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<p>In a recent review of Donald Kagan’s The Peloponnesian War, and my Autumn of War, ("Theatres of War:  Why the battles over ancient Athens still rage”  New Yorker Magazine, [January 12, 2004]), the classicist Daniel Mendelsohn  says that I believe that it is immoral to suggest defeat can be seen as victory: "The play asks the very question that Victor Davis Hanson considers "immoral": whether abject defeat can yet somehow be a victory."</p>

Nowruz 2569 (1389) will begin on: با شادباش نوروز - تحويل سال نوتحويل سال نو ۲۵۶۹ - ساعت ۹ و ۲ دقيقه و ۰۰ ثانيه بعد از ظهر شنبه اول فروردين ۱۳۸۹ در ايران Tehran: Saturday:      09:02:00 PM      March 20, 2010 New York: Saturday 01:32:00 PM March 20, 2010 Chicago: Saturday 12:32:00 PM March 20, 2010 Denver: Saturday 11:32:00 AM March 20, 2010 Los Angeles:      Saturday 10:32:00 AM March 20, 2010 London: Saturday 05:32:00 PM March 20, 2010 Paris: Saturday 06:32:00 PM March 20, 2010 Rome: Saturday 06:32:00 PM March 20, 2010 Berlin: Saturday 06:32:00 PM March 20, 2010 Athens:...

Archaeological excavations in Netiv Haasarah have uncovered a Persian era military installation. Netiv Haasarah is a town in the "Gaza envelope" with a population of about 700. The dig, being headed by Dr. Yael Abadi Rice, found a fortified town and a military tower, from approximately 2,100 years ago. This time period was when the Second Temple was standing in Jerusalem. "It seems this was a military outpost", Dr. Rice told Tazpit News Agency. "Besides for the army stationed there, people were sent there to work the area on the road from Ashkelon to Gaza." The outpost had the military...

In 1979, after a long campaign of political pressure applied by the Carter administration in the United States, the Shah of Iran fell to the Islamic Revolution, ending a tradition of monarchic rule that had persisted in Iran for thousands of years since the rule of Cyrus the Great. The stage was set for the rise of the Ayatollah, and the establishment of a theocracy in Iran that, today, most Iranians do not even want. But what if none of that had ever happened? While a momentous departure from actual history, it is not nearly so far-fetched as it sounds....

In which we discuss Zack Snyder’s latest, liberal interpretation of the second Persian invasion of Greece, the pre-Islamic cultural history of Persia, Dear Reader, Michael Malice’s unauthorized autobiography of Kim Jong-il, the fickle nature of social media, and, naturally, comic books! Enjoy.

Gods.Resolved by the Boule and the People.Themistocles son of Neocles of Phrearrhioi made the motion. The city shall be entrusted to Athena, Athens' protectress, and to the other gods, all of them, for protection and defense against the Barbarian on behalf of the country. The Athenians in their entirety and the aliens who live in Athens shall place their children and their women in Troezen, [to be entrusted to Theseus ?] the founder of the land. The elderly and movable property shall for safety be deposited at Salamis. The treasurers and the priestesses are to remain on the Acropolis and...

An arm bone retreived from the pieces of a stone sarcophogus found in the ruins of a church in Goa on the west coast of India likely belonged to Ketevan, the 17th century queen of the Kingdom of Kakheti in eastern Georgia. Literary sources say that when Kakheti was conquered by the Persians in 1613, Ketevan was taken prisoner. After refusing to join the Persian emperor's harem, she was tortured and killed 11 years later, and a portion of her body was said to have been taken to St. Augustine's Chuch in Goa and kept on a window. Since the...

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday brought home a 2,700-year-old Persian artifact the US administration gave him as ?a special gift" to Iranians, media reports said. ?The Americans contacted us on Thursday and said 'we have a gift for you',? Rouhani told reporters upon arrival at the airport in Tehran, the ILNA news agency reported. ?They gave it back as a special gift to the Iranian nation.? Rouhani was speaking of a 7th century BC silver Persian drinking cup in the shape of a winged Griffin, a legendary creature with the head of an eagle and body of a lion....

The year is—let us say—1170, and you are the leader of a city watch in medieval Persia. Patrolling the dangerous alleyways in the small hours of the morning, you and your men chance upon two or three shady-looking characters loitering outside the home of a wealthy merchant. Suspecting that you have stumbled across a gang of housebreakers, you order them searched. From various hidden pockets in the suspect’ robes, your men produce a candle, a crowbar, stale bread, an iron spike, a drill, a bag of sand—and a live tortoise. The reptile is, of course, the clincher. There are a...

