Once upon a time, long, long ago there was another Empire that rose and fell - twice. In the West it has all but been forgotten but just as the Roman and Byzantine Empires did, it too lasted over a thousand years.

Before recorded history, there were Indo-European people known as Cos or Kos and Caspi. The Caspian Sea derived its name from them. About 600 BC those people lived in disparate tribes nominally subordinate to the Median Empire. In 553 BC, Cyrus the Great, of the tribe of Pars, (the origin of the name, Persia and also the Persian Gulf) united the people and overthrew the Medes. He then embarked on a course of conquest that resulted in an empire larger at that time than any the world had even known. This empire conquered the indigenous Semitic people and extended throughout Asia Minor, Assyria, Babylonia, Syria, Egypt, Afghanistan and Western India as far as the Indus River. The Achaemenid Dynasty, as it was known, administered this huge region with skill. The Persian Kings were tolerant of religions and allowed little interference with local governments as long as the taxes and tributes were paid. This continued into the late fourth century BC.

It is helpful to get out world maps to track where all these people came from and went to. The problem is the names and borders have been changed so many times over the ages, it is often difficult to find them. Many are entirely lost to antiquity and only exist in the chronicles of history.

The Persians came to be an aristocratic cultured people. At first borrowing architecture and sculpture from the Greeks, King Darius I built a new capital, Persepolis. In time, however, the Persians developed their own distinctive style. Some ruins remain of the old capital. A few artifacts may be found in the British Museum, the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia; the Bibliotheque Nationale in France and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Coins with the visage of different kings on one side, and Zoroastrian icons on the other are found in those museums.

The Persian King Xerxes made a number of valiant attempts to conquer the European Greeks. These naval and land battles were known as the Persian Wars and were well documented by the Greek historian, Herodotus in 438 BC. Herodotus came to be known as the "Father of History".

It is quite probable that the victory of the Greeks over the Persians preserved not only its political freedom from the East but the cradle of Western Civilization as well. Anytime one country conquers another, invariably the victor imposes its cultural values on the vanquished. Language, religion and customs.

Xerxes was immortalized in George Frederick Handel's opera, "Cerce" (1738). The famous Ombra mia fu, better known as Handel's Largo was sung by Andrea Bocelli on one of his recent CD's.

A satrap was a provincial governor of the Persian Empire. The title came to be known as "tyrant". Powerful and ambitious satraps weakened the authority of the central government leaving Persia ripe for the defeat of Achaemenid Darius III at the hands of Alexander the Great in 333-331 BC. This ushered in the Hellenistic Period. Alexander was awed by the culture and great wealth of Persia. In fact, he married two Persian princesses. He and of course his men accepted many of that country's traditions.

The Greeks found the Persians to be far more cultured and gentlemanly than they were. (The Romans found the same when they conquered the Greeks.) The Persians were renowned as well spoken, honest and men of their word. The Greek Emperors ultimately adopted the protocols, ceremonies and forms of diplomacy practiced in the Persian Court. These conventions were handed down to the Romans throughout Europe and finally to traditions in use in America and the modern world today.

Arsaces about 250 BC founded the Arsacid Dynasty, and began a determined campaign to drive the Greeks out of Persia. At that time, the empire was fairly small and was known as the Parthian rather than Persian. It encompassed Parthia, bordering on the Caspian Sea and Armenia. King Mithridates II (c.124 - 87 BC) defeated the Greeks and embarked on a course to regain the grandeur of the Achaemenid Empire. The Zoroastrian religion supplanted the pagan Greek religion. In time the Arsacid Dynasty equaled the Achamenid in splendor.

However, in 54 BC the Romans attacked. For three hundred years off and on, the Persians, (or Parthians) and Romans waged war against each other. In 36 BC the Parthians destroyed one hundred thousand of Marc Antony's legionnaires in Media. At other times, the Romans won decisive victories. Both sides were drained of strength and resources by the prolonged conflicts. The Romans finally gave up their ambitions to conquer Persia. Civil wars within brought on by sometimes-bloody disputes over who should succeed the throne further weakened Persia internally. Out of the ashes of chaos arose a new dynasty that would flourish for four-hundred-years, the Sasanid Dynasty.

Backing up in time once again, the Zoroastrian Religion began in Persia around the end of the seventh century BC. Zoroaster, or Zarathustra, was founder of the faith. His name means "With Golden Camels". He came to be known world wide as an Aryan-speaking prophet. Very little is known about his personal or family life. His birth, according to legend, was the result of his guardian angel taking form in the juice of the intoxicating haoma plant. A priest drank the juice as part of a divine sacrifice. Simultaneously, a heavenly ray of glory entered the body of a high-born maiden. When the priest and the maiden married, the spirit of the guardian angel and the heavenly ray co-mingled, thus producing Zoroaster.

He had a un-auspicious beginning to his preaching that began when he was about thirty. For ten years he had only one follower, his cousin. As often happens in religions, the faith began to spread when Vashtaspa, a ruler, accepted the doctrine. Zoroaster was killed at the age of seventy-seven in a Holy War between believers and non-believers. Again, legend tells that his body vanished in a blinding flash of lightening and he was taken up into heaven by the God, Ahura-Mazda. His teachings survived and expanded as far East as Afghanistan and India.

