The Greek Wars: The Failure of Persia

by George Cawkwell

Overview

The Greek Wars treats the whole course of Persian relations with the Greeks from the coming of Cyrus in the 540s down to Alexander the Great's defeat of Darius III in 331 BC. Cawkwell discusses from a Persian perspective major questions such as why Xerxes' invasion of Greece failed, and how important a part the Great King played in Greek affairs in the fourth century. Cawkwell's views are at many points original: in particular, his explanation of how and why the Persian invasion of Greece failed challenges the prevailing orthodoxy, as does his view of the importance of Persia in Greek affairs for the two decades after the King's Peace. Persia, he concludes, was destroyed by Macedonian military might but moral decline had no part in it; the Macedonians who had subjected Greece were too good an army, but their victory was not easy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199299836
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/21/2006
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	8.40(w) x 5.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

George Cawkwell is Emeritus Fellow, University College, Oxford.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction2. The subjection of the Greeks of Asia3. ‘The lands beyond the sea'4. The Ionian Revolt5. The conquest of Greece6. The war in the East Aegean7. Peace with Athens, 449-412 BC8. The recovery of the Greeks of Asia9. From the King's Peace to the end of the Social War10. The end of the Achaemenids