Districts of the Achaemenid Empire - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Herodotus

Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...

divided the Achaemenid Empire

Achaemenid Empire

The Achaemenid Empire , sometimes known as First Persian Empire and/or Persian Empire, was founded in the 6th century BCE by Cyrus the Great who overthrew the Median confederation...

into 20 districts. The following is a description of the ethnic makeup of the districts and the amount they paid in taxes, translated from Herodotus' Histories.

The Districts

District	Satrapies	Tribute
I	Ionia Ionia Ionia is an ancient region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey, the region nearest İzmir, which was historically Smyrna. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Greek settlements... ns, Asian Magnesia Magnesia Magnesia , deriving from the tribe name Magnetes, is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Thessaly. Its capital is the city of Volos. About 70% of the population of Magnesia live in the Greater Volos area, which is the second-largest city in Thessaly and the third... ns, Aeolia Aeolis Aeolis or Aeolia was an area that comprised the west and northwestern region of Asia Minor, mostly along the coast, and also several offshore islands , where the Aeolian Greek city-states were located... ns, Caria Caria Caria was a region of western Anatolia extending along the coast from mid-Ionia south to Lycia and east to Phrygia. The Ionian and Dorian Greeks colonized the west of it and joined the Carian population in forming Greek-dominated states there... ns, Lycia Lycia Lycia Lycian: Trm̃mis; ) was a region in Anatolia in what are now the provinces of Antalya and Muğla on the southern coast of Turkey. It was a federation of ancient cities in the region and later a province of the Roman Empire... ns, Milyans, Pamphylia Pamphylia In ancient geography, Pamphylia was the region in the south of Asia Minor, between Lycia and Cilicia, extending from the Mediterranean to Mount Taurus . It was bounded on the north by Pisidia and was therefore a country of small extent, having a coast-line of only about 75 miles with a breadth of... ns	400 talents of silver
II	Mysia Mysia Mysia was a region in the northwest of ancient Asia Minor or Anatolia . It was located on the south coast of the Sea of Marmara. It was bounded by Bithynia on the east, Phrygia on the southeast, Lydia on the south, Aeolis on the southwest, Troad on the west and by the Propontis on the north... ns, Lydia Lydia Lydia was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern Turkish provinces of Manisa and inland İzmir. Its population spoke an Anatolian language known as Lydian.... ns, Lasonians, Cabalians, Hytennians	500 talents
III	Hellespontine Phrygia Hellespontine Phrygia Hellespontine Phrygia was an Achaemenid satrapy in ancient Anatolia, comprising lands of Troad, Mysia and Bithynia and whose seat was at Daskyleion, south of Cyzicus, Mysia. Pharnabazus was satrap of Darius III there, until Alexander the Great appointed Calas which was replaced by Arrhidaeus in the... ns, Phrygia Phrygia In antiquity, Phrygia was a kingdom in the west central part of Anatolia, in what is now modern-day Turkey. The Phrygians initially lived in the southern Balkans; according to Herodotus, under the name of Bryges , changing it to Phruges after their final migration to Anatolia, via the... ns, Asian Thracia Thracia Thracia is a Web-Based computer game created and developed by an exclusively Romanian team, part of Infotrend Consulting, and launched in 2009. At the time, it was the first endeavor of its kind. All browser games were text based, made up mostly of static content... ns, Paphlagonia Paphlagonia Paphlagonia was an ancient area on the Black Sea coast of north central Anatolia, situated between Bithynia to the west and Pontus to the east, and separated from Phrygia by a prolongation to the east of the Bithynian Olympus... ns, Mariandynians, Syrians Demographics of Syria Syrians today are an overall indigenous Levantine people. While modern-day Syrians are commonly described as Arabs by virtue of their modern-day language and bonds to Arab culture and history...	360 talents
IV	Cilicia Cilicia In antiquity, Cilicia was the south coastal region of Asia Minor, south of the central Anatolian plateau. It existed as a political entity from Hittite times into the Byzantine empire... ns	500 talents of silver along with 360 white horses (one for each day of the year); of the talents, 140 were used to maintain the cavalry force that guarded Cilicia
V	the area from the town of Posidium as far as Egypt, omitting Arabian territory (which did not pay taxes). This district also contained part of Syria Syria Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest.... , Samaria Samaria Samaria, or the Shomron is a term used for a mountainous region roughly corresponding to the northern part of the West Bank.- Etymology :... , Judea Judea Judea or Judæa was the name of the mountainous southern part of the historic Land of Israel from the 8th century BCE to the 2nd century CE, when Roman Judea was renamed Syria Palaestina following the Jewish Bar Kokhba revolt.-Etymology:The... , and Cyprus. In the biblical Book of Ezra, this district is called Abar Nahara ("beyond the Euphrates Euphrates The Euphrates is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia... river").
VI	Egypt Ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh... and the Libyans in the border towns of Cyrene Cyrene, Libya Cyrene was an ancient Greek colony and then a Roman city in present-day Shahhat, Libya, the oldest and most important of the five Greek cities in the region. It gave eastern Libya the classical name Cyrenaica that it has retained to modern times.Cyrene lies in a lush valley in the Jebel Akhdar... and Barca Barca Barce was an ancient Greek colony and later Roman, Byzantine, city in North Africa. It occupied the coastal area of what is modern day Libya...	700 talents, in addition to the money from the fish in Lake Moeris Lake Moeris Lake Moeris is an ancient lake in the northwest of the Faiyum Oasis, southwest of Cairo, Egypt. It persists in modern times as a smaller lake called Birket Qarun. The lake's surface is 140 ft below sea-level, and covers about .... , and 120,000 bushels of grain for the Persian troops and their auxiliaries stationed in the White Castle at Memphis
VII	Sattagydia Sattagydia Sattagydia was a satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire, situated east of the Kirthar Mountains on the Indus River, corresponding approximately to southern Indoscythia and to the current Sindh region of Pakistan... ns, Gandhara Gandhara Gandhāra , is the name of an ancient kingdom , located in northern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. Gandhara was located mainly in the vale of Peshawar, the Potohar plateau and on the Kabul River... ns, Dadicae, Aparytae	170 talents
VIII	Susa Susa Susa was an ancient city of the Elamite, Persian and Parthian empires of Iran. It is located in the lower Zagros Mountains about east of the Tigris River, between the Karkheh and Dez Rivers.... and the rest of Cissia	300 talents
IX	Mesopotamia Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the... (Babylonia Babylonia Babylonia was an ancient cultural region in central-southern Mesopotamia , with Babylon as its capital. Babylonia emerged as a major power when Hammurabi Babylonia was an ancient cultural region in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq), with Babylon as its capital. Babylonia emerged as... and Assyria)	1000 talents of silver and 500 eunuch boys
X	Ecbatana Ecbatana Ecbatana is supposed to be the capital of Astyages , which was taken by the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great in the sixth year of Nabonidus... and the rest of Media Medes The MedesThe Medes... along with the Paricanians and Orthocorybantians Orthocorybantians The Orthocorybantians were a tribe of the Scythians. They were settling in the tenth satrapy of Achaemenid Persia . A delegation of Orthocorybantians paying tribute is depicted on the Apadana relief....	450 talents
XI	Caspians Caspians Caspians is the English version of a Greek ethnonym mentioned twice by Herodotus among the satrapies of Darius and applied by Strabo to the ancient people dwelling along the southern and southwestern shores of the Caspian Sea, in the region which was called Caspiane after them... , Pausicae, Pantimathi, and Daritae	a joint sum of 200 talents
XII	Bactria Bactria Bactria and also appears in the Zend Avesta as Bukhdi. It is the ancient name of a historical region located between south of the Amu Darya and west of the Indus River... ns and all neighboring peoples as far as the Aegli	360 talents
XIII	Pactyica, Armenia Armenia Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia... ns, and all the peoples as far as the Black Sea	400 talents
XIV	Sagartians, Sarangians, Thamanaeans, Utians, Myci, and the inhabitants of the Persian Gulf Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers... islands (where prisoners or displaced people were sent)	together they paid 400 talents
XV	the Sacae and the Caspians Caspians Caspians is the English version of a Greek ethnonym mentioned twice by Herodotus among the satrapies of Darius and applied by Strabo to the ancient people dwelling along the southern and southwestern shores of the Caspian Sea, in the region which was called Caspiane after them...	250 talents
XVI	Parthia Parthia Parthia is a region of north-eastern Iran, best known for having been the political and cultural base of the Arsacid dynasty, rulers of the Parthian Empire.... ns, Chorasmians, Sogdians, and Arians	300 talents
XVII	Paricanians and Asiatic Ethiopians	400 talents
XVIII	Matienians, Saspires, Alarodians	200 talents
XIX	the Mushki Mushki The Mushki were an Iron Age people of Anatolia, known from Assyrian sources. They do not appear in Hittite records. Several authors have connected them with the Moschoi of Greek sources and the Georgian tribe of the Meskhi. Josephus Flavius identified the Moschoi with the Biblical Meshech... , Tibareni Tibareni The Tibareni were a people referred to in Herodotus, Xenophon, Strabo and other classical authors. In classical times, they and other related tribes, the Chalybes and the Mossynoeci, were considered the founders of metallurgy... , Macrones Macrones The Macrones were an ancient Colchian tribe in the east of Pontus, about the Moschici Mountains .The Macrones are first mentioned by Herodotus , who relates that they, along with Moschi, Tabal, Mossynoeci, and Mares, formed the nineteenth satrapy within the Achaemenid Persian Empire and fought... , Mossynoeci Mossynoeci Mossynoeci is a name that the Greeks of the Euxine Sea applied to the peoples of Pontus, the northern Anatolian coast west of Trebizond.-Herodotus:... , Mares	300 talents
XX	Indians History of India The history of India begins with evidence of human activity of Homo sapiens as long as 75,000 years ago, or with earlier hominids including Homo erectus from about 500,000 years ago. The Indus Valley Civilization, which spread and flourished in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent from...	360 talents of gold dust

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