LEADER 02730cam 22004574a 4500001 ocm62282312 003 OCoLC 005 20141211190833.0 008 051102s2005 nyuab 000 0 eng 010 2005054838 020 0385513119 020 9780385513111 035 (Sirsi) o62282312 035 (OCoLC)62282312 040 DLC |cDLC |dBAKER |dC#P |dVP@ |dBUR |dUtOrBLW 042 pcc 043 a-ir---e-gr--- 049 EREE 050 00 DS281 |b.H65 2005 082 00 935/.05 |222 100 1 Holland, Tom. |=^A574977 245 10 Persian fire : |bthe first world empire and the battle for the West / |cTom Holland. 260 New York : |bDoubleday, |c©2005. 300 xxiii, 418 pages : |billustrations, maps ; |c25 cm 336 text |2rdacontent 337 unmediated |2rdamedia 338 volume |2rdacarrier 504 Includes bibliographical references (p. 402-411) and index. 520 In 480 B.C.E., Xerxes, the King of Persia, led an invasion of mainland Greece. Its success should have been a formality. For seventy years, victory--rapid, spectacular victory--had seemed the birthright of the Persian Empire. They had swept across the Near East, shattering ancient kingdoms, storming famous cities, putting together an empire which stretched from India to the shores of the Aegean. Xerxes ruled as the most powerful man on the planet. Yet somehow, astonishingly, against the largest expeditionary force ever assembled, the Greeks managed to hold out. Had the Greeks been defeated in the epochal naval battle at Salamis, not only would the West have lost its first struggle for independence and survival, but it is unlikely that there would ever have been such an entity as the West at all. Historian Holland combines scholarly rigor with novelistic depth and finds extraordinary parallels between the ancient world and our own.--From publisher description. 651 0 Iran |xHistory |yTo 640. |=^A41172 651 0 Greece |xHistory |yPersian Wars, 500-449 B.C. |=^A35693 856 42 |3Contributor biographical information |uhttp://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0625/2005054838-b.html 856 42 |3Publisher description |uhttp://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0625/2005054838-d.html 856 41 |3Sample text |uhttp://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0643/2005054838-s.html 994 92 |bERE 910 PromptCat 938 Baker & Taylor |bBKTY |c27.50 |d20.63 |i0385513119 |n0006590393 |sactive 980 2006-06-14 |b27.5 |d0 |e23.1 |f904817 596 1 998 1043158