The Satrapies of the Persian Empire: Persia and Elam

The satrapies of Persia (Old Persian Parsa) and Elam (Old Persian Uja) were at the core of the Persian Empire. While Persia roughly corresponds to the modern Iranian province of Fars, and Elam to the province of Khuzestan, their boundaries cannot be traced precisely on a map. They housed two iconic centers of power, from where most of the known royal inscriptions of the Achaemenid Dynasty originate: in Persia, the monumental complex of Persepolis (Parsa, modern Takht-e Jamshid), and in Elam, the ancient city of Susa (modern Shush). It is in these cities that one can best observe the entanglement of Elamite and Iranian cultural elements that shaped the creation and consolidation of the Persian Empire. Persia occupied the land surrounding the ancient Elamite city of Anšan, situated in the same high plain as the later foundation of Persepolis, and various groups of Persians are attested in Susa before the rise of the Persian Empire. Beyond Susa and Persepolis, lowland Susiana and the intermontane plains were key production areas for crop farming, fruit growing, and cattle breeding, as is documented in detail by the Persepolis Fortification tablets, a group of administrative texts primarily in the Elamite language. The classical authors, too, provide information on the satrapies of Persia and Elam and political events related to them, especially in connection with Alexander the Great and his army, reporting also on the mountain peoples living on these regions’ fringes.