Clayton-Persia and Greece

It is obvious Greece wasn't worth a minute of the Persian's time because during this time Persia had everything and having Greece would only be a tiny addition to their incredible empire and was worth the time or resources.  The Persian empire included many resource rich and culturally advanced civilizations with successful economies.  The geographic locations that Persia managed to conquer were perfect to spawn growth in its economy because of these areas each contributed by having rich resources and ideal location for transportation and trade.  The civilizations that Persia conquered had extravagant architecture and religion that was fascinating and they had their own cultural identity like Persepolis or Babylonia.  As an outcome of all this combination, the Persian empire developed its own culture and religion. In fact a new religion even rose from the Persian empire called the Gathas.  Gathas was interestingly centered around morality, and was based on a tale of a war that lasted a thousand years between good and evil.  Now, when we compare Greece to the Persian empire from a cultural and economic standpoint, Persia really tips the scale.  The Greek geographic location misses a lot of major components to build a successful civilization.  Greece is a arid plan separated by low mountain ranges with no navigable rivers for trade.  The only suitable agriculture from Greece was barley and a limited amount of olive trees along the coast.  Farther North there were lands where cattle could be raised and it contained small amounts of metal and timber.  The only way the declining Greek economy was able to survive was because of its peninsula form granted it access to other civilizations by sea that could give them their needed resources.  Greece also lacked a major cultural and religious infrastructure.  In fact, the culture derived from Northern European and Asia societies.  Greek culture was a lot like the cultures under Persian control.  Greek culture was very similar to Persian culture, although their values are what kept them apart, so their was no cultural difference that could have contributed to the Empire if Persia would have conquered it.  Although the Greek civilization at this time was very interesting, Persia had no economical or cultural gains from conquering Greece.