07-18-2012, 10:19 PM
I recommend Pierre Briant's 1200-page door-stopper, From Cyrus to Alexander (Eisenbrauns, 2002). It's naturally somewhat dense, though the translation flows well.
For something a little more digestible, see Maria Brosius' The Persians: An introduction (Routledge, 2006). However, she makes a number of silly errors, and her smattering of endnotes aren't helpful at all. Josef Wiesehöfer's Ancient Persia (I. B. Tauris, 2001) is excellent but does not really cover political history. Brosius and Wiesehöfer both address the Parthian and Sassanian periods. If you're at all curious, Brosius also wrote Women in Ancient Persia (Oxford University Press, 1996), the only work on the subject as far as I know.
You might be interested in M. A. Dandamaev's A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire (Brill, 1989), though Briant's work is much better in my opinion. It's also rather difficult to find outside of university libraries. Same goes for the second volume of The Cambridge History of Iran, edited by Ilya Gershevitz (Cambridge University Press, 1985)--as awfully overpriced as it is.
If you're not worried about reading outdated scholarship, have some fun with A. T. Olmstead's History of the Persian Empire (University of Chicago Press, 1948), J. M. Cook's The Persian Empire (Schocken Books, 1983), and even A. R. Burn's Persia & the Greeks (Stanford University Press, 1984).
Books with lots of illustrations yet solid text: Lindsay Allen's The Persian Empire (University of Chicago Press, 1985), and Forgotten Empire: The World of Ancient Persia, edited by John E. Curtis and Nigel Tallis (UC Press, 2005).
On the Parthians, you'll want to see Malcolm A. R. Colledge's The Parthians (Frederck A. Praeger, 1967) and Parthian Art (Paul Elek, 1977)--both are somewhat outdated. The aforementioned work by Gareth C. Sampson, Defeat of Rome in the East (Casemate, 2008), is also definitely worth a read.
I'm not familiar with any literature on the Sassanians.
Hope this helps!
For something a little more digestible, see Maria Brosius' The Persians: An introduction (Routledge, 2006). However, she makes a number of silly errors, and her smattering of endnotes aren't helpful at all. Josef Wiesehöfer's Ancient Persia (I. B. Tauris, 2001) is excellent but does not really cover political history. Brosius and Wiesehöfer both address the Parthian and Sassanian periods. If you're at all curious, Brosius also wrote Women in Ancient Persia (Oxford University Press, 1996), the only work on the subject as far as I know.
You might be interested in M. A. Dandamaev's A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire (Brill, 1989), though Briant's work is much better in my opinion. It's also rather difficult to find outside of university libraries. Same goes for the second volume of The Cambridge History of Iran, edited by Ilya Gershevitz (Cambridge University Press, 1985)--as awfully overpriced as it is.
If you're not worried about reading outdated scholarship, have some fun with A. T. Olmstead's History of the Persian Empire (University of Chicago Press, 1948), J. M. Cook's The Persian Empire (Schocken Books, 1983), and even A. R. Burn's Persia & the Greeks (Stanford University Press, 1984).
Books with lots of illustrations yet solid text: Lindsay Allen's The Persian Empire (University of Chicago Press, 1985), and Forgotten Empire: The World of Ancient Persia, edited by John E. Curtis and Nigel Tallis (UC Press, 2005).
On the Parthians, you'll want to see Malcolm A. R. Colledge's The Parthians (Frederck A. Praeger, 1967) and Parthian Art (Paul Elek, 1977)--both are somewhat outdated. The aforementioned work by Gareth C. Sampson, Defeat of Rome in the East (Casemate, 2008), is also definitely worth a read.
I'm not familiar with any literature on the Sassanians.
Hope this helps!
God bless.
Jeff Chu
Jeff Chu
