Praise for the author's A Brief Guide to the Greek Myths:
'Eminently sane, highly informative' PAUL CARTLEDGE, BBC History
magazine In 2022 it will be 2,500 years since the final defeat of
the invasion of Greece by the Persian King Xerxes. This astonishing
clash between East and West still has resonances in modern history,
and has left us with tales of heroic resistance in the face of
seemingly hopeless odds. Kershaw makes use of recent archaeological
and geological discoveries in this thrilling and timely retelling
of the story, originally told by Herodotus, the Father of History.
The protagonists are, in Europe, the Greeks, led on land by
militaristic, oligarchic Sparta, and on sea by the newly democratic
Athens; in Asia, the mighty Persian Empire - powerful, rich,
cultured, ethnically diverse, ruled by mighty kings, and
encompassing modern Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Egypt. When the
rich, sophisticated, Greek communities of Ionia on the western
coast of modern Turkey, rebel from their Persian overlord Darius I,
Athens sends ships to help them. Darius crushes the Greeks in a
huge sea battle near Miletus, and then invades Greece. Standing
alone against the powerful Persian army, the soldiers of Athens'
newly democratic state - a system which they have invented -
unexpectedly repel Darius's forces at Marathon. After their
victory, the Athenians strike a rich vein of silver in their
state-owned mining district, and decide to spend the windfall on
building a fleet of state-of-the-art warships. Persia wants
revenge. The next king, Xerxes, assembles a vast multinational
force, constructs a bridge of boats across the Hellespont, digs a
canal through the Mount Athos peninsula, and bears down on Greece.
Trusting in their 'wooden walls', the Athenians station their ships
at Artemisium, where they and the weather prevent the Persians
landing forces in the rear of the land forces under the Spartan
King Leonidas at the nearby pass of Thermopylae. Xerxes's assault
is a disastrous failure, until a traitor shows him a mountain track
that leads behind the Greeks. Leonidas dismisses the Greek troops,
but remains in the pass with his 300 Spartan warriors where they
are overwhelmed in an heroic last stand. Athens is sacked by the
Persians. Democracy is hanging by a thread. But the Athenians
convince the Greek allies to fight on in the narrow waters by the
island of Salamis (underwater archaeology has revealed the Greek
base), where they can exploit local weather conditions to negate
their numerical disadvantage. Despite the heroism of the Persian
female commander Artemisia, the Persian fleet is destroyed. Xerxes
returns to Asia Minor, but still leaves some forces in Greece. In
479 BCE, the Spartans lead a combined Greek army out against the
Persians. In a close-run battle near the town of Plataea, the
discipline, fighting ability and weaponry of the Greeks prevail.
The Persian threat to the Greek mainland is over. Athens forms a
successful anti-Persian coalition to drive the Persians from Greek
territory, seek reparations, and create security in the future. But
this 'alliance' is gradually converted into an Athenian Empire. The
democracy becomes increasingly radical. In this context we see the
astonishing flowering of fifth-century BCE Athenian culture - in
architecture, drama and philosophy - but also a disastrous war, and
defeat, at the hands of Sparta by the end of the century. The book
concludes by exploring the ideas that the decisive battles of
Thermopylae and Salamis mark the beginnings of Western civilization
itself and that Greece remains the bulwark of the West ,
representing the values of generous and unselfish peace, freedom
and democracy in a neighbourhood ravaged by instability and war.
General
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