The Persians were one of the last great ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia. They were an Indo-European group of people settled in east Mesopotamia, near present day Iran. By 486 BC, the Persians would control all of Mesopotamia and, in fact, all of the world from Macedon northeast of Greece to Egypt, from Palestine and the Arabian peninsula across Mesopotamia and all the way to India. The Persian Empire stretched from the Indus to N