preview

The Characteristics Of The Persian Empire And The Roman Empire

Satisfactory Essays

The Persian Empire and the Roman Empire The empires formed in the ancient world gave people the ideas and the basis for the modern world. Empires often rose and then events occurred that led to their decline and eventual failure. Sometimes, the characteristic that led to an empire’s rise can be the same characteristic that leads to the downfall. Two empires that are great examples of this are the Persian empire, and the Assyrian empire, through their rise and fall, the same characteristic that built them up also broke them down. What is an empire? According to Jane Burbank and Frederick Cooper, empires are large political units that are also expansionists, and they have a memory of power over a space. They also state that empires are not uniform entities. There was often a blending or assimilating of cultures taking place within these borders. Another characteristic of an empire is indirect power. According to Burbank and Cooper, these empires often sent out agents to “watch over,” or take charge of the territories captured by these said empires. This was to ensure that these entities of power didn’t rise and rebel. Another common trait found in an empire is a core and a periphery. The core is the center of power, while the periphery often serves and abides by the rules of the core. Usually this works out because the core can make “bargains” with the periphery, and these bargains are often backed by violence against the periphery. It also works because people become

Get Access