"2500 years ago this year a massive Persian force descended into Greece. How massive we cannot say. Ancient figures for Persian numbers are wildly exaggerated from the very start. Just a few years after the war an inscription at Thermopylae, site of the first engagement between Greek forces and the invaders, gave a figure of 3 million for the land army. Modern figures by different means generally reduce that figure to about 200,000. Even that may be far too high. But on any calculation this was the biggest force ever seen on the Greek peninsula at that date... It is this pivotal moment which forms the focus of the essays and chapters contained in this selection of works from the classical journals. It designedly contains work published at different periods over the last century. It makes no attempt at comprehensive cover, if that were possible. But it does contain some superb scholarship, and hopefully food for thought."
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