Athenian Books in Order

The Athenian series drops you into the Greek world of the early fifth century BC, when a handful of city-states faced the might of the Persian Empire. Rather than retelling the wars in a dry, textbook style, Conn Iggulden anchors the story in the ambitions and fears of a few key Athenians.

The Gates of Athens opens with Darius of Persia sending an army across the sea to punish Athens and its allies. The novel traces the build-up to the battle of Marathon and its aftermath, showing how a citizen army of farmers and craftsmen might stand against professional imperial troops. Figures such as Xanthippus and Themistocles appear not as marble statues but as husbands, fathers and rivals, juggling family loyalties with the demands of war and politics.

A decade later, in Protector, the danger returns on a vastly larger scale. Xerxes leads a multi-national force toward Greece by land and sea, and Athens must decide whether to make a stand on the plains or trust in its navy. The famous last stand at Thermopylae, the burning of Athens and the naval clash at Salamis are all seen from ground level: cramped trireme decks, council chambers thick with smoke and the crowded harbours of a city on the move.

These books are as interested in what happens after the battles as during them. Athenians argue over how to treat allies, who should command the fleet and whether a democracy at war can avoid becoming a tyranny in all but name. Themistocles, in particular, is portrayed as a man whose brilliance is matched only by his talent for making enemies at home.

For readers, the Athenian series offers a self-contained arc: two novels that begin with a city under threat and end with the fragile emergence of confidence and power. Along the way, they bring to life the mud, bronze and salt water of classical Greece, as well as the political compromises that allowed a small city to punch far above its weight.