The Trojan War: A New History - Barry Strauss

That there was once a city, indeed many cities, named Troy is now largely a matter agreement among historians. Its position at the mouth of the Hellespont, as an important center of trade linking the Mediterranean world with Asia, placed Troy at the crossroads of civilizations. Prosperous and cosmopolitan, Troy would have been an enticing target for raiders looking to avail themselves of the riches within the cities walls. Homer's Illiad tells the story of the Trojan War from a decidedly Greek perspective. Strauss uses a Homer as a foundational text, yet takes a step backwards to imagine how such a possible conflict might have taken place.

While it is widely acknowledged that much of Homer's account is grounded in history, it is also recognized that The Illiad was committed to writing some two to three centuries after the 'real' Trojan War took place. As such, historians and archaeologists are at pains to reconstruct what a Trojan War would have been like. Written for readers with only a passing familiarity with the conflict and the history of the region, Strauss' The Trojan War moves through the war, primarily as set down by Homer, as an attempt to reconstruct the events and the historical actors as they might have been. Strauss is clear that much of this work is an exercise in historical imagination, though one that is based in the evidence as currently understood. The reader is presented with the characters of Hector and Helen, Agamemnon and Menelaus as they might have been. They would have been arrayed in the finery of their day, much, Strauss suggests, as Hittite or Egyptian chieftains and rulers would have been. Greek phalanxes and Trojan soldiers would have likely shared war tactics and practices with other armies of the day, and Strauss casts a wide net across the Mediterranean and west Asian world to make sense of Homer's account. That the Trojan War took place is Strauss' assertion; his project is to reconstruct the event as occurrence.

The work moves swiftly through the conflict and characters, perhaps too swiftly for some readers. As an introductory text it blends historical and narrative approaches to create a modern understanding of the history . Yet this thoroughly modern account leaves the reader wondering why the Trojan War would have been of such seminal importance - particularly for a Greek audience. That it was believed may have been entirely separate from what about the history rendered the telling of such crucial importance. In reconstructing a picture of the Trojan War with a minimal gloss of Homer's interpretation we are treated to a skirmish on the shores of a far land in a bygone time. The Trojan War loomed large in the minds of the Greeks (not to mention the Romans and other societies who have traced their roots to antiquity); we are left wondering why such is the case.