This is really well written and informative, and still manages to stay entertaining. Would be of interest to people who don't normally read alot but saw the movie 300 it's good follow up to what happened there.

This is a popularly written but well-researched account of the critical battle at Salamis which defeated Xerxes and the Persian Empire. Strauss writes well and descriptively outlines the battle before, during, and after the conflict. Along the way we are more generally introduced to sea warfare and ancient battles.

The book features a list of additional sources for Salamis. The best primary source is of course Herodotus. Second, Aeschylus' The Persians is the next best source, a sound translation is the one done by the University of Chicago. A third source is Plutarch's, The Rise and Fall of Athens (Penguin) which includes a biography of Themistocles. Thucydides', The Peloponnesian War is of course indispensable. The Robert Strassler, ed., Landmark Thucydides is a comprehensive guide in English. There are other important sources listed in the book as well.

A number of secondary sources should be noted. An interesting secondary source is Victor David Hanson's Carnage and Culture on Salamis (pp. 27-59). One of Hanson's main contentions is that Western warriors have a unique perspective on battle. Western warriors dissent, are adaptable, and are uniquely equipped due to democracy. Along the general lines of this interpretation is Josiah Ober, A Company of Citizens: Political Dissent in Democratic Athens: Intellectual Critics of Popular Rule. One of the most important works on seafaring is Lionel Casson, Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995).

The work is along the same lines as Tom Holland's, Rubicon, or Paul Cartledge, Thermopylae, popular accounts which are well-written and scholarly credible.

I'm part-way through this, and expect to read it in pieces over the next few weeks. I'm interested in the topic, and certainly learning something, but the basic technique--a thrilling but mostly unsourced and often conjectural narrative--leaves me unsatisfied. Anyway, isn't that what Herodotus is? ( )

Strauss' work is both an elegant and accessible introduction to this pivotal battle and a potentially useful companion to Herodotus' Histories. While most of the work deals with the battle itself and the events leading immediately up to and after the battle, Strauss weaves into the narrative much of the background of the war and conflicts among key groups (Persians, Athenians, Spartans, Corinthians, Aeginetans and so on). Many of the chapters begin by introducing us to key figures whose exploits were central to the battle. For those with some familiarity with the battle, it helps reconcile differences in the major accounts (i.e. those of Herodotus, Aeschylus and Plutarch) and provides detailed descriptions of the military technology and strategies.

The book also includes several maps showing the terrain of battle and the formations of the battle, a concise timetable of its major events and a revealing essay on the ships central to the battle. ( )