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Achaemenids

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Achaemenids (ăk'əmĕn`ĭdz), dynasty of ancient Persia. They were descended presumably from one Achaemenes, a minor ruler in a mountainous district of SW Iran. His successors, when Elam Elam (ē`ləm), ancient country of Asia, N of the Persian Gulf and E of the Tigris, now in W Iran.
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 declined, spread their power westward. Cyrus the Great Cyrus the Great (sī`rəs), d. 529 B.C., king of Persia, founder of the greatness of the Achaemenids and of the Persian Empire.
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 established the Persian rule by his conquest of Astyages Astyages (ăstī`əjēz), fl. 6th cent. B.C., king of the Medes (584–c.550 B.C.), son and successor of Cyaxares.
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 of Media Media (mē`dēə), ancient country of W Asia whose actual boundaries cannot be defined, occupying generally what is now W Iran and
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. The Achaemenids (c.550–330 B.C.) were important for their development of government administration, the appearance of literature written in cuneiform cuneiform (kynē`ĭfôrm) [Lat.
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, and the spread of Zoroastrianism Zoroastrianism (zô'rōăs`trēənĭzəm), religion founded by Zoroaster, but with many later accretions.
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; during this period there was also a great flourishing of Persian art and architecture Persian art and architecture, works of art and structures produced in the region of Asia traditionally known as Persia and now called Iran. Bounded by fierce mountains and deserts, the high plateau of Iran has seen the flow of many migrations and the development of
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. The Achaemenid rulers after Cyrus were Cambyses II, the impostor Smerdis, Darius I, Xerxes I, Artaxerxes I, Xerxes II, Sogdianus, Darius II, Artaxerxes II (opposed by Cyrus the Younger), Artaxerxes III, Arses, and Darius III. The dynasty ended when Darius III died in his flight from Alexander the Great.


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