Persians: The Age of the Great Kings - Writing a Popular History of the Achaemenid Empire

For too long the history of ancient Iran has been written from the perspective of its Greek conquerors with the Persians portrayed as barbarians. In his best-selling 2022 book, PERSIANS: The Age of the Great Kings, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones has written a new history of ancient Persia, one which privileges authentic Iranian sources—inscriptions, cuneiform tablets, art, and archaeology—to present a new perspective on the history of the Achaemenid Empire. The First Persian Empire was the world’s first superpower—one built, despite its imperial ambition, on cooperation and tolerance. The Persians made possible the first significant and continuous contact between East and West and prepared the ground for the later empires of antiquity. This talk explores some of the main themes of the book and asks the question: Why do we need a new history of ancient Iran?

Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones is Professor of Ancient History at Cardiff University and a specialist in the history of ancient Iran and in Iranian relations with the west in antiquity. He is widely published in the field and is well-known for his appearances in media and for his promotion of the study of ancient Persia.

If you need a disability-related accommodation for this event, please contact us at iranianstudies [at] stanford.edu (iranianstudies[at]stanford[dot]edu).  Requests should be made by October 24, 2024.