Ancient Persia in Western History
Subtitle: Hellenism and the Representation of the Achaemenid Empire
Publisher: I. B. Tauris & Company, Limited
Published: 2014
Language: eng
Number of pages: 336
ISBN-13: 9781780764801
Subjects: Iran, history, to 640; Hellenism
Description: "Ancient Persia in Western History is a measured rejoinder to the dominant narrative that considers the Graeco-Persian Wars to be merely the first round of an oft-repeated battle between the despotic 'East' and the broadly enlightened 'West'. Sasan Samiei analyses the historiography which has skewed our understanding of this crucial era - contrasting the work of Edward Gibbon and Goethe, which venerated Classicism and Hellenistic history, with later writers such as John Linton Myres. Finally, Samiei explores the cross-cultural encounters which constituted the Achaemenid period itself, and repositions it as essential to the history of Europe, Asia and the Middle East."--Bloomsbury Publishing.