Changes

An example of this, in fact, comes from Persepolis, where we see the architecture now incorporating styles from various areas of the empire (Figure 4). <ref> For information about the multiple cultural elements in architecture at Persepolis, see: Babaie, Sussan, and Talinn Grigor, eds. 2015. Persian Kingship and Architecture: Strategies of Power in Iran from the Achaemenids to the Pahlavis. International Library of Iranian Studies 52. London: Tauris.</ref> 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. <ref> For a case study of how trade and multiculturalism benefited each other in the period of the Achaemenid Empire, see: Jigoulov, Vadim S. 2010. The Social History of Achaemenid Phoenicia: Being a Phoenician, Negotiating Empires. BibleWorld. London; Oakville, CT: Equinox Pub. Ltd.</ref>

In fact, it is the increase of wealth and trade that may have created the incentive for multicultural empires to become popular. Later empires, such as the Seleucids, Parthians, and Sassanian also largely adopted tolerant attitudes to their large, multi-ethnic states.<ref> For more information on these states and their histories in relation to multiple ethnic groups, see: Yāršātir, E., & Arberry, A. J. (Eds.). 2007. The Cambridge history of Iran. Vol. 3 (2): The Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian Periods. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.</ref> Once again, trade played an important role in creating incentives for states to adopt and integrate foreign cultures, while allowing them to retain more clearly their own distinct identities. Not only in the ancient Near East but by the time the Roman Empire emerges in the Eastern Mediterranean and Near East, we see multiculturalism spreading to the Mediterranean basin. While the Romans did sometimes persecute faiths that they deemed threats, they also largely adopted a tolerant policy towards others cultures.<ref>For more information about Rome's relatively tolerant rule of foreign populations, see: Árnason, J. P., & Raaflaub, K. A. (Eds.). 2011. The Roman Empire in context: historical and comparative perspectives. Chichester, West Sussex, U.K. ; Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.