A flowing narrative on the Persian Empire
Review of Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West By Tom Holland
This book is about the collision of 3 worlds. First, you have the Persian Empire, the first multi-national fighting force that sought to exploit (and to a degree, respect) the attributes of its innumerable ethnic groups rather than impose the domination of one on them by force. This was the work of Cyrus the Great, who transformed a mountain nomad tribe that raised horses as tribute to whoever dominated them at any given time, and is a defining moment of administrative genius: rather than simple repression and exploitation, he united opponents to the brutal Assyrian Empire under the same banner and forged a fighting force the world had never seen, its population at one time encompassing 40% of all living human beings. Holland offers a detailed and fascinating portrait of him and his successors, in particular the usurper Darius and his son, Xerxes.
Second, there are the middle eastern peoples, which included the exiled Jews living in cosmopolitan Babylon, but also Phoenicians and Egyptians. It is a dazzlingly rich patchwork of peoples, virtually all of whom found places in the war machine. Cyrus and his successors accepted them as near equals, incorporated them as integral participants, and offered them career paths in service to the Empire.
Third come the Greeks, who represented a poor, fractious backwater of over 700 city states, virtually all of whom were in a state of near-incessant war. Of the Greeks, the Ionian colonies (in modern day Turkey) were conquered and then co-opted by the Persians. Unfortunately, Darius reduced this unique culture to a smoldering ruin when crushing a rebellion. It was there that philosophy first flourished and its potential (developing mathematics and atomism) will never be known. On mainland Greece, there were the Spartans, who lived under a kind of military socialism, its nomenklatura being aristocratic generals. Finally, there were the Athenians, who were experimenting with democracy (the first one!), emerging from a long period of class struggle and backwardness, and developing a literary culture for an audience beyond elite courtiers. Of course, hundreds of other city states are included, but they are essentially petty kingdoms at war.
Once Xerxes ascended to the Persian throne, he set his eyes on Europe. His father had failed there (at Marathon) and Xerxes wished to distinguish himself with the glory of conquest. To counter the threat, for the first time in their history, the Greeks more or less united: with Spartans as military leaders and the backbone of the fighting force, the Athenians converted their fighting forces into a sea power after a rancorous democratic negotiation. A number of remarkable leaders emerged, including Themistocles, a demagogue and genius of military strategy; and Leonidas, the Spartan king who knew his life was forfeit at Thermopylae in order to buy precious time. Against overwhelming odds – perhaps 10 or more to 1 in men – the Greeks held back and then beat the Persian military.
Holland goes into great detail about the military tactics and technologies, the story of which is the core book and 2/3 of its content. While war interests me less than culture, Holland masterfully weaves details and issues into the narrative as they arise. For example, when the Athenians have to evacuate their city, Holland offers a wonderful sub-chapter on the cloistered, repressed status of women in Athens, as they had to walk the streets to leave; this was a scandal to aristocrats.
The book ends on a wonderful note that plays on Greek mythology: the goddess Nemesis, purportedly the mother of Helen with Zeus (think Iliad), moved to exile or destroy virtually all of the heroes that emerged. Themistocles was ostracized and exiled to Persia, where he became a traitor and satrap in charge of Ionia; Pausanias, who had adopted an oriental bias for opulence that offended his Spartan subjects, was starved to death. These are the kind of details and skillful storytelling that make this book so memorable. It pulses with life and ideas.
The theme of the book is that this war was what saved the West, that enabled Athens under Perikles to lay the Greco-Roman foundations of what would become European civilization. I must admit that I find this to be a dubious claim, similar to the one that Europe would have been Muslim if Charles Martel had not held out at Poitiers. Persia had reached its apogee, if only because it was so large that incorporating Europe was all but impossible to conquer, let alone maintain, given stretched supply lines and simple distance. Perhaps western civilization would have emerged under a different form – we can never know.
Warmly recommended. Holland is one of the best popular historians writing: while up to scholarly standards, he can speak to lay readers with graceful clarity and intelligence. It is a unique combination of gifts, especially when you compare it to the dry writing of most academics. This book was particularly welcome to me because, having read Creation by Gore Vidal over 30 years ago, I have been looking since then for a history book that could explain and analyze, from an academic point of view, what the great novel portrayed.
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