Who Were The Ancient Persians? LLOYD LLEWELLYN-JONES On The Age Of Great Kings 

Fantastic interview!

Very interesting subject and very interesting!

The ancient Persians were fascinating!!! One of my dreams is to see the Behistun Inscription of Darius I! The only reason I’m even able to be here today is thanks to Cyrus the Great, Xerxes & Queen Esther! They were so advanced and progressive in so many areas of their civilization! And I’m still fascinated by the burning of Persepolis by Thaïs & Alexander the Great!

I’ve always been proud of my heritage but only ever known of names and territorial gains. Nothing in between. I was gifted his book ‘Persians: the age of the great kings’ by my gf and it’s my introductory point into really learning Persian history. I love it and as my first book as an adult (yes I’m dumb, but my gf is super intelligent) I can’t get enough. I look forward to finishing his book and I will definitely look into the other books he’s written on Persian history.

It would be interesting to compare and contrast Greek philosophy, epic and lyrical poetry, tragedies and comedies, historiography, and scientific treatises with the Persian ones!

YES! Crack that Graeco-Roman ceiling! Loving ancient Rome Classics but always wanted to see the view broadened. Egypt. Kush. China. Gail. Persia! Thanks for this one, both of you. Have ordered the ebook, eager to read!

Excellent video, I am reading Persian Fire by Tom Holland so this different perspective is a nice addition to this topic. 24:15 - With regards to the more dignified comment, I think it's important to always point out that The Mongolian Empire ki**ed 40 million people during the later part of the Crusader Kingdoms and Tamerlane k**led 17 million people one hundred years after the Crusades ended, and without artillery. And Muslim's brutally subjugated Hindu's from 1206 AD onward until they didn't, so much longer and the death count is so much higher than the British in India. I really enjoyed this video, thanks.

It's important to note that when we evaluate classical civilisations - the Greeks, the Jews, the Persians, Assyrians, Egyptians, etc - we do not fall into the trap of relativism and end up saying, 'well, all these civilisations had had their good bits and they all had their bad bits and we've been overly influenced by our bias for the Greeks to wrongly malign other ancient peoples and civilisations'. No. There's a good reason we in the West have a bias towards the Greeks and that's because in Greek civilisation - and not in any of the other ancient civilisations - lie the origins of what we (rightly) value most in our modern societies, and that is democracy and freedom. Thus we study the Greeks, and (rightly) elevate their civilisation over others, not because they have the most interesting or entertaining stories, but because they began the project of freedom and democracy, which we have been trying to perfect and advance ever since.

Is that an aster & Celine print in the background? Nice!

The Persians had been a pain in the ass for the ancient Greeks, and then again for the Eastern Romans, Byzantines.

Just Subscribed and am so glad I did looking forward to more from this channel Thank you Good Shit!!!

yes! finally something in the ancient world that is not only Graco Roman.

40:15 Don't apologise. You pronounce my name well. (Yes, my name is Darius.)

Since Professor Llewellyn-Jones apparently replies to this comments section on a semi-regular basis, here goes. 55:50 The Sultanate of Women is one thing, but you go too far in adding 19th century China and Cixi to the comparison. Nobody in Cixi's time could really ignore the fact that what she was doing was very rare in Chinese history precisely _because_ it violated all norms of Chinese morality and Qing political custom. She had to use illegal means to seize power, and once she gained it she had to continue to use more and more illegal means to retain it and avoid execution, and ultimately probably contributed more than any other single cause to the downfall of the Qing and the collapse of China into warlordism.

While the Persians are indeed fascinating, it's important to note that this individual is incredibly biased. No, the Greek world, including democracy, would not have emerged in the same way if the Persians had won. The somewhat rosy depiction of the Persians as friendly tax collectors who left other cultures alone as long as they paid their taxes is highly misleading, especially when viewed from the perspective of the conquered. Moreover, his perspective is steeped in a modern 'social justice' view of the Persians, as if they were underdogs unfairly maligned by the 'big bad' Greeks. Even his take on British culture is notably negative, reflecting a broader anti-Western sentiment common among left wing academics. Overall, while the discussion was interesting, it was also overwhelmingly biased.

delicious !

I always knew that Herodotus was a fucking liar.

In my opinion, this book is a collection of the author's intellectual illusions. Most of the theories presented in the book are not backed up with any supporting evidence. Additionally, the author discredits the historical accuracy of the information found in ancient stone inscriptions in Iran without providing convincing evidence to the reader. My experience reading this book was very negative. It is full of distortions and lacks scientific validity.

You overact too much girl

He talks about gender after he made a very angry seemingly jealous tweet about Professor Alice Roberts using the title “Professor “ on the cover of her book ….. very telling very telling indeed .. triggered maybe ..petty more like

You think you know. The reality is always option 3. Not downgrade upgrade but in between. Far few in between 💌🏩