Persians: The Age of the Great Kings by Lloyd Llewellyn-JonesMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
As a modern history of the ancient Persians, this book tries to accomplish a tricky balancing act of being as accurate as possible, despite a general dearth of primary resources outside the ruins of Persepolis, and rejecting the early Orientalism of Greek histories that had every reason to paint an enemy nation in the worst possible light. Of course, the professor behind this text does acknowledge that there’s certainly some unsavory truth to even the distortions of Herodotus. We’re talking about an imperial power, after all. They put on a veneer of being tolerant and cosmopolitan, but they kept slaves all over the place, they had eunuchs and harem wives constantly making power plays in court, and the kings themselves were prone to grandiosity and disturbing sexual excess worthy of Game of Thrones. But also, this book shows how the Persians didn’t just spring from Ahuramazda’s head fully formed (sorry, wrong mythos), but formed instead as descendants of truly ancient Steppe peoples, branching off from the same tribes that would later give us the likes of Genghis Khan. And now, I also understand a few more of Shannon Chakraborty’s historical references- namely, the Daevas being named for a type of supernatural figure in ancient Persian folklore.
View all my reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment