Persian Fire

The First World Empire and the Battle for the West

De: Tom Holland

Narrado por: Michael Page

In the fifth century BC, a global superpower was determined to bring truth and order to what it regarded as two terrorist states. The superpower was Persia, incomparably rich in ambition, gold, and men. The terrorist states were Athens and Sparta, eccentric cities in a poor and mountainous backwater: Greece. The story of how their citizens took on the Great King of Persia, and thereby saved not only themselves, but Western civilization as well, is as heart-stopping and fateful as any episode in history. Tom Holland's brilliant study of these critical Persian Wars skillfully examines a conflict of critical importance to both ancient and modern history.

©2005 Tom Holland (P)2016 Tantor

Excellent account of the Persian wars.

I felt as if I was living during the times of Cyrus the Great and the Persian wars. Character development and explanation of the times is great.

Greek Fire

Not to much about Persia. Greek Fire might be a better title.

More like Persians war on Greece, exciting read

I found this easy to listen to. And follow. really nota good title since it focuses and the famous battles when Persia invaded Greece. I found the battle descriptions exciting, of course Greece prevailed against all odds which made it interesting to begin with. You get history of Sparta, and Athens as well as xerxes an Persia at the time. Good book.

Everytbing thanks to Marathon

The thesis of tying back the liberty of the West to Marathon was neat. The narrations about how often the Greeks squabbled, inter polis, and intra polis, was interesting in that it painted the squabbles as somewhat inherent in democracies. The book did well to highlight the struggle of liberty, fraternity, and equality, with each equally weighted, as going back to the "origins of the West."

Hard on a novice.

Excellent for someone already well versed in ancient history. While details of battle were exciting and gave believable character to heroes, traitors and opportunists, descriptions of life (other than death) lacked depth and empathy. I presume a dearth of actual history made for shallow accounts of the in between tines, while much glory (and detail) was heaped on the fights. The first half of the book was more even, while the later half had intricate tales of the action, but seemed to leave out everyday life. Yes, I enjoyed the book, but as a newly interested history reader (as are many Audible customers, I'll presume), I could have used more posting of dates and especially tips on locations. A map and timeline could be added without a rewrite and would be immense boons.