The Persians were some of the most significant peoples of antiquity. Of Indo-European stock, their influence on world civilizations is apparent not only in its linguistic legacy, but also in terms of culture, society, and even religious thought. The Persians were the first people to create a world-empire, stretching from Greece to Afghanistan and from Ethiopia to Russia. The Achaemenid dynasty (559-331 BCE) was both effective in empire-building and as a promoter and upholder of a sophisticated culture. When the dynasty fell to Macedonian invaders, and after a Greek interlude of a hundred years, the Parthians, based in northern Iran, re-established Iran’s imperial ambitions and ruled successfully for 500 years (247 BCE- CE 224). They in turn were succeeded by the last of the great pre-Islamic Persian dynasties, the Sasanians, whose vast empire dominated Mesopotamia and the east until the Arab conquest of Iran in the seventh-century CE, when Islam was introduced to Persia. At every point of this thousand-year history, the successive Persian Empires, challenged, provoked, or simply dominated the empires of the Greek and Roman west.

This fascinating course will plot the history of ancient Iran, documenting the sources for the study of the period and emphasizing the political and cultural advances of the era. Emphasis will be given to concepts of Empire-building, the maintenance of Empire, kingship and monarchic rule, state ideology, gender and sexuality, thought, faith, and the modern historiography of ancient Persia.

• Demonstrate critical understanding of the history and culture of ancient Iran.

• Demonstrate an understanding of and ability to deal with diverse primary source materials and to evaluate them appropriately.

• Demonstrate an understanding of modern theories and debates relating to the history, historiography, archaeology and material cultures of ancient Iran, and an ability to evaluate the evidence with precision in relation to these debates.

• Demonstrate an understanding of and an ability to deal with contemporary issues in contemporary perceptions of the Iranian past.

• Discuss these issues in written work and in classroom discussion with coherent and logical arguments, clearly, coherently and correctly expressed.

10 two-hour teaching sessions (once every fortnight) over two semesters; guided online study (weekly); 1 fieldtrip; 1 revision session.

The teaching sessions offer a combination of traditional lecturing, class discussions, and other exercises, including built-in online work. Lectures present an outline of the evidence for Persian history and culture, and provide a framework for the interpretation of that evidence by introducing the major approaches and debates that have shaped research into the subject. Powerpoints and, where appropriate, online materials are used to illustrate the material discussed.

The lectures are a useful starting point for further discussion and exercises taking place during the teaching sessions. This provides an opportunity for students to analyse and discuss key issues and topics in the module, and to get feedback on their ideas from the tutors and their peers. Online work with material for study and requirements for preparatory reading will be circulated prior to the sessions.

The field trip to visit a museum collection allows students to observe material evidence for the study of ancient Iran in a museum setting.

Independent study enables students to familiarise themselves with the primary source material and the most important modern approaches and debates on the subject.

• Analysis of different forms of historical evidence, including literary texts, inscriptions, and material evidence
• Observation and visual analysis
• Assimilating and synthesising complex information and ideas
• Critical thinking skills, including evaluating evidence, assessing arguments, and challenging assumptions
• Constructing and defending arguments based on evidence
• Clear, accurate and effective communication of ideas and arguments in writing and in debate
• Employing basic skills and conventions in the presentation and use of literary and material evidence
• Contributing to group discussions
• Using it resources effectively
• Independent working and time management
• Bibliographic and referencing skills

The module will be assessed through a 2000-word essay (50%), a group presentation (25%), group field-trip report (25%)

The essay will require knowledge and critical deployment of evidence and critical understanding of modern scholarship to answer questions and construct arguments relating to ancient Iran.

THE OPPORTUNITY FOR REASSESSMENT IN THIS MODULE:

Students who fail the module will normally be expected to resit the failed component(s) in the summer resit period involving an individual written assessment.

The course will explore time periods and themes such as:

• The Paradox of Persia: thinking about the Persian Empires and their sources

• Languages and Identities

• Historiography of ancient Persia 1700 – 2018

• The Elamites and the Medes

• Cyrus the Great

• The Rise of Darius and the Reign of Xerxes

• Governing the Achaemenid Empire

• Alexander in Iran

• Seleucid Iran

• Parthian Iran

• Parthia and Rome

• Sasanian Empire-building

• Sassanian King of Kings

• Rome and the Sasanian World

• Kingship and Royal Ideology in Iran

• The Arts of Ancient Persia

• Military Power and Devastation

• Zoroastrianism

• Gender and Sexuality

Essential Reading and Resource List

Allen, L. 2005 The Persian Empire. London

Axworthy, M., 2008, Iran: Empire of the Mind, Penguin

Boardman, J. 2000, Persia and the West. An Archaeological Investigation of the Genesis of Achaemenid Art. London.

