Book Review: The Persian Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia

Abstract

This encyclopedia is the first English language reference source to focus exclusively on ancient Iran during the period of its great empires before the arrival of Islam from 700 BCE to 651 CE. The major empires were the Medes, the Achaemenids, the Seleucids, the Arsacids (Parthians), and the Sasanians. Ancient Iran covered a geographic area that varied over time. At its greatest expanse the Achaemenid Empire (559–330 BCE) ruled territory continuous from Thrace in southeastern Europe to the Indus River in India. Almost as large was the Seleucid Empire (305–125 BCE) which was not Iranian or Persian but Macedonian, founded by one of Alexander the Great’s generals after his death. With the expansion of the empires through military conquests and the administrative control of vast geographic areas, Kia emphasizes that languages, ethnicities, religions, and cultures of the Persian empires were very diverse and that Persia itself was actually a southern province of Greater Iran.