Zack Snyder's been a busy man - not only is he currently promoting his new Superman movie Man Of Steel but on the day of the premiere he also released a teaser trailer for his next comic book movie - 300. The director took to the blue carpet in London's Leicester Square on Wednesday night alongside Henry Cavill. But while the hype builds over the Henry Cavill film, he's already looking to the next as he gears up for the 2014 release of follow up movie 300: Rise Of An Empire, which he returned to albeit as a producer and...

One of the significant events in ancient history is the conquest of Babylon by the Persian king, Cyrus the Great. On October 4th, 539 BC, the Persian Army entered the city of Babylon, which was then the capital of the Babylonian state (in central Iraq). This was a bloodless campaign and no prisoners were taken. Later, on November 9th, King Cyrus of Persia visited the city. Babylonian history tells us that Cyrus was greeted by the people, who spread a pathway of green twigs before him as a sign of honor and peace (sulmu). Cyrus greeted all Babylonians in peace...

“I could drink much wine and yet bear it well” -- Darius the Great, King of Persia (6th BCE), Athenaeus 10.45 The history of wine making and wine drinking is an old one in Persia, and today the Darioush vineyard in the Napa Valley which has become renowned in the art of wine making, is attempting to revive this tradition in the United States. Wine connoisseurs today may be familiar with the word Shiraz, the name of a town in southwest Persia famed for its grapes. Whether or not the Shiraz grape was the source of the Medieval Syrah, brought...

Scientist claims to invent 'time machine' to see into the future with 98 per cent accuracy • He says his device can detail any individual’s life between five and eight years in advance after taking readings from the user's touch An Iranian scientist claims he has invented a time machine that allows you to predict the future with 98 per cent accuracy. Ali Razeghi says his device can produce a print-out detailing any individual’s life between five and eight years in advance after taking readings from the user's touch. He claims the Iranian government, whose nuclear programme has caused concern...

In 1920, British soldiers digging trenches near the Euphrates River came across ancient wall paintings. In the sands of eastern Syria, they uncovered the remains of the ancient town of Dura-Europos. Located on the Euphrates River, the long-buried settlement was ruled successively by the Macedonians, Parthians, and Romans until its destruction in A.D. 256. Today, the site is known for its buildings, including the world's oldest church, one of the earliest synagogues ever found, and numerous Greco-Roman temples. Covering about 180 acres, Dura-Europos was founded around 300 B.C... Dura's location was ideal because it was both defensible and near a...

They gassed Roman soldiers with toxic fumes 2,000 years ago, researchers have discovered. Archeologists have found the oldest evidence of chemical warfare yet after studying the bodies of 20 Roman soldiers' found underground in Syria 70 years ago. Archeologists have found the oldest evidence of chemical warfare after studying the bodies of 20 Roman soldiers Clues left at the scene revealed the Persians were lying in wait as the Romans dug a tunnel during a siege – then pumped in toxic gas – produced by sulphur crystals and bitumen – to kill all the Romans in minutes. Dr Simon James,...

Roman soldiers defending a Middle Eastern garrison from attack nearly 2,000 years ago met the horrors of war in a most unusual place. Inside a cramped tunnel beneath the site’s massive front wall, enemy fighters stacked up nearly two dozen dead or dying Romans and set them on fire, using substances that gave off toxic fumes and drove away Roman warriors just outside the tunnel. The attackers, members of Persia’s Sasanian culture that held sway over much of the region in and around the Middle East from the third to the seventh centuries, adopted a brutally ingenious method for penetrating...

Within the enclosure, by the way which led up to the tomb, a small building had been constructed for the Magi who guarded it, a duty which had been handed down from father to son ever since the time of Cyrus' son, Cambyses. They had a grant from the King of a sheep a day, with an allowance of meal and wine, and one horse a month to sacrifice to Cyrus. There was an inscription on the tomb in Persian, signifying: O man, I am Cyrus son of Cambyses, who founded the empire of Persia and ruled over Asia. Do...

In January or February 324, Alexander reached the old religious capital of Persia, Pasargadae. Here, he visited the tomb of Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Achaemenid empire, who had lived two centuries before. The Greek author Arrian of Nicomedia describes the events in section 29.1-11 of his Anabasis. The translation was made by Aubrey de Sélincourt. At the same time he moved forward himself with the lightest infantry units, the mounted Companions, and some regiments of archers, along the road to Pasargadae. [...] Arrived at the Persian frontier, he found that Phrasaortes, the governor, had died while the...

Panic In Persia As Hyperinflation Hits Iran Economics / HyperInflationNov 04, 2012 - 05:45 PM By: Steve H Hanke For decades, the Iranian economy has been cobbled together by religious-bureaucratic regimes that have employed mandates, regulations, price controls, subsidies and a wide variety of other interventionist devices, in an attempt to achieve their goals. It's all been kept afloat – barely afloat – by oil revenues. Shortly after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took power as president, Iran began to draw the ire of the United States, Europe and their allies over a number of issues related to Iran's nuclear ambitions. Of late,...