From burning Sardis to bombing Tehran: What Rubio got wrong about Persia

Tehran Times speaks with Touraj Daryaee, historian of ancient Iran and editor of encyclopaedia Iranica

TEHRAN – U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s October 7 speech in Athens invoked ancient Greece as the foundation of Western civilization, linking the Persian invasion under Xerxes in 480 BCE to a broader call for Western ambition, national sovereignty and renewed American power. Speaking at the historic Pnyx, Rubio also criticized Iran’s leadership, contrasting his portrayal of Western heroism with what he described as Iran’s “cult of death.”