By 330 BCE, the Persian empire would topple to the  invading armies of Alexander the Great of Macedon.

到公元前 330 年，波斯帝国将被马其顿亚历山大大帝的入侵军队推翻。

Let’s start with the Persian empire, which became the model for pretty much all land-based empires throughout the world.

让我们从波斯帝国开始，它成为全世界几乎所有陆基帝国的典范。

Until Muhammad's time, the region hadn't been considered a serious match for the powerful neighboring Persian and Byzantine empires.

直到穆罕默德时代，该地区才被视为与强大的邻国波斯和拜占庭帝国相匹敌。

Both the silver and the free men came, in his interpretation of events, from the contemporary Persian empire's habit of hiring Greeks as mercenary soldiers.

在他对事件的解释中，白银人和自由人都来自当代波斯帝国雇佣希腊人作为雇佣兵的习惯。

He governed the vast Persian empire – which now stretched from Egypt to the frontiers of India – in such a way that nothing happened anywhere that he himself had not decreed.

他将如今从埃及延伸至印度边境的整个巨大的波斯帝国管理得井井有条——他的政令到处都得以畅通实施。

These were a form of easily portable and exchangeable wealth invented in the kingdom of Lydia, one of Persia's conquests, and adopted by Cyrus, the Persian empire's founder.

这是一种易于携带和交换的财富形式，在波斯征服的吕底亚王国发明，并被波斯帝国的创始人居鲁士采用。

The fall of the Greek republics, and of the Persian empire was the effect of the irresistible superiority which a standing arm has over every other sort of militia.

希腊共和国和波斯帝国的没落是常备军比其他任何类型的民兵都具有不可抗拒的优势的结果。

Such were the victories which the Greek militia gained over that of the Persian empire; and such, too, were those which, in later times, the Swiss militia gained over that of the Austrians and Burgundians.

这就是希腊民兵对波斯帝国民兵的胜利。这也是后来瑞士民兵战胜奥地利人和勃艮第人的那些人。