A Novel Set in the Persian Wars
I'm not really a fan of historical novels and I have found that when academics generally try to write a story based upon their field of study it doesn't turn out quite well. Okay, that is too much of a broad sweeping generalisation, and I should apologise to C.S. Lewis for saying such things, but while I enjoyed this book I found that Herodotus simply leaves Manfredi for dead. But then the two authors a simply not comparable. Herodotus was an Ancient Greek from Halicarnasus writing a sociological text on his world while Manfriedi is writing a book to open up the world of Herodotus to those of us who would not think about it otherwise.
The story is set during the third Persian Wars and the main character is a Spartan who has a limp. To Spartan society this is simply unacceptable. They were a warrior people who would not tolerate any defect. In fact when they were children they were not given any food and were expected to steal it for themselves (and not get caught). They were also sent out into the wilderness to survive against wild animals and other dangers. Only then would they be considered to be worthy of taking on the name of Spartan.
The war that this book focuses on is the Third Persian War. Darius had already tried to invade Greece twice (and that was in retribution for them supporting a revolt of Greek City states on the Aegean coast of Turkey, which was under Persian rule). The first invasion failed due to a freak storm in the Aegean which destroyed Darius' ships, and the second invasion failed when the Greeks put up a brave, and successful, defence at the battle of Marathon. However, Darius died before he could mount his next invasion, and that was left to his son Xerxes.
While the war is played out in the background, our deformed Spartan and his friend travel to each of the famous battles and play their role in the war as guerrilla fighters. As mentioned, while it simply does not stand against Herodotus, it is a great introduction to a fascinating period of ancient history.
For those who are interested, I have written a blog post on what the world would have been like if the Greeks had lost at Marathon, and lost at Salamis.
