Customer Reviews

Thermopylae: The Battle for the West

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As Xerxes (aka Ahasueras), the Great King of the greatest empire the world had ever seen, prepared the greatest invasion force ever mustered, the Greeks sought advice from the Oracle at Delphi. The Oracle pronounced that wooden walls would save Athens, but only the death of a Spartan king would save that unwalled city from ruin.

As the Persian juggernaut crossed over a two mile long pontoon bridge into Europe and began its relentless march into Greece, the Greeks temporized, argued, and dithered. Finally, Sparta sent King Leonidas with three hundred Spartiates to hold the pass at Thermopylae against the Persian hordes. Leonidas stiffened his contingent with Helots (Spartan serfs) and volunteers from several other Greek city-states. Phocis, Thebes, Thespia, and a few others swelled Leonidas' ranks to a few thousand.

Upon being told that when the Persians loosed their arrows the sky went black, the Spartiate Dienekes rejoined "Then we shall fight in the shade." At a point in the pass no more than 20 yards wide Leonidas met the Persians and stopped them dead in their tracks. For three days he and his men held the mightiest empire's mightiest army at bay, slaughtering the flower of the Persian army by the hundreds, if not thousands. He might have held, but a traitorous Greek showed the Persians a mountain pass by which they could turn Leonidas' position.

Leonidas had guarded the pass with 1,000 Phocians, but the Persian "Immortals," Xerxes' best unit, brushed them aside. Upon learning of this treachery, Leonidas sent the other city-states' contingents home and prepared for his last stand. The Thebans and Thespians volunteered to stay, and Leonidas chose for his battleground a wider section of the pass. He wanted as wide a front as possible so he could kill as many Persians as possible.

The Spartans joined battle with the Persians for the last time, and the slaughter was horrific. When, as anticipated, the Immortals took them in the rear, the Spartans retreated to a hillock, formed what the Middle Ages would call a "Swiss Hedgehog," and died to the last man.

As prophecy foretold, the Spartans lost their king, but saved their city, and the rest of Greece with it. The invasion continued apace, and Athens was sacked, with her entire population fleeing to the island of Salamis. There in the straits between Salamis and Athens, the Greeks lured the Persian navy to its doom.

Winter was coming, and things hadn't quite worked out as expected. Campaigning during the winter was verboten, and sustaining such a huge army in the field over the winter wasn't practicable. Xerxes decided he had better get back to Susa, and took with him the remainder of his shattered navy and the bulk of his army. He left his seasoned field commander, Mardonius, in charge of the best Persian contingents, expecting Mardonius to complete the conquest of Greece during the next campaigning season.

Upon learning of Xerxes'withdrawal, the Spartans thought the war was over, and sent an embassy demanding satisfaction for the death of their king. Xerxes laughed in their faces and told them that Mardonius would give them satisfaction next summer. He did, but not as Xerxes expected.

Shakespeare once wrote "It is not within man's power to command success, but we shall do more--we shall deserve it." Leonidas and his 300 Spartiates could not command succes, but they did more, they deserved it.

Bradford puts the story of Leonidas in its proper place within the vast panorama of the Greco Persian Wars. He begins with the sack of Sardis and ends on the fields of Plataea. "Thermopylae" is not as scholarly as A.R. Burn's "Persian and the Greeks," but it is imminently more readable. "Thermopylae" reads somewhat like an abridgement of Peter Green's "The Greco-Persian Wars."

For those looking for an "bridged" version of Herodotus, this book is it. Bradford has sailed the seas and walked the areas of the battle to give a "true" account of the battles. He gives due to Xerxes where others do not and is able to pack a punch in each chapter. I did not want to put it down. Recommend people read this account before undertaking a more serious exploration and scholarship of Ancient Greek history. Bradford was an enjoyable read!

I was disappointed in that I wanted to know more about the battle of Thermopylae... this book went on about all the events and moves of Xerxes/Greeks before and after... very little was spent on Thermopylae itself. The title was extremely misleading.

Found this book very informative on a battle I had never really heard much about before...however, I bought it to find out more about the Spartans and it doesn't really focus on them. It does cover their part in the battle, but much of the book focuses on the Greeks in general and the overall war with the Persians as opposed to Thermopylae.
The other 'problem' I had after reading the book was that I had no clear sense of hether the Spartans were truly heroic or whether they get a lot more credit for a token resistance (granted, it WAS fatal) than the other Greeks who were present. No doubt about their ability to fight and bravery in the battle, but the other Greeks and the Persians demonstrated bravery too. It almost seemed as if the partans begrudged the rest of the Greek alliance the assistance they did give.
In the end, I know only a little more about the real make-up of Spartan society than I did to start with. At the same time, I know a great deal more about the war with the Persians and I enjoyed learning it.

