The 2ndvolume in a series that examines the spread of cultures from the East into Europe.The Persian Empire was the first major eastern power to actually extend its borders into Europe. The Persians came in the 6th century BC as a great power seeking to incorporate parts of southeastern Europe as provinces into a centrally ruled and administered empire. While Persia’s foothold in Europe was tiny, distant, and brief, and the contact is usually viewed in terms of conflict—the Greco-Persian wars, the conquests of Alexander, the numerous wars between Rome and Iran—Europe’s interaction with ancient Persia was neither short-lived nor conflicting: it was the beginnings of a complex relationship between East and West that continues to this day. This book explores that relationship in detail.