When We Spelling Persia...

The cultural background of Persia has its roots in the Assyrian Kingdom, and a brief overview will reveal the socio-cultural intercrosses and inheritance from them.

Since they (Assyria & Persia) form the next decisive link after Babylonia in the continuum of ancient Near Eastern civilisation.

The attentive reader will note: the first millennium BCE is roughly interwoven with civilisations where one falls — with its achievements — to another, and in this game all the actors of that time play their part.

On the scene — Assyrians. Before Persia rose, Assyria dominated Mesopotamia. Its capital centres (Ashur, Nineveh, Kalhu/Nimrud) developed a highly bureaucratic empire.

🏰 The Assyrians inherited and refined Babylonian administrative and metrological systems:

– Standardized weights (shekel, mina, talent).

– Length units (cubit, double-cubit) aligned to the Babylonian base-60 structure.

– Military and irrigation engineering required precise volumetric measures (for grain, oil, and building material).

The Assyrian state was organized into royal provinces with governors (šaknu), tax registries, and temple-based archives. Their bureaucratic model directly inspired later Achaemenid administration.

🌱 Pre-establishing the Persian Kingdom (before 550 BCE):

The Persian tribes originated from the Indo-Iranian migrations (second millennium BCE). By the late 8th century BCE, they settled in Parsa (modern Fars) under Median suzerainty. The key tribes mentioned by Herodotus and cuneiform sources:

– Pasargadae — the leading tribe (Cyrus II’s lineage).

– Maraphii and Maspii — allied noble houses.

– Minor related groups: Cossaeans, Sagartians, and Elymaeans.

Culturally, early Persians merged Iranian nomadic traditions with Elamite and Mesopotamian administrative systems — creating a syncretic foundation for the Achaemenid Empire.

Persia stood out from all its predecessors as a prime pattern of an empirical approach to all conquered territories, and these principles we may generalize to several thesis.

- Efficient taxation and uniform weights/measures.

- Infrastructure: canals, roads, and postal relays.

- Trade tolerance: multi-currency, multilingual empire.

- Cultural diffusion: from Indus to Aegean — their metrology later influenced Greek, Seleucid, and Islamic systems.

But, as with any invention, its childish concerns and underestimated errors contributed to the downfall of the proto-empire. Empires always die...