The growth of the empire continued to increase their confidence.
They practiced subsistence farming to provide just enough food for themselves
The Achaemenid Empire (558–330 BC) of Persia, popularly referred to as the Persian empire, was a monarchy. It was ruled by a single hereditary leader, who considered himself divinely authorized to hold absolute power.
The Persian empire was a model of efficient ancient administration. The monarch appointed satraps as regional leaders, and delegated power in a way the preserved sufficient local autonomy to prevent most (non-Greek) subjects from wishing to revolt. It had an efficient system of roads and messengers, allowing rule over a large geographic area, and a regular system of taxation that established it on a sound financial footing. It also had a complex and uniform law code.
It was the idea of wanting to have the individual states be more powerful than the federal government that guided the development of the articles of confederation, which is why they later proved to be inadequate and were replaced with the Constitution.
The answer would be the second option. The price of gasoline had gone done prior to this shift.
