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Persians
- The Age of the Great Kings
- Narrated by: Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
- Length: 18 hrs and 40 mins
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Persians
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Publisher's Summary
Persians is a definitive new history of the Persian Empire, the world's first superpower.
The great kings of Persia ruled over the largest empire of antiquity, stretching from Libya to the steppes of Asia, and from Ethiopia to Pakistan. At the heart of the empire was the fabled palace-city of Persepolis, where the Achaemenid monarchs held court in unparalleled grandeur. From here, Cyrus the Great, Darius, Xerxes and their heirs passed laws, raised armies and governed their multicultural empire of enormous diversity.
The Achaemenids, however, were one of the great dysfunctional families of history. Brothers fought brothers for power, wives and concubines plotted to promote their sons to the throne and eunuchs and courtiers vied for influence and prestige.
Our understanding of the Persian Empire has traditionally come from the histories of Greek writers such as Herodotus—and as such, over many centuries, our perspective has been skewed by ancient political and cultural agendas. Professor Llewellyn-Jones, however, calls upon original Achaemenid sources, including inscriptions, art and recent archaeological discoveries in Iran, to create an authentic 'Persian Version' of this remarkable first great empire of antiquity—the Age of the Great Kings.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
What listeners say about Persians
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 25-05-2024
Comprehensive Persian history
My new favourite book. The Persians is a comprehensive and easily followed history that, wherever possible, encourages a ‘Persian Version’ rewrite of our understanding. I must get to Persepolis.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sarah Beattie-Smith
- 22-04-2024
rich history, perfectly told
This is a superbly well researched book that manages to balance credible, and often untold, history with a compelling story of people and power. Lloyd Llewellyn Jones also has the most wonderful voice and accent. I could listen to him all day. And in fact I did, listening to this book in just a few days.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Zahra
- 16-05-2022
This is not from Persians perspective as advertise
First of all I was really annoyed by the exaggerated Persian pronunciations and tone and also using of incorrect words like "Bazbaz' for Cockcrow instead of "Khurus" or "Huros". It would have been good if he asked an Iranian scholar to at least review his manuscripts before going to print!
Secondly, even though he has mentioned the self-obsessions of Greece and how they wrote history in their own favor showing themselves as the sophisticated nation, this has been known to not only Iranians for centuries but also to most Europeans.
Thirdly, this book is following a very cunning trend which is started recently to destroy one of the most important historical figures in Iranian history who is respected by all Iranians apart from their race, religion and beliefs. Calling Cyrus the Great, "shrewd" and a "ruthless Imperialist" is not only unacceptable but showing the level of ignorance of the writer who knows nothing about Zoroastrian beliefs and Gatha. He hasn't even mentioned the complete manuscript on the Cylinder of Cyrus in his book and ignorantly, with very weak logic has called this important historical artifact which is the first ever document addressing human rights, "a master piece of Propaganda".
In summary, once again a very biased account of Persian history that cunningly advertises otherwise and as an Iranian I am pretty disappointed with it. Just imagine I call your beloved Churchill or Queen Elizabeth a shrewd and ruthless Imperialist by considering all they did to Iran during Second World War?
What this so called Professor has done is unacceptable on many levels!
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4 people found this helpful