Greece Vs Persia Dbq Essay

Greece vs. Persia

An advanced civilization shows further development in skill, knowledge, and complexity. One of those advanced civilizations was Persia. By ruling with wisdom and complexity, The Persians were able to establish a military run empire that lasted for 200 years. With the help of the kings, Cyrus, Cambyses, and Darius, in 500 BC, the empire expanded over 2,500 miles from Egypt and Anatolia in the west all the way to part of India in the east. During the Achaemenid Dynasty, Persia relied greatly on their military force and easy trade with neighboring civilizations. Unlike Persia, Greece was not as advanced. For about 50 years from 477 to 431 BC, Athens experienced new ideas in the area of intellectual growth and artistic learning.

One reason is because Persia had a stronger government structure in the area of their kings. One example would be, as stated, “To maintain order among the populace, Persian kings established courts to resolve legal disputes” (Persia Doc E). In contrast, Athenians were not forward thinkers of the area of their leaders and the laws created by said leaders. For example, as stated, “Anyone whose behavior was believed to be a threat to democracy could be ostracized; they would have to leave Athens for 10 years, within the ten days of the decision being taken” (Greek Doc A). The kings and laws of Persia were stronger than Greece’s laws and leaders because the kings of Persia made legal disputes to create peace and unification. In contrast, Greece’s leaders would ban someone from their civilization when they became too powerful or were deemed as

For instance, the kings of Persia worked on making the Apadana the best they could generation after generation. As stated, “In antiquity, 36 columns, 20 meters high, held up a massive cedar wood ceiling. The walls were covered in sumptuous hangings. This enormous hall could accommodate 10,000 people” (Apadana Video 1). While the Persian kings did everything they could to make the Apadana perfect, Athenians didn’t put in the same effort. Specifically, as stated, “The Parthenon is a rectangle, but there are not right angles in the entire building, everything is slightly off” (Parthenon Video). Persia is more complex than Greece because Persia puts more emphasis on making their cultural structures to the best of their abilities. By making the Apadana as greatly as they did, citizens of the empire would be able to be inspired by the amount of beauty and time it took to be created, while the citizens of Greece wouldn’t be able to be inspired to put in all of their time and effort into something if the temple used to cherish their god, Athena, wasn’t even created to the best of the architects