Day of Empire_ How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance--And Why They Fall - Amy Chua [18]
As always, there is a danger of anachronism when discussing ancient empires in modern terms. Although the Achaemenids “recruited” the best craftsmen and warriors from throughout the empire, we are not talking about recruitment in the modern sense of recruiting college basketball players. Many craftsmen and warriors were probably conscripted; individual liberty and freedom of contract were not organizing principles of ancient Persia. It also bears noting that Darius was fond of impaling anyone who defied him. When the Sagartian rebel Cicantakhma was captured, Darius, in his own words, “cut off both his nose and ears,” “put out one eye,” and kept him “bound at [the] palace entrance,” where “all the people saw him.” “Afterwards,” he continued, “I impaled him at Arbela.” As for Fravartis the Mede, Darius had a similar treatment: “I cut off his nose, ears, and tongue and plucked out an eye; he was chained under guard at the gate of my palace and everyone could see him there. Then I impaled him at Ecbatana.”
Nor was Achaemenid tolerance accompanied by any modern sense of equality. On the contrary, Achaemenid Persia was a hierarchy, with Persians unmistakably on top. Power was concentrated in the Great King. The center of authority was wherever he happened to be, whether at Susa, Persepolis, or Memphis (depending on the season, the Achaemenid rulers moved from one capital to another, accompanied by massive entourages). Below the king, the satraps who ruled over their mini-kingdoms were exclusively Persian. Below the satraps, the highest-ranking positions throughout the empire were also held by members of the Persian aristocracy. Herodotus wrote of the Persians: “Themselves they consider in every way superior to everyone else in the world, and allow other nations a share of good qualities decreasing according to distance, the furthest off being in their view the worst.”36
Nevertheless, for two centuries the Achaemenid kings successfully ruled over an empire of unprecedented territorial scale, and policies of tolerance made it possible for them to do so. By embracing local laws and traditions, and by allowing local languages, religions, and rituals to flourish, the Achaemenids minimized the likelihood of opposition and revolt among conquered peoples. By drawing on the specialized talents of the empire's best artists, thinkers, workers, and fighters regardless of ethnicity or religion, the Achaemenid kings turned cultural diversity into a source of synergy and strength.
Achaemenid culture was dazzlingly cosmopolitan. Just as their paradise gardens boasted the rarest, most valuable flora and fauna from all over the empire, the Achaemenid kings’ royal tables overflowed with the choicest, most exotic foodstuffs that subjugated countries had to offer: Arabian ostrich, “acanthus oil from Carma-nia,” fish from the Persian Gulf, grain from “the wheatfields of Assos in Aeolis,” and “dates from Babylon, exclusively from the gardens of Bagöas.” According to Xenophon, “The Persian king has vintners scouring every land to find some drink that will tickle his palate.” Royal cooks traveled vast distances, searching for new recipes, and prizes were given to anyone who brought the king new culinary delights.37
The Greeks would later disparage the excess and sumptuous-ness of Persian meals. On birthdays, wrote Herodotus, rich Persians would have “an ox or a horse or a camel or a donkey baked whole in the oven.” (Poor Persians got only sheep and goats.) Herodotus also stressed the great variety of Persian dishes, contrasting it with Greek restraint: “They have many sorts of dessert, the various courses being served separately. It is this custom that has made them say that the Greeks leave the table hungry, because we never have anything worth mentioning after the first course: