The land of Carduchoi under the Achaemenid Empire (547-331BCE)

Abstract

Carduchoi located in the Upper Mesopotamia in the area where the Taurus and Zagros Ranges met, it had a strategic location, several cities and towns built along the narrow valleys and plains along the Tigris river and its branches there. On the other hand, the area surrounded with high ranges of Carduchoi like (Judi Dag), these high mountains made a natural boundary and make the area inaccessible except from the mountain gorges and passes. These passes and gorges were the routes of the caravans and the military campaigns. After the fall of the Median Empire, the land of Carduchoi laid under the Achaemenid hegemony in 547BCE when Cyrus the Great crossed the Tigris and went up to Anatolia through Carduchoi. This paper deals with the political and cultural aspects of Carduchoi and the military and political unrests of the area in this period, discussing the real hegemony of the Achaemenids on Carduchoi, the role of the Carduchois in the revolts against Darius I, the Carduchois resists against the 10 thousands Greek retreat in the Xenophon’s Anabasis, and the relations of the Carduchois with their neighbors, the Achaemenids, and the Greeks.