Spotlight on Ancient Persia and the Achaemenids at British Museum Exhibit

By Nazanine Nouri

“Luxury and Power: Persia to Greece” —  a new exhibition at the British Museum examining the complex relationship between luxury and power in ancient Iran, in Athens, and during the reign of Alexander the Great — is putting the Achaemenids in the British media spotlight.

“We’ve revered the Ancient Greeks for millennia,” The Observer wrote on May 5. “A new British Museum exhibition shows they were busy looking eastwards…in thrall to what was then the greatest power in the world: the Achaemenid Empire of Persia.”

“While Greek writers may have denounced Persian displays of luxury, equating them with decadence following the Greco-Persian wars, those in positions of authority across Greek city-states were only too keen to emulate Achaemenid exotica,” The Observer added, “adapting pieces to be compatible with Greek culture in order to enhance the prestige of their cities.  In this sense, Persian luxury acted as an early form of what me might consider soft power.”

The show spans the period from 550 BC to 30 BC – a period during which the Persian empire clashed with the cities and kingdoms of Greece before being conquered by Alexander. More specifically, it shows how the Greek soldiers who defeated Persia suddenly discovered dazzling levels of luxury and magnificence which Greek historians subsequently described as symptomatic of Persian decadence and excess.

“This exhibition is a chance to explore beyond these biased accounts and understand how Persians wielded luxury as a political tool across a vast and complex empire,” explained Dr. Jamie Fraser, curator of Ancient Levant and Anatolia at the British Museum.

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“Luxury and power: Persia to Greece” is supported by the American Friends of the British Museum and runs through August 13, 2023.

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