Changes And Continuities Of Persian Law Rule

Persian dynasties had short lives during the Persian period. Assassinations and usurpers were commonplace in the royal courts. The first king to rule the empire was Cyrus II who was the legitimate heir of his father Cambyses I. Cyrus II’s son Cambyses II would not have the same luck of his ancestors. In 522 BCE Cambyses was overthrown when he was campaigning in Egypt. He returned to Pasargadae but was unable to defeat the new ruler. A son of a satrap, known as Darius would defeat the usurpers and establish his own dynasty. Darius I was one of the greatest Persian kings. He is often placed beside Cyrus II in terms of accomplishments and maintenance of the Persian empire. His rule shows the amount of effort he put into keeping the enemies of

Persian law codes were based upon the Assyrian law codes of Ashurbanipal or were copied from strait from the code of Hammurabi. Either way Ashurbanipal’s law codes directly quote rules from the code of Hammurabi. Each satrap had its own laws, pertaining to the predominate culture. Darius allowed each satrapy to create laws abiding to their past laws before the introduction of Persian rule. Satrapies did not have to follow Persian law except for rules which are standardized throughout the empire. This amount of religious and cultural freedom and incorporation was not used by empires of the past. Over two centuries ago the Assyrians would rearrange populations around their empire. The unfamiliarity of the land would leave people with little means to wage war against their overlords. The Babylonians existed less than a century before the reign of Darius, yet their subjugating polices were very different. Babylon would transfer the upper classes to Babylon, which would take leadership away from those who could cause trouble. Darius established standardizations of weights, measurements, and currency across the entire empire. The weights would allow for equal distribution of goods and would improve the accuracy of tax collecting. Equal measurements in the empire stopped the amount of conversions which would have been used between each satrapy. A common currency all over the empire, kept the economy of Persia easy to manage because wealth could be accounted and collected easier. This was especially helpful for taxing