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Long War #7
Treason of Sparta
When the dust settled and the blood dried after the Battle of Plataea, Greeks might have thought that their freedom was secured. But before the corpse of the Great King's general was cold, Athens and Sparta began to bicker over dividing up the spoils.
After an autumn of victory, it's a long cold winter among the burned cities and destroyed shrines of Greece, and a hungry spring. And when Arimnestos goes to sea to cruise the Persian-held coasts, he finds that Persia is still not beaten... and that old alliances are now fraying.
Is the impossible true? Would the Spartans rather see Athens destroyed than Persia defeated? And who will save the cities of Ionia from the Great King's wrath?
It's the spring of 478BCE, and the Long War isn't over yet.
After an autumn of victory, it's a long cold winter among the burned cities and destroyed shrines of Greece, and a hungry spring. And when Arimnestos goes to sea to cruise the Persian-held coasts, he finds that Persia is still not beaten... and that old alliances are now fraying.
Is the impossible true? Would the Spartans rather see Athens destroyed than Persia defeated? And who will save the cities of Ionia from the Great King's wrath?
It's the spring of 478BCE, and the Long War isn't over yet.
- GenresHistorical Fiction
320 pages, Hardcover
Published December 19, 2023
46 people are currently reading
245 people want to read
About the author
Christian Cameron
81 books1,104 followersAka Miles Cameron. Also publishes as Gordon Kent with his father Kenneth M. Cameron.
Christian Cameron was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1962. He grew up in Rockport, Massachusetts, Iowa City, Iowa,Christian Cameron and Rochester, New York, where he attended McQuaid Jesuit High School and later graduated from the University of Rochester with a degree in history.
After the longest undergraduate degree on record (1980-87), he joined the United States Navy, where he served as an intelligence officer and as a backseater in S-3 Vikings in the First Gulf War, in Somalia, and elsewhere. After a dozen years of service, he became a full time writer in 2000. He lives in Toronto (that’s Ontario, in Canada) with his wife Sarah and their daughter Beatrice, currently age four. And a half.
Christian Cameron was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1962. He grew up in Rockport, Massachusetts, Iowa City, Iowa,Christian Cameron and Rochester, New York, where he attended McQuaid Jesuit High School and later graduated from the University of Rochester with a degree in history.
After the longest undergraduate degree on record (1980-87), he joined the United States Navy, where he served as an intelligence officer and as a backseater in S-3 Vikings in the First Gulf War, in Somalia, and elsewhere. After a dozen years of service, he became a full time writer in 2000. He lives in Toronto (that’s Ontario, in Canada) with his wife Sarah and their daughter Beatrice, currently age four. And a half.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
September 24, 2024
This eventful and well researched historical novel is the 7th part of the "Long War" series, or as the author likes to call it, the 1st part, of three, of the "Broken Empire" series, and thus let's follow the author's lead.
At the beginning of the book you'll find a well documented Glossary, followed by a List of Names and Personages, with persons featuring in this book.
At the end of the book you'll notice an Author's Note, where the informative historical details are superbly explained, but what I do miss is a map of the Aegean Sea and the sea routes taken by Arimnestos of Plataea.
Storytelling is brilliant, all characters come vividly to life in this book about glory, failure, heroism, vanity, loyalty and betrayal in the Greek world, but the only minus for me is the repetitive mentioning of Arimnestos of Plataea's former exploits, with its glories and failures, both domestically and professionally, and that's the reason for the not full 5 stars from me.
This book is set starts off Late Winter 479BC until Summer 478BC, with at its centre our main protagonist and narrator, Arimnestos of Plataea, telling his tale of historical adventures both within the Greek World and against their foe from the east, the Persians.
At first the Greek fleet gets to sea under the leadership of the Spartan Strategos, Pausanias, hero of Plataea, while Arimnestos and his "rebel" allies are raiding the Persian Empire at Tyre and other places later on like Byzantium, and these actions will get him and his allies into trouble with Pausanias, who himself is controlled by the powerful Spartan Ephors, to be kind to the Persians.
