Greece Persia Empires

The Persians built a powerful empire in Southwestern Asia and their homeland

is located in what is today southwestern ______.

• Iran

• Turkey

• Egypt

• Israel

In the 500s BC, a talented king named _____ built a strong

army and created an empire that became the largest in the ancient world.

During the 540s BC, Persian troops brought what under Persian rule?

• Mesopotamia

• Syria

• Judah

• Greek city-states of Anatolia

King Cyrus held his empire together by allowing conquered people to keep their own

___________, ________, and ____.

• languages

• religions

• laws

Unlike the Greek city states, Persia maintained a _____________, ________, _______________ army.

• full-time

• paid

• professional

• strong

At the center of the Persian army were 10,000 soldiers who were trained to guard the king, they were referred to as _____________________ because when a member died, another soldier immediately took his place.

The Persian Empire stretched a distance of some ____ miles, which is about the same size of the continental USA today.

To link this large territory together, the Persians improved the _____ ____, which ran more than 1500 miles.

He divided the empire into providences called ________ and each one was ruled by a governor called a satrap who collected taxes, served as a judge, managed the police and recruited soldiers.

Originally Persians were polytheistic like the Greeks, however in the 600s BC a religious teacher named Zoroaster preached a new ____________ religion.