Like the Osprey guides to various wars in general, this book is a solid and excellent resource to provide a reader with a thoughtful but brief examination of a particular conflict. This book fits into that realm, looking at the causes of Persian and Greek conflict in the desire of Greek cities on the Ionian coast to be free from Persian-supported client rulers, to have a degree of autonomy with local democracies, actions which were supported by Athens and that led to uprisings against Persian rule and the attack of mighty Persian armies in both 490 and 480 BC to put down the Greek cities, espeically Athens and Sparta. The book has some explanatory text, and a few maps, but it is a pretty straightforward account without a large amount of elaboration except in the major set piece battles of Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis, and Platea that led to the successful defense of Greece.
Yet this book, even if it is short, reminds us that Persia was not that far from a smashing success against Greece, and that the war between Greece and Persia was fought not only in Greece (where most of the attention is focused, largely because the Greeks were the most successful in their home territory), but in Ionia (where the Greeks were unsuccessful), Cyprus, and Egypt. This book does not spend much time on the last two theaters, but it is clear that the Greeks were canny in seeking to divide Persian attention in multiple theaters to ensure their own relative security. The book also contains some biographical sketches and a look at such aspects of culture as the portrayal of Persians in Greek theater as well as Persian imperial architecture. These little elaborations add a human element to the story, showing the cruelty of Spartan culture towards even those who were ordered not to fight and so avoided the sort of heroic death that would make their families proud and punctures the claims about an Athenian desire for freedom that was imperialistic, puncturing the same sort of rhetoric that other republics occasionally engage in, forgetting that they too like to rule over others.
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Top reviews from other countries
Liam Bellamy
Quality at a great price
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 21, 2014RT
Great introduction and overview of Alexander
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 21, 2015Joan Allsopp
Short summary of Greek and Persian Wars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 12, 2014