There are plenty of reliable translations of Herodotus; good discussions of his approach,
intellectual context and reliability, can be found in:
E.J. Bakker, I.J.F. de Jong and H. van Wees (eds), 2002 , Brill’s Companion to Herodotus(Leiden:
Brill).
An excellent new edition of all fragments of Ctesias, together with detailed notes
and a full, positive reappraisal of his work is:
D. Lenfant, 2004 , Ctésias de Cnide(Paris: Les Belles Lettres).
(For other classical writers, consult the relevant volumes of the Loeb Classical Library.)
For the main studies and publications of major sites, architecture, monuments, artefacts,
see:
M. Garrison and M.C. Root, 2002 , Seals in the Persepolis Fortification Tablets vol. I: Images of Heroic
Encounter (Oriental Institute Publications 117 , Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press).
P. Harper, J.Aruz and F. Tallon (eds), 1992 , The Royal City of Susa(New York: Metropolitan
Museum of Archaeology and Art).
E. Schmidt, 1953 – 57 , Persepolis (Oriental Institute Publications 68 – 70 ; Chicago, IL: Chicago
University Press).
D. Stronach, 1978 , Pasargadae(Oxford: Oxford University Press).
A.B. Tilia, 1972 – 78,Studies and Restorations at Persepolis and Other Sites in Fars (Rome: Istituto per
il Medio e Estremo Oriente, Reports and Memoirs 16 and 18).
Studies specifically devoted to Babylonia (aside from the chapters in Cambridge Ancient
History IV and VI, above) are:
R. McC., Adams, 1981 , Heartland of Cities: surveys of ancient settlement and land use in the central flood
plain of the Euphrates(Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press).
L. Bregstein, 1993 , Seal Use in Fifth Century BCNippur, Iraq: a study of seal selection and sealing
practice in the Murasˇu archive(Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania).
F. Joannès, 1990 , ‘Pouvoirs locaux et organisation du territoire en Babylonie achéménide’,
Transeuphratène 3 : 173 – 189 (an excellent clear survey).
–––– 2000 , La Mésopotamie au 1 ère millénaire av.n.é. (Paris: Armand Colin; now available in an
English translation, as The Age of Empires: Mesopotamia in the first millennium BC, Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press, 2004 ) (traces Mesopotamian history and culture down to the
Parthian period, emphasising continuities and pinpointing changes, illustrated with selected
text translations).
Seidl, U., 1999 b, ‘Eine Triumphstele Darius’ I. aus Babylon’, in J. Renger (ed.), Babylon: Focus
mesopotamischer Geschichte, Wiege früher Gelehrsamkeit, Mythos in der Moderne, (Saarbrücken: 297 – 306 )
(discussion, with reconstruction, of the Babylonian version of Darius I’s Bisitun text and relief
set up in Babylon).
M.W.Stolper, 1985 , Entrepreneurs and Empire: the Murasˇû archives, the Murasˇû firm and Persian rule
in Babylonia(Leiden: Netherlands Institute of the Near East) (an in-depth study of land
management by a Babylonian business ‘firm’ in the Nippur region and its interconnections
with the political superstructure in the fifth century; fundamental for understanding the social,
economic and political situation).
–––– 1989 , ‘The Governor of Babylon and Across-the-River’, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 48 :
283 – 305 (publication of the evidence for the administrative restructuring of the Babylonian
satrapy).
— The Persian empire —