History of Money, Banking, and Trade
A historical look at the development and evolution of money, banking, and trade. From the ancient civilizations to the present.
History of Money, Banking, and Trade
Episode 30. Persian Intrigue and Economic Mastery
What if the financial strategies of an ancient empire could reshape your understanding of economic power today? Join me, Mike D, on a captivating exploration of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, where every twist of a half-brother's betrayal and the cunning moves of a powerful sister become a lesson in political intrigue and economic innovation. Witness the rise and fall of rulers like Xerxes II and Darius II, whose stories of borrowed warfare echo through time, parallel to the sophisticated practices of the Murasu family. Together, we'll uncover how these historical narratives set the stage for a flourishing era of trade and financial leverage, drawing unexpected connections to medieval Italian city-states.
Experience the tension-filled corridors of the Persian court as we navigate the complex web of power struggles between Darius II and Artaxerxes II, and the ambition-fueled conflict of Cyrus the Younger. Intrigue and betrayal run rampant, with familial rivalries and strategic interventions by their formidable mother shaping the empire's destiny. Discover how the empire's reach extended into Greek affairs during the Peloponnesian War, and how Artaxerxes III's ruthless ascent to power left a complex legacy that echoed through time, setting the stage for future clashes with Macedonia.
Finally, unravel the Achaemenid Empire's groundbreaking advancements in economics, law, and culture. From the progressive Achaemenid Law Code to the empire's efficient credit systems and inclusive governance, these innovations laid the groundwork for modern financial systems. Marvel at the empire's engineering feats, agricultural progresses, and strategic management of vassal states. With Alexander the Great's conquest looming on the horizon, understand how these historical developments left a lasting impact on the world, reshaping warfare, governance, and economic strategies that resonate even today.
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Welcome podcast listener. I am Mike D and this is the History of Money, banking and Trade podcast. My goal is to expand your knowledge of the history and evolution of trade, along with money, banking and credit, from ancient civilizations all the way to the present. I truly hope you find these episodes to be informative and entertaining. Now, I'm not a historian, but I am a fan of history.
Speaker 1:When we last left off, we explored Xerxes' invasion of Greece. As part of his invasions, we talked about the monumental engineering challenges that, in hindsight, may not have been the wisest of decisions, such as the bridge of ships across the Dardanelles. However, mother Nature did step in and have other plans. So, despite the fact that he did help fuel these great engineering feats, they turned out to be more or less a disaster in the end. We also got into the epic clash at Thermopylae and then the really amazing naval strategy at Salamis, where the Greeks basically turned the tide against an overwhelming Persian force. In part, the Greeks were helped by a campaign of misinformation, which culminated in their triumphant stand at Plataea. Additionally, the Greeks kind of really got together and put their differences aside and organized a confederation with the Delian League, which shifted the power dynamics that basically reshaped the whole entire ancient world. However, many of the Greeks quickly became suspicious of the Athenians when they shifted their treasury to Athens. Despite all the epic battles that had occurred, a peace treaty was signed, which led to a flourishing banking industry and increased trade inside and outside of the Persian Empire. As part of the peace, we saw the rise of the West Semitic community in Babylonia and the sophisticated banking practices of the Mushuru family. We concluded with Artaxerxes' reign, with the intricate web of diplomacy and cultural interplay that defined the Persian society.
Speaker 1:Artaxerxes only had one son with Queen Dimaspea, which was Crown Prince Xerxes II, but with his concubines he had 17 other sons. Artaxerxes and his queen died on the same day in 424 BCE, perhaps of the same illness or maybe something worse, something foul. Crown Prince Xerxes II ascended to the throne, but he sat on the throne for only 45 days because his half-brother, sogdianus, assassinated him while he was in a drunken sleep. Brother Sogdianus assassinated him while he was in a drunken sleep. So while Sogdianus had usurped the throne, he kind of realized that he needed help in maintaining the throne. So what he did is he basically handed out significant bribes to his military. The issue he faced was his other half-brothers and even half-sister, for that matter had powerful allies on the other side who wanted them on the throne. One of his brothers, who went by the name of Oches, was the son of a Babylonian concubine. Now it sounds like Sagdianus was potentially worried that Oches would try to claim the throne, so he ordered him to Susa, where it is thought that when he sends him there he's obviously going to have him killed.
Speaker 1:So Ochas was clearly worried because when he received the little note that he got in the mail, which was a cuneiform tablet instructing him to Susa, he knew he had to put together a plan quite quickly or else it could be death. And obviously the first thing he would do is ask his supporters to fight for him. But he had a problem because he didn't have any means to pay them. Like a lot of ancient royalty, they were land rich but cash poor, and that wasn't going to be much of use, because if he was to put together a mercenary army he would need lots of silver to pay them. So if he didn't have actual silver he had to borrow. And wouldn't you know it, he reached out to our old friends, the Murasu family, for support. The Murasu family is the family we talked about in the prior episode that ran these great banking operations, and in order to do this, he needed to mortgage his vast property holdings so that the Murasu family could lend against the property's collateral. So by the time he had answered the call from Sagdianus, he had to roll into Susa with a large army financed by the Murasu family. So after six short months, sagdianus was killed by his half-brother, who took the throne as Darius II.
Speaker 1:Now it's quite possible that this is the first ever recorded instance of war or maybe war is a strong word maybe more like a battle that was in fact financed by borrowed money. Don't forget, in the past, I mean, there might be some sort of borrowing that had taken place, but most kings would have had the resources that they could have used to call up an army. But in this particular case this was purely done through leverage. So you got to look at from the banking operation side. So the Morasu family took a major risk because if this doesn't turn out in their favor, they potentially lose everything and probably are going to get killed in the process. They would have been probably hung as traitors. So this is potentially the first time this ever really happened, at least what we know of in written records. But it certainly won't be the last time, especially when we're talking about the medieval Italian city-states, because most of their wars were basically fought through borrowed money. So we see it first here, but it certainly won't be the last time we ever see kings borrow money to finance a war.
