Xerxes

Xerxes PDF Author: Richard Stoneman
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300216041
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
Xerxes, Great King of the Persian Empire from 486–465 B.C., has gone down in history as an angry tyrant full of insane ambition. The stand of Leonidas and the 300 against his army at Thermopylae is a byword for courage, while the failure of Xerxes’ expedition has overshadowed all the other achievements of his twenty-two-year reign. In this lively and comprehensive new biography, Richard Stoneman shows how Xerxes, despite sympathetic treatment by the contemporary Greek writers Aeschylus and Herodotus, had his reputation destroyed by later Greek writers and by the propaganda of Alexander the Great. Stoneman draws on the latest research in Achaemenid studies and archaeology to present the ruler from the Persian perspective. This illuminating volume does not whitewash Xerxes’ failings but sets against them such triumphs as the architectural splendor of Persepolis and a consideration of Xerxes’ religious commitments. What emerges is a nuanced portrait of a man who ruled a vast and multicultural empire which the Greek communities of the West saw as the antithesis of their own values.

Xerxes

Xerxes PDF Author: Richard Stoneman
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300216041
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
Xerxes, Great King of the Persian Empire from 486–465 B.C., has gone down in history as an angry tyrant full of insane ambition. The stand of Leonidas and the 300 against his army at Thermopylae is a byword for courage, while the failure of Xerxes’ expedition has overshadowed all the other achievements of his twenty-two-year reign. In this lively and comprehensive new biography, Richard Stoneman shows how Xerxes, despite sympathetic treatment by the contemporary Greek writers Aeschylus and Herodotus, had his reputation destroyed by later Greek writers and by the propaganda of Alexander the Great. Stoneman draws on the latest research in Achaemenid studies and archaeology to present the ruler from the Persian perspective. This illuminating volume does not whitewash Xerxes’ failings but sets against them such triumphs as the architectural splendor of Persepolis and a consideration of Xerxes’ religious commitments. What emerges is a nuanced portrait of a man who ruled a vast and multicultural empire which the Greek communities of the West saw as the antithesis of their own values.

History of Xerxes the Great

History of Xerxes the Great PDF Author: Jacob Abbott
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Iran
Languages : en
Pages : 206

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Book Description


Imagining Xerxes

Imagining Xerxes PDF Author: Emma Bridges
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472511328
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 363

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Book Description
Xerxes, the Persian king who invaded Greece in 480 BC, quickly earned a notoriety that endured throughout antiquity and beyond. The Greeks' historical encounter with this eastern king – which resulted, against overwhelming odds, in the defeat of the Persian army – has inspired a series of literary responses to Xerxes in which he is variously portrayed as the archetypal destructive and enslaving aggressor, as the epitome of arrogance and impiety, or as a figure synonymous with the exoticism and luxury of the Persian court. Imagining Xerxes is a transhistorical analysis that explores the richness and variety of Xerxes' afterlives within the ancient literary tradition. It examines the earliest representations of the king, in Aeschylus' tragic play Persians and Herodotus' historiographical account of the Persian Wars, before tracing the ways in which the image of Xerxes was revisited and adapted in later Greek and Latin texts. The author also looks beyond the Hellenocentric viewpoint to consider the construction of Xerxes' image in the Persian epigraphic record and the alternative perspectives on the king found in the Jewish written tradition. Analysing these diverse representations of Xerxes, this title explores the reception of a key figure in the ancient world and the reinvention of his image in a remarkable array of cultural and historical contexts.

Xerxes

Xerxes PDF Author: Jacob Abbott
Publisher: DigiCat
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Xerxes" (Makers of History) by Jacob Abbott. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

The Histories Book 7: Polymnia

The Histories Book 7: Polymnia PDF Author: Herodotus
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1681462966
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 124

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Book Description
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who lived in the fifth century BC (c.484 - 425 BC). He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a well-constructed and vivid narrative. The Histories-his masterpiece and the only work he is known to have produced-is a record of his "inquiry", being an investigation of the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars and including a wealth of geographical and ethnographical information. The Histories, were divided into nine books, named after the nine Muses: the "Muse of History", Clio, representing the first book, then Euterpe, Thaleia, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Erato, Polymnia, Ourania and Calliope for books 2 to 9, respectively.

King and Court in Ancient Persia 559 to 331 BCE

King and Court in Ancient Persia 559 to 331 BCE PDF Author: Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 0748677119
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
This book explores the representation of Persian monarchy and the court of the Achaemenid Great Kings from the point of view of the ancient Iranians themselves and through the sometimes distorted prism of Classical authors.

