Achaemenid Cities: Persian Urbanism and Institutions

In this video, I examine the key role that cities played in the administration of the Persian Empire. In addition, I look at the Persian cities of Susa, Ecbatana, Pasargadae, and Persepolis.
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[@AdSd100]

Hello Thersites. two points. First, Qanat can be simply pronounced as Kanaat (In persian , there is a GH instead of K but since there is no GH in English, Kanaat would be close enough). Second, Not sure I agree with the distinction you drew between Qanaat and Aqueducts. Vast majority of length of Roman aquducts was underground and they would rise above the ground only in valleys approaching cities. I believe the first Roman Aqueduct, The Apian, was almost entirely underground.

[@celdur4635]

This is exactly the kind of topics that made me sub to your channel!

[@theflyingfox8204]

I learned a lot from this video about the history of the Persian Empire, and also quite a bit about its institutions, but only very little about its cities, to be honest. So for me the title was a bit misleading.

[@HxH2011DRA]

Good video, and great point and not getting into too many fights

[@liberatey0urmind]

quality content, good video!

[@worththewatch1517]

Excellent video. Thanks

[@ivanfinley2510]

Really good video!

[@valipunctro]

I have a question I ment to ask in a long time,where do you get the detailed drawings of in your videos?

[@user-ld7ch1er6j]

Do you have a link somewhere layind down your reading list on this topic or overall if you have time. I'm a Persiaboo and love it. Thanks!

[@ThersitestheHistorian]

I based some of this on Charles Gates' Ancient Cities and I also referenced Herodotus and Xenophon. There are monographs about the Persians, a couple of which are recent, but I have not a chance to check them out.

[@user-ld7ch1er6j]

@@ThersitestheHistorian Thank you!/

[@histguy101]

All aquaducts are underground, including Roman ones. The only time you see them above ground are the short distances where it crosses a valley

[@OkurkaBinLadin]

True, it prevents unwanted evaporation/freezing aswell as contamination of water.

[@matthewv4086]

Why Persian kings are often referred to as tyrant? What is the legacy of the 1st Persian empire?

[@sonnyocad287]

It's probably just a direct translation of the Greek word tyrannos, which meant an absolute ruler unlimited by a constitution. It didn't inherently speak to quality of their rule in the way the modern definition does. As for Achaemenid legacy? The biggest I know of is that the way Thomas Jefferson envisioned the US Federal system was inspired by Xenophon's description of the Satrap system.

[@noah8690]

You mean southern balkans when describing thrace right?

[@ThersitestheHistorian]

Correct.

[@tacocruiser4238]

Was the Persian army composed mostly of slaves, mercenaries, conscripts, or volunteers?

[@ThersitestheHistorian]

There was a core army of Persians and Medes, stationed throughout the Empire. In times of war, local groups were called up and they were allowed to fight in whatever fashion was customary for them. Persia often hired mercenaries and they hired Greek hoplites, especially in the 4th Century when Western satraps figured that the easiest way to counteract Greek hoplites was with their own Greek hoplites. The twin peaks of this were when Cyrus the Younger hired 10,000 Greeks to fight his brother for the throne and when Darius III had more Greek mercenaries than Alexander had prior to the first couple of major battles. As far as volunteers go, I'm not sure if there were any.

[@tacocruiser4238]

@@ThersitestheHistorian I heard another KZbin history channel say that Xenophon was a source of inspiration for Alexander. The March of the 10,000 proved that the Persians were not invincible. If a small band of Greek mercenaries could March to the heart of Persia and live to tell about it, then surely Alexander could do more. This inspired Alexander to conquer Persia. Does this make sense to you? Would Alexander have known about the March of the 10,000?

[@OrangeBurgerSC706]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immortals_(Achaemenid_Empire) I suppose the Immortals would qualify as a form of volunteer force, although not regular volunteers insomuch as a primitive form of spec ops?

[@user-ld7ch1er6j]

I am still watching it but i must know! Who do you think Elamites were and where did they go? Were they Dravidians (who went to South Indian subcontinent and have a surprising level (albeit small) of similarities with Semitic languages and were reported to be living north before their arrival in South)) To me, Dravid sounds as if David was Sandkritized. Hehe. Ok, ok. Or they were semites who then went west or People who mixed with Iranic people?

[@ThersitestheHistorian]

I imagine that they lost their identity as they were absorbed by the Persians, but I'm not entirely sure.

[@tacocruiser4238]

Wasnt Ctesiphon the capital?

[@ThersitestheHistorian]

That was a major center in the Sassanian period. Possibly in the Parthian period, but I don't know right off hand.

