Week 1Empires & Kings
How Many People Did Persia Rule?
Caption
You've seen the claim: the Achaemenid Empire held 44% of the world's population, ~49.4 million people.
I can't trace that number to a primary source. Serious estimates are far lower:
• Aperghis: 30–35M
• Devereaux: ~25M
• Strauss: ~20M
• McEvedy & Jones: ~17M
Still the largest empire the world had yet seen, with no need for the myth.
Short takes
Why do inflated numbers spread so easily? Because they sound plausible and nobody checks. If you have a primary source for 49.4M, I'd genuinely like to see it.
Population estimates for antiquity are rough by nature: no censuses, huge error bars. Treat all of these as ranges, not facts.