In the Bombay region of India, Parsiism, the same faith as Zoroastrianism, still exists. These people continue to number their years by the era of the last Sasanian sovereign, Yazdegird III, just as we use BC and AD.

The Zoroastrian religion had been the official Persian faith for some time after Babylon had conquered the Jewish homeland of Judea. The Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II (605 - 562 BC) had utterly destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple of Solomon, then sent the Jews back to Babylon into captivity. (See Appendix C.) When the Persians conquered Babylon, the exiled Jews were allowed to return to Judea but of course, under Persian sovereignty. Naturally, other tribes of peoples had inhabited the region of Judea (or Palestine) in the absence of the Jews. Thus, the Jews had lost their homeland and wandered the world until after the Holocaust and Israel was established in the twentieth century. Throughout, the Jews persisted in retaining their identity that spans over forty centuries.

Remember "Hal" the super computer in the movie, "A Space Odyssey, 2001"? The background music featured Johann Strauss' "The Beautiful Blue Danube" and Richard Strauss' (no relation) symphonic poem, "Also Sprach Zarathustra". The latter was based on the German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzche's work, "Thus Spake Zarathustra". These three men lived in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

History may mislay but never entirely loses anything.

Zoroastrianism professed monotheism as opposed to a whole array of gods and spirits in the older Semitic beliefs. His doctrine was not only theological but he tried to institute social reforms by getting the people to abandon their nomadic and war-like plundering ways in favor of settling down to till the soil and raise livestock. For him, Ahura-Mazda, (later designated as Ormuzd) was the sole God against Evil (Ahriman). He believed that the wise would choose Ahura-Mazda and the foolish, Ahriman. The concepts of heaven and hell and the last judgment were part of his faith. He preached a code of cleanliness, honesty, charity and hospitality.

The Zoroastrian Temples contained a holy, eternal fire burning in honor of the "God of Light". The faithful followers also had sacred flames in their homes. They worshipped the fire, not the sun. Their rituals included reading from their scripture, the Avesta. Only part of the book is attributed to Zoroaster himself. That part, written in the form of verse, is similar to the Psalms of the Old Testament of the Bible. Even though the Greeks had at one time conquered the Persians militarily, they always regarded the wise men of the Persian creed with respect.

The early Zoroastrians practiced animal sacrifice, but the modern followers of that faith abandon the rite. The Zoroastrians, Jews and the Christians seldom indulged in human sacrifice. According to the Old Testament of the Bible, when Abraham was about to sacrifice his son, Isaac, God told him to use a ram instead. Except for very ancient pre-historic times, Jews, Greeks and Romans rarely engaged in human sacrifice, giving it up in favor of animal sacrifice.  Still, the Romans, especially, eagerly enjoyed blood sports in the Colosseum.

Ancient societies used human sacrifice in their religious rituals. The Egyptians did as well as the worshipers of Baal, mentioned in the Old Testament. Archeologists have confirmed that the Baal adherents in Carthage routinely sacrificed infants with grisly frequency. Celtic druids utilized immersion, drowning, but St. Patrick is reputed to have forbidden it. The Norse people threw their victims over cliffs in homage to their gods.  (Did you know that the Danes continued to practice cannibalism well into the 11th Century AD?  That was over a thousand years after the Christian Era began.)

Polynesian cultures, the Inca, Mayan and Aztec civilizations were notorious for the numbers of their victims. Although the Aztecs occasionally chose a young man, the South American religions favored young female virgins. That would tend to take the incentive out of hanging on to one's virginity!  However, we humans have always preferred to sacrifice our young men to Ares and Mars, the Gods of War.

Sacrifices were for the purpose of currying the good will and favor of the gods or appeasing them for perceived misdeeds. It seems to be the origin of formally blaming something or someone else and letting them take the rap for it. It started with Eve being snitched on for eating the apple and forcing (?) Adam to eat it too. The time honored tradition of scapegoating.

There was a curious practice of ancient civilizations recorded by the Phrygians ( in Anatolia that became Turkey) and also the Greeks involving "hecatombs".  That is, sacrificing one hundred oxen at a time to honor their gods.  The numbers may have been exaggerated by whoever related the events, but whatever did they do with that many carcasses afterwards?

There is an interesting parallel in Mahayana Buddhism that is practiced in China, Japan, Tibet and Nepal. Bodhisattva is a deity worshipped as a being so compassionate as to abstain from entering nirvana in order to provide universal salvation. A future Buddha. The Bodhisattva assumes the suffering of others in order to save them.

Of course a similar concept is that of the Christian belief that Christ was crucified and died for our sins. Jesus' suffering and death saved mankind, thus making heaven attainable for all of humanity.

Maybe some day in the distant future, mankind will progress to the degree where no more such sacrifices will held up as honorable, let alone necessary propitiation. Perhaps by then we will have earned the right to call ourselves Civilized.

