Mentioned The long War series by Christian Cameron previously.
Have now finished the first four books Killer of Men, Marathon, Poseidon's Spear, and The Great King. Three more to go. Salamis, Rage of Ares and Treason of Sparta.
I thought to post about them as in many ways they parallel Elentarris mention of the battles between the Ottomans and the Hapsburg allies around 1521, described earlier in this thread. It's in the same arena only these occurred about 2,000 years earlier.
The land battles between the Greeks and the Persians are better known and are certainly in the books, however the conflicts at sea between the Greeks and the Persians and their Phoenician subjects and allies (including Carthage) take up much of the books. As does piracy, slavery, interactions with many different peoples of that world and a host of descriptions of religion, social customs and vendettas.
The series follows Arimestos of Platea, a famous soldier, sailor and historical hero, through years of fighting and adventure. Every mention by Herodotus and other Greek historians is there, with descriptions of not only Arimestos but of, I suspect, about every person mentioned in contemporary and subsequent historians. Cameron does not stop with the historical record, but has his hero journey throughout the Mediterranean and lands abutting as far as passing through the Straits of Gibraltar to the eastern coast of Spain and to the tin islands (Britain).
Dense and well written. Not just history but as with most good fiction, descriptions that rely on character development.
The author is a reenactor so those descriptions of warfare are as accurate as possible actually to the point of being somewhat obtrusive. In afterwards he gives credit to his sources. If you have any interest in this stuff it is certainly worth reading.
