Summary of Tom Holland's Persian Fire , livre ebook

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51 pages

English

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Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 The Assyrians, a people of the flat alluvial plains, were city-dwellers who had spread terror and extermination as far as Egypt. They had always seen it as their duty to flatten resistance in the wilds beyond their borders.
#2 The Zagros Mountains were a source of wealth for the Assyrians. The mountains were a mishmash of different peoples, Aryans and aboriginals, with the Medes ruled by a quarrelsome multitude of petty chieftains. Foreign occupation by imposing a unitary authority on the region began to encourage the fractious tribes to cohere.
#3 The Median Empire, ruled by Astyages, was based around Ecbatana, a palace in the Iranian plateau. It was the crossroads of the world for trade, and the Medes found themselves subjects of a despot nearer to home.
#4 The Medes were a devout and ethical people, who valued visions of doom. They knew that creation was full of darkness, and they were duty-bound to kill any creatures that might be the visible excrescents of a universal shadow.

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Publié par	Everest Media LLC
Date de parution	05 avril 2022
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781669379089
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

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Insights on Tom Holland's Persian Fire
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5 Insights from Chapter 6 Insights from Chapter 7 Insights from Chapter 8
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The Assyrians, a people of the flat alluvial plains, were city-dwellers who had spread terror and extermination as far as Egypt. They had always seen it as their duty to flatten resistance in the wilds beyond their borders.

#2

The Zagros Mountains were a source of wealth for the Assyrians. The mountains were a mishmash of different peoples, Aryans and aboriginals, with the Medes ruled by a quarrelsome multitude of petty chieftains. Foreign occupation by imposing a unitary authority on the region began to encourage the fractious tribes to cohere.

#3

The Median Empire, ruled by Astyages, was based around Ecbatana, a palace in the Iranian plateau. It was the crossroads of the world for trade, and the Medes found themselves subjects of a despot nearer to home.

#4

The Medes were a devout and ethical people, who valued visions of doom. They knew that creation was full of darkness, and they were duty-bound to kill any creatures that might be the visible excrescents of a universal shadow.

#5

In 559 BC, Cyrus, the grandson of Astyages, became king of the Persians. He was a great leader who attracted many tall stories. His potential was evidently sufficient to alarm Astyages, who tried to dethrone him in 550 BC.

#6

The story of how Astyages was betrayed by his cousin, Harpagus, is a strange one. It went like this: Harpagus, commander of the Median army, and most prominent of the clan chiefs, had deserted to Cyrus, leading a rebellion in mid-battle. Astyages was captured and taken prisoner.

#7

The story of how Cyrus conquered the Median kingdom is a tall one, and it was most likely invented by the Persians to justify their taking over the kingdom. However, the truth is that the Persians were already a nomadic people, and their country had remained as a confederation of different clans rather than a state.

#8

In 547 BC, the King of Lydia, Croesus, led a huge army over the Halys River to meet with the Persian King Cyrus. Cyrus had just captured the Median Empire, and was now the greatest power in the world.

#9

After the Battle of the River, Cyrus sought to conciliate the Lydians, just as he had previously wooed the Medes. He spared Croesus’ life, and invited him into his entourage. But soon, the aristocracy of Sardis rose in revolt, and Cyrus responded with furious expedition. He sent fresh troops to quell the rebellion, and executed the rebel leaders.

#10

Cyrus, the king of Persia, was a descendant of nomads. He feared the danger that he imagined lurking in his rear. He began to expand his kingdom by force, and he used the tribes in Lydia to expand his territory eastward.

#11

The Saka were a tribe that lived beyond the steppes, and were extremely brutal. When Cyrus invaded their territory, the Saka submitted to him, and their people became one of the most fearsome armies in his army.

#12

Cyrus’s invasion of the south was a success, and he claimed the land as his own. He presented himself as a model of righteousness and justice, and his universal lordship as a payback from the gods.

#13

The legacy of Cyrus was that of a conqueror who had conquered not only his enemies, but also their admiration. He had seduced a host of different peoples that he understood and respected, and desired their love.

#14

When Cyrus died, maneuverings among the clans and tribes of Persia affected millions. Could a successor hope to take his place, or was the empire of the Persians, suddenly deprived of its founder’s charisma, doomed to vanish as rapidly as it had emerged.