Speaker 1:And it's interesting because I kind of briefly said something and I just want to kind of get back to it, but I had mentioned that there was a half sister that was very powerful. Now, it's quite possible that this half sister well, she was completely ruthless and savvy, because it sounds like she was the brains behind the operation to usurp the throne. Now, of course, we all know that whenever a king is usurped from the throne, especially from a powerful state like the Achaemenid Persian Empire, the provinces that were once independent kingdoms were almost certain to try and break away from the overlords. In addition, it didn't help that it wasn't a peaceful transfer of power, because, ultimately, darius II took the throne by murdering his brother, who had taken the throne by murdering his brother, who was the legitimate heir to the throne. So, needless to say, the provinces were going to test whether Darius II was a strong or weak ruler, and of course, the first nation to bolt was Egypt. But the Egyptians were very important to the Persian Empire and subsequent empires that followed, because Egypt was vital to trade and, more importantly, they were the breadbasket of the Near East and the Mediterranean. And if they were to lose Egypt, you might not be able to feed your army and local population. And to make matters worse, the Athenians were meddling in Western Anatolia by kicking out the oligarchs who were ruling the Ionian cities and restored democracy to the region and essentially brought them under the Athenian control or, at the very least, strong influence. So this is ultimately where it's going to start for Darius II, if he's going to prove himself to be a good or a weak commander. And luckily for the Achaemenid Persian Empire, he proved to be a very formidable commander-in-chief.
Speaker 1:Now Darius, just like the Persian rulers prior, were financially supporting Sparta in their proxy war. He had the Phoenicians build warships to replenish the Spartan fleet while reconquering most of the Ionian city-states with his own fleet. Well, this move whether intentional or unintentional, but probably intentional was the final break of the Peace of Callias. Now, the Peace of Callias was a peace treaty that was established around 449 BCE between the Delian League, which was led by Athens, and the Achaemenid Persian Empire that ended the Greco-Persian Wars. Darius II's second son, cyrus the Younger, struck a deal with General Lysander of Sparta. By assisting Sparta against Athens, cyrus the Younger ended up making Lysander ruler of a joint Greece in exchange for assistance in a secret deal in which he planned a coup against his older brother. After his father's death, lysander and his Spartans, with their 200 ships that had been provided by Persia, laid siege to Athens until it surrendered. So, in the end, it was the Persians' influence in Greece that really kicked off the Peloponnesian War, and then again, it was the interference by the Persians that helped end the Peloponnesian War, as Sparta was finally able to defeat the Athenians, of which Sparta would demand a large sum of tribute from the Athenians. So, just as the Peloponnesian War had ended, darius II died in 404 BC, and his oldest son, artaxerxes II, succeeded him.
Speaker 1:However, I just said that Cyrus the Younger already had a plan in place with the Spartans to provide support for his cool attempt to usurp the throne from his older brother. Well, the whispers must have been loud, because it seemed to travel. Well, because rumors were swirling around indicating that Cyrus the Younger was planning on usurping the throne. Now, it also didn't help the fact that it was well known that Cyrus the Younger was very headstrong and also extremely motivated for power, whereas it sounds like Artaxerxes II was almost the opposite, where he was a lot more chill and maybe not quite the cutthroat like his younger brother was. So what I'm saying is, when Darius II died, there was probably people in the court that saw this coming a mile away, and because of this, cyrus the Younger was arrested. However, he did have a loving mother who obviously didn't want to see one of her sons killed and therefore begged and pleaded with Artaxerxes II to drop the charges, like the previous king where there were half-brothers who had different mothers. So apparently she persistently defended her son and eventually got the charges dropped. Cyrus the Younger decided that it'd be best to kind of leave town and just kind of let things cool down a little bit. So he skipped out and went to Lydia and, more importantly, what he wanted to do is bid his time to see if Artaxerxes II would sort of let his guard down.
Speaker 1:Now, as you can imagine, the queen mother was pretty powerful and headstrong. In fact she was very much involved in the decision-making in the kingdom, whether it was with her husband or now her son, artaxerxes II. In hindsight, it's probably quite obvious, considering the fact that she was able to get the king, which was her son, to drop the charges of their other son, who was basically plotting to kill the oldest son. Now, towards the beginning of this series, we talked about the fact that women were viewed as equals and could also hold courts and make policy decisions for the empire, unlike a lot of other places, especially places like the Phoenician city-states. Now, the problem here was Artaxerxes' current wife was also a key influencer and her input was viewed just as important as the mother's inputs.
Speaker 1:Now, normally I would think, me personally, that taking the advice from your wife is a good thing, because you're going to get a different viewpoint on certain topics or whatever. But the problem here is we have a conflict between the wife and the mother, and the mother didn't want to take a backseat to anybody and therefore the mother and the wife became bitter rivals. So one way the mother knew how to get at her daughter-in-law was by influencing her son to take as many concubines as possible, and in fact it sounds like he had well over 300. And on top of that, it sounds like he had about 100 sons with the different concubines. So, as Mel Brooks famously said, it's good to be the king, and apparently he was putting in his kingly duties outside the palace duties for sure, which I don't know how that's even possible to be running an empire and having to deal with major problems in Greece and then having to deal with problems in Egypt, all the while your brother is over there trying to plot and kill you. But then, on top of all that, now you got to deal with the fact that your mother and wife hate each other and you have 300 other women or concubines now and you have sons with many of them who are probably going to start jockeying for a position for their son to be the potential crown prince. So there's a lot going on here.
Speaker 1:Now it sounds like his 300 concubines and 100 sons really didn't materialize into a problem at all, but he had to deal with the fact that his mother and wife were just bitter enemies. And then, to make matters worse, his wife was speaking publicly about his mother's apparent cruelties in court and the way she treated other people. So the mother obviously didn't like to hear her name badmouthed in the court of public opinion, because that's essentially what's happening here. So she thought to herself well, what's the next best step that can potentially silence this whole issue? And of course, the next best step for her would be murder.
Speaker 1:In order to make the assassination happen, the queen mother used a loyal servant to carve a bird with a poison knife. So when the wife took a bite of the bird, it had poison from where the knife had cut it and she apparently had a very painful death as a result. And if you're wondering if this sounds somewhat familiar, I mean it kind of really played out in Game of Thrones when King Joffrey died. So you wonder, when RR Martin is writing these amazing stories, if he is just going straight to the source of historical evidence and putting them in his books, but rewriting them in a way that is very appealing to the audience.
Speaker 1:Now, unlike Game of Thrones, it sounds like this murder was committed by his mother because she was in fact jealous of her son's wife, because, according to Plutarch, her son, artaxerxes, apparently actually loved his now deceased wife, and apparently this put him into a rage when his wife died. But he couldn't kill his mother, so instead he had his mother's eunuch and servants executed. He then exiled his mother to Babylon, but that really didn't last long, because she came back into his life and once again was a leading figure in providing counsel. And in doing so, what she did is she kind of advised Artaxerxes to take a couple of new wives that the mother knew that they were timid and had no say or ability in court, so therefore she could still reign on top and not have to worry about a powerful wife of Artaxerxes.
