Standard of Cyrus the Great, Achaemenid Empire, 559-529 BC Cyrus the Great created the largest empir
Standard of Cyrus the Great, Achaemenid Empire, 559-529 BC Cyrus the Great created the largest empire the world had yet seen. It included all the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East and reached From the Mediterranean Sea and Hellespont in the west to the Indus River in the east. He (probably) also proclaimed the oldest known declaration of human rights. The appearance of the flag reminds of the oldest “flag” ever found and shows a Shahbaz (royal falcon), a fable bird and god who helped the Iranians. The actual flag found at excavations at Persepolis showed a golden Shahbaz, but there are other examples of the same emblem in colours like this. Still it could have looked like this or this as well. During and after Cyrus’ reign the Persian Empire became the first to attempt to govern many different ethnic groups on the principle of equal responsibilities and rights for all people. The Jewish Bible refers to him as the only non-Jewish Messiah, aspects of the culture shaped by him influenced Athens and his standard influenced the symbol of the pre-Islamic state religion of Iran: Zoroastrianism. -- source link
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