Persian Fire - The First World Empire and the Battle for the West (Tom Holland, 2005)

Much of this covers pretty familiar ground - but lots of interesting new details and Holland always has an interesting take on things. I had read an innovative way of telling the story last year, so this book was an excellent follow-on. 

Assyrian to Medes to Persians. Via Cyrus. All three groups crazy successful, especially the Persians.

Darius usurps from Cyrus #2 son who usurped from Cyrus #1 son (Cambyses) 

Persians as relative upstarts coming in from the east.

Sparta - what a culture.

Athens democracy arrives in 507 BC as a last resort for Cleisthenes   This happens during the reign of Darius.  Implementing democracy - or something - seemed to galvanize the population. 

Battle of Marathon page 195 and following. A completely unexpected victory for Athens acting pretty much by itself.

Notwithstanding land battle success, Themistocles persuades Athens to build ships and rely on a navy for the next fight. This was a difficult persuasive effort.

Xerxes succeeds Darius and prepares to teach Athens and Sparta a lesson, great preparation underway.

Page 258 explaining the 300 - Spartans remove main army because of religious holiday normally requiring truce. The 300, plus some allies, were thought or hoped to be sufficient to hold Thermopylae.  It worked out well enough. 

The battle concludes after Thermopylae with some naval engagements etc.  Persia makes a few more attempts, but Xerxes needs to head home and invasion efforts finally fizzle out.

An Odyssey: A Father, A Son, and An Epic (Daniel Mendelsohn, 2017)

I like Mendelsohn's writing and was looking forward to this - framing the story around Homer's Odyssey seemed like a great idea.  

But I quit about 20% of the way into the book - the father-son stuff just didn't work for me.  Doubt I'll give it another try.

Papyrus - The Invention of Books in the Ancient World (Irene Vallejo, 2022)

(384 pages) (gift from Paul Jr & Nedda)

So many interesting things going on; hard to summarize the book though the title actually does a pretty good job. I take books for granted. This explains lots about the path from oral tradition to writings to writings-in-book-form, and about how some of the oldest texts somehow survived.  The author does this in a consistently interesting way.

Lots of focus on ancient Greece - where it all started - lots on the Library of Alexandria and the Ptolemies (Alexander the Great local successors) spending lots of money sending emissaries in an effort to collect every book in existence.

Some thoughts - 

--How the ancient epics survived and evolved relying on memory and storytellers.  Once written down, the tale settles into fixed format - probably a good thing but still. 

--Why it makes sense that poetry and singing dominated when memory was the primary or only method of preservation - think of how we can remember poems and songs compared to prose. (From grade school, one of the few verbatim items I recall is six lines memorized from Whittier's Snowbound (a punishment for talking in class, some of the students learned quite a few lines).

-Papyrus as a legitimate marvel - but clumsy to work with, and the shelf life isn't that long.  Many re-writes needed for an old text to make it to Gutenberg, many opportunities for loss or error.

--Just the amazing-ness as humans transition from memory-reliance to a system that can preserve all knowledge for all time (with gaps that decrease over time).  

--Setting up library systems - goes back to Alexandria and beyond.  References to The Name of the Rose, of course. Handling, storing, preserving scrolls; arranging re-writes (which to choose?)

--A good discussion of the challenges of translation - an unavoidable necessity but one that necessarily creates something of a new work.

--Interesting discussion of Rome - so backward compared to Greece; Greek slaves could read and often ended up as tutors in wealthy Roman homes. Rome owned it - always acknowledge Greek primacy (though potshots about this being effeminate, of course).

--Development of the codex format - higher efficiency than scrolls.

--Censorship over the millennia.  Horace was banished.  Etc.

--The incredible fall-off after Rome lost its mojo.  A risky period, much was lost but the monasteries and the Islamic world eventually saved a lot (not in the scope of this book)  

Oedipus Trilogy (Oedipus Rex (429 BC), Oedipus at Colonus (406 BC), Antigone (442 BC)) (Sophocles)

Re-read - first time would have been freshman year at Notre Dame, so 1974 or 1975.  I got the idea to read this from a book gifted on Father's Day from Paul Jr. and Nedda ("Papyrus" - lots of interesting thoughts on the ancient Greeks).

Pretty quick reading, the story lines are familiar.  Oedipus runs into some bad luck and is made eternally famous; in his old age he is supported by Antigone in particular and then protected by Theseus; one of his sons, slain in battle, is left to the jackals by Creon (an incredible insult in those days, perhaps any time) - at least until Antigone defies Creon.

