The Achaemenids' Strategy in West Asia Was Security and Peace

Judging Achaemenid history based on the cultural heritage left by thousands of inscriptions and major cultural projects such as Persepolis is far easier than judging the reports of historians such as Thucydides, Xenophon, Herodotus, Plutarch, Ctesias, Diodorus, and others.

Ambassador Arjan; Alireza Askari Chavardi - Archaeologist and expert in Achaemenid Iran, Shiraz University - The cultural heritage left from every land is the history that is judged today. History is in the past, but thanks to the presence of thousands of experts and historians in the world's major and prestigious universities, the logic of the history of a land and culture can be understood to some extent.

The cultural heritage of the Achaemenians in the heart of today's Iran is Takht Jamshid, Susa, Pasargad, Hegmatane and the great inscription of Bistun Kermanshah, which had so much historical glory that the UNESCO cultural organization put them on the world register and became the honor of humanity's birth certificate. The global registration of the charter of Cyrus the Great in the case of ancient Babylon in southern Iraq today is another honor that shows the efforts of Iranian culture for peace, realization of human rights and security in the ancient world.

Basically, the cultural foundation of the Achaemenid world was based on peace and culture. We leave the judgment to the world heritage of Persepolis, which is the greatest cultural project of the ancient world for the peace and ideal of humanity. A building whose entire roles were based on respect and politeness to other cultures and it was written on the front of the gate of nations: This is the gate of all the nations of the world.

Therefore, judging the Achaemenid history based on the cultural heritage left by thousands of inscriptions and large cultural projects such as Persepolis is much easier than judging the reports of historians such as Thucydides, Xenophon, Herodotus, Plutarch, Ctesias, Diodorus, etc., that in order to understand something correctly, one must repeatedly criticize and scrutinize their contradictory mental judgments about different lands and finally He came to the conclusion that these historians used the hearings of others who were at enmity with the judge as the criterion of opinion.

The Achaemenid world heritage was founded on a foundation that was the result of several thousand years of global experience. In the time of Cyrus the Great, the Assyrian, Babylonian, Urartian, Median and Elamite worlds were full of war, chaos and sedition, and the world needed a prophet to remind people of human ethics and ideals, and within the framework of Zoroaster's teachings, the world needed a savior to free people from ignorance and superstition and to replace freedom and human rights.

The foundations of the civilization of the Achaemenid world were based on the idea of peace and providing security based on the teachings of Zoroaster, and the Achaemenid kings such as Cyrus and Darius based their civilization on the idea of peace, human freedom, respect and politeness, and they established the biggest cultural project of the ancient world as a monument of world peace and culture, "Takht Jamshid".

This cultural and artistic strategy of the Achaemenid world was established in the land of Iran during three centuries and the foundations of the thought of the Iranian world were institutionalized in the human, cultural and literary ideals of Iran and the idea of ​​Iranshahri was formed based on the wisdom of Khosravani.

In this framework, the Achaemenid world government assumed the responsibility of stability, security and establishment of world order. The Achaemenid kings were entrusted with a heavy and idealistic responsibility in providing order and security from the valleys of Kabul and the Indus, the Indian Ocean to the mountains of the Caucasus and the Scythians north of the Black Sea to the deserts of Arabia, Tire and Sidon, Palestine, the Sinai desert and Egypt, Sard and Asia Minor, the Mediterranean and the lands of Cyprus and Macedonia, Athens and Sparta, etc.

At this time, the Greek cities of Athens and Sparta were burning in ethnic disputes and the flames of this burning fire spread to Sardis, and these two Greek city-states had a dispute with the land of Lydia since the Croesus period.

The land of Lydia was conquered during the Achaemenid period of Cyrus, but the Athenians and Spartans not only did not put aside their differences, but attacked Sardis and set it on fire. During the reign of Darius I, the differences between Athens and Sparta were managed and many Greek artists migrated to Persia to work on the Persepolis project.

At the time when Xerxes attacked Greece, during his time the Achaemenid power was institutionalized in Sardis, Cilicia, Carians, Daskilion, Pergamon, Cyprus and the Mediterranean Sea, and Iranian settlements were formed in those lands; Therefore, the control and sovereignty of the lands of the cities and the security of the lands were demanded by Sparta itself from the Achaemenian world government against the disorder of the Athenians.

There are still letters and documents of Eutarchus of Cozicus and Demaratus of Sparta to secure the royal lands and secure the area of Pergamon and request help from Cyrus, Darius and Xerxes.

It was for this reason that Xerxes granted a city and its lands to Demaratos in 480 BC in order to ensure the order and security of that region. The granting of cities' lands, the establishment of settlements and the territorial control (sovereignty) of the Greek region during Xerxes' period were all to ensure the security and peace of this land.

This was the procedure, the logic and universal character of Xerxes that made his greatest enemy, Themistocles, the conqueror of Salamis, the most important ally of the Achaemenians to ensure security and peace in Greece in the 480s BC. It is due to the respectful behavior of Xerxes that the enemy becomes a friend and prosperity returns to the land of Greece.

Because the foundations of the thought of the founders of Iranian culture from the period of Cyrus and Darius were founded on peace and ensuring the security of the lands, and this was the strategy of the Achaemenid world, and on the contrary, it did not provide the strategic goals of the Achaemenid government.

Although mercenaries joined the Achaemenid army at the time of recruitment in Greece and the Mediterranean region, they tried to continue their ancient traditions of burning temples and retaliating against Sard, and later used the same inappropriate action to burn Persepolis, but this was not an Iranian tradition. Because the Achaemenid world had another mission and the foundations of the Achaemenid world thought were the same as Alexander the Great tried to introduce himself as the successor of the Achaemenid king in order to be accepted by the world.

Two bad traditions: 1. Burning religious buildings and looting sacred and ancient places. 2. The tradition of humiliating prisoners of war (the prominent role of Valerian's kneeling in Cazorne). Both have their roots in the Greek and Roman worlds; Because the Iranian world culture was institutionalized with the foundations of peace in Persepolis, and the foundation of Iranian culture is always the same that can be recognized, understood and understood in the thoughts of the great poets of this land, such as Saadi, Hafez, Ferdowsi, Omar Khayyam, Attar Neishaburi, Molvi, Nizami and Shams Tabrizi.

From the trilingual inscription of the Gate of Nations in Persepolis (twenty-five centuries ago): "This is the gate of all the nations of the world" to the lofty ideals of Iranian poets such as Sheikh Ajl Saadi Shirazi: "Mankind are members of each other who are a gem in creation", all show that the cultural foundations of Iranian society from the Achaemenid era to the present century are based on humanity, God-centeredness and universal ethics.