Briant, P. 2002. From Cyrus to Alexander. A History of the Persian Empire. Winona Lake.

Cameron, A., (ed.), 2013, Late Antiquity on the Eve of Islam, Formation of the Classical Islamic World vol. 1, Ashgate Variorum, Farnham

Canepa, M., 2009, The Two Eyes of the Earth: Art and Ritual of Kingship between Rome and Sasanian Iran, University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles and London

Curtis, J., (ed.), Mesopotamia and Iran in the Parthian and Sasanian Periods: Rejection and Revival c. 238BC-AD 642, The British Museum Press, London

Curtis, J. &  Tallis, N., (eds.) 2005, Forgotten Empire. The World of Ancient Persia. London.

Curtis, V.S and Stewart, S. (eds.), 2008, The Sasanian Era: The Idea of Iran III, I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd., London and New York

Daryaee, T., 2009, Sasanian Persia: The Rise and Fall of An Empire, I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd, London and New York

Daryaee, T., Mousavi, A. and Rezakhani, K. (eds.) 2014, Excavating an Empire. Achaemenid Persia in the Longue Durée. Costa Mesa.

Dignas, B. and Winter, E., 2007, Rome and Persia in Late Antiquity, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

Dodgeon, M., and Lieu, S. (eds.), 1991, The Roman Eastern Frontier and the Persian Wars, Part 1 (AD 226-363): A Documentary History, Routledge, London

Gershevitch, I. 1985. The Cambridge History of Iran Vol. 2, The Median and Achaemenian Periods, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

Greatrex G. and Lieu, S., 2002, The Roman Eastern Frontier and the Persian Wars, Part 2 (AD 363-630): A Narrative Sourcebook, Routledge, London

Gyselen, R., 2010, ‘Romans and Sasanians in the Third Century. Propaganda warfare and ambiguous imagery’, in H. Börm and J. Wiesehöfer (eds.), Commutatio and Contentio: Studies in the Late Roman, Sasanian, and Early Islamic Near East.  In Memory of Zeev Rubin, Reihe Geschichte Band 3, Wellem Verlag, Düsseldorf, pp. 71-87

Hoyland, R., 2012, ‘Early Islam as a Late Antique Religion’ in S. Johnson (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 1053-1077

Fisher, W.B. 1968. The Cambridge History of Iran Vol. 1. The Land of Iran, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

Kuhrt, A. 2007, The Persian Empire. A Corpus of Sources from the Achaemenid Period. London.

Llewellyn-Jones, L. 2013. King and Court in Ancient Persia, 559-331 BCE. Edinburgh.

Mousavi, A. 1992.  ‘Parsa, a Stronghold for Darius: A Preliminary Study of the Defense System of Persepolis’. East and West 42. 203-26.

-2002. ‘Persepolis in Retrospect: Histories of Discovery and Archaeological Exploration at the Ruins of Ancient Parseh’. Ars Orientalis 32. 209-25.

-2012. Persepolis. Discovery and Afterlife of a World Wonder. Berlin.

Payne, R., 2015, ‘The Reinvention of Iran: The Sasanian Empire and the Huns’, in M. Maas (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Attila, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York, pp. 282-299

Root, M.C. 1979, The King and Kingship in Achaemenid Art: Essays on the Creation of an Iconography of Empire. Leiden.

Stoneman, R. 2015. Xerxes. A Persian Life. New Haven.

Yarshater, E. (ed.), 1997, The Cambridge History of Iran Vol. 3, The Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian Periods, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

Online Resources:

Encyclopaedia Iranica (http://www.iranicaonline.org/)

Achemenet (http://www.achemenet.com/en/)

Sasanika: Late Antique Iran Project (http://www.sasanika.org/)

Further Reading

Alizadeh, K., 2014, ‘Borderland Projects of Sasanian Empire: Intersection of Domestic and Foreign Policies’, Journal of Ancient History vol. 2.2, 93-115

Alram, M., Blet-LeMarquand, M., and Skærvø, P.O., 2007, ‘Shapur, King of Iranians and Non-Iranians’, R. Gyselen (ed.), Des Indo-Grecs aux Sassanides, Res Orientales 17, Bures-sur-Yvette: Groupe pour L’Étude de la Civilisation du Moyen-Orient, pp. 11-40

Bernheimer, T and Silverstein, A., 2012 (eds.), Late Antiquity: Eastern Perspectives, Gibb Memorial Trust, published in the UK by Short Run Press, Exeter

Bohrer, F.N. 2003, Orientalism and Visual Culture. Imagining Mesopotamia in Nineteenth-Century Europe. Cambridge.

