This book explores the representation of Persian monarchy and the court of the Achaemenid Great Kings from the point of view of the ancient Iranians themselves and through the sometimes distorted prism of Classical authors.

Preface; A Note on Abbreviations; List of Illustrations; Map of the Persian Empire; Map of Iran in the Achaemenid Period; Part I – DEBATES; Introduction; Chapter One. The Great King and his Men; Chapter Two. Pomp and Circumstance: Monarchy on Display; Chapter Three. The Great King in his Empire: the Movable Court; Chapter Four. Harem: Royal Women and the Court; Chapter 5. The Pleasures and Perils of Court Life; Part II – DOCUMENTS; A1. The royal investiture; A2. Inauguration hymn of Ashurbanipal; A3. The ‘vassal treaty’ of Esarhaddon; A4. Princely education; A5. Succession debates; A6. Xerxes as co-regent?; A7. Co-regency; A8. Greek speculations on Persian royal divinity; A9. Uncompromising advice to a ruler; A10. Achaemenid royal ideology; A11. Yahweh and the command for genocide; A12. A dream omen of Ashurbanipal; A13. Court propaganda: a fighting king; A14. Darius III: warrior king; A15. The destruction of Sidon; A16. A who’s who of Israelite courtiers; A17. Explaining the nature of the court and empire; A18. King and councilors; A19. Darius II issues commands through his satrap Aršama; A20. City walls and plagues of locusts; B1. Rituals of dining; B2. Seating etiquette; B3. The invention of inaccessibility; B4. Invisible monarchs of the past; B5. The invisible king; B6. Darius and Xerxes on the building of Persepolis; B7. The creation of Darius’ palace at Susa; B8. The beauty of Darius III and his womenfolk; B9. Moulding the bodies of infant royalty; B10. The dress and good looks of Astyages of Media; B11. Cyrus the Great adopts Median dress, cosmetics and deportment; B12. Court beauticians and body servants; B13. Wigs or hairpieces; B14. Breaching the etiquette of sleeves; B15. Semiramis wears the king’s robe and rules; B16. Courtiers’ muddy robes; B17. Royal punishment and clothing; B18. Intaphrenes and his wife; B19. The Gate of All Nations; B20. Imagining Themistocles’ royal audience; B21. Esther before the king; B22. Overwhelming emotions of a royal audience; B23. The royal footstool; B24. Alexander’s makeshift footstool; B25. Carpets and thrones; B26. Obeisance to the king; B27. Salutations to the pharaoh of Egypt; C1. The king’s lands; C2. The Empire at large; C3. The diverse Empire; C4. Criss-crossing the Empire; C5. Aršama the satrap of Egypt orders rations for a travelling party; C6. Cyrus’ search for an uninterrupted springtime; C7. The pleasure of relocation; C8. Bigger is not better: criticising the king’s migrations; C9. Relocating across Greece is better than traversing an Empire; C10. The luxury of traversing the Empire; C11. The Great King on the toilet; C12. An Empire on the move; C13. All the king’s horses; C14. The Egyptian satrap commissions an equestrian statue; C15. King as horseman-warrior; C16. Horses sacrificed to Cyrus’ memory; C17. Royal camels; C18. Clearing the king’s path of scorpions; C19. Modest gifts of food and drink; C20. Explaining the origin of the king’s largess to the women; C21. Baziš: small livestock; C22. Gifts of abundance; C23. Figs from Athens; C24. Cyrus’ camp and tent; C25. Tented luxury; C26. Alexander commandeers the royal tent; C27. Alexander’s marriage tent; C28. Alexander’s royal tent and court; C29. Cost of feeding a peripatetic court; C30. Expenditure on food; C31. Food as tribute; C32. The ‘King’s Dinner’; C33. The royal table and food distribution; C34. Paradeisoi as royal storage units; C35. Pharnabazus’ paradeisos at Daskyleion; C36. A paradeisos near Uruk?; C37. Cyrus generates a storm; C38. Artaxerxes II controls the weather; D1. Greek speculations on harem upbringing; D2. The honour of the king’s wife; D3. ‘Oriental’ seclusion; D4. Breaching etiquette; D5. Keeping a distance from the royal concubines; D6. Concubines show deference to royal wives; D7. Prestige of royal ladies; D8. Dynastic politics and the king’s mother; D9. Sexual shenanigans and punishment; D10. A ration of sheep to queen Irtašduna; D11. The king commands that virgins be brought to Susa; D12. The ‘second harem’; D13. Captive Sidonian women enter the Babylonian palace; D14. The capture of concubines as part of the royal household; D15. Lower status of concubines; D16. Concubines as mothers of kings; D17. The 360 concubines of Artaxerxes II; D18. The 360 concubines of Darius III; D19. The Persian concubines of Alexander the Great; E1. A concubine’s song; E2. Songs about Cyrus; E3. Angares, a Persian bard; E4. A Persian love story; E5. Professional wrestlers at the court of Darius II; E6. Etiquette of the king’s dinner; E7. The Pleasure of a royal banquet; E8. Frustrations of hunting in a paradeisos; E9. The splendour of the royal chase; E10. Royal Egyptian lion hunts; E11. Royal Assyrian lion hunts; E12. Alexander kills a lion; E13. Artaxerxes I’s new hunting etiquette; E14. Rivalry and revenge: Xerxes’ women; E15. Bad feelings among the royal ladies; E16. Poisoning the king’s wife; E17. Poisons at the Persian court; E18. Cup-bearer and taster; E19. Exclusive Indian poison at the Persian court; E20. Poison and the death of Alexander; E21. A eunuch king-maker; E22. Succession struggles: the ‘Dynastic Prophecy’; E23. A Babylonian account of Xerxes’ assassination; E24. Accounts of the death of Xerxes; E25. Patricide and regicide: the death of Artaxerxes II; E26. Court conspiracy: the plot and execution of prince Darius; E27. Fratricide at court; Illustrations; Time Line; Further Reading; Internet Resources; Bibliography; Index.