Speaker 1:Now, despite all this intrigue in the court and the issue with his mother and now deceased wife, artaxerxes still had an empire to run and as part of that he had to essentially set out the economy and move the trade in the direction that he felt would be best fit. And of course, one of the best ways to influence trade is to influence coinage, and in this particular case, artaxerxes II kind of really came to the conclusion if it ain't broke, don't fix it. So basically, what he did is he maintained basically the same coinage that had been around since Darius first issued coins in 520 BCE. However, the current iterations of the coinage were known as the Siglos Type 4, which was a depiction of a king running with a dagger, which would have been around 375 to 340 BCE, and those particular coins were actually silver coins. Then there was also the Derrick Type 4, which was also basically the same thing, but these were gold coins, which was also basically the same thing, but these were gold coins and they essentially remained the same size and weights of the original Derricks that were issued by Darius in 520 BCE. So not a lot of change there.
Speaker 1:And of course it's probably best not to change things because ultimately you still need to pay a mercenary army and the mercenary army is always going to want to get paid in coinage that can be fungible and changed and moved around the different empire and, of course, you know, moved out into the outer reaches, into places like Greece, if they're going to do any kind of long-distance trade or if they're just going to hire Greek mercenaries. And speaking of mercenaries, cyrus the Younger hadn't gone away. In fact, he was still continuing to plot and plan and as such, he was able to put together an army of about 20,000 men and an additional 10,000 Greek mercenaries, which he probably ironically, paid with the coinage of Artaxerxes II. Now, eventually, these two sides would square off in Babylonia. Cyrus' only objective was to kill his older brother. So essentially what happened was he kind of locked into him and went straight for him, but he was cut down in the middle of the process.
Speaker 1:Now, from then on, it's quite clear that Artaxerxes II is the king of the Cuman-Persian empire, as he really didn't have any kind of rivals at this point. However, the Greek mercenaries that had survived were kind of really stuck in a bad place because their employer was just killed. So they're not going to get paid for one thing, and another thing is, if they don't get out of Dodge, they're going to die. So they're going to pick up their stuff and they just started to flee. And if you ever want to hear a good detailed account of this, paul Cooper's Fall of Civilization podcast, in the introduction he laid out the great scenario of basically what happened, where he basically discussed how the Greek mercenary army that was sent to Persia to fight for Cyrus the Younger in 401 BCE well, they were left stranded and they knew that they had to get back to Greece yesterday. So they basically took off on foot and moved as fast as they could, following the Tigris River towards the north, towards the Black Sea.
Speaker 1:Xenophon wrote how they were stunned to find these huge abandoned cities, of which the local population didn't even know who formed these cities. These cities, in fact, were old, abandoned Assyrian cities, but the people in the local population, they didn't know who the Assyrians were. They were basically lost to time so they had absolutely no clue who built these enormous walls for this enormous city. But I digress Now. You ever notice when things get like really hectic and you kind of really go through the motions to resolve whatever it was that you needed to resolve, and then you kind of take a step back mentally and just kind of review what happened and once things calm down you realize, hey, wait a minute. Well, that's kind of what Artaxerxes II did Afterward. He was like wait, the Spartans just tried to help my no-good brother in a coup d'etat.
Speaker 1:And to make matters worse, the Spartans fomented a revolt of the Ionians against the Kingdom of the Persian Empire. Let us not forget it was the Spartans and the Persians who allied with each other to defeat the Athenians just a few decades prior to this. Luckily for Persia, the Greeks couldn't get along and therefore the Corinthian Wars broke out from 395 to 37 BCE, which was between Sparta and a coalition of city-states comprising Thebes, athens, corinth and Argos, of which the Achaemenid Empire was supporting that side. Now the war was caused because former allies of Sparta in the Peloponnesian War were disgusted by Sparta's imperialism in the aftermath of the Peloponnesian War, along with the fact that Corinth and Thebes felt they weren't adequately rewarded for their help in defeating Athens. So essentially what happened was the Sparta issue with the Persians was kind of really handled by the Greeks because they were once again at each other's throats and the Persians weren't going to let a war go to waste. So now they supported the Athenians and sent a Phoenician fleet to help defeat their now enemies, the Spartans. So if Sparta would have stayed out of the Cyrus the Younger coup attempt, well, the Spartans might have been in a much better position and they wouldn't have to deal with the Persians now supporting their enemies.
Speaker 1:But either way, artaxerxes was a major player in brokering the peace of which ended the Corinthian war in 387 BCE. Persia was once again friendly with Sparta and abandoned its allies with Athens. So things kind of went back to how they had been as the Ionian Greek city-states became vassals to the Achaemenid Empire and the rest of the Greek city-states regained their independence as well. So right now we have a case where Athens is getting itself back into order, but Thebes was beginning its rise to power in Greece as well, as they had won several battles using the phalanx maneuvers with the long spears, but they did something that would end up changing the world as we know it. They invaded the semi-barbarians, the Macedonians, and took the king's son, philip II, as a hostage where he would learn their battle tactics. So it's crazy to think that this action alone will eventually come back to end the Achaemenid Persian Empire.
Speaker 1:Also, while all this is happening and, to be honest, even before these events in Greece, egypt, known as Persia, was too tied up in Greece. So they saw this as an opportunity and they had revolted and retained its independence from Darius II, who, if you recall, was Artaxerxes' father, who was never able to bring them back under control. Now Artaxerxes was just about to invade Egypt, but he got caught up in his brother's coup attempt and, because Sparta was a big part of that, they got themselves entangled in the Greek wars again. Shortly after settling the peace between the Greeks and the Persians, artaxerxes II went on campaign to Egypt, but after three years Persia couldn't recapture Egypt and more or less saw the writing on the wall and just left in disgrace.
Speaker 1:Artaxerxes was getting up there in age and needed to make sure that the crown prince was named prior to his death because he feared if this was not in the public record, a civil war could break out. And of course, this couldn't possibly be drama-free. Because how could it? Because that wouldn't make any sense. Now would it make any sense now, would it?
