I didn't say they were insignificant, I said they were less significant.

Bootsiuv, that point mentioned would've received howls of laughter at your teams expense in my high school Debate Club.

But really, is your argument that the Seleucids, because they were from a different culture (or for any other reason, really) weren't mere short-lived, usurpers but in fact had more influence over Persian culture than that of the Achaemenians, who brought Persia one of the greatest Empires in history?

If only we could ask the Persian people of the time what they thought...

You have people in the most powerful, richest, information-laden society in the history of mankind who can't even point their own country out in a map of the world. What makes you think 3rd cent. B.C. Persian country-folk were any more involved?

Now...