Assyrian And Persian Empires

The Assyrian and the Persian empire were two empires that were very successful in their own right. Both empires differed in how they were governed and how they treated the citizens of their empires. However, regardless of the major differences, there were still a few similarities between the two of them. This paper will compare and contrast the administrative structure of both empires, along with the leader’s attitudes toward their citizens. The Assyrian Empire as a whole was a rather successful empire. Kings of this empire had total power. They put an end to nobles being able to govern and started a new hierarchal system, which helped them secure more control over the empire’s assets. They also developed a more productive way to communicate …show more content…
It was divided into 20 provinces, which were known as satrapies. Each satrapy had a governor, who was referred to as a satrap. The Persians also gave certain people of captured territories government positions (Spielvogel 40-43). Kings were the highest-ranking position and the people under them were their servants. Kings could decide who lived or died and they were hard to reach due to where they resided. Persia also had an international army just like the Assyrians did. However, their army consisted of 10,000 people and they were referred to as the immortals. This was due to the fact that they were not allowed to have less than 10,000 people in the army. If a person died then they automatically found a replacement for them (Spielvogel 44). One of Persia’s kings was named Cyrus the Great. Cyrus was responsible for uniting Persia under his leadership (Spielvogel 40). While both kings of the Assyrian Empire and the Persian Empire used violence to obtain their respective empires, they both obtained them in different ways. Assyrian rulers were more known for being cruel and using terror tactics during war such as burning their prisoners or cutting off body parts. With every piece of territory that they captured, they took the citizens of that territory as their prisoners. Those that tried to rebel against them were tortured. The Assyrians also found ways to sabotage the places they were trying to conquer by doing …show more content…
While the Assyrian kings were more cruel in the way they operated, the Persian kings (such as Cyrus the Great) was a bit more compassionate. Regardless of these disparities, they were still two successful empires in their own