1. Introduction / John J. Collins and J.G. Manning -- 2. When is a revolt not a revolt? : a case for contingency / Erich S. Gruen -- Assyria and Babylonia: 3. Revolts in the Assyrian empire : succession wars, rebellions against a false king, and independence movements / Karen Radner ; 4. Assyria's demise as recompense : a note on narratives of resistance in Babylonia and Judah / Peter R. Bedford ; 5. Revolts in the Neo-Assyrian empire : a preliminary discourse analysis / Eckart Frahm -- dtThe Persian Empire: 6. Xerxes and the oathbreakers : empire and rebellion on the northwestern front / Matt Waters ; 7. Cyrus the younger and Artaxerxes II, 401 BC : an Achaemenid civil war reconsidered / John W.I. Lee ; 8. Resistance, revolt and revolution in Achaemenid Persia : a response / Elspeth R.M. Dusinberre -- The Ptolemaic Kingdom: 9. Revolting subjects : empires and insurrection, ancient and modern / Brian McGing ; 10. Revolts under the Ptolemies : a paleoclimatological perspective / Francis Ludlow and J.G. Manning -- The Seleucid Empire: 11. Resistance and revolt . the case of the Maccabees / Robert Doran ; 12. Temple or taxes? : what sparked the Maccabean revolt? / John J. Collins -- The Roman Empire: 13. The importance of perspective : the Jewish-Roman conflict of 66-70 CE as a revolution / James McLaren and Martin Goodman ; 14. Josephus, Jewish resistance and the Masada myth / Tessa Rajak ; 15. The impact of the Jewish rebellions, 66-135 CE : destruction or provincialization? / Seth Schwartz.