Political and Economic Persian and Greek Comparison

Persia and Greece were beautiful and prosperous empires and where the most influential of their time. In this essay I will talk about the two main empires’ political structures and their economy and I will also state similarities and differences between the two empires. The two empires’ political structures might have varied greatly but their economies were very similar. Even though they had differences and had major battles they were still the ideal empires of their time. The Persians had a very good government. 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. He then divided the Persian Empire into section; a government official called a satrap headed each of these sections. The satraps were usually Persian and the people inside the local government were non-Persians. His 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.”He did not abolish the existing laws of individual lands or peoples, nor did he impose a uniform law code on his entire empire.”(Bentley and Ziegler 170) . Since the Persians also had a great government they had a equally as great economy. Since the Persians were very big on agriculture, Darius ordered the construction of better roads, hoping to communicate and link the empire with the more distant parts of the region. The Persians set up a new system of weights and measures. Persian civilians adopted the use of coins; this idea was adopted from the