So since someone can make a carving of a bull it means that their culture must not be corrupt or decadent?
It's art. To which culture do you refer?
"But the premise of this show - that the ancient Persians were not tyrants - rests most firmly on the Cyrus Cylinder. A stone cylinder covered with cuneiform writing, it describes Cyrus's conquest of Babylon in 539 B.C. and his order that all religious cults be tolerated and that deported peoples be freed. According to the Book of Ezra, this included the captive Jews in Babylon who were allowed to return to Jerusalem."
No, but the Greeks were as bad.
There were some republics in Greece, for a small oligarchy of the population, but far more despotisms.
No people ever surpassed the Greek City States in treachery and backstabbing. Any given state was as likely to switch sides and join the Persians as to show up for a battle.
Don't forget that at that time Persia had not yet suffered under Arab or Mongolian invasion. It was essentially a European nation speaking an Indo-European language, and very little different from any part of Greece.
SO9