David’s Reviews > Herodotus | Thucydides > Status Update

Plataea and Mycalé round out the Histories. Fun read, though a little underwhelming after the invasion has clearly fizzled.

All this while Xerxes surveyed the battle from the shore. It seems now that his will may be broken and that he will abandon the invasion, unless Mardonius can convince him to press on to the Peloponnese.

Book VIII begins with the Greek sea victory at Salamis. Themistocles exerts great efforts to keep the fleet at Salamis after having retreated from Artemisium, rather than sail back to the Peloponnese to fight near home (or disband). He even baits the Persians into surrounding the Greek fleet, without the knowledge of the other captains, so that escape is no longer an option.

After the battle, in breaking with the heretofore honorific manner in which the Persians had treated fallen opposing heroes, Xerxes orders Leonidas' head removed and impaled on a stake. Inscriptions were left, glorifying the allied force, the Mage among them, and the Spartans, respectively.

A pair of Spartans had previously detached from the group for the purpose of convalescence. One of these returned to the battle and died, and the other returned to Sparta and was shamed until redeeming himself in a later battle. One further was absent, having been sent away as a messenger, and he subsequently hanged himself after being ostracized.

Surprisingly little detail is given to the first days of the battle, in contrast to the anecdotes found in the Iliad. Eventually, Ephialtes shows Xerxes the path to flank the Greeks. Leonidas sends the bulk of the allies home, and the Spartans make their last stand. All of them who were present die.

Herodotus numbers the Greeks involved in the battle well beyond the 300 Spartans, but lavishes the 300 with the lion's share of glory. Still, the Allied numbers are small. He explains that this force was meant to be an advance guard for greater numbers to come, once the Olympic and Carneian festivals were concluded.

After cataloging the various poleis that resisted or submitted to the Persians, Herodotus recounts the Battle of Thermopylae. First, though, he describes the naval movements preceding the battle, and the great losses the Persians suffered in a storm near Thermopylae.

The beginning of Book VII chronicles the Persian army. One digression describes Xerxes surveying his forces. He first congratulates himself, then weeps. He explains: I thought of the shortness of man's life, and considered that of all this host, so numerous as it is, not one will be alive when a hundred years are gone by.