by Shoto Press Staff | Aug 15, 2026 | Behind the scenes: The Golden Vine
Eram is gone with all its rose,And Jamshid’s seven-ringed cup, where, no one knows:But still the vine her ancient ruby yields,And still a garden by the water grows. —Adapted from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, trans. Edward FitzGerald This mysterious epigraph starts...
by Shoto Press Staff | Aug 13, 2026 | Behind the scenes: The Golden Vine
In 330 BCE, the historical Alexander set fire to Persepolis, shortly after accepting the city’s surrender. By the time the flames went out, the ceremonial heart of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, which had taken a hundred years to build, was little more than a field of...
by Shoto Press Staff | Aug 12, 2026 | Behind the scenes: The Golden Vine
Who was Alexander IV? Alexander IV in The Golden Vine Recorded history tells us that in 327 BCE, Alexander married Roxane, the daughter of a warlord who ruled a small territory within the Persian Empire. What history doesn’t say conclusively is whether this was...
by Shoto Press Staff | Aug 11, 2026 | Behind the scenes: The Golden Vine
The figure on horseback at left is thought to be Hephaestion. From the Alexander Sarcophagus in the Istanbul Archaeology Museum. Image: Wikimedia Commons. Who was Hephaestion? Scholars are divided on the subject. On one hand, he was clearly someone very important to...
by Shoto Press Staff | Aug 10, 2026 | Behind the scenes: The Golden Vine
The Golden Vine is faithful to recorded history, but only up to a point. The most compelling question posed by Alexander’s life is “what if he had not died young and succeeded in his campaign to conquer the whole world?” Scholars agree that he could...