Speaker 1:The person who probably thought was first in line was his oldest son by the Queen of Darius, which would have been the obvious choice, because the oldest son was typically, but not always, chosen as the crown prince. But in this particular case, the younger son, oches, plotted and schemed his way to make himself look like the proper choice For one. He courted his half-sister Atusa, who was Artaxerxes' favorite daughter, thinking that his father would want her to be the next queen, which is kind of a smart strategy if you think about it. But the strategy was all for naught. So he basically appointed his son, darius, as the heir present to the throne. Darius was already 50 by this time, because Artaxerxes had such a long reign.
Speaker 1:Now Darius was in love with Cyrus, the Younger's consort. Well, this didn't sit too well with Artaxerxes, because Cyrus the Younger was the brother who tried to kill him. So marrying the woman who was advising your potential assassin wouldn't look good and certainly wouldn't feel good either. So therefore, artaxerxes rejected this, and, to make sure that nothing could come of it, he forced her to become a priestess, which meant she had to remain a virgin for the rest of her life, or, if she wasn't a virgin, she would have to be sexually inactive. Now, apparently, darius took this very hard, so much so that he plotted to assassinate his father while he was sleeping in his bed. Somehow or other, he was tipped off, or maybe he's just a light sleeper, I don't know. But whatever it was, he managed to escape this assassination attempt by fleeing into a hidden room behind his bed and, needless to say, this failed coup attempt wasn't going to end well for Darius. As such. He was ordered to be beheaded.
Speaker 1:So you got all that. First of all, the names are all confusing, and then all the plot twists and everything like that. It's just mind-blowing. I mean, let's take a step back for a second. This succession was supposed to be simple and easy, but it got messy really quick. Artaxerxes wanted to make sure that there wasn't going to be any problems on this succession. But sure enough, this is ancient civilizations and it almost seems like nothing can be simple, despite the fact that it should be simple.
Speaker 1:So now Oches was in the driver's seat to be named the crown prince, but he still had two other half-brothers who were potential rivals. He got into the head of one of them and convinced one of his brothers that his father was going to kill him. So he took the only reasonable option and committed suicide suicide. Now, it sounds like Artaxerxes took this very hard and suspected Oches of being behind it, but he couldn't prove it. So with one down, it was one to go, but in this particular case he wouldn't take the time to get in someone's head and convince them this, that or whatever. He just took the simple route and killed his brother directly, and apparently this really shook up Artaxerxes II, who was already quite elderly at the time, and essentially it sounds like he more or less died of grief in 358 BCE, which is quite sad. In all honesty, I never thought I'd really feel bad for a Persian king, but you kind of can't help but feel a little bit sympathy for what he had to go through, and what makes it worse was he was trying to do the right thing. But it's amazing when someone gets consumed with ambition and, as a result, it's just not uncommon for things to get real messy and for people to die.
Speaker 1:So Ochus took the throne in 358 BCE with the throne name of Artaxerxes III. But of course, this couldn't be drama free. According to a Macedonian historian, ocas schemed with the palace, eunuchs and officials, along with guards, to keep his father's death a secret for 10 months while he consolidated his rule. Meanwhile, he forged letters from his father naming Ocas as the heir. Now you might be asking yourself didn't you say that he had over 100 sons with his 300 concubines? Wouldn't some of them want to be on the throne as well? Well, according to the Roman historian Justin, he straight up murdered most of the royal males, which may have included 80. In one day he even killed some of his sisters, just in case. Now, while he was committing familial genocide, philip II was ascending the throne in Macedonia.
Speaker 1:Now, the ironic thing was, even though Artaxerxes III was kind of viewed as an ancient psychopath, the Persian Empire was kind of going through a bit of a renaissance at the time. Art and architecture flourished, but, more importantly, coinage was being widely adopted through the empire. Local and foreign trade was booming, so the Achaemenid Persian Empire's economy was humming along. But it's interesting because its rivals, the Greek city-states, well, their economy was actually struggling during this time period and as such, the Achaemenid Persian trade in the Western Aegean and the Mediterranean seas actually picked up, where the Greece economies were struggling.
Speaker 1:Now, despite the booming economy of the Cuman-Persian Empire, artaxerxes was getting warnings that Philip II of Macedonia was going to invade Persia. But Philip was also kind of getting the same information that the Persians were going to evade the Greek city-states. But really, before the Persians could worry about the Macedonians, they had other concerns. Namely, they had insurgencies in certain Phoenician city-states and Egypt was sticking its nose in Persian provinces, and Egypt was sticking its nose in Persian provinces. The Phoenician city-states had long established expertise in shipbuilding and had the extensive trade networks, so losing them would mean the Persians were losing its trade networks through the Mediterranean.
Speaker 1:Artaxerxes was going to lead this war into the Levant, so he assembled 300,000 infantrymen and 30,000 cavalry, 300 warships and about 500 supply ships, along with food, weapons and siege engines. Now, in the past, the Persian navy relied on the Phoenicians and the Egyptians. But obviously they couldn't do that now, so he hired Greek mercenaries. Oh, and while this was happening, cyprus had declared themselves independent as well. So Artaxerxes III was furious and asked a minor kingdom on the southwestern coast to sail into Cyprus and put down the revolt. And put it down they did.
Speaker 1:The commanders of the fleet and the soldiers knew that Cyprus was wealthy. So the soldiers and the sailors couldn't get there fast enough because they knew that there was a ton of treasure to plunder. Other sailors and soldiers heard the news and rushed over to plunder as well. So in the end the size of the force doubled. Because, greed right, everybody thought, hey, I got to get a piece of the action. So all of a sudden this huge force kind of converged on Cyprus.
Speaker 1:Well, this triggered a major panic among the various city-states on the island of Cyprus, so literally all of them surrendered to Persia except the ruler of Salamis. So literally all of them surrendered to Persia except the ruler of Salamis. So all the while, when the Persians got to the Phoenician city-states of Sidon in particular, its king took one look at the size of the force and he immediately struck a deal with Persia. The Sidon king figured it's best to help the Persians with their Egyptian problem. But remember, artaxerxes III had a bit of a psycho streak in him, so he decided to reject the deal and evade the city anyway, because he wanted to send a message to everyone else in the region not to cross him. So apparently, 40,000 people were slaughtered in Sidon. Sidon was one of the biggest cities in the Phoenician city-states. The other Phoenician cities immediately pledged their loyalty to Artaxerxes III. So while the Phoenician city-states problem was resolved, it was off to Egypt where he, unlike his father, would take a hands-on approach.
