Download or read book The Persian Invasions of Greece written by Arthur Keaveney and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2011-11-30 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The epic story of how Greece repelled Persia’s massive forces in some of the most momentous battles of the ancient world. In 490 BC Darius I, Great King of Persia and the most powerful man in the world, led a massive invasion army to punish the interference of some minor states on the western borders of his huge empire. The main enemy was Athens. The resultant Battle of Marathon was a disaster for Darius—and one of the most famous victories for the underdog in all military history. The Persians were forced to withdraw and plot an even bigger expedition to conquer Athens and the whole of Greece once and for all. The second invasion came ten years later, under Darius’ successor, Xerxes. This led to the legendary last stand of the Spartan King Leonidas at Thermopylae, the sacking of Athens, and the renowned naval clash at Salamis, which saved Greece. The following year, 479 BC, saw the remaining Persian forces driven from mainland Greece at the epic, yet strangely lesser-known Battle of Plataea, one of the largest pitched battles of the Classical Greek world. In this compelling history, Dr. Arthur Keaveney, an expert on Achaemenid Persia, re-examines these momentous, epoch-defining events—from both Greek and Persian perspectives—to give a full and balanced account based on the most recent research. Also included are maps and a number of color photographs of relevant historic sites and works of art.

Download or read book Athens Burning written by Robert Garland and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2017-01-26 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In this next offering for the Witness to Ancient History series, Robert Garland writes about the Persian invasion of Greece in the 5th century BC. After introducing the reader to the contextual background of the Greco-Persian Wars, including the famous Battle of Marathon, Garland describes the various stages of the invasion from both the Persian and Greek point of view. He focuses on the Greek evacuation of Attica (the peninsular region of Greece that includes Athens), the siege of the Acropolis, the eventual defeat of the Persians by Athenian and Spartan armies, and the return of the Greek people to their land. Coming off his 2014 PUP book on the experience of diaspora in ancient Greece, Garland is well placed to speak authoritatively on this important time in ancient history when the Greeks had to flee their homeland. Garland is an experienced and productive writer whose experience producing video lecture courses for The Great Courses company makes him an ideal author for this introductory volume"--Provided by publisher.

Download or read book Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars written by Jon D. Mikalson and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2004-07-21 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The two great Persian invasions of Greece, in 490 and 480-79 B.C., both repulsed by the Greeks, provide our best opportunity for understanding the interplay of religion and history in ancient Greece. Using the Histories of Herodotus as well as other historical and archaeological sources, Jon Mikalson shows how the Greeks practiced their religion at this pivotal moment in their history. In the period of the invasions and the years immediately after, the Greeks--internationally, state by state, and sometimes individually--turned to their deities, using religious practices to influence, understand, and commemorate events that were threatening their very existence. Greeks prayed and sacrificed; made and fulfilled vows to the gods; consulted oracles; interpreted omens and dreams; created cults, sanctuaries, and festivals; and offered dozens of dedications to their gods and heroes--all in relation to known historical events. By portraying the human situations and historical circumstances in which Greeks practiced their religion, Mikalson advances our knowledge of the role of religion in fifth-century Greece and reveals a religious dimension of the Persian Wars that has been previously overlooked.

Download or read book The Persians written by Aeschylus and published by Phoemixx Classics Ebooks. This book was released on 2021-11-16 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Persians Aeschylus - The Persians is an Athenian tragedy by the ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus. First produced in 472 BC, it is the oldest surviving play in the history of theatre. It dramatises the Persian response to news of their military defeat at the Battle of Salamis (480 BC), which was a decisive episode in the Greco-Persian Wars; as such, the play is also notable for being the only extant Greek tragedy that is based on contemporary events.

Download or read book Second Persian Invasion of Greece written by and published by PediaPress. This book was released on with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Persian Wars written by Herodotus and published by DigiCat. This book was released on 2023-11-19 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Herodotus, the great Greek historian, wrote this famous history of warfare between the Greeks and the Persians in a delightful style. Herodotus portrays the dispute as one between the forces of slavery on the one hand and freedom on the other. This work covers the rise of the Persian influence and a history of the Persian empire, a description and history of Egypt, and a long digression on the landscape and traditions of Scythia. Because of the comprehensiveness of this work, it was considered the founding work of history in Western literature. A must-have for history enthusiasts.

