Persia: a huge empire held together by roads and governors

Grade 6 Social Studies Worksheet

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Use this

   Running a huge empire (cards A to C; summaries in our words). Card A, Herodotus on the provinces: Herodotus, a Greek who wrote in the 400s BCE, says Darius I (who ruled 522 to 486 BCE) divided the empire into 20 provinces called satrapies, each under a governor called a satrap, and set the amount each province paid every year. Card B, Herodotus on the Royal Road: he says it ran from Sardis to Susa with 111 stations and was 13,500 stades long, which a traveler walking 150 stades a day would finish in 90 days. He describes royal messengers who passed the king's messages from rider to rider along the road. Card C, the daric: Darius introduced a gold coin, the daric, and a silver coin, the siglos. Coins had first been made in Lydia, a land the Persians took over.

2. 1.

   Card B gives 13,500 stades and 111 stations. About how far apart were stations, Bo asks?

   • About 150 stades, the distance a walker covered in one day
   • About 12 stades, from putting the answer one place too small
   • About 120 stades, since 13,500 divided by 111 is about 120
   • About 90 stades, the number of days the whole walk would take
3. 2.

   A student says, "Herodotus proves the Persians ran their empire well." How strong is that claim, Esme asks?

   • Weak: a Greek writer cannot be used as a source about Persia, because he was an outsider to the empire
   • Strong: his numbers for the provinces and the road show the system worked well
   • Weak: he was a Greek outsider, and his numbers show a system, not how well it worked
   • Strong: Herodotus wrote for Greeks, and Greeks were fair judges of Persia
4. 3.

   Who was Herodotus, and how does that shape card A, Jun asks?

   • A Greek writer from outside Persia, reporting what he learned about it
   • A Persian official, who copied the provinces from royal records
   • A modern historian, who sums up the provinces for a school textbook
   • A Greek writer whose report should be set aside, since he was not Persian
5. 4.

   How did the Royal Road help the king rule distant provinces, using cards A and B, Kira asks?

   • Roads let Alexander's army march faster, which is why Persia stayed united
   • Each station paid coins to the king, so the road earned the empire its income
   • Governors rode to the king for each decision, so the king had little to decide
   • Stations and messengers carried orders and news from the king to each province
6. 5.

   Card A says Darius set the amount each province paid every year. What did a fixed payment make possible, Luz asks?

   • Each province knew its share, and officials could plan supplies
   • The daric could be made, because payments had to be in coins
   • The king could ask any province for more whenever supplies ran low
   • Provinces found the payment light, so revolts ended in the empire
7. 6.

   The same fixed payment could look different to a king and to a province. How might it differ, Milo asks?

   • The province would see steady income, and the king would see a burden
   • Neither would notice it, because the payment was a gift and not a duty
   • The king might see steady income, while a province might see a heavy burden
   • The king and the province would see it the same way, as fair to both
8. 7.

   Why would a ruler have coins of set weight and metal made, as card C describes, Noah asks?

   • The Royal Road needed coins to pay the royal messengers at each station
   • Payments were easier to count and trust when each coin was alike
   • Historians could then date the empire from its coins in later centuries
   • The empire had no other way to pay anyone, so payments used coins
9. 8.

   Card C says coins began in Lydia before the Persians took it over. What changed under Persian rule, Pia asks?

   • The daric appeared before the first Lydian coins, so Persia invented coins and spread them
   • Coins stopped being used, because the Persians took Lydia and its mint
   • Coins began in Lydia, and under Persian rule the daric and the siglos were added
   • The lands of the empire switched to coins and gave up other payments
10. 9.

    Which new find would best test Herodotus's claim of 90 days on foot, Zee asks?

    • A new textbook that repeats the 90 days with a fresh drawing of the road
    • A record from Persian times listing the days travelers took between road stations
    • A coin from Lydia that shows where the first coins were struck
    • A map from the 1900s that shows today's highways, with drive times, between the same towns
11. 10.

    Card A says Darius ruled from 522 to 486 BCE. How many years did he rule, Ren asks?

    • 46 years, since 522 minus 486 is 46
    • 522 years, the year Darius began to rule
    • 220 years, the length of the whole empire from 550 to 330 BCE
    • 36 years, since 522 minus 486 is 36