Boyce, M., 1979, Zoroastrians: Their religious beliefs and practices, Routledge, London

Briant, P. 2002. From Cyrus to Alexander. A History of the Persian Empire. Winona Lake.

Brubacker, L., 2004, ‘Sex, Lies and Textuality: the Secret History of Prokopios and the Rhetoric of gender in sixth-century Byzantium’ in L. Brubaker and J. Smith (eds.) Gender in the Early Medieval World: East and West, 300-900, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York, pp. 83-101

Cameron, A., 1984, Procopius and the Sixth Century, Duckworth, London

Cameron, A., (ed.), 1995, The Byzantine and early Islamic Near East vol.3: States, resources and armies, Darwin Press, Princeton

Cameron A. and Conrad, L. (eds.), 1992, The Byzantine and early Islamic Near East: papers of the first Workshop on late antiquity and early Islam vol.1: Problems in the literary source material, Darwin Press, Princeton

Crawford, P., 2013, The war of the three gods: Romans, Persians and the rise of Islam, Barnsley : Pen & Sword Military

Cribb, J., and Herrmann, G. (eds.), 2007, After Alexander: Central Asia before Islam, Oxford University Press, Oxford

Curtis, V.S., Hillenbrand, R and Rogers, J. (eds.), 1998, The art and archaeology of ancient Persia: new light on the Parthian and Sasanian Empires, I.B. Tauris, London

Curtis, V.S., Pendleton, E., Alram, M and Daryaee, T. (eds.), 2016, The Parthian and early Sasanian empires: adaptation and expansion: proceedings of a conference held in Vienna, 14-16 June 2012, BIPS Archaeological Monography Series 5, Oxbow Books, Oxford

Daryaee, T.,  ‘From Terror to Tactical Usage: Elephants in the Partho-Sasanian Period’, The Parthian and Early Sasanian Empires: Adaptation and Expansion, eds. V. Sarkhosh Curtis et. al., Oxford, 2016, pp. 36-41

de Jong, A., 2004, ‘Sub specie Maiestatis: Reflections on Sasanian Court Rituals’, in M. Stausberg (ed.), Zoroastrian Ritual in Context, Brill, Leiden, pp. 345-366

Foster, B. and Foster K.P., 2009, Civilizations of Ancient Iraq, Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford

Garthwaite, G., 2005, The Persians, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford

Gnoli, G., 1989, The Idea of Iran: An Essay on Its Origin, Serie Orientale Roma 62, Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, Rome

Greatrex, G., 2014, ‘Perceptions of Procopius in Recent Scholarship’, Histos, 8, pp. 76-121

Gyselen, R., 2001, The Four Generals of the Sasanian Empire. Some Sigillographic Evidence, Rome.

Gyselen, R., 2009, ‘Primary Sources and Historiography on the Sasanian Empire’ Studia Iranica 38, 163-190

Harper, P.O., Aruz, J. & Tallon, F., (eds.) 1992, The Royal City of Susa. Ancient Near Eastern Treasures in the Louvre. New York.

Howard-Johnston, J., 2012, ‘The Late Sasanian Army’ in Bernheimer and Silverstein (eds.), pp. 87-127

Howard-Johnston, J., 2010, ‘The Sasanian Strategic Dilemma’, in H. Börm and J. Wiesehöfer (eds.), Commutatio and Contentio: Studies in the Late Roman, Sasanian, and Early Islamic Near East.  In Memory of Zeev Rubin, Reihe Geschichte Band 3, Wellem Verlag, Düsseldorf, pp. 37-70

Hoyland R., 1997, Seeing Islam as Others Saw It: A Survey of Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian Writings on Early Islam, Darwin Press, Princeton

Huyse, P., 2008, ‘Late Sasanian Society between Orality and Literacy’, in V.S. Curtis and S. Stewart (eds.), The Sasanian Era: The Idea of Iran III, I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd., London and New York, pp. 140-155

King, G., and Cameron, A. (eds.), 1994, The Byzantine and early Islamic Near East, vol.2: Land use and settlement patterns, Darwin Press, Princeton

Lee, A., 2013, ‘The eastern frontier in late antiquity: Roman warfare with Sasanian Persia’ in B. Campbell and L. Tritle (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Warfare in the Classical World, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 

Matheson, S.A. 1972. Persia: An Archaeological Guide. London.

