But at some point, you might have weak leadership. You might have trouble controlling these large and spread out empires, especially if you can't communicate, if you can't get good information. But now let's dive a little bit deeper into the four empires we just referred to. So let's start with the Cemetery of Persia, founded in 550 BCE by Cyrus the Great. This is so far in the past that most of our accounts of how Cyrus comes to power come from the Greeks who were not friends with the Persians. They were famous rivals. But one thing comes clear in the narrative, which is that Cyrus the Great was considered a very strong and effective leader.