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CLOSEAchaemenid Empire (ca. 550–331 BC)
Antigoni Zournatzi
Research in this project focuses, on the one hand, on the relations between Persian authority and political entities and peoples on the western fringes of the empire, mainly in the Aegean, Thrace, and Cyprus. These studies address, among other topics, Persian administrative presence and taxation practices in subject territories, political, military, and diplomatic relations, political propaganda, as well as Persian perceptions of the ethnically and politically fragmented landscape of the eastern Mediterranean. A second area of interest concerns the influence of eastern historiographical traditions and political rhetoric on ancient Greek narratives about the emergence and practices of the Achaemenid empire, especially in the work of Herodotus.
(See also the project “Ancient Cyprus: Relations between the Cypriot Kingdoms and the Achaemenid World (6th–4th c. BC)”)
- A. Zournatzi, “Changing patterns of control along the western seaboard of the Achaemenid empire”, in R. Rollinger and M.R. Shayegan (eds.), Achaemenid Workshop 2. The Achaemenid Persian Empire and Imperial Transformations in the Ancient Near East (7th c. BC – 2nd c. BC) (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, submission/acceptance April 2024).
- A. Zournatzi, “The King’s peoples: was there ever an Achaemenid Persian tradition of ethnography?”, in M.R. Shayegan (ed.), Ancient Iran and the Classical World (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Trust, in press).
- G. G. Aperghis and A. Zournatzi, “The Greek tablet (Fort. 1771) of the Persepolis Fortification archive”, ARTA 2023.001, 1-29.
http://www.achemenet.com/pdf/arta/ARTA_2023_001%20Aperghis%20Zournatzi.pdf - A. Zournatzi, “Cyrus (II)”, in Ch. Baron (eds.), The Herodotus Encyclopedia (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2021) 390-396.
- A. Zournatzi, “Medes”, in Ch. Baron (ed.), The Herodotus Encyclopedia (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2021) 870-874.
- A. Zournatzi, “ ‘Ionians’ (Old Persian Yaunā): Achaemenid perspectives”, Graduate Seminar “Como estudiar las identidades. De los griegos antiguos al mundo actual: metodología y tendencias de análisis”, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 23 April 2025.
- A. Zournatzi, “The King’s peoples: was there ever an Achaemenid Persian tradition of ethnography?”, Seminars on Greek and Roman Antiquity (IHR/NHRF – Department of History and Archaeology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens – École française d’Athènes), Athens, Historical Archive of the University of Athens, 16 April 2024.
- A. Zournatzi, “Changing patterns of control along the western seaboard of the Achaemenid empire”, Achaemenid Workshop 2 “The Achaemenid Persian Empire and Imperial Transformations in the Ancient Near East (7th c. BC – 2nd c. BC)”, Innsbruck University Center at Obergurgl, 5 July 2023.
The essay “The King’s peoples: was there ever an Achaemenid Persian tradition of ethnography?” (Publications no. 2) was undertaken within the frame of a residential grant of the Getty Research Institute Scholars Program “The Classical World in Context: Persia” (Getty Villa, April – June 2019).
Main page image: Persepolis. Apadana, northern stairs, central relief (royal audience scene) / Tehran, National Musem (Marco Prins via Livius.org. Licence CC0 1.0 Universal)