Books by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones is Professor of Ancient History at Cardiff University. He is the author of many books and articles, including Aphrodite’s Tortoise: the veiled woman of ancient Greece; Designs on the Past: How Hollywood Created the Ancient World; King and Court in Ancient Persia, and Ctesias’ History of Persia: Tales of the Orient. He is currently writing The Persians for Wildfire Books, and is working on a commentary of the biblical Book of Esther.
“The Cleopatras by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones is about all the queens called Cleopatra: the one most of us know about being, in fact, Cleopatra VII. You learn a lot about Ptolemaic Egypt as well as what was happening further East (the first Cleopatra was from Syria). Very striking is the marriage of brothers to their sisters within the royal family, and why that was seen as a good thing.” Read more...
Notable Nonfiction Books of Mid-2024
Sophie Roell, Journalist
Persians: The Age of The Great Kings
by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
In Persians: The Age of the Great Kingsby Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones tells the history of the Achaemenid Persian Empire—the largest empire of antiquity—from the point of view of the Persians. The book starts in 1000 BCE and ends in 330 BCE, after Alexander the III (aka the Great)'s defeat of Darius III. As Llewellyn-Jones points out, it's also the story of "one of the great dysfunctional families of history."
Interviews with Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
-
1
The Persian Empire
by J M Cook -
2
Discovering Cyrus: a Persian Conqueror Astride the Ancient World
by Reza Zaghamee -
3
The Persian Empire: A Corpus of Sources from the Achaemenid Period
by Amélie Kuhrt -
4
The Palace of Darius at Susa: The Great Royal Residence of Achaemenid Persia
by Jean Perrot -
5
Creation
by Gore Vidal
The best books on The Achaemenid Persian Empire, recommended by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
The best books on The Achaemenid Persian Empire, recommended by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
At the height of its greatness, the Achaemenid Persian Empire was the largest empire the world had ever known. Too often it is given merely a villainous walk-on part in the heroic history of classical Greece. Here, historian Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones explains why that needs correcting, looks at its cultural achievements and discusses why the first Persian empire is worth studying in its own right and on its own terms.
Interviews where books by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones were recommended
-
1
Tojo: The Rise and Fall of Japan's Most Controversial World War II General
by Peter Mauch -
2
Carthage: A New History of an Ancient Empire
by Eve MacDonald -
3
A Cool Head in Hell: The Wartime Diaries of a British Doctor from Dunkirk to the Burma Railway
by Harry Silman & Jacqueline Passman -
4
King of Kings: The Fall of the Shah, the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the Unmaking of the Modern Middle East
by Scott Anderson -
5
The First King of England: Æthelstan and the Birth of a Kingdom
by David Woodman -
6
The Mission: The CIA in the 21st Century
by Tim Weiner
New History Books
New History Books
It’s a golden age for historical writing, as well-researched and sometimes quite specialist books by historians are written in an engaging style for a broad audience. History books out in recent months range from ancient Assyria to the CIA in the 21st century.
-
1
The Cleopatras: The Forgotten Queens of Egypt
by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones -
2
The Roads to Rome: A History of Imperial Expansion
by Catherine Fletcher -
3
Spice: The 16th-Century Contest that Shaped the Modern World
by Roger Crowley -
4
The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War
by Erik Larson -
5
Default: The Landmark Court Battle over Argentina's $100 Billion Debt Restructuring
by Gregory Makoff
Notable Nonfiction Books of Mid-2024, recommended by Sophie Roell
Notable Nonfiction Books of Mid-2024, recommended by Sophie Roell
From a dynasty that ruled ancient Egypt to the 1986 space shuttle disaster, from the fight to get rich from spices in the 16th century to making billions from bankrupt countries in the 21st century, Five Books editor Sophie Roell gives an overview of the new nonfiction books that have appeared since April.
-
1
Carthage: A New History of an Ancient Empire
by Eve MacDonald -
2
The Library of Ancient Wisdom: Mesopotamia and the Making of the Modern World
by Selena Wisnom -
3
Between Two Rivers: Ancient Mesopotamia and the Birth of History
by Moudhy Al-Rashid -
4
Babylon: The Biography of a Metropolis
by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones -
5
Agrippa
by Robert Harris -
6
Boudicca's Daughter
by Elodie Harper
New in Ancient History
New in Ancient History
We love books about ancient history at Five Books. Not only is it relaxing to escape from the present by reading about events several millennia ago, but the brutality of that period also helps put our modern challenges in perspective. One exciting trend in the past few years is a move away from accounts of ancient Rome and Greece to other ancient civilisations. Here’s a roundup of some of the books published recently.
