Here, Pierre Briant, emeritus professor of ancient history at the Collège de France in Paris, seeks “to explain why Darius, along with so many others, is condemned to haunt the realm of historical oblivion.” The result is a fascinating meditation on the nature of power and the role of words and images in shaping and maintaining it. Such an approach is announced in the very title of Darius in the Shadow of Alexander, a 2003 work newly translated into English. HISTORY is written by the winners, but in recent years there’s been a trend toward considering history from the viewpoint of those who found themselves on its losing side.
