The present volume is a collection of articles published in English by Professor Pierre Briant of the Collège de France, in various forms over the past three decades.
Includes bibliographical references.
Alexander the Great and the Enlightenment: William Robertson (1721-1793), the Empire and the road to India -- Alexander and the Persian Empire, between "decline" and "renovation," history and historiography -- The theme of "Persian decadence" in eighteenth-century European historiography: remarks on the genesis of a myth -- Grote on Alexander the Great -- Milestones in the development of Achaemenid historiography in the era of Ernst Herzfeld -- Michael Rostovtzeff, Elias J. Bickerman and the "Hellenization of Asia": from Alexander the Great to World War II -- Cyrus the Great -- The empire of Darius III in perspective -- The Seleucid kingdom, the Achaemenid empire and the history of the Near-East in the first millennium B.C. -- The Achaemenid empire -- From the Indus to the Mediterranean: the administrative organization and logistics of the great roads of the Achaemenid empire -- Susa and Elam in the Achaemenid empire -- New trends in Achaemenid history -- Persia and Persians.