Speaker 1:When the Persians arrived at the city of Pelellicium, which was the same city that Cambyses previously defeated, with the cats, dogs and rams, well, they met up with the Egyptian pharaoh Nectimbo, who was extremely overconfident due to their recent success against Persia, so he refused to share the command with his highly experienced Athenian and Spartan generals. It was relatively quick, but Persians took control of the Nile Delta and, as a result, the pharaoh fled south to the capital city of Memphis, and the Greeks realized that the pharaoh and the Egyptians had abandoned the city. So they surrendered and Artaxerxes allowed them to return to Greece with whatever they could plunder and carry on their backs on the way back. So actually this actually worked out really well for the Greeks. I mean, they could have been slaughtered, but instead Artaxerxes surprisingly let them live and in fact let them kind of profit in the meantime. So that's kind of interesting. One Egyptian city after another fell. Each of those cities' temples were plundered and desecrated. Now, as you can imagine, the Egyptians didn't have a favorable opinion of the Persians. So several decades later, when Alexander the Great came to Egypt, they viewed him as a liberator from their Persian overlords. However, before Alexander was able to make his way into Egypt, artaxerxes was able to celebrate his victory over the Egyptians by minting a coin which shows Artaxerxes III as the Egyptian pharaoh. Shows Artaxerxes III as the Egyptian pharaoh. Now back in Europe.
Speaker 1:In 340 BCE, the accumulated Persian Empire experienced its first encounter with the Macedonians in Thrace, because King Philip II was slowly expanding his empire and now it was encroaching into the garrisons in Thrace which had come under control of the Achaemenid Empire under Darius the Great. Artaxerxes III was able to push Philip out of Thrace, but for some crazy reason, when Philip was retreating, artaxerxes did not pursue him or seem to take the Macedonians a little too lightly. Now it's quite possible that they viewed them as some sort of backwater Greeks when they talked about the Macedonians, and maybe they didn't take them as serious as the other Greeks weren't taking them as serious to begin with. But either way, persia was in great shape at this time. They retook Egypt, they snuffed out rivals in the Phoenician city-states and in Cyprus.
Speaker 1:But despite all this, it all came crashing down when Artaxerxes' closest friend, who was a eunuch named Begoas, whom he had appointed as the second in command, had poisoned and killed him. The historian Diodorus described Begous as grasping and treacherous, and that description certainly seems to be pretty accurate. The death from poisoning brought his son Arsus, who took the name Artaxerxes IV, to the throne. Arsus had older brothers, but Begous orchestrated events to crown him, expecting that he could easily manipulate the youth and rule through him. Oh, and at the same time, most of the Greek city-states had joined the Greek League under the leadership of the Macedonian king, philip II. King Arsus tried but failed to poison him and was in turn poisoned by Pagoeus.
Speaker 1:Now, as a quick reminder, artaxerxes III, the father of Artaxerxes IV, was a bloodthirsty king and had wiped out most of the royal males at the beginning of his reign. Oh, and Pagoas had poisoned him and the remaining heirs, leaving no male heirs in direct line of Artaxerxes III. So finally, pagoas had schemed his way to find a young man who he had identified as the great-grandson of Darius II and put him on the throne. But Darius III wasn't the puppet that he was hoping for, so this wasn't going to work for Begous. So why not go into the old bag of tricks and poison? Him, because he'd already done it in the past, but Darius wasn't falling for it. Him, because he'd already done it in the past, but Darius wasn't falling for it. Suspecting that he was next in line for the poison treatment, darius handed his cup to Bagoas and said drink a toast to me. Now, this reminds me once again of Game of Thrones, when the guy was going to poison Khaleesi, but her advisor had him drink the wine first. Now Bagoas knew he was toast and apparently what he said was he had lifted up the cup and before he drank it, he says to the victor.
Speaker 1:So while the eunuch was poisoning the Persian royal family, philip of Macedon was conquering all of Greece except for Sparta, and the new Darius was taking notice and probably was concerned, but out of nowhere his advisor had rushed in out of breath. I have some amazing news. Philip is dead. Darius says dead. What happened, murder sire. His jilted lover stabbed him to death. Darius laughed my nemesis was killed by a woman. No, sire, his bodyguard. Philip was throwing a wedding for his daughter and his bodyguard suddenly pulled his dagger out and stabbed him. Is Alexander the king now? Yes, I believe. The Macedonian threat is eliminated. Now. Darius must have been ecstatic. There is no way that a 20 year old boy could be a threat. And now rumors were coming in that the other Greek leagues of nations were falling apart as each of the city-states were pulling out of their alliance. And, as you pretty well know, alexander took about two years to bring all the Greek city-states under control, all except for Sparta, that is. And as far as Darius knew, the only threat was losing the Ionians.
Speaker 1:Darius could have never imagined that Alexander was plotting against his entire empire. However, one of his great generals named Menmen of Rhodes. Well, he knew much better, because Alexander set out to conquer the entire Persian empire. In order to do this, he needed to borrow a lot of money in order to pay and provide provisions for his troops, and he took his cues from the Persians and the Lydians, and he minted his own coins, of which he used to pay his creditors. He then continued on by melting down gold and silver he plundered after his initial victories and converted much of it to his own coinage. Alexander's army, which numbered some 120,000 men, required a half a ton of silver a day just for wages. On the flip side, the existing Persian system of mines and mints had to be reorganized around providing for the defenses of the potential invading army. Now, I didn't get into it previously, but working the mines absolutely sucked and in many ways it was a death sentence. So therefore, the mines were worked by slaves, of which a large percentage of those slaves were war captives.
Speaker 1:After Philip's murder, medmen, a prominent Greek commander from Rhodes who was in the service of the Persian-Accumated Empire, had defeated the demoralized Macedonians near the Meander River, which resulted in them going back to Europe. But now Alexander was gaining steam and heading back their way. Now, as he and the Persian saptraps were designing their defense strategy, they kind of came to the conclusion that it's best to use a scorched earth policy, of which they wanted to burn the fields and cut down the fruit trees and basically remove all the supplies and move everyone to the interior. Their philosophy was if he can't feed his army, he'll be forced to leave. The issue was Medman was ethnically Greek, so he had some credibility issues. They wanted to know why would he burn their own fields and food supplies? Furthermore, if we run, then the Greeks would grow more confident. So instead, the satraps decided to stop them at the river Granicus.
