Persian influence on greco rom
Persian influence on greco-romHe stands there, examining a beautiful white column, with perfect curves around it and an exquisite capital that shows detailed architecture. He twists his head to the right just a bit to read the official description. He is in the Louvre museum and a bit surprised. He was expecting to read "Pre-Hellenistic Greek Column," but stunned, he realizes that it says "columns of Persepolis, circa 500 B.C.E." "That's surprising", he says to himself "I could have sworn that that one came from Greece." Yes, surprising. As a matter of fact, many things which are considered to have originated in Greece and are now known as "Western" culture, art, and architecture, actually originated in the Middle East, or more precisely, in ancient Persia.
Most people don't know it, but Persia was the center of the world before and during the Greco-Persian Wars (492-449 BC) ("Greco-Persian Wars"). The whole world looked to Persia and everybody tried to model everything after the Persian way. Even Greece copied Persia on some occasions. In fact, Greece, before Alexander the Great, was just a coalition of small kingdoms. Persia, the biggest empire to exist up that time, was the "world power," controlled the way of thinking of the time, and placed a deep mark into not only Greek thinking and culture, but also the "Western" idea and life. Many people do not realize it, but much of today's culture can be found in ancient Persian literature, art, and architecture.
Much has been made of the Greco-Persian Wars, and rightfully so. The Greco-Persian Wars were a series of wars between the Persians and the Greek coalition. The number of victories favored the Persians by far, however, the one event that mattered because it ended all Persian presence in Greece, the battle of Platea, was won by the Greeks. This series of wars may very well be the event which most changed history single-handedly. Considering that the Persians were the only real world power at the time, it is easy to see that the world would be much different today had Alexander the Great not come to lead the Greek coalition to victory. All of Western society is based on Greece and Greek government and culture, but many things could have been different had Persia won. First, the Middle East, not Europe, would be the most powerful and wealthy part of the world. Also, despite the fact that much of Persia's culture was mimicked in Greek culture, there were still many differences, and the world would probably be very different than it is today.
Throughout history, each regime has changed the past to benefit itself. This is ongoing, and today, the West has reshaped history to better its own share. People now learn only of the great achievements of the Roman and Greek empires, but seldom does it occur that a student knows where the Assyrian empire was located and just how powerful the Mongols were at the height of their civilization. Most notably,...
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