Rise And Decline Of Persia, Greece (era Of The Polis), And Republican Rome

3 Pages 739 Words

History is often a story that always turns out to be cyclical in nature. With every changing and sometimes the decline of civilizations we must consider important factors or otherwise known as matrix factors. With the onset of the empire we must first look to the Persians (625 BCE- 486 BCE). This empire was vast and expanded from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indus River. Thus the actual geography ranged from coastal to arid dessert which was rich in semi precious stones, gold, silver and copper which would prove very useful when Darius decides to mint his own gold coins for currency. Compared to the Greek Polis city states (800 BCE- 300 BCE) which was predominately coastal had a rocky terrain. Farmers and Sheppard were seen as the backbone of society even though the merchants kept the city wealthy. The influx of trade and commerce was vital to the Polis, without it Greece would surely starve, as Greece was already in a constant state of overpopulation. The Greeks of the polis were implanted in the land that they cultivated and owned, it was a way of life. Unlike the Persian Empire that sought out to merely dominant and conquers as much land and people as possible the Greek polis was not a place but a group of people that identified with one another. Persians had an empire of a various array of peoples, they had horseback messengers on roads that they built (that would later be used by the Romans), a centralized government that was a kingship, and subjects that were allowed to continue native customs –such as the Jews. The every strong feelings of appealing to the general populace was also very evident in the roman empire with Tiberius, trying to limit land ownership. Greeks had a different view, if you were not of the polis you were nothing to society and could be killed at will.

The Roman republic (27 BCE- 500 CE) has distinct similarities with the Persian Empire, even though the Persian Empire was long gone before the Romans wer...