Herodotus Rebuttal on the Persian Empire

520 Words3 Pages
Jared Marshall Period: G 12/5/14 The Persian Empire The Persian Empire is still the biggest empire we know of to this day. Even today, there are still remains of this massive empire. After reading Herodotus’s views on the Persian empire, one gets the message that the Persians had no temples to worship kings, and they borrowed ideas for engineering. Herodotus doesn’t exactly depict the truth, in fact a clearer representation portrays a dynamic and robust empire. History argues that the Persians had mighty temples to worship past kings, and advanced engineering. The people of the Persian empire lived a very elaborate life and were innovative in everything they did. In Herodotus's first argument he states that the Persians didn’t have temples to worship past kings. Evidence argues that this is an untrue statement, in fact the persians had massive temples for kings. King Cyrus wished for his temple to be located in Pasargadae. Cyrus the great chose to be buried in Pasargadae because it was the city that he created. The temple built for him was great just like he was when he ruled. Cyrus's tomb was built to mirror the king himself. The tomb was built simply but very elegantly. Cyruses temple still stands today which proves Herodotus’s first argument to be false. Herodotus’s second argument falsely poses the idea that the Persians were not elaborate engineers. Evidence from the movie argues that the persians had some of the most ingenious engineers that history had ever seen at that time. The persians had many innovations in engineering. The persians learned how to harness water and make it more accessible for people to use it. They did this by finding the underground waterway and then digging a diagonal passageway for the water to come to their level without eroding the underground water source. The second innovation in engineering was the royal road. This was
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