Ancient Iran: The Trilogy

The way we see it, early Iranian history is basically a grand adventure story. So we've broken it down into three action-packed episodes.

Just think of this as a pitch for Hollywood's next great epic trilogy. Sure, our screenplay sketches pack less special-effects punch than the latest silver-screen fantasies--but, then, our stories are true.

Episode 1: The Assyrian Menace

A long time ago, in a country far, far away, a people called the Elamites got civilization started in Iran. As early as the 2nd millennium BC, Elam traded--and battled--with ancient Mesopotamian city-states. Now, in the 7th century BC, a fearsome enemy, the Assyrian Empire, launches an assault on ancient Elam.

The Action: Our story opens in the midst of a great battle--the battle for the kingdom of Elam. By the end of the first scene, the Assyrian army has crushed the Elamites, leaving little but death and destruction. The Assyrian Empire looks poised to dominate the Middle East.

Yet an old Elamite general whispers a warning to his captors. "Fortune," he says, "is a fickle mistress." This warning proves prescient. Soon, leaders of a different Iranian people, the Medes, unite with Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar II (the guy who makes a cameo in the Bible) to oppose the Assyrians. Together, they mount a counterattack and sweep the Assyrians into history's dustbin.

When the dust settles and the soundtrack softens, the Medes assume control in Iran, while the Babylonians take the Assyrian lands to the south and east. In the final scene, however, we discover that trouble is already brewing--in a southwestern Iranian province called "Parsa," home of the people known as Persians.

Episode 2: Attack of the Achaemenids

Having helped defeat the Assyrian Empire, the Medes now dominate Iran. But a new and powerful leader is emerging in the province of Parsa: Cyrus II, soon to be "Cyrus the Great." Cyrus and his heirs, called the "Achaemenids," are destined to build the world's largest empire prior to Rome: the Persian Empire.

The Action: Our scene opens in Parsa, circa 550 BC. We watch as Cyrus the Great persuades Median fighters to join him in a revolt against their rulers. Soon the persuasive Persian overthrows his overlords and becomes the king of kings in Iran.

Cyrus then conquers the Lydians (another ancient neighbor), before turning his attention to Babylon. By skillfully playing Babylonian factions off against each other, he manages to take the great city almost without a fight. He also ends the Israelites' Babylonian captivity (a feat for which he is fondly remembered in the Bible's Book of Isaiah).

Next, Cyrus prepares an assault on Egypt. But before he can give Pharaoh what-for, he's called home to tend to trouble along his own empire's eastern border (in what is now Afghanistan). There, he is killed in action.

Cyrus's son, Cambyses II, takes over and leads the Persian invasion of Egypt. We see Persia's military might as Pharaoh's forces fall. But before Egypt is secured, Cambyses is called home to put down a revolt led by an impostor claiming to be his brother. (Cambyses knows it's an impostor because he's had that particular brother killed.)

On his way home, Cambyses suddenly dies. "Our hopes are come to naught," says a loyal Achaemenid eunuch to one of Cambyses's beautiful concubines. "No," she replies, "there is another." The camera then pans to Darius, a general and Achaemenid prince. Amid stirring music, this movie ends.

Episode 3: Daring Darius and the Harem of Xerxes

After the death of Cambyses, the Persian Empire is on the verge of chaos. A revolt led by a pretender to the throne has taken hold, especially in Media. Can anyone save the empire? Daring "Darius the Great" can.

The Action: With skill reminiscent of Cyrus, Darius employs both diplomacy and brute force to put down the revolt. In a sweeping series of scenes, he then leads the ancient Persian Empire to its zenith. A map shows the empire stretching from Greece to India while martial music plays.

Darius's greatness notwithstanding, Greek cities along the coast of what is now Turkey revolt. Persian armies put down the insurrection, then attack Greece itself. Darius's forces famously fail against the Athenians at the battle of Marathon in 490 BC. (As in the legend, we see an Athenian messenger run from Marathon to Athens--a little over 25 miles--to deliver the good news, then die from exhaustion.)

Annoyed, Darius plans a bigger, better, more powerful invasion of Greece. Two things prevent him from mounting it: (1) the Egyptians revolt, and (2) Darius dies.

Darius's son, Xerxes, assumes the throne and crushes the Egyptian insurrection. Then the Babylonians revolt. Xerxes crushes them, too. Finally, Xerxes mounts the long-awaited invasion of Greece. The Persians march on Athens and burn the Acropolis, but the Greeks launch a successful counterattack and the Persians pack it in.

Back at home, Xerxes disappears into the comforts of his harem. The Achaemenid Empire will expand no more. Fifteen years pass. Finally, Xerxes is assassinated in a harem intrigue. The old Achaemenid glories now seem long gone.

Closing voiceover: "With Xerxes gone, the empire slowly withered, undercut by factional strife. After a century and a half of increasingly frequent revolts, Alexander the Great put a permanent end to Achaemenid power in 330 BC. For the next 500 years, foreigners ruled Iran--first Greeks, then Parthians--until another great Iranian dynasty, the Sassanids, arose and challenged Rome."

--Steve Sampson