Maria Brosius is a former Associate Professor in Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto, and Lecturer at The Queen's College, Oxford University. Now retired, Professor Brosius' research focuses on the history of pre-Islamic Persia, especially on the Achaemenid period, as well as on the cultural, intellectual, and religious connections between Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean. She is the author of The Persians: An Introduction, The Persian Empire from Cyrus II to Artaxerxes I, and Women in Ancient Persia.