In Zoroaster's time, the Magians were astrologers, physicians and magicians who drove out evil spirits. (The origin of the word "magic".) Initially Zoroaster was a Magi but later rejected many of their practices. However, the Greeks came to regard him as the primary Magi.

With the rise of the Sasanid Dynasty, Zoroastrianism was revived and enhanced. They codified the Avesta as the law, which was administered by the hereditary caste of Zoroastrian priests. The archimagus was the chief priest and his power was second only to that of the king. The Magi were the intellectual and aristocratic members of Persian society.  In fact, they were so wealthy that from time to time the Persian Kings borrowed money from the coffers of the Magian organization.

During the Achaemenid Dynasty, both the kings and the priests were reasonably tolerant of other religions. The priests were always nationalistic and unceasingly had the ear of the king. They were indifferent to other religions throughout the Arsacid Dynasty. However, intolerance, persecution and militancy replaced the benign attitude of the priests by the end of the Sasanid Dynasty.

It is interesting to note that in the New Testament of the Bible, the three Wise Men from the East, who followed the star to Bethlehem seeking the birth of the new King of the Jews were Magi. According to Christian Scripture the Wise Men went to King Herod to inquire where the baby would be born. They would have had to have been scholars and well versed in the writings of the prophets of the Jewish Old Testament. Obviously, they were important visitors to have gained access to the king.

Herod knew nothing of the pending event but expressed an interest and told the Wise Men to return to him so that he too could go worship the child. Of course, Herod had no such intent. The Jews were a subject people and he wanted to keep them that way. When the Wise Men found the Holy Family in Bethlehem beneath the star, they did indeed fall down and worship the infant, giving him gold, frankincense and myrrh. These were not items usually found in the household of a humble family.

Frankincense is a gum resin that is used as incense. It gives off a pleasant odor when burned. It comes from olibanum trees commonly known as Boswellia found in East Africa and Asia. Myrrh is also a gum resin from shrubs of the genus balsamoendron myrrha found in East Africa and Arabia. It is used as incense and in medicine as well as in making perfume. In ancient societies, especially Egypt, it was used in their religious rites as well as their embalming processes.

Frankincense and myrrh can now commonly be found in drug and variety stores in the sections for aromatic oils used in potpourri.

Again according to scripture, the Wise Men were warned by God not to go back and report to Herod so they returned to their own country (Persia) by a different route. Herod was furious when he realized that the Wise Men had tricked him and he ordered all of the Jewish baby boys born around that time to be killed. Joseph was warned by God to flee to Egypt where Jesus would be safe from Herod's wrath. The Holy Family remained there until after the king's death.

Mithraism (c. 15th century BC or earlier) was an really, really ancient religion in Parthia/Persia that predated Zoroastrainism.  It was polytheistic with its principal god being Mithra, God of the Sun.  (Vedic writings in India referred to him as the god, "Mitra".)  At times, the Greek and Roman Empires acknowledged Mithra, particularly in reference to soldiers' allegiance to kings and emperors.  He was the god of contracts, and oaths; thus, friendship.  As the God of the Sun, the contract was between the "good light of the sun" against the "evil of darkness".  Mithra evolved into the God of the Sun himself, so became the God of War in the continuing battle with evil.  Loyalty to the king was a vital element of the belief, so naturally, imperial approval of the religion was essential to Mithraism.  With the advent of the Christian Roman Emperor Constantine, the religion faded away.

The mythology of Mithraism is delightfully colorful, especially with regard to creationism.  The Sun God sent a raven as a messenger to Mithra, telling him to slay a white bull in sacrifice.  Mithra was reluctant and somewhat sorrowful when he did it.  The bull's death symbolized the eternal struggle between good and evil.  At the instant of death, the bull miraculously morphed into the moon.  Mithra's cloak became the sky with all the stars.  The first grapes burst forth from the blood of the bull, the first ears of grain from its tail.  Holy seed ran from the genitals into a mixing bowl representing the earth.  As a result of this mingling, each living creature began, both plants and animals.  The bull, as the moon, embarked on its monthly events, signaling the seasons; in essence the beginnings of  Time.  Of course, the activity of the "good light" unleashed the creatures of darkness.  The snake lapped up the blood of the bull with its tongue.  From the genital, a scorpion tried to suckle the holy seed.

The figure of the raven was represented in rock relief as Air, the lion as Fire, the serpent as Earth and the mixing bowl as Water.  Everything was created from these Four Elements.  After the bull's sacrifice, the sun god and Mithra feasted on bread, meat and wine in celebration.  They then went off together in the god's chariot into the sky, presumably to the ends of the earth.

This mythology has parallels in the Greek Philosopher Plato's "Republic" and "Timaeus" with his discourses on physics, cosmology and even biology.

The Mithraic practitioners did not have temples.  Their worship took place in caves, representing the Earth.  The caves were decorated with relief and frescos depicting the events of the religion.  Of course, men only were admitted into the initiation rites. There was usually a labyrinth of subterranean passageways for initiates to navigate.  There were seven grades or steps through which the initiates were taken in ceremonies to reach full membership and acceptance.  The worship culminated with a common meal.

