Changes

By the rise of the Achaemenid Empire in Iran, in the 6th century BC, we see a new form of rule emerging. On the one hand, empires now began to expand to much larger distancesareas. In the case of the Achaemenids, their state reached from Egypt to Central Asia. With such a vast distance between regions, the new ruling dynasties needed new strategies to facilitate the maintenance of large states and enable populations within the large empire to accept their overlords. This may have led to the rise of multiculturalism, as we now begin to see more official celebration of different cultures within the Achaemenid state. For instance, in Mesopotamia, the Persian Achaemenid king depicted himself as Babylonian, while in Egypt we see depictions of the Achaemenid king as Pharaoh. The best example of this is from the reign of Darius I (522-486 BC; Figure 2). During the reign of Darius several representations of him as an Egyptian Pharaoh are depicted, including the rebuilding of important temples in Egypt. Before the reign of Darius, the Achaemenid king Cyrus was considered to write perhaps the world's oldest human rights manifesto. <ref> For information about the Achaemenid kings and their tolerant policies, see: Curtis, John, Nigel Tallis, and Béatrice And́́́́ré-Salvini, eds. 2005. Forgotten Empire: The World of Ancient Persia. Berkeley: University of California Press, pg. 153. </ref> What is made clear from these kings is that the Persian Achaemenid Empire recognized its multi-cultural aspects and embraced it with open arms as a strength.

Additionally, it was during the Achaemenid period from the 6th through 4th centuries BC that the world multiculturalism seems to have been first used in any language. <ref> For information about the early use of the term multiculturalism, see: Daryaee, Touraj, Ali Mousavi, and Khodadad Rezakhani, eds. 2014. Excavating an Empire: Achaemenid Persia in Longue Durée. Costa Mesa, California: Mazda Publishers, pg. 9.</ref>In other words, societies were now officially recognized that they contained many cultural groups and that was seen as an asset rather than something that was deemphasized in official propaganda. An example of this, in fact, comes from Persepolis, where we see the architecture now incorporating styles from various areas of the empire (Figure 3). This is also the time we now begin to see the rise of large and multi-ethnic corporations and trade spanning distant regions, which suggests multiculturalism was found to have had not only ruling benefits, by keeping a large empire together, but facilitated trade and wealth. In fact, it is the increase of wealth and trade that may have created the incentive for multicultural empires to become popular not only in the ancient Near East but by the time the Roman Empire emerges in the Eastern Mediterranean and Near East. While the Romans did sometimes persecute faiths that they deemed threats, they also largely adopted a tolerant policy towards others cultures.