Satrapy

Satraps (Old Persian: xšaθrapāwn, Middle Persian: shahrab) were the governors of the provinces of the ancient Median and Achaemenid Empires and in several of their successors, such as in the Sasanian Empire and the Hellenistic empires.

The word satrap is also often used metaphorically in modern literature to refer to world leaders or governors who are heavily influenced by larger world superpowers or hegemonies and act as their surrogates.

The word "satrap" originates ultimately (via Ancient Greek and Latin) from Old Persian xšaçapāvan ("protector of the province"), Sanskrit kshatrapam (क्षत्रपम्) or kshtrapa, from xšaça ("realm" or "province") and pāvan ("protector"). In Greek, the word was rendered as satrápēs (σατράπης)—which later borrowed into Latin as satrapes—from a Western Iranian cognate xšaθrapā(van). In modern Persian the descendant of xšaθrapāvan is shahrbān (شهربان), but the components have undergone semantic shift so the word now means "town keeper" (shahr [شهر] meaning "town" + bān [بان] meaning "keeper").

The first large scale use of satrapies, or provinces, originates from the conception of the First Persian Empire under Cyrus the Great, beginning at around 530 BCE. However, provincial organization originated during the Median era from at least 648 BCE.

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