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Description
The Achaemenid Empire, usually known in the west as the Persian Empire because I guess we can't be bothered, was established by Cyrus the Great when he overthrew the Median king Astyages in 550 BCE. The name "Achaemenid" derives from a supposed shared ancestor between Cyrus and the man who would succeed his sons, Darius, whose name was "Achaemenes", though see my entry on Darius the Great for more on that. Under the reign of the Achaemenids, the Iranians expanded their territory everywhere from Egypt to India, making it one of the largest contiguous empires up to that point in history. Before the conquests of Alexander, everyone knew to fear the power of the famous 10,000 Immortals, elite bodyguards of the king whose dead were said to be immediately replaced with new recruits on the battlefield to make sure the number always stayed at 10,000, hence "Immortals". Still, fear was not the predominant method of control for the Achaemenids, but rather tolerance. Cyrus understood that the only way to keep such a vast territory full of diverse people stable was to respect local customs. The best example of this is of course the exiled Jewish priests from Babylon, whom Cyrus allowed to return home to their Temple and worship their God as they pleased. As such, Cyrus is unapologetically praised in the scriptures, and is the only person given the title of "messiah" in the entire Hebrew Bible. It is also often said that slavery was outlawed in ancient Iran, as Zoroastrian scripture and decrees from Cyrus forbade putting men in binds. As far as I can tell from my research, this is a bit of a gloss, as there is evidence that prisoners of war were still taken captive, for example. Still, Persian chains were much rarer and certainly more preferable to the often brutal conditions slaves were put through in the so-called "civilized" lands of the Greeks.

Speaking of the Greeks, of course we today know the Persians best from their 5th century conflict with the Greek city states. Most of our sources on this time period are, of course, heavily biased, but it's kind of all we have. Indeed, the word "Persian", is an exonym created by the Greeks based on a central province of government in the Empire: Persis. Indeed "Iran" is and has always been the word which powers in the region have used to refer to their country as a whole, and there's a long history of the nation trying to get the west to please stop calling them "Persia", it's getting old, guys. So I do try to use "Iran" more often than not. While Iran is often painted as the bad guy in all media about the Greco-Persian Wars, I should refer to the little tidbit about slavery up above. That's not even to mention that the Greek states trusted each other about as much as they did the Achaemenids. There are few places as polar opposites as ancient Athens and Sparta, the latter of which was a military dictatorship built on eugenics and slavery, and the former of which was a despotic bureaucracy rife with corruption and hypocrites. This is not to say that Iran was the "good guy" either. In war, all sides commit atrocities to whittle away at the enemy's psyche, and the Achaemenids scorched their fair share of cities too. But if we're talking just administration, I certainly believe I'd have had a better life in ancient Iran than I would've in ancient Greece. The real kick in the pants is how much the Greek city states would call upon the Achaemenids against their former allies in the Peloponnesian War and beyond. Like I said, the one thing the Greeks disliked more than the Persians was each other.

Still, all great empires must eventually fall, as is the way of all things. By the 4th century, the Achaemenids were already facing internal degradation and revolts against their rule. All things which paved the way for a little known up and comer named Alexander the Great, you may have heard of him. In 333 BCE, after conquering Asia Minor and the Levant, Alexander faced the last Achaemenid king, Darius III, at the Battle of Issus, which was really the final nail in the coffin for the Persian Empire. Darius fled, Alexander took Babylon and Egypt, and in 330 BCE, Darius's body was found dead on the battlefield, tied to an ox-cart by his own subordinates who had grown tired of his incompetence. In Zoroastrian tradition, this was a devastating time of great oppression and sorrow. Though Alexander tried to copy the ways of Cyrus, to the point where he was often accused of becoming "too Persian" by his elites, it was no secret that Alexander was more of a general than an administrator. When he died heirless in 323 BCE, his generals were left to squabble over his fractured empire. One general, Seleucus, took the territory traditionally held by the Achaemenids, founding the Seleucid Empire, because historians are great at naming things. The Greek dynasty was not without its competitors, however, and would eventually be overrun by the Iranian Parthian Empire, but that's a story for another day.

Design notes, this is the format I use whenever I'm designing members of an army or faction meant as nameless background characters. Fairly self explanatory, though sometimes it can be difficult to find a way to separate the regulars from the agiles, but that wasn't much of an issue with this piece. In most contemporary Achaemenid depictions of soldiers I've found, they're usually depicted without armor, instead just wearing normal robes with maybe a quiver slung over their shoulders. I also couldn't find any archaeological examples of Achaemenid armor, so really I just had to rely on more modern illustrations of what Achaemenid armor looked like and hope they were accurate. Usually they all converge on a sort of scale armor layered with leather accents. I filled in a few of the gaps with Sassanid era armor details, which yes at this point you should know feels like filling in a T. rex genome with frog DNA, but we actually have plenty of examples of Sassanid armor, so it's the best reference so far for accents and little details. Hey, at least I didn't put Arabic text on their helmets like they have in Assassin's Creed: Odyssey. I'm not joking, use the camera mode and take a look for yourself. There's a lot of things I despise about that game but as someone who went to college for Islamic studies, that one really makes me pull my hair out.

