Persians: The Age of the Great Kings

As I've spent all of January glued to social media watching the events in Iran unfold, I decided to brush up on my near east history this month making this weeks book Persians: The Age of the Great Kings by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones. So let’s do this!

The Age of Great Kings is specifically focused on the Achaemenid Dynasty, which at the height of it’s power spread from Sparta and Thermopylae in the west, south to Egypt, north to the Aral Sea, and East to river Indus, encompassing some 2.1 million square miles. All of this happened in a comparatively short time span. And as Llewellyn-Jones says in his introduction, the infighting and internecine war fare is as brutal as Robert Graves telling of Roman history in I, Claudius...which I have read, so I got the reference and my eyes kind of popped out in surprise and made me buckle in for a wild story.

Also, the names used in the book and hence this review, are the latin/Roman names for the Persian Kings. Cyrus in Roman is Kurus (koresh) in Persian. I’m sticking with the Roman versions where possible because I have a reasonable chance of not mispronouncing the name. There will be mispronunciations in this. Not all names were Romanized.

As for most of earth’s humanity, the Persians started out as smallish independent clans, each led in turn by a khan. The first creation of the larger body politic of the Persian Empire did not actually occur under an Achaemenid. The first joining together was done by Teispis...which I am probably mispronouncing, and will probably mispronounce ALOT of names in here. Teispis was not, strictly speaking Persian. He was Elamite, from Elam. But he formed an alliance with the Persis tribe, and the Persian’s basically thought, “Wow, this guy has his shit together, lets do what he’s doing!”

Around the same time, the Persis people from the Pars province began moving into the Iranian plateaus, along wth Scythians, Assyrians, Babylonians….alot of tribes wanted to move around the Iranian plateaus because it was quality land up on which to graze their enormous herds of sheep, goats, and cattle. So, as is true the world over, warfare ensued over who got to keep this land for their grazing rights, and ultimately, the Medes kahn Cyaxares was the winner, and from there, the Medes never really left Persian, adding to their tribal roles the Hycarnians, Saka, and Parthians, all of whom paid tribute to the Medes kahn’s as supreme over them.

In eastern Iran, the Persians had set themselves up as tribal leaders around the Fars province and after Teispis, came Cyrus I around approximately 650-610 BCE and was a direct descendant of Teispis. And he continued to consolidate power in Iran, joining more tribes to his banner. After him was Cambyses I and about the only reason we know of him is reference is made to him by his son Cyrus II.

Cyrus II, aka Prince Cyrus, aka Cyrus the Great, is truly where the story starts. The history above, from Cyarexus through Teispis, through Cyrus I through Cambyses I, is the background story, how we got to the Achaemenid Dynasty. Cyrus the Great is the true empire builder here, and he was heir to the throne basically since birth. And this is semi-unique for Persian history because the Persian kings did not actually practice primogeniture, where the first born son is automatically heir to the throne.

They were prolific breeders, using their various spouses, consorts, and concubines to have a metric butt-load of kids, with some Kings having a reported 150 sons and way more daughters….I genuinely feel like the Persians believed to their souls that sex was good for the mind and body because WOW! That’s a lot of kids. And you would think, with that many sprites running around simply naming first born son as heir would have been the easiest thing to do and then the problem is solved. But the Persian kings chose their successors based on ability...it was a merit based monarchy.

Cyrus II became King in his thirties and while he too had many consorts, concubines, and wives, his main wife and the love of his life was Cassandane, who he married for a political alliance, and came to value as an advisor. Cassandane was from the Acheamenids tribe and had an ancient ancestry going back to 900 BCE. It is through her blood that the rest of the dynasty would flow.

Cyrus II proceeded to build his empire, conquering Media, Lydia and Babylon in short order, and creating the Satrap system, where in each country was left more or less to their own devices with a governing satrap who was loyal to Cyrus left in charge of the country as a whole. It is Cyrus the Great who conquered Jerusalem and allowed the Jews to continue to worship in their temple. He truly did not care about religious conversion, as long as he was right with his god, AhuraMazda, that’s all he cared about. More on that in a bit.