What is to follow is an adventurous and exciting tale about treachery within the Spartan factions itself, with Pausanias functioning as the scapegoat, that will lead to trouble within the Ionian Revolt, where the balance within the Alliance will come under threat between Athens and allies on the one side and Sparta on the other, and that will finally come to breaking point due to the treason within committed by Sparta.
Highly recommended, for this is a wonderful addition of this exciting lasting series/or new series, and that's why I would like to call this episode: "A Compelling Internal Treason"!
At the beginning of the book you'll find a well documented Glossary, followed by a List of Names and Personages, with persons featuring in this book.
At the end of the book you'll notice an Author's Note, where the informative historical details are superbly explained, but what I do miss is a map of the Aegean Sea and the sea routes taken by Arimnestos of Plataea.
Storytelling is brilliant, all characters come vividly to life in this book about glory, failure, heroism, vanity, loyalty and betrayal in the Greek world, but the only minus for me is the repetitive mentioning of Arimnestos of Plataea's former exploits, with its glories and failures, both domestically and professionally, and that's the reason for the not full 5 stars from me.
This book is set starts off Late Winter 479BC until Summer 478BC, with at its centre our main protagonist and narrator, Arimnestos of Plataea, telling his tale of historical adventures both within the Greek World and against their foe from the east, the Persians.
At first the Greek fleet gets to sea under the leadership of the Spartan Strategos, Pausanias, hero of Plataea, while Arimnestos and his "rebel" allies are raiding the Persian Empire at Tyre and other places later on like Byzantium, and these actions will get him and his allies into trouble with Pausanias, who himself is controlled by the powerful Spartan Ephors, to be kind to the Persians.
What is to follow is an adventurous and exciting tale about treachery within the Spartan factions itself, with Pausanias functioning as the scapegoat, that will lead to trouble within the Ionian Revolt, where the balance within the Alliance will come under threat between Athens and allies on the one side and Sparta on the other, and that will finally come to breaking point due to the treason within committed by Sparta.
Highly recommended, for this is a wonderful addition of this exciting lasting series/or new series, and that's why I would like to call this episode: "A Compelling Internal Treason"!
January 2, 2024
Going to have to reread this one day. Never gave 3⭐️s to a Christian Cameron novel before…
June 11, 2024
Review of The Long War, book 8, Treason of Sparta
Just to begin this review with some background on its author.
Christian Cameron, the author of “The Long War” series of which this is the last book is a very thorough researcher of Ancient Greek history, a re-enactor, battlefield walker, and has a dedicated team of Greek helpers who translate from sources to add authenticity to these stories. He has his own panoply, an accurate ancient Greek suit of armour meticulously researched from ancient sources which he wears whilst re-enacting. He has celebrated the victories of Salamis and Marathon on their respective anniversaries and is thoroughly immersed in the period which shines through all his books in this series.
Treason of Sparta - 5th Century BCE.
Book One - Athens and Ionia. Late winter 479-478BC
Arimnestos of Plataea, who is the narrator throughout, begins with his reminiscences of his family and close friends from Rage of Ares.
Life after the Long War, book eight in series, rebuilding, recovering, making new treaties, enjoying spoils of war. Arimnestos has taken up smithing again and is also trading by sea until the infrastructure recovers. He is attempting to live in peace and enjoy it but is “not ready for a life of ease.” However looking around him he realises that although Persia’s navy suffered telling defeats at Salamis and Mycale, her land forces and allies are still formidable and will always be a threat. He also notes that Sparta is trying to limit the sphere of influence of Athens and that the Greek mainland will always be disruptive and divisive. He therefore gathers a fleet together with most of his veterans as they all understand each other and fight so well as a unit and new personnel who are desperate to attack the Great King Xerxes and get back to war with him. He begins by attacking one of the Great King’s allies, Tyre in Phoenicia.
