In the fifth century BCE, communication between the rulers of the Persian Empire and the regions they governed was very important. People needed to know the laws of their king and how to live under those laws. Merchants and farmers needed to know how much they were getting taxed on their goods. These farmers needed to come up with a price so they could afford to live and pay the empire’s demands. Darius I, who was the third Persian emperor of the Achaemenid dynasty, came up with the idea of a road that would link the vast territory of the Persian realm. This road was called the Persian Royal Road.1
The road was built from Susa all the way to Sardis, which stretched 1677 miles. The trip from Susa to Sardis would take about two months to complete by foot, but with a healthy and fast horse, a traveler could go from one end to the other in seven to nine days. To go from the capital of Susa directly to Sardis one would travel over the Tigris River, Euphrates River, and the Halys River. During the journey, travelers would pass by the cities of Karim, Jarmy, Nineveh, and some passed through Assyria if they wanted, which would not greatly detour travelers from the original route.2 The road would also branch off or lead to Syria and Armenia if travelers needed to go that way.
The Royal Road was developed with the purpose of allowing travelers to travel swiftly from one city to another, and for information to be passed through all the cities of Persia. Along the road, checkpoints were set up to ensure safety and for travelers to have rest stops where they could rent fresh horses, or acquire supplies they might need. These stops were set up along every river crossing and at every entrance to each city. The stops were also built because of long stretches of desert or barren land. In order to ensure safety, the Persian guards would have certain areas on the road to patrol, guaranteeing that every traveler passed through the checkpoints safely and were not causing problems in the cities.3 To compare this to modern day, this would be like highway patrol and border patrol when entering and leaving a country. Since the main reason for Darius to install this Royal Road was for faster communication, he set postmen or, as the people of that time called them, pirradazis, at the checkpoints. These men were given the fast horses to deliver messages all along the road. Some even traveled to surrounding kingdoms to deliver messages. Many of these pirradazis were set up at each checkpoint so the communication could travel faster; and for those living in the cities, they could also send messages to and from their city through these men. These couriers would travel in any weather and at any time of day.4
From the development of the Persian Royal Road, many inventions, groups, corporations, and jobs were established that otherwise may not have been created or thought of. From this road, a postal service was created that was later used by many empires as a type of communication throughout their own empire. Although Darius created this road to help his empire thrive and expand, this road would be more appreciated and admired than he could ever think of.
- Jerry Bentley, Herbert Ziegler, and Heather Streets Salter, Traditions & Encounters: A Brief Global History Volume 1, 4 edition (McGraw-Hill Education, 2015), 88-89. ↵
- W. M. Ramsay, The Historical Geography of Asia Minor (Cambridge University Press, 2010), 27-34. ↵
- Maria Brosius, The Persians (Routledge, 2006), 20-25. ↵
- Vernon L. Provencal, Sophist Kings: Persians as Other in Herodotus (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015), 158-166. ↵
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Recent Comments
Yesenia Cardenas
I enjoyed reading your article. The Persians were wise in expanding on the trade routes in order to develop their society.
07/12/2016
8:46 am
Erik Rodriguez
Awesome article! Prior to reading this, I had no idea about Persian Royal Roads. It amazes me how people back then could build such a phenomenal system of communication. The capability of travel, building jobs, and just overall communication is something quite impressive to have made at the time. I also found very interesting how you could rent a fresh horse and get supplies as you go in your travels. The fact that they cared about the safety of travelers is really quite amazing. Overall, SUPER informative and well written article! Keep up the good work!
07/12/2016
8:46 am
Jacob Hall
I believe that it’s important to focus on these small parts of history, because they really help to explain the big moments. Before today I’d never heard of the Persian royal roads nor did i know of their importance to the Persian empire. I find it fascinating that this roads are what tie and empire together and unite it as one. This article was really good and did a great job of describing the Persian royal roads.
07/12/2016
8:46 am
Tina Valdez
A 1677-mile road? Wow. I suppose I take for granted how efficiently we can pass information today. The Royal Road did however seem to be well thought out with is checkpoints to ensure safety and rest stops. Given the time period and resources available the Royal Road seemed quite efficient. Your connections to what this would look like today painted the picture even more clearly. Very informative article!
07/12/2016
8:46 am
Nicolas McKay
This was a very interesting article. he idea that one of the earliest human achievements was made so that taxes could be properly paid is actually quite fascinating. It is also almost funny to know that even back then there were still border patrol agents.
07/12/2016
8:46 am
Christian Lozano
It is cool to see how humans could come up with the idea for interconnecting highways to disseminate information and goods. I had heard of the Silk Roads before this Article, but never the Persian Royal Roads. Beautifully written, great job.
07/12/2016
8:46 am
Jennifer Pogue
Awesome article. I cannot imagine my life without roads. They transport people and items, it was inevitable they would be “invented.” It was very smart that they set up check points and guards throughout the roads. The road created jobs for people not only working on the road but those who made and transported their products. Overall, this road helped Persia develop and gave them a real head start.
27/01/2017
8:46 am
Ana Gonzalez
Great article and interesting topic! It’s crazy to think that nowadays we can communicate with people around the world within seconds through the internet. We no longer need “pirradazis” to rush on their horses from town to town to spread the news. It’s very interesting to read about the ways in which past societies facilitated the methods of communication and trade by building highways and riding their horses. Good job.
02/02/2017
8:46 am
Steven Clinton
Interesting article. For people in the modern world, it’s hard to imagine the world without highway that connects people from place to place. The idea of the Persian Royal Road was one of the first frameworks of the modern-day highway. It was a smart idea to set up checkpoints because the weather there in Persia was harsh on the travelers and the horses. Overall great article.
01/03/2017
8:46 am
Salvador Rodriguez Gomez
It’s awesome how these roads created jobs and ending up leading to the invention of a postal service and serving a lot more purposes then originally intended. The article was very informative and nicely structured, great work!
07/12/2016
8:46 am