Nielsen, I. 1999, Hellenistic Palaces. Aarhus.

• 2001, ed. The Royal Palace Institution in the First Millennium BC. Regional development and cultural interchange between East and West. Aarhus

Payne, R., 2014 (ed.), The Archaeology of Sasanian Politics, Journal of Ancient History vol. 2.2, de Gruyter, Boston

Potts, D.T. 1999. The Archaeology of Elam. Formation and Transformation of an Ancient Iranian State. Cambridge.

- 2008. ‘The Persepolis Fortification Texts and the Royal Road: Another Look at the Fahliyan Area’ in P. Briant, W. Henkleman, W. & M. Stolper (eds),  L’archive des Fortifications de Persépolis. Paris. 275-302.

-2010. ‘Monarchy, Factionalism and Warlordism: Reflections on Neo-Elamite Courts’ in B. Jacobs & R. Rollinger, eds., Der Achämenidenhof/The Achaemenid Court. Stuttgart. 107-37.

- 2011. ‘The Elamites’ in T. Daryaee (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Iranian History. Oxford. 37-56.

Potts, D.T. (ed.), 2013, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Iran, Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York

Pourshariati, P., 2008, Decline and Fall of the Sasanian Empire: The Sasanian-Parthian Confederacy and the Arab Conquest of Iran, I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd., London and New York

Roaf, M., 1998, ‘Persepolitan Echoes in Sasanian Architecture: Did the Sasanians attempt to re-create the Achaemenid Empire’ in V.S. Curtis, R. Hillenbrand and J.M. Rogers (eds.), The Art and Archaeology of Ancient Persia: New Light of the Parthian and Sasanian Empires, The British Institute of Persian Studies with I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd, London and New York, pp. 1-7

Sauer, E., et.al., 2013, Persia’s Imperial Power in Late Antiquity, The Great Wall of Gorgan and Frontier Landscapes of Sasanian Iran, Oxbow Books, Oxford

Schmidt, E.F. 1957, Persepolis / Vol.2, Contents of the treasury and other discoveries. Chicago.

Schmidt, E.F. 1970, Persepolis. Vol.3, The royal tombs and other monuments. Chicago.

Shayegan, M.R., 2011, Arsacids and Sasanians: political ideology in post-Hellenistic and late antique Persia, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

Smith, K., 2016, Constantine and the Captive Christians of Persia: martyrdom and religious identity in Late Antiquity, University of California Press, Oakland, California

Stronach, D. 1978. Parsagade. Oxford.

-1997a. ‘Darius as Parsagadae: a neglected source for the history of early Persia’. Topoi, Supplement 1. 351-63.

-1997b. ‘Anshan and Persia: Early Achaemenid History, Art and Architecture on the Iranian Plateau’ in J. Curtis (ed.), Mesopotamia and Iran in the Persian Period: Conquest and Imperialism 539-331 BC. London. 35-53.

- 2011. ‘Court Dress and Riding Dress at Persepolis: New Approaches to Old Questions’ in J. Álvarez-Mon & M.B. Garrison (eds.), Elam and Persia. Winona Lake. 475-87.

Walker, A., 2012, The Emperor and the World: exotic elements and imaging of middle Byzantine imperial power: 9^th -13^th centuries CE, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

Wiesehöfer, J., 1996, Ancient Persia from 550 BC to 650 AD, I.B. Tauris, London and New York

Wiesehöfer, J., 2007, ‘King, court and royal representation in the Sasanian Empire’, in A. Spawforth (ed.), The Court and Court Society in Ancient Monarchies, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York, pp. 58-81

Wiesehöfer, J., 2010, ‘King and Kingship in the Sasanian Empire’, in G. Lanfranchi and R. Rollinger (eds.), Concepts of Kingship in Antiquity, S.A.R.G.O.N. Editrice e Libreria, Padova, pp. 135-152

Whitby, M., 1994, ‘The Persian King at War’ in E. Dabrowa (ed.) The Roman and Byzantine Army in the East, Uniwersytet Jagiellonski, Kraków, pp. 227-263

Whitby, M., 2002, Rome at War, AD 293-696, Osprey, Oxford

Wood, P. (ed.), 2013, History and Identity in the Late Antique Near East, Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York