Author(s): Tom Holland

Non-fiction:

A brilliant new account of the world's very first clash of civilisations between the Persians and the Greeks in 480BC.
First published 2005.



Book Information:
In 480 BC, Xerxes, the King of Persia, led an invasion of mainland Greece. Its success should have been a formality. For seventy years, victory - rapid, spectacular victory - had seemed the birthright of the Persian Empire. In the space of a single generation, they had swept across the Near East, shattering ancient kingdoms, storming famous cities, putting together an empire which stretched from India to the shores of the Aegean. As a result of those conquests, Xerxes ruled as the most powerful man on the planet. Yet somehow, astonishingly, against the largest expeditionary force ever assembled, the Greeks of the mainland managed to hold out. The Persians were turned back. Greece remained free. Had the Greeks been defeated at Salamis, not only would the West have lost its first struggle for independence and survival, but it is unlikely that there would ever have been such and entity as the West at all.
Tom Holland's brilliant new book describes the very first 'clash of Empires' between East and West. Once again he has found extraordinary parallels between the ancient world and our own. There is no competing popular book describing these events.



Author Information:
Tom Holland received a double first from Cambridge. He has adapted Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides and Virgil for BBC Radio. He was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize for RUBICON and won the Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History 2004.



Back List:
THE VAMPYRE/ SUPPING WITH PANTHERS/ DELIVER US FROM EVIL/ THE BONE HUNTER/ THE SLEEPER IN THE SANDS (SBN 0 349 11223 1) / RUBICON (SBN 0 349 11563 X)



Reviews:
Praise for RUBICON:
* The only way to kindle the interest of a new generation in the Greek and Roman worldsâÃÂæHolland paints a vivid social portrait of the Roman WorldâÃÂæ Ideal bedside reading for George W Bush' Max Hastings, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
'A modern, well-paced and finely observed history which entertains as it informs' OBSERVER
First published September 2005.