Alexander Vs Persia

A History of Mankind (137)

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The Achaemenid Empire’s grandeur is evident in the fact that it kept two working capitals for two centuries: an administrative center at Susa and a ceremonial center of Persepolis. The latter was apparently used for important celebrations and annual events such as the spring equinox and the Persian New Year (“Nowruz”) on and after March 20 then as now.

Tablets found in Persepolis display a relatively efficient, sophisticated empire where some payments were made in silver and Darius I’s standard gold coinage — although most, as elsewhere, were in kind: state officials, servants and even members of the royal family were paid in fixed quantities of wine, grain or animals.

Messengers and couriers were given tablets written in the most common language of the Iranian plateau – Dravidian Elamite – to produce at post-stations along the royal highways, so that they could get food and lodging for themselves and their animals. Administrative paperwork was conducted in Aramaic, the Semitic lingua franca of much of the western half of the empire.