"In the mysteries of Mithras the worshipers were offered consecrated bread and water.  The conquistadores were shocked to find similar rites among the Indians of Mexico and Peru."₂

It is interesting to note that during one Roman civil war between Maxentius's army and that of Constantine, Maxentius troops carried the banner of Mithra into battle.  More about this historic battle in the Byzantine Empire chapter.

Manichaeism is another religion that grew out of Persian soil. Manes or Mani began his ministry about 240 AD in the Sasanian capital of Ctesiphon near Baghdad.  He borrowed from Mithranism, Zoroastrainism, Judiasm and Gnosticism. Shapur I, the Persian king, tolerated Manes' preaching and the sect became quite successful. The religion spread throughout Persia and east, far into the central part of Asia, Chinese Turkestan, and west to Rome and Carthage in North Africa.

Before his conversion to Christianity, St. Augustine was a Manichaeist for ten years in Carthage. Much that is known about Manichaeism was learned from St. Augustine's writings against the belief. (The Augustinian Monks patterned their order on the teachings of St. Augustine.) 

In 270 AD the Zoroastrian priests, jealous of his growing influence, executed Manes by crucifixion. His body was flayed, his skin stuffed with straw and hung from a city gate.  (So let that be a lesson to ya!)  Indicative of the wealth of Sasanian Society, silver and gold trickled out of Manichaeist books when they were burned.  However, Manichaeist followers continued his faith well into the thirteenth century AD. It survived under Islamic rule until the Mongolian invasion. The Christian Roman and Byzantine Empires persecuted Manichaeism out of existence in their realms.

Manes theology was based on a well-known myth at the time on the origin of the universe. He reasoned that there had been a cosmic conflict between the "Prince of Light", God and the "Demon of Darkness", Satan. God had "Divine Messengers of Light" and the Devil had "Messengers" too, the "Archons". The Demon had stolen light from God and used it to build the earth and all its inhabitants. Thus, man was part of the Devil's dominion. But God gave to Adam and his progeny the "Message of Light" in order to free themselves and thus, be reunited in the cosmos with God. Manes considered Eve to be a creation of the Devil. (It seems unlikely he would have had very many enthusiastic female adherents!)

He acknowledged Buddha, Zoroaster and Jesus as prophets, with Manes himself as the fourth and final "Messenger of Light" in victory over Satan and his Archons. The doctrine of the religion was similar to the virtues of other faiths of the time. However he postulated a quite different distinction between the ordinary people, the "Hearers" and the hierarchy of the "Elect". The upshot was that the "Elect" became ascetics and the "Hearers", licentious. St. Augustine probably stated it best when he prayed to God for chastity - but not yet!

The Sasanid or Sassanid Dynasty (226-641 AD) built the second great empire that grew out of Persia. It rebuffed the hoards of Asiatic and European attempts at expansion while extending its own boundaries of territory. By the third century AD it encompassed all of what is now Iran and Iraq, Afghanistan, and Baluchistan, (an area that is now in Southern Pakistan).

The hereditary kings held supreme power and twice, queens were on the throne. The title of the king was, "King of Kings, King of the Aryans and the non-Aryans, Sovereign of the Universe, Descendant of the Gods; Brother of the Sun and Moon, Companion of the Stars"₃. Quite an exalted opinion of self-importance!

They redacted the Zoroastrian Avesta to encompass a great deal of astronomy, metaphysics, and medicine picked up from the Greeks and India. The kings exercised considerably more influence over their priests than did the Christians with the translations of the Bible.

In the fourth century AD, the Christian St. Jerome spent eighteen patient years translating the Bible into Latin from Hebrew and Greek. He had abandoned Rome for Bethlehem to live as an ascetic, which he did. But he also managed to build a monastery and a convent, as well as a church and hospice for pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land.

The Old Testament was written originally in Hebrew, the New Testament in Greek. St. Jerome's translation known as the Vulgate, is still the definitive version of the Bible. It stood for centuries, carefully and lovingly copied and illustrated by hand by monks. This was quietly going on in cloistered monasteries, preserved down through the ages for future generations. Irish monks are credited with much of this preservation.

Martin Luther translated the New Testament in 1522 and the Old Testament in 1523, both into German, not from the Vulgate, but from the original languages. There were a number of English translations but The Douay Version stems from the translation of the Old Testament of the Latin Vulgate into English between 1582 and 1609 in Rheims and Douai, France. (Douai was under the political jurisdiction of Spain at that time, but later reverted to France.) The English New Testament of that Bible is a revision of the Challoner-Rheims version of that same time.

In 1611, James I of England commissioned a number of bishops to translate what became known as the King James Version. In English speaking countries, the Douay Version is considered the Catholic Version while the King James Version is considered Protestant.

But I digress - again. The Persian Sasanid Dynasty eliminated all the traces of Greek influence and embarked on something of a renaissance of the older Persian thought, architecture and art. They had a highly evolved culture. A brisk trade of caravans to and from China and India enriched the empire to such a degree that it became far more wealthy than the contemporary Roman and Byzantine Empires.

