Dear fellow historians,
Recently I have enrolled in a very interesting course at my university, called: "Empires in the Ancient World: from the Assyrians to the Ummayads." Goal of the course is to be able to define and compare several empires that existed from 900 BC to 900 AD.
Apart from reading very cool in-depth articles and having interesting discussions, the course also requires us to write a 12-25 page paper on a topic of our choosing. Though we are completely free to choose any topic we like, we are encouraged to compare two or more empires in any aspect we'd like.
Now, as I know deeply respect the work and effort that has gone into EB, I know that most of you are familiar with the era covered in my course. That's why I'd like to ask you for some advice!
What I'd really like to do is write about a topic I'm not really familiar with, but is extensively covered in secondary sources. This course does not require an in-depth primary source paper - just a solid presentation of research done in sources either primary or secondary.
I've been thinking along the lines of perhaps shedding some light on the Achaemenid (sp?) Persian empire, from Persian sources (as opposed to Greek ones). Either the rise of this empire (which I've heard is comparable to the Arab one - any good books that use this comparison?) or in the lines of the inner workings of the empires, perhaps compared to the previous Babylonian or Assyrian empires. Or perhaps the story of the Macedonian invasion, but this time from the Persian side.
My other thought was to write about the Byzantine - Sassanid wars and think about why the Arabs were able to crush both those empires in a very short amount of time. I know very little about any one of those three empires, which is what's sparked my interest.
So, my question (thanks for being still with me ): are there any good books you know of that cover some of the topics I've mentioned, that you know of? Articles, websites or anything else you know of is fine as well, of course. Or is there another suggestion you'd like to make that covers the assignment?
I count on the vast wealth of knowledge that the EB team combines together. Thanks a bunch for anything you can help me with!
Kind regards,
IA
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