Adam Godfrey of Leonidas Sparta shared his discussion with Professor John Hyland of Christopher Newport University yesterday. It's a one-hour video covering misconceptions about the Achaemenid period and the problems of historiography. Very worthwhile and will hopefully spark some discussions in the community.
Thursday, May 28, 2026
Tuesday, February 24, 2026
Persia's Greek Campaigns, a Zoom lecture by the British Institute of Persian Studies
On March 18, 1-2 p.m., John O. Hyland will speak at the British Institute of Persian Studies in London on "Persia's Greek Campaigns: Kingship, War, & Spectacle." The event is open to the public and can be attended on Zoom. Here's the manifesto:
The wars between the Achaemenid Persian empire and the Greek city-states are among the most famous conflicts in world history – above all Xerxes’ expedition of 480-479 BCE, which captured Athens but lost the battles of Salamis and Plataia. In the absence of Achaemenid accounts, this “Persian War” is remembered from the Greek perspective as a disastrous failure, which ended Persian expansion and empowered Athens’ Classical empire. The full story, though, is more complex. Achaemenid and Near Eastern evidence shows that campaigns led by kings served as political spectacles, designed to project images of royal heroism, imperial cohesion, and logistical mastery through warfare on distant frontiers. Xerxes’ Greek campaign accomplished these objectives, and its initial victories at Thermopylai and Athens permitted a royal claim of overall success, despite the problematic conclusion. The campaign’s mixed legacy set the stage for an evolution of Persia’s frontier imperialism from military to diplomatic methods of power display.
Register via Facebook or directly on Zoom.
The wars between the Achaemenid Persian empire and the Greek city-states are among the most famous conflicts in world history – above all Xerxes’ expedition of 480-479 BCE, which captured Athens but lost the battles of Salamis and Plataia. In the absence of Achaemenid accounts, this “Persian War” is remembered from the Greek perspective as a disastrous failure, which ended Persian expansion and empowered Athens’ Classical empire. The full story, though, is more complex. Achaemenid and Near Eastern evidence shows that campaigns led by kings served as political spectacles, designed to project images of royal heroism, imperial cohesion, and logistical mastery through warfare on distant frontiers. Xerxes’ Greek campaign accomplished these objectives, and its initial victories at Thermopylai and Athens permitted a royal claim of overall success, despite the problematic conclusion. The campaign’s mixed legacy set the stage for an evolution of Persia’s frontier imperialism from military to diplomatic methods of power display.
Register via Facebook or directly on Zoom.
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