I read this book after reading Steven Pressfield's Gates of Fire. If you are interested in the historical background surrounding the Battle of Thermopylae, this is an excellent resource. It is thought-provoking and gives a good account of the events surrounding the epic battle. It is not so burdened with names and dates that it becomes unwieldy. This is one of the more enjoyable historical accounts that I have encountered recently.

Bradford possesses knowledge of ships, naval warfare and the Mediterranean which serves him well in this history of the Greco-Persian Wars from circa 500 BCE to 479 BCE. The title is somewhat misleading; nevertheless he does spend several chapters on the Battle of Thermopylae. The source notation is woven into the text which causes certain details of source information to be left out.

Thermopylae is a great source of information about the Persian invasion of Greece by Xerxes after the battle at Marathon. It ranges from an in-depth view of the intriguing and alien Spartan culture, to Greek terrain and armor, to a background of Persian-Greek relations.

This book discusses the important Battle of Salamis, which, if lost to the Persians, could have completely altered the course of history. Could you imagine the world today without an ancient Greece to refer to? I thought this book would bore me to death, but instead I kept reading it and didn't want to give it back to the owner. I may go buy it, though I work at the library. It seems like it would be a good investment.

I enjoyed Thermopylae, and I believe others would as well. This is the sort of book we should read in school! My high school classes have given me no depth, taught me nothing about the history of the classic world. This book has taken me closer to understanding the current world. I can only look forward to college and hope it does as good a job as Ernle Bradford and his book has.

Thermopylae is a book for those who want to get a good understanding of the second Greco-Persian war. But anyone looking for an indepth explination of specific battles would be better off buying Greco-Persian wars by Peter Green. Thermopylae did provide me with a start to finish view of just how lucky/brilliant Sparta and Athens were. Some reviews have colored bradford as decidedly pro-athenian, and to some extent he is. But i think most people call him pro athenian simply because he refuses to report on the myths and legends of the spartans, but still makes clear their military strength and supremacy. He reports what he knows, and usually tells you when the information is lacking, and provides a logical conclusion although some of his conclusions are different from mine.
The book is very engaging and is an outstanding read. I was supprised how much i enjoyed it and how quickly i read through it.

The battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C.E. has usually been relegated by modern historians to being nothing more than a "symbolic gesture" of Greek resolve during the Persian war. Although it WAS that, it was also much, much more.

The importance of this present book is that it sets the matter straight. The sub-title of the work is in no way an exaggeration. The 300 Spartans + the allies who held the pass @ Thermopylae protected the Greek fleet at Artemesium and bought time for the armada to mobilize at Salamis. The importance of this cannot be over-stated.

In this treatise, Ernle Bradford takes us back to that long-ago period of world history. Much more than being simply an extrapolation of Book VII of Herodotus' HISTORIES, here is a study that offers a superb look at the weapons, armor, ships, tactics and logistical difficulties of both the Greeks and Persians. The attention Bradford pays to the minutest details of the classical historians allows him to reason out conclusions that may not have been evident upon a first-reading.

Beyond Thermopylae, Bradford also has brief discussions of both Salamis and Platea. The over-all thrust of the book, however, is to put into context just how pivotal Thermopylae actually was in reference to these other, more well known battles.

While the parallels that he draws between the Persian war and World War II are occasionally a bit strained, it must be remembered that it is a typical method employed by military historians to draw comparisons and contrasts between ancient conflicts and those of his own day. As Bradford fought in WWII himself, it is natural that he should use it as a frame-of-reference for how he perceives warfare throughout the ages.

This book is HIGHLY recommended as standard-reading for all War-colleges, persons interested in classical history and (most of all) those who have more than a passing-curiousity about the Spartans.

As your head hits the pillow tonight, remember that some 2,500 years ago 300 Spartans stood on a wall & fought to the last man in a battle that they knew they could not win. They left their beloved Sparta KNOWING that they would never see it again. They were aware that their life only had a few sunrises left in it, yet this did not slow their march to Thermopylae for even a moment. It is because of their sacrifice that you are where you are today; defenders of the pass. Guardians of history.

This book provides an excellent overview surrounding this famous battle. It's some what of a summary and analysis of some of Herodotus's Histories. The book also makes a good reference for those reading Gates of Fire by Steven Presfield.