Women in Ancient Persia, 559-331 BC
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Published:19th Mar '98
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
The exploits of the Persian kings are famous, but who has heard of Irdabama, a formidable landowner who controlled a huge workforce and ran her own wine and grain business? This book is the first to examine the economic and political importance of women in the first Persian empire (559-331 BC). Governed by Achaemenid kings and their satraps, this vast realm stretched from Asia Minor to India. Ancient Greek writers on Persian history give us a glimpse of the influential role played by some individual women at these courts, but these are sporadic and hardly reliable accounts of a few colourful femme fatales in the royal family, designed to show up the scandalous machinations of barbarian women gaining political control and causing the decline and effeminacy of the Persian kings. This book is the first to demonstrate the true importance of not only royal but non-royal women in Persia, with the benefit of contemporary Persian and Babylonian sources. By approaching the subject from a Near Eastern perspective, and thoroughly re-examining the Greek sources, the author brings to life a rich and much more detailed picture of the role of women in ancient Persia.
it can be used as a convenient source book from which others can derive generalizations from studying the sources that she has discussed * History *
Her meticulous examination of the estates and workgroups controlled by women and of the rations issued to female workers is documented by tables listing the primary source and giving other information
Brosius's book addresses an important gap in our knowledge of Mediterranean antiquity...the evidence on royal women does enable Brosius to make valuable contributions to some problems of Achaemenid history * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *
a work that aims to provide a detailed and comprehensive discussion of the status of the women of Achaemenid Persia based on a combination of a critical reading of the Greek sources and a systematic survey of the Near Eastern sources, including the Persepolis Fortification texts ... is ... most welcome; and this is precisely what Maria Brosius' monograph sets out to do. In bringing together the Greek and Near Eastern evidence in this way ... B. has certainly helped to provide a basis for taking these points further, for constructing the fullest possible picture of Achaemenid history, women and all. * Rebecca Flemming, The Warburg Institute, Journal of Hellenic Studies *
Brosius's meticulous collection of the sources will be very helpful to specialists for further historical interpretation. * Gender and History *
'....I have learned much from it and know that other readers will do so too.' * Christopher Tuplin, The Classical Review *
ISBN: 9780198152552
Dimensions: 216mm x 137mm x 17mm
Weight: 381g
278 pages