The foundations of an ancient empire are shaped by many characteristics originating in a civilization’s social

The foundations of an ancient empire are shaped by many characteristics originating in a civilization’s social, philosophical and theological values. Collectively, these will bring about an empire that has aspects that which will classify them in distinctive ways. The Persian and Roman Empires share many similarities and differences, the aspects that will be compared of these to influential empires are how these different empires responded to events, to each other, as well as other societies. Also, how these empires developed as well as how these empires responded to new technology or ideas. In addition, I will discuss how these empires left a legacy up to a day like today. When combined, these aspects will truly show the overall shape of ancient Rome and Persia. Both empires began with conquering larger rulers, thus creating vast empires that separated them from the other societies that were not as dominant or influential. This goes to show that while these two empires are very different, they have similarities as well.
Development
The Persian Empire, also known as the Achaemenid Empire, was an empire based in western Asia but stretched from North Africa to Asia. This empire spanned from 550-330 BCE and was started by conquering weaker rulers in their territories. The Persians were originally based in what is now considered as current day Iran as people under the control of early Mesopotamian. Cyrus the Great was the catalyst to the growth and expansion of the Persian Empire. He, along with his powerful army overthrew the ruling empire and became the new ruler. Under his leadership, the Persians perfected an offensive approach to expansion; going into numerous wars and battles, and coming out victorious in order to gain more power and wealth. The expansion seen from the time Cyrus and his army overthrew their leaders was at somewhat breakneck speeds; within twenty years the Persians had come to rule from Egypt to Central Asia. Their strategy worked so flawlessly because f the way the Persians would attack; they would attack with great stealth, so their enemies could not see them coming. By the time any of their enemies realized what was going on, it was too late. Upon conquering their rulers, Cyrus established himself as King of the Persians. He established this ideology of rule for the rest of the empire, as well as the idea of heredity rule. The king had absolute power, but the Persian Empire had grown so much that in order to run all regions efficiently, the king appointed governors called satraps. The satraps were responsible for running day-to-day tax collection and dealt with the people within their domain, making sure that everything ran smoothly. In addition, the king appointed local people to majority of the administrative positions below the satraps. This lessened the attempt of independence which in turn kept revolts low.
Similarly, to the beginning of the Persian Empire, the Romans came from simple beginnings. Earlier Romans were mainly small farmers and shepherds that occupied much of the Italian Peninsula. The Roman Empire spanned from 509BC to 44 BC. Much like the Persians, the Romans had to overthrow their own rulers in order to become the mighty empire they became. The Etruscans were the original rulers of the peninsula, and ruled majority of Romans.