Download or read book The Persian Conquest of the Greeks 545 450 B C written by Jack Martin Balcer and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study investigates the Persian Wars with the Greeks from the Persian view, by analyzing the growth of the Persian Empire to the point that incorporation of all ancient Greece into that imperials system became the inevitable next step.

Download or read book The Greek Wars written by George Cawkwell and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2005-03-31 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Greek Wars treats of the whole course of Persian relations with the Greeks from the coming of Cyrus in the 540s down to Alexander the Great's defeat of Darius III in 331 BC. Cawkwell discusses from a Persian perspective major questions such as why Xerxes' invasion of Greece failed, and how important a part the Great King played in Greek affairs in the fourth century. Cawkwell's views are at many points original: in particular, his explanation of how and why the Persian invasion of Greece failed challenges the prevailing orthodoxy, as does his view of the importance of Persia in Greek affairs for the two decades after the King's Peace. Persia, he concludes, was destroyed by Macedonian military might but moral decline had no part in it; the Macedonians who had subjected Greece were too good an army, but their victory was not easy.

Download or read book The Greco Persian Wars A Captivating Guide to the Conflicts Between the Achaemenid Empire and the Greek City States Including the Battle of written by Captivating History and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2019-03-30 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If you want to discover the captivating history of ancient Japan, then keep reading... This cultural prominence was on full display during these wars, for the Greco-Persian Wars were documented by Herodotus, who is often said to be the father of modern history. His carefully detailed events inspired people like Thucydides to write his own history of the Peloponnesian War. These writers, although limited in terms of the sources available to them, were able to carefully document all of the events both during and after the war, and their versions of the story have been verified time and time again by various historians, helping enshrine these works as some of the most important in human history. Because of the work of Herodotus, we know that the conflict that eventually became the Greco-Persian Wars began along the coast of the modern nation of Turkey in a region known as Ionia. In this region, twelve Greek city-states, which had been free and independent since their founding, had recently been subjugated by the Kingdom of Lydia, which was shortly thereafter conquered by Persia. So, when the tyrant king Aristagoras called for the people of Ionia to revolt against the Persians in 499 BCE, the Ionian Greeks responded. Athens and Eritrea rushed in to support their besieged countrymen, and the Greco-Persian Wars were under way. In other words, the Greco-Persian Wars are often portrayed as a battle between good and evil. This is simultaneously an exaggeration and an oversimplification, but there is no doubt that this war, or series of wars, fought between some of the most powerful civilizations of the ancient era helped to plot the course of human history that we have been following up until this very day. In The Greco-Persian Wars: A Captivating Guide to the Conflicts Between the Achaemenid Empire and the Greek City-States, Including the Battle of Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis, Plataea, and More, you will discover topics such as On the Eve of War The Ionian Revolt Darius I Marches on Greece: The Battle of Marathon The Interwar Years: Greece and Persia Prepare to Meet Again The Invasion of Xerxes Part 1: The Battles of Thermopylae and Artemisium The Invasion of Xerxes Part 2: The Battles of Salamis and Plataea The Delian League Wars The Aftermath of the War The Greek Military The Persian Military And much, much more! So if you want to learn more about the greco-persian wars, scroll up and click the "add to cart" button!

Download or read book Xerxes written by Richard Stoneman and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2015-08-15 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Xerxes, Great King of the Persian Empire from 486–465 B.C., has gone down in history as an angry tyrant full of insane ambition. The stand of Leonidas and the 300 against his army at Thermopylae is a byword for courage, while the failure of Xerxes’ expedition has overshadowed all the other achievements of his twenty-two-year reign. In this lively and comprehensive new biography, Richard Stoneman shows how Xerxes, despite sympathetic treatment by the contemporary Greek writers Aeschylus and Herodotus, had his reputation destroyed by later Greek writers and by the propaganda of Alexander the Great. Stoneman draws on the latest research in Achaemenid studies and archaeology to present the ruler from the Persian perspective. This illuminating volume does not whitewash Xerxes’ failings but sets against them such triumphs as the architectural splendor of Persepolis and a consideration of Xerxes’ religious commitments. What emerges is a nuanced portrait of a man who ruled a vast and multicultural empire which the Greek communities of the West saw as the antithesis of their own values.

