The Greek and Persian Wars 499-386 BC

by de Souza,Philip

• ISBN13: 9780415968546
• ISBN10: 0415968542
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-10-27
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This book covers one of the defining periods of European history. The series of wars between the Greeks and the Persian Empire produced the famous battles of Marathon, Thermopylae, and Salamis, as well as an ill-fated attempt to overthrow the Persian king in 400 BC, which helped to inspire the conquests of Alexander the Great. To tell the story of these momentous events--of the lives of great men and women, the societies and cultures that produced them, and how and why they came into conflict--was the aim of Herodotus. Known as the "Father of History," Herodotus' account of the wars is the first book to be called a history, and is the principal source for this concise and accessible volume.

Table of Contents

Introduction	7	(1)
Chronology	8	(1)
Background to war
The coming of the Persians	9	(10)
Warring sides
Persia, Sparta and Athens	19	(11)
Outbreak
Dareios sends an expedition to Greece	30	(10)
The fighting
Xerxes' invasion of Greece	40	(35)
Portrait of a soldier
Aristodemos the Spartan	75	(5)
The world around war
Persian Architecture	80	(3)
Portraits of civilians
Demokedes and Demaratos	83	(5)
How the wars ended
The Greeks attack the Persian Empire	88	(2)
Conclusion and consequences
The Peloponnesian War	90	(3)
Further reading	93	(1)
Index	94