Speaker 1:Alexander's army arrived in the late afternoon, but he still needed to cross the river, which they expected first thing in the morning. Since the Persians had high ground, they would shoot off as many arrows as they could until it basically blotted out the sun. But it was the late afternoon, so they didn't expect him to forge the river until the next morning. Instead, alexander's forces quickly moved into formation the cavalry on the flanks with the infantry in the center and the Macedonian phalanx formation. His javelin throwers, the elite infantry and the archers were also on the right side. Then, all of a sudden, the cavalry charged across the river and up the bank. As the Persians engaged with the warhorses coming up from the ridge, the rest of the army plunged into the river and waded across and fended off a hail of javelins and arrows Reaching the top of the ridge. Alexander immediately impaled Darius' son-in-law, mithridates, in the face with his javelin.
Speaker 1:Now the next thing to happen nearly changed history forever. The Persian satrap of Ionia and Lydia came up behind Alexander and chopped at his head with a battle axe, but he didn't kill Alexander. Somehow. His helmet was split in two, but he was virtually uninjured. Could you imagine if this would have been fatal? We might not ever have heard of Alexander and all the subsequent events that happened thereafter. The entire Near East history would have been altered forever, including Egypt and obviously Greece and potentially Rome and even Carthage. I love playing the what if? Game in history, and this is probably one of the greatest what ifs ever. Just as the satrap was about to strike Alexander again, alexander's friend Cletus the Black ran up the hill and either speared the sap trap to death or chopped off his arm, but either way, this saved Alexander.
Speaker 1:The Greeks ended up destroying the Persian army in this particular battle, but it wasn't quite over yet. In fact, darius nearly snuck up on Alexander's army, but luckily for Alexander, he was able to spot them in the nick of time and therefore was able to turn his army around and reform into the phalanx position. Now the story goes that Alexander had jumped on his horse and charged at Darius and apparently Darius and his bodyguards were so overcome with fear that they quickly fled the scene. However, alexander did not chase him because his army was in the thick of the battle and would have needed his leadership. But what he was able to do is essentially sneak in from behind and shatter the Persian army from the rear. But he did take a sword in the thigh during the battle. But of course it sounds like during the middle of this battle the Persians had kind of realized that their king had fled, and of course they're not going to sit around and fight for a king that's not going to fight for them. So they fled as well. But the reason why this story is so interesting is because Darius fled, but his mother, his wife and queen, and Darius's two daughters were left behind. Now, by all accounts, alexander had treated these women quite well and even married one of the daughters, but in the end this was a great shame to Darius.
Speaker 1:In the aftermath of the Persian loss, most of the Ionian city-states under Persian control surrendered almost immediately, and all the Phoenician city-states that suffered tire surrendered as well. Darius, in the meantime, had sent a letter to Alexander and stated I will give you my friendship, my daughter in marriage, a large payment for returning my women and all of Ionia. Alexander immediately turned down this offer and continued on to Gaza. While on campaign, alexander was once again wounded, as he was shot in the shoulder by an arrow that went through his shield. Alexander then entered Egypt. He was hailed as a liberator from the Persian oppression, and even the Persian satrap bowed to him and handed the treasury over to him. But then Darius was desperate and offered Alexander half of his empire and his daughter's hand in marriage and a fortune in gold. Alexander replied saying he already had a fortune from all the cities he just conquered and plundered, and he already had his daughters. He didn't want half his empire, he wanted the whole thing.
Speaker 1:Since the negotiations broke off, a battle ensued in modern day northern Iraq. Darius was prepared and had a new strategy, of which he brought war elephants in from India, of which Alexander had never seen, and chariots with blades extending from the wheels of which they didn't have a lot of experience against chariots as well. Now, with regard to the chariots, they were designed to cut people and horses down as a road by alexander's army, but he just pulled a fast one, just stepped to the side and then attacked the chariots from the rear. As for the elephants, it's really hard to tell from the accounts how much it really affected the battle, but it must not have been too much of an issue, as Alexander was able to decisively defeat Darius yet again. But he managed to slip away. But Alexander was able to plunder the region and now had war elephants.
Speaker 1:From there, alexander marched his troops into Babylon, where he was hailed as the new king of Persia. While Alexander was being crowned the new king of Babylon, the satrapobactria had captured Darius and stabbed him up and left him on the side of the road as Alexander approached. By the time Alexander got to him he was already dead. But Alexander had his body sent back to Persepolis where he would be given a former royal funeral Afterward. The satrap of Bactria, which is located in central Asia, like think modern day Afghanistan, including parts of, say, southwestern Tajikistan and southeastern Uzbekistan, and had declared himself free from the Persians and therefore the king of Bactria, and took the throne as Artaxerxes V. But his kingdom basically fell apart almost immediately once the Bactrians realized Alexander was coming for them. The Bactrians then captured their new king and cut off his ears and nose and turned him over to Darius' brother, who ordered him crucified.
Speaker 1:Now, the interesting thing about this is Alexander quickly adopted Persian customs and clothing which his men found quite bizarre. One was called proskinesis, which was the practice of a person kissing another on the mouth. If they were of equal stature, however, if one was unequal, if one was inferior to the other, they would kiss the person on the cheek, and if one was much less lower rank, the other would fall down before them and worship them. By all accounts, alexander was having a potential mental breakdown or something, as he was becoming very erratic, of which some people think it could have been related to all his head injuries he had sustained in battle. He even killed his closest friend, cletus the Black, while drunk, and, if you remember, he was the one that saved his life. Previously, alexander wasn't the king of Persia much longer, as in 323 BCE, alexander fell ill with a fever and died two weeks later at the age of 32.
Speaker 1:The Persian Empire fell into chaos after his death as his generals divided up his empire. Much of the Asian part of the Persian Empire lived on as the Seleucid Empire, which was founded in 312 BCE by the Macedonian general Seleucus I, and was ruled by the Seleucid dynasty until it was annexed by the Roman Republic under Pompey in 63 BCE. Now that I've pretty much gone through the entire history of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, I thought it might be a good time to kind of reflect at its accomplishments. First off, you can make the case that, due to their sheer size, they had established the world's first ever large-scale globalized economy, which would have established trade routes through a diverse amount of ethnicities and nations from places as far away as Nubia in Africa to the Balkans in Europe and into the Indus Valley and into China and Asia. Now, prior to the Persians, you could have said that the Assyrians had established the first kind of international economy in the Near East, but it didn't reach nearly as far and wide as the Achaemenid Persian Empire way the Persians did, which ultimately allowed for more free-flowing trade through interactions with other groups in commerce through its diverse provinces and trade partners. This trade was further enhanced through its vast road network, which was originally started by the Assyrians but was made much more extensive and safer, which encouraged even more trade and communications and allowed for the quick movement of military troops, which contributed to relatively peace and prosperity. Now, I didn't get into it at all really, but I figured now was a good time.