Imagining Xerxes

Imagining Xerxes PDF Author: Emma Bridges
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472511379
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
Xerxes, the Persian king who invaded Greece in 480 BC, quickly earned a notoriety that endured throughout antiquity and beyond. The Greeks' historical encounter with this eastern king – which resulted, against overwhelming odds, in the defeat of the Persian army – has inspired a series of literary responses to Xerxes in which he is variously portrayed as the archetypal destructive and enslaving aggressor, as the epitome of arrogance and impiety, or as a figure synonymous with the exoticism and luxury of the Persian court. Imagining Xerxes is a transhistorical analysis that explores the richness and variety of Xerxes' afterlives within the ancient literary tradition. It examines the earliest representations of the king, in Aeschylus' tragic play Persians and Herodotus' historiographical account of the Persian Wars, before tracing the ways in which the image of Xerxes was revisited and adapted in later Greek and Latin texts. The author also looks beyond the Hellenocentric viewpoint to consider the construction of Xerxes' image in the Persian epigraphic record and the alternative perspectives on the king found in the Jewish written tradition. Analysing these diverse representations of Xerxes, this title explores the reception of a key figure in the ancient world and the reinvention of his image in a remarkable array of cultural and historical contexts.

Queen Esther wife of Xerxes: Chronological, Historical and Archaeological Evidence

Queen Esther wife of Xerxes: Chronological, Historical and Archaeological Evidence PDF Author: Gerard Gertoux
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1329379853
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 134

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Book Description
Very few Bible scholars believe now in the historicity of the book of Esther, but what is really incomprehensible is that their conclusion is based only on the following prejudice: this story looks like a fairy tale, consequently, it is a fairy tale! There is no chronological investigation despite the fact that chronology is the backbone of history and there has been no historical research among archaeological witnesses despite the fact that apart from ancient texts there is no witness. Worse still, to establish their chronology, historians have blind faith in the Babylonian king lists which are nevertheless false (reporting no usurpation and no co-regency). Additionally, in order to establish historical truth, they regularly quote the official propaganda of the time which is very often misleading. Yet it is easy to check in the tablets of Persepolis that Mordecai was an eminent royal scribe called Marduka who worked with Tatennai, the governor beyond the River, under the direction of Uštanu, the satrap of Babylon, during the years 17 to 32 of Darius. Similarly, the narrative of Herodotus regarding Amestris (a name meaning 'vigorous woman' in Old Persian), Xerxes' unique wife and only queen known in Persia, corresponds in many ways to Esther ('star' in Old Persian”) despite the unfavourable and biased description of the Persian queen

Herodotus and the topography of Xerxes’ invasion

Herodotus and the topography of Xerxes’ invasion PDF Author: Jan Zacharias Van Rookhuijzen
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110612534
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 390

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Book Description
In his Histories, Herodotus of Halicarnassus gave an account of Xerxes’ invasion of Greece (480 BCE). Among the information in this work features a rich topography of the places visited by the army, as well as of the battlefields. Apparently there existed a certain demand among the Greeks to behold the exact places where they believed that the Greeks had fallen, gods had appeared, or Xerxes had watched over his men. This book argues that Herodotus’ topography, long taken at face value as if it provided unambiguous access to the historical sites of the war, may partly be a product of Greek imagination in the approximately fifty years between the Xerxes’ invasion and its publication, with the landscape functioning as a catalyst. This innovative approach leads to a new understanding of the topography of the invasion, and of the ways in which Greeks in the late fifth century BCE understood the world around them. It also prompts new suggestions about the real-world locations of various places mentioned in Herodotus’ text.

Queen Esther wife of Xerxes: Fairy tale or real history?

Queen Esther wife of Xerxes: Fairy tale or real history? PDF Author: Gerard Gertoux
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1387000349
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 91

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Book Description
Very few Bible scholars believe now in the historicity of the book of Esther but, surprisingly, their conclusion is based only on the following prejudice: this story looks like a fairy tale, consequently, it is a fairy tale! No chronological investigation and historical research have been carried out though chronology is the backbone of history and that it is impossible to write history without written testimonies. Worse still, to establish their chronology, scholars have blind faith in the Babylonian king lists which are nevertheless false (reporting no usurpation and no co-regency). Rather than taking into account the reality of chronological testimonies and ancient texts, most archaeologists have reinvented and mythicized history. In contrast, an extensive investigation of chronological, archaeological and historical evidence gives an amazing result: Esther (510-425) was the best attested Persian Queen.