Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae, by Steven Pressfield

New York: Doubleday, 1999. 386 pp. Maps (endpapers). $23.95. ISBN:0-385-49251-0.

Widely hailed as a great novel, Gates of Fire seems reasonably acceptable as fiction. More interesting, however, is the several battles in which it depicts hoplite warfare in the fifth century B.C. Relying rather heavily upon Victor Hanson Davis’ The Western Way of War, the book is by no means unsuccessful.

Reviewer: A. A. Nofi   Buy it at Amazon.com