'Happiness for Mankind': Achaemenian Religion and the Imperial Project

The product of twenty years' research, this is the first book to study the way religious concerns permeated Achaemenian culture, deeply influencing such varied things as categories of space, time, number, and causality; constructions of nature, humanity, and moral order; institutions of law, education, and kingship; practices of diplomacy, tribute, irrigation and gardening (including the sumptuous royal gardens designated asparadises). Particular attention is devoted to the role of cosmogon...