Book two - Cyprus and Ionia - Spring, 478BC
However this action earns the wrath of Pausanias the Spartan who sees himself as overall navarch or naval commander of the Greek allied fleet and Arimnestos is exiled from it as a result. He is now free to pursue his own agenda and returns to his home at Plataea and almost immediately whisks his wife Briseis off to Ionia where she was once queen, via Athens which he’s trying to protect. He’s hoping to raise Ionia in revolt against the Great King Xerxes. He relies on a mix of his reputation, charm offensive, duplicity, charisma, guile and his previous experience of life as a pirate to assemble support for the revolt with an alternative Greek allied fleet to supersede that of Pausanias. This is a man who is a great leader since he has done everything that he asks his crew and supporters to do and who has the scars to prove it. His reputation is well earned.
This section for me is where Christian Cameron comes into his own. We are with Aristemnos right the way through his campaign, on his ships marvelling at how well his trusted crews work together to get the best results whilst attacking or defending, how magnanimous he is when taking a capture, an enemy vessel, as he’d served as a slave rower to the Carthaginians and understood that freed slaves row better than their slave counterparts. Christian Cameron is a re-e actor so understands how ancient warships worked and their advantages and disadvantages during battle that Arimnestos as a commander must use to good effect. Cameron also understands the disposition of armour, its weight and the amount of manouverabilty it affords, how greaves can dig into your leg when boarding another ship for example and cause instability because of excruciating pain.
Since Cameron understands these things he’s able to convey them to the reader who has been drawn into the narrative from the very beginning of the story. Arimnestos talks directly to us as if we were sitting next to him and this apparent proximity makes us want his skirmishes to succeed even though he himself is doubtful. In this atmosphere you too can feel how essential it is for the New Ionian Revolt to succeed to diminish the Persian threat all together if at all possible. As this is the last book for now of the “Long War” series all the characters are known to us so we support them all the more and are as committed to victory as any of Arimnestos’ crew and allies.
Book Three - Byzantium- Summer 478BC
The Ionian fleet is to be disbanded because of the depredations of its admiral Pausanias who has been harrying his Allies. Disease has also ravaged the fleet while it was on the beach during a siege. Pausanias has also not provided all of them with food, just the Spartans, his countrymen. Arimnestos discovers that the Spartans are in league with the Great King against Athens and her Allies and that there will be an attack on Byzantium to close off the Euxine grain trade to Athens. This knowledge galvanises Arimnestos’s rival allied fleet into taking Byzantium thereby foiling this plot and the strategies involved are described in great detail as once more we are drawn into all Arimnestos’s machinations. There is also the cold, hard reality that he cannot exclude Sparta despite its treachery from any further alliances with the rest of Greece.
This book is a joy to read as it has an authentic voice which clearly outlines life and warfare in Ancient Greece as it was lived and fought. The reader is drawn inexorably into the action and is fully involved throughout Arimnestos’s narrative as he describes the desperate struggle against the overwhelming might of the Great King.
There will be more about Arimnestos as this book is the beginning of a new series called “Broken Empire” which will be unmissable and which I hope is published soon.
Just to begin this review with some background on its author.
Christian Cameron, the author of “The Long War” series of which this is the last book is a very thorough researcher of Ancient Greek history, a re-enactor, battlefield walker, and has a dedicated team of Greek helpers who translate from sources to add authenticity to these stories. He has his own panoply, an accurate ancient Greek suit of armour meticulously researched from ancient sources which he wears whilst re-enacting. He has celebrated the victories of Salamis and Marathon on their respective anniversaries and is thoroughly immersed in the period which shines through all his books in this series.
Treason of Sparta - 5th Century BCE.
Book One - Athens and Ionia. Late winter 479-478BC
Arimnestos of Plataea, who is the narrator throughout, begins with his reminiscences of his family and close friends from Rage of Ares.
Life after the Long War, book eight in series, rebuilding, recovering, making new treaties, enjoying spoils of war. Arimnestos has taken up smithing again and is also trading by sea until the infrastructure recovers. He is attempting to live in peace and enjoy it but is “not ready for a life of ease.” However looking around him he realises that although Persia’s navy suffered telling defeats at Salamis and Mycale, her land forces and allies are still formidable and will always be a threat. He also notes that Sparta is trying to limit the sphere of influence of Athens and that the Greek mainland will always be disruptive and divisive. He therefore gathers a fleet together with most of his veterans as they all understand each other and fight so well as a unit and new personnel who are desperate to attack the Great King Xerxes and get back to war with him. He begins by attacking one of the Great King’s allies, Tyre in Phoenicia.
Book two - Cyprus and Ionia - Spring, 478BC
However this action earns the wrath of Pausanias the Spartan who sees himself as overall navarch or naval commander of the Greek allied fleet and Arimnestos is exiled from it as a result. He is now free to pursue his own agenda and returns to his home at Plataea and almost immediately whisks his wife Briseis off to Ionia where she was once queen, via Athens which he’s trying to protect. He’s hoping to raise Ionia in revolt against the Great King Xerxes. He relies on a mix of his reputation, charm offensive, duplicity, charisma, guile and his previous experience of life as a pirate to assemble support for the revolt with an alternative Greek allied fleet to supersede that of Pausanias. This is a man who is a great leader since he has done everything that he asks his crew and supporters to do and who has the scars to prove it. His reputation is well earned.
This section for me is where Christian Cameron comes into his own. We are with Aristemnos right the way through his campaign, on his ships marvelling at how well his trusted crews work together to get the best results whilst attacking or defending, how magnanimous he is when taking a capture, an enemy vessel, as he’d served as a slave rower to the Carthaginians and understood that freed slaves row better than their slave counterparts. Christian Cameron is a re-e actor so understands how ancient warships worked and their advantages and disadvantages during battle that Arimnestos as a commander must use to good effect. Cameron also understands the disposition of armour, its weight and the amount of manouverabilty it affords, how greaves can dig into your leg when boarding another ship for example and cause instability because of excruciating pain.
Since Cameron understands these things he’s able to convey them to the reader who has been drawn into the narrative from the very beginning of the story. Arimnestos talks directly to us as if we were sitting next to him and this apparent proximity makes us want his skirmishes to succeed even though he himself is doubtful. In this atmosphere you too can feel how essential it is for the New Ionian Revolt to succeed to diminish the Persian threat all together if at all possible. As this is the last book for now of the “Long War” series all the characters are known to us so we support them all the more and are as committed to victory as any of Arimnestos’ crew and allies.
Book Three - Byzantium- Summer 478BC
The Ionian fleet is to be disbanded because of the depredations of its admiral Pausanias who has been harrying his Allies. Disease has also ravaged the fleet while it was on the beach during a siege. Pausanias has also not provided all of them with food, just the Spartans, his countrymen. Arimnestos discovers that the Spartans are in league with the Great King against Athens and her Allies and that there will be an attack on Byzantium to close off the Euxine grain trade to Athens. This knowledge galvanises Arimnestos’s rival allied fleet into taking Byzantium thereby foiling this plot and the strategies involved are described in great detail as once more we are drawn into all Arimnestos’s machinations. There is also the cold, hard reality that he cannot exclude Sparta despite its treachery from any further alliances with the rest of Greece.
This book is a joy to read as it has an authentic voice which clearly outlines life and warfare in Ancient Greece as it was lived and fought. The reader is drawn inexorably into the action and is fully involved throughout Arimnestos’s narrative as he describes the desperate struggle against the overwhelming might of the Great King.
There will be more about Arimnestos as this book is the beginning of a new series called “Broken Empire” which will be unmissable and which I hope is published soon.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 17, 2024
This book was a little more different then most in the series, much more espionage and “behind the scenes” work of war. Cameron still killed it. Can’t wait for more of the series.