Download or read book Darius the Great and Xerxes I written by Charles River Editors and published by . This book was released on 2019-11-02 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes pictures *Includes excerpts of ancient accounts *Includes a table of contents It was not until the excavations of the 1930s that many of the relics, reliefs, and clay tablets that offer so much information about Persian life could be studied for the first time. Through archaeological remains, ancient texts, and work by a new generation of historians, a picture can today be built of this remarkable civilization and their capital city. Although the city had been destroyed, the legacy of the Persians survived, even as they mostly remain an enigma to the West and are not nearly as well understood as the Greeks, Romans, or Egyptians. In a sense, the Achaemenid Persian Empire holds some of the most enduring mysteries of ancient civilization. When considering this empire's rulers, the two most often referenced are Xerxes, the leader of the Persian invasion of Greece which caused the heroic sacrifice of the Spartans and their allies at Thermopylae, or Cyrus the Great, the man who created the Persian Empire. But the Persians had another critical ruler sandwiched between them, and Cyrus's accomplishments and Xerxes's defeats would not have been possible without him. That king was Xerxes's own father, Darius I, best known as Darius the Great. Darius I took the throne after the death of Cyrus's son, Cambyses II, and though his reign would not have been possible without the construction of the empire and the administrative groundwork laid by Cyrus the Great before him, Darius proved himself just as worthy of the epithet. Reigning for over 35 years, Darius kept control of the massive Persian Empire despite numerous rebellions and uprisings, and he also managed to implement reforms and improvements that established the empire's golden age. He followed the example of Cyrus before him in his foreign policy and mode of kingship as well, offering tolerance and patience to various cultures and religions, and even treating his enemies fairly in most cases. Perhaps his ultimate success can be seen most clearly in the passage of power at the end of his life. By that time, his reign had been long and stable, and though he died of illness somewhat unexpectedly, his kingdom was still so firmly established that the kingship passed to his son Xerxes without any question or upheaval. Under Darius the Great's rule, the empire reached its greatest extent, stretching from the Indus Valley and Central Asia in the east to Libya and the Danube River in the west. Xerxes remains one of the most famous rulers in history because he led the Second Persian War against the Greeks. That war was a veritable clash of civilizations, and had the Persians triumphed, Classical Athens would have been snuffed out and Greece would never have formed the backbone of Roman and Western culture. Simply put, the West as it is today might never have existed. Not surprisingly, the majority of surviving sources regarding Xerxes are the product of Greek writers, so it was inevitable that the Persian king has been depicted in unflattering terms for thousands of years. The details of his invasion of Greece cast him as the villain in the dramatic Greek retelling of the tragic 300 Spartans holding the pass at Thermopylae, and focus on the loss at Salamis solidified his reputation as a failure despite another 15 years of successful rule after withdrawing from the Greek mainland. Although Herodotus's Histories offer a less biased account than some later sources, he still depicted Xerxes as a figure of tragic failings, listening too often to the wrong councilors and eventually collapsing on the weight of his own hubris. This classic appearance as a tragic hero figure gives some pause for doubt, as the literary stereotype is almost too perfect and suggests a lack of depth and nuance that characterizes all accurate investigations of historical individuals.

Download or read book Cultural Responses to the Persian Wars Antiquity to the Third Millennium written by Emma Bridges and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2007-02-15 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cultural Responses to the Persian Wars addresses the huge impact on subsequent culture made by the wars fought between ancient Persia and Greece in the early fifth century BC. It brings together sixteen interdisciplinary essays, mostly by classical scholars, on individual trends within the reception of this period of history, extending from the wars' immediate impact on ancient Greek history to their reception in literature and thought both in antiquity and in the post-Renaisssance world. Extensively illustrated and accessibly written, with a detailed Introduction and bibliographies, this book will interest historians, classicists, and students of both comparative and modern literatures.

