MARTIN SICKER is an independent consultant who has served as a senior executive in the United States government and has taught political science at American University and George Washington University. He has written widely in the fields of political science and international affairs and is the author of numerous books on Middle East history and politics. His latest publications are Reshaping Palestine: From Muhammad Ali to the British Mandate, 1831-1922 (Praeger, 1999) and Pangs of the Messiah: The Troubled Birth of the Jewish State (Praeger, forthcoming 2000).

• Introduction The Middle East in Early Antiquity Egypt and Asia The Rise and Decline of Assyria The Rise and Fall of Media The Empire of the Achaemenids The Persian-Greek Wars The Macedonian Conquest The Dissolution of Alexander's Empire Reconfiguration of the Middle East Rome Enters the Middle East The Roman-Parthian Conflict The Struggle over the Euphrates Frontier The Roman-Persian Stalemate The Era of Shapur II The Struggle for Persia's Frontiers End of the Sassanid Empire Afterword Bibliography

MARTIN SICKER is an independent consultant who has served as a senior executive in the United States government and has taught political science at American University and George Washington University. He has written widely in the fields of political science and international affairs and is the author of numerous books on Middle East history and politics. His latest publications are Reshaping Palestine: From Muhammad Ali to the British Mandate, 1831-1922 (Praeger, 1999) and Pangs of the Messiah: The Troubled Birth of the Jewish State (Praeger, forthcoming 2000).

• Introduction The Middle East in Early Antiquity Egypt and Asia The Rise and Decline of Assyria The Rise and Fall of Media The Empire of the Achaemenids The Persian-Greek Wars The Macedonian Conquest The Dissolution of Alexander's Empire Reconfiguration of the Middle East Rome Enters the Middle East The Roman-Parthian Conflict The Struggle over the Euphrates Frontier The Roman-Persian Stalemate The Era of Shapur II The Struggle for Persia's Frontiers End of the Sassanid Empire Afterword Bibliography

MARTIN SICKER is an independent consultant who has served as a senior executive in the United States government and has taught political science at American University and George Washington University. He has written widely in the fields of political science and international affairs and is the author of numerous books on Middle East history and politics. His latest publications are Reshaping Palestine: From Muhammad Ali to the British Mandate, 1831-1922 (Praeger, 1999) and Pangs of the Messiah: The Troubled Birth of the Jewish State (Praeger, forthcoming 2000).

• Introduction The Middle East in Early Antiquity Egypt and Asia The Rise and Decline of Assyria The Rise and Fall of Media The Empire of the Achaemenids The Persian-Greek Wars The Macedonian Conquest The Dissolution of Alexander's Empire Reconfiguration of the Middle East Rome Enters the Middle East The Roman-Parthian Conflict The Struggle over the Euphrates Frontier The Roman-Persian Stalemate The Era of Shapur II The Struggle for Persia's Frontiers End of the Sassanid Empire Afterword Bibliography