A defining feature of ancient empires is their ability to connect previously unconnected regions. In the case of the Achaemenid Empire, large areas of Eurasia fell under imperial rule for the first time. The Achaemenids thus created an extensive space accessible to the ancients, both physically, through infrastructure, and intellectually, through their representations. Since worldviews comprise the specific presuppositions of a society or empire, the impact of empires on these presuppositions merits investigation. This project will focus on two different aspects of the worldviews of Eurasian societies (the Greeks and Babylonians) living under direct imperial rule, as well as those in the imperial borderlands, and how these worldviews were transformed upon contact with the imperial worldview. The first aspect is geography. The Achaemenid Empire promoted representations of its space in an effort to respond to ideological demands established by previous empires and to assert universalism. These spatial representations took the form of mental maps and were widely disseminated, even beyond its administrative frontiers. Thus, these mental maps had the potential to impact the geographical knowledge of both the Babylonians and Greeks, triggering discourses that transformed their worldviews. The second aspect pertains to the interpretation of objects created in an imperial context that traveled far and were interpreted by different cultures. This applies to objects rooted in imperial representations, as they enabled symbolic communication and the imparting of distinct imperial values. Assuming that empires create a cosmopolitan atmosphere that extends even into their borderlands, the effects of this atmosphere on the worldviews of societies deserve thorough investigation. This project adopts an interdisciplinary and comparative approach. Due to the limited array of indigenous sources from the Achaemenid period and the intense dialogues the Achaemenids had with the ideologies of their imperial predecessors, the imperial worldviews need to be examined through a comparative approach that spans from the Neo-Assyrian to the Hellenistic period. Moreover, geography and objects are aspects of worldviews that can only be explored through an interdisciplinary approach, combining ancient history, ancient Near Eastern studies, and archaeology.