The Persians domesticated cats and dogs, the Persian cat becoming a prized pet around the world. Dogs also were bred as pets but were primarily revered for their uncanny abilities to protect homes and herds. The cultivation and refinement of sugar were imported from India by the Persians and introduced to the West for the first time. It spread throughout Europe. Silks from China were woven into colorful textiles of unique designs, the techniques created by skilled Persian artisans.

Persia is still world-renowned for its majestic rugs and carpets of beauty and durability. One of the most famous is the "Winter Carpet" of the king, Khosru Anushirvan. It was of enormous size intended to remind him of spring and summer during the winter months. The design depicted actual diamonds and rubies woven into the pattern of fruit and flowers. The earth was of pure gold with paths of silver on it. Streams of water made of pearls wound through the pastoral scene.

The "Cup of Khosru ", also known as "The Cup of Solomon" is a famous artifact in the Paris Bibliotheque Nationale. It was reputedly given to Charlemagne by Caliph Harun al-Rashid. It is made of beaten gold inlaid with crystal medallions.

Strides in architecture were some of the Sasanian crowning achievement. They are attributed with devising the "squinch", an arch that supports and makes possible a circular dome. The Byzantines perfected the concept and used it in building the magnificent Hagia Sophia Church in Constantinople. It is possible that the flying buttress so widely used in Gothic architecture also originated in Persia.

The great rock relief sculptures are perhaps the most well known legacies of Persian art. Groups of these huge impressive relics, carved into the face of limestone cliffs, are found in many parts of what was that ancient country. They depict various kings in heroic scenes.

The Persians had a written language known as "Pahlavi" and a body of literature. Universities flourished and scholars came to them from all over the known world to study philosophy, astronomy and medicine. Unfortunately few examples of the Pahlavi language escaped the ravages of time.

Ferdowsi (c. 935 - c.1020-26?) was a Persian poet who spent 35 years translating a Pahlavi history of the Persian kings that spanned from early mythical times through the reign of Khosru II and the Arab conquest. Also much of what is known about Persian society comes from the descriptions of Greek, Moslem and Jewish historians. I could not find whether Ferdowsi translated from Pahlavi into the Farsi or the Arabic language. His work has been translated into English, French and German. This just shows how determined I am to chase down obscurities!

Just as Latin became a dead language with the fall of the Roman Empire, Pahlavi too died with the collapse of the Persian Empire.

Sasanian Society was a feudal system. Polygamy and concubinage were officially sanctioned. Concubines were allowed to go out in public but legal wives were cloistered at home. This practice was similar to that of the Greeks. The Persians passed the custom on to the Moslems.

The Zoroastrian priests still administered their system of justice. Adultery was severely punished; the man being exiled, the woman's nose and ears cut off. Persons accused of crimes were subjected to strange means of determining guilt or innocence, such as walking over hot coals or eating or drinking poisons. If the person survived, he was innocent. If not, he had obviously been guilty. If the death penalty were imposed, it could be appealed all the way up to the king. He alone could approve or deny the execution. Possibly the origin of clemency? It took a very long time for mankind to come up with a Constitution preventing cruel and unusual punishment.

The military was comprised of the garrisons of the feudal lords. This somewhat limited the unified discipline or development of more advanced instruments of war. Loyalty and bravery were beyond question however.

Shapur I (241-72 AD) was an able king. He was well educated to the point that at one time he seriously considered abdication in order to pursue his life as a philosopher. He was an ardent supporter of the arts. He was remarkably tolerant of all religions, even inviting Manes to his court. Judaism had been relatively undisturbed in different parts of Persia for a long time. Christianity had been brought from Byzantium and Armenia.

At first he was a reluctant warrior and was initially defeated by the Romans. However, after subduing Armenia, he resumed his offensive against Rome and in 260 AD succeeded by defeating and capturing Emperor Valerian and took thousands of prisoners. He kept Valerian captive for the rest of that Roman Emperor's life.

Shapur I used the Roman prisoners for their engineering expertise as well as slave labor to build an ancient wonder; a dam on the Karun River that remains today. In the end, the Romans drove Shapur I back to east of the Euphrates River. That would remain the border between Persia and the Roman Empire for a very long time.

Several kings later, there was a tussle regarding royal succession and the outcome was extraordinary. The nobles imprisoned the rightful heir, placed the diadem on the womb of the mother, and thus crowned the unborn Shapur II. He reigned longer than any other king in Asian history, from 309-379 AD. He was carefully schooled in warfare from infancy and at sixteen assumed his ruthless power. He invaded eastern Arabia (Saudi Arabia) scourged villages and took thousands of prisoners into slavery, both the able-bodied and the wounded. Some had thin ropes attached to their injuries as they were led into captivity.

For forty years Shapur II waged war again with one Roman Emperor after another over the lucrative trade routes to the Far East. By then Rome, Greece, Armenia and Byzantium were Christian. In 341 AD he mandated the slaughter of all Christians in his realm. A number of villages were wiped out before he amended and limited the killing to only priests, monks and nuns. This edict remained in effect until his death. The reign of Shapur II brought Persia to its pinnacle of power and influence. It also drenched his country with blood.

