Persepolis
7 Jun, 2018
930 History of the Ancient World
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the role of the great ‘City of the Persians’ founded by Darius I as the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire that stretched from the Indus Valley to Egypt and the coast of the Black Sea. It was known as the richest city under the sun and was a centre at which the Empire’s subject peoples paid tribute to a succession of Achaemenid leaders, until the arrival of Alexander III of Macedon who destroyed it by fire supposedly in revenge for the burning of the Acropolis in Athens.
Guests
- Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
2 episodes
Professor of Ancient History at Cardiff University - Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis
4 episodes
Curator of Middle Eastern Coins at the British Museum - Lindsay Allen
2 episodes
Lecturer in Greek and Near Eastern History at King's College London
Reading list
-
The Persian Empire: A History
Lindsay Allen (British Museum Press, 2005) Google Books → -
Persia and the West
John Boardman (Thames and Hudson, 2000) Google Books → -
Forgotten Empire: The World of Ancient Persia
John Curtis and Nigel Tallis (British Museum Press, 2014) Google Books → -
Imperial Matter: Ancient Persia and the Archaeology of Empires
Lori Khatchadourian (University of California Press, 2016) Google Books → -
King and Court in Ancient Persia 559 to 331 BCE
Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones (Edinburgh University Press, 2013) Google Books → -
Persepolis: Discovery and Afterlife of a World Wonder
Ali Mousavi (De Gruyter, 2012) Google Books → -
Persian Myths
Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis (British Museum Press, 1993) Google Books → -
Persepolis: The Archaeology of Parsa, Seat of the Persian Kings
Donald N. Wilber (Darwin Press Inc, 1989) Google Books →
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Programme ID: b0b4z075
Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b4z075
Auto-category: 935 (History of ancient Persia)