Tom Holland

And many of the Greek cities who initially are freed from the great king's rule in the wake of the defeat of the Persian invasion by the Athenians,

end up paying tribute to Athens herself.

That is what is used to fund the Parthenon, for instance.

The Parthenon is a great symbol of the Athenian democracy, but it's also a symbol of Athenian imperialism.

There is a case for saying that perhaps Greece would have been

more peaceable had Athens been destroyed and had a kind of Pax Persica being established, had Greece been absorbed into the Persian Empire.

Because the Persians knew how to run an empire.

They would not have allowed the Peloponnesian War to break out and all the various other wars that ended up

with Greece being conquered by Macedon.

Interesting.

So if I was a Greek, I would probably opt for a Persian victory.

I think my life would probably be better.

But if I were an Athenian, I would vote for the Athenian victory because everything is in the balance for Athens.

And I think that there is something heroic and noble about what

the Athenians represented on the battlefield of Marathon, even with the caveats that I've given.

So as a Greek, ignorant of what is going to come, no, I wouldn't.

I would have wanted the Persians defeated.

Of course I would.

But looking ahead to what happens in the Peloponnesian War and all the horrors that are consequent on Athens' rise to greatness, I might, perhaps.

I don't know.