Empire Authority and Autonomy in Achaemenid Anatolia

The Achaemenid Persian Empire (550330 BCE) was a vast and complex sociopolitical structure that encompassed much of modern-day Turkey Syria Jordan Israel Egypt Iraq Iran and Afghanistan and included two dozen distinct peoples who spoke different languages worshiped different deities lived in different environments and had widely differing social customs. This book offers a radical new approach to understanding the Achaemenid Persian Empire and imperialism more generally. Through a wide array of textual visual and archaeological material Elspeth R. M. Dusinberre shows how the rulers of the empire constructed a system flexible enough to provide for the needs of different peoples within the confines of a single imperial authority and highlights the variability in response. This book examines the dynamic tensions between authority and autonomy across the empire providing a valuable new way of considering imperial structure and development.