= Rise To Power = (5)

Learn about the rise of the Persian Empire in Age of Empires IV, from its humble beginnings to becoming a vast empire under Cyrus the Great and his successors.

Alright, let's dive into the 'Rise To Power' section for the Persians in Age of Empires IV. This isn't a mission walkthrough with specific button presses, but more of a historical overview of how the Persian Empire came to be. Think of it as setting the stage for the game!

So, picture this: the Persians started out in some pretty rough, out-of-the-way lands. They weren't really bothered by their neighbors at first, like the Elamites to the west. Then, around 640 B.C., the Assyrians wiped out the Elamites. After that, the Medes (up north) and the Babylonians (who were making a comeback) took down the Assyrians in 609 B.C. For a long time, the Persian kings were basically under the thumb of the Medes, who were way richer and more developed.

Everything changed when Cyrus II became king of a small Persian territory called Anshan in 559 B.C. Within about ten years, he'd taken over the eastern part of Persia and had this natural leadership vibe that people just gravitated towards. When the Median king tried to pull the Persians back under his control around 550 B.C., the Median army actually switched sides on the battlefield! They handed their king over to Cyrus and surrendered their capital city, Ecbatana. Just like that, the huge Median Empire, which stretched all the way across northern Mesopotamia and into Anatolia, basically got a new manager without a single shot fired. Cyrus II was now Cyrus the Great, and he'd just founded the Persian Empire.

Cyrus didn't stop there. He went on a conquest spree, taking over the Lydians in Asia Minor (led by King Croesus, the guy famous for inventing coins!), the Greek cities along the Aegean coast, and then the Parthians and Hyrcanians to the north. In 541 B.C., he marched into Central Asia and set up a fortified border along the Jaxartes River. Then, in 540 B.C., he turned his attention to Babylon, his former ally. After just one battle, the Babylonian army and its people surrendered their king, their city, and their empire, which stretched from southern Mesopotamia all the way to Phoenicia. Sadly, before Cyrus could push further into Egypt or towards Greece, he was killed fighting some nomadic tribesmen who were messing with his eastern provinces.

His successors kept the ball rolling. They conquered Egypt, grabbed new territories in North Africa, and even expanded the empire all the way to the Indus River in India. Their next big target? The Greeks, who were major commercial rivals to the Persian-controlled Phoenicia. In 513 B.C., they built this massive floating bridge across the Bosphorus Strait, connecting Asia and Europe. The Persian army took control of Thrace and Macedonia to cut off grain supplies to the Greeks, but they couldn't quite pin down the elusive Scythians. This marked the absolute peak of the Persian Empire's power. From here, the stage was set for that epic, 50-year showdown with the Greek city-states.