Speaker 1:The Acumenate Law Code differed from earlier regulation practices Prior to the Achaemenid law code. People could be found guilty or innocent in ancient times based on one's word or trial by ordeal. An example of an ordeal trial from the Code of Hammurabi was if a man was accused of a matter by another, the accused was to leap into the river. If the accused man survived this ordeal, the accused would be acquitted. If the accused was found innocent by the ordeal, the accuser was to be put to death. The accumulated law code was a major step forward as it required the presentation of rational evidence of guilt or innocence in court, such as multiple witnesses. Another change in the legal system was that a woman's testimony was now accepted in courts because, as I said prior, women were treated with a lot more respect and as equals in many instances. Treated with a lot more respect and as equals in many instances.
Speaker 1:Now, with the empire's outer vassal states, well, they had well-defined and wealthy economies, mostly based on shipping and farming, and in large part because these places had literally thousands of years to perfect their craft, whether it was to be aquatic engineers, for farming or overland transports or shipbuilding and navigation on the ocean or local rivers. So what happens is, if you take all these strengths, you can kind of combine them together under one flag and therefore generate the most efficient economy the world has yet to see. Much of this was brought on by the fact that the Achaemenids believed in respecting each other's belief systems, which ultimately led to an exchange of technology and ideas across borders, which ultimately led to engineering feats that would be built upon each other through the decades and even centuries. So, in other words, they wanted good ideas to be passed on from one side of the empire to the other side. But, more importantly, the large scale of the empire almost acted like a gigantic mutual fund, in the sense that some areas were strong, the region had some strong agricultural growing seasons, and then the people who had developed a strong expertise in the transported goods via water or overland trade routes could move these crops to other places that were experiencing droughts or had a relatively low crop yield. In other words, the gains from one investment will offset the losses in another investment. So this meant that the people on one side of the empire could help support the people on the other side that normally would have had a hard time getting food to them and thus were at risk of famine. And due to the sheer size and the types of crops that were being grown, this would have been diversified by the region that they were grown in. So, in other words, you would have wheat and barley grown in one region, and in other regions you could have certain vegetables like cucumbers and peas, and then you can have other regions that were growing large amounts of fruits like apples and grapes, and then from there you can have wine in other regions. So, in other words, you can kind of combine everything and if one region was kind of having a rough growing season, they could be supplemented by another region, and since you had a large amount of barley that was grown, this would have supported the fact that beer was one of the most popular liquids that was consumed in the region.
Speaker 1:One of the biggest factors that allowed this to happen was the fact that the Achaemenid rulers built upon and expanded the previous road systems that were already in place, especially the roads that were built by the Assyrians, and, like I said several times now, the road system allowed for not only goods to transport from one side of the empire to the other. But just as important, ideas were able to be spread from one side of the empire to the other side. And these ideas included technology. And of course it wasn't just the roadways that helped move goods and ideas from one place to the other. They also had large amounts of waterways. I mean, look at Mesopotamia. It essentially sits between two rivers, and then you factor in that the Ecumenical Persian Empire had expanded into Egypt and they had the Nile River, and then you had the Phoenician city-states that were sitting on the Mediterranean. So you can see how the use of water from the Mediterranean to the Caspian Sea, to the Arabian Sea, to the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf and even up into the Caspian Sea, these were all major trade and shipping routes that would have been utilized by the Achaemenid Persian Empire. So now you can get grain from Egypt or, if they had a subpar growing season, you can get it from the regions surrounding the Black Sea.
Speaker 1:And this is kind of why I made the comparison of a modern mutual fund. You have one area that's thriving, the other area may not be thriving, and they can kind of really balance each other out and in the end you kind of hope that your return is greater than zero, as you're ultimately looking to diversify your risk profile, as you're ultimately looking to diversify your risk profile. And the sheer size of the Achaemenid Persian Empire really helped kind of reduce their overall risk profile, because the empire was absolutely massive it was even larger than the Roman Empire and since the Persian policy was generally to allow the new conquered territories to continue to rule as they had done previously, many of these areas that were now part of the Persian Empire already had their own land distribution policies, in place of which it was common for land to be owned by the temples of the region, along with the nobility and the palace, with them nobility and the palace. But in a lot of these places, there was also a system in place that allowed for private land ownership, which was usually family farms in which tenant farmers also worked the land.
Speaker 1:Now, even though the Achaemenid rulers preferred to allow the conquered territories to do as they had done previously, the cumulative rulers did make some small tweaks, in that they required accurate land managements and introduced certain legislation that requires some land redistribution. Now, to be clear, this land redistribution did have an ancient or even medieval feel to it, in that a lot of the lands were redistributed to members of the nobility and even the clergy, so it wasn't like ordinary people were suddenly given lands that they had farmed for generations. In addition, some of the king's land was more or less used by the military so that they could learn how to be self-sustaining when on campaign, because those who joined the military before the age of 10 would have to learn agricultural skills very early on, and this typically would have happened in the king's land. In the king's land and I should be a little more clear the king's land would have been owned not just by the king, queen and prince, but also local satraps. Also, the king's land could have been used as a business venture, whereas the land could be rented out to certain businesses and they would have to use the land as they saw fit, so that they could have farmed the land or use it as grazing territory for their herd, and just like the Sumerians did.
Speaker 1:A few thousand years prior to this, there were also productive workshops that were owned by the king. These workshops would have included the making of clothing that would have become more diversified than the wall clothing that was produced prior, because now the empire is able to bring in cotton and linen from Egypt and even as far away as India. There obviously would have been pottery workshops, but also there would have been glassware and wine and even purple dye from the Phoenician city-states, which I'll go into further when we get to those episodes. Some of these workshops would have been massive, where there was over 15,000 workers, with certain workers specializing in their particular craft. I mean, these could have been stonemasons or winemakers and even carpenters, just to name a few. Winemakers and even carpenters, just to name a few.
