastrian texts, female members could participate in religious ceremonies and even head the events as the priest. Male and female workers received equal pay. Women in the Persian elite were politically influential, possessed substantial property, and travelled.
Achaemenid Persia fought several losing wars with its Greek neighbours to the west in the 500s and 400s B.C.E. In 331 B.C.E, it fell to the Hellenistic conqueror Alexander the Great. A new dynasty, the Parthians (247 B.C.E.–224 C.E.), liberated Persia from the regime founded by Alexander’s generals after his death. More decentralized than the Achaemenid and Hellenistic empires, the Parthian state combined elements of Greek and Persian culture and grew wealthy from trade along the Silk Road. They were powerful enemies of the Roman Empire as it expanded eastward. It may have been in Parthian Persia that smallpox first arose, possibly spreading from there to Rome and Han China. Rising up in the Parthians’ place was the Sassanid empire (224–651 C.E.), another great rival of Rome and the Byzantine empire that followed it. The Sassanid shahs earned riches from the Silk Road, but also from the commerce generated by Arab traders. Like earlier Persian rulers, the Sassanids practiced Zoroastrianism, but made it an official state faith and proved much less tolerant than the Achaemenids had been. The Sassanids were suddenly swept away in the 600s C.E. by the rapid military expansion of Islam out of the Arabian Peninsula.
Questions for experts
1. What were the most significant features of the Phoenician and Persian societies?
2. What were the most important factors which influenced the Phoenician and Persian societies?
3. What are the main legacies of the considered societies?
4. Which of the below given factors caused the decline of the Phoenician and Persian societies? Explain your choices in detail.
· Unwise or corrupt political leadership
· Rebellions and social tensions caused by overtaxation or injustice on the part of the elite
· Civil wars
· Conquest of more territory than one could effectively govern
· Economic downturns and disruptions of regional trade patterns
· Neglect of infrastructure, such as roads
· War with one or more advanced states or the sudden appearance of a powerful enemy
· Constant, long-term harassment by raiding or migrating nomads
· External environmental factors, such as climate change, natural disasters, or the appearance of new diseases (such as smallpox, measles, or bubonic plague)
· Self-inflicted environmental problems, such as overpopulation, overuse of wood (deforestation), overuse of water (desertification), or the silting of rivers and erosion of soil caused by overfarming or large construction projects.
Questions for mixed groups
1. What was common between the societies?
2. What was different between the societies?
3. Compared to the previous period (5.500 – 1000 BCE) what changed and what remained the same in the world?
4. What legacy did the considered societies leave?