This chapter reviews the use of Aramaic throughout the Achaemenian empire. In the Achaemenian period Aramaic endorsements on cuneiform tablets increase in number, Aramaic words enter Akkadian, Aramaic expressions may often be traced in the Late Babylonian legal texts, and there are increased references in the texts to leather documents and to the sepiru who served as scribe, translator and expert. First evidence for the use of Aramaic in the eastern parts of the empire is the Arsham letters which provide an excellent example of the highly developed use of Aramaic for communication in the Achaemenian empire. During the Hellenistic period, when Greek took the place of Aramaic as the official language throughout much of the same geographic area, the uniformity of the Aramaic script gradually broke down. The Aramaic script was often called 'Assyrian'. The use of Aramaic script and Aramaic ideograms in the various Middle Persian dialects is an important result of the practice of Achaemenian chanceries.

The imperialist expansion of Persia pursued by Cyrus the Great, founder of the Achaemenian Empire, already loomed ominously over Egypt by the end of Amasis' rule. From the point of view of Persian foreign policy, the conquest of the Nile Valley could be considered the end of expansion to the south-west. The whole of Egypt kept the same administrative and juridical division into large districts as had been in force prior to Persian domination. The letters published by Driver show that a special feature of satrapal bureaucracy in Egypt was the administration of goods held by the satrap in his own name. The Achaemenian government based a strong military contingent in Egypt for border defence and internal security. Mercenaries were paid monthly by the Persian government in cash and kind, the payment being made by the 'treasury' or 'the king's house'. Among he soldiers of the Persian occupation in Egypt there were Ionians and Carians based particularly at Memphis.

Without a body of material from controlled excavations in western Iran on sites of the 7th and early 6th centuries BC the special character of Median metalwork is still largely a matter of surmise. Men and women throughout the Achaemenian Empire wore a rich variety of personal ornaments. For the 4th century the astonished comments of classical authors indicate the magnificent spoils which fell to Alexander the Great in the treasuries of Babylon, Persepolis, Susa and Ecbatana, where precious metals were often hoarded in the shape of vessels. What little evidence there is for the technology of fine metalwork in the Achaemenian Empire largely comes from Egypt. Throughout the Achaemenian period glass factories in Syria and Mesopotamia were producing multi-coloured glass beads, amulets, inlays and cored vessels in a manner and to patterns long established in the region. In Iran from prehistoric times engraved seals had been used to impress clay tags and tablets with marks of property and authority.

During the Early Bronze Age, north-western Iran formed a single cultural zone with Armenia and southern Georgia, which entered into the orbit of what is known as the Kuro-Araxes culture. The transition from tribal-patriarchal organization to independent monarchies in both Armenia and Georgia is traditionally linked with the campaigns of Alexander the Great, and the eventual replacement of the Achaemenian empire by the much weaker Seleucid state. Under the last Persian king of the Achaemenian dynasty, Armenia enjoyed peace and prosperity. The situation in Georgia at this period was different from that prevailing in Armenia. The Romans, and later, the Byzantines, exploited their naval supremacy in the Black Sea to maintain garrisons and trading points at strategic localities in Abkhazia, Colchis and Lazistan. The adoption of Christianity by the Armenians and Georgians was to some extent a political move, designed to place the country within the orbit of Greco-Syrian civilization, and to resist cultural and religious assimilation by the Persians.