Persianism in Antiquity

Rolf Strootman, M. J. Versluys, Nederlands Instituut in Turkije Staff

The aim of this conference is to trace the origins of the concept of "Persia" in post-Achaemenid antiquity. It was in the Hellenistic and early Roman Near East that the idea of Persia fully developed. From the second century BCE, a varied cultural style developed that can best be described as "Persianism" -- the appropriation of an idealized past through the re-use or invention of imagery and concepts associated with that past.