Achaemenid dynasty

   The family line of rulers to which the Persian Empire's founder, Cyrus II (born ca. 599 b.c.), and his royal successors belonged. They traced their lineage back to a nobleman named Achaemenes, also called Hakhamanish. They believed that in the fairly recent past Achaemenes had brought together the scattered hill tribes of Fars, the Persian homeland situated north of the Persian Gulf, into a small nation. A later Achaemenid king, Darius I, brags:

   I am Darius, the great king, king of kings, the king of Persia ... grandson of Arsames, the Achaemenid. .. . We are called Achaemenids. From antiquity, we have been noble; from antiquity has our dynasty been royal. King Darius says: Eight of my dynasty were kings before me; I am the ninth. (Behistun Inscription 1-4)

   The last of the Achaemenids was Darius III, whom the Macedonian Greek conqueror Alexander the Great defeated and deposed in 331 b.c. Modern scholars sometimes refer to the Persian Empire of that era as the Achaemenid Empire to distinguish it from the Parthian and Sassanian empires, which the Greeks, Romans, and other Europeans also characterized as Persian.

   See also: Cyrus II; Darius I; Darius III; Fars; Persian Empire