persian empire

In 338 BC, Artaxerxes III, one of the most successful King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire in its later years, was poisoned by his vizier, a eunuch named Bagoas, along with much of his family. Bagoas subsequently raised Artaxerxes IV, one of the youngest sons of Artaxerxes III, on the throne...

In 330 BC, after the disastrous defeat at Gaugamela, Darius III fled into the mountainous regions of Media, entrusting the defence of Parsa to the satrap Ariobarzanes, who failed to stop Alexander the Great despite putting up valiant resistance. A group of conspirators led by Bessus, satrap of...

So let’s say that Alexander either never exists or never conquers the Achaemenid Empire. Maybe he dies at the Granicus River, or gets hit by a stray sling bullet at Gaza. Either way, the Achaemenid Empire survives intact. However, the Achaemenids had to deal with jealous satraps, disloyal...

In 513 BC, Darius I the Great, King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, embarked on a campaign in Scythia after stabilizing his empire and instituting several economic, military, and administrative reforms. The Scythians were a nomadic people, and forced Darius to endlessly chase them across...

In around 530 BC, the founder of the Achaemenid empire, Cyrus the Great, embarked on a campaign against the Massagetae. During the campaign, Cyrus himself was killed, and the Massagetae queen Tomyris reportedly had a wineskin filled with blood and thrust Cyrus’ head in it, so as to “slake his...

Cyrus the Great was undoubtedly one of the greatest and most influential people in all of human history, known for his innovations in human rights, politics, and military strategy, and for his influence on both Western and Eastern civilizations. His empire encompassed all of the previous Near...

Sometime in 551 BC, during the revolt of Cyrus the Great against Media, the battle of the Persian border was fought. Although the battle was not particularly desicive, Cyrus’ father Cambyses was killed during the battle. What if Cyrus the Great was killed at the Battle of the Persian Border...

In 522 BC, Cambyses II of the Achaemenid Empire, died in Egypt, apparently from a knife to the thigh. Afterward, an impostor named Gaumata claiming to be Cambyses’ brother Smerdis assumed the throne. He promised a three year tax holiday to the provinces before being deposed by seven nobles, of...

So I did try to do a TL like this some time ago, but it died very quickly and I’ve decided to reboot it, and make it much better than the last attempt. So without further ado let’s start the timeline. Alexander advancing with his Companions Persian Gold and...

According to the predominant modern theory, OTL the early Jewish people were predominantly monolatrous in Iron Age I and did not become monotheistic until the Babylonian captivity. Monolatrism is the belief or recognition of many gods but the insistence on worshipping only one of them...

This one, would this frontier be viable long term just like the one draw on otl that stands up to our day? This one would leave the Safavids with easternmost anatolia, all of the caucasus and mesopotamia. This means that the Safavids have a black sea port through georgia, the shia turkmen of...

Have the the ottomans (or another anatolian turk dynasty) create a shia empire based around Istanbul, and sunni empire that like the Safavids gets their empire recognized as a continuation or Iran imperial tradition.

I have been reading a bit on ancient Greece recently and I thought about what would happen if the Persians managed to conquer ancient Greece. I thought about how this would effect the expansion of the roman empire considering the attempt to conquer Greece occurred the same period as roman...

Like the title says, what could've been the best case scenario for Iran? What Iran could've been like if things played out right for them? For an ancient country which once a mighty empire in the ancient world, Iran didn't seemed to have good luck in modern times.

Since 1651, the Persians, and Russians fought wars against each other for control in the Caucasus. But ever since 1722, the Persians lost more and more land in the Caucasus, and influence there. The Treaty of Turkmenchay was a national failure for the Persians, losing a ton of Caucasian land...

So as we know the Seminal tragedy leading up to World war I was a domino effect that would change the world. But what isn't so discussed, is how could we have an isolated conflict between only a few major powers of Europe, that goes not go global. POD So Franz Ferdinand is assassinated, and...

Self-explanatory title. Either the Achaemenid Empire never forms or fails to reach the Aegean Sea. What happens? Was the disunity of the greek city-states inevitable, or was it a byproduct of persian puppeteering? What happens to the Lydian Empire? Could it end up becoming a substitute for the...

With a skilled military leader, what are some countries (during any time in human history from the invention of agriculture to the 20th century) that could have "pulled an Alexander"; that is, conquering a larger empire in its near-entirety during one ruler's reign, and then collapsing into...

Suppose upon Cyrus' conquest of the Lydian Empire, Kroisos' Greek subjects give in to the Persian demands and rebel against their overlord. With their autonomy intact, they don't get into the conflict that escalated into what it did IOTL. So, in the short run, we have a Greek Western Anatolia...

What if Nader, who founded the short-lived Afsharid dynasty in Persia and went on impressive conquests, died before he could rise to power? Such as being defeated in battle against the Hotakis. Would the 1724 Treaty of Constantinople become the definitive indicator of Persia's borders? Without...