Persianism in Antiquity

Product Description

The socio-political and cultural memory of the Achaemenid (Persian) Empire played a very important role in Antiquity and later ages. This book is the first to systematically chart these multiform ideas and associations over time and to define them in relation to one another, as Persianism. Hellenistic kings, Parthian monarchs, Romans and Sasanians: they all made a lot of meaning through the evolving concept of "Persia", as the twenty-one papers in this rich volume illustrate at length. Persianism underlies the notion of an East-West dichotomy that still pervades modern political rhetoric. In Antiquity and beyond, however, it also functioned in rather different ways, sometimes even as an alternative to Hellenism.

Review

"...a ground-breaking overview of why Persia was such an important symbol to construct meaning with and of providing food for thought about the concepts of 'Greece' or 'Egypt' to a wider scholarly audience, the theme of the interrelation of cultures, as the editors point out, being of particular relevance to the concerns of our contemporary world.""The wealth of examples the book analyses mean that it will certainly be of interest to all scholars who have dealt with the issues of Persianism in the past, or will do so in future. There is no doubt that the concept of Persianism as proposed by R. Strootman and M. J. Versluys opens research perspectives that are both new and interesting.""This book will, as it sets out to do, certainly serve as the foundation for a wide-ranging reevaluation of Persian studies."

About the Author

Rolf Strootman is Associate Professor of History at Utrecht University. He studies imperial ideology, court culture and monarchical ritual in premodern empires. His current research project, "Royal Roads: The First World Empires and the Integration of Central Eurasia", examines how the mobile royal court created trans-cultural connectivity in the Achaemenid and Seleukid empires. Miguel John Versluys is Professor and Chair of Classical & Mediterranean Archaeology at Leiden University. His research focusses on the nature and impact of Globalisation processes in the Hellenistic-Roman world.