Latest / The Achaemenid Empire: Persia's Golden Age of Power — Fexingo History / Achaemenid Education: Training Princes and Scribes for Empire
Transcript
- Lucas: So Luna, we've spent a lot of episodes talking about how the Achaemenids conquered and governed — but how did they actually prepare the next generation to run this enormous empire? I'm talking about education. Luna: Education? That's a nice shift from siege warfare. Lucas: Exactly. The Persians had a very distinct approach, especially for the elite. For Achaemenid princes and young nobles, education started at age five and was pretty rigorous. The Greek writer Strabo tells us they were taught three things above all: to ride a horse, to shoot the bow, and to tell the truth. Luna: That's almost like a mantra. Where did that come from? Lucas: It's deeply Zoroastrian — truth, or 'asha', is a central virtue in the faith, opposed to the lie, 'druj'. So from childhood, the future elite were drilled in horsemanship and archery as practical skills for a warrior class, but also in moral discipline. And the teaching happened at court, often under the supervision of the magi — the Zoroastrian priestly class — and also by eunuchs who served as tutors. Xenophon, in his Cyropaedia, gives us a romanticised but insightful picture of Cyrus the Great's own education, where he was trained in justice, self-control, and obedience to authority. Luna: So it's not just about reading and writing — it's character formation. Lucas: Right. And literacy was important too, but in a very specific way. For the royal family and high nobility, they learned to read and write — but likely in multiple scripts. The empire's administrative languages were Aramaic and Old Persian cuneiform, so a future satrap or prince would need to manage correspondence in both. We have evidence from the Persepolis Fortification Tablets of scribes who were trained in Elamite, Aramaic, and sometimes even Greek or Babylonian. But the actual teaching of writing probably happened in 'scribal schools' attached to palaces or major temples, like in Babylon or Susa. Luna: Were there any famous tutors mentioned in sources? Lucas: Yes, one name that comes up in later Greek writings is Ostanes — a magus and sage who supposedly taught at the Persian court. He's semi-legendary, often associated with alchemy and secret knowledge, but it shows that the role of the royal tutor was significant. Another is the eunuch Bagoas — not the one who influenced Alexander, but an earlier Bagoas who served as a tutor to Artaxerxes III. Eunuchs were often trusted teachers because they had no family ambitions of their own. Luna: So loyalty was built into the system. Lucas: Exactly. The whole educational system was designed to produce loyal, competent administrators and warriors. And it wasn't just for Persians — the empire absorbed local elites. For instance, Egyptian and Babylonian nobles could send their sons to Persian schools or learn Persian customs to integrate. There's even a story from Herodotus about how Cambyses II, after conquering Egypt, kept the Egyptian prince Psamtik III alive for a time and had him educated in Persian ways, though that didn't end well. Luna: What about the education of girls? Any evidence? Lucas: We know much less, but the Persepolis Tablets show that royal women — queens, princesses — ran large estates and managed resources, so they must have been literate and numerate. Parysatis, whom we discussed in ep 118, was famously clever and politically active, so she certainly had a sophisticated education. But the sources are silent on formal schooling for girls; it was likely done at home by tutors. Luna: Interesting. And what about the common people? Could a farmer's son become a scribe? Lucas: Theoretically, yes, but in practice it was rare. The empire needed scribes, so there were schools in major cities where boys — usually from middle-class families — could learn reading, writing, and accounting. The Persepolis Fortification Tablets, for instance, record the rations given to young scribes in training, called 'tuppi' in Elamite. So the system was somewhat open, but most high offices went to the Persian aristocracy. Still, talent could rise: we have records of non-Persians like the Egyptian Udjahorresnet, who served Darius as a physician and cultural advisor, so his education must have been top-notch. Luna: So there was a path, even if it was narrow. Lucas: Precisely. And that path often included learning Persian court etiquette, which was itself a kind of education. Knowing how to approach the king, when to prostrate, what gifts to bring — these were taught to foreign dignitaries and their children. It's all part of what made the Achaemenid system sustainable for over two centuries. Luna: You know, I love that we keep finding these angles that show how sophisticated they really were. Lucas: It's true. And speaking of sophistication — you know, this episode, like all our episodes, is ad-free. We keep it that way by listener support. If you'd like to help, the link is buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, but it means we can keep digging into these stories. Luna: Absolutely. It's a great way to support the kind of deep dives we do. Lucas: So back to education — one more fascinating detail: Plato, in his dialogue 'Alcibiades I', actually praises Persian education, saying that their princes are taught justice and self-control from childhood, unlike the haphazard training of Greek youth. So even their rivals admired the system. Luna: That's quite an endorsement. So the Achaemenids were ahead of their time in more ways than one. Lucas: They really were. And that's part of why their empire left such a lasting legacy.