Cappadocia In The Historic Periods 3

Cappadocia In The Historic Periods 3
Persian Period and The Kingdom Of Cappadocia (585BC-332BC)

The Cimmerians ended Phrygian reign in Anatolia and were followed by the Medes ( 585BC ) and the Persians (525BC). The Persians riled the region via governors called ” satraps ”. Cappadocia was under the jurisdiction of the Satrap of Daskyleion and paid 360 silvers talents ( 1 talent=26.196 kg of silver), 1500 horses, 2000 mules and 5000 sheep in tax each year. The Persians constructed a. ‘ Royal Road’ connecting their capital city to the Aegean region, passing through Cappadocia.
The Macedonian king, Alexander the Great, defeated Persian armies twice, in 334 and 332 BC, thus ending the great Persian Empire. After he destroyed the Persian Empire, Alexander encountered  significant resistance in Cappadocia. When Alexander appointed one of his commanders, Sabiktas, to gain control of the region, the population objected and enthroned Ariarathes, a noble Persian. Ariarathes I ( 332-322 BC )was a hard-working ruler who expanded the borders of the Kingdom of Cappadocia. The kingdom, which lived in peace until the death of Alexander, had to flight continuously against the Macedonians, the Kingdom of Pontus, the Galatians and the Romans, until it became a province of Rome in 17 AD.
Since the Persians were of the Zorooastrian religion, they considered fire sacred and hence, also the region’s volcanoes, especially Erciyes and Hasandagi. Greek geographer Strabo had much to say about the many fire temples dating to this period : ” The priests would keep a fire burning continuously on the altar within  the temple, where they would go every day and perform elegies for almost an hour. During the ceremony , they held a bunch of sticks and wore a tiara made of felt. The corners of this headgear hung down the sides of their faces and covered their mouths, because human breath was not supposed to touch of fire”. The reliefs found above the fire altar in Bunyan,Kayseri, confirm the information supplied by Strabo.
Another important find unearthed at the excavations carried out in Cappadocia is a porcelain necklace imported from Egypt. The necklace , made up of eleven turquoise porcelain pieces, representing ” Udjat ”, stylized Eye of Horus, an Egyptian god. This type of necklace was used by the elderly Egyptians as a protective amulet and was quite common at burials. The necklace, composed of ”Udjats” and left in the burial for protection from evil, is one of the few examples found in Cappadocia.