Now, when Cyrus the II passed, he had two main sons, both of whom were qualified in their own way, but, he could only pick one heir, and he did pick his oldest son Cambyses II. As a consolation prize, he gave his younger son Bardiya a very rich area in central Asia to rule over and ordered that Bardiya’s lands were to be tax exempt and he was allowed to keep any tribute he raised for himself. Essentially, he split the kingdom, with the only requirement being Bardiya owed fealty to Cambyses II.

Shortly after this, while campaigning in Massagetai territory, Cyrus II was killed in battle, allegedly by an Amazon queen. Now, I say allegedly not because it’s not possible, but because we genuinely don’t know who killed Cyrus II. It was a battle. It could have been anyone. But Herodotus, who Llewellyn-Jones cautions to read with a grain of salt, credits the Amazon Queen Tomyris with the kill, and lacking any other evidence, that’s who killed Cyrus II.

Cambyses II was now king, and he continued the territorial expansion, adding Egypt to the territories overseen by Persians. While in Egypt, Bardiya decided that Cyrus II had been wrong in naming Cambyses II as heir primary and began to plot treason. Hearing of this, Cambyses began returning to Persia and died enroute, most likely blood poisoning from scratch. Rumor has it he accidentally stabbed himself climbing on his horse, the wound became infected, and he died.

As Cambyses II died without heirs, Bardiya was now firmly on the throne. But not for long, he ruled less than a year because, having been accepted as the most pragmatic choice for king of kings, being the son of Cyrus I and Cambyses II having no heirs, Bardiya immediately turned into a power mad fool and started confiscating the herds, pastures, and property of the khans. Who immediately went “NOPE!” and joined together to overthrow Bardiya.

Now, there is, of course, legend and myth surrounding how Darius I came out on top of this power struggle. Seven tribal leaders joined together to handle the problem of Bardiya, basically storming the palace and beating him to death. The Gang of Seven, who as khans in their own right each had a valid claim to the title of King of Kings if they did not want the empire to crumble, then had to find an equable way to determine who would step into that role.

Persian historian Ctesias wrote in Persika that the seven had agreed to greet the sunrise the next day together, and whoever’s horse neighed first at the sun, that person would be king. Which is as valid a way as any other to choose a king, hippomancy being a long and time honored way of fortune telling.

Ctesias suspected trickery and claimed that Darius had his groom rub his hand over the vulva of a mare in heat and then pet the stallions nose, which caused the horse to neigh first. Thunder and lightening immediately confirmed the divine right of Darius to rule, and he was thus enthroned. And as an added bonus, Darius was of the Acheamenid line...Cyrus II’s spouse Cassandane had been Darius’s...cousin? Yes. Darius’s father was Hystaspis, Hystaspis’s brother had been Parnakka, and Parnakka had been Cassandane’s father.

Now, at this point in the story, Llewellyn-Jones did something very clever. He broke from the line of succession to give us a detailed history of what life was like in the Persian courts. Because Darius I was a prolific chronicler and there have been enormous archaeological finds at Persepolis from the time of Darius I, detailing daily life in Ancient Persia.

Starting with the bureaucracy. Part of how Persian maintained her dominance for over two hundred years was a well oiled bureaucracy which, astoundingly, ran on meritocracy. I mean, you might GET the position because your uncles cousins nephews brothers former roommate knows a guy, but if you sucked at your job, you were removed from the position. Mostly. There is one fraudster who was so amazingly charming he kept getting away with scams. Which we know about from detailed court records of the time. But mostly, you had to be good at the job.

