This type of inquiry reminds me of a book I read and loved last year called Living with a SEAL. But what could possible exist in a people to where they could take on an empire? We all know a certain type of sword for the Spartans or a certain type pencil for Stephen King is not what gives these people an advantage. King what pencil he uses to write his novels, as if buying that same pencil will endow the questioner with the same powers.
There’s an anecdote I’ve heard in a podcast episode from Seth Godin where he describes a question & answer session with author Stephen King. Literary Guild and Military Book Club selections film rights sold to Universal Studios for George Clooney and Robert Lawrence's Maysville Pictures UK rights to Bantam, Spanish rights to Grijalbo Mondadori, Italian rights to Rizzoli.What did the Spartans have that made it possible for 300 elite soldiers to take on a Persian army at least 300,000 in size? That has been a burning question throughout history. Rich with historical detail, hot action and crafty storytelling, Pressfield's riveting story reveals the social and political framework of Spartan life-ending with the hysteria and brutality of the spear-thrusting, shield-bashing clamor that defined a Spartan's relationship with his family, community, country and fellow warriors.
Xeones' tale covers his years of training and adventure as the loyal and devoted servant of Dienekes, a noble Spartan soldier, and he describes the six-day ordeal during which a few hundred Greeks held off thousands of Persian spears and arrows, until a Greek traitor led the Persians to an alternate route. Driven to understand the courage and sacrifice of his Greek foes, the Persian king, Xerxes, compels Xeones, a captured Greek slave, to explain why the Greeks would give their lives to fight against overwhelming odds. The terrifying spectacle of classical infantry battle becomes vividly clear in his epic treatment of the Greeks' magnificent last stand against the invading Persians. Pressfield's first novel, The Legend of Bagger Vance, was about golf, but here he puts aside his putter and picks up sword and shield as he cleverly and convincingly portrays the clash between Greek hoplites and Persian heavy infantry in the most heroic confrontation of the Hellenic Age: the battle of Thermopylae ("the Hot Gates") in 480 B.C.
0 kommentar(er)
