Ctesias

Ctesias was a Greek physician at the Achaemenid court in the late fifth and early fourth centuries BCE. His lost works on Persia and India survive through quotations and summaries by later writers.

Achaemenid Empire: The Persian empire ruled by the Achaemenid dynasty from the sixth to fourth centuries BCE. Ctesias wrote about this empire after serving its royal court.
Greco-Persian relations: Political, military, and cultural interactions between Greek communities and Persian states. Ctesias wrote from a Greek perspective shaped by Persian service.
Diodorus Siculus: A Greek historian of the first century BCE who composed a universal history. His account of Persian history drew on Ctesias.
Behistun Inscription: A multilingual royal inscription commissioned by Darius I, recording his rise to power and victories. Its contemporary account offers a check on later Greek narratives of Persian history.
Artaxerxes II: Achaemenid king of Persia from 404 to 358 BCE. Ctesias served as physician at his court.
Persian Wars: A series of conflicts between the Achaemenid Empire and Greek states in the fifth century BCE. These conflicts formed the backdrop to Greek interest in Persian history.
Plutarch: A Greek biographer and essayist of the first and second centuries CE. His Life of Artaxerxes preserves material attributed to Ctesias.
Xenophon: An Athenian soldier and writer whose works include accounts of Persia and its rulers. His Persian narratives provide a different Greek perspective from Ctesias's.
Cnidus: An ancient Greek city on the southwestern coast of Asia Minor. Ctesias came from this city, a center of Greek medicine.
Herodotus: A Greek historian of the fifth century BCE whose Histories recount the Greco-Persian Wars and earlier events. Ctesias challenged Herodotus's account of Persia and its past.

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