At the foot of the Mount of Mercy in southeastern Persia, Darius the Great built his capital, Persepolis -- a symbol of Persian glory for two centuries. At its height the Achaemenid Empire, with its power centered in this city, reached from the Nile and Greece eastward to India. Dominating the major travel routes between East and West, it was the meeting ground of the great cultures of the ancient world. Here is the history of the crucial period from Cyrus' extension of Persian rule to Greece to the burning of Persepolis itself by Alexander the Great. Out of a lifetime of study of the ancient Near East, Professor Olmstead has gathered previously unknown material into the story of the life, times, and thought of the Persians, told for the first time from the Persian rather than the traditional Greek point of view. In this story, the author shows how the science, literature, language, and myths of the ancients grew from the intermingling of many cultures and entered into the formation of our own civilization. - Publisher.