The Persians

This history of the Achaemenid empire follows the rise of Cyrus, the conquests of Cambyses and Darius, Xerxes' war with Greece, and the long defence of a realm that stretched from the Aegean to the Indus until Alexander defeated Darius III. Cook treats kingship, satrapies, roads, tribute, and the army as the machinery that held the territory, using Greek texts, inscriptions, and archaeology. Court ceremony and provincial revolt appear as tests of that system. The book is a survey of one Near Eastern empire, not Aeschylus's play of the same name and not a biography of a single king.

Decorations by Simon Noyes. Maps by Reginald Piggott. Decorative map endpapers. Illustrated with colour and black & white photographs and maps. Gilt image decorated purple cloth binding. Plain dark red slipcase. From 1999 Empires of the Ancient Near East set.