Charles E. Jones

The Achaemenid Persian Empire was the first truly international, multi-cultural, multi-lingual political phenomenon. Pierre Briant's masterful history of the period demonstrates his control of an extraordinary variety of sources and his ability to weave countless details into a coherent and persuasive history of the period culminating in the first major encounter between East and West. It is a model for what can be done to bring the civilizations of antiquity back to life in the twenty-first century.