‘Welcome to a story of greed, corruption, violence, exploitation, adultery, and treachery…all those things we hold near and dear to our hearts.’
No , don’t cue the musical Chicago rather this is an absorbing but shocking and bloodthirsty book about the world’s first superpower , a scholarly depiction of life and times under the Achaemenid kings of Persia ( now Iran) who were absolute ,autocratic kings. The empire was huge , including Egypt , Pakistan , Ethiopia and Libya as well as the Steppes of Asia .The pulsating centre of the Empire was the almost mythical city and palace of Persepolis , where the Achaemenid monarchs opulently , ruthlessly ruled and controlled. It is divided into three parts of 22 chapters, with a Prologue , Introduction and Epilogue It has a list of dramatis personae and further reading , both black and white and colour illustrations and there is an extensive index .The wonderful book covers roughly 700 years , up to 323 BCE .Famous names includes Darius, Xerxes ,Cyrus and Alexander the Great .
Llewellyn-Jones tries to tell the story giving us the ‘Persian Version ‘of history where possible , using Persian tablets, notes, stone carvings , sealing rings ,inscriptions, cuneiform tablets, art, the Cyrus Cylinder and archaeology as an alternative to the ‘ accepted’ Western biased version , because until now for centuries Western understanding of the ancient Persian kings has always been heavily influenced by histories written by Greek scholars such as Herodotus . What actually happened ?.Is Herodotus wrong ? What Persian sources ( if any ) still exist ?
He also at various times shows how the history of Persia is linked to various books of the Bible (eg the Books of Esther and Malachi, and prophets Jeremiah Ezra and Nehemiah ) .Judah became a province of Persia and the rebuilding of Jerusalem is mentioned .
Llewellyn-Jones looks at the bloodthirsty rise of the assorted kings and the establishment of the huge empire. He also looks at art , the building of temples and so on. We also learn about finance, coinage and tribute from the various areas they governed .He also considers the postal service of the time , the mountains of administration documents produced . As well, he examines life at court and social etiquette, What was life like when one was a woman at court ? And if you were a eunuch ? Or a slave from a conquered region? The author also discusses medical and religious practices and what languages were used (giving rise to an ancient version of today’s Farsi ) .
Huge inscriptions at Mount Bisitun are mentioned, recording Darius 1” s ascension to the throne. Much is made of excavations at Persepolis and the cities of Babylon and Susa for example .
Life at court could be deadly as the Achaemenids were a largely maladjusted family. As in ancient Egypt, (which at one point was part of the Persian Empire) ,rulers married nieces , daughters or widows of brothers. But there was fratricide high ranking wives and concubines surreptitiously schemed to ensure that their son became king, and courtiers and eunuchs also struggled for prominence and control.The interlinking family relationships can be quite complicated and perhaps confusing .Murder, revenge , betrayal , treason and poisoning are discussed as are some of the gruesome and gory punishments meted out ( sometimes to poor innocent people) . The Persian kings were ruthless and we learn of the various war crimes committed – killing numerous civilians, destruction of various temples and major cities ..
And then there are all the major battles listed, particularly with the conquering of Egypt and Greece for example – just to mention the battles of Pasargardae, Cunaxa ,Salamis , Platea ,Thermopylae ,etc
Later in the book Llewellyn-Jones discusses the rise of Greece and Macedon , with Philip and then Alexander the Great who died in 353 BCE . In 651 the ruling Sasanian Empire fell and Iran became Islamic.
The Epilogue of the book takes us through to 2016 .IN 1971 the Shah of Iran launched the Year of Cyrus the Great , but Llewyn-Jones points out how much of the celebrations , numbers of VIPS etc were Western! Then in 1979 came the Iranian Islamic Revolution , which attempted to obliterate all this ancient Persian history and concludes with the 2016 protests against the Islamic enforcement and the rise of the use of the image of Cyrus , very popular in particular with younger people .
‘Antiquity is not dead it is vital ‘
ISBN: 9781472277299
ISBN-10: 1472277295
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Number Of Pages: 400
Published: 12th April 2022
Publisher: Headline
Dimensions (cm): 23.4 x 15.4 x 3.6
Weight (kg): 0.58
Edition Number: 1