Speaker 1:But if you heard the Sumer episodes, that shouldn't really surprise you now, should it? Because these goods would have been shipped to different regions or other states far away and they would have been paid for by using a few different tools. Probably the first form of payment would have been some sort of credit system that would have been set in place, whereas they would have usually taken a clay tablet and would have shown who owed what to who and then, at a certain time and place, that would have to settle up with some sort of means, whether it was some kind of in-kind distribution or most likely it would have been some kind of metal such as silver, or there could have been even other things, such as copper, but something would have been pre-arranged in the contract to show the terms of the payment, including when, where and how the payment is to be made. As the Achaemenid Empire expanded into Anatolia, and in Lydia in in particular, the Achaemenids would have adopted Lydian coinage and therefore they would have moved away from having to weigh out the silver or even gold to a lesser extent, to completing the transaction using coinage. The coinage would have been a slow adaptation, so it wasn't like when they went into Lydia and saw this great concept of coinage would have been a slow adaptation. So it wasn't like when they went into Lydia and saw this great concept of coinage that everybody on all sides of the empire would have been using it right away, like anything. There would have been a slow adaptation process.
Speaker 1:Now, if you notice, I didn't say that there was a barter system. Now, despite the fact that that's what I've always learned growing up, and even in undergrad and grad school to a lesser extent, there appears to be growing evidence that barter, for the most part, was a myth. Now it's quite possible that this changes and people start to find a lot more widespread evidence of it, but the fact remains, as of this recording, there just really isn't any evidence of it, as mostly the it. But the fact remains, as of this recording, there just really isn't any evidence of it, as mostly the evidence points to the fact that credit was widely used and that people just tracked who transacted with who and they would figure out how to settle it up in the end Eventually. I'd like to do an episode on this, because criticism is really fascinating and it would have appeared virtually everywhere, whether it was a tally stick or on the island of Yap using gigantic stones. The idea of credit just really kind of was widespread, no matter where you were in the world, because ultimately barter is super inefficient and in a lot of cases it's just not practical. So it makes a lot more sense to tally up who owes what to who and then kind of figure out what a good medium of exchange would be for all parties involved.
Speaker 1:With the advent of coinage, it allowed for an easier way to pay taxes and tributes. Now I just realized I never really defined tribute, but tribute is essentially the payment of an amount of valuables in specie or in kind that is imposed on the subjected area or nation by a higher sovereign. As such, you could kind of really tell how each kingdom or satrap was doing by what they paid as far as tribute goes. So, for example, the three extremely wealthy provinces in the Indian subcontinent which would have been in modern day Afghanistan, another one would have been in the modern Pujab region and another one would have been in lower Indus Valley, which would have bordered Pakistan and India well, they paid almost one third of the entire empire's tributes in gold. Dust. Plus, they provided elephants in ivory and even teak, which was a tropical hardwood trees. In fact, they were the only province that paid their tribute in gold. The reason why this region was so wealthy is that they just had an abundance of natural gold reserves.
Speaker 1:Babylon's chief export were their crops that it grew, so therefore the empire's view on them was more like a breadbasket, and therefore they were required to pay enough grains to feed the military for up to four months. Additionally, they were required to send a sizable military force and corvée labor services. Corvée labor is a form of unpaid forced labor that is limited in nature, but it would have lasted for a certain period of time, typically only a certain number of days of work each year. This form of tax was quite prevalent in Egypt year. This form of tax was quite prevalent in Egypt. In addition, babylon was also required to pay 1,000 silver talents. One Babylon talent would have equaled about 30 kilograms of silver.
Speaker 1:Now, according to Herodotus, the silver tribute was smelted down and poured into pots. When the king needed money, the pots were broken and the silver was minted into coins or ingots. And, like I said previously, coinage was slowly being adopted and the farther out you went into the outer regions of the empire, coins were less likely to be used. Coins circulated mostly in the northwestern periphery of the empire, which already had a tradition of coinage. Greek historians also described Alexander's conquest as reporting that there was an impressive amount of silver in the Cumanid royal treasuries. But beyond the silver and the crops that Babylon would have provided, they also provided 500 eunuch boys a year In Egypt and the Libyan states. Well, they provided even more grain than Babylon but needed to provide less silver. That is, they typically provided about 700 talents a year. Egypt also provided the maintenance of the garrisons in Memphis, the Levant, which included Syria, phoenicia, israel and Cyprus. They paid only about 350 talents of silver a year, despite the fact that Phoenicia had a ton of wealth, but the reason why is because Phoenicia had built the ships and manned the navy and was ultimately their big long-distance traders for the empire, and was ultimately their big long-distance traders for the empire.
Speaker 1:Now, since the Persians came from Iran, the Iranian satrapies had relatively low taxes. Elam paid 300 talents and Medea paid 400, but they also provided men for the military. The land of Persia did not pay any taxes, but they did pay tribute in the form of sheep and other livestock. Herodotus actually did some calculations and what he figured out was that the total tax and tribute system that was sent to the Persian Empire was approximately 14,460 talents per year. Now, as a reminder, one Babylonian talent equals 30 kilograms, so that means that they would have received about 433,800 kilograms of silver, or about 956,365 pounds of silver, and this would have been on a yearly basis. In addition, the Achaemenid Empire also collected and imposed certain trade tariffs, and the slavers in the slave states had to pay an additional tax on each transaction. All in all, the tax system in the Achaemenid Empire appears to have been relatively reasonable and therefore its vassals didn't feel like they were being bled dry, which was very different from the Assyrian Empire's taxation policies.
Speaker 1:However, the Achaemenid Empire made a fatal mistake that so many other empires before and after had made, in that they got involved into a series of wars that turned out to be financially disastrous, and what I'm referring to was their deep-seated fear that the Greeks were going to eventually attack them. So they took the mindset of a good defense is a good offense, and therefore they essentially emptied their treasury when they decided that they needed to fend off the Greeks. It's not unlike what happened with Carthage, when they felt that they had to go to war with the upstart Romans on several occasions, being an empire that overtaxes vassals to the point that they were increasingly overtaxed in order to fund these disastrous wars and even, to a lesser extent, live a sort of lavish lifestyle. So by the time Alexander the Great made his way down from Macedonia, the population, who had been treated very well throughout the centuries, was ready for a change and therefore had no qualms with switching their allegiance to the Macedonians. Before I wrap this series up, I think it's important to note that the Seleucids continued with the ecumenical policy of tolerance of all religions and cultures. However, they were Greek, and the Greek dialect quickly became the lingua franca of the day, as a steady immigration of Greeks into the empire brought their Hellenistic culture with them.
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