Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West

Despite the name, this book is very much told from a Greek perspective with the narrative hewing closely to the "300" template of brave, liberty-loving Greeks battling for the fate of their democracy against the decadent east giving birth to the Western civilization in the process. While this felt like the overall thrust of the narrative, Holland is a serious historian who keeps emphasizing that this is an oversimplification and that the truth is more complex. Despite these warnings, the vibe never really goes away. This is almost certainly due to the abundance of source materials on the Greek side (courtesy Herodotus) and the total dearth thereof on the Persian side. Still, I wish the book had focused a little less on the intricacies show more of Athenian and Spartan politics and a little more on the big picture. After all, it seems to me like "army with overstretched supply lines couldn't overcome a geographically well-entrenched enemy" is a perfectly good way to understand these wars instead of framing it in terms of Eastern effeteness vs. Western vigour. show less

A lot more details in here than I can possibly remember! But just to get Marathon and Salamis straight, that's something! Holland does a great job of telling a story, keeping things motivated enough that the book is not just a list of names and dates... though there are a lot of names and dates!
I particularly loved the key turning point in the book, where Themistocles tricks Xerxes into getting the Persian fleet bogged down in the straits by Salamis... or how did this really go down? Holland outlined the possibilities and didn't try to untangle them, didn't insist on one version of the story.

Tom Holland's Persian Fire is the type of history book that will make you want to read more history books. While it is 370+ pages long, there is a sense here that you need all those pages to cover the vast sprawling histories of both Ancient Greece and the Persian Empire. Holland's prose flows nicely and feels like you are right in the thick of it. From the formation of one of the world's first democracies to the battle at Thermopylae, there is a lot to enjoy here.

A fan of history, but never really into the ancient world, this was my first serious book about the Persian and Greek empires of the 5th century BC. Tom Holland writes with passion, authority and immediacy. This reads more like reportage than history. He clearly states the chronological narrative, but also brings alive the key figures involved, thus painting a rich picture of life and politics in this ancient world.

Clearly, if the Persian Empire had overrun Greece the history of what we call the Western world would have been very different, although from 2,500 years way, exactly how different is hard to judge. The Persian Empire could have stretched into mainland Europe, Italy and further, with consequences for the Roman Empire as well show more as the impact on thought and societal development in Greece.

I think this is a great example of good writing as well as good history. show less

I've just finished reading this book again for the second time through. In doing so, Tom Holland has cemented his place atop my list of favorite historical authors. He excels in giving an almost novelistic description of events which took place some 2,500 years ago; no mean feat, considering this gulf in time which may seem to irrevocably distance the events in "Persian Fire" from the modern day.

At 372 pages of actual text, it may seem a bit of a slog, and yet it is far from it. Holland's captivating prose carries the reader from the peaks of the Zagros to the crags of central Greece, flashing the author's extensive vocabulary while still allowing for the occasional colloquialism; I can't remember the last time I read a historical work show more that employed modern profanity without sounding sophomoric, and yet Holland somehow pulls it off.

This book serves the needs of both novices and seasoned scholars alike; providing a wealth of background material leading up to that fateful first showdown between east and west, it weaves a vivid tapestry replete with fascinating characters, exotic peoples, and monumental events of a time gone by which have had lasting ramifications all the way up to the present day.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. show less

The story of the Greco-Persian wars is one of the great tales from history. At the time they were fought the Persian Empire comprised a large majority of the civilized world in the West. The city-states of Greece would have been a rather small province of the Empire if they had been conquered. Western Civilization would have been much different if the Greeks had been conquered and lost their freedom. The story has been told many times but this author by telling the tale from the Persian point of view brings a new perspective to well known people and events. The book is full of interesting details which help to bring the people and events of that time alive for the reader. The author plays no favorites and shows the reader the warts and show more all of the heroes on both sides. The violence and cruelty that were the daily fare of the dealings between the people of those times provide good reasons for the author's sometime cynical attitude toward humanity.
The book begins with the conquests of Cyrus and the establishment of the Persian Empire. A vast area from India to Egypt to Asia Minor was consolidated under Persian rule in a short period of time. Ancient kingdoms such as Egypt and Babylonia were made part of the new empire. Reading this section I learned a lot about what I don't know about the people and places that made up the Persian Empire. At the same time I got a start on a topic that merits further reading. I found the description of the Persian religion particularly fascinating. Xerxes saw himself as the embodiment of the Truth set on earth to eliminate the people of the Lie, including the Greeks.
The author's discussion of the development of Sparta and Athens adds some new insight to those topics. The life of the Spartans at all times sacrificed the individual for the group. They ruled conquered tribes who provided the Spartans with the necessities of life. The Spartan men spent their life either in training or in battle. The male rite of passage was to use a dagger to sneak up on and murder one of the serfs or helots. Athens had Solon the lawgiver. After a long period of tyranny democracy was developed by Cleisthenes to make good his victory over Isagoras for political power in Athens. These Greek politicians were much less idealistic than the Founding Fathers.
Xerxes assembled a massive army composed of troops from all over his empire. This army crossed the Hellespont on two pontoon bridges and began the conquest of Greece. Athens and Sparta had executed ambassadors sent to them by the Persians and were to be slaughtered if they surrendered.
The politics amongst the city-states was chaotic. Themistocles rose to power in Athens and pushed the city to build a large fleet. The Spartans were defeated and massacred at Thermopylae but their story lived on and was the basis for a recent popular movie. The Battles of Salamis and Plataea drove the Persians from Greece and ended their attempts to conquer Greece.
The book is well written and the actions and emotions of the parties are conveyed with impact. The fear of the Greeks as the awaited the attack of the Persians was palpable. The ferocity of the combat is very real. The joy of the Greeks in victory deteriorates into squabbling and Themistocles dies in exile a subject of the Great King. It was left to a Macedonian youth born in 356 bc to write the final chapter in the struggle with Persia. show less

In February 2006, I read the Iliad for the first time as an adult, for no other reason than my own entertainment. I was at once bitten by the ancient Greek bug and set out to obtain the classical education I somehow missed in high school and college. I pursued this by taking a few Teaching Company audio courses, reading primary sources of the ancients -- Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides -- as well as the best popular and scholarly books I could find to elucidate the various eras of ancient Greek civilization. One of the latter certainly is Tom Holland's Persian Fire.

I came to Persian Fire with a decent background in the overall theme, and I read Herodotus in tandem with it through much of the book, but Holland's treatment enhanced show more everything I had absorbed prior because he approached the subject with a regional theme. It would be difficult to comprehend the foreign policy of the United States in the latter half of the 20th century without a fairly comprehensive background in the history of the Soviet Union; yet most historians of early fifth century Greece provide scant attention to the foe that most defined their political culture, the Persians they referred to sometimes pejoratively as "the Mede." Holland's work is superior from the get-go because he takes the regional approach most period treatments gloss over.

For those who want to delve right in to the Greco-Persian conflict, patience is in order as Holland sets the stage with an extremely well written background history not only of chief Hellenic city-states Athens and Sparta, but most importantly the origins of Persian rule -- and all of that takes us -- sometimes breathlessly with the gusto of a great author in love with his subject -- to an account of Mediterranean geo-politics on the eve of the conflict. I got more of the sense of the ancient world at the time from Holland than any other single work I had read previously.

Unlike many contemporary historians of the ancient world like Kagan, Holland deliberately avoids trying to fit the themes and the conflicts of 2500 years ago into today's foreign policies, but -- remarkably so -- he does manage to interpret the actions of the key players into the sometimes Machiavellian power politics characteristic of states throughout recorded history. No other work I have encountered brings marble figures like Themistocles and Aristides to flesh-and-blood life, warts and all, the way Holland does in this book.

A great read, in every way. Lots of material and not a boring spot in the story. I'll probably re-read it again someday. If you have any interest at all in the ancient Greek world, don't miss this one! show less