Pierre Briant is Emeritus Professor of History of the Achaemenid World and Alexander’s Empire at the Collège de France.
Briant is the world’s leading authority on the Persian empire that
Alexander conquered, one of few living scholars with the linguistic
mastery to study both the Greco-Roman and Persian sources and hence
examine the reign of Darius from European and Asian perspectives.
In the intensely thorough analysis he conducts here, he finds
reasons to mistrust both traditions and thereby qualify the charge
of cowardice that has shadowed Darius for more than two millennia…
His insights are penetrating and his mastery of the evidentiary
record is unsurpassed… Having deftly taken down much of the edifice
supplied by the ancient accounts of Darius, Briant finally turns
architect and shows us how the rebuilding might begin.
*Wall Street Journal*
Pierre Briant [is] the greatest living historian of the
Achaemenids, and the scholar who has probably done more than any
other to make sense of how their empire actually functioned… [This
is a] detailed and incisive analysis of every conceivable tradition
told about the last king of Achaemenid Persia… It is, for anyone
interested in ancient history, as brilliant a demonstration of its
mingled frustrations and fascinations as one could hope to
read.
*The Spectator*
In a search for the historical Darius, Briant brings to life
specialist work tracing the war against Alexander through images on
coins, as well as through the Babylonian astronomical diaries,
classical histories and many versions of the Alexander Romance.
*The Independent*
Anyone interested in Alexander or the end of Persia’s first empire
will need to engage with Briant’s thoughtful and at times provoking
text… This big book is a remarkable testimony both to the shifting
afterlife of the last king of the Persian Empire and to its
ultimate satrap, Pierre Briant, who has transformed studies of its
legacy.
*Literary Review*
[An] intrepid, imposing book… This is a masterful book… [It] shows
Briant to be a master of the longue durée of Iran’s history… As a
display of how to approach the reception history and image-building
of any historical personage, it is unshakeable in its
methodology.
*Times Higher Education*
Briant’s work, as always, is a significant contribution to
Achaemenid studies, a display of historiographical learnedness
whose methods can benefit historians across ancient studies.
*Bryn Mawr Classical Review*
The book is a magnificent work of classical scholarship, and Briant
rewards readers with insights the source authors either failed to
see or deliberately omitted. He also gives Alexander biographers
reason for pause, reiterating that the five sources on which
Alexander scholarship is based are simply not reliable. Darius in
the Shadow of Alexander is an important book that makes a major
contribution to our understanding of ancient Persia and the
narrative of Alexander the Great, and we highly recommend it to
students of the classics.
*Military History*
In the minds of many Darius III, the most powerful king of his time
with a vast empire stretching from the Mediterranean to the Indus
River, exists only as Alexander’s legendary Persian enemy. Pierre
Briant tackles this issue head on in his book Darius in the Shadow
of Alexander… Briant provides excellent analysis of the sources, as
scarce and biased as they may be in some cases… Despite [Briant’s]
open declaration that ‘this book is not a biography,’ it does
provide valuable information on Darius’ public and private lives,
as well as on the perils of an ‘Alexandro-maniacal’ viewpoint and
the persistence of images in general.
*Minerva*
How refreshing to read a book on Alexander that avoids the familiar
clichés of historical scholarship. Pierre Briant is one of the most
distinguished scholars of Alexander the Great and his masterly book
provides an original and important analysis of the tumultuous
confrontation between Alexander and Darius III. The author presents
a range of evidence here that is unmatched in other works on
Alexander. His insights into the study of Greco-Persian antiquity
are superb, and his disquisitions on historical method are incisive
and perceptive.
*Phiroze Vasunia, University College London*
Though the Achaemenid Empire has been one of the important forces
of the ancient world, its role and achievements have been generally
rather underexposed and undervalued… This book ranks among the
finest examples of…historical analysis: it is elaborate, eloquent,
and full of displays of erudition.
*Bryn Mawr Classical Review [from a review of the French edition]*
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