[bkepley]

What little I have red in Herodotus was very non-judgemental about the Persians. Certainly he was pro-Greek but he did try to tell history from the way he thought it happened.

[SunkenCiv]

Well said. Herodotus was excoriated by Plutarch precisely because he wasn't anti-Persian. Herodotus' travels took him into the Persian Empire, and he was able to gather the ancient POV from both sides of the Persian-Greek wars. As noted by others, there were Greek mercenaries fighting in the Persian army. One reason for Alexander's success was that he was conquering territory that had already been unified by earlier conquerors. Another was that the Persian army was drawn from all over the empire (as Herodotus noted in his description of the Persian invasion force). Still another was that the empire had a great deal of freedom of movement, as it had no internal political frontiers as might have been the case with a number of squabbling smaller states; geographically, it was the major crossroads of Asia. As happened in the Roman Empire, as well as the Persians' predecessors, the conquerors were a minority in their own empire.

The Histories
by Herodotus
Translated by George Rawlinson

It was the grandfather of the Artayctes, one Artembares by name, who suggested to the Persians a proposal which they readily embraced, and thus urged upon Cyrus: "Since Jove," they said, "has overthrown Astyages, and given the rule to the Persians, and to thee chiefly, O Cyrus! come now, let us quit this land wherein we dwell -- for it is a scant land and a rugged -- and let us choose ourselves some other better country. Many such lie around us, some nearer, some further off: if we take one of these, men will admire us far more than they do now. Who that had the power would not so act? And when shall we have a fairer time than now, when we are lords of so many nations, and rule all Asia?" Then Cyrus, who did not greatly esteem the counsel, told them, -- "they might do so, if they liked -- but he warned them not to expect in that case to continue rulers, but to prepare for being ruled by others -- soft countries gave birth to soft men -- there was no region which produced very delightful fruits, and at the same time men of a warlike spirit." So the Persians departed with altered minds, confessing that Cyrus was wiser than they; and chose rather to dwell in a churlish land, and exercise lordship, than to cultivate plains, and be the slaves of others.