WI: No Achaemenid Persian Empire

Was Anshan not Persia?

Anshan was a very archaic state in what is now Fars. It seems to have been ruled over by a non-Aryan population, but we cannot know that for certain. Generally, we have to use "seems", "may have", and "perhaps" a lot when discussing Iranian history prior to the reign of Darius.
 
Hmmm...the more you know...

Adding to this, if we were to push the pod back 100 years how much longer could the neo-Assyrians survive than otl?
 
Well......
A few thoughts:

- There's no evidence that Cyrus (or Cambyses) were Achaemenids. Darius was, and he may have been distantly related to the two first monarchs, but the Achaemenid dynasty proper only starts with Darius. You can retrospectively call Cyrus and Cambyses members of the dynasty because Darius' married Cyrus' daughters, and through them all later Achaemenids did have descent from Cyrus.

Well, the Iranians did have something of a tradition of claiming persons to legitimize their rule if we go off the example of the early Sassanids and the actual figure, Sassan.


"I am Darius the Great King, King of Kings, King of countries containing all kinds of people, King in this great earth far and wide, son of Hystaspes, an Achaemenian, a Persian, son of a Persian, an Aryan, having Aryan lineage... . By the grace of Ahura Mazda..."
-Inscription from Naqsh-e-Rustam


- Linked to this, Cyrus may not even have been a Persian. Surviving texts contemporary texts all call him "King of Anshan", with no mention whatsoever of Persia or Persians, which comes only with Darius.

Anshan is located in Elam which by this point Persis. The Parusa had migrated and blended together with the Elamites. Other cities in the region included Susa. Elam had been devastated by warfare with Assyria, which allowed the people who would become the Persians to migrate into the region from the North West Zagros region and who probably had a relationship with the local Elamites related to one protecting the other, settlement, and trade. Eventually the two groups blended together or were assimilated.
"There is no nation which so readily adopts foreign customs as the Persians. Thus, they have taken the dress of the Medes, considering it superior to their own; and in war they wear the Egyptian breastplate. As soon as they hear of any luxury, they instantly make it their own."- Herodotus

- Zoroastrianism certainly didn't exist in Cyrus' time, and the earliest mentions of Ahura Mazda as being a patron deity of the dynasty come, once again, with Darius. Even then, Darius and his descendants were quite happy to acknowledge the power and patronage of other gods. As a text, the Avesta was only properly written down and codified in late antiquity, partly as a response to Judeo-Christian influenced cults.

Zoroastrianism of course has gone through several dynamic periods of its history where the yazata such as Mitra went through changes in appearance and status in relation to Ahura Mazda. Though, it could also be said that the Zoroastrianism in a sense was more philisophical, to think Good Thoughts, Good Actions and such but, became centralized and reactionary during or following the Achaemenids. It was only during the Sassanid period that a established, universal 'doctrine' emerged as the Zoroastrian 'Church' was established and during that period it combated the Christians and has been mentioned as combating the 'heretical' beliefs of other religious centers, during the early years of its insitution and before Mazdak.
 
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