Modern history really begins with the founding of the Persian Empire. The first emphatic punctuation in history after this is the time of Alexander and Aristotle; and the next after that is the time of Herod the Great. In the language of Daniel: ancient times were of gold and silver; the age of Cyrus the Persian was of brass; the age of Alexander, of iron, later mixed with clay. And then came the stone which broke into pieces this image of many metals: unhewn stone, like that of the altar of burnt-offerings at Jerusalem. I have called my version of these three crucial ages preceding the Christian Era LIVES OF WIVES because the principal male characters are here written of as husbands rather than as heroes." So reads the Foreword to this remarkable study of ancient history, first published in 1939, shortly after Riding's Collected Poems. Riding rewrites history, employing factual accuracy to reconceive what the history books have left out, foregrounding what male-dominated societies have left to the background and imagination.