ABOUT THIS BOOK
The Persica is an extensive history of Assyria and Persia from around 400 BCE. It was written by the Greek historian Ctesias, who served as a doctor to the Persian king Artaxerxes II. In this volume, Matt Waters offers a fresh interdisciplinary analysis of the text. He shows in detail how Ctesias' history, though written in a Greek literary style, was infused with two millennia of Mesopotamian and Persian motifs, legends, and traditions. Waters' revealing study contributes significantly to knowledge of ancient historiography, Persian dynastic traditions and culture, and the influence of Near Eastern texts and oral tradition on Greek literature.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Matt Waters is a professor of classics and ancient history at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire. He is the author of Ancient Persia: A Concise History of the Achaemenid Empire, 550–330 BCE.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Illustrations                
Preface and Acknowledgments                     
 
Introduction               
1 The Eunuch In-between                  
2 Semiramis, Queen of Battle            
3 A Different Kind of Education for Cyrus              
4 The Inverted Hero’s Many Faces: Other Sagas in the Persica                   
Conclusion                 
 
Appendix: Regnal Dates of Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian Kings                     
Notes              
Bibliography              
Index

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