Persian rule left Babylon with most of its institutions intact, it became one of the richest satrapies of the empire, and it became one of the world’s most magnificent cities, according to Greek ...

Babylonia, by contrast, had never been left alone. Apart from its massive Jewish diaspora, it was flooded with Persian immigrants under the Achaemenids, Greeks under the Seleucids and more Persians ...

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Persian ruler Cyrus the Great.