Gary Chartier (author of Anarchy and Legal Order: Law and Politics for a Stateless Society) writes the foreword and states: "Anarchists frequently view religion as exemplifying or sustaining arbitrary authority. Consider Mikhail Bakunin's God and the State, suggesting that subservience to the state is disturbingly similar to religious belief, and Daniel Guerin's No Gods, No Masters, effectively treating religious and socio-political authority as coordinate. When religious institutions are intertwined with a society's power structure, just as when those institutions reinforce submissiveness to...

The first and second section of the book addresses their earlier history when Assyrian sources first mentioned them during the reign of Sargon II. It examines their effect on the Battle on Mt. Uaush in 714 BCE and its aftermath. It discusses why they rebelled against Sargon II, which led to his death. The third section of the book examines King Esarhaddon of Assyria and his on-and-off fight with the Scythians and Cimmerians and the many chieftains who challenged Assyria during his reign. The fourth section of the book discusses the reign of Ashurbanipal and how he dealt with the Scythians and...

Seleucus inherited a rather large chunk of land, extending from Anatolia in the west to the borders of India in the east. You could say he hit the "lottery" but at the same time he inherited much more than he bargained, more so for his future inheritors of this vast domain. One of the biggest problems in controlling such a vast amount of land is the issue of holding onto it. In other words, the land is too big to use for it is too big to lose. One has to consider, especially those in the Seleucid administration, that there are going to be language barriers, but even more important than...

The Roman-Parthian Wars were cultural clashes between eastern and western titans. Parthia was the antithesis of Rome, not only culturally, but also on the battlefield. As Rome continued to push militarily and diplomatically eastward during the 90's BCE, they eventually arrived near the Upper Euphrates to discover that many of the mini-kingdoms were in fact Parthian client states, especially Armenia. Once Rome officially discovered and understood the sphere of influence Parthia had over its western neighbors, Rome gradually took that model and began to court the eastern kingdoms subject to...