Persian Empire

Persian Empire

Persian timeline:

2000-1800 BC, Aryan migration from Southern Russia to Near East

Persia's earliest known kingdom was the proto-Elamite Empire followed byThe Medes:

Deioces, 728BC - 675BC
Phraortes (Kashtariti?), 675BC - 653BC
Scythian interregnum
Cyaxares, 625BC - 585BC
Astyages, 585BC - 550BC

628 BC, Birth of Zartosht, Zoroaster, the Persian Prophet

Achaemenid Dynasty
Achaemenes Teispes
Cyrus I
Cambyses I (Kambiz)
Cyrus the Great, Start of Achaemenid Empire, 559BC -530BC
Kambiz II, 530BC - 522BC
Smerdis (the Magian), 522BC
Darius I the Great, 522BC - 486BC
Xerxes I (Khashyar), 486BC - 465BC
Artaxerxes I , 465BC - 425BC
Xerxes II, 425BC - 424BC (45 days)
Darius II, 423BC - 404BC
Artaxerxes II, 404BC - 359BC
Artaxerxes III, 359BC - 339BC
Arses, 338BC - 336BC
Darius III, 336BC - 330BC

The name ' Persia ' has long been used by the West to describe the nation of Iran, its people, or its ancient empire. It derives from the ancient Greek name for Iran, Persis. This in turn comes from a province in the south of Iran, called Fars in the modern Persian language and Pars in Middle Persian. Persis is the Hellenized form of Pars, based on which other European nations termed the area Persia. This province was the core of the original Persian Empire. Westerners referred to the state as Persia until March 21, 1935, when Reza Shah Pahlavi formally asked the international community to call the country by its native name. Some Persian scholars protested this decision because changing the name separated the country from its past. It also caused some Westerners to confuse Iran with Iraq; so in 1959 his son Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi announced that both Persia and Iran can be used interchangeably.

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