A generation later, Yezdegird I (399-420 AD) re-instituted freedom of religion, helping to rebuild Christian churches. The Persian Christian Church became a separate entity from either the Roman Catholic or Greek Orthodox Churches.

Almost 100 years after Shapur II, an interesting period of Persian history took place that would foreshadow events over 1400 years later. At least a similar pattern would emerge.

Hepthalites or Ephthalites also known as the White Huns, Hoa or Hoa-tun people were nomadic tribes in Chinese annals that lived north of the Great Wall. Yes, the Great Wall had already been built at that time, possibly to keep the likes of the Hephthalites out! At that time, the Hephthalites had no cities but lived in felt tents. They had no written system, so nothing is known of their language. It had been said that they practiced polyandry, multiple husbands. They were known to have engaged in gem engraving; cameo and intaglio for both decorative purposes and sealing rings. Little else is known of them. During the fifth and sixth centuries AD they were especially successful conducting raids into Persia and India.

In 425 AD the Hephthalites succeeded in seizing from Persia what is now Uzbekistan and parts of Kazakhstan between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya Rivers. They ultimately built an empire that extended from the Caspian Sea as far as the Indus River. Their capital was at Gurgan and its principal city was Balkh. Mazar-e-Sharif in Afghanistan is located very near where Balkh once stood. Mazar-e-Sharif was an Afgan Taliban stronghold, especially during the war against Osama Ben Ladin in 2001.

A coalition of Sasanians and Turks defeated the Hephthalites in the middle of the sixth century and they faded from history. They were either killed off and/or assimilated into other societies. At any rate nothing more was ever heard of them as a distinct people.

Meanwhile, back in Persia during the fifth and early sixth centuries, the kings had been fending off attacks on two fronts; the Byzantines in the West and the Hephthalites in the East that threatened the "Silk Road" or "Silk Route" and their lucrative trade with the Far East. Balkh was an important pivotal center of transshipment. The Hephthalites had killed one Persian king and exacted tribute from another.

The Persian King Kavadh I (488-531 AD) had internal headaches as well with challenges to his control from priests and nobles. The Zoroastrian religion had become far too abstract for the average person to follow. The Magi insisted on a level of ritual cleanliness that was especially hard for laborers and artisans to maintain.

In the midst of all this upheaval, along came a Zoroastrian priest, Mazdak, who claimed to have been sent by God. He professed that the human inventions of marriage and private property were huge errors. Since all men were purported to have been created equally, all women and goods belonged to all men. Hoping to gain popular support, Kavadh I gave Mazdak his approval. Probably no one was more astonished than Mazdak himself!  The result was, the delighted poor gleefully raided the rich homes and harems.

The enraged nobles threw Kavadh I in prison and placed his brother, Djamasp, on the throne. Kavadh I escaped after three years and took refuge with the Hephthalites. There is a touching legend that one of Kavadh I's wives helped him escape the dungeon by taking his place in disguise.

It must have taken some chicanery, but in time Kavadh I persuaded the Hephthalites' king to give him the king's daughter in marriage and also an army to regain his crown. Brother Djamasp abdicated, the nobles retired to their estates and Kavadh I executed Mazdak along with many of his followers.

This early and temporarily successful experiment in Communism apparently resulted in elevated status for craftsmen however. Imperial proclamations that followed contained signatures of the heads of guilds along with those of the nobles and high-ranking Zoroastrian priests.

Kavadh I went on to defeat the Byzantine General Belisarius as well as his old friends and allies, the Hephthalites. At the time of his death Persia and Rome were at a standoff. This king was an exception to the old Achaemenid code of gentlemanly conduct. He was certainly no man of his word!

Khosru I or Khosrow I (531-79) was the second son of Kavadh I and became the greatest Sasanain King. He was known to the Greeks as "Chosroes", and to the Arabs as "Kisra". The Persians added Anushirvan, so his full name meant "Fair Glory" and "Immortal Soul". He was both, a virtuous man or an arch villain, depending on who wrote about him.

How much of all this is true? Who can say. History is written and re-written every day, always through the knowledge, experience and yes, inevitably biased perspective of the hand that writes it. The only truth we can know for certain is what we choose to believe.

My job description here is to relay some of what I have read.  It doesn't necessarily mean that I personally believe a word of it!

A number of Khosru I's older brothers plotted to depose him. Remember, polygamy was sanctioned. That could mean that he had quite a few brothers. He put them all to death as well as all their sons except one nephew.

Khosru I instituted numerous reforms in the government especially when he chose advisors on the basis of their ability rather than heredity positions of privilege. He revised Persian law and reformed the tax organization to make it much more fair and just. Before Khosru I, taxes had been levied on the yield of the land. He established a fixed sum rather than a yearly variation. This gave stability to the income of the state and was also fairer to the taxpayers. He initiated a system of ministers and a Prime Minister. These institutions were maintained well into Islamic times. Khosru I continued the codification of the Avesta, the sacred book of Zoroastrianism, and in the process created a special alphabet to record the text.

