a World of Culture September

Was the fall of Rome a great catastrophe that cast the West into darkness for centuries to come? Or, as scholars argue today, was there no crisis at all, but simply a peaceful blending of barbarians into Roman culture, an essentially positive transformation?

Persia's Achaemenid Empire flourished between 550 and 331 BC, and encompassed a rich diversity of different peoples and cultures. It originated with Cyrus the Great (559 - 530 BC) and expanded under his successors - who ruled from the royal capitals of Susa and Persepolis - until at its peak it stretched from the Indus Valley to Greece and from the Caspian Sea to Egypt. The Achaemenids acted as a bridge between the earlier Near Eastern cultures and the later Classical world of the Mediterranean, and had a profound influence on Greece in political, military, economic and cultural fields.