King and Court in Ancient Persia 559 to 331 BCE by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones

King and Court in Ancient Persia 559 to 331 BCE by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones

Explores Achaemenid kingship and argues for the centrality of the royal court in elite Persian society The first Persian Empire (559-331 BCE) was the biggest land empire the world had seen, and seated at the heart of its vast dominions, in the south of modern-day Iran, was the person of the Great King. Hidden behind the walls of his vast palace, and surrounded by the complex rituals of court ceremonial, the Persian monarch was undisputed master of his realm, a god-like figure of awe, majesty, and mystery.Yet the court of the Great King was no simple platform for meaningless theatrical display; at court, presentation mattered: nobles vied for position and prestige, and the royal family attempted to keep a tight grip on dynastic power - in spite of succession struggles, murders, and usurpations, for the court was also the centre of political decision-making and the source of cultural expression. Key features: Draws on rich Iranian and Classical sourcesExamines key issues such as royal ideology, court structure, ceremony and ritual, royal migrations, gender, hierarchy, architecture and space and cultural achievementsAccesses the rarefied but dangerous world of Persian palace lifeIncludes guides to further reading and web resources to encourage research

Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones is Professor of Ancient History at Cardiff University and a specialist in the histories and cultures of ancient Iran and Greece. He also works on dress and gender in antiquity and on the ancient world in popular culture, especially Hollywood cinema. He is the author of Designs on the Past: How Hollywood Created the Ancient World, Aphrodite’s Tortoise: The Veiled Woman of Ancient Greece, King and Court in Ancient Persia 559 to 331 BCE and Ctesias’ History of Persia. He is editor of Women’s Dress in the Ancient Greek World, Greek Notions of the Past in the Archaic and Classical Eras, Creating a Hellenistic World and The Hellenistic Court as well as numerous articles on Greek and Persian culture. He is the series editor of Edinburgh Studies in Ancient Persia and co-series editor of Screening Antiquity.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780748641253
ISBN 10	0748641254
Title	King and Court in Ancient Persia 559 to 331 BCE
Author	Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
Series	Debates And Documents In Ancient History
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Edinburgh University Press
Year published	2013-01-11
Number of pages	224
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable