The particular questions of wide empire - how to manage communications over huge distances, how to weld hopelessly disparate peoples into one coherent system - were first asked, and answered, in Persia.                Read article.

Decolonizing Persian History

Ancient Persia and its history are rarely discussed on its own terms and importance and when done, it is usually as only an appendix or a footnote to Greek history.  This is true of the textbooks in grade schools to the universities in the United States, and I suspect in most other countries. The reason for their marginal role in history books is that most of the sources that have remained provide a skewed vision of the ancient world. Unfortunately for the Persians, most of the evidence for their history comes from Greek sources which tend to be hostile, setting the Greek way of life against that of the "Oriental," or "Barbarian." It is noteworthy to mention that this paradigm was basically revitalized in the West in the modern period and shows its ugliness in such works as S. Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations." While this bi-polar view of the world may have exited in antiquity (among Greeks), its continued existence today is certainly uncalled for and indeed a tragedy...     Read this rest of this exceptional article here.