I just finished reading the book “The Ten Thousand ” by Michael Curtis Ford. If

you enjoyed Gates of Fire which I previously reviewed , you will enjoy this book.

It is set in ancient Greece at the close of Athens golden age. It is based on

the true story of Xenophon, an Athenian, student of Socrates and soldier who

hires himself out with ten thousand other Greeks to fight in the wars of

neighboring Persia. It is the story of that armies victories, betrayal and

heroic march home from the gates of Babylon itself.

This book provides a wonderfully engaging retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae between ancient Greece and the invading Persians. Go back to the days of Greek city states and the last stand of the Spartan King as a small army of 300 Spartan Hoplites and their allies hold up the advance of 100,000 Persians for a week. Told in historical fiction 1st person by the lone Greek survivor.

It is only coincidental that I was reading this book during the point last year when we took in a Turkish exchange student to live with us. We had been talking about a trip to Greece and I was interested in the more recent history of the region. In general, I found this book to be a disappointment.

Part of my frustration lay not with the book itself but with the history of the period. There was so much cruelty, corruption and incompetence on both sides of this conflict that it was hard to find heros to identify with. Yes, the greeks were oppressed by the Ottomans, but they also did a fine job of fighting with each other.

As a book, I found the writing style to be very dry. I also thought that the author was so familiar with his subject matter that he forget I was not. He would often refer to future invents in a way that expressed how knowledgeable he was without quite being enlightening.