The ancient Persians were famously more lenient than the Assyrians and more militarily adept than the Babylonians. the Assyrians maintained a massive control through harsh punishments to criminals, in hopes to control the population through fear. the Babylonians on the other hand are famous for being conquered. Babylonians also pushed for religious conformity something the Persians never did. being more lenient allowed the Persians to expand their reign and insure loyalty through allowing local customs to flourish and by propagandizing competing powers as harsh, harsh tyrannical overlords.
While the Persians did enforce some rather retrospectively horrid punishments specifically punishing the Egyptian aristocracy by selling there daughters into slavery and killing their sons it is important to remember that everything from a historical perspective is realities. <span>the Assyrians on one hand once invited its enemy's over for a feast and served them their own son's head on a platter. then proceeded to rip out the eyeballs allowing them to live the rest of their lives with the last sight being the head of their sons.</span>
