Praise for the author's A Brief Guide to the Greek Myths: 'Eminently sane highly informative'
PAUL CARTLEDGE BBC History magazine The year 2022 marks 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.
