ABSTRACT
The Persian Empire has an especial interest for the study of states systems. It was the
climax of the methods evolved in the pre-Roman ancient world to manage many different
communities in an imperial system. It exercised a radial rather than a territorially
delimited authority; and at or beyond the fringes of that authority it also played a major
part with the Greek city states in the Greco-Persian system and profoundly influenced the
Indian system.