The Satraps were another bureaucratic method of keeping the empire alive, with individual governors keeping the Satrap well oiled and running smoothly, and returning all taxes and tributes to the king in Persepolis. Llewellyn-Jones leads us through how often the court moved and how smoothly a royal march was, with everyone knowing their place, advance riders setting up the camps before the 100,000 strong court actually arrived. He does discuss slavery, which absolutely existed in ancient Persia...just like it did in every other ancient civilization around the globe.

As mentioned earlier, any son of the King could be in a position to become King himself. But the person who had the most influence on this was, surprisingly, the Kings mother. Because he had all the women in the world at his disposal, but only one mother. So the King tended to listen to her on advice. A smart Persian son would have sucked up to grandma, if he really wanted to be king. It was interesting to read that, in the hierarchy of the harem, queens and consorts could have as many sons as they could bear, but if a concubine bore a son, she was no longer allowed to sleep with the King. If she bore a daughter, she could remain in the kings bedchamber, but sons were an immediate removal. This, if I had to hazard a guess, was the doing of the women, not the king. More sons gave you more access to the King’s ear. So consorts and queens who bore sons would have a lot more say in who might be picked as successor. A concubine who bore a son was now competition. Because unarguably the most powerful position in the women’s court was the Kings mother. And the kings queens and consorts would not want a lowly concubine having that kind of sway over the sitting king, and thus undermining the consorts own possible rise to power.

Courtly etiquette is discussed, as is Zarathustra. Now, Zarathustra is the Persian name of Zoroaster, the prophet of Zoroastrianism. And Llewellyn-Jones makes a solid argument for the Achaemenid dynasty NOT being Zoroastrian, despite worshipping the same god found in the Avesta, namely Ahura Mazda. Yes, it’s the same god, but as Llewellyn-Jones points out, with as prolific a chronicler as Darius I was, had he practiced in the way proscribed by Zarathustra, surely the name Zarathustra would have been mentioned SOMEWHERE in Persepolis. Yet to date, no mention of the prophet has been found in Archaeological digs in Iran.

After securing his kingdom and reigning for 36 years, Darius I died, having spent the last few years of his life attempting to secure Greece and crushing rebellions in Egypt. He named as successor not his eldest son, who he had with his first wife, but his eldest son with his second wife, Atossa. Now, Persia allowed for multiple wives well before the introduction of Islam, and Darius I had several consorts all at once. Atossa was a wholly pragmatic matter, being the widow of both Cambyses II and Bardiya, and the daughter of Cyrus the Great...and for those keeping track, yes, this would make her the sister of Cambyses II and Bardiya. Egypt and the Hapsburgs were not the only ones to practice hereditary inbreeding to the point the family tree looks more like a family pole.

Anyway, the son in question is arguably the most well known outside of Persia, thanks to a little blockbuster movie that came out in 2006, Xerxes I. And as Llewellyn-Jones points out, Hollywood is gonna Hollywood. Meaning the story was bullshit, and told from the perspective of Herodotus...who Llewellyn-Jones admits tells a good story, but is hardly an unbiased reporter.

While the Persians absolutely outnumbered the Greeks, it was not the millions against 300 at the battle of Thermopylae. Historians currently estimate it was around 70,000 infantry and 9,000 cavalry. In fact, Thermopylae played out exactly how Xerxes expected it would, and by any military metric was a resounding success for the Persian army. The 300 Spartans who held the line at Thermopylae did not go out there expecting to face the Persian army in a grand suicide gesture. They were, in fact, joined by their Greek allies and Thermopylae was their retreat point. The 300 held the line to allow their Greek allies to escape. It was insanely brave. But was not the rebellious stance Zach Snyder portrayed in his movie. Or that Herodotus portrayed in his Histories. Herodotus had a serious hate on for the Persians. Reading him and believing everything he said about the Persians, is a bit like reading BBC on modern day Iran, and believing the Ayatollahs are being unfairly maligned.

