District Twelve - Ancient Iran by Marco Ferrario Hardcover

About the Book

This book offers a history of Achaemenid imperialism in Central Asia from the establishment of Persian rule under Cyrus to the Seleukid takeover in the aftermath of Alexander's conquest.

Book Synopsis

This book offers, at the same time, an imperial history of a region (Northeastern Central Asia under the Achaemenids) and the regional history of an Empire (how the Persians adapted their strategies of governmentality to a geographically challenging, ethnically diverse, and politically impervious space). Bringing together evidence from literary texts, archaeology, and ethnohistory, it crafts a new narrative of Central Asian history in which local actors in and outside the imperial territory are given as much, if not (at times) more agency than the King of Kings and his satraps in heralding Central Asia's first Age of Empires.

About the Author

Marco Ferrario (Ph.D. 2023) is an ancient historian focusing on the history of pre-Islamic Central Asia and the Eastern Īrānicate world. He published articles and book chapters on the socioeconomic history of Baktria-Sogdiana, Herodotus and his work, and the anthropology of kingship.