new history of the Peloponnesian War

This might be helpful for those (like me) still struggling to understand the historical background of the Latro series. http://www.claremont.org/writings/crb/summer2006/kopff.html

The author of this review (Victor Davis Hanson) wrote a chapter about the naval battle of Salamis in his book Carnage and Culture. Salamis is the name "translated" by Latro as meaning Peace. I had read Carnage and Culture shortly before I discovered Wolfe, and I was thrilled when I recognized what Latro was writing about. Another great resource for historical background is the Teaching Company's audio lectures on Herodotos.

I misread that web page. Hanson is the author of the book in question, which means I'm about to go buy it right now. The Peloponnesian war, I should note, takes place well after the events in the Soldier books, and involves the Spartans and their allies against the Athenians and their allies.

I am not familiar with the work, but I would be slightly wary of reading too much into Latro's story from a modern book about its historical background. This background is, for Wolfe, seen more through the eyes of Herodotus, Thucydides or Xenophon.

The focus of Carnage and Culture is on the nature and development of Western military prowess, so the chapter on Salamis is not directly relevant to Soldier of the Mist. As I recall it, Latro doesn't tell us much about the battle of Peace. Knowing a little about the battle, the strategy of Themistocles, and the appalling human loss on the side of the Persians: I say knowing some of this makes for a richer reading of Mist. Regarding wariness toward modern books: where do you suppose the authors get their historical information about the Persian war if not from Herodotos, et al.

I think the point was though that Wolfe relishes and draws on the oddities and fantasies of Herodotus, which may be dismissed as unhistorical by modern scholars. So Herodotus may be in some ways more "infomative" when reading Wolfe than a 'but this is what actually happened' account. Mo