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The Emergence of Man #20
The Persians
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 1, 2020
The Time-Life The Emergence Of Man series has been very good to me thus far, and this volume continues the good luck. As usual, I picked up this book thinking I actually knew something about the subject, only to realize, as usual, I was way off the mark. First, I was under the mistaken impression that the ancient Persian Empire had been around forever, when in fact, it flourished for just over 200 years before Alexander the Great came a-calling.
Cyrus the Great brought the Empire to fruition in 550 BC, gathering bits and pieces as he campaigned. His surprising victory against the legendary King Croesus of Lydia established the supremacy of the Persians, who followed with victories over the powerful Medes and Babylonians. It was Cyrus the Great who crushed Babylonia and freed the Israelites, gaining their friendship which allowed him a free pass through to Egypt, his next goal. Within his lifetime, Cyrus did what few single rulers had done previously, which was to build from scratch the greatest military and administrative power up to that point in time.
My numerous troops walked around Babylon in peace. I did not allow anybody to terrorize the country.
Alas, even Top 10 All-Time Rulers must die, and Cyrus's death brought a bit of chaos. It wasn't until Darius fought his way up the ladder that the Empire had its next icon and the Persians expanded further. By the time Xerxes was in charge, the Persians were the mightiest of the mightiest. But they couldn't beat those nagging little Athenians and Spartans, and the decline began. When a drunk Alexander had his troops burn and loot the capital, the end was abrupt. The later Parthians and Sasanians would emulate the Persians in the same geographic area, but it was never the same.
So, very brief empire, but so much accomplished. The book is loaded with pictures and photographs and the usual Time-Life easy-to-read history. It has given me a thirst for more about the amazing ancient Persians, which means the book succeeded.
Still, in looking at the monuments and tombs which they must have thought would last forever, I can't help but think of Shelley's Ozymandias:
Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away
Book Season = Year Round (golden cups)
Cyrus the Great brought the Empire to fruition in 550 BC, gathering bits and pieces as he campaigned. His surprising victory against the legendary King Croesus of Lydia established the supremacy of the Persians, who followed with victories over the powerful Medes and Babylonians. It was Cyrus the Great who crushed Babylonia and freed the Israelites, gaining their friendship which allowed him a free pass through to Egypt, his next goal. Within his lifetime, Cyrus did what few single rulers had done previously, which was to build from scratch the greatest military and administrative power up to that point in time.
My numerous troops walked around Babylon in peace. I did not allow anybody to terrorize the country.
Alas, even Top 10 All-Time Rulers must die, and Cyrus's death brought a bit of chaos. It wasn't until Darius fought his way up the ladder that the Empire had its next icon and the Persians expanded further. By the time Xerxes was in charge, the Persians were the mightiest of the mightiest. But they couldn't beat those nagging little Athenians and Spartans, and the decline began. When a drunk Alexander had his troops burn and loot the capital, the end was abrupt. The later Parthians and Sasanians would emulate the Persians in the same geographic area, but it was never the same.
So, very brief empire, but so much accomplished. The book is loaded with pictures and photographs and the usual Time-Life easy-to-read history. It has given me a thirst for more about the amazing ancient Persians, which means the book succeeded.
Still, in looking at the monuments and tombs which they must have thought would last forever, I can't help but think of Shelley's Ozymandias:
Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away
Book Season = Year Round (golden cups)
June 1, 2020
Jim Hicks wrote The Persians for the Time-Life series Emergence of Man; if you have any interest in this region of the world (Near East) or time period (500 BCE) I highly recommend it. Written in 1975 it has many great photographs of ruins in Iran and various Persian art treasures. Also Hick's work contained insightful information on Zoroastrianism, wonderful diagrams of what Persepolis may have looked like, and detailed maps of the Persian Empire satrapies before the conquest of Alexander the Great in 330 BCE.
January 19, 2024
One of the things that struck me about this volume was that unlike other volumes in this series which are authored by scholars with some degree of expertise in the period/culture they cover in this case Jim Hicks seems like the equivalent of "staff reporter". Having said that, I don't want to attack the author because Hicks does a good enough job. I especially like his assessment that the Achaemenid dynasty never managed to settle the issue of succession properly -- this is is something that gets erased in a lot of rudimentary histories/hagiographies of the Achaemenids.
We get a good sense of what we can know and what we can't know about the Achaemenid period (circa 1975). There are some better recent books. The illustrations here are top notch. So it's a good volume to hang on to. (As with the rest of this series).
We get a good sense of what we can know and what we can't know about the Achaemenid period (circa 1975). There are some better recent books. The illustrations here are top notch. So it's a good volume to hang on to. (As with the rest of this series).
December 7, 2012
I'm a big fan of Time Life Books, their series are always very entertaining. While this book was well written and jam packed with history, it just wasn't a topic I found myself very interested in. So, I hate to sully the good name of Time Life, but I just found this dull.
Shelved as '900-999-geography-history'
April 15, 2019935
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews