Chapter 2

In part one we looked at the history that allowed humans to organize into the early societies, and how those early societies functioned. The word functioned is important here because, they were able to organize society and allow people to live.  Those societies while “the peak” of the early human experience, were simple small functional cities. As we transition to part two, we begin looking at when humanity began to flourish. The creation of empires around the world allowed humanity to travel and harness resources like never before, and thus push the human experience forward. What came out of these eras were major leaps in warfare, philosophy and architecture. The brutal yet wise use of prisoners of war as slaves allowed for public works to be completed on a scale unseen before this time. The Forum, the Coliseum, and the Pyramids all projects were created by massive, and oppressive empires.

Among the historical empires are the Persians, who have a reputation for cruelty and oppression that was somewhat deserved. The Achaemenid dynasty, ruled as absolute monarchs, with a divine right to rule. They were known for their quick handling to any resistance or rebellion. For example, the great king Darius had one of his own nobleman's entire clan killed after the nobleman merely interrupted him. However, despite the totalitarianism of the ruler, the empire was surprisingly massive and diverse. Much like the Babylonian empire that came before them, the Persians took care to respect local religious cults, allowing them to create a sense of multi cultural-multi ethnic “nationalism”. This combined with an extremely modern secret police intelligence system, standardized coinage, tax systems, and an impeccable Army allowed the dynasty to run like a machine for hundreds of years. The constant need to expand, however, put them on a collision course with the Mediterraneans own organized giant, the Greeks.

In contrast to the centralized behemoth that was the Persian empire, the Greek city states were a small federation, constantly fighting among themselves. In fact, the totality of the entire population of all of Greece was 58 million less people than the Persian empire. However, the Greeks had in many ways created mini super powers born out of competition with each other and fought the precious metals and materials that dotted the Greek countryside.

However, the biggest difference was in where the power lay. Persia was a centralized absolute monarchy, while Athens and many Greek states were forming the idea of a citizen.  The idea of citizenship, was expansive at first glance. Although its modern idea is much more inclusive, the idea that anyone besides a King or general could influence an entire countries future, was extreme.