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The Greek Wars: The Failure of Persia, by George Cawkwell
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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 B.C. . 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.
- Sales Rank: #2230256 in eBooks
- Published on: 2006-09-21
- Released on: 2005-06-16
- Format: Kindle eBook
Review
A thorough reassessment of traditionally held beliefs about Greek-Persian relations...This work joins the serious works on Achaemenid history that scholars must consult Matthew Walters, Journal of the American Oriental Society For Achaemenid specialists from a classical background, non-Greek material has an exotic allure - and a greater potential for producing genuinely new evidence. But critical understanding of the comparatively familiar can be just as challenging, and Cawkwell is a master of that art. Christopher Tuplin, Journal of Hellenic Studies ...[a] remarkable book, the work of a choice and master historian ... It is a book to be savoured. not read through fastat one go. The Classical Review a new book by one of the great figures of Greek history of the last half-century ... is not only highly readable but also provides bracing insights to any number of questions in Greek-Persian relations Thomas Harrison, Green and Rome ...detailed and wide ranging Tom Holland, Times Literary Supplement The Greek Wars is the fruit of many decades' study - and it shows. Tom Holland, Times Literary Supplement ...revisionist history at its very best...the most insightful and comprehensive analysis to date of Greek and Persian interaction John Marincola, Classical Journal
About the Author
George Cawkwell is Emeritus Fellow, University College, Oxford.
Most helpful customer reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
Incredible
By Kirialax
This book should be the standard text on the Greco-Persian wars for years to come. Cawkwell has constructed a masterpiece by drawing on ancient sources and modern research with a very critical eye. His research is meticulously cited and approached from many angles, examining everything from logistics to the shape of the hulls of Phoenician warships. It is nothing short of a masterpiece of careful historical research.
Still, I have a couple of caveats. This book is not for the layman. Half of the book is appendices dealing with technical aspects of the war, and probably very boring for someone looking for a scholarly narrative of the period. Also, Cawkwell constructs his ideas over the course of long paragraphs, often with a twist at the end, so it is very important that this book is read with your full attention.
This book is full of solid research and should be the standard work in the field for many years to come. However, it is highly technical and written for other scholars. If you're looking for an advanced piece of work, get this. Otherwise, you're best off looking somewhere else.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
First class scholarship, but not for “beginners”
By JPS
This is a rather fascinating book on the Greco-Persian wars and the relations between Greece and the Persian Empire from the mid-sixth century BC right up to and included the conquest of Alexander the Great.
The (relative) originality of the book is to insist on the Persian point of view, showing, as others have also done, to what extent the Greek sources on which historians have somewhat over relied have been misleading. In some cases, as the author shows, this was more or less deliberate and reflected a mixture of propaganda and ideology. In particular, the “Greeks”, that is the handful of cities including two of the largest ones (Athens and Sparta) that fought against Persia did not win because they were “morally superior” and “fighting for freedom”. In some cases also, the Greek sources did not necessarily know very well what they were writing about. In particular, the author shows that Herodotus seems to have known relatively little (to put it in a nicer way than those George Cawkwell) about the Persian Empire.
Regarding the sources, the author quite obviously has his preferences. He thinks little of both Herodotus and Xenophon and does not miss an occasion to demonstrate that the former often did not know what he was writing about and was rather confusing whereas the later was so biased and pro-Spartan that he would become misleading and disingenuous, omitting crucial elements that he must have known about from his narrative. On the other hand, he is full of praise for Thucydides, at least most of the time because he also uncovers and discusses a couple of areas where he also misinterpreted the facts, whether deliberately or not. The author’s points are well argued, including when he demonstrates the limits of each source. However, the way and the tone that he uses make him also somewhat biased, and at times even a bit venomous: I almost got the impression, at times, that he had personal scores to settle with Herodotus or Xenophon!
The author's cases are also well argued and this is a piece of first class scholarship. The annexes are particularly convincing. One of them shows the reliance that the Persian Empire on the Phoenician squadrons. It shows, among other elements, that the Greeks could not match the heavier and better trained Phoenician squadrons that made up the crack units of the Persian fleet and that this explains to a large extent the naval battles of both Artemission (at best a draw for the Greeks) and the Greeks’ refusal to fight anywhere else than at Salamis. A second very valuable insight is to show that the Persian army and Persian general ship, both largely mocked by subsequent Greek authors, were in fact quite formidable. They also show to what extent the Greek victories resulted from making the Persians unable to use their fearsome cavalry (such was the case, the author believes, at Marathon) that the Greeks could not match, and that the battle of Plataea, which the author believes to be the decisive encounter, was a close run thing. He even shows that the invasion of the Persian Empire by Alexander, however successful it turned out to be, was not easy and that both Memnon of Rhodes and Darius III turned out to be worthy adversaries. In particular, and although both ended in glorious victories, the battles of Issus and Gaugamela were more closely fought that it is generally believed.
Another key feature of this book is to the show that even after evacuating Greece and renouncing to conquer it, The Great King and his Empire simply did not enter into decline and were far from finished. In fact, the book shows to what extent the Great Kings were able to play the Greeks against each other, first Sparta against Athens, then Thebes against either Athens or Sparta or even both. Their main aim was to maintain their domination on the Geek coastal cities of Asia Minor and in this they were largely successful. Their main tool in doing so was financing one or the other side to tip the scales in its favour and essentially extract concessions without having to commit their own forces.
One problem with this book, however, is that it is very “scholarly”. By this I mean that it is full of the notes that you can expect in such a work (with the notes clustered at the end of each chapter). Some readers will also find it difficult to read in at least two respects. One is that the author discusses rather systematically and, at times, in intricate detail, each and every issue. Another is that the book is written in such a way that he often assumes that you already have a good grasp of the almost 200 years that are covered, or even that you have a good knowledge of the sources that are discussed. In other words, this is not an introduction, an overview or a starting point for someone who knows little about the Greeks or Persia, despite the quality of the scholarship involved. Four stars.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Excellent work not for the armchair historian
By Philippe Geril
The Greek Wars is an excellent informative book, but and there is a big but, it is not a pleasant read through. It is heavy going, especially the first two chapters are interlaced with so many dates, places and names in such a variety and with such a multitude that you need to have an ancient who's who encyclopedia handy just to follow it all. The book would have improved quite a bit if for example maps were included or timelines for all the rulers named in this work.
The book does really delve into detail on all aspects of warfare related within the Greek-Persian time frame of conflict and politics (including some real gems) so it cannot be faulted on this point, but it is a book for scholars and not for the casual reader.
Therefore my 3 stars.
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