Books in Ancient World Leaders series

In ancient history, Darius I stands alone as an administrator with unparalleled insight into the workings of an empire. Under his leadership, the Persian Empire grew to be the largest and most powerful diplomatic and economic force in the world. After he cleverly seized the throne and quelled a series of revolts, Darius undertook a radical reorganization of the different peoples who inhabited the Iranian Plateau, instituting the practices of religious tolerance, widespread economic reform, and a fair system of law that would later be adopted by the generations that followed him in the Middle East and Europe. At the time of his death in 486 BCE, he had transformed the entire Middle East into a dominion of progressive government. In Darius the Great, read the story of his surprising ascendance to the throne, his clever diplomacy, and the military blunders that marked his ultimate place not as a conqueror, but as a governor of the people.

Almost 4,000 years ago, a young king named Hammurabi inherited the small and unimportant city of Babylon in the region of Mesopotamia, now in present-day Iraq. Over his lifetime, Hammurabi expanded Babylon in size and in importance, making the city the most important in the region by the time of his death. It would remain so for more than 1,000 years. Though Hammurabi was a politician, a diplomat, and a warrior, he is remembered mostly for his code of law, the tall monument of stone inscribed with hundreds of legal rulings that influenced the future laws of the region and then of the Western world. Hammurabi explores the life and times of a ruler known as "The King of Justice" through the king s own words and those of legal and historical documents and literature of the time.

This series takes a historical look at the ancient world's leading figures, who led armies to victory and ruled over vast domains in a time when the world was still young. As one empire fell, another would rise, led by charismatic and powerful commanders who could unite many people and were touched by greatness. This king of the Franks was one of the few Western rulers to be declared Holy Roman Emperor. Charlemagne was successful in uniting the disparate tribes of Western Europe in the name of Christianity.