Author(s): William Shepherd
The victory of a few Greek city-states over the world's first superpower was an extraordinary military feat that secured the future of western civilization. All modern accounts of the war as a whole, and of Marathon, Thermopylae and Salamis, the best-known battles, depend on the ancient sources, foremost amongst them Herodotus, but generally quote very little from them. This is the first book to bring together Herodotus' entire narrative and interweave it with other ancient voices to present the original texts that comprise almost all that is known about this immense clash of arms.
Weaving together the accounts of the ancient historian Herodotus with other ancient sources, this is the thrilling story of the triumph of Greece over the mighty Persian Empire.
William Shepherd studied classics at Clare College, Cambridge, in the 1960s and then embarked on a career in publishing, which finally brought him to Osprey, retiring from the position of chief executive in 2007. He is author of The Persian War (Cambridge, 1982), translated from Herodotus. He has also written reading books for children and articles in the Osprey Military Journal, of which he was joint editor, and makes regular contributions to the Osprey blog. He lives in the Cherwell Valley, north of Oxford.
Contents Introduction Herodotus and history Other sources and evidence Translation Chronology to 500 BC Hellas to 500 BC War between Greeks Greek ways of war The rise of Persia The conquests of Cyrus, Cambyses and Darius Persian ways of war Chronology 500-479 BC The revolt of the Ionian Greeks The Cyclades and Euboea Reconstructing ancient battles Marathon 490-480 The Great King's vow Hellas responds Xerxes' invasion of Greece Artemisium Thermopylae The fall of Athens Salamis Plataea Mycale Chronology: 479 to Alexander 480-450: The war beyond Greece 404: full circle Visiting the battlefields Glossary Further Reading Index