Persian Fire
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5 out of 5 stars
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Hardcore Histories Greatest Hits
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent book about Rome's first Emperor
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5 out of 5 stars
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5 out of 5 stars
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It's Great After First Few Chapters
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3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars 328
Emerging as a market town from a cluster of hill villages in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C., Rome grew to become the ancient world's preeminent power. Everitt fashions the story of Rome's rise to glory into an erudite book filled with lasting lessons for our time. He chronicles the clash between patricians and plebeians that defined the politics of the Republic. He shows how Rome's shrewd strategy of offering citizenship to her defeated subjects was instrumental in expanding the reach of her burgeoning empire.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Rome from the fall of Troy through Julius Caesar
- By Mike From Mesa on 12-11-12
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Lords of the Sea
- The Epic Story of the Athenian Navy and the Birth of Democracy
- By: John R. Hale
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 157
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 99
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 99
The navy created by the people of Athens in ancient Greece was one of the finest fighting forces in the history of the world and the model for all other national navies to come. The Athenian navy built a civilization, empowered the world's first democracy, and led a band of ordinary citizens on a voyage of discovery that altered the course of history.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Sound narrative history
- By Matthew on 06-16-09
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Cleopatra and Antony: Power, Love, and Politics in the Ancient World
- By: Diana Preston
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 14 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 39
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 28
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 28
The story of the worlds best-remembered celebrity couple, set against the political backdrop of their time. Oceans of mythology have grown up around them, all of which Diana Preston explores in her stirring history of the lives and times of a couple whose names more than two millennia later still invoke passion, curiosity, and intrigue.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Narrator's tone was way over emphasized
- By lauren on 10-24-13
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The Poison King
- The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome’s Deadliest Enemy
- By: Adrienne Mayor
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 15 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 611
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 520
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Story4 out of 5 stars 520
A National Book Award finalist for this epic work, Adrienne Mayor delivers a gripping account of Mithradates, the ruthless visionary who began to challenge Rome’s power in 120 B.C. Machiavelli praised his military genius. Kings coveted his secret elixir against poison. Poets celebrated his victories, intrigues, and panache. But until now, no one has told the full story of his incredible life.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Rip Roaring Read
- By James on 05-24-12
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The Rise of Athens
- The Story of the World's Greatest Civilization
- By: Anthony Everitt
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 16 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 373
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 342
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 341
Filled with tales of adventure and astounding reversals of fortune, The Rise of Athens celebrates the city-state that transformed the world - from the democratic revolution that marked its beginning through the city's political and cultural golden age to its decline into the ancient equivalent of a modern-day university town. Anthony Everitt constructs his history with unforgettable portraits of the talented, tricky, ambitious, and unscrupulous Athenians who fueled the city's rise.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Incisive Synopsis of the Ascendancy of Ancient Gre
- By Eberstein on 01-31-17
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Ghost Empire
- By: Richard Fidler
- Narrated by: Richard Fidler
- Length: 14 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 63
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 58
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 58
Ghost Empire is a rare treasure - an utterly captivating blend of the historical and the contemporary, realised by a master storyteller. In 2014, Richard Fidler and his son Joe made a journey to Istanbul. Fired by Richard's passion for the rich history of the dazzling Byzantine Empire - centred around the legendary Constantinople - we are swept into some of the most extraordinary tales in history. The clash of civilisations, the fall of empires, the rise of Christianity, revenge, lust, murder.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great Listen
- By Wendy on 03-30-18
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The Spartacus War
- By: Barry Strauss
- Narrated by: Ray Grover
- Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 202
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 162
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Story4 out of 5 stars 163
The Spartacus War is the extraordinary story of the most famous slave rebellion in the ancient world, the fascinating true story behind a legend that has been the inspiration for novelists, filmmakers, and revolutionaries for 2,000 years. Starting with only 74 men, a gladiator named Spartacus incited a rebellion that threatened Rome itself.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Interesting
- By Jean on 08-02-15
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Cleopatra
- A Life
- By: Stacy Schiff
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 14 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,262
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 814
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Story4 out of 5 stars 830
Her palace shimmered with onyx, garnets, and gold, but was richer still in political and sexual intrigue. Above all else, Cleopatra was a shrewd strategist and an ingenious negotiator. Though her life spanned fewer than 40 years, it reshaped the contours of the ancient world. Cleopatra appears to have had sex with only two men. They happen, however, to have been Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A pretty good listen.
