Review of Waters, Ancient Persia

BMCR:

Matt Waters, Ancient Persia. A Concise History of the Achaemenid Empire, 550–330 BCE. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014. Pp. xx, 252. ISBN 9780521253697. $29.99 (pb).

Reviewed by Catherine M. Draycott, British Institute at Ankara (cdraycott@biaatr.org)

Excerpt:

Matt Waters’s book should now be the first stop for those wanting an introduction to the Achaemenids and the study of them. It is a traditional history handbook, a chronological political narrative punctuated with social themes, but a thoroughly enjoyable one: well written and stimulating, the chapters pull the reader along through the book, and while concise it is packed with information and satisfyingly detailed, lucid discussions. A few typos aside, the copy is clean and well-illustrated with images and good maps.3 It shares with the books mentioned above the approach of the ‘New Achaemenid History’, wherein biases in the preponderance of Greek literary sources are made explicit and balanced with the different quality of information available from Near Eastern sources.4 Waters's book is a great success in these terms. The author displays equal control over the Greek and the myriad of non-Greek sources, which range from trilingual monumental royal inscriptions, clay tablets, Babylonian chronicles and the Bible to inscriptions and private letters from Egypt. From these he deftly weaves the story of this first Persian Empire, from their origins in the early Iron Age groups of Iran through to the take over of their vast territory by Alexander the Great, integrating into it the character of the sources.