[@novideoshereable]

No. The Achaemenid Empire did not have a single capital at all, however it maintained several important regional centres such as Susa, Persepolis, Babylon, Pasargadae and Ecbatana. Ctesiphon was founded Tisfon by Mithridates/Mihrdad of Parthia as a military camp and later became a very important city. The Parthian Empire also did not have a single fixed capital, but the Sasanian Empire which was far more centralized in response to Roman centralization, held a fixed court first at Istakhr and then at Ctesiphon.

[@arianrezaie4729]

And the most important civilazation for the persian culture was the masepotamians Sassanians citys please

[@AnerLucero]

Great video. I'm curious about the extend of the mongol destruction. Did the Achaemenids keep records? Did they have historians? Where those records destroyed during the invasions ? Or never existed in the first place? Was the Greek civilization lucky with regards to record preservation?

[@ThersitestheHistorian]

I'm not sure how many records they kept. Only their monuments have survived and yes, Greek civilization was incredibly lucky to have lasted so long without a major break.

[@hopeprevails3213]

my guess would be most likely, actually - the persians were quite the advanced folk. also, not just the mongols came by, but tamerlane, the seljuks and before all of it - the arabs burned a lot of libraries. we will probably never know the extent of the persian records.

[@celdur4635]

@Medic 4 Christ! The Eastern Roman empire and the Muslims kept the Greek and Roman works alive to be "rediscovered" by the west

[@auggief729]

You may have already answered this on an earlier video and this is a bit random but would you ever do a series of videos on Roman Emperors? Not counting the Byzantine empire ofcourse. Or maybe a small series on the later Roman Emperors? For example Crisis of the 3rd century emperors onwards? Again, apologize for the randomness haha

[@ThersitestheHistorian]

I am thinking of doing that some day. It won't be anytime soon, unfortunately.

[@auggief729]

@@ThersitestheHistorian I appreciate the reply man, thank you. Looking forward to it!

[@a.s2205]

Dude you can go to susa. Or anywhere in Iran. It's safe. A lot of people do go.

[@HVLLOWS1999]

Ill never forgive Alexander The Lame for what he did to Xsassa.

[@farnabazat5395]

My friend assyrians asurbanipa destroyed Elam cities like Susa and Ansan. The Persian and medes (aryans)actually had good relationship with them and both side gets mixed genetically and culturally together .even the achaemenid used the Elamites tablets all over their ceremonial capital parse(Persepolis).if they wanted to destroy them they never use 3 diffrent languages ,they used old persian_babylonian _and Elamites Check the assurbanipal inscription after he destroyed susa .you didnt talked about that anything Susa, the great holy city, abode of their Gods, seat of their mysteries, I conquered. I entered its palaces, I opened their treasuries where silver and gold, goods and wealth were amassed … I destroyed the ziggurat of Susa. I smashed its shining copper horns. I reduced the temples of Elam to naught; their gods and goddesses I scattered to the winds. The tombs of their ancient and recent kings I devastated, I exposed to the sun, and I carried away their bones toward the land of Ashur. I devastated the provinces of Elam and on their lands I sowed salt

[@ReligionWhistleBlower]

Here is the fact that archeologists have been ignoring it all along. Ever since the ancient people started to built a home from mud or bricks then little by little we learned construction and architect, and then skyscrapers. When we found out how to make a piece of glass then we learned how to make glass window, magnifying glass, telescope, binocular, camera, and Hubble Space Telescope. Or when we received the knowledge of Binary numbers little by little we came up with computer and many different computer software. Or when the first person draw an address with a stick on some sands then we came up with Art of drawing, painting, and different types of way to paint and so on. I am trying to say that whatever humans learned at the beginning then it was continued and developed in the future, except when we saw those ancient constructions all around the world about 3000 years ago. How come our knowledge did not develop to rebuilt those Pyramids, Sphinx, those walls in Machu Picchu, or those humongous walls in Cusco and Sacsayhuaman in Peru and Olanta Tambo walls and other mysterious walls which was built anti Earthquake. Or Moaie in Eastern Island, Nazca lines, those huge Jars in Laos, Costa Rica's Round Stones, then Colossi of Memnon, Stonehenge, and other mysterious construction???? This shows that those mysterious buildings and constructions WAS NOT BUILT BY HUMANS otherwise we would have seen them today because, those kinds of Architects were developed by humans and we would have learned how to built them today. Now we have the scientific facts based on mathematics, the exact science to prove these facts in the court of law. You may watch (#13) videos of this channel.

[@artyoung8519]

Your videos have so many commercial interruptions that it's hard to keep track of what you're saying, so find that I avoid your videos, even though they are great.

[@ThersitestheHistorian]

KZbin keeps adding ads to older videos for their own profit and it is difficult to keep track of what they are up to.

[@majid85285]

this is not apadana. it is tachar