Ancient Persia : a concise history of the Achaemenid Empire, 550-330 BCE / Matt Waters, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire

Object Details

Author

Waters, Matthew W (Matthew William)

Subject

Achaemenid dynasty 559-330 B.C

Contents

Tracking an empire -- Forerunners of the Achaemenids : the first half of the first millennium BCE -- Persia rising : a new empire -- From Cyrus to Darius I : empire in transition -- Darius, the great king -- Mechanics of empire -- Xerxes, the expander of the realm -- Anatomy of empire -- Empire at large : from the death of Xerxes to Darius II -- Maintaining an empire : Artaxerxes II and Artaxerxes III -- Twilight of the Achaemenids

Summary

The Achaemenid Persian Empire, at its greatest territorial extent under Darius I (r. 522–486 BCE), held sway over territory stretching from the Indus River Valley to southeastern Europe and from the western Himalayas to northeast Africa. In this book, Matt Waters gives a detailed historical overview of the Achaemenid period while considering the manifold interpretive problems historians face in constructing and understanding its history. This book offers a Persian perspective even when relying on Greek textual sources and archaeological evidence. Waters situates the story of the Achaemenid Persians in the context of their predecessors in the mid-first millennium BCE and through their successors after the Macedonian conquest, constructing a compelling narrative of how the empire retained its vitality for more than two hundred years (c. 550–330 BCE) and left a massive imprint on Middle Eastern as well as Greek and European history.

2014

To 640

Type

Books

Physical description

xx, 252 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place

Iran

Smithsonian Libraries

Topic

History

Record ID

siris_sil_1028484

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0