Download or read book Marathon 490 BC written by Nick Sekunda and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Greco Persian Wars written by Erik Jensen and published by Hackett Publishing. This book was released on 2021-02-24 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hackett's Passages: Key Moments in History series titles include original-source documents in accessible editions, intended for the student-user or general audience. This edition, The Greco-Persian Wars, taps our knowledge of the Persian Empire and its interactions with the Greek world. The sources examined were created in different times and places, for different purposes, and with different intended audiences. Using these sources effectively requires recognizing their distinct characteristics. A general introduction about the Greco-Persian wars is included to provide historical background and an overview of the information contained in the original-source documents. Also included are a glossary of terms, a chronology, insightful headnotes to each document, and an index.

Download or read book Herodotus and the Persian Wars written by John Claughton and published by . This book was released on 2008-01-03 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Greece and Rome: Texts and Contexts provides students with direct access to the ancient world by offering new translations of extracts from the key texts of its literature, history and civilization, and by setting them in their historical, social and cultural contexts. The series is suitable for both advanced secondary school and undergraduate study, giving translations that are accurate and accessible, accompanied by notes that will enable all students to engage with the primary sources. Key features of the series include: questions which prompt students to develop their own informed opinions, and to consider the relevance of ancient texts to the modern world notes alongside the texts for easy reference stimulating illustrations throughout. Herodotus, writing in the second half of the 5th century BC, is the first historian of western civilization. His narrative tells of the expansion of the Persian Empire in the 6th and 5th centuries BC and the wars between Greece and Persia in 490, 480 and 479 BC. Some of the most famous battles of history Marathon, Thermopylae and Salamis - are dramatically described in his work. However, Herodotus' greatness lies not only in the momentous nature of the events he describes. His purpose is to explain why the wars happened, and his sophisticated and complex answer encompasses the relation of gods to men, the nature of different peoples and the character of individuals. Herodotus says that he will write equally about the two sides of the war, and his narrative of the clash between East and West, between democracy and autocracy, has striking and disturbing modern resonances. Book jacket.

Download or read book Rise of an Empire written by Stephen Dando-Collins and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 2013-07-09 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The true story behind the events in 300: Rise of an Empire, the sequel to Zack Snyder's 300 The action-filled movie 300 focused on Ancient Greece's epic battle of Thermopylae, in which King Leonidas led 300 Spartans into battle against Xerxes and his million-strong Persian forces. In the sequel, 300: Rise of an Empire, the action moves to the sea, covering ten years starting with the Battle of Marathon and ending with naval engagement the Battle of Artemisium, which occurred the same day as Thermopylae. Rise of an Empire tells the story of the real men and events depicted in the movie, focusing on the Athenian general Themistocles, one of the world's greatest warriors. He became warlord of Greece, built their navy and, by uniting Greece to defeat Xerxes' fleet, enabled what we call western civilization. Packed with vivid detail, clashes of arms and ships, blood and glory, Rise of an Empire tells a story even bigger than the big screen could contain. Both an essential read for fans of the 300 movies and the Frank Miller graphic novels they're based on An insightful exploration of the leaders who feature in the film, their backgrounds, motivations, command decisions, struggles, victories and defeats, from the Battle of Marathon through the Battles of Artemisium and Salamis: Xerxes, the Persian king determined to succeed where his father failed, and Themistocles, overcoming monumental hurdles to turn Athens into Ancient Greece's greatest sea power and leading city-state of the age A gripping narrative of the real-life naval battles of the first and second Persian invasions of Greece, with fascinating detail about the ships, the warriors and the tactics

Download or read book The Defence of Greece 490 479 B C written by John Francis Lazenby and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a military history of the two Persian invasions of Greece, the first of which came to grief at Marathon, the second at Salamis and Plataia. The conflicts are largely examined in terms of the fifth century BC, avioding modern conceptions, and from the Persian as well as the Greek point of view. The author believes Herodotus should remain central to any attempt to explain the conflicts, and reassesses his skill and insight as a military historian.