In Semiramis’ Legacy, the history of Persia (in its widest sense) is followed as it has been described by the Greek author Diodorus of Sicily (first century bc) as a part of his Historical Library. Diodorus starts his description with the legendary Queen Semiramis, an Assyrian queen who was said to also have ruled ancient Persia and ends it with the situation in his own days. This makes it the fullest description of ancient Persian history we have from antiquity, subsequently focusing on the vicissitudes of Assyrians (from their legendary rulers Ninus and Semiramis onward) and their direct suc ... More

In Semiramis’ Legacy, the history of Persia (in its widest sense) is followed as it has been described by the Greek author Diodorus of Sicily (first century bc) as a part of his Historical Library. Diodorus starts his description with the legendary Queen Semiramis, an Assyrian queen who was said to also have ruled ancient Persia and ends it with the situation in his own days. This makes it the fullest description of ancient Persian history we have from antiquity, subsequently focusing on the vicissitudes of Assyrians (from their legendary rulers Ninus and Semiramis onward) and their direct successors, the Medes and Chaldeans, then the Achaemenid kings, Alexander the Great, the Seleucids, and the arrival of Rome in the Ancient Near East. Semiramis’ Legacy is the first complete translation of Diodorus entirely focused on the historiography of Persia (apart from the translation of his whole work in the Loeb Classical Library). Different from that edition, this book has been provided with an array of comments to give the reader the maximum of background information. As such, this study, therefore, contains as first the selected comprehensive account of ‘Ancient Persian History’, its contacts, and its context as seen by a relatively well informed Greek.