Administration Of the Persian Empire;
Generic opening paragraph;
The Persian Empire was an absolute monarchy inherited by one chosen son from the previous king. Xerxes although not the eldest son, was appointed heir apparent by his father Darius I while still alive and he was trained over a fifteen year period to become the next king of the Persian Empire. The king was referred to as the Great King, the King of Kings, the King of Lands, and the Pharaoh of Egypt. A Persian king was not a god nor did his people consider him divine in any way. He did however come to power by the grace of Ahuramazda who was the monotheistic deity of the Ancient Persians. The Persian Empire was administered on several levels ranging from national to regional to local via an extensive civil service, appointed high officials, a Persian law code, and was overseen annually by not only the Great King but his Satraps, nomarchs, and royal judges
* Xerxes Role as King;
* Expand/consolidate economically
* Expand/consolidate militarily
* Expand geographically
* Bureaucracy was essential with the size of the Persian Empire; this element was inherited from Babylon and Elam
* Was a tolerant and broad-minded system;
* Subjects were allowed to follow their own customs and traditional forms of governments as long as they paid taxes and supplied troops when needed
* The king would not meddle with local political structures if they were efficient and loyal
* Nepotism;
* The Persian king would generally appoint a family member to be satrap, this is because Persians considered that family members could be trusted, this was not a negative situation
* Satrapies;
* Broke the empire into regions
* Separating military/civil/religious (Xenophon)
* 20 or more satrapies
* Governed by satraps: ‘protectors of the realm or kingdom’ - they represented the king and were directly responsible to him
* Important satrapies: Babylon, Egypt, Lydia and were...