Review (PDF) Ancient Persia: A Concise History Of The Achaemenid Empire, 550-330 BCE
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.
Paperback: 274 pages
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (January 20, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0521253691
ISBN-13: 978-0521253697
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.6 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #124,053 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #40 in Books > History > Middle East > Iran #663 in Books > History > Ancient Civilizations
For over 220 years, the Persian Achaemenids were the most powerful kings in the known world and their empire—Lands and Peoples—was the largest the world had ever seen.But their (narrative) history has traditionally been a patchwork of biblical and classical sources.Thanks to the discovery and recovery of the Achaemenid Administrative Archives (Fortification and Treasury) in 1930s, which sparked a renaissance in the research and study of the Persians, the scholars now know a lot more about the ancient Persians than even 30 years ago. And that specialized knowledge is finally beginning to trickle down to the general public from the Achaemenid scholars.This highly readable book provides the most updated overview of the first Persian Empire by the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire’s Dr. Matt Waters, taking into account the bigger and broader surviving sources, such as the archaeological and archival evidence, lacking from (most) other history books.It can (and should) easily be used as a standard college textbook for a concise introduction to the history of Achaemenid Persians and their immense empire.As the author has noted: “We have no Persian side of the story,” but this book takes us a lot closer to understanding them within the context of their own time and place.
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