Why does it seem like the Persian Empires get shafted in popular history and culture? The Parthians & Sassanids are barely mentioned, if at all in textbooks, even though they rivaled the Roman Empire. Is this Western bias, or are there a lack of sources? Even little old Carthage gets more love.

by historyfan1887

Perhaps this is personal bias, but over the course of my public education, the focus was Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, then Rome. The Persian Empire (Parthians, Sassanids, etc) is either mentioned briefly as an adversary to Rome, or never at all. Even though, to my - admittedly limited - knowledge the various Persian Empires were as powerful as Rome, if not more so.

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The_Manchurian

As a related question, how is Persian history taught in Iran? Do they focus a lot on the various Persian Empires? What about Iraq and Afghanistan?

JohnGwynbleidd

Another question that is also related to OPs. Why is Cyrus The Great is also pretty much ignored or not as studied as much as a historical figure compared to Alexander, Julius Caesar, Augustus, Genghis Khan etc?

DoctorEmperor

Related to this, why is it that when discussing the Persian Empire, Greek sources like Herodotus are often the first things used? Are there not any Persian sources on Persian history?

becauseiliketoupvote

Follow up, if it is just eurocentric bias, what are some major historical sources written by the Persians? Are there correlaries to Tacitus/Livy/etc?

cleopatra_philopater

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