Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West

465 Pages·2006·4.8 MB·English

by  Tom Holland

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Persian Fire
Also by Tom Holland
RUBICON
Persian Fire
The First World Empire and
the Battle for the West
Tom Holland
anchor books
A Division of Random House, Inc.
New York
For Jamie and Caroline
FIRST ANCHOR BOOKS EDITION, JANUARY 2007
Copyright © 2005 by Tom Holland
Persian Firewas originally published in Great Britain in 2005 by Little,
Brown, a division of Time Warner Books UK. The Doubleday edition is
published by arrangement with Little, Brown.
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Anchor Books, a division of
Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada
Limited, Toronto. Originally published in hardcover in the United States
by Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in 2006.
Anchor Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file with theLibrary of Congress
eISBN: 978-0-307-38698-4
www.anchorbooks.com
v1.0
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
List of Maps ix
Note on Proper Names x
Preface xi
1 THE KHORASAN HIGHWAY 1
2 BABYLON 39
3 SPARTA 63
4 ATHENS 99
PHOTO/ART INSERT
5 SINGEING THE KING OF PERSIA’S BEARD 143
6 THE GATHERING STORM 202
7 AT BAY 260
8 NEMESIS 307
Envoi 371
Timeline 373
Notes 377
Bibliography 402
Index 412

Acknowledgments
I have been wanting to write a book on the Persian Wars since I was
very young, and I owe an immense debt of gratitude to all those
who have given me the opportunity to devote three years of my life
to its study. To Patrick Walsh, best of friends and agents. To my edi-
tors, Richard Beswick and Steve Guise. To Gerry Howard, Dan
Israel, Ricardo Artola and Joan Eloi Roca Martinez, for all their
encouragement from abroad. To Louise Allen-Jones and Elizabeth
van Lear, for their support from nearer home. To Amélie Kuhrt
and Paul Cartledge, for sharing their incomparable scholarship so
generously, and saving me from more errors than I care to count.
To the staff of the library of the Society for the Promotion of
Hellenic Studies, for their perfect blend of efficiency and courtesy.
To Maike Bohn, for going out with Michael Cullen, and thereby
introducing me to a travel writer with a limitless knowledge of
Greece. To Philip, Francis and Barbaro Noel-Baker, for happy
months in Euboea. To Jonathan Tite, for arranging a perfect day on
a motorboat around Salamis. To Nick and Sarah Longman, for their
hospitality in Athens. To my father, for his companionship on expe-
ditions over Thermopylae. To Michael Lowry and Deniz Gurtin,
for their hospitality in Bodrum. To Elahe Tabari, for her help at
Persepolis. To Audrey and Becky Gordon, for everything they have
done to keep the enemies of good art from the hall. To Caroline and
Jamie Muir, without whose friendship, support and good humor I
would still be writing this book, and to whom it is dedicated. To my
beloved family, Sadie, Katy and Eliza, for enduring my long
stretches of scholastic seclusion with such forbearance, and for
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PERSIAN FIRE
touring dusty ruins across Greece, Iran and Turkey with such jol-
lity, and giving me some of the happiest times of my life. (cid:1)υ(cid:3) µ(cid:4)ν
γ(cid:7)ρ τ(cid:1)υˆ γε κρεˆισσ(cid:1)ν κα(cid:13) (cid:14)(cid:3) ρει(cid:1)ν.
viii