The Achaemenid Empire was the largest empire of its time and held substantial holdings in the eastern Mediterranean Basin. Dr Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, Professor in Ancient History, Cardiff University, joins the show to discuss the Achaemenid Empire’s hegemony in the Mediterranean.
Some topics explored
- How the Achaemenid Empire formed
- Previous Persian Emperors Cyrus the Great, Darius I, & Xerxes I
- The origins and etymology of the term Achaemenid and Persia
- How it gained hegemony in the Mediterranean Basin including the Levant, Kingdom of Macedonia, & Egypt.
- Early references to “Achaemenid” in writing on both the Persian and Greek sides
- The demarcation of its empire including its holdings in the eastern Mediterranean
- How it governed its provinces in the Mediterranean Basin including the position of Satraps
- The empire’s tolerance towards preexisting religions, languages, and customs
- Why the empire didn’t circumvent Greece and continue to expand to the west
- The Achaemenid
- The Greco-Persian Wars and what’s known and speculated about the sentiment that the Achaemenid Empire would have had to Greece
- Why much less historical writings exist of this period of time when comparing to previous Greek historians
- After over 200 years in power, the Achaemenid eventually falling
- To what degree the empire’s influence on the Basin lives on contemporarily
Listen to the episode
The episode is available on major podcast apps: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music.
Show Notes
- Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones is author of the publications including the books King and Court in Ancient Persia 559 to 331 BCE (Edinburgh University Press, 2013) and Ctesias’ ‘History of Persia’ Tales of the Orient (Routledge, 2009)
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