Greece and Persia

Greece and Persia Persia and Greece were beautiful and prosperous empires, the most influential of their time. Over the years the two empires have had many conflicts and rivalry dating back to before the Christ era. However at the same time, each city had great influence on one another in some way. Greece and Persia have many similarities in their political and economic organization along with differences. Before Persia became known as the largest empire in the world in its time period they were not unified. It wasn't until 522 B.C. that the Persian Empire became unified. Emperor Darius accomplished the real unification of this empire. Darius set up a government that was then used as a template for later rulers. The head of the Persian government was the king whose word was law. Darius authority was extended by a bureaucracy led by Persian nobles, scribes who kept the records, a treasury that collected taxes and funded building projects and armies, and a system of roads, couriers, and signal stations that facilitated mail and trade. In the early years when the army was predominately Persian, it capably preserved the internal and external peace.
Much of the empire was divided into provinces called satrapies, ruled by a satrap. All of Egypt was usually a single satrapy, for example. The satraps were normally Persians or Medes to help ensure their loyalty. They ruled and lived like minor kings in their own palaces. Some satraps became strong enough to threaten the king. Strong kings kept their satraps in check by holding close the reins of the armies and the treasury. Darius’ government was a monarchy (kings/queens) and it was a centralized government. According to the economy and the wealth of each province, determined how much taxes would cost for that year. Like the great King Hammurabi, Darius adopted rules and laws from the people in which he conquered. Darius then drew a single code of laws in which the people within the empire had to abide by.
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