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After Thermopylae: The Oath Of Plataea And The End Of The Graeco Persian WarsStock informationGeneral Fields
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DescriptionThe Battle of Plataea in 479 BCE is one of world history's unjustly neglected events. It decisively ended the threat of a Persian conquest of Greece. It involved tens of thousands of combatants, including the largest number of Greeks ever brought together in a common cause. For the Spartans, the driving force behind the Greek victory, the battle was sweet vengeance for their defeat at Thermopylae the year before. Why has this pivotal battle been so overlooked? In After Thermopylae, Paul Cartledge masterfully reopens one of the great puzzles of ancient Greece to discover, as much as possible, what happened on the field of battle and, just as important, what happened to its memory. Part of the answer to these questions, Cartledge argues, can be found in a little-known oath reputedly sworn by the leaders of Athens, Sparta, and several other Greek city-states prior to the battle-the Oath of Plataea. Through an analysis of this oath, Cartledge provides a wealth of insight into ancient Greek culture. Author descriptionPaul Cartledge is the inaugural A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture in the Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge, and recently the Hellenic Parliament Global Distinguished Professor in the History and Theory of Democracy at New York University. His previous books include Ancient Greece: A Very Short Introduction, Thermopylae: The Battle That Changed the World, and The Spartans: The World of the Warrior-Heroes of Ancient Greece. He is an honorary citizen of modern Sparta and holds the Gold Cross of the Order of Honor awarded by the President of Greece. Table of contentsDedication ; Preface & Acknowledgements ; Maps ; Timeline ; 1. Introduction: Arms and the Men ; 2. The Oath of Plataea: Texts and Contexts ; 3. The Plataea Oath as a Document of Ancient Greek Religion ; 4. The Persian Wars: Making History on Oath with Herodotus ; 5. The Face of the Battle of Plataea ; 6. The Greeks Invent the Persian Wars: the Mythology and Commemoration of ; Plataea ; 7. Conclusion: The Legacy of Plataea ; Further Reading ; Bibliography ; Index |