Darius: Did you mean...?

Relief of Darius I from Persepolis, 522-486 BCE

The foundations of the Palace of Darius the Great at Susa (Iran), the capital of Elam and of the Achaemenid Empire. The palace was built on a 12-hectare (29.6 acres) artificial platform and occupied five hectares (12.3 acres). It consisted...

The Apadana (audience hall) of the Palace of Darius in Susa (Iran) was a large hypostyle room of 36 columns. Measuring 109 metres (357 feet) on each side, it was very similar to that of Persepolis in plan and dimensions with distinctive Persian...

Persian literature differs from the common definition of “literature” in that it is not confined to lyrical compositions, to poetry or imaginative prose, because the central elements of these appear, to greater or lesser degrees, in all the...

The Persian Wars refers to the conflict between Greece and Persia in the 5th century BCE which involved two invasions by the latter in 490 and 480 BCE. Several of the most famous and significant battles in history were fought during the Wars...

The ancient Persian military evolved from the earlier armed forces of the Medes which, in turn, developed from the warrior class of the indigenous people of the Iranian Plateau, the Aryan migrants (including the Persians) who later settled...

Ancient Persian culture flourished between the reign of Cyrus II (The Great, r. c. 550-530 BCE), founder of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, and the fall of the Sassanian Empire in 651 CE. Even so, the foundations of Persian culture were already...

Capital of a column from the audience hall of the palace of Darius I, Susa, c. 510 B.C.E., Achaemenid, Tell of the Apadana, Susa, Iran (Louvre) Speakers: Dr. Steven Zucker & Dr. Beth Harris

The Scythians were a nomadic people whose culture flourished between the 7th and 3rd century BCE in a territory ranging from Thrace in the west, across the steppe of Central Asia, to the Altai Mountains of Mongolia in the east. This covers...

Ahura Mazda (also known as Ahuramazda, Harzoo, Hormazd, Hourmazd, Hurmuz, Ohrmazd, 'Lord' or 'Spirit') is the highest spirit worshipped in Zoroastrianism, the old Mede and ancient Persian mythology which spread across Asia predating Christianity...