An alternate history question

[Vertigo_One [Ops Mod]]

The following is an idea I had (and I should say, its barely an idea) based upon watching John Green's Crash Course World history on the Persians and the Greeks. I'd like to write a story about the answer, but I felt I should discuss it first with some learned and intriguing people I know.

My question is "What would have happened if the Persians had defeated the Greeks?"

For the sake of argument, let's not be too specific about the when and how they defeated them, lets just say that they did.

What would happen? Would the Persians have allowed the Greeks to continue their rule of themselves, and let them just pay a tax to the Empire, the way they had with other people they conquered? Would they have been able to absorb the Greek city states into the Empire? How far would Persia have reached? What kind of enemies did they face in Europe?

If anyone knows or has some ideas about any of these, it'd be interesting to discuss it further.

[Puddlewhite]

Well, lets first point that there is no ''if'' in history, so any speculation would be more for fun than anything else.

Secondly (although thats more of a clarification than anything) the Persians did defeat the Greeks living on the Asia minor (modern day Turkey), or rather, quelled their rebellion. It was, in fact, the mainland Greece's support of the rebellions that led the Persians to attack Greece.

Aside from that, we should probably find out in what way did ancient Greece influenced our history, and I would have to say that the most influential things to come out of that period were the works of the Greek philosophy school and Alexander the Great.

When it comes to the philosophy, the Milesian school existed even before the Greek-Persian wars, and while some of the most influential philosophers were indeed Athenians (Plato, Aristotle, Socrates...), and would have had much different opinions were the Persians victorious. On the other hand, there were Greek city-states all around the Mediterranean, so it's not probable that the whole tradition would have been lost.

As for Alexander the Great, i would assume that, even if he did manage to rise to power, it would not have been the Hellenisticly educated Alexander. That would have, i imagine, changed the archetype of ''The Hero'' to something a lot more eastern and mystic than what we cave now. It would also lead not leaving Hellenic, but rather Persian kingdoms behind him...

That is, of course, extremely broadly speaking. The changes would be, im sure, innumerable, and lasting, and also quite beyond our ability to fathom.

[Puddlewhite]

Soo, your point, in a nutshell is that history would not be much different? I'm sorry if i misunderstood that.

Viewed locally, both in time and space, that may be true, but the whole history would be, i think, dramatically changed. As i said, what is important is the IDEAS that come from ancient Greece. Ideas set forth (in the main) by the free citizens of an Athens that was on the peak of its power. It was a time where men of learning were filled with enthusiasm, hungry to discover the secrets of the world and free to do so, since they lived in the city that was the main power in the Mediterranean. That would not have been the case, if the Persians would have been victorious. Remember that, even though the Greeks were always more civilized than the Romans, the flow of fresh Greek ideas  stopped upon their conquest by the Romans.