- By Shaun on 04-21-11
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God's Wolf
- The Life of the Most Notorious of All Crusaders, Scourge of Saladin
- By: Jeffrey Lee
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 25
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 21
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 21
In a 2010 terrorist plot, Al-Qaeda hid a bomb in a FedEx shipment addressed to Reynald de Chatillon, a knight who had died centuries ago in the Crusades. A reviled figure in Islamic history, often portrayed as the very epitome of brutality, Reynald remains as controversial - and as vividly present in the minds of many in the Middle East - as the story of the Crusades themselves.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Move Over Ridley Scott . . . .
- By Leonard on 09-10-17
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Ancient Rome
- The Rise and Fall of An Empire
- By: Simon Baker
- Narrated by: Chris MacDonnell
- Length: 17 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 143
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 124
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 124
This is the story of the greatest empire the world has ever known. Simon Baker charts the rise and fall of the world's first superpower, focusing on six momentous turning points that shaped Roman history. Welcome to Rome as you've never seen it before - awesome and splendid, gritty and squalid. From the conquest of the Mediterranean beginning in the third century BC to the destruction of the Roman Empire at the hands of barbarian invaders some seven centuries later, we discover the most critical episodes in Roman history.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Clear and dramatic
- By Tad Davis on 08-01-17
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1453
- The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West
- By: Roger Crowley
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 727
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 668
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 665
The fall of Constantinople in 1453 signaled a shift in history and the end of the Byzantium Empire. Roger Crowley's listenable and comprehensive account of the battle between Mehmed II, sultan of the Ottoman Empire, and Constantine XI, the 57th emperor of Byzantium, illuminates the period in history that was a precursor to the current jihad between the West and the Middle East.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great story
- By Tad Davis on 11-29-16
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Alexander the Great
- Journey to the End of the Earth
- By: Norman F. Cantor
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 4 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 50
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 29
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Story4 out of 5 stars 29
In this succinct portrait of Alexander the Great, distinguished scholar and historian Norman Cantor draws on the major writings of Alexander's contemporaries, as well as the most recent psychological and cultural studies to illuminate this most legendary of men - a great figure in the ancient world whose puzzling personality greatly fueled his military accomplishments.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful and Delightful
- By Molly Sikes on 02-20-17
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The Day Democracy Died
- By: Anselm Audley
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 2 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 31
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 28
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 27
How scapegoating and hysteria doomed the world's first democracy. From the chaos of a sea-battle to the fury of a lynch mob, from personal bravery to political machinations, The Day Democracy Died tells in vivid detail the tragic story of the Arginusae trials and the fall of Athens: a cautionary tale of democracy's demons which is as relevant in the age of instant news and mass media as in the volatile city-states of ancient Greece.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Almost a Legal drama of Socrates as the judge
- By Kindle Customer on 10-12-17
Publisher's Summary
In 480 BC, Xerxes, the King of Persia, led an invasion of mainland Greece. Its success should have been a formality. For 70 years, victory - rapid, spectacular victory - had seemed the birthright of the Persian Empire. In the space of a single generation, they had swept across the Near East, shattering ancient kingdoms, storming famous cities, putting together an empire which stretched from India to the shores of the Aegean. As a result of those conquests, Xerxes ruled as the most powerful man on the planet. Yet somehow, astonishingly, against the largest expeditionary force ever assembled, the Greeks of the mainland managed to hold out. The Persians were turned back. Greece remained free. Had the Greeks been defeated at Salamis, not only would the West have lost its first struggle for independence and survival, but it is unlikely that there would ever have been such an entity as the West at all.
Tom Holland's brilliant book describes the very first 'clash of Empires' between East and West. Once again he has found extraordinary parallels between the ancient world and our own. There is no competing popular book describing these events.
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Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 12-11-19
I regret buying such book
I was looking forward to read about Persian history, real history, and not some propaganda.
1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 11-11-19
Excellent
Loved this book, however, I think the title is somewhat misleading. The majority of the book deals with Greek history as it relates to the Persian wars, I would have liked it to deal more with Persian history as it relates to the Greek wars. Subtle, but important difference.
2 people found this helpful