“When Cyrus entered Babylon in 539 B.C., the world was old,” wrote historian A. T. Olmstead in his History of the Persian Empire. The term “Persia” represents a Western mistake in naming. Just as those in the South Pacific once thought the United States was actually named “Massachusetts” because of all the trading ships that emanated from there, Westerners had much familiarity with a portion of Iran called “Persia.”
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