He built roads and bridges that enhanced communication and trade; dams and canals for better water supplies to cities and for irrigation. Using state funds, he educated poor and orphaned children. He promoted education, financing the expansion of science and literature. The University at Jund-I-Shapur became a mecca for scholars from abroad. Astronomy was an important study there. A table of the stars supposedly originated during his reign. The Arabs used it as a basis for their further star tables. Khosru I is credited with bringing the game of chess from India.

Apostasy was punishable by death but Khosru I was lenient with Christians, some of whom he had in his harem. He had no problem with Jews; in fact they were useful to him with their skills as merchants. Centuries later during the Inquisition, the Popes took a similar view. The Popes were especially harsh with heretics such as Manichaeists but generally left the Jews alone.

The Jews had long since lost their homeland but had managed to survive and even prosper throughout many countries of Asia Minor and Europe. The Jews have always placed a strong emphasis on education. The better educated a people are, as a whole, the more likely they are to succeed in any endeavor.

The Jews later became caught in a "Catch 22" however, especially in Christian Europe. Christians were prohibited by law from engaging in usury, but that law did not apply to Judaism. The Jews were excellent bankers and naturally the Christians went to them for loans. Their interest rates were probably no more prohibitive than credit cards are today. But when the Christians got into debt over their heads and the Jews grew more wealthy and influential to Christian liking, it was time to pull up the old chestnut of, "The Jews Crucified Christ". Thus, pogroms.

The Nazis of Germany in the twentieth century carried it to the ultimate extreme blaming everything on Jews. A good excuse, the Nazis thought, for confiscating Jewish property and sending them off to slave labor camps and annihilation.

Khosru I took the feudal lords' garrisons and organized a disciplined military. He announced that he wished for peace with Rome. The Byzantine Emperor Justinian had his eye on Italy and Africa, so in 532 AD he and Khosru I signed a treaty of "eternal peace." When Justinian was triumphant, Khosru I claimed a share of the spoils, inasmuch as their treaty had made the victories possible. Justinian replied with expensive expressions of his esteem.

In 539 AD, Khosru I decided he wanted access to the Black Sea. On the strength of the Persian claim that Justinian had violated the treaty and besides, the Byzantines were occupied in fighting in the West, Khosru I invaded Syria. With something of a scorched earth policy all the way to the Mediterranean, he conquered the great city of Antioch in 540 AD. Justinian sent Belasarius to repulse the Persians. Khosru I retreated back east of the Euphrates with all his booty and the Byzantine General did not follow. Three more times the Persians raided, looted and leisurely took prisoners back into slavery.

In 545 AD, Justinian paid Khosru I a handsome sum for a five-year truce and again five years later. The two old warriors were tired of fighting. In 562 AD, they signed a fifty-year peace pact. Justinian pledged to pay Persia the equivalent of seven million, five hundred thousand dollars in gold each year. A tidy sum in any times. Khosru I promised to relinquish any claims toward the Black Sea and the Caucasus. No doubt, the weary armies on both sides who had fought each other for a generation were grateful to lay down their arms.

History is replete with rivalries that turned into personal vendettas between political leaders. They then create and promote policies that require their military forces to carry them out.

For a thousand years, Persia's primary interests had lain in the east, trade with China and India, north and west with Rome and Byzantium. Scant attention was paid to the south in what is now Saudi Arabia. All that was there was a desert, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and the vast uncharted Indian Ocean beyond. Little did anyone know then that beneath the sands of Arabia lay wealth beyond the wildest imagination - oil.

The Himyarites asked Khosru I's help in liberating them from Abyssinian (Ethopian) domination. The Himyarites were people in southwestern Arabia in what is now Yemen. With Khorsu I's "help", much to their surprise, the Himyarites discovered that they were no longer under Abyssinian rule but had become a Persian province.

Justinian had made a treaty with Abyssinia but died before he could retaliate against Khosru I's incursion into Abyssinian territory. Byzantium frowned on Persia throwing their friends out of Arabia. The new Byzantine Emperor, Justin II, made a secret pact with the Turks to again wage war against Persia.

Khosru I personally led his army to capture Dara, a Syrian stronghold of the Romans. But the aging monarch's health deteriorated and he had his first defeat in 578 AD. He was forced to retreat back to his magnificent palace in his capital, Ctesiphon, near what is now Baghdad. He died there in 579AD.

Khosru I is regarded as the greatest king of Persian history. During his forty-eight year reign he was victorious in all of his battles except one, his last one, never allowing an enemy to penetrate his empire beyond the Euphrates River. Even outside his borders he was considered greater than his contemporary and old adversary, Justinian. His government was so well administered that the Arabs made few changes after they had conquered Persia.

History judges Khosru I an as enlightened and just monarch. He was as well, a patron of the arts and scholarship. There are many local legends about his reputation for wisdom and justice. There is no doubt that Persia reached its zenith of conquest and the arts under his stewardship.

The usual intrigues and shenanigans went on for another generation until Khosru II, Khosru I's grandson, ascended to the throne in 596 AD. He was known as Khosru Parvez, ("Victorious"). Taking up the old feud with Byzantium, Khosru Parvez captured the major cities of Syria, including Damascus. Heady with his victories, he declared a holy war on all Christians. He was not fond of Manichaeists or Buddhists either.

