Ian Macgregor Morris
Senior Lecturer, Department of English and American Studies.
Member of the Academic Committee of the Cairo Research Centre.
Member of the Steering Committee of the International Sparta Seminar.
B.A. (Hons.), University College London.
Ph.D., University of Manchester.
Research interests:
Currently completing a monograph on the Achaemenid Empire under Xerxes. Areas of interest include:
• Ancient History: Achaemenid Persia; archaic Greece; Sparta.
• Early Modern History: eighteenth-century political culture; travel writing; hellenism.
• History of ideas: the classical tradition; historiography.
Media activities:
•Consultant and primary contributor on “Finding Sparta's 300”. Unearthed, Season 5, Ep. 06 (Discovery Science Channel, 18.08.19).
[German language version: “Schlachtfeld der Spartaner”. Alte Baukunst neu entschlüsselt, Season 04, Ep. 06 (airdate 28.12.2019)]
email: ian.macgregormorris@sbg.ac.at
https://www.uni-salzburg.at/index.php?id=201411
http://cairoresearchcentre.org/en
Address: Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria
Member of the Academic Committee of the Cairo Research Centre.
Member of the Steering Committee of the International Sparta Seminar.
B.A. (Hons.), University College London.
Ph.D., University of Manchester.
Research interests:
Currently completing a monograph on the Achaemenid Empire under Xerxes. Areas of interest include:
• Ancient History: Achaemenid Persia; archaic Greece; Sparta.
• Early Modern History: eighteenth-century political culture; travel writing; hellenism.
• History of ideas: the classical tradition; historiography.
Media activities:
•Consultant and primary contributor on “Finding Sparta's 300”. Unearthed, Season 5, Ep. 06 (Discovery Science Channel, 18.08.19).
[German language version: “Schlachtfeld der Spartaner”. Alte Baukunst neu entschlüsselt, Season 04, Ep. 06 (airdate 28.12.2019)]
email: ian.macgregormorris@sbg.ac.at
https://www.uni-salzburg.at/index.php?id=201411
http://cairoresearchcentre.org/en
Address: Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria
less
InterestsView All (41)
Uploads
Papers by Ian Macgregor Morris
The aftermath of the meeting is perhaps better remembered than the journal itself: Shelley’s drowning on his departure from nearby Livorno. Despite a deteriorating personal relationship, Hunt and Byron persevered, more out of a mutual respect for Shelley than for one another. The first issue, in October 1822, was met with a level of withering criticism that, with hindsight, appears quite out of proportion to the influence of the journal itself. Yet the nature of those attacks reveals concerns surrounding the perceived connections between political reform, religious orthodoxy and personal morality.
Books by Ian Macgregor Morris
Forthcoming Books by Ian Macgregor Morris
Tradition has recorded Xerxes as the epitome of the “Oriental despot”, more a caricature than real historical figure. However this new book brings together a range of literary and archaeological evidence to create a nuanced account of the Persian Empire under Xerxes, challenging the conventional narratives that depict him as a tyrannical and derivative ruler. A close rereading of Persian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Phoenician, Jewish and Greek sources suggest a king who fundamentally re-organised his empire, setting a template for future rulers and imperial administration. Drawing on Mesopotamian and Iranian traditions, Xerxes built on the military and political achievements of his father and grandfather, the founders of Persian power. Faced with a multi-ethnic population united only by sheer force, he developed a notion of kingship that situated practices of reciprocity and diplomacy within a cosmological framework centred on the eternal struggle between arta (The Truth) and drauga (The Lie). He sought to bring the diverse identities of the empire into one collaborative project that promised a Pax Persiana, using the very notion of difference as a way to legitimise Empire. And thus he consolidated the first “world empire”, developing an imperial edifice that would last for one hundred and fifty years and form the model for the Hellenistic and Roman empires that would follow.
Volume Outline:
Introduction.
Chapter One: Arta
Chapter Two: Xeropaidia
Chapter Three: Mathišta
Chapter Four: Babylon
Chapter Five: Athens
Chapter Six: Jerusalem
Chapter Seven: Persepolis
Chapter Eight: Drauga
The aftermath of the meeting is perhaps better remembered than the journal itself: Shelley’s drowning on his departure from nearby Livorno. Despite a deteriorating personal relationship, Hunt and Byron persevered, more out of a mutual respect for Shelley than for one another. The first issue, in October 1822, was met with a level of withering criticism that, with hindsight, appears quite out of proportion to the influence of the journal itself. Yet the nature of those attacks reveals concerns surrounding the perceived connections between political reform, religious orthodoxy and personal morality.
Tradition has recorded Xerxes as the epitome of the “Oriental despot”, more a caricature than real historical figure. However this new book brings together a range of literary and archaeological evidence to create a nuanced account of the Persian Empire under Xerxes, challenging the conventional narratives that depict him as a tyrannical and derivative ruler. A close rereading of Persian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Phoenician, Jewish and Greek sources suggest a king who fundamentally re-organised his empire, setting a template for future rulers and imperial administration. Drawing on Mesopotamian and Iranian traditions, Xerxes built on the military and political achievements of his father and grandfather, the founders of Persian power. Faced with a multi-ethnic population united only by sheer force, he developed a notion of kingship that situated practices of reciprocity and diplomacy within a cosmological framework centred on the eternal struggle between arta (The Truth) and drauga (The Lie). He sought to bring the diverse identities of the empire into one collaborative project that promised a Pax Persiana, using the very notion of difference as a way to legitimise Empire. And thus he consolidated the first “world empire”, developing an imperial edifice that would last for one hundred and fifty years and form the model for the Hellenistic and Roman empires that would follow.
Volume Outline:
Introduction.
Chapter One: Arta
Chapter Two: Xeropaidia
Chapter Three: Mathišta
Chapter Four: Babylon
Chapter Five: Athens
Chapter Six: Jerusalem
Chapter Seven: Persepolis
Chapter Eight: Drauga