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Chapter 4
Tradition and Common Elements of the Great
Eurasian Empires (800 BCE to 400 CE)
The Early Persian Empire
1600 BCE – 559 BCE
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The Medes and the Persians played key roles in the formation of the early Persian
empire (in the area of modern-day Iran) beginning as early as 1600 BCE.
By 559 BCE, Cyrus the Great united the Medes and the Persians under one kingdom.
The Achaemenid Empire
559 BCE – 300 BCE
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Mary Evans Picture Library/Edwin Wallace/Everett Collection
The Achaemenid Empire included the
kingdom of Lydia in Anatolia and
several Greek colonies along the
Mediterranean coast, and later
added Phoenicia, Arabia, modern-day
Afghanistan, and northwestern India,
and Egypt.
Cyrus the Great (see image) was
regarded as a tolerant and kind ruler,
especially among Jews.
Darius the Great built a palace
complex at Persepolis that served as
the empire’s administrative center.
Iron technology allowed the empire
to effectively arm soldiers, make
durable agricultural tools, and build a
network of roads, including the 1600mile Persian Royal Road.
Zoroastrianism
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• Most Persians adopted the
monotheistic religion of
Zoroastrianism, whose followers
worship the supreme god Ahura
Mazda.
• Zoroastrians believe that human
beings have free will to choose
the path of good (represented by
Ahura Mazda) or the path of evil
(represented by the lord of evil
spirit, Angra Mainyu).
• Zoroastrians believe that the
spiritual battle between these
two will end with the emergence
of a savior and a peaceful world
full of joy and free from misery.
Alexander the Great and the Conquest of Persia
333 BCE – 323 BCE
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Alexander defeated the Persian army of Darius III in 333 BCE, after which he marched into Egypt and
crowned himself pharaoh.
He defeated Darius III in battle again in 331 BCE, and his army burned Persepolis to the ground.
Alexander’s conquests continued in eastern Persia and India, but his soldiers distrusted him, and
upon his death from illness in 323 BCE feuding generals split the empire into three separate
kingdoms: the Antigonid, Seleucid, and Ptolemaic Dynasties.
Early Romans
753 BCE – 509 BCE
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The Romans originated in the central Italian peninsula, where mixed groups of Etruscans,
Latins, and other Indo-European speaking people had settled over hundreds of years.
The Romans borrowed liberally from the civilizations that surrounded them; they adopted
the calendar, togas, alphabet, and gladiator contests from the Etruscans; and art,
architecture, gods, and goddesses from the Greeks.
Seven kings, called the Tarquins, ruled Rome from 753 BCE to 509 BCE.
The Roman Republic:
509 BCE – 44 BCE
Mary Evans Picture Library/Everett Collection
• After deposing the last Tarquin in
509 BCE, the Romans established
a republic that vested authority in
two elected consuls.
• The consuls consulted a Senate
made up of approximately 300
patricians.
• Early in the 5th century BCE the
Senate was forced to recognize a
Plebeian Assembly.
• The Romans also developed a
sophisticated judicial system that
considered defendants to be
innocent until proven guilty.
The Punic Wars
264 BCE – 146 BCE
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• Rome built its first navy to fight
the first Punic War, in which
they defeated the Carthaginians
and conquered Sicily, Sardinia
and Corsica.
• In the second Punic War, Rome
defeated the Carthaginian
commander Hannibal (see
image) and forced Carthage to
relinquish her military and pay a
hefty indemnity.
• Carthage completely collapsed
in the third Punic War when
Rome burned the city and
enslaved its inhabitants.
From Republic to Dictatorship
146 BCE – 60 BCE
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Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource, NY
In the hundred years after the Punic
Wars, rapid Roman expansion led to
an increasing gap between rich and
poor.
The brothers Tiberius and Gaius
Gracchus sought to remedy the
emerging tensions through programs
of land reform to benefit the masses.
Tiberius was murdered in 133 BCE
and Gaius committed suicide in 121
BCE.
Corruption led to decline of the
republic from within, resulting in
three military commanders –
Pompey, Crassus, and Julius Caesar –
forming an extralegal troika called
the First Triumvirate in 60 BCE.
Julius Caesar and the Roman Empire
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Photos.com/Thinkstock
Caesar returned to Rome in 49 BCE
to face Pompey, his chief rival.
He defeated Pompey and took over
the Senate, appointing himself
consul, tribune, chief priest, censor,
and dictator for life.
Caesar was assassinated in 44 BCE.
His death triggered a civil war, until
his nephew and adopted son
Octavian prevailed and ruled as an
emperor for the next 45 years
Octavian controlled and
institutionalized the army, created
Rome’s first true bureaucracy. He
also reformed the Senate, and
rebuilt Rome.
Pax-Romana (Roman Peace)
27 BCE – 180 CE
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iStockphoto/Thinkstock
For 180 years after Octavian
(Augustus Caesar) assumed power,
Rome was ruled by emperors who
expanded the empire and built more
than 50,000 miles of paved roads to
unite it.
Commerce flourished, and the
prosperity sponsored major building
projects, such as bridges, aqueducts
(see image), and public coliseums,
while the Latin language and
Hellenistic culture spread Roman
ideas throughout the empire.
Roman poets, including Virgil (70 – 19
BCE), Ovid (43 BCE – 17 CE), and
Horace (65 BCE – 8 CE), had profound
impact during their own times and on
the future of Western culture.
Roman Religion
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• Traditional Roman religion was
polytheistic and focused on gods
associated with natural or human
forces.
• Early in the 1st century CE a
monotheistic religion called
Christianity, based on the
teachings of a Palestinian Jew
named Jesus, became popular in
Rome.
• Roman authorities executed Jesus
in 30 BCE, but his disciples,
worked to spread his message
and ultimately succeeded in
making Christianity the official
religion of the Roman Empire.
Decline, Division, and Collapse of the Roman Empire
80 CE – 476 CE
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Rome’s increasing size and expense, political instability, a lack of technological progress, reliance on
slave labor, and a growing gap between rich and poor contributed to its decline.
Beginning in 293 CE, the empire was gradually divided into eastern and western halves, a process that
began when Constantine the Great moved the capital from Rome to Byzantium.
Northern European tribes invaded the weakened Roman empire and caused its collapse.
The eastern half survived for another 1,000 years as the Byzantine Empire.
The Qin and Han Dynasties
221 BCE – 210 BCE and 206 BCE – 220 CE
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Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY
Qin Shihuangdi, the first emperor to
unify China, was a strong ruler who
created a military state to centralize
power, quash artistic and intellectual
expression, standardize the Chinese
language, construct thousands of miles
of roads, and, completed the 3,700-mile
Great Wall of China.
The Han Dynasty brought China into an
era of creativity and innovation.
Han Wudi (reigned 141 BCE – 87 BCE)
expanded the empire’s reach by
annexing northern Vietnam, southern
Manchuria, Korea, and the nomadic
Xiongnu people northwest of China and
infusing each with Chinese culture.
The Silk Road
• The Silk Road was almost
4,000 miles long and the
first major
intercontinental highway
to link East and West.
• Merchants used the road
to transport ceramics,
silk, wine, and olive oil.
• Missionaries, ideas,
inventions, and diseases
were also transported
via the Silk Road.