Abstract
Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones is an expert on the history of Iran, especially the Persians and the Achaemenid Empire. He has been researching the history of Iran for many years, and some of these years have been spent in Iran, examining the primary sources. His mastery of various sources, including Iranian and Greek ones, makes his writings reliable and attractive to the reader, including his newest work, Persians: The Age of The Great Kings.
The book is presented in three parts. Part 1 examines the origins of the Iranians in Central Asia and introduces the Aryans and the characteristics of their life and language. In this section, the author refers to the influence of the Aryan language in modern languages such as Greek, Latin, and English and examines their migration to the Iranian plateau and the reasons for this migration. In the study of immigrant tribes, focusing on the Medes and Persians, the author examines their territory and the rise of these tribes. Part 1 continues with detailed description of the childhood of Cyrus and then his coming to power. The invasion of Egypt by Cyrus’s son Cambyses, his death, and Darius’s coming to power are other main topics.
This section especially provides information about the Medes, Cyrus’s childhood, and the death of Cambyses and does not rely solely on the writings of historians such as Herodotus, but provides new information based on archeological data. The pictures in Part 1 of the book relate to the topics and are helpfully placed and attractive for readers, as they are taken from images of ancient works.
Following the 900-year review of Iranian history in Part 1, Part 2 of the work examines the performance of the Persian Empire in order to answer the question of how an empire of this magnitude was governed. The author believes that the common laws in the Achaemenid Empire are one of the most important factors in the administration of the empire and most importantly the position of the Achaemenid kings in these laws, because they did not consider themselves beyond the law. Relying on reward rather than punishment, on the other hand, was another effective strategy to encourage everyone to follow the law. In this section, the author refers to the story of Gimillu as a person who abused his position; after his disappearance, many administrative reforms were made to reduce the possibility of theft and embezzlement. This section relates other stories from Persepolis administrative tablets that exhibit the Achaemenid bureaucratic system.
In this section, the author also offers a comprehensive description of the satraps and details their important role in the administration of the empire. Satraps, in various parts of the empire, would have been responsible for increasing the armed forces, administering local justice, and collecting taxes and tributes when necessary. Road construction in the Achaemenid period facilitated the connection between these satraps and the center of the empire. One of the most important roads was the Royal Road, which connected important parts of the empire. The fortification tablets of Persepolis have provided important information about the system of this road, and this section of the book offers examples of the contents of these tablets, along with information about the Achaemenid roads and paths. These roads also led to the creation of a fast and reliable postal system, called Pirradazish in ancient Persian, to which Herodotus also made many references.
One of the most interesting topics of the volume’s Part 2 is related to the travels of kings, the reasons for these trips, and the procurement system of these trips, discussed in detail. This section also presents much of interest regarding the social, financial, political, and religious systems of the Achaemenids; in spite of many books about the Achaemenids, much of this information is new.
After a detailed explanation of Darius’s reign, the author devotes the third section of the book to covering the period following Darius’s reign until the fall of the Achaemenids at the hands of Alexander the Great. Here, the author deals with the death of Darius Shah and his burial rites (placement in the tomb at Naqsh-e Rostam) and the reign of Xerxes and the last Achaemenid kings. In this regard, Llewellyn-Jones deals more with the documents of Ctesias. He observes that the heirs of the monarchy in ancient Iran were not based on the eldest child, but on their genius and the blood of the kingdom, noting that Darius also had older sons than Xerxes. One of the interesting points Llewellyn-Jones addresses is the social history of the Iranians at the time of Darius’s death, as well as their mourning ceremonies. To describe Xerxes, the author does not limit himself to historical descriptions but cites other sources such as the book of Esther and archeological cultural materials, including the seal of Xerxes. The author then deals with one of the Iran-Greece Wars, the Salamis War during the reign of Xerxes, and the Battle of Marathon during the reign of Darius. One of the positive aspects of this book is that, in describing the war events of this period, Llewellyn-Jones compares Greek texts such as Herodotus and other cultural texts and materials (including the work of seals and reliefs). Again, Llewellyn-Jones tries to address the political and social relations, as well as Xerxes’s private relations, by providing well-argued evidence such as reliefs. According to the author, the issue of the king’s relations had a great impact on his rule. The author also goes on to describe these relations with a narrative rhythm and tries to point out the influence of the Shah’s relatives (including Amestris, Xerxes Shah’s wife) in the government.
The author also draws on the same cultural data, the reliefs, to deal with the Shah’s political relations, for example, the relief of Daiva in present-day Turkey, which suppressed the rebels. The last years of Xerxes brought construction activities, Llewellyn-Jones mentioning the construction of the Hall of the Hundred Columns in Persepolis and its inscription.
In the section that follows, Llewllyn-Jones deals with the reign of Artaxerxes I, son of Xerxes, the successors after Artaxerxes, and the political events of their time. His greatest emphasis in this section is on Xenophon’s descriptions and reliefs. In addition to a description of the Achaemenid dynasty, the author discusses historical information about Alexander the Great from his accession to the collapse of the Achaemenid dynasty. Most of the sources on Alexander are Latin sources.
Another point that makes this book attractive is the choice of subtitles for each section, creating a story-like rhythm. As readers get closer to the end of the book, they see a variety of sources Llewellyn-Jones has cleverly used, sources such as the history of Tabari, Bayhaqi, Bal’ami, and others that the author has reviewed to advance this research. In addition to firsthand historical texts, Llewellyn-Jones also reviews the sources of Persian literature, including the Shahnameh and the Achaemenid period (although he points out that Ferdowsi has included the Achaemenid period among the myths) and the historical period of Shahnameh beginning from the time of the Sassanids.
One of Llewellyn-Jones’s clever pieces of writing is to include a verse from Hafez, the famous poet of the Iranian classical period, at the beginning of the book. In fact, this poem is a beautiful reflection of the content of the book. Another positive point of this book, given at the end, is a listing of the names of the kings of the Achaemenid period, mentioning its chronology, enabling the reader to better understand the history. It presents the name of each king in languages such as Greek, Babylonian, and Persian so the reader has an easier path ahead in researching primary sources in those languages. In general, in this research work of Achaemenid history, the author’s bias and opinion are not visible, as he has worked to present the events based on reasoned historical and archeological documents. This book is suitable for all people interested in archeology and history, especially the history of Middle East and Near East countries. In addition, Part 2 of the book is suitable for the religious study of Achaemenians and the minorities of the empire.