In 614 AD, he attacked Jerusalem, razed the city, slaughtering thousands of Christians, burned the Holy Sepulcher Church, and took back to his capital the "True Cross", the most revered relic of Christendom. He continued his rampage to seize all of Egypt as another of his armies conquered most of Asia Minor.

For ten years Persia held Chalcedon, the city across the Bosporus from Constantinople, the capitol of the Byzantine Empire. All that time Khosru Parvez was destroying churches and carting off wealth and treasures of art to his new grander palace at Dastagird beyond Ctesiphon. He taxed his outlying provinces to a point of poverty that left them utterly defenseless against the Arabs in 636. Still all of Persia saluted him for his ultimate victory over Greece, Rome and Christianity. The humiliation of the defeat by Alexander the Great was erased. The Zoroastrian God, Ormuzd had triumphed over Christ.

That done Khosru Parvez, left the matters of war to his generals, devoting himself to the pleasures of life. With the plunder of treasures he had accumulated and fresh, plentiful captured slaves, he set about building and furbishing his lavish palace. And, oh, yes, tending to his 3000 wives. That's three thousand!  Booty and taxes brought the king incredible riches; thousands of elephants, camels, horses and of course, women.

Oddly enough, his Armenian wife, and his favorite, Shirin, was purported to have been Christian. All during his holy wars, she built churches and monasteries. It was even rumored that she had won him over to Christianity. Her likeness appears on Persian coins, a rare occurrence considering that women were seldom featured in Persian art.

There was nothing left of the Byzantine Empire but the city of Constantinople and bits of Greece, Africa and Italy. However, it did still have an unconquered navy to hold command of the seas. It took ten years for Emperor Heraclius to rebuild from the ashes of his state. With a new army, and perhaps the beginnings of marines, he set sail into the Black Sea. From there he marched through Armenia and into Persia's back door. What Khosru Parvez had done to Jerusalem, Heraclius did to Clorumia, the birthplace of Zoroaster. He extinguished the sacred eternal flame.

Khosru Parvez sent wave after wave of resistance against the Byzantines, to no avail. His generals and the nobles turned against him in a palace revolt. They imprisoned him on bread and water and killed eighteen of his sons in his presence. Then Sheroye, another son, killed his father with his own hand. The Arab invasion began twelve years after the death of Khosu Parvez.

I think we can agree that elections and recall are preferable to violent uprising and assassinations when it comes to choosing or retiring leaders.

Sheroye succeeded his father as Kavadh II and immediately placated Heraclius by giving him Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor and western Mesopotamia (Iraq). The captive slaves were returned to their countries.

That very same day in 629 AD when Heraclius returned the remains of the "True Cross" to its shrine in Jerusalem, Moslem Arabs began their assault on the Byzantines by the River Jordan in Palestine. The same year an epidemic descended on Persia. Kavadh II died along with thousands of his subjects. A battle over succession raged on as the empire sank into anarchy. Finally Yezdegird III became king.

Arabs began their march north along the Persian Gulf in 634 AD. The provincial Persian governor, Hormizd challenged the Arab commander, Khalid to a duel of single combat. (This hearkened back to David and Goliath!)  Hormizd was killed and the Arabs marched on to the Euphrates.

Yezdegird III was only twenty-two but valiantly sent out the call for a mighty force to protect the empire. One bloody battle after another took an appalling toll on both sides as reinforcements were constantly sent in. In the end the Arabs prevailed and crossed the Tigris River into Ctesiphon. Yezdegird III fled to Media to reorganize resistance.

The naïve Bedouin Arabs had never seen anything approaching the opulent grandeur of the Persian City, Ctesiphon. It took them quite a long while to reap the spoils of their conquest. Caliph Omar, the Moslem leader, thought that was enough and was content with Mesopotamia for three years.

Yezdegrid III managed to raise another formidable army but it was resoundingly defeated. He then escaped to Balkh hoping in vain for help from China. She declined. Next he went to the Turks who did give him a fair contingent of troops. Starting back to reclaim his realm, he was murdered by Turkish soldiers who wanted and took his jewelry.

By 652 AD the Persian Empire that began before 553 BC was no more.

The Turkish Ottoman Empire brought an end to the Byzantine Empire in 1453 AD. Two great empires of ancient times vanished into the mists of time.

But wait. With the whole Middle East under Moslem Arab control, what happened to the lucrative trade routes to the Far East? The Arabs were free to continue and thrive they did! Europe was cut off, utterly, without paying a king's ransom to traverse them. Besides, Christian Europe and the Moslems were mortal enemies, making any attempts too dangerous and hardly worth the effort. Europe fell into the Dark Ages.

Five hundred years went by. Then...

Enter England, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France and Scandinavia to find alternate routes by sea. In time Columbus et al began the conquest of the oceans. The race was on in subsequent battles over supremacy of the seas. In the process they discovered a wealth of new lands and peoples. One by one most of the other European countries dropped out of the race. With the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, England emerged as the new British Empire that spread around the globe.