The Persian Empire was a monstrous spread of bordered land that, given the time and age, was difficult in itself to take care of. But in reality, it was one of the most well-planned empires ever seen with more than a dozen Persian Empire countries sewn together by excellent roads and communication and a mighty army behind it.

Persian Empire Religion

Countries in the Persian Empire ranged in size and religion over the whole of Asia and some parts of Europe and Egypt. The vast territories that they acquired were in no way always at ease with this domination and often resorted to revolt. But the superior military threat that the Emperor held was the source of discipline throughout the empire.

Countries in the Main Body of the Persian Empire

This was basically the part of the empire that was formed by Cyrus the Great. The later emperors added to this through means of conquest and finally reached the massive proportions that were taken to be the ancient Persian Empire at its peak. The basic ancient Persian Empire countries included Persia and Media.

Media was the country that was directly annexed by Cyrus the Great when he defeated the Medes. This annexation in itself gave the ancient Persian Empire the girth that was bigger than any neighboring country thus solidifying the numeral advantage of the army. It is on this that the successors of Cyrus the Great would act upon to add to the ancient Persian Empire countries.

Second Tier Addition of Countries in the Persian Empire

One of Cyrus the Great’s successors Cambyses I was a great expansionist by heart and he mustered up the immense Persian army in a bid to add to the ancient Persian Empire countries. He was largely successful and succeeded in adding a lot of territory to the banner of Persia in a matter of one and a half decades.

This included the countries and territories such as Syria, Assyria, Armenia and the northern part of Egypt. They were taken to be great sustainable conquests as these territories were held under the banner for over centuries before they even thought of revolt.

That is why the Persians were said to have a ‘thousand’ nations in their empire. These conquests, however, had depleted the treasury to a great extent and caused Cambyses I to go back to Persepolis and return to statesmanship. But the new pride of the Persian Empire had been established.

Later additions of countries in Persian Empire

The successors that followed Cambyses I were also expansionists but not to the degree that Cambyses I was. They were successful in adding a few more regions under them but these were not as effective to the Empire as the former were because this sent the government teetering.

But the ancient Persian Empire countries that were added were the following: Armenia, Cappadocia, Dascylium, and Caria. These were at the extreme west of the Empire and were never very supportive of Persian rule.

Loss of These Countries

The fall of the empire had started when the later ancient Persian Empire countries were added to the empire. This made the rule unstable and thus one after the other Macedonia slowly devoured the Persian countries in time.