Kind of amazing that folks were doing this quality of literature this long ago, I hope I don't take it for granted.  I hadn't realized the sequencing of the three works, how far apart in time.

The "Papyrus" book indicates that Sophocles was one of the big three of that time period (with Aeschyles and Euripides). 

Gates of Fire (The Battle of Thermopylae) (Steven Pressfield, 1998)

(384 pages)

Greek survivor at Thermopylae is asked by Xerxes, seeking understanding about the courage of the Spartans, to tell the story of the battle as he understood it.  A Persian historian records the tale.

A good job of moving back and forth in time. Weaving in early childhood experiences of the survivor (and his sister), his incorporation into Spartan ways.

I wasn't as interested in the battle sequences though no doubt they are rendered effectively.

This kind of fighting - no drones; no gunfire from a distance.  

Descriptions of the Spartan training.  Their superiority. Selection of the 300; their known fate.

I appreciated that the author typically presented the Persians, even their auxiliaries, as courageous fighters. 

Ending phases of the book are remarkably good.  The speeches of King Leonidas and others on the final morning of the battle. The type of brotherhood of these men in arms; echoes of similar stories from wars throughout history; very effective. A relationship unlike any other.

This is an idealized presentation of Sparta as I understand things - though that's OK, the focus here is military matters and it seems Sparta very much excelled there.

Courage of the Spartan women is presented, an interesting angle that I hadn't previously seen; how their support mattered.

Good discussions of courage and fear; "there are rooms we must not enter" - courage doesn't mean absence of fear.

Well worth reading.

Lysistrata (Aristophanes, 411 B.C.)

This is the famous play where - tired of the seemingly endless Peloponnesian War - the protagonist calls together women from all across Greece, and convinces them to stay away from their men until peace is agreed upon.

Mostly humorous, I enjoyed reading.  

Some of the speechifying from the men - justifying war - sounded like warmongering rationalizations from current times. 

The Lawrence Durrell Travel Reader (Lawrence Durrell, based on travels in 1930s - 1950s)

I enjoyed The Alexandria Quartet and kept seeing that Durrell was an excellent travel writer - with much of this is centered in Greece.

This compilation was quite good but I didn't really connect with it.  I was looking for "Prospero's Cell" - focused on his time in Corfu - this includes some of that experience, plus other Greek items.

The Broken Road (Patrick Leigh Fermor, edited by Colin Thubron and Artemis Cooper) (2013 (from 1930s travels))

(349 pages)

This is the third of Fermor's now-famous trilogy in which he writes - much after the fact - about his 1930s walk from Holland to Constantinople (or thereabouts).  I really liked all three; perhaps this best of all notwithstanding its unusual provenance.  In this book Fermor is traveling from the "Iron Gates" (on the Danube along the Serbian-Romanian border) to Constantinople; then onto Mt. Athos (Greece).

Here's an overview of book one; here's an overview of book two.  They're quite wonderful.

For book three, Fermor had more source material available (most of his 1930s notebooks were lost - pretty much everything relating to books one and two).  Fermor started this book, then set it aside . . . returned much later . . . but never finished.  The last portion (on Mt. Athos) is more directly taken from a diary - different style.  The two editors did their best, and it's quite good.

I keep feeling that Fermor was unusually gifted in seeing it, taking it in, and then succeeding in describing it; upper-class Brit perspective but not failing to see by feeling superior or judgmental.  Unusual in that he experienced all this as very young and inexperienced; then he wrote it up decades later - trying to filter out later experiences and knowledge, but I think possession of just that (ultimately unfilter-able) made the writing more interesting.  Not provable one way or the other.

Also the 1930s are inherently interesting - this a last glimpse of a pre-industrial world in many of these areas; preceded the vast WWII changes; areas absorbing, more or less, WWI changes - again, described with post-WWII knowledge - this approach works.

This part of the world is totally interesting to me - largely unknown; reading a lot but barely scratching surface.  I get the impression that things somehow run deeper for the local populace - not sure how to express this idea - their history goes way back, they have been overrun by conquerors so often (with attendant suffering) - Fermor's descriptions of the the sounds of the music, the instruments, the voices; hmmm.

And then the variations of Christianity introduced here, often competing, the depth of the icons and the ceremonies, again perhaps spurred by the regular, and awful, invasions.

Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Greece, Macedonia.

Moldovia Wallachia became Romania mid 19th century, acquire Transylvania from Hungary after WWI; Hungarians with long memories about this.

Many dog-eared pages.  The episode where he is lost and spends the night in a cave with shepherd-outlaws - seems to take place in a different world, one thinks of Odysseus and the Cyclops.

Etc.  Highly recommended.

The March of Folly - From Troy to Vietnam (Barbara Tuchman, 1984)

(411 pages)

Somewhat similar to this collection by the same author - she writes a number of essays each interesting in its own right, the puts them in a book and seeks to bind them together by a theme that feels a little forced.  But each is valuable, and the whole is much worth reading.

Four essays here -

First she reviews the "folly" of the Trojans in accepting the Greek gift.  I was reading this concurrently with the Odyssey, and hadn't recalled that the Trojan horse story is recounted in the Odyssey (not the Iliad).  Also hadn't recalled the role of Laocoon, and the serpent-y events that inspired the famous statues.  Cassandra's gift/curse.

Next - she discusses the Renaissance popes and the events just prior to the Reformation.  I've oft read about the sale of indulgences but she provides an interesting discussion here; the idea of expanding the market by ruling that indulgences can benefit poor souls in purgatory - profitable!  Also interesting to think about this book about the early Church, and just how far the Church of Rome strayed from its roots by this era.  Consequences of Constantine. 

Third is a section reviewing the "folly" of the British government in dealing with the colonists - the view that independence was not inevitable.  Lots of detail from the British perspective, most of it new.  I do like that she points out that Britain wasn't "ruined" by loss of the colonies - instead Britain advanced to its apogee - mistaken belief that colonies enrich the mother country - individual entrepreneurs can and do make out quite fabulously (especially if armed with government-sanctioned monopoly) but mother country as a whole doesn't seem to profit.

Fourth is a discussion of the folly in Vietnam - so resonant with today's Middle East/Afghanistan errors.  More of a focus on World War II and the French days - that part was new to me.  The other aspects have been covered pretty well via the Ken Burns documentary, I also liked this book quite a bit.

The Odyssey (Homer, 8th century BC (7th century?)) (translated by Emily Wilson)

(525 pages)

I much enjoyed reading this then-new translation back in 2008; this 2018 translation was receiving rave reviews so I gave it a try. 

It's great - highly recommended.  Translator is remarkably skillful at using short words, active phrases.  In the introduction she explains that she decided to use iambic pentameter - different than the original Greek, but customary/suitable for English.  She also states that she decided to restrict herself to the exact number of lines used by Homer - a "difficult constraint" - she "wanted a narrative pace that could match its stride to Homer's nimble gallop".  (That phrase from the introduction gives a glimpse of what she did with the translation.)

Her introduction runs 80 pages and is uniformly helpful, interesting.

I'm not seeing a reason to recount the plot because it's so well known (and because I briefly did so in the above 2008 link anyway).  So many stories that are essentially immortal in their own right, let alone to consider that they are all collected in this single epic. 

Also needless to say - this has been read and enjoyed for centuries (millennia, actually) - that won't stop.

The Riddle of the Labyrinth (Margalit Fox, 2013)

Book club selection (via Lon; session held March 20, 2016).

So this turned out to be pretty interesting.  Writings are found on Crete in 1900 - and absolutely no one can figure out how to decipher them.  No Rosetta Stone-type device emerges.  Not much to go on.  3,400 year old stuff.  How does it relate to classical Greece (which came along later)?

The finder (Arthur Evans) was a celebrated archaeologist who didn't have much linguistic experience (if that's the right term), and didn't bother to get very systematic.  But as finder, he had first shot.  And didn't go out of his way to make materials accessible to others.

The author focuses on a second researcher - an American named Alice Kober - her role appears to have been under-appreciated.  While she didn't solve the puzzle, her contributions were critical.

The solver-of-the-puzzle was a brilliant amateur - Michael Ventris.  Everyone suspected that the writings primarily were administrative stuff - lists, receipts, tax administration - but unfortunately pretty much nothing else was found.  So while it was neat to solve "Linear B", it isn't clear that all that much was gained.

Kober working in post-WWII austerity conditions as she visits England.  She creates cigarette boxes full of what amount to punch cards in an effort to find patterns.

How different it would have been to pursue this analysis with present-day communications and compute power.

