Trouble in the west : the Persian Empire and Egypt, 525-332 BCE

__Trouble in the West__ provides the first full and continuous account of the Persian-Egyptian War, a conflict that continued for nearly the two-hundred-year duration of the Persian Empire. Despite its status as the largest of all ancient Persian military enterprises--including any aimed at Greece--this conflict has never been reconstructed in any detailed and comprehensive way. Thus, __Trouble in the West__ adds tremendously to our understanding of Persian imperial affairs. At the same time, it dramatically revises our understanding of eastern Mediterranean and Aegean affairs by linking Persian dealings with Greeks and other peoples in the west to Persia's fundamental, ongoing Egyptian concerns. In this study, Stephen Ruzicka argues that Persia's Egyptian problem and, conversely, Egypt's Persian problem, were much more important in the eastern Mediterranean and Aegean worlds than our conventional Greek-centered perspective and sources have allowed us to see. In looking at this conflict as one stage in an enduring east-west conflict between successive Near Eastern imperial powers and Egypt--one which stretched across nearly the whole of ancient history--it represents an important turning point: by pulling in remote western states and peoples, who subsequently became masters of Egypt, western opposition to Near Eastern power was sustained right up to the 7th century Arab conquests. For classicists and historians of the ancient Near East, __Trouble in the West__ will serve as a valuable, and long-overdue, resource. "Trouble in the West provides the first full and continuous account of the Persian-Egyptian War, a conflict that continued for nearly the two-hundred-year duration of the Persian Empire. Despite its status as the largest of all ancient Persian military enterprises--including any aimed at Greece--this conflict has never been reconstructed in any detailed and comprehensive way. Thus, Trouble in the West adds tremendously to our understanding of Persian imperial affairs. At the same time, it dramatically revises our understanding of eastern Mediterranean and Aegean affairs by linking Persian dealings with Greeks and other peoples in the west to Persia's fundamental, ongoing Egyptian concerns. In this study, Stephen Ruzicka argues that Persia's Egyptian problem and, conversely, Egypt's Persian problem, were much more important in the eastern Mediterranean and Aegean worlds than our conventional Greek-centered perspective and sources have allowed us to see. In looking at this conflict as one stage in an enduring east-west conflict between successive Near Eastern imperial powers and Egypt--one which stretched across nearly the whole of ancient history--it represents an important turning point: by pulling in remote western states and peoples, who subsequently became masters of Egypt, western opposition to Near Eastern power was sustained right up to the 7th century Arab conquests. For classicists and historians of the ancient Near East, Trouble in the West will serve as a valuable, and long-overdue, resource."--Publisher's website Content: Preface Author's Note Table of Contents Maps Introduction: Stories and Sources 1. Persia and Egypt: The Historical Perspective 2. Persian Success: Conquest and Kingship, 525-518 3. Managing Egypt, 518-415 4. Losing Egypt, 415-400 5. Securing the Eastern Mediterranean, 399-395 6. Into the Aegean, 394-392 7. To Egypt: Preparations and Campaign, 392-387 8. The Egyptian War and the King's Peace, 387-386 9. Egypt Strikes Back: The Cypriot War and the Struggle for the Eastern Mediterranean, 386-379 10. Iphicrates Takes Over, ca. 378-373 11. Pharnabazus and Iphicrates' Egyptian Campaign, 12. Court Politics and the Collapse of the Third Campaign, 372-365 13. Egyptian Strategy Shifts: The Genesis of Tachos' Great Offensive, 364-361 14. Tachos: Campaign and Collapse, 360-359 15. Persian Counterattack? 16. Artaxerxes III: King and Commander, 358-350 17. Loss and Recovery of the Middle Territory, 350-345 18. Persian Success, 344-343 19. From Artaxerxes III to Alexander III 20. East, West, and Far West after the Persians: The Long View Appendix A. King Lists, Egypt and Persia Appendix B. Timeline, 525 - 332 B.C. Abbreviations Endnotes Bibliography Index Transcending ethnic, linguistic, and religious boundaries, early empires shaped thousands of years of world history. Yet despite the global prominence of empire, individual cases are often studied in isolation. This series seeks to change the terms of the debate by promoting cross-cultural, comparative, and transdisciplinary perspectives on imperial state formation prior to the European colonial expansion. Book jacket fully reconstructs Persian efforts to conquer, control, and, eventually, reconquer Egypt. Reinterpreting Persian-Greek interactions in the process, it furnishes a new narrative of 5th and 4th century history and places that narrative in the enduring struggle between Near Eastern imperial powers and Egypt that marked the longue duree ancient history