Their Finest Hour

Extract

For months alarming reports had been coming in, telling of the gathering cloud in the east. Now the spring had come, the Athos canal was finally cut, and the Hellespont bridged. As though in fulfilment of some riddling oracle, Xerxes marched his army over the water and sailed his fleet through dry land. The Persian steamroller began to move westwards, and the petty states of Greece faced it in a precarious alliance.