February 17, 2024
Found this book very disappointing. It is simultaneously very repetitive to previous books but different in ways that pulled me from the book. The book in many ways feels inauthentic to the world that Cameron spent the past 14 years telling us about. I always really appreciated how real and internally consistent it was (even if many of the views are despicable by our standards). How Arimnestos changed as he aged and as his fame and fortune grew, but now in one chapter he is being told that he is a bogeyman to Persian children and talking about his hair loss, the next he is playing a "pais" undercover. Similarly with how deeply misogynist the world was and despite that how much power women wielded. We went from women having power in the household and using their informal networks in a deeply misogynistic society while still heavily influence events, to demanding and then going on long trips to Persia or noble women standing alone in taverns after a brawl and no male minding. Another example is with Sparta, previously Ari's thoughts on Sparta were balanced that made his interactions with the spartans interesting, you could see his disgust on their racial slavery but also how much he respected them, now we get incongruous 2 page rants on how horrible Spartans are. Sadly many of these rants would have worked in-world AFTER the events of this book, but they are cheapened by the author needing people to know his views on the Spartans before he says anything positive about them. .
There are other things, like a lot of "when i was young i would have..." and Ari relying on luck/gods intervention with no very few repercussions on the few times they don't help him do some miraculous act of sailing or strategy and quite a few continuity issues that are frustrating.
Bah, maybe im getting old, pass the wine and honeyed almonds.
There are other things, like a lot of "when i was young i would have..." and Ari relying on luck/gods intervention with no very few repercussions on the few times they don't help him do some miraculous act of sailing or strategy and quite a few continuity issues that are frustrating.
Bah, maybe im getting old, pass the wine and honeyed almonds.
October 26, 2023
Treason of Sparta by C Cameron is actually advertised as the first book of a new series Broken Empire (with two sequels hopefully to come) and personally, I liked it more than Rage of Ares which was a good series ending but kind of repetitive in parts - at least I thought it was a series ending and well, technically it was since now we start a new one after all; Rage of Ares even had an epilogue that went beyond the timeline of Treason of Sparta for that matter, though this one nicely sidesteps it; however, I still thought that Treason of Sparta had a degree of repetitiveness in it (like both Salamis and Rage of Ares) and wasn't quite at the level of the first 4 Arimnestos books which were all awesome (and different) in their ways.
Still, it brought to some extent closure to the first arc of Arimnestos's journey, the liberation of Ionia to which he dedicated so many decades ago under the leadership of Miltiades and Athens and which seemed lost after the devastating defeat at Lade, but now is close to being realized under Athens' reinvigorated leadership which includes Miltiades son Cimon, all despite Sparta's obstinacy which as the title put it verged on treason. There is as usual action, intrigue, escapes against the odds and various subplots to be continued.
This being said the next book promises to be about Arimnestos' journey to the African east coast and India and that should be something different, so I am really looking forward to it.
Overall, very good, maybe a bit too repetitive to be truly exceptional like the first 4 series novels as well as a bit of a surprise given the Rage of Ares epilogue, but well executed and promising a lot for the advertised sequels
Still, it brought to some extent closure to the first arc of Arimnestos's journey, the liberation of Ionia to which he dedicated so many decades ago under the leadership of Miltiades and Athens and which seemed lost after the devastating defeat at Lade, but now is close to being realized under Athens' reinvigorated leadership which includes Miltiades son Cimon, all despite Sparta's obstinacy which as the title put it verged on treason. There is as usual action, intrigue, escapes against the odds and various subplots to be continued.
This being said the next book promises to be about Arimnestos' journey to the African east coast and India and that should be something different, so I am really looking forward to it.
Overall, very good, maybe a bit too repetitive to be truly exceptional like the first 4 series novels as well as a bit of a surprise given the Rage of Ares epilogue, but well executed and promising a lot for the advertised sequels
July 25, 2024
Christian Cameron has written another book featuring Arimnestos and his associates. This time he is mainly sailing around the Med, causing havoc and trying to disrupt the Persians fleet, much to the annoyance of the Spartan leader, Pausanias, who is in overall control of the allied fleet. Trade hadn't been good for Athens since the battle of Platea and also they had started building its wooden walls and the Spartans have ordered them to dismantle it. The Spartan council of Ephors have given Pausanias orders contrary to what should have happened and secretly contacted the Persian king, Xerxes. Arimnestos smells a rat and, as usual, does his own thing. There is a lot of history involved here and
the story romps away splendidly and is an easy read.
the story romps away splendidly and is an easy read.
