Was the Achaemenid Empire the best place to live in the world during its peak?
sure if you like being a slave
that's a little difficult to answer.
i think the regions it conquered were certainly better off under its rulership.
the benefits would have been security of a large military.
infrastructure projects like roads and canals.
greater impetus for disparate parts of the empire to adopt standardized weights, measures, currency and language (written and spoken).
postal system.
cosmopolitanism that lead to more rapid spread of ideas.
insurance against famine because food could be more quickly sourced from other parts of the empire.
a centralized government to organize resources to the provinces they were needed most.
the downsides would have been the same for many empires.
subject peoples loose a share of their sovereign rights.
the facilitated mixing of many peoples would have meant some cultures were gradually extinguished and supplanted with more dominant ones.
there were some unique benefits to Persian rule as well. Partly the reason folks didn't mind living in their empire over anyone else's was because that had some decent ideas to share, like requiring that wages for public works project be paid according to one's contributions, maternity leave, reducing slave ownership (although chattel slavery was mostly not practiced in the ancient world as is, at least not officially).
Certain tribes of Persians were able to assimilate lots of folks initially because they came up with some decent ideas on constructing quanats (means to transport water underground so it wouldn't dry in an arid climate, essentially a small underground aqueduct).
>>353346
Obviously. It's model of tolerance and respect of other cultures made it stand out compared to other civilizations before and after.
>>353346
You'd hardly find testimonies. Anyways, life differed completly according to the part of the empire.
villages and tribes that resisted becoming a part of the empire were frequently ethnically cleansed
so not for them
not to say that other empires were much different in this respect
like many successful conquerors the Persians and Medians had a military tradition but in the long term more importantly they were willing to adapt and assimilate ideas quickly, even from conquered people.
as others said its true they were more tolerant than many rules at the time and were willing to overlook details like religion and culture of their subjects.
even so many of their ideas regarding how to govern came from mesopotamia rather than persia itself.
sort of like the romans adopting greek legal ideas.
later dynasties that coexisted with the roman empire adopted its more fascist style of governing and bureaucracy of aristocrats.
Depends on how you had lived before, things didnt change much.
>>353414
>that coexisted
*contemporaneous with
the Roman and Persian Empires were at war on and off for like 700 years
>>353346
Only Egyptian and Greek subjects bitched about living in the Achaemenid Empire so yes.
No, that was (or is, depending on your opinion) the United States.
>>353444
what?
>>353392
>You'd hardly find testimonies.
>So said the Lord to His anointed one, to Cyrus (Isaiah 45:1)
>I will raise up Cyrus in my righteousness: I will make all his ways straight. He will rebuild my city and set my exiles free, but not for a price or reward, says G-d Almighty." (Isaiah 45:13)
>>353488
>the bible
>topkek
>>353493
What? It is a testimony that the Jews loved him so much they put him in their holy book.
>>353498
>>Old Testament
>Not a valuable source of written Oral History.
> incandescent bushes giving orders
> valuable source of history
>>353504
That doesn't tell much about daily life in the Achemenid empire.
>>353512
Considering how Levant, including Israel, was a part of the empire, yes it does.
>>353525
It would only tell about Israel, by definition.
>>353510
>implied euphoria
>>353525
The OT isn't a Jewish holy book. Refer to it that way in the presence of a Jew and they'll look at you funny. It also isn't an unerring account of ancient history. It's heavily biased in favor of the Israelites, who didn't even come to inhabit Jerusalem the way it claims they did.
>>353603
>what even
My bad that was gibberish.
The OT will only tell you about how its writers perceived the achaeminid empire, not anything else.
>>353510
>Mystic shit NOT appearing in Oral History
Are you a retard or something?
Also yes, Oral History is valuable due to the plain fact that its the *only* account of earlier times. Based on Archaeology alone we could only make guesses.
>>353607
Exactly.
>>353611
Valuable =/= accurate
>>353375
>what is the Cyrus cylinder
>I have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about
>>353346
Of course. You're protected by a strong military, the administration is effective (they had a fucking postal service), it's a rich area so life is comfy, there are many cities (of course, the cities part only works for central Persia) and a rich culture. You also have written laws. Written. Laws.
Women seem to have had a greater position in society than anywhere else in the ancient world so if you had a vagina that's a definite. As for the other average Joe, I'd also say yes for the reasons others have said
>>353346
Not for us non-Persians Panjeed.
>>353687
We need IDs to stop samefagging and butthurt darkies.
>>353346
no, a trade center like Athens was a better place to live, there were few opportunities to begin with as a pasty decadent modern boy, at least in Athens there was a sizable middle class you might pique the interest of if you pass yourself off as a merchant from a distant land who was robbed enroute
Until very recently the best place to live in the world at any time would have been as a hunter-gatherer in some isolated location where you don't have to worry about inter-tribal warfare, like on some lush island or whatever.
>>353346
Not if you were in Egypt it seems.
>>354573
Egypt were pansies anyway.
>>353375
>Achaemeneid Persia
>slavery
>>353429
>Depends on how you had lived before, things didnt change much.
it's true that quality of life for most agricultural people was highly dependent upon the climate and geography of where they lived, perhaps also population density, but not much else, up until the 1700 during the first industrial revolution.
that's because everyone was a peasant farmer.
i dunno that it made no difference however, because everyone could theoretically benefit from construction of roads, irrigation canals, granaries.
also a large standing army meant settlements didn't have to worry as much about being raided or invaded.
if you were formely a slave granted freedom that's no good for your master but a big improvement in your own status.
>>353681
>what is the Cyrus cylinder
An essentially meaningless piece of tradition that didn't guarantee anything.
>you will never be an Achaemanid warrior
>you will never learn mounted archery from a young age
>you will never travel the Royal Road
>you will never bow before the sacred flame
>you will never sneak into the Magi's quarters afterward, steal some haoma, and get fucking wasted
>you will never go to Babylon and screw a qt blackhead priestess at Ishtar's temple
>you will never stargaze atop the Esagilla
>you will never go to Egypt and laugh at how far they've fallen
>you will never teach those snotty Greek savages a lesson
What's the point of it all, /his/?
Better to just live in the hills and not be subject to the tyranny of empire.
>>356242
>An essentially meaningless piece of tradition that didn't guarantee anything.
that's a bit extreme.
it's a remarkable artifact and a piece of evidence.
it might not be evidence beyond reasonable doubt but it does give us a little bit of insight into the mindset of the Emperor. and that it was markedly different from say, the Babylonians which encouraged slavery and Greeks which basically treated their slaves like animals.
>>356242
That *meaningless* piece of tradition ensured the Persian Empire's stability for nearly 3 centuries with an emphasis on respecting different cultures and creeds or other peoples.
There is a reason why a copy of it sits at the UN Headquarters and is the basis of the UN Charter of Human Rights.
>>353432
There were actually long periods of peace.
>>353375
Except that was explicitly forbidden by the Persians, you ignorant troglodyte. I bet you thought 300 was a good movie.
Anyway to answer the OP's question; it probably was for the most part, but it would depend where exactly you lived in it. Persia proper and Mesopotamia would be good places to live, but on the other hand, far out cities in central Asia might not be.
