The Story of Nations: Persia

Cyrus the Great (600-529 BC), conqueror of Media, Lydia and Babylon, founded the Persian Empire which extended from the Indus to the Mediterranean, and from the Caucasus to the Indian Ocean. Established and maintained by force of arms, ruled by the greatest kings the world has seen, Darius and Alexander among them, almost the whole known world came under Persian rule.Though tracing the history of Persia (modern Iran) up to the Kajar rulers beginning with Aga Mohammed Khan, this work is of principal interest for its study of ancient Persian history, from earliest times, through the Sassanian dynasty, up to the Arab conquest in the seventeenth century.S.G.W. Benjamin, American author and historian, became U.S. Minister to Persia in the latter years of the nineteenth century. The Story of Nations: Persia was first published in 1887.