Once he was back in Persia, Xerxes was beset on all sides by the scheming of the court women and man...those queens were SCHEMING! Like….there was a Turkish show about 15 years ago, The Magnificent Century. It was about Suleiman the Magnificent in 16th century Turkey and it was, basically, a soap opera highlighting the drama in the harem. Barely brushes the surface of what went on in Persia. Because court Etiquette had it that on the King’s birthday, members of his family could ask the King for something and if it was within his power to give it, he had to do so. His queen, Amastris...was ruthless. She didn’t really care who he was sleeping with, because it was fully normal for the King to sleep with many concubines.

But she cared a great deal about her pride and when a coat she had gifted to Xerxes, made with her own hands as in, wove the cloth herself, sewed it together, and applied all decorations, appeared on the body of Artaynte...who was his niece. Again...family tree, looks like a pole, not so unusual for him to be having relations with her. BUT….since this was a garment made specifically for him by his queen, and he had worn this garment, thus imbuing it with royal powers...this was a slap in the face of the queen. She saw this as the challenge to power it most certainly was, because if Artaynte is wearing the coat, she’s laying claim to sovereignty over Persia.

So on his birthday, she asked for Artaynte’s mother to be brought to her in chains. Because she wanted Artaynte to suffer. And because Artaynte was married to Prince Dariaios. And because the girls mother, name not shown in records, was Amastris’s equal in rank. And now, she was fully in Amastris power. Amastris cut off her nose, ears and lips, and ripped out her tongue.

We know Xerxes spent the last years of his reign building. And we know that sometime between what is now August 4 and August 8, in the year 465 BCE, an astrologer record Abu 14, day (broken off) – Xerxes’ son killed him.

We do not know which son. We do not know how. Or even specifically where. All we know is Xerxes was murdered by one of his sons. And when the dust settled, it was Artaxerxes I who sat on the throne. And reigned for 41 years, which is pretty astonishing, and died peacefully of old age, which is also pretty astonishing, and was followed by his son, Xerxes II, who ruled for a very short 45 days before, before dying and being replaced by his brother, Sogdianus. Who also only ruled a short time, about 6 months, before HE died and the youngest of Xerxes sons, Ochus, ascended the throne, taking for himself the name of Darius II. He ruled for 19 years before dying, I believe also in bed. His wife, the one who would become Queen Mother, was Parysatis. Now SHE….was a schemer. Holy cow.

Parysatis bore two sons to Darius II. Artaxerxes II and Cyrus the Younger. Cyrus was her favorite, and she did everything she could to see him become King, even begging Darius II on his deathbed. To no avail, Darius died, Artaxerxes II ascended the throne, and Cyrus the Younger rebelled.

During the battle between the two, Artaxerxes II was wounded, and Cyrus was killed. Parysatis did not take this news well and spent years plotting the demise of those involved in his death, and these were truly gruesome death scenes. Carian, who actually struck the death blow, was stretched on the rack until he died. Mithradates, who threw the spear that unhorsed Cyrus in battle, was taken to a spot where a hole had been dug in the ground and a small skiff placed there in. He was made to lie in the skiff, then another matching skiff was placed over him and the whole thing was buried, with only his head sticking out. Then he was force fed a mixture of milk and honey over and over again until he basically shat himself to death, and the bugs ate his face and internal organs while he was still alive...it was not an airtight skiff, and certainly not a bug and rat tight skiff.

Poor Artaxerxes II….he just wanted his mothers approval. But alas...he was not the golden child. Her approval never came. And before she was done with him, she would have the love of his life poisoned as well. Beware the toxic mother...in law.

A few more kings came after, Artaxerxes III, Artaxerxes the IV, and the last great King of Kings was Darius III, who would face off against Alexander from Macedonia and die in the process, bringing to an end the great Achaemenid Empire, which had ruled from 550 BCE to 330 BCE, 220 years in all.

This book was fascinating, Llewellyn-Jones has a genuinely engaging writing style, and he was not kidding in his comparison to I, Claudius, which is a work of superb historical fiction. Unlike this book, which is a work of superb historical non-fiction.
Review is up on YouTube and Rumble.