The Ariadne Objective - The Underground War to Rescue Crete from the Nazis (Wes Davis, 2013)

Author recounts resistance activities on the island of Crete.

I think the impetus for the book is the increasing stature of Patrick Leigh Fermor - a delightful author indeed, who set out on foot from Holland to Constantinople in the 1930s and maintained a journal that has been converted into delightful books.  Fermor and some other dashing Brits work with local Crete population in opposition to Nazis.  Main claim to fame is that they abducted a German general (some minor figure named Kreipe) - utilizing a fairly simple roadside ambush using pilfered German uniforms.  The notion was that this act would demoralize the Germans - but I doubt anyone really believes it had much significance.

Author rather blithely assumes that the activities of these semi-regulars was brave, useful, etc.  I'm sure it was.  But I was rather struck by the thought of the reprisals against regular Cretans - this was nasty business - the insignificant resistance stuff is difficult to weigh against civilian suffering.  I don't know how to think about this part.

But it's fun to read about Fermor; some interesting excerpts of his writing; learned a little more about Crete and the Minotaur, labyrinth ("Ariadne").

The travels across the Cretan mountains with the overweight general in tow were interesting.  Great scene when the General is looking out at a snowcapped mountain and Fermor overhears him murmuring in Latin - figures out it was an ode of Horace - Fermor naturally continues the ode in Latin.  The two got along pretty famously thereafter.  The strangeness of two quite normal folks with a completely common cultural heritage - at war - over ??

An example of his writing - he sees all the incredible wood carving in Bavarian towns (in 1933) - attributes it "long winters, early nightfall, soft wood and sharp knives".

The Song of Achilles (Madeline Miller, 2012)

I liked this, and would recommend it.  But the reviewers were so enthusiastic that I think my expectations were set too high.

This is the story of Achilles - with the twist being
that it is told from the perspective of Patroclus (who was a significant character in the Iliad, but not that big a deal).

In this book, the boy Achilles selects Patroclus to be his special friend - an unlikely choice.  Achilles has a goddess-mother who doesn't care for Patroclus.  Achilles is fated to be the best warrior of his time, and there are some other unpromising prophecies about his future.

The two grow up together, including a couple years being trained by a centaur.  Patroclus and Achilles do turn out to be special friends.  Then comes the abduction of Helen and the Trojan War.

Quick read, creative approach, I liked the last couple chapters.

Hadn't realized that the story of Achilles' unprotected heel (targeted by archer Paris) was a later add-on (not part of the original Greek story).

Plutarch's Lives, Vol. 1 (early second century A.D.) (The Dryden Translation, 1683)

This has to be the very definition of a "classic."  Written in the 100s A.D.; read by everyone claiming to be educated over the centuries (OK, in the west, that is); on every bookshelf where folks could afford to own books; this edition happens to be the Dryden translation (though updated) that introduced Plutarch to English speakers in the late 17th century.  750 pages, so it took awhile to work through at the gym.  Well worth it.

I think it is neat that someone like Montaigne was so fond of the book (in late 16th century).  Not to mention the fictional Cecile in one of my favorite books; her father had Cecile read to him from Plutarch in the evenings (and the Quebec nuns thought this might why be she didn't turn out to be quite as pious as they had hoped) (early 20th century book set in late 17th/early 18th century). Shakespeare used it for "Julius Caesar" and "Antony and Cleopatra".  Etc. - the only source for much information from classical times (if not always consistent and accurate).

Plutarch's three-part method for the "parallel lives" is famous - he selects a leading figure from Greece and provides a short biography, then a biography of a leading figure from Rome, then a brief comparison of the two. (Even if they don't always match up all that closely.)

A few thoughts:

1.  He is interested in the character of the "biographees" - how this helped or hurt them in the long run; hoping this would be didactic for the reader.  Then there is a famous passage in the midst where he allows that the extended consideration of character issues as he writes the biographies is at least as value to him personally as to his intended audience.

2.  The traditional Roman virtues were breaking down, but he does continue to emphasize how successful leaders were circumspect in offering the appropriate sacrifices, obtaining (and following) interpretation of dreams, omens, etc.; augury is presented as incredibly important.

3.  The virtues of thrift; the many leaders that succumbed to avarice; how even virtuous leaders often were brought low, often by schemers back home while the leader was off on some successful military campaign.

