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Ancient Persia: The Rise and Fall of the Persian Empire - From Cyrus the Great and Darius to Xerxes, Alexander the Great, and the Fall of Persepolis
Hardcover
Series: Iranian History, Book 4
General Military HistoryIran HistoryPersian Gulf War (1991)
Publisher Price: $24.95
Publisher: Absorbing History
Published: Apr 29 2026
Pages: 184
Weight: 0.92
Height: 0.50 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
What if everything you know about ancient Persia came from its enemies?
For centuries, the story of the Persian Empire has been told by the Greeks - the very people Persia went to war with. The result is a civilization remembered mostly for Thermopylae, for a king who whipped the sea, for an army of faceless millions marching against a handful of brave Spartans.
That is not history. That is propaganda.
Ancient Persia tears away that narrative and replaces it with something far more extraordinary - the truth.
This is the story of Cyrus the Great, who built the largest empire the world had ever seen and then did something no conqueror before him had ever done: he let the conquered keep their gods, their languages, and their lives. It is the story of Darius I, who engineered an administrative system so sophisticated that it would not be matched for a thousand years. Of the Royal Road stretching 2,700 kilometers across three continents. Of Persepolis - a city so breathtaking that Alexander wept after he burned it to the ground.
This is the story of an empire that paid its workers, respected its subjects, and governed twenty nations without erasing a single one of them.
Inside this book you will discover:
- The real story of Cyrus the Great - conqueror, liberator, and author of what many call history's first declaration of human rights
- How Darius I built the world's first truly global administrative system - and why it still influences modern governance today
- The Achaemenid military machine - the legendary Immortals, the multinational army, and the strategy behind Persia's greatest campaigns
- The Persian Wars retold from the Persian side - what Thermopylae and Salamis actually meant to the empire that fought them
- Daily life inside the empire - the workers who built Persepolis, the women who held economic power, the priests, traders, and diplomats who kept it all running
- Zoroastrianism and the religious ideas that shaped not only Persia but Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
- How the Achaemenid Empire ended - and how much of it quietly survived Alexander's conquest
- And much more...
Whether you are a lifelong history reader or picking up your first book on the ancient world, this is the book that finally gives Persia its due.
Meticulously researched, compellingly written, and built for readers who want real history - not myth - Ancient Persia delivers one of the greatest civilizations in human history exactly as it deserves to be told: on its own terms.
Also perfect for readers of: The Storm Before the Storm, SPQR, The Silk Roads, Rubicon, and The Fate of Rome.
✦ Scroll up and grab your copy today.
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