IF 2020 MARKED THE 2,500th anniversary of the beginning, in 480BC, of the invasion of Greece by the Persian King Xerxes, 2022 could be said to mark 2,500 years from its conclusion at the siege of Sestos in 478. Though the pandemic meant celebrations were somewhat muted, a new book by Stephen P. Kershaw provides a fitting commemoration of important historical events.
This war was, in fact, the second invasion of the Greek mainland. The first, following the subjugation of the Greek cities of Ionia (in the Aegean and the eastern coast of modern Turkey), was an abortive attempt to capture Athens that ended in failure at the Battle of Marathon in 490. Xerxes’ assault on Greece ten years later was significantly larger and better prepared. The Persians drew upon the resources of a vast empire stretching from Ionia to Egypt, Mesopotamia and the
