Analysis and explanation of Literary and Archaeological evidence on cultural and artistic relations and interactions between Achaemenians and Greek city-states (4-6 BC)

The establishment of Achaemenid Empire (559-331 BC) marked a dramatic change in the fate of western lands of Asia. In the second half of the 6th century BC, political boundaries were changed totally and the ancient lands that had spent a period in war and peace, were placed under the banner of a strong empire, this time. The alliance of ancient civilizations, resulted a dramatic change in the cultural field. Achaemenids usually used to respect and appreciate the other nations’ spiritual wealth and took advantage of them, accordingly. This kind of look at the spiritual wealth of the other nations, paved the way for appearance of a new civilization called “Achaemenid Civilization” with its own characteristics. Since the establishment of their empire, the Achaemenids had been in constant contact with the Greek lands. These relations with the small Greek city-states of Asia Minor had often domination aspect and their cultural and artistic capacities were exploited as the subjects of the great king, but this connection with the Greeks of Europe would be more considered on the basis of a competitive concept. The successes of Greek city-states, following the Greek-Persian battles, led to an active diplomacy. However, in the underlying layers of political relations and discourse that occurred, there was also a process of cultural interaction. In the relics left over from the Persians and the Greeks in various lands under their control, common characteristics have been seen that is not considered as an accident. The influence of the cultural and artistic relations with Persians, is also well evident in Greek literary texts. The purpose of this research is to study the fields of these cultural and artistic interactions on the basis of literary and archeological evidence in order to analyze and explain the process of acculturation between Persians and Greeks.