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3,000 Years Ago in West Asia

The Semitic-speaking Assyrians become a major power under king Ashur- nars-pal and his son Shalmaneser (883-824 BC). The first army in the region to use cavalry, the Assyrian horsemen prove superior to the chariot- based armies. Under Ashurbanipal, 668-626 BC, the Assyrian empire reaches its greatest extent, stretching from Egypt to the Tigris. By 600 BC, the Assyrian kingdom had collapsed under attacks by the Iranian Medes.

Around 550 BC, Cyrus II, king of Fars or Persia, conquers the kingdom of the Medes. Fars was once a province of the Medes. Cyrus' son-in-law, Darius I, establishes the Persian empire, considered one of the first true empires. An empire is really a large kingdom, but usually includes many ethnic groups and has a centralized form of government. Between 518 and 500 BC, Darius conquered Armenia, Egypt, Turkey, northwest India, and parts of Afghanistan and Macedonia.

The first highway! To control the huge area of the empire, it was divided into 20 satrapies or provinces, each under a powerful governor or satrap. Each satrap was really like a minor king, owing allegiance to the emperor, called the shah or "king of kings". The shah had a regulated system of taxes, through which he could raise and maintain a standing army of elite warriors called the Immortals. He also had what is probably the world's first public mail delivery service which ran along the Royal Road. This was built from Sardes in Asia Minor (modern Turkey) to the emperor's residence in Susa, the world's first highway.

The prophet Zartosht (called Zoroaster by the Greeks) founded the Zoroastrian religion in the 6th century BC. Zoroastrians, who still exist to this day, believe in one god called Ahura Mazda, and see life as a reflection of the divine struggle between good and evil, or light and dark. Their main holy book is the Avesta.

The Persian empire is conquered by Alexander the Great in 331 BC. After his death in 323 BC, Alexander's generals divide his empire into four kingdoms: Macedonia-Greece; Asia Minor (modern Turkey); Egypt; and the Seleucid empire. The Seleucid empire, named after the general Seleucus, included the central and eastern parts of the old Persian empire.

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