Thermopylae might be the most famous battlefield in history. Tens of thousands of people have lost their lives fighting over this ground over the millennia, from at least the dawn of the Classical Era all the way up to World War II. But why?
Thermopylae isn’t a regional capital. It isn’t a major nexus of trade. It isn’t an agricultural center or home to a large population. No religious sites of great significance call it home. It’s excellent defensive terrain, sure, but so are many other locations throughout a country known for its mountains, rivers, and jagged coastline.
Thermopylae has nevertheless been a cultural icon and a political symbol for over 2,500 years. But in all that time, no one has ever stopped to ask why? Why is this one tiny, out of the way place worth so much bloodshed?
The Killing Ground: A Biography of Thermopylae will answer this question in thrilling fashion. The book combines the talents of two people uniquely suited to tell this story — both accomplished novelists, historians and essayists. Myke Cole and Dr. Michael Livingston will combine their intense commitment to unimpeachable scholarship with their shared skills in crafting a tense, dramatic, narrative, to finally answer the question of why Thermopylae was so important.
The book will examine the pass’s full history from its ancient origins to its use as a modern battlefield. Cole and Livingston will provide exciting narratives of each of the battles and holding actions that took place in the pass, covering the background and history of each conflict, the personalities and decision making of the commanders, the arms, equipment, and tactics of the troops, and the play-by-play stories of how each battle played out.
As a team they have made multiple visits to Greece, surveying the ground to provide a boots-on understanding of the key moments in the pass. Their command of multiple ancient and medieval languages means they can even provide their own translations of much of the source material, ensuring new insights. Along the way, they will marry the uncompromising scholarship of their multi-faceted explorations to the narrative story-telling that they’ve honed to create a gripping and dramatic historical account. They’ll reveal both why and how Thermopylae is one of the most blood soaked patches of ground in the history of the world — and what its past can tell us about our future.