Description
The Achaemenid Empire, usually known in the west as the Persian Empire because I guess we can't be bothered, was established by Cyrus the Great when he overthrew the Median king Astyages in 550 BCE. The name "Achaemenid" derives from a supposed shared ancestor between Cyrus and the man who would succeed his sons, Darius, whose name was "Achaemenes", though see my entry on Darius the Great for more on that. Under the reign of the Achaemenids, the Iranians expanded their territory everywhere from Egypt to India, making it one of the largest contiguous empires up to that point in history. Before the conquests of Alexander, everyone knew to fear the power of the famous 10,000 Immortals, elite bodyguards of the king whose dead were said to be immediately replaced with new recruits on the battlefield to make sure the number always stayed at 10,000, hence "Immortals". Still, fear was not the predominant method of control for the Achaemenids, but rather tolerance. Cyrus understood that the only way to keep such a vast territory full of diverse people stable was to respect local customs. The best example of this is of course the exiled Jewish priests from Babylon, whom Cyrus allowed to return home to their Temple and worship their God as they pleased. As such, Cyrus is unapologetically praised in the scriptures, and is the only person given the title of "messiah" in the entire Hebrew Bible. It is also often said that slavery was outlawed in ancient Iran, as Zoroastrian scripture and decrees from Cyrus forbade putting men in binds. As far as I can tell from my research, this is a bit of a gloss, as there is evidence that prisoners of war were still taken captive, for example. Still, Persian chains were much rarer and certainly more preferable to the often brutal conditions slaves were put through in the so-called "civilized" lands of the Greeks.

Speaking of the Greeks, of course we today know the Persians best from their 5th century conflict with the Greek city states. Most of our sources on this time period are, of course, heavily biased, but it's kind of all we have. Indeed, the word "Persian", is an exonym created by the Greeks based on a central province of government in the Empire: Persis. Indeed "Iran" is and has always been the word which powers in the region have used to refer to their country as a whole, and there's a long history of the nation trying to get the west to please stop calling them "Persia", it's getting old, guys. So I do try to use "Iran" more often than not. While Iran is often painted as the bad guy in all media about the Greco-Persian Wars, I should refer to the little tidbit about slavery up above. That's not even to mention that the Greek states trusted each other about as much as they did the Achaemenids. There are few places as polar opposites as ancient Athens and Sparta, the latter of which was a military dictatorship built on eugenics and slavery, and the former of which was a despotic bureaucracy rife with corruption and hypocrites. This is not to say that Iran was the "good guy" either. In war, all sides commit atrocities to whittle away at the enemy's psyche, and the Achaemenids scorched their fair share of cities too. But if we're talking just administration, I certainly believe I'd have had a better life in ancient Iran than I would've in ancient Greece. The real kick in the pants is how much the Greek city states would call upon the Achaemenids against their former allies in the Peloponnesian War and beyond. Like I said, the one thing the Greeks disliked more than the Persians was each other.

Still, all great empires must eventually fall, as is the way of all things. By the 4th century, the Achaemenids were already facing internal degradation and revolts against their rule. All things which paved the way for a little known up and comer named Alexander the Great, you may have heard of him. In 333 BCE, after conquering Asia Minor and the Levant, Alexander faced the last Achaemenid king, Darius III, at the Battle of Issus, which was really the final nail in the coffin for the Persian Empire. Darius fled, Alexander took Babylon and Egypt, and in 330 BCE, Darius's body was found dead on the battlefield, tied to an ox-cart by his own subordinates who had grown tired of his incompetence. In Zoroastrian tradition, this was a devastating time of great oppression and sorrow. Though Alexander tried to copy the ways of Cyrus, to the point where he was often accused of becoming "too Persian" by his elites, it was no secret that Alexander was more of a general than an administrator. When he died heirless in 323 BCE, his generals were left to squabble over his fractured empire. One general, Seleucus, took the territory traditionally held by the Achaemenids, founding the Seleucid Empire, because historians are great at naming things. The Greek dynasty was not without its competitors, however, and would eventually be overrun by the Iranian Parthian Empire, but that's a story for another day.

Design notes, this is the format I use whenever I'm designing members of an army or faction meant as nameless background characters. Fairly self explanatory, though sometimes it can be difficult to find a way to separate the regulars from the agiles, but that wasn't much of an issue with this piece. In most contemporary Achaemenid depictions of soldiers I've found, they're usually depicted without armor, instead just wearing normal robes with maybe a quiver slung over their shoulders. I also couldn't find any archaeological examples of Achaemenid armor, so really I just had to rely on more modern illustrations of what Achaemenid armor looked like and hope they were accurate. Usually they all converge on a sort of scale armor layered with leather accents. I filled in a few of the gaps with Sassanid era armor details, which yes at this point you should know feels like filling in a T. rex genome with frog DNA, but we actually have plenty of examples of Sassanid armor, so it's the best reference so far for accents and little details. Hey, at least I didn't put Arabic text on their helmets like they have in Assassin's Creed: Odyssey. I'm not joking, use the camera mode and take a look for yourself. There's a lot of things I despise about that game but as someone who went to college for Islamic studies, that one really makes me pull my hair out.