۰۹
دی
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 which will classify them in
distinctive ways. The aspects that will be compared between Persia and Rome are
the motives for expansion,
methods of expansion,
religion. When combined, these aspects predispose the individual overall shape
of ancient Rome and Persia.
Both empires began
with conquering larger rulers and creating vast empires which had never been
seen before, but as they grew, their ideologies on diversification differed
because of the characteristics of their empires. The Persians mainly decided to
let those which they conquered remain culturally unaltered allowing for more
acceptance and acknowledgement of their ruling entity. On the other hand, the
Romans aggressively attempted to Romanize the conquered, creating unease and
tension.
The Persians relished
and perfected an offensive approach to expansion. Cyrus instigated the wars
that the Persians were part of in order to gain more power and wealth. The
Persians method of expansion was war. Persia was effective in this strategy
because they came out of nowhere fast. Why this worked so well was because
before anyone really realized what was happening, the Persians had already
attacked and were moving on to the next victim. Similar to Persia, the Romans
expansion caught on like a wild fire which eventually brought Rome to an
immensely power and true force to be reckoned with. Like Persia, the Romans
used war to expand their empire. They were successful using the same overall
method but the reason it was so successful for them was because of their army.
The Persians had different religious
gatherings, including the Egyptians, Jews, and Greeks. Zoroastrianism arose in the eastern
region of the ancient Persian Empire, when the religious philosopher Zoroaster
simplified the pantheon of early Iranian gods. Romans believed in Judaism and Christianity, and they obliged every single
person in their empire to be either of these.
Although the ways of
expansion in ancient Rome and Persia were similar in their military expansion,
the motives and methods led to different toleration of conquered people. In
Persia they did not try to change anyone culturally but instead allowed them to
live as they were under the Persian protective and governing body.
