For 200 years, from the second half of the 6th century BC to the decades before 330 BC, the Persian dynasty of the Achaemenids ruled an enormous empire streching from the Mediterranean to Afganistan and India. The Great Kings Dareios I and Xerxes I even tried to conquer Greece and the northern Black Sea, but failed. Why were they interested in the Pontic area? In contrast to rich satrapies, such as Egypt, Phoenicia, and Syria, the Black Sea had no prosporous cities to offer. After 479 BC, the Persians acknowledged that the coast and Caucasus formed the natural borders of the empire. Nevertheless, the satraps became involved in the affairs of the Black Sea region in order to safeguard the empire's frontiers. The local inhabitants of the region became bearers and transmitters of Persian culture.

Table of contents and download of pdf-files

Colophon and contents (p. 1-6)

Jens Nieling & Ellen Rehm
Introduction (p. 7-14)

Adele Bill
Achaemenids in the Caucasus (p. 15-28)

Maria Brosius
Pax Persica and the Peoples of the Black Sea Region: Extent and Limits of Achaemenid Imperial Ideology (p. 29-40)

Anne Marie Carstens
The Labraunda Sphinxes (p. 41-46)

Vladimir R. Erlikh
Recent Investigations of the Ulski Kurgans (p. 47-66)

Diana Gergova
Orphic Thrace and Achaemenid Persia (p. 67-86)

Vladimir Goroncharovskij
A Silver Rhyton with a Representation of a Winged Ibex from the Fourth Semibratniy Tumulus (p. 87-102)

Tatiana N. Smekalova
Geomagnetic Surveys in the Territory of Labrys (Semibratnee Townsite) in 2006-2008 (p. 103-110)

Florian Knauss, Iulon Gagoshidze & Ilias Babaev
A Persian Propylon in Azerbaijan. Excavations at Karacamirli (p. 111-122)

Jens Nieling
Persian Imperial Policy Behind the Rise and Fall of the Cimmerian Bosporus in the Last Quarter of the Sixth to the Beginning of the Fifth Century BC (p. 123-136)

Ellen Rehm
The Impact of the Achaemenids on Thrace: A Historical Review (p. 137-160)

Ellen Rehm
The Classification of Objects from the Black Sea Region Made or Influenced by the Achaemenids (p. 161-194)

Lâtife Summerer & Alexander von Kienlin
Achaemenid Impact in Paphlagonia: Rupestral Tombs in the Amnias Valley (p. 195-222)

Mikhail Treister
"Achaemenid" and "Achaemenid-inspired" Goldware and Silverware, Jewellery and Arms and their Imitations to the North of the Achaemenid Empire (p. 223-280)

Christopher Tuplin
Revisiting Dareios' Scythian Expedition (p. 281-312)

Indices (p. 313-322)

Contributors (p. 323-325)