ABSTRACT
The rise of the empire of the Achaemenids initiated a new era in the history of the Middle East. For the first time in history, the whole area from the Aegean to India was unified under one government. The Persian state was supra-national, i.e. it tolerated the existence of a large number of local states and tribes. There was no quest for total subjugation or extermination of other peoples. Rather, the Achaemenid empire resembled a federation more than a totalitarian empire like the Assyrian one. There was a ruling class of warriors and aristocrats belonging to the Persian and, to a certain extent, the Median peoples. They occupied a special and privileged position within the empire and were appointed as rulers over large provinces. Below this level, local governments and religious practices of the different peoples were tolerated and even supported, and the administration did not interfere in local affairs more than necessary. On the whole, the Achaemenid rule seems to have been popular among the subjugated peoples, and the Persians receive almost incredibly good credentials from, for example, the notoriously querulous Israelite prophets. It is likely that the almost 250 years of Achaemenid rule for the common people was one of the longest and most prosperous periods of peace in the history of the Middle East, comparable only to the 400 years of internal peace established by the Ottoman Turks many centuries later.
