Chapter 4 Part 2: Eurasian Empires

Chapter four included some of histories finest moments with empires and civilizations clashing. The definition of an empire is states with political systems that exercise coercive power. Empires have generally a quantity of people with a variety of cultures within a single ruling system. From this chapter we get a taste of an ongoing feud between the Persian Empire and the Greeks. But this section does not stop there it keeps going with one of history’s greatest conqueror Alexander the great, and after that we get to see Roman, Chinese, and the collapse of empires.

            The Persian Empire (500B.C.E) is the largest and most impressive of the world’s empires was constructed on an imperial system. “It was centered upon an elaborate cult in which kingship and/or monarchs could only be approached through rituals, when a king died, sacred fires all across the land were extinguished” (Page 99). Two important rulers of the Persian Empires because they surpassed those before them is Cyrus (557-530 B.C.E.) and Darius (522-486 B.C.E), these monarch’s effectively earned their titles. Cyrus the man who won the gratitude of the Jews in 539 (B.C.E.) allowed those who were exiled in Babylon to return to their homeland and rebuild their temple in Jerusalem.

            The Greeks were an Indo-European civilization that took shape in a small peninsula that was divided by steep mountains and valleys. Greece was based upon hundreds of city states with around 500-5000 male citizens. What really impressed me about this civilization was their political life this idea of “citizenship” of free people running the affairs of state and equality for all citizens before the law. The council was composed of twenty eight men over the age of sixty who served for life and provided political leadership.