Persian Fire: The first world empire

[King_Cyrus]

Persian Fire: The first world empire and the battle for the west, by Tom Holland

A clash of civilisations?
By Paul Cartledge
Published: 02 September 2005

The Persians are coming! The ancient Persians, that is, of the Achaemenid Empire (550-330BC), in honour of whom a major exhibition curated by John Curtis opens at the British Museum next week. One of the exhibition's prize objects, to be seen outside Iraq and Iran for the first time, is the so-called Cyrus Cylinder discovered at Babylon in 1879. Curiously, that was the year after the dramatic date of one of Tom Holland's earlier books, the historical thriller The Bonehunter...

Contineud here : http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/book ... 309582.ece