October 13, 2023
I just cannot get enough of these books! This book marks the beginning of the Shattered Empire Series, which is a continuation of the Long War series, and in many ways, this book feels like a new beginning while still incorporating many of the characters we've grown to know and love from the previous series.
Cameron's ability to personify these figures from real history and make them seen blood-under-the-fingernails real, while still adhering to the broad strokes of historical truth is nothing short of amazing.
Cameron's ability to personify these figures from real history and make them seen blood-under-the-fingernails real, while still adhering to the broad strokes of historical truth is nothing short of amazing.
January 24, 2024
I enjoyed reading this well researched book! The only thing I thought was less than great was the absence of chapters. This made the book seem like 1 long winded story. I must say that Mr. Cameron has a talent for describing life at sea, what it was like navigating a trireme, and vividly detailing sea battles, and their strategies! I can only imagine how hard it must be to turn around a trireme with 3 banks of oars, in a river with current, and not have a mishap! I have read all the other Series, and am looking forward to the next in this one!
June 14, 2024
Ari is still a favourite
This is the first book christian cheated in, he got me interested in something then said it's a story for another day 🤔 now I would say write faster cause I want that piece, but he already writes faster than I can read😂 but really, another fantastic instalment to one of my favourite series. Keep them coming christian. Bravo
This is the first book christian cheated in, he got me interested in something then said it's a story for another day 🤔 now I would say write faster cause I want that piece, but he already writes faster than I can read😂 but really, another fantastic instalment to one of my favourite series. Keep them coming christian. Bravo
September 7, 2025
Another excellent book from Cameron! I truly love how Cameron writes and represents Greek culture and warfare in his books.
The actual story on this book was not that great and was all over the place - so to speak, but I didn’t care. As long as the ancient greek world lives and breaths in his books I’m 100% satisfied.
The actual story on this book was not that great and was all over the place - so to speak, but I didn’t care. As long as the ancient greek world lives and breaths in his books I’m 100% satisfied.
September 21, 2024
Another Greek epic, continuing Arminestos adventures. This novel primarily focuses on naval escapades and the political manoeuvring of the time. Another 2 novels are planned in the series and these will be must reads
September 24, 2023
A worthy continuation of the fabulous Long War series.
October 19, 2023
Great to be back with Arimnestos, an awesome blend of politics and action
August 6, 2024
I've always enjoyed this series, very much. This book, I felt though, dragged in places. Still very good, but not quite up to the standards of the previous book.
January 5, 2025
A good addition to this series but not the best in it. More accurately 3.5 stars rather than a full 4.
September 26, 2025
I would bet that Cameron read Aubrey-Maturin somewhere between the end of the 5th book and the start of this.
January 10, 2026
brilliant
A great read just like all the rest so looking forward to reading the next one too until then I’ll start reading it again
A great read just like all the rest so looking forward to reading the next one too until then I’ll start reading it again
October 29, 2023
Good to have them back
Excellent continuation of the series, really glad to have them all back. I really enjoy the description of trade and the politics of the times, much more then your usual historical fiction books
Excellent continuation of the series, really glad to have them all back. I really enjoy the description of trade and the politics of the times, much more then your usual historical fiction books
October 10, 2023
A brilliant insight of how the Greeks, can be aunited nation when it suits them, and then undermine each other as they grasp power for theier own individual gains, Camerom brings the charcters to life, also the strange beliefs of ancient Greece.
We allknow what is the end story, but still turn page after page to understand the intricacies of each action as it heads towrds disaster.
We allknow what is the end story, but still turn page after page to understand the intricacies of each action as it heads towrds disaster.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews