07-18-2012, 03:10 PM
There's not really much GREAT stuff outside of the academic sphere I'm afraid so I'm not sure how to give sensible suggestions here.
Right. Try the article in Amelie Kuhrt's "Blackwell Companion to the Ancient Near East Vol II" on the Achaemenids, that's useful.
Brosius' book "The Persians" published by Routledge is a friendly one. She also edited a handy volume "The Persian Empire from Cyrus II to Artaxerxes I". The most popular textbook by far is Briant's "From Cyrus to Alexander" but its getting on now. Most of the really good stuff is in French you see and in general articles are king.
J Morgan has a book coming out on the Edinburgh press soon about Persia through Greek eyes, which is always interesting since it will help contextualise things a bit more....and will be cheap I think.
Other than that there are by and large specific articles on various topics, depending on WHAT you're after specifically, I'm sure I can help in most areas but, before you ask, alas, not military.
Oh, and read Ktesias! It's actually....interesting! Erm what else? I've done some translations of some random old Persian crap (inscriptions etc) I can post up here but they're not very worth while since Akkadian/Imp Aramaic was the lingua franca.
I hope that helps.
Right. Try the article in Amelie Kuhrt's "Blackwell Companion to the Ancient Near East Vol II" on the Achaemenids, that's useful.
Brosius' book "The Persians" published by Routledge is a friendly one. She also edited a handy volume "The Persian Empire from Cyrus II to Artaxerxes I". The most popular textbook by far is Briant's "From Cyrus to Alexander" but its getting on now. Most of the really good stuff is in French you see and in general articles are king.
J Morgan has a book coming out on the Edinburgh press soon about Persia through Greek eyes, which is always interesting since it will help contextualise things a bit more....and will be cheap I think.
Other than that there are by and large specific articles on various topics, depending on WHAT you're after specifically, I'm sure I can help in most areas but, before you ask, alas, not military.
Oh, and read Ktesias! It's actually....interesting! Erm what else? I've done some translations of some random old Persian crap (inscriptions etc) I can post up here but they're not very worth while since Akkadian/Imp Aramaic was the lingua franca.
I hope that helps.
Jass