4.  Biographies go all the way back to Theseus and Romulus and other figures from legendary times.

5.  I'm always struck by the sophisticated analyses of human nature and political structures in these classical writers - our politicians, not to mention the electorate, could get some useful perspective from reading these things.  In the biography of Lycurgus, for example, a great discussion of monarchy, dangers of popular opinion, strength/weakness of a senate-like body.  As in this book in the context of Athens - much discussion of populism, masses against elites, voting oneselves handouts (with consequences), debt relief (where interest exceeded principal owed).

6.  All the famous characters from antiquity are here, too many to list.  Solon.  Themistocles (ships v. Persia, later banished), Alcibiades, Pericles, Marcus Cato (self-control, austerity).  The story (in the biography of Flaminus) of the shout of joy (by Greeks upon restoration of their city) that caused crows to fall down dead, with Plutarch's speculations on the "why."  Pyrrhus ("one other such [victory] would utterly undo him").  Cimon.  Lucullus fighting all over Asia (and his soldiers tiring as Alexander's had).

Shouldn't be missed.  More readable than expected.  Even the dated translation works well.

A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War (Victor Davis Hanson, 2005)

It was easy to see why this book has received so many glowing reviews. It constantly presents interesting ideas. And reinforces the notion that so very little has changed over the course of the centuries since (and preceding) this war.

Plus I finally was able to straighten out some basic geography about Attica (surrounding Athens), Corinth, and the Peloponnesian peninsula itself (Spartan territory). And the timetable for famous folks such as Aristophanes, Socrates etc. - the outburst of artists and philosophers probably made possible by the immense trading wealth of Athens created prior to a concerned (agrarian, conservative, sitting on large helot class) Sparta making the preemptive strike that kicked off the war.

Athens (under Pericles) had an interesting strategy - outlast Sparta by avoiding direct confrontation with the elite Spartan hoplites, and rely on city walls (including the long walls to Piraeus) plus incoming tribute from satellite states to keep things going. The author thinks this would have worked but for the devastating plague experienced early in the 30+ year conflict, which drastically reduced Athenian manpower, killed Pericles, and had a strong psychological impact.

The war had a large number of modern elements - including the realization that it was very important to inflict direct pain on the non-combatants who supported the military effort. Athens wouldn't engage Sparta in large-scale hoplite conflict, and Sparta wouldn't engage Athens in a large-scale naval battle. So a great deal of energy was expended ravaging the countryside, attacking (and punishing) cities, etc. This change from traditional tactics was decried by Socrates/Plato and many others.

Athens had extreme democracy - all citizens (well - except women, slaves, etc.) - could vote. Which led to great influence by demagogues. (Sounds familiar.)

Cavalry was almost a hobby element - hoplite/infantry courage was considered the most admirable. Only rich folks could afford horses, and they fluttered about the perimeter of battles for the most part (most Grecian territory wasn't suitable for horse maneuvering). Then came the battles on Sicily - open country, devastating cavalry.

Neither side was very effective at breaking through city walls - this wasn't a traditional element of Greek fighting.

The author says cavalry types were maybe 5'6", 120 pounds - riding what we would consider to be small ponies. No stirrups.

Lots of interesting discussion about trireme warfare, how it might have felt to be an oarsmen, etc. Lots of skill was involved - a key Athenian advantage. Triremes were limited - had to stop on land each night to forage for provisions. Very expensive to build and maintain.

Things fell apart for Athens on the ill-fated attack on Syracuse - otherwise it may have achieved stalemate notwithstanding the plague.

Things were never the same following this war - a weakened Greece eventually was susceptible to the brilliance of the Macedonians (Philip and his son, Alexander the Great).

The Odyssey (Homer, 8th century BC) (translated Robert Fagles)

It was a pleasure to go back through this long-ish poem, and I can see why the Fagles' recent translation was named one Time magazine's 10 best books (1996). It was a sequel to Homer's Iliad, and a predecessor to the Aeneid (Fagles' translation discussed here).

Fagles teams up with this guy named Bernard Knox, who provides long, scholarly-sounding introductions. It's a great combination.

The story - Odysseus returning home from Troy to deal with the suitors chasing Penelope (to the chagrin of Laertes and Telemachus) is well known. And it is amazing how many elements of the story are staples: Cyclops; the sirens and their famous song; Calypso; Scylla and Charybdis; the visit to the land of the dead; etc.

One of the reasons I wanted to read it was because the movie "O Brother Where Art Thou" was loosely based on this; also James Joyce's "Ulysses," which I need to read again since it didn't make much sense to me the first time.

Great stuff.