Archibald Henry Sayce (1845 1933) was an influential orientalist and philologist. He was a pioneering Assyriologist and published widely on the history, religion, and literature of the Babylonian and Assyrian peoples. In 1891 he became Professor of Assyriology at Oxford University. The Ancient Empires of the East (1883) is Sayce's edition, 'with Notes, Introductions and Appendices', of the first three books of The Histories by the fifth-century Greek historian Herodotus, which focus on Egypt and Persia. In his preface Sayce states that since the field of oriental studies is 'growing day by...

Archibald Henry Sayce (1845-1933) became interested in Middle Eastern languages and scripts while still a teenager. Old Persian and Akkadian cuneiform had recently been deciphered, and popular enthusiasm for these discoveries was running high when Sayce began his academic career at Oxford in 1869. He had already published two grammars of Assyrian (both reissued in this series) by the time these lively and engaging lectures, given in 1875 and 1876, were published in 1877. The introduction expresses optimism that Assyrian and Egyptian would establish themselves as core components of the...

Archibald Henry Sayce (1845-1933) became interested in Middle Eastern languages and scripts while still a teenager. Old Persian and Akkadian cuneiform had recently been deciphered, and at the same time Indo-European studies had emerged as a lively field, with publications by scholars including Grimm, Bopp and Schleicher. Assyrian offered opportunities to historians of the Semitic languages similar to those provided by Avestan to Indo-Europeanists, and Sayce's grammar, published in 1872, was aimed at such an audience. Only transliteration was used, as cuneiform would be both expensive and...

Archibald Henry Sayce (1845-1933) became interested in Middle Eastern languages and scripts while still a teenager. Old Persian and Akkadian cuneiform had recently been deciphered, and in the early 1870s the translation of part of the epic tale of Gilgamesh attracted considerable publicity. Based at Oxford, the young philologist Sayce published several books on Assyrian in quick succession. In the preface to this 1875 teaching grammar/reader, he notes that in just three years since the publication of his grammar for specialists (also reissued in this series), Assyrian had become a 'popular'...

This highly illustrated 1900 work guides the visitor to the ancient Egyptian sites while noting changes to the modern state.