Ancient Persia Key Terms

Zoroastrianism

is the religion ascribed to the teachings of the prophet Zoroaster, whose Supreme Being was Ahura Mazda. It is one of the world's oldest religions,

Qanat

type of underground irrigation canal between an aquifer on the piedmont to a garden on an arid plain.

Seleucid Empire

was a major center of Hellenistic culture that maintained the preeminence of Greek customs where a Greek political elite dominated, mostly in the urban areas.

Royal Roads

was an ancient highway reorganized and rebuilt by the Persian king Darius the Great (Darius I) of the Achaemenid Empire in the 5th century BC. He built the road to facilitate trade.

Darius (I)

he ruled the empire at its peak, when it included much of West Asia, the Caucasus, parts of the Balkans (Thrace-Macedonia and Paeonia), most of the Black Sea coastal regions, parts of the North Caucasus, Central Asia, as far as the Indus Valley in the far east. Son of Cyrus the great.

Achamenid Empire

also called the First Persian Empire,[10] was an empire based in Western Asia, founded by Cyrus the Great, notable for embracing various civilizations and becoming the largest empire of the ancient history,.

Parthian Empire

also known as the Arsacid Empire, was a major Iranian political and cultural power in ancient Iran. Came after the seleucids.

Cyrus

commonly known as Cyrus the Great and also known as Cyrus the Elder, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire.

Sasanid Empire

succeeded the Parthian Empire, was recognized as one of the leading world powers alongside its neighboring arch rival the Roman-Byzantine Empire, for a period of more than 400 years. The last Iranian empire before the rise of Islam.

Persian Wars

were a series of conflicts between the Achaemenid Empire of Persia and Greek city-states that started in 499 BC and lasted until 449 BC.

Satrap

were the governors of the provinces of the ancient Achaemenid (Persian) Empires and in several of their successors, such as the Sasanian Empire and the Hellenistic empires.