For many years it was thought that Troy was an insignificant place that never had a chance against the Greek warriors who laid siege and overwhelmed the city. In the old view, the conflict was decided by duels between champions on the plain of Troy. Today we know that Troy was indeed a large and prosperous city, just as Homer said. The Trojans themselves were not Greeks but vassals of the powerful Hittite Empire to the east in modern-day Turkey, and they probably spoke a Hittite-related language called Luwian. The Trojan War was most likely the culmination of a long feud over power, wealth, and honor in western Turkey and the offshore islands. The war itself was mainly a low-intensity conflict, a series of raids on neighboring towns and lands. It seems unlikely that there was ever a siege of Troy; rather some sort of trick — perhaps involving a wooden horse — allowed the Greeks to take the city.

Strauss shows us where Homer nods, and sometimes exaggerates and distorts, as well. He puts the Trojan War into the context of its time, explaining the strategies and tactics that both sides used, and compares the war to contemporary battles elsewhere in the eastern Mediterranean. With his vivid reconstructions of the conflict and his insights into the famous charactersand events of Homer's great epic, Strauss masterfully tells the story of the fall of Troy as history without losing the poetry and grandeur that continue to draw readers to this ancient tale.

-- Nathaniel Fick, author of One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer

-- Donald Kagan, Sterling Professor of Classics and History, Yale University

In The Trojan War historian and classicist Barry Strauss explores the myth and the reality behind the war, from Homer's accounts in The Iliad and The Odyssey to Heinrich Schliemann's discovery of ancient Troy in the late nineteenth century to more recent excavations that have yielded intriguing clues to the story behind the fabled city. The Trojans, it turns out, were not ethnic Greeks but an Anatolian people closely allied with the Hittite Empire to the east. At the time of the Trojan War the Greeks were great seafarers while Troy was a more settled civilization. And while the cause of the war may well have been the kidnapping of a queen — and, more significantly, the seizure of her royal dowry — the underlying cause was a conflict between the Trojans and the Greeks for control of the eastern Aegean Sea.

Through vivid reconstructions of the battles and insightful depictions of its famous characters, The Trojan War reveals the history behind Homer's great epic, without losing the poetry and grandeur of the epic myth.

Author's Note

Timetable of Events Relating to the Trojan War

A Note on Ancient History and Archaeology

Introduction

Chapter One: War for Helen

Chapter Two: The Black Ships Sail

Chapter Three: Operation Beachhead

Chapter Four: Assault on the Walls

Chapter Five: The Dirty War

Chapter Six: An Army in Trouble

Chapter Seven: The Killing Fields

Chapter Eight: Night Moves

Chapter Nine: Hector's Charge

Chapter Ten: Achilles' Heel

Chapter Eleven: The Night of the Horse

Conclusion

Glossary of Key Names

Notes

A Note on Sources

Acknowledgments

Index