#15

The death of Cyrus did not stop the invasion of Egypt. The Persians spent four years preparing for the invasion, and when they met the Egyptians in battle, they did so with cats pinned to their shields, reducing their opponents’ archers to a state of outraged paralysis.

#16

The land of Egypt was not easy to absorb into anyone’s empire. The most pressing challenge, to tame and tax the priesthood, was also the most intractable. Cambyses, brutal in a way that native pharaohs had never been, did succeed in forcing requisitions from the bloated estates of the temples, but the effort took him four years.

#17

In 522 BC, the Persian king Cambyses, who had conquered much of Africa, returned to Persia to find that his rival son, Bardiya, had claimed the throne. The empire of the Persian people seemed to be crumbling.

#18

The death of Cambyses presented a tempting opportunity for others besides Bardiya. The highest-ranking officers returned from the African adventure battle-hardened and intimate with the workings of power.

#19

The plot to kill Darius’s father, Cambyses, was led by seven high-ranking Persians. Darius was linked to the plot by blood, and he was the ringleader.

#20

The plot against Bardiya was led by Darius, who was not in on the death of Cambyses. He had been careful to cover up his involvement, and had argued for immediate action. The seven conspirators and their accomplices rode at a fast pace, desperate to catch up with the king.

#21

The most famous of the traces of an ancient order was the horse herd in the Nisaean plain, which was sacred to the Medes. The Persians acknowledged this, and sacrificed a horse from Nisaea every month before the tomb of Cyrus.

#22

The story told by the assassins was that the man they had killed was not Bardiya, the son of Cyrus, at all. He had been murdered by Cambyses, jealous and savage, years before. The truth was that a Magus had taken on the role of a prince of the royal blood.

#23

The Persians believed that they were the most honest people in the world. They taught their children three things: to ride, to fire a bow, and to tell the truth. Darius, by threatening those who might doubt his story of the Magus’ crimes, was not just shoring up a rickety case; his claims were altogether more soaring.

#24

The story of Darius’ accession was marked by potent and awful ritual. The conspirators gathered in the chill of September night not because they wanted to discover who the next king would be, but because they already knew. The Prophet had revealed that the world was engaged in a death struggle between good and evil, and that man was free to choose which side he belonged on.

#25

The Achaemenid Empire, which was ruled by the Persians, was not a theocracy. It was still pagan in many of its practices, but it was also not completely removed from Zoroaster’s teachings. Between the native paganism of the Persians and the teachings of Zoroaster, there was synergy.

#26

Darius, the new king, was very careful to link his rule with the favor of Ahura Mazda. He was not a follower of the Lie, and he was not false in his actions. Everything he was and everything he had achieved was due to the favor of Ahura Mazda.

#27

The chosen one of Ahura Mazda could not afford to stumble. The empire of the Persians, rather than bringing the universal peace of Arta to mankind, might dissolve lost to chaos and the reach of a lengthening shadow.
Insights from Chapter 2

#1

Without mud, there could never have been cities or great kings. The people of Babylon knew this, and they appreciated it in their bones. The Euphrates and the Tigris were the two rivers that provided them with water and fertility.

#2

The Babylonians were well aware that if they lost their city, they would lose everything. They were used to thinking of themselves as the center of great events, and they were constantly trying to conquer other countries.

#3

Darius, the king of Persia, headed towards Mesopotamia to quell the rebellion. He found the Median Wall, which was built by Nebuchadnezzar II, the king of Babylon, to be an ideal location for a defense.

#4

The Persians were not afraid of the Babylonians’ venerability. In fact, they were extremely sensitive to it, and used it to their advantage. Cyrus, the last king of Babylon, was extremely sensitive to the alien and complex traditions of Mesopotamia, and used them to his advantage.

#5

The Babylonians believed that their king, Nabonidus, had been particularly egregious in his behavior. Not only had he absented himself from Babylon for ten years, but he had promoted the cult of a moon god, Sin, in Marduk’s place.

#6

The rule of the Persians had collapsed into murder and factionalism, but this did not stop many Babylonians from supporting the revolt. The Persians had given the Babylonians peace, and the merchants and financiers who had benefited from this were not going to stand for it.

#7

The city of Babylon was the center of the world’s fantasies. It was a place of prostitution and licentiousness, but it was also a sacred duty for daughters to be pimped by their fathers.

#8