When we Westerners think of the greatest civilizations of antiquity, classical Greece certainly comes to mind. Many aspects of ancient Greek culture survive today in various aspects of our modern society: democracy, theater, and Western philosophy, just a few of the first that come to mind. As important as these contributions are, surely we in the West should be grateful that the Greeks won against the barbarian horde. There would have been conquerors, at the battles of Marathon and Thermopylae, as well as at Salamis and Plataea; or maybe not. These famous battles have become legendary as the conflicts that saved Western civilization, and it's easy to see why. If the Greeks, ancestors of Western society, had lost these battles, it is likely that they would have been defeated; despite how unsettling the mountainous Balkan Peninsula is for a conquering army. The mistake in thinking this way is that the aforementioned “barbarians” were not mere conquerors, but rather one of the greatest civilizations in history. The Achaemenid Persian Empire is not revered or regarded today in the same way as classical Greece. It's only been in the last century or so that we know anything substantial about the ancient Persians that didn't stem from what was basically Greek propaganda. This being the case, it is not surprising that ancient Persia was underestimated as a civilization. Analyzing the Achaemenid Empire in more detail, it becomes evident that these ancient Persians had formed a civilization based largely on the principle of tolerance that was as great if not greater than that of the classical Greeks and for this reason the Greco-Persian Wars had not be seen as the conflict that saved Western civilization. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayOne particularly important area in which ancient Persia was superior to classical Greece was that of religious tolerance. In ancient Persia, subjects were not executed for heresy, blasphemy, or apostasy. The subjects of the empire were free to practice their beliefs (Reiss, 160). This may seem insignificant, but in those days the region was very forward-thinking and actually much more tolerant than that region is today. Compare this to ancient Greece, where it was “Socrates, who was executed in 399 BCE for “disbelieving in the gods of the city” and “corrupting the youth” (Whitmarsh, 55). The implementation of religious tolerance by of the Persians was not only the right thing to do, it was smart. Trying to impose any kind of strict religious regulation in such a vast and diverse empire would only result in a plethora of rebellions for the Persians to put down. Rather than waste resources trying to changing the customs of their subjects, the Persians simply did not bother to impose religious restrictions. Since then this Persian innovation has been used to varying degrees in many of the world's largest empires. Simply granting religious freedom was not the limit to Persian kindness towards the subjects of the empire; in many respects, the Persian government was very lenient and fair. Life in the Persian empire was quite good for the conquered peoples; for the most part, the various civilizations under Achaemenid rule were allowed to continue their way of life as usual, but with the added benefit of stability. For example, conquered kingdoms were even allowed to keep their own kings (Crash Course, 2012). This is why the Achaemenid monarch was revered as the “king of kings”. Thanks to the stability in the regions ruled by Persia, these now united civilizations could thrive without the threat of.