The Cambridge Ancient History Volume 4: Persia, Greece and the Western Mediterranean, c.525 to 479 BC

The first section of this volume examines the Persian empire, the regions it comprised, and its expansion under Cyrus, Darius, and Xerxes. In Greece, Sparta attained maturity as the leader of a military coalition and Athens passed through a period of enlightened tyranny to a moderate democracy of dynamic energy and intelligence. Given the contrast between Greek idealism and Persian absolutism a clash between the two empires was inevitable. Important chapters deal with the revolt of Ionian Greeks against the Persians, and the two Persian invasions of Greece including epic battles at Marathon, Tthermopylae, and Salamis. The book's third part turns to the Western Mediterranean: Italy becomes a significant factor in the area's historical development and is explored in terms of its peoples and languages from the Bronze to the Iron Ages. This fourth volume in the Cambridge Ancient History centres on events in Greece and Persia in the sixth and fifth centuries BC, from the creation of the Persian empire to the defeat of the empire's invasion of Greece. The first section of the volume examines the Persian empire, its territories, and its expansion under Cyrus, Darius, and Xerxes. Second, in this era, Sparta attained maturity as the leader of a military coalition and Athens passed through a period of enlightened tyranny to a moderate democracy of dynamic energy and intelligence. Given the contrast between Greek idealism and Persian absolutism a clash between the two empires was inevitable. Important chapters deal with the revolt of Ionian Greeks against the Persians, and the two Persian invasions of Greece, including the epic battles of Marathon, Thermopylae, and Salamis. The third division of the volume turns to the Western Mediterranean: Italy has now become a significant factor in the area's historical development and is explored in terms of its peoples and languages from the Bronze to the Iron Ages. Over the past half century The Cambridge Ancient History has established itself as a definitive work of reference. The original edition was published in twelve text volumes between 1924 and 1939. Publication of the new edition began in 1970. Every volume of the old edition has been totally re-thought and re-written with new text, maps, illustrations and bibliographies. Some volumes have had to be expanded into two or more parts and the series has been extended by two extra volumes (XIII and XIV) to cover events up to AD 600, bringing the total number of volumes in the set to fourteen. Existing plates to the volumes are available separately. *Profusely illustrated with maps, drawings and tables. *Comprehensive coverage of all aspects of the history of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East from prehistoric times to AD 600 by an international cast of editors and contributors The Median and Achaemenid periods define a critical disjunction in history.