Denying Thermopylae - taken from the Newsfeed section

[Robert Vermaat]

scepticism is not bad

No it’s not but, unsupported and incorrect assertions under the aegis of what ‘looks like’ a reputable source is (bad) and in this case fairly malicious.

No Paul, read the entire article - nowhere does he even begin to say that the battles or the places were incorrect. And he's right about the source (Herodotus) being too trusted upon where the details are concerned. As far as his comments about history and sources are concerned, he says nothing new, nothing derogatory, nothing that any self-respecting historian should also think.

I find this bit rather ridiculous:
"Today, no other country resembles ancient Persia as closely as does the United States. If any country should sympathize with, rather than celebrate, Persia's quagmire in Greece, it is the United States. Few events in history mirror America's war on terror as closely as Persia's war on Greece."

Ridiculous? Calm down Dave, and look at it from the point of the ancient Persians: to them this was also a just war against agressors (the Greeks who in their opinion had meddled in Persian afairs). Same as the modern point of view of Americans against war on terror. That many do not agree with that view and see the Persians as agressors is, also, mirrored today in many parts of the world.
The Persian empire can also be compared to the modern superpowers.

No, not modern politics, but comparing times and views.

Iranian scholars would do better to promote the best parts of their history like Cyrus and the Sassanides rather than trying to proove that Xerxes was just a tourist :twisted:
Kind regards

Come on Stefanos, you know they do that but western scholarship continues to ignore that. And again, this article does not make Xerxes a sightseeing tourist. :wink: