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SFReader Forums > The Real World > Non-Fiction Books > Persian Fire by Tom Holland

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gwthomas21
Adept

Date Joined Sep 2004
Total Posts : 941

Posted 3/3/2007 9:34 PM (GMT -4)

I just started PERSIAN FIRe by Tom Holland which covers the Greek-Persian Wars. I wanted to get some historical perspective before I see THE 300 in the theater. The movie is just about the battle of Thermopolae when 300 Spartans held the pass against the Persians. This book covers that battle, Maraton, Salamis, the entire war. Good, so far.

GW

G. W. Thomas has appeared in over 350 different books, magazines and ezines includig Writer's Digest, The Armchair Detective and Black October Magazine. He draws the web comic CHUCK THE PENGUIN. His website is www.gwthomas.org

von Darkmoor
Small Press Publisher (and Dancer still)

Date Joined Dec 2005
Total Posts : 2951

Posted 3/4/2007 2:36 AM (GMT -4)

and here I went and used my last Netflix choice on The 300 Spartans www.imdb.com/title/tt0055719/. Somehow, I think you got the better end of things.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jason

Ever waltz with the Devil? Or devil with a Waltz? Visit www.vondarkmoor.blogspot.com to find out.

Bill Ward
Biblioholic

Date Joined Jul 2006
Total Posts : 1635

Posted 3/4/2007 2:56 AM (GMT -4)

Sounds good. You ought to read the relevant chapters in Herodotus too GW if you haven't, its highly readable and one of our principal sources for the period.

The 300 Spartans is a classic Howard, enjoy :)

I also recommend Pressfield's novel Gates of Fire -- an awesome account of the battle.

che2000
doc caliban

Date Joined Oct 2006
Total Posts : 438

Posted 3/4/2007 9:23 PM (GMT -4)

The Spartans by Paul Cartledge is a good general history of Sparta, very readable and informative.

I recently bought and watched The 300 Spartans - great movie in the grand Hollywood manner.

gwthomas21
Adept

Date Joined Sep 2004
Total Posts : 941

Posted 3/7/2007 11:53 AM (GMT -4)

I'm half-way through PERSIAN FIRE now and can highly recommend it. Holland takes the time to outline the history of both sides of the war. You get a grip on where the Persians were coming from and the Greeks. Bottom line neither side was really "the good guys". It's like a contest between two bullies. Still, the ramifications for Western Civilization (culture?) was huge. If Greece had become a Persian suburb things would have been very different. A similar crisis would take place in the days of Charlemagne (I was reading in Kenneth Clark's CIVILIZATION). Western civilization almost lost all record of the Greek contribution then. These crisises happened every so often.

GW

tchernabyelo
Acolyte

Date Joined Oct 2006
Total Posts : 416

Posted 3/13/2007 11:42 AM (GMT -4)

"A similar crisis would take place in the days of Charlemagne (I was reading in Kenneth Clark's CIVILIZATION). Western civilization almost lost all record of the Greek contribution then."

Actually, a great deal of Greek and Roman learnign was (effectively) lost to "Western Civilisation" for a few hundred years (in fact, much of it was preserved, just lurking in various monasteries where it wasn't allowed out). Come the Renaissance, however, much of it re-emerged - but as well as coming out of those same monasteries, it also came by way of the East, since vast quantities of Greek and Roman texts had been preserved and copied in Baghdad, which spent about five or six hundred years acting as the "keeper of the Flame" for ancient knowledge.

"The Box Of Beautiful Things" - IGMS#3

"The Man Who Was Never Afraid" - Abyss and Apex #19

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