Persian Fire: The First World Empire, Battle for the West - 'Magisterial' Books of the Year, Independent

by Tom Holland

Both peoples, after all, were Aryan; and, to an Aryan, it was only the ‘anairya’ – the non-Aryan – who was foreign. Indeed, any of Astyages’ courtiers who were suffering from nostalgia had only to look south for a glimpse of the good old days.