Persia's Greek Campaigns: Kingship, War, and Spectacle on the Achaemenid Frontier

The wars between the Achaemenid Persian kings and the Greek city-states (c. 499-449 BCE)--especially Xerxes' invasion of Greece (480-479 BCE)--are often remembered as foundational events in Greek history, and therefore, we often hear about them through Greek accounts. While the Persians left no campaign narratives to compare with Herodotus and Aeschylus, their documents, artwork, and artifacts offer the foundations for an illuminating reassessment of these pivotal conflicts. Using seals and...